How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

[Vanguard00]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

I only skimmed the original thread, and y'all are losin' me in this one, but I thought I'd throw some ideas out based on what I did read.

 

What if the aliens aren't the vanguard of some interstellar empire? What if they're the losers of a bid for an interstellar empire? Powerful, yes, but they have all their resources with them. It's "make it or break it" time for them. They have no home to go to and decided Earth was the first place they found that they could actually conquer.

 

What if they killed 4 billion humans, but then killed all the adults (or everyone over the age of puberty) that were left, raising the children on their ships and lunar colonies to be slaves and such. They also attempt to "cull" the metagene from humans by killing any child with any hint of powers.

 

A generation or three go by, and the long-lived aliens have cleaned up Earth enough to recolonize it. Now there are humans on Earth again, and they're the slaves of their alien overlords, who are slowly recovering and recouping their losses and hope to make a bid for another interstellar empire ("soon" being relative, if the aliens actually live a long, long time). These aliens had to cannabalize many of their star-faring ships in order to provide shelter and sustenance on the planet, so other than atmospheric craft and a few actual starships, their fleet has been dismantled (or destroyed by the initial invasion).

 

A few things that might be of note:

1) There might still be pockets of human resistance on Earth that have yet to be ferreted out. Those that hid during the bombardment and subsequent "cleansing" have had children and organized small communities in the wilds. They do little more than survive, but perhaps they have resources that the PCs can use.

2) The PCs are young adults who are just coming into their power. Yes, power. Seems the culling didn't work so well and there are still those with superpowers, though they've hid them well.

3) The PCs could be the forefront of a new human rebellion a la "Battlefield:Earth" or something. As more humans are put down on Earth to work the land and till the soil (or whatever), more caches of forgotten "lore" are recovered. The humans are learning about their past and the spark of freedom lights their hopes.

4) Along with the alien invaders are several other servitor and/or servile races, beings from other conquered planets and/or allies. Maybe they're happy with their alien overlords, maybe they aren't. Maybe these other races provide the bulk of the invaders and it's only when there's a big problem that the actual overlords appear.

 

Okay, I petered out. Any of this of any use at all, or am I just spouting random crap in the wrong thread again?

[Kristopher]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

It is not a personal disagreement. It is not a contest. It is an effort to find a workable scenario' date=' by peer review -- meaning that non-workable scenarios which are posted get logically examined in detail and noted for flaws. These flaws are then rewritten around and revised scenarios are posted. Then the revised scenarios are themselves rigorously examined and tested for weak points. Repeat step A long enough, and at last, a fully workable idea -- or sevearl -- will be achieved. Think of it like debugging code, if that helps.[/quote']

 

 

That's what my thinking out loud was about.

 

I think ideas should be rigourously tested before being used.

 

However, this process cannot work if the meme gets passed around that we're *not* allowed to do our very best to find, and point out, whatever plot holes might exist, but must instead smile and nod and applaud mediocre efforts because to do otherwise would be uncivil or something.

 

OTOH, if people want to keep acting like it's a contest, and personally invest themselves to the point that they cannot separate the logical dissection of their argument from their own hurt feelings or personal pride, then this thread is screwed.

 

For a minute there, it sure sounded like a pretty heated disagreement, from both sides, even if neither intended it.

[Chuckg]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

For a minute there' date=' it sure sounded like a pretty heated disagreement, from both sides, even if neither intended it.[/quote']

 

Perceiving someone trying to claim that testing an idea's logical premises rigorously is 'vicious' or 'uncivilized' or anything like that is a stimulus hardwired directly to the anger center of my brain, yes.

 

Not that you did, but at least one other person has. He knows who he is.

