I'm going to need some help with this one, I think. I know where I want to go, but I'm not sure how to get there.
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I want to tell you how to create an alien species for Multiverser: The Game (r) in ten minutes or less. It has to be a better alien than ninety percent of the Hollyweird creatures, and seventy percent of the SF novels published as well. It also has to be simple enough that the players can grasp it without it taking you several hours to explain the intricacies of their pincer-talk sign language.
Sound impossible?
But wait! There's more!*
I'll also throw in absolutely free a random alien generator which you can use to kickstart your own mind when its out of fuel.
And if you like it, and feel like it, go buy one of my books.
*Yes, I'm fond of late-night TV commercials for plastic gizmos.
Sound impossible? You are a typical GM who's occasionally wished he could create an Alien, but never knew where to start? Trust me, friend. Its not really that hard. Follow the simple checklist, and you'll soon be having five-way political intrigues as the Five Races scheme against each other, or whatever other scenario your heart desires.*
*Void if you have a really freaky idea. I don't have anything against those, having quite a few myself, but I've deliberately set the bar low. Better than ninety percent of Hollyweird aliens is the bar. This is the Quick and Easy Guide, and its not the Enclyopedic Guide to Creating Aliens. We're aiming for really pretty cool, and easy. We're aiming for the eighty percent of the time situation, and not for the edges of the field. My reccomendation is A) Master this, and then move on up if you feel like it to more innovative creations. B)If you're already past this, then come post your cool brilliant ideas for all to enjoy.
Quick & Easy Checklist for Creating Aliens
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*Your Alien is Humanoid. That is, two-legs, eyes at the top of the head, brain with central nervous system are all basic parts of the package. Roughly ninety percent of aliens in fiction are humanoid. In reality, its only seventy-three percent.
If you choose to vary here, you're immediately getting close to expending most of your Imagination Budget. This is how much of their imagination your players are willing to lend you before they get bored with your ten-page dissertation on the intestinatl fora of the Dy'sy-neu'norak.
Choose another basic body plan, and make it larger such as the Star Trek: The Original "Horta" (Grub), or the Alien series "Alien" (Wasp). Centaurs and telepathic cats (sometimes giant) are popular choices as well.
1. Is the Alien roughly equivalent to a Human, or is it superior? Despite the existence of Jawa, inferior is rarely done.
more later
Regarding are the aliens equal to us in physical strength, something I read is that Klingons really are not that much stronger than humans. A physically-fit human would be a strength match for an average Klingon. (If you want to argue with me, then explain how Kirk keeps beating them in fights) Vulcans on the other hand, are waaaaay stronger than us. I think it had something to do with the gravity on planet Vulcan being much heavier than on earth.
Klingons aren't much stronger, but they're a dogpile more resilient. Why do you think Picard and them keep dealing with the same ones over and over and over?
On the subject of aliens, is there any easy way in MV to express the idea of a hive mind? I'm thinking mostly of the Borg on this one - a collective existence, really, where they're all more like one really big organism.
The easy way: stats for the individual elements + stats for the queen-entity + the psi skill that makes them a hive mind.
I think with the Borg specifically it's a mind-machine interface system--each of the individuals has a technological implant that both controls it and collects data through it. Not that it couldn't be psionic, but that the Borg appear to be technological otherwise. Whether they're connected to or through an artificial intelligence or merely through a computer to the queen comes to much the same thing.
--M. J. Young
I was a Borg drone in the Star Trek fan club I used to belong to. The "Captain" was a former Army Ranger, Desert Storm Veteran and a Hell's Angels biker if you feel like making fun of me for being in the club. He was a really cool guy, but I digress.
That was how they explained me being psychotic. Being free of the Borg implants caused me to go kind of multiple personality disorder in order to cope with being one mind instead of billions.
I really like the Borg.