 January 27, 2010 - 12:20am | First off, hello everyone. I used to be on the list serv that Roymeo had back in the middle 90's. SF has been a favorite topic of discussion with my brother on weekends for decades. We played back in the 80's when I got the original blue boxed set. I found the zine and this site when I was searching for SF stuff yet again last fall. I have been lurking here now for a couple of months reading the forums to catch up / get a feel for the people. I like what I read feel. I'm now done with game talk, open discussion, and rules questions and can't wait any longer to join the discussions with some questions. So, what is everyone's take on gender for a dralasite? I feel that they cycle through times of male, female, and neuter. The average life span of a dralasite is approximately 250 galactic standard years (228.31 Earth years). During this time a dralasite goes through three gender phases. All dralasites are born male, reach reproductive age at about 30gsy (27.4Ey), transition to female at about 90gsy (82.19Ey), and finally transition to neuter at approximately 150gsy (136.99Ey). The remainder of a dralasites life is lived as neuter. However, there are extremely rare documented cases where groups of dralasites that have been isolated from males and females for very very long periods of time have returned to male and female genders. Dralasites refer to this as “beautiful rebirth” as dralasites who return to gender often live sixty to one hundred twenty GSY (57.79-109.59Ey) longer than average. Fifty GSY (45.66Ey) of neuter isolation is the shortest ever documented case of a group of dralasites returning to gender. -iggy -iggy |
 January 27, 2010 - 2:08am | Dralasite gender is like the taste of Coor's beer: They ain't got none. Period. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
 January 27, 2010 - 7:49am | @Iggy Neat idea! :-) Some questions for each stage - male, female and neuter
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 January 27, 2010 - 8:06am | HA! @ Will. Iggy, That's an interesting point of view. I have always conisdered that a dralasite's gender was more of a choice. As a race, they don't have the same gender role stereotypes that others have. Nor do I see them as having long term 'love' relationships. When a dral feels like having a family, 'she' simply becomes female and hangs around a place where there are males until 'pregnant'. Males are typically dralasites living in predominantly dral communities that don't want a family. These male dral don't really 'choose' to be male, they simply are as a natural method of maintaining a diverse genentic pool. They could choose to use drugs to be neutral though. Dralasites spending the majority of their time amongst other races tend to be neutral due to the lack of dral phermones in their proximity. A dral family consists of a mother and 'her' offspring, although saying 'its' offspring might be more accurate as a mother dral is likely to be neutral after spawning. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of
the strong. * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi |
 January 27, 2010 - 9:54am | I've always found that the book was quite scant on my favorite race. Not to mention they only have a measly two planets and one system in the whole Frontier! At the same time - and I have been doing my darndest to avoid this in my explorations of the Core Four - I have been trying to avoid the family-unit as much as possible for the other races. The family belongs to Humanity. Yazirians have the Clan. That works well. The Vrusk have the Corporation - that takes a lot of explaining, but I think we have gotten it to a point where it works. What do the Dralasites have? There is the stoa, which is a kind of village council. But that entity seems to be more political than emotional. Bottom line is, the book's version of "they live alone" does not cut the mustard. And yet I think it is important to invent something separate and unique from the other Races. |
January 27, 2010 - 10:20am | @Imp, something like this? Human - nuclear family Yazirian - clan Vrusk - corporation like structure Dralasite - organized by the "needs" of the community, the needs of an area, the needs of the planet and the needs of the race |
January 27, 2010 - 1:07pm | Excellent responses! I'm pleased there is so much input. @w00t: I have more "goodness" to come on the lifestyles and culture; they are not humans in a rubber suite. I'm first trying to get a feel for how gender works for them. I have always considered them a race that doesn't think in him and her but it. I don't see them as having control over when they are female, male, or neuter. The core rule book states they can control this with drugs and I don't see this as some thing they can naturally control because they have resorted to drugs to do that. Now when, how often, and how long they are in any one gender I am pondering. Or maybe better said, when or is any one gender dominant in their life cycle. They are hermaphroditic, so they do not loose one when another is active. Do most see them as sending male spores at the same time they are sporting viable bud spots? Does this happen all through their life or is there a reproductive peak in a dralasite life cycle? I'm at lunch and don't have time to post more. I'll get to some of my ideas about when they are loners vs when they are social and how they teach their young. I'm with Imperial Lord on the need to care for the young. I'll post some more on life style and culture tonight if I don't get back too late after midnight. -iggy -iggy |
January 27, 2010 - 4:01pm | Dralasite family unit=the Schmoo. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
January 27, 2010 - 7:35pm | Dralasite communities are born of geographic areas. Everyone chips in when there work to be done or protection needed. As the drals in an area absorb food their bodies naturally emit scent found only in the area they live in. Depending on the length a dral stays in one area this scent stays with them for many months to years. Dralasites remember just about every scent they encounter, especially those of their native world. Its easy for them to tell where another of their kin is from. When drals visit their home after the scent has left them they are typically shunned from the community as "not belonging". Attitudes are, "Where have you been to loose the scent." "You've been so long gone you must have forgotten us." And so on. Communities have no political structure but they are not leaderless. Often the most idealist and wisest stoa'ing is elected as the leader. He (they are always male) often can run the longest debates and quite literally wrap his fellow community members into circles. "Ahh..." Sniff. You are from Meclova? Yes I know, I visited for several months absorbing the sweet scents of Lake Galgenya. I remember the waterfalls too, such vibrations they gave off one could implode with joy!" Beware the mighty hooloovoo tree and its fondness of dral innards. |
January 27, 2010 - 7:46pm | All Dralasites go through male, female and neutral
stages during their lives (these phases can be controlled with
medicines). Males release spores into the air, which drift until they
become attached to a female. A young Dralasite then ''sprouts'' from its mother, eventually maturing and dropping off.
