Races?

[Sunsetmoon]

Which standard races are in the Traveller Universe? Are there other races than humans? I have seen a lion-like thing on one of the covers. Can you tell me something about the races?

I would like to get into the game, but too weird races would alienate me....

 

[Starviking]

The main alien races are:

Aslan: The 'lion-like' aliens. Clannish warriors.

Hivers: Starfish-shaped aliens with a taste for social manipulation.

K'kree: Genocidal vegetarian centauroids.

Droyne: Pastoral little lizardoids.

Vargr: Terran dogs uplifted to sentience by 'the Ancients'. Chaotic and prone to piracy.

The aforementioned Ancients also brought humans to the stars in prehistory, as their servants. Some were altered to better serve their master's needs - others to survive in the environments they were placed in.

Of the 3 major Human 'races', 2 were descended from the servants of the Ancients: The Villani and Zhodani. The former were the rulers of a stagnant but vast empire, the latters experts at psionics.

The third major Human race is the Solomani - us +3000 years.

Whilst my descriptions above are basic, and the aliens might seem cartoonish at first glance - they actually are well thought-out and fit well in the Traveller Universe.

Starviking

 

[JAFARR]

Interestingly enough, Solomani are considered to be an alien race as the empire was founded by the Villani branch of the human race. In game terms a major race is one that discovered jump flight for themselves and a minor race race was discovered by one of the major races before the minor race made that discovery for themselves. To the best of my knowledge in the Official Traveller Universe or OTU, there are no minor human races.

Also, Starviking did not specify that all human races are physacally the same, but culturely are alien to each other. The Solomani are in many ways organized like the communists of the 1950's to the 1980's

 

[aramis]

Not all the Human races ARE the same, Andy. Solomani, Vilani and Zhodani can be distinguished by number of teeth and blood antigens. Jonkereen have far wider divergence, as do Geonee, or Darrians.

Darrians, Sword Worlders, Geonee, Jonkereen, and several others exist in OTU canon. (Darrians are AM8, BTW, the only minor race to have a published Alien Module to themselves.)

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi Sunsetmoon !

Most major Traveller alien races tend to appear as a somehow modified being from good old Earth.
Except Hivers perhaps, which are really pretty alien.

But beside that, there are several dozens other known races, which where presented in various Traveller resources, ranging from "modified terran stuff" to really alien.
Heres a fabulous colelction of the things creaping around in the TU:
http://www.mega-traveller.com/beowulf/indexes/alien_ix.htm

Personally I have quite problems with those upright bipedal human-like pseudo aliens, "centaurs" or others, which just look "modified" than with really alien aliens

(Its a bit hard, to explain everything with genetically engineered...).

Anyway, there are some other pretty threads on this board dealing with aliens. Just search for e.g. alien races....

Regards,

Mert

 

[stofsk]

Originally posted by TheEngineer:
Personally I have quite problems with those upright bipedal human-like pseudo aliens, "centaurs" or others, which just look "modified" than with really alien aliens

(Its a bit hard, to explain everything with genetically engineered...).

Why? Being able to stand upright was actually a very important evolutionary advantage our distant ancestors developed over their genocidal rivals. I don't have a problem with aliens developing in the same way.

 

[TheEngineer]

Agreed stofsk.
Upright position might be an advantage in appropriate environment.
But perhaps this should not mean, that aliens appear as naive terran pattern variations (well, thats quite ok for geneered beings)...even if I fully accept the evolutionary concept, that similar environments produce similar equipped beings.

Heres one of many articles dealing with that topic:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/alien-physiology.htm

Really, guess its just a personal taste thing..

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Hooee! I don't see how anybody would think the K'kree don't look rather alien! See here.

sunsetmoon, the OTU is broad enough (physically speaking) to let you play an entirely humanocentric campaign, or to go nuts with minor and major alien races.

And, of course, you can always do Your Traveller Universe (YTU). Heck, around here you can even debate how much of the Traveller assumptions you can throw out before its no longer a Traveller universe....

 

[daryen]

Just to provide even more useless information ...

The "major" non-human races are: Aslan, Vargr, K'kree, Hivers, Droyne. (All described above.) All of these races, except the Droyne, control large sections of "Charted Space".

