TEXT: Stock #37-2627
  
  Editor-in-Chief T STEVE JACKSON
  Chief Operating Officer T PHILIP REED
  Art Director T WILL SCHOONOVER
  e23 Manager T STEVEN MARSH
  GURPS Line Editor T SEAN PUNCH
  Editorial Assistant T JASON “PK” LEVINE
  Production Artist T NIKOLA VRTIS
  Prepress Checker T MONICA STEPHENS
  Page Design T PHIL REED and
  JUSTIN DE WITT
  Marketing Director T PAUL CHAPMAN
  Director of Sales T ROSS JEPSON
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  2
  JANUARY 2011
  COVER ART
  Bob Stevlic
  INTERIOR ART
  Greg Hyland
  CONTENTS
  IN THIS
  ISSUE
  Objectively looking at the laws of physics, space is scary.
  But once humanity makes it way to the stars, we may be sur-
  prised to discover we’re not the only alien creatures exploring
  the void. Who will survive the horrors’ attacks, and who will
  become some cruel creatures’ snacks?
  Straight from the deserts of Mars, the swamps of Venus, and
  other extraterrestrial points come Moondragons and Stranger
  Things. With moondragons, Martian throat-stabbers, and more,
  this bestiary (designed for the Roma Universalis timeline from
  Pyramid #3/20: Infinite Worlds but suitable for many settings)
  offers some of the more feared creatures of that solar system,
  complete with GURPS stats for a dozen different denizens.
  The Angriest Invasion of Earth begins in the shadows and
  ends with explosions – and all the emotions in between pave
  the way to feed the invaders. This generic campaign gives the
  groundwork for the GM to destroy the world. Can the heroes
  uncover the conspiracy and save the world from itself?
  As humanity explores the stars, there will be many agendas,
  some of which conflict. When greed wins out in a first contact,
  the results can be devastating, even for A Well-Armed Populace.
  This article examines the secrets, lies, and truths (including
  GURPS stats) for a new alien race.
  The biggest scares can come in the smallest packages.
  Learn what’s so awful about a snake, a virus, and a bug (each
  presented with adventure hooks and GURPS stats) – because
  In Space, No One Hears Them Crawl.
  The night extends to infinity, as shown by Creatures of the
  Void. GURPS Assistant Line Editor Jason “PK” Levine revisits
  the first two GURPS Fourth Edition Creatures of the Night
  volumes, which he co-authored. He provides insight into how
  the Earth-bound entities contained therein might be trans-
  formed for extraterrestrial terror.
  For the GM who needs to deal with creating a quick mon-
  ster for a sudden layover on a new planet, or for a hero look-
  ing for a deal on a new kind of guard dog, this issue’s bonus
  lets groups deal out random creatures with Aliens on Hand.
  Steven Marsh, Pyramid editor, looks at how to decide just
  what makes monsters in space dangerous in his Random
  Thought Table. When you need a break from the creepy-
  crawlies in the rest of this issue, head over to Odds and Ends
  for Murphy’s Rules and other fun stuff.
  Article Colors
  Each article is color-coded to help you find your
  favorite sections.
  Pale Blue: In This Issue
  Brown: In Every Issue (letters, humor, editorial, etc.)
  Dark Blue: GURPS Features
  Purple: Other Features
  FROM THE EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  MOONDRAGONS AND STRANGER THINGS . . . 4
  by Ken Spencer
  THE ANGRIEST INVASION OF EARTH . . . . . 11
  by J. Edward Tremlett
  ALIENS ON HAND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  A WELL-ARMED POPULACE . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  by Andy Vetromile
  IN SPACE, NO ONE
  HEARS THEM CRAWL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
  by Christian Nienhaus
  CREATURES OF THE VOID. . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
  by Rev. Jason “PK” Levine
  RANDOM THOUGHT TABLE:
  WHAT’S DANGEROUS
  ABOUT SPACE? NOTHING! . . . . . . . . . . 37
  by Steven Marsh, Pyramid Editor
  ODDS AND ENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  featuring Murphy’s Rules
  ABOUT GURPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
  ®
  
  99 MONSTERS TO
  KILL IN THE VOID,
  99 MONSTERS TO KILL . . .
  The cool thing about “monsters in space” is that – like
  Tabasco sauce – you can decide how much to add. The Alien
  universe only uses one type of monster (at least at first), but it’s
  a creature with enough variations and interesting bits to hang
  an entire series on. The Star Trek setting has a goodly number
  of cosmic critters, but those are not the focus of every show.
  Doctor Who has gotten a half-century out of various “monsters
  of the week,” and Men In Black crams its cosmic crannies with
  every type of life form.
  Whatever the default assumption is, mixing it up can
  heighten the horror or tension causes by the universe’s uglies.
  If there’s only one alien threat, then maybe having an adven-
  ture where something seemingly new – perhaps a mechanical
  monstrosity or a human-devised decoy – can throw the heroes
  off their game. A universe with a small number of threats
  might find them combining in new or unexpected ways (like
  the Ussp on pp. 24-30 and the Pyra on pp. 11-17). If creatures
  are peppered sporadically, perhaps a mass of monsters lumped
  into a series of adventures can portend something more sinis-
  ter behind the scenes . . . or a “dry spell” can make the heroes
  complacent for a future threat. And if the universe is teeming
  with terror, an adventure where there is absolutely nothing in
  the shadows for a change may well have the spacefarers seeing
  invisible enemies, cosmic conspiracies, and hyper-hysteria as
  they await the other shoe that never drops.
  May the slathering fangs in this issue inspire you to fill the
  dark corners of the cosmos with new types of terror!
  WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW
  Did this issue make you afraid to board your private space
  station? Or did you have different ideas for how to harness the
  horrors of the heavens? You can send your private treatises of
  terror to pyramid@sjgames.com, or accrue your accolades or
  arguments online at forums.sjgames.com.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  3
  JANUARY 2011
  FROM THE
  EDITOR
  Pyramid, GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. e23 and the names of all products
  published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license.
  Pyramid is copyright © 2011 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved.
  Submission of your photos, letters, humor, captions, and marginalia constitutes permission to Steve Jackson Games Incorporated to use them in all media.
  All such submissions become the property of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated and will not be returned.
  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this material via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please
  purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors’ rights is appreciated.
  
  VENUS
  Three words describe Venus: hot, wet, and buggy. The
  planet has Earth-like gravity and an atmosphere that is slightly
  denser – and a lot more humid – than Earth’s. Most of the
  planet is covered with jungles and low-lying swampland, with
  only a few truly dry landmasses found at the poles. The native
  life is well-adapted to a hot and wet environment, and large
  reptilian lifeforms are the most commonly encountered,
  though insects of unusual size are not uncommon.
  Ferns, cycads, gingkoes, and other plant life long extinct on
  Earth dominate Venus’ biosphere, as do lycopods, mosses, and
  horsetails. Flowering plants have not yet evolved on Venus,
  though several plant species use brightly colored and perfumed
  leaves to lure in insects for food. The fact that some of the
  plants – notably several unusual species of gingkoes – are car-
  nivorous came as quite a surprise to the first Roman explorers.
  Centurion Tullius heard sounds from deeper in the cavern –
  skittering claws across the stone. He held up one hand to signal a
  halt to the men following him. The picked men from the third cen-
  tury of IV Flavia Felix stopped, their pila at the ready, torches
  raised, and ears pricked. Somewhere below them, a moondragon
  lurked, a creature of great power and ferocity, but one also of great
  wealth. Within the beast’s gullet would be a lunar star, a diamond
  worth at least 15,000 sesterces back in Rome. If only they could
  slay the brute, they could all retire rich men.
  Tullius only had time to let out a half uttered word of warn-
  ing before a swarm of lunar bats swooped down from the cav-
  ern’s roof and swarmed the legionnaires. The shrieks of blind
  bat-things mingled with the curses of Roman soldiers, who were
  their torches about wildly. Drawn by the commotion, the moon-
  dragon charged into the fray, its sinuous 16-limbed body whip-
  ping around the combatants, slashing at man and lunar bat alike
  in a frenzy of bloodletting.
  Hours later, Tullius was busy amending the daily reports to
  show his eight companions, an entire conturbenium of men,
  were all absent from the camp with no explanation. He added to
  the report that he suspected that they had likely abandoned their
  posts to hunt moondragons for their valuable gullet stones, a loss
  to the legion. Next time, he told himself, I’ll be better prepared,
  and bring better men.
  There are things out there among the stars, things
  undreamed by humanity nestled safely in it terrestrial abode.
  Far beyond the reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, and across the
  aetherial vastness of the Divium Mare, lay worlds beyond
  understanding, and monsters well beyond strange. Herein is
  presented a look at some exotic alien beasts discovered by the
  Romans in the Roma Universalis setting featured in Pyramid
  #3/20: Infinite Worlds. Although these alien beasts are intended
  for use with that setting, they are easily transported into any
  sci-fi campaign. They would work best in a planetary romance
  campaign, but by making a few changes to their names, these
  nasties can be dropped onto any planet.
  This article describes Venus, Luna, Mars, and the asteroid
  belt as they appear in Roma Universalis. These sections pro-
  vide a planetary ecosystem within which the various monsters
  live, but they are not limited to either the named planets or the
  Roma Universalis setting. For example, Mars can be taken out
  as a whole, or part, and dropped into any sci-fi setting with just
  a quick renaming (Seti-Omega IX is a lot like Mars, or so I’ve
  heard). Each section also offers a few “stranger things” from
  that location, complete with its stats for use in GURPS Fourth
  Edition. An alphabetical list of all creatures described in this
  article appears on p. 10.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  4
  JANUARY 2011
  MOONDRAGONS
  AND STRANGER
  THINGS
  BY KEN SPENCER
  As a fun crossworlds mystery, what if some of these creatures were encountered on a different alternate world?
  
  These exotic plants have created a small industry in rare woods
  and potted Venusian plants, both of which are very popular
  among the wealthier citizens of the Empire.
  Three distinct ecosystems can be found on Venus: the
  swampy jungles (which make up most of the planetary sur-
  face), the shallow seas, and the polar highlands. Of these, the
  polar highlands are the closest to a temperate environment,
  and are the habitat of conifers and near-mammals (furred, live-
  bearing reptiles). The seas are home to a variety of cartilagi-
  nous fish and several species of bony fish that sport thick
  coverings of armor. A few species of marine reptile constitute
  the apex predators of the seas, and at least one, the romper, is
  capable of crawling onto land in search of prey.
  The jungles of Venus are legendary for their lush herba-
  ceous growth and savage animals. Of these, deathfangs are the
  most notorious: 15’-tall bipedal reptilian eating machines
  whose favorite food seems to be humans. The deathfang’s
  fabled ferocity has earned it a place in the arenas on Earth,
  most notably in the Roman Coliseum. Other dangerous ani-
  mals include Venusian dragonflies (10’-long, 100-lbs. flying
  predators) and flying leeches.
  DEATHFANGS
  The dreaded deathfang is a terror that stalks the Venusian
  jungles, fearless in its size and ferocity. Standing over 15’ tall at
  the shoulder, this bipedal reptile sports 3”-long razor-sharp
  fangs, 6” talons on its feet and forelimbs, and a wickedly pointed
  snout. Its roars have been known to panic even the bravest of
  centurions, and a rampaging deathfang is a sight no sane man
  would wish to behold. Yet the Venusian warriors hunt this mon-
  ster with wild abandon, a sign of either low intellect or courage
  beyond human understanding.
  Besides it impressive array of physical armament, the
  deathfang is most known for its brightly patterned hide. On the
  rare occasion that one is slain, the skin of the beast is quickly
  preserved and shipped to Rome, where the green-and-red
  jewel-like scales can fetch an imperial price. To date only one
  deathfang has been successfully captured alive, and that spec-
  imen broke loose during the journey to Earth and killed half of
  the sky galley’s crew before being slain.
  ST: 18
  HP: 18
  Speed: 7.50
  DX: 12
  Will: 10
  Move: 7
  IQ: 4
  Per: 13
  Weight: 2 tons
  HT: 18
  FP: 18
  SM: +3
  Dodge: 11
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 10
  Bite (15): 1d+2 impaling. Reach C.
  Claw (15): 4d+3 cutting or impaling. Reach C-2.
  Traits: Acute Smell and Taste 2; Claws (Long Talons); Combat
  Reflexes; Danger Sense; Discriminatory Smell; Striking ST
  15 (Claws only); Teeth (Fangs); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-15; Tracking-12.
  FLYING LEECHES
  Considering the size of the Venusian dragonfly and the
  dreaded deathfang, it is surprising that the natives of the
  Venusian jungles face the flying leech with the most apprehen-
  sion. This small, worm-like creature only measures an inch
  long at most, but can be found nearly everywhere outside of
  the temperate polar regions. The flying leech uses a pair of gos-
  samer wings to rise out of the bogs and attach itself to its prey.
  After attachment, it secretes a powerful narcotic that induces
  feelings of lethargy and euphoria in its victims. Once subdued,
  the leech gorges itself on its prey’s blood, and then drops off to
  digest this liquid meal. The prey, now abandoned, faces further
  peril in the form of any wandering predator who now can
  move in and gain an easy meal, provided that another leech
  doesn’t fly up and latch on to it. Flying leech colonies can often
  be spotted if one pays attention for groups of slumbering ani-
  mals and piles of rotted carcasses.
  ST: 1
  HP: 1
  Speed: 4.25
  DX: 12
  Will: 10
  Move: 4 (Ground)/8 (Air)
  IQ: 1
  Per: 12
  Weight: 3 ounces
  HT: 5
  FP: 5
  SM: -10
  Dodge: 8
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 0
  Blood-Draining Bite (14): Grapple; Reach C. This must target
  bare skin. On subsequent turns, 1d fatigue/turn, with symp-
  toms of ecstasy after losing 2/3 HP.
  Traits: Flight (Winged); Horizontal; Fatigue Attack 1d (see
  above); Invertebrate; Wild Animal.
  Skills: Acrobatics-12; Brawling-14.
  VENUSIAN DRAGONFLIES
  These giant dragonflies are a common sight in the jungles
  of Venus, and are a danger to explorers. With bodies reaching
  a length of 10’, and wingspans of over 40’, the Venusian
  Dragonfly is the largest insect in the solar system. It is a fierce
  hunter and preys on all manner of large animal life, including
  humans and Venusians. These predators are covered in thick
  chitinous armor, and attack using a formidable set of
  mandibles, plus their six talon-tipped legs. In coloration, they
  range from light blue to dark green, and often sport bright
  gem-like mottling along their thorax.
  ST: 15
  HP: 15
  Speed: 6.00
  DX: 14
  Will: 5
  Move: 6 (Ground)/12 (Air)
  IQ: 2
  Per: 12
  Weight: 130 lbs.
  HT: 10
  FP: 10
  SM: +2*
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  5
  JANUARY 2011
  In a campaign set earlier in Roma Universalis’ timeline (or tweaked a bit), the heroes might get the honor of naming
  one of the beasts from this article. If using this technique, be careful when introducing the critters to use descriptions only!
  At his best, Man is the noblest of
  animals; separated from law and
  justice, he is the worst.
  – Aristotle
  
  LUNA
  The moon is a cold, dry wasteland, nearly devoid of life.
  There is no water on the surface, and little atmosphere to speak
  of (atmospheric pressure is low, but the composition is similar
  to Earth’s). Beneath the surface, however, it is a different story.
  Luna is honeycombed with a vast network of caverns and tun-
  nels that are filled with a rich, vibrant ecosystem. Pools of
  water, underground streams, and even whole caverns filled
  with liquid allow life to thrive in the sublunarian world.
  Fields of fungus cover the floors and walls of the caverns,
  and bizarre floating plants fill the empty spaces. Creatures sim-
  ilar to Terrestrial insects abound, though their physiology is
  decidedly different. All lunar life is blind, and a variety of
  ingenious ways to compensate for life in perpetual darkness
  have been developed. Larger creatures, such as moondragons
  and lunar bats use a natural sonar, or echolocation, to navigate
  the tunnels and find food. Smaller animals rely on enhanced
  senses of hearing or smell, though some (such as the Antonius
  crab-mite) exhibit a natural ability to sense the plants they live
  on and the prey they feed on. Another peculiarity of lunar life
  is the seeming excess of limbs. Most of the native creatures of
  the moon possess upwards of five pairs of limbs, and some
  have even more.
  The most dangerous creature of the sublunarian world is
  the dreaded moondragon. These creatures roam the caverns,
  eating any tasty morsel that crosses their path. Lunar cen-
  tipedes are the moondragons’ favorite food, but they will not
  refuse a particularly large lunar bat, or even a human foolish
  enough to stray into the depths.
  Not all of the dangerous sublunarian life are animals, as a
  mobile and deadly carnivorous fungus has recently been discov-
  ered in the lower caverns. The carnivorous mold is a carpet of
  whitish slime growths that undulates along the cavern floors, or
  in some reported cases, flies through the air by flapping its entire
  body. The mold drops from above onto its victims, seeking to
  suffocate them by enveloping their mouths and nostrils with its
  pulpy flesh. Rumors abound that the emperor keeps a special
  chamber in the Empire’s lunar base, Urbus Luna, filled with
  these predatory molds purely for the disposal of his enemies.
  Dodge: 12
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 1
  Bite (14): 2d-1 crushing. Reach C, 1.
  Claws (14): 1d+2 impaling. Reach C, 1.
  Traits: Acute Vision 4; Claws (Long Talons); Cold-Blooded
  (65°F); Crushing Striker (Mandibles; Cannot Parry; Limited
  Arc, Front); Enhanced Dodge 3; Extra Attack 4; Extra Legs
  (Eight legs; Long, Can step over SM -2 or smaller creatures
  without needing to evade); Flight (Winged); Horizontal;
  Peripheral Vision; Striking ST 2; Temperature Tolerance 1
  (65°F to 130°F); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Acrobatics-14; Brawling-14; Flight-10; Tracking-12.
  * Wings are targeted as SM +5.
  VENUSIAN ROMPERS
  The romper is an amphibious marine reptile that received
  its name from Tribune Lepidus Gracchus Gaius. He apparently
  commented after an encounter that killed three legionaries
  and two Venusian warriors that the beast came out of the sea
  and romped through his men. Although seemingly bereft of
  linguistic skills, Gaius had proved to be a formidable warrior
  and slew the creature by thrusting his gladius through its head
  (and only losing a leg in the process).
  The romper possesses four sets of limbs – two pairs of fins,
  and two pairs of short, stout legs. When at sea, the beast’s legs
  fold into recesses in its ventral side, while on land the fins fold
  back to lie along its flanks.
  Rompers are large, with most specimens measuring from 15’
  to 20’ in length, and weighing around 1,300 lbs. The creature
  hunts large prey, both in the ocean and on the shore, and has
  been found as far as two miles inland. It skin is thick and pro-
  vides suitable armor, especially along its head and forequarters.
  The romper’s head is long and filled with wickedly sharp back-
  ward-curving teeth, well-suited to grasping and slicing prey. In
  color, its hide ranges from an olive grey on its back, to a whitish
  grey on its ventral surfaces.
  ST: 18
  HP: 18
  Speed: 6.50
  DX: 14
  Will: 10
  Move: 6 (Ground)/6 (Water)
  IQ: 4
  Per: 14
  Weight: 1,300 lbs.
  HT: 12
  FP: 12
  SM: +3
  Dodge: 9
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 5*
  Bite (16): 1d+2 cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Acute Sight 2; Acute Taste and Smell 3; Amphibious;
  Cold-Blooded (65°F); Horizontal; No Fine Manipulators;
  Teeth (Sharp); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-16; Tracking-14.
  * +3 DR on skull, face, and front of torso.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  6
  JANUARY 2011
  You can “deal” up a makeshift lunar base using the cards from Pyramid #3/6: Space Colony Alpha. That issue may
  provide other inspiration for building a new home among the stars!
  Adventure Inspiration
  For a change of pace, consider the myths of ancient
  Greece in the light of the Divium Mare and Elixir of
  Daedalus. What if the Golden Fleece was on Luna,
  guarded by a moondragon? Perhaps the Martians trav-
  eled to Earth in the distant past, tinkered with terrestrial
  life, and produced minotaurs, griffins, sphinxes, hydras,
  and other mythological creatures.
  
