The aliens run what is little better then an interstellar feudal state. The ideal of their culture is to not have to work, but be granted the option pursue whatever their main interest should be. Be it philosophy, literature, art, warmongering, whatever. The best way they found to have such a lifestyle was to maintain servants/slaves/serfs. Why they enslaved their own people for a time, this lead to more then a little social chaos attributed to problems created by enslaving their own population. But advancements in interstellar travel opened up a range of possibilities.
They proceeded to conquer their neighbors, and enslave them, placed themselves as lords over these conquered populations, and instituted a largely exploitative economic system. Many among this race considered such fiefdoms to be a right to their people, and demanded more (and preferably rich or at least have something interesting) planets be conquered. Additionally, the largely exploitative nature of their rule redlines many communities. Making it a necessity to add more planets to add to the empires treasuries. Now the PC’s star nation is likely the next target in line for conquest.
The aliens still have a strict hierarchy to their culture. Their race is split into very specific castes, and great emphasis is placed on wealth, land, and slaves. One that runs the interstellar empire, to those who run planets, and on down to those who are forced to run asteroid colonies or cities. Most generally leave the actual administration (or at least the more mundane part of rule) of their fiefdoms to their slaves while living a luxurious life. Though more then a few have taken up military matters as a hobbie, either funding their own small armies or their buying their own ships (which also gives them the right to a greater share of the loot when they end up conquering their neighbors).
So that’s what I more or less have thought up so far. I’m trying to come up with the specifics of the actual alien race as far as rules go. I would also like and opinions or suggestions to improve the concept of the race.
Is there a reason for slavery? Are these aliens particularly frail? are they harvesting a highly radioactive resource? etc....
As for Aliens.... You could go basic with Fraal or one of the other core races or if thats not your style (like myself) you could scratch build an alien race, Ideas include Aliens composed of pure energy or stone...
I can help you draw up some specs on aliens, but I also (being a Starcraft Fanboy :D) have to throw the Idea of the Protoss out there. Cause they are just awesome, you can find them on Page 4 of my Starcraft D20 thread [link in Sig]
Tael
I'd opt to pull the Sangheili (elites) off a halo conversion and then build with standards from there.
also the Lekgolo (hunters) could work out well if you want them to be really alien.
I was leaning towards something that wasn’t in the D20 Future book. Instead using them as PC races, or other star nation races to either be possible allies or enslaved. The Protoss you pointed out look like a good possibility to work off of. Naturally I would have to modify them a bit to make them fit the campaign fluff wise. But they already have a caste system set up, which I like. I can build off of that to fit my campaign idea.
An interesting idea would be if they many of them worked hard to avoid death, and used processes such as getting their minds transferred to robotic bodies (such as the Protoss Dragoon). Maybe their religion has no real afterlife, or just isn’t bothered by the use of life prolonging agents.
Lonewolf: Working off a previously existing race sounds like a plausible idea to work off of. I’m not real familiar with the Elohiem. I do not even know what book they are in. I was already thinking about using the pre-existing ones as slaves (and as more then a little bit of cannon fodder). The Predator certainly opens up a number of possibilities if tweaked. I was honestly thinking about there being a “club” interested in hunting dangerous prey, including sentients, as an extreme form of hobby *cough* PC’s *cough*. Having the alien species dedicated to war and hunting would certainly make for a dangerous opposition. Perhaps some among them see war as just an elaborate hunt. With many of them using their troops as just extensions of their hunting abilities, but try and leave the most dangerous prey to themselves.
Doomsought: The Covenant is definitely something similar to what I was thinking about. I like the class structure they got. I should probably arrange the various races under their control in a hierarchical order based possibly on how useful or desirable they are.
Something that has gotten me thinking is that I might want different racial stats for the different castes in the species. Though how different to make them is a question because after a certain point they are just different species I would think. Though they may have used genetic alterations in order to make members of each caste more able to complete their jobs.
A big question is how dysfunctional I want to make this society. Like the problems of a centralized government vs. local government with conflicts between the power of local lords and the interstellar rulers. Also how the various other slave races react and deal with each other is important.
You also might want to consider the possibility that, as was raised earlier, if they take a lot of slaves to do all the things they don't want to do, then like the Covenant there will be a huge number of wildly different slave races fulfilling various tasks. You may not need to alter the Ruling race through genetic engineering to make many castes, each caste may in fact be a separate slave species chosen specifically for their excellence at their appointed role.
