Playing Aliens in TNE

[DElrick]

Hi,

While searching for something else, I found a copy of an old article I wrote for TNE. It gives player stats and some career suggestions for the various major Traveller aliens. The article first appeared in Valkyrie magazine. Anyway, just in case it might be useful to someone, here's the link:

http://traveller.mu.org/archive/TNE/playing.aliens.in.TNE.txt

See if you can guess which alien race we were playing a lot of at the time (except for Andy - Andy always played Vargr...).

Cheers

David

 

[DElrick]

By the way - the email address in that article is no longer valid.

Cheers

David

 

[daryen]

I don't know about the Aslan descriptions given.

The cross-rift Aslan surely don't hate "Imperials" as the "Imperials" (i.e. the Regency) are the only reason they are still alive. The still resent the way they are patronized by the Regency, but that is always there, Virus or not.

Likewise, from what I've read, the Aslan were wiped out as badly as everyone else. Only the cross-rift Aslan survived. All of the others were wiped out like the various humans, Vargr and K'kree.

Similarly, their fragmented nature did not help them; it hurt them. There was not the differing technology (as "Aslan technology" is "Aslan technology"), only segmented governments. Consequently, the Aslan were not able to mount a unified response to Virus.

Obviously, in YTU you can do whatever you want. But the above is my understanding of the OTU.

 

[DED]

I agree with Daryen.

With regards to technology, there is nothing in the literature to support the contention that technology varies from clan to clan.

From AM1: "Aslan technology is somewhat more uniform through the Hierate than equivalent human-settled worlds would enjoy."

And since women are the techies in Aslan society I would imagine that there would be alot of crossover of technology from one clan to the next. Once Aslan female from clan A marries a male from clan B, she becomes a clan member of B and all of her knowledge goes with her. If clan B were to have a problem similar in nature to one encountered by that female in clan A, you can be certain she's not going to waste time coming up with a completely different solution to the one she encountered with clan A.

Even in DGP's "Solomani & Aslan", there is no mention of tech variances from clan to clan.

It should be noted that all "alien" ships that dealt with the 3I had to have the Deyo Transponder Chip for identification purposes. Thus, Virus could infect the Aslan ships that had these chips, and from there had a vector with which it could infect the entire Heirate.

Also, the maps in the TNE core book and "Survival Margin" clearly show the Aslan Heirate shaded as "Wilds".

While it is pure speculation about what the Aslan are doing in the Wilds (reviving Imperial remnants only to space them later seems completely reasonable), the Aslan BTC have as mixed an attitude toward the Regency as they do their fellow clans.

Of course, Martin will the ultimate judge as to the fate of the old Heirate. But everything I've heard so far indicates that the old Heirate suffered just as much as everyone else.

 

[daryen]

Thinking about things a little more, I don't think the Aslan would hate the "Imperials".

They seem to have a very fundamental understanding of authority and chains of command. Therefore, they would almost intuitively understand that the "humans" are not responsible for Virus, just some of the humans.

The only race I can think of that would have the reaction you describe for the Aslan are the K'kree. They don't really understand individualism, and are quite ready to blame a whole group for the actions of a single member.

Plus, someone in the K'kree is going to equate the devistation wrought by the workings of a G'naak as divine punishment for failing to remove G'naak from the universe. And then they will want to fix that "mistake".

 

[Whipsnade]

Mr. Elrick,

A very interesting article, sir. Thank you sharing it with us.

Like DED and daryen, I have some trouble with your description of the Aslan. They've already mentioned the, IMHO, questionable anti-human attitude and differing clan technology bits. I'd like to add the 'Kuzu saved the Heirate' angle.

It's a nice bit; the central subsectors of the Heirate, led by the 29, sacrificing themselves to save their furry kin further spinward rings false. As nice as it is, it doesn't match what we know about the Aslan, the Heirate, or Virus. First, the many TNE maps have the entire Heirate colored as 'Wilds'; there are no surviving portions rimward of the Great Rift.

