GURPS - 4th Edition - Space

Alien Creation III

Primary Locomotion Secondary Locomotion

Determine primary locomotion. Roll 2d on the list For any method marked with an asterisk (*) on the
below and apply the appropriate modifiers based on Primary Locomotion table there is a chance of a sec-
lifestyle. Methods with an asterisk (*) indicate a second- ondary method of locomotion. Roll 2d and check the
ary mode of locomotion. “Special” includes buoyant or primary mode to determine the secondary method.
jet-powered flight, sliding, wheeled locomotion, or Some secondary methods are also marked with an
whatever bizarre means of transport the GM prefers. asterisk, indicating the chance of a third method of
Add +1 for pouncing and chasing carnivores, omni- locomotion.
vores, gathering herbivores, and scavengers.
Climbing: 2-6, slithering; 7-11, walking; 12, no
Arctic: 2, immobile; 3-4, slithering; 5-6, swimming*; secondary.
7, digging*; 8-9, walking; 10-11, winged flight*; 12-13,
special. Digging (land): 2-6, slithering; 7-11, walking; 12, no
secondary.
Banks/Open Ocean: 2-3, immobile; 4, floating; 5,
sailing; 6-8, swimming; 9-11, winged flight*; 12-13, Digging (water): 2-5, slithering*; 6-7, walking*; 8-11,
special. swimming; 12, no secondary.

Deep-Ocean Vents/Reef: 2-5, immobile; 6, floating; 7, Slithering (in water): 2-10, swimming; 11-12, no
digging*; 8-9, walking*; 10-13, swimming. secondary.

Desert: 2, immobile; 3-4, slithering; 5, digging*; 6-8, Swimming: 2-6, slithering; 7-9, walking; 10-12, no
walking; 9-11, winged flight*; 12-13, special. secondary.

Gas Giant Planet: 2-5, swimming; 6-8, winged flight; Walking (in water): 2-8, swimming; 9-12, no
9-13, buoyant flight. secondary.

Island/Beach: 2, immobile; 3-4, slithering; 5, Winged Flight: 3-5, climbing*; 6-7, swimming*; 8-10,
digging*; 6-7, walking; 8, climbing*; 9, swimming*; walking; 11, slithering or sliding*, 12, no secondary.
10-11, winged flight*; 12-13, special.
Aliens on Wheels
Lagoon: 2-4, immobile; 5, floating; 6, slithering*; 7,
walking*; 8, digging*; 9, swimming; 10-11, winged One method missing from the list of locomotion
flight; 12-13, special. methods is the wheel. This may seem strange because
wheels and rollers are a major element of human tech-
Lake/Salt-Water Sea: 2-3, immobile; 4, floating; 5, nology. Why aren’t they found in nature?
walking*; 6, slithering*; 7-9, swimming; 10-11, winged
flight*; 12-13, special. There are two main reasons. First, any kind of axle
or roller is hard to connect to the rest of the organism,
Mountain: 2, immobile; 3-4, slithering; 5, digging*; since it is turning. Possibly a species might evolve non-
6-7, walking*; 8, climbing*; 9-11, winged flight*; 12-13, living wheels made of some substance like shell, turned
special. by muscles within the creature. Other creatures could
roll into a ball or wheel shape and roll downhill for fast
Plains: 2, immobile; 3-4, slithering; 5, digging*; 6-8, getaways.
walking; 9-11, winged flight*; 12-13, special.
Second, environments suitable for wheels aren’t that
Planetary Interior: 2-6, immobile; 7-13, digging. common. On Earth there are few places with large
River/Stream: 2-3, immobile; 4, floating; 5, slither- extents of smooth, hard, level ground, and most of those
ing*; 6, digging*; 7, walking*; 8-9, swimming; 10-11, are the work of humans for the convenience of their
winged flight*; 12-13, special. machines. Other worlds might have some environment
Space-Dwelling: 2-6, immobile; 7-11, solar sail; that is good for driving where a wheeled species might
12-13, rocket. evolve.
Swampland: 2, immobile; 3-5, swimming*; 6, slith-
ering; 7, digging*; 8, walking; 9, climbing*; 10-11, Wheeled organisms get the No Legs (Wheeled)
winged flight*; 12-13, special. disadvantage, worth -20 points.
Woodlands or Jungle: 2, immobile; 3-4, slithering; 5,
digging*; 6-7, walking; 8-9, climbing*; 10-11, winged
flight*; 12-13, special.

across the body surface. As a creature big warm-blooded creatures can easi- eat as much as small ones in propor-
gets bigger, the ratio of heat-generat- ly survive in cold climates as long as tion to their size. Birds and small
ing mass to cooling surface goes up. there is enough food – whales swim mammals eat more than their own
This often requires big organisms to comfortably in Arctic waters where weight each day, whereas whales
develop radiators (like an elephant’s an unprotected human would die in consume only a few percent of their
ears). On the other hand, it means that minutes of hypothermia. Large warm- mass.
blooded creatures also don’t have to

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 149

Gravity and Buoyancy support very few creatures, but those Multicellular organisms tend to
few are often quite large. develop in segments, based on their
Local gravity is likely to have a body symmetry. For bilateral, trilater-
tremendous effect on the size of BODY PLAN al, or radial organisms, the number of
organisms. Lower gravity reduces the body segments can range from one to
stress on bones and muscles and Once you know how big the crea- dozens. Each segment has a number
allows creatures to support a bigger ture is and how it gets around, you can of limbs equal to the body’s sides.
mass. The equation works out as fol- start determining how it is arranged. (Limbless segments are certainly pos-
lows: L=1/G2/3, where L is the linear You can either design the aliens or use sible, but we ignore those here.) Some
dimension (height or length) and G is the random-generation tables in the of these limbs can get modified to
the local gravity. box text. serve as sense organs, jaws, fins,
wings, reproductive organs, or what-
This assumes that the creature Symmetry ever. Radial-symmetry beings can
must support itself against gravity. have multiple segments piled up like a
Weightless organisms can be arbitrar- An organism’s symmetry refers to stack of starfish. Spherical organisms
ily large, limited only by food supply. how its body is laid out. There are sev- are likely to have a single limb per face
This applies to aquatic creatures, eral possibilities. or per vertex.
buoyant floaters in a gas giant atmos-
phere, or spaceborne life. The simplest body plan is asym- Obviously, creatures with more
metric. Either the creature changes its than two arms and legs get the Extra
Any creature that cannot support form as it moves, or the growth of Arms or Extra Legs advantage. Limb-
itself should probably get an Increased limbs and body systems is fairly free- derived structures like wings, anten-
Life Support disadvantage to reflect form. Terrestrial plants are often nae, fins, or eating mandibles don’t
that if it’s going to be spending time asymmetric. count as Extra Arms or Legs.
among humans. Being aquatic is a 0-
point disadvantage because it is com- A common form of organization is Asymmetrical or bilateral organ-
pensated by the advantage of being bilateral symmetry. Humans are bilat- isms with four or more legs get the
able to swim (see No Legs, p. B145). A eral, as are most animals on Earth. Horizontal disadvantage. Trilateral
spaceborne organism should probably Bilateral organisms have matching and radial organisms are Horizontal if
take a Weakness to gravity forces. organs and systems on each side, at they have only one body segment; oth-
least externally. erwise they are likely to be upright.
Size and Ecology
Unknown on Earth but popular in Tails
Gravity isn’t the only limit on a science fiction is trilateral symmetry, in
creature’s size – otherwise everything which the organism has all its parts in Nearly every vertebrate on Earth
on Earth would be as big as sets of three, arranged around the has a tail, and many invertebrates
dinosaurs. Another important limit is body. This is really just a special case have them as well. Humans, sadly,
the ecology. Some environments sim- of radial symmetry, but gets its own don’t have them. Tails have a variety of
ply can’t support large creatures. listing because it shows up so often in uses, although they tend to be special-
Evolution forces a tradeoff: do you fiction. ized for a single purpose. On trilateral
get as big as you can and hog all the or radial-symmetry beings, the tail
resources you can get, or do you stay Organisms with radial symmetry would be any limb emerging along the
small and breed quickly? When con- have more than three matching being’s central axis. Spherical beings
ditions are unstable, evolution favors “sides.” Starfish are an example of cannot have tails.
the smaller creatures, since they can five-sided radial symmetry.
adapt more quickly and survive in Tails often figure in a creature’s
more marginal environments. Spherical symmetry takes organiza- mobility. Creatures with only two legs
tion a step further. Instead of being sometimes use their tails for balance.
The ideal habitat for large crea- radial about an axis, the organism is Balancing tails can be fairly massive,
tures is a grassland or water, where symmetrical about a point, like a to offset the weight of the head and
there is plenty of food to eat (either multi-sided die. Some tiny single- torso, and are usually not very flexible.
plants or plant-eaters) and room for celled organisms on Earth are spheri- Swimmers or amphibious organisms
such a creature to move around. cally symmetrical, but it is unknown frequently use tails for propulsion in
Woodlands, jungles, mountains, and among larger creatures. water. Swimming tails can either be
swamps are simply too difficult for big moved from side to side (like a fish
animals to get through, unless they Number of Limbs tail) or up and down (like a whale’s
have a long, narrow body plan opti- flukes). Either way, a swimmer’s tail
mized for the environment. Deserts, While humans think two arms and tends to be large and flat for maxi-
islands, and mountains may not have two legs are plenty, we are actually mum surface area to react against the
enough food. Arctic environments are rather deprived in the limb depart- water. Winged flyers on Earth use
a special case: food is very scarce, but ment. Insects get six legs plus wings their tails as extra control surfaces.
the square-cube law means that large and antennae, while millipedes have They need a fairly large area to inter-
creatures have an advantage over dozens of body segments. Our small act with the air. Climbers like mon-
small ones in surviving. The result number of limbs is a historical acci- keys or pythons use tails as extra limbs
is that arctic environments tend to dent, due to the number of fins our to grip branches.
fish ancestors had when they began
moving onto the land.

150 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

Alien Creation IV

Size Category Roll (1d) Size (size modifier) Weight

Determine general size category using on the Human-Scale

following table. 1 0.5 yards (-4) 4 lbs.

Modifiers: -4 if Magnetic life; +3 if space-dwelling; +2 2 0.7 yards (-3) 9 lbs.
if 0.4 G or less, +1 if 0.5 G to 0.75 G, -1 if 1.5 to 2 G, -2
if greater than 2 G; +1 if any water habitat, +1 if Open 3 1 yards (-2) 25 lbs.
Ocean or Banks habitat, -1 if Tropical Lagoon or
River/Stream habitat, +1 if Plains habitat, -1 if 4 1.5 yards (-1) 80 lbs.
Island/Beach, Desert, or Mountain habitat. +1 if
Grazing herbivore, -4 if Parasite; -1 if Slithering, -3 if 5 2 yards (0) 200 lbs.
Winged Flyer; Plasma life multiplies Size in yards by
1,000. 6 3 yards (+1) 600 lbs.

Large

1 5 yards (+2) 3,000 lbs.

2 7 yards (+3) 4 tons

3 10 yards (+4) 12 tons

4 15 yards (+5) 40 tons

Roll (1d) Size Class 5 20 yards (+6) 100 tons
2 or less Small (up to 12”)
3-4 Human-Scale (18” to 3 yards) 6 Extremely Large:
5 or more Large (5-30 yards)
2d ¥ 10 yards or bigger

Gravity Effects

Modify for gravity. Multiply the size by the modifier
on the following table based on local gravity. This
applies to all land-dwelling life, amphibians, or winged
flyers, but not aquatic creatures or buoyant flyers. Once
the final size is figured, recalculate weight based on
final size (applying all the modifiers for body chemistry,
etc.), then multiply that weight by local gravity to get
the creature’s weight in its native environment.

Size and Mass Gravity Size Multiplier
5 0.3
Once the basic size category is determined, roll 3.5 0.4
below to get the actual size. For a given size, weight can 2.5 0.5
be anywhere from half to twice the listed value, based 2 0.6
on build. For silicon-based life, double the weight for a 1.5 0.75
given size; for magnetic life, determine size and mass 1.25 0.9
normally, then divide size (but not mass) by 1,000. For 1 1
hydrogen or plasma-based, divide mass (but not size) by 0.9 1.1
10; for space-dwelling, divide by 5. For a more precise 0.8 1.2
determination of weight (or for huge organisms), divide 0.7 1.3
height (in yards) by two, cube the result, and multiply 0.6 1.4
by 200 to get weight in pounds. Note that weight is in a 0.5 1.6
standard 1 G environment; adjust by local gravity to 0.4 1.8
determine weight in the creature’s native habitat. 0.3 2.2
0.2 2.9
0.1 4.6

Roll (1d) Size (size modifier) Weight Strength

Small Strength varies depending on body plan and muscu-
lature, but a rough guideline follows the square-cube
1 0.05 yards (-10) 0.003 lbs (0.05 oz.) law: ST equals 2 ¥ the cube root of mass in pounds.
(This uses the cube root of mass as a way to get a com-
2 0.07 yards (-9) 0.01 lbs. (0.16 oz.) mon “length factor” that doesn’t depend on body plan.
Since in GURPS a character’s Basic Lift is proportional
3 0.1 yards (-8) 0.025 lbs. (0.4 oz.) to the square of ST, it all works out.)

4 0.15 yards (-7) 0.08 lbs. (1.25 oz.)

5 0.2 yards (-6) 0.2 lbs. (3 oz.)

6 0.3 yards (-5) 1 lb.

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 151

A tail can also be a weapon. The is of great importance. There may be get at hard-to-reach food; these are
most fearsome were the giant spiky dozens of worlds out there with inhab- usually paws or part of the feeding
maces and clubs of some dinosaurs, itants just as smart as humans, but mechanism. Some large grazers (ele-
although anyone who has been stung helpless to make or use tools. phants come to mind) have manipula-
by a scorpion’s tail might have a differ- tors to let them reach food; in the case
ent opinion. Weapon tails are Strikers Not all species have manipulators. of an elephant’s trunk, there is only
(p. B88), typically with the limitations Four-legged walking creatures can one limb. Very few land carnivores
Clumsy and Limited Arc. A long heavy carry things in their mouths, but that’s have good manipulators. They tend to
tail may get the Long enhancement, all. Birds can use their claws and be specialized for chasing and killing.
but that isn’t mandatory. Most tails do beaks, but again with difficulty. The
simply crushing damage, but with “default” for most organisms is the In the sea, there are a lot of crea-
spikes or blades could certainly be cut- disadvantage No Fine Manipulators. tures with manipulating limbs. This is
ting or piercing. Prehensile tails count Animals with good paws may have partly an accident of history: many sea
as Extra Arms (see Manipulating Bad Grip instead. Creatures that use creatures have more than four limbs,
Limbs, below). their mouths combine Bad Grip and so they can spare some for other pur-
One Arm. poses. Bottom-dwellers, in particular,
Many creatures use their tails for seem to go in for quite good manipu-
communication. This is usually a While just about anything might lating limbs; these are often short
basic “semaphore” to convey a single develop a manipulating appendage, arms, but there can be multiple pairs.
message like “run away” or “I’m ready there are some guidelines to follow.
to mate.” Other creatures (like dogs Brachiators tend to have them as a Tentacles are manipulating limbs
and cats) have more elaborate tail- side effect of being able to climb and beloved of science fiction writers. Like
based communication. Tailed crea- swing from branches; they have at elephant trunks, they are muscular
tures that use gestures for communi- least two and may supplement them hydrostats. Buy them as Extra Arms
cation will almost certainly employ with a prehensile tail. Flyers some- with the Extra-Flexible enhancement.
their tails. times have them for perching (Earth For just two tentacle arms, the Extra-
bats and birds are handicapped by Flexible advantage costs 10 points.
Manipulating Limbs having only one pair of legs, which
means they have to be used as feet Prehensile tails count as Extra
For intelligent life forms, having instead of hands.) Omnivores or gath- Arms (possibly Long or Extra-
limbs to manipulate and carry objects ering herbivores often need them to Flexible). If a tail is the creature’s only
manipulator, then it obviously gets the
One Arm disadvantage and may also
have Bad Grip. See Modifying Beings
With One or Two Arms on p. B53 for an
example.

Placement of Senses

Any organism that moves about
will want its senses in its front end.
Determining where the front is
becomes tricky if the creature is radial
or spherical, so those types may
instead space redundant senses all
around the body, or at the ends of
limbs.

Senses usually show up where they
do the most good. Taste and smell are
either near a creature’s feeding appa-
ratus or in its manipulator arms so it
can tell what is and isn’t edible. Sight
should be in front, often placed high
up for a better field of view. Climbers
and hunters put multiple eyes togeth-
er to get the advantages of binocular
vision, while prey animals space them
far apart to watch for danger. Wide-
spaced eyes give the Peripheral Vision
or even 360° Vision advantages, but
they often combine those with Bad
Sight and No Depth Perception (see p.
B145).

152 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

Where there is a lot of information Metamorphosis
coming in, something is needed to
process it. A brain, or at least a major Many creatures on Earth go through dramatic changes in form dur-
nerve nexus, is usually located near ing their lives – caterpillars becoming moths, tadpoles becoming frogs,
the main sense organs. and so forth. Alien creatures might well do the same. This can be par-
ticularly interesting if they go from sapient to non-sapient (or vice-
Structural Support versa), or if they shift from a harmless or cuddly creature to something
powerful and deadly. “Life Changes” of this type are a 0-point feature.
All organisms have some kind of Game Masters can get plenty of dramatic mileage out of a metamor-
structure. Some designs may seem phosing PC or NPC if the change is predictable and will have major
floppy or flimsy to us, but they allow effects on the character’s personality.
the creatures to move or affect their
environment. Some creatures change more often. This can be as minor as a rab-
bit’s pelt turning from brown to white as winter approaches, or as major
No Skeleton means the organism as a rainy season browser turning into a dry season carnivore. Minor
has no structural members of its own. changes are also 0-point features anyway. Major periodic changes are
It either flows about constrained only Alternate Forms, with the limitations Limited Use, Trigger, and
by its skin, or makes use of the envi- Uncontrollable, capping out at -80%.
ronment when it needs to exert force.
Very few organisms above microscop- Finally, there may be some creatures that can consciously change
ic size have no skeleton, and those form. That’s Shapeshifting or Morph as described in the Basic Set, and
tend to be immobile. probably should have a very long preparation time or concentration
period as a nod to realism. (See the notes on “Blob Monster” powers,
An External Skeleton uses a shell p. 165.)
made of some rigid material that can
be jointed to allow movement. This Multiple Bodies scatter into its component parts. The
is a very successful design, as the outer perimeter of a swarm travels at
hard shell protects the soft interior of There are several ways an organ- the being’s best Move, up to a maxi-
the organism. However, growth is ism can have multiple bodies. mum radius of 1/2 mile. (Area Effect
difficult because the organism must can change the size of a swarm.)
shed its old skeleton to grow a bigger Colony organisms are made up of While scattered, only area-effect, cone,
one, leaving it vulnerable during the several different life forms living in and explosion attacks can injure the
change. Aliens with exoskeletons symbiosis. The component organisms swarm being, and only do damage in
may have evolved a way to grow reproduce on their own, but don’t nor- proportion to the total area they blan-
without molting. Without a buoyant mally live apart. In effect, they form a ket. (So an attack that covers 5% of the
medium for support, large external single super-creature. For GURPS swarm’s area does 5% of normal dam-
skeletons can become very heavy and creatures, being a colony creature is age.) A swarm being can focus its
cumbersome. simply a 0-point feature. senses on any point within its area;
changing viewpoints requires the
An Internal Skeleton uses rigid or Connected creatures have multiple Ready maneuver. Swarm bodies when
semi-rigid units (bones), often con- bodies that are physically connected. dispersed have a form of the
nected with joints. Internal skeletons Some plants live this way – sometimes Insubstantiality advantage (p. B62):
place no limits on the growth of the a whole grove is actually a single tree, they cannot pick up normal objects,
creature, except the upper limit of joined underground by roots and run- nor can they make physical attacks. A
what the bones can support. However, ners. Obviously, this option works best swarm can penetrate solid objects like
they offer little protection to the for immobile life forms, although a fluid, creeping through holes and
organism’s soft parts. floaters or buoyant flyers might also cracks. To resume normal form, a
have multiple connected bodies. In swarm body must contract to the
A Hydrostatic Skeleton uses no rigid general, connected bodies can survive body’s original size (at normal Move
parts at all, relying instead on internal if the link is severed. In GURPS terms, rate), then Concentrate to reunite.
pressure and the strength of the outer connected bodies can be modeled in Cost of having a swarm body is a
membrane to maintain shape. They two different ways. If the several bod- +160% enhancement of Injury
are used by many “boneless” creatures ies can work together as a single Tolerance (Diffuse) for a being that
like cephalopods and jellyfish, and by being, this is simply a 0-point feature can switch between a compact solid
many plants as well. Hydrostatic of being large and having lots of extra body and a swarm, or +80% points for
skeletons are limited in size by the ten- limbs. If the organisms can operate a being permanently in swarm form. A
sion on the skin, but clever design can independently, then this is a group of Swarm under sufficiently intelligent
offset that to some extent. Hydrostatic Allies, Constantly present. control might be able to purchase
organisms can take the Invertebrate Shapeshifting or similar advantages.
disadvantage. Swarm bodies have an enhance-
ment of the advantage Injury
Combinations of skeleton types are Tolerance (Diffuse). A swarm is a col-
common. An elephant has an internal lection of tiny creatures. By taking a
skeleton and uses a flexible muscular Concentrate maneuver, the swarm can
hydrostat for its trunk. Plants often
combine rigid and hydrostatic support
structures.

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 153

Alien Creation V

Symmetry Manipulators

Roll 2d to determine body symmetry. Roll 2d on the table below. The number of manipu-
lators can never be greater than the number of limbs,
Modifiers: +1 for immobile organisms, spaceborne unless the extras are trunks or tails. A “set” of manipu-
life, or buoyant flyers. lators equals the body’s overall symmetry: two for bilat-
eral, three for trilateral, etc. For Asymmetrical organ-
Roll (2d) Symmetry isms, replace a “pair” of limbs with a single one. If the
GM is creating a sentient, tool-using species, roll 1d+6
2-7 Bilateral instead of 2d.