You make ask What For? I say I'll give you a What For!  heh. |
 January 27, 2010 - 10:42pm | slightly off topic but I've often wondered about anthropormorphic robots that were made to resemble dralasites. Are the a robotic Gumby? how well do the resemble a dral? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 28, 2010 - 9:36am | slightly off topic but I've often wondered about anthropormorphic robots that were made to resemble dralasites. Are the a robotic Gumby? how well do the resemble a dral? Depends on the material that is used / available. Even if you get the outside correct the innards would be hard plastics and metals. Maybe that is why Steel Corp Security - Division Five-O-First only hires drals.... |
January 29, 2010 - 1:19am | @w00t: Thanks for the quote from the AD rules. This is why I see dralasites spending defined times in their lives as male, female, and neuter. I see the medicine as developed by dral bio-science and perscibed under a doctors supervision. The medicine(s) server three purposes, extend/shorten the male and female gender phases, control bud cell development, and regulate male spore production. Non pharmacutical creams and non permiable cloths are also popular. I do not see medicine yet capable of switching gender back and forth, but this is likely a subject of serious research. Probably many drals hope this will lead to some form of immortality medicine. Also, what would be the point of switching gender to disguise one self? Male and female drals don't look different like humans and yazerians. their smell distinguishs them. Mostly only drals pick up on this. I'd think humans miss it entirely (well, maybe not women  ). I tned to think yazerians and vrusks may have a better sense of smell than humans but drals probably have the best. Concerning bud care, see my next post.-iggy -iggy |
January 29, 2010 - 1:27am | OK, more on the dral life cycle and culture. I wrote all this about ten years ago. Please comment on this as I would love to expand this and have an ecology article like the old Dragon magazine used to do. An interesting aspect of dralasite culture is that female dralasites practice a midlife sabbatical from their careers. Dralasite tend to view their female stage as a chance to take a break from the responsibilities of the world and focus on the young. Females congregate together in small communities called Budding Circles and cooperatively raise and teach their young. This is a time for dralasites to remain in dralasite society and teach the sprouts. Child rearing among dralasites is a very communal process. (This is likely like the geographic communities w00t mentioned. Concider that the dralasite concept of a father is probaly very abstract. It takes science and a lot of research to really figure out whose spore landed on mom.) Dralasite reproduction is classified as hermaphroditic budding. Male dralasites release spores into the air every 9gsd (7.5Ed). These spores are viable for as long as 18gsd (15Ed). Female dralasites develop bud cells in there skin which mature about every 18gsd (15Ed). The female bud cells remain viable for six to twelve GSD (5-10Ed). Both bud cells and spores are genetically typed and unique to the individual Dralasite. Spores and bud cells of closely matching types are not viable to each other and will not bond and fertilize. Mature bud cells are fertilized when male spores of a significantly different type are absorbed by a female dralasites skin. After fertilization gestation immediately begins with the mother becoming aware of the young dralasite in two to three GSD. The gestation period of a dralasite is approximately 240gsd (200Ed). During gestation the young dralasite transitions through four developmental stages. Dralasites are considered born when they finish the fourth stage and separate, “sprout” from their mother. After sprouting they are considered adult in dralasite society. The four gestation stages and there dralasite designations are as follows; Awakening is from cell fertilization to about 10 upfd. During this time the young dralasites major organs will form. After two or three upfd the mother dralasite will become aware of a faint intelligence not her own. She will also notice a small bump of skin bulging about two to three centimeters out from her skin which she can not control. After another seven upfd the young dralasite will grow to a bump about twelve centimeters tall. During this time the babies’ single thoughts will be of food, breathing, and growing. Emotion is the stage from about 10 upfd to about 30 upfd. The young dralasite in the emotion state will develop all of his emotions. Beginning with the first day of emotion the young dralasite will recognize the presence of its mother. Faint emotions will first be felt by the mother coming from the baby. Any emotions experienced by the mother will also be felt by the bud. Mother and bud are now linked in symbiotic communication that will continue until the bud sprouts. Young dralasites learn about emotion from the example of their mother’s responses to emotion. By the end of the emotion stage the child will have budded to about 30cm. The third stage of development