Second, the Aslan fought *three* world wars, two with nukes. The third was somewhat stillborn when TNS Pathfinder misjumped on the scene, but there is no question that the clans would have gleefully nuked each other back into the Stone Age if not further.

As their history rolls on from that point, there is no indication of the Aslan developing anything like the idea of 'I Am My Brother's Keeper'. In fact, there's plenty of evidence for the exact opposite.

The culture the Aslan squawk about so much isn't some ancient table of laws, it was developed about the same time they were copying Pathfinder's jump drives. The Aslan that accepted this new culture bent all their energies to hunting down and killing all the Aslan who did not. It was called the Great Cultural Purge. Purges aren't pretty. Those Aslan refusing to accept the new culture were destroyed root and branch. They exist, where they exist at all, to far spinward of the Heirate and walk under a sentence of death that will be carried out anytime a 'true' Aslan stumbles across them.

The Aslan cultural restrictions on wars; all the honorable stuff about duelling assassins or capture the flag, comes about becuase the Aslan had no other compunctions in war. We like to think we have 'laws of war', rules that are generally obeyed. The Aslan honor code is their version of this and it is necessary because without it they are genocidal maniacs - remember, they came within a whisker of nuking their own species TWICE. Time and again, canon mentions the wisdom of fighting Aslan honorably because once they think you're dishonorable, they throw away every rule and let it all hang out.

So, I won't buy the 'Kuzu Sacrifice' bit in your article. That's not the way the Aslan think IMTU; it's every clan for itself and Virus take the hindmost. Naturally, YMMV.

I think the quote in TNE regarding Aslan versus Ithklur soldiers is dead on. Having dealt with both, a human infantry officer is asked whether the Aslan or Ithklur are better soldiers. He replies, paraphrasing here, that he thinks they're both equal in skill, they can kill anyone they care to - rapidly and without worries, but he'd only trust an Ithklur to kill the RIGHT person.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Whipsnade]

Mr. Elrick,

I printed out you article and further perused it last night. (I'm one of those elderly fogies who are more comfortable reading on paper than a screen!) It's a good article, full of good stuff, and great suggestions. However, because I'm a wretched old poop, I do have two minor nits to pick...

First - The Vargr are NOT colorblind. CT's 'TTA'; in which a detailed look at the Vargr and a Vargr chargen first appear, doesn't say they are colorblind. The follow-on CT Vargr Alien Module doesn't say they are colorblind. MT's 'V&V'; which gives us an incrediably detailed look at the Vargr, doesn't say they are colorblind. In fact, 'V&V' specifically mentions a Vargr seeing color in its 'Playing a Vargr as a PC' sidebars.

The Vargr have different ideas about fashion, yes. They have different ideas about which colors 'go' together, yes. But they are not colorblind.

This all boils down to long-running idea that "Vargr equals Dog". Loren Wiseman must deal with this quarterly on the TML. The Vargr are NOT dogs. They were engineered from the same root stock as dogs, but they are not dogs. Chocolate is not poisonous to them, they are not colorblind, they do not eat their own vomit, and they do not sniff each others' asses instead of shaking hands, and they cannot lick their own balls. Vargr are not dogs, anymore than we are chimpanzees or Aslan are cats.

That's right, Aslan aren't cats, so that bag of catnip and the big fluffy yarn ball aren't going to stop them from kicking your ass.

Second - The Hivers are not pacifists, they are physical cowards. There is a vast difference between those two terms. In one sentence you mention that the Hivers are pacifists and then a few sentences later you mention they use subject races for various tasks. Pacifists with subjects races? Pacifists who manipulate? Sure.

The Hivers have no problem with violence as long as someone else is dishing it out and someone else is taking it. Preferably, those dishing it out will be following Hiver orders and slapping around those the Hivers believe deserve it. As physical cowards, the Hivers have no trouble with violence as long as they are physicially distant from it; either in space or time. The Hivers manipulate others to perform the intimately physical violence Hivers cannot bring themselves to commit. They also have little trouble crewing naval vessels, vessel's whose weapons inflict violence at great distances.

What's more, the Hiver murder each other just often as we humans do, perhaps even more.