8 Trilateral

9 Radial (roll 1d+3 to determine how

many sides)

10 Spherical (roll 1d: 1: 4 sides, 2-3: 6 sides,

4: 8 sides, 5: 12 sides, 6: 20 sides)

11-14 Asymmetric

Number of Limbs Modifiers: -1 if only two limbs, +1 if more than four
limbs, +2 if more than six limbs; -1 if winged or gliding,
Spherical organisms have one limb per side. -2 if open ocean swimmer or gas giant inhabitant, +2 if
Asymmetric organisms have 2d-2 limbs. For Bilateral, brachiator; +1 if gathering herbivore.
Trilateral, and Radial organisms, roll on the following
table. Roll (2d) Number of Manipulators
6 or less No manipulators; limbs are locomotive
Modifiers: -1 for Trilateral, -2 for Radial.
7 or Strikers only
Roll (1d) Number of Segments/Limbs 8 1 set of manipulators with Bad Grip
1 or less Limbless Prehensile tail or trunk (roll 1d: on a 6
2 One segment (one limb per side) 9
3 Two segments (two limbs per side) 10 check again for other manipulators)
4 1d segments (each segment has one 1 set of manipulators with normal DX
11 2 sets of manipulators (roll 1d for each
limb per side)
5 2d segments (each segment has one 12-17 pair: 1-4 Bad Grip, 5-6 normal DX)
1d sets of manipulators (roll 1d for
limb per side)
6 3d segments (each segment has one each pair: 1-4 Bad Grip, 5-6
normal DX)
limb per side) 1d sets of manipulators (roll 1d for
each pair: 1-4 normal DX, 5-6 High
Tails Manual Dexterity 1)

Spherical organisms don’t have tails; for others roll Skeleton
1d: on a 5-6 the creature has a tail. Swimmers add 1 to
the roll. Roll 2d to determine what kind of support the organ-
ism has.
For tail features, roll 2d and consult the following
table: Modifiers: +1 for Human-scale creatures, +2 for
Large creatures; +1 for any land-dwelling creature; -1
Roll (2d) Features for immobile or slithering creatures; -1 for asymmetric
2-5 No features (tail is a 0-point advantage) organisms; -1 for gravity less than 0.5 G, +1 for gravity
6 Striker tail (Striker doing crushing greater than 1.25 G.

damage) Roll (2d) Structure
7 Long tail (Long enhancement) 3 or less No skeleton
8 Constricting tail (Constriction Attack) 4-5 Hydrostatic skeleton
9 Barbed striker tail (Striker doing cutting 6-7 External skeleton
8-10 Internal skeleton
or piercing damage) 11-16 Combination
10 Gripping tail (counts as an Extra Arm

with Bad Grip)
11 Branching tail (tail splits according to

body symmetry)
12 Combination (roll 1d+5 twice and

combine results)

154 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

SKIN, HIDE, AND mammals (including humans) have much different from skin, but (as any-
ALTERNATIVES skin that can sweat, providing cool- one who has eaten boiled lobster can
ing to allow sustained effort in hot attest) in large invertebrates it func-
Every organism needs some kind conditions or possibly some levels of tions as armor, typically DR 1 or 2.
of barrier between itself and the out- Temperature Tolerance to resist heat. Armored creatures also get the disad-
side world. It can protect against And some creatures like desert toads vantage Numb.
things trying to eat it, help maintain have skin that secretes a noxious
the proper internal temperature or venom to poison enemies on contact. Sea-dwelling immobile inverte-
chemical balance, and generally act as This is an Affliction with the limita- brates like oysters have shells made of
the creature’s first line of defense. tions Touch Only, Always On, and calcium carbonate. Aliens might use
Takes Recharge. silica compounds or even metals. This
Skin can have a lot of functions. is essentially like having an outer cov-
Among animals with external skele- Most land mammals cover their ering of rock. It provides very good
tons, it acts as armor and structural skin with a layer of hair or fur. Hair protection – up to DR 5 for a thick-
support. Softer-skinned creatures use cells are specialized skin cells that pro- shelled giant clam – but at the cost of
it as a sense organ. Warm-blooded duce strands of stiff dead protein. It is being almost completely inflexible.
organisms put a lot of insulation at a good insulator, allowing warm- When open, the oyster has soft skin
the skin layer to regulate internal blooded mammals to survive even in (see above). When closed, it has the
temperature. arctic conditions. Short fur protects Numb disadvantage.
against sunburn but does little else;
Skin Types long hair provides DR 1 and up to Plants also use complex sugars,
Temperature Tolerance 4. Extremely especially cellulose, to form bark.
Creatures with soft skin, like slugs large cold-climate creatures, like the Large plants can have very tough bark,
or jellyfish, have very poor protection extinct mammoth, might combine providing DR of up to 10. Any creature
against the external environment. In long hair and blubber. See the perk with bark suffers from the Numb dis-
GURPS terms, they are Susceptible to Fur, p. B101. advantage.
chemical irritants (Very Common).
Soft-skinned organisms on Earth Porcupines have hair that is Alien organisms could have ver-
often secrete a layer of mucus or slime extremely thick and stiff, giving sions of all these skin types, mixing
for added protection. This negates the them the Spines advantage. Other and matching in ways unknown on
vulnerability to irritants, and may give spiny creatures use specialized scales Earth. Mammals never evolved feath-
the creature the Clinging or Slippery (see below), or extensions of their ers or bark, but those are accidents of
advantages. vertebrae. history. Aliens could use cellulose
instead of protein, feathers instead of
Humans, toads, and other “naked” Reptiles and fish have specialized hair, or combinations unknown on
creatures have normal skin, which is skin cells that produce plates of pro- Earth.
neither an advantage nor a disadvan- tein instead of strands; these are called
tage (GURPS being fairly human-cen- scales. As noted in the Basic Set, Alternate Materials
tered). Many mammals have hide, a scales provide DR 2 (for snake or
tough skin that gives DR1, bought lizard scales) up to DR 4 (for heavy There are also some potential outer
with the limitation Tough Skin. alligator scales). coverings that Earth life doesn’t use.
Elephants and rhinoceroses have thick Metal is the most obvious absence
hide, a very tough skin that gives them Turtles, along with some dinosaurs from the arsenal of biological materi-
DR 4, also bought with the Tough Skin and mammals, have plates of bone in als. Alien life, especially silicon-based
limitation. the skin forming a hard shell. This can life on a dense, metal-rich world like
be very tough but also quite heavy. Mercury, could incorporate metal into
Aquatic mammals like dolphins or Giant tortoises or armored dinosaurs its tissues, creating armored skin with
whales have blubber, a very thick skin could have DR 5, but might also suffer very high DR and the Hardened
backed up with an even thicker layer the Numb disadvantage. enhancement.
of insulating fat. It provides DR 2 (for
dolphins) to DR 4 (for whales), with Birds have an even more elaborate Carbon-based life like ourselves
the Flexible limitation. Blubber also kind of specialized skin cell that pro- can create very strong materials.
provides Temperature Tolerance 2-4. duces branching protein structures Spider silk is one, with a tensile
Dolphin blubber also functions as an called feathers. Feathers help birds fly strength greater than steel. It’s not
elastic energy-storage system to make by giving them a larger wing surface hard to imagine alien organisms with
swimming more efficient. than the living tissue of their limbs the equivalent of Kevlar instead of col-
can provide. They are also first-rate lagen in their skin (although it’s a little
Skin cells can do other things insulation, and can even keep diving harder to imagine why they would
besides just acting as a barrier. In birds like penguins warm in arctic need to be naturally bulletproof).
cephalopods and some reptiles, skin waters. Feathers can provide DR 1 and
cells can change color, giving the up to Temperature Tolerance 5. Hydrocarbon life could take advan-
creature a few levels of the tage of the great versatility of carbon
Chameleon advantage. Among the Insects and other arthropods cover polymers, leading to living things
former, this may also function as a their bodies with a rigid exoskeleton with plastic skin. This could have
means of communication. Some made of chitin (a complex sugar). It most of the same properties as protein
has joints and hinges to allow move- skin, but might take the Fragile
ment. On small insects this is not (Combustible) disadvantage.

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 155

Silicon-based organisms living in those delicate lungs. Lungs work well maintain a constant body temperature,
liquid rock or molten sulfur could with a light fluid like air, but not with often one higher than the environment.
have an outer skin made effectively of dense substances like water. Even if This helps birds and mammals to
rock or ceramic. This would have to we could properly absorb dissolved thrive in cold climates. The drawback
be jointed, just like an insect’s oxygen, the effort involved in breath- is that being warm-blooded takes a
exoskeleton, but could provide ing lungfuls of water in and out would considerable investment of energy.
tremendous Damage Resistance. consume more energy than is released Mammals and birds have to eat a lot
Similarly, on cold worlds, organisms by combining that oxygen with food! more than cold-blooded creatures of
might make use of ice as a structural comparable size. However, in hot envi-
material, covering themselves with Creatures that live in water full- ronments we also have to worry more
jointed shells of solid water. Rock or time have either the Doesn’t Breathe about cooling – elaborate mechanisms
ice skin would have a high DR (10 for (Gills) advantage as a 0-point feature like sweating, panting, radiator organs,
ice, 20 for rock) with the Semi- or the advantage Doesn’t Breathe and insulation.
Ablative limitation for rock and (Oxygen Absorption). Oxygen
Ablative for ice. Absorption only works for Small Cold-blooded creatures don’t have
organisms because of the surface-area to worry so much about temperature
METABOLISM problems already described. A huge regulation, but the drawback is that
but very thin creature like a buoyant they can get very sluggish in chilly
This section delves into how organ- flyer might be able to use it as well. weather. There are ways around this
isms keep alive. How do they breathe? Note that this applies equally well to problem. Size is one: a sufficiently
How do they eat and how do they use fluids other than water. A swimmer in large cold-blooded organism can stay
the food they eat? seas of liquid methane on Titan would warm simply by sheer thermal mass.
have gills to extract dissolved hydro- Another is using radiating or heat-
Breathing gen, and a magma being cruising absorbing organs to make use of exter-
through Earth’s upper mantle would nal heat. There are also chemical
Any organisms that use atmos- have something analogous to gills to tricks – incorporating “antifreeze” in
pheric gases to support chemical reac- extract useful chemicals from liquid the blood or bodily fluids to withstand
tions breathe. Fish breathe, although rock. low temperatures.
the oxygen they take in is dissolved in
water rather than free in the air. But in Many creatures find it useful to be Many cold-blooded organisms get
stagnant water, a fish can drown as able to visit another element from the Cold-Blooded disadvantage, but it
easily as a human. time to time. Water-breathers who isn’t mandatory. In particular, any
can come up on land for brief peri- cold-blooded creature with a mass
Breathing must cope with several ods (like crabs or cephalopods) have above 100 lbs. can probably store
problems. The first is surface area. a version of Breath-Holding, or pos- enough heat to avoid it. And any cold-
Small organisms can simply exchange sibly racial skill levels in Breath blooded creature that routinely lives
gases across their skin. But large Control. Air-breathers who visit the in a cold climate presumably has
active creatures can’t do that. A water have Breath-Holding. Air- chemical methods to counteract that
human, for instance, needs a much breathing creatures that live in water disadvantage.
larger area for gas exchange than our can have Breath-Holding or Doesn’t
total skin surface. How do we do it, Breathe (Oxygen Storage) – some Taking in Food
then? Our lungs are filled with marine mammals can stay down
branching passageways, so that each for hours! This is often combined Eating is essential for staying alive,
lung has a huge internal surface area. with Metabolism Control to reduce unless you’re an autotroph. What
Fish use stacked layers of gills to pro- consumption. creatures eat determines a lot about
duce the same effect. Smaller inverte- how they eat.
brates like lobsters just have lots of Alien organisms may be able to
external gills. breathe air or water equally well; Grazers usually have mouth parts
either they have both lungs and gills, suitable for cutting and grinding
The second problem is protection. or their organs can switch from one to (though some grazers do the grinding
All that surface area is fragile and the other. This is the Doesn’t Breathe in their stomachs). In game terms
makes a good point of entry for dis- (Gills) advantage at the 10-point level. these are usually 0-point Blunt Teeth.
eases and parasites, so the safest place Filter-feeders, or aquatic grazers like
to put it is inside the body. But the Finally, some organisms may not baleen whales, have no teeth at all,
gases are outside. This means crea- breathe at all. Any non-chemical life but instead have a sieve or filter
tures have to pump air or fluid in and probably doesn’t need to, and obvious- arrangement to separate food from
out. Fish let water stream through ly any space-dwelling life must have water. Gathering herbivores may have
their gills, a very efficient process, but Doesn’t Breathe, either unmodified or quite specialized mouthparts, as they
mammals are stuck with a single with some incredible levels of Oxygen often eat well-protected seeds or
opening so they have to constantly Storage. tough-skinned fruit. They may have
puff in and out. It also makes us vul- Sharp Teeth or a Sharp Beak.
nerable to choking, but reduces the Temperature Regulation Carnivores have Sharp Teeth, Sharp
chance of harmful matter getting into Beaks, or Fangs virtually without
Humans and other mammals exception, since their food is usually
are “warm-blooded” animals. We

156 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

Alien Creation VI

Skin Feathers: Roll 2d to determine feather type.

Roll 1d to determine outer covering type. Modifiers: -1 for desert, +1 for arctic; +1 for flyer.

Roll (1d) Covering Roll (2d) Covering
1-2 Skin 1-5 Normal skin
3 Scales 6-8 Feathers (+1 level of Temperature
4 Fur
5 Feathers 9-10 Tolerance)
6 Exoskeleton (external-skeleton Thick feathers (+2 levels of Temperature
11
organisms always have Exoskeleton) Tolerance)
12-14 Feathers over Hide (DR 1 and +1
Then roll below for the appropriate type.
Temperature Tolerance)
Spines

Skin: Roll 2d to see what sort of skin the creature Exoskeleton: Roll 1d for exoskeleton type.
has. Modifiers: +1 for aquatic, +1 for immobile, -2 for flyer.

Modifiers: +1 for arctic, +1 for aquatic, -1 for desert; Roll (1d) Covering
+1 for herbivore; -5 for flyer. 2 or less Light exoskeleton (DR 0)
3-4 Tough exoskeleton (DR 1)
Roll (2d) Covering 5 Heavy exoskeleton (DR 3)
4 or less Soft skin 6-8 Armor shell (DR 5)
5 Normal skin
6-7 Hide (DR 1) Breathing
8 Thick Hide (DR 4)
9 Armor shell (DR 5) Aerial or land-dwelling organisms breathe air. Deep
10-15 Blubber (DR 4 and 1d levels of Ocean Vent inhabitants always have Gills. For other
water-dwellers, roll 2d.
Temperature Tolerance)
Modifiers: +1 if native to Arctic, Swampland,
River/Stream, Island/Beach, or Tropical Lagoon; +1 if
walking is primary or secondary locomotion, +2 if fly-
ing or climbing is secondary locomotion.

Roll (2d) Breathing

2-6 Doesn’t Breathe (Gills)

7-8 Lungs (air-breathing) with Doesn’t

Scales: Roll 2d for the type of scales. Breathe (Oxygen Storage)

9-10 Doesn’t Breathe (Gills) and Lungs (or

Modifiers: +1 for desert; +1 for herbivore; -2 for flyer, convertible organ)
-1 for tunneling.
11-16 Lungs

Roll (2d) Covering Temperature

0-3 Normal skin Roll 2d to determine body temperature regulation.

4-8 Scales (DR 1)

9-10 Heavy scales (DR 3) Modifiers: +1 for air-breathers, -1 for water-
breathers; +1 for Human-scale or larger; +1 for land-
11-14 Armor shell (DR 5) dwelling, +1 for Woodland or Mountain environment,
+2 for Arctic environment.
Fur: Roll 2d for fur type.

Modifiers: -1 for desert, +1 for arctic; -1 for flyer; +1 Roll (2d) Temperature Regulation
for herbivore. 1-4 Cold-blooded (with Cold-Blooded

Roll (2d) Covering 5-6 disadvantage)
7 Cold-blooded (no disadvantage)
0-5 Normal skin Partial regulation (temperature varies
8-9
6-7 Fur 10-17 within limits)
Warm-blooded
8-9 Thick fur (+1 level of Temperature Warm-blooded (with Metabolism

Tolerance) Control 2)

10-11 Thick fur over Hide (DR 1 and +1 level

of Temperature Tolerance)

12-14 Spines Continued on next page . . .

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 157

Alien Creation VI (Cont’d) have two is an interesting question.
There are other options.
Growth
Asexual organisms don’t have
Roll 2d to determine growth pattern. “sexes.” Each individual reproduces on
its own, either by budding or
Modifiers: -1 for external skeleton +1 for Large size category; +1 if by parthenogenesis. Budding simply
immobile. breaks off a part of the organism
that grows on its own; this is extremely
Roll (2d) Growth Pattern common among plants. Partheno-
1-4 Metamorphosis genesis, or “virgin birth,” requires the
5-6 Molting whole apparatus of eggs or live birth,
7-11 Continuous Growth but the organism doesn’t need outside
12-14 Unusual Growth Pattern (adding fertilization. Self-fertilization is similar,
except that the organism is a hermaph-
segments, branching, etc.) rodite and supplies both eggs and
sperm.
well protected and often needs killing. rebuilt on the fly. Some of them molt,
Some specialized carnivores, like shedding old shells and growing a new Sexual organisms with two sexes
hunting spiders, may use a kind of one around their larger body. Others have several advantages. They
siphon to drain the prey of fluids; this have simple shells (like mussels or exchange and combine genetic mate-
could be modeled as a Vampiric Bite snails) that can grow by adding new rial, increasing the diversity of their
without the healing effect. layers. The study of clam and mussel offspring. Sexual organisms evolve
shells is fascinating for mathemati- faster, which in the very long term
On Earth, nature has demonstrat- cians because they maintain the same gives them an edge. In humans gender
ed many ways of biting and grinding. shape even as they add larger and larg- remains constant, but in many other
Arthropods, including insects and spi- er layers. Plants, on the other hand, species individuals shift from male to
ders, have extremely complicated add outer layers around a central core, female. This may be due to environ-
mouthparts made up of several pairs or grow from the tips of branches and mental stimuli (female when food is
of limbs. These can be modeled as roots. plentiful, male when it’s scarce), or
teeth or beaks, depending on how for- internal (male when you’re young and
midable they are. Ordinary mouth- Some creatures take it a step fur- small, female when you’ve grown), or
parts are like ordinary blunt teeth. Big ther, redesigning the body at different social (male if you’re big enough to
sharp mandibles could be either a points in life. See the section on chase off other males).
beak or sharp teeth, depending on Metamorphosis (p. 153) for details.
how large they are. Hermaphrodites have the equip-
There are other possibilities. Some ment for both male and female roles,
Vertebrates have jaws, hinged bone plants add length and branches but either at the same time or at different
arches that use leverage to exert not bulk (this is a gray area between times during the life cycle. This is a
impressive force through the teeth. On growth and reproduction). While it’s fairly common arrangement on Earth.
Earth, vertebrate jaws work “up and beyond the scope of this book to dis- Most plants are hermaphrodites, and
down,” but on an alien world they cuss all the possibilities, an unusual a great many animals are, too. Plants
could be mounted sideways, or in growth mechanism is a good way to tend to have both male and female
radial arrangements of three or more. make a really alien creature. What if organs simultaneously, while animals
Vertebrate beaks are jaws tipped by they add body segments, becoming change back and forth.
sharp keratin instead of teeth. gradually longer over time?
Cephalopods also have beaks, though No organisms on Earth have more
they are not mounted on jaws. Instead REPRODUCTION than two parents. This may be just a
a circle of muscle surrounding the historical accident, but given the
beak pinches it shut. All living things reproduce, incredible diversity of life on Earth it
although they do it in different ways. does seem to suggest that there is at
Growth Some create new individual offspring, least no advantage to having genes
some create copies of themselves, and from three parents rather than two –
How organisms grow determines a some simply break off pieces that take or that any advantage is not worth the
lot about their body design. Humans on independent existence. Beyond added difficulty of locating two mates
and other vertebrates grow in one Earth, aliens might not reproduce, rather than just one.
piece, remodeling our skeleton and preferring to live forever and grow
enlarging our organs in a continuous indefinitely. An alien world might have condi-
process until we reach full size. tions that encourage multi-parent
Invertebrates do the same with soft Sex and Genetics reproduction. Since the whole point
parts, but some of their hard parts of sexual reproduction is to speed up
(like shells or exoskeletons) can’t be Humans have two sexes for repro- evolution, a planet with particularly
duction: males and females. Why we chaotic conditions might have multi-
sex inhabitants. The investment
in creating a large gamete (an egg)
or bearing a live offspring is

158 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

considerable, so it’s highly unlikely extreme case with less difference males only when fertilized by a male.
that more than one parent would do between eggs and sperm, a species Many Earth species alternate genera-
this in a multi-parent arrangement. could have a whole array of different tions of sexual and asexual reproduc-
Three or more sexes would most like- sexes capable of combining with cer- tion. Reproduction by budding or fis-
ly have a “female” and two or more tain others. sion is uncommon on Earth in com-
types of “males.” Each male might plex animals, but alien species might
only father males of his type, but It’s entirely possible for organisms manage it.
either could father females (or per- to combine various methods of repro-
haps females are produced by duction. Plants often do both asexual Strategies
parthenogenesis). and sexual reproduction, sending out
runners to sprout new individuals There are two main strategies for
Another possibility for multi-sex nearby and releasing seeds to colo- reproduction, known to biologists as
reproduction would have several dif- nize new locations. It would be easy “K-strategy” and “r-strategy.” K-strate-
ferent kinds of “males” and different for a hermaphrodite species to dab- gist organisms have few offspring, but
“females,” only some of which are ble in parthenogenesis. Among some invest a great deal of resources and
compatible. So A-males and B-males hive insects, unfertilized eggs develop energy in rearing them and making
can mate with A-females and D- into males (parthenogenesis) while sure they survive to adulthood. K-
females, but not with B- or C-females. fertilized ones are female (sexual). strategists also tend to live a long time,
C-males can mate with B- and C- Others might reverse that approach, so that they have the chance to have
females only, but D-males can mate with females reproducing other more than one offspring.
with all but A-females. In a more females by parthenogenesis and
R-strategists take the opposite
Lifespan approach: they have large litters and
put minimal investment into raising
How long a creature lives seems to depend chiefly on size and meta- the young. If they survive, good; if not,
bolic rate. Among Earth mammals, most species wind up having about there are always more. They also tend
a billion heartbeats over the course of a life – but a mouse’s heart beat- to mature quickly and die young. Such
ing at 500 per minute goes through them in three years, while an ele- organisms should definitely take the
phant’s heart pumping slowly at 30 beats per minute can go on for 60 Short Lifespan disadvantage, possibly
or 70 years. Metabolic rate appears to be roughly proportional to linear living no longer than a year or two.
size, though the animal’s specific build and lifestyle can cause quite a bit
of variation. Obviously, K and r strategies are
the endpoints of a whole continuum
The big joker in the lifespan deck is humanity. For our size we live of behaviors. Some creatures split the
considerably longer than we should. A human-sized organism should difference, having small litters and
typically last about 30 years, but humans routinely last two or three putting some effort into raising them;
times that long. It’s obvious that our bodies aren’t really up to the job, some creatures change strategy
either: humans start losing their adult teeth by age 30, and without depending on the situation. Indeed,
modern dentistry one could expect to be toothless by 50. Our joints start within a particular species some indi-
to wear out around the same time. viduals may choose different strate-
gies – humans in preindustrial soci-
Plausibly, most creatures less than three yards in length/height eties tended to have a lot of children
should have Short Lifespan 1 (half normal human span), those smaller because many of them were likely to
than about 1.5 yards should have Short Lifespan 2, less than 20” get die, whereas nowadays couples in
Short Lifespan 3, and less than one foot get Short Lifespan 4. Moreover, affluent countries have just one or two
only really huge organisms – dinosaur-sized beasts 20 feet or more in children.
length – should be able to have the Extended Lifespan advantage. Of
course, as humans themselves demonstrate, intelligence and technolo- Fertilizing and
gy can provide free levels of longevity. Shift any tool-using intelligent Gestation
species up one increment, so that those with Short Lifespan 2 go to 1,
those with Short Lifespan 1 get normal lives, and an intelligent ele- In addition to numbers of young,
phant-sized organism would get Extended Lifespan 1. there is the issue of how the organism
brings them into the world. There are
Metabolic rate also depends on the rate of chemical reactions. Cold- several methods known on Earth.
environment organisms (ammonia or hydrogen-based life) should
probably be one or two increments more long-lived than their size Spawning is the method used by
would suggest, since they would generally live more slowly. Hot-envi- fish, amphibians, and many inverte-
ronment organisms might be similarly short-lived. For silicon-based brates; and it is analogous to the way
life, move everything down one increment, and for really fast things like plants reproduce. Organisms that
magnetic-based neutron star inhabitants, give them Short Lifespan to spawn release their gametes (eggs or
balance their Altered Time Rate advantage. sperm) into the environment, and fer-
tilization and development take place
outside the body. Often females can
lay thousands of eggs, in the hope that

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 159

some will reach maturity. Obviously, resources on methods to attract or species with two or more sexes, the
spawning lends itself to r-strategy keep a mate. (A few species reverse GM can either assign sex differences
reproduction, although there are this, and in many the sexes show off to suit the campaign, or accompany
species in which one or both parents and compete for mates in different each step in the alien design process
remain near the egg mass and do their ways.) (except fundamentals like chemical
best to protect and feed the young basis and habitat) with a dimorphism
once they hatch. In some species this takes the form roll on 1d: if the result is a 6, then roll
of advertising – elaborate displays of that trait separately for males and
Plants use a similar method, polli- good health in the form of huge racks females.
nation, in which they release pollen of antlers, long iridescent tail feathers,
into the air or water. Some plants loud singing, or scent markings. Other Taking Care of the Kids
enlist the aid of animals, either by males show off their resources by
stealth or bribery, and get them to grabbing good nesting sites, building How long the parents care for the
carry pollen to a likely mate. The bowers, or picking up shiny trinkets offspring is a function of strategy.
plants develop colorful flowers and (cynics may include humans in this Strong r-strategy species invest no
sugary nectar to attract pollinators. In group). Still others take a more direct care at all. You spawn, you swim
some cases, they are specialized for approach, chasing away rival males by away, and the young either survive or
one particular pollinating organism. force. Some males become parasites, not. (In some species, the adults don’t
attaching themselves permanently to a even distinguish between juveniles
Egg-laying creatures have internal single female. and other prey when they’re looking
fertilization, but then release the for food.) Other spawners and egg-
young into the world before they The sheer variety of mating dis- layers stick around to guard the nest
develop. This is an extremely common plays and techniques is impossible to until the young hatch, but then lose
method on Earth. The chief drawback list in a simple table. Game Masters interest.
is that the egg has to contain all the must decide on their own what invest-
food necessary to support the embryo ment the species makes in mating. K-strategists devote care to the
through development to hatching; this Some can be represented as advan- young after they hatch or are born.
can be inconveniently large. Another tages: loud songs or calls could be the Birds feed their offspring until they
problem is that the egg must be tough Penetrating Voice perk, or even a can fly, mammals nurse them until
enough to protect the embryo, with- sound-based Affliction. Males some- they are old enough to find food, and
out being so strong that the little crea- times sport natural weaponry to battle some fish dutifully carry their young
ture can’t get out when it’s ready. potential rivals, giving them Strikers. around in their mouths.
Mating displays can also be a disad-
Live-bearing organisms fertilize vantage: sexual behavior can give Some organisms may arrange a
internally and carry the young within organisms a Compulsive Behavior, surrogate parent before abandoning
the parent’s body until it is ready to be Lecherousness, or even Intolerance their young; these are known as brood
born. This allows longer development (own sex). parasites. Cuckoos lay their eggs in the
(since the size of an egg is no longer a nests of other birds to ensure a proper
factor) and better protection, at the Mating strategies can lead to upbringing. Other parents make their
cost of putting a greater burden on the species with very different body forms young into genuine parasites – the
mother. Live-bearing organisms often in males and females. They can have botfly lays its eggs under the skin of a
care fairly well for the young after different attributes, advantages, and large animal so the grubs have plenty
birth. Some, the mammals, have spe- disadvantages. Some writers have of food until they’re ready to break out
cialized glands to nourish the young. even speculated about alien species in and fly away.
which only one sex is sapient. In any
Marsupials add another wrinkle, Among most intermediate strate-
bearing the young live through part of gists, only one parent does any care
their development, then carrying them (usually the mother). Strong K-strate-
in a pouch until they are ready to live gists (particularly some birds and
on their own. This frees up the repro- mammals) have both parents doing
ductive tract for another offspring. their best to raise the young. The most
fanatical K-strategists gather in
Finding Mates groups to pool child-care. Elephant
herds and troops of primates do a fair
Any sexual organisms put some amount of “day care” for their young.
effort into finding or attracting poten- The apex of this is among the hive
tial mates. Among spawning crea- insects, where nearly all the adults are
tures, it’s usually a matter of tracking sterile females who spend all their
down some eggs that need fertilizing. time finding food and caring for the
But internal fertilizers have to win a offspring of their mother; only a hand-
mate by charm, bribery, bullying, or ful of males and fertile females are
trickery. In an interesting twist, males born, and they have thousands of ded-
usually wind up compensating for the icated caretakers making sure they
relative “cheapness” of their reproduc- can go out and breed.
tive cells (sperm) by expending a lot of

160 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

Alien Creation VII SENSES

Sexes To interact with the world, organ-
isms must be able to perceive it via
Roll 2d to determine number of sexes. senses. The simplest senses are chem-
ical receptors. Most creatures add a
Modifiers: -1 if immobile; -1 if asymmetric body plan; -1 if sense of touch and vibration (hear-
autotrophic. ing). These are nearly universal.

