D&D 'aliens' - halp please

[Mr Beer]

So I'm running a campaign, using GURPS as an engine and old school AD&D/Greyhawk as the setting. I'm going to run Expedition to Barrier Peaks, which is a great opportunity to leverage GURPS because I can take all the stats for lasers and other high tech straight out of the sourcebooks.

Anyway, my problem is that some of the monsters on the crashed spaceship are theoretically aliens interred by the deceased crew but in the module are classic D&D monsters such as mindflayers, intellect devourers etc. This is non-canonical IMO for Greyhawk and I'd like to swap them out with some non-D&D aliens, preferably non-sentient or of middling intellect.

Any suggestions?

[KillianHawkeye]

Non-D&D aliens?

You can go with your classic gray aliens or little green space men. You can throw an E.T. in there if you want a kinda dumb alien. Or you can go with facehuggers/xenomorphs if you want your players to drop a load in their pants. Or throw them a curve ball with mogwai/gremlins; they're enough like aliens to fool most people (just don't feed them after midnight).

Basically just steal from pop culture and see how long it takes them to notice.

[hamishspence]

If you want to minimise the amount of work you need to do, taking them straight off the D20 Modern SRD would be a start.

Star Dopplegangers, for example, are the D20 version of John Carpenter's version of The Thing.

[Honest Tiefling]

+1 to Xenomorphs as long as you aren't playing in a gaming store or other public place, through I guess those are pretty smart. But I gotta ask, why swamp 'em out?

[Scow2]

Actually, Mind Flayers are extremely fitting in the greyhawk setting canon as Aliens.

Isn't "Expedition to Barrier Peaks" default setting Greyhawk in the first place?

[Feytalist]

Kaorti or any pseudonatural creature would work I think.

Anything from the Far Realms could work well as aliens probably.

[Trickquestion]

What a coincidence! I have been working on a scenario extremely similar to this, though it's an entire warship that's been lost in this neck of the galaxy, instead of just one flying saucer. In my scenario, the warship in question is commanded by a renegade Sith Lord (The Old Republic period) who travels around the universe, looking for alien species he can convert into weapons. The weapons on the ship have been scaled down to accommodate more laboratories, living space, and hangers for bigger ships (to bring larger batches of test subjects aboard at once), all to provide a good reason why they won't just slag the planet through orbital bombardment if things get bad. So far, the Sith Lord has acquired a Sontaran cloning pod, a Cyberman conversion module, and a handful of Dalek travel machines. He has loyal Sith-aligned Sontarans and Cybermen to serve as shock troops, but hasn't quite figured out how to adopt the Dalek travel machines. That's going to be the final boss, by the way- A Sith Lord with his brain implanted in an indestructible Dalek case. I also want him to have the hilariously cheesy Robot Monster (the gorilla suit with a diving helmet on top) but I'm still torn if I should only have one as a joke, or use them as repeating enemies.

[Mr Beer]

Thanks all for responding, I love the xenomorph idea and I think this has to be done. There's really no point in having a bunch of dangerously high tech energy weapons and explosives if you're not going to fire them off in a confined space filled with sneaky ravenous monsters with hyperacid for blood.

Isn't "Expedition to Barrier Peaks" default setting Greyhawk in the first place?

Yes.

Actually, Mind Flayers are extremely fitting in the greyhawk setting canon as Aliens.

I don't think so, this ship popped in from another universe. The implication is the aliens on board were collected from that universe. So why are they mind flayers, illithids etc.?

Now the module backstory effectively says "some of these creatures escaped and are now reproducing in the wild", so that works for some of the less well known/classic D&D monsters, such as the Froghemoth they have on board. But mindflayers have a venerable history on Greyhawk.