  CARNIVOROUS MOLD
  One of the many dangers of the sublunarian world, the car-
  nivorous mold is a quiet threat to all who delve into the cav-
  erns inside Luna. Not really an animal, but a fungal colony that
  pushes the boundary of animal and plant, the carnivorous
  mold is a whitefish-grey mass that looks like a fuzzy carpet. It
  moves by undulating along the floors, walls, and ceilings of
  caverns, or in some rare specimens, flying.
  The carnivorous mold attacks by dropping onto its prey and
  suffocating it. This process is aided by a potent nerve toxin that
  paralyzes its prey. The mold then extrudes feeding threads into
  the prey’s body and slowly consumes it.
  ST: 2
  HP: 2
  Speed: 5.75
  DX: 15
  Will: 10
  Move: 5 (Ground)/10 (Air)
  IQ: 1
  Per: 14
  Weight: 5 lbs
  HT: 8
  FP: 8
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 8
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 0
  Toxic Aura (N/A): 2d fatigue (roll HT-5 to resist), with symp-
  toms of paralysis after losing 1/2 HP. Anyone grappled by
  the mold must roll every second, and only sealed or force-
  field DR applies.
  Traits: Blindness; Constriction Attack; G-Intolerance (0.05 G);
  Horizontal; Invertebrate; No Manipulators; Scanning Sense
  (Sonar); Toxic Attack 2d (Aura; Blood Agent; Melee Attack
  C; Fatigue; Resistible, HT-5); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Acrobatics-16; Brawling-16; Wrestling-16.
  Notes: Not all specimens can fly. Native gravity is 0.8 G.
  LUNAR CENTIPEDES
  While not nearly as well-known or as fearsome as the
  moondragon, the lunar centipede is a monster in its own
  right. Reaching lengths of upwards of 30’, and massing
  around 400 lbs., this normally docile fungivore only poses a
  danger to others when startled. If threatened, the lunar cen-
  tipede releases a cloud of noxious gas and attempts to scuttle
  away on its many legs. If cornered, the beast will turn to
  bring its massive mandibles to bear on its attackers. Lunar
  centipedes are becoming a delicacy, and its flesh has been
  compared favorably to that of lobster.
  ST: 14
  HP: 14
  Speed: 5.50
  DX: 12
  Will: 10
  Move: 5
  IQ: 2
  Per: 12
  Weight: 1,300 lbs.
  HT: 10
  FP: 10
  SM: +4
  Dodge: 8
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 10
  Bite (14): 1d cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Blindness; Extra Legs (50 legs); G-Intolerance (0.05 G);
  Horizontal; Scanning Sense (Sonar); Teeth (Sharp); Wild
  Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-14; Tracking-12.
  Notes: Native gravity is 0.8 G.
  MOONDRAGONS
  Moondragons are 16-limbed, serpentine animals that hunt
  the caverns and tunnels beneath the surface of Luna. Their bod-
  ies are long and sinuous, often stretching for 30’ or more, but are
  narrow, and it is a rare specimen that exceeds 3’ in diameter.
  A moondragon’s limbs have five joints each, and are evenly
  spaced around its body in groups of four, thus allowing it to
  cling to any surface it encounters. Each limb ends in a three-
  digit appendage tipped with sharp claws. All of these limbs dou-
  ble as locomotion or manipulative appendages. A moondragon
  can thus grasp prey at any point along its body. Like most of the
  native animals of Luna, moondragons are blind, but possess
  sensitive hearing and natural sonar.
  Moondragons are the apex feeders of the sublunarian ecosys-
  tem. Like most large predators, they happily taking the kill from
  smaller creatures. They hunt by ambushing their prey and slash-
  ing with their knife-like teeth. Prey that passes too close a moon-
  dragon’s body may be grabbed by one or more clawed limbs,
  and held until the teeth-filled mouth can be brought to bear. Due
  to the hunters’ large size, prey that can escape into small tunnels
  can easily get away from moondragons.
  Moondragons do not fare well outside of the thin atmos-
  phere and low gravity of Luna, and none have yet survived the
  journey to Earth long enough to participate in the Games.
  Their main value are lunar stars: diamond-like stones formed
  in the beast’s gullet. Moondragons consume fist-sized rocks to
  act as gullet stones; over the years, the moondragon’s digestive
  juices produce a lustrous and semi-transparent stone that
  shows several layers of brightly colored strata.
  ST: 25
  HP: 25
  Speed: 8.00
  DX: 19
  Will: 10
  Move: 8
  IQ: 4
  Per: 12
  Weight: 2 tons
  HT: 13
  FP: 12
  SM: +4
  Dodge: 11
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 14
  Bite (19): 2d+1 cutting. Reach C.
  Claws (19): 5d-1 cutting or impaling. Reach C-3.
  Traits: Acute Hearing 3; Blindness; Claws (Long Talons); Cling-
  ing; Extra Attack 8; Extra Arms 14 (Extra-Flexible; Foot
  Manipulators); Flexibility (Double-Jointed); G-Intolerance
  (0.05 G); Horizontal; Scanning Sense (Sonar); Striking ST 12
  (Claws only); Super Climbing 2; Teeth (Sharp); Vibration
  Sense (Air); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-19; Climbing-19; Tracking-13.
  Notes: Native gravity is 0.8 G.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  7
  JANUARY 2011
  Great deeds are usually wrought at
  great risk.
  – Herodotus
  A sinister contagion can only be cured using an elixir crafted with one key ingredient: blood from a moondragon.
  This probably inspires the heroes to ask: “How much more dangerous is this plague?!”
  
  Mars is a hot and dry planet, crisscrossed with highlands
  and cut by a network of canals. Most of the native life can be
  found in one of three ecosystems, the highlands, the canal
  zones, and the temperate polar regions. A fourth region – the
  high desert – bears some mentioning as it covers 40% of the
  planet’s surface. As an ecosystem, the high desert is almost
  entirely devoid of water, and thus life. A few small oases dot the
  landscape, and often support micro-ecosystems that contain
  animals similar to those found in the canal zones. These oases
  are often either seasonal or short lived, and it is not unusual to
  find several species making a migration across the wastes in
  search of a new habitat. One animal – the red-eyed thalx – does
  spend the entirety of its lifecycle in the high desert, preying on
  migrating wildlife.
  Highland animals tend to fall into one of two broad cate-
  gories: those who make a permanent habitation in one fertile
  area, and those who wander from area to area in search of
  food, water, and shelter. Due to the high daytime temperatures
  (often in excess of 130° F during the summer months), the vast
  majority of highland life lies dormant during the day, entering
  a period of activity at night. Nightfall in the highlands is a
  beautiful sight, with leaves unfolding and insects buzzing in
  the cooler night air. It is at night that browsers, such as the hill
  egret, and their hunters, such as the golden-eyed thalx, prowl
  the conifers and succulent trees of the highlands.
  The canal zones support an ecosystem that takes advantage
  of the abundant water flowing through the canals from the
  polar regions. Plants abound, as do the animals that feed on or
  live in them. Canal brush, a tall spreading succulent, is the
  dominant species of plant, and is the home to canal voles, var-
  ious insects, and Martian walking fish. As the dominant pred-
  ator, Tiberius’ wolves are common sights in the lands around
  the canals. The canal zones are also home to one of the more
  dangerous native Martian animals, the Martian throat-stabber.
  This animal resembles a six-limbed bat, with a long sharp pro-
  boscis. The throat-stabber lurks on the walls of the great
  canals, and hunts by dropping down, beak first, at its prey,
  impaling it on its proboscis and then draining it of bodily flu-
  ids. Many incautious explorers have died thusly, an alien crea-
  ture imbedded in their neck.
  The Martians are masters of biotechnology, and according
  to their records, they are much older than humanity. These two
  factors combine to produce a certain amount of confusion
  with regards to the native life of Mars. Which animals and
  plants are natural, and which are the result of millennia of
  Martian genetic manipulation? For example, the Martian glow
  bat is one of the few animals active during the day, and is often
  seen flitting about and sucking nutrients from cacti and other
  succulents. At night, the glow bat roosts inside homes, where
  its bioluminescent wings provide light. Obviously, the glow bat
  was bioengineered to be a living light bulb, but it spends half
  of its life in the wild as part of the natural ecosystem.
  MARTIAN THROAT-STABBERS
  Of all the weird and wonderful creatures of Mars, the throat-
  stabber is by far the least appreciated. The dreaded thalx is pop-
  ular in the Games, and is much feared by those who venture into
  the highlands and desert, but more Martians and humans are
  slain every year by throat-stabbers than any other native
  Martian creature (the medal for total annual kills goes to
  humans). This odd little creature is barely larger than two hands,
  and weighs from 3-6 lbs. Its red-colored skin and fur help it to
  blend into the rock that makes up the canal walls. Whole
  colonies of these creatures can be found clinging to the canal
  walls, as well as the walls of abandoned structures, the insides of
  caves, and the undersides of ledges. When it detects prey
  approaching below them, the throat-stabber releases itself from
  its roost and glides toward the victim, its bat-like wings out-
  spread and its six legs tucked in tight. Once above its intended
  prey, the throat-stabber folds it wings and plummets, proboscis
  first, at the poor victim’s weakest exposed point. After the kill,
  the throat-stabber lets out an ear-splitting shriek, which sum-
  mons the rest of the colony to the feast.
  ST: 8
  HP: 8
  Speed: 5.75
  DX: 15
  Will: 6
  Move: 5 (Ground)/10 (Air)
  IQ: 4
  Per: 12
  Weight: 5 lbs.
  HT: 8
  FP: 8
  SM: -3
  Dodge: 10
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 0
  Stab (16): 3d(2) impaling. Reach C.
  Traits: Enhanced Dodge 2; Extra Legs (Six legs; Cannot Kick);
  Flight 1 (Cannot Hover; Controlled Gliding; Winged); Hori-
  zontal; Impaling Attack 3d (see above); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Acrobatics-16; Brawling-16.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  8
  JANUARY 2011
  Today in the arena – a
  special attraction! A rare red
  thalx from Mars is faced
  against two hungry lions!
  Following will be the execution
  of criminals by a pack of
  Tiberius’ wolves, fresh from
  Mars and ready for blood!
  For descriptions of some of the many creatures designed by Martians to improve their world, see Martian Tech in
  Pyramid #3/24: Bio-Tech.
  MARS
  
  THE ASTEROID BELT
  The asteroids belt contains pockets of life in the caverns and
  craters of the larger bodies. Most of the asteroids are too small
  to support life of any significant size, however vicious diseases
  and parasites are not unheard of. The larger asteroids have
  extensive caves within them, and ecosystems similar to that of
  the sublunarian caverns. Other bodies have pockets of atmos-
  phere, some dangerously exotic, that contain entire ecosys-
  tems in a crater spanning bubble of gas.
  Among the strange and terrifying beasts found in and on the
  asteroids, the most distressing and dangerous is the aptly named
  asteroid beast. This creature is of immense size, and lairs coiled
  in the deepest caverns. Its serpentine body can reach lengths of
  over a mile, and its jaws are as large as a small hill. Asteroid
  beasts prey on aetherial skimmers, gargantuan creatures that
  glide between the asteroids, feeding off of swarms of small ani-
  mals and ambient energy.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  9
  JANUARY 2011
  THALX
  Of all the native creatures of Mars, the thalx is the one most
  well-known to the common citizen of the Empire. This six-
  limbed reptilian hunter is a favorite of the arenas, mostly due
  to its ferocious appearance and irritable nature. There are sev-
  eral subspecies of thalx, each adapted to a different portion of
  the Martian ecosystem, but the most commonly encountered is
  the golden-eyed thalx, notable for its deep-red scales and fold-
  ing head crest.
  Their digestive processes are geared entirely to meat, and
  handlers at the Coliseum in Rome have noted that thalx fare
  best on live food. Thalx are chasers who prefer to run down
  prey, tripping their potential meal before gripping its neck in a
  suffocating bite.
  All thalx possess similar traits, namely a long and high
  slung six-limbed body covered in tough scales. These legs end
  in eight toes, each tipped with a sharp talon. Each limb aids in
  the creatures locomotion, and a thalx can quickly move from a
  stand to a fast run. The head of the beast is wedge-shaped, and
  its mouth is filled with scissor like teeth, the better to tear and
  rend flesh. A thalx’s eyes sit high on its head, and give the crea-
  ture an excellent field of view.
  Although similar in appearance to Terrestrial or Venusian
  reptiles, the thalx is a different creature entirely. It regulates its
  body temperature as a mammal would, and births live young.
  ST: 19
  HP: 19
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 13
  Will: 12
  Move: 6
  IQ: 4
  Per: 12
  Weight: 250 lbs.
  HT: 12
  FP: 15
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 10
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 4
  Bite (15): 2d cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Acute Hearing 2; Acute Taste and Smell 4; Combat
  Reflexes; Extra Legs (Six legs; Cannot Kick); Discrimina-
  tory Smell; Horizontal; Night Vision 2; Peripheral Vision;
  Teeth (Sharp); Temperature Tolerance 1 (74°F to 141°F);
  Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-15; Tracking-15.
  Notes: There are various subspecies of thalx, most denoted by
  their color. The statistics above are for the common golden-
  eyed thalx; the red-eyed thalx of the high desert is smaller,
  whereas the green-eyed thalx of the canal zones is larger.
  Vary ST and HT according to the subspecies.
  TIBERIUS’ WOLVES
  Not a true wolf, the Tiberius’ wolf is native to the high deserts
  and canal lands of Mars. The creature gets its name from its
  behavior, for only the most imaginative could see a wolf in this
  slathering ball of fur and fang. Tiberus’ wolves live and hunt in
  packs, similar to Terran wolves, and are known to attack lone
  travelers, farm animals, and even full-grown Martians.
  Like the Martians, Tiberius’ wolves are six-limbed and pos-
  sess a 2’-diameter, round, fury body. Each limb ends in a clawed
  paw-like hoof capable of slashing open a man’s flesh, or caving
  in his chest. Four prehensile stalks extend from the center of the
  body, three tipped with the equivalent of eyes and ears, while the
  fourth contains the sense of smell and the beast’s genitalia.
  ST: 10
  HP: 10
  Speed: 6.00
  DX: 12
  Will: 11
  Move: 6
  IQ: 4
  Per: 14
  Weight: 120 lbs.
  HT: 12
  FP: 12
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 9
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 1
  Bite (14): 1d-2 cutting. Reach C.
  Claws (14): 1d-2 cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: 360˚ Vision; Claws (Sharp); Discriminatory Smell;
  Extra Legs (Six legs); Horizontal; Night Vision 2; No Fine
  Manipulators; Teeth (Sharp); Temperature Tolerance
  (Native comfort zone 110˚ F); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-14; Tracking-14.
  Lots of real-world information on the Red Planet can be found in GURPS Mars. Of course, how closely that
  information matches up might prove surprising to off-world visitors!
  Everything has a natural
  explanation. The moon is not
  a god, but a great rock, and
  the sun is a hot rock.
  – Anaxagoras
  
  AETHERIAL SKIMMERS
  Largest of the animals that frequent the Divium Mare, the
  aetherial skimmer is approximately the size of a blue whale,
  though size is where any comparison ends. The beast’s body is
  a round, bulbous mass that contains its nervous and digestive
  systems. This mass is surrounded by a halo of tentacles, some
  reaching nearly 90’ in length, which it uses to feed. The longest
  of the tentacles end in a flared membrane, which the aetherial
  skimmer uses to propel itself across the void, and to gather the
  small animals that congregate near the smaller orbiting bod-
  ies. The shorter tentacles are used for locomotion on aster-
  oidean surfaces, as well as grasping larger prey. It is unknown
  how these bizarre creatures reproduce, though some philoso-
  phers have suggested that they are parthenogenic.
  ST: 700
  HP: 700
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 10
  Will: 1
  Move: 24,576 (Space Flight)
  IQ: 1
  Per: 10
  Weight: 2,000-3,000 tons
  HT: 15
  FP: 15
  SM: +10
  Dodge: 9
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 150
  Tentacle (12): 6d¥12 crushing. Reach C-30.
  Grapple (10): No damage, but will pull victim inside skimmer,
  where he takes 5d corrosion damage/second. Reach C-30.
  Traits: 360˚ Vision; Absolute Direction (3D Spatial Sense); Con-
  striction Attack; Enhanced Move 10 (Space Speed 24,576);
  Extra Arms 15 (Extra-Flexible); Extra Attack 8; Flight
  (Lighter Than Air; Space Flight Only); Hyperspectral
  Vision; Injury Tolerance (No Head; No Neck); Internal Cor-
  rosion Attack 5d (see above); Invertebrate; Telescopic
  Vision 3 (No Targeting); Temperature Tolerance 27 (-455°F
  to 5°F); Vacuum Support; Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-12; Flight-15.
  ASTEROID BEASTS
  Coiled inside some of the larger asteroids lie gargantuan
  asteroid beasts, creatures whose very dimensions boggle the
  minds of the Empire’s greatest philosophers. Stretching over
  a mile long, and possessing a mouth that is best measured in
  acres, no other animal, not even the massive aetherial skim-
  mer, can rival this creature in sheer size and awesome power.
  The asteroid beast feeds on aetherial skimmers, and one
  such feast can sate its hunger for weeks. Although humans
  are beneath the asteroid beast’s notice, they have been
  known to take an unkind interest in passing ships. The crea-
  ture’s senses aren’t limited to sight, and they can detect prey
  from miles away.
  Asteroid beasts lair in craters that have a large, natural
  opening into a cave system. Their massive bodies grow to fill
  the cave, and their heads rest in the crater’s mouth. It is
  rumored that at least one beast has migrated to Luna, perhaps
  hoping to prey on translunar shipping.
  ST: 30,000
  HP: 30,000
  Speed: 6.25
  DX: 10
  Will: 10
  Move: 6
  IQ: 3
  Per: 12
  Weight: 100 Mtons
  HT: 15
  FP: 15
  SM: +18
  Dodge: 9
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 450
  Bite (10): 6d¥500 crushing. Reach C.
  Traits: Horizontal; Reduced Consumption 4; Scan-
  ning Sense (Radar; Extended Arc, 360°; Targeting)
  Temperature Tolerance 27 (-455°F to 5°F); Vacuum
  Support; Vibration Sense (Air); Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-10.
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  Ken Spencer is a freelance writer and stay-at-home
  dad. He greatly enjoys writing for Pyramid, as well as
  for Chaosium, Alephtar Games, and Frog God Games.
  Somehow, he also finds time for a monthly column, “A
  Bit of History,” on rpg.net. Ken lives near the Wabash
  River in southern Indiana, with his wife, their son, her
  dog, his cat, and everybody’s fish.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  10
  JANUARY 2011
  The Strange Creatures
  of Roma Universalis
  This table offers an alphabetical list of the various alien crea-
  tures encountered on the extra-solar bodies of Roma Universalis,
  or another sci-fi campaign.
  Name
  Location
  Page
  Aetherial Skimmers
  Asteroid Belt
  10
  Asteroid Beasts
  Asteroid Belt
  10
  Carnivorous Mold
  Luna
  7
  Deathfangs
  Venus
  5
  Flying Leeches
  Venus
  5
  Lunar Centipedes
  Luna
  7
  Martian throat-stabbers
  Mars
  8
  Moondragons
  Luna
  7
  Thalx
  Mars
  9
  Tiberius’ Wolves
  Mars
  9
  Venusian Dragonflies
  Venus
  5-6
  Venusian Rompers
  Venus
  6
  As long as Man continues to be a merciless destroyer of lower living beings,
  he will never know health or peace. For as long as man massacres animals,
  they will kill each other.
  – Pythagoras
  
