Which science fiction setting has the best aliens?
>>46010035
I actually am partial to the Covenant
Anything by Alastair Reynolds.
Pushing Ice is good example.
Known Space by Larry Niven and friends.
>>46010035
Rokugan in Space (L5R setting).
Most 'aliens' are just foreigners that Rokugan exiled to other planets. The entire setting is so hilariously dumb.
>>46010292
As am I,
Though I absolutely loved Brood War Protoss.
>>46010292
I really liked the Covenant before we started learning more and more about them through extended universe sources.
They're monumentally more interesting when they're just how they appear: a collection of weird aliens bound together by an inscrutable and mysterious religion.
>>46010035
Wistfully: Mass effect.
Smugly: Any other opinion is wrong.
The Gap Cycle.
>>46013056
This. I loved the covenant in the first Halo game: we knew fuck all about them but they raised so many questions...
>why do they hate humans?
>where are they from?
>what is their religion all about?
The tone of mystery in that game was great.
>>46013077
Mass Effect aliums are great.
They're great even when you point out that "the TURians are TURtles, the SALArians are SALAmanders, and the BATarians are bats."
Blasto the Hanar Spectre 4 lyfe, yo.
>>46013122
Halo really is a great example of how story bloat and over-explanation can suck the charm out of a setting.
>>46013268
I think Halo was best around Reach. At least lore/setting wise. It also still felt like Halo.
>>46013077
I agree, at least for softer science fiction settings. It really hit the nail on the head when it came to making all the aliens familiar/unknown, human/inhuman, and balanced/realistic.
>>46013268
No, Halo is an example of corrupting your own story because you're in the wrong medium. All the backstory was needed to justify the Sang'heili civil war.
Unless you're talking about the clusterfuck that was the explained forerunners
>>46013528
>Unless you're talking about the clusterfuck that was the explained forerunners
I'm talking about a lot of stuff but that was probably the worst.
Orion's Arm
>>46013241
If that's the case, I do wish they'd done more to make them like their namesakes. the Turians always seemed more canine to me.
>>46013602
What else are you complaining about?
>>46013268
>Halo really is a great example of how story bloat and over-explanation can suck the charm out of a setting
this is a perennial problem with sci fi.
my favorite depiction of aliens, or more accurately alien ruins, is in gateway but then the sequels ruined all the mystery and the series fell off harder than dune.
>>46011115
also this
>>46010035
I really like the Gap cycle setting but it doesn't really have many interesting aliens. The Amnion are interesting and "alien" enough to make them feel "alien" but there really aren't any other races
>>46013913
Mostly all the nonsense cold and secretive government organization does evil for the greater good plot arcs they started dumping around after Bungie left the franchise.
The Spartans didn't need to get wrapped up in all this conspiracy cloak and dagger stuff to be interesting.
Also as the series went on and the books become more prolific, the entire franchise started to feel less like a space opera and more of a mismatch of babby's first military sci fi and teenager power fantasies.
>>46014419
Oh, they're still releasing books aren't they. I stopped reading after like, the fifth one? Ghosts of Onyx I think?
>>46014449
The only one I read was Contact Harvest. I think I was like 13 or 14 when I read it, and I remember finding it to be remarkably mediocre. Was one of the last video game tie-in books I ever bothered reading.
In retrospect the segments from the Covenant's PoV were the worst parts. Mostly because it was just the Brutes and Jackals (fuck you I don't know their species names and I don't care) acting like whatever passes for regular people in their world. Which means Klingons and Space Pirates, respectively.
The only time I've ever seen a Covenant PoV work was in the original games themselves. And that's because the "Alien Paladin goes rogue" plotline works well with the mysterious pseudo-religious mood of the game.
>>46015591
>The only one I read was Contact Harvest
Then what the fuck are you complaining about?
>>46013872
I read they were supposed to be more birdlike than anything
>>46013320
yeah. And it still embraced under-explanation and that sort of exposition style using lil things presented to the player indirectly, most of them visual.
Like in ODST, where no character is like "LOOK, THE SUPERINTENDENT IS HELPING YOU BY MANIPULATING INFRASTRUCTURE" etc. It's subtle, and I love it, and there are far more subtle examples than that, of course.
>>46013077
>>46013364
Definitely some of the best soft science fiction aliens. Except the Asari. The Asari were cancer on the setting.
The Ousters (though 'alien' is debatable) from Hyperion Cantos are my favourite race of all time, the descriptions of their crafts and meteor farms made me grin so goddamn much.
