New Aliens: Needed-Unwanted-Unwelcome ?

[Patron Zero]

Just curious as to how others feel about the need for more diversity in the Traveller Universe in regard to new alien races.

Mind all due respect to the inclusion of the accepted non-human species as such stands.

Of course not to suggest the sudden influx of 'immigrants' to make every starport seem like the casting call for extras to populate Mos Eisley, but known space is too big and broad to have only 'fielded' life as we know it.

What does surprise me though is there should be more intelligent saurian-based species plying the spaceways as well as non-hive mind insectoids or arachnids.

One last thing, where are the water-breathers ? If oceans can be the dominant feature on so many planets that support life, such as our own, then why haven't we encountered intelligent Cephalopods and their amazing organically 'grown' living coral starships ?

 

[JimMarn]

I to think there should be more diversity in alien life forms in Traveller.

Not just diversity in life forms, but outlooks.

 

[tjoneslo]

Just curious as to how others feel about the need for more diversity in the Traveller Universe in regard to new alien races.

What does surprise me though is there should be more intelligent saurian-based species plying the spaceways as well as non-hive mind insectoids or arachnids.

One last thing, where are the water-breathers ? If oceans can be the dominant feature on so many planets that support life, such as our own, then why haven't we encountered intelligent Cephalopods and their amazing organically 'grown' living coral starships ?

The problem with this approach to creating alien races this way is they have been done already. The current (mostly complete) list of Traveller aliens include several Saurian's (Hhkar, Dagonite, Ithklur), a few water breathers (Inyx, Githiaskio, Shi'awei).

I think new alien races are good, but only if they are interesting. A new "saurian" race, eh. The bio-engineering aquatic race with flying ships, and beginning TL-4+ technology, that's very interesting.

 

[whulorigan]

Just curious as to how others feel about the need for more diversity in the Traveller Universe in regard to new alien races.
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Of course not to suggest the sudden influx of 'immigrants' to make every starport seem like the casting call for extras to populate Mos Eisley, but known space is too big and broad to have only 'fielded' life as we know it.

My personal take is that I don't like too many naturally-evolved alien species; otherwise the campaign setting turns into Star Wars or what Star Trek became: The Alien of the Week. As far as diversity, I am all for naturally-evolved alien species being truly ALIEN (i.e. I like life as we don't know it ). In general though, I do not lean to the view of the Universe "teaming" with life, so to speak (at least, not teaming with intelligent life, at any rate). But that is my personal leaning. YMMV.

What does surprise me though is there should be more intelligent saurian-based species plying the spaceways as well as non-hive mind insectoids or arachnids.

Actually, my feeling is that any naturally-evolved aliens (as much as possible) should not be modeled on any of the Orders/Classes/Families of the Terran "Tree of Life". An alien biosphere would be completely independent of Terran tropes. So if I were designing an alien species, I would try as much as possible to shy away from descriptions such as "Saurian" or "Insectoid" or "Arachnid", except in the most general terms. Those descriptors have to do with particular orders and classes of creatures that have Terran origins.

When drawing on Earth based life as inspiration, I try to make sure that I combine features from unrelated kinds of life, (e.g. just because it has scales does not mean it is a "reptile" - try to combine general ideas and concepts from "mammaloid" or "arthropoid" or "marsupial" or even plant or fungi {if possible} into the write-up).

When giving a general description, I might say that something is "mammaloid" or "arthropoid" (or even "pseudo-mammaloid" or "pseudo-arthropoid") in order to stress the fact that even though there are features that may resemble an arthropod or mammal, the are most certainly NOT arthropods or mammals).

One last thing, where are the water-breathers ? If oceans can be the dominant feature on so many planets that support life, such as our own, then why haven't we encountered intelligent Cephalopods and their amazing organically 'grown' living coral starships ?

This might actually be an issue that has to do with how a given environment facilitates or retards technological progress. Technological progression by its nature builds technology upon technology. While alternate advancement paths may exist toward a given technological goal, in general technology requires that certain given "prior technologies" be in existence before further progress can be made. A good basic example would be the control of fire, which is necessary for smelting and refining metals so that those metals can be put to technological use. And since certain technologies require the use of such metals, the failure to control fire may retard the technological progress of a given species.

