For those of you that do not know, I'm Dale McCoy, President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. We are known for our races in Pathfinder and would like to bring you aliens that you would like to play in Starfinder.
So we are coming to you. What kind of aliens do you want? Please feel free to reference existing Pathfinder material, your favorite scifi book/movie/tv show/web series/radio show/etc, or anywhere else you get your inspiration for a playable alien race that you want to see.
Tell us what you want to play.
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Some other ideas (though I know you can't just take them but maybe you can come up with ideas that "feel" similar)
Star Wars (tons of races but many feel very iconic to SW) Here are a few that aren't:
The Meris and Teltior
Trianni
Sluissi
Verpine
Defelhttps://www.pinterest.com/explore/alien-concept-art/
TV shows
Lexx
Stargate
Star Trek (all of them)
Guardians of the Galaxy
Babylon 5Movies:
Jupiter Ascending and that really cool reptilian species
Guardians of the Galaxy
The 5th Element
I love just about everything on this list, but I want to know what on this list do you want to play?
What about the B-Wing designing verpine seem interesting? Would you rather play a being of energy that must live in a mechanical suit to hide who they really are like the vorlons or how about an honor-bound race like the Klingons (and similarly the narns), the parasite-host race of the goa'uld or the trill? Do you want more small aliens? Do you want aliens that are great at singing opera, have brain tails and have body pouches to smuggle cargo? Do you want another logical race like the Vulcans, considering that androids are a core race?
I don't need pointed towards science fiction. I need pointed towards aliens from science fiction that you want to play and what is it about that race that you want to play.
Thematically, I have few concepts I'd like to see. Firstly, intimidatingly large ascetic pacifists, tough and wise but clumsy. Second, tiny sized mechanically oriented hexapod, four arms two legs. Third, hive mind symbiont.
Third, hive mind symbiont.
Hive minds are difficult because how do you have an individual if you are part of a collective? But if you mean something like the trill from Star Trek where you have two minds, one is the older wiser mind and the other is the body, that is much easier for people to understand.
Unfortunately this isn't very specific, but more of a guideline. But I am most interested in aliens that aren't single trait races. Fantasy fiction does this sometimes, but it often seems more prevalent in scifi. Just take the Star Trek examples – there are the honor-bound Klingons, the logical Vulcans. Each race has a single defining trait (and, of course, humans wind up being the "everything/complex" race).
Makes it tricky to market, but I'd say if you can explain what's most interesting about a race in one sentence, then it's not a draw for me. :)
That being said, trying to be actually helpful and specific... um...
A few things that jump out as interesting to me:
Less humanoid, exploring different biological shapes would be great
Also less humanoid psychologically This may be tricky to do mechanically, but could even work with a great explanation about the race and advice for players & GMs on how to convey that. Especially from some of my graduate work, this area really fascinates me. Thinking about the mental life of a creature that has evolved 100% separate from humans is fascinating! So not taking just one human trait and then cranking it to 11 like the logical Vulcans, but like the aliens in Arrival. Won't go into spoilers and that specific example would have to be watered down for a PC, but explain especially in the flavor text and to what extent possible in the rules, how a race actually experiences reality and fundamentally thinks differently.
For example, rather than human-like brains of higher (more civilized) conflicting with lower (more primitive) parts of the brain, maybe it is a tri-lobed alien with each brain relatively equal lobe largely independent. When one lobe of the brain settles on an action, a second lobe always agrees but tries to find another reason, and the third always disagrees with the other two. When the disagreement is strong enough, the creature acts on that, but only if it is better/stronger reasoning than the other two. Mechanically, you don't need to get into that detail, maybe something like since it takes longer to make a decision but they are able to focus on multiple things at once, so a greater penalty when surprised or on initiative, but less of a penalty from flanking. Nothing fancy. However, for the player, whenever the group is trying to decide on something, if there isn't a dissenting opinion yet, the player should dissent. If there already is a dissenting opinion, they should agree but try to find another reason why it's a good idea. But they also shouldn't care if everyone disagrees with them. Multiple conflicting voices are necessary to get the best decision, but you can't always listen to them all. Or in personal decisions (that allow some time, don't take too long during combat!) always list two completely different reasons for something and a reason against it before deciding.
Or the classic "see things as processes through time rather than static objects." Mechanics could be bonuses when move rather than stay in one spot or something, I don't know. But maybe more interesting is advice to players and GMs on how to speak when "Galactic Common" (or whatever) is full of nouns when your native language is all verbs. This can range from "-ing" words like "She is a humaning." which can be fun in small doses. An additional twist is perhaps getting confused on some words and instead call them by their previous or future forms. "Can I have some sheets of former tree to write on?" It's a minor little quirk, but used sparingly, those sorts of things can convey more character than most "+X to Y" traits anyway.