Roll (2d) Sexual Arrangement Other senses depend on the envi-
4 or less Asexual reproduction or Parthenogenesis ronment. If the atmosphere is trans-
5-6 Hermaphrodite parent to light (or other radiation),
7-9 Two Sexes vision becomes a useful sense. If the
10 Switching between male and female creature exists in darkness, echoloca-
11 Three or more Sexes (1d: 1-3: three sexes, 4-5: tion is more important. Creatures that
hunt warm-blooded prey may evolve
12 four sexes, 6: 2d sexes) infrared sensors. Migratory organisms
Roll twice and combine; types either alternate or or ocean voyagers demonstrate an
ability to sense magnetic fields, giving
are triggered by conditions them a built-in compass. More exotic
senses are possible. Magma-dwellers
Gestation might be able to sense radiation.
Space-dwelling creatures might “see”
Roll 2d for gestation method. using microwave radar.

Modifiers: -1 if aquatic or amphibious; -2 if immobile; +1 if Information isn’t much use if you
warm-blooded. can’t process it. Many species have
fairly poor senses, simply because
Roll (2d) Gestation they don’t need a higher level of detail.
6 or less Spawning/Pollinating Humans have good vision because we
7-8 Egg-Laying are descended from brachiators (who
9-10 Live-Bearing need depth perception to avoid
11-13 Live-Bearing with Pouch falling) and evolved to hunt by throw-
ing things. Since we also get food by
Special Gestation gathering plants, we can also see col-
ors well. Many carnivores have limited
Roll 2d; on a 12 the species uses a special gestation strategy. If so, color vision, because it isn’t essential
to their way of life.
consult the following table.
Vision
Roll (1d) Special Gestation Method
1 Brood Parasite (young raised by another species) Vision is only useful if there’s any
2-3 Parasitic Young (young implanted in a host) light to see by. On any world with an
4-5 Cannibalistic Young (young implanted in opaque atmosphere, there isn’t much
use to having eyes. Deep-ocean crea-
6 parent, fatal to parent) tures either have very bad vision
Cannibalistic Young (young consume each other) because they use some other sense, or
extremely good vision (like the extinct
Strategy ichthyosaurs) because that’s the only
way to see in the dark. Underground
Roll 2d for reproductive strategy. Multiply the number of young per creatures tend to have very bad vision,
litter by 2d ¥ 10 for spawning organisms (they may actually lay many, and many are completely blind.
many more, but most of those won’t even reach childhood).
Humans have better-than-average
Modifiers: -2 if Large, +1 if Small; +2 if Spawning. vision. Assume the “default” for most
creatures with vision is worse than
Roll (2d) Reproductive Strategy human standard, combining
0-4 Strong K-Strategy: one offspring, extensive Colorblindness and Bad Sight.
Organisms with dark-adapted eyes
5-6 care after birth may have Night Vision up to 9, but
Moderate K-Strategy: one to two offspring per may also have Colorblindness or suf-
7 fer daytime vision penalties.
litter, extensive care after birth
8-9 Median Strategy: 1d offspring per litter,

10-16 moderate care after birth
Moderate r-Strategy: 1d+1 offspring per litter,

some care after birth
Strong r-Strategy: 2d offspring per litter, no care,

+1 level of Short Lifespan

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 161

Sight is extremely constrained by medium, water-dwelling creatures excellent balance, for obvious reasons.
physics. The resolving power of an eye tend to hear quite well, at least under- The Perfect Balance advantage plus
of a given size is in inverse proportion water, and presumably magma-swim- some increase in DX are appropriate
to the wavelength it senses. mers would have exceptionally acute for organisms with above-average
Consequently low wavelengths – hearing. gravity sense.
infrared, microwave, and radio –
require bigger eyes, and quickly get Echolocation combines superb Taste and Smell
too big to be practical. The big waves hearing with specialized processing in
also run into problems because they the brain to convert echoes from The simplest one-celled life forms
are bigger than some objects. You sound pulses into an “image.” It can have only one way to perceive their
can’t see a mosquito with radar be quite precise – bats can catch small environment: chemical receptors.
because the radar waves are bigger insects using echolocation. However, They taste the world around them,
than the mosquito is. A creature must since it is an active sense, requiring eating anything that tastes good and
be at least Human-sized to have any the creature to emit a pulse, echoloca- moving away from anything that
kind of radio detection sense, and tion is relatively short-ranged due to tastes bad. Nearly any chemical-based
must be Large to be able to use radar. the slow speed of sound. The Sonar life will have some sense of taste.
form of the Scanning Sense advantage While humans keep theirs inside the
Infrared “vision” on Earth tends to (see p. B81) gives full details. mouth to check food before it is swal-
be more a directional heat detector lowed, other organisms put taste
rather than actual sight. To model this Touch receptors outside, on antennae or
in GURPS terms, use Detect (Heat) or skin, to analyze things they encounter.
Detect (Infrared Light) rather than The sense of touch actually incor-
Infravision. Note that a heat detector porates several senses. First is the Smell is a more sensitive form of
must be cooler than what it is detect- obvious tactile sense embedded in the chemical detection, specialized to pick
ing, making this chiefly useful for skin. Some organisms are more sensi- up airborne molecules. Whales have
creatures with low body temperature tive than others in this respect. lost their ability to smell, but they do
trying to spot warm-blooded prey. Extremely thick fur, scales, armor, or taste the water they swim in. Vacuum-
blubber tends to interfere with the dwellers can’t smell anything, but they
There are problems with short sense of touch, so that any organisms might well taste whatever they touch
wavelengths, too. Many Terran organ- with those abilities are likely to have a or eat.
isms can see in ultraviolet light, poor touch sense. Some animals use
including many insects, but nothing specialized hairs as touch sensors, like Humans seem to have a good sense
we know sees with gamma or X-rays. the whiskers of a cat. Touch also has a of taste, which is what one might
The trouble with using high-energy size component: a small creature can expect from creatures with gathering
photons is that it’s very difficult to cre- feel textures more easily than a large herbivore ancestors, but our sense of
ate a focusing lens for them, and there creature, simply because the bumps smell is only about average. Some of
aren’t usually good sources of high- are larger in proportion. Game us can identify vintages by taste, but
energy particles in the environment to Masters may wish to give Small-sized you don’t see humans tracking by
see by. Creatures made of denser organisms a bonus for their sense of scent. Dogs can track by scent, and
material (like silicon-based organ- touch, and impose a penalty on Large identify individuals. Moths can detect
isms) might be better able to see by ones. one another by smell across miles of
high-frequency light, but only if they distance. Anything up to Acute Taste
live near an active black hole or other A related sense is proprioception, and Smell 10 is quite within the realm
“bright” source of hard radiation. the mental “image” of the body’s posi- of biological possibility. Game Masters
tion. For creatures like octopuses and may want to break apart Taste and
Some organisms on Earth have squids, keeping track of one’s arms Smell, giving some creatures a Smell
polarized vision, which helps cut glare takes up a major chunk of the brain’s bonus but not Taste, or vice-versa, at 1
and allows them to see better through processing power. This sense seems to point per level.
clouds and haze. Such creatures typi- be more important for creatures with
cally have two to four levels of Acute many limbs, and is likely to be more Because Earth creatures often use
Vision (Accessibility, Only to compen- important for land-dwelling organ- scent molecules as a form of commu-
sate for glare and haze, -50%) [1/level]. isms, if only because it’s a key part of nication without conscious control,
being able to walk. In GURPS terms, creatures with very acute sense of
Hearing this sense is the primary component smell could easily justify having
of Dexterity. Animal Empathy or Sensitive.
Hearing is an outgrowth of the
sense of touch, optimized to pick up The sense of balance is another Other Senses
air vibrations. Humans have average component of proprioception. More
to poor hearing (partly because we generally, it’s the “gravity sense” that Creatures on Earth have a remark-
subject ourselves to a lot more noise any planet-living organism needs. able variety of senses, and it’s possible
than most animals). Most organisms Swimmers have a related ability to to imagine exotic senses unknown to
can have Acute Hearing sufficient to keep themselves properly oriented Earthly life. There are, after all, a rela-
bring their Hearing roll up to 12. Since underwater. Brachiators and moun- tively limited number of ways an
sound travels better in a denser tain-living creatures are likely to have organism can perceive its environment.

162 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

Electromagnetic waves have air isn’t dense enough to transmit COMMUNICATION
already been discussed under vision. vibrations very far, but any swimmer
In addition to sight, one can imagine might have a similar sense. This Just about all organisms have some
senses like Detect (Microwaves) would be Vibration Sense. Any land- way to send signals. Even seemingly
or Scanning Sense (Radar) on dwelling creatures could have a kind passive things like plants are constant-
huge space-dwelling creatures, or of “seismic sense” to pick up ground ly pumping out chemicals to affect
Detect (Gamma or X-Rays) on dense vibrations; this would be Vibration each other. Animals make use of their
organisms. Sense with the limitation “Ground more sophisticated senses to commu-
Only” (-10%). nicate with sound and visual displays,
Most Earth life uses “passive” elec- but don’t give up on chemical cues. In
tromagnetic senses, relying on the sun Chemical senses are variants on general creatures use all their senses
to provide illumination to see by. But taste and smell, possibly specialized for communication to some extent –
that’s not strictly necessary. There are for different kinds of molecules. On humans speak to each other, but we
some deep-sea creatures that generate Earth most chemical senses are also use gestures and facial expres-
their own light, and one can imagine attuned to molecules made by living sions, and our bodies do respond to
alien organisms capable of generating things, to either help find food or warn scents.
bright pulses like a strobe light to see of danger from predators. Aliens
in darkness. If a creature could gener- might be able to smell things humans Organisms with no intelligence (IQ
ate coherent light, a form of Ladar cannot – minerals, trace atmospheric 0) tend to communicate by instinctive,
(see p. B81) might even be possible. gases, or poisons. This could be as “automatic” methods, like scents
(The drawback to any “active” sense, simple as a very precise Detect added released in response to certain stimuli.
of course, is that it makes one visible to normal sense of smell, like Detect More intelligent creatures (IQ 1) add
to anyone else with the same sort of (Methane) or Detect (Pheromones). channels under voluntary control.
sensor.) Or it could replace Taste and Smell Organisms without complicated social
with something like Detect (Minerals). structures tend to stick to simple
Electromagnetic field senses exist “broadcast” communications, like
already in many Earth animals. Many Exotic senses are weird or super- scent sprays or calls to any creature
fish have electric-field detectors, pick- science abilities that are either based within earshot. Creatures with more
ing up the emissions of other crea- on imaginary science or require elaborate societies may add more
tures’ muscle impulses. Note that this bending the rules to function in the selective “person-to-person” commu-
requires a medium like water that real world. This includes nearly all nication. Actual language only really
conducts electricity. Air is an insulator, psionic abilities, “X-ray” vision as becomes possible with sapience and
and so blocks electric impulses. This depicted in comic books, neutrino IQ 6 or better.
would be Detect (Electric Fields) or vision, extra-dimensional or faster-
possibly Detect (Living Things). than-light senses, and so on.

Air doesn’t interfere with magnetic
fields, however, and there are several
species of birds that apparently have
internal magnetic sensors to provide a
compass for long-range navigation.
This is not normally precise enough to
qualify as Absolute Direction; it’s sim-
plest to just call it a 0-point feature, as
on p. B34. Alien beings with more pre-
cise magnetic sense could have Detect
(Magnetic Fields) or possibly Absolute
Direction.

Gravity detection is part of balance
and proprioception. Space-dwelling
creatures might be able to detect grav-
ity fields even in free-fall, or sense
mass by the curvature of space.
Obviously this would only pick up
large masses, the size of asteroids or
planets. It would be Detect (Gravity
Fields).

Vibration senses are essentially an
extension of hearing, and work best in
a dense medium that conducts waves
easily. Many fish have a “lateral line” –
a set of receptors on the skin that pick
up faint water movements. This
wouldn’t work as well in air, because

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 163

Alien Creation VIII

Sense options marked with an asterisk are possible Touch
communication channels. Roll 1d for each marked
sense; the highest roll indicates the primary method of Roll 2d for sense of touch.
communication and the second highest indicates the
secondary. Channels marked with two asterisks get a +1 Modifiers: -2 for external skeleton; +2 for aquatic
on this roll. If the two highest rolls are the same, the organisms, +2 for digging organisms, -2 for flyers; +2 if
species uses the two together as a single channel. Blind or Nearly Blind; +1 if Trapping carnivore; +1 if
Small.

Primary Sense Roll (2d) Touch Ability

Most creatures have a primary sense that is what 2 or less Numb
they rely on to get around and find food. Roll 3d on this
table to determine the primary sense. When rolling on 3-4 -2 DX from poor sense of touch
the sense tables below, the primary sense gets a +4
bonus. 5-6 -1 DX from poor sense of touch

Modifiers: -2 for aquatic; +2 for autotrophs. 7-8 Human-level touch

9-10 Acute Touch 4*

11-18 Acute Touch 4 and either Sensitive

Touch or Vibration Sense*

Roll (3d) Primary Sense Taste/Smell
1-7 Hearing
8-12 Vision Roll 2d for taste and smell ability.
13-20 Touch and Taste
Modifiers: +2 for chasing carnivores, +2 for gathering
Vision herbivores, -2 for filter-feeders, autotrophs or trapping
carnivores; +2 if sexual reproduction; -4 if immobile.
Roll 3d; space-dwelling life treats any result of 9 or
less as 3. Roll (2d) Taste/Smell Ability

Modifiers: -4 if Digging is primary locomotion, +2 if 3 or less No Sense of Smell/Taste
climbing, +3 if flying, -4 if immobile; -4 if Deep Ocean
Vent habitat; -2 if filter-feeder, +2 if carnivore or gather- 4-5 No Sense of Smell (can taste, -50%)
ing herbivore.
[-2 points]

6-8 Normal taste/smell

9-10 Acute Taste/Smell 4 (aquatic organisms

Roll (3d) Visual Ability use Acute Taste only)*
6 or less Blindness
7 Blindness (Can sense light and dark, 11-16 Acute Taste/Smell 4 and Discriminatory

8-9 -10%) [-45] Smell (aquatic organisms use
10-11 Bad Sight and Colorblindness
12-14 Bad Sight or Colorblindness* Discriminatory Taste)*
15-23 Normal Vision*
Telescopic Vision 4* Special Senses

Hearing For each sense roll 2d; it is present on a roll of 11 or
more unless noted. Modifiers to the roll are listed with
Roll 3d; space-dwelling life is automatically Deaf. each special sense.

Modifiers: +2 if Completely or Nearly Blind, +1 if Bad 360° Vision*: +1 for plains or desert habitat; +1 for
Sight; +1 if aquatic, -4 if immobile. herbivore; +1 for radial or spherical symmetry.

Roll (3d) Hearing Ability Absolute Direction: +1 for Open Ocean habitat; +1 for
6 or less Deafness flying, +1 for digging.
7-8 Hard of Hearing
9-10 Normal Hearing* Discriminatory Hearing*: +2 if organism has Sonar.
11 Normal Hearing with extended range Peripheral Vision (10-12): +1 for plains or desert
habitat; +2 for herbivore.
12 (Subsonic Hearing if Large, Night Vision 1d+3*: +2 for aquatic organisms; +2 for
13 Ultrahearing otherwise)* carnivores.
Acute Hearing 4** Ultravision*: no for aquatic organisms, no for
14-21 Acute Hearing 4 and either Subsonic ammonia-based life.
Hearing or Ultrahearing** Detect (Heat)*: +1 for carnivores; +1 for arctic
Acute Hearing 4 with Ultrasonic habitat, no for aquatic life.
Hearing and Sonar** Detect (Electric Fields)*: aquatic only; +1 for
carnivores.
Perfect Balance: land-dwelling only; +2 for climbing;
+1 for mountain habitat; -1 if gravity 0.5 or less, +1 if
gravity 1.5 or more.
Scanning Sense (Radar)*: no if Small size or
aquatic; +2 if space-dwelling.

164 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

SPECIAL creatures have a finite amount of advantage of a specific environment
ABILITIES material to work with. and have adapted to those conditions.
It requires a medium about as optical-
Other special abilities are impossi- Hibernation in unpleasant condi- ly dense as one’s body tissues. This
ble to predict. Why did woodpeckers tions is another common ability. would be modeled as Invisibility to
become specialized to bore holes in Northern animals do it in winter, sight only, with several limitations –
trees? Why did electric eels evolve into when food is hard to find and it makes only in water, a slight chance of being
living capacitors? On alien worlds, sense to huddle up and conserve ener- seen. It also works best for small
things can get even more bizarre, but gy. Warmer-climate organisms may organisms, no more than Human-
the basic laws of nature still apply. hibernate (technically, they are estivat- Scale in size.
ing, the summer version of hiberna-
What’s Plausible tion) during droughts. Some creatures What’s Possible
can survive in drought mode for
The most plausible special abilities extraordinary periods – tardigrades There are also abilities that are
for aliens are those that we know are or brine shrimp can be revived after unknown (or nearly so) on Earth but
possible because they already exist. decades in stasis. In GURPS terms that aren’t actually forbidden by the
Anything used by existing or extinct this is Metabolism Control (Hiberna- laws of nature.
Earth species are perfectly defensible. tion) as described on p. B68.
Many special abilities based on Earth Projectile weapons (as opposed to
life are already described above, but While shapeshifting in the comic- sprays) don’t show up on Earth but
there are more possibilities. Without book sense is not really possible (see they aren’t completely impossible.
turning this chapter into a biology below), there are creatures that under- Medieval folklore and American fron-
encyclopedia, there are some abilities go changes, either seasonally or as tier legends both describe spiny ani-
to consider. part of maturation. Snowshoe rabbits mals capable of throwing their quills;
switch between white and brown spot- on an alien world a species might
Afflictions in the form of chemical ted pelt depending on the season, combine quills with a chemical organ
defenses are fairly common. Some while many invertebrates completely like the bombardier beetle to produce
are ranged sprays, like a skunk’s musk remodel their bodies as they go an actual dart gun. Creatures might
or a bombardier beetle’s superheated through different life stages. These are have multiple “launchers” but each
chemical spray. Range tends to be all simply 0-point features, since they would be single-shot, taking days or
fairly short for spray attacks – typical- happen either once or according to a weeks to regrow a new dart. Some
ly no more than the animal’s ST in predictable schedule. kind of “blowgun” arrangement that
yards, up to a maximum of about 10 could use pebbles or seeds as projec-
yards. They take the Limited Use or On Earth there are many invisible tiles might be possible, but it would
Takes Recharge limitations, since all creatures – undersea organisms whose require a reliable source of ammuni-
bodies are exactly as transparent as tion – and something to shoot at.
the water around them. They take
Breath weapons like those of fanta-
Moving in Clades sy dragons are also within the realm of
possibility, but unlikely. A creature
Humans have speculated about the possibility of genetic engineering could generate a burning spray, but
and cybernetic augmentation. Advanced alien civilizations could alter the energy represented by a large
themselves using the same methods, creating “daughter species” with burst of flame is tremendous. The
new or improved abilities. creature either needs an external
source of “fuel” or a very long
One thing to remember in such cases is that new species don’t auto- “recharge” time between shots. Poison
matically replace old ones. When one species of bird-like dinosaur gave gas is also unlikely because of the dif-
rise to the ancestors of birds, the dinosaurs didn’t all disappear; they ficulty in generating a large volume of
remained doing the same bird-like dinosaur things they always had, gas.
while their ancestral-bird cousins started doing different things.
Similarly, a genetically modified subspecies or widespread use of cyber- “Blob monster” abilities like Elastic
netics won’t necessarily replace the original species. They may coexist – Skin, Stretching, or Morph would suf-
and both the new species and the original group can spin off other new fer some severe limitations. For Earth
“daughter species,” which in turn can create variants of their own. animals to change their form general-
ly requires substantial amounts of
The result is that once a species starts modifying itself, one can time. Even small insects undergoing
expect a tremendous diversification. Unless some strong authority metamorphosis take several days.
enforces uniformity by force, there are likely to be lots of different pop- Among larger animals, “shape
ulations with different modifications and combinations of traits. changes” in pregnancy take months.
Human explorers contacting alien civilizations should expect to find a Anyone designing alien shape-chang-
lot of “multispecies” worlds with wildly varying populations, all ers should make the process as slow as
descended from a common ancestral type. possible. (This only applies to evolved
“natural” species: an artificial organ-
ism or machine life might be able to

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 165

do real-time rearrangement of body code, giving access to ancestors thou- are in the same situation as teleporta-
parts under conscious control.) An sands of generations back. tion. If creatures could use them, they
exception might exist if the body is would confer a tremendous advantage
actually a swarm of independent crea- What’s Impossible and would quickly become wide-
tures (see p. 153). spread. Note that Precognition opens
Overtly “paranormal” abilities are the whole Pandora’s Box of time para-
Having an Extra Head is not impossible under the laws of nature as doxes.
unknown on Earth, usually the result we understand them. That being said,
of a birth defect that conjoins twins. It GMs are free to allow some of them as Size changing abilities like Growth
could be an inherited trait. If the the result of superscience unknown on or Shrinking are pretty much impossi-
heads share a single “mind” (or don’t Earth. ble. They violate the law of conserva-
contain the brain, as with Larry tion of matter, and creatures getting
Niven’s Puppeteers) then this is simply Duplication violates the laws of huge or tiny without changing mass
a matter of a better arc of vision and conservation of matter. Creatures that run into severe mechanical con-
an extra mouth. If they do have sepa- reproduce by fission, creating two straints – how do tiny muscles lift nor-
rate or redundant brains, then use the identical, smaller copies with shared mal-size mass? Best to leave these for
GURPS advantage as described. memories aren’t using Duplication “four-color” comics reality.
because it’s rare, permanent, and there
Racial Memory is possible, espe- is no further connection between the Telekinesis, Temperature Control,
cially for creatures that rely a great two offspring. DR (Force Field), and other energetic
deal upon instinct. The memories abilities are another “superscience
could be passed only from parent to Mental Influence abilities like Mind only” set. They violate more laws of
child, so that a given individual would Control, Mind Probe, Mind Reading, nature than we can conveniently list!
only have its parents’ memories – but or Mindlink are superscience – unless
those memories could include the the species has a form of radio com- Teleportation fits into the realm of
parental memories of its parents, and munication and all members of the superscience. If it exists, it can be
so on. This is especially likely for crea- species can use the channel. Mind described in a logical, consistent man-
tures that reproduce by budding. Control by physical or chemical ner. But current science says it can’t
Alternately, the species might be able means is definitely possible. happen. This applies to the advan-
to “write” memories into the genetic tages Warp, Jumper, and Snatcher.
Para-senses like Clairsentience,
Penetrating Vision, or Precognition

ALIEN MINDS

Just because a creature is intelli- qualify for the Cannot Learn disad- The question of whether it is possi-
gent doesn’t mean it will have a mind vantage. (An important exception to ble for organisms to be superhumanly
like ours. The editor John W. this is among the cephalopods – octo- intelligent is, of course, a matter of
Campbell was famous for his dictum: puses and squids appear to be as complete speculation. One theory
“Show me a creature that thinks as smart as any nonhumans on Earth.) holds that natural selection ceases to
well as a man, but not like a man.” apply to any species that reaches
Vertebrates appear capable of gen- human-level intelligence, and that this
BRAINS erally more sophisticated behavior, suggests that no species would natu-
and among the vertebrates mammals rally evolve a higher average intellect.
Humans have extremely complex and birds are particularly good at (Some extremely pessimistic thinkers,
brains, allowing us to do things that learning and inventing new behaviors. like SF author Cyril Kornbluth in his
no other known creature can. Though Most vertebrates would have IQ of 1-4, story “The Marching Morons,” posit
the behaviors and abilities found with the Bestial disadvantage. that civilization causes a decline in
among Earth’s living things are amaz- Mammals and birds (and possibly intellect as stupidity ceases to be
ing, there’s only one species that cephalopods) can have IQ as high as 5, fatal.)
builds space probes, drills for oil, or and are Bestial.
writes roleplaying games. The opposite idea, familiar to all
Sapience, or human-level intelli- fans of classic Star Trek, is that sen-
The vast majority of Earth’s living gence, is very difficult to define, but tient beings become more and more
things are quite literally mindless. most people know it when they see it. specialized for intelligence, eventually
Plants, fungi, and single-celled organ- Why it arose among humans and why turning into frail, huge-brained crea-
isms have no brains at all (IQ 0). Alien it never appeared among any other tures dependent on technology to sur-
plants might be brainier. Among ani- species is something of a mystery. We vive. Even if creatures don’t evolve
mals, most invertebrates appear to be naturally see all the advantages to naturally toward higher intelligence,
almost robotic, following “pre-pro- being smart, but evidently it’s just one an advanced civilization could artifi-
grammed” behaviors refined by long method among many as far as evolu- cially boost its average IQ by genetic
evolution, but with no trace of tion is concerned. Sapience eliminates engineering, excellent education, or
thought. Maximum IQ for most the Bestial disadvantage and allows IQ cybernetic augmentation.
organisms of this type is 1. They may levels of 6 or more.

