Styles of Aliens

So in the last post I talked about aliens and how many I wanted and such. I think the important part about aliens is how strange should we make them. There are all kinds of alien types out in science fiction, some made to be more familiar to us humans and some meant to be mind boggling strange. In M-Space, they have a Strangeness meter about them that shows how different an alien is from the baseline of an Earthling. It goes from 1 to 100, where 1 is practically a human, 50 is some where in the middle, and 100 is really really strange. I've actually used that in many of my games since, including Stars Without Number and Cepheus Engine. It's a really handy tool to gauge your aliens. So I made up a little silly scale for people to use when making their aliens, based mostly on Hollywood special effects

Stage One: Big Ears/Ridged Foreheads (BERF)

Strangeness: 1-25

SFX: Makeup and a mask

This is a common one to see in a lot of media. It's familiar to the players since the aliens look so much like humans, and easy on the budget both for Hollywood and the GM. Sometimes it's something really low key, like different markings on the skin, or something more like pointed ears or antennae on the forehead. I've always liked blue aliens, so the Andorrans were always pretty cool to me. Star Trek is big on this obviously, as are many of the aliens from Stargate, Eldar from WH40K, and some of the aliens from Defiance.

Stage Two: Actor in a Rubber Suit (ARS)

Strangeness: 26-50

SFX: Rubber Suit, Some Prosthetics and Make Up, A little CGI

This is the sweet spot for me in terms of xeno sophonts. The ARS still have a mostly humanoid body, but are different looking enough to make them feel alien. Most of the Mass Effect aliens are like this, as are some of the Star Wars aliens.

Stage Three: Complex Alien Puppetry (CAP)

Strangeness: 51-75

SFX: Complex Puppets, Some CGI, Stop Animation, two or more people operating it

The CAP is where things get pretty strange for the aliens. This is where you get quadrupeds (or hexapeds or more [or less]), strange alien limbs and heads, and other unusual, but recognizable shapes. A lot of the original trilogy Star Wars aliens are like this, as are some of the Xenomorph from Aliens, and Farscape. God I loved Farscape. While not strictly alien, many of the monsters in Ray Harryhausen's Dynamation films could also be under this.

Stage Four: Undeterminable Sapient Lifeform (USL)

Strangeness: 76-100

SFX: CGI, Film Tricks, Animation

This is the weird stuff. USLs are aliens that don't look like anything we as humans would identify as life. Clouds of intelligent plasma, sapient suns, living techno-organic metals, creatures of living energy, or shadow monsters can definitely fit the bill. What's important is that the alien is truly alien, Some good examples are The Blob from the original 50's movie, the shapeshifter alien from John Carpenter's The Thing, the Shadow Aliens and Sun Alien from Doctor Who, the C'Tan from WH40K, and the ELS from Gundam 00 Awakening of Trailblazer.

This post marks the 30th and last post in my 30 Days of Blogging Till I'm 30. It's was an interesting and fun thing to do, though I'm kinda glad it's over now. So now I'm going to take a break and enjoy my 30th birthday tomorrow.

Twenty Parsecs: The Setting in Broad Strokes

Was thinking a bit more on yesterday's article a bit more. I feel I should amend something. I guess while I love just about all sci-fi, it's space opera that really does it for me, alongside spacefaring hard sci fi. Military sci fi doesn't do it for me much anymore, but I partially blame its overabundance. It is a common theme since in many ways, that would be the future equivalent of the D&D adventurer. Can't really blame it honestly, since it really works. And, any time I say the word 'space marine', I get a litany of Warhammer 40k quotes about burning heretics and never suffering xenos. Gets old hat quickly. Cyberpunk is a mixed bag for me, though I love some of its tropes appearing in some Transhuman fiction. 

So, Twenty Parsecs. How do I imagine it? I'd like to subvert a lot of the expected tropes used in sci fi. First thing, no colonies vs homeworld. At least, not at the beginning and not as the main focus. I've seen enough Expanse and Gundam to last a lifetime, so I don't feel the need to do a spacer revolution for this. Rather, I want this to be about two cultures, separated by the vast gulfs of space and time for centuries, reconnecting and the trials and tribulations that come from it.

The first is the Commonwealth of Free Planets, a confederation of five core human worlds that exist 20+parsecs away from Earth. Each one was part of a generation ship many centuries ago, though most of the common folk have long forgotten that past. The planets have been united under a common lineage but have, over the years, changed enemies and allies alike, like squabbling siblings. Still, they get along enough with themselves and their alien neighbors these days. Many of the survival protocols set from the onset of the colonization program almost a millennium ago have become almost doctrine. Survive, reproduce, build, adapt. The planets have, until recently, looked inwards to ensure their own survival, but the last couple of decades have seen them finally branching out beyond their cluster.

Then there is the Republic of the Earth Cluster. Like the Commonwealth, the Republic is made up of several core worlds in the Local Star Cluster, but much more united under a representative democracy. With their own history has been several eras of war, peace, and a futile attempt at keeping an interstellar empire centered on Earth. Now, Earth keeps a light touch on its outer colonies, though still remains the capital and in charge of their Republic. Unlike the Commonwealth, Earth has yet to find sapient life forms. In many ways, this gives them a more humanocentric view on the galaxy when compared to the Free Planets, who regularly trade with, befriend, and make war (or love) with aliens. 

There will definitely be more culture shock differences as I flesh them out, but I think the key adventures would lean more on social intrigue and on planet adventures. I'm not too keen on wilderness exploration as a major focus, only because my current game is already all about exploration. Plenty of room for city and spaceport adventures for the players. Of course, I'd like to have a main conflict in the setting, as a sort of metaplot I can fall back on when the more episodic adventures run their course. Maybe most or all the players are all Earthlings that are the first to enter Free Planet space. This would allow them to rub shoulders with the leadership of the Free Planets while still able to have adventures with the common folk. I'll have to think about it a lot more.

Sci Fi Planetscape: NESS 02

Planet created using Grand Designer

Above is the second planet in the solar system of my M-Space game, but this can be useful for any game out there that needs an airless, volcanic hell hole. The planet's geologic activity is beginning to slow down and many of its volcanoes are now simply dormant. The mountain peaks etch around the surface, with darker basalt mares stretching between them. Several micrometeor impacts dot the surface, with a couple of larger impacts from the past here and there. 

Landmark Tags

"Continent Sized Basalt Mares"

"Long Volcanic Chains"

"Massive Impact Crater at Equator"

Possible Adventures Here

In orbit lies a sort of elephant graveyard with ship-sized corpses of alien space whale. Their bones have a lot of helium 3 stored away that could make a killing.

One of the mountains has an ancient volcanic base inside. Alien origin, what wonders could be held here?

Water is found deep in the equatorial crater. Could there be basic life here? Or maybe pirates are hiding out here, waiting for an unsuspecting miner.

The planet is designated NESS 02 in my game as a way to keep it a blank slate for my players to name it. All of the planets have this designation for that reason, with NESS meaning New Earth Sky Survey. While it may sound boring, that's mostly the point. To encourage my scouts to make some cool names for their new system.

Below are some more maps. One more gameable, and the rest more for looks and decoration. I'm still looking for a method to make the texture map a dymaxion hex map like you see in Traveller/Cepheus Engine. I think that might simply not be possible without some severe editing skills in GIMP.

A mercator option that's more useful for a game

A normal and holographic orthographicl map of NESS 02