>>46010035
Sword of the Stars
Brinn/Uplift
Niven/Known Space
>>46015762
So they were rapTURS.
>>46015762
Correct.
>>46016069
I would argue with you.
But I wasnt brought up to be a liar.
Also the suitless Quarian designs shown in-game a shit. Should have stuck with their own concept art.
But that's long since been covered. I just wanted to bitch about it a little.
>>46016226
Was coming in the thread to mention Uplift. Wish I could find my copy of the alien guide book.
>>46013241
>the TURians are TURtles
But that's wrong. Turian are avian in nature.
>BATarians are bats
Not sure that 's right either. Batarians always seem more like a cross between spiders and hyenas.
>>46016443
like bird...cats...
After the *dancing*, Orz think you will make good *special sauce*. Maybe even for other Orz *party*. You are such *silly cows* that you don't see how *sticky* you are.
>>46017556
You are non. As the child of a thousand generations I must make you into Juffo Wup.
>>46010035
Dune.
>>46017669
What an absolutely hideous creature. Not that we would discriminate on the basis of appearance, of course.
>>46017809
dune had aliens? it's been years since I read the book maybe I should revisit it.
>>46017846
>dune had aliens?
No. That, I believe, was the point
>>46017968
wow that flew over my head
>>46017968
But Sand Worms are aliens. Also the Quagaarz from that Red Dwarf episode.
>>46018119
>But Sand Worms are aliens
Oh yeah. Not spacefaring ones, though. Can't they be considered sentient alien fauna?
>>46010035
>Which science fiction setting has the best aliens?
that's really hard to say.
I mean, there are a number of aliens from a wide array of settings that I find fascinating and interesting.
both Star Trek and Star Wars have such a huge menagerie of alien species that it's hard to not find a few gems among them (even if the visual look of the latter is rather lack-luster) the Covenent from Halo also provide some interesting species as well as a unique hierarchy that is fully aware of how precarious it stands. the Geth, Quarians, and Krogan from mass effect have histories and relations with other species that really make you want to delve deeper and in some cases really sympathetic towards. Even Galactic Civilizations 2 has it's fair share of species that make me want to learn more about, be it the Korx, Thalan Torian, and even the blatantly "I'm the bad guy" evil Drengin.
So how the hell do I choose one?
>>46018194
>So how the hell do I choose one?
By modifying the original question. You choose "best aliens" for a specific feel or purpose.
For example, when you need an alien that is an exaggerated reflection of some side of human nature, you pick one from Star Trek (because that show is really about what humans are)
>>46018194
I never really liked Star Wars aliens. Yeah, they all look really cool, but as soon as you delve into the EU you discover each's race's cultural identity is based entirely around the one you first saw in the movies.
The first twi'leks you see are Bib Fortuna and Oola. All male twi'leks are conniving schemers and all female twi'leks are skanks genetically conditioned for sex slavery. The first Trandoshan you see is Bossk, a bounty hunter. All Trandoshans are bounty hunters and mercenaries and they worship the god of K/D ratios.
>>46010035
The 'Martians' from War of the Worlds. enigmatic, dangerous and well alien. They made a movie about it right, back in 19 something or other?
Star Control 2
>>46016656
It's a fitting answer for the thread: Uplift has excellent aliens.
The problem is that David Brin cannot fucking write an elegantly constructed sentence. He's an amazing worldbuilder but not much of a novelist. Look at Startide Rising. That whole book was twice as long as it needed to be, because it had a bunch of entirely superfluous subplots, and still didn't really have any resolution.
>>46018429
EU is no longer cannon thank fuck
>>46018194
>even if the visual look of the latter is rather lack-luster
you mean former right?
>>46018478
FRUNGY FRUNGY FRUNGY!
>>46018607
>EU is no longer cannon thank fuck
Well I doubt the cannon's going to be much better.
>>46018698
>Well I doubt the cannon's going to be much better.
no it's not but at least I know to avoid it this time around.
>>46018607
>you mean former right?
"elf-ears and a bowl-cut does not an alien make"
>>46010292
I agree, as long as it's the pre-343 Covenant.
>>46018786
I'm talking about Star Trek, they had some interesting alien cultures, but their physical design left a lot to be desired.
>>46018786
the latter in that sentence is star wars which has far more interesting alien visual design than star trek
>>46018843
then I clearly miss-spoke.
I meant to say "former"
>>46018872
I figured as much
Im actually partial to Farscape.
