[Space] Interactions between species

[jason taylor]

They might use things like trail sign and dumb barter.

[dcarson]

Different size races can use the same aircar/cantina easier if things are scaled to the larger one. Centaur sized cantina humans may need tall stools and booster seats in the aircar but they can use it.

[Varyon]

A lot will depend on what technology - and particularly what superscience technology - is available. Handling different atmospheric conditions would involve sealed-off sections of town that replicate a given species' native atmosphere, and visitors would need appropriate gear. Aliens wearing respirators is a space opera staple, really, and wouldn't be out of place. This won't interfere with the "aircar" requirement; for the "cantina" one, there are a variety of options. Some aliens may have separate orifices for breathing and eating/drinking, so they'll just need the breathing tube(s) in the respiratory orifice(s) and can otherwise behave normally. A character could have cybernetics that let them breathe the air without much issue. Cantinas may provide (or the character could bring with him/her a collapsible version) something like a clear box that rests on the table and goes over the character's upper torso as a "feeding chamber" of sorts - sit with your upper body in the box and you can remove your respirator and enjoy your refreshments alongside your xeno buddies. You could also have an environmental suit that allows for eating and drinking with it on, although eating and drinking from a tube isn't nearly as fun as sharing some tacos with your friends.

It's a bit more problematic if you are reliant on a specific atmosphere in a manner other than "this is the mix - and partial pressures - of gases I prefer to breathe." For example, many amphibious species need to stay moist, and thus need a humid environment. In such cases, there may be some fairly basic workarounds (maybe the amphibioid carries around a spray bottle and spritzes itself from time to time), but you may need to just use a dedicated environment suit.

Handling different temperatures is similar, calling for either environments set to a comfortable temperature for a given species or an environmental suit to be comfortable in another species' favored temperature. Although honestly, given everything is cabon and water based, you probably aren't going to have many species that are evolved for temperatures humans can't handle without advanced technology - simply stripping down to a swimsuit or bundling up in heavy winter clothing should be sufficient (although if you'd rather not be - or legally aren't allowed to be - nearly nude or heavily-bundled, an environmental suit with built-in air conditioning and/or heating may be a better option).

Handling different native gravities is where superscience would be really useful, allowing for a localized gravity/anti-gravity field. Absent that, high-grav natives should be able to handle lower gravity without too much difficulty, although wearing weighted clothing wouldn't be a horrible idea; if staying long term, you may need a strict exercise regimen and/or treatments to avoid low-gee tissue degradation (mostly bone and muscle loss). Low-grav natives in high-grav environments are in more trouble. A small difference they can probably overcome without too much difficulty - in many ways it will be like walking around with weighted clothing. A larger difference will probably call for a mobility aid, such as a wheelchair or similar, and they'll want to be careful not to overdo things to the point their circulatory system can't keep up. A tank of liquid with legs on the bottom might not be horrible either, letting the character float, but at that point you're probably beyond the region where aircars and cantinas are an option. Extreme differences basically mean the low-grav native cannot be on the high-grav planet (or high-grav region, for a station with spin gravity, or if there is artificial gravity but the technology cannot be miniaturized for an excursion suit). Appropriate exercises, treatments, cybernetics, etc may be able to allow for a low-grav native to function as though they were a high-grav native, but that's not exactly something you can toss on to go to the local pub.

Morphological differences interacting with gear is another place where superscience is useful, as you can have gear that basically shapeshifts to meet the requirements of the user (of course, superscience isn't strictly necessary for this, but it makes things a lot easier). Absent the "morphing gear" option, you'll generally need different gear for those with different morphologies. This will mostly be the case for clothing, armor, and similar. For tools and weapons, having the right kind of fine manipulators is ideal, but often simply having fine manipulators will be enough to use the item, albeit sometimes at a penalty. For example, an item designed for use with tentacles might have multiple small gripping points, for wrapping the tentacle around it; a human may need to use both hands and still wind up with an awkward grip. You might also have some gear that's unusable without modification, or maybe just without using additional tools. A species that has retractable claws or similar might have a device that is activated by extending a claw through a hole to press a button; a human would need to hold it awkwardly and shove a thin piece of metal through the clawhole to activate it. A four-armed creature might have a tool that requires four different sections to be manipulated at once; a single human might be able to manage using both feet and hands, but more likely you'd need two humans working together.