CT's Hiver Alien Module spoke at length about the robust Hiver gastronomic system with it's built antibiotic saliva that allowed the Starfish to blithely chow down on vittles that would normally gag a maggot. Yet, a few paragraphs later, the Hivers express concern over their 'weak bodies', so frail, so primitive, so susceptible to any upset to their poor single, overworked gland. These two statements are quite jarring; the Hivers could regularly dine at Chez Month-Old Road Kill and yet were so delicate that most died of 'disease' or 'glandular problems' rather than old age. Rather odd, isn't it? Many in Our Hobby picked up on it during the CT Era, but there was little but speculation regarding this dichotomy* for years.

Finally, TNE's 'Aliens of the Rim' (which you note as not being available when you wrote your article) solved this mystery. The Hivers aren't falling ill to disease or glandular upsets, instead it seem that the Hivers enjoy POISONING each each other. Remember, you can be a physical coward and still commit murder. You can't be a pacifist and be a murderer though.

The Hivers aren't pacifists. While they can't bring themselves to commit intimate acts of violence, they have no compunctions about manipulating others into violent acts or arranging for violence to occur distant from themselves in space and/or time. They regularly murder each other, either by poison or staged accidents. The Hivers are cowards.

I still like your article and think a version 'brought forward' into T20 would be very well recieved.


Sincerely,
Larsen

* - The authors of the Hiver CT Alien Module may not have built this 'mystery' into the text. The text may have been simply poorly thought through. However, Traveller is game of built in mysteries. It's creators knew the Aslan didn't develope jump drive from the beginning and scattered cluees to that effect in CT. It's creators knew that the Zhos weren't mind rapers depicted in CT too.

BTW, Strephon's death in the Assassination was not a built in mystery. At the beginning of MT, he was the one shot in the Throne Room. Towards the end of MT, it was felt that having him survive would be nice and he was officially resurrected in 'Arrival: Vengence'.

 

[DElrick]

Guys,

Thanks for the comments. I wish I'd had you round back in 95 when I put the article together.

The race backgrounds are flawed (in relation to the TNE OTU anyway) as you noted. But the article was written when the only TNE product was the rulebook and it was a stop-gap to help other people like me who wanted to play aliens in TNE, but weren't prepared to wait for the alien books. As it happens, GDW went under before we saw more than one of them anyway.

The stats still work, as far as I can remember (we don't play TNE now - my players prefer classic, but I'm hoping to convert them to T20 soon).

The Aslan material was the most contentious even back then, generating lots of comment for the magazine's letters page (guaranteed to make the editor happy). Only the least abusive correspondence saw print - some UK Traveller players took offence where none was intended and went far over the top in their response.

I can't remember all the reasons now for the various backgrounds, but the Aslan had always been my favourite aliens and I (and my players) wanted a less apocalyptic background than the official TNE one. Hence the Hierate as written there. You're right about the holes in the logic though - maybe we should have stayed in 1105...

As a bit of background to my situation in those days, I couldn't just abandon TNE and go back to classic as I was on the UK branch of the GDW Demo team and I had to get to grips with TNE. In addition to which, as the SF editor of Valkyrie back then, I wound up writing most of the SF content of the magazine and it was necessary to keep up to date with the versions.

As to the colour-blind Vargr, I can only hold my hand up and say I was wrong. I don't know where I got the idea from (and as I'm at work I can't even go through my games collection looking) but I obviously perpetrated a myth/lie/whatever. In my defence I will say it wasn't intentional.

I posted the article here, partly for curiousity value (in that I'm curious it's still floating around the net) and partly in the hope that some of you who still play TNE would be able to get something useful out of it (stats, if nothing else). It wasn't intended as a challenge to the TNE OTU. Sorry if anybody mistook it as such.

Thanks again for your comments though.

Cheers

David

 

[daryen]

Please do not take our comments as a rejection. The fact that we are only highlighting certain points means that we actually like your article!

Also, we (or at least I) certainly don't look at your article as "challenging" canon. We were simply highlighting the differences we saw.

Thank you for taking the time to post the article. And thanks for the explanation. I enjoyed reading both.

