Alien Invasion

[Curufea]

We've all had wars happen in fantasy campaigns, either peripherally and in various rumours and gossip - possibly in a nation's newspaper or other fantasy communications system.
Sometimes the PCs play a role in the wars - part of a unit, part of a devestated area, or possibly even instigating it.

What I'm thinking of doing, because I was recently inspired by The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (and possibly by the recent War of the Worlds movie) - is have an alien invasion.

In TLF there is a red star in the night sky, growing larger, creating unrest and starting cults.

I will have similar - except the star is the exhaust of an incoming spaceship. The PCs don't know what it is other than a "bright star". It will take weeks to slow down (possibly months depending on the pacing I need) and it will land, disgorging troops.

Lots of interesting ideas here - first of all the aliens will be regarded as a demon horde. I'm not sure if I want to land them in a populated, or unpopulated area yet - I'll see how the campaign goes.

Magic will be effected - as it is belief based and both Gods and Demons severly disrupt the use of magic in their presence, aliens should do likewise. They may in fact be able to harness the local ley lines over a period of time if they work out what they are.

I'm going with technology based aliens whose gear will stop working, as both explosive chemical reactions and electricity do not work (otherwise I can't explain to my satisfaction the lack of progress in the Western Shores). However - there is no reason why there couldn't be an alien invasion of Mages from another planet, or even an army through a magical portal similar to the Riftwar series.

Has anyone done an alien invasion? Any good ideas or suggestions?

[madgoblin]

I would Suggest the following books albeit by another game company:
Warp World
And Space Time
by Greg Porter of BTRC games.
he System is a bit complicated but it can easily convert over to Hero. His story and background is exceptional however.

[OddHat]

I've done this, in a campaign inspired by "The Warlock In Spite Of Himself" and similar books.

I don't use or like the technology stops working thing; instead I used the idea that the magic using nobility stomped on any percieved threats to their power, particularly gun powder and the "excessive" concentration of wealth in non-noble hands (thus reducing any real chance for an industrial revolution). Brainy and ambitious young men and women studied magic or entered the Church, and that further reduced the pool of people who might potentially disrupt the semi-classical Greek status quo.

The aliens had no magic or psionics, but they had full access to very high tech. They were prospectors and scouts rather than a full invasion fleet, but they still nearly wiped out the main cities of Atlantis.

Fun game. :)

[Curufea]

I would Suggest the following books albeit by another game company:
Warp World
And Space Time
by Greg Porter of BTRC games.
he System is a bit complicated but it can easily convert over to Hero. His story and background is exceptional however.

I've got Warp World. And the time travel one (and guns, guns,guns and even Macho Women with Guns by BTRC). I'll give it another read (long time since I last looked at it).

Magic isn't inimical to technology in my setting. There is no cause and effect with it.
The laws of physics are different in my Western Shores to explain lack of technology, not the replacement of technology with magic. Magic has simply filled some (but not all) voids left by what we view real world technology should have.

That being said - there is no reason why sometime in the future the people could not discover the "Guns of Avalon" (to give it an Amber perspective). A reactive substance that will/may behave similar to real world explosives/power storage. I definitely intend on turning the world into a steam age sometime in the future - just because I love steampunk.

[Big Willy]

I co-GMed an AD&D campaign where the moon fell to earth and disgorged an army of cat- and lizard-people: does that count?

[Shadowpup]

That being said - there is no reason why sometime in the future the people could not discover the "Guns of Avalon" (to give it an Amber perspective). A reactive substance that will/may behave similar to real world explosives/power storage. I definitely intend on turning the world into a steam age sometime in the future - just because I love steampunk.

You could follow the Guardians of the Flame series example with this. The bad guys couldn't figure out the chemical composition of gun powder (it was a good guy super secret) so they made guns that used a magical variant.

The idea is that they converted water into a powder. When the powder is exposed to a drop of water it instantly converts the powder to steam. The reaction is similar to that of gunpowder but with water/steam instead.

[Curufea]

I just realised how silly it was to have a single world running on different laws to the rest of the universe - so the aliens will be bugs (from Roughnecks), using organic technology, which will allow them to cross interstellar distances and not worry about the lack of non-organic technology.

[Shadowpup]

You could always make your world a petri dish. The rest of the galaxy is advanced ala Star Hero, but your Fantasy Hero world is either a forgotten colony or science project in progress. The alien invasion just happen to reach your Fantasy Hero world.

