Zhodani Alien Module
- Thread starter MrUkpyr
- Start date
Princedarkstorm
Mongoose
Cool ! I would love to see the updates for the Zhodani !
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
hmmm, might be interesting to see them and the other human descendents.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Jame Rowe said:
You'll have to forgive me, this is my first edition of Traveller, what are they all like?
End of this year/beginning of next!
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Techno-Guru said:
They are all inter-fertile with baseline humans (Vilani and Solomani), but have their own little quirks.
Zhodani have embraced Psionics and use them to mentally enslave the masses, called Proles, that are not psionic (that is the Imperial propaganda anyway).
The Darrians are also a Human race, a mix of original blue-skinned Darrians and Solomani from the Rule of Man.
In the original Traveller history, there are about 40 human(ish) races decended from Terran Humans that were spread through this part of the galaxy by the Ancients. Some have died out, some have mutated beyond what would be called "human" and are now basically alien races, but most of them are biologically human with different cultures and history.
Of the races of Sol, only the Vilani, Zhodani and lastly the Terrans developed the Jump Drive and are collectived refered to as a Major Race.
alex_greene
Guest
They don't enslave or control them. They merely follow a principle that every Taoist would recognise.
Intervene while a problem is small, and you save the effort of having to intervene when the problem has grown large.
Do without doing, be where one needs to be, and everything gets done. No thanks needed. None required. The sun does not need thanks for warming the grain, nor the rain for slaking the thirst of the trees.
Everything done with minimum effort, and the most highly-regarded leaders then vanish back into the mists, so that the people proclaim "The problem sorted itself out after all."
The fact that they live a life where everyone leaves their doors unlocked - what use are locks against psionics? - where the streets are litter-free, CCTV-free and where a young girl can wander alone down the wrong street late at night with a guarantee that the only soul she will ever meet is a cop who just magically appears in front of her to take her home, safe and sound, is kind of lost in the Imperial propaganda machine.
Hells, even Strephon himself would feel safer walking alone down a Zhodani city street than the back streets of his own capital.
This article brought to you by the Tvarchedle' Ministry of Inspirational Media.
Intervene while a problem is small, and you save the effort of having to intervene when the problem has grown large.
Do without doing, be where one needs to be, and everything gets done. No thanks needed. None required. The sun does not need thanks for warming the grain, nor the rain for slaking the thirst of the trees.
Everything done with minimum effort, and the most highly-regarded leaders then vanish back into the mists, so that the people proclaim "The problem sorted itself out after all."
The fact that they live a life where everyone leaves their doors unlocked - what use are locks against psionics? - where the streets are litter-free, CCTV-free and where a young girl can wander alone down the wrong street late at night with a guarantee that the only soul she will ever meet is a cop who just magically appears in front of her to take her home, safe and sound, is kind of lost in the Imperial propaganda machine.
Hells, even Strephon himself would feel safer walking alone down a Zhodani city street than the back streets of his own capital.
This article brought to you by the Tvarchedle' Ministry of Inspirational Media.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
alex_greene said:
So says the Zhodani propaganda. Which in the end is probably lying as much as the Imperial propaganda.
Meh, I suppose in the end all I'd need is a standardized Sapient Alien Race Generator and I'll be happy. The little glimpses into the Traveller universe are nice, but probably not anything I'm going to use.
alex_greene
Guest
Zhodani do not lie. Everybody knows that ... 
Techno-Guru said:
Theres always Flynns Guide to Alien Creation available here in PDF.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=flynns+guide+to+alien+creation&x=0&y=0&quicksearch=1&search_filter=&filters=&search_free=&search_in_description=1&search_in_author=1&search_in_artist=1
Damn wish I was techno savyy enough to do the linky thing!
I think Flynn also has a Lulu store if you want a copy in dead tree.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I strongly recommend that you try the Flynn's Guides. VERY good stuff.