 

[Whipsnade]

Mr. Elrick,

Please except my most sincere apologies sir. Although I meant my nit picking to be constructive, it seems that I most certainly failed in that regard.

I believe your article is a fine one and I have saved it among my Traveller materials. I also believe your article would be an excellent addition to CotI. A quick switch of the stats from TNE to T20 and your article would make a nice primer for those wanting to play Traveller aliens.

Again, I'm sorry that my exhuberance about your fine work came across as criticism.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[DElrick]

Daryen, Larsen,

No apologies are necessary. I didn't intend my last post to come over as defensive or anything. Looking at it again, I can see where some of the statements could be taken more than one way (one of the perils of a text-based medium I guess).

I really do appreciate your comments, and I really do wish I'd had people such as yourselves to discuss the ideas with when the article was in preparation - no sarcasm or other negative connotations are intended.

Your comments and criticisms are all constructive, for which I'm grateful. As I said before, when the article appeared in the magazine it generated very few constructive criticisms (lots of the other kind though).

I'm glad you got something out of it anyway. I'm sorry it came across that I didn't.

Incidentally, that last post was my 13th to this forum. I should have known something would go awry...

All the best and thanks again.

David

 

[jchurchill]

It's creators knew the Aslan didn't develope jump drive from the beginning and scattered cluees to that effect in CT.

Really?? I never trusted the Aslan. I guess they are "copycats" after all. So how did the Asllan get jump drive?

It's creators knew that the Zhos weren't mind rapers depicted in CT too.

Not mind rapers? There is something very old USSR about them. Guard Divisions... Hero of the people awards...etcetc..

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by DED:
It should be noted that all "alien" ships that dealt with the 3I had to have the Deyo Transponder Chip for identification purposes. Thus, Virus could infect the Aslan ships that had these chips, and from there had a vector with which it could infect the entire Heirate.

As you say, all alien ships that dealt with the 3I had to have the Deyo chip. All the ones that didn't (and there's bound to be a lot of internal traffic in each race's territory), didn't have to have the chip. That could have slowed down the spread of Virus dramatically (though I'm not sure how Virus is supposed to infect systems that don't have the Deyo Chip)

 

[Whipsnade]

secretagent wrote:

"Really?? I never trusted the Aslan. I guess they are "copycats" after all. So how did the Asllan get jump drive?"


Mr. Agent,

Thanks to a misjump by TNS 'Pathfinder', a Terran scout vessel. The two major Aslan clans were holding final negotiations during the opening days of the Aslan Third World War when a damaged Terran scout landed landed in their midst. A decade or so later, the oh-so honorable Aslan were jumping about will-nilly. No one knows what happened to the crew, although a group of Imperial adventurers; DGP's Four Knights, did find their remains and a knife in an underground temple of sorts on Kuzu.

Some of the 'hints' in CT are:

- The two clans that purportedly worked together to invent the Aslan jump drive have always been and still are enemies.

- There are various CT maps showing the region of Terran/Solomani exploration and colonization during the pre-Long Night era. Kuzu falls comfortably within the limits of that region and there were Terran colonies planted very nearby.

Oddly enough, the whole 'Aslan didn't invent jump drive' story isn't about the Aslan. It is about the Major/Minor race designations all Traveller empires use. The supposed test for Major Race classification has to do with independent invention of jump drive, but the real test comes down to power politics. The Droyne were reluctantly admitted to the Major Race club so that no one would look too closely at the Major/Minor designations. The Aslan have now been shown to be a Minor Race by the agreed upon test, but no one is suggesting they are a Minor Race thanks to the power they possess.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[jchurchill]

Oddly enough, the whole 'Aslan didn't invent jump drive' story isn't about the Aslan. It is about the Major/Minor race designations all Traveller empires use. The supposed test for Major Race classification has to do with independent invention of jump drive,
===============================================
yes I always understood that to be the case which is why I was a little surprised to see that the Aslan copied it.


but the real test comes down to power politics.
================================================
AS does everything in life...