Lonewolf: Working off a previously existing race sounds like a plausible idea to work off of. I’m not real familiar with the Elohiem. I do not even know what book they are in. I was already thinking about using the pre-existing ones as slaves (and as more then a little bit of cannon fodder). The Predator certainly opens up a number of possibilities if tweaked. I was honestly thinking about there being a “club” interested in hunting dangerous prey, including sentients, as an extreme form of hobby *cough* PC’s *cough*. Having the alien species dedicated to war and hunting would certainly make for a dangerous opposition. Perhaps some among them see war as just an elaborate hunt. With many of them using their troops as just extensions of their hunting abilities, but try and leave the most dangerous prey to themselves.
QUOTE]
Well I'm glad part of my ideas were useful in some way. As to the Elohiem, they appear in the Menase Manual, don't have a copy handy at the moment or I'd give you the page number. Long story short, the Elohiem are humanoid outsiders with the ability to surrond themselves in flame. Once, a very long time ago they controled a vast empire, Earth. Then either because they felt betrayed, or perhaps because they developed a concsious, nah it has to be the former, a small clan or sect, the members and their desendents are still unknown to this day, lead the down trodden masses, humans, in a bloody reblion that broke the back of the empire. Also, as a ray of hope to your PC's, the Elohiem are vulnerable to cold based weapons and effects.
I mean,
Cyber Mutant Pace Kobalds
What does a Space Kobald do when somebody is picking on them?
They pick on somebody smaller than themselves,
and when your species has FTL ships with PlasCannon & FusionGuns, 'smaller' no long is restricted to size.
Constant expansion to shift power to prevent other powers from getting to powerful. And they get to kick lesser (tech) species in the shin & laugh... cause that is always fun.
How did Space Kobalds develope FTL?
The didnt, they conquered a bunch of techie losers that lived at peace with each other... which in hindsight for them was very short sighted to assume no aliens would stop by at some point. When you dont have a sharp stick and some aliens invade waving sharp sticks around...
My mother has no idea how her car works. Or her computer, she, like 80% of Excel users, only use 10% of the system capability... and that is enough to make serious money using the computer & telephone (no, she doesnt know how to do a confrence call either, the IT guy sets it up in the meeting room). Operating a starship is a matter of explaining to the computer what you want the ship to do, and the computer does it.... kinda like a super F22 FlyByWire or B2. "Turn Left 18 Degrees" gets translated into about 2500 things the ship safety checks, doublechecks, & does.
Like the insurance comercial-
FTL is so easy a Kobald could do it.
Backstabbist: Well you have pretty much convinced me to use space kobolds in my game. I figure they could get into all sorts of places in the universe given their nature. They could make for a very useful slave race given the number of things they could be useful at.
Gargoyle2k: You are right about that there shouldn’t be much freedom in a caste system, not even for those on top. It has been something that has been bothering me as I have thought what I want for my main antagonists. But hey, that’s what brain storming sessions like this are for. I should definitely outline what careers and pursuits are acceptable for the enslaving race.
The Fraal, or at least a race very similar, would probably be the best choice to lead “Covenant.” They could pursue the “higher endeavors” they think they are more suited towards while their enslaved races can take care of less desirable ones. It could be this group of Fraal is an offshoot from the main group of Fraal outlined in the book. Naturally the Fraal would be frustrated by not being able to follow the specific careers they feel they are most suited towards. Additionally, they are a faction that believes they should take active efforts in cultivating other “lesser species.” As a result they start to absorb lesser species into an empire, making them perform less desirable tasks, but ones they are naturally inclined towards. Logic being that some species are just better at certain jobs then others, and putting them into a specific caste where they can work to their full potential is for their own good. As a result they develop a philosophy of trying to build a “perfect” harmonious society that should be spread across the galaxy.
Now I figure the more desirable jobs the Fraal would want to set themselves in would probably be (given the description in the book) research, science, xenobiology, exploration, and though they have trouble understanding such pursuits (they could get one of their slave races to help them understand them) philosophy, art, theology, and other higher arts.
Here are some other alien species I have considered they may have conquered, and have incorporated into their empire.
Sesheyan- Probably an early and easy conquest considering they would be considerably less advanced then the Fraal. They could be used to assist exploration with their flying abilities, and their races disposition towards hunting and survival. They could also be used as scouts, assassins, and flying troops in the event of war.
Kobolds- They would probably make for good engineers, technicians, and other such mechanically driven jobs in addition to generally menial jobs. On the battlefield they could be used as raiders, skirmishers, or in jobs where they just need lots of bodies to throw into the meat grinder.
