BitterOldPunk

Alien species from the #Traveller rpg, ranked:

1) Hivers. One of the best alien species in all of science fiction, across all formats. They’re creepy, puzzling, and hideous-looking. They always have fallback plans and secret motives. But they’re also wacky and gregarious and basically benign. Love me some Hivers.

2. Droyne. Little green gremlins who are walking plot hooks. Are they the remnants of the Ancients? Why do they DO [whatever the game master needs done in that moment]? MYSTERIOUS!

3. Aslan. The game goes to great lengths to explain that the Aslan are Emphatically Not Cat People. Everybody plays them as cat people anyway. Meow.

4. Vargr. Dog people, and enthusiastically, canonically so. Corsairs! They travel in packs! Fun for growly role-play.

5. Uplifted Terran Dolphins. Because fuck yeah, talking dolphins. And anti-grav vac suits grow on trees in Traveller, so you can take your dolphin anywhere.

99. K’kree. Militant vegan centaurs. I hate the whole idea of these guys.

Jun 16, 2023 at 10:42pmWeb
Show threadChurchHatesTucker ☑Jun 17, 2023
@BitterOldPunk Aslan are ersatz Kzinti, who are canonically in the Star Trek universe and quasi-canonically (via novelization) related to Caitians. So, Cat People.
Show threadChris [list of emoji]Jun 17, 2023

@ChurchHatesTucker @BitterOldPunk

So did Brin steal dolphins from Traveller or vice versa? (Or is it just a sufficiently obvious idea?)

Show threadBitterOldPunkJun 17, 2023
@suetanvil @ChurchHatesTucker Good question! I assume they stole it from Brin, but I’d be unsurprised to hear that it just a zeitgeist-y coincidence.
Show threadChris [list of emoji]Jun 17, 2023

@BitterOldPunk @ChurchHatesTucker

I mean, Dolphins Are Intelligent was a huge thing in my SF-reading childhood, so I'm kind of going with the boring zeitgeist theory.

(Also: the seventies SF skipped over the constant masturbation part.)

Show threadBitterOldPunkJun 17, 2023
@suetanvil @ChurchHatesTucker they’re just irrepressible little scamps, ain’t they
Show threadChris [list of emoji]Jun 17, 2023

@BitterOldPunk @ChurchHatesTucker

Indeed. And extremely frustrated, because no hands. And willing to take advantage of any other solid object they come upon to, um...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the main driver toward dolphin uplift was, "Guess what we can do with these *hand things*."

Show threadJames Davis NicollJul 8, 2023

@suetanvil @ChurchHatesTucker @BitterOldPunk It was part of the zeitgeist. All kinds of talking dolphin books from the Time Before Digital Watches. I'd be inclined to point a finger at John C. Lilly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Lilly

John C. Lilly - Wikipedia

Show threadChurchHatesTucker ☑Jul 8, 2023
@jdnicoll @suetanvil @BitterOldPunk The sixties/seventies idea was that dolphins were *already* at a level comparable to humans. The eighties idea was that they could be, with genetic/cybernetic engineering. And waldos.