Sci-fi SA?

[Dezmond]

Kinda disagree with the inclusion of alien allies...

I'd (clearly) allow it.

Partly on grounds of relatable aliens being a staple of many sci fi universes.

And from a lore justification point of view there is a bit in At The Mountains Of Madness where the main character reflects that although the elder things looked funny they were, when it came down to it, people.

And now, when Danforth and I saw the freshly glistening and reflectively iridescent black slime which clung thickly to those headless bodies and stank obscenely with that new, unknown odor whose cause only a diseased fancy could envisage—clung to those bodies and sparkled less voluminously on a smooth part of the accursedly resculptured wall in a series of grouped dots —we understood the quality of cosmic fear to its uttermost depths. It was not fear of those four missing others—for all too well did we suspect they would do no harm again. Poor devils! After all, they were not evil things of their kind. They were the men of another age and another order of being. Nature had played a hellish jest on them—as it will on any others that human madness, callousness, or cruelty may hereafter dig up in that hideously dead or sleeping polar waste—and this was their tragic homecoming. They had not been even savages—for what indeed had they done? That awful awakening in the cold of an unknown epoch—perhaps an attack by the furry, frantically barking quadrupeds, and a dazed defense against them and the equally frantic white simians with the queer wrappings and paraphernalia... poor Lake, poor Gedney... and poor Old Ones! Scientists to the last—what had they done that we would not have done in their place? God, what intelligence and persistence! What a facing of the incredible, just as those carven kinsmen and forbears had faced things only a little less incredible! Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star spawn—whatever they had been, they were men!

But mostly just because I think it would be nifty to field a Yithian cone dude with a lightning gun in my squad.

[Grumbling Grognard]

I have to go with Dez on that one.  Why even bother with SciFi without doing aliens?  Heck, that is at least 1/2 of the fun of scifi for me.   

Scott

[horridperson]

That is undoubtedly going to be a personal taste issue.  I'm not sure if I want aliens in my stories but I'm considering modified humans or androids so I don't really see the difference.

[WallyTWest]

Yea! Elder Things, MiGo and Yithians are probably bros once they stop looking at you as meat bags that deserve to be exterminated!

Elder Thing is the best science officer ever! Too bad the blue shirt does not fit!



***Edit***
The universe hates you. Humans can't think like aliens. Their technology is so advanced people think of it like magic. Microbes on most planets will eat your flesh. Worms eat brains. Human tollarance is a tiny bubble encompassing a tiny fraction of planets. Most things you meet will want to eat you, and if they are intelligent they want to cut you into tiny bits and understand how you work with such simple body chemistry. Civilizations die. Civilizations die when they figure out what elder gods are. Civilizations go mad and nuke themselves. Civilizations nuke themselves when they learn what's out there out of fear, and would encourage you to do the same if you could only communicate with them. There is no higher intelligence that can tolerate your presence. Non RNA based life looks at you like a sack of nutrients to be harvested. Nothing out there has 2 arms and 2 legs. Nothing out there has ten fingers. You die without oxygen. You die when exposed to most forms of cosmic radiation. There is nothing waiting for you outside that airlock except an excruciating death, where your eyes pop out of your head, your lungs burst and your central body cavity ruptures.

The universe hates you and you are a cosmic joke. Nothing. Nobody. You deserve nothing, your morals have no bearing. Everything either wants you dead or does not even care. You are an ant.

Now... If you are a threshold agent, and the year is 2214... The proximity alarm near the fourth way station has gone down... Strap that pistol on your hip, throw on your carpace armor and grab two thermal grenades. Things could get ugly...

Friendly aliens are for Stargate, Trek and Star Wars fans- there are plenty of those games out there. Why not explore the Mythos?

[Mr. Peabody]

You are a threshold agent, and the year is 2214... The proximity alarm near the fourth way station has gone down... Strap that pistol on your hip, throw on your carapace armour and grab two thermal grenades. Things could get ugly...

Yes! OMG, yes.   

[horridperson]

There is definitely a need to build some creepy, dark space ship corridors.  I was think of trying to build corridor floors with about a 180 degree "curve from floor to ceiling and see how a mock up might look.  I've seen "flats" like the space hulk stuff but they aren't that inspiring.  I'd like to try to strike a balance between functionality and cool factor.

[Dezmond]

Suggestions for Sci Fi themed Lurkers

Cyber Maniac

Evil gets an upgrade



See also Cyberdemons, Cyberzombies and Cyberhounds of Tindalos

Handyman

'You’ve got to listen to me!  Elementary Chaos Theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok in an orgy of blood and kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving.'



Often minions of the Rampant AI (see below)

Alien Apex Predator

'Can you see him yet, Brad?'



Not Mythos related so generally considered to be Someone Else's Problem by THRESHOLD teams

Rampant AI

'Look at you hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?'



What happens when an AI runs out of sanity points.

Generally immobile but with a command ability that enables the sub-activation of several lurkers with the 'robot' trait when activated. Also tend to develop powerful spellcasting abilities as they race towards a twisted singularity.

Malfunctioning Nanoassembler Swarm

Grey Goo



The gestalt intelligences that control nanoswarms have turned out to be as susceptible to the sanity blasting effects of the Mythos as more conventional AIs.

Once it has Got Religion a nanoswarm cultist can dissolve a THRESHOLD operative in a matter of seconds and transform a corporate research station in to a temple to the King in Yellow in hours. Faster as they become able to warp reality by thought alone.

(Once transformed in to a temple a colony configured to generate spin gravity will act as an enormous prayer wheel and draw the attention of extradimensional entities across vast distances of 12-d spacetime)

[Dezmond]

'Can you see him yet, Brad?'

By the by I have, after many years of looking, finally found the ancient beer advert this is from:-

[horridperson]

Thanks for bringing this thread back to the surface.  It's still a trove cool ideas.  I still wish I had done something with some of this material.  Always a pleasure to revisit this thread.

[Mr. Peabody]

Yes, this is the good sort of necro... The kind that reminds me why this is such a great forum. 

Post-Apoc / Sci-Fi SA all the way.