 September 6, 2011 - 4:51pm | The “Too Cold” thread reminded me that I wanted to post this. I have two ideas on new species. The first is a thought I had years ago about a space fairing race. A reptilian race that comes from a very hot planet that has a high radiation exposure limit. The species evolved in a way that they not only are immune to the side effects of radiation exposure (within reason), but their biological system actually requires a certain level of radiation to function optimally. On the flip side, lack of radiation has a negative effect and they adversely effected by cold. The second species is not necessarily sentient, but could be if desired. It came to me as I was harvesting my garden that there just aren’t enough ‘plant men’ in the universe. Animals store food reserves in the form of fat and (unlike me) reabsorb that stored energy when needed. Plant life does the same thing except they store their excess nutrients in tasty produce. Imagine an animal life form that has ‘nodules’ dangling off its body when things are good and they go away when times are lean. You can make them one step weirder by having those ‘nodules’ possibly drop off from time to time and sprout into new offspring. Dralasites shouldn’t be the only ones to have to survive without sex. Sorry Jedion. |
 September 6, 2011 - 6:26pm | The first race might not work in a setting if they had to travel amoung other races. I imagine their ships would put out or leak radiation from the engine core, just to make it "comfortable". :-) Have you tried playing a Scree? It's in the Star Frontiersman #9 |
September 6, 2011 - 7:02pm | Yes, I am sure that they wouldn't worry about OSHA regulations. When I came up with the idea, they were to be an NPC race that my players encounter. My idea was to have them encounter an exploration ship. Thus, the race was wanting to make contact with other species and would take in mind the frail nature of the alian races that they encountered. Of course, that is after they make it past the learning curve to discover that they harmul to them because of the radiation. The idea was for them to learn this together and then one or the other would always need a rad suit to be able to associate freely together. I'll have to go look up the Scree. |
September 6, 2011 - 11:10pm | Neat idea. Would allow characters ship to detect radiation or is that too star trek? I often wonder what other Referee allow for tech. I'm a anti tri coder myself, something that scans the universe.... heh. |
September 7, 2011 - 6:14am | I've allowed such scans personally as a Referee but on a very limited scale. In my SF universe satellite technology is just a notch above Hollywood’s. While you cannot pinpoint a specific creature/individual from orbit, through thermal imaging you can easily locate small populations. As far as tracking a lone individual, that would require hours of arduous scanning and some impressive dice rolling. After that, it would require some sort of visual confirmation; most likely eyes on. |
 September 7, 2011 - 7:26am | It may never be possible for humans to download their consciousness to a computer but in a gallaxy full of aliens someone somewhere might accomplish this. Naturally what good is this as a plot device unless its hostile to the PCs? I've always like the idea of a living ship whether it was from one TNG star trek episode or farscape. such a ship would need to have some level of sentience. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 7, 2011 - 8:05am | In STV the Doctor hologram was treated as sentient, he possessed all the qualities capable of sentience. Or mimicked them really really well. |
September 7, 2011 - 9:20am | w00t is obviously biased in such matters of artificial life and sentience. I would believe that artificial intelligence and such ‘evolved’ beings would often offer trouble for ‘lower’ beings. Their accumulated knowledge and wisdom could easily be seen by a referee as a mandate to guide and protect the less fortunate, even though it be against their wills and at the cost of their liberties. I too like the idea of a biological ship; or rather a ship with biological components. I had ideas of one to be discovered damaged and adrift by a party far out from traveled spaced. It was to be an artificial craft that had biological grafted to it. It was metal hulled with an organic interior and exterior hull. The interior had a bioluminescence and its low level sentient brain controlled functions through its electrical synapses. I had not overly developed the idea. I wanted something cool and unique, but not unbalancing. |
September 7, 2011 - 10:13am | I like the Scree, especially with toasted sunflower seeds and red wine vinaigrette. Some may refuse to accept them as a true sentient and claim them as an exotic dish. That could be fun. I like the idea of their traditional plant like respiration. I can see a ‘desperate’ ship (pirate?) with a malfunctioning life support system with many Scree chained to the deck. Or vice versa if you were to allow the Scree to be capable of space flight. Talk about Green engineering. However, I should note that I am personally opposed to advanced races without opposable thumbs. |
