Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

Depends on how much science fact you want.

Generally anything more than 2 need to reproduce is scifi land.

However you could have a male female relationship but they do not distinguish themselves by gender. There is no word usuage to distinguish apart from say they are biologically male/female.

This type of relationship could tend towards bisexualism and maybe without strong family ties may have multiple partners.

You still need male female to reproduce but child rearing could be done more collectively, by a group of cohabiting partners. Biological parenting my wane and social parenting may triumph.

Therefore children could have multiple parents without any notion of gender reification.

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

In terms of science fact vs. fiction? Well, in one sense, anything that doesn't have an exemplar on Earth is science fiction. But evolution is governed by chance. Sometimes the race doesn't go to the better runner, it goes to the runner who happened to reach the finish line. If you have five races in your known universe, I figure at least four of them will have bisexual reproduction. With or without distinct genders. If you have a thousand races, it could still be one freak with 999 bisexual, possibly bigendered races. The more races you know in your universe, probably the greater the bias towards the common. If you only know one alien species, they might, by chance, have highly unusual traits. Anyway...

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/1535/scan2q.png
Here is an example of reproductive farming, as provided by the nice folks at MEGO Toys. It was a viewscreen display from my old Star Trek Enterprise playset. So yeah, I've been wanting to use this idea too.

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

I don't think evolution is governed by chance. IMO there is a law, hence the rise of mammals on the land, birds in the sky and fish in the sea.

Some species are pregnated in the womb. Mites will give birth to pregnant mites, the male fertilises the females before birth (IIRC).

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

Chance and law interact in evolution. Some things are more likely to happen than others. Some things are impossible and don't happen. This doesn't mean that anything can happen, but it also does not mean that the way things are is an inevitability.

My biogeography teacher showed us a fun little cartoon about evolution. A crowd of bugs is clustered around a bug giving a speech. "The clear superiority conferred upon us by our purple spots has allowed us to survive the great flood." The real reason they survived the flood was simply because some of them survived. Sometimes it works like that. Sometimes the better is betamaxed and the ungainly passes its traits on.

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

I have been loving this thread. Now I have an idea that falls into the topic of this thread that I both want to share and ask for help with.

So, first the idea...

A plant that is neuter most of the time but for a hundred and fifth hours (six days and six hours) out of every lunar month (beginning on the night of the full moon) it becomes gendered, alternating between male or female. During these gendered phases it releases spores that on contact with the skin of an animal begins growing as a distinctive rash (possibly that the inflicted individual doesn't see/believe in), makes them avoid danger and hungry. This can be treated, but otherwise they are a carrier for the species. When exposed to the spore of an opposite gender the rash develops into a new plant that, after half a day it crawls off and goes about its life.

Then the question...

So, would the spores be an affliction or a disadvantage? If the player has no control over this does that change matters?

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

The Jotoki from Larry Niven's Known Space.

Basic "leave larva in a pool" propagation. But when they mature, they join together in groups of 5, to form a Jotoki. Then, if found while in the "adolescent" stage, they can join a community. Otherwise, they stay feral (and dangerous...).

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

I'm a huge fan of children as dangerous vermin. One of the reasons I like the Hivers best of all the Traveller critters. Also I'm a fan of casual hermaphroditic sexuality. Mmm yeah!!!

Um... yeah...

Okay.

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

Another place to look for ideas is plant life. Imagine a creature that has to attract a member of another species in order to pollinate inseminate. This could be an adaptation by organisms with both male and female organs to make self-insemination less likely. Clones still probably occur by accident and there is probably the occasional pervert with a Q-tip, but it's mostly just the bees. A species like that might not even produce perverts, since reproduction is such a passive thing. They just might lack any kind of conscious sex drive.

That should have social implications.

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

I just came across this article
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-on-earth.html
which describes a pretty convoluted sex life of lobster symbiotes known as Symbion pandora. A Sybion adult can produce three different kind of offspring. One kind goes off to become another feeding adult. Another kind is a female, which remains inside its parent waiting for a male. The third kind is goes and attaches itself to a different adult, then produces several males as offspring that seek out and fertilize any females in that adult. Once fertilized, the female leaves its adult, dies, and uses its corpse to protect the fertilized egg which, once hatched, becomes a larva that swims off in search of another lobster to live on and become another feeding adult.

Luke

Re: [Space/Aliens] Reproductive Features: alien, exotic and weird ideas
 

Hmm, Hashrul, hmm?