Weren- Another species defeated and absorbed due to the Fraal’s greater technological advancement. They can be used at menial jobs that require a lot of muscle. They can also be used as the regular troops of this empire given their warrior culture.
Medurr- These guys can be the general shock troops for the Fraal. Given their militaristic nature, and their tendency to enslave other races, they can be used just for the purpose.
Humans- I’m not quite sure where humans would fall into this whole caste system given they are pretty much generalists. They could be direct assistants to the Fraal, helping with administration, research, and other significant tasks. Some help on that would be appreciated.
Moreau- Conquered along with human civilizations. They could serve as direct body guards to the Fraal, or perform any number of tasks their natural abilities might help them with.
Any other suggestion for species that might be good for the Fraal to enslave? Or how to better implement the current species I have listed?
*StIgMaTaDoR ducks quickly and dodges out the back door to avoid the rotten fruit flung at him.*
We dont talk about that kind of trademarked intelectual property here.
We can devlope our own space guild, with enemies in the form of comercial, empirical, fuedal, militaristic, and assimiative natured space species we develope.... or derive from thed20 Open material like Kobalds & Drow,
but we dont discuss the Roddenberryverse on this board.
hey hey hey now,
We dont talk about that kind of trademarked intelectual property here.
We can devlope our own space guild, with enemies in the form of comercial, empirical, fuedal, militaristic, and assimiative natured space species we develope.... or derive from thed20 Open material like Kobalds & Drow,
but we dont discuss the Roddenberryverse on this board.
Ooops!
Sorry... I had no idea it was so taboo.
I meant no offense.
Sorry.
We gotta put a stop to that kind of talk before folks get in trouble, and the best way is vigilant self policing.
Anyhoo-
Mind Flayers are pretty high up the food chain, and kinda imply real hard that psionics are gonna exist in the campaign.... and they can be a real headache for the GM.
get it... psionics can be a headache....
Dont worry, just lettin you know them Roddenberryverse owners will send their lawyers by swingin their Das Es Verbotten pipes upside our little wizzy heads.
We gotta put a stop to that kind of talk before folks get in trouble, and the best way is vigilant self policing.
Anyhoo-
Mind Flayers are pretty high up the food chain, and kinda imply real hard that psionics are gonna exist in the campaign.... and they can be a real headache for the GM.
get it... psionics can be a headache....
Yeah mind flayers are up in the food chain, and they could just be unique creatures that can do things others can't... In all of my games so far(that have been linked together) mindflayers have been pulling strings from behind the scenes and never encountered. Though that's not how he wants to have his species I guess.
I kind of like the Illithid idea. An extremely manipulative race that would prefer to use other species as slaves to do the drudge work of their society. Having a caste system that benefits them definitely seems up their alley. I was planning on allowing psionics in my campaign, so the Mind Flayers abilities are not a problem. They can definitely provide for a suitable threat to the PC’s as the main antagonists, and they can use their cannon fodder in their place against the PC’s. I am liking the idea of using them as my main antagonists. Any suggestions on how best to implement them?
Try checking out the Elysium Nebula stuff that Skrittiblank has here on the boards and on his website. Anyways that might help, I have them pulling the strings behind the backs of the other BBEG... heck they could be dominating them and only be revealed at the end. Making them wonder just what exactly did happen. Make them double guess everything. Well thats how I would do it.. Have the mindflayers have some over arching plan/goal that is the second driving force in the game (the first is always the players), and I think that a couple of layers of secrecy on everything wouldn't hurt. If you have the D&D abberations book I would take a glance there, or really just go to the bookstore with a notepad if you don't want to buy the book. Well thats my two cents anyways.
An extremely manipulative race that would prefer to use other species as slaves to do the drudge work of their society
I'm still thinkin KOBALDS!
Cunning, coniving, slave-whippin little jerks that bring a SpikePit or TripwireSnare to a gunfight. Give them some character levels to make them really nasty, or zerg several dozen with a couple sergeants... or maybe captain with Field Officer ranks.
The look on players faces when you hit them with 15 or 18 Autofire Attacks (2d4) is priceless, cause every kobald infantry deserves a itty bitty uzi.
30 SpaceKobalds + TinyLaserSMG's (3d4) = Good Time Gaming
... I mean, whats a mind flyer gonna do when you encounter him, deliver a long winded monologue about conquering this & all other universes for a half an hour? Let me guess, 'Fools, I will destroy you all' #16-C: 30min MindFlayer Monologue
It was the first thing I thought of as I read your post.
here's a wiki link to give you some idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draka
They are a caste based warrior culture somewhat like the clans in Battletech/Mechwarrior.