EDIT: You could also have an issue of morphological differences preventing mobility. A purely-aquatic species is going to have trouble getting around on land, while a landbound one won't swim too great. The former would basically want the same types of mobility aids as a low-grav native; the latter may want flippers and/or some automated method of propulsion to swim more readily. In both cases, basically piloting a small mech designed for the environment could be an option.

Different nutritional requirements, at least, are typically going to be easy - characters carry different rations, restaurants and the like often have "xeno-friendly" menu items, etc. The bigger concern here may be cultural. Delicacies for one alien species may be absolutely revolting to another, while herbivorous species in general may well object to the consumption of meat. PC's who are working together are probably cosmopolitan enough to accept this, so you won't have the herbivore PC throwing a fit every time the obligate carnivore PC orders a steak (or when the omnivore PC does the same, although they may get a bit of side-eye) - but that obligate carnivore PC may have trouble finding food in a cantina in the herbivore district, and may not be able to bring his/her own (although the herbivores might be alright with insect-based foods, like the carnivores eat in Beastars).

Different sizes can be problematic if they vary tremendously, although as dcarson notes, having a lot of things scaled to the larger species makes things more workable. An ogre is going to have trouble fitting into a halfling-scaled pub, but a halfling at an ogre-scaled pub just needs a booster seat, and maybe should bring his own mug (or just a straw, and maybe a friend to split that gallon of ale with). Naturally, gear for characters of different sizes will need to be scaled to that character's size and strength, so things are unlikely to be interchangeable, even if going with the "morphing gear" option above. Highly-cosmopolitan cities will probably have most things scaled to be able to accommodate the largest species, but with options available for the smaller species as well. Using my ogre vs halfling example, the building will be large enough admit an ogre comfortably, but will also have halfling-scaled amenities - the pub will probably have some halfling-sized tables in addition to the ogre-sized ones (and booster seats for halflings who opt to sit at an ogre-sized table), and will also have cups/glasses appropriate for a halfling in addition to those meant for the ogres.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Different size races can use the same aircar/cantina easier if things are scaled to the larger one. Centaur sized cantina humans may need tall stools and booster seats in the aircar but they can use it.

In a multi-species campaign setting, many basic items of equipment will also be adjustable to allow different species to use them - at least sort of. For example, simple chairs might actually be oddly-shaped polygons, with each face somewhat adapted suit each species. Turn the item to the suitable face and sit down.

More expensive equipment might have active adaptation measures which involve smart matter or equivalent. Press the right button (or whatever) and the item adapts itself to suit your species (or you, personally).

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There are several meaningful grades of "similar biochemistry":

Below "we can breathe the same air" there is also:

* We can survive in the same general types of atmospheres using highly-reliable environmental suits or similar technology (e.g., the Breen from Star Trek or the Illensans from the Sector General books).

It also covers species which can survive in an Earth-like environment with simple equipment like respirators or supplemental breathing gas generators.

As long as extremely reliable, portable, gravity control technology is available, this option also allows species from extremely high or low gravity environments to all happily play together.

At the other end of the scale, there's:

* Susceptible to the same diseases, poisons, etc.
* Can interbreed.

These options cover silliness like Star Trek humanoids being susceptible to alien viruses and being interfertile, despite billions of years of independent evolution.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Frost

I am looking at running a campaign that is more or less stock space opera (ok with a bit of a hard SF undertone- it's still me) but with exclusively non humanoid, if not full on starfish, aliens.

While I am still at a very early stage so I don't know the species I want to use I am trying to figure out how the fundamentals will work and would appreciate any experience or ideas you have.

It's going to involve questions of both 'kind' and 'degree'. You'll need to ask yourself what sort of general interactions you want to have happening, and build out from there.

