Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

[amanojaku]

http://www.asylum.com/2010/12/06/human-like-aliens/1#c31984754

 

Now anyone want to do a comment on the most alien aliens? Ones that didn't look like humans with at best minor alterations?

 

My #1 vote goes to "the thetan" (not the scientology version) from the original 'outer limits' episode "architects of fear. It was so inhuman and scary (By 1960's standards, of course) that some stations wouldn't show it for fear of causing a panic.

 

See for yourself...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4XbwWAXimI&list=SL

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

My favorite "very alien alien species" is Species 8472.

[dmjalund]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

The Shadows from Babylon 5

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

The Hooloovoo from the Hitch-Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy series. (Described as 'a hyperintelligent shade of the color blue.)

[RexMundi]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

I'm a fan of Jack Chalker's Well World series, hence, this could be a LONG list, heh.

 

~Rex.....settles for the Markovians.

[Egyptoid]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Never drink anything offered to you by a Tnuctip

[Sundog]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

I like Moties.

[amanojaku]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Well, I OP'ed this as I thought it fit the star hero genre well enough and was good for a laugh. I notice they didn't mention the TOS klingons, or Martians from "My favorite martian" in the original list.

 

Still, the thread could be useful for people looking for alien ideas.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Well' date=' I OP'ed this as I thought it fit the star hero genre well enough and was good for a laugh. I notice they didn't mention the TOS klingons, or Martians from "My favorite martian" in the original list.[/quote']Yeah, those Martians would have been a much more logical entry than the Sabaceans from Farscape (who, as one commenter there noted was revealed in the finale, look like humans because they're genetically altered human stock). I suppose the person making the list either didn't think of Uncle Martin, or figured Mork was enough of a sitcom alien.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Triffids... giant sentient broccoli

[Tom Carman]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Triffids... giant sentient broccoli

 

Didn't notice that they were particularly sentient in the book or movie. Animal-level intelligent, yes. Not aliens, either, in the original book: they were somebody's genetics experiment, cultivated because of their useful products. While moderately dangerous, they weren't a serious threat... until a meteor shower set off somebody's Cold War secret weapon and blinded most of the world.

[Sir Ofeelya]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

I would say the freakiest 'too human aliens' would be teenagers.

[Alverant]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

There's a race in 5th ed Star Hero about insectoid aliens who take over mammals as hosts.

 

If we're including audio dramas, I would say the Tookah from the Ruby Gumshoe series (from ZBS)

 

http://www.zbs.org/catalog/images/TOOK.jpg

(Watch the 3rd eye, it tells you what they're REALLY looking at.)

 

Let's not forget the Great Old One, Ctuthullu.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Here's a link to my own efforts at creating non-human aliens. None of these would be playable as a PC... and in my campaigns they're so alien they've been difficult to pull off as NPC's!

[dmjalund]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Here's a link to my own efforts at creating non-human aliens. None of these would be playable as a PC... and in my campaigns they're so alien they've been difficult to pull off as NPC's!

An alien doesn't have to live in an inhospitable environment to be alien.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

An alien doesn't have to live in an inhospitable environment to be alien.

 

That's true. Earth-like worlds are a rarity in my SF setting, which means that it's populated with aliens which evolved in different environments. When I get around to adding an earth-like world with intelligent natives (which will constitute a major turning point in its history) they'll be very alien, as well.

[The Weapon]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Pierson's Puppeteers. Both their attitude and their physiology were very alien but consistent and believable.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

In my Gemini Ascendant setting, hyperspace is a sentient entity.

 

In a wider audience thing, I always considered the Elder Race pretty alien. How could a species that displaces personalities over time not be a little on the alien side.

 

The xenomorphs from the Alien series of movies, books, video games, etc. are fairly incomprehensible. In fact, their driving need to destroy every other living thing around them only makes sense in the whole "developed bio-weapon" or "demon" context. I have a hard time believing that their physiology is realistic, so that leaves "demon" as the only context that makes sense (to me anyway).

 

Most other fictional alien species I've been exposed to (fictional being the only aliens I have been exposed to - just for clarification) are just funny looking humans. I don't have a problem with that actually. Being as I think (mostly) like a fellow human, it gives me context.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

I like the Martians of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land - he doesn't describe them well, as far as their physical form (basically: big as a bread truck, with three legs), but how he manages to describe their alien culture and thinking is pretty awesome. Same with the 'Buggers' from the Ender series, and the 'piquieninos' (sp?) later in the series.

 

As for inhuman Aliens where you do get a good look at them, yeah, the "Species 8472" of Aliens are just plain awesome and terrifying. I also like some of the less humanoid aliens of the Mass Effect setting.

[yamamura]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

How about the prawns from District 9?

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

As for inhuman Aliens where you do get a good look at them' date=' yeah, the "Species 8472" of Aliens are just plain awesome and terrifying.[/quote']Except that 8472 are from Star Trek: Voyager.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

From what now?

[Manic Typist]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

In my Gemini Ascendant setting, hyperspace is a sentient entity.

 

Hm, interesting. Intriguing. Potentially something I might one day use. What are the ramifications of it in your setting? My immediate thought was of hyperspace, long ago, deliberately trapping various alien travelers inside itself so that it could experiment upon them and eventually breed a race of fanatical protectors to help protect itself from interlopers...

[Nolgroth]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

Hm' date=' interesting. Intriguing. Potentially something I might one day use. What are the ramifications of it in your setting? [/quote']For the most part, when people travel through hyperspace they have the sensation of being watched. Sometimes they feel other emotions layered over their own. They can sort of identify those layered emotions as belonging to something else, but sometimes the emotions are so strong that they merge with the traveler's. Psychics have learned to block all of that out, but some folks develop emotional issues from being in hyperspace too long.

[amanojaku]

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

 

For the most part' date=' when people travel through hyperspace they have the sensation of being watched. Sometimes they feel other emotions layered over their own. They can sort of identify those layered emotions as belonging to something else, but sometimes the emotions are so strong that they merge with the traveler's. Psychics have learned to block all of that out, but some folks develop emotional issues from being in hyperspace too long.[/quote']

 

Not to drag religion into this, but could hyperspace be god, or the mind of god, in your campaign setting? Have you considered having a religion in your setting based on this premise?