ALIENS sourcebook

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by Publius
My second question about Shuttle Generation: The shittles of Gomutuu do not seem to have any propulsion system, how could they as hardened material squeezed out by the living vessel? would that make it more of an Escape Poo?

And what happens when you scare the crap out of Gomutuu? Does that mean it no longer has any shittles? Or excrape poos?

In space no one can hear you poo.

[qerlin]

Originally posted by Publius
... would that make it more of an Escape Poo?

I'd say this thread has gone right down the toilet...

[Sho-sa Kurita]

"Excrevehicular Operation" -- that's priceless

Guys, I'm living with cracked ribs for the moment, so please stop making me laugh, 'cuz I'm gonna bust a gut here.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

I'm completely down with having Gomtuu in the book. I like the idea of them, and can think of a lot of ways to have them in a series, especially one in the Gamma or Delta Quad (if trying to stick to canon). On the other hand, I could care less about the Selay, or the Zaranites, or any number of other species. That's the point of a book like this, something for all of us.

-- Daniel

[Publius]

Actually, the space spent on Gomtuu is relatively small and I have no problem with the one and three-quarter pages they spent on it or whatever, a five page spread on the other hand would have been a trifle excessive. I just needed to get that other crap out of my system That Shittle System thing alone was worth the price of admission as far as I am concerned; I needed the laugh.

My problem with the book (in all seriousness) is the complete lack of any sort of point equality/balance between the races. Some have six picks, some have twenty. Gee, which one will I take? Even if I had the coolest idea for a Trill ever, I'd still be considered a munchkin scamming for points. Lets see now, having +1 INT, +2 to all Knowledge skills and anywhere from 1-3 skills as extra career skills or a +2 to Craft? Hmmmm. I agree it should be about the roleplaying, but why should I be penalized in game terms for choosing a particular race?When it comes down to it, why are Trill better than Bajorans?

Having at least a nod towards maintaining even point levels would have been nice, particularly when some really minor changes could have been made to ensure more equity. Why not try to make things even out?

[qerlin]

Originally posted by Publius
...Having at least a nod towards maintaining even point levels would have been nice, particularly when some really minor changes could have been made to ensure more equity. Why not try to make things even out?

Maybe they figured the players/GM would be able to shake off the ned to have everyone playing ubercharacters. My group's always had a nice balance of some strong, smoe weaker characters. Not everyone one wants to play a Vulcan or Trill.

[Publius]

First, I'm a GM, I don't try to make an ubercharacter. In fact, quite the opposite, I'm trying to say that there should not be an ubercharacter because the only way that you have this situation is by making the races unequal from the start. If they were balanced, ubercharacter races would hardly be an issue would it? With regard to having some strong characters and some weak, that's not the point. If a player wants to invest points in a way that de-emphasizes certain aspects of his character's combat chances or whatever I have nothing but the deepest respect for their choice (and often throw some cool things their way as a sign of that respect and the depth of thought whihc ges into most of these types of characters).

Secondly, Why should the Vulcan (which amazingly enough is balanced btw) or the Trill have extra stuff above the other races? What is the rationale for having an uber-race in the game at all? The game does a nice job associating on-screen stuff for racial packages (Vulcans have keen hearing, Klingon Organ Redundancy, etc.), but why not go the extra effort to make them balance so a particular race is not handicapped from the start merely because they are Bajorans or Tellerites?

Third, I have been developing my own way of dealing with the situation. Players have 20 picks to spend for a race. The races each have a pick value (which is adjusted by my chart), and any unspent picks can be used to buy stuff like skills or specialty 'cool stuff' for your character (like Geordi's visor). Thus, this is neither an insurmountable problem, nor does it mean that there are any ubercharacters in my games despite the game mechanics. My observation is based simply on the fact that there was no real attempt to preserve in-game equality within the official rules structure.

[Phantom]

Uhh, just a question. Is the Q only covered in description? If not, you will forgive, but isn't rather pointless to stat a creature that is all powerful? I mean a Q can be anything. How exactly did they run the Q in the book?

[T'lara]

Originally posted by Phantom
Uhh, just a question. Is the Q only covered in description? If not, you will forgive, but isn't rather pointless to stat a creature that is all powerful? I mean a Q can be anything. How exactly did they run the Q in the book?

They tell you how to use a Q and how to cme up with Q ideas for your game and Q motivations.

[C5]

The Q entry provides infos about Q's background and motivation (and powers, but they need only a word to be described : any ). There's even a small entry about other godlike species.

As for the balance between species, I usually alter the templates a bit to equate their pick costs. For instance, in my game, Bajorans get 2 courage points instead of one (not too unbalancing, puts them on par with my other player's species pick costs - and fits well to the race IMHO).

But I agree that a "pick cost" for each species would have been nice. Always useful for reverse engineering, species creation or comparison.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by C5
The Q entry provides infos about Q's background and motivation (and powers, but they need only a word to be described : any ). There's even a small entry about other godlike species.

If you give it stats it can be killed. If they were dumb enough to give the "Q" stats then apparently you can kill a "Q" without having to trick him/her/it into becoming a normal human. This was a big problem with "Dieties and Demigods" (I'm aging myself here) as well as "Call of Cthulhu"...gods shouldn't have stats. IMHO.

[Ineti]

That's why they didn't give Sauron stats in the LOTR RPG. You're right, Darth. Stats mean something can be attacked.

I'm sure someone somewhere would have thought, "Sauron's only a x# advancement character. I can take him."

[Greg Davis]

Originally posted by Ineti
I'm sure someone somewhere would have thought, "Sauron's only a x# advancement character. I can take him."

True enough...though I wonder if that's what Fingolfin's player would have been thinking when he attacked Morgoth!



Greg, who isn't attempting to hijack a Trek thread with Lord of the Rings discussion!

[JonA]

Can any of the guys from Decipher tell me was there supposed to be an Age Chart included in the Aliens book like there is in the PG.

Should we assume that all the alien races for use with as PCs should age at the same rate as Humans?

One of my players has just rolled up a Tellarite Engineer and I've decided to use the Human age scale (and I'm happy to do this for all the PC races) but for "realisms" sake shouldn't there by an expanded age chart?

[T'lara]

Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic
If you give it stats it can be killed. If they were dumb enough to give the "Q" stats then apparently you can kill a "Q" without having to trick him/her/it into becoming a normal human. This was a big problem with "Dieties and Demigods" (I'm aging myself here) as well as "Call of Cthulhu"...gods shouldn't have stats. IMHO.

There are no Q stats just information on how to play a Godlike being like the Q. Crack open the Aliens/ book check out pages 123-125. You can see there are no stats at all just written info we know about the Q from TNG, DS9 & Voyager. If you do not have the book look at them in your gaming store then. Personally buy the book if you do not have it. It is more important than Starships in my book.

(goes back to Starship CGR that is giving me a headache)