  “We have had enough of being lied to!” The Trust Party candi-
  date roared into the microphone, resulting in an even louder roar
  in return. “We have had enough of high taxes! We have had
  enough of high spending! We have had enough of enough!”
  Yet more roars. More anger. The faces staring at him were red
  and raging, almost frothing with hate.
  “Tell them more, our brother,” whispered a voice inside his
  head. “Make them even more furious. You have truly engi-
  neered a great feast tonight . . . “
  So the candidate did, and continued to do so for quite some
  time. Meanwhile, in a secret location far away, his fellow invaders
  were sated by the white-hot human fury he helped generate. Their
  bulbous, pulpy bodies writhed and shuddered as waves of bliss-
  fully unreasoning anger both fed and intoxicated them.
  This emotional banquet would be enough to sustain them for
  a time, but they would soon need more – much more. Thankfully,
  these humans were easily manipulated into giving them exactly
  what they wanted. But how long could they stay angry over noth-
  ing at all?
  Perhaps another event needed engineering, something really
  despicable this time. Something that would make them both hate
  and fear in equal measure, its effects lasting for years to come –
  well past their upcoming, primitive “election cycle.”
  Extraterrestrial evil does not always descend from the skies
  in a mothership and blow up New York City. Indeed, the most
  dangerous invasions are the silent ones, where conquest-minded
  aliens sneak in under the radar, assume inconspicuous forms,
  and destroy our defenses from within. Even more insidious is
  when they use our own worst qualities against us – getting us so
  angry with each other that we don’t see the real threat, and so
  terrified of our differences that we fail to unite against it.
  There is such a threat on Earth’s doorstep, even now. Shape-
  shifting psychic vampires from beyond the stars have been
  among us for some time. They can look, talk, and act just like us.
  Even the loved ones of the infested have been completely fooled.
  Yet, while these dangerous creatures infiltrate governments,
  militaries, and civil services, it is not to ultimately control the
  world. They merely seek to engineer events that will create
  intense anger, hate, and fear within us, so they can then feed
  on those negative emotions.
  So far, a mere fraction of their total number has landed,
  but these few have gained a solid and dangerous foothold.
  They sent a signal to the main fleet decades ago, telling it to
  set course for Earth. While they await its arrival, they are lay-
  ing the groundwork for a massive feast of fear and horror – a
  banquet that will leave the planet a barren, burning wreck in
  space . . .
  Is Earth doomed? Perhaps not. Herein is presented all the
  information needed for a GM to run a campaign against this
  foe, possibly with GURPS Black Ops, Atomic Horror, or a sci-
  fi system. Their physical forms are revealed, and their tech-
  niques, technology, and invasion protocols laid bare. Also
  exposed is what they have done on Earth so far, along with
  their front organizations, companies, and inhabited forms.
  Ideas for battling this insidious foe are given at the end, along
  with story seeds for the past, present, and future.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  11
  JANUARY 2011
  THE ANGRIEST
  INVASION OF
  EARTH
  BY J. EDWARD TREMLETT
  Enterprising GMs might emulate the Pyra’s media-control efforts by modifying the rules for memetics from Pyramid
  #3/15: Transhuman Space. You’ll probably need to add lots of bonuses; those rules are much more subtle than what the
  Pyra are capable of!
  Love, friendship and
  respect do not unite people as
  much as a common hatred
  for something.
  – Anton Chekhov
  
  WE’LL WALK ALL OVER YOU
  The Pyr’a Dic’tata Ant’ede (“Pyra” for short) is a race of
  intergalactic, shapechanging, psychic vampires. In their base
  form, they seem a black and hideous amalgam of terrestrial
  species: the bloated head of an octopus atop 20 spindly,
  exoskeletal spiders’ legs. They range between 5’ and 6’ tall, and
  have two shiny, black eyes above a curious U-shaped sensory
  organ, giving them what appears to be a smiley face in the mid-
  dle of their heads. Small, rubbery tentacles extrude out of the
  head every so often as they communicate, feed, or power their
  strange, organic devices.
  The Pyra are uncertain of their actual origins. They believe
  they were created millions of their cycles ago by a highly
  advanced but emotionally crippled race who sought to curb
  their overwhelming negative emotional responses. They cre-
  ated the Pyra for use as living, unfeeling psychic dampers . . .
  but obviously something went wrong, and the creatures were
  jettisoned into space. Now they live as insatiable intergalactic
  telepathic locusts, ever-searching for sentient beings capable of
  the intense emotional responses they require as food, but are
  incapable of generating themselves.
  They need a daily intake of at least 10 minutes’ exposure to
  intense hate, anger, sorrow, fear, or pain. Any less, and they
  eventually weaken. Any more causes a varying degree of intox-
  ication, which is as close as the Pyra can come to actually feel-
  ing something other than sated/hungry or satisfied/unsatisfied.
  Excess emotion from a feeding can be stored for later, or used
  to power their machinery, but each event can only be used
  once per Pyra, and then it is blocked to that alien.
  The Pyra could simply make their prey angry through per-
  forming upsetting antics through their host bodies, but such
  feasts would be short-lived, and possibly endanger or expose
  the infesting Pyra. It is far better to make their targets deliri-
  ously angry at their fellow lifeforms – often accomplished by
  pitting the sides of any social argument against another in a
  nonlethal manner.
  Unfeeling, icily logical beings, the Pyra have neither reli-
  gion nor philosophy, and no ethics beyond that of pack ani-
  mals. The strongest and oldest are their leaders, and
  succession only takes place after death. The only laws are obe-
  dience to one’s elders, performing duties with competence, and
  noninterference in the feeding of others. The penalty for break-
  ing any law is to be shot into space in a small capsule with an
  escape hatch – giving a choice between slow starvation or vio-
  lent decompression.
  Despite their fearsome appearance, they are surprisingly
  weak. A solid punch to the head puts one in a coma, a single
  bullet in the right place kills, and extremes in pressure cause
  them to implode or explode. Conversely, they are fireproof, and
  immune to extremes in temperature.
  If not fed within 17 hours, they begin to starve. They lose a
  third of their physical and mental strength every 17 hours
  thereafter, eventually wasting into a dry husk. To prevent this,
  Pyra spend most of their lives in suspended animation, awak-
  ening for the mass feedings following a successful invasion.
  However, the process only slows down their metabolic rate,
  and does not entirely stop it. Special biochemical monitors
  wake up “asleep” Pyra on the verge of starvation, but these are
  sometimes disabled for complex sociopolitical reasons.
  Sometimes a tenth of the Pyra nation die while en route to the
  next conquest.
  The Pyra are also highly susceptible to extremes of joy and
  other pleasant emotions. These give them psychic indigestion
  – “bloating” their heads to three times their normal size, mak-
  ing it almost impossible to think, plan, attack, defend, or oper-
  ate devices. The machines that collect, broadcast, and replay
  stored emotion are set to filter out the crippling cheer, but acci-
  dents happen.
  SHADOWS OF STOLEN LIFE
  The Pyra’s most intriguing physical ability is their capacity
  to partially shapeshift, which aids in the infestation of their
  intended prey. It can be done to any solid, carbon-based life-
  form that is at least as large as a mature Pyra.
  To begin, the Pyra envelops a victim’s cranial unit with its
  tentacles – both immobilizing the prey and absorbing its mem-
  ories and DNA. After an hour of physical and mental digestion,
  the Pyra’s head changes to look exactly like the cranial unit of
  its victim. The Pyra unfurls its legs into long, tiny filaments,
  and snakes them into the stump, taking over the host’s nerves
  and muscles. Then the alien pulls itself onto the stump, and the
  disguise is complete.
  The resulting duplication is almost perfect. The Pyra is still
  incapable of feeling anything, but it can expertly fake the man-
  nerisms and emotional responses of the host. Even the host’s
  closest friends cannot tell the difference, though animals and
  the psychically aware will sense there’s something “off” and
  react accordingly.
  However, even while infesting a victim, a Pyra is still a
  Pyra; they still hunger, and retain their physical weaknesses.
  How are the Black Chamber (Pyramid #3/5: Horror and Spies) or the Black Box (Pyramid #3/17: Modern
  Exploration) dealing with the Pyra? Do these organizations realize the aliens exist – or have the Pyra infiltrated them, too?
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  12
  JANUARY 2011
  In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon.
  What we loathe, we graft into our very soul.
  – Mary Renault
  
  They also need to extrude secondary tentacles
  from the head to feed, send (but not receive) tele-
  pathic signals, and power their signature devices.
  The disguise slips quite a bit during these times,
  creating a horrifying blend of the host’s face and
  the Pyra’s bloated, otherworldly shape.
  A Pyra can separate from a host body if neces-
  sary, but it must secrete some immobilization
  agent on its way out. The alien can only be away
  from the host body for a maximum of 17 hours
  per immobilization dose, or the body can never be
  reanimated again. In a pinch, the creatures can
  also use their legs to burrow into untreated, dead
  bodies, thus animating them. However, the cadav-
  ers’ voices sound tinny, and their flat mannerisms
  will not fool anyone who knows them.
  THEY HAVE A PLAN
  The Pyra operate with extreme caution, as
  they know their bodies are relatively weak. They
  have a time-tested, four-pronged invasion plan
  that takes advantage of their natural talents while
  minimizing physical risks. If they are truly des-
  perate, they might skip ahead a step or two, but
  this is only employed when they see no other way
  to guarantee racial survival.
  Step One: Observation
  The first step is performed by scout ships, each
  containing 20 Pyra apiece. There are numerous
  scout ships scouring the galaxy at any time, seek-
  ing out worlds inhabited by suitable beings. They
  desire large and illogical creatures, possessed of
  both extreme emotions and the technological
  means to broadcast those feelings to one another.
  Indeed, the scout ships hunt best by listening for
  broadcast waves, and following them back to a planet. However,
  ideal targets are those worlds whose occupants are relatively
  untraveled in space – lacking both any orbital defenses and the
  ability to voyage beyond their own solar system.
  When such a world is found, small capsules are shot down
  onto the surface, each containing a Pyra scout and some sam-
  pling equipment. If all goes according to plan, the scouts
  observe and then capture a few native beings. They then bring
  them back to the ship for mental interrogation, emotional har-
  vesting, physical stress-testing, and a resulting autopsy.
  The creatures also attempt to infest their captives. After
  successfully wearing the bodies on the ship for a few days, they
  return to the planet, reappear to the lifeforms’ friends and
  neighbors, and try to blend into that society. They are ordered
  to sustain themselves with stored emotion for the most part, in
  order to avoid suspicion.
  Success means further observation and experimentation,
  with most of the ship’s crew operating on the planet while
  the scout ship hides in space. The scouts remain in frequent
  communication with the ship and one another, but are forbid-
  den to meet in person, to minimize overall damage if discovered.
  Step Two: Evaluation
  The scouts perform social experiments to see if they can use
  their stolen bodies to generate intense anger, fear, and hate. If
  the majority of the scouts can create enough negative emotion
  to sustain more than just their own needs, and survive any social
  reprisals, the world is considered a strong possibility. The scouts
  return to their capsules, travel back to the scout ship, and deliver
  a full report. These are compared to other gathered data: politi-
  cal divisions, armed forces, natural defenses, and the like.
  If the planet is deemed not worth the risk of invasion, the
  scouts temporarily return to the planet, and use their host bod-
  ies to engineer a massive, brutal event to harvest as much emo-
  tional energy as possible. Laden with enough energy to sustain
  their needs for the journey, they mark the planet down for pos-
  sible emergency purposes. Then they abandon the world, and
  continue the search.
  The process by which Half Deads are created may be related to the process by which the zombie virus (pp. 32-33)
  animates its host – or they may conflict! The notion of a Half Dead/zombie hybrid is a truly frightening prospect . . .
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  13
  JANUARY 2011
  Half Deads
  The Pyra have discovered that freshly dead human bodies can be
  resurrected and put to simple tasks. Such “Half Deads” are useful in
  carrying out errands that the aliens wouldn’t trust a human to per-
  form. They make wonderful laborers, carriers of equipment, and dis-
  posers of evidence. They can even be used as bodyguards and
  assassins as long as they don’t have to think.
  Creating a Half Dead requires an intact body that has been
  deceased less than 24 hours. The Pyra inject it with a slightly differ-
  ent version of the immobilization agent, bringing the body back to a
  semblance of life for 17 hours. Each dose past the first gives another
  17 hours of “life,” but a missed dose brings death and decay – render-
  ing the body useless. Time-release canisters are often implanted in
  especially useful or valuable Half Deads to keep this from happening.
  Half Deads appear alive to the casual observer: They move, breathe,
  and speak as they’ve been instructed to. However, their hearts do not
  beat, their skin is pale and cold, and their eyes are unblinking and
  glassy. They remember nothing of their former life, cannot feel any
  emotions, and are useless at spontaneous conversation.
  These sad echoes of humanity obey given instructions, but must
  be told exactly what to do, as they tend to falter and stop when pre-
  sented with a situation they weren’t programmed for. More useful
  ones are set up with real-time controls: a camera disguised as a lapel
  pin shows the controlling Pyra what’s going on, while an earpiece is
  used to deliver instructions.
  Half Deads are good for driving nosy reporters’ cars off cliffs, or
  piloting political rivals’ planes into mountains. They can also be
  loaded up with Pyra devices: many “bodyguards” and “assistants” of
  infested humans are actually Half Deads filled with emotional
  receivers, gathering the deluge of anger that the Pyra generate in their
  daily business. If all else fails, they make excellent disposable patsies,
  collateral damage, and human bombs.
  
  If the world proves suitable, the scout ship signals the main
  fleet with coordinates. The crew returns to the planet, and
  arranges for the deaths of any “useless” hosts through body-
  annihilating suicides, massive fires, industrial accidents, and the
  like. Some of the unencumbered aliens return to the scout ship,
  while others infest strategically useful hosts within the commu-
  nity, so they can have a measure of protection and power, as well
  as a safe place to hide the scout ship when it lands.
  Step Three: Invasion
  The scout ship lands somewhere it can remain undetected,
  and its crew work to turn its immediate surroundings into the
  beachhead. The area is impregnated with alien living spaces,
  defenses, and technology – especially the subspace directional
  pulse beacon that will guide the fleet to the planet. A few Pyra
  remain unencumbered, while others infest key positions in
  preparation for the fleet’s arrival. They suborn or replace those
  who watch the skies, build unremarkable structures to hide
  their devices, take over key organizations to provide cover, and
  assemble companies and groups to provide suitable host bod-
  ies for the new arrivals.
  The Pyra also begin to harness the intense anger they need
  to feed upon. Special emotion-gathering devices can be worn
  about the host body, or positioned nearby, in order to send the
  harvested waves of negative emotion to receivers anywhere in
  the world. This allows offsite Pyra to feed, and any excess
  energy is stored for later or used to power their devices.
  This process can go on for quite some time, depending on
  how long it takes the main fleet to travel to the new planet.
  When the invasion actually happens, it always comes in cau-
  tious, ever-increasing waves. First on the scene are 20 scout
  ships, with 20 Pyra apiece, who are given sufficient time to
  travel to the beachhead, infest awaiting host bodies, and dig
  into the targeted world. They are followed by an attack vessel
  with 340 scout ships. The main vessel finds someplace to secret
  itself, preferably off-planet, and its ships land in different areas
  of the world. Their 20-Pyra crews can either take discreet
  advantage of the facilities created for them, or else put them-
  selves into suspended animation – sleeping until needed, or
  when the invasion reaches its climax.
  The attack vessel is eventually followed by the 17 capital
  ships of the fleet, each containing hundreds of thousands of
  Pyra apiece. These massive spacecraft are guarded by a cloud
  of 340 attack vessels, each carrying 340 smaller, 20-Pyra space-
  craft. It would be a sight that would pulverize the defenses of
  any planet with a primitive or nonexistent space program, but
  the last wave will remain hidden in orbit, as the aliens do not
  want to create suspicion until it’s too late.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  14
  JANUARY 2011
  Some black spray-painted bubble wrap might be useful to emulate a Pyra personal shield. (As a bonus tip: burst fire
  should make short work of these shields . . .)
  The technology of the Pyra is organic in nature, and looks
  like an extension of the Pyra, themselves. This is because the
  aliens manufacture their ships, tools, weapons, and other
  devices with something near and dear to them – bodily
  waste, created both by their normal metabolic functions and
  the forced ingestion of biological matter, such as the heads
  of those they duplicate. The blackish, semi-solid material
  slops out of their legs at will, and hardens within an hour. In
  that hour, it can be measured, molded, shaped, sharpened,
  impregnated with bio-circuitry or other components, and –
  if needed – treated in such a way as to be nearly transparent.
  After that, it needs only another 17 hours to fully set –
  assuming the hardness of tempered steel.
  Emotional Gatherers
  Small nodules the size of a belt buckle that are worn on
  a Pyra’s person, these are capable of gathering and storing
  hours’ worth of emotional energy for later use. They can
  also be hooked up to a broadcast device and sent to a relay
  elsewhere, either after the emotional outburst or in real-
  time. The energy the devices gather helps power them.
  Energy Guns
  Small transparent rods, meant to be brandished by the
  Pyra’s head tentacles, they are designed to have one of the
  emotional gatherers, or a broadcast receiver, attached to
  the nonbusiness end. When activated, they create a cone of
  gathered emotional energy, which the Pyra use to feed.
  They can also be “sharpened” into an offensive weapon,
  causing an emotional overlord in the target, or letting
  unwanted, kind emotions through. Neither application can
  harm humans, but causes severe mental and/or physical
  distress to the Pyra.
  Personal Shields
  These belts are made of small, black, grape-sized
  spheres. This device is meant to be worn around the Pyra’s
  midsection and is easily hidden underneath human cloth-
  ing. This device is technologically related to the shields
  their otherwise-unarmed spaceships use, both to enter sub-
  space and to cause physical rupturing in enemy vessels,
  which they ram in battle.
  In the smaller, personal model, the field surrounding the
  Pyra deflects all energy attacks and all but the most forceful
  of kinetic attacks. It also causes extra damage to anything
  physical that hits them, or that they hit: rock crumbles,
  metal stress-fractures, skin tears open, and bone cracks. The
  belts also allow short, subspace “jumps” of up to half a mile.
  The belt is always active, in passive mode. Any time
  it’s used to deflect, hurt, or jump, one of the spheres
  shorts out. When all the spheres are shorted out, the belt
  ceases working.
  Machines of the Kill
  
