New alien species- cool idea!

I have an idea for a new alien species to use in my game:

TAVERIANS appear physically identical to Humans, though internal organ placement differs. They are a unique species in that, althought they have mouths and vocal cords, they can only communicate through a language of motions similar to Earth's sign language. This presents unique problems, as motions cannot be understood with the universal translator.

I know my player enjoys this kind of cultural barrier, so this is a good idea for my series.

Any comments or questions or suggestions on changes/details to add? Thanks!

erhershman@yahoo.com

I like them, but why have them be "exactly" like humans "but"...why not make them genuiniely alien?

I agree with Zymmer - I'd work on making them a little less human-appearing.

Now, you could go into a background as to why their primary language is sign. For one, give them a star system with multiple stars or somesuch, so that it's never dark (drives me nuts when it's too dark to see what someone is signing)...

A very thin atmosphere, or a super-windy one, would make hearing useless as a sense, so you could make a race that is equivalent to the poor hearing disadvantage, or maybe even a race without ears at all, but other sensory organs used only for sensing presence/vibration that isn't fine enough to determine sounds, just location... (lots of tiny hairs, or something)...

Aliens without ears, or the ability to speak... sup to you - I like this a lot though, and I warn you, I'm gonna slip these aliens into my campaign too. :)

Got a name for 'em?

The Doc

I have to say that I like them as they are, they do not need to be prosthetic forehead aliens to be aliens. How many times have alien species looked exactly human?

Lets take a look just as TOS: Ardelians, Ardanians, Capellans, Ekosians, Elanians, Eminarians, Fabrinians, Gideons, Iotians, Kalandans (dead older race) Khom/Yang (maybe human offshoot), Landruians, Magna Romani (human offshoot, never bought that "parallel development, I'm thinking Preservers), Neuralians, Platonians, Sarpedians, Scolosians.

Sure, I like prosthetic forehead aliens as much as the next guy, but hey, there is a strong tendency for aliens to appear human-like in Trek as well. Voyager had most of the "knobby-forehead" or "nosejob" aliens, as well as some really outlandish ones like the Tak Tak. etc. but those are in the Delta Quad. Treknologically, maybe that is because of 'genetic drift' as the precursor race seeded their worlds further and further away from wherever they came from. (Of course in the real world we know this is merely because of the higher production values of TV in the modern era, allowing for stoys to afford having aliens which have greater deviations from human normal appearance). Perhaps the races which are physically closer to Sol have an appearance which is much more close to the "human norm" (which arguably is also the "Ekosian Norm" and "Magna Romani" norm and "Fabrini norm" etc.).

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Originally posted by Publius
I have to say that I like them as they are, they do not need to be prosthetic forehead aliens to be aliens. How many times have alien species looked exactly human?

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Okay, point. I think I was just thinking of genetic reasons to rely on sign language - a race relying on it would likely have underdeveloped hearing, voice, or something else making sign a more functional language (which, it isn't in comparison to verbal under typical situations).

The Doc

:) Greetings! Another way to present the aliens is as former slaves. This was used for a race in the Star wars Rpg. They were a human subgroup called the Lorrdians. The Lorrdians had been forbidden by their Masters from using vocal or verbal communication, so they developed a new language based not only on hand signs but other body movements and gestures.

Now you could ehance this by having the former Masters removing the vocal cords of their slaves by the method of your choice.
Hope this helps!
Warren

Oooh! I like the idea of a race of former slaves... Hrm. :)

You could add Xenophobic to their list of mental troubles, and their newer generation would be capable of speech, but since their parents can't talk, their wouldn't be able to learn...

:)

The Doc

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Originally posted by Michael Barratt
Oooh! I like the idea of a race of former slaves... Hrm. :)

You could add Xenophobic to their list of mental troubles, and their newer generation would be capable of speech, but since their parents can't talk, their wouldn't be able to learn...
The Doc

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I wouldn't say wouldn't be able to learn after all they would have contact with speaking civilisations and have learnt something from them. However, using an allegory to martial arts...

Black Slaves were often in chains, restricting their arm movements, which led to the spinny, kicky Coaporia, and Japanese 'Serf Classes' were not allowed weapons, which led to farm tools designed with being used as a weapon in time of need (the nightsick is descended from grain threshers), and even the development of martial arts...

In both these cases changes in circumstance didn't mean that the methods of defence dies, and while the martial arts are by no means across the cultural level, they are not a method of communication.