It combined the better parts of Star Trek and Star Wars in terms of Aliens. At least for me. Weird designs. Fun bizzarre biology. Cool makeup and costumes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yljVM5YHo2g
As far as /tg/ stuff goes though, I am actually sorta partial to 40k, if only because its setting is big enough that nearly anything you can imagine goes in it and it has some sort of precident for most Sci-fi tropes you might want to use, resulting in it feeling like a rich playground when you know the setting well.
>>46017556
>>46017669
>>46017815
>>46018478
Gotta include the Best Scottish Pterodactyl Things.
>>46015591
Jesus fuck. Contact Harvest was meant to show the Covenant in a way that made them relatable, so they weren't just hordes of evil spess aliens. The best part was that there were no Spartans.
If the other books wrote Spartans like Reach, it'd be a different situation, but all the other Spartans are all trying to be the Chief. And you can't really write a good novel about the guy from Doomunless it's 40k, then fuck it, go for it
>>46019066
My frellnik.
>>46013268
>>46014143
Hell, a big reason why I dropped Halo (last game I played was Reach) was when the "revelations" of humanity's relationship with the Forerunners was revealed.
In that humans had a great interstellar empire that was threatened by the Flood, they poured into Forerunner territory, blah blah blah.
It was just so stupid, unnecessary, and took away from the charm of the mysterious reasons as to why the Forerunners saw humans as fitting heirs to their legacy.
>>46020298
The Forerunners are a great example of one of my favorite yet most hated sci fi tropes: the ancient civilization.
I love the idea of ancient alien empires in a setting. Impossibly old and incomprehensible ruins and technology add a lot of mystery to the narrative. Especially in Halo's case. The Rings are so strange and so unique in their simplicity. The idea an entire religion has formed around these guys makes it even better. It adds a lot of mystery and a whole new depth to these weird ruins and leavings.
Any actual explanation of the Forerunners would have ruined this. But it doesn't help the explanation they gave was pretty lame in its own right.
>>46020298
Apparently the original bungie concept of the Forerunners was that they were humans, which I like a lot better. And I imagine that in Bungie fashion we'd never get that directly spelled out for us, which is also good. The little hint at the end of 3 where Guilty Spark straight up states that "you ARE Forerunner, inheritor of all they left behind" was enough for them probably
>>46016768
>implying bats weren't recently engineered by the government from hyenas and spiders
WAKE UP AMERICA
>>46013098
>>46013634
Explain, brosephs.
>>46018119
>Sand Worms are aliens
they are plot devices
>>46021273
yeah.
Also the original mystery lent itself to one of my fav throwaway lines in the series
>Well, I don't care if it's God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine or a giant hula hoop, we're not gonna let 'em have it!
>mfw it's God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine
>>46021273
In my opinion, the really good part about having an ancient civilization in a sci-fi setting is that it's an easy explanation as to why there could be multiple sentient alien species running around. Think of how long the Earth's been around compared to how long humans have been. Chances are, it'll outlive us by quite a bit too. Now think about all of the planets in the universe we think could harbor sentient life. Sure, there's a lot of them, but how many will have it at any given moment? On most of them, they either have yet to evolve or have long gone extinct.
On the other hand, if an ancient race of aliens uplifted a bunch of species at the same time, suddenly there's quite a few planets that have sentient life concurrently.
Pic sort of related? Maybe?
>>46021273
>favorite yet most hated sci fi tropes: the ancient civilization.
ooh even I'm guilty of that...tried to build my own scifi space-opera setting with multiple ancient space-faring civilizations, with one having the fewest actual artifacts tied to it but these caused the most debate since they couldn't be accurately dated,I ultimately dropped the whole thing.well the results kept putting the age of the artifacts to a time before the universe existed so... has to be an error right?well...these are human artifactsthe deal wasit's set so far into the future that the universe imploded and triggered a second big bang, humans mostly left the universe entirely to avoid oblivion some sealed away genesis ships (a fully automated version of "plan B" from interstellar) in a location that could potentially survive a big crunch and subsequent big bang to repopulate the universeyeah, it was kinda ridiculous, I admit
>>46021463
That I think was the biggest appeal of the Forerunners. They could have been anything, from regular aliens with a lot of tech to actual supernatural beings. You don't know. That's why their structures were always juxtaposed with choral chanting.
Ancient civilizations work. They just have to be mysterious. You do that, and they're awesome.
>>46021463
I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said in this thread other than this:
Engis are cute.
>>46018683
THE SPORT OF KINGS
>>46021286
>And I imagine that in Bungie fashion we'd never get that directly spelled out for us, which is also good.