[Basil]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

[Raises hand and swears to play nice]

 

Actually, you might be able to make Basil's points about disease work for you (with a minimum of rubber science). Maybe the aliens didn't PLAN on wiping out the human race; they wanted us and our civilization relatively intact because they needed us and our resources to rebuild from the disaster/defeat that led them here in the first place. But humanity fought back harder than expected and the aliens had to kill, say, a billion people before the fight was over. Neither victor nor vanquished could handle that many dead bodies in a timely manner, so the pandemics broke out and wiped out another few billion. 5 years later, the only humans left alive are those who turn out to be genetically immune to the major diseases. (Insert handwavium here to determine how many are left.) Meanwhile, without our "help" the aliens' position has also deteriorated so they are much weaker than it was 5 years ago. Maybe they haven't been able to repair/maintain all their tech? Maybe some of the diseases have even jumped species and infected the aliens, depending on how similar their pysiology is?

 

 

bigdamnhero

 

Excellent ideas! I'll Rep you as soon as I can (I'm getting the "You've repped too much in the last 24" message)

 

{Edit: Repped }

[Basil]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

I only skimmed the original thread, and y'all are losin' me in this one, but I thought I'd throw some ideas out based on what I did read.

 

What if the aliens aren't the vanguard of some interstellar empire? What if they're the losers of a bid for an interstellar empire? Powerful, yes, but they have all their resources with them. It's "make it or break it" time for them. They have no home to go to and decided Earth was the first place they found that they could actually conquer.

 

What if they killed 4 billion humans, but then killed all the adults (or everyone over the age of puberty) that were left, raising the children on their ships and lunar colonies to be slaves and such. They also attempt to "cull" the metagene from humans by killing any child with any hint of powers.

 

A generation or three go by, and the long-lived aliens have cleaned up Earth enough to recolonize it. Now there are humans on Earth again, and they're the slaves of their alien overlords, who are slowly recovering and recouping their losses and hope to make a bid for another interstellar empire ("soon" being relative, if the aliens actually live a long, long time). These aliens had to cannabalize many of their star-faring ships in order to provide shelter and sustenance on the planet, so other than atmospheric craft and a few actual starships, their fleet has been dismantled (or destroyed by the initial invasion).

 

A few things that might be of note:

1) There might still be pockets of human resistance on Earth that have yet to be ferreted out. Those that hid during the bombardment and subsequent "cleansing" have had children and organized small communities in the wilds. They do little more than survive, but perhaps they have resources that the PCs can use.

2) The PCs are young adults who are just coming into their power. Yes, power. Seems the culling didn't work so well and there are still those with superpowers, though they've hid them well.

3) The PCs could be the forefront of a new human rebellion a la "Battlefield:Earth" or something. As more humans are put down on Earth to work the land and till the soil (or whatever), more caches of forgotten "lore" are recovered. The humans are learning about their past and the spark of freedom lights their hopes.

4) Along with the alien invaders are several other servitor and/or servile races, beings from other conquered planets and/or allies. Maybe they're happy with their alien overlords, maybe they aren't. Maybe these other races provide the bulk of the invaders and it's only when there's a big problem that the actual overlords appear.

 

Okay, I petered out. Any of this of any use at all, or am I just spouting random crap in the wrong thread again?

 

I think you've come up with some very, very good ideas. This is an interesting method, and though some elements have been treated before, I think you've put them together excellently.

[Kristopher]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

I think this was lost in the exchange the first time I posted it, so...

 

Wasn't reading the other thread, so I'm not certain how the discussion of disease got started, but something to keep in mind:

 

For the most part, disease-causing organisms have to evolve to invade their victims as much as their victims have to then develop immunity to those organisms. A random virus, or bacteria, or protozoan parasite, can't simply infect any being it runs into automatically.

[Basil]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

OK, I've had it!

 

Chuckg, Supreme Serpent---cut it out. I do not give a good God-bless what either of you think you are doing, or how you intend what you've said to be taken. I will tell you how you are coming across.

 

Like a couple of sniping, slamming, snippy slime-souled haters who can't wait to tear into each other. You both seem to detest each other to the point where you will spew your bile all over any reasonable conversation.

 

I do not give a rat's shaven hindquarters for what rationalization either of you has to offer. It doesn't amount to a hill of mouse droppings. You are both displaying some of the most detestable characteristics the human animal is capable of.

 

I suspect it's a hold over from the thread that had to be rebooted; it is clear another reboot will be necessary at the rate you two are going. So I'm going to ask you both to do something.

