The itch is growing on me to run a far future game at the moment, and you can't have pangalactic empires without aliens really, so I set up a few d10 tables to go along with the charts as an aide-de-imagination. What I'm trying to achieve here is "no assumptions" aliens, complete breaks from commonly held ideas about what might be up there, and as such deliberately leaving it loose in places to force the mind to come up with excuses for how these things might exist.

What would you do if anything to change or expand this? Would you go into further depth in any areas? Any other facets that might be important? Are there any similar resources you might recommend?

Size: (open ended)
1. Tiny
2-3. Small
4-5. Human sized
6-7. Horse sized
8-9. Elephant sized
10-15. Whale sized
16. Town sized
17. City sized
18. Country sized
19. Continent sized
20. Planet sized or bigger

Body type:
1-4. Solid
5-6. Liquid
7. Gas
8. Energy
9. Mixture (roll twice more at -1)
10. Mixture (roll twice more at -2)

Form:
1-7. Single body
8. Hive creature
9. Symbiotes
10. Parasites

Mobility:
1-2. Very quick
3-7. Normal human speed
8-9. Slow
10. Immobile

Temperature:
1. Very cold (to zero kelvin)
2-3. Cold (-5 to -200)
4-6. Temperate (-4 to +40)
7-8. Warm (+50 to +200)
9. Hot (+200 to +1000)
10. Very Hot (beyond 1000 degrees)

Gravity
1. Very low
2-3. Low
4-6. Earth normal
7-8. High
9. Very high
10. Intense

Environment:
1. Vacuum
2-3. Gas
4-5. Liquid
6-7. Solid
8-9. Gas/solid boundary
10. Roll twice more

Pressure:
1. Very thin
2-3. Thin
4-6. Earth normal
7-8. High pressure
9. Very high pressure
10. Crushing

Radiation (including light):
1. Very low
2-3. Low
4-6. Earth normal
7-8. High
9. Very high
10. Lethal

Base intelligence:
1. Just above animal
2-5. Human
6-8. Highly intelligent
9. Super genius
10. Godlike

Technological development:
1-2. Pre industrial
3-4. Industrial
5-6. Computer age
7-8. System development / space age
9. Interstellar travel
10. Higher

Social system:
1-2. Competitive
3-4. Co-operative
5-10. Mixture

Primary Communication Method:
1-2. Visual (light, passive gestures or active)
3-4. Sound
5-6. Other electromagnetic radiation
7-8. Scent/gas/particles
9. Other
10. Combination, roll twice more

EG:
My first attempt produced a horse sized, liquid, slow single bodied creature, that operates in a cold gaseous high gravity low radiation/pressure environment. It has super genius intelligence and interstellar reach, mixture type society, and sound communication.

So, I'm seeing a slow yet graceful three-flanged jellyfish alien that evolved in and around the enormous ice volcanoes on a moon circling a binary gas giant, itself orbiting a dull red dwarf, much like ecologies appear around hot vents on the ocean floor on earth. While not in any way hot, the swirling blasts of the ice volcanoes do funnel up energy and other materials from deep beneath the surface.

The chemistry and makeup of these aliens is completely bizarre to us, and works much more slowly than higher energy forms. The ecology of their home regions revolves around minerals jetted up from far below, which are the basis for ice-plankton to form in clouds, which over billions of years led to highly intelligent life forms.

They store and process information in liquid swirls, slowly circling in their mindsacs (leading to slow state liquid "electronics"). Their ships are clusters of cone shaped rigid materials, within which enormous hurricane vortex chambers mimic the conditions of their home world, swirling with some violence and randomness.

I could write a lot more but that's the first few ideas which come to mind.

Pretty cool.
 
My favourite set of aliens rules is perhaps the Atomik Alienz rules for Fuzion - though I have no particular longing to play Fuzion it had interesting stuff on alien biology mostly, including various options for composition (silicon based, mechanical, etc), circulatory system (open, closed, osmosis only, free energy, none, varying # hearts), integument (exoskeleton, feathers, scales, whatever) and stuff like that. The system went into more biological detail that Fuzion actually warranted, actually but was quite interesting.
 
