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]

[tshiggins]

Here's a species template I created for Anten's eternally-delayed space campaign. Even if you don't find it useful, I hope you find it entertaining, even though it doesn't quite qualify as "alien."

Silvester Racial Template

Attribute Modifiers
ST -3 [-30]; DX +3 [60]; IQ unmodified [0]; HT unmodified [0] Total: 30

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers
SM -2 (appx 50 lbs/22 kilos); Taboo Trait (IQ >12) Total: 0

Advantages
Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Catfall [10]; Clinging (Requires claw-holds, -20%) [8]; Claws (Sharp Claws) [5]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; Flexibility [5]; Night Vision [6]; Parabolic Hearing 2 [8]; Perfect Balance [15]; Teeth (Sharp Teeth) [1]; Ultrahearing [5]; Vibration Sense (air; based on hearing) [10]; Vibrissae * [3]
Attractive Appearance (Cute and Fuzzy, +1) [4] Total: +96

*Physical, Exotic. Your range of touch extends to approximately half your Reach around some part of your body (usually your face). You automatically detect anything entering this space and you can feel its general texture and shape. With Vibrissae, you can make attacks in close combat that ignore all penalties for poor vision - you can feel your opponent instead of seeing him! You can even target specific hit locations.

Perks
Fur [1] Total: + 1

Disadvantages
Bad Grip -1 (Mitigator, shaved paws or waldo gloves, -60%) [-2]; Bad Sight (Mitigator, corrective lenses, -60%) [-10]; Curious (9-less) [-8], Disturbing Voice (Spits/Yowls/Meows (Mitigator, throat-mike and speaker, -60%) [-4]; Semi-Upright [-5]; Loner (15-less) [-2]; Low Endurance Lvl 1 [-3]**; Restricted Diet (carnivore) [-10].
Social Stigma (Valuable Property) [-10] or Second-Class Citizen (-5) Total: -54 (or -49)

Quirk
Red-Green color-blind; Careful Total: -2


**Physical, Exotic, -3 or -10 points. Your cardiopulminary system lacks the capacity of a normal human, or you have mostly "white meat" low endurance muscle rather than "red meat" high endurance muscle. This comes in two levels:
--Level 1: You loose FP from physical exertion at twice the normal rate. This does not affect mental or supernatural FP loss. This is appropriate for cats, monitor lizards, and animals that can put out bursts of activity but not sustain it for very long. [-3 points]
--Level 2: As above, but you recover FP at half the normal rate. This is appropriate for most reptiles and other cold blooded creatures. [-10 points].
Reduced endurance can be taken with Fit, Very Fit, Unfit, or Very Unfit; the effects stack. A very fit crocodile (with Reduced Endurance 2 as part of its racial template) would lose and recover fatigue at the same rate as someone with neither trait, while a very unfit crocodile would lose fatigue at four times the normal rate and recover at one quarter the normal rate.

Total of Stats plus Advantages, minus Disadvantages: +72 or +77.

Species development

Geistform GmbH, headquartered outside Ingolstadt, Bavaria, BRD, sought to penetrate the early 22nd Century’s growing market for sentient companion animals. The development of anti-agathic treatments that extended healthy human lifespans to nearly 150 years, and consequent additional decades of good health, allowed for professional careers that lasted up to three times as long as in the early 21st Century.

This resulted in an affluent population of elderly Europeans, many of whom found themselves living alone for years at a time, as changing interests (and sheer ennui, in some cases…) ended marriages and other relationships.

Market researchers with Geistform GmbH (GG) noted a keen interest by a significant fraction of this population in platonic companionship without the fuss and stress of romantic entanglements. The demographic purchased or adopted (the exact definition depended on local laws and cultural norms) sentient uplifts in disproportionate numbers. The genetically and emotionally stable K-11 uplift (canis sapiens familiaris) was a particularly popular choice, followed by the equally-intelligent (but less companionable) bioengineered Nova-Coons (procyon sapiens skhediazus), and the eccentrically brilliant Octopode uplifts (cephalopoda sapiens cthulus).