 

Leave.

 

No, not "play nice"; I don't think either of you are capable of that any more, particularly if you believe your rationalizations (as I fear you do). There's really only one thing you can both do that will show the slightest glimmerings of courtesy to those in this thread who are trying to act decently. And that is, as I said, just pack up and LEAVE.

[Basil]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

I think this was lost in the exchange the first time I posted it, so...

 

Wasn't reading the other thread, so I'm not certain how the discussion of disease got started,

Ah yes. I pointed out the effect of 4 billion corpses on the human population of Earth. So the talk about disease was address the effect on humans. You are right to point out the aliens would be unlikely to be infected by terrestrial diseases.

 

Sorry if we confused you.

[Chuckg]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

OK, I've had it!

 

Chuckg, Supreme Serpent---cut it out. I do not give a good God-bless what either of you think you are doing, or how you intend what you've said to be taken. I will tell you how you are coming across.

 

And you're coming across like somebody who has delusions of moderatorhood. Which is actually worse than anything you've said. What the hell gave you the delusion you could order either of us around? The guy who actually *can* do that is one PM away from you. Ping *him*. Don't try to show how manly you are by doing it yourself, much less ranting and raving about what detestable human animals we are.

 

Like a couple of sniping, slamming, snippy slime-souled haters who can't wait to tear into each other. You both seem to detest each other to the point where you will spew your bile all over any reasonable conversation.

 

I do not give a rat's shaven hindquarters for what rationalization either of you has to offer. It doesn't amount to a hill of mouse droppings. You are both displaying some of the most detestable characteristics the human animal is capable of.

 

Way to save the thread, there, Basil. By single-handedly raising it to an entirely new quantum level of invective and bad feelings. You have now nuked the village in order to save it.

 

There's really only one thing you can both do that will show the slightest glimmerings of courtesy to those in this thread who are trying to act decently.

 

If you have the slightest idea that what you just did was 'decently', then you're further out there than both me and Supreme Serpent at our worst, added together, squared, cubed, and loaded with jet fuel.

 

PS -- two more points. Supreme Serpent was not the guy I was arguing politics with on the prior thread, that was bigdamnhero, who I haven't had any problems with in this one. (Seein g as how he hasn't imported politics into this one, which was my main beef with him last time.) And SS and I don't have any major grudges from the past, either. We got into it *solely* because a) his idea had a plot hole in it the size of the Death Star and he went off all cranky like on having that pointed out to him in detail. No eternal emnity, no flame war that will not die across threads.

 

So, thanks for jumping to a whole bunch of conclusions, not a single one of which was remotely true. *And* screaming them at the top of your lungs. *With* a full medley of the vilest personal insults (as well as 95+% of *all* the personal insults) used by anyone against anyone in either of these alien threads, since their inception.

 

Again, your tireless efforts to promote civilization, peace, and happy feelings are duly noted.

[dbcowboy]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

BTW, now that you've written that Invaders are on the way that required the destruction of one-ninth of a *multiple galaxy star empire* just to slow down, you know what? The entire game is pointless.

 

Literally, what's the point of saving Earth? The Invaders are coming. A force of destruction that a multi-galaxy star empire can't even begin to slow down. When they get here, what do *we* do?

 

You just put a threat on the game board (even if waaaaaaaaay off to the side) that makes *Galactus* look puny. At this point, everything else is totally screwed, unless you literally leave an Infinity Gauntlet lying around for humanity to pick up. The players are fighting to beat the alien threat so that in the few years' span of time we have left between Liberation Day and the arrival of The Horror From Beyond, we'll be celebrating those few years without aliens occupying are real estate.

 

Well, in some respects the original goal was a role-reversal. The aliens come from a situation where they were being pressed back and slowly exterminated. Now, due to a quirk of fate, these survivors have put the Humans in the same situation they faced in their home galaxies. This point would be lost on some of them but might be a catalyst for others to question their actions. At the same time, some would view the barbaric Humans and their planet as nothing compared to nine galaxies and trillions of inhabitants. The difference in scale would blind them.

