I'm all for the no "near human" aliens! But, who posted this? If you weren't logged in and/or you didn't use the Submit Play Entry form, it won't record properly on your player page. -- JohnHalsey -- 21 Sep 2006 - 13:51:37

This was my second comment, I thought I was logged in but I guess not -- DaveMG -- 21 Sep 2006 - 14:56:51

Actually you can make a post manually if you want. Just make sure your sig looks like the one I just put in so the coins track. I'm all for radically different aliens also. Cool tenet! -- TrevisMartin -- 21 Sep 2006 - 22:20:45

To do a little background color: perhaps earth was destroyed, and humans are being scattered? It's not that they're always hunted by all the other aliens, it's just they're considered the dregs of the galaxy, and nobody cares whether they live or die, or get eaten by some of the hungry, "more important" aliens in the galaxy.

I'm expecting a little, um... "Feedback" here so let me know what you think.

-- SeanHess -- 22 Sep 2006 - 03:58:17

See and I was thinking that our whole thing was more human centric. I mean I get that the tech for humans is not all that far beyond ours (I'm thinking like the Alien movies, except the last one.) but with genetics instead of AI robots.

I think I'd be more interested if its humans just starting to make contact with alien lifeforms, like real recently. Maybe its my subconcious avoidance of anything that reminds me of Battlefield Earth. Maybe its not that earth is destroyed its just that humans are so immature/weak/stupid as to be uninteresting to our aliens. Humans being thought of as kind of how we think of dogs or monkeys. -- TrevisMartin -- 22 Sep 2006 - 05:04:20

That's exactly what I was thinking. When I proposed this, I meant for our story to center around humans... it's just that things aren't so nice for them right now in the universe.. you know what I mean? It's not like star wars, where humans are these fancy-pants diplomats... it's more like they're in a pool that's WAY to big for them... Does that make sense? So yeah, I agree, the humans being like how we consider animals is EXACTLY what I had in mind.

I'd be happy to take back the being eaten one... I kind of threw that in for fun.

-- SeanHess -- 22 Sep 2006 - 05:27:47

I quite like the concept of the other alien life being both rare and lookng down upon humanity .. possibly humans are a race 'missing' some other galactic constant - telepathy for instance, that nearly precludes humans from 'joining the family'. If we wanted to take the idea that the unique element is the fossilised remains of another elder race, I'm sure the beings of the universe would generally look down on humans either burning it to fuel thier vessels or snorting / injecting it to enhance themselves. -- DaveMG -- 22 Sep 2006 - 10:59:06

As important as we're making those fossilized remains, I'd think the other aliens would want to use it, too. No one today cares whether fossil fuel comes from decomposed plants, dinosaurs, or proto-humans.

I do, however, love the idea of humans being excluded. What if we go with your idea about humans being the only race that hasn't developed telepathy, making us seem very primitive indeed... but that element can give humans telepathy? Some might see that as "wasting" the stuff, creating some antagonism, right there. -- JohnHalsey -- 22 Sep 2006 - 13:53:17

Hear hear! I like that a lot. -- SeanHess -- 23 Sep 2006 - 00:19:23

Oh, also as color - the resource wasn't consumed when making a technology. It makes powerful technology able to last (at least to anyone's knowledge) indefinitely. This is one reason why it is so useful. I'll propose it as a tenet if I have to -- SeanHess -- 23 Sep 2006 - 00:21:42

That sounds pretty fact-like to me. It depends on weather you want to be able to call on it mechanically of course or for the purpose of challenges (not conflicts) to stuff other people bring in the game. -- TrevisMartin -- 23 Sep 2006 - 04:35:17

Can I make a challenge on that telepathy thing? I'm not a big fan of every single race having telepathy. -- MarkWithers -- 26 Sep 2006 - 17:55:11

Ok, let's negotiate, then. We were talking above that the aliens all look down on humans. I thought that humans being excluded from the main form of communications--the way we can speak but animals can only signal general ideas--would be a cool explanation why they don't like us. Since you didn't challenge the "Humans at bottom of social heirarchy" Tenent, do you have another reason you'd like to propose to explain it? -- JohnHalsey -- 26 Sep 2006 - 18:48:03

I don't mind humans being the underdogs, in fact, I find that very cool. What I object to I suppose, is the word 'ALL' in your fact. By all means have some telepathic aliens, I don't dislike telepathy per se, but if I want an alien race that doesn't have telepathy, that option should still be open to me too.

As to why humans are on the bottom - there could be a whole host of reasons. Maybe they are the youngest race, maybe they have the fewest planets, maybe fear and superstition has allowed aliens to dominate us politically. Maybe we have the smallest supply of the 'rare material'. -- MarkWithers -- 27 Sep 2006 - 18:16:50

Well, there is an intrinsic difference, there. One is "humans are like blacks in America in the 1960's", the other is "humans are monkeys that can sometimes speak english." That's a huge difference, and I was kinda liking the "humans are like apes" thing.

The former seems a bit over done, to me, but I was really liking the latter. Is there some way we can do the latter without giving all aliens telepathy? Maybe there's something else that they all have in common? Or maybe not all aliens have telepathy, but the ones that don't are closer to the bottom of the pecking order like humans, but have other redeeming attributes (like more of the rare material, etc.) that keep them just a little above us? -- JohnHalsey -- 28 Sep 2006 - 10:14:15

Well, one option might be to reword the Tenet to something like : "Sentient races without Telepathy are unusual and considered second class races"? This allows the possiblity of further non-telepathic races whilst keeping the main thrust of the initial tenet (and explaining why mankind is non a major player in galactic affairs. -- DaveMG -- 28 Sep 2006 - 10:16:19

Nice one Dave! You've really summed up my opinion on it. Telepathic races being at the top of the heap is great, but so is being able to create non-telepathic aliens too. I'm backing Dave's version of the tenet, if it comes to bidding. -- MarkWithers -- 28 Sep 2006 - 23:03:59

Done and done! -- JohnHalsey -- 29 Sep 2006 - 13:14:39