  Step Four: Annihilation
  Once enough Pyra are in place, they begin engineering ter-
  rible events: wars, tragedies, terrorist acts, and other disasters.
  Then they ratchet up the rhetoric and have their infested host
  bodies blame one or both sides of any social or political divi-
  sion for the body count, either for causing it or not responding
  to it in time. More events give their angry movement momen-
  tum, and more momentum creates more opportunities for
  angry rallies, violent demonstrations and counter-demonstra-
  tions, pogroms, riots – possibly even revolutions.
  This cycle continues until either the world’s native popula-
  tion is used up and shattered, or until the scout vessels report
  another suitable world has been found. At this point, the Pyra
  engineer one last, great, worldwide cataclysm, all but guaran-
  teed to create the greatest surge of negative emotion the world
  has ever seen. Specially selected Pyra breed in order to replace
  those lost since the previous invasion, and sleeping Pyra are
  awoken from suspended animation, so they might feed.
  Then, their work done, the Pyra abandon their host bodies,
  get in their ships, and leave whatever survivors remain to their
  fate. Perhaps they will return one day, after untold millennia
  has turned their invasion into a myth.
  TARGET EARTH
  The Pyra invasion of Earth began in 1955, when the Pyra
  scout ship A’has Par’nil exited subspace just inside the Oort
  cloud and followed our weak trail of radio waves inward. The
  planet seemed perfect: Its population was large, illogical, and
  aggressive, with no real presence in space, and possessing the
  ability to broadcast information – and emotion – through radio
  and television.
  The scout ship parked behind the moon, and a number of
  its crew went down to Earth, landing in secluded spots in
  Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The aliens observed the natives
  for a time, focusing on campers, hunters, and color tourists.
  After kidnapping a few and taking them to the ship for testing,
  they determined humanity to be physically compatible for
  their needs.
  The scouts returned, wearing their prey; they spent the next
  year quietly observing the planet and their fellow citizens.
  Nothing they discovered disproved their belief that they’d picked
  an excellent planet. So they moved onto the next phase: destroy-
  ing their hosts and assuming new, strategically placed ones.
  For the next five years, the Pyra scouts continued their
  observation and infiltrated various social organizations, care-
  fully determining how to use those constructs to generate large
  amounts of negative emotion. After a few successful experi-
  ments in engineering arguments and controversies, they
  learned that humans were easily angered over almost nothing,
  and – better still – could be re-angered over the same triviali-
  ties time and time again. This quality made them truly excel-
  lent candidates for potential invasion.
  In 1961, the scouts met back up with one another on the
  A’has Par’nil to present their findings to their commander.
  They determined that Earth was nearly perfect for their needs,
  though there were two chief concerns: the fledgling space pro-
  grams of the two largest nations (the United States and USSR),
  and human preoccupation with UFOs. Both of these could
  prove challenging, should they progress too far before the fleet
  arrived. However, it was decided that, with the assumption of
  the right strategic hosts, both concerns could be controlled, if
  not neutralized altogether.
  The die was cast, the subspace beacon was activated, and the
  scouts returned to Earth. Some of them shucked their host bod-
  ies in order to take control of better-placed humans in and
  around the area of Mackinaw City, Michigan. One of the infested
  was the owner of Box Industries, an industrial firm that had
  fallen on hard times, and had to mostly abandon their large
  plant, a few miles southwest of town. The “owner” completely
  shut down the plant but retained the company, and, after a few
  months of refurbishing the structure’s insides, the A’has Par’nil
  touched down into what would become its new home.
  The Pyra also nabbed the chief of Mackinaw City’s police
  force, the assistant editor of the Daily Cheboygan Journal, the
  senior partner of the largest law firm, and two of the members
  of the chamber of commerce. This ensured that they could
  maintain or disrupt social order as they chose, and could con-
  trol any official inquiries that might come about due to their
  activities. The city’s near-constant ebb and flow of tourists, sea-
  sonal workers, and those simply traveling over the Mackinaw
  Bridge to or from the U.P. gave them a wide range of possible
  hosts or Half Deads.
  However, the most important reason for infesting the north-
  ernmost county of southern Michigan was to have access to
  Rennie Air Force Base. During their years of quiet infiltration,
  the Pyra learned that the small installation, just east of
  Mackinaw City, specialized in developing and testing long-range,
  early-warning radar. The projects were to warn the Americans
  about incoming missiles or bombers, but if the humans were
  going to develop a way to detect fleets in space, it would be
  there. After assuming the form of the lieutenant colonel who
  oversaw those projects, the Pyra saw that it never would.
  Over the last few decades, the Pyra have kept up appear-
  ances, leaving older bodies when the lack of aging could no
  longer be disguised, and infesting new ones to continue the
  work. In addition to AFB Rennie, they have taken over an
  extremely powerful senator, assumed control of a worldwide
  security company, and have an agent inside America’s most
  popular “confrontainment” program. They have also latched
  onto a large and influential third political party – one capable
  of running its own candidates within the two main parties, and
  able to make or break other candidates with a majority nod.
  ONE ARMY TO
  KILL YOU ALL
  The Pyra of the scout ship have successfully infiltrated
  American society at many levels. Some of their more notable
  conquests are detailed below, along with how they meet the
  invaders’ needs at the current time, and how they will meet them
  when the main fleet arrives, however many years from now.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  15
  JANUARY 2011
  Images of rioting or protesting crowds can easily be found online. Giving them to the players can enhance the
  verisimilitude of of the adventure – especially if a “random” person in the photo is later revealed to be a Pyra agent!
  
  The Trust Party
  Arguably the biggest coup the Pyra have scored thus far is
  the creation of the Trust Party: an independent coalition of
  extremely vitriolic interest groups that somehow manages to
  juggle extreme xenophobic, anti-government populism with
  the need to “retake” that exact same government in order to
  “save America.”
  The movement’s leader, Mark T. Cleobin, is a long-time Pyra
  host, as are a few of his lieutenants and a couple of reporters
  who have been assigned to cover it. The “Trustees,” as they are
  known in the media, have become a major force in American
  politics in spite of the fractious infighting and vicious rhetoric
  that plagues the party, and the near-maddened – and occasion-
  ally near-homicidal – enthusiasm of their followers.
  The party’s internal and external histrionics have provided
  the Pyra with massive amounts of negative energy, and it
  seems poised to generate even more friction in the near future.
  They plan to run several candidates in the next major election,
  and seek to inspire similar parties in other countries, so as to
  have more support for their agenda before and after the arrival
  of the fleet. In the final stages of the plan, these parties will sow
  fear, breed distrust and xenophobia, and threaten war against
  other nations until someone takes them up on it.
  Senator William J. Sykes
  William J. Sykes is one of the most outspoken voices in the
  Senate, and has been a recognizable fixture there since the late
  1960s. He alone dared complain that the government was
  spending untold amounts of money on “that Moon landing
  fool-dangled thingamabob” while his home state of Michigan
  was suffering from a lack of funds (according to him, anyway).
  His highly quotable and plainspoken hatred of the Space Race
  brought him to the attention of the Pyra, and he was infested
  shortly after winning re-election.
  Senator Sykes has served well ever since, and some credit
  him with America’s somewhat lethargic exploitation of space
  since the end of the Apollo Program. Now in his nineties, he
  has lost none of his sharpness, though it’s becoming harder for
  the aliens to disguise his true age. His host plans to step down
  before the invasion fleet arrives, hand the reins over to an up-
  and-coming Trust Party member, and infest that fresh, new
  face just after Election Day.
  Greenforge Inc.
  Formed in the late 1990s by two former Marines from
  Detroit, the private security company known as Greenforge
  Inc. has been fortunate enough to elude the same kind of
  controversy that other, more visible security companies have
  courted. That might be because they’ve avoided contracts in
  areas where the American press is likely to congregate, such
  as locations where the American military is currently operat-
  ing, or anywhere in the Middle East.
  Greenforge has numerous outposts throughout Africa,
  South America, Asia, and the former Soviet Union. These out-
  posts oversee hundreds of employees, all engaged in a number
  of contracts, many of which require an armed presence. When
  the fleet arrives, many of these employees will be selected to
  become hosts, and the rest will provide unwitting security for
  the scout ships – slated to land and hide at appropriately mod-
  ified Greenforge facilities around the world. If the Pyra need to
  undertake any hostile actions, and need them done by some-
  thing more intelligent than a Half Dead, the citizen-soldiers of
  Greenforge will be the ones doing it.
  Rennie Air Force Base
  In 1962, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Manning was in
  charge of the long-range detection projects, and reporting
  directly to Colonel Mark Stephens, the base commander, with
  his findings. The Pyra who had infested Manning kept Colonel
  Stephens from knowing that the radar system they were devel-
  oping had been modified so as to not report certain things –
  such as invading scout ships.
  Decades later, the deception continues, but now Manning
  is Colonel Manning, base commander of Rennie AFB, and
  still making certain all-new detection technologies developed
  there have a backdoor for his race. The long-range radar
  “perfected” at Rennie in the 1960s is at use in all American
  military operations, as well as by anyone else who bought
  older versions, or copied the plans. This means that the Pyra
  have the means to blind most long-range radar systems
  around the world at any time, and also have access to the Air
  Force’s intelligence on UFOs.
  Joey Blammo
  Danny
  Hinge,
  a
  former
  high-powered
  lawyer
  from
  Kalamazoo, may not have been the inventor of the confronta-
  tional talk show, but he was regarded one of the best hosts, with
  some of the most violent and angry episodes ever. When he
  retired, his amazingly charismatic and scary-looking stage secu-
  rity manager, Joey Blammo (real name: Joseph Beladonna)
  decided to give it a go. But where Danny was content to be soft-
  spoken and let his guests provide the drama, Joey decided to
  crank up the drama by yelling at the parade of miscreants, social
  misfits, and scum himself.
  To ensure he had no surprises, he brought in a fellow secu-
  rity man from Danny’s old show: an even-scarier fellow named
  Frank Lund. Frank had been called “the Cooler” because he
  could literally stare people into submission with his cold and
  emotionless eyes. What no one knew was that Frank was a
  Pyra, and was using his proximity to the vicious hate and anger
  generated by Danny’s old show to help feed his shipmates.
  In the last five years, Joey Blammo has fed the aliens twice as
  well as Danny ever did. He has no idea he’s killing his own
  planet, one episode at a time. If he did, he might get really angry.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  16
  JANUARY 2011
  Any corporation/media personality/etc. that exists within the campaign world can be used instead of the agents here.
  Politics, as a practice, whatever its
  professions, has always been the
  systematic organization of hatreds.
  – Henry Brooks Adams
  
  FEED ME YOUR ANGER
  The most ready-made campaign has the heroes discover-
  ing the Pyra’s presence on Earth, and uncovering their discon-
  certingly large support networks while working to confront
  them. This lends itself to a number of game styles and start-
  ing points: FBI agents tracking down alien activity and other
  weirdness; Air Force intelligence officers going to Michigan to
  investigate the irregularities in a certain base commander’s
  reports; armed teams of alien-hunters finding out a threat’s
  been under their radar since the 1950s; international
  reporters discovering unsolved mysteries while looking into
  the activities of Greenforge; or the coworkers of an infested
  human realizing something’s seriously wrong with him.
  Some other options are as follows, including a couple of
  alternate arrival scenarios for the aliens.
  Beachhead, U.P.
  It’s 1955: Elvis is on television, McDonald’s is serving ham-
  burgers, “In God We Trust” goes on American coinage, and the
  Pyra arrive in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
  The heroes are a group of friends who’ve gone up to hunt in
  the height of the season, but something is hunting them. Three
  days in, they find a rival party butchered, their heads missing.
  An NPC friend with the group walks off and never comes back,
  but his screams keep the adventurers up all night, and the Pyra
  are drinking down their rage and fear.
  It’s an experiment in terror management, and to see how
  dangerous these humans are. Can the heroes win by getting
  out of the woods alive, armed with only hunting rifles and
  dwindling ammunition? Or can they save the world by hunting
  their hunters, thus convincing the aliens that Earth is too
  much trouble?
  Come Back When You’re Hungry
  In the mid-1950s, the Pyra stopped off on Earth but decided
  not to stay; the risk was too great, and the fledgling space pro-
  gram had them seriously worried. But they marked the planet
  down as a “maybe,” just in case they needed an emergency stop
  in the future.
  That future is now. A disastrously botched invasion reduced
  the population by 66%, and – in desperation – they have set
  course for Earth, in spite of the dangers. But the invasion pro-
  tocol will be advanced to Step Three: 20 scout ships will land
  around the world, set up bases, and infiltrate newspapers,
  social services, militaries, and governments.
  The bad news is that there’s more of them, and the main
  fleet’s not far behind. The good news is that the world’s
  advanced quite a bit since the 1950s, and the aliens’ misunder-
  standings of the changes make them stick out like Ward Beaver
  at a rave party. Can the heroes find out what’s going on, stop
  the infiltration, and develop a defense against the Pyra in time?
  Our New Friends
  Humanity first made contact with the Pyra in 2134, when a
  small ship of friendly but ailing aliens arrived in need of seri-
  ous help. According to them, a terrible, nameless enemy had
  destroyed their home planet aeons ago, and all that remained
  of them were a few thousand Pyra, inhabiting a couple broken-
  down ships. Humanitarian repairs went without saying, and,
  as their dietary requirements were considered non-threaten-
  ing, and their case was persuasive, they were invited to stay on
  Earth until better accommodations could be created.
  The Pyra landed in the Arctic Circle and began to build a
  new home there, and there were hopes that they would teach
  Earth scientists the secrets of their construction techniques.
  The education proved slow going, with some scientists swear-
  ing that the new friends weren’t being totally forthcoming.
  There was also concern that none of the alien races Earth had
  diplomatic contact with knew of the Pyra’s home planet, or
  heard of the “enemy” they described.
  That was five years ago. The culture has coarsened, with
  anger available on every channel, every hour. The scientists no
  longer complain about their alien friends. The Arctic Circle is
  a massive outpost of spindly, organic cities, and the Pyra have
  reproduced enough times to number in the hundreds of thou-
  sands. A new coalition in Earth’s Parliament – the Trust –
  thinks the visitors shouldn’t be asked to leave Earth and colo-
  nize an outer moon, but rather stay here as friends. Forever.
  Meanwhile, the fleet that defends the solar system from
  attack is getting confusing redeployment orders. Strange blips
  appear on their long-distance tracking devices, and there’s odd
  signals coming through subspace. Something seems to be lurk-
  ing on the edges of the Oort cloud, and the new maneuvers are
  leaving everything past Neptune rather unguarded of late . . .
  The massive Pyra fleet is on its way, due to arrive within the
  year – and when they do, the feast will be all but prepared. Can
  the investigators uncover the many conspiracies, driven by
  many infested humans, and stop it? Or have their new
  “friends” dug in too deeply to be removed?
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  By day an unassuming bookstore clerk, J. Edward Tremlett
  takes his ancient keyboard from its hiding place and unfurls
  his words upon the world. His bizarre lifestyle has taken him
  to such exotic locales as South Korea and Dubai, UAE. He is a
  frequent contributor to Pyramid, has been the editor of The
  Wraith Project, and has seen print in The End Is Nigh and
  Worlds of Cthulhu. He’s also part of the Echoes of Terror anthol-
  ogy. Currently, he writes for Op-Ed News, and lives in Lansing,
  Michigan, with his wife and three cats.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  17
  JANUARY 2011
  When evil men plot, good
  men must plan. When evil men
  burn and bomb, good men
  must build and bind. When
  evil men shout ugly words
  of hatred, good men must
  commit themselves to the
  glories of love.
  – Martin Luther King, Jr.
  
  “Why did I ever let them have their own ship?” the GM mut-
  ters as the heroes land on another unplanned alien vista.
  “Do we find anything interesting?” the players ask, as the GM
  searches among papers, knocking over his drink in panic.
  “I’m sure you will,” he mutters. “I’m sure you will.”
  The need for alien beasts can be insatiable. Each ecosystem
  can demand dozens of interesting animals – or, at least, inter-
  esting enough to populate the background and provide a logi-
  cal response when poked by the PCs.
  This deck is designed to make relatively normal creatures;
  all the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages can be
  found in the GURPS Basic Set. If you want them to be scarier
  or more threatening, you’ll need to have it attack with others
  in a pack, pump up an ability, or give the animal a cool power
  or gimmick.
  Critters generated by the deck are also scanty on non-game-
  related details. An interesting feature or two – an unusual
  cry, an exotically geometric pattern on its fur, etc. – can go
  a long way toward making a creature come alive. See p. 39
  for some ideas.
  USING THE DECK
  After printing and cutting out the cards on pp. 19-22,
  you have a variety of options for using it to create new
  aliens. At the very least, each creature should have:
  • One base animal card.
  • One Motivation.
  • One Tactic.
  Draw (or select) one card of each of the above type.
  To determine the other aspects of the critter, here are a
  few possibilities.
  The Big Pile
  Mix the Attack, Defense, Trait, and Disadvantage cards,
  and draw however many you like. (Good suggestions are
  to pick 1d or a flat three cards.) This will result in some
  creatures with several attacks and no disadvantages, or
  multiple defenses, or other oddities – just like real life.
  The Consistant Creature
  Alternatively, draw one each of the Attack, Defense,
  Trait, and Disadvantage cards. This will result in beasts
  that are assured of having a good spread of abilities.
  Creature Feature!
  Of course, you can do whatever you like. For example, you
  might want to draw at least one Attack card (ensuring the crit-
  ter can defend itself), and then draw a few of the others.
  Variations
  All the creatures here are assumed to be of animal intelli-
  gence – smart enough to come up with a plan of escape or
  attack, but dumb enough to be outwitted. The GM is free to
  tweak that assumption, if he had an idea of a dumber or
  smarter animal in mind.
  Play With a Stacked Deck
  Blank cards of all types are provided on p. 23. Feel free to
  add cards of whatever type you’d like to the deck.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  18
  JANUARY 2011
  ALIENS
  ON HAND
  Basic Monster
  Optional Characteristics
  
  You may copy or print this page for personal use only. Copyright © 2011 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved.
  STRONG ALIEN ANIMAL
  ST: 16
  HP: 18
  Speed: 5.00
  DX: 10
  Will: 9
  Move: 5
  IQ: 5
  Per: 9
  HT: 18
  FP: 18
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 8
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 0
  Default Bite (10): 1d crushing. Reach C.
  Default Kick (8): 1d+1 crushing. Reach C.
  Default Swipe (10): 1d crushing. Reach C.
  AGILE ALIEN ANIMAL
  ST: 10
  HP: 10
  Speed: 7.00
  DX: 14
  Will: 5
  Move: 6
  IQ: 5
  Per: 9
  HT: 10
  FP: 10
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 10
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 0
  Default Bite (14): 1d-3 crushing. Reach C.
  Default Kick (12): 1d-2 crushing. Reach C.
  Default Swipe (14): 1d-3 crushing. Reach C.
  FAST ALIEN ANIMAL
  ST: 10
  HP: 12
  Speed: 11.00
  DX: 10
  Will: 5
  Move: 11
  IQ: 5
  Per: 11
  HT: 10
  FP: 10
  SM: 0
  Dodge: 14
  Parry: N/A
  DR: 0
  Default Bite (10): 1d-3 crushing. Reach C.
  Default Kick (8): 1d-2 crushing. Reach C.
  Default Swipe (10): 1d-3 crushing. Reach C.
  Motivation
  Seeking revenge for some
  real or perceived wrong
  against it, its offspring, or
  its territory.
  Motivation
  Defending its hoard.
  Motivation
  Defending its territory
  or offspring.
  Motivation
  Loves the thrill of combat.
  Motivation
  Forced by training or
  other coercion to attack
  anything that comes
  within sight (or smell,
  etc.).
  Motivation
  No obvious motivation –
  seems to attack passers-by
  at random intervals.
  
