leo knight
SOC-12
A few years ago, I planned to run a Traveller campaign, based on UFO lore. I got the idea from another blogger who based a campaign on the Shaver mystery. Sadly, my campaign never got off the ground. Most players, including me, cited the legendary beast “Real Life” as the cause of our failure to meet. Recently, posts at other blogs reminded me of this, so I’d like to share some of my plans in hopes they might inspire someone else.
The best source came from a site called UFO Casebook, and a nice, concise article on alien types. I culled a few that I liked, and tweaked them for Traveller. They broke down into three main categories: Greys, Humanoids, and Reptilians.
I decided to use three types of grey aliens. First came the most common, 4 ½ foot tall Greys, from Zeta Reticuli. This binary system sits 12 parsecs rimward and trailing of Earth. They excel at genetic manipulation. They linger around humans because our DNA has the most flexibility of all the species they have encountered. Also, they extract a recreational drug from human brains under intense emotional stress, especially fear. Thus the weird “medical” procedures they subject captives to. We make excellent raw material. They serve the Reptilians, but enjoy the freedom they feel in human areas. They might ally with humans against their masters. Only time will tell.
Second came the less common 7 to 8 foot tall Greys, from Orion. I never nailed down which system in Orion, but this lies in the same general rim- trailing direction off my map. These seem less predatory than their little cousins, but still treat humans callously.
Third came an even smaller, 3 ½ foot tall Greys, distant relatives of the first type, subordinate, but just as nasty. They hail from Bellatrix, 77 parsecs distant, in Orion.
Next up, the Reptilians. They stand about 6 ½ feet tall, and consider Earth their property. They see humans as cattle. They have huge asteroid ships, miles in diameter, with as many as 30 million of their kind aboard. These cruise at sublight speeds from system to system. They have a psionic ability to mask their features, and look human. Telepaths, clairvoyants, and psionically shielded persons can see through the disguise. I planned to use these as my “Big Bad”.
I chose three categories of humanoids, with one having three subtypes. What can I say? I like threes. The Nordics stand 6 ½ to 7 feet tall. Males and females look strong, fit, and beautiful. They have natural black “eyeliner” like ancient Egyptian royalty. They could all model underwear. The three subgroups have dominant hair colors: blonde, form the Pleiades, red, from Orion, and black, from Sirius. They use an insignia with three spheres in a triangular pattern. They act aloof, but seem much friendlier to us than other aliens.
A smaller, 4 ½ foot tall type serves as technicians. An even smaller 3 ½ foot tall group labors as workers, with a limited, almost child-like mentality.
I only include the star systems and constellations named because they make up so much of the lore. Most of the stars, like Bellatrix and Sirius, seem incapable of having habitable planets. Of course, psionic lizards and gene splicing alien with human DNA seem equally iffy. “Orion” struck me as maddeningly vague. I consider this the alien equivalent to “Out West” or “The Orient”. I usually imagined them as just off the map.
More to come!
The best source came from a site called UFO Casebook, and a nice, concise article on alien types. I culled a few that I liked, and tweaked them for Traveller. They broke down into three main categories: Greys, Humanoids, and Reptilians.
I decided to use three types of grey aliens. First came the most common, 4 ½ foot tall Greys, from Zeta Reticuli. This binary system sits 12 parsecs rimward and trailing of Earth. They excel at genetic manipulation. They linger around humans because our DNA has the most flexibility of all the species they have encountered. Also, they extract a recreational drug from human brains under intense emotional stress, especially fear. Thus the weird “medical” procedures they subject captives to. We make excellent raw material. They serve the Reptilians, but enjoy the freedom they feel in human areas. They might ally with humans against their masters. Only time will tell.
Second came the less common 7 to 8 foot tall Greys, from Orion. I never nailed down which system in Orion, but this lies in the same general rim- trailing direction off my map. These seem less predatory than their little cousins, but still treat humans callously.
Third came an even smaller, 3 ½ foot tall Greys, distant relatives of the first type, subordinate, but just as nasty. They hail from Bellatrix, 77 parsecs distant, in Orion.
Next up, the Reptilians. They stand about 6 ½ feet tall, and consider Earth their property. They see humans as cattle. They have huge asteroid ships, miles in diameter, with as many as 30 million of their kind aboard. These cruise at sublight speeds from system to system. They have a psionic ability to mask their features, and look human. Telepaths, clairvoyants, and psionically shielded persons can see through the disguise. I planned to use these as my “Big Bad”.
I chose three categories of humanoids, with one having three subtypes. What can I say? I like threes. The Nordics stand 6 ½ to 7 feet tall. Males and females look strong, fit, and beautiful. They have natural black “eyeliner” like ancient Egyptian royalty. They could all model underwear. The three subgroups have dominant hair colors: blonde, form the Pleiades, red, from Orion, and black, from Sirius. They use an insignia with three spheres in a triangular pattern. They act aloof, but seem much friendlier to us than other aliens.
A smaller, 4 ½ foot tall type serves as technicians. An even smaller 3 ½ foot tall group labors as workers, with a limited, almost child-like mentality.
I only include the star systems and constellations named because they make up so much of the lore. Most of the stars, like Bellatrix and Sirius, seem incapable of having habitable planets. Of course, psionic lizards and gene splicing alien with human DNA seem equally iffy. “Orion” struck me as maddeningly vague. I consider this the alien equivalent to “Out West” or “The Orient”. I usually imagined them as just off the map.
More to come!