My big questions are:

How do these species interact?

I am assuming that for the sake of my sanity that all my species are going to have carbon/ water chemistry and breathe oxygen but that still leaves room for a lot of conflicting needs. How are environments organised to meet the needs of more than one species?

It depends on what the differences are (kind) and how much so (degree). Water and oxygen still leaves a lot of room for fine-detail chemical weirdness, for ex. The reason arsenic is so poisonous is that it's one level down on the periodic table from phosphorus, and shares enough of phosporus' personality to interfere with the phosphorus chemistry in our cells. It would be entirely plausible for arsenic to be a vital nutrient for a water-and-oxygen life form. (In fact, some real world Terran animals do require micro-amounts of arsenic to live.)

If they get this arsenic in their food, that would be relatively easy to accommodate. Restaurants and other food suppliers would just have to make very sure the phosphorus-eaters' food and arsenic eater's food were clearly labeled and kept very separate. (I have a suspicion that a species that needed large amounts of arsenic to live might find phosphorus about as deadly as we do arsenic.)

OTOH, if they breathe the arsenic somehow, or absorb it from the environment directly...that could be problematic.

But that's just an illustration of how various even water-and-oxygen could be.

How do I handle equipment?

I know there are rules for differing sizes for armour suits and other life support items but how best to handle (or even describe) gear for species with different manipulators has me stumped.

Thanks in advance.

Well, if the aliens are too physically different...they probably won't handle it. Past a certain point, creatures would begin to mostly associate with their own kind, or creatures more similar to their own kind, and you'd rarely run into their gear, and vice versa. So the issue would mostly be within a certain size range.

This would be even more true of different environments. A sapient squid and
a human might interact on business or fight over something, but they aren't likely to closely socialize, it would take very weird circumstances for them to both be in the same cantina. So again, it would be the 'mostly human like' aliens you'd mostly directly interact with.

Even if they are interacting violently, a human and a sapient squid (or such an entity) would be unable to fight directly. They can't endure each other's home environment for more than a few moments. So it would really be their equipment fighting.

Way, way back in the days of Doc Smith, he described a vast multi-species galactic association ('Civilization'). But it was mostly the more similar-ish species that interacted most often. Humans can go into a cantina with a Chickladorian, and they can both enjoy themselves. Not so much with an ammonia-breather or a Palainian.

So if you have radically different aliens, even water-and-oxygen ones, interaction becomes iffy except at a remove. Even if you meet face-to-'face', one side or the other or both will be in an unpleasant, dangerous environment or otherwise inconvenienced, and will probably be eager to finish the business and get away.

If you want Trekish direct interactions, you probably need to make some of your aliens similar in size, similar in environment, and so forth.

Within that relatively narrow gap is where the differences would begin to matter. A bird-like alien might have hollow bones and be fragilely built, and as a result his preferred surroundings might be padded and otherwise designed to avoid 'hard knocks'. Even if he can't fly, like an ostrich or something, his home might carpeted floor, walls, and even ceiling, and his clothing might be heavily padded because his bones can easily break.

A biped who had one strong hand/arm for heavy work, and one weaker but more dexterous arm for fine work, might prefer an environment that's heavily bisected. All his tools always on one side, for ex.

To use Doc Smith as an illustration again, one of his alien species, the Rigellians, had no sense of hearing. They were all 100% deaf to sound. Their cities are not entirely unlike ours, but they are hellish for humans to visit because no effort at all, ever, has been more to moderate sound, to avoid unpleasant sounds, it's a nightmarish cacophony. A human who had to spend much time in such a city would require ear protection for both the preservation of his hearing and alleviating the torment of the noise.

(Imagine scraping chalkboard, multiplied a thousandfold, and loud enough to damage your hearing, 24/7/365.)

A flying species might build cities that a human would consider vertiginous. Imagine doors that open on 500 foot drops, routinely. Walkways might span vast gaps with no railings.