166 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

NATURE: THE Pouncing predators work either hatch or are capable of fending for
INFLUENCE OF alone or in small groups, but chasing themselves. (On Earth this usually
BIOLOGY predators sometimes form large packs means one year.) Since these creatures
to bring down really huge prey. have to attract a new partner each
Exactly how much of human Trappers are almost always solitary. year, they often go in for elaborate
behavior is derived from our evolu- mating displays, especially the males.
tionary heritage is a hotly debated The environment has its effects, Males may also stake out prime terri-
topic. It is also fraught with ideologi- too. In harsher environments like arc- tory or good nesting sites.
cal minefields. If humans act a certain tic or desert conditions there is a
way because we have evolved to do so, greater penalty associated with being If the parents remain together for
does that mean we should behave that in a group (there just isn’t enough several seasons, they are said to “mate
way? Is what is natural the same as food or water to support them). for life.” (A fair amount of cheating
what is right? And what does it say However, warm-blooded creatures goes on even in these arrangements.)
about free will if our personalities are may band together in those environ- The couple rears multiple sets of off-
the result of our genes? ments to literally share heat! The spring, and often shares food with
dense nature of a woodland or jungle each other. This naturally goes well
Still, it is possible to speculate on environment makes it hard to keep a with a moderate K-strategy setup.
how an organism’s evolutionary past group together, encouraging smaller Life-mating species often have little
may affect its psychology. Certainly bands or solitary organisms. visible difference between the sexes; if
animals in different niches on Earth there is a difference it is often the case
behave differently, even when The Mating Game that males are small or even parasitic.
removed from their native environ-
ment. Game Masters who don’t like Mating patterns come in several Males sometimes try to monopo-
that idea can downgrade any person- types. For many creatures the male lize all the available females by driving
ality traits to the level of “racial and female meet only at fertilization away or killing any rival males. This
quirks.” and never see one another again. This “harem” system is particularly com-
is typically linked to strong R-strategy mon in species that gather in groups
Ecology behavior. Males have as many part- anyway, like plains grazers. The
ners as they can get, limited only by advantage is that the strongest male
The ecological niche a species competition from other males. If there fathers many children, and the
occupies can affect its behavior quite are any differences between the sexes, females often cooperate in caring for
strongly. Grazing herbivores have they tend to be functional – larger the offspring. Harem species often
abundant food, so can gather in large females because it takes more energy have a noticeable difference between
groups for mutual protection. to produce eggs or bear young. In the sexes, with males typically large
Gathering herbivores have to compete many species the males are short- and bristling with weaponry to fight
for scarcer but more rewarding food, lived, “one-shot” creatures that fertil- off challengers. In some harem species
so they live in small groups or are soli- ize and then die. the males and females live apart
tary. Omnivores are often loners, as except during mating season.
are scavengers. Other species have a temporary
pair-bond, in which the parents NURTURE:
remain together until the offspring THE INFLUENCE
OF SOCIETY

Creatures form social systems,
often highly complex ones. Social rela-
tions refer to how a creature interacts
with others of the same species.
Interspecies relationships generally
fall into the categories of eating,
hijacking food, or running away.

Solitary species live alone, except
possibly during mating season. They
often have a territory that they defend
against interlopers. Large organisms
are frequently solitary (simply
because big creatures need a big terri-
tory for support). Low-intelligence
solitary organisms may not even rec-
ognize a distinction between their
own species and prey.

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 167

Alien Creation IX

Intelligence Mating Behavior

There are two tables here, one for animals and one Roll 2d for mating behavior.
for sapient aliens capable of technological civilization.
Game Masters who want the possibility of randomly Modifiers: -2 for hermaphrodites, -1 for spawning, +1
generating a sapient species can assume that a result for live-bearing; -1 for strong r-strategy, +1 for strong K-
of 13+ on the first table indicates sapience and IQ 6 or strategy.
better.
Roll (2d) Mating Behavior
Animals: Roll 2d for intelligence level.
5 or less Mating only, no pair bond
Modifiers: -1 for autotroph, filter-feeder or grazing 6-7 Temporary pair bond
herbivore, +1 for gathering herbivore or omnivore; -1 8 Permanent pair bond
for small size; -1 for strong r-strategy, +1 for strong 9-10 Harem
K-strategy; +1 for normal or extended lifespan. 11-14 Hive

Roll (2d) Animal Intelligence Social Organization

3 or less Mindless (IQ 0) Roll 2d for social organization. Hive species have a
“pregenerated” social organization already and need
4-5 Preprogrammed (IQ 1 and not roll here.

Cannot Learn) Modifiers: -1 for carnivores, +1 for grazing herbi-
vores; -1 for large size; +1 for harem mating, -1 for no
6-8 Low Intelligence (IQ 1-3 and Bestial) pair bond.

9-10 High Intelligence (IQ 3-5 and Bestial)

11-15 Presapient (IQ 5)

Sapient Beings: Roll 1d+5 for the average species Roll (2d) Social Organization Type
IQ. The minimum IQ for sapience is 6, so treat any 6 or less
result of 5 or less as a 6. 7-8 Solitary
9-10 Pair-bonded
Modifiers: -1 for autotroph, filter-feeder or grazing Small group of 2d members
herbivore, +1 for gathering herbivore or omnivore; -1 11
for small size; -1 for strong r-strategy, +1 for strong (1-2 Troop, 3-4 Pack, 5-6 Herd)
K-strategy. 12-14 Medium group of 4d members

(1-2 Pack, 3-6 Herd)
Large Herd of 1d ¥ 10 members

Pair-bonded species (as noted could be used by grazers or gatherers packs; the biggest or oldest members
above) live in “nuclear family” groups just as well. In a pack there is a hierar- may be the herd leader, but that
of parents and offspring. They may or chy, with the “alpha male” and “alpha seems to be “merit-based” rather than
may not be able to tolerate the pres- female” as the leaders. They lead in “political.”
ence of other pairs nearby – some hunting and get a larger share of the
birds live quite happily in huge com- food. Alphas mate with other alphas, Hives are a very successful social
munal rookeries with thousands of and prevent low-status members of unit based on a single family. The
neighbors, while eagles have widely the pack from mating at all (or at least queen is the only fertile female, and
separated nests. make sure the young don’t survive if spends her life as an egg-making
they do). The result is that the alphas’ machine. Most of her offspring are
A small group of creatures (four to offspring benefits from the entire sterile females, who spend their time
10) living together is called a troop, (or pack’s efforts. This is obviously a caring for eggs. A small number of
band, or pride). This often is based on strong K-strategy setup, and requires fertile females and males leave the
a mating arrangement: several mated constant communication and social hive in search of mates, in order to
pairs or a male and his harem. Troops jockeying. start new colonies. In some species, all
share child-care and often work a lot members of the hive are potentially
of food-sharing into their social Huge groups of animals (10-100 or fertile, but are kept from developing
arrangements. Any social group larger more) are known as herds, schools, or by pheromones given off by the queen;
than a mated pair requires fairly flocks. On Earth they are typically when the queen dies her young
sophisticated communication – even found among grazers, since a huge compete to take the role. Other hives
the “mindless” workers in a hive are group requires a huge food supply. die with their queen. Hive systems
using complex chemical signals and Small herds may be a harem, but real- combine the vast numbers of young
body movements to communicate. ly big herds are simply too much for cranked out by r-strategists with the
even the most ambitious male to guaranteed-survival care of K-strate-
A larger group is a pack, with six to monopolize. Herds don’t seem to have gists. The only drawback is the “over-
20 members. This is typical among as much of the hierarchy found in head” of all the sterile workers.
chasing carnivores on Earth, but

168 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

Alien Creation X

There are nine mental qualities that define a species’ Curiosity
collective “personality.” For species whose mentality is
closely coupled to their biology, simply apply the modi- Curiosity includes how receptive the species is to
fiers on each table and use the result. For more varia-
tion, roll a die, then roll a second and subtract that new things, and how interested they are in finding
result from the first. Add the result (positive or negative)
to the sum of modifiers. Do that for each table. them.

Modifiers: +1 for omnivores, -1 for grazing herbivores
or filter-feeders; -1 for Blind or Nearly Blind species; -1
for strong r-strategy, +1 for strong K-strategy.

Chauvinism Total Curiosity Level
+3 or more Curious (9) (if Concentration or
Chauvinism measures how the species views itself as
+2 Suspicion is 0 or less, reduce self-
a group compared to others. control number to 6)
+1 Curious (12) (if Concentration is 0 or
Modifiers: -1 for autotrophs or filter-feeders, -2 for less, change self-control number to 9)
parasites or scavengers; +2 for small or medium groups 0 Nosy (quirk) (becomes Curious at 12 if
and hives; -1 for asexual or spawning organisms; -1 for -1 Concentration is 0 or less)
solitary or pair-bonded. -2 Normal
Staid (quirk)
Total Chauvinism Level -3 or less Incurious (12) (self-control number
+3 or more Chauvinistic (quirk) (becomes Racial becomes 9 if Suspicion is less than 0)
Incurious (9)
+2 Intolerance if Empathy is less than
+1 or Suspicion greater than -1; Egoism
+1 becomes Xenophobia if Suspicion is
greater than +1) Egoism is a measure of how personally self-impor-
0 Chauvinistic (quirk) (becomes Racial
-1 Intolerance if Empathy is less than tant members of this species are, compared with others.
-2 +1 or Suspicion greater than -1)
Chauvinistic (quirk) (becomes Racial It is the individual counterpart to species Chauvinism.
-3 or less Intolerance if Empathy is less than
0 or Suspicion greater than 0)
Normal Modifiers: +1 for solitary, +1 for harem (males only),
Broad-Minded (quirk) -1 for hives; +1 for strong K-strategy, -1 for strong
Broad-Minded (quirk) (becomes r-strategy.
Xenophilia at 15 if Suspicion is
less than 0 and Empathy is greater
than 0)
Undiscriminating (quirk – considers all
intelligence to be one “species”)
(becomes Xenophilia at 12 if
Suspicion is less than 0 or
Empathy is greater than 0;
Xenophilia at 9 if both are true)

Concentration Total Egoism Level
+3 or more Selfish (9)
Concentration describes how well individual mem- +2 Selfish (12) (control number becomes
bers of a species can focus on a task.
+1 9 if Suspicion is more than 0 or
Modifiers: +1 for pouncing or chasing carnivore, -1 Empathy is less than 0)
for any herbivore; +1 for strong K-strategy. 0 Proud (quirk) (Selfish at 12 if
-1 Suspicion is more than 0; Selfish at
Total Concentration Level -2 9 if Suspicion is +2 or more or if
+3 or more Single-Minded and either High Pain -3 or less Empathy is -2 or less)
Normal
Threshold or one 5-point Talent Humble (quirk)
+2 Single-Minded Selfless (12) (control number becomes
+1 Attentive (quirk) 9 if Chauvinism is +2 or more)
0 Normal Selfless (6)
-1 Distractible (quirk)
-2 Short Attention Span (12) Continued on next page . . .
-3 or less Short Attention Span (9)

ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS 169

Alien Creation X (Continued)

Empathy Total Imagination Level
+2 Imaginative (quirk) (as with +1 below,
Empathy measures how well individuals can sense
or care about the feelings of others, both within and +1 but adds the quirk Dreamer if
outside their species. Egoism is greater than 0 or if
0 Concentration is less than +1)
Modifiers: +1 for chasing carnivores, -1 for -1 Imaginative (quirk) (becomes Versatile
autotrophs, filter-feeders, grazers or scavengers; -1 for -2 if Concentration is 0 or more and
solitary or pair-bonded, +1 for small or medium group; -3 or less Egoism is less than +2)
+1 for strong K-strategy. Normal
Dull (quirk)
Total Empathy Level Hidebound
+3 or more Empathy (if Gregariousness is more Hidebound and -1 IQ

+2 than 0 add Charitable at 12) Suspicion
+1 Empathy (Sensitive)
Responsive (quirk) (becomes This is how distrustful and fearful individuals of the
0 species are about new things or surprises.
-1 Sensitive if Gregariousness is
-2 more than 0 and Suspicion is less Modifiers: -1 for any carnivore, +1 for grazing herbi-
-3 or less than 0) vores; +1 for Blind or Nearly Blind; -1 for large, +1 for
Normal small; +1 for solitary or pair-bonded.
Oblivious
Callous Total Suspicion Level
Low Empathy (carnivores add +3 or more Fearfulness 2, and Cowardice
Bloodlust at 12)
(if herbivore) or Paranoia (if carnivore)
Gregariousness +2 Fearfulness 1 (becomes Careful quirk if

This indicates how sociable members of the species Curiosity is -3)
are, and how much they need the company of others. It +1 Careful (quirk) (ignore if Curiosity is
doesn’t say how the species feels about other forms of
life. -2 or less)
0 Normal
Modifiers: -1 for pouncing carnivore, scavenger, fil- -1 Fearlessness 1
ter-feeder, autotroph, or any herbivore; -1 for solitary or -2 Fearlessness 2 (add Overconfidence if
pair-bonded, +1 for medium or large group, +2 for hive;
-1 for asexual or hermaphrodite, -1 for spawning. Egoism is +2 or more)
-3 or less Fearlessness 3 (add Overconfidence if
Total Gregariousness Level
+3 or more Gregarious Egoism is +1 or more; Fearlessness
+2 Chummy becomes Unfazeable if Chauvinism is
+1 Congenial (quirk) -3 or less)
0 Normal
-1 Uncongenial (quirk) Playfulness
-2 Loner (12)
-3 or less Loner (9) Playfulness measures how willing a species is to play
– to do things purely for fun rather than for any materi-
Imagination al benefit. Playful animals may be easier to train, and
playful sapients are likely to have a sense of humor. This
Imagination indicates how well members of the is one table on which humans may not be “normal,”
since we appear to be unusually playful as a species. To
species come up with new ideas, see patterns, and reflect this, Game Masters may decide to give all other
intelligent species an additional -1 modifier, to make
invent new behaviors. humans seem more playful by comparison.

Modifiers: +1 for pouncing carnivores, omnivores, Modifiers: +1 if K-strategy, +2 if strong K-strategy; +1
or gathering herbivores, -1 for autotrophs, filter- for IQ 2 or higher; -1 if Solitary; -3 if Cannot Learn.
feeders, or grazers; +1 for strong K-strategy, -1 for
strong r-strategy. Total Playfulness Level
+3 or more Compulsive Playfulness (9)
Total Imagination Level
+3 or more Imaginative (quirk) (as with +2 below, +2 (becomes Trickster at 12 if species
+1 is Overconfident)
but if Empathy is less than +1 add 0 Compulsive Playfulness (12) [-5*]
the Odious Racial Habit (Nonstop -1 Playful (quirk)
Idea Factory) [-5]) -2 Normal (occasionally playful)
-3 or less Serious (quirk)
Odious Racial Habit (Wet Blanket) [-5]
No Sense of Humor

170 ALIEN LIFE AND ALIEN MINDS

CHAPTER SEVEN

FUTURE AND ALIEN
CIVILIZATIONS

Shiro and Tatsumi walked through the old Imperial Suddenly the Tarcaser stiffened, and Shiro realized every-
Gardens in Tokyo, hand in hand as if they were just another one in the room beyond was staring at them. No – behind
pair of teenage lovers out for a stroll. They really were lovers them. He turned and found himself looking into the single
now, thought Shiro, and he couldn’t keep from blushing. cloudy eye of a Shahar. A very high-ranking one, if he was
reading the insignia on its neckband correctly. There was a lit-
The old palace buildings were completely gone, leveled dur- tle knot of Shuman and Tarcaser flunkies standing four paces
ing the Shahar campaign to erase human history. In their behind it.
place was the Family of Species Culture and Education
Center. The two Alien Fighter Army operatives were hoping the “It is good for humans to study our technology,” said the
library there would help them figure out the alien tech Shiro Shahar. “They will be happy doing their tasks in the Family of
had found. Species.” It nodded at the Tarcaser and turned to go.

They passed through a security checkpoint under the gaze “Please come this way,” said the Tarcaser in a much more
of a looming Gustrogin soldier in combat armor. Actually, humble tone.
Shiro was glad the huge alien was there – nobody would won-
der why his heart was pounding or his mouth was dry. Once This chapter covers the business of choosing and design-
inside they followed the signs in Shahar glyphs to the library. ing science-fictional societies for the space-genre campaign.
Tatsumi had better marks than Shiro in the alien language, so It examines the ways in which advanced technology and
she was going to be the one doing most of the actual research. alien biology might change how society is structured, and
discusses some of the pragmatics of designing a govern-
They were met at the library entrance by a Tarcaser in a ment, its legal structure, and its military forces.
white jacket. It watched them with its top eye while the other
two flicked about, scanning the room. “What are your needs?”
it asked in slow Japanese.

“We’re just looking for
some books,” said Tatsumi
in her best Shahar.

“This facility has mil-
lions of works stored on
crystals, but no ‘books,’”
said the Tarcaser, and
Shiro decided at that
moment that he really
hated this alien. The
two Alien Fighters had
hoped for hardcopy
books precisely because
nobody would be able to
trace what they were
researching.

“We’re doing a report on
industrial design and ergonom-
ics in multi-species equipment,”
said Shiro as smoothly as he could.
“Please, show us how to use the system
here.”

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 171

STORY CONCERNS

Roleplaying campaigns are frame- when the PCs are military personnel destroys the individual’s intelligence.
works for stories – the adventures and fighting a hostile alien civilization, They send their adults off when they
exploits of the player characters. The spies infiltrating a tightly monitored begin to revert to an animalistic state.
purpose of the society is to serve as a state, or rebels trying to bring down a Puzzles don’t have to be science prob-
story element. Most commonly, soci- tyrannical empire. But characters can lems like that one, of course. The
eties are simply backdrops, the come into conflict with a society even Venusian situation could be the result
scenery against which the actors strut if they aren’t trading blaster shots with of a strong religious belief (one must
and declaim. Occasionally the story armored stormtroopers. A merchant “return to nature” in order to achieve
focuses on a conflict between the trying to make a profit in the face of enlightenment or salvation), a politi-
characters and their society, which heavy taxes and trade barriers is at cal struggle (the Youth Party took over
elevates the society to the status of a odds with society. So is a lawman and is attempting to eliminate the
“character” in its own right. The role bringing justice to a wild frontier. Or middle-aged as a class), or economics
in the story in turn determines ele- lovers in a society that forbids mar- (Venus has a constantly changing,
ments of the society’s structure and riage between social classes. information-driven economy, and
function. Is it an open, free society, or Venusians over 30 just aren’t mentally
a restrictive culture? Who holds Obstacle societies obviously need flexible enough to keep up). Often
power? features that will put them at odds solving a puzzle presents a new obsta-
with the heroes – restrictive laws, cle or puzzle – can the PCs find a cure
SOCIETY IN aggressive plans for Galactic con- for the parasite, or will they too begin
THE STORY quest, widespread corruption, lack of to lose intelligence? And if they do
interest in space exploration, or what- cure the parasite, then all of a sudden
It’s up to the GM to determine the ever. They also need ways for the the Venusians are going to be facing
purpose of a society. Is it scenery, is it heroes to circumvent or overcome some major social changes.
an adversary for the heroes, or a mys- those obstacles. Can they change the
tery to solve? Sometimes it can be all laws, or halt the conquering fleets? If Evolving Societies
three, or change over time. change is impossible, can they get
away to someplace more congenial, or Social change causes conflict, and
Society as Backdrop find a way to accomplish their goals conflicts are the heart of roleplaying
secretly? A society that is intolerable adventures. So any society undergoing
The simplest use for any society in and inescapable doesn’t make for par- change will offer many opportunities
a story or roleplaying campaign is as a ticularly entertaining adventures, after for heroes to show their stuff. Of
backdrop. Making a world or culture all. course, all societies are changing, all
alien and exotic reminds the players the time, in different ways.
that this is a science-fiction adventure. A different form of obstacle society Technological change is one potent
An especially well-designed backdrop is one that presents the characters driver of social transformation; expo-
can provide lots of fun just by letting with a puzzle. This often happens to sure to new ideas from other cultures
the characters “play tourist” and explorers visiting strange new worlds, is another. Economic cycles drive
explore the setting. Life doesn’t have but can befall anyone trying to operate social change – a generation that grew
to be a series of shootouts and bar in an unfamiliar environment without up during a boom era won’t have the
fights, after all. enough information. A puzzle society same attitudes as one that came of age
is one that seems to not make sense on in a depression. External events like
A useful thing for Game Masters to first examination. The inhabitants wars or even climate changes can alter
keep in mind is that all the people in behave or think in a way that just societies.
the backdrop society don’t know doesn’t seem rational. For example,
they’re in the background. Each of why do the Venusians exile their In a game, social changes can be
them is the main character of his or adults to wilderness preserves when divided into three types: ongoing
her own story. Giving the PCs encoun- they reach 30 years of age? On the face trends, cycles, and catastrophic shifts.
ters with people who have their own of it, this is a puzzle, since one would Trends are quiet, gradual changes that
goals and aren’t especially interested assume people in their prime years often get lost in the “background
in the evening’s adventure will help would be an asset to society. The puz- noise” of everyday events, even though
make the setting seem more real and zle can also create an obstacle if the they may turn out to be very profound
give it depth. heroes will suffer some negative effect transformations. Emigration by
if they don’t solve it in time (in this Europeans to America radically
Society as Obstacle case the Venusians insist that all PCs changed the European social and eco-
over 30 must also be exiled). nomic system by knocking the eco-
Of course, a society can be more nomic props out from under the old
than just the setting for the heroes, it But of course a puzzle must have a noble landowners, but it took place
can be their foe. This can be overt, as solution. In the case of the Venusians, over the course of a century and most-
it turns out that their species is infect- ly happened “offstage,” in places like
ed by a parasitic fungus that gradually

172 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

Kansas. In game terms, these changes CONTROL AND Game Masters may wish to break
are likely to be too small to notice on INTRUSIVENESS down a particular society’s Control
the scale of the characters’ adventures. Rating into distinct sub-ratings for
Exactly how much the social back- Civil Rights, Social Control, Legal
Cycles include things like business ground affects the player characters Restrictions, Punishment Severity,
cycles, the “generational personality” depends in part on how much control and Economic Freedom. The overall
model of popular attitudes, the politi- that society has over its citizens. In Control Rating is the average of these.
cal “pendulum” of liberal and conser- general, the looser the society, the
vative ascendancy, and the rise and fall more the characters can ignore it and Civil Rights are the rights reserved
of civilizations as posited by historians focus on their own plots and goals. As for the citizens that the government
like Spengler and Toynbee. Most of society becomes more intrusive, it may not infringe. The nature and
these cycles are beyond the ability of takes up more of the PCs’ attention, extent of those rights depends on the
PCs to influence, and many of them eventually becoming an obstacle. culture’s priorities and history. For
happen on such a long time scale they instance, many foreigners are baffled
don’t really affect the campaign. It can Control Ratings by modern Americans’ attachment to
be interesting if the GM wants to posit their Second Amendment right to
a “jackpot year” in which several long The GURPS Basic Set includes the keep weapons, while Americans
and short term cycles all peak at once, concept of Control Ratings for each abroad are startled by things like gov-
leading to major economic and politi- society (p. B506). This is an abstract ernment-licensed prostitution or mar-
cal shifts. This can be especially inter- numerical rating of the intrusiveness ijuana sales. Typically a low CR in the
esting if the PCs (or an NPC) can pre- and oppressiveness of a given state or Civil Rights department means that
dict the crisis. Aliens with differing culture. As with any single-axis the citizens have the “upper hand” and
lifespans could have different cycle description of something as complex will react with anger and indignation
lengths: very long in the case of beings as a civilization, it involves some over- when their rights are infringed; a high
with Extended Lifespan, blindingly simplification. Consider a frontier CR means they are resigned to oppres-
fast for short-lived species. town on a remote world without many sion and know not to complain.
laws, but with summary execution as
Catastrophic shifts, unlike the oth- the only form of punishment. Is that Economic Freedom fundamentally
ers, can take place almost literally an open society or a restrictive one? If represents how free the people are to
overnight. In the case of wars, stock the police can’t carry weapons but are buy, sell, and conduct business.
market crashes, or shocking events allowed to read all your e-mail, is that Restrictive societies may make it very
like political assassinations, massive oppressive? difficult to do business without gov-
changes can happen in a few days. ernment involvement, while open
Characters who get caught up in those ones may consider commerce to be an
changes can face all kinds of interest- entirely separate sphere. Economic
ing challenges, and potentially valu- Freedom also indicates how heavy the
able opportunities as well. tax burden is (unless there is some
unusual situation, like a war to fight
Dropping a major shift into the raising the tax level or government-
game setting should not be undertak- controlled resource sales providing a
en lightly. It must feel right to the play- “free” income stream). Game Masters
ers. If their characters have overcome may wish to apply a society’s econom-
some initial obstacles and are getting ic CR as a penalty to Merchant skill
to feel at home in the setting, a major when non-native characters are trying
change will feel appropriate: the “sec- to do business there, in place of the
ond act” of the ongoing drama. But if normal -3 penalty for dealing with for-
the campaign has been running for a eign cultures.
long time and the GM throws in a
massive change just to “shake things Legal Restrictions are simply how
up” the result may feel like one of the many things are against the law. Very
periodic continuity rewrites in a free societies only ban violence
comic book series – a sign that the against other citizens (and may even
writers are running out of ideas. tolerate a certain amount of violence
as “private wars”). As CR rises, more
It’s also important to make sure things are banned. Typically property
that the post-change setting is as inter- crimes come next, followed by laws
esting a place to have adventures as against fraud and deception, then
the original situation. If the players laws banning reckless acts, then laws
have been having fun running charac- governing offensive speech and behav-
ters who are space merchants, an ior. Cultures with a high Legal
interstellar war that brings commerce Restrictions CR try to regulate all
to a halt and gets them drafted into aspects of behavior, leaving nothing
the Navy may not be what they want untouched by the laws.
to do.