 

In addition, it is not necessarily true that the destruction of an entire galaxy only slowed the extra-dimensional invaders down. It may well have halted their invasion. It may have crippled their ability to invade again in the future. The details of their war aren't fleshed out so sky's the limit on what the situation is way over there in some far-off cluster of galaxies. Up to you if you think it should have only slowed them down and how long it would take for them to finish off the alien's home galaxies and expand to Earth.

 

Part of the problem with this is that I took the storyline from another game, twisted it a bit and tried to apply it to a different setting. In this case, humanity is not part of the alien Alliance with all its vast resources, they don't have the protection of the Mutzachans, and would more than likely end up as a slave race to either the Eridani or Phentari empires if they were anywhere near the being's territories (in BattleLords most of the core races originated in the Milky Way, I believe). So, instead I chose to have the other aliens far enough away that their empires could not interfere in the campaign events. Do they show up at the end? That's one possible resolution I've considered (along the lines of "get another set of aliens to take care of these"), allowing the ones stranded here to return home and leave the Humans to pick themselves back up.

 

Also, the issues Basil and Vanguard00 raised are all good points. I'd prefer not to have generations go by. I'd like the PCs to be old enough to remember what life was like before the aliens came. The meta-gene would obviously be important to the aliens, so culling the slaves would be in place. Given that I'm already in an environment where super-powers exits, I'm okay with some use of "handwavium" to allow this to happen. I like the idea of pandemics though as it would be a reminder that the alien's care and feeding of their Human slaves would be dangerous to disrupt. Now, I'd said maybe the aliens only target Earth cities in their bombardment, half of Humanity survived. I don't know how much of humanity lives in all our cities, maybe less than half, so if only one or two billion died from the assault, the rest could have died from the pandemics/pollution/lack of infractructe/etc. that followed.

 

What if the Human slaves are not the majority of the remaining population? Say there's only 1.5 billion Humans left. Only 500K are slaves to support the aliens. The rest are hiding, living, not interfering with the aliens to ensure they don't share the fate of others (death or enslavement). Hmmm, I don't know if that provides the feeling of hopelessness I was going for for the beginning of the campaign.

[Chuckg]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

If you have the offstage threat having actually been *stopped*, then that removes the primary objection to having it exist in the first place, yes. Which means you can leave it in w/o having it wreck the theme.

 

(aside to the room) See the value of a rigorous debugging process, folks?

[CBikle]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

Supply Gates:

 

Via the necessities of war, the invaders have recently created semi-reliable Supply Gates (along the lines of the StarGates from StarGate, but much bigger) which allow for material and troops to be transferred across the galaxy.

 

Although probably heavily guarded, if PCs were to get access to one of the Supply Gates (or built their own from captured plans), it'd provide the rebellion a way to leapfrog their way to the Capitol Planet/Home World and strike there, which might set all sorts of things into motion.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

What if the Human slaves are not the majority of the remaining population? Say there's only 1.5 billion Humans left. Only 500K are slaves to support the aliens. The rest are hiding' date=' living, not interfering with the aliens to ensure they don't share the fate of others (death or enslavement). Hmmm, I don't know if that provides the feeling of hopelessness I was going for for the beginning of the campaign.[/quote']

I think you could potentially get a lot of mileage out of this one, especially with the contrast between the slaves (who live in the alien cities and are reasonably well-cared for) versus the free humans (who live in horrible conditions, no health care, etc). By opening the door for human collaborators alongside alien sympathizers, you blur the boundaries a bit between human=good and alien=bad.

 

Although probably heavily guarded' date=' if PCs were to get access to one of the Supply Gates (or built their own from captured plans), it'd provide the rebellion a way to leapfrog their way to the Capitol Planet/Home World and strike there, which might set all sorts of things into motion.[/quote']

This makes sense too. My only hesitation is the players might take this as an invitation to move the campaign in any one of several ways you don't necesarily want: the "nuke the alien homeworld" scenario, and/or the "take to the stars in search of friendly alien races to save our butts" scenario. I'm not saying those aren't both valid directions to go, if that's what you want, but they are significant departures.

