Designing reasonable aliens

[Michael Hopcroft]

What is the best way to design Star HERO aliens?

 

I want aliens that aren't "guys with bumpy foreheads". "guys with pointed ears", or "guys in rubber suits". I want aliens with abilities and disadvantages that reflect their, well, alienness. These aliens shouldn;t think or act like humans -- they should thing and act alien.

 

I don't have Terran Empire yet, so I don't really know how Steve and company do it. So how would you guys do it?

[keithcurtis]

Apologies for length.

 

I usually try to start with the environment that produced the race.

What hardships created their civilization? The building of civilization is a direct response to environmental pressure. If the trees gave manna, if it was always a comfortable climate and nothing ever wanted to eat you, you would have no need for civilization.

 

Look at animals in our own world and see how they have adapted. Ask yourself "Why?" a lot.

 

Are they arboreal? Why?

Do they hibernate? Why?

How they reproduce is IMO, vital to designing the way they think. Do they care for children comunally? Family groups? Release them into the wild and catch them as adolescents? Why?

 

How do they age?

What happens once they can no longer reproduce?

 

I guess my response is , develop a biology and ecology for them and the psychology will flow from that. I humbly submit the T'Katran race from my Solar Colonies campaign:

 

The System

The Alpha Centauri system is comprised of three stars. Two are very close to Sol in character, though B is a bit dimmer and more orange. Proxima Centauri is a distant companion, and although it has two small rocky planets of its own, is unsuitable for life due to its variable nature (frequent flare-ups can double the surface temperature in minutes).

A. Centuria A has four planets, none of which support life.

B. Centauri is the home system of the T’Katarans. It has two planets, the second of which is inhabited.

 

The Planet

Alpha Centauri B IV is a small world about seven/eighths the mass of Earth. Its surface gravity is about .75 and its surface pressure is about a third of Earth’s. It is an old world, about 5.5b years. It has lost almost all of its vulacnism, though there is evidense that it was much more active in the past.

 

The planet is tilted about 45° from the vertical, leading to a great variation in seasons. Although not as hot as the hottest areas of earth, it can get a quite a bit colder than an antarctic winter near the poles. Water comprises about 1/8th the surface area. The seas are very shallow, since frequent glaciation has caused a scouring, “levelling†effect on the surface. At no point is the water more than a mile deep, and in most places it is less than 300 feet. It is surmised through archaelogical investigation that the seas once covered nearly twice their current extent. Much of the planet’s water is contained within the “world-tree†(see below).

 

When life first arose, it took hold near the equator, the only place with liquid water. Some life became nomadic, following the warmer climes, while other forms developed hibernation techniques, enabling them to survive during extended cold periods.

 

About thirty million years ago, a phenomenally successful organism developed. Mostly analagous to earthly plant life, it resembled the baobob tree of Africa in that it was a single organism with vast networks of offshoots that allowed it to cover a significant area. The later-arisen sapient species called it the “World-Treeâ€, or in their tongue, the S’akkat.

 

The World tree has three main parts: canopy, pump and root.

The canopy looks much like an earthly forest in that it is covered with shoots of photosynthetic leaves. These leaves vary from season to season, according to the available sunlight. The shoots (analagous to tree trunks) are rarely taller then five meters. The roots perform much the same function as plant roots, absorbing water and nutrients form the soil. The roots can go down as far as 200 meters. It is the pump area that has no earth-plant counterpart.

 

The pump is similar to the circulatory system of an earth animal, but instead of blood, it transports liquid water. The pump is a tremendous web of organic conduits ranging from capillary size to diameters of several meters. Its thickness varies from ten to forty meters, although it is sometimes much thicker around a good water source.

 

The water is kept liquid by the biologcal waste-heat of a symbiotic micro-organism. This symbiont lives in the cisterns and tubes of the pump area. The tissue of the pump system is also an insulater of great efficiency. By keeping the water liquid, the world tree has liberated most of the surface of the planet from the tyranny of the seasons.

 

There are four main kingdoms of life. The most obvious is of course the S’akkat, which could arguably classified as a single organism. It is roughly analagous to a plant, though the pump tube possess a rudimentary musculature system and something akin to a nervous system.

