So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
Cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth(from)The Galaxy Song Monty Python
Basic Information
An alien is a creature of extraterrestrial origin. They are likely to exhibit Alien Biochemistry.
Also known as a Xenomorph (AGk: 'Strange Form').
This trope generally will not refer to the more prosaic definition of 'alien' … which is basically a synonym for 'foreigner' (as in Resident Alien, Illegal Alien and Enemy Alien), except in those cases of sci-fi where the two categories overlap.
List of Alien Types and Descriptions
Many of which are also Tropes.
- Alien Animals
- Ancient Astronauts
- Big Creepy Crawlies
- The Blob
- Ditto Aliens
- Energy Beings
- Genius Loci
- Green Skinned Space Babe
- The Greys
- Heavyworlder
- Human Aliens
- Lightworlder
- Little Green Men
- Mechanical Lifeforms
- Muppet
- People In Rubber Suits
- People Jars
- Plant Aliens
- Precursors
- The Puppet Masters
- Reptilian-Humanoid
- Rubber Forehead Aliens
- Serkis Folk
- Space Whale
- Starfish Aliens
- Sufficiently Advanced Aliens
Other Tropes
- Alien Abduction
- Alien Among Us
- Aliens And Monsters
- Alien Invasion
- Alien Space Bats - the Sci-fi equivalent of A Wizard Did it
- Aliens Steal Cable
- Aliens Steal Cattle
- More Teeth Than The Osmond Family
- Narrative Tropes
- Otherness Tropes
- Science Fiction
- Sufficiently Advanced Aliens
See Also:
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Adventure Seed: Jumpgate to Elohi
- With fantasy or mythological creatures, the players often know what to expect, since the stories revolving around them tend to be common knowledge. Aliens, in contrast, are potentially capable of anything, so use them to surprise the players.
- See, for example, the film District 9 where the categories of resident alien and actual alien overlap significantly.