GURPS Space campaign setting

[combatmedic]

Now that I have some notion of FTL worked out, I'm ready to move on and sketch out another aspect of the universe; races. I want to keep things rolling.

I won't borrow any major races from Traveller, as I don't want my universe to look too much like the OTU. I think I may borrow a couple of the minor races, however.

Someone mentioned bwaps, so I looked them up. HILARIOUS! Initially, I worried they would be too anthropomorphic, but they really aren't. The psychology and physiology are interesting and well written. I like their obession with order and love for bureaucracy.

I'm thinking the bwaps will have a retrotech civilization, with starships and punch card computers. Probably organized into bureaucratic states.

As I said earlier the Memer & Saret, and the Pachekki will be included. Of all the species from GURPS Aliens, I thought those two fit in the best. I rejected the ''rubber suits'', psionics, furries, and near-human types out of hand[ not that all the races weren't well done- some just don't feel right for this particular universe].

[Phantasm]

I have three alien races that might work with what you're looking for; unfortunately, I don't have them statted out in GURPS yet.

The first are the k'hissh. K'hissh are warm-blooded reptilians resembling runtish allosaurs or oversized velociraptors, depending on your point of view. They're bipedal but not humanoid, averaging 7 feet tall and 15 feet long. They hail from the second world in the 61 Cygni A system, known in their language as Hurr'orr, but to the humans as Quetzalcoatl; the human name was inspired by some of the wildlife in the forests, specifically something that looked like a snake with feathered wings. The k'hissh developed space travel about the same time Earth did, and were encountered while both races still relied on high-speed STL travel.

The second are the glrrü. Glrrü are insectoids that resemble giant butterflies; they possess a proportionately skinny body compared to their height, two sets of legs, one pair of arms, and large, colorful wings. Average height is about 5 feet tall, with a weight of about 50 lbs. They hail from the fourth planet in the Sigma Draconis system. Their eyes are adapted to seeing in the green through ultraviolet frequencies; they also have microscopic claws which enable them to stick to any surface except for the extremely smooth. They were first encountered as a lower-technology world not long after the development of FTL drives.

The third race is the one that may not be physically plausible, being somewhat of the "unicorn" of modern biology. The sekit are a race of silicon-based life, resembling pillars of various-colored crystal. They possess no limbs, but move around via levitation and manipulate objects with telekinesis. They don't possess organs the way we think of them. I originally had them on a habitable moon in orbit around a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri A system; the third planet in the system, about 1 AU from the star.

[combatmedic]

I like them. Are these for your own campaign setting, then?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

I like them. Are these for your own campaign setting, then?

Yes, but you're welcome to use them. I'll try and work out racial templates for them, based on my notes.

[Bandii]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Now that I have some notion of FTL worked out, I'm ready to move on and sketch out another aspect of the universe; races. I want to keep things rolling.

I won't borrow any major races from Traveller, as I don't want my universe to look too much like the OTU. I think I may borrow a couple of the minor races, however.

Someone mentioned bwaps, so I looked them up. HILARIOUS! Initially, I worried they would be too anthropomorphic, but they really aren't. The psychology and physiology are interesting and well written. I like their obession with order and love for bureaucracy.

I'm thinking the bwaps will have a retrotech civilization, with starships and punch card computers. Probably organized into bureaucratic states.

As I said earlier the Memer & Saret, and the Pachekki will be included. Of all the species from GURPS Aliens, I thought those two fit in the best. I rejected the rubber suits, psionics, furries, and nea-human types out of hand[ not that all the races weren't well done- some just don't feel right for this particular universe].

Yay! Bwaps! Mankind's moist little friends.

I like the Retrotech civilization idea for them. When mankind encountered them in my campaign, they were basically TL 6 and just starting to explore their home system.

Good luck with the campaign.

-Mike

[Greystar]

Keep in mind Star Wars uses Hyperspace. Typically when a ship is in hyperspace they loose communication with anyone. And unless they are in realspace with Hypercommunication relay sattelites they won't have reliable communication either. Also remember in Star Trek (The one where Kirk and McCoy are arrested by the Klingons) when they said the universal translator would be detected they got out the PAPER English to Klingon dictionaries. Only the Empire had the HoloCommunications and the Empire made it illegal for any none Imperial ships to have that style communications. Just figured I'd pitch this in, having a Courier ship would still work for a Communication you would not want to be intercepted (unless someone tookout the ship carrying the data).

[combatmedic]

It was this picture that sold me on bwaps: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=6143148


[just scroll down a little]

[combatmedic]

If you have a subscription to JTAS, check out this link:

http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/article.cgi?508

I really like the Taureans [species presented in article]. I'll work them into my universe.

[Bandii]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

It was this picture that sold me on bwaps: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=6143148


[just scroll down a little]

Nice. Part of my inspiration for reoleplaying Bwaps came from this comic (http://www.newgolddreams.com/ngd4.shtml) and the weird little creature that is practically a Bwap (called Chameleomen by the author, I believe).

-Mike

[combatmedic]

Open question:
Which GURPS Traveller supplements [other than the Aliens books] would be most useful to me as worldbuilding tools/generic material? I was thinking Far Trader or First In might be worth buying, since my campaign will be focused on merchants and explorers. Does anyone have an opinion of how useful these books would be in developing a non-Traveller Gurps Space campaign [as opposed to using them for running campaigns in the OTU]?