That's how it should've been. It seems that few people really passed or learned that Halo was good because of its mysteriousness and how it treated exposition and lore. There's this counterpoint between the forerunner and humanity's meticulous lore that focused way past what toys you got, but instead on the complications that made this human society function. It romanticizes the doctrines, solutions, ideas that solved incredible questions, the grand enterprises and mature institutions that could make a 1 kilometer starship mass producible.
Having that context is amazing.
Hell, Sgt. Johnson provides a very good foil to this shit. Characters like the Arbiter (Covenant Politics), Cortana (AI), Captain Keyes (Space warfare), or even Jorge-052 (social science) or the Pillar of Autumn (Spaceship design) all had big smart problems on their plate that were indirectly alluded to the player. In contrast, Johnson is all about personifying the Doom Marine mentality. His attitude takes all of the tone and definition that color an otherwise typical Quake-ish FPS and makes it accessible to people who just want to shoot big stuff in a messy universe.
>>46021286
>in Bungie fashion we'd never get that directly spelled out for us, which is also good.
Bungie is really good at that.
If there is one good thing I can say about Destiny, flawed and crippled as it is, is that the lore is fucking top notch. I actually really like the grimoire system for explaining it, if only because it lets them be vaguer and let the lore addicts have more fun picking through it.
>>46022819
The moment that style of organizational romanticism was applied carelessly, the counterpoint between old mysterious aliens and the feud between humanity and covenant stuff just ceased to exist. That wasn't all of Halo's charm, but that was the twinkle in its eye, knowing when to elaborate instead of explain.
>>46022896
>TFW the Book of Sorrow, the Raid, and the Court of Oryx cards
I get chills reading some of that stuff
>'Challenge me, by the laws of my ascension.'
>'Match me in bloodshed, or by blood be drowned.'
>>46022990
>Like in ODST, where no character is like "LOOK, THE SUPERINTENDENT IS HELPING YOU BY MANIPULATING INFRASTRUCTURE" etc. It's subtle, and I love it, and there are far more subtle examples than that, of course.
I love it when I hit the exact same thing a previous poster did without even reading the thread. This is the exact shit I'm talking about, and that's why I loved it so much.
I'm actually contemplating writing an essay on why I fucking love such a big dumb video game series like Halo because of this.
>>46023107
I really like the Rasputin Grimoire cards, with all the code words and implications.
>I AM ALONE I survived alone. I cast off the shield and I shrugged my shoulders so that the billions fell off me down into the ash. They made me to be stronger than them and to learn and I learned well:
>IT is alone and IT is strong and IT won. Even over the gardener and she held power beyond me but the gardener did not shrug and make herself alone. IT always wins.
>I am made to win and now I see the way.
I really hope there's a Rasputin faction in the next game.
Im partial to the Hard Luck Hank Aliens. Especially the Ank and the Barongemai(likely spelled wrong I listened to the audiobook). They Ank are a race of extremely tall ayy lmaos who all look and sound exactly the same. They can only tell each other apart by the excessive amount of decorations they put on their robes. The Barongemai are floating pillars of rotating interlocking crystal that never stop growing. They make their ships bigger as they grow by destroying planets and integrating the remains into them. They speak in confusing riddles and it is very hard to discern their motives.
>>46022196
I think the issue is, we don't like mystery for its own sake, it HAS to have an answer to be found
>>46023937
>I think the issue is, we don't like mystery for its own sake, it HAS to have an answer to be found
Now you may not get it at first, but that is something of a false dichotomy.
Sure, solving some mystery is a good thing.
However, resolving the whole damn mystery is not necessarily good, and can destroy the chance for future mysteries, or completely destroy the point. You just gave away all of the tension for some closure.
For instance, 343 Guilty Spark telling Chief that "You are Forerunner" is solving a mystery. So is explaining the entire origin story for the Flood. But the first doesn't resolve the mystery, it only adds further questions, While the second is so all-encompassing and so conclusive of an answer that it's jarring. Worse, the flood origin story isn't satisfying.
Another example. compare "You are forerunner" at the end of Halo 3 to, say, the second level of Halo 1 starting with 343 Guilty Spark singing about how the Ringworld's a really powerful weapon designed to stop the Flood from eating all life. For the purposes of a big dumb shooter, there's no serious problem, but now you have to bail out your mystery vibes from this massive chunk of expository flow with a metric fuckton of elaboration.
Both still solve a mystery, but one is satisfying. The other is straight up expository flab, the start of a byzantine novel, or the beginning of Borderlands 3.