 

bigdamnhero

[tinman]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

What if the aliens weren't at the super-tech stage at all?

 

What if they had identified a suitable planet for their first interstellar colony, built and launched a slower-than-light generation ship, only to suddenly start receiving radio broadcasts from their destination years into the flight (remember, they might have launched in the mid 1800's or even earlier)?

 

They can't turn around, they can't keep going on past, and they can't live in their ship forever. The colonists have to set themselves up on Earth or perish.

 

They have a few decades to come up with a plan for what to do, and based on the broadcasts they are getting it is clear to them that humans are a xenophobic and extremely violent species.

 

So they use their onboard manufacturing facilities to make weapons and prepare for an armed invasion. They might even go so far as to try to bombard the earth with discarded pieces of their ship (or if they have the capacity, small asteroids) to soften us up first.

 

They have limited resources, limited personnel and limited technology (quite advanced compared to ours, but not space-opera advanced) and rely heavily on the element of surprise. Their primary goal is to shock us into submission while they gain a foothold and can establish themselves properly. After that they can either fully subjugate us or exterminate us at will.

 

So the campaign takes place in the critical time after they have crippled our defenses and made their landing, but have yet to fully consolidate control or build their colony.

 

In the midst of the carnage there is also the chance that cooler heads on either side might be able to work towards a possible coexistence (like in Alien Nation) as well, depending on where you want the campaign to go.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

Interesting variant, Tinman. I think that might make for a fun Star Hero game, but I don't see it working as a Champions game. Assuming you're using anything resembling the CU, that is. These aliens have to be tough enough to beat not just Earth's military, but all of Earth's superheroes.

[dbsousa]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

Since this was a superhero thread, I thought I would throw in my justification for why the aliens won, but are now beatable.

 

Every planet likely to bear life has an Ambassador, left behind by an ancient starfaring race in a gestation chamber. They also left behind mitochondrial DNA, which forms a symbiotic relationship with cellular life on the planet, and waits for creatures to develop that are sapient enough to accesss the chamber. John Clark did in 1910, while plowing his field in Kansas, and the chamber responded by scanning his DNA, and cloning him. The resulting infant bonded to the alien tech, becoming more and more able to access the energy matrix surrounding his body.

 

in 2010, when the aliens attacked, the Ambassador went after the flagship, to discover 5 alien Ambassadors (Overlords) ready to greet him. Each alien's raw power was not his equal, and they were using much of their energy to create and sustain the fleet, They infused some of their essence into the FTL Drives, antigravity devices, and battleship force fields that brought them here. However, they had found uses for their powers that our ambassador hadn't dreamed of, including the ability to siphon energy from his personal matrix. Realizing that the aliens would be unstoppable otherwise, he overloaded his power, destroying the alien Overlords and himself.

 

Now, the fleet's tech resources are limited to whatever existed before the defeat of the Overlords.

 

It has taken the Earthling resistance movement 50 years to piece this information together. Plus they have one piece of information the aliens don't have.

 

two hours before the invasion, a Mars probe discovered a container in a crater just below the surface. Examining the data, the size, shape, and material composition suggest that it is identical to our Ambassador's "Creche". It is just waiting for a sentient species to find it, and become the parent of the next Ambassador...

[bigdamnhero]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

Since this was a superhero thread' date=' I thought I would throw in my justification for why the aliens won, but are now beatable.[/quote']

I had a random musing along similar lines. Maybe most pre-invasion superpowers were based on only one or two origins: say mutants and radiation incidents. The aliens had ways of counteracting those powers, effectively neutering 90% of Earth's heroes; they killed the remaining 10% who had different origins. So maybe now the universe has compensated by an increase in mystic-origin superpowers or the like.

[Manic Typist]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

Darwinian evolution in the superhero community! Haha!

[Basil]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

What if the aliens weren't at the super-tech stage at all?

 

What if they had identified a suitable planet for their first interstellar colony, built and launched a slower-than-light generation ship, only to suddenly start receiving radio broadcasts from their destination years into the flight (remember, they might have launched in the mid 1800's or even earlier)?