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  Defense
  Ultra-Tough Skin
  DR 4
  Defense
  Metal Scales
  DR 6
  Defense
  Tough and Nimble
  Dodge +1
  DR 1
  Attack
  Poison Scratch
  Damage: Default swipe
  cutting + follow-up 2d
  toxic (two 10-second
  cycles).
  Reach C.
  Attack
  Talons
  Damage: +2 cutting or
  impaling to default
  kick or swipe.
  Reach C.
  Attack
  Fangs
  Damage: +3 impaling
  to default bite.
  Reach C.
  Attack
  Knobbed Tail
  Damage: +3 crushing
  to default swipe.
  Parry: (DX/2) + 3.
  Reach C.
  Attack
  Energy Breath Blast
  Damage: 4d burning.
  Skill: DX-4.
  1/2D 10, Max 100,
  Acc 3, RoF 1,
  Shots N/A, Recoil 1.
  Attack
  Extra Attack 1
  See p. B53.
  
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  Trait
  Huge
  SM +2
  ST +15
  Adjust damage and HP (see p. B16)
  Trait
  Doesn’t Breathe
  See p. B49.
  Trait
  Extra Arms 2
  See p. B53.
  Tactic
  Ambushes targets.
  Tactic
  Only makes All-Out
  Attacks.
  Tactic
  Attacks and then
  immediately retreats
  (Move and Attack).
  Tactic
  Attempts to intimidate
  targets before attacking.
  Tactic
  Attacks one turn, then
  actively defends (All-Out
  Defense) the next.
  Tactic
  Only attacks targets
  from behind them.
  
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  Trait
  Experienced Fighter
  Brawling (DX+5)
  Notes: +1 to melee damage
  Trait
  Strong-Willed
  Fearlessness 5 (p. B55)
  High Pain Threshold (p. B59)
  Trait
  Hyperspectral Vision
  See p. B60.
  Disadvantage
  Wild Animal
  See p. B263.
  Disadvantage
  Restricted Vision
  (No Peripheral Vision)
  See p. B151.
  Disadvantage
  Bloodlust (6)
  See p. B125.
  Disadvantage
  Fragile (Brittle)
  See p. B136.
  Disadvantage
  Nocturnal
  See p. B146.
  Disadvantage
  Horizontal,
  Very Fat
  See p. B139 and B19.
  
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  NAME: __________________
  ST: _____
  HP: _____
  Speed: _____
  DX: _____
  Will: _____
  Move: _____
  IQ: ______
  Per: _____
  HT: _____
  FP: _____
  SM: _____
  Dodge: _____
  Parry: _____
  DR: _____
  Attack (_____): ______________________________________
  Traits:_______________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  Skills: _______________________________________________
  Attack
  Name:___________________
  Stats:____________________
  _________________________
  _________________________
  _________________________
  Attack
  Description: _____________
  _________________________
  _________________________
  _________________________
  _________________________
  Defense
  Name:___________________
  Stats:____________________
  _________________________
  Defense
  Name:___________________
  Stats:____________________
  _________________________
  Tactic
  Description: _____________
  _________________________
  _________________________
  Motivation
  Name:___________________
  Stats:____________________
  _________________________
  Trait
  Name:___________________
  Stats:____________________
  _________________________
  Disadvantage
  Name:___________________
  Stats:____________________
  _________________________
  
  Private Bellico popped up from behind his boulder and fired a
  burst across the rocks opposite him. He slipped back down
  almost immediately, where Sergeant Turco was considering a
  grenade like he was testing the weight of a gold nugget.
  “Get any of them?”
  “No, Sarge,” he sniffed, peering at an uncomfortable angle
  back over the boulder. He could see a small line of Ussp crawling
  about the scree, but none of them were in plain view. “Little suck-
  ers are quicker than they look.”
  “Haw!” Sarge burst out. Bellico stared at him. “Suckers?
  The Ussp, they’re octopuses? They got suckers on their . . . ?”
  He waved at his soldier like he was wafting flies. “Never mind.
  This’ll dislodge ’em.” Causally, without looking, he chucked the
  grenade over his shoulder just like basic training had taught
  him not to do. Bellico covered his ears against the “whom” and
  then his head against the falling chips of stone. “You wanna
  survive out here, you gotta have a sense of humor and keep up
  a keen guard, private.”
  The private started to look for survivors, something they
  might be able to put in a cage, but as he rose he felt a thick weight
  between his shoulders. “Ussp!” he cried, standing up and doing a
  little dance. “An Ussp, Sarge, help!” He could feel the little beak
  gouging at his protective vest, but his concern was more for the
  tentacles that had begun wrapping themselves around his neck
  and face. “Srrjj!”
  There was a muffled thump, and Bellico felt the constriction
  relent. He fell forward as the weight unexpectedly fell backward.
  He looked up to find the sergeant laughing at him, smoking pis-
  tol in his fist. “I told you to keep up your guard,” he roared.
  “And I see you got your sense of humor,” Bellico muttered.
  Turco pulled the junior man up by his arm.
  “Hey,” he chided, the laughter starting anew, “out here, they
  just go hand-in-hand.”
  Once humans stepped off their rock and into the inky black,
  they knew it would be fraught with perils they couldn’t antici-
  pate. Even so, they were surprised by the appearance of the
  cephalopodan Ussp. As humanity entered their systems, the
  newcomers found themselves assaulted by thousands of these
  creatures, both in space and on the ground. Military vessels
  replaced the exploratory fleet, and these were met with similar
  resistance, though the soldiers fared better than their nearly
  unarmed predecessors. Humans were confounded by the crea-
  tures, which were able to navigate in space but showed no
  signs of actual intelligence. All anyone knew was that they
  were vicious beasts who were unwilling to ignore intruders of
  any kind. If it moved, it got swarmed.
  So the world government back on Earth has called for addi-
  tional funding for the military and increased vigilance from
  citizens, lest outlying nests of Ussp show up somewhere closer
  to human systems and disrupt society completely. The worlds
  were at war.
  STOP THE PRESS
  The story everyone is told about the Ussp is a little more
  than half-true: They are indeed ferocious fighters, they
  appear to possess no sapience, and they have a mad-on for
  human beings. You would too if people had attacked and
  tried to perform experiments on you. There’s an alien menace
  here, all right, and it’s Mankind. They only want to gain
  power and finances and don’t care a tinker’s damn about
  using the Ussp to do it.
  WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
  Humans found Usspia I and descended to the surface to
  explore. What they uncovered was miraculous: a race of octo-
  pus-like creatures with incredible properties. The “blood” of
  the Ussp, if it could be called as such, was an elixir of sorts. In
  its purest form, it healed wounds. One of the original landing
  party, Dr. Lucinda Smalls, tried to pry a specimen out of its
  hole and accidentally wounded it with her tool while at the
  same time cutting a gash on her own hand against the jagged
  rocks where she worked. The blood washed into her open
  wound, and within seconds, the opening looked like an old
  scar. Before the hour was out, there was no trace.
  Experiments done since then have uncovered, if not
  cures, at least promising advances for science and medicine.
  The party was ecstatic, and prepared to send word of their
  discovery back to Earth. The team was talked out of it when
  it was pointed out that the result would probably be dozens
  of unchecked ships descending on Usspia I like crows.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  24
  JANUARY 2011
  A WELL-ARMED
  POPULACE
  BY ANDY VETROMILE
  “Eek! Beware the monsters who lack bug eyes!” It’s entirely logical to have aliens find us to be as repulsive as we find
  them – the revulsion felt toward Others may be universal!
  
  Science vessels, corporations, religious believers, eco-terror-
  ists, and more might cover the planet. Without establishing a
  proper procedure for such participation, the Ussp could be
  wiped out overnight as had happened with so many species on
  Earth before more stringent regulations could be imple-
  mented. The delay, everyone assured each other, would pre-
  serve the status quo. What it did was present an opportunity.
  EARTH NEEDS USSP
  A small bloc of aggressive military advisors coordinated
  their response quickly and quietly. There were but a few such
  personnel
  aboard,
  a
  common
  courtesy
  aboard
  many
  exploratory craft, security in exchange for intelligence. Once
  they were assured there would be no immediate announce-
  ment, these men radioed on a secure channel for orders. The
  value of the Ussp could not be underestimated. This clique of
  soldiers agreed a declaration of findings would result in
  humans scouring the planet, and that might result in extinc-
  tion or, worse, tree-huggers with an agenda. The Ussp would
  be contained, assessed, and utilized, and then they would tell
  the world about this fabulous discovery. Maybe.
  The Faction
  Lest anyone be lead to think the whole galaxy is swamped
  in a conspiracy, the bloc that maintains the fiction against
  the Ussp is actually quite small. It’s not handled so much
  on a “need to know” basis as a “who cares to know” basis.
  While the technical name for the forces holding steady at
  the edge of Usspian space is the First Usspian Operational
  Command, most people just call it the Faction – and that’s
  not a compliment. It’s a good shorthand, so a lot of the
  soldiers and civilian advisors in it use it (though not
  around superior officers), but mostly it’s meant as a bit of
  name-calling against what’s increasingly being seen as a
  rogue element.
  The leaders on the front line, those who saw to it they
  were advanced to that post when the situation was made
  clear to them, know the truth. Most of those who work for
  or under them do not, and only a few higher-ranking offi-
  cials have any knowledge of it. There are medics and other pro-
  fessionals under their command, certainly, but this is a
  military operation and so the number of people ordered to
  investigate the Ussp is minimal. Some of them demand, inas-
  much as soldiers can based on humanitarian grounds, that
  they be allowed to examine the “prisoners” (though no one
  ever calls them that – they’re animals, after all). But these
  inquiries are deflected by the higher-ups who state that there
  are already people on the situation (which is true).
  Troops engaging the Ussp in battle have little time to ques-
  tion orders; they simply attack the positions they’re told and
  take specimens into custody as circumstances permit. During
  hostilities, there’s no denying they’re getting their butts
  handed to them by an implacable foe, so the soldiery seldom
  has time to muse whether the whole thing is an unfortunate
  misunderstanding.
  The Goals
  The Faction has two goals. The first is to secure the Ussp for
  research and harvesting. They hope to get a majority of them,
  though it seems less and less likely they can be corralled so eas-
  ily. They’ve spread over several systems (that anyone knows
  about), and so far the only things keeping most people from
  approaching those stars is the threat of military intervention
  and the threat of encountering these horrible beasties in an
  under-armored, under-weaponed science vessel. The conven-
  tional wisdom is that the warnings are well-meaning and
  crossing the boundaries the Earth forces set is both impolite
  and a good way to get on the service’s bad side. It’s worth not-
  ing the government has no authority to ban people from enter-
  ing these systems (though they could probably fast-talk a
  reason to quarantine them from coming back out again for
  some time), and most folks don’t try anything simply because
  they buy into the hype. Everyone wants to be able to count on
  the guys with guns coming to their rescue.
  The other goal is to parlay the threat of the Ussp into greater
  control in the world government back on Earth. So long as the
  people fear the mysterious peril, the Faction can demand ever
  more money and support for their cause. This in turn makes
  their little fiction that much easier to keep up. These two aims,
  taken together, stand to make those involved the most powerful
  people in the galaxy: control freaks with savior complexes who
  can withhold a panacea from any who would defy them.
  Opposition
  Not everyone toes the party line, and there is a great deal
  of outrage from people both at home and in space. Even if
  someone hasn’t heard the rumors of what’s really happening
  at Usspia I and environs, the power being amassed by the
  military in the world government is staggering. Trust in that
  body is at an all-time low. Politicians have looked into the
  situation, though most get stonewalled at some point higher
  up the chain. Decorum suggests they not rock the boat too
  hard lest they be called on the carpet for being weak or
  unpatriotic, but a chosen few continue to press the issue qui-
  etly. Not everyone at the top is in on it, though (anything but,
  in fact), so the Faction can’t count on a free pass forever.
  Reporters want the story, but they’re usually led on a
  prepackaged tour of devastated areas left intact for show.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  25
  JANUARY 2011
  What relationship might the Ussp have to the Earth-bound agents of the Symmetry (as seen in Pyramid #3/26:
  Underwater Adventures)? It’s potentially a “mystery from beyond the stars”!
  First Contact
  The GM should decide whether this is the first species
  humankind has encountered among the stars. While it’s
  assumed this is a nicely cinematic setting where extraterres-
  trial life is plentiful, the Ussp could form a good starting point
  for a group that wants to ease into finding out all the galaxy’s
  secrets. Begin with a controversial animal, then move up to
  entire new races of fellow starfarers.
  
  Ecologists and environmentalists are curious to
  know more; they’re told the situation is under
  control and experts are already on the ground.
  Even so, given that this could be the biggest find
  of humanity’s history, they question whether it
  makes sense not to throw everything available at
  it. However, too many people are afraid to cause
  waves but they’re not unsympathetic, just watch-
  ing for more developments.
  So Much for Clones
  So far, no one has been able to figure out how
  the Ussp (or their bodies) do the things they do.
  Likewise, no one has worked out what evolution-
  ary and environmental factors went into this
  unique species. The substances and specimens
  produced in laboratory conditions have not had
  the same effects or abilities as the “real” Ussp, at
  least not for long. The formulae have resulted in
  everything from mutated flesh to temporary heal-
  ing under test conditions, and volunteers are hard
  to come by (being amoral and running a bluff
  means you can’t keep too many casual spectators
  around on the front, so the pool of victims is
  small). Creating a new Ussp in a cloning chamber
  works for a while, but none of the special qualities
  can be gained by drawing samples of its bodily
  fluids, and it dies before reaching adulthood.
  THE USSP
  An Ussp is a small cephalopod, with eight arms, two black
  eyes, and a small and almost unnoticeable mouth. They
  hatch from eggs about 12” in diameter. While the young start
  out 18” tall with a “tentaclespan” of about 2’ in all directions,
  they become adults in one solar Earth year. Then they come
  in at about 2.5’ tall with tentacles of various sizes that range
  from 3’ to 6’ long. These arms surround a small beak-like
  mouth on the underside.
  All the colors of the rainbow are represented in one indi-
  vidual or another, most of them being warmer colors like red
  or orange but a few running to blue or darker. The hide is
  smooth save for their “faces,” where they have small horn-
  like projections. Some have only two, one on either “cheek,”
  while others have a splendid display of a dozen or more.
  These have little effect in combat unless the enemy tries to
  attack in close or grapple the face; in this case, they cause 1
  point of damage to the attacker.
  They can ooze in and out of small spaces. While they can
  swim and even live underwater, they prefer only to live near it,
  unlike their counterparts on Earth.
  Special Abilities
  The traits listed with the stats represent some of the
  unusual qualities found in the species. Nonetheless, the GM
  may adjust them, as new methods of exploiting the species are
  being found all the time. It’s already been established the blood
  will heal a wound almost completely, but since that entails
  harming the poor thing, it’s best left to the GM to decide how
  far he wants to play that sort of thing out.
  How the Ussp survive and move in a vacuum is also prov-
  ing hard to understand. Those in space and those on the sur-
  face seem to be physically the same. However, a magnetic
  field forms around the critters when they move through
  space, which is only sufficient to move short distances before
  requiring a rest period. (This magnetic field may somehow
  affect technology, including space ships; see Tactics, below.)
  Admittedly no one has tried to measure their movement too
  far since that would be like staring at a snail to determine its
  migratory patterns, but what they can do is enough to make
  them a hazard to vessels in a system.
  Tactics
  When confronted with an enemy, an Ussp attacks with little
  regard to the comparative size of its target. If there are multi-
  ple Ussp present, they split their attacks, with one wrapping
  the enemy’s legs and another pinning his arms while a third
  strangles the prey, suffocates it, or beats it to death with its
  powerful appendages. A lone Ussp will go right for the face to
  try to throttle a human or deprive it of air.
  In space, Ussp are usually at a disadvantage. They have no
  energy weapons or ways of disrupting the operation of a star-
  ship from a distance, so they have to close with it. There are sel-
  dom enough Ussp to attack all the ships brought to bear on
  them, so they go after whatever presents itself nearest (they
  always seem to be of one accord about which craft to go after).
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  26
  JANUARY 2011
  Since they can survive in space, in an odd campaign world, the Ussp could be discovered before their homeworld.
  The Ussp
  ST: 12
  HP: 12
  Speed: 5.00
  DX: 10
  Will: 9
  Move: 5 (Groubd/Water)/10 (Space)
  IQ: 4
  Per: 4
  Weight: 75 lbs.
  HT: 10
  FP: 10
  SM: -1
  Dodge: 8
  Parry: 9
  DR: 0
  Strangulation (13): 1d-1 crushing. Reach C.
  Tentacle Whip (13): 1d-1 crushing. Reach C.
  Traits: Ambidexterity; Amphibious; DR 1 (Magnetic aura; Force Field;
  Space only); Dark Vision; Double-Jointed; Doesn’t Breathe (Under-
  water and space only); Extra Arms 6 (Extra-Flexible; Foot Manipula-
  tors; Long, SM 0); Healing (Blood Agent; Cosmic; Xenohealing,
  Anything Alive); Fearlessness 5; Flight (Space Flight; Space Flight
  Only; Limited use, Several times per day); Nictitating Membrane 1;
  Pressure Support 2; Radiation Tolerance (PF 1,000); Reduced Con-
  sumption 4 (Cast-Iron Stomach; Space only); Stretching 1; Super
  Climbing 1; Super Jump 2; Telesend (Racial; Telepathic; Vague); Tem-
  perature Tolerance 50; Vacuum Support; Wild Animal.
  Skills: Brawling-13; Stealth-14.
  Notes: The traits described here are known ones, and they might be
  inaccurate, because no one has ever made a systematic study of these
  creatures. See Special Abilities and Tactics in text for more details.
  