The second kingdom is biotic bacteria. Performing much the same function as earthly bacteria, the most significant form is the symbiotic form that dwells within the world-tree.

The third kingdom can loosely be described as water-parasites. These are life forms that are directly dependant on the action of the world-tree. Resembling earthly fungi, without the nutrient laden water of the pump, they would die.

The fourth kingdom is a higher order of the third. Also dependent on the world tree, they are more complex and adaptable. Some are ambulatory, and the highest order are very similar to earth animals.

 

The T'Kataran race belong to the fourth Kingdom. They could survive a short time without the bacterial soup of the S’akkat pump, but they ultimately need it for continued health.

 

 

 

THE T'KATARANS

 

 

The T'Katarans are a race of six-limbed sentients from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. They are relatively technologically backward. Their tech level is about equivalent to post-industrial earth of the turn of the twentieth century. They have been at this level for about a thousand years. Their history goes back 40,000 (earth) years.

 

STRUCTURE

Anatomy

Adult - Female

The T'Katarans at first glace resemble large furry spiders. The have six locomotive limbs arranged in a radial symmetry from their massive thorax. Each limb terminates in a double claw with a third opposable claw, capable of simple grasping, but no fine manipualtion. Fine motor skills are are proveided by the maniples. The maniples are tiny, four-fingered limbs that are mounted on the skull.

The front of the thorax is protected by a flexible bony plate (DEF 5, 9- ACT). The ears are mounted on the thorax. Respiration is carried out by large spiracules, three to a side, located on the anterior of the thorax.

The "neck" is actually a specialized limb with a joint at thorax, skull and midway between. At rest, the neck folds back atop the thorax and the head rests atop the bony plate. There is a pulmonary located in the neck to assist in blood flow.

The head is wide, flat and triangular. Huge compound eyes are set at left and right extremities, the maniples are mounted below and slightly inward. The eyes are somewhat near-sighted, though their ability to distinguish detail is somewhat superior to humans. The mouth is a hard, leathery, beak-like affair with one retractable tooth. The tongue is thick grey and rope-like. A small air-bladder allows the mouth to make sound. T'Kataran speech sounds to human ears to be mostly consonants and glottal stops. Careful listening can make five vowel sounds plus a true glottal stop. T'Katarans have no history of music, though they are capable of hearing pitch.

The body is entirely covered with hair with the exception of claws, mouth, maniple digits, and plate. Part of the underbelly may be hairless in advanced age. Coloration tends to be black with yellow, orange or red stripes. In some individuals, this may be reversed.

All adults are female.

 

Juvenile-Male

The juvenile form of the T'Kataran is basically a pupal stage. At this point in their development all are male. The male T'Kataran resembles a large termite, and is somewhat repulsive to human eyes. Their are fat, hairless and have rudimentary limbs. They are incapable of caring for themselves. Their eyes are single-faceted, and the the neck-limb is very short but flexible, lacking the middle joint. The maniples and beak are similar to the adult form.

 

Egg

The T'Kataran egg is about the size of a softball.It will grow to about the size of a soccer-ball before hatching. It is grey and leathery, similar in texture to the T'Kataran mouth.

 

BIOLOGY

T'Katarans are warm-blooded, carbon-based life forms with similar amino acid structure to humans. They can eat many of the same foods a human would eat, but they are primarily vegetarian. They are adapted for a colder climate than humans and are capable of hibernating for decades at a time. Such hibernation is extremely stressful for a T'Kataran and they will go to great lengths to avoid it. Most modern T'Katarans have never hibernated. They have an endoskeletal structure for locomotion and an exoskelatal carapace under the fur for protection. (DEF 1) The front part of the carapace is extra-thick concealing the brain (DEF 4)

 

SENSES

Sight: T'Kataran's are near-sighted and see best in the longer wavelengths. They do NOT have infravision, but they are more likely to detect a heat source or luminous object than humans. (-3 range, +3 luminous or hot objects)

Hearing: T'Kataran atmosphere is very thin (about twice Mars) and the T'Katarans have developed good hearing to compensate. The hairs of the carapace pick out sound (Telescopic hearing and +3 hearing perception.

Smell: T'Katarans have no taste of smell.