(By this time, uplifted primates had become so ubiquitous that most humans simply perceived them as people not terribly different from themselves, and considered most of the physiological differences as little more than cosmetic variations.)

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Initial studies indicated a genetic uplift of felis silvestris catus, the common house cat, had a good chance to prove profitable – if it could be managed. The small physiology of the base species posed serious challenges to bioengineering, as the genetic architects at Geistform GmbH sought to create a stable genome (for reasons of emotional health in the uplift species) capable of reliable reproduction, as well as human, or near-human, cognition.

Additionally, the bio-architects wanted a species perhaps less utilitarian than the highly successful K-11s and Nova-Coons, but at least as rewarding, emotionally, as companion to humans.

The bio-engineers at GG quickly settled on the Maine Coon breed as its base-form species. Already the largest felis silvestris catus, Maine Coons had predispositions for curiousity and intelligence, and careful preservation by aficionados had retained the breed’s genetically useful tendency toward polydactyl paws.

The GG personnel first addressed the problem of mass, with the introduction of DNA from Siberian populations of Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx), the largest of which regularly reaches about 84 lbs (38 kg), with outliers that approach 99 lbs (45 kg).

Within four generations base form had stabilized at 65-70 lbs (30-34 kg), and a body that, despite the mass, averaged only about 40 inches long (101 cm). It had a stocky, powerful frame inherited from both base species, fur coloring that ranged from the Lynx’s light, tawny tan, to the dark brown with tabby markings common to Maine Coons. GG marketers had also insisted on retention of the 18 in (46 cm) furry tail, for reasons of aesthetics.

At the same time, the GG bio-engineers had begun to increase cranial capacity and brain size, as well as modify the hip and spinal structures to allow for more comfortable locomotion and activity in upright positions. However, they kept the spinal manipulation limited, so while silvesters can walk upright, they only do so when needed, and mostly assume an upright position while sitting on their haunches.

By generation four, the GG scientists decided to focus on the development of the polydactyl paws into more useful hands. They achieved this fairly quickly, transforming the front paws into manipulators that had somewhat stubby, but still strong and flexible, fingers. However, they retained the thick fur of the hearth species, which mildly interferes with natural grip and fine manipulation.
Also, they paid relatively little attention to the back legs (other than to slightly modify the ankles to facilitate upright mobility), and polydactyl traits inherited from Maine Coon genetics means silvesters may have as few as four clawed toes, or as many as seven.

(Amusingly, the fur on their hands doesn’t interfere with keyboard usage, as modern silvesters extend their claws to click the keys. Additionally, shaving back the fur on the front hands eliminates the problem, entirely, although vanity causes many -- if not most -- silvesters to use cybernetic waldo gloves to compensate, instead.)

As the breed advanced through the generations, GG bio-engineers continuously enhanced cognition but soon ran afoul of competing project goals. Market research indicated that potential buyers wished the “silvesters” (the name selected after feedback from dozens of market study groups) to retain as many cat-like attributes, as possible.

The night vision, keen sense of smell and whisker-based vibration senses were all seen as attractive by the target market demographic, but the need to interpret and integrate so much sensory data with the advanced cognitive capacity frequently resulted in financially unattractive neuroses.

After a lengthy dispute that resulted in a number of departures from GG, the firm’s architects accepted a hard, upper limit to cognition in favor of retention of a sensory suite that closely matched that of the baseline DNA contributors.

The decision proved correct from a marketing standpoint, as the initial release of the silvesters as human companion uplifts resulted in such demand that orders remained backlogged for nearly four years. Geistform GmbH recouped its considerable development costs within five years, and continued good sales bolstered the firm’s stock price for nearly two more decades.

However, by the mid-22nd Century, changing public attitudes that shifted away from the perception of uplifts as property (combined with a fairly prolific rate of reproduction), began to reduce demand. However, by that time, the population of the stabilized silvesters had reached nearly 300,000 in Europe, alone, with about half that many more in the rest of the world.

Asian markets had proved resistant to penetration, however, due to fierce competition from the kitsune uplift created by Japan’s Biological Forms Unlimited (生物学的形態は無制限), designed specifically to fill a similar niche.

