Favourite d20 Creatures as Traveller Aliens

[lightsenshi]

Originally posted by LostWorldsMike:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran:
Id bet my last Credit that Mind Flayers (the Illithid) would make excellent foes for staltwart adventurers... I see them taking over a low population planet, Space Station, or ship for use in thier evil plans...

I'm liking this idea very muchly. Thanks Now I'm gonna have to find time to run a T20 campaign... </font>[/QUOTE]Ah, the joys of Natural Psionic Shielding.

 

[kafka47]

MIND FLAYERS VERSUS GITHYANKI, REDUX. Two pocket empires warring upon each other each berift of Jump Drive until now. Now the conflict that was once isolated to a small quandrant of the Foreven sector threatens to spill over overtaking the Zhodani and Imperium as each arms the other. Who is right? Who want to admit it is wrong? It is Beyond simply Good and Evil. Stay tuned!

 

[Falkayn]

For those of you wondering what a Traveller Mind Flayer in space could look like, check out the drawing by Jeff Dee from the D&D adventure S3 - Expedition to the Barrier Peaks:

 

[Tanuki]

Cute but, aside from the head, too human looking IMHO.

 

[TKalbfus]

No more human looking than a vagyr.

 

[Eric]

Mabey the limbs could be elongated? And perhaps an extra finger joint.

 

[ninthcouncil]

They could be made digitigrade, like vargr. That's a good one for making a biped less human - but given the long flowing robes that illithid are often shown wearing, wouldn't render all the illustrations unusable.

 

[Ran Targas]

Mindflayers are psychers after all, the humanoid shape could be an illusion.

I love Mindflayers for the shear evil they represent; they're awesome villians and the whole brain eating thing doesn't hurt either.

I used Mindflayers in a Cyberpunk/X-Com/Rifts/Top Secret game I GM'd (based on $6M Man). A Mindflayer came thru a dimensional portal and infiltrated a Soviet trans-dimensional research complex, assuming the guise of a rather sexy Russian scientist. She somehow managed to survive the complete destruction of the facility(?). When the U.S. found that their fusion reactor prototype generated a dimensional portal, they went looking for some scientific help, and my bionic commandos performed a little extraction. She cooperated because she wanted to get home and notify her superiors of the fresh meat just across the dimensional rift.

Early in the game, I had the characters catch her sucking the brain out of a security trooper but I didn't tell the players; they only knew that they experienced lost time. During the game, I dropped hints about lost memories resurfacing everytime she approached one of them. They finally caught on and confronted her during the last seconds before the portal opened. She reverted back to her real form and jumped through the portal. The chase continued through several parallel dimensions.

 

[LostWorldsMike]

I'm thinking formians might be interesting (if a bit Heinleinesque). Then there's always the aboleth. Hmmm. I think I may have the basis for my upcoming T20 campaign.

 

[Jame]

What about shadows or djinni? The djinni could be some sort of psionic hoarders and the shadows could be able to hide in all but the brightest light (a la the Defel from Tim Zahn's Star Wars novels).

 

[themartian67]

Originally posted by Nurd_boy:
ABOLETH !!!!
big, evil, psionic fish....what more could you ask?

I used these to expand on the Pentapod Behemoths that "controlled" the 5 legged genetic engineers.
As their market expanded so did their manipulation of other life forms. He he he

 

[Peter Newman]

Mind Flayers are supposed to look human, they used to _be_ human before they became Illithids. The obvious Traveller parallel would be that they either a minor human race or the result of a tragic error with some new psi drug.

 

[Nurd_boy]

xill
umber hulks
slaad

 

[GypsyComet]

Originally posted by Peter Newman:
Mind Flayers are supposed to look human, they used to _be_ human before they became Illithids. The obvious Traveller parallel would be that they either a minor human race or the result of a tragic error with some new psi drug.

Uh, maybe you're thinking of the Gith, there. I don't think I've ever seen a reference to the Illithids being derived from human stock except that humans make the best feed/breed stock (see the half-Illithid template in the 3e Fiend Folio).