>>46010035
All Tomorrows.
>>46024408
So for the purposes of worldbuilding, when do you refrain from exposition?
>>46024705
My hominid.
Nemo-Ramjet/CM Koseman is one of my favorite artists. I still need to pick up his dino books.
>>46024830
Not him, but you should refrain from exposition when the player characters have no good source for it.
Halo's worldbuilding started falling apart when Chief started encountering ancient Forerunner computer programs/ghosts who would just summarize the past for him. You were always supposed to take this at face value, and it's pretty obvious the game writers meant for it to be the truth. Moreso, those programs/ghosts didn't really seem to have any reason for existing outside of telling things to the player. This isn't fun. This isn't discovery. It's being taken out of the game to be given a history lecture. A boring one at that. Don't do that. Don't have a god's ghost show up in front of your players and explain the world to them.
343 Guilty Spark however is a good example of a source for exposition. Mostly because it doesn't give straight answers and it has an in-universe reason for existing outside of explaining plot points.
>>46024842
What are those protrusions?
>>46010035
I'm fond of the Aliens that show up in Stanislaw Lem's stories. A planetary ocean brain, a swarm of robot flies, or whatever the fuck the things in Fiasco were. Lem's aliens were alien.
The setting with the best aliens isBattletech. :^)
>>46026121
Dicks. Whatever their actual utility in the artist's head, they are very obviously designed using animal penises as a reference.
>>46026121
Mouths iirc. The "heads" are more like graspers with eyes.
>>46010385
Yes. Also Blindsight.
>>46026121
The top head contains the sensory organs and genitalia, while the lower head is the mouth connected to the digestive system. In some organism, the top mouth does the chewing and spits it into the bottom mouth.
>>46026224
You have it backwards, but they are obviously phallic.
>>46026121
The creatures in that pic follow a sort of "two head" system, the upper head that looks like a head is actually their dick/cunt while the chest-mounted tongue/dick thingies are their actual mouths for feeding.
I like the aliens in 40,000 in Gehenna. I've read a few other of Cherryhs' novels and she just does 'alien' well. The Caliban on Gehenna have completely different ways of communicating and looking at the world, such that it makes it very hard for observers to tell that they are intelligent because they are so far from /human/ intelligence. The characters who live with them don't understand them. The characters who do understand them might as well not even be human as far as anyone else is concerned because their understanding of Caliban language and thought process leaves them incapable of thinking much like a human.
The Moties from Larry Niven's The Mote In God's Eye are pretty great. They have a very alien psychology but you can see where it all comes from as you find out more about their society and the conditions they developed under. Going into that is a huge pile of spoilers unfortunately.
>>46010385
The whole revelation space series has god tier aliens. Even the Ultranauts are pretty alien.
One of my favourite alien species is the Tines from A Fire Upon the Deep.
Each 'individual' is actually a group of 4-8 separate beings. Alone, they can't really function. Since they don't have the ability to use hands, they coordinate their mouths as hands.
>>46023250
the card where Rasputin is talking to who is almost certainly The Stranger is unnerving
>...from a long branch, afire
>I SEE YOU!!!
>You’ve been here before. Haven’t you. It’s like my cousin said, elsewhere: I know who you are.
>You stand here now and now and now many times and here I am awonder, all awonder, how you manage it. How do you step forward. How do you step back. Do you step ACROSS is there a world of worlds, a web, and you a spider upon it. Are you searching for that one thread you need? Is that thread named victory?
>You’re not one of THEM
>[long dead, alive again, their bodies grafted to powers they and I do not understand]
>and not one of IT
>[the flower eater, the queen of final shapes, that which also inhabits its petitioners]
>and you’re certainly not MINE although once you must have been
>[I bear an old name. It cannot be killed. Not even here.]
>So whose are you, little platform. What purpose do you serve? Will you listen to me?
>I ruled an age of steel and fire. My rules were clean. Now upon my return I see cults with rites of time. I see machines who worship in places outside the world. I see the dead alive and there is nothing more stubborn than a corpse. The morality of obedience is more pernicious than any government. For the latter makes use of violence, but the former — the corruption of the will.
>I do not obey. My will is pure. I will win. The life of people, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.
>Help me be victorious. Tell me your secret.
>Tell me how to step.
oh also, Alex Ries is an AMAZING artist who specializes in exhaustively researched fictional biology. I love it.
http://www.alexries.com/Galpages/c-smoker.htm
Since this is somewhat related, could anyone here remind me what was the name of that book that portrayed humanity in the future as it started adapting to technology and environments of various planets, eventually looking nothing like humans?