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 173

Note that alien or future societies into other people’s lives. High social someone who spends all his time off
may have very different ideas about CR means that everyone knows what having adventures instead of doing
what is restrictive and what is free. In everyone else is doing and lets them his job.
a strongly religious culture, casual know what they think of it. Typically,
blasphemy could be a serious crime social control CR is high in small Start Your Own
even at low CR, while in an honor- close-knit societies, and low in diverse
bound society murder in a “fair fight” urban cultures. Characters may get the opportuni-
could be far less serious than lying. ty to be “Founding Fathers” of a new
AVENUES society as a result of their actions in
Punishment Severity is a measure TO POWER the campaign. Leaders of a rebellion
of how harshly the culture treats law- or independence movement have to
breakers. A low Punishment CR Characters within a society may create a government to replace the one
means sentences are light, fines are wish to gain positions of power and they’ve overthrown, and entrepre-
more common than jail time, and the authority themselves. There are at neurs setting up a colony on a distant
emphasis may be on treatment or least three ways to do this. world can establish the kind of regime
rehabilitation of offenders. High they like.
Punishment CR means that the socie- Work the System
ty imposes heavy penalties to punish Becoming the new rulers is a good
the guilty or deter future wrongdoers. All systems of government have a way to retire characters after a suc-
This also affects how likely law mechanism for choosing who rules. cessful adventuring career. They may
enforcement agents are to use physi- There’s no reason why player charac- become patrons to new, less powerful
cal or lethal force. A low Punishment ters can’t join in. This can mean run- PCs, or the whole tone and structure
CR probably means they don’t go ning for office in a democracy, getting of the campaign can shift from
armed, or carry only stunning hired and rising to the top in a corpo- colony-building and rebel heroics to
weapons. High Punishment CR means ration, or assassinating everyone with political infighting and diplomatic
they can use lethal force to stop fleeing a better claim to the throne in a struggles.
suspects. hereditary monarchy. Rising to the
top by working within the system usu- The Cortez Option
Social Control reflects how much of ally takes a while, and may become
a society’s intrusiveness represents the focus of an ongoing campaign. Of Finally, sufficiently aggressive PCs
extralegal mechanisms. There may course, it’s easier for adventurous may attempt to simply take over an
not be any law against carrying a types to rise in some societies than in existing state and make it their own
blaster on Aspen Station, but if you try others. A feudal culture might reward private empire. This requires some-
it you’ll find the hotel won’t give you a boldness and cunning with ennoble- thing to give a small group of charac-
room, the cantina won’t seat you or ment, but in a democracy the voters ters (and whatever followers or merce-
sell you a drink, and the repair dock are seldom likely to keep re-electing naries they bring along) an edge over
won’t give you credit. Low social CR the people they’re fighting. In the case
means that people mind their own of Cortez it was steel weapons and the
business and don’t stick their noses sophisticated military tactics and
command structure the Europeans
Corruptibility inherited from the Romans. Empire
builders in a space campaign can
A society’s Corruptibility is an index of how easy it is to evade the leverage their firepower by choosing
laws by bribery, connections, or bluffing. Apply Corruptibility as a mod- low-tech opponents – even a single TL
ifier to Control Rating in appropriate situations. If the Corruptibility difference can have a huge effect.
index is 0, the laws are enforced equally and fairly, and violators can’t
weasel out of a penalty. But if Corruptibility is, say, -5 in a CR 6 culture, It’s also useful to choose a target
then for the “right people” almost anything is permitted. society that is ripe for toppling. The
Aztec Empire had lots of discontented
Exactly how to take advantage of the local Corruptibility index subject tribes ready to ally with the
depends on the structure of the society. In status-conscious or feudal Spanish. Even gold-obsessed
societies, a Savoir-Faire roll might allow one to act like one of the elite. strangers from over the sea were
Almost anywhere Streetwise rolls tell one when and how much to bribe apparently preferable to the Aztecs’
(or locate a speakeasy or black market that has already paid off the industrial-scale human sacrifice. In
authorities). In highly bureaucratized societies, an Administration roll Cortez’s case, this was pure luck, but
lets one work the system to avoid arrest or punishment. Politics can be future conquistadors can do careful
used in oligarchies or one-party states to behave like a high-ranking intelligence-gathering beforehand to
member of the Party. find a suitably unstable target regime.

Additional skills can help. Area Knowledge lets the character know Low-tech cultures may have high-
what method to try. Fast-Talk can replace one of the other skills, but at tech protectors. Primitive planets can
a penalty equal to the local CR. be guarded by the space Patrol or the
rangers. Trading partners or neigh-
bors may get upset if some upstart

174 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

takes control of a nearby world. There instability or awful conditions on the Buy off adventurers with a promise of
may even be bands of bold adventur- target world so that the new regime a share in the loot. Bribe the rangers
ers on scene willing to help fight for seems like an improvement to the to look the other way, or choose a
the planet’s freedom. A clever conquis- interstellar community. Reassure trad- moment when the nebula pirates are
tador will try to neutralize potential ing partners that existing contracts occupying all of the Patrol’s attention.
interference beforehand: point out the will be honored (even if they won’t).

SOCIETY AND BIOLOGY
A creature’s biology affects the way Metabolic rate also plays a role. may thrive in the shallows, where
it thinks and behaves. Exactly how Cold-blooded creatures don’t need as energy and nutrients are abundant.
much effect biology has is still in much food, so can support a bigger
debate: some scientists maintain that population in the same space as Ultimately a Game Master must
“biology is destiny” and most of our warm-blooded ones. Double the popu- decide how much of his home planet a
behavior is hard-wired, while others lation number for a cold-blooded given species can use. Much depends
insist on free will and the importance species. on technology, as with TL6+ equip-
of environment. Without another ment beings can live just about any-
intelligent species to study and com- Habitable Environments where if they must.
pare ourselves to, the debate is likely
to continue. Where a species evolved affects PSYCHOLOGICAL
where it can live. In general, organ- CONSTRAINTS
BIOLOGICAL isms can’t really thrive in an environ-
CONSTRAINTS ment that is poorer in food and water Even if you don’t assume all
than where they evolved. Humans behavior is hard-wired, it’s pretty
Setting aside questions of free will arose in dry African grasslands, so obvious that at least some traits are
for the moment, it is nevertheless true could easily handle forests, jungles, innate, and those in turn will have an
that a creature’s physical body and and coasts. We don’t do so well in effect on society. In particular, the
evolutionary history must have an deserts, mountains, or the arctic. psychological traits discussed in
effect on the type of society it builds. Warm-blooded organisms like Chapter 6 will influence how an alien
humans seem to be able to handle culture develops.
Numbers and Density cooler climates than their native envi-
ronment fairly well, while cold-blood- Chauvinism
Diet and size affect how many ed creatures might spread into
beings a given environment can sup- warmer territories. One can assume that chauvinism
port, which in turn will affect popula- also applies within a species as well as
tion density and things like the design Aquatic creatures have similar con- in dealings with aliens. Chauvinistic
of cities. Humans can eat plants, straints. Animals with gills can’t go beings probably are loyal to their own
which means that agriculture can feed between salt and fresh water very easi- social group and dislike outsiders.
fairly large, concentrated populations. ly, although air-breathers can (crea- High Chauvinism translates to a lack
Larger organisms would require more tures with gills have problems with salt of unity in the culture, since it will be
food, reducing the numbers a given concentration gradients that air- hard to bring different subcultures
region can support. Smaller beings breathers don’t have to deal with). together. Broad-minded or Xenophilic
could have much bigger populations. Creatures native to shallow water races, by contrast, may have no trou-
As a rough guideline, divide the crea- (lagoon or reef) can colonize other ble uniting – but may also feel little
ture’s mass (unmodified by gravity) by shallows, but probably can’t spread loyalty to their own species if an alien
200 lbs., then take the cube root of into deep water. Deep-ocean organisms culture seems more attractive.
that ratio, square it, and divide the
population by the result. Thus if an Setting aside questions of free will for
average individual weighs 500 lbs., the the moment, it is nevertheless true that a
species population is only 54% of the creature’s physical body and evolutionary
normal level. history must have an effect on the type of
society it builds.
Carnivores need proportionally
more area for support, since they
can’t eat plants directly. Divide popu-
lation by 10 if the species are pure
carnivores or scavengers. Omnivores
can presumably shift to a plant-based
diet if necessary. For parasites, figure
population based on the species they
parasitize.

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 175

Concentration Empathy pay lots of attention to good ideas, while a Hidebound race will at
manners and proper conduct – though least stick with what works.
A race’s Concentration level is like- it can also mean a very prickly willing- Imaginativeness coupled with
ly to affect its economic productivity. ness to take offense when others fail to Suspicion can create a race of para-
Single-Minded beings can work hard- behave properly. High Empathy also noids, sensing dangers that don’t actu-
er and thus produce more; their socie- implies a fairly high level of Social ally exist.
ty may have a higher-than-average Control (see above) instead of formal
Wealth. Concentration may also affect legal structures. Reluctance to give Playfulness
the race’s ability to undertake long- offense may mean the species has
term projects. Distractible or Short trouble stating unpleasant truths. Playfulness is connected to imagi-
Attention Span creatures will tend to nation and curiosity. Socially, it
“live in the moment” and have a hard By contrast, low Empathy encour- reflects a culture’s willingness to
time planning ahead or considering ages a “laissez-faire” attitude, but is devote resources to nonessentials like
consequences. They may not have any also conducive to “brutal honesty” and art, sports, entertainment, and games.
capital assets greater than what one a sense of individual freedom. Species with high Playfulness are like-
group or individual can build and Combined with high Egoism it can ly to produce lots of art, literature, and
make use of. They are likely to be poor make it hard to form any kind of soci- media. They may have elaborate
stewards of a planetary environment, ety at all. Low-Empathy societies may sports. Aggressive but Playful species
and be limited to low TL. require elaborate and clearly defined may channel their warlike impulses
legal codes to avoid a total “war of all into intense competition in athletics
Curiosity against all” situation.

Science and technology depend What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a
ultimately on the curiosity of individ- tolerable planet to put it on?
ual researchers and inventors. A race
with high Curiosity is likely to advance – Henry David Thoreau
quickly, while Incurious species may
never achieve much advanced science Gregariousness or wargames. Low Playfulness sug-
on their own. Curiosity is a major driv- gests a very “utilitarian” species, only
ing force behind things like explo- A species’ Gregariousness will doing things for practical reasons.
ration and contact with aliens. An affect its population levels and how They are likely to value rationalism
Incurious race will probably never urbanized society can become. and measurable results rather than
leave its home planet unless there’s a Chummy or Gregarious species can aesthetics or inspiring gestures. It
very good reason to do so. The far- have a higher population since indi- means a lot less waste on frivolity, but
ranging starships will belong to the viduals don’t mind crowding. Cities that very practicality may mean the
Curious. may be huge and packed. This in turn culture lacks any sort of “safety valve”
may stimulate economic activity and for individual or group discontent.
Egoism technological progress, so Gregarious
species may well be richer and more Suspicion
Individual ego has its biggest effect advanced than others. Low
on a society’s Control Rating and eco- Gregariousness requires a more dis- Suspicion has a strong effect on
nomic structure. Egoistic species persed population, which means government type. A strongly suspi-
won’t cooperate easily and will have a fewer big cities and more small towns cious race will favor a high CR, but
healthy sense of their own impor- and settlements. A species with a may also insist on protections for civil
tance. Control Ratings for Egoistic Gregariousness of -3 or below may rights. High Suspicion leads to a
species societies will tend to be either never form a society at all. strong reliance on following proper
very low (no more than 2) or very high procedures and documenting every-
(5 or more). Imagination thing. Lack of trust in others does
make it hard to organize large-scale
Selfless organisms will tolerate This trait is another technology operations.
high Control Ratings (even if they and science driver, and also reflects
don’t need them), and are more like- how willing the species is to try new Low Suspicion makes for personal
ly to adopt non-market economic social structures. A highly Imaginative bravery and a certain level of opti-
systems. A very Selfless species race may have a great diversity of mism. A low-Suspicion culture is like-
might be able to make socialism social patterns and lots of new tech- ly to be adventurous and expansionis-
work better than egoistical humans nologies. Low Imagination reflects a tic; coupled with low Empathy and
have managed. love of stability. Note that an high Chauvinism it could make for a
Imaginative culture may try lots of bad race of aggressive conquerers.
Empathy

Racial Empathy affects how “nice-
ly” a species behaves, both individual-
ly and as a society. Species with

176 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

Oxygen-Breathers Unite!

Some space settings have so many alien species for interstellar travelers, especially when a mistyped
there’s no way anyone can keep track of them all. David digit could put you in the fluorine-breather section of
Brin’s “Uplift” series and James White’s “Sector a starship!
General” stories involve incredibly diverse multispecies
societies. In such a setting beings may feel kinship with Of course, even species that eat and breathe the
related or similar species. same stuff can be radically different in habits and out-
look, and there is a lot of dramatic (and comic) poten-
White and “Doc” Smith both used classification tial in having humans lumped together with a hideous
systems for alien species, based on various character- or hostile species that happens to share the same
istics of biology and environment. Knowing your classification code.
proper species code could be a matter of life and death

SOCIETY AND TECHNOLOGY

The technology level has a tremen- Invisible Tech human history, disease was a “ran-
dous effect on any society. Changes dom event,” but with modern medi-
like the birth of cities, the industrial In very high-tech societies, devices cine it is something to control and
revolution, and the modern “informa- can be so advanced as to be invisible. prevent. Future generations may feel
tion society” all came about because Instead of typing commands or press- the same way about things we see as
of new technologies. A strongly “tech- ing buttons, people just speak to the normal. Future societies could
nological determinist” view postulates air when they want something to hap- require people to eat properly, or
that societies at the same TL will tend pen. Hidden computers hear and obey. prosecute makers of “unhealthy”
to look the same even if they are differ- Inhabitants of such a society would products like chocolate or butter. If
ent species on different planets. have almost godlike control over their computer-controlled cars are safer, it
surroundings – but might be com- may be illegal for humans to drive
TECHNOLOGY pletely helpless if the machines stop themselves. By modern standards, a
AND DAILY LIFE listening. One can see aspects of this future world of hyper-safety might
already: modern automobiles with seem dull, and its people oddly
Modern readers know perfectly computerized engines are more effi- repressed and unadventurous. (Or a
well how much technology affects cient, but there are fewer people who hyper-safe world might breed reck-
their lives. But how will it affect the can fix their own cars. less risk-takers, unaware that bad
characters in a space game? Here are things can happen.)
some social and personal attitudes to Pictures Do Lie
consider for a futuristic society. CONTROLLING
Already it’s possible for a comput- TECHNOLOGY
Dead Without It er-generated actor to steal scenes in a
film. In a future setting, any record- The question of how to control
Humans can live on Earth without ed or transmitted data could be falsi- technology and who decides when to
advanced technology. Even the most fied, and any kind of verification can do so is a major theme in science fic-
tech-dependent city-dweller can still be forged. Such societies may see a tion. In SF gaming, it has direct effects
breathe the air. On any world without return to reliance on face-to-face on the game environment.
a fully Earthlike environment, that transactions and the importance of
won’t be the case, and humans in an individual’s word as a guarantee Why?
those environments will be much of truth. (Or they could lead to a
more aware of the machinery that paranoid society in which everything Inhabitants of modern Western
keeps them alive. Anything that might really is a lie and trust is a forgotten civilization may find the whole issue
disrupt the life support will be viewed concept.) of controlling technology mysterious.
as a serious crime, and all citizens are Why bother? Technology has been
likely to know at least some basic Safety Uber Alles good to Europe and its colonies over
damage-control techniques. This the past thousand years. More must
could foster either a strongly commu- Advances in science and technolo- be better, right?
nitarian culture (“we must all work gy also make people aware of dan-
together”) or a certain degree of cal- gers. Sometimes they are new dan- Maybe not. There are several good
lousness (“incompetence is its own gers resulting from technology; but reasons why people might want to
punishment”). there are also natural dangers that control technology.
become avoidable. For most of

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 177

Social Disruption: New technolo- dangerous, but they’re also really hard root of things, like Asimov’s Laws of
gies change the playing field. Some to build, requiring resources on the Robotics or the social stigma suffered
people get rich, but those whose for- scale of at least a minor nation-state. by genetically modified creatures. In a
tunes are tied to older ways of doing So people can still study nuclear sense, science fiction has been grap-
things sometimes get poor. Usually the physics, and the textbooks don’t come pling with this issue ever since Mary
economic growth associated with with a security clearance. Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein brought
technological change overcomes the his monster to life and discovered it
disruption, but for the individuals Weapon technology is often had a mind of its own.
actually affected, things can be rough. restricted, but how it is restricted
They may try to protect their jobs by depends on the situation. During the How?
putting the brakes on technology Cold War, both the United States and
change. the Soviet Union sponsored massive Even if people agree that a given
research programs into weapon sys- technology should be controlled, actu-
Technologies also change social tems, and trained thousands of engi- ally doing so is sometimes quite diffi-
structures. The birth control pill and neers, but also tightly limited exports cult. There are a variety of methods.
the private automobile led to the and contact with the other side. Both
Sexual Revolution, which in turn had sides wanted new tech, they just didn’t Absolute Ban: Just say no. If socie-
ripple effects on religious life, family want the other guys to share it. By ty decides that nanotechnology is just
structure, demographics, and people’s contrast, in the 1890s Great Britain too dangerous, then forbid it. No
views of morality. Naturally, many of had the world’s best battleships, and research into the subject, no making
those who don’t like the social changes the introduction of the Dreadnought nanotech items, no nothing. Anyone
may wish to ban the technologies that class suddenly made them obsolete. who does can be jailed, fined, or torn
cause them. Suddenly, Britain’s naval supremacy apart by an angry mob. This method
evaporated because of a ship they works, but it has its vulnerabilities. In
In a science-fiction setting, where themselves built. Many in the Royal particular, it’s hard for one society to
stellar-level supertech can meet stone- Navy would have been perfectly happy enforce its ban on others. The
age societies, the possibilities for dis- if nobody had that new technology. European Community has had mixed
ruption are immense. Even with success using economic pressure to
entirely good intentions, advanced Political Instability: Related to the discourage the use of genetic engi-
cultures can destroy primitive ones – idea of social disruption is the poten- neering in other countries. And if a
and as yet there isn’t a technology that tial for political disruption, especially dangerous technology is also power-
can eliminate bad intentions. It should in tyrannical societies. When the Evil ful, the society that bans it is putting
be noted, however, that supposedly Overlord controls all sources of infor- itself at a disadvantage.
“primitive” societies on Earth have mation, a new channel of communica-
sometimes proved very adept at using tion can threaten his rule. Dissidents If the ban is maintained by force or
new technologies and assimilating can get in touch without being moni- by some external power (a high-tech
them into their existing culture. Low- tored; they can contact supporters civilization trying to keep some worlds
tech doesn’t equal stupid or helpless, abroad and plan how to get rid of the low-tech, for instance), then the ques-
after all. The “natives” may have very Overlord. Naturally, the Overlord tion becomes how far the external
different ideas about whether they are wants to keep that technology out of power is willing to go. Will they censor
“ready” for advanced technology, and people’s hands. If the new technology textbooks? Destroy research labs?
may be very resentful of the arrogant is a weapon that can even the odds Assassinate or kidnap scientists? At
aliens trying to keep it from them. between the rebels and the Overlord’s some point the measures to control
legions, he’ll be even more intent on the technology may become as disrup-
Danger: Some technologies are just suppressing it – at least until he can tive as the effects they are intended to
plain dangerous. Nuclear power pro- refit his troops. prevent.
vides vast amounts of energy, but gives
its users the potential to create nuclear Getting Out Of Control: Sometimes Embargo: This can go in either
or radiological weapons. Space travel technologies can literally get out of direction. A society might try to main-
lets people explore the Universe, or lob control, especially biotechnology or tain its monopoly on a given technolo-
weapons at enemies thousands of artificial intelligences. Computers are gy by strict controls on exports, while
miles away. Nanotechnology holds the powerful and vital to all parts of daily others might try to keep out “harmful”
potential for immortality – and for life – what if they stop obeying orders? tech by import restrictions. This
deadly “gray goo” capable of destroy- Compared to most machines, humans works fairly well to control the spread
ing all life. are frail and easily damaged, and the of large items, but it can’t stop infor-
technology that makes it possible to mation very well at all, and no border
Any society may decide that some support a city of millions means those is absolutely “leakproof.” If somebody
technology is simply too dangerous to millions are vulnerable when some- on one side wants technology that is
let anyone have free access to. Even thing goes wrong. Do humans want to only available on the other side, then
the open, technophilic West keeps create machines smarter than we are? somebody else is going to make
nuclear weapon designs secret. money smuggling it across.
Exactly how secret depends on how In the modern world, this is one
dangerous the technology is (or is per- reason for the alarm about genetically In the case of a low-tech society
ceived to be) and how easily it can be modified foods or human cloning. In denied access to high tech, an embar-
misused. Nuclear weapons are really science fiction, this fear is often the go can prevent the import of items,

178 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

and might even limit the spread of trying to find out how they work ends LOSING
things like textbooks and schematics, up with useless fragments. A variant TECHNOLOGY
but it’s almost impossible to stop ideas on this is to include fingerprint or
from getting across. Once the locals DNA recognition pads on equipment, A common trope in science fiction,
have seen firearms, they’ll try to build and install a self-destruct if anyone going well back before even the inven-
their own. If they succeed, then either who isn’t an authorized user tries to tion of nuclear weapons, is the decline
the embargo power must try to activate it. of modern civilization and the loss of
enforce an absolute ban, or admit that technological capability and scientific
the society has “joined the club” and A brute-force method might knowledge.
relax the restrictions. employ large electromagnetic pulse
generators to fry any electrical tech- There are a couple of reasons why
Licensing: An open society may try nology in use on a given world. Every this is such an appealing idea in fic-
to limit the spread of dangerous tech- few months, the Technology Patrol tion. First (and simplest), the image of
nology by requiring anyone who uses comes through and zaps the planet barbarians wandering through the
it to pass rigorous tests, and possibly back to the Steam Age. A more sophis- weed-choked ruins of New York and
security checks or psychological ticated version of this might employ Paris is a dramatic and compelling
exams. This has the advantage of let- nanotech devices built to home in on one. It lets writers comment on things
ting society enjoy the benefits of the gunpowder or plastic and break them like hubris, mortality, and other Big
technology, but it also means the safe- down into useless dust. Topics.
ty of the society depends on how well
the licensing exams work at weeding More elaborate “superscience” Second, reducing or limiting tech-
out crooks, fanatics, lunatics, and methods can be used to enforce a tech nology makes for fun adventures.
enemy agents. It’s vulnerable to cor- embargo or an absolute ban. In L. Destroying civilization in a story lets
ruption, and won’t stop a really deter- Sprague deCamp’s “Planet Krishna” the reader (and the author) experience
mined foe from learning what they stories, the authorities used sophisti- the vicarious fun of getting away from
want. cated brainwashing equipment to all the bothersome details of modern
make sure nobody cheated on the life. No IRS audits, no taking the kids
Technical Fixes: It’s possible to use technology embargo – but even then to soccer practice, no pesky supervi-
technology to control technology. The the inventive Krishnans found ways to sors at work – just a pure struggle for
simplest way is to attempt to make beat the system. life against mutant cannibals and psy-
devices tamper-proof, so that anyone chotic motorcycle gangs.