On the other hand, I think the Gith would make a wonderful pair of minor races, warring with each other and with a common tentacled foe in their folklores...

Relating this to the original question, though, the Illithids don't qualify as useable under the OGL as they are pure Protected IP. They were removed from the SRD a few months back...

 

[GypsyComet]

The trick with adapting D20 critters is that you'll be tossing the fantasy-related ecological details anyway, so pick a set of stats that has the right capabilities for today's PC hunter and place it appropriately. Need an aquatic, boat-sinking horror? The SRD has squid, sharks and toothed whales, with a good pliesiosaur available elsewhere that probably has OGC stats. Doesn't really matter what it looks like in the end, as long as the stats you need to have the right effect on your characters are present...

 

[Turanil]

Basically, I plan to use many creatures from the Cthulhu d20 game, and much less humanoid races. After all, Lovecraft wrote most of his horror stories with more of a science fiction flair than a fantasy flair. For me, Elder Things, Great Old Ones, or Mi-go do great alien races. also, there can be huge sentient beings such as Hastur, Cthulhu, etc., which aren't deities but advanced life-forms from hostile planets.

 

[GypsyComet]

Or, in the case of "The Big H", is a highly advanced being often mistaken for a planet...

I can imagine Hounds of Tindalos giving Traveller characters absolute fits...

 

[Kevin Livingston]

Originally posted by Keklas Rekobah:
Here's an idea, let me know what you think.

A Zhodani ship enters Imperial space. It is of a type used exclusively by nobility. It broadcasts a distress beacon. The weapons and maneuver drive are both shut down. There is barely enough fuel left to maintain life-support.

An Imperial Interstellar Marine prize crew boards the vessel and makes four significant findings:

1) An unconscious Zhodani Noble is at the helm, and she's wearing a very illegal (for Zhodani) and active psi helmet (?!).
2) A male Zhodani noble seems to have died in the act of impaling the now-dead occupant of a low berth.
3) The rest of the crew is dead (it seems they all killed each other).
4) The occupant of the low berth is humanoid, with mauve skin, four tentacles around a sucker-like mouth, an immense brain, and eyes like pinhole cameras (no iris or lens).

Ship's logs reveal that somewhere on the fringes of the Zhodani Consulate, the ship encountered a race of beings with high-level psionic ability. One was captured and put in low berth. While in jump, members of the crew started going mad. Only the heroic self-sacrifice of the Captain (and a psi-helmet that was quickly cobbled together) saved the ship and pilot.

Are these new aliens a threat to the Consulate?
Are they a greater threat to the Imperium?
What is this 'Cthulhu' that the Illithid race seems to worship?
How did the ship get this far from home?
Where the smeg is my curried pizza?

I recently did that with my group just how you described. I told them "The computer log mentioned a leader of these creatures. It's name seems hard to pronounce. The letters are C-T-H-U...". Well before I could get to the lette "L" one of my players shouted "You ass!" It was especially satisfying!

 

[Despasian]

My Choice: the NEOGI.
Can also use the "abandoned hulk" premise, or unusual (Neogi) vessel;
Somewhere on the dead ship is an Old Master, ready to 'pop'.

Also: Dopplegangers!
Ohhh, the possibilities

Also, Also: Thri-Kreen.
I see them as a spacefaring race, with a Bushido like moral code.


The list of D20 beasties can get pretty extensive.
* Various Giants to populate those large/Hi-G worlds.
* And don't overlook the 1001 uses for Slimes/Oozes/Molds/Jellies/Puddings.
* Plenty of huge/monstrous varieties of Beetles, Arachnids, and other animals.

 

[Low-G Vagabond]

Theres a great book called, Barlowes Guide to Extraterrestrials, that is wonderfully illustrated. I use to use some of the aliens in there for mt CT campaigns. But again its just pictures no rpg stats.

tmondragon