  No one is entirely sure what the Ussp do to ships once they’ve
  gotten to them. They’ve been seen crawling on the hull, and
  some state the creatures actually pry open ships’ armor at the
  seams. Nonetheless, enough of these things destroy entire war-
  ships. Clearly their bodies are capable of causing disruptions
  to a vessel once they’re in contact with it. Some have slipped
  into the engines, and instead of being incinerated, they
  stopped it dead and caused the entire thing to blow (Ussp “pas-
  sengers” do die in these circumstances if they can’t get clear of
  the wounded ship in time). Others have sealed up weapon bat-
  teries with their bodies or penetrated the hull with strange flu-
  ids or energies . . . few vessels successfully attacked are intact
  enough afterward to do a postmortem on the causes.
  Orbital Base
  Many have sought the source of Ussp in space, but no one
  so far has found it. The stories continue to circulate that if the
  Ussp were thrust into space via some collision or eruption,
  there might be a chunk of rock they rode into orbit, and that
  might hold secrets all its own. If such exists, it may be just a
  tomb for those Ussp killed in the blast but left attached to the
  rock. It could hold a small society of the octopi, or they may
  remain in a sort of suspended animation. Another possibility is
  that the ones who were cast into space were dealt with thus
  deliberately in an effort to get rid of their undue influence,
  making the rock a prison if anyone’s left alive.
  Finding this orbital debris would be useful to several people
  for many reasons. Those aboard could be another strain,
  maybe a “heritage” species with powers or qualities above their
  exploited brothers. Their talents have not been diluted by the
  passage of time and thus represent an even greater discovery.
  It could be a vehicle that holds clues to their technological
  past, unlocking the secrets of what became of the race and how
  they came to hold the systems they do now. Moreover, if the
  Ussp on this asteroid have no knowledge of the war between
  them and humans, they may represent another chance for ene-
  mies of the Faction to broker a peace with the Ussp. Alas, how
  do you negotiate with such a species if they aren’t sapient?
  They may understand conflict on an instinctual level, but that
  doesn’t mean they can grasp reconciliation or friendship the
  same way.
  How Did They Get off the Ground?
  Many theories have been floated as to how the Ussp
  achieved orbit and subsequently proliferated among the stars,
  but none have been proved conclusively. The most hotly
  debated discussion centers around a long-lost race that seeded
  the galaxy with them (and, some have heretically suggested,
  us). That would explain not only the span of their “habitats”
  but why they could be found in distant star systems with so lit-
  tle genetic drift – the DNA of an Ussp in one system is almost
  identical to that of specimens in other systems in spite of a
  physical separation of light years.
  A great crater on Usspia I leads some to think the cepha-
  lopods were blasted into space – some sort of cataclysmic
  explosion has thrust (or pulled) them into orbit (or further), and
  from there they simply wandered instinctually in every direction
  under their own power. That then leads critics to ask how they
  got to so many places on a journey that should take hundreds or
  thousands of years, especially in light of the fact that the crater
  reads to geological scans as being only a few hundred years old.
  The answer varies:
  • They hitched a ride on ships of some ancient culture and
  were ignored as parasites, detaching at the destination.
  • They possess navigational talents and the ability to accel-
  erate when in open space or in proximity to certain stellar phe-
  nomena.
  • They fell through various wormholes.
  When this last argument is broached, people pretty much
  stop listening.
  Some think the race was once intelligent and has
  regressed into animalistic barbarism. This could mean they
  once had ships as humans do now, but they lost the talent for
  such technology and are now stuck wherever they “landed.”
  There doesn’t appear to be much evidence of ships or any
  other kind of equipment, and while the Ussp can create intri-
  cate homes from sticks, stones, and animal bones, the com-
  plete eradication of any tools, relics, or cities seems too
  unlikely and convenient to allow that possibility.
  PEOPLE IN THE LOOP
  Few people back home know even a fraction of what’s really
  going on out here. They see the news and the talking heads and
  when they hear the jingoistic Faction speak of patriotic duty
  against the Ussp, they nod and tell the world government to
  “give ’em hell.” Here are some thumbnail personality sketches
  of the major players in this drama.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  27
  JANUARY 2011
  Why is propaganda
  so much more
  successful when it
  stirs up hatred than
  when it tries to stir up
  friendly feeling?
  – Bertrand Russell
  In a strange enough universe, everything’s interconnected. The war against the Ussp might be fanned by the Pyra
  (pp. 11-17); unraveling the secrets behind the Pyra might help to resolve the conflict with the Ussp. Of course, cynically, it
  might not make a difference – there could well be enough natural hate in the universe.
  
  Dr. Lucinda Smalls
  The first human to have actual contact with an Ussp, Dr.
  Smalls’ injury and fabled recovery started the whole mess. She
  and her team wanted to tell the world what they had found but
  held off until the world government could figure out how to do
  that without swamping the system with unwanted traffic.
  Once she saw what was actually happening and the stories
  they were telling aboard her own vessel, Smalls and her team
  protested. Officially, Smalls’ shuttlecraft went down with all
  hands during a routine return trip to the mothership, the UWG
  Open Hand. Rumors persist that she was killed any number of
  ways, from being strangled by an Ussp tentacle to being shot
  by a human firing squad. In fact, she managed to elude her
  would-be captors from the Faction, and they’ve been looking
  for her ever since. Stories about her flight are as legendary as
  those of her death. In some, she’s thrown her lot in with the
  aliens and become an Ussp bride who can communicate with
  her new people because by sharing blood, she unlocked their
  means of telepathy. In others, she faked her own death and
  replaced a member of the Faction so she could fight them from
  within the ranks on their own ships. Whatever the truth turns
  out to be, anyone who used to know her will tell you she’s pre-
  pared to fight to undermine this injustice.
  General Reynold Perrigault
  The highest-ranking man on the front lines, he has lead
  the Faction against the Ussp almost from the beginning. He
  was called in because they knew he had been itching for mil-
  itary service for years, so they fed him the same story they fed
  everyone else. Since he spent so much time early on being the
  liaison between Earth and the outposts of the First Usspian
  Operational Command, arguing their case, it was easy to
  keep up the lie once he was back on the front lines. Everyone
  knew the part they had to play, and they have kept the gen-
  eral on message.
  Perrigault has begun to suspect not all is as he was told, but
  so much damage has been done he’s afraid to say anything for
  fear of tarnishing his reputation. If he finds someone else
  who’s in a position to blow the cover story, he might be inclined
  to help them. He’s the best ally the truth seekers could have,
  but it would be almost impossible to gain an audience with
  him. These days, he’s treated by the younger and more virile
  members of the Faction as a figurehead, leaving him to do
  what he does best: stew, drink, and plan for retirement.
  Roy Applebaum
  The motivation behind the throne, Applebaum is obsessed
  with power and wealth . . . he figures the one will come from
  the other, so he’s not picky about which he achieves first. He
  believes absolutely in their cause, which is to say he knows it’s
  a lie and he doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he and his
  supporters get whatever they want. He’s setting himself up to
  be valuable to the world government so that he can gain more
  power when he finally returns to Earth. Others in the Faction
  think the whole operation is a temporary thing – once the Ussp
  have been subjugated and controlled, the medicinal uses they
  provide really will flow, research will flourish, and the troops
  will return home covered in glory with Earth a better place for
  it. Applebaum knows these kinds of things don’t stop unless
  someone stops him, and he won’t let that happen. He spends
  about half his time keeping General Perrigault in check and
  the rest of it tending the various threads of the conspiracy.
  Stanley Cupper
  A journalist from the old school, Cupper just knows there’s
  a story here, and he’s determined to find it. The Faction has
  agents back on Earth, though, so he’s not out of their reach just
  because he has yet to go off-world for his investigation.
  Everyone knows he won’t let go of a story, so everyone’s
  assumption is they’ll soon be reading the old man’s obituary.
  Gracie Mortimer
  An outspoken woman, she’s never happier than when she has
  a cause, and now it looks like she has the mother of all outrages.
  Not only does it give her something to complain about, she’s hit
  a trifecta: It threatens the orderly government, the environment
  (destroying and exploiting it simultaneously), and a poor species
  of octopus-people. Just as some people in the Faction have crises
  of conscience, so may Mortimer prove more of a hindrance to
  the very people with whom she should be joining. She’s ready to
  accuse anyone of anything, burn bridges, and whine that so-
  and-so isn’t doing enough. It’s already driving both would-be
  fanatics and well-meaning citizens to other causes. There’s more
  than one group watching her, and the gossip has it that there are
  contracts out on her life. That could be one of her own stories,
  told to garner sympathy, but five minutes in an elevator with the
  woman and anyone could be driven to desperation. All this, yet
  she has never once set foot in orbit, let alone visited the front
  lines or the Usspian systems.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  28
  JANUARY 2011
  All it might take for the Ussp conspiracy to unravel is for a different panacea to be found. (This could be a big problem,
  if the replacement “panacea” is shown to be problematic after the secret is revealed.)
  All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of
  course, it kills them first.
  – James Thurber
  
  Intelligent Ussp
  This is a whole class of beings who are probably more
  rumor than reality. Someone always claims they were alone
  with a captured Ussp specimen when he spoke with them, or
  they saw the octopi employing this or that form of technology.
  Soldiers on the battlefield swear that sometimes the creatures
  respond with human emotions or use tactics that only
  intelligent beings could develop. So far, this is uncon-
  firmed, and the Faction and everyone else considers it
  to be a post-modern urban legend. Their physical form
  doesn’t allow for actual speech and their brains don’t
  show the same kind of high-level activity as monkeys,
  never mind humans, but then neither does it support
  unsupported travel through space. Notwithstanding,
  their bizarre and untapped potential means there’s no
  telling what they’re capable of, so everyone laughs these
  tales off in public while privately scratching their chins.
  CAMPAIGNS
  The setting for the war against the Ussp may differ
  only in the focus the GM places on the action, or he may
  fold it into all-new directions by crossing it with other
  GURPS worlds.
  Black Ops
  Back in the day, members of the Company were sent on
  missions to kill aliens stranded on Earth. If the group, or some
  version of it, proliferates into the “present day,” they may
  become the ones trying to save the Ussp once they’re convinced
  of the species’ good intentions. Alternatively, maybe the
  Faction is the cruel offspring of that group and that’s why they
  enjoyed so much success so quickly in the early days of the
  war. That also makes them more than formidable as oppo-
  nents, so the heroes need someone (say, a retired agent who’s
  given up on life) to train them in the ways of the ops if they
  ever hope to present a challenge to their foes. They might
  choose to bolster their abilities with Ussp formulae to level the
  playing field a bit and cut a few years off the necessary educa-
  tion. Since no one knows what the Ussp – or more accurately,
  their bodies – are ultimately capable of doing or providing, this
  is a good way to bring psionics and all manner of other muta-
  tions and technologies into the setting.
  Supers
  The Ussp may themselves be superbeings, and the heroes are
  the most capable members of the species, ready to defy
  humankind for the sake of prolonging their people (“Super-
  Octopus to the rescue!” has a ring to it). Psionics and super abil-
  ities explain so much about the race’s success. Alternatively, they
  could be human guinea pigs, test subjects who are granted
  strange new powers by scientists eager to inject ichor into the
  bodies of political prisoners. It’s embarrassing enough for the
  Faction to find – in fact, create – still another group opposed to
  their schemes. It’s something else altogether for their infused
  DNA to allow them to take refuge among Ussp who now sense
  them not as invading humans but as fellow victims in the ongo-
  ing war. The Faction works hard, then, to field more supers,
  these under their control, to combat their earlier mistakes –
  never mind that the process kills half of the subjects at the start
  and the other half during their new careers.
  Time Travel
  The conquest of the Ussp is complete, and the madmen in
  charge of the effort have solidified their hold on the world gov-
  ernment – there are no recriminations to be made, save the
  charges leveled against those rebels who defied the Faction. As
  society fragments or tries to recuperate from almost tearing
  itself apart, one small group of scientists finds another as-yet
  undiscovered use for Ussp: They are the key to time travel.
  With a few terrified (though willing, should the Ussp have sen-
  tience) aliens set to give their lives if need be to achieve this
  state, this secret cadre gathers a team of qualified adventurers
  who step through a door into the past. Depending on how
  much control they have over where they end up, the team may
  have to help the original exploratory team send its long-stalled
  message of hope back to Earth. Landing in later periods has
  them trying to sabotage the burgeoning war machine; reverse
  the decisions of the politicians back home; or save key Ussp
  leaders and “talk” them into fighting a more focused campaign
  against only those who mean them harm (easier to do if the
  octopi who sent them back can provide critical data that
  proves to their ancestors the truth of what they say). Another
  possibility is to travel to an alternate world in which events
  played out differently and see if there are Ussp or reasonable
  humans who can lend a hand. Nothing stops them from
  becoming a new power bloc, though, so care must be taken to
  either use them only as a referential resource or to bring new
  players into the ongoing war who can be trusted not to run a
  game of their own.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  29
  JANUARY 2011
  In a darkly humorous universe, more and more uses for the Ussp could be discovered as they get hunted closer and
  closer to extinction. Healing! Time travel! Psionic awakening! Unaging! If the heroes acquire the last cache of Ussp, they
  might find themselves more and more tempted to use them – but they may need to pick which miraculous use!
  More to the Truth
  There could be even more to the story than the military has
  let on. It might be that initial relations with the Ussp were
  something else entirely. An intelligent species, they welcomed
  humans, but they made them an offer as well: The humans
  could present the Ussp as a threat to Earth to gain more con-
  trol, and the Ussp would play along by offering up their unde-
  sirables as medicinal resources. In other words, Earth would
  once again be ferrying slaves, only their value would only be
  realized in a zoo or on a laboratory slab . . .
  The Ussp in charge might be evil leaders with rebel scum to
  dispose of, or they may be usurpers who see an opportunity to
  give up their brethren, the rightful rulers, for control of the
  Usspian throne – “the Octopus in the Iron Mask,” if you will.
  
  ADVENTURE SEEDS
  War in itself isn’t all that interesting from a roleplaying per-
  spective, but there are many parts for the PCs to play even if
  they’re not members of the rank-and-file.
  Angels of Mercy
  The team represents a group of concerned citizens from all
  walks of life. A sort of future version of the Red Cross, they
  insist on seeing firsthand the effects of the war and the living
  conditions of the Ussp held in captivity. The argument comes
  back that these creatures are not intelligent and therefore are
  in no way subject to conventions of fair treatment, but that
  doesn’t stop a dance of intrigue between the two sides. How far
  will the heroes go to get the information they want? Can they
  get it at all. If they do, what are their odds of getting back to
  civilization alive to make their report? This scenario lends
  itself well to a broad group of characters, everything from
  diplomats to former soldiers to whatever demographic serves
  as “hippies” in space, all anxious to satisfy their curiosity and
  make things right.
  To the Rescue
  The heroes suspect, or are made aware, of the real nature of
  things at Usspia I and are understandably outraged. They want
  to make a difference and so they join (or create) the resistance
  against Faction activities, smuggling supplies to other resist-
  ance cells.
  Newborn Smugglers
  Hired to fulfill a government contract, the party is the crew
  of a cargo ship ferrying crates of unknown provenance from
  Usspia I to . . . other locations, always with a small military
  escort (a few armed soldiers on board, if not another craft in
  their contrail). If they do this often enough, they find them-
  selves parking at space stations, high-orbit transports, and
  other suspicious or unusual drop-offs. At some point, their
  shipment starts making noise, or escapes outright, and the mil-
  itary is then torn between getting the PCs’ help and keeping the
  contents of those boxes under wraps. The hunt is on, though
  the fear is that the Ussp will find a way to show their true col-
  ors. The heroes may decide to fight the good fight after this
  shipboard incident, or they may be a liability in need of deten-
  tion should their escort think they know too much.
  You Never Saw This;
  You Were Never Here
  No matter the forces they deploy, the military cannot possi-
  bly watch all of Usspian space. They have left satellites in most
  systems and a couple of small space stations in the more
  important but idle regions, so they may at least have informa-
  tion about the ships that come and go when Big Brother isn’t
  physically present. Nevertheless, innocent people fall afoul of
  the war machine by learning too much, and when that hap-
  pens, they become targets. The heroes could be these people,
  or they might be called upon to help hide these victims of cir-
  cumstance. Some of their charges might even have informa-
  tion that blows the lid off the whole plot, which paints an even
  bigger bull’s-eye on them. Where is safe from the Faction?
  Just how deep into Usspian territory must someone go before
  the military threat is replaced by the octopi?
  Soldiers
  It doesn’t get much more straightforward than soldiers on
  the front lines fighting the Ussp menace – not at first. As the
  heroes, though, they soon find themselves doubting the virtue
  of their service. As the truth begins to reveal itself to them, they
  understand they cannot simply stand by and do nothing, but
  confronting their leaders isn’t going to help them accomplish
  much more either. With so few soldiers able to make it out here
  and manpower stretched to the breaking point, they have more
  opportunities to go against the Faction. Their every move can’t
  be subjected to scrutiny, but they must still find a plan to help
  the Ussp. Will they smuggle them out, try to make friends, sab-
  otage the war effort? The only limit to the damage that can be
  done is the fiendish cleverness of the players and the small
  window of opportunity that expires when they get their 6:00
  a.m. wakeup call for breakfast.
  The Fourth Estate Is Far Afield
  Reporters want the story once it breaks, and they’ll move
  heaven and Earth to get to it. The Faction has its own
  reporters, of course, people hired to at least play the part of
  journalists and feed the folks back home their version of
  events. Now the real press is here, though, and they have no
  desire to be lead around by the nose. The Faction wants to do
  damage control, of course, and they cannot dissuade reporters
  just by telling them to go home and be good little boys and
  girls, so they do a delicate dance with them. They want to give
  the intrepid newshounds their money’s worth, seeing the bat-
  tlefields and scenes of destruction but not letting them get too
  close to the truth. Can the party break away from their han-
  dlers long enough to get something juicy and saleable, and can
  they then get those data files back to Earth?
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  Andy Vetromile is a freelance writer, editor, and reviewer
  with an insatiable taste for games. He has worked with Steve
  Jackson Games, White Wolf, and Holistic Design, among others.
  Barbecue is his friend, and he wishes he, too, had eight arms.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  30
  JANUARY 2011
  Tell me, O Octopus, I begs,
  Is those things arms, or is
  they legs?
  I marvel at thee, Octopus;
  If I were thou, I’d call me
  Us.
  – Ogden Nash,
  “The Octopus”
  