My point is that, while the decesndant will indeed be able to talk, and may even have developed limited (but growing) vocabularies, they might keep the sign language as an inter species method of communication, easily seeing the advantages in a covert method of cumminication.

But why keep them as human, or even humanoid with rubber heads :D. Why not insectoid? Or multi-limbed? Have them with 4 arms, thus allowing their forefathers to serve and communicate at the same time, or both sets of arms are involved in full comunication? Making the skill REALLY difficult to learn?

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Originally posted by Dan Gurden

But why keep them as human, or even humanoid with rubber heads :D. Why not insectoid? Or multi-limbed? Have them with 4 arms, thus allowing their forefathers to serve and communicate at the same time, or both sets of arms are involved in full comunication? Making the skill REALLY difficult to learn?

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Speaking of insectoids... I think bees use complex dances to communicate. That could be an interesting variation to this (very good) idea.
Just picture a conversation of these aliens (however they may look like) : walking in complex patternes around one another while waving strangely... This language could be very hard to learn indeed.

A Advantage dealing with visual perception may be in order here, to reflect the fact that these aliens are able to detect the slightests movements.

And think that, after extended contact with humanoids, they could become extremely efficient at reading body language (hey for instance this ability could have drawn the attention of some unsrupulous alien intelligence services upon them - properly trained these guy could do the job of an empath)...

I'd have to agree and say that they should be less human in apperance. Add a couple of fingers or extra types of sensory organs on their hands. They speak by touching, sign language, pheramones(sp?) or whatever else. Would make it hard for a human with only five fingers to speak sign language with a 10 finger alien!

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Originally posted by Dan Gurden
I wouldn't say wouldn't be able to learn after all they would have contact with speaking civilisations and have learnt something from them. However, using an allegory to martial arts...



My point is that, while the decesndant will indeed be able to talk, and may even have developed limited (but growing) vocabularies, they might keep the sign language as an inter species method of communication, easily seeing the advantages in a covert method of cumminication.

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Sorry, I meant more in a "genetically capable, but atrophied" sort of way. In the development of a child, there are critical periods of language development that rely on interaction with verbal play - babytongue - where the parent/guardian speaks in gibberish made up of all the sounds that said parent makes in day to day language use. Babies are capable of making every sound (including the '!' from some languages, rolling rs, all sounds used in all languages, basically), but if they don't practice, these sounds are never learned - and some of them are extremely difficult to learn later in life. With no language goin' on around them, the critical period would pass, and a lot of the genetic/physical development would go unused, and they'd end up verbally un(der)developed...

But that's not necessarily the case with an alien race, etc.

As for making the race nonstandard humaoid, that'd be cool, but I think I'd still prefer going with a typical humanoid in my campaign, with some minor-to-major differneces (ie: no ears, enhanced sensory organs, etc).

In "Clan of the Cave Bear," by Jean Auel, there's some great passages where a child from a verbal society ends up being raised by a society that uses sign as their primary form of communication. It's well-written, and could be very eye-opening for this idea...

The Doc

Playing around with this...

Species Template: The T'tihk

A species that at first glance may appear human, the T'tihk are humanoids which on a closer look, have an extra finger on each hand, an extra toe on each foot, and eyes slightly larger than the human average, which also are space slightly further apart, granting them a wider field of vision.

Their appearances vary much like most humanoids, though their hair colours tend to be lighter more often than dark, and they tend to wear their hair quite short (to avoid the annoyance of the sensation of their own hair brushing on their skin). Eyes run a full range, and tend to back-shine in low light conditions when a beam of light is directed toward them (like raccoons and other creatures that are able to see well in the dark).

T'tihk are deaf-mutes, but have exceptional senses of smell, sight, and touch - they have a visual acuity that allows them to notice even slight variations in positioning and movement, and a keen spatial sense in this regard: they are experts at body language, once they've studied a species for a while. Indeed, even the name for their species is a Federation approximation of the sound created by the species snapping their fingers twice with one hand - the sign for their racial name.

T'tihk sense of smell is heightened, as is their sense of touch - all their fingers (indeed, most of their skin surface) is capable of nearly ten times the amount of sensitivity of a typical humanoid - they can sense imperfections in the surfaces of items, and have a distinct ability to judge objects by touch once they've practiced. They tend to make excellent sculptors because of this, and are known for their "story-statues," which are statuettes of mythical creatures or heroes from legend, upon which is written, in a form of braille most humanoids can't detect, the story of said hero or creature. (Sculpture is suggested for the artistic expression trait below, but any tactile-based art would be good, too).