Taste: T'Kataran taste is far superior to human, and taste organs are to be found in the beak and the maniples. The T'Kataran environment is bacteria-rich and parasite-rich and they have developed the ability to test for the safety of what they eat before they actual place it in their mouths. (+3 taste perception, detect poison)

Touch: The maniples of of a T'Kataran are slightly less sensitive than human hands (-3 touch Perception)

 

REPRODUCTION

A T'Kataran will mate twice in its life. When it is hatched as a pupal male form, it will require the same care and training as a human child for about ten years. At this point it will become sexually mature. When conditions are right, it will mate with as many females as possible for a period of about a month. Then hormonal changes will allow it to spin a coccoon. It will ie in this chrysalis for 6 months, slowly changing sex and gaining adult characteristics. What emerges is a young female, ready to be trained for her life's task (see Culture and Behavior). A female decides when to sexually mature. When she is ready, she will mate. If the first male does not result in pregnancy, she will try different males until fertilized. Three months later she will lay a clutch of 5-10 eggs. These will be tended in a communal nursery. Racial clues allow a parent to know which children are hers, but all children are the responsibility of the warren and those females who have devoted their life to the Nursery. After reproducing, the female becomes sterile, but retains her female characteristics. T'Katarans live for about 70 earth years, not including any time spent in hibernation.

 

CULTURE AND BEHAVIOR

T'Katarans are caste-oriented. These castes are divided along professional, rather than biological lines. The male pupal period of education helps the T'Kataran discover his aptitudes. While in the chrysalis, it will develop the physical, mental and emotional attributes necessary to perform its life's function. T'Katarans are remarkably well-adjusted because of this. Warfare is uncommon to T'Katarans and social inequity is a concept they don't understand.

 

 

CHARACTER BITS FOR ROLE PLAYING

Emotion is shown by the color of the eyes:

Red Anger/Fear

Blue Calm/Sleepy

Gold Humor/Pleasure

Green Curiosity/Concentration

 

 

 

T'KATARAN LANGUAGE

 

CONSONANTS

B P D T G K L M N R S Z Ch Kh Cr Pr Pt @ ! *

 

B as in English, but unvoiced

P very similar to “B†but softer

D as in English, but unvoiced

T very similar to “D†but softer

G Hard G as in English, but unvoiced

K very similar to “G†but softer

L pronounced with a short inhaling sound

M pronounced with a sharp kissing noise

S pronounced with a long inhaling sound

G really “@â€, but used when it is more pronounceable by humans

Z pronounced “ts†as in “Tsarâ€

R always voiceless and rolled

Kh pronunced as ch in the hebrew word “Lechiemâ€

CH pronunced as ch in the word “churchâ€

 

Tr, Pr, Cr, etc. a consonant followed by “râ€

is a long, rolled voiceless “râ€. “Tr†is similar to whispering

the word “tree†(not “chreeâ€)

 

@ is made clicking the back of the tongue

Frequently used for an intial sound unpronounceable by T’Kataran tongues or

a final “ingâ€

! is made by clacking the tongue away form the hard pallet

frequently used for “loâ€

* is a sharp snap of the tongue

frequently used for a final “n†or “da†or “ta†or “ningâ€

 

Consonants that have voiced and aspirated forms (i.e. B/P, D/T) are all aspirated. The difference between the two is vanishingly subtle to human ears, but distinct to T’kataran listeners.

All double consonants represent diphthongs. (i.e. the double-n sound in the English word “pen-knifeâ€). So, “S’akkat†is pronounced “Sssahk-kahtâ€, not “Sssahkatâ€

 

 

VOWELS

All vowel sounds are very faint, almost indistinguishable from a glottal stop. Careful listening can pick out differences.

 

A f A alter

E f E y

I k I lt

O r O ll

U b U tton

‘ peculiar stop or joining of two words or consonants

 

ree is a long, rolled voiceless “r†simalar to whispering “tree†(not “chreeâ€)

 

 

MORE PRONUNCIATION GUIDES

T’Kataran’s have no voice box. Therefore, a human speaker should never use their vocal chords, but should use a “stage whisper†for proper effect.