  When thinking of “monsters from outer space,” large crea-
  tures with fangs, claws, and bulging muscles come to mind.
  However, just as many people are afraid of creepy-crawlies like
  spiders or mice too. Here, then, are some small and tiny mon-
  strosities to frighten spacefarers.
  BRAIN WORMS
  The Brain worm is a nasty creature bent on taking control
  of your body, destroying your mind, and usurping your place
  in society.
  Appearance
  As its name implies, a brain worm has a worm-like body,
  measuring 8” in length and 2” in diameter. Being limbless, it
  slithers forward like a chubby snake. Tiny protrusions resem-
  bling claws stick out from under the belly, but they are only
  used to cling to vines or branches.
  A brain worm’s head has two black, pin-like eyes with only
  rudimentary visual function – enough to keep its bearing in the
  underbrush. Victims are perceived by other sense organs not
  apparent on first sight: Tiny sensory hairs, able to pick up
  vibrations of nearby footsteps, cover the belly. Additional hairs
  on the back sense sound waves, doubling as primitive ears and
  a detector for airborne predators.
  The maw of a brain worm is made up of four sharp-tipped
  jaws opening up like petals of a flower. Inside its maw, a circu-
  lar set of sharp teeth point forward, while at the bottom, eight
  fine tentacles are stored in a closable cavity.
  The elongated body is supported by a soft exoskeleton that
  can change color, camouflaging the brain worm in the under-
  growth of jungles or forests, its favored habitat. About 75% of
  the body is filled with neuronal matter; the rest is muscles and
  organs. If dissected, a brain worm seems to possess a giant
  sprawling brain throughout its entire body.
  Origin/Habitat
  Brain worms originate from Silus IV, a planet on the fringe
  of known space. Silus IV is a humid planet, covered by exten-
  sive jungles and forests teeming with plant and animal life.
  Here, they feed on little insects and pollen from flowers.
  The first brain worms evolved as small parasites, nesting in
  their hosts and feeding off the nutrients in the colon. Over
  time, they began influencing the host’s behavior, increasing
  their chances of survival and procreation. Their physical shape
  started evolving too, changing from earthworm proportions to
  an elongated body similar to a pudgy snake.
  Behavior
  When the opportunity arises, a brain worm will try invad-
  ing a suitable host, as this significantly increases its chance of
  survival. Being highly adaptive, the parasite can take control of
  many different species.
  Once it has found a host, it attaches itself near the spine
  with its maw and secrets a mild anesthetic, which numbs the
  surrounding body area. The tentacles stored in the cavity at the
  maw’s bottom penetrate the skin and the spine with their sub-
  tle tips, until they connect with the spinal cord. By stimulating
  certain nerves, the host is then put into a coma.
  While clinging with the claw-like protrusion to the host,
  the brain worm uses the sharp tips of the jaws to cut an X-
  shaped incision into the skin. By pulling back the four skin
  flaps, the flesh underneath is revealed, into which the circular
  ring of teeth drills a hole of about 2” down to the spinal cord.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  31
  JANUARY 2011
  IN SPACE,
  NO ONE HEARS
  THEM CRAWL
  BY CHRISTIAN NIENHAUS
  Adventure idea: Aboard a space station, all detection equipment has been sabotaged. Someone accuses the heroes of
  being infected with brain worms. But they haven’t been infected – have they? (The worms may be behind the sabotage and
  false accusations!)
  Worse than spiders or mice . . .
  
  All neuronal tissue of the parasite’s body, together with some
  muscles, is disgorged into the host’s body and slings itself
  around the spine. Finally, the four skin flaps are folded back
  from the inside to close the wound, and the parasite’s remain-
  ing body lets go and dies within minutes.
  A brain worm can also invade a host via the colon, if the
  route is large enough to accommodate the parasite’s body. The
  brain worm moves up the digestive tract until reaching a loca-
  tion near the spine. After connecting to the spine using its ten-
  tacles, the brain worm cuts the intestinal wall and releases the
  neuronal tissue into the body cavity, from where it moves
  toward the spine. The now-lifeless husk is later excreted along
  with the host’s regular waste.
  The advantage of the latter method is leaving behind no scars
  on the host’s back. Brain worms are thereby able to spread in
  civilizations familiar with the threat, avoiding the typical X-
  shaped incisions or scars citizens might by inspected for.
  Inside the new body, the neuronal tissue connects to the
  blood stream or whatever system there is to transport air and
  nutrients. By secreting neurotransmitters and using the spinal
  cord, the brain worm takes control of the host’s physical func-
  tions. The host’s psyche cannot be controlled, but
  the brain’s structure is changed within one to two
  weeks, mimicking the brain worm’s neuronal pat-
  tern and thus replacing the host’s psychic profile
  with that of the parasite. If the technology for scan-
  ning neurological or psychological patterns is avail-
  able, brain scans will reveal the changes, provided
  a baseline is available. If the host’s former mental
  pattern has been stored, and advanced science
  might be able to restore the host’s synaptic pattern.
  The host’s personality vanishes over time, but
  some very strong traits survive and become a part
  of the brain worm’s own personality. In GURPS
  terms, these include mental advantages and disad-
  vantages and some exotic or supernatural traits
  such as magic or psionic abilities. Additionally,
  while the parasite itself has a below average intel-
  lect, the host’s brain shows an increase in intelli-
  gence after restructuring.
  Most memories are left intact, but some might
  get damaged during the brain’s restructuring
  process, resulting in blurred or incomplete recall.
  The brain worm can summon undamaged memo-
  ries, helping it to learn how to adapt to the new
  environment.
  A brain worm will help others of its kind find suitable hosts.
  If there are no other brain worms nearby, the parasite attempts
  to reproduce, provided that the new body is capable of giving
  birth. It is able to modify the reproductive cells of the host by
  replacing the original genes with its own, a copy of which is
  stored inside the neuronal tissue implanted. The host then
  becomes pregnant by self-fertilization, at the appropriate time
  during the host’s fertility cycle. Pregnancy lasts for only a quar-
  ter of the time it would normally take before giving birth. The
  newborn brain worm will be fully grown, but its blank mind will
  take 60 and 120 days to develop a personality.
  Brain Worm
  ST: 2
  HP: 3
  Speed: 4.00
  DX: 5
  Will: 14
  Move: 4
  IQ: 9
  Per: 11
  Weight: 3 lbs.
  HT: 9
  FP: 4
  SM: -6
  Dodge: 7
  Parry: 0
  DR: 1
  Bite (15): 1d cutting. Reach C.
  Traits: Affliction (Paralysis); Bad Sight (Nearsighted);
  Chameleon 4; Eidetic Memory; Night Vision 2; Obsession
  (Species survival) (6); Possession (Decreased Immunity 4;
  Extended Duration, Permanent; Parasitic); Sensitive Touch;
  Slithers; Striking ST 11 (Bite only); Universal Digestion;
  Vibration Sense (Air).
  Skills: Brawling-15; Climbing-13; Stealth-13.
  Notes: As the parasite settles in, the host’s attributes start chang-
  ing over time. Each week for five weeks, either the IQ or Will
  of the host increases by 1 point, starting with Will. With the
  exception of Obsession (Species survival), the brain worm
  loses all traits once it has taken invaded the host.
  ZOMBIE VIRUS
  What starts as a seemingly harmless infection ends in good-
  natured people turning into bloodthirsty maniacs craving
  human flesh.
  Appearance
  As the name implies, the zombie virus can only be seen with
  a powerful microscope. The virus’ distinctive features allow all
  who are familiar with it to immediately identify the threat.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  32
  JANUARY 2011
  In a campaign with magical or psionic forms of zombies, a “scientific” explanation of the phenomenon can provide an
  interesting challenge for heroes: “Why aren’t they responding to the rituals?!”
  Adventure Hooks
  Who’s Trapped Here With Who? The heroes land on a backwater
  planet, bringing equipment to a newly founded colony. The settlement
  has been infiltrated by brain worms, which have taken control of
  important positions. They now see an opportunity for getting off the
  planet by capturing the heroes’ spaceship, either by force or by taking
  control of some of the ship’s crewmen (preferably not the PCs). If brain
  worms have never been encountered before, the heroes will have to
  find out why some of the crew members are behaving strangely. If it is
  a known threat, the adventurers will eventually figure it out and start
  a manhunt in the colony or – if noticed too late – within the cramped
  confines of their spaceship.
  Brain Worm = Danger + Opportunity: If the brain-worm threat
  reaches the heart of an interstellar empire, war might be declared
  against regions known to be heavily infected. These will be no-go areas
  to all except military forces, offering bold traders the opportunity of
  doing profitable business. It is also a great background for a military
  or espionage campaign, where the soldiers or agents can never be sure
  about who is trustworthy and who is not.
  
  Origin/Habitat
  The virus stems from the planet Kraxial VI,
  where it afflicts some types of grazing herbivores.
  Infected plant eaters experience only mild fever
  and fatigue, recovering quickly. The virus stays
  dormant afterwards, lingering in the muscles and
  digestive system, until finding its way into a new
  host. Herbivores become infected by coming into
  contact with the host animal’s droppings – usually
  within the pasture they are grazing on. Predators
  get infected by hunting and slaying a contagious
  animal. While devouring the carcass, the hunter
  ingests the virus contained in the flesh. Once
  inside the carnivore, the virus starts multiplying,
  killing the infected cells by causing them to burst,
  releasing millions of new viruses. This vicious
  cycle continues until either the predator’s immune
  system is able to fight the infection (thus making it
  resistant), or the animal succumbs to the virus and
  dies.
  Behavior
  In most new host species, the virus either dies
  or adapts and survives, causing similar symptoms
  as in its native hosts.
  In humanity, the virus has a different and hor-
  rible effect. Due to the human body chemistry and
  metabolism, the virus turns people into zombie-
  like creatures. It starts with the infected becoming
  feverish after an incubation time of one to two
  days. Blisters filled with pus form on the skin, the
  muscles and joints start aching, and a dry cough develops. The
  sick person then falls into a coma, while the body starts chang-
  ing. The muscles become stronger, the nails of both fingers and
  toes get hard and sharp, and the body becomes insensible to
  pain and fatigue. During this process, the brain is irreparably
  damaged, resulting in loss of memory and most skills. An EEG
  still shows minor brain activity.
  Emerging from the coma after one or two days, the infected
  person is raving mad with hunger and incredibly aggressive.
  Having developed a strong craving for human flesh and brains,
  he start hunting for other people, ripping them (and any other
  living thing in its path) apart with strong claws and feasting on
  their bodies.
  Major injuries that would leave a normal human crippled
  will not slow down an infected host, making him a deadly
  adversary. Anyone wounded by an infected person can become
  infected himself if damage is dealt by biting.
  Zombie Virus Host
  69 points
  The virus itself has no characteristics, but the host gains the
  zombie virus host template. While an infected loses most skills
  (especially those based on IQ), physical skills like Brawling,
  Climbing, or Swimming remain – possibly at a reduced level
  (GM’s choice).
  Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT+1 [10].
  Secondary Characteristics Modifiers: HP+4 [8]; Will+2 [10].
  Advantages: Claws (Sharp) [5]; DR 5 (Flexible, -20%) [20];
  Fearlessness 3 [6]; Hard to Kill 2 [4]; Hard to Subdue 2 [4];
  High Pain Threshold [10]; Indomitable [15]; Night Vision 2
  [2]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+8) [30]; Striking ST 2
  [10]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
  Disadvantages: Bestial [-10]; Hideous [-16]; Infectious Attack
  (Bite) [-5]; Short Attention Span (9 or less) [-15].
  KILLER BUGS
  These tiny insects are able to chew up body armor. They
  will stop at nothing to satisfy their hunger.
  Appearance
  An adult killer bug resembles an elongated Earth crab,
  with a length of about 5” and a width of 3” at its massive
  head, followed by the somewhat slender body. It is com-
  pletely covered by a bright red exoskeleton whose sturdy,
  spiked, chitinous structure can withstand considerable dam-
  age and mechanical stress. With its eight legs, it can climb
  almost any obstacle. To overcome narrow crevices, a killer
  bug uses its last two pairs of legs to jump distances up to two
  yards high and three yards wide.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  33
  JANUARY 2011
  For another take on a virus gone wrong aboard a space station (with maps!), see Transhuman Space: Orbital Decay.
  Adventure Hooks
  Why Don’t We Ever Investigate the Non-Disastrous Labs? The
  ship’s sensors pick up weak energy readings from a nearby asteroid
  field. They originate from a secret corporate or government labora-
  tory on one of the asteroids. The virus has been brought here for fur-
  ther studies and experiments, and some scientists become
  contaminated, and turned into murderous beasts. During the subse-
  quent fighting, the sensor shielding protecting the station from
  detection was damaged. Inside the station, the PCs discover empty
  corridors and rooms, some of them stained with blood. Barricades
  erected in doorways and narrow corridor sections have all been torn
  down and bloody pieces of clothing are stuck in dried pools of blood.
  Once deep inside the station, the infected will start hunting the
  heroes, blocking their way back to the ship.
  The Station’s Not Staying Stationary! While the adventurers visit a
  space station, a breakout of the zombie virus occurs. The station is
  put under quarantine until further notice, and the inhabitants
  trapped inside have to fight for their lives until armed decontamina-
  tion teams come to the rescue.
  Variations on a Scream
  The virus can of course also be of artificial origin. In this case, it
  is a genetically engineered microorganism, created to improve sol-
  diers by making them stronger, tougher, and resistant to pain and
  fatigue. However, the experiment either went horribly wrong, ending
  in test subjects going on a rampage, or the virus mutated over time,
  turning soldiers into zombie-like creatures.
  
  Located on each side of the head are small compound eyes,
  protected by thick, heavy bulges. Below the eyes, mandibles
  strong enough to cut flesh, bone, and wood are situated left and
  right of the mouth. To cut stronger materials, the mandibles
  vibrate at a very high frequency, enabling them to cut through
  thin sheets of metal – even a car body. When encountering mate-
  rials the mandibles cannot penetrate, a killer bug spits acid.
  This fluid consists of two different liquids, secreted by sepa-
  rate glands next to the mandibles. Each liquid is harmless by
  itself, but mixed together, they form a very potent acid, able to
  corrode even the toughest material within minutes.
  Origin/Habitat
  Killer bugs were first encountered on Festus, the second
  moon of a gas giant called Marginis. Festus has a humid bios-
  phere and is covered by dense jungle and misty forests, inter-
  rupted by large rivers and oceans.
  Soon after the discovery of the green moon, wood compa-
  nies started lumbering. While exporting timber, some killer
  bugs were transported as stowaways to many different destina-
  tions.
  Behavior
  One killer bug is relatively harmless, feeding on plants and
  small animals. However, when living in large swarms contain-
  ing thousands or tens of thousands of individuals, they become
  aggressive, attacking anything in sight. As experience has
  shown, the bigger the swarm, the more aggressive killer bugs
  become. The reason for this change in behavior is unknown,
  but scientists believe that increased social stress experienced
  when surrounded by its own kind could be responsible.
  When in a swarm, killer bugs fall into a kind of eating frenzy,
  devouring everything organic. In this state, a swarm also attacks
  big animals and dangerous predators by crawling all over them,
  cutting through thick hides or chitin scales with vibrating
  mandibles, and ripping the flesh off the victim’s bones.
  A swarm will devour all organic matter in an area within a
  few days. As a result, killer bugs are nomadic, moving ever
  onward in search for food. They do not build nests to store
  food or raise their young, but they rest on the ground, under-
  neath foliage, or in treetops.
  Killer bugs are hermaphrodites. To reproduce, two bugs
  face each other, press their necks together, and start secreting
  mucus. It envelops the neck region of both bugs, forming a
  moist pathway between the reproductive organs. Sperm is
  then excreted by both bugs and travels via the mucus from one
  to the other. The creature may store that which isn’t used to
  immediately inseminate eggs, in case environmental circum-
  stances might endanger the offspring’s survival.
  Pregnancy lasts for two to three days, during which up to
  two dozen baby killer bugs develop within each parent’s womb
  (located at the bottom of the bug’s torso). Growing incredibly
  fast, the offspring need vast amounts of food, which they takes
  from the mother itself. The pregnant bug is thereby eaten up
  from the inside by its own children, killing it within the first
  day of pregnancy. The tough exoskeleton protects the still help-
  less infants, who grow ever stronger until all edible has been
  consumed after one to two days. They then leave the remains
  of their “mother” and join the swarm, growing to full size
  within a few days.
  Killer Bug
  ST: 4
  HP: 2
  Speed: 5.00
  DX: 6
  Will: 13
  Move: 4
  IQ: 7
  Per: 7
  Weight: 2 lbs.
  HT: 14
  FP: 14
  SM: -7
  Dodge: 8 Parry: N/A
  DR: 5
  Fangs (14): 1d-3(5) impaling. Reach C.
  Spitting Acid (16): 2d(3) corrosion (5 one-sec-
  ond cycles) Reach C. Can only be used 3-4
  times per day.
  Traits: Fearlessness 3; Hive Mentality (6);
  Indomitable; Teeth (Fangs; Armor Divisor
  (5)); Night Vision 2; Resistant to Poison (+8);
  Striking ST 4; Universal Digestion.
  Skills: Brawling-14; Innate Attack (Breath)-16.
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  After studying biology, Christian Nienhaus
  now lives in Ulm, Germany, where he works at
  the University of Ulm in the morning and as a
  freelance translator and medical writer in the
  afternoon. He has been roleplaying for more than
  16 years. Always fascinated by the fusion of men
  and machine, his favorite settings are cyberpunk
  and space; however, he also enjoys horror, super-
  natural, and post-apocalyptic settings.
  His worldly interests include astronomy and
  dogs. At the moment, he does not have a friend
  with four paws and a cold, wet nose, but he is
  planning on having one in the near future.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  34
  JANUARY 2011
  Adventure Hooks
  Incoming! While traveling on board a passenger space ship or lux-
  ury cruiser, the alarm klaxons start wailing. Killer bugs rapidly spread
  throughout the ship, eating all organic matter and even killing passen-
  gers and crew members in order to feed on them.
  Bad Seller; Would Not Deal With Again: The killer bugs have been
  smuggled on board in one or more crates, whose false freight docu-
  ments and fake bio signs claim to contain harmless pets. The people
  responsible for this want someone among the passengers dead. The
  target can be a principal witness, an agent traveling undercover, a
  powerful merchant or corporate member enjoying the ship’s comfort
  while traveling to a business meeting or a pleasure planet, or even the
  PCs themselves. By saving the target’s life – and that of most people on
  the ship – the heroes might gain a new ally or at least someone who
  will be very, very grateful. Finding the ones responsible for the assault
  will be an adventure in its own.
  Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite . . . No, Really: Contact with a colony
  on the fringe of charted space has been lost. Having a shortage of
  faster-than-light spaceships, the authorities ask the PCs to re-estab-
  lish contact. In fact, the colonists have encountered a killer bug
  swarm and been eaten. The investigators have to find out what hap-
  pened in the deserted settlement.
  