[OddHat]

There was also an early Terry Pratchett novel (Strata) where a fantasy world had been artificially constructed on contract from (essentially) the SCA, and where the inhabitants were the many great-great grandchildren of those colonists. Because their world was set up so that it really was flat, magic really did appear to work, etc, scientific progress just never occurred; why struggle to learn to build a wind mill when the same level of brain power would teach you spell casting?

So, your fantasy world is really an artificial construct, and both the inhabitants and the Aliens don't quite realize that "magic" is really very advanced precurser technology...

[tm80401]

If you haven't started the plotline yet, you may want to consider the Magician series of books by Ray Feist. They centered around a magic based interdimensional invasion. Essentially by humans from an Asian type culture.

[Cancer]

I had a fantasy campaign based on an alien invasion, but I took a longer view.

Base assumptions:

Basic sci-fi concept of a Galactic Council. Every race is represented there, but every race is sovereign.
Habitable worlds without existing sentient races are fair game for colonization, but worlds which have evolved their own sentient races are Hands Off, with "Prime Directive" like laws.
There are races that get around that "Prime Directive" thing by subtle long-time-duration interference, by outright conquest-and-extinction, and other means.
One of those races is a theocratic empire. Their modus operandi is to insert their own theocracy into developing worlds with a minimum of off-world aid. Once the world reaches interstellar tech -- which takes a couple of thousand years -- the infected world joins the empire "of its own free will".


The campaign takes place on one such world, about 500 years after the injection of the "infection". Very loosely, that "infection" happened around the equivalent of 800 AD. The empire has (after the initial jihad-like establishment) expanded slowly but unstoppably, using every means available. For hand-waving reasons, magic exists on the world (and the empire's off-world tech "looks like" magic), but the indigenous magic cannot directly affect anything of true off-world origin. That's not as big a limitation as it sounds, since all the empire folk now are home-born and approximately all the equipment is manufactured on-world. Note, though, that the off-world sci-fi tech is not subject to the same limit.

The PCs are from a relatively isolated part of the world which had its initial contact with the empire about 50 years previous; that contact was incredibly violent and unified their homeland and made it implacably opposed to the empire.

The PCs are sent out to scout, seek out allies, and do maximum damage to the empire.

By themselves, the PCs cannot hope to win, though before it went on permanent hiatus ten years ago they had dealt the empire three serious strategic defeats, the only ones in its history.

I have the concept for a one-shot (probably three-session) adventure to close the campaign, which involves some off-world aid for the PCs. The backstory for that involves a key NPC, himself an off-worlder (in fact, a human from Earth) having a conversation with his off-world backers that runs:
"Instead, you will use this." A softball-size object materializes on the console.

(picks it up, looks it over.) "Heh, what is it? A nuclear hand grenade?"

"No. That is an antimatter bomb."

(He puts the device down with exaggerated care.)

[Curufea]

I will be having aliens invade. All part of the "Red Star" plot of this part of the campaign.

I've now decided to make them Tyranids because I've got the Codex, and I've got over a hundred well painted miniatures of them :)
(To be exact I've a 5000pt army of them from back when I used to play Warhammer)
Plus I like the world invasion tactics of the Tyranids.

However - does anyone know of roleplaying statistic write ups for Tyranids? I haven't found any Hero versions, but if I can find another system's version - I can convert that quite easily.

The reason for the invasion is that a very powerful sorcerer was studying them, and managed to summon a Hive Tyrant (probably just to chat with - similar to a demon, and may have mistaken the Tyrant for a demon). Loki (the God) found this interesting/amusing and captured the Tyrant before the mage could send it back home. The Tyrant is now imprisoned in a gem in the home barony of one of the characters. The rest of the Hive decides to send only one Hive Ship to retrieve the Tyrant, rather than an entire fleet (I don't want the whole world destroyed, just part of it).

Or maybe I'll just have the Tyranids as a single ship race...

[Enforcer84]

I've done this, in a campaign inspired by "The Warlock In Spite Of Himself" and similar books.

I don't use or like the technology stops working thing; instead I used the idea that the magic using nobility stomped on any percieved threats to their power, particularly gun powder and the "excessive" concentration of wealth in non-noble hands (thus reducing any real chance for an industrial revolution). Brainy and ambitious young men and women studied magic or entered the Church, and that further reduced the pool of people who might potentially disrupt the semi-classical Greek status quo.

The aliens had no magic or psionics, but they had full access to very high tech. They were prospectors and scouts rather than a full invasion fleet, but they still nearly wiped out the main cities of Atlantis.