Attributes
Fitness 2
Coordination 3
Dexterity +1
Intellect 2
Perception +1
Presence 2
Empathy +2
Psi 0

Skills
Any Science (Choose Specialization) 1 (2)
Artistic Expression (Choose Specialization) 1 (2)
Culture (T'tihk) 2 (3)
History (T'tihk) 1 (2)
Language: T'tihk Sign Language 2
World Knowledge (T'tihk Homeworld) 1 (2)

Advantages:
Peripheral Vision (+1), Enhanced Vision (+2), Excellent Chemoreception (+1), Excellent Sense of Touch (+1)

Disadvantages:
Deaf/Mute (-1, -2)

This done in the format from the RPG website... :)

TAVARIANS

Fitness 2(5)
Coordination 2(5)
Intellect 2(5)
Perception +1
Presence 2(5)
Empathy -1*
Psi 2(4) (Edit Change: Psi 0)


Culture (Tavarian) 2(3)
History (Tavarian) 1(2)
Language, Tavarian 2
Social Sciences (choose specialization) 2(3)**
Artistic Expression (choose specialization) 2(3)
World Knowledge (Tavaria) 1(2)

Physically Impaired (cannot communicate vocally) -2, Alertness +2,
Organ Redundancy +2

*- because you can't empthasize with someone you can't understand.

**-Tavarians are particularly adept at Archaelogy.

Comments? Questions?
Will post species background shortly.

Quote:

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Originally posted by erhershman
TAVARIANS

Physically Impaired (cannot communicate vocally) -2, Alertness +2

*- because you can't empthasize with someone you can't understand.

**-Tavarians are particularly adept at Archaelogy.

Comments? Questions?

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I like that we went in different directions with these aliens - are these the ex-slave version of your idea? :)

I'm not sure, though, that lack of voice means that they cannot understand someone - it depends on whether or not they have other disabilities, but mute people are more than capable of being empathetic - it's that other people can't often understand them... Unless you're meaning there's something else that you're going to put into the write up...

The Doc

TAVARIANS ALIEN SPECIES TEMPLATE

HOMEWORLD: Tavarians live on Tavaria Prime, on the Federation-Breen border.

HOME REGION/SOVERIGN TERRITORY: Tavarians have a well developed homeworld, and have colonized one planet in their solar system. They have just recently achieved warp flight (warp five.)

SUGGESTED ATTRIBUTE/EDGES: See my post above.

SPECIAL OR UNIQUE ABILITIES: Tavarians have psionic powers. They can communicate "vocally" through telepathy with psi-capable characters.

SPECIAL OR UNIQUE SKILLS: Tavarians have a penchant for archaeology, their homeworld is home to ruins of many ancient civilizations.

SIZE: About humanoid norm; althought they tend to have more graceful, athletic figures than other species.

TRAITS COMMON TO THE SPECIES: Tavarians cannot communicate vocally, though they have mouths and ears about the same as humans.

STORY NOTES: Being dangerously close to Breen space, the Tavarians are a prime target for invasion, due to their practically non-existent military and space fleet.

DESCRIPTION:
The Tavarians are physically identical to Humans, though internal organ placement is slightly different- Tavarians have three lungs and a redundant secondary heart.
They gained independence from dictatorial rulers from an unknown empire in 2369.
Althought they have mouths and ears identical to those of Humans, the most distinguishing Tavarian feature is that they do not communicate vocally; they use a sign language to communicate.
The Tavarians are an extrordinarly peaceful people- they ousted their occupiers from their world only out of absolute necessity. An example of just how peace-loving they are can be found in their language- there is no word* in Tavarian for "hate."
First contact was made by the Federation, their first interstellar contact beyond their invaders, was made in 2376, by the Soverign-class U.S.S. Atreides. The Federation has agreed to peaceful relations with the Tavarians, though the Tavarians have denied to join the Federation at this time- they are still suspicioius of offworlders due to their long occupation.

*-Although the Tavarians do not "speak" per say, individual signs in the Tavarian language are properly referred to as "words."

-------------------------
Anything else I should add?





:cool: :cool: :cool:

Have edited attributes/edges a bit.

CHANGES I MADE:

Mostly to fit the species background.

First and most obvious: I completely eliminated the Psionic ability to communicate telepathically, because I reasoned that if the Tavarians communicate telepathically, why wouldn't they do that instead of having a sign language

Added Organ Redundancy to fit the description of their anatomy.