[Mr Beer]

What a coincidence! I have been working on a scenario extremely similar to this, though it's an entire warship that's been lost in this neck of the galaxy, instead of just one flying saucer. In my scenario, the warship in question is commanded by a renegade Sith Lord (The Old Republic period) who travels around the universe, looking for alien species he can convert into weapons. The weapons on the ship have been scaled down to accommodate more laboratories, living space, and hangers for bigger ships (to bring larger batches of test subjects aboard at once), all to provide a good reason why they won't just slag the planet through orbital bombardment if things get bad. So far, the Sith Lord has acquired a Sontaran cloning pod, a Cyberman conversion module, and a handful of Dalek travel machines. He has loyal Sith-aligned Sontarans and Cybermen to serve as shock troops, but hasn't quite figured out how to adopt the Dalek travel machines. That's going to be the final boss, by the way- A Sith Lord with his brain implanted in an indestructible Dalek case. I also want him to have the hilariously cheesy Robot Monster (the gorilla suit with a diving helmet on top) but I'm still torn if I should only have one as a joke, or use them as repeating enemies.

That sounds like a pretty sweet game.

[Scow2]

I don't think so, this ship popped in from another universe. The implication is the aliens on board were collected from that universe. So why are they mind flayers, illithids etc.?

Now the module backstory effectively says "some of these creatures escaped and are now reproducing in the wild", so that works for some of the less well known/classic D&D monsters, such as the Froghemoth they have on board. But mindflayers have a venerable history on Greyhawk.

The reason they're illithids is because, frankly, Illithids are aliens from another dimension, who came to Oerth/other prime material planes to escape their dying universe.

The ship that crashed in the Barrier Peaks may have come from a different point in the Cosmic Illithid Empire than the 'native' refugees.

[Mr Beer]

The reason they're illithids is because, frankly, Illithids are aliens from another dimension, who came to Oerth/other prime material planes to escape their dying universe.

The ship that crashed in the Barrier Peaks may have come from a different point in the Cosmic Illithid Empire than the 'native' refugees.

Maybe. It just feels lazy, that's all.

EDIT

Too much of a coincidence, they picked up mindflayers and then they crash in Greyhawk and oh look, we have mindflayers here as well.

Also, mindflayers are lethal geniuses, I don't understand why they were collected in the first place and haven't been able to break out since.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

I don't think so, this ship popped in from another universe. The implication is the aliens on board were collected from that universe. So why are they mind flayers, illithids etc.?

You could pull the Quori from the Eberron Campaign Setting if you're looking for D&D rules for alien mosters. They're pretty good matches.

A few things from the Monster Manual IV can also make good aliens: the Balhannoth, Defacer, Nashrou, Demonhive (assorted monsters), Joystealer, Lodestone Marauder, Magerippers, Nagath, Necrosis Carnex, Quanlos, Vitreous Drinker, Windblade, Wrackspawn, Voor, and Zern (including Zern Experiments and Zern Brood Thralls) are all great contenders for alien beings that most players aren't familiar with.

The Balhannoth, Nashrou, Mageripper, Voor, and Zer (and Zern associated monsters) are the best fit for aliens, in my opinion.

[Mr Beer]

You could pull the Quori from the Eberron Campaign Setting if you're looking for D&D rules for alien mosters. They're pretty good matches.

A few things from the Monster Manual IV can also make good aliens: the Balhannoth, Defacer, Nashrou, Demonhive (assorted monsters), Joystealer, Lodestone Marauder, Magerippers, Nagath, Necrosis Carnex, Quanlos, Vitreous Drinker, Windblade, Wrackspawn, Voor, and Zern (including Zern Experiments and Zern Brood Thralls) are all great contenders for alien beings that most players aren't familiar with.

The Balhannoth, Nashrou, Mageripper, Voor, and Zer (and Zern associated monsters) are the best fit for aliens, in my opinion.

I'm starting to think I should pick up and learn a later iteration than AD&D. The names along sell these.

[Brookshw]

Kythons could be a good fit if you're looking to port in something already built for d20.

[Starshade]

Hm, use Call of Cthulhu ish monsters, Elder Things, Mi-Go, and the Great race of Yith?

Hm, an other idea i though of, is to use something from Spelljammer, but I don't know that aD&D edition that well. Neogi perhaps?

[Set]

If there are 3.X conversions of some of the Spelljammer races (particularly the ones that are direct converts from Star Frontier, like Rastipedes or whatever-the-Sathar-riff was), you could use those races.

Neogi were pretty darn 'alien' for that matter.

Some conversions here.

Other critters never really got converted, AFAIK, like the web-birds, which you could just stat up as hawks able to throw a single tanglefoot bag 1/day, allowing them to immobilize / entangle prey before swooping down and attacking it.