Fun game. :)
I loved those books. Read the last one. Made me sad.

[OddHat]

I loved those books. Read the last one. Made me sad.

I loved the first two or three, even after all the rules went out the window, but I never got into the ones with his son. Still a great setting.

[Lord Liaden]

As a general guide to the invasion subgenre, I'd recommend the 4E Champions adventure/sourcebook Invasions: Target Earth. Although written for a supers campaign, I find that it has good general advice for running alien or extradimensional invasions in any genre that supports that premise. It also has 4E stats for several classic "invader" archetypes, and a whole invasion mini-campaign featuring extra-dimensional demons. It also happens to be available in Hero Games's Online Store (https://secure.compnetco.com/herogames/browse.jsp?categoryID=3) for a reasonable $7.95.

Now as far as HERO Tyrannid writeups, I would strongly suggest checking here (http://www.tigerseyemedia.com/tiger/40kbugs.html) and here (http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26098). (Hmm... Curufea, you posted to that second thread. Did you not see those writeups, or were they just not satisfactory?)

BTW - and I say this with due humility - when looking for HERO RPG conversions, I recommend first checking the compilation which I've posted to the "Other Software And Online Resources" forum. There's a direct link to it in my signature below.

[Super Squirrel]

I cannot begin to imagine an alien invasion fun for a Fantasy campaign. Or at least Alien's from space. Some sort of Demonic invasion, creatures from the Underworld invading, or from across the sea, yes can be fun. But from space it seems out of genre.

[Lord Liaden]

Actually, I remember reading Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Darksword Trilogy, which ended with [SPOILER WARNING!]


























... an invasion of a high-magic world by extensive military forces armed with modern or near-future technology. The reaction of the defenders to tanks and rockets, and the invaders to giants and acid-fog spells, was one of the more intriguing elements of the conclusion.

That said, if Curufea does use Tyranids they won't seem so out of place. Those horrors and their weapons already look so demonic that they'd probably be easier for the locals to accept than laser rifles and hovercraft.

[Super Squirrel]

Actually, I remember reading Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Darksword Trilogy, which ended with [SPOILER WARNING!]


























... an invasion of a high-magic world by extensive military forces armed with modern or near-future technology. The reaction of the defenders to tanks and rockets, and the invaders to giants and acid-fog spells, was one of the more intriguing elements of the conclusion.

That said, if Curufea does use Tyranids they won't seem so out of place. Those horrors and their weapons already look so demonic that they'd probably be easier for the locals to accept than laser rifles and hovercraft.
And that book ending ****ing sucked. Your point? :winkgrin:

[tancred]

I once ran a short "invasion" arc in my old The Fantasy Trip campaign.

A group of lost Travellers (yes, Traveller characters from our other campaign) crash-landed on Cidri (the world of The Fantasy Trip).
Technology didn't work on Cidri (because the Ancients constructed it that way), so their starship couldn't take off once it landed.

Unfortunately, their technology began shorting out magic all over the known world, so the PCs had to find out what was causing the problem.

The fun part was trying to figure out how to launch the starship once they discovered that it was the source of the problem (round up every wizard in the known world, and have them all cast Telekinesis).

It was only good for 2 or 3 sessions, but it was only intended as a slightly-humorous break from our regular game anyway.

[Shadowpup]

I've now decided to make them Tyranids because I've got the Codex, and I've got over a hundred well painted miniatures of them :)

However - does anyone know of roleplaying statistic write ups for Tyranids? I haven't found any Hero versions, but if I can find another system's version - I can convert that quite easily.


That sounds cool.

For stats, try to find the oldest source material you can get your hands on. If you can get a Rogue Trader book, you're all good. The stats for Tyranids have changed drastically over the years and with the latest version of 40k it's harder to convert to RPG stats.

[Lord Liaden]

And that book ending ****ing sucked. Your point? :winkgrin:

That advanced tech and sophisticated magic don't have to be mutually exclusive. The conflicts between them can be interesting and fun if handled right. Andre Norton played that up in a number of her books, notably the Janus novels and early Witch World series.

And suckage is in the eye of the beholder. :p

[Super Squirrel]

And suckage is in the eye of the beholder. :p
In most cases yes, but I want back my $5.50 plus sales tax, interest, and an hour of therapy for good measure.

[Curufea]

Argh! How could I have failed to read the rest of that thread - talk about bad memory!

I do have many of the modules and things for 4E Champions (or BBB) including Invasion Earth.

