Races from other rpg systems in YTU...

[Vile]

I guess I'm the GM who's swimming against the current... I'm not adding anything right now.

I'm waiting for High Guard and Striker to be out so I can do some more thinking about the wider set of rules.

I'm in the same camp (but my tent's got the better spot). I want to see what I consider the "essentials" before I go too far in building on the basic system. High Guard, Scouts and Striker will do it for me. Not too worried about Robots or Merchants at this stage, and Mercenary doesn't affect the big picture that much for me.

I will probably add my own aliens - I never find the usual fare that believable. In the OTU (golden age Spinward Marches) I converted Aslan and Vargr into variant humans, and Droyne were kept far off stage.

 

[kafka]

Races...not too many...animals aka monsters abound in the Traveller Universe. I have been also known to sneak a few Star Wars aliens in here & there. Mainly I play in the 3I, so the aliens take a second place to humans (which taking a cue from Doctor Who there are many different types of "humans"). Culture of a world plays a more important role than race...so I am hoping that MGT Scouts will surpass DGP efforts at detailing worlds.

 

[Yogah of Yag]

My very first impulse was to import the races from Star Frontiers. IMHO, some cross-pollination between both systems makes for a lovelier garden. 8)

 

[Vile]

IMHO, some cross-pollination between both systems makes for a lovelier garden. 8)

:shock:
No sex, please, we're British!

 

[GypsyComet]

While I didn't actually get to use them, I did place a rough equivalent of GW's Kroot in my last campaign.

I also rather like the odder Star*Drive races, the Seshayans and Weren specifically. Not a terribly big fan of the Star Frontiers set, though.

 

[Ishvar]

Have you tried to interact with the alien races ?

This is not the way I am thinking about the alien races and moreover I am not comparing them to the races one can find in "the game that should not be named".

More seriously, there are a lot of races in the Traveller universe, something like a hundred minor races in the Spinward Marches as far as I remember. In other words, the referee must introduce some variety if he wants the player to have a glimpse of what life is in the Third Imperium.

I think that many referees are thus looking at other games to find useful aliens. Most of the times, I guess that we are actually trying to find cool looking aliens which personality we then change or customize to suit our own taste and our vision of the Traveller Universe. An unpopulated universe is like an empty shell, not very tasteful.

 

[steffworthington]

Kafers from 2300AD
Chigs from space above and beyond
cylons from BSG
reavers from firefly/serenity
aliens. predators, greys oh my.

nah... i'll stick to 2300AD or the OTU

 

[GamerDude]

cylons from BSG

There are 12 models of Cylons, and one of them is Vargr

 

[FreeTrav]

oh, for the love of god PLEEESE!!

NO KENDER!


NO DWARVES in SPAAAAACE......

and NO...

COSMIC ELVES !!!! :roll:

Too late - they're even canonical.

Dwarves are Geonee; Elves are Daryen. :twisted:

 

[FreeTrav]

Aslan make nice stand ins for Kzinhi, Chaanur(sp?), Samurais and enigmatic former Commanding Generals of parasitic aliens

Chanur, and that was a clan name, not the race name - the race went by the name "Hani", after their governing council, the Han.

Which leads to the thought of importing the Mahendo'sat from that universe; one could either leave them as a true alien race looking rather like Terrestrial apes, or glean what cultural information one can from the Chanursaga and turn them into a human minor race. Ditto the Kif and the Shsto. Regrettably, there's not really enough information on the methane-breathing races (Tca-Chi and Knnn) to be usefully portable to Traveller.

The K'Kree are a nice stand-in for the Posleen and similar "a lot but stupid" races

No, I wouldn't use the K'kree as a stand-in for the Posleen; the sociology is completely wrong. I always describe the Posleen to a Traveller fan unfamiliar with them (Posleen) as "The K'kree's worst nightmare", and elaborate on why.

Other aliens I think could be interestingly applied to Traveller:

Jacqueline Lichtenberg: Dushau Trilogy - the Dushau, especially, but some of the other races that Krinata encounters - such as the Holot - could be interesting as well.

An interesting symbiotic pair of human-mutant minor races can be found in the Sime~Gen universe by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah.

Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon The Deep: the Tines, obviously. From his A Deepness In The Sky, the human Emergency society could provide some interesting possibilities for Traveller, and the Spiders would make for interesting aliens.

The Race, from Harry Turtledove's WorldWar/Colonization series is too easily mapped to badly-played Bwaps or Vilani.

I'll give you the Darhel-as-Hivers, but the basic motivations for their respective manipulativity is different. I think that a Traveller universe could have room for both, and for the Indowy and Himmit as well.

While some of the aliens from the Pocket Books Star Trek novels are interesting as presented, I'd say that all of them are presented with insufficient depth to be able to use in a rich game like Traveller. This is sad with respect to the Vinithi (Sackers) from "The Three Minute Universe" and the Sivaoans and their cousins the Eeiauoans from "Uhura's Song". On the other hand, the three most important non-human races from the original TV series have been well-developed in novels; Diane Duane did quite impressive jobs on the Vulcans (Spock's World) and the Romulans (The Romulan Way), and John M. Ford was equally impressive with the Klingons (The Final Reflection). Any or all of them could be imported into Traveller as human minor races.

A couple of lesser possibilities might be the Fuzzies (H. Beam Piper) and the Treecats (Honor Harrington series by David Weber).