 May 30, 2011 - 8:23pm | Osakar sexuality involves only one zex; female, and reproduction is parthenogenesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis would all reproduction on the planet be this method? or would this method be an adaption to the disappearance of males from the gene pool in just the osakar? in the absense of males (killed off by a virus maybe) mother nature found a way to perpetuate the osakar. Perhaps its not the only method of reproduction but it is alson not unique with many varieties of higher animals using it I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 31, 2011 - 5:51am | looking into iggy's fungal spires; its possible for fungi to reproduce through asexual reproduction so this could be a theme on Osaka. However, it seems to me that an entire ecosystem based on copying the parent would lack a certain ammount of variety. That aside the plants that iggy described could easily be clonal colonies- cloned copies of the original that spread over an entire area but are exact copies of the original. both fungi and creepers can follow this route. one method of creating a clonal colony in plants is surface stems that run along the ground (called stolons)then send up shoots- I like this idea as it breaks up the ground and creates tripping hazards and makes for rough growing if we imagine these to be able to become quite thick- imagine stolons that reach a 1/2m to meter thickness over time in an old growth "forest" combat in such a locale would provide lots of cover. Clonal colony fun fact: The only known plant of King's Lomatia (Lomatia tasmanica) in Tasmania is a clonal colony estimated to be 43,600 years old. This of course is interesting and should be worked into the detials of osakaran vegitation. So far we have: fungal spires (might as well state that there is a large number of species for the whole planet- 283 or 623 known varieties) tangle vines- essentially some sort of creeper no doubt it comes in a variety of species ? (as yet unknown plant) that establishes clonal colonies via stolons, which also provides upright structure for the tangle vines perhaps some form of mat grass or mat fungus that functions as grass (another clonal colony) but found in drier more temperate regions perhaps- scratch the mat grass I like the sound of mat fungus. Animal ideas: Skitters- a small fungalvore, at least a dozen different species, often as not the foundation of the food chain Speck- tiny fungalvore, presents an inadvertant danger through toxins it secrets or emmits _____?______, medium terrestrial carnivore, moderately dangerous to travellers in the outback _____?______, giant burrowing plantlike animal, absorbs nutrients from the soil, dangerous when arroused and moving Avians? yes/no _____?______, small to tiny avian, mostly harmless but might have some nuisance value _____?______, small to medium avian, carnivore, possibly dangerous Aquatic lifeforms? thinking to not give Osaka significant bodies of water but in the lakes, ponds and bogs that it does have there is a slow moving plant/animal lifeform that will only present a danger for those camping next to the water- ie it send seaweed like tendrils to slowly envelope the prey and drain its vital fluids. a plant creature like this will quickly edge out all other aquatic animal forms leaving it the dominant aquatic form. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 31, 2011 - 10:43pm | I'd think the theme of Osaka would be asexual reproduction. Things that do not clone are the high science and curiosity of the Osakar academia. What if the water content of Osaka were primarily held in massive rivers. Every continent would have at least one Amazon size river. Tributaries and deltas would be the norm, deserts are unheard of. The largest bodies of water could be the size of the Black Sea. Move the planet a litter closer to it's star and the temperature rises to the point where strong evaporation keeps the seas this small. I like the idea of little tectonic activity so that there is a lack of tall mountains. Also keep the axial tilt low so that there is little change in seasons. Now the weather is driven by strong evaporation at the equator and rains at or near the poles. More of a vertical travel in weather patterns. Now back on topic this drives much of the aquatic life to be fresh water. Even the small seas could remain fresh water due to the large amount of vegetation filtering the water. Maybe there are even giant plant growths dominating the seas so that there is no such thing as open water as we know it. Think of a giant mass of growth a mile long from the bottom of the sea with it's reproductive flowers/fruits/whatnot in a tree like structure up-to a hundred feet out of the water. Along this line more of the surface could be ocean. Oo, I get lost in the options. There could be multi-limb critters in these "trees" that dive back into the water and swim to the very bottom to hibernate. I've got something to play with in boring meetings now! -iggy |
 June 3, 2011 - 5:19pm | here is another Earth critter that fits the mold...um, mould...no pun intended. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_ostoyae Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