The Feist Riftwar series is another example of an alien invasion (albeit humanoids).

It is their tactics, their demonic appearance, and the fact I've got them ready to hand that is the reason I'm using them :)

[edit]
Hmm, no Hive Tyrant or Zoanthrope.. will have to fiddle.
Also - I noticed the Genestealer didn't have the kiss written up.

On a side note - the word Hive comes from the old Norse word of Hufr meaning "the hull of a ship". At least, according to http://www.etymonline.com/

I'll have to Norse/Gothic up the names. The PCs will have a number of clues before the invasion begins-
1) Three advanced scouting groups will be dropped several weeks before the main ship arrives. Each group will land in a spore, and probably consist of a single Lictor (them being the most intelligent infiltration type)
2) The sorcerer's notes he was making on the Tyrands. Which will basically be the concept art from the Warhammer website - because that art looks very little like my models (as I have the original Tyranids, not the new ones), and the players who have seen my miniatures won't be able to guess very easily. I'll scatter Norse/Gothic names on the notes instead of the official names.

My world is heavily settled, and highly civilised - there are no wandering monsters, most problems are fellow humans. However, occasionally a very powerful mage will appear with huge magical armies and try to conquer the land. This is just a similar concept with an external force.

Possibly the PCs will have to infiltrate the ship and kill the hive mind nexus or something...

[Curufea]

The roots of the names are interesting, I've just finished looking them up.

Lictor being a Roman magistrate who carried the fasces
Carnifex being the public execution in Rome
Zoanthrope is a mental illness where a man believes their an animal
Termagent/Termaguant/Hunter Killer - probably derives from agent of termination, someone who carries out assassinations.
Hormagaunt has the similar "agent" implication. The "horm" part is probable from "hormon" meanint that which sets in motion (which later became hormone).

I'll write up a list of Gothic German equivalents for any interested..

[War Cry]

Something to consider.......in the older Warhammer 40k fluff the tyranids would often infiltrate a heavily populated planet with genestealers. They would crossbreed with the native races and produce offspring that looked less like tyranids and more like the other host (but still retain a proper "demonic" appearance). The next step was to start cults across the planet within the cities in preparation for the main assault from the fleets. If you're looking to draw it out, this could be an option for you.

On a side note - Tyranids RAWK! I love fighting those things. The game's always a nailbiter.

[Curufea]

My stuff is from back in those days. I even have 1st ed 40K "Rogue Trader" before the Tyranids became mere Hunter Killers (then Termagents), and had Zoats for allies.
I even have two Genestealer Patriarchs and two limousines I used for my Genestealer cult army - from back before Genestealers and Tyranids became the one race.

You young whipper snapper you...

[keithcurtis]

I cannot begin to imagine an alien invasion fun for a Fantasy campaign. Or at least Alien's from space. Some sort of Demonic invasion, creatures from the Underworld invading, or from across the sea, yes can be fun. But from space it seems out of genre.
I can see a lot of potential in it, if that is the entire theme of the campaign. As a thrown in encounter for a night or six out of a long-term campaign, yes, it would feel odd unless handled very carefully.

Here are some options:
1. the alien ship crash lands. They have super tech, just not much and they have to husband it carefully. Their "brain trust" died in the crash, so they can't build more.

2. The invaders are magical themselves. Their tech and ship is just a different flavor of magic.

3. This world is not the only magical one. The invaders have encountered or heard legends of any number of magical worlds. They are fully aware that their tech will fail in a world with a "magical field" (ala Discworld), and have taken steps to prepare.

4. The invaders are from an alternate dimension (more like ours), where physics is king. They were kicked off planet in some kind of coup and need a new home. They do not have interstellar travel, but they know if they go 1000 diameters from the sun and activate the experimental Z'zzzaxazkaja Drive, they will be flipped into another reality. This new reality looks just like theirs except funny bipeds devleoped in a magical environment instead of their beautiful insectoid/technological one. From their point of view, they're just going back to their own home (in a different dimension) and exterminating the infestation. Once settled, they plan to find a way to go back and kill the "nasssty usssurpersss."

Keith "Brainstormer" Curtis

[Curufea]

I must admit - I did buy Krull recently, too....
:)

[edit]
However - I should point out that this is a world changing event and might not suit many genres of fantasy. My campaign is a mixture of High Fantasy and Epic (as I mentioned in the poll on genres).