A sapient who evolved from a heavily predated species might be very agoraphobic, by human standards, esp. if the predators were flying creatures. Imagine having a friend or associate who has to make a Will roll every time he goes out in the street in a human city, because the street is unroofed. A city with a lot of members of that species, or a neighborhood with a lot of them, might end up roofing their streets because of that.

Imagine a creature whose manipulators have a sense of touch far finer than a human hand. Imagine that they are also color-blind and have poor vision (or different vision, like a predator's motion-sensing eyes instea of human 'focused' eyes). So?

So their equipment doesn't have blinking indicator lights or display screens. Instead, it has vibration-pads, which convey complex information to the sense of touch. One of their radscanners might make no noise and have no lights or dials or screens, but instead that handle vibrates in patterns that tell how much radiation is present and what forms. A human using one might feel nothing at all or just a vibration that they can't discern any pattern in, because of the difference in the senses.

(Or maybe rare humans can use their gear, 1 in 100,000 have a sense of touch good enough to learn to use it.)

[Frost]

Ok so my take-home so far is that:

• I can have humans interacting directly regularly and for long periods with starfish aliens.
• Really diverse multi-species crews and communities, are however less likely. Most communities will be single species from practicality.
• Environments designed to promote interaction between the largest number of species are going to be purpose built and look a bit weird. My initial vision is refrigerated barns full of complex shaped furniture and tech with minimalist tactile controls, no obvious displays and wi-fi capability.

On the whole this is a really positive start. Building this into my bare bones outline it seems that unsurprisingly interactions between species will be most common near ports or in transport networks, particularly where the eldest are involved.

'Universal' environments are likely to be confined to space stations, ships and asteroid colonies mostly provided by the eldest. At a guess many systems are going to consist of a bunch of single species enclaves and several nodes designed to facilitate interaction.

Interestingly this actually helps with another of my ideas. Essentially it gives me a non violent way for humanity to spread through the wider society without ever quite belonging.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Frost

Ok so my take-home so far is that:

• I can have humans interacting directly regularly and for long periods with starfish aliens.
  

.

Starfish aliens can get past the first gate anyway. For example, there's the archetypal starfish aliens from Traveller, the Hivers.

They can stand human environments but don't communicate the way humans do and are so obnoxious (in not particularly violent ways) that if their political unit wasn't too big to ignore no one would have anything to do with them.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Frost

Ok so my take-home so far is that:

• I can have humans interacting directly regularly and for long periods with starfish aliens.
• Really diverse multi-species crews and communities, are however less likely. Most communities will be single species from practicality.
• Environments designed to promote interaction between the largest number of species are going to be purpose built and look a bit weird. My initial vision is refrigerated barns full of complex shaped furniture and tech with minimalist tactile controls, no obvious displays and wi-fi capability.

On the whole this is a really positive start. Building this into my bare bones outline it seems that unsurprisingly interactions between species will be most common near ports or in transport networks, particularly where the eldest are involved.

'Universal' environments are likely to be confined to space stations, ships and asteroid colonies mostly provided by the eldest. At a guess many systems are going to consist of a bunch of single species enclaves and several nodes designed to facilitate interaction.

Interestingly this actually helps with another of my ideas. Essentially it gives me a non violent way to spread through the wider society without ever quite belonging.

Large cosmopolitan cities might well have species-specific 'neighborhoods' that are mostly occupied either a particular species, or groups that like the same environments and can use similar tools/equipment. It would be analogous, but more intense than, the ethnic and racial clusters you see in real world big cities. The separate areas might or might not be peacefully coexistant, they might or might not be de jure all under one governing authority (though they're likely to be semi-independent de facto). Another (loose and imperfect) parallel might be the Ottoman millet system.

[WingedKagouti]

For some reason it took me this long to recall the Valerian and Laureline comics, despite how much I loved them as a child, they have some interactions with non-humanoid aliens, including ones that require environments hostile to other species. The books featuring Point Central shows it as a massive place with separate sealed environments, and characters usually wear pressurized space suits when going into a potentially dangerous environment to talk with aliens living there.