[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

If a typical group of PCs spends every session encountering a different kind of dangerous alien with unknown abilities but always some ability to disguise themselves as humans they're going to develop a strategy of "Kill'em all! Let StarFleet sort them out!" (even if there is no equivalent of Starfleet).. It may end up with "Bury the Gate!"too.

If this sort of shoot'em up is what you want then go for it. If you want something else you can't keep the PCs perpetually in doubt about who's who and how to deal with them.

To be fair, the canonical body-snatching Goa'uld would have similar issues in never knowing if the person you're meeting with is a human or an alien monster bent on destroying and/or enslaving all you hold dear. Or, at least, they would have similar issues, if they weren't incredibly arrogant, and thus didn't insist on flaunting their non-human nature (making their eyes glow, speaking in two voices, utilizing Goa'uld-specific technology, etc). And there's nothing stopping you from having pretty much all of the System Lord-races behave in such a manner. When SG1 shows up at a new planet, they know who the aliens are because they're the ones hovering in the air with electricity crackling around them, leaving frozen footprints from the layer of magical frost that surrounds them, etc, and demanding worship.

This does mean SG1 will often not have the advantage of already being familiar with the way Goa'uld operate, however, as each race probably utilizes different spells/weapons and tactics.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

A dozen is enough to end up in the "shoot the aliens of the week" place. I'd have said over 3 or 4 was enough.

Note also that I was replying to Kesendeja who wanted to keep things from being "too predictable". There's a "too chaotic" too and I'd be afraid that a dozen players in the "Gate Net" would qualify.

A lot would depend on how the GM utilizes each race. My own inclination, if running a game in such a setting, would be to have a primary antagonist race (undoubtedly the Goa'uld expy I outlined earlier), but then from time to time have the System Lord the characters are up against this adventure actually be a shapeshifting naga, a swarm of insects disguised under an illusion, or whatever. I'd opt to utilize such twists rarely.