Races with built in story/character hooks. Like the vorlons being an ancient race meddling in the affairs of the younger races against another ancient enemy (been long enough, spoilers are ok, right?). An individual character can choose to play along with that, work against it, or struggle to find a way to balance both interests. Or also from B5 with the centauri having a past glory that they would love to reclaim. Those are fascinating hooks for both GMs to incorporate the race into the plot, but also for an individual PC to play off of if they want.
Art Also, for whatever races you come up with, I kinda hate to admit this, especially as someone who was a freelance RPG writer, but if I'm honest with myself, ahead of an interesting concept is the art for me. If a race has terrible art, I have a hard time really getting into it to even consider the concept. If it has mediocre art, I will consider it if there's a great enough concept. However, if the art is incredible, I will work a character around it even if the concept is weak (I guess maybe because it's easier to elaborate and expand the concept than it is to make better art for many of us). At the very least, try to avoid bland "here is a standard member of the race in a basic outfit standing motionless maybe with an arm out to the side as if from a medical data file." I like *characters.* Show me one or more examples of the race that has an interesting story to tell.
Third, hive mind symbiont.Hive minds are difficult because how do you have an individual if you are part of a collective? But if you mean something like the trill from Star Trek where you have two minds, one is the older wiser mind and the other is the body, that is much easier for people to understand.
single mind, many bodies. It would form a symbiotic relationship with another creature, either another pc or a cohort. Like an intelligent bodysuit made of itty bitty creatures.
You could start Starfinder Society season one
If you're here for Starfinder Society and not for a home game, you're in the wrong section of the boards. This is the Third Party area. You can't use anything we produce here in Starfinder Society. Similarly, I have no say in what SS does.
Artificial Intelligences beyond the androids. Preferably something similar to the Droid Design Handbook.
Advanced ship's AI placed in artificial "humanoid body". Doesn't have to be female.
Artificial Intelligences beyond the androids. Preferably something similar to the Droid Design Handbook.
From WEG? SWd6RPG?
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These seems a perfect place for me to start advocating for playable Flumpf stats. Bring on the flumpfs!
asari, zeltron( starwars race), togruta, and good old twi'lek and any sexy female race is gonna good for good old moi
What about a mandragoran? :)
We have androids - go another step further (like Star Trek) - sentient "hologram" constructs; but there is a physical element to them.
"Please state the nature of your medical emergency"
I want aliens that don't mirror humans in the placement and proportions of their limbs. There will be so many Star Trek style aliens that are essentially humans in make up. I want to see something else.
I want aliens like the Dug from Star Wars (Sebulba from episode 1. Uses feet as hands and hands as feet), the Hanar from Mass Effect (basically floating sapient man-o-wars), or the Nopon from Xenoblade (use ears as primary set of hands).
I want aliens that don't mirror humans in the placement and proportions of their limbs. There will be so many Star Trek style aliens that are essentially humans in make up. I want to see something else.
I want aliens like the Dug from Star Wars (Sebulba from episode 1. Uses feet as hands and hands as feet), the Hanar from Mass Effect (basically floating sapient man-o-wars), or the Nopon from Xenoblade (use ears as primary set of hands).
I didn't even think of that, but now that you mention it, I completely agree with you.
Some aliens I'd love:
A Plant Race
I would also like a plant race.
I'd like races with weird non-human features, like a race that's skin captures light, which let's it "see" through it's skin. Because of this, they don't have eyes. It could even have more similar adaptations so it wouldn't even have a head.
Or maybe a species that doesn't have many body parts we have and instead uses their mouth for everything. (Excrement, reproduction, raising young, etc)
Also, I third a plant race.
I'd love to see ideas from races in Jack L Chalker's Well of Souls Saga (the original, not the sequel trilogy, which was IMHO trash), particularly from the Northern Hemisphere of the Well World-AKA the really unusual and typically non-carbon based races. Bozog, Wohafa, Uchjin, and Yugash? Yes, please! Which is not to say that there aren't some very interesting Southern Hemisphere races as well. :)
If you happen to have copies of the d20 Star Wars books, how far off would it be to use the stats for those races directly?
Humanoid-esque robots that convert into vehicles and other similar machines. Bonus if there's rules for partners that turn into their heads and/or weapons.
Humanoid-esque robots that convert into vehicles and other similar machines. Bonus if there's rules for partners that turn into their heads and/or weapons.
Ahem . . . My turn.
There are a number of alien races that would be fun to play from the The russian ALIEN RACES BOOK. If you can get a copy of that, you have a lot of material to draw upon, especially from our own Galaxy. Some of the aliens from Mass Effect are said to come from that book.
