 November 8, 2013 - 2:18pm | http://io9.com/5212504/isaac-asimovs-lost-story-of-sex-and-telepathic-energy-beings Interesting article, discovered it while poking around for other sci fi magazines. Sort of brings up the question why no "sexy" sci fi magazine out there? Of course part of the problem with that is degree of sexy- one man's sexy is another man's porn and then you get into fetish and other matters of taste. EDIT: another article on authors that put sex in their science fiction http://io9.com/5216703/10-authors-who-put-sex-in-their-science-fiction I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 10, 2013 - 5:34am | Indeed; one being's sexy xenophilia fetish, is another's unforgivable middle-eastern insult...
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? |
November 10, 2013 - 5:40am | I've toyed with writing a cross species love interest within the Frontier setting. I think it would be possible for two memebers of the core four to be deeply intimate friends and yet not have it be a sexual thing- though sex could be a part of it. However, I have not attempted to write this story as I have a nagging fear it would be terribly cheesy and come off as a shallow school boy fantasy. Part of me hears a Seinfeld-ish holovid comedian saying, "So.. you love yazirians...not that there is anything wrong with it." I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 10, 2013 - 6:24am | I would not consider it normal to think that the mundanity of cross species relationships, isn't a perfectly expected outcome of the galactic integration in a multi-species civilization. Like it or not, it's a predictable inevitability... for some, turn-on's include: tentacles, tails, and teeth. 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? |
 November 10, 2013 - 7:02am | Go for it. It would be nice to have something on the subject. There would be some negatives as well - some species would "look down" on this. It could be a lead for an adventure... A freighter goes to Theseus and the navigator (Y/F) is kidnapped. The Engineer (H/M) is upset and sneaks down to the planet. Now, the Captain has no Navigator and no Engineer! Do you leave them? Do you find them? Which one first? Do you look for both at the same time and split your search party? |
November 10, 2013 - 9:09am | My original thought was to explore the realization of love between two different species as they realize that the intimate friendship between them should be viewed as something more than just a friendship. My second thought was to have supporting characters that would comment on "love" from their racial perspective much like the "What is War" fiction in FE #1 Combining the two ideas is fairly straightforward and perhaps works well with a multi-racial ships crew. vrusk would be the most analytical- for my character I would have a vrusk that is a dancer in his/her expression of the love of beauty. Having spent time as part of a multi-species dance troupe it realized an emotional intimacy with a human dancer that was so profound it compares it to the emotional/physical release it experienced in mating with other vrusk dralasites- going to swing between philosophical comments to rude and corny jokes, perhaps dirty jokes. Yazirian comment on inter-species love would be varied based on background- are they traditional? Fo1 Religious? or a liberal modern yaz? Each perspective would be different. Humans- again very much like yazirians in their reactions- all over the map. those from Madderly's star are probably very opposed to this while those from Prengular would bend over backwards and kiss their own butt in an effort to prove they're cosmopolitan on this issue. Someone from one hard working outpost colony would be "whatever, I'm too busy to pay any attention" while another from a similar colony would be "ooooh, thats disgusting" if I had to craft a story I think I would set up a love triangle including a jealous human from Madderly's star who is going to be very reactionary to losing out to a non human, a human protagonist from another colony and a yazirian. Temptation would be to use the dancer vursk above for something truly alien. I dont think I could bring myself to use a dralasite- clearly that would go down hill fast once you're into the area of sex- a dral would be the ultimate "hole" or "dildo" depending on the human partner's orientation and gender. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 12, 2014 - 2:43pm | Dralasites are not prone to be a very socially physical species, the behavior is possible to desire independently but an unnecessary frivolity biologically.
They have always struck me as rather stand-offish and bemused by the close-proximity and gender based reproduction requirements of other life forms. I interpret their regular preoccupation with 'dirty jokes and limericks' as innocent curiosity and social ignorance -- a naivete toward a process well outside their own experience, and an insatiable fascination with all things xeno. They make the perfect 'Third Gender' or 'Asexual' perspective, and even 'Pansexual' amongst some extreme social communities.
-- Rejector -- Dralasites actively removed from all gender considerations in any species, some even cynically opposed to reproduction and community. -- Traditionalist -- Dralasites with only pragmatic and academic concerns of gender, often stoic and aloof about reproduction and community. -- Xenocuriosa -- Dralasites who have an open curiosity and rampant fascination with all things involved with reproduction, interaction, social organization and behavior, and every method and system in the cosmos encountered. The rationale for propagation is there, the pleasure in camaraderie isn't absent, but the inherent drive for intimate paired closeness has no real value to develop into a cultural experience... outside of those who might fancy themselves xeno-mimics -- a psychological condition of inter-species cultural contamination, and what Human Psychologists of Madderly's Star might call quislings.
