Alien Threats [Space]

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Or you can just use diamond. The problem with either one is that it requires temperatures that are incompatible with biology.

It becomes easier if the setting allows psionics (which could either allow the creation of materials that biology would not otherwise allow, or remove the need for them), or if natural vibroblades are possible (in which case you don't necessarily need diamond or graphene).

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

It becomes easier if the setting allows psionics (which could either allow the creation of materials that biology would not otherwise allow, or remove the need for them), or if natural vibroblades are possible (in which case you don't necessarily need diamond or graphene).

Combat-useful vibroblades should be TL^ anyway. It's basically the ultratech equivalent of using a chainsaw as a weapon.

[ericthered]

If I'm using Alien biology as a threat, I'm either going to embrace the silliness, or I'm going to look at small venomous creatures and parasites. Humans are really good at dealing with "Monsters", which really means a large, hostile animal. We're not so good at dealing with snakes, spiders, scorpions, viruses, malaria, and parasitic worms.

The last alien biologic threat I used was a very long hybrid of jellyfish and fungus that sent out long nearly invisible poisonous tentacles through the ventilation system of spaceships.

[AlexanderHowl]

Fungi are quite potent threats because they can break down anything organic.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by ericthered

If I'm using Alien biology as a threat, I'm either going to embrace the silliness, or I'm going to look at small venomous creatures and parasites. Humans are really good at dealing with "Monsters", which really means a large, hostile animal. We're not so good at dealing with snakes, spiders, scorpions, viruses, malaria, and parasitic worms.

The last alien biologic threat I used was a very long hybrid of jellyfish and fungus that sent out long nearly invisible poisonous tentacles through the ventilation system of spaceships.

Now, that's a good one, and quite plausible, especially if the spacers play fast and loose with bio-hazard protocols. :)

If the GM wants to go with something a little more dramatic, 2300 AD had a critter that buried itself in the sand just beneath the shallows of the oceans near the beach (it really liked pools).

A small ambush predator, its jaws weren't strong enough to bite through a sturdy boot, but it had a neck long enough to reach past the boot and take out a chunk of calf. Barefoot wading was seriously contraindicated.

More problematically, it was actually the young form of a much larger creature. Once it hatched from eggs laid a bit deeper, it swam to the shallows and lodged itself in the sand and hunted until it got big enough to move out into steadily deeper water.

It basically matured into a sea serpent that swam deep enough to hide itself in the darkness, rocks and vegetation along the bottom, and then lunged up at prey swimming (or boating), above.

It's hard to shoot something if it's on you before you see it; even a minor injury is a major problem if medical care is far away; and a hole in the bottom of the boat (or a capsized one) turns even well-equipped PCs into bait.

[Flyndaran]

Innocuous aliens that hide a not inherently silly danger, like a toxic tribble.

They evolved with no obvious defenses but emit a toxin that illicits paranoia, but never toward them. Of course humans having a different but still similar biology are less effected, so it takes time to cause problems.
Maybe humans' gentle oohing and ahing over them makes them calm in general. But any minor startling still causes them to emit some toxin.