Grammar is far beyond the scope of this paper. A particular word can have different meaning depending on the words preceding and following it, and its position in the sentence. Word meaning relies heavily on context. A direct translation of the language would be very difficult to interpret.

 

 

Katara The World

T’katra Sister of the world (Adults)

S’akkat The World-Tree

S’arka (name) a communicator/ambassador

Brakha (name) a life-path finder

Dobra Pupa (male)

Ek Egg (one of the few homophones!)

 

 

Keith "Long-winded" Curtis

[keithcurtis]

Sorry, meant to post this link.

Anatomical picture can be found here:

http://home.attbi.com/~TheGM/SC/tkatarans.html

Solar Coly information can be found in my sig

 

Keith "Oh, one more thing" Curtis

[Mutant for Hire]

You are what you eat

 

One of the main areas of variation are in feeding habits. Humans are at their base a hunter/gatherer species, and a good chunk of our evolutionary behavior can be traced to instincts coming from the tens of thousands of years (if not hundreds of thousands counting our evolutionary ancestors) when we hunted and gathered.

 

A purely gathering species is not going to have the hunting instincts that we and more predatory species have. This is not to say that the creatures of such species are not going to be capable of killing. The traditional duty of males in many herbivorous herd species is to fight off predators. However there's going to be a far lower level of bloodlust in that species. The species on average will be less violent, though even among herbivors, males compete in displays of prowess to impress mates.

 

Gathering also tends to be a matter of patience and careful observation rather than the thrill of the hunt. A gathering species doesn't need to thrive on challenge the way a hunting species does. What a gathering species needs is the ability not to get bored easily, to spot small details. A good memory of what is edible and when it is edible also helps.

 

There's also an instinct to aquire rather than an instinct to hunt. As a purely herbivorous species develops civilization, I expect that the species will have more of a general will towards aquisition and accumilation. I expect their rate of technological progress to be slower. Males of a herbivorous species competing for the attention of females are likely to do it through showy displays of wealth. The males are going to have a strong inclination to aquire wealth. Capitalism, trading and so on will probably come very naturally to this species.

 

Their vision will be adapted to color and the spotting of small details. Expect color perception to match if not exceed ours. Likewise smell and taste are going to be sharper since they have to worry about being poisoned much more than a hunter species does.

 

A purely carnivorous species is going to have an interesting time of it advancing technologically. Remember that the development of agriculture was a big deal on the way forward. For a carnivorous species, agriculture is purely for feeding the animals that they hunt on, and an emergency food supply the rest of the time. As for the species' behavior, the traits that make for good gatherers are minimal and both males and females of the species have full sets of hunter instincts predominating. Hunters need to thrive on challenges. Hunter species will be constantly looking for ways to test and challenge themselves.

 

Incidentally, hunters also need good deductive facilities. Whereas gatherers primarily observe, a hunter needs to spot spoor, tracks, signs of grazing and so on and deduce what passed through and how long ago and where its likely to be now. Hunting down prey also is a test of planning skills as well.

 

I expect faster technological progress since a lot of the instincts of hunting and capabilities of hunting can be sublimated in technology. On the flip side the species is going to be a lot more warlike and that can slow down progress as well. Expect a society where there is a lot of brawling. As they grow more "civilized" it becomes increasingly non-lethal and things like sports, gambling, and so on replace the old fashioned brawl, but I expect a lot more acceptance of casual brawling, especially among males trying to impress females.

 

Their senses are going to be focusing on spotting patterns of all sorts. Spotting the patterns that indicate tracks, grazing, or the natural camoflage of some animal hiding in the brush. They're also going to be sharper on tracking motion as well.

 

So to a purely gathering species, human beings are going to seem horribly prone to violence and dangerous thrill-seekers, doing risky activities, lacking the patience and observational skills that mark their own kind. Of course that's how a hunter species is going to look to us. They're going to be even more violent, even more adrenaline addicts than the rest of us are, probably less incliened to patience and having a need to vent their hunting instincts in all sorts of ways. To them a barfight is a routine way to blow off steam. Going hunting together is a common bonding activity.

 

The hunter species will see us the way we see the purely herbivorous species: dull. The males are almost violent and competitive enough to be interesting but otherwise the species tends to lack drive, the thrill of the challenge.

