OTU races in ATUs

[sabredog]

Bwaps - I always loved the little guys.

Mine are pretty non-assuming aliens who love to haggle and trade. The NPC Bwap most commonly encountered by players is a splotchy guy called "Bunderball" by humans since his actual name sounds more like a burbling zipper sound followed by a glottal stop and farting pop.

He is a wiley old tramp captain whose Free Trader is named "The Refreshing Pool of Deep Wet Delights", and he has a regular route so he can be easily found if wanted.

I like the Bwaps since nobody pays much attention to them as a Minor Race in my campaign, yet they seem to be on every warm planet with a lot of water and high humidity doing their trading quietly on the edges of the ports. I've always imagined that due to their love of puzzles, secrets, and anything like that, that they'd be great for espionage work as agents to move info, but it never seems to happen. Yet. They seem so harmless and comedic, and probably because they didn't have even in-system drive technology a couple hundred years ago when first encountered.


But otherwise all my alien races are my own developed long before GDW even mentioned their own. It seemed a glaring hole in the original Traveller books for quite a while, like the lack of high energy weapons, but like the rest of the original rules it did allow you to unleash your imagination.

 

[CaptRet]

IMTU Aliens

For those who have Hivers in their Traveller Universe, do you also include the I'thklur (the Hiver's elite shock troops - 2 meter tall warmblooded, reptilian humanoids) ? I personally quite like the idea of the Hive Federation, as it includes such a diversity of sophont alien members.

 

[BlackBat242]

While my Traveller is set in basically a slightly alternate-history but recognizably OTU-based universe, and I have/do use the official humanati, Aslan, Vargr, Droyne & K'Kree, along with a number of the minor races from JTAS etc*. I also throw in ones from various sci-fi I've read - as well as ones generated using a mish-mash of the two "make your own alien" articles from Dragon mag in the 1980s**.


Some I've referenced during games, as well as placing as NPCs (and sometimes as PCs) are:

Andre Norton: Zacathans & Kalassa (the race of the character of that name in Forerunner & Forerunner: the Second Venture).

Anne McCaffery: heavyworlders. Brainships have also been referred to.

David Weber: Treecats (of course).

Lois McMaster Bujold: Quaddies.

Roger Moore's "dwarves in space" from Dragon Magazine #70 February 1983.

Alan Dean Foster: Thranx.

AD&D/Arduin: Phraints (Thri-Kreen).

Mermani from The Traveller Chronicle #5

I do need to make an uplifted macropodidae species... inspired by A. Bertram Chandler. These would likely be another Ancient removal/uplift (similar to Vargr, Vilani, etc) - derived from the Subfamily Sthenurinae (the only walking kangaroids, now extinct).
Sthenurinae




* Verushi, Bwaps (of course!), Dynchia, Vegan, Hlanssai, etc

I've used variants of Tursiops (called Delphini) & Ael Yael (but more-robust physically, and more playable).


** Make Your Own Aliens by Roger E. Moore Dragon Magazine #51 July 1981

Anything but Human by Jon Mattson Dragon Magazine #58 February 1982



No Ursoids yet - and NO HOKA! Hoka

No Fuzzy Sapiens (Piper) either.

 

[Reynard]

I created an alternate universe based on the actual stars surrounding Earth in three dimensions. The SETI program's powerful antennas found radio and television signals from Epsilon Erindani three parsecs away. This is the vargr homeworld and would lead to great social and technical change on Earth leading to extensive exploitation of the solar system when fusion power and maneuver drive tech become reality.

Years later, the first jump testbed vessel reaches Alpha Centauri and find a devastated Droyne homeworld. The Droyne had already created jump and are the basis of the greymen. Earth restores their homeworld and aides survivors in reclamation many of whom were trapped on Earth since the Roswell incident in secret. Earth gains great technology boost including jump-2 and the two races become allied.

J2 allows the allies to finally reach E. Erindani and contact the vargr. Turns out they are genetically originated from Earth wolf stock and there begins speculation of another race somewhere that may have influenced all three races over eons. The vargrs become a somewhat chaotic partner to the federation.

The aslans are known by signals from many parsecs away and tend to be standoffish to allowing the other races to enter their territory. At worst, they made several incursions into the federated territory then a brief war that finally respect their opponent and finally open up to trade and interaction.

The worst was yet to come after a couple centuries since Earth first jump. The K'kree had been monitoring signals from federated and hierarchy space and they were both terrified and enraged so many carnivores were so close. There was a large gap that kept things in control but the K'kree still threw everything to build their war machine. Scouts found a system that would allow them to cross and they did destroying several vargr colonies on the other side. Now, four major alien races and a handful of minor races would unite in the fight for existance.