Spacefarers Guide to Alien Races

[ShapeShifter]

Does anybody have this? Is it worth the $30+ pricetag? I've got the one on Alien Monsters and enjoyed it.

 

[kafka47]

Not really. It only would add colour to a colourless campaign. Save your pennies for the world guide which features Dune, Terminus and others.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Would anyone who has it weigh in with some details about the contents? I've read only that it has aliens races with conversion notes for Traveller. If that's true, I'd like some more info on what kinds of aliens are included, and the nature of the conversion process.

Traveller, oddly, is glaringly humanocentric, and many SciFi afficionados feel this in itself is uncomfortably restrictive. I am merely trying to locate classic materials which may fill in what i deem to be a void in the OTU.

Any substantive feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[ffilz]

I used to own the Spacefarer's Guide to Aliens. One thing I found about it was that the attribute ranges for many of the races were very wild. There really wasn't that much description of the races, preferring quantity over quality.

Still, it was fun. I just reached a point where I realized I would never really use it.

Each race is assigned values for a bunch of different attributes on a scale of 1-100 or 1-1000. Human norm is specified so they can be converted to any game system. There were specific conversions for many game systems of the time.

A bunch of the races were taken from SF works, at the back, they gave a bibliography, and then it was up to you to know which ones were taken from which source. A fun little exercise.

Frank

 

[shield]

It has a half page description and a picture of about 50 or so alien races plucked from various Sci-fi novels. The descriptions gives details of the alien's size, strenght, unusual features and gives a hint of their society / personality. Fro memory I think certain atributes are characterised on the scale of 1 to 100.

There are no rules for converting to Traveller or any other rules set. No career paths, equipment, or ships.

You will probably recognise most of them from the fiction and could generate this info by reading the associated book.

cheers
Richard

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

I was just now able to download a free PDF of Spacefarers Guide to Alien Monsters for free from THIS SITE. I had to register as a member, and with a valid email account as well.

 

[aramis]

Scribd is notorious for pirate PDFs.

 

[DonM]

Working on it now. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[aramis]

Working on it now. Thanks for the heads up.

FYI, most of the Group One stuff and almost all of the Judges Guild stuff is or was up on scribd, too.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Hmph. This thread has gotten seriously side-tracked. I was referring, of course, to a HC of "Alien Races", not PDF. Apparently NobleKnight had copies, but must have sold them.

Would anyone who owns this be able to provide more details in any "crunch" associated with the alien race listings, or is it all "fluff"?

 

[sfchbryan]

Phoenix Games published 4 CT supplements that I know of (and have):
1. Spacefarers Guide to Planets Sector One - From the back cover:

"Spacefarers Guide has a brief description of 100 planets in the wastelands. Even the brief descriptions in the guide have cost many men their lives. If you are brave or foolish enough to venture into the wasteland may this guide help you, and the odd gods of the galaxy be with you."

front & back cover - 64 pages inside

2 pg star generation tables

100 worlds - Name, book taken from, author & publisher (in 1979). Stats: Physical (Population), Mental, Culture, Technological Level, Imports/Exports, Notes & very, very basic world information

2. Spacefarers Guide to Planets Sector Two (Rourke's Diadem) - From the back cover:

"At any rate, be warned: in the Diadem, truth wars with truth; if you would seek your fortune there, you must walk, fly, swim or crawl with extreme caution. May you learn something new every day."

72 pages

16 pages of library data & encounter charts
100 worlds - same format as book one, but a little bit more information.

3. Spacefarers guide to alien monsters - From the back cover:
"Enclosed I have listed some of the more interesting faunae, that reside on Second Empire planets."

64 pages
4 pages of encounter charts, more background information & bad artwork (think Judges Guild - on the other hand, this is what most artwork looked like "back in the day")
350 monsters with the following stats: size, speed, planet (type), weight, hits, & terrain (CT based) along with a short 1 or 2 paragraph description


4. Spacefarers guide to alien races - From the back cover:
"In it are listed most of our brother races who reside in Second Empire space."

64 pages
2 pg intro, 7 pgs of conversion charts, more bad artwork.
100 races, 1/2 page description


This is just a quick overview. What "Crunch" are you looking for?

 

[DonM]

FYI, most of the Group One stuff and almost all of the Judges Guild stuff is or was up on scribd, too.

The Group One stuff has been pulled. Only pulled some of the JG (Marc gave me a list). Scribd and I have been around DMCA a few times.

 

[ShapeShifter]

@sfchbryan: Thanks for the info, mate! As for 'bad artwork' I prefer to think of it as Old School RPG charm.

 

[gloriousbattle]

Would anyone who has it weigh in with some details about the contents? I've read only that it has aliens races with conversion notes for Traveller. If that's true, I'd like some more info on what kinds of aliens are included, and the nature of the conversion process.

Traveller, oddly, is glaringly humanocentric, and many SciFi afficionados feel this in itself is uncomfortably restrictive. I am merely trying to locate classic materials which may fill in what i deem to be a void in the OTU.

Any substantive feedback would be much appreciated.

I have it and love it. It really adds in a wealth of alien races for use as PCs and NPCs. Conversion is a little odd, as the writers want you to convert Traveller stats to their system, but all you have to do is reverse the simple conversion process, and you quickly have Traveller stats.

I think it is the best Traveller product I ever found, just for the wealth of useful races. PM me and I'll tell you more.

 

[savage]

There is hype about this product on Facebook. rpgeek says $20. Amazon has it listed for a laughable price.

Alien races from other sci-fi books. Careful with these old products and hype.

 

[kilemall]

The monsters one seems the only potentially useful one, the animals often get short shrift in the supplement market, and I want colorful and unique animals to define, I can work out the stats.

 

[Timerover51]

I like Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrial myself. You can find it pretty cheaply on Abebooks. You would have to take the Aliens and work up the Traveller stats yourself however. I find if very useful for ideas.