 June 7, 2011 - 8:49pm | Angiosperms, also known as (Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta) can grow 20 to 30 feet tall on Earth. In a system such as that described on Osaka, they might supplant the arboreal biomes, and become one of the dominate members of the 'tall plant' niche, along with arboreal-bamboo. The ecosystem and asexual or agamogenesis reproduction strategies described, would seem to favor Angiosperm, Algae, and Fungi, dominated biomes. Where Agamogenesis is any form of reproduction that does not involve a male gamete. Examples are parthenogenesis and apomixis. The higher Earth-native examples of Animalia seen using this strategy include; water fleas, aphids, stick insects, some ants, bees, parasitic wasps, some reptiles, amphibians, fish, and rarelybirds that have not diverted as far from reptilian and amphibious origins, such as the older Avialae(clade of dinosaurs), rather than the more modern and recognizable Aves(class of birds). I am imagining a tall thick arboreal asparagus forest, with a multi-limbed crown of cone-tips filling the canopy, each gestating a daughter embryo of a feathered butterfly, that acts as a living-seedling until fertile ground can be found to cocoon in... and then growing into a lovely new matron tree. The process is a two-phase metageneisis, using parthenogenetic and clonal fragmentation stratagies, in an asexualy reproductive xenogenesis plantae life-form. Some things of possible interest about a primarily (purely?) Asexual Agamogenesis based ecosystem might be the lack of Males in all the life forms that would fall into that taxonomic kingdom. Though this doesn't always mean that genetic diversity is absent, as female-female genetic sharing can occur. Also, a primarily asexual ecosystem need not be exclusive to an all-female-gender strategy either, and can supplement the asexual strategy with the possibility of female-male mating in some species. The Mulberry and some Frogs in the amazon come to mind, as examples of species that use both a female asexual reproductivity dominate, with a sexual reproductive possibility secondary. to allow for some genetic diversity to occur. There are also the common earthworms and mollusks, though they are more accurately categorized as a hermaphroditic homogamy, this is a form-in-variation of the asexual strategy, and can if it allows for clonal fragmentation be considered a cross-over into asexual autogamy(or self-fertilization). 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? |
June 8, 2011 - 7:05pm | (...continued biome description) Amid the 30 to 60 foot tall arboreal asparagus forests, grows shrub sized stalks of arboreal celery about half the height of the prevailing forest. Each of these produce small half-caterpillar half-scorpion creatures, from embryonic chambers in the root of the stalks. These furry scorpedelliers are slow moving hunters, the seek out prey or carrion in which to build new embryonic chambers, that then begin to sprout new stalks that will eventually feed the young larvae safe in their embryonic, protein-enriched womb. Some aggressive variants in similar biomes have been known to produce swarms of long-beaked blood-suckers that swarm creatures passing too close to their tree. These trees then continue to enrich their own soil from the discarded bodies provided, as the simi-independent external non-reproductive daughters protect the tree from harm, and subsist entirely on the fluids of the creatures in they slay in service to the swarm-tree. After some time the females begin to morph into males and mount an attack on nearby swarm-trees, violently mating with the younger females, and effectively killing of the protection of both trees. Successful matings may only occur once per male, and the dying females eventually burrow into the ground to begin the process anew. I offer for your approval, two variants, one passive one aggressive, of a form of life that takes some of the least likely strategies of earth-life known to man, to an extreme that could only be evolved in the outer limits of a twilight alien jungle zone, and the deepest freak show of my imagination...  A 40ft asparagus tree would make one heck of a pie!!! mmmm, wheres my fork, need to pack a 50lb block of cheddar, I'm going to Africa for my next meal!!! 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? |
June 10, 2011 - 9:42am | A couple more for anyone that might be interested... Often found covering the darker moist corners of the arboreal floor, some varieties live on open plains. These simple toad-stools grow sticky-secretion vines around the underside of their caps. The cap itself is a chamber that opens around it's rim, lifted by a muscle-like structure rising from the central stalk. There are dozens of thermal and ultra-violet sensitive eyes on various varieties of these fungi, capable of focusing high speed snaps of the sticky vines and accurately striking targets as small as specks up to two-feet away. A bulbous fungal plant, Jacinthus Osakaragjeis, of the fungalily family, widely cultivated for its cylindrical cluster of fragrant flowers in a variety of colors. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve fresh water through dry and/or hot seasons. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines. Many species are used for ornamental plants, and some are also grown for fodder, forage, fruits, cochineal, and other uses. Extracts of Jacactinthus Osakaragjeis are marketed as life prolonging extracts. An isolate of a proprietary extract of the dried root of Jacactinthus Osakaragjeis, called TA-65, 'was associated with a significant age-reversal effect in the immune system, in that it led to declines in the percentage of senescent cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells after six to twelve months of use.' Telomerase activation was feared to pose an increased risk of cancer because telomere shortening is a mechanism that limits cell proliferation. However, short telomeres result in chromosome instability, hence there is also a potential mechanism for telomere lengthening to protect against cancer. To date, studies of drug-induced activation of telomerase (as distinct from mutation-induced activation) have shown no evidence of a cancer-promoting effect. 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? |
June 11, 2011 - 9:10am | The descriptions of water being primarily in rivers and lakes, suggests to me that even plants will need to develop unusual strategies... 1.) find some other chemical source more abundant than the H2O... but something like photorespiration might cause less oxygen in the atmosphere, and increase the arid planet issue... they may even have to give up being carbon based entirely... or at least abandon the Carbon Fix systems... 2.) develop mechanisms and containers to store more water in... like camel humps and condensation chambers... 3.) develop mechanisms and containers to refine water into more efficient storage's... like oozes and jellies... 4.) use or create secondaries to make water runs and irrigations... developing “fruit” that are like small animals, using stored energy to roam in search of water... 5.) developing a recycling system to replace used water of other plants, while gaining energy from the process... these could live on the edges of the areas water is still abundant, allowing extensions to the biome beyond the limits of the rivers and lakes, through a synergistic symbiosis biome... 6.) steal water directly from other plants... and animals... develop methods of mobility, and become hunters of water sources... 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? |
June 12, 2011 - 7:19pm | Currently known only from a single specimen, this rarely seen creature it has a bizarre body and tentacle proportions very atypical for a cephalopod. Sometimes thought of as the Osakarian equivalent of the missing link, sasquatch, or loch-ness monster, few even believe it exists. 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? |
June 12, 2011 - 4:59pm | @ spirit coyote I didn't really follow your description of the animal but I had been thinking about the giant squid on earth as I remember hearing that its believed they have a 2 year life cycle as an explanation for why the giant ones only show up every two years. Kind of like that bamboo tree that germinates for 49 years and grows in the 50th year. So I was imagining a legendary animal that only appears on the order of 10 or 20 local years. Some think its a myth, or extinct. PCs have heard about it as part of the fluff and stuff of setting up the setting but during a mission into deep jungle they suddenly encounter "Mokele Mimbe" The hitch is that its obviously rare and endangered and if they follow the typical player reaction of "shoot first and ask about experience points latter" they will get into some hot water. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 12, 2011 - 7:19pm | I was tooling around in my head with mix-n-match games, so some of the descriptions may be difficult to follow, if any clarity is required I'll try to work it out better... How do the other flora & fauna discriptions stack up? I was wondering if I was going to get any feed back or I had totally blown the attempt... 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? |
June 12, 2011 - 8:52pm | Actually there is a lot of good ideas here and I'm planning on pulling material together from other threads and this one for an article, but there are some long post in this thread so I'll need to alot a good chunk of time for it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 15, 2011 - 11:34am | I have been trolling the nets for weeks now looking for sex with aliens... so far I have had little luck... *sigh* http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/xenology/12.0.htm Alien sexuality is apparently either extremely diverse or non-existent, either way humans seem to be the oddity... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenctonese#Reproduction 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? |
 August 21, 2011 - 11:06am | Although it would be interesting to see a world where parthenogenesis is the primary form of reproduction, it isn't very feasible. More likely, the osakar are one of the few species that reproduce asexually, either through some incident (such as a plague or war) or by choice (in an attempt to acheive equality). I would go so far as to suggest that the osakar were originally sexual, but later became asexual, again either by incident or choice. Further, as with my suggestions on the Osakar Revamp thread, I could see the osakar as being highly adaptable physically, and this may be either by evolution or by choice (maybe they're great genetic engineers). The problem with parthenogenesis is lack of genetic diversity, which can stagnate or eradicate a species. One really bad plague, and there goes the race. Long live the Frontier! |
