Space! Aliens! Living Gas! Iām too sick to be Clever!
Say Hello to the Auroros!
So I was all set to write up a whole thing about the distinction between fantasy and Sci-fi, and why, even in DND, I consider myself a Science-fiction author. But itās been two weeks, and Iām still sick, so lets save that for another time.
Iām always on the lookout for interesting ideas, and with my campaign setting slowly expanding beyond the prime world of the material plane (Terra), Iāve started trying to imagine what sortof life might exist beyond the stars. Iām not sure how many people understand how hard it is to imagine aliens in a fantasy setting where players routinely battle sentient eyeball monsters and giant fire-breathing lizards with wings, but let me tell you: it isnāt easy. Pretty much any strange alien creature you might expect to find in a sci-fi show has a similar equivalent that already exists in dnd - even if it hasnāt been ported to 5e yet.
But the thing that has always struck me about alien life is that if it exists (and by shear probability alone, it must), it is bound to be so different from what we find on our own planet that we may not even recognize it as life at all. I wanted to try and exemplify that as my campaign setting expanded into space, by making alien life as exotic as possible. But this creates itās own problems.
When a race become so strange and inhuman, it becomes difficult to model it in 5e without breaking the game. Extra limbs, the ability to move through solid objects, unique senses that are not found in other more Terrestial races - All of these things have the potential to greatly imbalance an alien race, which makes building a playable character a true balancing act of imagining not just what special powers these aliens might have, but also what abilities they might not.
One way I have opted to do this is to imagine that in my Campaign setting, magic is a force mostly unique to Terrestrial life. While aline races may have the ability to change their shape, fly amongst the clouds, or manifest powerful psionic forces, they are at a complete loss when encountering magic. To most of these races, magic is a completely alien technology - something they have difficulty even beginning to understand, and by extension, something they often fear.
But enough of my rambling. Itās late, Iām sick, and I really need to sleep. Iāll See you all in the stars. Or something. Iām too sick to be clever right now.
As usual, the preview here is low resolution, and probably out of date. For the latest high-resolution PDF, as well as a whole host of other work I have done, check out this handy dropbox link. And be sure to tell me what you think!
If you like what I do and want to support me or just generally help out, Check out my Patreon, or throw some coin at me through Paypal.me. If you wanna just come say hi on my Discord, thatās great too! Ā
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