However, I am firm supporter of the Genderless Ameboid Sporification Theory for this hermaphroditic, budding species.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 13, 2014 - 6:08am | Sexuality should never be shied away form with this genre, as it hold a huge part of it's history. Science fiction has a long history of exploring new ideas from interacting with alien cultures or to juxtapose modern concepts that people take take for granted with fictional alien cultures as a form of social commentary. For example, a sci-if novel might explore sexuality, gender identity and family structure through a race of multi-gendered alines, related by a human space explorer. Or one could explore human sexuality through the eyes of an alien like with A Stranger in a Strange Land (even though the "alien" is technically a human). In the Victorian Era, many tall-tales of normal men in strange worlds — a number of which lead to early sci-fi — where penned as a means to question prevailing traditional values, cultural pride or prudishness, and sexual hypocrisies, in a subtle way. More often than that, sexually provocative are thrown in to make the setting and/or characters more interesting, like with the courtly romance and casual nudity of A Princess of Mars, or with the amorous Captain and all the strange alien woman form Star Trek. They are a means to pull the reader into that world or lead character, or to full a void in one's own mundane life. Although not exclusive to sci-fi (this can cover any story of a larger-than-life action hero or a girl form a romance novel), they are an outlet to a life that could never be lived it real life, and feed our desire for companionship. How Sci-fi differs is that it can open a wider range of possibilities and strangeness. While the former is largely appeals to intellectuals, and the latter largely appeals to escapists, they are both meaningful narratives, that both hold an important place in Sci-fi history. The latter being the hook to build readership, and the former being the substance to make the readership become better people. |
October 13, 2014 - 1:10pm | I rather liked the sexuality in the "Love and Atomic Rockets" short story in FE as well as the sequel story. It was there and yet it was done tastefully. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 14, 2014 - 5:59am | "So.. you love yazirians...not that there is anything wrong with it."
Heck yeah! Don't you? |
 October 18, 2014 - 3:30am | I recall several stories by authors such as Philip Jose Farmer, Theodore Sturgeon, etc. Sex was a common subject in science fiction, especially in the 1970s. One in particular comes to mind - I think it was called Strange Relations, by Farmer. It seems to fit right in with what we're talking about here. Regarding actual trans-species relationships in Star Frontiers, if a species is capable of forming emotional bonds, then in theory it is capable of an interspecies relationship. But that relationship might not be interpreted in the same way by both sides. A Dralasite does not normally have sex, and so it might interpret sexual advances from another species as simply a form of bonding between friends. Biologically, the Yazirians seem the most likely to be sexually compatable, but perhaps there is something (a hormone or pheromone) that subconsciously keeps the two species from finding each other sexually attractive... On Star Trek, interbreeding between species is not unusual, and often results in viable offspring (sometimes requiring "a little help", as the half-Klingon Keylehr put it). This is also described in the Demu trilogy, in which two different humanoid species could have sex, but sometimes needed surgery to have kids. On Babylon 5, you would never see any human-Centauri couples, even though such a pairing seemed obvious. G'kar the Narn was known to be sexual with human women, and in the pilot movie, Commander Sinclair is heard to tell a human man to "stick to the list" of approved species with which humans can safely have sex, adding that the woman the man found attractive was from a species which consumed its sexual partner after sex. There is also the case of the Lumati, who treat interspecies sex as little more than a handshake, and routinely use it to "seal the deal" in treaties with other species. The only known interspecies offspring on the show was between a human (Captain Sheridan) and the half-human/Minbari Delenn. In general, I think interspecies sex would be rare in the Frontier. Dralasites and Osakar are virtually asexual. However, the Humma might engage in it, since they are described as "lewd & crude". In fact, the Humma are said to have dull senses, which means it would take a lot of anything for them to feel it; they might be as bad as humans, if not worse. So, don't let your daughter be alone with a Humma...  There could be a cultural or religious bias against interspecies mating, as with homosexuality today. Some species might become enraged by the idea, and it could affect treaties or trade relations. Some species might be completely naive about it, or about the implications to other species. Osakar, for example, might casually ask two people to have sex with each other so they can study human gender relations. In general, consider your audience. If the players are cool with the topic, then go for it. If they think it's creepy and weird, probably best to leave it alone. |
October 18, 2014 - 6:22pm | I think that most interspecies pairings will be rather unpleasent for one or both partners. Humma are going to smell and or worse. Vrusk, well vrusk that's going to be rather uncomfortable coupling for any other species. Setting aside physical incompatibilities there might also be other problems- like yazirians likeing to bite hard enough to draw blood- while I enjoy a little bit of nibbling during foreplay, puncture wounds in sensitive areas is certainly not on the menu for Umox. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 19, 2014 - 1:25am | Hah! Yeah, Humma might have some hygiene issues... Yazirians - ouch! They have some long teeth, too! |