There are uncounted numbers of "minor" non-human races. It seems that any time a setting is published for Traveller, the author(s) are compelled to create at least one new minor non-human race. There are dozens known. Some of the classic ones are the: Bwaps (administrative newts), Ael Yael (pterasaur like), Virushi (rhino-like gentle giants), Ithklur (violently poetic lizards), Vegan (alien desert dwellers), Llellweyloly (plant-like), Ebokin (insectoid). Again, there are many, many more.

There are three types of human races. The "major" races control large empires of their own. The "minor" races were (like the Vilani and Zhodani) created by the Ancients (as were the Vargr). The geneered races were developed by other humans.

The "major" human races are: Vilani, Zhodani, Solomani. (Again, described above.)

There are many "minor" human races, some of which have never been identified. Some of the more well known minor human races are: Darrian, Floriani, Geonee, Luriani, Dynchia, Iltharans, Suerrat, Kargol, Answerin, Irhadre, Yilean. All of these races have noticable divergence from the Solomani "mainline".

There are only a few geneered human races. The two classically known ones are the Jonkeereen (desert nomads) and the Nexxies (fully aquatic). There are probably more, but those two are the only ones really detailed.

Finally, there are many small empires run by the same race. For example, the Solomani run the Third Imperium (joinly with the Vilani), the Solomani Confederation, and the small Sword Worlds empire (plus several others I can't think of).

 

[stofsk]

The Darrians: are they basically space elves?

 

[mike wightman]

Yes

 

[daryen]

Originally, yes. But they did evolve over time, and so aren't quite the direct application they were in their JTAS 14 introduction.

 

[mike wightman]

The CT Alien module paints them as space elves as well - the munchkin-ness of the phisiology chapter still makes me wince.

Retroviral enhancements, variable metabolism, super UV protection, enhanced brain hemisphere connections, acute sight and hearing, water conservation...

 

[Maladominus]

And the Geonee are the space dwarves.

Who get to be the space orcs? The K'Kree?

 

[aramis]

And the swordies (Sword Worlders) are Germano-norse in space.

The Orcs would seem to be the Ithklur: Violent, controlled by evil wizards (The Hiver) and ugly as sin.

 

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

Actually, the Ithklur would be more akin to Hobgoblins. Violent, they believe they allow the Hivers to control them, and sin is a model compared to their looks. Both races enjoy violence just for the sake of the pleasure they derive from it.

Hmm... This gives me an idea for a T20 or Classic Traveller campaign.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by daryen:
There are uncounted numbers of "minor" non-human races. It seems that any time a setting is published for Traveller, the author(s) are compelled to create at least one new minor non-human race. There are dozens known. Some of the classic ones are the: Bwaps (administrative newts), Ael Yael (pterasaur like), Virushi (rhino-like gentle giants), Ithklur (violently poetic lizards), Vegan (alien desert dwellers), Llellweyloly (plant-like), Ebokin (insectoid). Again, there are many, many more.

The canonical figures are roughly 100 inside the Imperium and roughly 400 known in all of Charted Space.

There are three types of human races. The "major" races control large empires of their own. The "minor" races were (like the Vilani and Zhodani) created by the Ancients (as were the Vargr). The geneered races were developed by other humans.

Some of the human races were tinkered with genntically by the Ancients. Others were shaped by 300,000 years of separate evolution. Some deviated enough from the original to become separate species, but many remained close enough to still be subspecies of Homo sapiens. The geneered races don't fit into the minor/major classification because they started out in contact with a race that had jump drive already. They're sometimes called variant human races (or, jokingly, Medium Human Races).

There are many "minor" human races, some of which have never been identified. Some of the more well known minor human races are: Darrian, Floriani, Geonee, Luriani, Dynchia, Iltharans, Suerrat, Kargol, Answerin, Irhadre, Yilean. All of these races have noticable divergence from the Solomani "mainline".

There are 3 major and 46 minor human races extant by the Classic Era. Some 30 of them have been mentioned in various official Traveller material. The Ancients distributed humans to at least a hundred worlds, but a number have died out or been absorbed by the Vilani.

There are only a few geneered human races. The two classically known ones are the Jonkeereen (desert nomads) and the Nexxies (fully aquatic). There are probably more, but those two are the only ones really detailed.

There are no reliable figures for the number of variant human races. There are several more detailed in GT:Humaniti and also some mentioned fleetingly in MT:Solomani & Aslans (or Rats & Cats as it's also known ).


Hans

 

[aramis]

S&A also mentions the uplifts: Chimps, Orangs, Gorillas. T20 adds the Ursa.