Alien Civilizations Catalog

[PTTG]

Been a while since I read through Space, and re-reading it I was once again struck by the fun alien generation table. I decided to go ahead and roll up one or two sapient tool-users for a game I am thinking of running, and it occurred to me that it might be useful to list them here for others to use if needed. While we're at it, feel free to include other kinds of alien or semi-alien civilizations you would like to share.


Ssk-Thununki (Wheelers): Notorious for their massive frame, Ssk-Thununki, or as they are referred to in Spacer lingo, Wheelers, always make an impression. Their homeworld is much like Earth, albeit with a thicker atmosphere and lower gravity. Their ancestors roved through the massive, planet-girdling jungle belt gathering fruit from widely-spaced trees. Even before they were sapient, they produced intricate and still-visible networks of paths thanks to their nominative form of locomotion.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Physically, the Ssk-Thununk are sinuous and heavily armored hexapods. Their bodies have three main segments and a thick tail; the rearmost limbs are feet, the middle-limbs have strong digging claws which can also act as feet, and the forelimbs are almost as dexterous as human hands, though far larger. Each segment has a smoothly curved carapace. A wheeler can curl up into a circle and, with relatively minor muscular movements, maintain a very high speed while rolling over well-prepared ground. From tail to tip, a fully grown individual can be over 24m long, and will curl into a circle over 6m in diameter. However, that is a large and very mature individual in the male state; the younger female state which one is more likely to meet in space is smaller.

The armor shell which lets them roll so effectively also restricts their growth, so they must shed it periodically, a delicate and awkward time that arises periodically. Around the age of 36 standard years, they molt into a female form, usually around 16m long or so. They remain female for several decades, and then eventually take on a male form for the rest of their lives.

They form very long friendships with one another, but mating relationships are fairly casual. All connections are generally at a remove; some anthropologists among them argue that while humans cover ground slowly and must group together for safety, they move relatively quickly and have no natural predators - and could easily scour an area of all food for a time.

They have remarkable vision via a pair of triple-eye modules on their hammer-like heads. The eyes swivel as they roll, providing a seamless 360-degree perception comparable to a human's vision, albiet with no depth perception at a right angle to their direction of travel when rolling. Their other senses are typical, except for their hearing, which is excellent when not rolling.

Personality-wise, they are noted as being annoyingly playful, almost as bad as Humans. Their social structure is complex and full of constantly-changing ritual thanks to an overwhelming creativity. Their one saving grace is that they are rather cautious about putting their bubbling creative ideas into practice. They are not unintelligent, but they do tend to have a narrow focus for their skills compared to humans (read: low IQ, high skill points). While today, of course, they use manufactured rolling paths, their semi-sapient cousins still build rolling trails through the soil of their homeworld with nothing but their large digging claws.

The spacefaring culture of the Ssk-Thununk is strongly connected to that of the more wider cosmos. Their lack of individual flexibility and relatively small population (some 8 million individuals) might have left them stuck on their homeworld, not even considering the difficulty of launching such large beings into orbit. Nonetheless, they did manage to perform some crewed orbital spaceflight before first contact. Today, an orbital ring provides comfortable access to space even to elderly males, but individuals generally find it both more adventurous and more practical to travel during their female ages. They are currently focusing on terraforming some of the words in their star system, as their need to roam and very high maximum speed make centripetal gravity less than ideal for them.

Typical Stats:
8 IQ [-40]
120 STR [110]
10 DX [0]
12 HT [20]
15 Move [25]

DR 5 along dorsal surface [25]
Extended Lifespan 1 [2]
Acute Hearing 4 [8]
Enhanced Move 2 (Rolling on smooth surface only) [40]
Can't run (All move faster than normal walking pace replaced with rolling) [-5]
Single-Minded [5]
360º Vision [25]

Quirks:
Selfish, Careful, Uncongenial, Broad-minded[-4]