  The GURPS Creatures of the Night series details dozens of
  interesting monsters. While they were all designed with Earth in
  mind, there’s no reason an enterprising GM can’t take them into
  the depths of space! With a few tweaks, it’s easy to make these
  critters feel at home in a sci-fi setting. The following examples
  comprise the first two volumes’ worth of Creatures.
  GREIDER
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 3
  Instead of being a grave worm, the grieder is one of the haz-
  ards of space travel. Normally content to float through space,
  living off the small particles and solar radiation, it will propel
  itself toward a ship that passes by, clinging to it like a barnacle.
  If the crew doesn’t realize what’s happening, they may soon
  become too stupid to do anything about it!
  GUARDIAN OWL
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 5
  On a particular planet, a rare type of alien symbiote repro-
  duces by incubating its egg in a human (or equivalent sapient
  species) for several decades. The lucky incubator gains amaz-
  ing resilience during this time, while the symbiote watches
  from afar. At the end of the incubation, the egg passes harm-
  lessly from the host before hatching . . . unless the GM would
  prefer a darker ending! Is an eventual, guaranteed, painful
  death worth years of superhuman durability?
  HARRIAD
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 7
  A harriad is a sapient energy being, which seeks a partner-
  ship with anyone sufficiently ambitious and greedy. In return
  for it sharing its uncanny financial instincts (and, in certain
  settings, enough psionic Telepathy to accomplish insider trad-
  ing, hostile takeovers, etc.), it sucks the life energy from its
  host, gradually leaving him a hideous shell.
  LYTHERIONS
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 9
  These poison-fueled weirdness magnets work as either a new
  alien race or as a variant human race (for settings which support
  such a concept, like GURPS Traveller or the Vorkosigan Saga).
  Instead of enhancing mana, their bodies cause rapid fluctua-
  tions in local quantum energy, provoking strange events (and, if
  psi exists, making its use unpredictable).
  MISER TROLL
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 2, p. 3
  This parasite infects its victim with a disease that gradu-
  ally warps his mind. The victim will become obsessed with
  securing a local resource – something that the “troll’s” species
  needs for survival. The natural aggression and conflict this
  can produce is comparable to the threat caused by the Pyra
  (pp. 11-17); if both exist in the same campaign, they are likely
  to be mortal enemies.
  NAZARAAD
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 2, p. 6
  As sci-fi usually precludes demons, the nazaraads are
  instead an alien species with incredible difficulty gestating.
  One will quietly implant its tiny, developing egg in an unsus-
  pecting, sleeping host. Since this is not a natural symbiotic
  relationship, the host must take strange actions to accommo-
  date the egg’s growth (e.g., consuming odd chemicals); the par-
  ent uses psionic Telepathy to subtly enforce this. When the
  gestation time is up . . . well, just think of Alien.
  NERLOCH
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 12
  Anagon (the nerlochs’ dark “god”) is a vastly powerful alien.
  Whether it is unique or part of a terrifying species is up to the
  GM. From its home within a massive asteroid, it sends its ner-
  lochs out to raid unsuspecting habitats. Nerlochs’ implanted
  gems allow them limited telekinetic space flight – enough to
  land silently on a station or asteroid, before creeping inside to
  abduct new “converts.”
  PENDULUM GHOUL
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 2, p. 8
  If literal undead exist in the setting, then the ghouls work
  fine as-is; there’s not much scarier than exploring a ruined
  spaceship or station, only to have the former crew members
  come swinging at you on shredded, sparking wires!
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  35
  JANUARY 2011
  CREATURES OF
  THE VOID
  BY REV. JASON “PK” LEVINE
  
  If not, the ghouls can make a unique encounter as forest-
  bound aliens, whose natural form of locomotion involves
  clinging to and climbing the tough local vines.
  POOL BEAST
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 14
  These powerful monsters inhabit the bubbling pools of
  methane, acid, magma, etc., which pockmark a particular
  planet. Explorers soon learn to avoid these ponds, but when
  they eventually discover that these pools are tunnels – dug
  down into the planet’s crust and interconnected by a vast
  underground sea – they realize that taming the planet’s surface
  is only half the battle.
  PTALLANT LIZARD
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 15
  This species’ innocent looks belie its powerful and destruc-
  tive psychokinesis. If disturbed, it sends out massive telekinetic
  shock waves around it in all directions. On a planet, this can
  devastate a small settlement . . . and on a spaceship, this can
  cause explosive decompression if not stopped quickly enough!
  SEA GIANT
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 2, p. 10
  In science fiction, ships sail through space, not the sea.
  Thus, this becomes a space giant – a powerful alien who col-
  lects electrical systems (from satellites, probes, ships, etc.), to
  build a pattern that resonates pleasantly with it. Ships who
  accidentally disturb this pattern will incur its ire! A large spec-
  imen will force its way into the ship to attack the crew, while a
  colossal one may be able to threaten the ship directly.
  SHOULDER GIANT
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 17
  Instead of a literal humanoid giant, this becomes a massive,
  burrowing, alien species. It slowly makes its way under human
  settlements, where the soft thrum of the environmental systems
  and power generators lull it to sleep. The GM will need to decide
  what in the local environment disturbs it, rousing it from sleep
  and endangering the settlement. This could be anything from
  the planet’s equivalent of a storm to a burst of solar radiation.
  SLAKE HOUND
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 19
  The slake hound needs no adjustment to work as an alien
  species. For added intrigue, consider additional uses for the
  bile sac – even those that have nothing to do with its acidic
  properties. For example, a medical corporation may discover
  unique enzymes in the sac, leading them to corral and raise
  slake hounds. This is unlikely to cause a problem . . . until an
  electrical short opens the gate, releasing the hounds on an
  unsuspecting colony!
  STRIKEWORM
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 2, p. 13
  This predator is a natural addition to any planet’s ecosys-
  tem, where it uses latent telekinesis to easily climb cliffs and
  launch itself at anything it sees as a threat. Instead of magical
  augmentation, any psychokinetic psi may form a gestalt with
  the strikeworm, strengthening its innate levitation so it can act
  as a mount. Just when the heroes are used to fending off wild
  strikeworms, they have to deal with angry natives riding them!
  TELLANODE
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 21
  With a pedigree straight from the Twilight Zone, the tellan-
  odes fit cleanly into any sci-fi game. In fact, once they’re dis-
  covered, the real question is, “Where did they come from?”
  Perhaps they’re a probe, sent by another species to gather our
  secrets. Or they may be another species, come to observe (or
  conquer) us! If psionics exist, the GM should decide if the
  insiders are using standard Telepathy, or something new,
  unique, and unknown.
  URIMANDER
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 2, p. 16
  There’s no reasonable technobabble to explain what this
  creature does, but if one sneaks aboard a ship, the crew will
  find themselves entering an entirely new world. In addition to
  the stresses of having to fend off space roaches and similar ver-
  min, the GM can use this as a gateway to another adventure by
  having them notice something odd that they couldn’t have
  spotted at full size (e.g., a microdot with encoded information,
  stuck to a shipping label).
  UROTH
  Creatures of the Night, Vol. 1, p. 24
  There’s no reason to abandon the concept of the uroth as a
  “walking treasure chest.” But in space, where resources are
  scarce, the concept of treasure can certainly change! What if
  the uroth has the unusual property of producing pure, fresh
  water – something not readily available on the planet or easy
  to synthesize from local chemicals? Survival here may depend
  on the ability to track uroths, slay them, and safely extract
  their strange bladders.
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  The unique life form known alternately as Jason Levine, the
  Assistant GURPS Line Editor, or simply “Subject X” was par-
  tially responsible for the creation of the Creatures of the Night
  series mentioned in this very article. Because of this, scientists
  theorize that it possesses a remarkable gift for self-promotion.
  While its landing site in northern Georgia was positively identi-
  fied, sensors have since lost track of its movements.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  36
  JANUARY 2011
  Get it off me! Just get it off me!
  – Unknown explorer, deceased
  
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  37
  JANUARY 2011
  As long as humanity has been looking up at the infinite void,
  we’ve been mentally plugging “monsters” into that hole. So
  what’s the appeal? Figuring that out can help us find elements
  we can ramp up to 11 in our own games. How do we decide on
  that? One possibly fruitful method is by imagining monsters
  introduced into our own planet-bound world, and seeing what
  effect is had by introducing space to that equation. (And we say
  “possibly fruitful,” but we know darn well that we were at least
  able to get two pages’ worth of column out of this concept.
  BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE . . .
  For the most part, Earth is safe – especially the land-based
  parts. Sure, weather can be pretty annoying, and the need to
  track down food every so often puts a crimp on lounging-
  around plans. However, the default assumption is that – in the
  absence of anything actively dangerous – terra firma is con-
  ducive to life.
  In comparison, space is anything but safe. There is no
  aspect of the void that is hospitable. You can’t breathe. There’s
  nothing to eat. Admittedly, broadcast reception is a lot better,
  but getting cable up there is comically impossible.
  Thus for applicability to our “monsters in space” theme, it’s
  noteworthy to realize that the “in space” portion of the equa-
  tion is still plenty dangerous all by itself. Monsters merely
  serve to amplify that danger.
  To put it another way, in many sci-fi settings, a bungling
  boob of a beast can – with the right collateral damage – still
  ensure the complete annihilation of its victims.
  EXIT, STAGE LEFT
  On mother Earth, there’s usually somewhere else to go.
  Whether maneuvering on foot, by vehicle, or underwater, there’s
  usually a left/right/backward/down that can serve as an escape
  route. Sure, it’s possible to get trapped, but such situations are
  the exception – and keen-eyed (or paranoid!) heroes have an
  escape plan or two worked out for most situations.
  Conversely, in space there’s generally nowhere to go but
  nowhere. Whether small-scale space station, little lunar base,
  or cramped craft, celestial conditions provide far fewer escape
  routes (unless, of course, something in the setting mitigates the
  danger – see the box on p. 38 for ideas).
  One fact often overlooked is that a compression of distance
  usually means a compression in time. If you’re able to run
  from one end of the mall to the other in your effort to escape
  the zombie apocalypse, you can buy yourself a good five to 10
  minutes or more, depending on the size of the mall – and that
  doesn’t even count the ability to run outside! However, if you’re
  running from one end of an orbital satellite to the other, you’ll
  probably run out of room long before you run out of breath . . .
  and if your back’s against the metal wall, your only choice at
  that point is how you want to die.
  UNDER CONSTRUCTION
  (BUT MOSTLY DONE)
  We’ve had thousands of years of culture and society to work
  out the limitations of this ball of mud upon which we originated.
  Beyond that, we’ve had a couple billion years to evolve mecha-
  nisms that ensure our survival on this specific world. Our ability
  to deal with excess heat, cellular restoration, temperature ranges
  – all have been evolved with our world in mind.
  Meanwhile, we’ve only been making space remotely habit-
  able for less than a half-century. Barring exceptional advances
  in transhumanism, we’ll never have the kind of evolutionary
  advantages in an alien landscape that we have here on Earth.
  RANDOM
  THOUGHT TABLE
  WHAT’S DANGEROUS ABOUT
  SPACE? NOTHING!
  BY STEVEN MARSH, PYRAMID EDITOR
  Keep this article handy in case the players ever get complacent about the dangers of space.
  
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  38
  JANUARY 2011
  From a monsters-in-space vantage point, this means that
  attributes we’ve cultivated on Earth to deal with its problems
  here could be deadly to us. Thus, it’s a fact that humans sweat;
  it’s necessary for our survival . . . but if some monster is (say)
  able to read our thoughts via our perspiration, then that “sur-
  vival trait” could spell our doom.
  THE PLANET RECOMMENDED
  BY FOUR OUT OF FIVE
  TERRANS
  As famed superhero The Tick noted about the Earth, “That’s
  where I keep all my stuff!” We know this world pretty well;
  there aren’t too many things we can learn about this world that
  have the ability to fundamentally affect us all (which is one of
  the reasons the possibility of global climate change is frighten-
  ing). This is partly because of the aforementioned length of
  time we’ve been on this planet.
  However, what we know about other worlds or regions of
  space is likely to be infinitesimally smaller. A previously
  unknown decadal solar-flare cycle can wreak havoc on a sys-
  tem that’s been occupied for years. A rare tidal phenomenon
  might place an entire colony in danger. All manner of comets,
  meteor clouds, and radiation bands we’ve tracked meticulously
  for thousands of years in our own neck of the interstellar
  woods can be completely unknown in unfamiliar space.
  This lack of environmental knowledge can enhance any mon-
  sters-in-space encounter. On Earth, knowing that sunrise will
  destroy the vampires turns the encounter into a predictable race
  against the clock (how long until sunrise); however, even if space
  vampires have the same weakness, who knows if this system’s
  sun will work on them – or when “sunrise” is?
  In a lot of ways, an extraterrestrial encounter with mon-
  strous hostile forces is one of the greatest challenges imagina-
  ble, and the only upside of “deadly plus deadly” is that you can
  only be killed once. From the first time humanity began con-
  sidering the stars – probably beginning with H.G. Wells’
  Martians – we’ve wondered what else was there, waiting to
  attack. This becomes doubly interesting when you realize the
  Martians themselves were done in by an “alien” environmental
  factor they hadn’t considered. Let’s hope they’re not reading
  this and making adjustments . . .
  ABOUT THE EDITOR
  Steven Marsh is a freelance writer and editor. He has con-
  tributed to roleplaying game releases from Green Ronin, West
  End Games, White Wolf, Hogshead Publishing, and others. He
  has been editing Pyramid for over nine years; during that time
  he has won four Origins awards.
  Many themes draw their power from juxtaposition. Pride
  and Prejudice and Zombies doesn’t get its appeal because the
  person hearing the title goes, “Ah-HA! Of course; those two
  ideas are closely related!” Rather, it’s the frisson of excite-
  ment cause by the collision of two disparate ideas.
  “Monsters in space,” on the other hand, gets its power
  from an amplification. Space is dangerous, and monsters
  are dangerous, so the two together must be really danger-
  ous. It’s the logic behind “sharks with laser beams,” and it’s
  the whole thesis of this column, after all.
  However, as an intellectual exercise, try recasting the
  “monsters in space” divide back within the realm of jux-
  taposition. The easiest way to do this would be to figure
  out a way to make space un-dangerous. Some possibili-
  ties include:
  • Space is naturally safe. This is the tack taken by
  RPG settings such as Spelljammer. Sure, it may be a pain
  in the butt to get up to the heavens, but once you’re
  there, it isn’t terribly hazardous to your health. This
  requires a considerable rewriting of our known laws of
  physics, but even within a (somewhat) hard-science
  realm it’s not out of the question; “we’ve traveled to an
  alternate dimension with a breathable æther” can open
  the possibility for new excitement.
  • Space has been tamed. While it’s unlikely the dangers
  of an absolute void will be polished away entirely, it’s quite
  possible that we’ll reach a point in our space exploits that
  we’ll forget space is dangerous. If Moonville is considered
  the 24th century’s Disneyland, or if interstellar travel is
  made seemingly foolproof enough that spacecraft are a
  luxury, then it’s quite likely humanity will forget. (We see
  this happen in our world. The ocean is incredibly danger-
  ous and inconducive to human life, yet people see it as a
  perfect place to put a luxury liner . . . and then proceed to
  panic if something goes awry.)
  • Some people can explore without danger. It’s feasible
  that we’ll figure out a way for some people to mitigate the
  peril of space, for example via a Lensmen/Green Lantern
  bit of superscience. Once people take personal technology
  for granted, it becomes an extension of themselves; global
  telecommunication may be an impossibility for many
  remote or impoverished parts of the world, but someone
  with a satellite phone can travel near-globally and remain
  in contact.
  So, once the foundation for juxtaposition is laid, what
  can be done with it? There are two obvious possibilities.
  First, the juxtaposition merely serves to heighten the dan-
  ger of the situation – gee, everything else is so tamed and
  controlled on Moonville; why can’t we stop one measly
  star-otter? Second, the seeming juxtaposition is shown to
  be the charade it is, as the monster (wittingly or not) turns
  the dangers of space to its advantage. Sure, space is breath-
  able with an emerald amulet, but what if . . .
  As a final intellectual exercise: What if juxtaposition is
  enabled because space is still dangerous, but “monsters”
  are safe? Devising a mechanism is left to the reader.
  Perhaps there is some inhuman threat that has been (in
  normal conditions) rendered harmless, in the way we view
  beach-washed jellyfish nowadays. Then, of course, it all
  goes wrong . . .
  It’s Only Space; What Can Go Wrong?!
  
  MORE MONSTROUS!
  So you’ve generated a mundane creature (pp. 18-23) who
  doesn’t feel quite “monstrous” enough. How can you give it
  that extra pep to make it a threat the heroes will remember?
  Here are a few ideas.
  A Corpse Is a Corpse . . . : True monsters seldom treat human
  bodies with any respect. Whether stringing them up as food for
  later (encased in something icky), shredding them to precise
  sinewy strips, or sending tendrils weaving into and out of tar-
  get flesh, a good creepy creature doesn’t just bludgeon some-
  thing to death.
  Go With the Flow: Plenty of good monsters fail to adhere to
  human expectations of how we expect physical bodies to
  move. They often travel with slow precision when you’d
  expect them to move quickly, or with preternatural swift-
  ness and impossible angles when they should be still. (This
  is part of what makes snakes so creepy; they slither in a way
  that humans don’t, then strike like lightning.)
  Orifice Party: Many a terrifying creature fails to respect
  personal boundaries when it comes to body parts. Slimy
  ichor that drips into eyes, spinning tendrils that probe the
  nose, tongues that seek out the inner ear, and more. Here’s
  where that altered time flow enhances the creepiness: Animals
  try to gouge out the eyes, while monsters slowly suction them
  out with a mouth-like tube.
  Vive Laaaaaaaaaaah Différence!: Good monsters frequently
  have vastly different life cycles. Your standard animal starts usu-
  ally out as a smaller or cuter version of their adult form – but not
  terrifying creatures. No, a good critter might start out as a mul-
  ticolored flower, then morph into a green humanoid. Or they go
  from compact basketball-sized insectoids that can expand to a
  mass of writhing arms, then grow up to house-sized lobster-
  esque monstrosities dripping with phosphorescent goo. The
  point is, a good monster doesn’t permit complacency; you can’t
  assume that if you’ve seen one specimen, you’ve seen ’em all.
  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  39
  JANUARY 2011
  ODDS AND ENDS
  BY GREG HYLAND
  It’s Just a Simple
  Mission . . .
  Nothing good will befall the heroes should they
  be unfortunate enough to hear:
  • “We lost contact with the station a week
  ago . . .”
  • “The Intergalactic Emperor hasn’t been acting
  like himself lately, but it’s probably nothing.”
  • “For some reason, the floorboards of this
  building smell like iron and copper.”
  • Their friend stopping midsentence and start-
  ing to clutch his head/face/chest/whatever.
  • The sound of an explosion from the part of
  the ship containing the only escape pod.
  • “Trust me. There are no other life forms for
  miles around – except for Mr. Whiskers, the station
  mascot.”
  • “There’s no possible way that thing could
  make it out of its cage, so long as the power holds
  . . . and we’ve got two generators!”
  • “Fortunately, we know our monster-hunting
  gear is in good shape, since we just had it checked
  by IncompeTech. Can you believe their rates were
  half the other guys’?”
  • “I apologize; I seem to have a cold today.”
  
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
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  PYRAMID MAGAZINE
  40
  JANUARY 2011
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Bestiaries/Pyramid - Monsters in Space.pdf