Limiting technology also lets sci-
ence fiction dip into the deep wells of
historical and fantasy fiction.
Cutlasses were good enough for the
pirates of the Spanish Main, why can’t
space pirates use them? And it’s much
more sporting to fight a dragon with-
out an elephant gun or blaster cannon
handy.

Dark Ages can be useful even if the
characters aren’t living in them. A
“Long Night” or “Chaos Years” in the
past lets the GM “press reset” on the
setting’s history. He doesn’t have to
envision a future society that knows
everything known today plus cen-
turies of future scientific and cultural
accumulation. He can focus on the
period of rebuilding leading up to the
campaign date.

A post-Dark Age setting allows for
more variety in technology and soci-
eties. There can be super-advanced
technology from before the Collapse
left lying around, and isolated human
societies on different worlds can
diverge into strange and interesting
forms. Explorers can go out to re-
establish contact with human worlds,
leading to all kinds of cool Planetary
Romance possibilities.

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 179

How It Happens industrialization. (TL5 is also about is to assume some kind of massive
the highest technology a town-sized social movement in favor of a low-tech
Actually losing technical knowl- community could easily keep running existence. In practice this works out to
edge is difficult. Even during the with occasional infusions from an absolute ban on high technology,
Dark Ages following the fall of Rome, outside.) but one enforced as much by popular
Europe retained its technology. What prejudice as by government action. A
it lacked was resources – the sheer Lower technology levels require voluntarily low-tech society might
wealth needed to finance big con- much smaller populations. An Age of stockpile advanced weapons for self-
struction projects or equip a profes- Sail ship’s crew could fabricate and defense, leading to unpleasant surpris-
sional legion to Roman standards. maintain just about everything they es in store for would-be conquistadors
The knowledge was there, just not the needed on board, except for the can- seeking an easy victory over a “primi-
money. That being said, there are sev- nons. A town of a few thousand could tive society.”
eral ways to reduce the available be technologically self-sufficient and
technology of a culture, even if they self-sustaining at TL4. Given the poor Another method is to assume that
have knowledge of more advanced communication and transport avail- the society’s technology all depends on
techniques. able, even small communities of only a single key resource, then cut off the
a few hundred had to be self-sufficient supply. Energy sources are an obvious
The simplest and most brutal is a at TL3, and TL2 needs about the same choice, but there are others. One inter-
population crash. Most modern tech- population. Bronze Age TL1 cultures esting variant is to assume the soci-
nology works best on a large scale. A can be maintained with even a small ety’s technology is based on a supply
silicon chip plant requires a market village. of Precursor artifacts – perhaps all
for millions of chips to be profitable. starship drive cores are Ancient tech,
Reduce the population and the tech These population levels assume and if the supply runs out, there won’t
level possible goes down. Maintaining reasonable levels of trade and commu- be any more starships!
TL8 requires a society about as big as nication. Any disaster that cuts off
a large modern nation-state, like transportation would effectively make Finally, information itself can run
Japan or the United States, with 100 every town a self-contained unit, limit- out. A culture that stores all its records
million people or more. A TL7 culture ing them to the technology they can in electronic format could lose huge
can be smaller – the size of a country support with local resources. chunks of knowledge to an “infowar”
like Great Britain or Italy, with a pop- Similarly, an interstellar colony that is of virus programs or EMP weapons,
ulation of 50 million or more people. cut off (by war, or some interference in or to some catastrophic software acci-
For TL6, a society can get by with hyperspace, or whatever) would have dent like the much-feared “Y2K bug.”
about 20 million. Maintaining TL5 to manage with whatever technology This is especially likely for a small
needs at least 10 million, the size of its population can maintain. colony without a lot of backup
the young United States at the start of libraries and archives.
If you don’t want to kill everyone
off, another way to reduce technology

ECONOMICS

One of the most important aspects Resources Any science-fiction universe
of any society is how it generates and needs to make note of what
distributes wealth. The science of eco- The resources available to a society resources are particularly valuable,
nomics studies how societies perform are one factor controlling its econom- given the available technology and
this basic function. ic output. Resources are found items, the needs of society. A resource that
products of nature that can be turned is rare and critical to important tech-
ECONOMIC to productive use once a society nologies can be a good plot hook,
OUTPUT applies its available technology to the driving conflicts between characters
problem. and between societies.
Any society, even a pre-industrial
one with very primitive economic Resources become valuable when One trap to avoid, of course, is the
institutions, will produce goods and they are very useful and in short sup- invention of a mysterious resource
services. Economic output is one way ply. If a resource isn’t useful, it won’t that was completely unknown to pre-
to think of the sum total of all eco- be valuable. For example, uranium spaceflight society, but which has
nomic activity within a society: food ores were nothing but a geological somehow become critical to civiliza-
harvested, raw materials gathered, curiosity before technologists tion. Many science-fiction stories
manufactured goods produced, hous- learned how to extract power and have postulated such resources, and
ing erected, professional services explosive force from them. it’s not unreasonable to have one in a
used, artistic works created and per- Meanwhile, even a useful resource space setting, but they shouldn’t be
formed . . . everything that the soci- won’t be valuable if it is plentiful. multiplied beyond reason. See
ety’s citizens might wish to produce, Iron is extremely useful in many Unobtainium (p. 181) for examples
offer for trade, and use. industries, but since iron ore is com- of such resources.
mon it remains relatively cheap.

180 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

Unobtainium

Here are some examples of special resources not living world might yield useful, yet previously unknown,
found on present-day Earth, which are reasonable to industrial chemicals or drugs. Meanwhile, alien organ-
include in a science-fiction universe. isms will produce other substances, valuable for their
rarity or curiosity value: exotic woods, unusual amber-
Antimatter like secretions, and so on.

The visible universe is dominated by “normal” mat- The classic example of an exotic biological – the
ter. Antimatter doesn’t seem to exist naturally in large basis for an entire series of novels, in fact – is the
masses, for a very good reason: if a large quantity of melange spice in Frank Herbert’s Dune.
antimatter was produced by some natural process, it
would annihilate itself spectacularly the moment it Exotic Matter
encountered normal matter.
Quantum black holes, magnetic monopoles, cosmic
Antimatter is thus likely to be produced only in a lab- string loops, or negative matter could all be valuable in
oratory – but if some odd natural process produced a future society. Even if there’s no industrial use for
large quantities of antimatter, then somehow confined it them, scientists will likely pay good money for samples
away from contact with normal matter, it could be to study, and some types of weird matter may be essen-
“mined.” The engineering processes involved would be tial for antigravity or FTL travel. Most of them are like-
difficult, but any civilization that already uses artificial ly to be very hard to collect and store.
antimatter for power distribution will be up to the chal-
lenge. Transuranic Elements

Antimatter, of course, is the basic power source in It’s a common cliché to invent “new” chemical ele-
the Star Trek universe. The television series has never ments that were somehow unknown to pre-spaceflight
established whether antimatter is produced or mined, society, but which are critical to interstellar society. In
but given the wealth of other odd materials in that uni- fact, there are no gaps in the periodic table of the ele-
verse, natural production seems possible . . . ments; we already know all the chemical building
blocks of matter, from here to the furthest star.
Artifacts
There is one set of chemical elements – the stable
Alien or Precursor devices of technology beyond transuranic elements – that have not been found on
what human civilization can achieve are fabulously Earth, but which could conceivably be found in other
valuable. If the super-advanced aliens are still around, star systems. As atomic nuclei become heavier, they
getting their artifacts requires finding something they become more unstable and more radioactive, which is
think is worth trading for, and avoiding any restrictions why elements heavier than uranium aren’t found in
their government may place on giving high tech to nature and must be produced in a laboratory. However,
primitive humans. If the aliens are extinct (or have there are theoretical “islands of stability,” ranges of
“passed on to a higher state of being”) then finding arti- atomic weights well beyond that of uranium, in which
facts is a cross between prospecting and archaeology, nuclei might be more or less stable. Tiny amounts of
and the chief dangers are claim jumpers and huge such ultra-heavy metals might be produced in superno-
rolling stone balls. va explosions; if some natural process could concen-
trate them, it might be possible to find and mine them.
Exotic Biologicals
What properties do these stable transuranics have?
Living organisms produce a bewildering variety of It’s anyone’s guess, since no one has found or produced
chemicals even on Earth, where almost everything uses any of them yet. Perhaps some superscience technolo-
the same basic biochemistry. On alien worlds, where life gies depend on the unusual properties of these weird
may be based on other chemical processes, truly exotic substances. Several pieces of classic science fiction, par-
substances will be produced. ticularly Poul Anderson’s “Polesotechnic League” sto-
ries, turn on the rarity and special properties of stable
Any one biochemical is unlikely to be useful, but transuranics.
biologists and pharmaceutical researchers make their
living by investigating thousands of them at a time. Any

Technology developed. New technologies create who is given better tools will often pro-
brand-new industries, each with its duce more goods, or more useful serv-
Advances in technology have a own pattern of supply and demand, ices, in the same amount of time.
variety of effects on a society’s econo- and this can increase a society’s eco- Technological advances can also make
my. Every new technology increases nomic volume. the use of resources more efficient, so
the variety of goods and services, and that more goods can be produced with
creates a demand for items that didn’t Another profound effect of new the same amount of energy and raw
even exist before the technology was technology is on productivity. A worker materials.

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 181

falls below a certain level. This level
can be quite low, of course – either
because everyone is facing true depri-
vation, or because the society regards
its poorest members as expendable.
Any economic production, beyond
what is needed to meet this minimal
standard of living for everyone, is an
economic surplus.

One question that needs to be con-
sidered is the source of a society’s eco-
nomic surplus. Which members of
society actually do the most to pro-
duce the surplus – unskilled laborers,
skilled laborers, managers, technolo-
gists, or automated machines? What
status do these productive classes hold
in society? How do they produce the
surplus, and what form does it take?
Economic surpluses are often generat-
ed by a society’s newest industries,
based on new resources or new tech-
nologies that haven’t been fully assim-
ilated by the society as a whole.

One common theme in science fic- Who benefits – who profits – from Economic Equality
tion is the economic disruption manufactured goods and delivered
caused by new technology. It’s true services? Every society must develop mecha-
that when new technologies change nisms to distribute its economic sur-
patterns of supply and demand, some Surpluses plus. The question of who benefits
industries (and some occupations) from the surplus is as important as the
will decline in importance. Many sto- Every society defines a minimum question of who produces it in the first
ries have described societies in which standard of living for its members, place . . . and there’s no guarantee that
citizens are being made obsolete by often reinforced by moral or political they’re the same people.
advances in technology. codes. No matter how hard times get,
a society’s members tend to share One feature of a distributive sys-
On the other hand, the economic their goods and labor so that no one tem is the degree of coercion that it
law of comparative advantage suggests involves. Many societies distribute
that advances in technology will never their economic surpluses coercively.
render human workers completely
useless. Even if automated ultra-tech Money
tools can do everything more efficient-
ly than human labor, society will still There’s a long tradition of coming up with new names for money in
be more productive if humans are per- futuristic settings, and one can tell a lot about a society by what its cur-
mitted to do whatever they do best, rency is called. “Credits” are a very common currency in science fic-
trading the products of their work for tion, suggesting a highly abstract money system, possibly with no
other goods and services produced by physical “money” circulating at all. Other societies might prefer a cur-
machines. Some recent science fiction rency with a more objective basis of value: the gigajoule (about $10),
envisions societies in which sophisti- the megabyte (about $0.20), or grams of various metals. If counterfeit-
cated computers do most of the ing is a problem, “money” may take the form of one-time cryptograph-
administration and industrial produc- ic keys.
tion . . . but humans still thrive by pro-
ducing art, music, philosophy, and Currency names can also reflect the society’s history and values.
other cultural goods! Monarchies may have “Royals” or “Imperials.” Any human culture
might use “Solars” in honor of the home system, or “Stars” as a more
ECONOMIC generic unit.
DISTRIBUTION
Of course, an especially balkanized setting might not have any kind
Once an economy produces goods of standard interstellar currency. All transactions off-planet must be in
and services, the economic system has barter, and the value of an item shifts wildly depending on who you’re
to determine how to distribute them. negotiating with.

182 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

The Leisure Society hands, leading to strong inequalities
of wealth. Such inequalities often
Many science-fiction stories have portrayed a leisure society, a soci- encourage the formation of an elite
ety in which almost no one is forced to work in order to support a com- social class – administrators, entrepre-
fortable lifestyle. In a leisure society, even many luxuries (advanced neurs, high priests, or military leaders
education, luxury goods, wide-ranging travel, and so on) are freely who use wealth, social position, and
available to every citizen. political power to reinforce each other.
Other systems tend to spread the eco-
A leisure society can happen when industries are so productive that nomic surplus more widely, permit-
they can easily provide every citizen’s needs without requiring them to ting more of a society’s members to
work. This can be the result of extremely advanced technology, such as benefit.
automated factories and “magic” nanotech. In effect, so much wealth
is available that the minimum standard of living for every citizen can There are many societies in
be placed very high. which wealth means more than
money or goods. Prestige, religious
Naturally, even in a leisure society some people will have more merit, or political influence are
leisure than others. Just because the minimum standard of living is immaterial forms of “wealth” that
high doesn’t mean there isn’t an economic surplus, which may be dis- might be as valuable as cash in some
tributed very unequally. In fact, in a world where no one is suffering settings.
real starvation or deprivation, it may be easier to justify vast differ-
ences in wealth. Coercion and equity are almost
“independent variables,” only loosely
Of course, another way to generate a leisure society is to have an correlated with each other. A despotic
underclass of non-citizens who do all the necessary work. This is an or feudal society will be both strongly
extreme example of an unequal system of distribution – the luxurious coercive and very unequal in its distri-
standard of living of a few citizens is supported by the labor of many bution of wealth. A communistic or
non-citizens. If the relationship is very coercive, the society holds hive-mind society may be very coer-
slaves or serfs. If the system is only mildly coercive, the laboring class cive, but also very egalitarian. A capi-
may be “migrant” or “guest” workers. If the laboring class has the Slave talistic society may be very free, while
Mentality disadvantage, then no coercion may be needed at all! still permitting wealth to concentrate
in the hands of a property-owning or
In science fiction, leisure societies can be a useful way to examine entrepreneurial class. Finally, a com-
a variety of social or philosophical issues. When no one needs to munitarian or “natural communist”
struggle to survive or enjoy life, does life still have meaning? If the society may be very free while still dis-
leisure society is supported by non-citizen labor, what moral obliga- tributing the economic surplus almost
tions exist between citizens and non-citizens? Do the answers change equally across the population. Super-
if the non-citizens are themselves products of advanced technology intelligent AI computers might be able
(robots or artificial life forms)? to make central planning work in a
way that humans have not been able
The surplus is gathered in the form of to achieve.
taxes, fees, tribute, or other enforced
contributions, and is then distributed
by the conscious action of an admin-
istrative or governing class. Other
societies use some form of “free mar-
ket” to distribute an economic sur-
plus. In a free market, ownership of
goods and services is assigned to the
people who produce them, who are
then permitted to offer them freely to
anyone who can meet a reasonable
price. Most societies use some mix of
these methods, using some level of
coercive taxation to support the gov-
ernment’s operations, and permitting
other economic activity to take place
in a free market.

Another important feature of any
distributive system is its level of equi-
ty. In some systems, the economic sur-
plus is concentrated into very few

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 183

The coerciveness of a distributive simple measure in the GURPS rules a lot of Dead Broke people to balance
system is related to the Control – but it will have an effect on how them out. An egalitarian society will
Rating of a society (p. B506). A soci- many people have Wealth (p. B25) have few Multimillionaires and rela-
ety in which wealth is coercively dis- far above or below the average. A tively few Dead Broke or Poor peo-
tributed will almost always have a strongly unequal society will have ple. The average wealth will remain
high Control Rating. The equity of a some people with several levels of the same.
distributive system doesn’t have a the Multimillionaire advantage, and

LAW AND JUSTICE

Of course, governments aren’t real- religion. Islamic law combines the amendment makes it easy to follow a
ly governments without laws. A despot principles laid down by Muhammad disastrous course.
may rule by whims and decrees, but with what amounts to a common-law
any stable society requires a set of system of precedents and interpreta- In many Earth nations law codes
known and consistent rules. tions; ancient Jewish law was very exist uneasily with other systems. In
Otherwise any kind of planning for the similar. Religious law has the advan- the Anglophone democracies, acts of
future becomes impossible. tage of divine authority to lend legiti- the legislatures can supersede com-
macy, but that can break down if the mon law, but in Islamic lands conflicts
SOURCES OF LAW populace changes its beliefs or aban- between religious law and secular law
dons the religion. Like common law, can erode the legitimacy of the civil
Laws can come from a variety of religious law is very slow to change, authority.
sources, and the source of law must especially since the divine revelations
ultimately be something that makes simply cannot be wrong. Fiat Law
the law legitimate in the eyes of the
people who obey them. In science-fiction settings, there is In some situations, the law is sim-
the possibility that genuine “higher ply what the people in power say it is.
Common Law powers” might actually exist. A super- What they say can change from day to
intelligent AI, or aliens with vast intel- day, and it’s up to the population to
Many English-speaking countries lects, might give a culture a set of laws stay informed. On Earth this sort of
on Earth follow a system of common to follow, then either move on to rule by edict is usually confined to dic-
law, based on tradition and precedent. another world or lose interest in the tatorships, emergency governments,
While sometimes unwieldy, it has the project. Colony founders might give military occupation authorities, and
weight of tradition and the powerful their descendants a legal code that any other situation where there is
concept of “because we’ve always acquires mythical status after civiliza- power to enforce order, but no estab-
done it that way” to lend legitimacy. tion collapses. lished rules. But in a future society
Nowadays all countries supplement with AI computers, a legal system that
that with laws enacted by legislatures, Legislated Law adapts moment-to-moment, taking all
but on another world or in an alien factors into account and judging each
civilization, tradition could be the Law codes are systems of rules situation on its merits, might be high-
only true source of law. Such a system drawn up by a government. An ly enlightened and efficient.
gives a lot of power to the judges who absolute ruler can draw up a code to
interpret the law and make decisions suit himself and impose it by fiat (as Other Systems
that get enshrined as precedent. Justinian or Napoleon did); democrat-
Common law systems are sometimes ic states have legislatures to make and Science-fictional societies can add
slow to adapt to changing conditions amend laws. Code law depends on all kinds of new wrinkles to the idea of
and unexpected situations. They can respect for the government for its making laws.
often preserve odd quirks and rem- legitimacy, although an especially
nants of the past. In organized, literate well-crafted set of laws can be accept- Consensus systems use the input of
societies, common law can amass a ed for their sheer functionality. In a everyone in the society, or at least all
huge database of precedents and deci- monarchy the legitimacy of the laws is adults. In low-tech societies this only
sions, while in low-tech cultures it the same as the ruler’s claim to the works in small groups, and often
may only include what the judges can right to rule. In a democracy it is often requires a lot of discussion. But an
remember. codified in a constitution (which is information-age society could link up
really nothing more than a “meta-law” its citizens in an “online democracy.”
Religious Law to define the system for making and It can either enact codified law as a
changing the rules). The same author- kind of super-legislature, or apply fiat
When you can’t trust other humans ity that drafts the laws can change law to situations as they occur.
to make the laws, who can you trust? them, so that a law code system can
God, that’s who. Many societies on adapt to changing conditions; howev- Instinct is seldom a basis for law
Earth still use legal systems based on er there is no guarantee the changes among humans (though consider the
will be wise ones, and the ease of ancient tradition sanctioning a man
killing his wife’s lover). Alien creatures
might have much more of their

184 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

behavior determined by hard-wired might use it for all dispute resolution. giving victory in a fight to the one who
instinct, and use that as the basis for Mediation seeks to work out a “com- is right. A culture that values martial
law and administering society. promise position” that both sides can prowess might retain trial by combat
live with, instead of the more familiar even in a high-tech society. There may
Prestige might give an individual’s “winner and loser” outcome. be limits on weapons one can use,
statements or opinions the force of Mediation helped by psionics or rules about hiring a champion to fight
law in some societies. This assumes super-intelligent computers might try in one’s stead (in which case skilled
that prestige comes from some source to achieve the goal that is best for champions can become very well-
other than brute force or religious everyone, including the participants paid), and so on. It’s quite likely that a
authority. On Earth this sometimes and society. society with trial by combat as a legal
works in democratic societies, when mechanism will also have a lot of
prominent individuals can urge legis- Ordeals are an old method, similar informal duels and fistfights.
lation and sway public opinion. to augury, in which the disputants go
through an ordeal like submersion, Verification by supersophisticated
Participation could be the source of holding a burning coal, handling poi- lie detectors or completely reliable
law in a utopian anarchy or a laissez- sonous snakes, or other unpleasant- truth drugs could make the whole
faire free enterprise system. Individual ness. The theory is that whoever is in question of dispute resolution a tech-
laws or sections of legal code could be the right will be protected by divine nical matter. This would reflect a soci-
made available to the public, and if the power and so will be unharmed. If the ety in which getting at the truth is
public adheres to those laws, they ordeals are dreadful enough, people more important than privacy.
remain in force. This is akin to com- will only demand a trial when they are
mon law, but with the built-in “sunset” sure they are right! CRIMINAL
policy that if enough people break the DETECTION
law it ceases to apply. Telepathy lets a skilled psi discover
the true right or wrong based on the Criminal law can be considered a
RESOLVING memories of those involved in a dis- special case of civil law, in which the
DISPUTES pute. This makes psis into arbitrators, society as a collective entity considers
and means that privacy is impossible itself wronged by one person’s
One of the reasons to have laws is for anyone who wants justice. This is actions. Again, the major purpose in
to resolve disputes between people or an obvious choice for a society ruled having criminal laws is to make soci-
groups. When there is no mechanism by psis. ety the agent of justice rather than let-
for dispute-resolution, the only ting individuals carry on personal
recourse available is fighting. On Trial by Combat has an old history vendettas.
Earth, dispute-resolution is handled on Earth, and is based on the idea that
by the courts, through the whole sys- Fate or the Gods will uphold justice by
tem of civil law and litigation. Other
cultures might do things differently.

Augury seeks the will of the Gods
through omens, and has been used on
Earth as a means of dispute-resolu-
tion. If reading omens requires a
priest, then in effect the priests are the
civil judges. But if anyone can read the
omens, then this is essentially justice
by random die rolls. Clever operators
will learn to “game the system” by
choosing situations so that the omens
favor their side. In some settings, the
omens may be picking up the will of
some superhuman being.

Democracy means that the whole
society gets to resolve disputes, proba-
bly through some kind of Athenian
democracy vote. Even in modern
America people talk about the “court
of public opinion” and note that the
judges follow the election returns.
This requires either a small, close-knit
society or a very efficient communica-
tion system.

