Also keep in mind that D&D itself had as the first mini-module an alien invasion of a sort. And prior to publication I believe it was the Blackmoor campaign that dealt with one or more aliens.

For an RPG, the big question is WHAT are the aliens doing?

Usually, they are invading. Systems Failure by Palladium does a great job with the concept of interdimensional bugs crossing over into our Earth.

If you do aliens as accidental settlers, you wander into interesting fish-out-of-water and clash of cultures stories, which we've seen done many times in movies and TV. In the case of the V tv-show, the benevolent aliens weren't so nice...

I've wanted to do a violent alien non-invasion story, aka they are here for some reason, but no interest in conquering the hairless monkeys. They are here to find something, do something, unearth something, build something and leave. The PCs are tasked with getting in the way.

Quote from: Spinachcat on June 05, 2021, 10:57:33 PM


I've wanted to do a violent alien non-invasion story, aka they are here for some reason, but no interest in conquering the hairless monkeys. They are here to find something, do something, unearth something, build something and leave. The PCs are tasked with getting in the way.

I like the sound of that. It'd be nearly like if we were just insignificant insects and they'd just brush us aside when they want X resource. PC would then have to start guerilla tactics.

Pretty much the basis for both Hunter books which were heavily "borrowed" from to make the Predator movie.

In the first book aliens lure a bunch of people to a remote area, trap them within a force field and then hunt them for sport.
In the second book more of these aliens are obstensibly doing another hunt before the Earth is destroyed because one of the humans was able to use their psi-reactive tech. Which this race has a standing order of eradicating any world that even has the hint of being able to do that, let alone actually pull it off. At least one though is there to run tests before its too late to see how far this power can be awakened. And others of the hunt party have their own agendas.

Theres also the book "Anything you can do" with an alien survivor of a crash. The race is very survival oriented and once it figures out its just being pumped for info it gets loose and sets to work trying to build a beacon to call help. Trick here was the alien is so fast humans can barely perceive it when its moving. Second trick is to counter the alien a person is gen-engineered to be just as fact as it is.

Theres also a movie called Laboratory wherein several people are abducted to be tested and try and see if they can be communicated with.

And of course "I Come in Peace". An alien drug dealer is harvesting endorphins from humans because elsewhere its a really potent and rare narcotic.

And so on.

TSR's MSH had a bemusing one where lizard aliens seemed to be attacking people. But it was really just some tourists whos recording equipment stuns humans. They had no idea.

In either Champions or V&V theres one where a feline alien who crashed gets impatient with the government not fixing her ship and so escapes and starts waging a one cat gurellia war on military and civil defense points. Fully expecting to be killed and very hard to convince things arent what she believed.

In another from C or V&V theres an alien who is just a friendly scout. Lets himself get caught by oceanographers who think hes just a very large otter. Which allows him to observe earth tech and procedures. As a sort of customary joke he gives a guard who befriends him a power armour suit and a vision of it being a gift from a sea god.

And another hilarious one from C or V&V is a group called CLOWN paints a huge dotted line across the Florida border and letters that read CUT HERE visible from orbit. CLOWN shortly after apologizes to the Florida government when aliens saw this and tried to take Florida. They also apologized to the aliens for nearly being stuck with Florida.

The lyrics of The Alan Parson's Project "Some Other Time" always made me think of a very strange surveillance by a very strange alien race who exists "across the time". But many APP's songs deal with sci-fi/borderline concepts...

In a matter of a moment
Lost till the end of time
It's the evening of another day
And the end of mine

Now the starlight which has found me
Lost for a million years
Tries to linger as it fills my eyes
'Till it disappears

Could it be that somebody else is
Looking into my mind

Some other place
Somewhere
Some other time

Some other place
Somewhere
Some other time

Like a mirror held before me
Large as the sky is wide
And the image is reflected
Back to the other side

Could it be that somebody else is
Looking into my mind

Some other place
Somewhere
Some other time

Some other place
Somewhere
Some other time