is discovery. The next 26upfd are very exciting to a young dralasite as it grows to 60 cm tall and 30 cm wide. With the onset of discovery the bud will begin to awaken to vibrant thought as it begins to share its thoughts fully with its mother. By sharing thoughts with its mother the young dralasite will learn to change its shape, understand sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste, and talk. This great discovery of wondrous abilities sparks infinite desires in budding young. The discovering bud has few inhibitions and will try anything. Dralasites often double designate this stage as “play”. To be punched, pinched, or barked at by a passing bud is not unexpected. Dralasites mothers are constantly correcting discovering buds. Beginning with the fourth stage of a buds development the young dralasite will feel a desire to be physically free from its mother. As the dralasite comedian often says, “It’s hard to play when mom is walking away from your toys”. So, a bud learns that being attached to mother is not freedom. With this desire for freedom the young dralasite recognizes from its mother’s thoughts that it must learn about the world it will soon be alone in. Young dralasites will begin learning from their mothers as much as they can. They understand at this time that after they sprout they will no longer have a symbiotic relationship with one more intelligent than they ever again. This drives them to learn and remember as much of there mothers life as they can. Buds in the the learning stage are known for intense concentration and emotion. Mothers gather in learning circles where they discuss history, philisophy, science, art, literature, and humor to educate the buds. The learning stage starts on about upfd 57 and last until upfd 90 when the bud sprouts. A new sprouted dralasite is about 90 cm tall and 60 cm wide with an average mass of 18kg. New sprouted adult dralasites are eager to contribute to society, in another 90 upfd they will be fully grown. They have learned much from their mothers and have studied their mothers experiences. As a result they are often committed to seeking a career of their choice. However, the experiences and knowledge gained from their mothers are second memories of their mothers and grand mothers. They must still gain experiences and study for themselves to fully comprehend what their mothers have shared with them. New sprout dralasites spend their next years experiencing life and studying before they are educated enough to begin a career. New sprout dralasites often travel far from their mothers seeking new friends, knowledge, skills, discovery, and fun. Note that the durations listed above are average and that each stage may be longer or shorter by as much as 5%. The shortest recorded budding is 85upfd. The longest recorded is 95upfd. -iggy -iggy |
January 29, 2010 - 7:30am | Also, what would be the point of switching gender to disguise one self? Male and female drals don't look different like humans and yazirians. their smell distinguishes them. Mostly only drals pick up on this. I'd think humans miss it entirely (well, maybe not women ). I tend to think yazirians and vrusks may have a better sense of smell than humans but drals probably have the best. Dunno. Security Sniffers. The security guard lifts the end of what looks like a vacuum cleaner and sways it over the drals skin. A single beep is announced from the device. (Referee rolls INT check for the guard, fail). "Stuppy thing says its a female but I coulda swore it was male just an hour ago." Ponjo Presk smiles and walks into the foyer. |
January 29, 2010 - 10:38am | By sharing thoughts with its mother the young dralasite will learn to change its shape, understand sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste, and talk. This great discovery of wondrous abilities sparks infinite desires in budding young. What if the bud is seperated from the mother? Just an observation but this could be a hole. :-/ This drives them to learn and remember as much of there mothers life as they can. Buds in the the learning stage are known for intense concentration and emotion. Mothers gather in learning circles where they discuss history, philisophy, science, art, literature, and humor to educate the buds. Very cool. /me likey |
January 29, 2010 - 5:59pm | By sharing thoughts with its mother the young dralasite will learn to change its shape, understand sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste, and talk. This great discovery of wondrous abilities sparks infinite desires in budding young. What if the bud is seperated from the mother? Just an observation but this could be a hole. :-/ If a budding dral is cut from its mother the shared neural paths are gone so the thoughts of each other could not be sensed. I would think that removing a dral from its mother too soon would be very dangerous for the mother and child. There is likely much internally that is shared in the way of organs and neutrients. I have always viewed the picture in the rule book of a dral separating from its mother as the outer skin pinching off and seperating all the suspended internal organs, much like cell division. This would likely happen slowly during the final stages of development. Until then the ofspring is a bump that may at some point be able to smooth itself out along with the mother to hide. "Hey that's a fat dral!", said Joe. Sniff! Sniff! "No it's budding and the bud is preparing for a supprise punch at that yazerian walking up to it. I used to do that to everyone when I was a bud. ", replied Mobus.I see the internals of a dral as plasma like with lots of squishy organs. Do drals have as much organ rejection problems for transplants as humans? OO! This gives me ideas about how internal organs are developed to stew upon and add in to the technichal details! -iggy -iggy |