The Droyne were reluctantly admitted to the Major Race club so that no one would look too closely at the Major/Minor designations.
============================================
Well, they are the decadent remnants of the Ancients. A friend sarcastically drew the comparison between the ancient Romans and modern day Italians. I have not seen my friend in a long time and hope he is not sleeping with the fish for that remark.

The Aslan have now been shown to be a Minor Race by the agreed upon test, but no one is suggesting they are a Minor Race thanks to the power they possess.
================================================
If you have enough guns and lawyers you can bully your way through almost anything and into any club.

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by Evil Dr Ganymede:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by DED:
It should be noted that all "alien" ships that dealt with the 3I had to have the Deyo Transponder Chip for identification purposes. Thus, Virus could infect the Aslan ships that had these chips, and from there had a vector with which it could infect the entire Heirate.

As you say, all alien ships that dealt with the 3I had to have the Deyo chip. All the ones that didn't (and there's bound to be a lot of internal traffic in each race's territory), didn't have to have the chip. That could have slowed down the spread of Virus dramatically (though I'm not sure how Virus is supposed to infect systems that don't have the Deyo Chip) </font>[/QUOTE]All that is needed is one ship that has both types of transponders. Virus is able to "rewire" electronics, somehow, so all it needs is a single example. Once it has that, it wouldn't be too hard to spread through it, too.

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by secretagent:
The Droyne were reluctantly admitted to the Major Race club so that no one would look too closely at the Major/Minor designations.
============================================
Well, they are the decadent remnants of the Ancients.

I wouldn't call them the "decadent" remanants, but the broken remnants.

Grandfather screwed around with the Droyne so much he ended up "breaking" them. He apparently was unable to fix his screwup and invented the coyns to keep the Droyne from dying out.

 

[jchurchill]

I wouldn't call them the "decadent" remanants, but the broken remnants.
===============================================
That was probably unfair of me to call them decadent....but it seemed less harsh than "degenerated little mongrels." Now my e-mail box will be filed with hate mail from the DADL...[the Droyne Anti-defamation League]

 

[DED]

Originally posted by David Elrick:
Daryen, Larsen,

No apologies are necessary. I didn't intend my last post to come over as defensive or anything. Looking at it again, I can see where some of the statements could be taken more than one way (one of the perils of a text-based medium I guess).

Yeah it didn't sound defensive to me and I didn't think that our comments were inflammatory.

Better to err on the side of politeness than risk sounding like a jerk.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by secretagent:
Oddly enough, the whole 'Aslan didn't invent jump drive' story isn't about the Aslan. It is about the Major/Minor race designations all Traveller empires use. The supposed test for Major Race classification has to do with independent invention of jump drive,
===============================================
yes I always understood that to be the case which is why I was a little surprised to see that the Aslan copied it.

It's all down to mixing up cause and effect. The major races are major because they've spread to cover a large area of space. What happens when you're the first around your block to invent the jump drive? Why, you get to spread out across a large area of space. What happens if you are given jump drive by another race? Well there is at least one rival race with a head start over you around. But the Aslans lucked out out and got the jump drive at a time when the old boys on the block happened to be in considerable dissaray. So they had the same sort of dynamic (being able to spread without serious competition) for a different reason.

Note that the Solomani came within an inch of being a minor race. If the Vilani had had their stuff together it wouldn't have mattered a tiny little bit that the solomani had invented the jump drive on their own. The Vilani would have relegated them to minor race status and probably claimed that they had gotten the jump drive from someone else.

Well, [the Droyne] are the decadent remnants of the Ancients.

Incorrect. The Ancients were an offshoot of the Droyne. More to the point, no one in the Traveller Universe knows about the connection between the Droyne and the Ancients, although one theory is that the droyne are the decadent remnants of the Ancients. But then, one theory is that Humans are the decadent remnants of the Ancients.

What got the Droyne into the Major Race category was the fact that 70,000 years ago the same cultural artifacts (coyns) suddenly showed up on about 20 widely separated Droyne worlds. To explain this Imperial scientists decided that one of these 20 worlds invented jump drive, visited the others, and then went home again. (And that theory is, as we all know, false).


Hans