[Markdoc]

Also Tyrannids - for those who don't know them - are more suited to this sort of thing than a bunch of Space Marines turning up and laying waste to the place. Nid's are bugs. They don't have guns, per se but acid-sprayers or things that launch flesh-easting bugs. They don't have flying vehicles, but wings, etc.

Call them "demons" and no-one would be able to tell the difference, except that instead of wishing to wreak evil, they are just going "Yum! Protoplasm!"

cheers, Mark

[Super Squirrel]

I can see a lot of potential in it, if that is the entire theme of the campaign. As a thrown in encounter for a night or six out of a long-term campaign, yes, it would feel odd unless handled very carefully.

Here are some options:
1. the alien ship crash lands. They have super tech, just not much and they have to husband it carefully. Their "brain trust" died in the crash, so they can't build more.

2. The invaders are magical themselves. Their tech and ship is just a different flavor of magic.

3. This world is not the only magical one. The invaders have encountered or heard legends of any number of magical worlds. They are fully aware that their tech will fail in a world with a "magical field" (ala Discworld), and have taken steps to prepare.

4. The invaders are from an alternate dimension (more like ours), where physics is king. They were kicked off planet in some kind of coup and need a new home. They do not have interstellar travel, but they know if they go 1000 diameters from the sun and activate the experimental Z'zzzaxazkaja Drive, they will be flipped into another reality. This new reality looks just like theirs except funny bipeds devleoped in a magical environment instead of their beautiful insectoid/technological one. From their point of view, they're just going back to their own home (in a different dimension) and exterminating the infestation. Once settled, they plan to find a way to go back and kill the "nasssty usssurpersss."

Keith "Brainstormer" Curtis
Now if it IS the purpose of the campaign... that would really be interesting.

[Rage]

If you haven't started the plotline yet, you may want to consider the Magician series of books by Ray Feist. They centered around a magic based interdimensional invasion. Essentially by humans from an Asian type culture.
The Rift War

[Curufea]

My campaign is purposeless. There is stuff happening in the world, and characters wantiing to do stuff according to their players.
This will be a chapter in the campaign, and the major plot of that chapter. There are subplots of a heir in hidding, the conspiracy to kill him amoungst a Margavine, a Duke, The Pirate King, a Dark Elf and a demon, the rivalry in the Loki's Hand anarchist movement, and just the general end of the world "Red Star Cults" that will be springing up and causing havok until the Tyranids arrive.

Then things may get a bit more interesting.

[gewing]

There was also an early Terry Pratchett novel (Strata) where a fantasy world had been artificially constructed on contract from (essentially) the SCA, and where the inhabitants were the many great-great grandchildren of those colonists. Because their world was set up so that it really was flat, magic really did appear to work, etc, scientific progress just never occurred; why struggle to learn to build a wind mill when the same level of brain power would teach you spell casting?

So, your fantasy world is really an artificial construct, and both the inhabitants and the Aliens don't quite realize that "magic" is really very advanced precurser technology...


I read that in the day room one Sunday at Basic Training! I couldn't remember who did it, the part I seem to recall is the planet builder having to chew out her crew because they put deliberate anachronisms in the fossil record. :)

[OddHat]

I read that in the day room one Sunday at Basic Training! I couldn't remember who did it, the part I seem to recall is the planet builder having to chew out her crew because they put deliberate anachronisms in the fossil record. :)

That was one of the best bits. :)

It's a cool book. I know he did at least one more in that series; I'll have to track it down.

[Curufea]

That sounds cool.

For stats, try to find the oldest source material you can get your hands on. If you can get a Rogue Trader book, you're all good. The stats for Tyranids have changed drastically over the years and with the latest version of 40k it's harder to convert to RPG stats.
This is what I'm planning on doing - having a look at the current material on Tyranids - they've abstracted many of their abilities too much.
Flesh Hooks, for example - I've just had a guard dragged off by them. Lictors don't have the drag rules in the modern version of Tyranids.

[Curufea]

Okay, I've made up the Lictor - http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40707

Next session for the game will be similar to the movie Predator 2, in a fantasy setting :)

[moquif]

I just found this thread. I hope no one minds a late entry.

The subject has a lot to do with the nature of magic and it's affect on technological development. Is it unique to that world? If so why? If not why don't the aliens know magic? Are there some things magic just can't do, like cross star systems? If the gods bestow magic on one world, do alien gods bestow alien magic?

I gave it some thought, if magic is unique to the campaign world, then that could be why the aliens are invading. The aliens want to drain that world of magic for their own use for example. Or take a wider stance and find a way to spread it across the universe or wipe it out entirely. The last one would make for a short campaign due to two words, "orbital bombarment" (especially if there is no magical space travel).

