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Gebohq
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Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Tue 15 Oct 2019, 19:11

So I figured I'd see what you all thought about these things:

1) Is there any non-sentient life outside of Earth-based life in the Alien universe?
The first four Alien movies and Prometheus don't really show us any indication of such -- only Alien Covenant shows a planet with largely Earth-like forests and plants and such. While any of the alien life was surprising to those in Prometheus, those in Alien Covenant don't seem surprised. My takeaway from this is that, while many worlds are essentially barren rocks or otherwise inhospitable (and thus need terraforming), by 2183, there are at least some familiar, hospitable worlds, and those are likely some of the few "paradise" worlds likely clamped down for the corporate elite. These places might also have been "seeded" by those like the Engineers, though I don't think that's a necessary detail to establish. Regardless, "natural" human-habitable planets are unlikely plentiful like in other sci-fi.

2) Is there any sentient life outside of Earth-based life and the xenomorphs (and their variants) in the Alien universe?
While no mention is given in Alien (outside of quarantine procedures), Alien 3, Resurrection, and Covenant (they specifically call out a lack of animal-type life in that), and Prometheus only had worms, Aliens implies something a bit different. Specifically, the Marines talk about being on "another bug hunt" as if this was something they commonly had to deal with (though in the case of xenomorphs, they're clearly not the sort of "bugs" they've had to deal with before). This leads me to believe that by that timeframe, alien life vaguely resembling non-vertebrates are at least not uncommon to discover, but nothing nearly as dangerous as xenomorphs, things fairly dumb and non-lethal but maybe tough/numerous enough to sometimes need military involvement (though this may just be a misuse/overkill situation as well). I'm uncertain what they might be, but I'd like to consider things equivalent to rats, emus, or other "nuisance" wildlife -- something like tribbles from Star Trek but more fitting for the Alien universe. It's also very possible that maybe "bug hunts" actually come purely from Earth-based insects that have carried over and somehow been mutated/genetically modified akin to killer bees, but that seems more of a stretch given that, outside of Prometheus, nobody in the Alien universe seems shocked at the idea of extraterrestrial life. Even if we consider "bug hunt" to mean a wild goose chase, there's still the overall larger sentiment that nobody in the first two movies seems shocked at the idea, even if they're skeptical of the details. I might try brainstorming some more specific ideas later.

3) Is there any sapient life outside of humans (and space jokeys/engineers) in the Alien universe?
Again, Prometheus marks this discovery as fairly special, but even in Alien, when the 'space truckers' come across a derelict alien ship, they don't seem terribly shocked at the idea so much as just calmly observing how it's unlike anything they've seen before. Aliens also makes reference to "Arcturians" which could well be just a name for certain group of transgender colonists (what I'd prefer to think). I generally think that the Alien universe, particularly after Aliens, establishes a precedent that there's no sapient life forms (alive) in the 2183 era aside from humans, and that even dead ones like the space jockeys/engineers are not plentiful. Still, this is the hardest aspect for me to reconcile, since on one hand, I think other sapient lifeforms would detract from what makes the Alien universe what it is, but on the other, find it a glaring issue that the first two movies seem to casually consider even sapient space-traveling life not surprising -- as if their universe might have a handful of sapient alien races that humans simply segregate themselves from mostly. What, if any, sapient life do you all think would be 'acceptable' in the Alien universe?

My intent for any games I run would likely be to keep things human-centric, with most worlds barren/alien/hostile in various ways, some 'terraformed' with maybe every 1 in 6 places having any sort of alien flora and other "biological" life, and maybe ever 1 in 66 places having ruins/remains of sapient life like the engineer derelict ship or the like, but no living sapient life. What are your thoughts though?
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aramis
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Wed 16 Oct 2019, 09:50

Prior licensed works have said, "yes, plenty of other life... but few sentients" We have the Humans, the Space Jockeys, the Predator... and maybe a few more sentients. Whether the Xenomorphs are is a matter of philosophy... they're damned smart, but not technical... and given their inimical behaviors towards other life...
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Wolfclaw
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Wed 16 Oct 2019, 22:35

Beside the obvious alien races in the Alien Universe, there are a lot more. From the book Alien: Out of the Shadows we know of Drukathi (dog-like creatures) that are very intelligent and feared even by the predators, Arcturians are humanoid shaped aliens that live underground in colonies, they aren't that intelligent and they look like a insect-mammel hybrids. Ofc there are also other types of xenomorphs. Hope I helped. :)
 