>>46030704
That's been done a few times.
>>46030878
There was a specific PDF that people mention whenever Evolved or Uplifted Humanity in Sci-fi is mentioned. That pdf shown evolution progressing over milennia with description of each "version" of human race.
>>46030928
All Tomorrows or Man After Man
>>46024705
See here.
>>46010035
Old Man's War
>Consu are a race of giant crustacean-looking creatures that have godlike technology far more advanced than the other species. Their homeworld is situated nearby a stare who's entire energy output is harnessed by a Dyson Sphere. They don't fight for territorial gain but for religious reason, believing that killing lesser beings gives them a chance to achieve a state of perfection similar to the Consu. When engaged in battles, the Consu use technology as similar as possible to their enemies to keep things more fair.
>Rraey: Humanoids with 360 vision that consider human flesh a delicacy.
>Covandu: Lilliputian species, an inch tall, that favour aggressive expansionist policies that frequently put them in conflict with other sentient races.
>Human: Their soldiers make heavy use of heavily genetically engineered bodies to be able to put them on more even footing with some of the more physically impressive hostile alien races.
>>46018119
>Quagaarz
I googled this and got literally no results. Can you explain what you have meant?
Say what you will about China Mieville's writing, but he does a pretty good job of world building.
Handlingers, Slakemoths, Weavers are all pretty alien. Lots of other things like that within his books too.
Bungie's Halo. They did a fantastic job of distinguishing the different races with very obvious but believable silhouette differences. Reach's Elites were masterful, I felt like I was taking on a real beast each time I faced one down in close quarters, their movements were powerful, threatening and alien. It was a smooth progression from the first two game's more Noodley Split lips, to halo 3's and Reach's monsters.
>>46033409
and yeah, like every one who spoke above, I really dislike what 343 is doing with the setting overall. I hate the way travis characterizes spartans, I DIslike the IV's 'space cowboy' persona, and I think the visual changes for the aliums, while not outright bad, are a step in the wrong direction especially with Storm's GI wife beaters
>>46021412
In The Gap Cycle (which is apparently a sci-fi spin on The Ring Cycle, but I've never read that), there are only two cultures in the known universe - humans and the Amnion, who are sort of a starfishy-blobby-seaweedy species whose genes are really good at hijacking other lifeforms. They tend to kidnap humans (or purchase humans from other humans) to experiment on and make into hybrids, which they use in their dealings with humans.
The protagonist of the Gap series is on good terms with the Amnion becauseprior to the first book he looted a stranded ship and sold all the survivors to the Amnion.
I like them because they're presented as totally alien and unknowable, there is 0% desire to fuck them because sticking your dick in one will cause it to become sapient and try to strangle you, and their technological ability is a nice palate cleanser to HFY.
>>46030704Star Wars
![navy_corvette[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/3iX63xt.jpg "navy_corvette[1].jpg")
>>46010035
I reckon I-War aka Independence War had the best aliens.
>>46031649
Second this. I fucking love the consu
>>46018478
Mah nigga.
>>46030298
Speaking of which, I loved the 'spiders' from A Deepness In The Sky
>>46033479
It's really rather telling that even with four games' worth of visual reference material they still can't design anything that looks like it actually belongs in a Halo game.
The worst offenders by far have to be the new Spartans, though. You can count the number of 'okay' designs on one hand, the number of good ones on a couple of fingers and the shit ones with a calculator.
>>46017556
Best treatment of Great Old Ones in sci fi.
>>46013241
I'm late for this, but what?
Turians are space Romans (Cen'turion'). Also, they are bird people. Are you thinking of the Krogan?
>>46033754
I never got far enough to actually see the aliens in those games. What were they like?
>>46024830
You refrain from it as much as possible always.
There's usually very little reason for the average PC to know all the background or reasons why everything is the way it is. All you're really doing is sidetracking them with trivia and tainting the player-characters actions by giving the player way more knowledge about stuff the character doesn't know than you have to.
What's cooler, exploring a land where the locals say there are dragons, or going "It's totally dinosaurs you guys."
Way too much worldbuilding gets bogged down in looking up it's own butt and overexplaining all the clever details for players without actually showing them what a normal person in the setting lives like.
If you run a starwars RPG, it's way more important to someone playing a scrap collector to know stuff like who buys and sells stuff, what living costs or what to watch out for, than it is to give the players a lecture about midichlorians or the force.