 August 21, 2011 - 4:56pm | I cannot say that I ever found a reason to need to get into details about alien reproduction in any of my game sessions. The players just assumed if it was something common knowledge their characters would know about then they would. If the discovery of a new spieces, or first contact, created some necessity to mention it, then maybe briefly I might consider discussing it. It just seems to only slow down the game. It's like when you see a love scene in the middle of an action film, as in who in their right mind would want to get busy when their lives are in mortal danger? So when asked by the player, how do the Osakar do it, my reply would be...in private. I guess a more racey frontier scene may need a more elaborate discussion or if in someway the PC or NPC was being afflicted by somekind of STD or plague it may be mildly revelant, but that could be summed up with some statement like...The recent Osakar Plaque On Planet XYZ is being spread through the Osakar's reproductive cycle. Anymore detail then that can come from the player's own imagination. |
August 22, 2011 - 11:43am | AZ_GAMER: while that is true, we're not talking about mating habits here, but rather what type of reproduction. Since each of the race descriptions describe the process of reproduction for the species, we here are merely postulating on the prevalance of such in an alien ecosystem. I don't think anyone here is musing on osakaran mating habits, from dating to porn. :) Long live the Frontier! |
August 22, 2011 - 3:58pm | AZ_GAMER: while that is true, we're not talking about mating habits here, but rather what type of reproduction. Since each of the race descriptions describe the process of reproduction for the species, we here are merely postulating on the prevalance of such in an alien ecosystem. I don't think anyone here is musing on osakaran mating habits, from dating to porn. :) I'm sure there is a bad dralasite joke there somewhere. Dral comic, "How does an osakar practice safe sex?" [painful pause] "they wear a laytex glove!" The few humans that mistakenly walked into the dralasite night club down their drinks and prepare to leave knowing that its only going to get worse. As they leave the comic exclaims, "Hey dont leave now I've got a hundred of those!" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 29, 2011 - 3:07pm | 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? |
October 31, 2011 - 6:03pm | In the sluggish high nutrient water we might expect filter feeders. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 5, 2013 - 9:50pm | Tik is on Osaka studying the unique biology of the Osakar while Jurak and Dwain are still on New Pale. His investigations into a rare osakar creature had spurred some questions and observations in my mind. Osakar are fungal and plant like as we currently understand them. However they also animal like structure to their bodies as well, skeletal structure equivalents, muscle structure equivalents, etc. We would be wrong to just lump them in with plants, however alien we think of those plants. They are a true alien biology. One that we start to understand by viewing them as plants but one we will fail to understand if we stop at plants. Now my question following on from the posts above. Given that Osakar reproduce by laying an egg/seed, how many eggs/seeds to they produce at a time and how often in their lifetime do they produce these? I am thinking that they produce one egg/seed at a time and that this happens every seven or so years in the latter part of their lives. This would account for their population not being rampant growth outnumbering the other races and fits with their society developing the custom of the children being raised by the whole of society and not the parent. The parents leave their egg/seed to germinate/incubate and go about their lives. These parents are in the latter half of their lives. The Osakar that are old take on the task of parenting. They ready to devote the remainder of their lives to communal raising and teaching of the young. Something like this to an Osakar life time: 0 – 22: Child/Youth/Young Adult 23-157: Working Adult 112 – 157: Reproduction 158 – 180: Retirement 181 – 202: Teaching 203:225: Aged -iggy |
November 6, 2013 - 4:47am | I was asking myself if osakar need to be raised in terms similar to that of humans and yazirians? With older individuals looking after them. I was thinking that plants normally drop seed and go about their own agenda but... I happened to have seen a PBS nature show some months ago where they put influid or nutrients with a radioactive marker at one tree and another tree some distance away pinged for the marker. Proving that the root system allowed the trees of the forest to share and care for one another's health. Wish I had paid more attention to it- I may not have all the details right. I think some where along the way in your development tree we need to account, at least a little, for the osakar drive to be different- different in clothing, jewelry and even religious practice. its almost as if in stead of the very human question of "Are you my mother?" but instead its "I am not my mother!" To me it seems that there is little to no connection to the birth parent. In fact the drive to be different and to stand alone and apart from everyone else may be a part of why the osakar are not so widespread- their society just doesn't cooperate well within itself and major projects have a hard time staying the course. No charasmatic leaders of the facist variety here. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 6, 2013 - 8:09am | I like the "I am not your mother", "I am not my mother" angles. This would make for some interesting motivations and outcomes for osakar society and history. I also see where there is no naturally charismatic leader among them. Osakar can rise up and try to be a charismatic leader by their speach and dress, but another can just as quickly counterfit his leadership. This could lead to some trouble historically in forming a society. However they did reach the stars and as such needed some method of educating themselves and rising from generation to generation. Thus I see the elders as the ones who have done what humans would consider "matureing enough" to recognize that the new generation must be taught or they fall back into savagery. Now I suppose in modern times where osakar take on careers and professions that young osakar would train to be educators but the traditional stereotype is for the elders to teach. This also fits with the elders always teaching the young "I am not your mother" Anyway I am specifically looking to understand how the osakar reproduce and how many ofspring they have in a lifetime? -iggy |
November 6, 2013 - 10:33am | RE: understanding reproduction- we should start with Zebs guide on this-parthnogenesis and unfertilized eggs As well as the Table of Planets- only 3 planets listed as colonized by the osakar: Osaka with a Hvy population and presumed to be the home world, Fhloid which has outpost levels of population and Piscatien which is a joint colony of osakar and ifshnit with outpost levels as well. There are two other worlds in the system with moderate and light populations but they are rated as Mix race colonizers (I would presume a mix of the 3 Rim species and very limited representation of the core 4. So fundementally we have a home world with heavy population. I think you are quite correct that we need to "dumn" down the rate of reproduction lest it make no sense that the osakar have not spread like weeds. That said reducing the rate of egg production sounds like a good strategy. Other factors: war can keep a population down. I have not viewed the osakar as engaging in war among themselves though I suppose you could get camps of osakar who hate those wearing blue vs those wearing red but the idea that they would or could have prolonged hostilities with someone that looks exactly like themself and is genetically identical to themself is hard to envision. On the other hand the sathar have paid a visit.... I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 6, 2013 - 12:58pm | I'm actually contemplating that the osakar had problems accepting those that were different in their distant past. I may drop the reproduction rate to 1 to 4 viable seed-eggs in a lifetime. Average that to 2.5 for population models. The other seed-eggs do not survive due to their biology not supporting such diversity in a species. I'm hoping to get a bit more input from the community here. -iggy |
November 9, 2013 - 8:30am | Phrased in the form of a question... the psyche inherent to the Osakaran Condition is a question of "Who am I not?" rather than "Who am I?"
Thus is directed an eternal quest to change into something not before known, rather than adopt the form of identity with that which is familiar.
As a balance between this individual dynamic identity and a cooperative cohabitation to reduce the wildgrowth's tendency toward a separation from the cooperating survivalist commune, is developed through the kindergarten upbringing... while not fascist, it reminds me of the Third Reich's implementation of Plato's Republic, where the children belong to the state, and are removed from the responsibility or influence of the parent(s)... though far less sinister or devious than either human example might appear, because it is more a natural manner of conduct for the Osakar, and less an artifice of political engineering.
...although, Osakaran Social Engineering would likely attempt to suppress natural tendencies, in a perspective of correcting natural extremes, much as the Human use of Social Engineering has done when put in practice; and this could of course progress into an extreme in some cases... as it might in any culture.
Being raised in Communal Nursery Beds and Aquaponic Maturation Gardenhouses would be a public affair, making it easier for the mature Osakar in the community to cooperate in protecting the important resources of seedlings and youth.
Wildgrowth communities (and factional competition) on the Osakar homeworld is rampant, but only the most balanced cooperating survivalist communes have parsed the necessary civic engineering requirements into their factions social dynamic in a manner that is evolved enough to uphold a state of interstellar civilization. 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? |