[AlHazred]

I use a really simple yardstick for aliens. After doing preliminary design on an alien, I try to find a single terrestrial analogue as a nickname for it (like "cat-men", "caterpillars", "spider-bears", etc.) If I can't, then I figure I'm doing my job.

 

Personally, I think too much thinking leads to unconvincing aliens. There has to be an organic, intuitive process involved, since there should always be unexplainable elements in any species (just look at our own, for instance). I highly recommend the alien-oriented works of Wayne Douglas Barlowe (Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, Expedition, and to a lesser extent The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe) as inspirational material. Barlowe's folks taught him proper anatomy and ecology, since they're Audobon-style illustrators. His stuff has a very natural feel as a consequence.

[Barghest]

source materials for alien construction

 

Michael--

 

An excellent source material is Stanley Schmidt's "Aliens and Alien Societies" which is edited by Ben Bova and is part of Writer's Digest Books Science Fiction Writing Series. I highly recommend it whether you are an aspiring SF author or are running Star Hero. The other books in that series are well worth the cost as well. For a general SF setting manual, I recommend "The Writer's Guide to Creating a Science Fiction Universe" by George Ochoa and Jeffrey Osier, also from Writer's Digest Books. This book also has a chapter on designing aliens.

 

Once the concept is down, I think the points follow. The rules are easy enough to simulate with once you know what you want.

 

Best of luck.

[bcholmes]

Re: source materials for alien construction

 

Originally posted by Barghest

An excellent source material is Stanley Schmidt's "Aliens and Alien Societies" which is edited by Ben Bova and is part of Writer's Digest Books Science Fiction Writing Series. [...] For a general SF setting manual, I recommend "The Writer's Guide to Creating a Science Fiction Universe" by George Ochoa and Jeffrey Osier, also from Writer's Digest Books. This book also has a chapter on designing aliens.

 

Oooh. Good suggestion. I'd also suggest How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card, unless one is adverse to Card.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by AlHazred

I use a really simple yardstick for aliens. After doing preliminary design on an alien, I try to find a single terrestrial analogue as a nickname for it (like "cat-men", "caterpillars", "spider-bears", etc.) If I can't, then I figure I'm doing my job.

 

Personally, I think too much thinking leads to unconvincing aliens. There has to be an organic, intuitive process involved, since there should always be unexplainable elements in any species (just look at our own, for instance). I highly recommend the alien-oriented works of Wayne Douglas Barlowe (Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, Expedition, and to a lesser extent The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe) as inspirational material. Barlowe's folks taught him proper anatomy and ecology, since they're Audobon-style illustrators. His stuff has a very natural feel as a consequence.

 

Sorry, I agree with your points except on Barlowe. While I find his rendering technically flawless, his creations look stilted, forced and unnatural. His Puppeteer for instance looks like the "heads" were inserted like pipe cleaners, lacking a natural "flow" from the body like, say, an elephant's trunk.

I could give more examples, but it would be a pointless digression.

 

Keith "We return you to the thread in progress" Curtis

[Barghest]

Scott Card's "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" might help with story issues but really wouldn't be of much use in the nuts and bolts of creating worlds and SF universes. The MICE quotient has its place in writing but I don't think it would work as well for RPGs. Nonetheless, there is overlap between what we do as SF authors and what we do as GMs and the resources that are offered for writing definitely should be checked out by GMs wanting to build a consistent and compelling SF milieu.

[AlHazred]

Originally posted by keithcurtis

Sorry, I agree with your points except on Barlowe. While I find his rendering technically flawless, his creations look stilted, forced and unnatural.

 

To each his own. Personally, I prefer Expedition. I think it's really creative imagineering. But then, it helps to have a visual reference to how alien the alien is.

 

Speaking of which, nice illo on your example alien. How/where did you get such a great image? Your own work or someone else we can patronize/exploit?

[Syberdwarf2]

Re: Re: source materials for alien construction

 

Originally posted by bcholmes

Oooh. Good suggestion. I'd also suggest How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card, unless one is adverse to Card.

 

I own and have read all three several times. Card's book is great and some of his other writer's guides have helped me immenseley in the past with my own fiction. However for SH help, specifically, of the three books mentioned thus far, I'd recommened The Writer's Guide To Creating A Science Fiction Universe for the setting. Aliens and Alien Societies for, uh, well....

