McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

creating monsters/beings

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Quantus:

--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on May 06, 2013, 02:29:19 PM ---With aliens, you have a bunch of real world physics and biology constraints to deal with.  They are a lot of fun if you can do them, but it's a complicated challenge.  Fantasy-type monsters give you a wider range of options.  (I am trying to remember which RPG firm has an internal monster-design flowchart of which the first question is "Did a mad wizard create it ?", with the "Yes" arrow leading to a box reading "NO THEY #@*!ING DIDN"T" and then rejoining the "No" arrow.)

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True, though the extents of those limitations depends on how hard the science is in your Sci-fi story.  ESP powers and exotic materials or alien compounds can be substituted for Magic in many cases without delving too deep into the hard science of it all, and can serve the same plot functions.  I mostly meant if you think of them from the Magic Aliens POV instead of mythological creatures you dont have the cultural inclination to want to go out and base everything on some historically accurate myth.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Quantus on May 06, 2013, 02:40:14 PM ---True, though the extents of those limitations depends on how hard the science is in your Sci-fi story.  ESP powers and exotic materials or alien compounds can be substituted for Magic in many cases without delving too deep into the hard science of it all, and can serve the same plot functions. 

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Meeeh.  I have a genetics degree; I personally find books doing that basically unreadable on suspension of disbelief grounds, so I'm not the best person to express an opinion on making them work because they kind of inherently don't for me.

spywolf:
what if they biologically worked?/ were fantercy creatures not aliens that were made up
those would be okay?

Quantus:

--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on May 07, 2013, 06:02:22 PM ---Meeeh.  I have a genetics degree; I personally find books doing that basically unreadable on suspension of disbelief grounds, so I'm not the best person to express an opinion on making them work because they kind of inherently don't for me.

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Hehe, fair enough.  I prefer to go with the Hitchhikers Guide definition of Alien Life, which includes everything up to a Super-intelligent shade of Blue they bring out in a prism for special occasions.  No Genetics required  :)

Galvatron:
I enjoy made up creatures, you can make them work in your world as long as you know what they are and are not capable of doing, and have the rules for them worked out.

I think there is a fine line between too much and too little detail and you have to find what works for you and what you can make work.

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