September 7, 2011 - 12:01pm | Ya know, Referee's allow bio-ships but they never think of what type of creatures could live in space.  |
September 7, 2011 - 12:18pm | Opposable leaves aren't good enough for ya? Love the priate idea. "Yer just da lot 'em looking fer. What kinda light makes you secret oo two?" "Arrr aye!" |
 September 7, 2011 - 2:15pm | I like the idea of "non-standard" aliens (i.e., not humans-with-funny-foreheads). Plants, minerals, machine or energy life. Or at least non-mammalian, non-bipedal life. Its one of the reasons I like the osakar; they're so odd. :) Interestingly, I came up with a reptilian race from a hot, slightly irradiated world like Inigo, though the radiation just gave them a bit of resistance to it. They still prefer hot environments and take extra damage in the cold. Long live the Frontier! |
September 7, 2011 - 2:55pm | Sort of a cyborg ship? I like that idea too- different from Farscape, yet similar. What would be the nature of the borgism? did it start as a mechanical thing and bio- parts added or did it start as a bio-ism and the mechanical parts were added. How does the bio-ism feel about what's been done to it? Why were these procedures done to It? EDIT: I'm starting to be reminded of the artifact tables in the Alternity rule book. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 8, 2011 - 7:10am | My idea about the ship is that it was the result of both mechanical and biological engineering. It was not a single biological entity fused to a superstructure. For the Command and Control, a sentient was needed but it was a low level to avoid any delusions of free will. The entities for these ships were cloned. Aside from the sentient being, other organic aspects were integrated so that you may say that the ship is a hodge podge of organics. The exterior skin is the only organics exposed to the harshness of space and it is genetically designed for the task. However, being non-scientific as I am, I was unsure as to the details of the biologicals regarding nutrition and waste management. The plan was for the party to salvage the craft and takes years to unravel it’s mysteries. It in itself was a vehicle to adventures as they would find adventure hooks in the computer banks in the form of charts. The alien language itself would not be able to be fully discovered but over time some vagaries might be worked out. |
 September 8, 2011 - 9:17am | Going back to the first race your idea isn't too farfetched, after all humans need a certain amount of radiation to survive. Without exposure to ultraviolet radiation humans cannot process Vitamin D and those who do not go into the sunshine can suffer from Seasonal Depressive Disorder. A race with greater background radiation could have similiar needs. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
September 8, 2011 - 11:52am | @ Montoya: Sounds like a backdrop for a long running game. Dont froget that sometimes tech works because the referee says it does. Years to unravel the secrets- I suspect you need to write out a general list as to what those are so that you dont accidently set up an inconsistency. Also PCs salvage the ship how do they go about registering it? Papers? Inspections? Looks to be a problem for them constantly drawing attention. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 8, 2011 - 6:08pm | Salvage and registration- At the time, my SF universe was disjointed and it wasn’t too hard to register a ship. Of course, it wasn’t too hard to alter transponder and Identification of ships enough to get registered in several systems. However, if such ships appeared in a more controlled system and somebody made a claim against it, the disreputable owner was pretty much one vac suit short on a space walk. My plans for the party’s biggest problem was when officials boarded for inspection they would recognize the value of such a mysterious ship and make plans to separate it from the party. If I recall, my suggestion (if they couldn’t come up with something) would have been for them to enter far out of a system and find a hiding spot (the ship had a moderate stealth attribute) and use a shuttle or scout to officially enter the system. The sentient aspect of the ship negates the need to leave security crew (member) on board. *Frontier News Service reports local authorities are now confirming reports of the existence of a serial killer that has been terrorizing settlements in system. His motivations are unclear other than he appears to be a specist. All of his victims, which initial reports have numbered upwards of 60, have been Skree. Many of his victims were claimed in mass via violent ambushes using an array of beam, projectile and sonic weapons. Authorities claim to be closing in on this sociopath. His identity remains unknown, but he has earned the moniker of “the Salad Shooter”. |