And, World Building (Ben Bova??)(also part of the same series by Writer's Digest) for creating plausible worlds (but only if you wanna get really technical.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by AlHazred

To each his own. Personally, I prefer Expedition. I think it's really creative imagineering. But then, it helps to have a visual reference to how alien the alien is.

 

Speaking of which, nice illo on your example alien. How/where did you get such a great image? Your own work or someone else we can patronize/exploit?

 

Thanks for the compliment! I did it in Adobe Illustrator about 5-6 years ago. The original print was on a white background and was meant to evoke the feel of a DK book. (You know, those great Eyewitness books).

 

As long as you don't publish it or pass it off as your own, you're welcome to exploit me to your heart's content. Hmm... that didn't sound right...

 

The whole Solar Colonies site was done for fun when I was first learning to do HTML. I would do it differently today. I really should update it, since I have a ton of material lying around.

 

Keith "Staggering amounts of free time... not" Curtis

 

PS. I have Extraterrestrials and Fantasy. I haven't seen Expedition. I'll check it out.

[AlHazred]

Since we're discussing reasonable aliens, I'd like to say that Keith brings up a good issue. One reason many GMs fail to make aliens alien enough is because of a lack of visual reference. It's not that their players lack imagination; rather, I think it's because if the GM puts a lot of work into an alien's design, he wants the players to see exactly what he's talking about.

 

Are there any good resources for GMs who want to have their aliens illustrated? Is there a utility?

[keithcurtis]

If you feel daunted by the artistic challenge, I would suggest working backwards. Find an illustration you like and extrapolate an alien from that. I have done that in the past if I found miniatures I thought were cool.

The advantage is that your visual reference is "dead-on"

 

BTW, for the alien in question, it was a "First Contact" ever situation. I actually made a hand puppet for the players to react to. They were peering into a dark spaceship, so I had them turn off the room lights and only use a small mag light. Besides providing atmosphere, it hepled hide the puppeteer.

 

Keith "God, did I have too much time" Curtis

[Tweedle]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

What is the best way to design Star HERO aliens?

 

I want aliens that aren't "guys with bumpy foreheads". "guys with pointed ears", or "guys in rubber suits". I want aliens with abilities and disadvantages that reflect their, well, alienness. These aliens shouldn;t think or act like humans -- they should thing and act alien.

 

I don't have Terran Empire yet, so I don't really know how Steve and company do it. So how would you guys do it?

 

Perhaps you might find inspiration with these items:

 

Is There Life On Other Worlds? by Poul Anderson

Extraterrestrial Civilisations by Isaac Asimov

Evolving the Alien - The Science of Extraterrestrial Life by Jack Cohen & Ian Stewart

What If the Moon Didn’t Exist? by Neil F. Comins

Are We Alone? by Paul Davies

The Cosmic Water Hole by Emmanuel Davoust

Extraterrestrials by Terence Dickinson and Adolf Schaller

Life Beyond Earth by Gerald Feinberg & Robert Shapiro

Extraterrestrial Intelligence by Jean Heidmann

The Science of Aliens by Clifford Pickover

Intelligent Life in the Universe by I. S. Shklovskii & Carl Sagan

Rare Earth by Peter D. Ward & Donald Brownlee

Extraterrestrials - Where Are They? by Ben Zuckerman & Michael H. Hart

 

I'd also recommend Aliens & Artifacts by David L. Pulver, written for ICE's Spacemaster RPG.

 

You should also check out this article - creator.rtf . It's an excellent step-by-step guide to designing alien species. It's written for GURPS but is easily adaptable to HERO.

[Tweedle]

I was rooting around in my hard drive and came across Atomik Aliens, an interesting creature-design pdf written for R. Talsorian's Fuzion RPG that might serve to focus your alien creation activities. E-mail me if you'd like a copy of the relevant files (total size is approx. 300 kB).

[Onyxclaw]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

all the book references are great ideas, but honestly, all you need to make an alien race alien is a little ingenuity, and time.