Psychology and culture

While still considered valuable property in some places, increased legal protections and changing social attitudes have resulted in increasingly autonomous silvester populations. Most silvesters continue to live as part of human families, or as companions to humans with similar “loner” tendencies. However, a small (but increasing) population has begun to establish semi-autonomous communities.

Most of the largest silvester communities lie within the boundaries of sizeable European cities, as “Kittyvilles,” similar to the ethnic neighborhoods established by humans, throughout history. However, most silvester “communities” (where they exist, at all) consist of single condominium or apartment blocks where the uplifts own (or rent) all of the residences and own any street-level shops or offices.

This marks the single greatest difference between silvesters and the much more numerous K-11(“kayleven”) uplifts. The millions of sapient canids, as a general rule, love their humans as much as humans love them, and the overwhelming majority live as comfortably integrated members of human families, in relationships that qualify as symbiotic.

By contrast, even those silvesters who like humans very much require greater quiet and more privacy than do the kaylevens. That makes them more “standoffish,” and inclined to independence.
This can be a source of friction between the much larger and more powerful K-11s and silvesters who share human families. On occasion, kayleven “pups” have been known to bully silvester “kittens.”

(As a general rule, silvesters willingly refer to their children as “kittens,” but all resist being referred to as “cat-boys” or “cat-girls,” as those terms generally refer to the larger and stronger transgenic humanoids, such as Pantheras. Those cat-like transgenics integrate feline DNA from larger predators in the genus panthera, but have no genetic contributions from the genus felinae.)

As a result, even those silvesters who live in human households tend to find quiet corners in attics, eaves or basements where they can get away from the hustle and bustle, and this preference is found amongst those in other walks of life.

While fast and agile, their limited strength and smaller size cause silvesters to shy away from physical conflict, unless they can arrange matters to their advantage. While K-11s and other uplifts can and do serve as valuable auxiliaries in many military organizations (with larger uplifted primates serving alongside humans as mainline troopers), silvesters are seldom found in uniform. The few who do serve find themselves in support roles, especially in technical fields.

The cognitive limitations imposed by the need to integrate their keen senses mean silvesters make better technicians than they do engineers, and better lab assistants than scientists. Still, many enjoy successful careers as maintenance technicians, where their small sizes, ability to see well in darkness, and comfort in tight quarters make them uniquely valuable.

Others enjoy rewarding lives as pediatric and geriatric nurses, while yet others do well in IT support; or robotics, cybernetics and drone repair and maintenance; or other technical fields. Some do well in more advanced engineering fields (although they are under-represented), but none have made ground-breaking contributions in basic research. Still, others have enjoyed success as inventors of toys and useful widgets (which many silvesters find fascinating, anyway).

While kaylevens have constantly accompanied humans and their uplifted primate cousins to even the most remote of colony planets, silvesters have a much smaller presence in space. The few who have accompanied mankind to the colonies mostly live in the higher latitudes or altitudes, or on planets that are cooler and darker, in general.

However, an increasing number of the best and brightest have begun to find work on spacecraft of all sorts, where their agility, small size and comfort with technology, make them welcome members of mixed crews. Their vibrissae have also proven quite valuable in identifying leaks and other critical issues unique to spacecraft.

Additionally, the silvesters’ predilections for privacy and preference for darker environs make them particularly well-suited as members of alter-day watches on starships, which tend to be much less busy than main-day rotations. Many have risen quite quickly as alter-day watch officers.

These positive experiences have drawn the attention of many of the younger silvesters, and some have started to wonder if the future of the species lies in space.

[Fred Brackin]

Just a note about Maine Coons. I have seen pictures of them in a _huge_ variety of colors, all very fuzzy of course and having tufted ears.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Just a note about Maine Coons. I have seen pictures of them in a _huge_ variety of colors, all very fuzzy of course and having tufted ears.

Yep, I used to live in a house that had two.
The male pretty much matched the standard brown and white coloring, and he was quite the character. Very smart cat, and he liked people.

The female was mostly white with some blond patches, and probably weighed five pounds more than the male because all she did was lay on the couch and sleep. She had about as much personality as a plush toy.