One of the many ways by which Game Designers' Workshop achieved this was by subverting expectations. I mean that as a genuine compliment, not as a bit of nonsensical marketing speak. Very often, GDW would take a commonplace element of science fiction and ring a change or two on it so as to give it a different complexion, one unique to Traveller. Though they employed this technique throughout the game's product line, I feel as if they put it to best effect in their series of Alien Modules, beginning with Aslan in 1984.
Aslan is a solid reworking of the "proud warrior race" trope, but I don't think anyone who reads it is going to be blown away by its content. That's not a knock against by any means, just an acknowledgment that it treads ground familiar to anyone who's a longtime sci-fi aficionado. From the Dorsai to the Klingons and Kzinti, the genre is replete with such races and cultures. Though I happen to think the Aslan are an interesting and well-done example of a proud warrior race, proud warrior races are a dime a dozen in both SF and fantasy. If you really want to impress me, you need to do something genuinely different.
That's exactly what GDW did with its second alien module, devoted to the "enigmatic centaurs" known as the K'Kree. Written by J. Andrew Keith and Loren Wiseman, this 40-page book was published the same year as its predecessor, but it's much more interesting. As you might notice from the cover image above (provided by the ever-awesome David Dietrick), the K'Kree are six-limbed beings, hence their nickname of "centaurs." That alone sets them apart, not just from humans or Aslan but from most alien races presented in science fiction. Of course, that's not the only thing that makes them unique, as I'll explain.
The K'Kree are the descendants of herbivorous grazers – like horses or cattle – that evolved to intelligence and eventually came to dominate their homeworld. The Alien Module explains that the K'Kree were not the only intelligent species to have evolved there. At least one other, known as the G'naak, also did so, against whom the K'Kree fought during ancient wars that also served to accelerate their technological development. The G'naak, unlike the K'Kree, were carnivores and were thus seen as an existential threat that demanded nothing less than genocide. With the G'naak wiped out, the K'Kree continued to develop, both culturally and technologically, until they eventually discovered jump drive and made their way to the stars.
The K'Kree are one of Traveller's so-called Major Races – one of the six species that discovered jump drive independently and established mighty interstellar states. The K'Kree's interstellar state, the Two Thousand Worlds, exists to trailing of the Imperium. Under its Steppelord, the Two Thousand Worlds is a deeply conservative polity dedicated to stability and protecting its people from outsiders, particularly meat-eaters, whose scent reminds the K'Kree of the long-defeated G'naak (who are akin to bogeymen in their culture). Revulsion of carnivores is so great among the K'Kree that, for example, they demand that ambassadors from other species abstain from eating meat for months before they will even receive them, among many other idiosyncratic practices.
Like their ancestors, the K'Kree prefer to travel in large groups. Among them, a desire to be alone – never mind enjoyment of it – is taken as a sign of insanity. They likewise hate enclosed spaces. All K'Kree would, by human standards, be considered claustrophobic, which is why their spacecraft are large and feature wide corridors and high ceilings. Alien Module 2 makes a good effort of explaining the mindset of the K'Kree and how it affects both their everyday behavior and the diplomacy of the Two Thousand Worlds. The K'Kree are a very alien race and rather unlike most of the nonhuman aliens encountered in popular science fiction.
That's a big part of why I hold Alien Module 2 in such high regard. At the same time, there's no denying that the K'Kree aren't really suitable for use as player characters – at least not easily. The module includes rules for doing so, along with an adventure designed to be used with K'Kree player characters. However, in my experience, it's just not practical in the long term, since K'Kree travel in large numbers, saddling a group of PCs with lots of additional servants, followers, family, and hangers-on that can get in the way of ordinary play.
Of course, that's the price for creating a genuinely alien species, with an unusual society, culture, and psychology. The K'Kree do, however, make for very memorable NPCs and in that role they're among the most interesting beings in Charted Space. The Traveller campaign in which I'm playing is set in a region of space not far from the Two Thousand Worlds and, while we've not yet run into the K'Kree directly, their presence is nevertheless felt. Indeed, the player characters have some trepidation about the possibility that these militant vegetarians might one day take notice of what's happening in our little corner of the universe. Good times!
The closest analog I can think of in SF literature would be the Puppeteers from Larry Niven's Known Space who are also herbivorous herd-animals, but they are quite different in other regards.
ReplyDeleteTotally sounds like Puppeteers, down to the xenophobia (albeit for different reasons). I only got to read the species books once in my youth, and before I discovered Ringworld, or I would have made the connection instantly.
DeleteThe "cow-bears" (or "Bovursids" as the academics insist they should be called) from Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier series are similar, but smaller, 4-limbed, isolationist and intensely homicidal toward other species that might encounter them.
ReplyDeleteThe closest I ever came to actually running a MegaTraveller game back in the day was when I picked up Digest Group's The MegaTraveller Journal #4 (March 1993). The majority of the issue was dedicated to an adventure called Lords of Thunder by William H. Keith Jr. It took place in the Gateway Sector and used the K'Kree's obsession with the G'naak as the backbone of what could be an entire campaign.
ReplyDeleteI also have a soft spot for these really weird aliens. When I read "Lords of Thunder" I wanted to run that game, at once! It was the closest I ever got to make Traveller work for me. Maybe one day...
ReplyDeleteOne challenge I had with the K'Kree was how their size and need for space doesn't mesh well with Classic Traveller's small ship universe. Of course in a large ship universe it's not so bad.
ReplyDeleteIt makes them very hard to use as a PC species, but they make fairly excellent NPCs - usually quite hostile NPCs. Which is fine, really. A game doesn't have to allow players to play as every sophont in the setting, despite the modern design trends.
DeleteThe "needs elbow room" thing (but not the herd instinct that further complicates it) reminds me of one of the factions from the old Galactic Empires collectable card game. The Gekonauk ships literally all had a single (very large, hyper-capable) crew member, one who kept growing throughout their long lifespans, enlarging their vessel/home as needed. The "little" destroyers were just kids, relatively speaking, while the elders all flew around in dreadnoughts and battleships. Merely horse-sized K'kree have it easy in comparison. :)
One of our old Traveller campaigns flipped the table on the K'kree and made them the victims of a dietary intolerance crusade from a civilization of homebrew aliens who were just contacting the fringes of their territory. Turns out being a vegetarian goes over poorly with sophonts who mostly live on photosynthesis. Mind you, they hated meat-eaters too, but the centaurs were first on the hit list due to stellar geography.
ReplyDeleteTo see some musings about that game from a minis gamer angle, see my blog posts:
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/01/full-thrust-ergovore-crusader-squadron.html
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/01/full-thrust-ergovore-crusader-warspheres.html