 

I agree with kieth on a lot of things. Personally, I think if yo want to make something a unique aline race you need to think about how it evolved, why it evloved the way it did. What kind of abilities would it have? Where did they come from, when would it use them? What kind of society does it come from, is there a monarch, dictator, etc? How do they reproduce? do they even reproduce?

 

All these questions can lead to an interesting race. Maybe your race has a culteral taboo against the use of weapons due to a theology connecting them to an ancient leagend of armagedon. Maybe they are obsessed with bilogical advancement through competition. Mybe they have a limited intelligenc for somethings but are superb at others. The more questions you ask the more interesting the race becomes

 

As far as designing an outer form, go with something that fits the answers of your questions. If something climbs a lot or is arboreal then think about possible adaptations for that. Maybe it uses tendrils, or hooked claws, perhapse it has suction cups, can it glide from tree to tree or must it jump? Maybe your creature can't jump, then it's form should at least hint to that.

 

Discription and roleplaying are also very important. If you don't have a picture to go on (either drawn or expanded on) then unfortunatley it's your job as a GM to discribe your aliens to the best of your ability. And even if you do have a picture you still need to do this. No matter how great your concept if you don't make it act like an alien then it's not going to be what you're looking for.

[Jhamin]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

I think that one of the things I always notice is that while people can create a great alien race, many folks fail when they create individual aliens.

 

Sure, the science officer comes from a race of predatory amphibious methane breathers, but he/she/it still somehow hangs out at the bar with the rest of the crew.

 

In other words things like individual reproduction, concern for young, mental facility, desire for material possesions, etc always seem to crop up. Albeit in a strange form. I'm not even just talking about human values either. From an evolutionary standpoint we aren't as far from the rest of the animal kingdom as we like to pretend we are.

*real* aliens will have less in common with us than we have in common with bumblebees (who evolved in the same atmosphere, gravity, and day/night cycle that produced us)

 

I always seem to have the most luck by finding some fundamental trait of life on earth, then removing it and trying to extrapolate from there.

[Citizen Keen]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

I think I start on a very different end of the spectrum from others when crafting aliens, since I only do SciFi in RPGs, not in my writing.

 

After I make some pointyheads, I start to think about more complicated aliens via their game mechanics.

 

Ooh! Extra Limbs! Thus, Spiderlings are born.

Ooh! Flight. Bam, I've got some hoverers

Ooh! Gliding! Thus, gas bags are born.

Ooh! Stretching! Viners are born.

 

Etc, etc.

[Citizen Keen]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

And that GURPS .rtf doesn't seem to really be working.

[Susano]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

Did anyone see the alien race I submitted to Digital Hero? If yes, what did you think? (The race was the M'Larrne).

[keithcurtis]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

Just pointing out that this is a two+ year old resurrected thread.

 

Keith "Not that it's not worthy of discussion" Curtis

[Susano]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

Never noticed the date stamp.

 

Hey... you didn't answer the question!

[Tweedle]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

And that GURPS .rtf doesn't seem to really be working.

 

I have a copy on my PC that I can send you (117 kb). Send me an e-mail and its yours.

[austenandrews]

Re: Designing reasonable aliens

 

For me, it depends entirely on the function of the aliens in the setting. My personal opinion, like others here, is that most actual aliens will be so different from humans as to render face-to-face (or what-have-you) communication virtually meaningless. We'll be hard pressed to live on the same spaceship, much less share a beer at the cantina. However that arrangement doesn't particularly suit a wide range of story needs. So for my part, I like to start by deciding what characteristics the alien species should have in common with humans. What do I want for my setting? An exotic friend that the PCs can sit down and chat with? Then the alien's primary characteristic is a mindset sympathetic to humans; physiognomy is secondary. Reason the alien species backward from that requirement. Do I want a Star Wars-like cantina? Then my aliens must have vaguely human size, temperament and environmental requirements. This might dictate some similarity in evolutionary conditions. Do I want a menagerie of utterly alien creatures that communicate only through computer interpretation? If so, how much physical contact (or even proximity) do I want? Do they don environmental suits and meet in a common space, or are all races separated into their specific spaceships? What level of communication is even necessary for the setting?

 

Figure out what you want the PC/audience experience to be with the alien - how is it human-like? - and then let your imagination roam on other characteristics.