Mediation is used in some cases in
modern society, but another culture

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 185

How a society deals with crime in various ways. This could range criminals are sent to serve out their
reflects both its ideals and the practi- from making copies of famous sentences. Often the Zone’s borders
cal realities the law enforcers must actresses for bordellos to something as are sealed by some kind of ultra-tech
face. In the United States we insist relatively benign as cloning great ath- barrier. Violent criminals tend to build
that the police read the accused their letes and then seeing how much teams their own vicious anarchy, while polit-
rights (idealism) and allow minor pay to hire a legend “reborn.” ical prisoners may use internal exile as
criminals to plea-bargain in exchange a chance to put their ideals into
for testifying against major ones PUNISHMENT action.
(practicality). These two are often
buckets in a well, changing relative While the details of law enforce- Finally, a criminal could be exiled
importance depending on how serious ment and dispute resolution get short by simply becoming “invisible.” In a
the crime problem is. When crime is shrift in most science fiction, writers high-tech culture this means being
running rampant, “get tough” policies and filmmakers get really creative Zeroed, but with no chance to acquire
are enacted, shifting the balance to when it comes to punishments. Just a temporary identity. Cut off from
practicality. When things are under regular jail never seems to be enough. computer networks, bank terminals,
control or there are outrageous abus- Over the years, they have come up and communication, the exile lives in
es, the idealists demand reforms. with lots of imaginative ways to society but can’t participate.
punish evildoers.
In modern Western societies the Organ Banks
police are a distinct agency, separate Brainwashing
from the military, the courts, and Larry Niven was probably the first
fire/rescue services. Other cultures Mind control, either through author to suggest that capital punish-
may combine elements – a frontier psionics, hypnotic conditioning, or ment becomes a lot easier for people
marshal might be both police and brain surgery, lets society try to “cure” to stomach if they know that all the
magistrate, authorized to track crim- criminals. The simplest level just criminal’s usable organs will go to help
inals and mete out punishments on makes it impossible for a convict to sick and dying people get a new lease
his own authority. In a society facing perform violent or criminal acts. The on life. Niven also speculated that if
serious violent crime, the army may film A Clockwork Orange shows one living a long and healthy life depends
take over some or all law-enforce- technique and its effects. Sometimes on lots of executions, people might
ment tasks. Conversely, a very peace- clever crooks can find ways to beat the start imposing the death sentence for
ful culture might view policing as just conditioning. more and more offenses. So far, no
an extension of fire and rescue, deal- government has connected the same
ing with all threats to the safety of the More elaborate brainwashing may dots, but it may only be a matter of
citizens. “kill” the criminal’s personality and time. In a space campaign, many
replace it with a new person who high-CR societies may fill organ banks
New Crimes doesn’t remember the crimes he com- with parts of condemned criminals.
mitted. The brainwashers may or may
New technologies and new soci- not tell the reprogrammed person With sufficiently advanced medi-
eties mean new ways to break laws. In what he did. This kind of treatment cine, the criminal doesn’t even have to
just the past couple of decades com- lends itself to complications when the die. A particularly cruel culture might
puter crime has gone from a curiosity treatment goes wrong. Is the mass remove organs for transplant from a
to a major concern of law enforce- murderer’s personality starting to live felon, condemning him to an exis-
ment. Some possible future crimes resurface in his new mind? What if a tence tied to life-support machines but
include: mindwiped person runs into a victim helping others. Cordwainer Smith’s
of his former personality – a victim hell-planet Shayol took this to an even
Illegal Insentiation: Creating a com- who wants revenge? more baroque extreme, as convicts
puter system with free will, contrary were sentenced to life on a world
to the rules governing AIs. Exile where local microorganisms stimulat-
ed the growth of extra organs!
Irreversible Murder: Killing a per- If space travel is easy, then crimi-
son in such a way as to preclude easy nals can be exiled to another world, Virtual Prison
recreation or revival. either for a limited term or for life. A
relatively humane society may simply One complaint about modern jails
Mindrape: Mind-reading or mental use this as a form of “compulsory col- is the expense. It costs money to house
manipulation without consent. onization” intended to let troublemak- a criminal in even minimally decent
ers and tough guys fight a hostile plan- standards. It would be so much sim-
Personality Theft: Stealing an indi- et instead of peaceful citizens. A tyran- pler if they could be just stacked up
vidual’s mind record. nical or sadistic culture may use con- like cordwood in a warehouse some-
victs as slave labor, or ship them to an where until their sentences are up.
Social Tampering: Influencing a especially nasty “hell planet” where Suspended animation offers a way to
low-tech or alien civilization for per- only the toughest can survive. do just that. Crooks get frozen for the
sonal gain. The most common method length of their sentence. No muss, no
would probably be the “God Grift” Internal Exile requires some kind fuss.
(impersonating a divinity for criminal of preserve or “prison zone” where
purposes).

Unlicensed Cloning: Making a
genetic duplicate of someone (proba-
bly someone famous) for exploitation

186 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

Of course, some might object that sentence experiencing all his crimes For some beings, the question of
freezing felons means they aren’t get- from the viewpoint of the victims. how to punish them becomes impor-
ting punished for their crimes. They tant. A teleporting psionic can’t be
enter jail, go to sleep, and wake up free Alien Punishment kept in jail, and a superintelligent AI
men. Virtual reality technology can could simply “upload” its personality
solve that problem: the prisoner’s body A nonhuman culture could use to a different computer brain. Would
sleeps, but his mind is awake in a sim- very different penalties, based on alien an immortal even mind spending a
ulated environment. The nature of psychology or anatomy. For instance, few years locked up? In any society
that environment depends on how a species of gregarious herd creatures where these things are normal, the
cruel the prison system planners want might consider exile the equivalent of laws and courts must have ways to
to be. It could be educational, merely the death penalty, while a society of deal with them. Perhaps the psionic
tedious, or actively horrific. One idea solitary carnivores would hardly con- gets an implanted “inhibitor chip,”
that is just sadistic enough to be plau- sider it a punishment at all. A species while the computer is isolated from all
sible is for the criminal to spend his that regrows limbs might use amputa- networks.
tion as a penalty for minor offenses.

MILITARY FORCES

Almost every society maintains threatens. Depending on how much he has a stake in the society’s military
military forces – institutions designed time and money is spent on training success. Even very advanced and pros-
to use force to defend the society from and organization, a militia can be an perous societies often use militias; for
attack or impose the society’s will on untrained rabble, or it can be a highly example, most modern industrial
its enemies. The nature and organiza- trained near-professional force. Some states maintain “national guard” units
tion of these forces can have a big societies require every citizen to to supplement their relatively small
effect on how a society works, so it’s undergo basic military training, standing armies.
an important thing to consider when providing a large pool of people who
designing an alien or futuristic society. can take up arms immediately when Both standing armies and militias
needed. can be made up of volunteers or con-
MILITARY TYPES scripts. Conscript armies can be vastly
Militias are found most often in larger, but tend to have lower overall
Throughout history, military forces frontier societies, or in small “city- morale and training levels. Some
have been organized in a variety of dif- state” societies that have only limited nations have a volunteer standing
ferent ways. Many of these institution- manpower. They are more common in army in peacetime and expand it
al forms may be resurrected in the democratic societies, where the com- through conscription when war
future, as military technology (and the mon citizen is encouraged to feel that breaks out. Being a volunteer soldier
political environment) change. gives characters a Duty to the service,
while conscripts have an Involuntary
Standing Armies Duty.

The concept of a standing army – a Mercenaries
permanent military force manned by
trained professionals – is relatively Some societies make heavy use of
new in human history. Although mili- mercenaries. Mercenaries are profes-
tary forces can be economically pro- sional soldiers who are not dedicated
ductive, as when they’re used for pub- to the service of one ruler or state;
lic-works projects or humanitarian instead, they temporarily serve what-
aid, they’re usually a net drain on a ever ruler or state pays them.
society’s wealth. As a result, a society Mercenaries can be very effective,
needs to have a significant economic because they are professional soldiers.
surplus before it can maintain perma- Mercenaries also have the advantage
nent military forces. Societies without that they don’t need to be kept on the
standing armies have used a variety of payroll during peacetime. On the
techniques to maintain a military other hand, both of these advantages
force for use in wartime. can turn against a mercenary force’s
employers. Mercenaries will rarely
Militias take great risks in battle, because their
interest is in surviving long enough to
Many societies use a militia instead collect their pay and move on to the
of a standing army. A militia is drawn next assignment. Mercenaries can also
from the civilian population, and can be dangerous if they don’t get paid on
be called up when an emergency time . . .

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 187

Mercenary forces are common in Army Organization usually assembled and reassembled as
aristocratic societies, where the rulers needed. Units above the division level
may prefer to rely on professional sol- “Ground forces” military units (an are usually commanded by full gener-
diers but can’t afford to maintain a army, a marine corps, and so on) will als (Military Rank 8+).
standing army (or are reluctant to arm usually be organized in the following
the common citizenry, for fear of rev- hierarchy. Teams of two to four indi- Navy Organization
olution). Mercenaries are also more viduals are the smallest tactical unit.
common in situations where warfare Squads are composed of two to three In science fiction, “space forces”
is considered to have “rules” limiting teams (more in a high span of control (the navy, the Patrol, and so on) are
its destructive potential. culture), or are the crew of a single usually organized along the lines of a
large fighting machine. Platoons are present-day oceangoing or “wet” navy.
MILITARY UNITS formed of three to five squads under Since space navies are organized
an officer, and may include some sup- around spaceships of varying size and
Military units are usually organ- port personnel outside the combat complexity, they won’t use the simple
ized in a hierarchical fashion, with squads. A Company consists of three hierarchy to be found in a ground-
smaller units being used as building to five platoons, a command or head- based army.
blocks for the larger ones. Historically, quarters element, and some addition-
the number of small units that make al support vehicles and personnel. It is Note that a “space navy” doesn’t
up the next larger one is often quite normally commanded by an officer of have to use “wet-navy” ranks and
consistent. This is because of the con- Rank 4. Artillery companies are called titles. A space force derived from the
cept of span of control: a single human batteries, while cavalry or armored air force would have ships command-
commander can only deal with so companies are troops or squadrons. ed by majors and colonels, and fleets
many subordinates before being over- led by generals. Alternately, the spac-
whelmed by the stream of information A battalion consists of two to five ers might come up with their own set
and needed decisions. Military officers companies, with a headquarters ele- of titles – astronaut, specialist, mission
deal with this problem by delegating ment and a significant number of commander, etc.
some of their authority to other offi- extra support vehicles and personnel.
cers of lower rank, who command A battalion is usually the smallest unit Team: A team is the smallest organ-
smaller units. to have extensive “rear echelon” sup- ized unit, and consists of two to six
port elements, such as a medical field crewmen who work together to sup-
This section describes a fairly hospital, a motor pool, or a military- port some common function. A team
“generic” system of military organiza- police unit. Regiments consist of two will usually be led by an experienced
tion, based on modern Western mod- to three battalions, normally com- crewman (Military Rank 0-1),
els. This system may be useful for a manded by a colonel (Military Rank 5- although a team with a particularly
wide variety of science-fiction settings, 6). Regiments are often composed of important function may be led by a
especially in the “military SF” genre battalions and companies of different senior NCO or even an officer. On a
where many authors draw on their types, and can exchange these smaller very small vessel, a “team” may consist
own experience of military life to flesh units to fit changing circumstances. of only one crewman, in which case
out their description of futuristic mili- Some armies use regiments as a pure- the team isn’t considered part of the
tary institutions. ly administrative unit, while others command structure.
dispense with them entirely, but
GMs who want something more they were the primary unit for the Department: A department (some-
exotic may wish to research alterna- British Army during the colonial era, times called a section) is a group of
tive military models – although the so they show up in Kiplingesque space teams that work together to take care
hierarchical organization of military settings often. of one function aboard a vessel or
units is likely to be a constant for any naval base. A department is usually
human military force. A brigade consists of two regiments referred to by its function: the com-
or three to five battalions. Like a regi- mand department, the communica-
Aliens, or other beings not subject ment, a brigade is usually composed tions department, the engineering
to human limitations, may organize of a variety of smaller unit types, and department, and so on. A department
their military forces quite differently. may exchange smaller units as need- head is often called a chief, a depart-
One simple variant is to change the ed. Divisions are the smallest self-con- ment officer, or a commander. He may
span of control: beings descended tained military units, with all their be a senior NCO for a small depart-
from herd or hive animals might be administrative and support functions ment, or an officer for a medium-sized
able to manage larger numbers of sub- “in-house.” A division consists of a or large one. His Military Rank
ordinates, leading to bigger units at variable number of regiments or depends on the number of people in
each level of the organization scale. brigades, usually averaging about 20 department.
Conversely, solitary aliens might pre- battalions in all. It is normally com-
fer a more “hands-on” style with fewer manded by a major general or lieu- Crew: A single ship’s crew consists
subunits. Proud, solitary beings might tenant general (Military Rank 7). of all the departments and individuals
not be able to organize into hierar- Above the division are a variety of who work on board the ship. A ship
chies at all, and could retain more of a units – the corps, the army or field and its crew are commanded by an
“heroic warrior” model for armed army, the army group, and so on. officer, who is always called the cap-
forces – devastatingly effective special These are rarely standardized, and are tain as a job title regardless of his actu-
ops squads, but no armored divisions. al rank. Ship’s captains usually have
Military Rank 3-6, depending on the

188 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

size of the ship and its crew. Small Alternate Armies
bases are organized much like a single
ship. Many science-fiction writers have imagined future armies without
any soldiers at all – or at least no human soldiers.
Task Force: A task force is a group
of ships of varying sizes, organized for Robot soldiers would be hard to kill, easy to replace, and never com-
a specific purpose. They are also plain. But it’s proving to be very hard to make robots smart enough to
known as squadrons or battle groups. act as soldiers, and machinery always seems to need maintenance.
The exact makeup is determined by Modern armies are beginning to field robots as remote surveillance
what the mission is and what ships are units or remote-controlled guns, but so far nobody’s willing to take the
available. Typically the most powerful human finger off the trigger button. One possible solution is to use
combat unit is the flagship of the force humans safe in the rear “teleoperating” robot soldiers in combat.
commander, though some fleets may Jamming the control channels would be a primary goal of the enemy.
have specialized command ships with
extra communication and data-han- If you can’t make robots into soldiers, make the soldiers into robots.
dling capacity. A task force’s com- Partly, anyway. Cyborg soldiers would be strong, fast, possibly armored
mander is usually Rank 7, or at least and equipped with built-in weaponry, but still human. Finding volun-
one level above the highest-ranking teers willing to become cyborg-soldiers might be difficult; a tyrannical
ship commander in the force. A large state might use prisoners or conscripts – though that runs the risk of
base is the equivalent of a task force in having alienated, angry super-soldiers turning mutinous.
terms of size and command rank.
Finally, genetic engineering could produce combat bioroids or uplift-
Fleet: A fleet is more of an admin- ed animal troopers. They could have animal ferocity and human intel-
strative division than a combat unit. It ligence, and with a few scavenger genes could live off almost anything
typically has responsibility for opera- – including enemy casualties. As with cyborg soldiers, there could be
tions within a given region, and serious problems if the genetically engineered super-soldiers decide
includes not only ships but bases and they don’t like the society that made them.
support facilities. Fleet commanders
are always Rank 7 or higher, but the How Much Military Rank?
number of people they command can
vary. A military could have a “fleet” There’s a useful rule of thumb when deciding what Military Rank a
assigned to a quiet or empty sector given soldier or spacer should have. Each level of Military Rank means
with almost no ships or people, but a that the character has about four to five times as many subordinates
fully active headquarters. under his direct command. This number has to do with the span-of-con-
trol concept – most humans can deal with about that many subordi-
Logistics nates before becoming overwhelmed and needing to delegate authority.
So someone with Rank 0 has no subordinates, Rank 1 has four to five
There’s an old saying, “Amateurs people, Rank 2 commands 16-25 men, Rank 3 has 64-125 troops, and
talk tactics and strategy, professionals so on.
talk logistics.” No military unit can
fight without supplies, and that This rule of thumb often breaks down across the transition between
dependence only increases as units senior enlisted rank and officer rank; a very junior officer may have
become more technologically Military Rank 3 while still only commanding a section or platoon. Also,
advanced. The soldiers of Napoleon’s a serviceman in a staff position, with no one under his direct command,
Grand Armée could get by with little will usually have lower Military Rank than his position in the hierarchy
beyond ammunition and hardtack, would otherwise indicate. Characters on staff might add levels of
but a modern force needs fuel, spare Courtesy Rank to reflect their anomalous position of great influence but
parts, medical supplies, lots of ammu- no subordinates.
nition, electronics – a whole shopping
list. It’s likely that future armies will The rule of thumb for Military Rank may be extended to other forms
need even more. of Rank as well, since the span-of-control concept works for every
human institution!
Having a logistical “tail” stretching
across interstellar space makes war- The more units can “live off the eliminate the need for fuel, drastically
fare very difficult. Assume 10 lbs. of land” the bigger armies can be in a improving an army’s supply situation.
supplies per day for each soldier in the space war. Automated factories could Nanotech “food fabricators” could
field, and at least 100 lbs. of fuel per produce spares in the war zone, and turn local air and dirt into rations –
vehicle. If all that has to be hauled by destroying an enemy’s autofacs would though the troops will probably still
starship, interstellar war will be very be a key goal for commando raids. gripe about the taste.
expensive. That’s not a bad thing for Fusion or cosmic power sources could
gaming purposes: expensive wars will
rely on fast-moving, hard-hitting
teams of highly trained soldiers – the
perfect environment for PCs.

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 189

Mobility against other advanced military pow- working with discontented citizens to
ers will be very difficult, and borders start rebellions in enemy territory.
Related to the issue of logistics is will be stable.
the question of how mobile military Fast and cheap transport, equiva-
units are. If it takes weeks or months Fast but expensive travel will force lent to modern air transport, lets
to move a battalion from one world to militaries to use small forces with as powerful military units move about
another, then units won’t relocate much offensive power as possible – easily. This lets states centralize their
often. There will be semi-permanent high-tech battlesuit troopers, super- military forces, reacting quickly to
garrisons on frontier worlds, big tanks, or transforming mecha. This is crises. However, since other states
enough to hold off an attack until rein- a good environment for PCs. Instead can do the same, large-scale wars
forcements can arrive. Offensives of big wars there are lots of comman- become possible.
do raids, and “special warfare” troops

INTERSTELLAR GOVERNMENTS

In any campaign extending beyond can be as free or restricted as individ- scale must either be the only society
a single world, there is likely to be at ual worlds wish, and companies with there is, or else must be wealthy and
least one interstellar government. operations on many worlds can grow powerful enough to defend themselves
There may be several contending pow- rich enough to become independent against aggressive neighbor govern-
ers, or even a vast patchwork of states. powers in their own right. ments. Social arrangements are either
The nature of those states reflects and fiercely “libertarian capitalist” setups,
influences the nature of the campaign Failed States with contractual agreements and pay-
setting. Most of the notes on govern- ment for all services, or “true commu-
ments in this section can also be Contemporary news readers are nist” societies in which automated
applied to states at planetary or probably familiar with what happens labor and superintelligent computers
national scale, but for simplicity the when the government of a country can have really made it possible for every-
descriptions assume a multiplanetary no longer maintain any order. Law one to have what they need without
interstellar government. disappears, and society returns to a money.
state of nature, in which the strong do
ANARCHY what they want to the weak. On an Government
interstellar scale, there could be entire
Anarchy is a state that isn’t a state star systems in which order is main- While the whole point of an anar-
at all. There is no government, at least tained by a local regime, but in deep chy is that there is no government, any
not in the sense we know today. space or on remote planets the law of society has some way of making deci-
Anarchies come in three main types. the jungle prevails. This is also the sit- sions. In patchwork anarchies there
uation in a frontier zone with little or are the local governments, and in
Patchwork States no control by the central government. failed states there is whoever has the
biggest gun at the moment. Utopian
It’s possible to have an interstellar An interstellar failed state can anarchies may have no official govern-
civilization with no government above remain in anarchy until either some ment, but citizens can form ad-hoc
the planetary or even the continental external force imposes order (which “working groups” to undertake proj-
level. This simply mimics the situation may unite the quarrelling natives to ects or deal with crises.
in the modern world, just on a vastly resist the invaders), or until one world
larger scale. This arrangement is like- sets up an empire or several enter into The Military
ly if interstellar transport is very slow an alliance to dominate the rest. If the
and difficult, so that colonies have to new rulers can suppress or co-opt the In patchwork anarchies, individual
be independent if they can survive at local bosses, the new state may sur- worlds can have as much armed force
all, and there is no way for one world vive, but often the civil war drags on as they can afford (see p. 187). This
to exert military force against another. through several more cycles. means that in aggregate, a patchwork
In this situation, space beyond the anarchy can have more military force
claims of planetary governments Anarchist Utopias than an empire – it’s just that there’s
could be a dangerous haunt of pirates no central command to point it all in
or bandits, but worlds could cooperate Very different from the thugs-with- the same direction. There’s little dis-
in patrolling deep space, forming the guns style are stable anarchies deliber- tinction between the Patrol and the
basis of an alliance (see p. 191). ately set up as states without a govern- navy, and planetary armies are most
Conflict among patchwork states is ment. These can be quite large, even likely configured for defense.
likely to be localized, pitting a few galactic in scale, but recognize no sov- Mercenaries are a prime method of
worlds against each other, and rebel- ereignty above the level of individual foreign intervention, and thrive in this
lions will be directed against specific beings. The Culture in Iain Banks’ kind of system.
planetary governments (often with the series of novels is a huge anarchy that
help of unfriendly neighbors). Trade is the dominant civilization in the In failed state areas, no formal mil-
galaxy. Anarchies on an interstellar itary exists. Instead there are people

190 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

with whatever hardware they can get

their hands on. Space forces consist of

a few battered old ships, and there’s no Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
distinction between the Patrol and The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,
pirates. Armies are simply the local

goon squad. Failed state militaries and everywhere
can’t go toe-to-toe with any kind of

organized opposition, but are lethally The ceremony of innocence is drowned . . .
effective at low-level terrorism and

guerrilla warfare. – William Butler Yeats
An anarchist utopia won’t have a

formal military either, but in a suffi-

ciently wealthy and advanced society,

the ad-hoc groups formed for military A failed state has no law at all. is, in effect, the “state of nature” from
operations can be quite powerful. The The strong do what they want and which other interstellar governments
Patrol and the navy alike consist only the weak suffer what they must. arise.
of ships built and manned by volun- Some warlords may maintain order
teers, and fleets form for specific mis- among their followers or in a given Failed states, on the other hand,
sions. Defense against invaders is the territory, but that just makes them are the endpoint of a society’s collapse.
most likely, but there’s nothing to pre- tempting prey for raiders. Bounty There has to be some kind of organi-
vent citizens of an anarchy from hunters may venture into a failed zation that has broken down. Fallen
mounting an offensive to topple an state’s territory in search of particu- empires, based on the Roman model,
unfriendly state or spread the anar- larly valuable fugitives. are the most common in fiction, but
chist ideology at blaster point. the real world has seen republics and
Utopian anarchies also have no other systems collapse. A corporate

laws. Nevertheless they may have state might go bankrupt leading to

Law and Order fairly strict non-legal methods of anarchy.
social control. Custom and tradition Anarchist utopias are generally
Patchwork anarchies have law at can be as powerful as law, or there
the planetary or national level, and may be technical fixes like monitor founded by groups with a specific ide-
enforcement can be as efficient or robots to zap anyone attempting vio- ology, and are designed to be function-
lax as the citizens tolerate. Beyond lence. Free-enterprise police services ing societies. Anarchists might simply
planetary orbit there is no law, and could protect subscribers. be from a species that needs authority
unless a pair of worlds have specific to get along, or could be reformers or
treaties of friendship and commerce, exiles from an oppressive state.

all spacecraft will be viewed as Origin ALLIANCE
potential raiders by the planetary
navy. Extradition treaties may exist A patchwork anarchy originates An alliance is a loose affiliation of
between specific worlds, but other- when there are several inhabited several sovereign states for mutual
wise all law enforcement is con- worlds but no power capable of benefit. In the modern world, NATO
cerned only with local crimes. imposing a government and no desire and the North American Free Trade
among the planetary rulers to unite. It

Agreement are military and economic

alliances. The European Community

is an example of an alliance moving

Macro-Life toward federation (see p. 193). The
structure of an alliance can be formal

An especially interesting form of interstellar anarchy is “Macro-Life.” and tightly organized (like NATO), an

This concept was invented shortly after the idea of space colonies inde- ad-hoc arrangement like the Escobar

pendent of planets. If a space colony is self-sufficient, then it’s essential- alliance in Lois McMaster Bujold’s

ly a giant spaceship. It can move about the Solar System or venture to “Vorkosigan” series, or just a loose and

other stars. It can build “daughter” colonies and spread its culture and general “we’re on the same side”

heritage. In short, it can act like a really huge living organism. The agreement like the human worlds in

humans within the colony act as its DNA. Niven’s “Known Space” stories.

A civilization consisting of mobile, self-sufficient, advanced city- If the members of an alliance con-

states is very difficult to subject to any sort of central authority, so a tinue to improve their ties and work

macro-life society would be anarchic by default. Some “clans” of city- together, it can become a federation,

ships might form temporary alliances, or build “empires” in certain star but if one member predominates, it

systems, but their influence would be limited. The GSVs of Iain M. can take on qualities of an empire.

Banks’ “Culture” series are effectively macro-life vessels, controlled by Conflict within an alliance can be for-

superintelligent AIs. bidden or strictly limited, as any

major war would shatter it into two or

more smaller alliances. Since the

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 191

members are trying to remain friends, The council also acts as a court or other members – the council may send
open war is much less likely than espi- mediator among member worlds. in a peacekeeping force.
onage, political meddling, and covert
operations. Rebellions will oppose When it comes to politics, an During peacetime, planetary fleets
specific members of the alliance, and alliance is wide open. Member worlds usually restrict themselves to their
can cause serious conflict when allies can practice assassination, war among own star systems. They may also take
are called on to help fight rebels themselves, bribe alliance officials – turns performing border patrols or
whose ideals they may actually agree and until the council comes up with a other routine duties at the request of
with. In a trade alliance, commerce is two-thirds majority, the alliance will the alliance. In wartime, the council
free and easy – within the borders, be powerless to stop it. Each member can request members to mobilize their
anyway. A free-trade pact may well world, protective of its own sovereign- fleets to supplement the Alliance Navy.
include very tough tariff walls against ty, is loathe to allow the extra police Even then, officers may challenge the
non-members. powers – including counterespionage nominal authority of the alliance
or expanded military forces – that admiral, especially when their home-
Government would allow the alliance to maintain worlds are threatened.
order among its members. Only an
The governing body is a council of outside threat is likely to unify the Ground combat forces might con-
delegations from each member world. council to legislate the needed action. sist of a small core group – a “Marine
If a world has multiple governments, Corps” or “Presidential Guard” – sup-
all must be represented in the delega- The Military plemented in wartime by member
tion. In some cases, an alliance may worlds’ armies. Mercenary organiza-
give special power to important mem- Alliances typically maintain a small tions thrive in the loosely regulated
bers – extra votes or veto power. interstellar navy, while member clime of an alliance, and are always
worlds maintain their own defense available to aid with the defense . . .
Normally, the Council may only forces. If member worlds are stingy, for a price.
pass laws affecting relations among the alliance military may be desper-
its members, and seldom intrudes on ately underfunded until actual war Law and Order
its members’ internal affairs. A major- breaks out; if not, they can be small
ity of the Council – usually two-thirds but formidable forces. There will be an interstellar police
– must favor any measure before it force, usually called the Space Patrol
can be voted into law. A world can dis- Navy operations beyond routine (see p. 203). From a 20th-century per-
regard alliance laws by seceding or by patrols must be approved by the coun- spective, the Patrol is a combination
becoming an associate member – cil. Alliance military forces may not of state police and coast guard. It may
giving up its vote on the Council intervene in a member’s internal be the only permanent armed space
to gain full freedom in interstellar affairs without permission from that force an alliance maintains. The
policy, yet retaining many benefits of member. In extreme cases – if conflict Patrol has full judicial and legal pow-
membership. on a world or between member worlds ers within the alliance and outside the
is a clear threat to the alliance and its member worlds’ borders. Anyone
arrested by the Patrol is tried in a
Patrol court.