 October 26, 2014 - 10:10am | Besides obvious biological issues: misunderstandings... sex between species might involve customs or behaviors that create difficulty... Star Trek explored that with Vulcans & Klingons. It can add humor though... a Human saying "bite me" to a Klingon means not an insult to a Klingon but a romantic suggestion equivalent to "kiss me"... with the resulting mayhem. Vulcans can be a pain in the you know what when in Pon Far mode, trying to rape ship mates, challenging folks to fights to the death and so on. The Klingon idea of good sex is a broken bone... So it might be fun in an individual campaign setting to explore or at least give some thought to how different the various races might be & the mayhem it could create. Since TSR SF never really explored this it is really up to the GM how to flesh out the races. Also there is a difference between love that can be sexually fulfilled and a love that can not... lust vs love. It is possible to love another deeply and know it can never become sexual or have zero sexual interest... one is love unobtainable (physical) & the other love in the most abstract way. Also humans have a dark side to their sexual practices, we have a history of rapists, porn, prostitution and so on... how that would manifest in the future setting of SF should be considered. Children are stolen all the time and turned into sex slaves and/or sold around the world & not just in 3rd world countries, it happens here and in other western countries too. The underground slave trade is alive and well worldwide. How other species would view such behaviors or even contribute to it or be victims of it should be considered. One of the creepiest eew sci-fi shorts I read was about a crime spree on a planet in which females of the native species where being raped, beat and killed. The few that survived all described a creature they had never seen before. The detective in this story that ends up helping the local cops is on vacation on the planet that has no violent crime as the native species are all vegetarian pacifist. He is a carnivore from a high violent crime planet and is arrested as he is scary looking and a known violent species & the locals know the crimes are being committed by an alien, he quickly realizes the locals have no idea how to investigate a serial rapist/killer and ends up helping them hunt the predator species doing the crime as he can think in away the locals could not understand... of course they catch the rapist/murder... a human. Just saying sex, love, lust, society, biology, gender identification, kink, and crime are all mixed up in this subject and can be explored in different ways. Everything from humor from misunderstandings to, gut wrenching love that can never be fulfilled, to biological drives that cause friends problems or criminal underworld plots... "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
November 12, 2014 - 6:25pm | Could one... should one... even contemplate the exotic pleasure a dralasite might gain from the purely gastronomic delights found in a human hot-tub after a swinger's party? What lengths might a discerning dralasite connoisseur of exotic carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids, proteins and enzymes suffer through, in order to bathe on such a passionately crafted delicacy? Not just humans... but surely hummers, yazis, gnomes, and those plague carrying rats with ape-like intelligence... the vimh... are amongst the most promiscuous (and diversely so) populations in the sector. The least interested in relationship dynamics and the biological precedents for such social behaviors (save pragmatic needs and natural curiosity) are likely vrusk, osakar, dralasite, and mechanons. of course, it shouldn't need to be overstated, nor over expressed in situ... that any species with significant intelligence and sociability traits to even be considered for negotiated inclusion in governance, politics, and trade ... wouldn't be entirely unreasonable about the nature of nature, even if it is utterly alien or perverse to the held normatives more familiar to themselves. And most sufficiently complex species to become that advanced biologically, will likewise sport some generous genetic diversity on most internal matters of the normative being. 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? |
November 13, 2014 - 5:47am | It is possible that some races would find the sexual practices of others distasteful or think things like "humans can't help it, slaves to their biology" or even demand specific behaviors be fallowed on their planets, or because they are super private about expect others to be so too, or be curious or apply what ever prejudices they have to other races. I have been considering a race with a specific breeder gender... the down side for them is the die. Biology is not kind to many species. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
November 15, 2014 - 4:23am | Alien Nation had a 3rd gender that served as a "catalyst". The male and female had sex, but no offspring could be born unless the 3rd gender had sex with the female to "catalyze" the male's sperm. In Alternity (and d20 Future), the T'sa only feel the urge to mate 1 week in every 3-5 years. They do so casually, and form no attachments. They are mystified by human courtship & marriage rituals, and find the human preoccupation with mating to be quite humorous. In my own game, I have a chameleon species which only mates with other species. The offspring always resembles the species of the non-chameleon parent (for example, if it mated with a Vrusk, the offspring would look like a Vrusk). However, biologically, the child is always the chameleon species. The species has a genetic memory, so the offspring always knows what it truly is. |
November 15, 2014 - 4:51am | I have always thought Humma reproduction was weird & fascinating. They change from one gender to another. They start life as female, then after giving birth, they become male, then once their reproductive years are long past, they become neuter. Imagine the Humma's gender identity... masculinity and femininity would be interconnected with age. Young Humma might act feminine. Middle-aged Humma might act masculine. Or do they even have such concepts at all? Maybe such ideas are alien to them. All Humma males were once females, and have had children. All young Humma are female. There is an age factor at work here, and kind of a pervy one. Essentially, the males are middle-aged, and the females are teens. Every couple has this old-young dynamic going on. Not only that, but you can't find a virgin husband. They don't exist. If Humma get married, then it would have to be a weird family structure. In order to reproduce, you would have to marry someone who already has kids. Every potential husband would already have... another husband. And that husband would have a previous husband who might still be around, and so on. It becomes an infinite regression, until you get into old age, where the previous husbands are no longer male. So every Humma family is made up of generations of these stair-step marriages. I have heard people complain that the Humma could only give birth once before they change gender, but that is not necessarily true. In real life, when a human gives birth, there is a short time period where the human body needs time to recover, and the chances of becoming pregnant again are reduced briefly due to hormones. Nursing the newborn can extend this time period for months. Imagine that when a Humma gives birth, its biological transformation is delayed as long as it is still producing its "motherly" hormones, so nursing its child or getting pregnant right away would keep the Humma female for a little while longer. As long as the Humma keeps reproducing with only a brief break between births, in theory a Humma could remain female for many years. However, once there is a break and it is no longer producing its female hormones, the clock would start again, and the transformation to male would occur. Freaky cool. |
November 15, 2014 - 8:15am | Those are all good points. The Humma would probably not have the same idea of male or female gender and sexuality roles as we do. Gender identity and sexuality would be a biological aging phase and not necessarily a huge drama to do like it is with humans. I can see them having cultural ideas and customs about the phase but not at all the same as humans think about gender or sexuality. Basically a Humma's Identity as a person is not going to be tied so strongly to their current biological sex as it is in our Human societies. I mean look at all our gender/sexuality issues such as people who want to change their genders. There is a lot of drama around gender changing, and not all of the drama is caused by the people not having the gender change. Gender identity crisis's seem to focus on a lot of emotionally charged ideas about the opposite sex which may not be accurate. I have seen equally confused people of all sexual persuasions try and deal with the gender issue another is having. Then when you add religious beliefs it gets even more emotionally charged for everyone. When I ponder how people treat each other over sexuality that is even more emotionally charged ideas/ideals. Straight people are often seen as bigots against gay folks, but what is not generally discussed is how bigoted gay folks are towards bisexual folks. All of our human ideas about gender and sexuality do swirl around our personal identity with in our larger social group and what it means to be male or female, or gay or straight. To a Humma Human gender roles and human sexuality as part of an individuals identity would be foreign to them. I would think Humma might also have hormone therapy that helps prolong the female stage, probably first discovered in a native food source. I can see your point on marriage, it sounds like they would need a completely different family structure. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
November 16, 2014 - 7:13pm | Yep, like I said: Diversity of proliferation strategies and identity in the most promiscuous of species... is certain. This means; Vimh, Humma, Yazirian, and Ifshnit,... oh and of course Humans, a bit in the rear. T'sa biology gives a bit in common with Dralasite on perspective... just no reason to be much concerned with the weirdness of courtships and slapping bodies together... what is soporific is terrific for the whole community. A communal Clan/Tribe structure is a Humma normative, iirc... kingdoms and oligarchies really, but with no strong demand on hereditary claims... sort of pacific islander Poor Man, Rich Man, Big Man, Chief --; And yes, almost as promiscuous and casually affectionate as the rats -- who easily overpopulate their environments if not carefully checked. totally want to harp on the expected diversity of social customs and biologically normative considerations across geographic, haplogroup, racial, clade, social, subclad, and national identities inherent to a reasonably populated planet of even moderate size... especially if indigenous, or not singularly colonized under one totalitarian xenophobic domed-city police-state for less than three generations. but won't... 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? |