This would be a difficult (though not insurmountable) challenge to a water-based life form. You would need to explain either how they came to control fire (possibly as a result of venturing onto land for some reason) , or as an alternative, invent an entirely alien technological path that is based on a radically different technological progression. Both are doable, but with varying degrees of challenge for the GM.

 

[JimMarn]

The problem with this approach to creating alien races this way is they have been done already. The current (mostly complete) list of Traveller aliens include several Saurian's (Hhkar, Dagonite, Ithklur), a few water breathers (Inyx, Githiaskio, Shi'awei).

Interesting. Thanks for the links to those races.

 

[Marchand]

This might actually be an issue that has to do with how a given environment facilitates or retards technological progress. Technological progression by its nature builds technology upon technology. While alternate advancement paths may exist toward a given technological goal, in general technology requires that certain given "prior technologies" be in existence before further progress can be made. A good basic example would be the control of fire, which is necessary for smelting and refining metals so that those metals can be put to technological use. And since certain technologies require the use of such metals, the failure to control fire may retard the technological progress of a given species.

This would be a difficult (though not insurmountable) challenge to a water-based life form. You would need to explain either how they came to control fire (possibly as a result of venturing onto land for some reason) , or as an alternative, invent an entirely alien technological path that is based on a radically different technological progression. Both are doable, but with varying degrees of challenge for the GM.

I recall Iain Banks addressed this in The Algebraist - he had an intelligent aquatic species that painstakingly harvests metal from asteroid drops and looks down its nose at landlubbers who had it easy getting up the tech tree.

Anyway, I think the real question is less do we need more aliens (why not, if they're interesting and not substantially done before) but: do you think you can't do better than the existing major races, or would you prefer to toss 'em for something else?

 

[robject]

Just curious as to how others feel about the need for more diversity in the Traveller Universe in regard to new alien races.

[...]

Of course not to suggest the sudden influx of 'immigrants' to make every starport seem like the casting call for extras to populate Mos Eisley, but known space is too big and broad to have only 'fielded' life as we know it.

I'll assume for the moment that you're talking about fan efforts, which is easy to do, as opposed to having some license holder getting permission to publish new ones, which is more difficult.

There's more than enough space for more aliens. Consider that GDW introduced new ones regularly, throughout their publishing history, without any signs of letting up. The fact that we have the number we do is due to GDW stopping its publishing schedule, rather than reaching any pre-conceived limit.

But of course, new aliens should be interesting. They don't have to be completely different from everything else, but I figure there should be some reason to detail them. On the gripping hand, the desire to create an alien race is good enough reason to try.

After that, public opinion will determine its adoption in everyone's gaming universe.

 

[Lycanorukke]

...or as an alternative, invent an entirely alien technological path that is based on a radically different technological progression. Both are doable, but with varying degrees of challenge for the GM.

Thats why I liked the Pentapods in 2300. The very idea of 'mechanical' technology was (almost) foreign to them and everything was done by biotech.

 

[tjoneslo]

Actually, my feeling is that any naturally-evolved aliens (as much as possible) should not be modeled on any of the Orders/Classes/Families of the Terran "Tree of Life". An alien biosphere would be completely independent of Terran tropes. So if I were designing an alien species, I would try as much as possible to shy away from descriptions such as "Saurian" or "Insectoid" or "Arachnid", except in the most general terms. Those descriptors have to do with particular orders and classes of creatures that have Terran origins.

This is my feeling as well. After reading through the descriptions of several hundred alien races (and fantasy races), I've always found that the authors who took the time to describe their creation on their own terms were much better than the ones where the description fell back on the "Cat-race" or "Dog-race".

The Traveller published aliens did a better job (but still failed in some respects) of working toward the former rather than the latter. The downside of this is you can wander into the Dave Nelson take on the Hiver, where the assumption of alienness is beyond human comprehension and becomes nonsensical.

 

[GypsyComet]

...where the assumption of alienness is beyond human comprehension and becomes nonsensical.