Quote:

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Originally posted by erhershman
SPECIAL OR UNIQUE ABILITIES: Tavarians have psionic powers. They can communicate "vocally" through telepathy with psi-capable characters.

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I like that you've given them psionic abilities - it makes for more easily role-played adventures with the race - if even one PC is psionic, things will go much better.

I'm lucky in that I know sign, so at the very least if I can't get my players to read what I'm signing, I'll be consistant and they might fumble their way through it. ;)

Sidenote: Any thoughts on whether there would be a "visual" universal translator? Something set up to translate visual imput from sign-language, or other species that might communicate with visual means (colour changes on skin tone, that sort of thing)?

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The Tavarians are an extrordinarly peaceful people- they ousted their occupiers from their world only out of absolute necessity. An example of just how peace-loving they are can be found in their language- there is no word* in Tavarian for "hate."
First contact was made by the Federation, their first interstellar contact beyond their invaders, was made in 2376, by the Soverign-class U.S.S. Atreides. The Federation has agreed to peaceful relations with the Tavarians, though the Tavarians have denied to join the Federation at this time- they are still suspicioius of offworlders due to their long occupation.

*-Although the Tavarians do not "speak" per say, individual signs in the Tavarian language are properly referred to as "words."

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I like... especially their hesitation to get along with any outsiders. It leaves them vulnerable to manipulation from hidden parties within...

The Doc

Quote:

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Originally posted by erhershman
Have edited attributes/edges a bit.

CHANGES I MADE:

First and most obvious: I completely eliminated the Psionic ability to communicate telepathically, because I reasoned that if the Tavarians communicate telepathically, why wouldn't they do that instead of having a sign language

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If, like Betazoids, they don't develop telepathic abilities until they're older - especially if the race has Projective Telepathic abilities, not receptive ones - they'd still need a form of communication... Sign Language is still apt for a species with no vocal capabilities.

The Doc.

Adventure seed:

The PCs are assigned to ferry a diplomat to Tavaria to try and reconsider their decision to join the Federation. (The Federation wants them to join so badly because Tavaria is unbelievably rich in dilithium.) The PCs discover a Breen plot to invade the planet through internal corruption and rebellion.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Publius
I have to say that I like them as they are, they do not need to be prosthetic forehead aliens to be aliens. How many times have alien species looked exactly human?

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Agreed, but just like everyone once upon a time poo-pooed my liking of Hodgkin's Law, I must pointout that we as narrators are not limited by the effects budget or talent of our poeple :)

Stikll the rest of your post was well thought out and impressive.

I simply didn't repost it for space soley.

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Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
I like them, but why have them be "exactly" like humans "but"...why not make them genuiniely alien?

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By the way, note I did not say add rubber to their heads ;)

Quote:

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Originally posted by Captain Zymmer

By the way, note I did not say add rubber to their heads ;)

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Very true, the conversation sort of started drifting in that direction (earless, etc.) which is what led to my comment. Trust me, no slam to anyone, all of these suggestions are very good (I liked the earless one and I am completely guilty of the Plastic Forehead syndrome myself). Nevertheless, your intent as refined above does raise an excellent point: that differences from "human-norm" do not have to be "apparent" under most circumstances to be present and have some game effect.

Perhaps what should be spelled out is that they have the appearance of humans/Eminarians/Ekosians/blah-blah etc. for all intents when clothed or on casual examination (which I like even better). After all, Zaldeans - a race which I happen to like because of the name of their culture hero and vast personal charm :) - are indistinguishable externally from humans with the exception of the webbing on their hands (and feet? I dunno, my books are buried away somewhere at the moment).

Therefore, we could always make the argument that the forehead, ear or temple is not the only place for bumps, spots, ridges or other cosmetic variations. Perhaps the race has spots on their lower calves or has a vestigial flap under their armpits that is not apparent (but causes them to wear clothing which accomodates their physiology and thus makes some minor alteration of the 'norm' more roted in the backstory of the adventure/chronical/whatever).

This is for our purposes as Narrators to describe these races as "human looking" or "Visually having a standard human appearance", but their is some variation and heck, you never know if it might come in handy (as it was to Wesley Crusher during his first attempt at gaining entrance to the Academy on noticing the Zaldean and providing an appropriate response to that unscheduled test).