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Gebohq
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Thu 17 Oct 2019, 00:11

Prior licensed works have said, "yes, plenty of other life... but few sentients" We have the Humans, the Space Jockeys, the Predator... and maybe a few more sentients. Whether the Xenomorphs are is a matter of philosophy... they're damned smart, but not technical... and given their inimical behaviors towards other life...
I omitted the Predator species from my consideration in this context since this RPG series sets itself as only abiding by the Alien franchise. From what I could tell on fan wikis and such, few if any sentient species (much less sapient) are noted (more on that when replying to the next poster). And philosophy aside, I'd consider Xenomorphs sentient but not sapient simply because we don't see them doing the "usual" sapient things: building and using complex tools, flying in space ships on their own, etc. -- as you said, not technical.

More importantly, regardless of what's been in any expanded universe material, is any of that stuff material you feel fits the universe as you see it? Are there new ideas you're considering for your own Alien RPG sessions? I've got something I'll be posting in a bit.
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Diego
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Thu 17 Oct 2019, 00:31

As others have said there clearly is material in both the staple setting and the extra stuff done by other companies. However I know personally I would never have other intelligent life in the setting. The Jockey is the creepiest when it is behind a curtain. Yes there was another space going species, whether they are still around is questionable, all you feel is the ramifications of what they did. From a setting perspective, an Alien game should be dark and dismissal, the grittiest darkest of Sci'fi's with big lumbering ships devoid of any warmth in a galaxy where silent planets pass you by in the eerie depths of space. In a franchise about the horror of Isolation, let that stretch to the galactic stage. Humanity in it's invention of FTL engines has inherited a grave yard.
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Thu 17 Oct 2019, 01:21

Beside the obvious alien races in the Alien Universe, there are a lot more. From the book Alien: Out of the Shadows we know of Drukathi (dog-like creatures) that are very intelligent and feared even by the predators, Arcturians are humanoid shaped aliens that live underground in colonies, they aren't that intelligent and they look like a insect-mammel hybrids. Ofc there are also other types of xenomorphs. Hope I helped. :)
Had to look up the Drukathi again, and they are the sort of thing I think works best in the Alien universe -- a prior race that is no longer present. I think it supports the larger themes of a sense of wonder/awe/mystery, and a sense of dread when considering something like the Great Filter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjtOGPJ0URM
Basically, supporting the idea that life gets wiped out as they start to travel the stars because they encounter the things that go bump in the night -- Lovecraftian mockeries of life torn right out of nightmares. Granted, in the case of these Drukathi, it's apparently suggested they "left the galaxy" but maybe that's interpreted as fleeing (their ultimate fate presumably dismal). To that end, I've thought up a possible prior sapient race that could give some context to specifically the policy to answer distress calls and not be surprised when it's not human:

Knell
Also referred to as Sirens by humans, the Knell are a long-extinct space-faring species with very little known about them. Early in the 22nd century, humanity first discovered their ruins by accident while falling for false signals, signals which were intercepted and then recycled back by the Knell technology left behind. Following the false signals initially resulted in numerous human ships lured to investigate, only to have their ships disabled (and then stranded) by as-yet-understood Knell technology in a fashion reportedly accompanied by something vaguely resembling a deep bell ring. It didn't take long for humanity to catch on, and it became common for distress signals, legitimate or not, to go ignored for fear of encountering Knell traps despite clear means of identifying real from fake. Not wanting precious cargo and ships lost, companies like Weyland-Yutani began policies to ensure that anything resembling a distress signal would be answered.

As an out-of-universe note, I was inspired in part based on the Krell from Forbidden Planet, a movie that influenced the original Alien and features a long-extinct intelligent species. Aesthetically, their architecture might include pillar-like structures resembling corkscrew wind-chimes, large bumps or sacs protruding from walls, and elliptical bell-shaped ceilings, but I haven't thought all that through.