Baron_Vulk_Morden
Mongoose
Odd, I always thought of them looking like Sun Elves/Gold Elves from the Forgotten Realms, since the cover art for the CT Darrians module depicted them as golden-skinned, with pointed ears.
Nuclear Fridge Magnet
Mongoose
Given that Expedition to Zhodane painted the Zhodani as fiendish brain-warping Rasputins with 24/7 thought police dedicated to crushing out sapient thought, only countered by Special Secret Super-Brainwashing Techniques that wiped your identity, I'm unsure as to the validity of either argument...alex_greene said:Zhodani do not lie. Everybody knows that ...
I have a fugitive Zho NPC noble on the run in Aramis Subsector who can only find refuge amongst Imperials because she refuses to use her 'fiendish brain powers'. It's gotten harder for her since she's become surrogate mother to a 12-year-old nascent psion from Pysadi whose father tried to kill her for having the devil inside her...
alex_greene
Guest
An article in JTAS told from a Zhodani diplomat's viewpoint begged to differ. Zhodani proles are brutally honest with one another. It's a cultural thing for them - if everybody's mind is open to psionic scrutiny, why even bother to conceal anything, even your feelings?
If someone woke up and forgot to do her hair before going to work, proles on the commuter train would approach her saying "Your hair is terrible! Did you forget to wash your hair this morning?"
Now in the Imperium, strangers would just look at the birds' nest perched on the woman's head, whisper up their sleeves, snigger, maybe take a snap of the poor woman's epic hair fail with a cameraphone and post the image onto Failblog. But in Zhodani space, that commuter train would be diverted to a Tvarchedle facility and the whole commuter train of sniggering passengers would face re-education.
Further, the Tvarchedle' would probably check the woman out for dementia before sending her in the direction of the nearest hairdresser's to get it styled in one of several State-authorised hairstyles.
She'd probably lose a day's pay, but at least her hair would be straight.
All in a day's work.
If someone woke up and forgot to do her hair before going to work, proles on the commuter train would approach her saying "Your hair is terrible! Did you forget to wash your hair this morning?"
Now in the Imperium, strangers would just look at the birds' nest perched on the woman's head, whisper up their sleeves, snigger, maybe take a snap of the poor woman's epic hair fail with a cameraphone and post the image onto Failblog. But in Zhodani space, that commuter train would be diverted to a Tvarchedle facility and the whole commuter train of sniggering passengers would face re-education.
Further, the Tvarchedle' would probably check the woman out for dementia before sending her in the direction of the nearest hairdresser's to get it styled in one of several State-authorised hairstyles.
She'd probably lose a day's pay, but at least her hair would be straight.
All in a day's work.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
The recommendation is duly noted. However, the preview tells me quite plainly that it is not the product for me. A table for reproduction methods? No... in all my groups I only had one guy who was willing to invest in that level of detail and he made his own stuff no problem.Rikki Tikki Traveller said:
Techno-Guru said:
Honestly, it *is* a good book. Don't let the fact that you *can* go into the minutiae level of detail make you think that you *must* go into that level of detail if you don't want to.
But at the same time - can you imagine the face of your players when they find out that they actually need to figure out *how they do it* in order to figure out how they just insulted the alien ambassador.
In an old game I ran - the players landed on a planet where NO ONE EVER wore blue clothes. Completely verboten!!
It was even listed in the planet's library descript, which of course they chose to forget to check out before they landed. And of course they wore blue.
They spent the next 2 days trying to figure out why no one would talk to them. And I mean - no one. They couldn't refuel, nor get permission to unload cargo, nor arrange for ship maintenance, nor nothing.
The little details can be a blast (grin)!
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
MrUkpyr said:
Heh, nice story; wish I had a group on that level. Unfortunately, my current group really isn't up for the task of even half that much detail.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
It is still worth getting the Guide.
You can stop after just figuring out the basic Traits (from the TMB) or you can go to excruciating detail if needed.
You can stop after just figuring out the basic Traits (from the TMB) or you can go to excruciating detail if needed.