Make it fun, come up with a chart or something for random encounters. Example: Narrator describes the party that the players meet on the Starbase 666 from Ulookgud II Me: (rolls dice and consults chart) White die 1, they have "an unusually thin" ... Black die 4 "epidermis", thus the guards are heavily padded and the clothing tends to be thicker than normal for the rest of the party as well. Most of these people look windburnt or have bruises on their arms extending just under their clothing and are a florid purple because of some chemical factor in their blood which is very different from humans. To cover this on their faces they make a habit of using cosmetics which give them a kabuki-like appearance. Just make sure that the stuff on your tables are not readily apparent to avoid the Plastic Forehead Syndrome and matches the maturity level of the people in your game (Player: "Their what are twice as large as the human norm!" at which the group dissolves in laughter)

Quote:

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Originally posted by Michael Barratt


T'tihk are deaf-mutes, but have exceptional senses of smell, sight, and touch - they have a visual acuity that allows them to notice even slight variations in positioning and movement, and a keen spatial sense in this regard: they are experts at body language, once they've studied a species for a while. Indeed, even the name for their species is a Federation approximation of the sound created by the species snapping their fingers twice with one hand - the sign for their racial name.

T'tihk sense of smell is heightened, as is their sense of touch - all their fingers (indeed, most of their skin surface) is capable of nearly ten times the amount of sensitivity of a typical humanoid - they can sense imperfections in the surfaces of items, and have a distinct ability to judge objects by touch once they've practiced. They tend to make excellent sculptors because of this, and are known for their "story-statues," which are statuettes of mythical creatures or heroes from legend, upon which is written, in a form of braille most humanoids can't detect, the story of said hero or creature. (Sculpture is suggested for the artistic expression trait below, but any tactile-based art would be good, too).


[/B]

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I like, but I have a few questions:

1. WHY are they deaf mutes? Is it genetic like the ruling family on Ramatis 3? Is it something in the athmospher or hydrosphere? Is it evolution?


Other than that I don't see any real problems.

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Originally posted by Perrryyy


I like, but I have a few questions:

1. WHY are they deaf mutes? Is it genetic like the ruling family on Ramatis 3? Is it something in the athmospher or hydrosphere? Is it evolution?


Other than that I don't see any real problems.

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Oops, I thought I mentioned it somewhere along this thread... Low atmospheric density (ie: thin air), coupled with high winds and storm fronts made their planet a place where sounds just didn't carry, and those that did were drowned out a lot. It was selected out in their evolution as unneccesary.

That was one idea. I didn't play with it too much... Other ideas that were tossed around were that they race was enslaved and had said genetic traits removed to make them more acquiescent..?

I also imagined they had a multi-star system, so that it was almost always at least "dusk" brightness - all the better to see you sign by, my dear. ;)

The Doc

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Originally posted by Michael Barratt


Oops, I thought I mentioned it somewhere along this thread... Low atmospheric density (ie: thin air), coupled with high winds and storm fronts made their planet a place where sounds just didn't carry, and those that did were drowned out a lot. It was selected out in their evolution as unneccesary.

That was one idea. I didn't play with it too much... Other ideas that were tossed around were that they race was enslaved and had said genetic traits removed to make them more acquiescent..?

I also imagined they had a multi-star system, so that it was almost always at least "dusk" brightness - all the better to see you sign by, my dear. ;)

The Doc

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Either idea could work, but I like the "biobabble" (first idea) better. That opens up a whole new bag of questions:

Who decided to leave those traits out of their evolution (enter the Q, Prophets or other "mystery God race")

Same with the slave idea. Play on how the abilities came to be removed by the slavers. Lotsa mystery potnential there too.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Perrryyy


Either idea could work, but I like the "biobabble" (first idea) better. That opens up a whole new bag of questions:

Who decided to leave those traits out of their evolution (enter the Q, Prophets or other "mystery God race")

Same with the slave idea. Play on how the abilities came to be removed by the slavers. Lotsa mystery potnential there too.

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Actually I meant more of a "As they evolved naturally, hearing was selectively weeded out as a useless sense." :) Not that someone had come in and played with their DNA. :)

Buuuuut, both ways work. It might also be interesting to leave vestigial organs and brain matter that would have historically processed sound, and created noises. Maybe given the right scenerios, they could re-evolve back from the "feeling vibrations" to "sensing sound" again. :)

I wanted it to be natural, though - so I'm gonna go the evolution route. Maybe there was giant climactic change, and that led to the "loud" of the planet - howling winds. They already didn't have much left of hearing sense due to the uselessness of it in comparison to their other senses in this thin-air environment... the bad winds was the last nail in the genetic coffin...

The Doc