Subject: The TNE Alien?
One of my biggest complaints about Traveller, from Yom Echad
(Hebrew: The First Day - the "ch" is gutteral) is that, for the
most part, Aliens were semi-cardboard cutouts. The Imperium was
populated mostly by twentieth-century Terran Humans, mostly North
Americans from the United States and Canada. The Zhodani were
the Evil Telepathic Dictators from Beyond the Rift, the Aslan
were the Honorable Samurai Warriors, the Vargr were the Inept
Anarchistic Pirates of Space, and the Solomani were the Evil
Communist/Racist Menace. And any minor races we ever saw (the
Bwabs/Newts, the Virushi, etc.) didn't even get that much. We
never really got a good look at their culture(s), or their point
of view of Interstellar History. DGP's Megatraveller Alien
series was something of a step in the right direction, but not
enough, and the Third Coming killed the series after it was
barely begun. What I'd like to see is a set of Alien
Sourcebooks, one per race, not smaller than Hard Times or Path of
Tears. (What I'd really like is for each race to get as much
info as is in the TNE Rules, but let's at least pay lip service
to being realistic.) This, incidentally, should include as many
of the Minor Races as possible. I'd accept Minor Races at two
per book, rather than just one, but I want that information. I
want my players to be able to run Zhodani characters in
character, and to be able to adventure in the Zhodani Consulate.
I want them to be able to be Aslan in the vanguard of the
reconquest and recolonization of the Rimward portions of the
former Aslan Hierate. I want them to face the problems of being
seven or eight feet tall, half again as long, and weighing
upwards of half a tonne, on a ship built around _human_
dimensions, and _human_ needs. I want them to see, as a Newt
would, how and why the ship's purser's attempts to bribe the
clerk are so extremely offensive, or why even the patience of a
Virushi could be exhausted after breaking yet another excessively
fragile human medscanner. Most of all, I want them to realize
that there are a _lot_ of people in Known Space who are Different
From Them, but who are no more Alien than they themselves are.
<knocking on glass of monitor> Loren? Are you folks listening?
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Jeff Zeitlin [email removed]
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~ QMPro 1.52 ~ I want to live forever. . .so far, so good.