January 29, 2010 - 7:54pm | Perhaps drals are the only race that can accept anothers organ without rejection issues. They can even transport it "live" light years away to a needy recipient. hrm... I like that. Byll Cosbe Dralasite organ transporter. Nickname: J E L L O!  |
January 29, 2010 - 9:10pm | OK iggy heres my reaction: #1 good stuff and I loved those ecology articles from dragon mag. Since dralasites have the strongest sense of smell I would not expect that their reporduction to be totally automatic but that smell would play a part. Female dral, whos ready to reproduce walks into the room and all the males perk up. why wouldn't their sense of smell be involve? pheremones and all that. I would go with automatic reactions like dral pheremones trigger spore release. And modern science would have birth control for dralasites that would either stop the female from coming into heat as it were or even prevent a male from releasing spore giving the race some control over reproduction which is my read on the whole drugs to control gender issue. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 30, 2010 - 12:12am | Iggy - good development here, I really think you are on to something. You have the biologicals down pat - all that stuff is fine by me. Larry - I don't know if I am feeling your society angle. It seems rather nebulous. Of course, Dralasites are rather nebulous fellows, so maybe this might work. I'd just like to see something more specific. |
January 30, 2010 - 1:29pm | Since
dralasites have the strongest sense of smell I would not expect that
their reproduction to be totally automatic but that smell would play a
part. Female dral, whos ready to reproduce walks into the room and all
the males perk up. why wouldn't their sense of smell be involve?
pheremones and all that. I would go with automatic reactions like dral pheremones trigger spore release. Ah! I like this. Good insight! I've been focusing on the duration of time a dral is one gender or another. I had not got my mind into the actual "experience". I guess this is what all the steam baths are about.  And
modern science would have birth control for dralasites that would
either stop the female from coming into heat as it were or even prevent
a male from releasing spore giving the race some control over
reproduction which is my read on the whole drugs to control gender
issue. Again, I've been focusing on the duration of time in gender. There would be medicines to protect oneself. I do fancy the idea of creams or paints that drals use to cover receptors and (emitters?) of the spors. This goes well with the physiology of a dral. And there is something mentioned about a dral world were they paint themselves to match their mood. It could have its roots in this as a practical traditional practice. Also your idea of smelling pheromones would allow a way they could pick a mate if all is sensed and planned by smell. But I also fancy the idea that drals have a different family/lineage concept than humans/yazerians. More to come on this. However, what is the dralasite societal structure beyond 90 days
or so? There needs to be some sort of emotional bond after the mother
separation. I have more to come on social structure. I wrote about a half dozen pages about ten years ago on this. I dug them up and am posting it piece by piece to get comments. The way my brain works, I started with the biological to build a foundation why the culture functions like it does. Plus, there is just no
way that a sentient being can just jump into being an "adult" after a
few months. Being an adult takes years of training, as it were - humans
being a prime example. I have struggled with how to express this in the write up. I don't see them as emotionally and educationally ready to match adults (using humans as a reference). But I see them biologically mature/developed. Also in the primitive (as in pre-tech society, i.e. tribal) sense they are ready to contribute and fend for themselves, much like a human teenager in that sense. But I don't see drals as treating new buds as teenagers but more like how humans treat early twenty year olds. Also I don't feel their mental connection with their mother is absolute telepathy/mind link. This messes up the playability with ideas of passing skills and experience onto the next generation. Did I convey that idea well? Perhaps drals are the only race that can accept another's
organ without rejection issues. They can even transport it "live" light
years away to a needy recipient.
