GURPS Aliens: what's most interesting?

[ULFGARD]

This came at a very useful time for me, as I'm running a space game that includes the races from the old Aliens book. Most of them are not true aliens, but rather post-humans. This is perfect, though. Just change the evolutionary bits to "a gene-splicer did it", most likely with actual alien DNA added into the mix.

Now for the rest of the races done in such exquisite detail...

[ericthered]

I think Pakchekki where one of the races the old aliens book hit the nail on the head for. They felt very real, and though they were weird, they didn't feel like caricatures.

I will always go for weird aliens.

[Mailanka]

OH MAN! Finally!

Just the other day, I was building a setting called "Psi-Wars" with the intent of proving that it's easy to just grab GURPS bits and toss them together. The idea was to take stuff like the Star Knights of Space and some of the default Spaceships and some psi powers and Force Sword Combat and grab some of the aliens from GURPS Aliens (which I own) and just run it.

So I looked at the GURPS Aliens races and they were... awful. Not their fault, but they were 3e things, concepts from another time. From 4e standards they just didn't work at all. 4e has plenty of rules to handle the more subtle stuff that the 3e rules missed, and 4e also has different priorities than 3e, so some stuff that was given heavy priority in 3e that just didn't matter in 4e.

That said, they were so... 3e-ish, so GURPSY, that I wanted to like them. They instantly reminded me of the first time I read through GURPS Space. I wanted them to work, but they'd take too much work.

And now, Beth does that work for me. Bless you, Beth.

Alright, what Aliens would I love to see more of? From GURPS Aliens: The Gormelites (great random thugs and/or expy Wookies), Pacheki (Alien enough to be weird, human enough to fit on in a space-opera crew and, along with Gormelites, just scream "GURPS Space Opera" to me, probably due to all the art with them), the Traders (Woo, 4th dimensional beings) and the Engai (Great for anime space opera, or for comic book aliens)

As a general rule, I prefer aliens that are human enough that the casual player can relate to them, but alien enough that a sci-fi fan would like to explore what makes them different. A lot of the Traveller races are good examples of this. I don't mind aliens that are sapient funguses, or planet-scael neuro-mats, but there's not much I can do with them in the average, typical space adventure. Players, in my experience, have an easier time interacting with (blue-skinned?) Space Elves, (furry?) Space Dwarves and (chitinous?) Space Orcs than they really do with star children and giant, sapient space-crystals.

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

How many depends on the content of the race. I tend to like "Space Empires". [...]They might intermingle or whatever, but they have their own "Worlds" in their empires or regions.

That being said, I'm going to pick up a copy of the book to support the writer, and maybe it'll inspire me on something =)

Fingers crossed, and the writer thanks you! (My personal preference is a sparrial-irari alliance, with the irari being the ones who discovered sparrials and who are kind of wondering what hit them, while the sparrials are all "BUDDY BURDZ!" That could be an awesome empire/galactic faction.)

Originally Posted by ULFGARD

[...] Just change the evolutionary bits to "a gene-splicer did it", most likely with actual alien DNA added into the mix.

Well, there is a small mention about gengineering being the origin of sparrials, as one of the variation possibilities... (It's not a huge mention, but hopefully it will provide reinforcement/extra ideas on that. ^_^ )

Originally Posted by Mailanka

And now, Beth does that work for me. Bless you, Beth.

<3

*makes notes on the rest*

[Refplace]

Yeah I noticed the similarity to the Fantasy Races outline.
Hopefully this will inspire some movement there too. I think the trouble is so much is already cannon that there is little room for creativity, or at least that inspired spark that gets the juices flowing.
With that in mind my chief recommendation is to pick what inspires. The Irari don't interest me but I will buy it and expect you to make them more interesting anyhow.

I like the weird and non-standard fare the most, stuff I would not have thought of on my own. Tweeking existing material is easy.

