So. Where are the Aliens

L

Lanatir

Mongoose
Recently i bought the Traveller Ruleset v2. I wanted to play a exploratory scifi campaign with friends. Part of that is, of course, Aliens. So, we also wanted to create Alien Characters. And much to my dismay, there is only 2 Alien Races available.
There is a note directing me to a 'Traveller companion', a Book that doesnt even exist, and apparently also will not be released any time soon.
I used to play Traveller in the 90s, and i definitely remember several Alien races were playable.
So. What is going on here? Am i missing something? Are the Stats to play Aliens hidden away in some obscure campaign book or somewhere on the internet? The way it is now, the rulebook is of no use for me, and i am considering returning it.
 
The best answer is "they are coming". Traveller v2 is a reboot of v1, which is a reboot, like other versions, of previous Traveller versions. :)

Basically the alien books haven't been revised yet. You can still use the v1, or even go back to the original editions to play a Vargr, a Hiver, an Aslan, a K'Kree, etc. All the source materials are there that you need.
 
is there a place where i can buy the corresponding books ? i dont own anything except the core rulebook v2. And which book exactly do i need.
 
Drivethrurpg.com you can pick up the v1 pdf's.

If you are interested in a more complete set of books, at a better value, check out Far Future's CD-ROM collection - http://www.farfuture.net/FFE-CDROMs.html. Here you can pick up entire collections at a very reasonable price depending on which versions of the alien books you want. I would suggest either the original MegaTraveller versions originally published by Digest Group Publications, or the GURPS (you can pick up the entire GURPS Traveller series dirt cheap on 2 CD's).

Once you have the source materials you can easily adapt to using v2 of Mongoose.
 
ShawnDriscoll said:
I don't think FFE has all the MegaTraveller Alien books on PDF.
Click to expand...

Yep, both of those books were done by DGP.

CT and Gurps are the only two that had the full range of Traveller Aliens.
 
I use T5 sophont generator then simplify the results for use in MgT. Lots of weird and wonderful aliens.

Sudden thought. Avatar Pandoran stats, hmm.
 
Seconding the use of the T5 sophont generator. Page organization could be improved but the details it produces usually provide some good ideas about the race's culture and behavior.
 
Using the Traveller chargen, and applying the various animal traits to your character, will make whatever alien race you're looking for. Or do the reverse. Make the animal first. Then replace their hit points with characteristics, and then add skills.
 
Generating a new race doesn't help much if you want all the background behind the race. Races are more than just two dimensional NPC's (and I believe the original request was to play an alien race. To properly play one you need to know what the race is about, their biology, their sociology, their history, what motivates them, etc. The Alien modules are for that. Sophont generators from T5 are not.
 
phavoc said:
Generating a new race doesn't help much if you want all the background behind the race. Races are more than just two dimensional NPC's (and I believe the original request was to play an alien race. To properly play one you need to know what the race is about, their biology, their sociology, their history, what motivates them, etc. The Alien modules are for that. Sophont generators from T5 are not.
Click to expand...

I would hope that Referees are thinking about the alien races and animals they are making up for their players at the table to encounter, rather than just using some randomness with no explanation for how/why they exist. This goes for any method used for creating aliens/animals.
 
Since all canon races are not (yet) available for MgT2 the best option is to look at older versions of Traveller. Regardless of which version you pick you will get the information your player’s need to learn how this alien race thinks, behaves, their values etc. Once you have created an alien character with an older rule system, it can easily be converted to MgT2.

The major races can be found here: http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Major_Race
And heaps of minor races here: http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Category:Minor_Race. The available data for minor races is naturally not as good as for the major races, but maybe one of your players find something extraordinary there.

Once you know which races you would like to create, I’m sure this helpful forum society can direct you to suitable pdf:s.

Don’t return the core rulebook – it’s really good! :wink:
 
Traveller has. more or less, six major races and a smattering of minors. I don't remember very many every playing hivers and k'kree are usually the bad guys. That leaves human, vargr, aslan and droyne. Droyne are the only other really playable alien race not covered in a Mongoose book but are available in the old Alien Module series PDFs. Until Mongoose gets around to it, I'd suggest getting the available PDF. I have all the old modules but I also enjoy the Mongoose interpretations when they came out.

The various Star Wars RPGs had dozens of playable races each with a one page write up and stats to generate a character and people played those dozens of races. Traveller has produced aliens with short write ups and stats in many publications often done in a couple pages. It doesn't take much to create an alien. A couple characteristic modifiers, traits from the animal creation tables or make up your own and a short biography describing what makes the race unique that can be expanded over time. That's how they did it before.

I suggested the T5 generator because it exists and either you can create any number of sophonts quickly or you have a foundation to construct an alien you have in mind with an extensive tool set. There are also one or two other commercially available alien race generator out there. Rather than everyone sitting and grousing no one ELSE is making alien player races, maybe use every tool available and offer races to the community.
 
There are four GURPS Traveller Alien Races books, which cover two races each in the first three books, and 20 in the fourth. There's also their Humaniti book, which covers a lot of minor human races and variant human races. (The latter are humans that have diverged, whether by extreme evolution or by genetic manipulation, to the point that they're a separate human species, rather than a subspecies.) And their Interstellar Wars book details Vilani in the Interstellar Wars era -- and back then some of them were different from the Vilani stereotype. (Even after a few hundred years of wars, the Rule of Man, a thousand plus years each of the Long Night, and the Imperium, some would remain.)

That's just one publisher's take on aliens. There were also the classic, Mega Traveller, and Milieu Zero books about aliens. And first edition Mongoose? There's no shortage of aliens!



- - -

I would say that Droyne are not really suitable as player characters, except in a group that plays troupe style, because a Droyne immediate family tends to act so much as a group that it should probably be under a single player's control.

K'kree are pretty much the same way, though they it might be reasonable for each player to play just a head of an immediate family, with the rest of the family as NPC followers. Even so, K'kree tend to be too much under the hierarchy to be much fun.

But a Hiver could be a great player character. They aren't tied to others of their kind like Droyne or K'kree are, so they could be all the way on the far side of the Imperium without a crazy back story. And they have interesting personalities, not so far from human that they're terribly difficult to play, but alien enough to be something different.
 
Traveller's minor races tend to get short shrift. Many of them are playable and have interesting characteristics. Could be there's a stigma associated with not inventing jump drive for yourself. :oops: Or, as in the case of the Aslan, you'd better do something with it after you steal its secrets.
 
They built the sport as the player character model. I have always wanted to play a small oytrip group as a player character such as engineers. They're fairly like minded so you don't need or want much individuality from them. The alien quality would be their group mind. Talk to one and they all listen then discuss then one, maybe not always the same one, would reply.
 
Reynard said:
They built the sport as the player character model. I have always wanted to play a small oytrip group as a player character such as engineers. They're fairly like minded so you don't need or want much individuality from them. The alien quality would be their group mind. Talk to one and they all listen then discuss then one, maybe not always the same one, would reply.
Click to expand...

Also, the intentional suicide. Krinaytsyu. Gotta use that!

Droyne leader: "Technician, you failed and now the entire iyuksimin is threatened."
Droyne tech: "I know. I am most sorry."
Droyne leader: "Kill yourself."
Droyne tech: "Okay."

Once your players see that happen, they'll know they're not dealing with just any alien race.
 
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