LiminalMask
SOC-12
Before I begin, let me just state I'm not getting any kickbacks or anything from this book. But if your subsector/sector is filled with non-human sophonts, part of the problem may be coming up with them in the first place, especially if you don't want to follow the Star Trek model of "every alien race is a human with a bumpy forehead." I thought this was a cool way to approach this problem.
I found a book called Fantasy Genesis by Chuck Lukacs. It's marketed as a "Creative Game for Fantasy Artists," though it's not really a game so much as a way to randomly inspire artists interested in drawing sci-fi or fantasy creatures, beings, vehicles, artifacts, etc. So, it's an artist's resource book, but it can help you come up with sophonts that are interesting and different quickly.
The 'game' involved rolling dice on 4 different tables and subtables, "Anima," "Veggie", "Elemental/Mineral", and "Techne". You make a list of possibilities and then choose certain elements which seem to interest you into Major Forms and Minor Forms (and sometimes other traits like "Surface"). Ultimately, the final decision of what traits you use is up to you, but the point of the 'game' is to get you to think about combinations in interesting ways.
Here's an example.
I decided to make a humanoid alien race. I consulted the chart for making "humanoids" in Fantasy Genesis and rolled on the various tables. Here's what I ended up with.
Anima: Ant
Anima: Zebra
Veggie: Pine
Elemental: Wave
Techne: Bulb/Lamp
Animal: Lizard/Snake
Veggie: Corn
Elemental: Fire/Vapor
Techne: Doorway/Archway
So as I looked over these selections I started thinking about how they might go together. I pondered a centaur-style ant, maybe, or a pine-tree like creature with two trunk-like legs that meet in an archway. Corn made me laugh at first. I wondered how that would work. I started thinking about bumpy skin, like rows of kernals. But then I thought about the outside of the corn, and especially the silk, the tassle that sprouts from the top. And that in turn made me think of hair or cillia, and if they waved around, that was kind of like fire or vapor, which was also in the list. (Mixing and matching is encouraged by the author. No limits.) Maybe a snake...
Here's what I chose:
Major Form: Snake
Minor Form: Vapor/Corn (Tassles)
Surface: Zebra
These would be snake-like beings with wispy tendrils at the tops of their heads and would have zebra stripes. I remembered that I was making a humanoid race, so had to give a nod to that. They would have two arms and something like a face...
I started sketching. WARNING. I am not a very good artist. But it was something to give me a visual reference and to help flesh out the basic concept.
Once I decided that the tassles were cillia and would extend partly down the back, I figured they should have a biological purpose, so that led to the idea of them having breathing/eating slits on their backs that used to be gills. And as I added the zebra stripes, I thought that without scales, they were more like evolved worms than snakes. So I started writing out a description, and I give you the Cheva, first draft.
The Cheva (singular: Chev) are a minor race evolved from Filter/Scavenger stock. Compared to humans, Cheva resemble large snakes or worms with two radially symmetrical arms ending in three-fingered hands in an opposable configuration. The Cheva's most prominant feature are gossamer tendrils that sprout from the crests of their heads and from a pair long breathing slits on their 'backs' (near the join of the shoulders and extending down 50-60cm.) These slits are evolved gills, and the Chev still use them for respiration and feeding on microorganisms in their native atmosphere. They are amphibious, and swim well and can remain underwater for several hours. The tendrils are brightly colored and vary from orange to blue-green, and are so delicate they waft in the slightest breeze. They hover and drift which gives a Chev the appearance of a halo or aurora. Tendrils of slightly thicker construction sprout from the tip of the tail, though have only cultural functions. A Chev's skin is smooth and colored with zebra-like stripes that can be white, gray, black, or dark blue. Most Cheva have only two colors of stripes. The Chevan head has two large eyes with bands of photoreceptors attuned to the bright, white/blue light of their homeworld. Below these eyes is a mouth used for speaking and supplimentary eating. Cheva are omnivorous, but prefer fruits and large insects.
The Chevan homeworld, Damzer (B6499CA-C, Hi, In) is wet and bathed in the light of a Type A4 III star. The world's oceans are thick with single-celled colonies of plant life and its thin atmosphere choked with tiny, spore-like beings, similar to airborn plankton. The Cheva evolved from filter worms that fed on these airborn plants and animals. As a species, the Cheva colonized the limited space on their world rapidly, and developed waterborn communities, eventually spreading across their planet in a network of floating cities and vast bridges. Damzer's primary planetary export is chemical products refined from the hugely varied and fast-reproducing life forms in the oceans.
Like all species, the Cheva are varied in their personalities. However, speaking generally and compared to humans, the Cheva are insular and stubborn when it comes to their own customs and culture, yet in most other matters are cooperative, even non-competative. Cheva games and sports rarely are contests pitting individuals or teams against each other, but instead attempts to work together to accomplish a goal. Cheva do not care for outside thought, philosophy, or ideas; they do not think their own are better, rather, they see no reason to change what they have. Cheva will freely trade with outsiders, but in almost all cases, whatever the Cheva take in will be broken down and reforged into their own world concept.
The Chevan language, Popzh, is difficult for non-natives to speak, as it is a combination of vocal sounds made with the mouth and simultaneous rasps and sighs made with the breathing slits. Cheva can breathe atmospheres similar to human, but must take supplementary vitamins and eat additional food while away from their homeworld in the absence of their natural airborne sustenance. Cheva do not require filter masks in tainted atmosphere excepting the presence of highly toxic chemicals.