That said and pulling out my copy of Alians....
Traders. Wow, they could fit into so many different campaigns as NPCs or PCs.
Fasanni I used them as a sort of Kobold replacement in a fantasy setting.
An Phar replaced Hobbits
Tamile They were just inspired and cool, though never used as a PC
Kaa made for a great Naga replacement, though I gave them crystal and little weather controlling Pyramids as a joke.
Cidi There cute and fuzzy.

Frankly anything in the Alians book would be good, those are just some standouts.
Even Aurors would be a fun book to read and use as plot hooks.

[Dammann]

Moving my post from the other thread...

I want them both, along with an phar and cidi and pachekki and tamile. If you're taking requests, though, irari next would be super!

What a great book. I really enjoyed reading this. If I had the skill and credibility and wherewithal, this is the sort of GURPS book I would want to write. This and Cathedral of St. George are the two most enjoyable reads in 4e, in my opinion, even though I've had no immediate need for either. If this series does expand, though, I may try to get a science fiction game running again.

I understand how it is with kids and spoons, but if you happen to see this post, Archangel Beth, how did you decide to focus on sparrials as a first entry to this series? I've always liked GURPS Aliens 3e, and sparrials are one of my favorite species in it, but there are a lot that I liked.

Edited to add:
I like the idea of irari and sparrials as an alliance. They are a good odd couple, like Doc Brown and Marty McFly.

I forgot gormelites, but they are another fantastic species, as are kaa. Gotta have bad guys, and gormelites could be good or bad. They are the Mongo of GURPS Aliens.

I also liked the yalkanni from the old pyramid. Great art, great feel, and lots of hooks for hanging stories on. They'd work really well in a Star Trek type campaign, with an alien every episode with unique troubles.

I agree with Mailanka's sense that they (all these aliens) are 3e-ish and GURPSy. That is a very positive, nostalgic thing for me.

I had a player with a tamile PC, once, named Billy Buttons. Billy was like a space opera bard/ face. The player didn't like fighting, and so she built a character "with the power to move you."

[dataweaver]

Anyone else remember Deeramanalandrellatholama, from GURPS Robin Hood's “Asteroid Raider” chapter? :)

IOW, put me down as another vote for the Irari.

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by Dammann

I understand how it is with kids and spoons, but if you happen to see this post, Archangel Beth, how did you decide to focus on sparrials as a first entry to this series?

Honestly, because they came up a lot in the long-running Space game we were running/playing in. So we'd already been doing some extrapolation there, which meant that when I was noodling around, well... They were already in my head, and some of the newer material had been "playtested" already. Plus their stats were all pretty simple to convert to 4e.

Also, they're fun little rogues, so coming up with even more stuff was generally entertaining rather than being a chore. O:>

(Which means that, yeah, they were pretty much a "work of the heart" in a lot of ways, so I am very giddy when people like the result. Especially when I'm in the authorial phase of being unable to re-read it for fear it will all be terribly clunky. *wry*)

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Cidi There cute and fuzzy.

Cidi are best di... and amongst my favs.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Dammann

If you're taking requests, though, irari next would be super!

The Irari were actually the first thing that popped into my head when I was thinking of "What race should she do next?" Because they have an awful template. They were the ones that made me tear out my hair. First, they have IQ +2 [20], which is one of those 3e things that make you pause. Does this mean they should have IQ +1 [20], or IQ +2 [40]? They have Extended Lifespan [25], which is absurd. I just can't imagine a player dumping that many points into a trait like that. They're described as insatiably curious... but don't have Curious [-5]. And so on.

And, in general, I've noticed that the alien races often have little nuances that aren't reflected in their templates, because they were written in an age before Perks and Quirks (Well, quirks were around, but you were less likely to see them in templates then).

The Jaril were the next in the book, and I gave up at that point. I had no idea how to translate that mess to 4e. I'm aware of the conversion document, but the intent I had was just to grab and go, not to fuss with a template for a few days, so I abandoned the book at that point. Which isn't to say there aren't great ideas in there, which is why I'm pleased to see this as a line.