 

They can't turn around, they can't keep going on past, and they can't live in their ship forever. The colonists have to set themselves up on Earth or perish.

 

{snip}

As bigdamnhero said, an interesting variant. However, I would have trouble playing in such a game/setting, as it would stretch my suspension-of-disbelief to the breaking point.

 

Any space-faring race will find planets, esp. big ones, a liability not a resource. Everything a large planet can supply, can be found and recovered more easily from small planets, asteroids, and the "fossil planetesimals" of the outer regions (i.e., the Kuiper's Belt and the Oort Cloud). No need to waste propellent and fuel going in and out of a major gravity well.

 

Still, the rest of the idea is interesting.

[Kristopher]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

As bigdamnhero said, an interesting variant. However, I would have trouble playing in such a game/setting, as it would stretch my suspension-of-disbelief to the breaking point.

 

Any space-faring race will find planets, esp. big ones, a liability not a resource. Everything a large planet can supply, can be found and recovered more easily from small planets, asteroids, and the "fossil planetesimals" of the outer regions (i.e., the Kuiper's Belt and the Oort Cloud). No need to waste propellent and fuel going in and out of a major gravity well.

 

Still, the rest of the idea is interesting.

 

So you're going to have trouble buying into any alien invasion scenario, no?

[Tasha]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

As bigdamnhero said, an interesting variant. However, I would have trouble playing in such a game/setting, as it would stretch my suspension-of-disbelief to the breaking point.

 

Any space-faring race will find planets, esp. big ones, a liability not a resource. Everything a large planet can supply, can be found and recovered more easily from small planets, asteroids, and the "fossil planetesimals" of the outer regions (i.e., the Kuiper's Belt and the Oort Cloud). No need to waste propellent and fuel going in and out of a major gravity well.

 

Still, the rest of the idea is interesting.

 

If your aliens are barely technological enough to make their Sleeper ship, and the reason they want a colony is Living space, not resources. They could have just enough stuff to start that colony. Perhaps they can even burn enough resources to drop some rocks on our major cites to soften us up. I mean not all Superhero worlds have Superman level heroes that can deflect asteroids. A Dark Champions level post Apocalypse, Alien invasion game could be lots of fun.

 

Honestly if I was in a game where the lowish tech alien race stayed in the Oort cloud and Kuipers belt to live I would really have issues with it.

 

Your point make more sense with super tech aliens. I mean if you just need resources and not living space there's lots of real estate that can be plumbed for resources and such. Heck there's some moons where you could even reasonable set up bases if you DID need living space all without dealing with the primitive, violent, powerful species on that Blue ball.

 

Tasha

[tinman]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

Rather than resources or living space, the motivation to set up a colony around another star might simply be to get all the eggs out of one basket. Maybe their home system is uncomfortably close to an unstable cosmic phenomenon (or one they fear will become unstable).

 

This means that the invaders could believe themselves to be acting for the good of their entire species and not just for their own survival.

 

As for why bother with a planet once they have the capacity to travel between stars, there could be any number of reasons.

 

Perhaps they have a spiritual/religious connection with 'land'.

 

Perhaps their psychology requires large spaces and open skies or they become claustrophobic (the voyagers having been selected for a high tolerance for enclosed spaces).

 

Perhaps they spend much of their time apart from each other (a habit suppressed during the voyage with drugs) and need large personal territories.

 

Perhaps they have physiological processes that don't work properly outside of a gravity well and they have a heightened sensitivity to the coriolis effect which makes even a large spin habitat a miserable experience for them.

 

Perhaps they have no desire to 'use all available resources and fill all available capacity', but simply to exist as a small but healthy population on a ready-to-own large space habitat like Earth.

 

Perhaps they're ship is of the Apollo program variety, a leap forward in capability that they have not yet grown into. In other words, they may have simply bent their collective will towards building a huge ship and stocking it with supplies and equipment, without having a truly mature spacefaring technology base.

 

And as to how they deal with Earth's supers, well, they may not have space-opera-tech but there's no reason to believe that they aren't each built on 350 points worth of powers and characteristics (wow, that yellow sun sure does give you zip in the morning).