This makes a great adventure idea. Maybe the PCs are charged with protecting a dral organ transporter (guy with no skills, just payed well to go under the knife a lot). Unbeknown-st to him the organ is for someone others want dead. Easy way to kill him, get the transporter. So our PCs have to protect a clueless guy that is constantly putting him self into danger. Maybe the PCs have to do this in secret too. Their hired by another faction who want the client to live. However, to do this we would have to make organ rejection possible or the dral needing the donor organ could just get it locally. I'll have to think on this because I like the idea of no organ rejection. Or, maybe the dral in need is an eccentric that only trusts an organ from someone special/famous/pure etc. Thanks for the comments. I'll absorb as much as you can give me. A very dral way in my thinking. And I like the jello joke! -iggy -iggy |
 January 30, 2010 - 3:28pm | The worst part of being a dral is asexual reproduction. The best part of being a dral is not having a mother in-law. I’ve always thought the dral as being a bit unique because of any lack of family. I know the whole spore and budding is odd. Those other pc’s should be concerned about more than just the smoke in those single bars that they pass through. How about players with allergies to dral spores? Would they have special ventilation scrubbers on stations and ships? Sorry, got off task. I like the 3 phases of gender for drals. I think I like the idea of the neuter phase drals being responsible for nurturing and rearing the little buds. This isn’t an unheard of practice in some tribal societies. The elders (neuters) would serve a crucial role in dral society (as it is) and allow the younger drals to live wild and free. That is of course, until they go neuter. |
January 31, 2010 - 10:30pm | I just noticed that the time used above in describing dralasite gestation is wrong. I was reworking the time when I last had it out a few years ago. The stages should be thus: Awakening 22 ufpd Emotion 42 ufpd Discovery 55 upfd Learning 121 upfd For a total of 240 upfd -iggy -iggy |
February 5, 2010 - 8:26am | Perhaps drals are the only race that can accept another's
organ without rejection issues. They can even transport it "live" light
years away to a needy recipient.
This makes a great adventure idea. Maybe the PCs are charged with protecting a dral organ transporter (guy with no skills, just payed well to go under the knife a lot). Unbeknown-st to him the organ is for someone others want dead. Easy way to kill him, get the transporter. So our PCs have to protect a clueless guy that is constantly putting him self into danger. Maybe the PCs have to do this in secret too. Their hired by another faction who want the client to live. However, to do this we would have to make organ rejection possible or the dral needing the donor organ could just get it locally. I'll have to think on this because I like the idea of no organ rejection. Or, maybe the dral in need is an eccentric that only trusts an organ from someone special/famous/pure etc. Thanks for the comments. I'll absorb as much as you can give me. A very dral way in my thinking. And I like the jello joke! -iggy Were we twin buds in a past cloning? or did you just get some of my coffee this morning? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 8, 2010 - 6:16pm | Wow, twins! I hadn't thought of dralasites having twins. I pity the poor dral budding twins. They would be attacking from all sides and up to constant mischief. At least humans get to have twins all locked up on the inside. Dralasites have to put up with them ducking it out in the outside world. I'd think that this would be a very rare event for dralasites, no where near the rate of human twin births. I'd also think that the twin drals would have some form of shared sense of each other like is had between the parent and bud. For percentage of dral twin buddings in a population we aught to take something like the number of sold SF box sets per the US+UK+(what ever other markets sold SF) population as a tribute/fan inside piece of trivia. My next step in this thread was to be the remainder of my old write up. The second half dealt with ageing. It's full of flaws however and I have it in a spreadsheet now reworking the math. Should I make it another thread when I get it straight? This one is themed on gender and ageing diverges from the subject. Also, I had a cool idea about dralasite debate practices and started writing it up Saturday. I'll submit it to SFman when its done. -iggy Were we twin buds in a past cloning? or did you just get some of my coffee this morning? Common lineage maybe. We definitely seem to subscribe similar dral schools of thought. (coffee  / chocolate )BTW, was it you who once wrote/posted about dral food? The pudding/paste/liquid theme? -iggy |
February 9, 2010 - 1:15am | We're still stuck in the biology. I think we have that down now. Well done. But... What is Dralasite SOCIETY? |
 April 17, 2011 - 8:42pm | I am obviously late to toss in an opinion, but I prefer the reproductive form taking a full hermaphrodite approach. No genders, no stages, modern medicine regulates sporing and budding. It is an interesting idea, and well thought out, though. maybe the elder neuters still fit my preference. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
