Aliens of the Periphery: The [Click]

Appearance and Biology

Male [click] aliens appear as furry creatures slightly larger than a human in stature.  From their furry faces peer a set of compound eyes and mandibles.  Their actual skin is a carapace designed to insulate their bodies from their planet’s notoriously harsh days and nights, as well as to protect them from predators.  Females are little more than mobile bloated egg sacks.  Similar organisms exist on the [click]’s home planet, though their fur is usually hidden beneath an outer carapace.  It is theorized that these creatures are to the [click] what gorillas are to humans.

History

The [click] were once the proprietors of a massive empire that included several other species.  They ruled through fear and grand displays of extravagance that both terrorized and mesmerized their various slave species.  However, their natural propensity for infighting eventually led to the rapid collapse of their empire about the time humankind first discovered the Jump drive.  Their handiwork can be seen in the [slave race].

Today the [Click] Empire is a relatively small state, but it is flanked by domains controlled by petty [click] warlords and clans.  The Terran Imperium has in some instances filled in the vacuum created by the previous state’s demise, but for the most part the coreward stretch of the galaxy known to Terrans is controlled by [click] successor states.

Psychology

[Click] culture is largely patriarchal.  Unlike other species, this is due to a strong biological imperative.  Female [click] are essentially non-sapient, and the males treat them as a commodity.  Fierce competition exists between males for who possess the most females, and war leaders will often lead raids on enemy worlds to capture women.  Oddly, this practice has also led to the kidnapping of the females of other species to display as trophies, despite the fact that the [click] cannot mate with them.

The largest class of the [click] is infertile males.  These males have usually been sterilized at birth in order to keep them in a submissive state to be used as work horses for the bureaucratic and military functions of the successor states.  A thin upper echelon maintains their fertility, but they must constantly protect it from up and coming fertile males.

Flavor

Most other races view the [click] as decadent.   Their clothing vaguely resembles that of the various desert peoples of Earth, with robes designed to insulate the wearer against harsh climatic conditions.  However, since the [click] have left their desert home world, the rarely need such clothing.  Today it serves a primarily decorative function and is usually bestudded with jewels and rare materials in order to show the prestige of the wearer.

The [click] are more or less space-stag beetles, and spend much of their time competing with each other for position, rank, and females. Since they are intelligent, this usually take the form of more subtle contests and schemes, though physical violence is quite common among them.  They take slights to their prestige very seriously.  [Click] consider themselves superior to other species, and they do not tend to treat with them on equal terms.  This does not mean they do not enter into negotiations when necessary, simply that they only do so begrudgingly.

[Click] as player characters

Armored; Natural Weapon (claws);  Notable Endurance; Weak Dexterity

All [click] characters are male.  Any with a Social Standing less than 11 are infertile.

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I was waiting to post this until my wife got done with the concept sketch for these guys.  Hopefully that will come in the not to distant future.

The format comes entirely from Stars Without Number, even though I plan on using these aliens for Traveller.

References to the [slave race] will be replaced once I have a better name for them.

Another Model

On Monday I discussed what the Mongoose Traveller tells us about the "Imperium."  Today I will discuss another setting possibility hinted at in the core rules.  It advises using the bases present in a system to define the various polities and states that exist in your sector.  This method obviously requires the GM to be a bit more flexible with his or her setting design.  One doesn't know what it'll look like until everything is generated.

While some might dislike this method, I think it relies on one of Traveller's greatest strengths: random generation. I'm a firm believer in oracular dice, and I've commented before on the fact that Traveller takes full advantage of that aspect of RPGs.  In the case of Mongoose Traveller, not only are there systems for random encounters, patrons, and worlds, but even character generation is based on this concept.  You build the story of your character by seeing the events he or she goes through throughout their prior career(s), as determined by the dice.

Since this is one of my favorite things about Traveller, I'm very tempted to use it to define my Traveller setting. Still, I do have some reservations.  I have a few ideas for the alien and human states in Terran Space, and I would like those to be preserved in the final product.  I have not squared this yet with my philosophical preference for random generation, but I'll continue to think it over.

It may ultimately depend on the star map I use.  If I use the one that is more concentrated in the upper right, I'll stick to my original plans for the Terran Imperium and its neighbors.  If I go with the second one, which was generated a bit more randomly, I'll use the dice to tell me where the borders are.

The Periphery

While Terran Space will act as the blanket term for my Traveller setting, most of the action will take place in a sector known as The Periphery.  This is a relative backward in the (Terran) Imperium that was fairly recently thrust into prominence during a war with an alien species.

I'll be providing more detail on it as I develop it.  Below are two very vague sector maps, only one of which I will use, for the Periphery:

click to embiggen

click to embiggen

The first represents a sector on the edge of a rift, while the second is a bit more evenly spread out (if sparse). I'm not sure which one I will use yet, but there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

More later.