Creating aliens for a space campaign.

[awarnock]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think that's a Delusion. I think it's Megalomania.

For Social Stigma, which society's viewpoint are you adopting? A bunch of murderous xenophobes probably aren't stigmatized in their own society and culture; it doesn't matter to them what the people over the mountains or in a different solar system say about them. And if they aren't going to try to live among their enemies and deal with them peacefully, Social Stigma is probably irrelevant. Reputation might make more sense.

Point. I'm still pretty new to GURPS, so I'm probably going to miss a lot of stuff like that.

As for the Social Stigma, it might be better to give some of the campaign background, so you know what I mean when I say "galactic society at large." The setting for the campaign is a sphere (which contains Sol, but isn't centered on it) about 300 parsecs across. Out of the nearly 2 million systems. in that sphere, there are "only" 20,000 explored systems. Out of those, about 1 in 10 has life as we know it and only a few of those has been the home of an intelligent species/race/whatever, say 20 of them. Those twenty-ish races make up the galactic population. Most get along about as well as humans do with each other, that is well enough that they aren't trying to kill off the others for the most part.

The main exceptions would be these two races, which, if we're being honest, are supposed to be caricatures of moustache twirling villains. They want to rule the galaxy and have the other races be their slaves/experimental test subjects. They've pretty much mined out their planets and have turned their asteroid belt(s) into deathtraps. This in turn means that they have to turn to other races for arms, ammunition, and other resources. Part of how they pay for it is by allowing the "stupid, low-born, creti– I mean nice, gentle-sophonts" to rig up cameras and other recording devices so the carnage can be broadcast and betting pools established. I was going to have their homeworlds be formerly habitable, but I think I'm going to need resources for both of them to have that other places don't. Spices would probably be good for paying for those weapons and ships.

Still, both races resent this, and since I plan on a third cuddly race (debating on whether to introduce them before or after the party's meet the other two,) it should be fairly easy to have a few of either race sneak out in strike teams aiming to secure weapons to win the war and begin the conquest of the rest of the galaxy, especially if I have it where most everyone isn't too aware of events outside of their sector. Obviously, their neighbors and the major powers of the galaxy would keep an eye on things to make sure that the mess stays in their system. Arms dealers would have a vested interest in keeping the conflict even and ongoing, though the need for both sides to rest and recover does tend to calm things down a bit from time to time.

Anyway, TL;DR, They have to deal with galactic society at large, and most people outside of the neighborhood or the bloodsports gambling community are probably not going to have heard of them except for rumors. "They're cute, fuzzy, and adorable! They can't possibly be megalomaniac killers!"

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by awarnock

They have to deal with galactic society at large, and most people outside of the neighborhood or the bloodsports gambling community are probably not going to have heard of them except for rumors. "They're cute, fuzzy, and adorable! They can't possibly be megalomaniac killers!"

In that case they pretty clearly don't have Social Stigma. You're saying right up front that sophonts of other races don't react to them negatively, sometimes even despite the evidence. They're sort of like murderous tribbles! I don't know if GURPS Lite has it, but that sounds a lot like the Pitiable trait in the Basic Set.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think that's a Delusion. I think it's Megalomania.
.

It's not megalomania because it isn't personal. It's a racial superiority complex. But they aren't all demanding total power over their own species membes.

[smurf]

I'm running 4-5

My take on the Kronin

Esti -reptilian bio engineered psi race(300pts)

Sens - primitives, ogres (500pts)

Deeliah - Crocodile people

Kogecs - Gecko people

Making them do different social things is hard.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by whswhs

In that case they pretty clearly don't have Social Stigma. You're saying right up front that sophonts of other races don't react to them negatively, sometimes even despite the evidence. They're sort of like murderous tribbles! I don't know if GURPS Lite has it, but that sounds a lot like the Pitiable trait in the Basic Set.

There's giving the benefit of the doubt with minimal evidence, and then there's just plain delusionary willful ignorance. These guys sound like they invoke the latter. Not sure what advantage that would be though.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

It's not megalomania because it isn't personal. It's a racial superiority complex. But they aren't all demanding total power over their own species membes.

So human normal? I'm only half joking. I seriously doubt the majority of our species would accept a hypothetical alien species as superior even if it was objectively better than us in every observable way.

[awarnock]

@Flyndaran: It's more like on the grand scale, they are really insignificant outside of a small subset of the galactic population, so it'd really be the former. There are rumors, but it's kinda like rumors in real life, take what you hear with a grain of salt and make sure you verify your facts. These two races are common in exactly 1 system out of 20,000 explored systems. Those that make it out of the system tend to be trying to get things smuggled back into their system, and they aren't so dumb as to try dealing with their neighbors who know of them and are going to react accordingly, or those who are in the bloodsports scene for the same reasons. They'll go about 100 parsecs away and try where most aren't even going to know their species name much less the facts from the fiction.

That said, I think reputation might be what I'm looking for instead of social stigma.