GURPS Aliens in a space campaign

[combatmedic]

I've decided to run a GURPS Space campaign as my first campaign with 4E GURPS. The campaign universe will be built using a combination the all four GURPS SPACE atlases, articles from Pyramid, and some stuff of my own design. The idea is a sort of thinking man's space opera. Not Star Wars or Flash Gordon; more like Humanx ,Terro-Human Future History, or Known Space. The known worlds will occupy a very large region within the Milky Way Galaxy.

I need advice on aliens. I want about nine spacefaring races , maybe less. Not counting minor, planetbound or primiive races. Here's what I have picked out so far:

Humans [ of course]

Treefolk

Sparrials

Pachekki

Irari

Memer & Saret

- All of the aliens on this list are described in GURPS Aliens. I don't have the book, but I will buy it soon [hardcopy, most likely]. I ruled out the following:

anything with psionics [I'm not using psionics]

anything too obviously an anthropomorphic animal, especially if the race seems stereotypical[ hence, the Kaa are definitely out]

anything too much like humans [ no humans with bumpy heads/faces or green skin]

Beyond that, I'm hesitant about including ''all evil'' races.

Any suggestions from the community? Aliens from GURPS Aliens, Pyramid, etc.?

[AOTA]

If you don't already have it Eric's page had the races converted for you to 4th edition. Here's a link to the PDF.

[Shrale]

3e had Gormelites <think chewbacca> and remind me of the one of the characters in the Star Risk books, by Chris Bunch.

[combatmedic]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The pachekki [GURPS Space 3rd edition, GURPS Aliens] are serial hermaphrodites.

I'll give this some thought, as the campaign is still a few weeks off. Time to work on this.


All the races so far are unlike humans in significant ways. The memer & saret are vacuum adapted, the pachekki switch sexes, the treefolk are plant-animals. The irari and sparrials are less weird, but still quite different from humans. None of these races are bumpy head types.

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

I've decided to run a GURPS Space campaign as my first campaign with 4E GURPS. I need advice on aliens. I want about nine spacefaring races , maybe less. Not counting minor, planetbound or primiive races. Here's what I have picked out so far:

Humans [ of course]
Sparrials
Irari

We had those! We also had Fasanni... Fassani?... (briefly -- I think we forgot about them and retconned them out of existence) and Kaa (sort of out on the fringes; the Kaa Empire was more an explanation for "why exploration doesn't go there" and a potential source of problems) as well as Sparrials and Irari (who were much cooler). Tamile were also around, but never really showed up in the game. We added Cidi as a "first contact," along with a splinter group of Kaa allied with them (!) who were hiding out from... just about everyone. Secretive race, those Cidi (and their refugee Kaa).

Home-grown races included a one-armed humanoid race, a very human-like race (suspect Precursor gengineering and meddling), another humanoid race with blue skin (our space orcs, though more like Space Mafia...), a reptilian race that was pretty much humans in godzilla suits for a while (but I came up with a wonky life-cycle for them that makes me happy), cat-centaurs...

...And sapient slime molds and hive beetles. (Psionic, sapient "queen" bug, served by sub-sapient drones who are taken over as needed for training and delicate tasks that their training does not cover... and whose mating displays are really appalling practical jokes.)

Oh, and the fuzzballs -- sapient, genetically engineered by some other race to be psi-amps, full of disads, prone to telepathically controlling captives to be their servants. Yay megalomania!

For Pyramid articles...
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1287 (bio-engineered humans, basically)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=5551 (requires subscription to get the full thing; the reptilian aliens may be a little too anthropomorphic for your tastes)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=5222 (requires subscription; insectoid, reptilian, monkey-bear-sort-of that looks decently unique to me, sort-kinda-6-limbed bipedal kinda-horsey-looking things that are hard enough to describe that they may interest you)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=6255 (Transelven Space... Quite probably not what you want, but the "space monster" template could possibly be adapted to an interesting sapient template...)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=5878 (currently subscription-only; five fairly non-anthropomorphic races which could be adapted)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=994 (Traveller Alien Races 2 Designer notes -- for that matter, some of the minor Trav races might be just the sort of thing you're looking for, even if the Vargr and Aslan are a little too anthropomorphic.)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=4362 (two-formed morphing alien race)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=395 (requires subscription; 6-foot long sapient squiddy)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=786 (a horror alien, but you could probably let it take over sub-sapient hosts, indefinitely, and get a very odd sort of effect)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=941 (requires subscription; would need similar modifications as the above horror creature)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1066 (gas giant-based aliens)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=4525 (requires subscription - turtle-froggie-kinda-sorta amphibious aliens)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=4432 (anthropomorphic felines, in a large array of close-but-distinct sub-breeds; suspect probable Precursor tampering)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=367 (describes 2 races from Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep," without stats.)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=3042 (gengineered humans -- *very* gengineered humans...)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=4338 (requires subscription; has some non-human races which could probably be adapted to be aliens)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2552 (furry humanoid alien at the very bottom of the file)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1476 (mostly a discussion about creating minor human sub-races)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=852 (wolfy kender? sorta?)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=650 (it would probably need some tweaking to be something besides a horror monster, but the life-cycle would be an interesting one to work with for an alien race)
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=4543 (requires subscription; an adventure including a new race -- and Sparrials and Irari! This one might be useful for you to run, even.)

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Metamorphosis is fascinating stuff. A frog has the same genes as a tadpole. A butterfly has the same genes as caterpillar!What might minds and society be like for a species that underwent a radical metamorphosis during its lifetime. What if it were different sexes before and after? Or non-reproductive before and reproductive after (or vice versa, as in Larry Niven's Protector?). What if it switched from non-sentient to sentient? Or from sentient to non-sentient?

I've heard (but don't have any independent data) that a caterpillar's brain is completely restructured during metamorphosis, so a butterfly would have no memories of being a caterpillar. Suppose this were true of an alien species. It may be sapient before and after the metamorphosis, but the process of metamorphosis would be a personality death as sure as if it were shot in the brain. Only its genes would live on in its new body.

Luke

[combatmedic]

I found a totally awesome caterpillar on my tomatoes last week. I moved him to some weeds. Better that he eat those!

Thanks for the links!