Pentapods

[Colin]

I happen to find the Pentapods potentially the scariest aliens in the game. So far, all the Pentapods the human race has met have been from one "nation" of the Pentapod homeworld. The flight of the Bayern past the Pentapod home world seems to have stirred something up, however, as other Pentapods "nations" are now seeking access to human space and human markets. And they have their own agendas.
That's currently my take on the 'Pods. More to come.

 

[Secrect Cow Level]

'Pods rule!

 

[Lord Iron Wolf]

I enjoyed them as the most alien of the aliens in 2300AD. One thing which would make the most scary would be them seeing and acting on the human imperfections by tampering with human genetics especially on isolated frontier worlds and communities.

Lord Iron Wolf

 

[mike wightman]

Two ideas I always wanted to use but never did.

1.What if a group of scouts to the Pentapod homeworld were accidentally (or deliberately?) killed and a Pentapod "God" rebuilt them from their remains. The only memories that could be installed would be what the Pentapods know about humanity and the abilities their "bullets" had recorded. Then make this your PC group and send them off into human space.

2.What if the Pentapods can get an intact Kafer to study? Can they manufacture an artificial gland that duplicates a Kafer's violence/intelligence and also pacifies the Kafer in the process? Can the PC group:
a) capture a live Kafer for study;
b) introduce the gland to a group of Kafer;
c) deliver a virus to Kafer space which will
eventually produce this gland in all affected Kafers.

Of course there are lots of things that can go wrong, but thats for you to decide.

 

[Ran Targas]

Originally posted by Lord Iron Wolf:
I enjoyed them as the most alien of the aliens in 2300AD. One thing which would make the most scary would be them seeing and acting on the human imperfections by tampering with human genetics especially on isolated frontier worlds and communities.

Lord Iron Wolf

^ Whose to say they haven't already! Sort of a Vorlon/Gary 7/X-Files kinda thing where Neo Sapiens (tm?) have been infiltrating Earth space to ensure the Penties are received with open arms. Wouldn't the Penties capitalize on any genetic material they could manipulate? Suppose they found the body of a long range scout (ala Buck Rogers?) or happened to visit Earth during a mutual pre-history.

Take it a step further and you have minor league X-Men (gills, vacuum hard skin, monkey feet, UV eyes, etc.). Some of it is already in our genetic make-up just waiting to be activated!

Could always be cool to give a player a suspect mutation when mutations are reason enough on some planets for execution. Maybe this is more T:3000?

 

[Colin]

oops. The Bayern didn't fly past the Pentapod homeworld. That was some otehr large exploratory vessel (Vogelsperspektiv?)

The Bayern flew towards the Pleiades via the Chinese Arm...

 

[Gallowglass]

Speaking purely out of personal preference, whilst I would applaud an attenmpt to enrich the Kafer background (I found they went stale very quickly onc ethe whole intelligence boost shtick was rvealed - they become a rather tedious orc substitute thereafter...), and I think that the 'pods, Sung and Eber's have un-tapped potential, I do hope that we don't get teh 'pods (or either of teh other two for that matter) re-inveneted as Kaer substitutes. I have always preferred the 'pods as wierdly alien and part of the fun is that it has always been so easy to press peoples revulsion buttons for something that fundementally looks like it wandered out of the Cthulhu mythos... and yet there is always a perfectly "sane" but very 'pod reason for what they are doing.

Rather than re-inventing existing aliens too much, I'd prefer to see greater depth and richness to the existing ones (inluding the Little Guys and some of the other peripheral races) and pehaps signs of ANOTHER race? Although the urge to drop the Inhibitors in to my own game is getting almost overpowering...

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

 

[robject]

Ok, I'm a 2300 newbie, so these alien types are pretty new to me. I know enough of the Kafers, though I don't know what they look like, and I assume the Pentapods are vaguely similar to Puppeteers from Niven's Known Space, but what are the Sung, Eber, and Little Guys?

 

[Colin]

Yep, 'Pods are creepy, and they have a tendency to push the "gross' button too often. That's why I like 'em. I'm trying to introduce the concept of factionalism in other races, much as humanity has factions. Not just nations, but the Foundations, ProVolution, the corporations. Alien culture should be at least that complicated. The pentapods in paricular, as each "god" in effect is its own faction, and each would have different goals. Most of the 'Pods encountered so far have only been from one faction, the one that encountered humanity in the first place. However, the flight of the Vogelsperspektive into Pentapod space has aroused the curiousity of the other "gods", and some of them may not be as nice as the ones we've found so far.

I don't really like the idea of the "evil" alien race. Any alien race should have as much depth to them as humanity, which means that they have as much potential for good or bad as humans do. But being alien, they will also have their own reasons for their actions, which may not be immediately obvious to humans. Or even comprehensible.

Colin

 

[BMonnery]

Originally posted by robject:
Ok, I'm a 2300 newbie, so these alien types are pretty new to me. I know enough of the Kafers, though I don't know what they look like, and I assume the Pentapods are vaguely similar to Puppeteers from Niven's Known Space, but what are the Sung, Eber, and Little Guys?