Alright, crazy conspiracies aside, here are my suggestions:
Dolphins. Cute cuddly swimming Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins are actually Sapient.
Humpback Whales. Not very cute, but they have more glial cells in their brains than humans do. They are actually Sapient, but I never heard of them building starships. But the cute and cuddly dolphins can with the right equipment. Look to the tales of the Dogon as to what the Dolphins of Sirius have accomplished. They have to not only bring air, but have to bring the sea with them as well.
Ahem . . . Those are my two suggestions: two ungulate lifeforms that lack the humanoid bodyshape.
Now humanoids. There are dozens. Where shall I start? Ungulates? Canines? Reptilians? Saurians? Marsupials? Generally, although the sky is the limit when it comes to figuring out aliens, right?
Just remember that if you want good alien races it's cool to get a copy of the Russian Alien Races Book and mine that for ideas. Not to be snarky though, but you can basically raid Sofurry.com and Furaffinity.com for a lot of realistic alien ideas as well. I'm not being snarky, but the answer: "I want to have furry races!" had to have come up.
If you don't want to go the furry route, and I don't blame you for not going there, then you are best off mining the Russian Alien Races Book. I think it's been translated to English on the Disclose.TV website. It's small, but you can zoom in to read it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barlowe%27s_Guide_to_Extraterrestrials
I'm certain that there would be massive problems with licensing them, but here's a good start for you.
Also, I'd love to see a revisit of the aliens in D20 Future. (And the classes, while we're at it.)
A species that is actually a great many small organisms that work together to create something resembling a single body due to the advantages it gives over their normal form. When the organs they make start to fail, they just repurpose other parts of their body to have the same function. They let you play the hive mentality, without the player or DM having to deal with an actual hive getting in the way; it also gives the player some body sculpting, which is one of those things you see a lot in futuristic societies in fiction--although that's typically just a matter of money rather than species.
Long long long ago, there was a quirky game called Cyborg Commando.
The alien species your Cyborg was battling against, was a colony organism. It had no distinct organs. Rather, every cell performed a little bit of every function. The bigger the alien got, the smarter, stronger, faster it got. I seem to recall they were basically plasmoids but started trying to adopt human shapes (though larger) to deal with their troublesome conquered Humans.
In a D20 / Starfinder setting, a plasmalien could improve all its stats by growing in size, or depleting all stats by shrinking. Baseline being Medium, with buffs or debuffs for growing or shrinking.
Perhaps they wouldn't respond to normal healing techniques, but would have HP/Stamina for each size level. Shoot a Large plasmalien a lot, and it becomes a slower, weaker, dumber Medium plasmalien. Shoot a Medium plasmalien a lot, and it becomes a weak, slow, dumb plasmalien that can now slink into a small duct to hide.
Perhaps, if it can't benefit from normal healing, it could heal by absorbing enough food (or "food") to grow a size level.
Worst comes to worst, a plasmalien could store a Diminutive sample of itself in the fridge - where the party forgot about that lobster they bought a few planets ago. If the main body is killed, its allies could crack open the containment and feed it back to regular size.
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The main aliens from Mass Effect. Asari, Turian, Krogan, Quarians, Salarians, Drell, Volus, Protheans, Baatarians, Vorcha. Gala and Alteans from the New Voltron Legendary Defender on Netflix are some other good ones that come to mind. HALO aliens could be fun too. Elites, Grunts, Jackels, Brutes, Hunters.
For those of you that do not know, I'm Dale McCoy, President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. We are known for our races in Pathfinder and would like to bring you aliens that you would like to play in Starfinder.
So we are coming to you. What kind of aliens do you want? Please feel free to reference existing Pathfinder material, your favorite scifi book/movie/tv show/web series/radio show/etc, or anywhere else you get your inspiration for a playable alien race that you want to see.
Tell us what you want to play.
I want a variant of the Shirren that is basically a warrior beetle. They could have similar stats to the Vesk. I just like beetles.
For those of you that do not know, I'm Dale McCoy, President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. We are known for our races in Pathfinder and would like to bring you aliens that you would like to play in Starfinder.
So we are coming to you. What kind of aliens do you want? Please feel free to reference existing Pathfinder material, your favorite scifi book/movie/tv show/web series/radio show/etc, or anywhere else you get your inspiration for a playable alien race that you want to see.
Tell us what you want to play.
I know I'm late to the game here, but I'd like to see playable aliens based on the Votan races from the (now-defunct) Defiance TV show/MMO game.
(Though I admit I may be the only one who's interested, after a quick and fruitless search of the boards) (^-^)Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"