G'Naakbusters
Cosmic Mongoose
Players of Traveller have varying preferences for the degree of alien presence, particularly Minor Races. Some prefer to have them scarce, others enjoy emphasising them. Generally, the setting seems to balance these preferences quite nicely, with a good number of localised cultures and species that can enrich a given region without demanding that any campaign, adventure, or story accommodate them.
For those who like exploring the cultures, biology, political interactions, etc., of the alien races, but also want to remain within the core setting, opportunities for crafting Minor Races are sometimes scarce. Traveller Map has named and placed a number of such races in Vargr, Hiver, and K'kree space, unofficially; canonical indigenous species are placed throughout the Solomani Confederation (with the several such races of Canopus, Aldebaran and Neworld receiving only names and the briefest of descriptions); Mongoose has name-dropped some Aslan subjects who are also nothing more than those names coupled with descriptions as, say, "reptilian" or "avian" (these, tantalisingly, don't even have Map placements yet).
However... there are also a few canonical or long-established races about whom some interesting things have been established, but who haven't received attention. Places on both the literal and figurative map where a lot of creativity can be built on a foundation already in place.
Here are some of the established sophonts that have not, so far as I can tell, received any in-depth descriptions or explorations:
Bosaki of Bosak: Canonically a starfaring race within Far Frontiers Sector. We know that they control one of the large corporations active in the non-Zhodani region of the sector -- Qwuim Bosak -- and as such interact frequently with their human neighbours. This is all we know. We have no idea what they look like, and no idea of how their culture and society work beyond the fact that they have concepts of trade and business compatible with those of interstellar Humaniti.
Gniivi of Pru-mavin, Ar-gniiv, and Ar-stoon'l: They're slow-moving, they're active politically and economically in interstellar society, and the Map hints at some interesting things about their "Collective" and their language (the three homeworlds suggests some fascinating backstory or political complexity, especially with the implications drawn from their names, listed tech levels, etc. Which of course is what the world stats should do, provide inspiration for creativity and world-building). We know almost nothing about them as a society, though, nor anything about their biology beyond reference to "large, slow, and long-lived".
Krotan of Krota: They're omnivores; they're allies of the Hivers but independent of the Federation; like the Gniivi they have a large pocket empire and population; and they're one of the Hivers' "border hardening" projects to trip up the K'kree. Lots of potential... but who are they? We know nothing of them biologically or socially. What are the details of their relationships with the Hivers, the K'kree, and the Lithkind?
Tahavi of Tahaver: The first non-Humans the Vilani encountered; they've been clients/allies of the Vilani for practically the entire history of the setting, and there are ten billion of them on their homeworld (do they have offworld presence? Are they to Vilani as Dolphins are to Solomani, the "water explorer" partners? Do they have higher status than most races from a Vilani perspective, by virtue of the length of the association -- It Is Tradition And Thus Correct -- and the fact that unlike most Vilani conquests, they never really left?). They're aquatic, they're "manta"-like... and that's all we know.
Zithari of Ssissth: They're a client of the Imperium, there are billions of them, they have a theocratic government, they have old tales about fleets in the Lesser Rift (did they witness the Wandering People's exodus? The Faar's whatever-it-was that saw them flee home and become shut-ins? If the former, do Vilani factions like to limit their influence lest unfortunate facts resurface, explaining why we hear nothing of them despite their population and A-class starport?)
For those who like exploring the cultures, biology, political interactions, etc., of the alien races, but also want to remain within the core setting, opportunities for crafting Minor Races are sometimes scarce. Traveller Map has named and placed a number of such races in Vargr, Hiver, and K'kree space, unofficially; canonical indigenous species are placed throughout the Solomani Confederation (with the several such races of Canopus, Aldebaran and Neworld receiving only names and the briefest of descriptions); Mongoose has name-dropped some Aslan subjects who are also nothing more than those names coupled with descriptions as, say, "reptilian" or "avian" (these, tantalisingly, don't even have Map placements yet).
However... there are also a few canonical or long-established races about whom some interesting things have been established, but who haven't received attention. Places on both the literal and figurative map where a lot of creativity can be built on a foundation already in place.
Here are some of the established sophonts that have not, so far as I can tell, received any in-depth descriptions or explorations:
Bosaki of Bosak: Canonically a starfaring race within Far Frontiers Sector. We know that they control one of the large corporations active in the non-Zhodani region of the sector -- Qwuim Bosak -- and as such interact frequently with their human neighbours. This is all we know. We have no idea what they look like, and no idea of how their culture and society work beyond the fact that they have concepts of trade and business compatible with those of interstellar Humaniti.
Gniivi of Pru-mavin, Ar-gniiv, and Ar-stoon'l: They're slow-moving, they're active politically and economically in interstellar society, and the Map hints at some interesting things about their "Collective" and their language (the three homeworlds suggests some fascinating backstory or political complexity, especially with the implications drawn from their names, listed tech levels, etc. Which of course is what the world stats should do, provide inspiration for creativity and world-building). We know almost nothing about them as a society, though, nor anything about their biology beyond reference to "large, slow, and long-lived".
Krotan of Krota: They're omnivores; they're allies of the Hivers but independent of the Federation; like the Gniivi they have a large pocket empire and population; and they're one of the Hivers' "border hardening" projects to trip up the K'kree. Lots of potential... but who are they? We know nothing of them biologically or socially. What are the details of their relationships with the Hivers, the K'kree, and the Lithkind?
Tahavi of Tahaver: The first non-Humans the Vilani encountered; they've been clients/allies of the Vilani for practically the entire history of the setting, and there are ten billion of them on their homeworld (do they have offworld presence? Are they to Vilani as Dolphins are to Solomani, the "water explorer" partners? Do they have higher status than most races from a Vilani perspective, by virtue of the length of the association -- It Is Tradition And Thus Correct -- and the fact that unlike most Vilani conquests, they never really left?). They're aquatic, they're "manta"-like... and that's all we know.
Zithari of Ssissth: They're a client of the Imperium, there are billions of them, they have a theocratic government, they have old tales about fleets in the Lesser Rift (did they witness the Wandering People's exodus? The Faar's whatever-it-was that saw them flee home and become shut-ins? If the former, do Vilani factions like to limit their influence lest unfortunate facts resurface, explaining why we hear nothing of them despite their population and A-class starport?)