 As for the Arcturians, I'm not a fan personally of their extended universe explanation since I think that raises more questions than answers, and I personally don't think it fits the Alien franchise on its own, preferring instead to think of them as just another 'nation' of humans that settled in another part of known space. In the "AvP" universe, they could make a potentially good foil to humans that the Predators are to us -- they might be a sort of 'inferior' easily-exploitable species -- but even then, I'd only ever want to use them to further highlight humans as "the real monsters" in any given situation. Still, if people wanted to strictly stick with what's available in the extended universe, this is one of the few examples I know of that's out there.

I'm still considering what "bugs" humans have had to deal with. I'm aware of the ones described for a book related to Pollux I think that's meant to be the context for the comment about the "bug hunt" but not only did their description not inspire me personally, but they also seemed way too much of a threat. I'd prefer to consider options that keep the Alien universe largely "mundane" in their challenges (frontier environment survival, resources, other humans) that then have to occasionally deal with Lovecraftian horrors that lurk in the shadows (like xenomorphs) that, at least in the context of 2183, are whispered rumors at best. The sense of awe and wonder and mystery and dread, at a 'normal' level, should be things like planets where it rains diamonds and alien bacteria that cause space-dysentery and extraterrestrial emus that keep ruining colonist crops.

It's a tricky balance to think up stuff that's interesting and fitting of the Alien universe without overshadowing what should be the nightmare fuel like the xenomorphs, which is why I'm seeing what you all think. In all fairness, maybe it's a level of world-building that can just be ignored, and stick to the spaceships and space stations and desolate shake and bake colonies that most source material seem to stick to anyway. It's all more food for thought than anything else for me.
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Gebohq
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Thu 17 Oct 2019, 01:24

As others have said there clearly is material in both the staple setting and the extra stuff done by other companies. However I know personally I would never have other intelligent life in the setting. The Jockey is the creepiest when it is behind a curtain. Yes there was another space going species, whether they are still around is questionable, all you feel is the ramifications of what they did. From a setting perspective, an Alien game should be dark and dismissal, the grittiest darkest of Sci'fi's with big lumbering ships devoid of any warmth in a galaxy where silent planets pass you by in the eerie depths of space. In a franchise about the horror of Isolation, let that stretch to the galactic stage. Humanity in it's invention of FTL engines has inherited a grave yard.
Yeah, the "graveyard" feel is what I would prefer as well, to keep humans feeling alone in the stars. Even among the material I've seen though from fan wikis and such, there doesn't seem to be /that/ much else provided as far as alien life goes (though I may be failing to find it too), hence I was curious if any of you all either knew of specific stuff that you were planning to use or original ideas you had in your head that you were considering.
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Sat 19 Oct 2019, 03:23

Sitting here watching Alien: Covenant... 

I'd argue that the initial creators of the bioweapon needed an external enemy, and the start looks like there was one..

I'll note that my consumption of licensed third party content for Alien is little - just the Aliens Colonial Marines Tech Manual, the Aliens RPG, and a couple of comics issues. I've sporadically gone about the web for fan materials. But the general tone calls for no more than a handful of sentient species... and most of them extinct (or nearly so).

A:C definitely gives the idea that an AI rebellion not unlike that in Space: Above and Beyond is also a very real threat.

I'll note as well: A:C seems much more cogent and series consistent than does Prometheus... and answers a few questions raised in Prometheus. 
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Diego
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Sat 19 Oct 2019, 12:53

AC was a good film... right until David turns up... then it is a very swift nose dive. I mean there is no reality where I will accept that android as the creator of the xenomorph. No way, the xenomorph was a creation of the space jockey, no alternatives for me in this regard.

As for the Jockeys needing a threat, that I agree with, anyone who makes a weapon like that did so for the purpose of defeating a foe. I think personally I'd rather the threat be themselves and it was a civil war.
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Re: Other alien life in the Alien universe?

Sun 20 Oct 2019, 06:34

As for the Jockeys needing a threat, that I agree with, anyone who makes a weapon like that did so for the purpose of defeating a foe. I think personally I'd rather the threat be themselves and it was a civil war.
The level of annihilation that biowar of that nature presents needs huge levels of desperation, combined with a high level of depersonalization of the enemy; well more on both than a civil war is likely to generate..
As to David... I have no problem with David having gone off the deep end, but I'd say that he was deluded about his role. As in, he didn't actually do what he thought, but instead simply triggered pre-extant genetic programs. And as for his one-bot AI rebellion... it's a clear precursor for an AI rebellion. 
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