Something that might be interesting for your table might be a "multiple phases" option to go with Single Form, hive, symbiote - letting you roll aliens that start out as FormA and go to FormB. For instance, an insectoid race might start as maggot-things before going to an insectoid form, while humans begin with a parasitic phase (instead of using eggs like most decent lifeforms).

A couple of things you might consider adding:

Under Social system: add "Solitary" as an option. I have a species of near-godlike aliens in Terracide who are basically self-sufficient worlds unto themselves, and seldom need to contact others of their own kind. They don't really fall under 'competitive' or 'cooperative' so another category could be added for aliens like that.

Also, another table for "Longevity" might be useful to you. Are the aliens so short-lived as to be ephemeral, or are they virtually (or actually) immortal? This will affect their outlook and relations with other species profoundly.

Methods of reproduction would be another interesting variable. I created aliens for my universe which procreate by live birth, hatching, cloning, fission, and "unknown means."

Interesting project, but...

Your alien is three times as likely to be whale-sized as human-sized; and, in fact, one quarter of all your aliens will be between the size of a city and a planet.

Now, if you want to have an RPG world full of giant aliens, go ahead. But that's not "no assumptions" like the title claim.s.

Some great ideas here, thanks!

Quote from: Premier;600762Interesting project, but...

Your alien is three times as likely to be whale-sized as human-sized; and, in fact, one quarter of all your aliens will be between the size of a city and a planet.

Now, if you want to have an RPG world full of giant aliens, go ahead. But that's not "no assumptions" like the title claim.s.

That's an open ended d10 roll, only on a natural ten do you get to roll again.

Nice table. I might make whale sized around 12+ because a PC alien I rolled in Starcluster3 is very unlikely to be played because of being whale (Orca) sized. I mean multi-ton semi-aquatic otter like species with icebraking claws? What's not to love?

They're playful and friendly, and dangerous-but not exactly the most game suitable PC.

Mind you it is a flaw of SC is that size has no relation to stats...which is problematic in some cases. The most agile member of this species shouldn't manage things like a monkey, but should be strong enough to push mid sized cars around.

Quote from: Silverlion;600797They're playful and friendly, and dangerous-but not exactly the most game suitable PC.

That's what I'm trying to avoid though, the environment suits for those ice volcano jellyfish look like two slowly rotating glittering whelks attached at their bases, and are the size of a small bus. Let the chips fall where they may, and damn the path more travelled! Its breaking out of the Star Trek/Star Wars/Every Sci-Fi Movie ideal of most creatures being more or less humanoid in size and shape, the universe and technology can adjust to intelligent species, even if it leaves Kirk weeping into his Romulan ale because the pomade doesn't impress as much as it used to.

Quote from: The Traveller;600922That's what I'm trying to avoid though, the environment suits for those ice volcano jellyfish look like two slowly rotating glittering whelks attached at their bases, and are the size of a small bus. Let the chips fall where they may, and damn the path more travelled! Its breaking out of the Star Trek/Star Wars/Every Sci-Fi Movie ideal of most creatures being more or less humanoid in size and shape, the universe and technology can adjust to intelligent species, even if it leaves Kirk weeping into his Romulan ale because the pomade doesn't impress as much as it used to.

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Aliens should bloody well be freaking alien -- the weirder the better!

This is exactly how I approach aliens for my SF world-building. (w/o the random tables) The whole "humanoid aliens" schtick is, IMHO, a crutch for the convenience of TV/movie production crews. The thing is, RPGs aren't TV shows, and there is absolutely no reason to load them down with all the limitations and compromises of "hollywood" science fiction. There are literally hundreds of lame tropes in televised SF to be destroyed ("Making Kirk cry" is a nice image.) and the aliens are an excellent place to start.