So if the aliens invade, they want something that they'd risk their soldiers and resources for. Plus since in most fantasy games, there are subterrian races so an invading force must consider that too (or have the campaign world saved by the drow).

Two senerios I can think of is that the aliens want slaves or a habitalble world. In the second case, robots or drones would most likely be sent. The former would make a interesting campaign as the PCs try to free their world from these alien slavers. You would have a good reason to use the classic "old enemies banded together" story hook. In an existing campaign, the "evil underworld race" would become the new patron, providing the PCs with what they need because they can't go on the surface world (and better you than me).

There's potential for a great campaign here if handled right.

[Basil]

Another late entry. ;)

For one of the best "aliens invade a medieval society" books, I'd highly recommend The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. While it does not have magic in it, the rest of the core elements to such a scenario are treated, and treated excellently.

And the result is quite...interesting. :eg:

[Curufea]

In the end, Tyranids neatly fit in with my fantasy world.
They have magic - "the Hive Mind" and its psychic powers.
They have a purpose - eat everything. In addition to rescuing their queen of course.

The nature of magic is belief, throughout every world in the universe - but because different nations of the Western Shores can have radically different religions (such as Kartaran ancestor/Empress worship, the Zylistani monotheists and the Human Norse pantheon) - a priest in one nation will not be able to cast spells in a different nation (or will at least find it very difficult).

This also means a large alien landing will bring with it a large 'taint' on the magic field of the world and ley lines (similar to the movie Final Fantasy). I've mentioned it to some of the players - they will find it difficult to impossible to cast spells the closer they get to the Hive Mind, however, magic items will still function (depending on if it uses charges).

And also, Tyranids for all intents and purposes can be treated like a demon invasion.

I even joked that a player could easily become a Tyranid. Although they will of course be rendered down into a biological soup first.

[Shadowpup]

They have a purpose - eat everything.


heeheehee

[Curufea]

Actually I'm now somewhat in a bind for this bit.

I've toned down the Tyranid inentions - they want to escape because magic is stuffing up their plans to eat the world (it's costing them more resources than they want to expend) - they were being stopped from escaping by an evil sorceress who wants the face of the planet wiped clean (naturally she comes from below the surface of the planet). She has been feeding the Tyranids to make them stronger, and destroying anything that looks vaguely like an escape spaceship (the Tyranids were converting one of the PC's castle into a ship).

My problem is - the PCs have thwarted the bad guy's plan and taken of the remains of the army (now about a tenth of the initial size after it was devestated by a horde of gargoyles - nasty flying things with flamethrowers that ignore armour).

I'm unsure where to go from here. There is another army on the way as reinforcements - but that's currently controlled by an ally of the evil sorceress.

I do want the PC's to enter the castle and hunt the queen - but if they use their 6000 men, they have no hope of sneaking in. Plus they don't have incentive to do so. If I cause them to flee, they may feel there is no hope in succeeding. If I bring up some long forgotten super magic item, it will seem contrived, and they may not think they have enough time to get it.
I have stressed to them that the Tyranids require more biomass to build their ship. Another two or three counties would do it :)

Ideas? Suggestions?

[Robyn]

I just realised how silly it was to have a single world running on different laws to the rest of the universe - so the aliens will be bugs (from Roughnecks), using organic technology, which will allow them to cross interstellar distances and not worry about the lack of non-organic technology.

Nothing silly about it, really. See the Starshield trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

For other references, more relevant to what you're using now, see Grunts by Mary Gentle.

There is also a science fiction novel by a gentleman whose name escapes me now, in which a spaceship of humans comes across an alien world and trades with them, but while they can demonstrate their technology just fine, it stops working the moment they leave. It turned out that technology didn't really work, there was just a special ability all humans had (to varying extents) which made it work. They stumbled across a planet inhabited by a species that didn't have this ability. So, eventually, they ended up leaving their engineer behind to keep the alien's technology working.

[Curufea]

Thankyou, but I'd established the setting rules a few months ago now :) (that post was in August of last year)
I've read Grunts, funny book - but also no real help to my current dilemma.

Actually, nevermind. I had a good think on the bus home from work and have come up with several solutions. The most interesting one being for the Queen to offer power to the PC who owns the castle ;-p
He's a 60+ year old mage who's lost most of his barony and lusts after eternal youth. I'm thinking of offering it to him...
(note the dot dot dot there)