Since alliance laws deal only with
interstellar matters, adventurers will
not be bothered by alliance law except
when operating in space. Within the
political boundaries of a member
world – which usually extend through-
out its solar system – they are subject
to local laws and ordinances, which
can vary widely from member to
member! One world could be a liberal
democracy where citizens enjoy great
personal freedom, while others might
be dictatorial, tribal, theocratic,
corporate . . .

Extradition of criminals from
member worlds is possible, but never
certain. Once a criminal is on a world,
he is under its jurisdiction – the
alliance legal system only has jurisdic-
tion in interstellar space between
member borders.

The Patrol seldom interferes in
commerce between member worlds –

192 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

restrictions are more likely to be The United Galaxy
imposed by the members themselves.
Exceptions may be made if the Patrol As on 21st-century Earth, nearly all worlds or civilizations in the
is after terrorists or pirates, or if a ship galaxy may be enrolled in an alliance to preserve peace among them.
is acting suspiciously, but the Patrol How well this alliance actually works depends on how it is structured
must be careful not to offend member and what the member states think of it. A “United Galaxy Organization”
worlds – and delaying cargoes or dis- could be the last best hope for peace, or nothing but a glorified debat-
turbing tourists is often offensive. ing society where career bureaucrats from minor states can lord it over
the representatives of the galactic great powers. If some great peril
The Patrol exerts more control over threatens, getting the United Galaxy to recognize the danger and
travelers from beyond alliance bor- respond to it can be a daunting task for even the most heroic characters.
ders. Patrol ships and border stations A minor civilization threatened by aggressors might desperately try to
carefully screen incoming traffic, even get the United Galaxy to intervene, while a civilization devoted to per-
if the destination worlds protest such sonal freedom might try equally desperately to prevent United Galaxy
scrutiny. Passengers are checked interference.
against lists of wanted criminals.
Cargoes are checked for contraband, science fiction are Star Trek’s United Laws can vary from place to place
dangerous animals, or illegal weapon Federation of Planets and the within a federation, and in a weak one
shipments, and routine tests are made Federation in H. Beam Piper’s book of criminals from one member world
for disease or pests. Leaving alliance the same name. can find sanctuary on others. This
territory, on the other hand, is usually makes lots of business for bounty
simple. At the weak end, federations are hunters. Federal law enforcement
like close-knit alliances combining probably focuses on crimes outside
Certain goods may be taxed or military and free trade pacts. Stronger planetary jurisdiction, and on really
banned, either because they’re danger- federations give more power to the dangerous criminals who are too
ous or to protect the industry of mem- central government, like the modern- mobile for any single member’s police
ber worlds. Enforcement is up to the day United States or Germany, and a to catch.
Patrol. Taxation of individuals is a very strong federation puts all power
power strictly held by member worlds, into the central government, leaving Government
not by the alliance. The alliance is the member states as little more than
funded by tariffs, fines, and contribu- administrative regions. If one member The exact structure of a federa-
tions from member worlds for protec- of a federation dominates the others tion’s government can vary. Most have
tion and services. Payment may be and interferes in their domestic been republics of some sort, with rep-
made in kind rather than in cash. affairs, the federation becomes more resentatives of the member states vot-
Worlds that cannot pay their “dues” like an empire. ing in a council or parliament. Some
may be subject to coercion by other federations, like the old German
worlds or by alliance forces. Even a fairly weak federation can Empire of the Kaisers, were federa-
keep order in space – that may be all tions of monarchies with a supreme
Terrorist and fanatic groups may the members allow it to do – so trade monarch over all. The modern United
exist. If they do, the limited authority and travel thrive. Member worlds may States is a federation in which the cen-
of the alliance may make them hard to or may not be allowed to maintain tral government is chosen directly by
root out. Member worlds might their own military forces, but the the citizens, rather than the govern-
secretly shelter terrorist bases, letting Patrol and any exploration service are ments of member states. The govern-
them train beyond the reach of the probably federal operations. If the ments of the members can vary. One
Patrol. members distrust central government, can imagine an interstellar federation
then the federal armed forces are that includes planets governed by
Origin stretched thin and need to call in republics, monarchies, one-party
member militaries for backup. states, and theocracies.
Alliances may form in response to Mercenaries won’t find much work
external threats, or from the weaken- within a federation, but member A typical legislative body is a
ing of a more controlled society. This states or the federal government may Federation Congress, elected by indi-
is a natural first stage for interstellar use them for “deniable” operations vidual worlds (delegation size depends
government. Often, the original mem- beyond the border. Rebellions may on world population); it is usually
bers have ties besides geography – arise when a member wants to with- responsive to the will of the citizens.
common ancestry, trade ties, or simi- draw but the central government There is usually a separate judicial
lar histories. won’t let it go, or when a very power- branch. The Patrol is responsible for
ful group of members try to turn the enforcing federation law, but offend-
FEDERATION federation into an empire with them- ers are tried by a federation court at
selves as the center. the appropriate level.
A federation is a union of sovereign
states, preserving a fair amount of
power for member states but surren-
dering certain areas to federal control.
The most famous federations in

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 193

When a world joins the federation, cost of a major fleet, a federation can for the society. On the whole, federa-
it agrees to abide by the federation be as militant as any society. tion citizens get more benefits, servic-
charter. For this reason, sector or es, and protection than citizens of an
planetary government and law are With federation permission, indi- alliance.
much more homogeneous than those vidual worlds may establish planetary
of an alliance’s member worlds – guard units. These include ground Police functions may be handled
divergence is prevented by swift feder- troops and possibly atmospheric and by planetary or sector law-enforce-
ation action, including economic sublight warcraft, but no significant ment organizations or by the Space
blockade and military invasion. armed starships. Patrol. The Patrol has full authority
anywhere in federation territory, but
Secession usually isn’t an option The Interstellar Marine Corps is must cooperate with planetary police
for members of a federation, unless the federation’s military ground force. – it cannot investigate and arrest inde-
several worlds secede at once or out- Planetary guard troops and draftees pendently of local authorities, unless
side military protection is available. supplement the marines in wartime, they are obstructing justice.
Planetary nationalists favoring seces- but it is the experienced, well-trained
sion may become rebels or terrorists. marines who handle the dirty work – Extradition of accused criminals
In rare cases, politics will allow planetary invasions and defenses, between worlds is mandatory under
a peaceful evolution to “special commando raids, etc. If there is a con- federation law, provided the request-
autonomous status” and finally tinuing threat to the nation, federa- ing world can guarantee a fair trial.
independence. tions may institute a draft, requiring Otherwise, the accused will be tried in
young citizens to serve terms in the a federation court. Federation author-
There may also be frontier dis- armed forces. ities (such as the Patrol) carry out the
tricts. These are similar to member extradition process.
systems, except that their populations Mercenary companies are rare
are new (mainly colonists or the newly except in frontier sectors, as the gov- Terrorists may be present, but
conquered) or scattered (a blighted ernment distrusts independent mili- bases must be well-hidden to survive.
region of space). The district govern- tary forces in central areas. In times of Any world known to be harboring
ment and officials are appointed by upheaval, mercs may be called in, but terrorists can expect swift reprisals.
the federation. liaison officers will be assigned to
ensure that they remain under strict Federations keep tabs on interstel-
The Military control. A federation may form its lar trade within their borders, routine-
own legion of mercenaries. These ly inspecting cargoes and travelers.
Federation politics recognize that troops are useful for prosecuting polit- Traffic entering and leaving the nation
military and political power are ically unpopular wars, especially if will be more restricted than that of an
linked. The Federation Navy is the they are recruited solely from frontier alliance. Passports will be required –
only group authorized to have inter- or foreign worlds – which have no rep- especially if the federation has hostile
stellar warcraft. Member worlds must resentation in Congress and cannot neighbors – but the emphasis will be
surrender their navies upon joining. easily complain about combat losses. on the right of the average citizen to
Hearkening back to the days of inde- travel, limited by the security needs of
pendence, however, naval vessels may Law and Order the society.
be named after and manned by a par-
ticular world – the cruiser Lotvik, for Unlike an alliance, which is con- The Space Patrol is on hand to
instance, is crewed largely by native cerned with the rights of its member combat pirates or terrorists and
Lotvikians. Size of the fleet depends worlds, a federation guards the rights to conduct rescue operations when
on the political will and wealth of its of its citizens. Federation laws are needed. It will also ensure that
citizens. If the people will tolerate the designed to protect the individual citi- unscrupulous transport companies do
zen and to provide security and unity not take advantage of citizens.

194 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

Interstellar trade involving federa- though each of the countries in which Major policy decisions are made by
tion worlds is regulated by the it operated had a sovereign govern- the board. The board also decides the
Interstellar Trade Commission (p. ment. The company paid heavy bribes amount of stock available on the mar-
202). Congress may ban some goods – to the government leaders to keep ket, and possibly its current cost.
usually harmful drugs, proscribed them agreeable, and could sometimes
weapons, dangerous animals, etc. call upon the United States military The relative benevolence of the
Tariffs and duties may exist to control when bribery wasn’t enough. Powerful corporate state depends on how
imports that might harm world corporations ruling indirectly are a the stockholders are organized.
economies. This means there may be a standard feature of cyberpunk science Citizenship is defined as owning stock
lucrative business for smugglers in fiction. in the company. Sometimes a stock
some areas, but that’s what the Patrol certificate is issued along with a birth
is for. Customs offices are maintained If a setting has multiple corpora- certificate; sometimes citizenship
at all starports in federation space. tions, the dynamic changes. must be earned. More stock means
Starports are considered federation Competition among companies can more voting power; in a malevolent
territory, and local police do not have give the people a great deal of leverage corporate state, the board is dominat-
jurisdiction there. The Patrol operates (see The Free Enterprise Society, p. ed by a wealthy minority. But some-
these ports, plus any additional posts 196). Of course corporations can band times the “poor” stockholders can
needed at jump points or along trade together to avoid competition, form- band together into “blocs” of common
routes. ing a cartel. If there is no higher power interest, similar to political parties in a
to prevent it, the result is an inter- democracy. If they have the numbers,
Free news services thrive, restrict- locked group of companies that func- they can vote their own representative
ed only in the name of federation tion as a single operation. to the board.
security.
Corporate-ruled societies are likely Stock ownership is power. If a few
Taxes may be collected by federa- to be awful places for independent wealthy magnates control the board,
tion, sector, and local governments. traders to operate in, because natural- society will be managed for their ben-
There may be a personal income tax, ly the ruling company or companies efit and individual rights will suffer. If
taxes on commerce, or both. will monopolize all the lucrative trade other voting blocs gain power on the
Merchants and entrepreneurs will do routes. Mercenary soldiers, on the board, interests will be protected; as
their best to beat any such tax! other hand, can often do quite well more blocs gain power, rights are
since a corporate state might prefer to gradually extended to all citizens.
Origin hire military forces only when there’s a
war to fight, then downsize during Stockholders also receive divi-
A federation often evolves when an peacetime. Spies can be agents of rival dends, as long as the corporation
alliance is forced by some threat to companies seeking trade secrets, and makes money. Militant stockholders
strengthen its central government. explorers can be “trade scouts” look- may demand profits, steering CEOs
Federations last longer than alliances ing for new markets and business away from long-term investments
because their society can quickly meet opportunities. and toward short-term gains. After an
and deal with external threats, and unusually profitable period, the
often has the power and authority to Government board may declare a jubilee year –
deal with internal ones as well. paying extra dividends and sponsor-
A corporate state is “managed” ing celebrations.
CORPORATE rather than governed. Leadership fol-
STATE lows standard business practice – the Individual worlds are run by cor-
CEO directs day-to-day affairs, porate middle managers, many of
Ever since the rise of large com- appointed and supervised by the whom are working hard to show a
mercial corporations, people have Board of Directors. As long as the profit and earn a promotion. Local
worried about them becoming power- CEO has the support of the board, he management styles may vary from
ful enough to rival governments. In has dictatorial powers, and may hire enlightened to dictatorial, and don’t
history, it has even happened from and fire all other executive officers. have to match overall corporate policy
time to time: the British East India if the board is far away.
Company was the government of The Board of Directors is elected
India for nearly a century. In science by the company stockholders. The Military
fiction, corporate governments come Directors have no responsibility for
in several different flavors, depending the day-to-day operation of the com- The company has a monopoly on
on how the corporations are struc- pany, but act as a policy council to armed might, from local police to
tured and how they exercise power. advise and direct the CEO. The direc- interstellar fleets. Local forces will be
tors elect one of their number as controlled by planetary directors.
In history, corporations often exer- Chairman. The Chairman is the single Major operations may be ordered by
cise power indirectly. In Central most powerful person in the corporate the CEO and must be approved by the
America before World War II, for state, though he operates behind the board. There may also be an elite
instance, the United Fruit Company scenes. security force – possibly a secret police
was effectively the ruling power, even in all but name – under the direct
Minor rules and regulations are set command of the Chairman of the
by corporate bureaucrats at all levels. Board.

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 195

The Free Trade is company-regulated.
Enterprise Society Company employees must obtain all
their goods at the local company store,
A variant of the corporate state is the free enterprise society. This is paying whatever prices the company
simply a government run entirely on business principles, with the over- sets. With the company in control of
riding ideal of open competition for everything. Military forces are all commerce, there’s no competition
entirely staffed by mercenaries, all services are contracted out to private and no chance of getting bargains
firms, and instead of political parties there are competing government somewhere else. Of course there’s a
management companies. In extreme versions, individual citizens can black market, but it’s grossly illegal.
contract with different governments, the way they now do business with
rival insurance carriers or long-distance phone companies. The good Specific taxes in a corporate state
thing about a free enterprise society is that there is tremendous freedom are not necessary, since the company
and opportunity – as long as you can pay for it. makes a “profit” on everything that is
bought or sold. Occasionally, in a prof-
Free enterprise states are usually not expansionist or aggressive, and itable year, the corporation will even
are open to all kinds of trade – but competition is fierce and sometimes pay bonuses to its workers.
violent. Multiple planets with free enterprise government may merge
into a kind of libertarian federation. Origin

Law and Order that middle management must A corporate state may evolve from
respect his views. the conflict between a super-corpora-
Company regulations have the tion and a weak government, or when
force of law. Many rules exist to insure Travel between worlds is controlled government gives too much authority
that individuals put company con- by the company. Travel for corporate to business.
cerns over any of their own. reasons is easily arranged. Individual
citizens are also free to travel, using If world colonization and exploita-
Personal freedoms are often their own time and money, though tion is run by private enterprise, then
allowed only to the point where they they may be “bumped” from sched- single-company settlements may
interfere with job performance. uled flights by business travelers. result. If corporate rule is unchecked
Failure to follow regulations, meet Productive employees are often by government, the corporation can
quotas, or get along with one’s super- rewarded with paid vacations to pleas- expand its power base until it is the
visor can result in demotions and ure worlds. Most employees, however, government on the colonies, while
salary cuts (and loss of social status), rarely get to leave the worlds on which controlling trade with the mother
criminal sentences, or firing. Firing is they are employed – unless their skills world.
the ultimate punishment, since there are temporarily needed on another
is no other employer – shopping at the planet. In a far-flung society, corporations
company store, banking and credit may be allowed to form private fleets
rights, and health benefits are lost News is handled by the corpora- for defense in remote areas – similar
along with employment. tion’s public relations or communica- to the East India merchant ships in
tions department, and reflects the Earth history. Such military power
Rebels aren’t acknowledged as company line. There are many stories can allow total despotism in colonial
such. They are instead saboteurs, about corporate success and happy regions, and may give the force need-
pirates, socialists, communists, or – employees. Failures are seldom ed (perhaps in alliance with other cor-
worst of all – unionists, and are to be reported. porations) to secede from or take con-
rooted out at all costs. The losers of trol of the society.
a takeover bid could decide on
armed resistance instead of golden A corporation may also control a
parachutes. technology so valuable – FTL travel,
for instance – that it can do whatever
There is no judicial branch. Local it likes!
executives conduct hearings and trials
in their localities. There may be a “cor-
porate ombudsman” to see that work-
ers get fair treatment and fair trials.
The power of the ombudsman
depends on the stockholders. If the
company is repressive, the ombuds-
man is helpless, or a pawn of manage-
ment; in a benevolent society, the
ombudsman has enough influence

196 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS

Why People Support desire to annex more territory. To safe-
Rotten Empires guard the border, the empire’s rulers
naturally want friendly states as
It’s nice to think that a government that Goes Too Far will eventual- neighbors. To ensure that they stay
ly cause the citizens to rise in righteous wrath and throw the rascals out. friendly, the empire starts to take an
It’s also convenient when all the defenders of the Evil Empire wear uni- interest in their internal affairs.
forms (except for the occasional Secret Police spy). Unfortunately, we Eventually, some crisis provokes inter-
know from centuries of experience that it doesn’t really work this way. vention by the empire and what was
The worst tyrannies imaginable have been enthusiastically supported formerly a neighbor becomes a con-
by people no worse than you or me. quered province. Naturally, to protect
this province, the empire has to make
Without going deeply into psychology, here are some of the reasons sure there are no hostile states on the
why citizens support tyrannies. You can use these to make your fiction- border, and the cycle begins all over
al Evil Empire and its people something more than laser fodder. again. Commercial interests and reli-
gious or ideological missionaries can
Citizens fear that the unknown will be worse than the known: a for- accelerate the process.
eign philosophy, a strange religion, or perhaps society breaking down to
anarchy. They may fear and hate an enemy population, especially if they The process of expansion can con-
are a different religion or race, let alone species: Do you hate the Bug tinue until the empire bumps up
soldiers because they are cruel and ruthless, or because bugs are icky? against a power strong enough to
Many people fear that a new government would cost them their jobs or resist. If they border directly on each
personal power; in a corrupt regime, they may have good reason to be other, the situation may be quite tense,
afraid of justice. A clever regime’s propaganda will play on all these with constant patrols along the line,
fears, constantly portraying the foe as inhuman, the rebels as terrorist “incidents” provoked by hotheaded
killers. commanders, and a clampdown on
trade. Alternately, the empires may
People who are used to obeying the law often have a hard time agree to back off and sponsor a neu-
changing their habits when the law becomes oppressive. They still tral zone or buffer state in between.
believe that “the police only arrest criminals; honest people have noth- The action shifts from military to
ing to fear.” When the rebels break into an armory to get guns, these diplomatic and political as each
people see only that a robbery was committed. Enough of this and patri- empire strives to exert influence in the
otic citizens may volunteer for the army to fight the wicked rebels. buffer region and prevent its rival
Obviously, rebellions find more support on worlds that were free until from doing the same. This sort of
the empire conquered them. But even there, some citizens may hate the thing can happen even when the
occupier but doubt the rebels would be any better. You can fight for empires are nominally friendly.
“freedom” – but once you win, you have to set up a government.
Government
And people may be loyal to the idea, or to the ideals, of a nation or
empire, even when the reality is tarnished. “My country, right or Any kind of government can have
wrong . . .” an empire. Rome gained its first impe-
rial possessions as a republic, and
It is not evil, or even cowardly, to be afraid of starvation, torture, and expanded them as a monarchy; the
death. Any successful rebellion must overcome these fears . . . to British Empire was acquired as
convince the people that anything is better than slavery. Meanwhile, the Britain itself moved from absolute
government is telling them that anything is better than anarchy. Which monarchy to parliamentary democra-
is why rebellions have a hard time of it. cy. Republican France had a large for-
mal empire in Africa, and the United
– John M. Ford States had a substantial informal
empire in Latin America.
EMPIRE but they also had an informal empire
of client states and allies. Sometimes In science fiction, empires are usu-
When historians or political scien- it was necessary to take over the ally based on the Roman model, with
tists speak of an empire, they mean a administration of a client state and an actual emperor as the absolute
system in which one state controls the shift it from informal to formal ruler. If there is a senate or other legis-
internal and external affairs of one or empire. Sometimes a province can get lature, it is distinctly secondary to the
more other states. If this is a legally more autonomy, as when the British monarch’s power. Monarchical
recognized situation, it’s a formal government granted dominion status empires in fiction are usually evil and
empire; if it’s done by ad hoc arrange- to its colonies in Canada and oppressive, as in the Star Wars movies,
ment or under the cloak of some other Australia, recognizing that they were but some stories like Niven and
structure, it’s an “informal” empire. capable of self-rule – and capable of Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye or
fighting for it if Britain refused. Poul Anderson’s tales of Dominic
Many empires in history have been Flandry depict empires that are rea-
combinations of both. The rulers of All empires tend to expand even sonably well run and humane.
Rome had a formal empire of when the central government has no
provinces under Roman governors,

FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 197

States with a single ruler have all and rely on competent ministers and and crush all possible foreign enemies
the advantages and disadvantages of generals, but sometimes they’re so as well as domestic ones. Historically,
extremely centralized power. If the incompetent they don’t even realize it. this encourages other states to band
emperor wants something done, it Since the chaos of civil war is suffi- together in alliances to crush the
gets done – but if the emperor can’t be ciently unpleasant, most people are dictatorship.
bothered, a problem can fester. And if willing to put up with hereditary rule
the emperor is foolish, or crazy, or just if the only alternative is warlords In most space empires, the navy is
plain mean, a lot of bad things can get fighting to become the next dictator. the dominant service, with fleets of
done. huge starships. Being an admiral is a
Some of the Roman emperors stepping-stone to the throne, which
The feel of a monarchical empire chose their own successors, which means senior officers are watched
depends a lot on how the ruler gained combines the legitimacy of inheri- very carefully. Shrewd emperors
power. Dictators or emperors who tance with a merit-based choice. divide the navy into entirely separate
seized power by their own efforts tend Unfortunately, some rulers can be fleets, so that the admirals can keep
to build strong but paranoid regimes, swayed or tricked when picking an each other under control. If there is a
with lots of secret police, censorship, heir. High-tech societies might leave separate Patrol at all, it is subordinate
and murder of potential rivals. On the the choice of a new emperor to super- to the navy. The marines are the navy’s
other hand, they do tend to be person- intelligent computers, or design the integral ground-combat arm, spear-
ally very competent rulers. But even next monarch from scratch using heading planetary invasions. The
the competent ones often make the genetic engineering and sophisticated army does a lot of pacifying con-
mistake of assuming that being good psychological manipulation. quered worlds and suppressing dis-
at gaining and holding political power sent. Mercenaries can take service
makes them experts at economics, Of course, sometimes it doesn’t with local imperial governors to sup-
military strategy, and city planning. matter who the emperor is, if he’s just plement the thin-stretched imperial
This is seldom true. In human history a figurehead. This can be a constitu- forces, and in an informal empire sit-
only a handful of dictators have been tional monarchy like modern uation they may be the primary
competent, sane, and humane all at European kingdoms, or a puppet instrument of policy.
the same time. Few self-made dicta- ruler dominated by powerful minis-
tors die natural deaths. Some empires ters or generals. In some cases a weak Law and Order
have no set rule of succession, so all figurehead emperor can regain
the rulers are essentially self-made authority if the ministers or warlords The word of the emperor is law.
dictators. fail spectacularly. Some emperors rule by personal
decree, but others are happy to let a
By contrast, a ruler who has inher- The Military huge bureaucracy make all the “bor-
ited power has a lot more legitimacy ing” decisions. Imperial laws take
in the eyes of the people and can Most monarchical empires, heredi- precedence over all other laws.
afford to be more tolerant. However, tary or new, rely on military power.
with hereditary rulers there is a great (Theocracies or especially beloved Empires are restrictive by nature.
deal of random chance involved: will monarchies may be able to get by In some cases there is a drastic differ-
this one be a lunatic? Or just an idiot? without overwhelming power.) Some ence in personal freedom between
It’s rare for a dynasty to win the lottery rulers are content to do nothing more inhabitants of the ruling state and
of genetics and upbringing even twice than stamp out dissent, letting the those of the provinces. Frustration
in a row, so a strong ruler is usually army and the fleet rot and exposing with that difference is often the motive
followed by one or more weak ones. the empire to threats of invasion. for rebellion.
Sometimes the weak rulers are at least Others (particularly self-made dicta-
wise enough to recognize their limits tors) want to expand their dominions The Space Patrol has police pow-
ers. Routine trials are held by local

198 FUTURE AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS