Medusae

[Colin]

While leafing through the Nyotekundu sourcebook the other day, I was struck by the Medusae skeleton. In particular, what realy struck me is how similar it is to the Xiang...

Not that I'm suggesting the Xiang are some degenerate descendent of the Medusae, or anything. It's just... interesting. Convergent evolution, and all that. Like how Kafers kinda look like human-bug fusions.

 

[Colin]

The Medusae were a realtively frail, low-gravity creature that resembled, in many ways, a jellyfish. Virtually nothing is known about them, which gives me lots of room...

 

[robmyers]

SPOILERS.

Originally posted by Colin:
The Medusae were a realtively frail, low-gravity creature that resembled, in many ways, a jellyfish. Virtually nothing is known about them, which gives me lots of room...

Well they're from close to the centre of the Galaxy, and they were fighting the Enemy. The one encountered in Nyotekundu was a long-range scout, and it's implied that their civilisation is probably long dead as well.
That said, there may be the remains of other scouts, with other artefacts, somehere on the arms. Or the Enemy might have got this far, or even still be looking. They were both clearly far more advanced than Humanity, so keeping them well out of reach was a Good Thing. 2300 doesn't need it's Ancients.

It is curious that the Xiang are in the same system as the Sung and that they show no obvious evolutionary paralells. But I'd be wary of making them 2300's Chirpers, delicious though the idea is.
Both the Medusa and the Little Guys were clearly meant as one-shots. Which would make building on them all the more fun.

- Rob.

 

[duran.goodyear]

I don't think 2300ad needs any kind of focus to be put on an ancient threat coming back to get us. theres plenty to play with in the 2300ad universe with out some super race that can stomp us like a fly.

hell, humans would have no chance, considering some people don't even think is economical to build colonies with the 2300ad tech/econ model

using them as a plot tool for archiology, or wild goose chases looking for high - tech nothings might be fun. but I'd resist the urge to make it anything more then a secondary focus.

just my two cents.

 

[TWILIGHT]

Making a super race able to stomp humanity isnt such a bad idea...as long as they never do. The threat is everything. It's made Call of Cthulhu all the more popular (Ancient god-like beings from the stars returning to earth to make mankind extinct)

 

[BMonnery]

Originally posted by robmyers:
SPOILERS.

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Colin:
The Medusae were a realtively frail, low-gravity creature that resembled, in many ways, a jellyfish. Virtually nothing is known about them, which gives me lots of room...

Well they're from close to the centre of the Galaxy, and they were fighting the Enemy. The one encountered in Nyotekundu was a long-range scout, and it's implied that their civilisation is probably long dead as well.
That said, there may be the remains of other scouts, with other artefacts, somehere on the arms. Or the Enemy might have got this far, or even still be looking. They were both clearly far more advanced than Humanity, so keeping them well out of reach was a Good Thing. 2300 doesn't need it's Ancients.

It is curious that the Xiang are in the same system as the Sung and that they show no obvious evolutionary paralells. But I'd be wary of making them 2300's Chirpers, delicious though the idea is.
Both the Medusa and the Little Guys were clearly meant as one-shots. Which would make building on them all the more fun.

- Rob. </font>[/QUOTE]I wondered if the base the SS 49-er encountered might be to do with them....

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2303/mag/oldenemy.htm

Bryn

 

[Whipsnade]

BMonnery wrote:

"I wondered if the base the SS 49-er encountered might be to do with them...."


Mr. Monnery,

Well, the adventure certainly hints at that being a possible solution, but I for one would be hesistent about ascribing even an occasional unknown artifact and/or base in 2300AD to the Medusae or their Enemy. It, IMHO, smacks too much of Star Blecch's wretched "Mysterious Aliens or Borg of the Week" plot crutch.

Besides, if memory serves, the Medusae scout's corpse was well over 200K years old. Would a hidden planetoid base that old be able to perform neurosurgery on a species it had never encountered? Give the SS-49er adventure a reality check and it becomes less silly; The base isn't some long abandoned alien construct, it's a Provolution hideout and the survivors only think it is alien because that is what the Provos programmed them to think.

Traveller developed Grandfather and the Ancients as a nifty deep background mystery. Sadly, they also immediately became THE easy plot device. Everything weird, wonderous, or just plain bizarre in the OTU got pinned on Gramps and his kiddies until they became little more than a joke. Abandoned alien base? Ancients! Strange moon with an atmosphere it can't hold? Ancients! Socks missing from the dryer? Ancients! Ancients? Ho-hum (yawn).

I can just hear a similar refrain beginning in 2300AD; Socks missing from the dryer? Medusae and the Enemy! (yawn) Do you think the setting would be any better for it?

Mysteries are supposed to be... well, mysterious! Scatter too many clues and too many examples around and they become commonplace. Let's leave the Medusae to mankind's single encounter with them and keep them delightfully mysterious. 2300AD will thank us for it.


Sincerely,
Larsen

P.S. BTW, that SS-49er adventure has a distinct Star Blecch odor to it. Stealing brains and turning people into cyborgs, sheesh. Must be Borg... (ahme) I mean Medusae!

 

[Murph]

I agree with Larsen, the Ancients became a Deus ex Machina in Traveller, and I would hate to see that here. Although the Korellians from Space Opera were a good set of bad guys. Massive Stellar empire, but just a little to far away to be an immediate threat, but just kind of hovering off in the wings so to speak.