The "Pentapods" humanity knows are actually self-aware bioconstructs constructed to interact with the outside world. The "Pentagods" are few, immobile and largely confined to the sea of their homeworld. IMC A Pentagod lives in the enclave on BCV-4, and some 'pod ships carry Pentagods (the "small moon" sized ship that made first contact IMC was a god carrier).

Aside from the Pentagods (which humanity has not yet encountered), we know only the constructs. Their ships are living creatures (bioconstructs) in their own right, in a Vorlon stylee.

The Pentapods trade a lot of bioware with humanity. While the humans trade mechanical machinery (a previously unknown concept).

There are articles on the Sung and the Xiang online: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2303/ke03000.htm

Both are interesting. The Sung were a pre-stutterwarp starfaring civilisation which encountered another sentient (but non-technological) lifeform on another planet. The largest Sung nation (their equivatent of the USA) enslaved this race. After first contact, it was concluded that they were enclaving the Xiang. The resultant "slaver war" was IMHO really a non-governmental war. After the war Manchuria and Canada took territories in the largest Sung nation. The Manchus to trade, the Canadians to try and convert the Sung to Democracy, or something equally wooly.

The Ebers are fascinating, with a multi-nodal brain so they function in different modes, but I don't have my copy of Ranger handy. The guy to ask (if he's on here) is Thomas Vickers.

The Little Guys were a minor race encountered by the Bayern en route to the Seven Sisters. They were the remains of a technological civilisation holding out against a force of robots on their moon after an apocalytic war.

The Kafers and Pentapods are the two other major races, with the Ylii and the Sung having great potential. The Xiang, Ebers and Klaxun are probably planetbound for a long time, while the Medusa and the "Enemy" could probably swat humanity like bugs if they even knew we existed.

ISTR there are some sentient "animals" on some of the worlds, certainly the Curtain Dragons, Rouseau etc. may be sentient, but none of these have reached the stone age.

Bryn

 

[BMonnery]

I've got a collection of links at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/9292/2300/index.html

Bryn

 

[BMonnery]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Two ideas I always wanted to use but never did.

1.What if a group of scouts to the Pentapod homeworld were accidentally (or deliberately?) killed and a Pentapod "God" rebuilt them from their remains. The only memories that could be installed would be what the Pentapods know about humanity and the abilities their "bullets" had recorded. Then make this your PC group and send them off into human space.

2.What if the Pentapods can get an intact Kafer to study? Can they manufacture an artificial gland that duplicates a Kafer's violence/intelligence and also pacifies the Kafer in the process? Can the PC group:
a) capture a live Kafer for study;
b) introduce the gland to a group of Kafer;
c) deliver a virus to Kafer space which will
eventually produce this gland in all affected Kafers.

Of course there are lots of things that can go wrong, but thats for you to decide.

I like 1, and its an IMC thing. I see the Kafers as a lot like the Amnion from Donaldsons "Gap" series. People who disappear from human ships end up in Pentapod space, being "modified" as above. The drawback for infiltrating human society is that as soon as they open their mouth its obvious who they are.

The Kafer thing. One thing the Pentapods will pay through the nose for new biological material, such as Kafers, Ylii or whatever to play with...

Bryn

 

[Colin]

You betcha. They're even happier to do it for free..

 

[duran.goodyear]

Colin, I can't wait to see where you are going with the update.

the small hints you drop or bring in for discussion are driving me nuts

thanks again!

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by BMonnery:
while the Medusa and the "Enemy" could probably swat humanity like bugs if they even knew we existed.

Whoa there. Who are these guys?

 

[BMonnery]

Originally posted by Evil Dr Ganymede:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by BMonnery:
while the Medusa and the "Enemy" could probably swat humanity like bugs if they even knew we existed.

Whoa there. Who are these guys? </font>[/QUOTE]The 2300 equivalent of ancients. They came through the area a long time ago looking for tantalum (anyone got Nyotekundu to look it up) and a Medusan ship was downed in the Wolf 359 system (they were at war) and encountered by the crew of the British Mining Station in that system. They were telepathic of sort and ISTR started to take over the station.

Last I heard, the artifacts were in the hands of British Intelligence. Nasty. There's a plot hook there with the British conducting secret research at some remote off-world location.....

Bryn

 

[BMonnery]

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_5428.html

Ummm, the rings of Cocito could turn into something like the Ruin Ring in Reality Dysfunction.

Bryn

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by BMonnery:
The 2300 equivalent of ancients. They came through the area a long time ago looking for tantalum (anyone got Nyotekundu to look it up) and a Medusan ship was downed in the Wolf 359 system (they were at war) and encountered by the crew of the British Mining Station in that system. They were telepathic of sort and ISTR started to take over the station.

Bryn [/qb]

oh yeah.... I think I remember that now, I've got the Nyotekundu book.

There's also those energy beings rearranging the Pleiades too, but they're a bit out of the way.

 

[duran.goodyear]

SPOILERS


They are from the Nyotekundu Sourcebook.
alien telepathic, or was it phermonic, messages were coming from a fossilized remains of an alien thing found in the asteroid rocks of Nyotkundu.
obviously very powerful, and blown up by something even more powerful.

 

[Colin]

Originally posted by duran.goodyear:
Colin, I can't wait to see where you are going with the update.

the small hints you drop or bring in for discussion are driving me nuts

thanks again!

You're welcome.