I found a book called Fantasy Genesis by Chuck Lukacs. It's marketed as a "Creative Game for Fantasy Artists," though it's not really a game so much as a way to randomly inspire artists interested in drawing sci-fi or fantasy creatures, beings, vehicles, artifacts, etc. So, it's an artist's resource book, but it can help you come up with sophonts that are interesting and different quickly.
The 'game' involved rolling dice on 4 different tables and subtables, "Anima," "Veggie", "Elemental/Mineral", and "Techne". You make a list of possibilities and then choose certain elements which seem to interest you into Major Forms and Minor Forms (and sometimes other traits like "Surface"). Ultimately, the final decision of what traits you use is up to you, but the point of the 'game' is to get you to think about combinations in interesting ways.
Here's an example.
I decided to make a humanoid alien race. I consulted the chart for making "humanoids" in Fantasy Genesis and rolled on the various tables. Here's what I ended up with.
Anima: Ant
Anima: Zebra
Veggie: Pine
Elemental: Wave
Techne: Bulb/Lamp
Animal: Lizard/Snake
Veggie: Corn
Elemental: Fire/Vapor
Techne: Doorway/Archway
So as I looked over these selections I started thinking about how they might go together. I pondered a centaur-style ant, maybe, or a pine-tree like creature with two trunk-like legs that meet in an archway. Corn made me laugh at first. I wondered how that would work. I started thinking about bumpy skin, like rows of kernals. But then I thought about the outside of the corn, and especially the silk, the tassle that sprouts from the top. And that in turn made me think of hair or cillia, and if they waved around, that was kind of like fire or vapor, which was also in the list. (Mixing and matching is encouraged by the author. No limits.) Maybe a snake...
Here's what I chose:
Major Form: Snake
Minor Form: Vapor/Corn (Tassles)
Surface: Zebra
These would be snake-like beings with wispy tendrils at the tops of their heads and would have zebra stripes. I remembered that I was making a humanoid race, so had to give a nod to that. They would have two arms and something like a face...
I started sketching. WARNING. I am not a very good artist. But it was something to give me a visual reference and to help flesh out the basic concept.
Once I decided that the tassles were cillia and would extend partly down the back, I figured they should have a biological purpose, so that led to the idea of them having breathing/eating slits on their backs that used to be gills. And as I added the zebra stripes, I thought that without scales, they were more like evolved worms than snakes. So I started writing out a description, and I give you the Cheva, first draft.
The Cheva (singular: Chev) are a minor race evolved from Filter/Scavenger stock. Compared to humans, Cheva resemble large snakes or worms with two radially symmetrical arms ending in three-fingered hands in an opposable configuration. The Cheva's most prominant feature are gossamer tendrils that sprout from the crests of their heads and from a pair long breathing slits on their 'backs' (near the join of the shoulders and extending down 50-60cm.) These slits are evolved gills, and the Chev still use them for respiration and feeding on microorganisms in their native atmosphere. They are amphibious, and swim well and can remain underwater for several hours. The tendrils are brightly colored and vary from orange to blue-green, and are so delicate they waft in the slightest breeze. They hover and drift which gives a Chev the appearance of a halo or aurora. Tendrils of slightly thicker construction sprout from the tip of the tail, though have only cultural functions. A Chev's skin is smooth and colored with zebra-like stripes that can be white, gray, black, or dark blue. Most Cheva have only two colors of stripes. The Chevan head has two large eyes with bands of photoreceptors attuned to the bright, white/blue light of their homeworld. Below these eyes is a mouth used for speaking and supplimentary eating. Cheva are omnivorous, but prefer fruits and large insects.
The Chevan homeworld, Damzer (B6499CA-C, Hi, In) is wet and bathed in the light of a Type A4 III star. The world's oceans are thick with single-celled colonies of plant life and its thin atmosphere choked with tiny, spore-like beings, similar to airborn plankton. The Cheva evolved from filter worms that fed on these airborn plants and animals. As a species, the Cheva colonized the limited space on their world rapidly, and developed waterborn communities, eventually spreading across their planet in a network of floating cities and vast bridges. Damzer's primary planetary export is chemical products refined from the hugely varied and fast-reproducing life forms in the oceans.
Like all species, the Cheva are varied in their personalities. However, speaking generally and compared to humans, the Cheva are insular and stubborn when it comes to their own customs and culture, yet in most other matters are cooperative, even non-competative. Cheva games and sports rarely are contests pitting individuals or teams against each other, but instead attempts to work together to accomplish a goal. Cheva do not care for outside thought, philosophy, or ideas; they do not think their own are better, rather, they see no reason to change what they have. Cheva will freely trade with outsiders, but in almost all cases, whatever the Cheva take in will be broken down and reforged into their own world concept.
The Chevan language, Popzh, is difficult for non-natives to speak, as it is a combination of vocal sounds made with the mouth and simultaneous rasps and sighs made with the breathing slits. Cheva can breathe atmospheres similar to human, but must take supplementary vitamins and eat additional food while away from their homeworld in the absence of their natural airborne sustenance. Cheva do not require filter masks in tainted atmosphere excepting the presence of highly toxic chemicals.