 

Keep in mind that this scenario was suggested simply to explain why they might not have an entire fleet of reserves to call in, or why they would even be interested in a backwater planet if they could build space stations that can be mistaken for small moons. It sort of casts the invasion in a 'make or break' mold.

[Basil]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

As bigdamnhero said, an interesting variant. However, I would have trouble playing in such a game/setting, as it would stretch my suspension-of-disbelief to the breaking point.

 

Any space-faring race will find planets, esp. big ones, a liability not a resource. Everything a large planet can supply, can be found and recovered more easily from small planets, asteroids, and the "fossil planetesimals" of the outer regions (i.e., the Kuiper's Belt and the Oort Cloud). No need to waste propellent and fuel going in and out of a major gravity well.

 

Still, the rest of the idea is interesting.

So you're going to have trouble buying into any alien invasion scenario, no?

Well, any scenario that assumes the aliens are attacking Earth because they want to live there, yeah. If they're attacking to eliminate/nulify a potential opponent, that's fine. If they're attacking to capture or control a source of slaves, that would bring up the question of why slaves instead of machines; a question not too difficult to answer.

 

Of course, if it's a pure Buck Rogers type of campaign, then invasion-to-inhabit would be fine, because that's a type of campaign where both science and common sense have been thrown out the window anyway.

[Basil]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

If your aliens are barely technological enough to make their Sleeper ship' date=' and the reason they want a colony is Living space, not resources.[/quote']

Firstly, don't forget that "living space" is a resource.

Second and much more important, it is one of the easiest resources to get. Just hollow out an asteroid (likely while mining it), spin it, and you've got living space.

 

For example: if you hollowed out Ceres, with "floors" 25 meters apart, all the way down, you'd have floor room equal to about 44 times the surface of the Earth. And there's thousands more objects in the asteroid belt big enough to be worth hollowing out.

 

No, the resources that will be the biggest problem to get are what are called "volitiles". These are the elements and compounds that are liquid or gas at what we Earthlings consider normal or near-normal conditions. The most important ones are water, ammonia, and methane. NB: gaseous oxygen and nitrogen can be obtained from water and ammonia respectively, so there's no major need to obtain them as O2 and N2.

 

Honestly if I was in a game where the lowish tech alien race stayed in the Oort cloud and Kuipers belt to live I would really have issues with it.

 

Your point make more sense with super tech aliens.

Not really. Super-tech might get around the whole gravity-well problem. They're the ones I see invading a planet for the hell of it. Lowish-tech aliens (as, for example, the sort who'd use sleeper ships or generation ships because that's the best their tech can do), would be careful about how they'd use up their resources, and would stick near the source of volitiles---i.e., the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt.

 

 

I mean if you just need resources and not living space there's lots of real estate that can be plumbed for resources and such.

And most such, that might be mined for non-volitiles, can be converted into living space when they're mined out (and even before their completely mined out, too!).

 

Heck there's some moons where you could even reasonable set up bases if you DID need living space all without dealing with the primitive, violent, powerful species on that Blue ball.

 

Tasha

Yeah, those are available too.

 

And if you want a bit of gravity (rather than the pseudo-gravity of the centifugal effect), you can use Luna, Io, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, Titan, Triton, and Charon. As well, Pluto's gravity well is not much bigger than some of those, and Mars and Mercury aren't all that hard to get off of.

[Kristopher]

Re: How to Overthrow the Alien Overlords: Reboot

 

Random thought:

 

What if most of the alien population can't stand living in hollowed out asteroids and spacehabs, and needs a big solid planet under their feet and a big deep atmosphere over their heads?

 

The minority of their species that can handle conscious space travel and nothing but a hull between them and the cold vacuum of space are the explorers and navy and marines. Anyone else going to a new colony spend the whole trip, planetside to planetside, in "cold sleep" or whatever.

 

 

The one thing I never like about these discussions is the use of the word "would" when what we're doing is speculating. I know it's largely a personal twitch on my part, but to me saying that unknown hypothetical aliens "would" or "would not" do something is way too high on the certainty scale.