The danger in an RPG is that you will produce a bit of background color that no one will ever actually use. This can happen nearly anywhere in the continuum of alienness, not just at the oddball end, but tends to happen more with the oddballs. Traveller has two established methane breathers, one acid breather, and of course the Jgd-il Jagd. Outside of their published scenarios, you just won't see them played by either side of the table.

If a new race of aliens takes a ten page essay to describe and is still incomprehensible, they may not belong in an RPG.

 

[whulorigan]

Thats why I liked the Pentapods in 2300. The very idea of 'mechanical' technology was (almost) foreign to them and everything was done by biotech.

I was actually thinking about them as an example when I wrote it.

Another good example of "alieness" from 2300 (which was reused for the Hivers in the OTU) is the "volatile intelligence" idea of the Kaefers and Hivers.

 

[rancke]

There's a canonical statement to the effect that there are about 100 known minor non-human races in the Imperium and about 300 more (400 in all) in the rest of Charted Space. This works out at around one per three subsectors or five per sector. On the average, of course, some subsectors and sectors have more, some less.

Most of them are encountered fairly close to their homeworlds, though. The Bwaps is one exception to this; there may be others. (ISTR that the writeup of the Hlanssai (from the Vargr Extents) mentions that they can be encountered in the Spinward Marches -- I could be wrong, though).


Hans

 

[Vargas]

The current (mostly complete) (URL) list of Traveller aliens . . .

At some point having that many available alien races just seems to devalue the whole lot, IMO.

 

[Timerover51]

Anyway, I think the real question is less do we need more aliens (why not, if they're interesting and not substantially done before) but: do you think you can't do better than the existing major races, or would you prefer to toss 'em for something else?

I would happily, and do in MTU, toss the Zhodani, the K'kree, and the Hivers without any remorse whatever.

As for aquatic aliens, I have been experimenting with basically an intelligent sea otter, and thinking seriously about Andre Norton's Wyverns from Storm Over Warlock and Ordeal in Otherwhen.

Adding some additional ancient space-faring species that have died out or eliminated themselves, such as the Bald Space Rovers and Forerunners of Andre Norton to me is more appealing that adding more current aliens.

 

[JimMarn]

I have been thinking about not including several of the aliens on my site, K'Kree and Zhodani come to mind. The 'we will modify your mind to like the big guys' and massive 'slaughter anyone who isn't vegetarian' isn't something I want in my campaign.

 

[robject]

Traveller has two established methane breathers, one acid breather, and of course the Jgd-il Jagd. Outside of their published scenarios, you just won't see them played by either side of the table.

Actually, I was planning to insert the Jgd-Il Jagd into my game. But no, it's not easy to have them interact with rockball dwellers.

 

[tjoneslo]

At some point having that many available alien races just seems to devalue the whole lot, IMO.

It's the problem of too many choices. For a given campaign you'd probably want to pick 2-6 as PC races and another 3-6 to show up as background in the Catina. The challenge is which set depends upon the preferences of the referee and players.

I refer you to the original post of this thread. The OP is making the suggestion that more aliens are needed. If you think my list is short, I'll refer you to the Stars Wars Wiki, and you can go wild.

 

[Patron Zero]

Had no idea how well 'stocked' the big pond was in the TU, that is a lot of intelligent species and a mild understatement at best.

Conversely, aside from various bits attributed to The Ancients, have there been many 'space-hulks' ever found of unknown origins ?

 

[aramis]

Had no idea how well 'stocked' the big pond was in the TU, that is a lot of intelligent species and a mild understatement at best.

Conversely, aside from various bits attributed to The Ancients, have there been many 'space-hulks' ever found of unknown origins ?

only a few mentioned in the extended semi-canon that I am aware of... the ringworld, the Annic Nova, a wreck of an STL asteroid ship (pre-contact terran 10m td IIRC), a few Jigdi colony ships....

some are 3rd party licensee pre 2006 stuff.

 

[tjoneslo]

Conversely, aside from various bits attributed to The Ancients, have there been many 'space-hulks' ever found of unknown origins ?

The Flare Star adventure starts with finding a space hulk of unknown origin. The Keith brothers also had a three part adventure "Sky Raiders", with another (now missing) hulk.

There is another 0.12C ship traveling into the Spinward Marches (In GT:Behind the Claw).