I'm going to be doing a sci fi game in a homebrewed setting

File: Space Horror - Faster than the Dark.png (1MB, 1878x5640px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1878x5640px

>>51086315
>random deep space encounter, then never show up again or really have a bearing on the plot

But.. why?

Remember, you're doing collaborative storyelling. If aliens showed up midway though "The Pirates of Penzance" and then fucked off, it'd be a weird musical.

Chekhov's gun, friend.

Bad idea. You will derail your whole campaign to be about crazy PCs who try to convince others to believe in aliens and prepare for an intergalactic war or some shit.

>>51086315
Please don't do this. If you MUST have aliens in the story, just have someone find remnants of their technology or something, and make it a major plot point. Else you're going to derail the campaign.

>>51086315
>Thoughts?

No Aliens.
The moment you introduce Aliens EVERYTHING changes.

>>51086315

Depends.

If they're little grey men or bug monsters or the like, I can see that being a big deal from the point of view of the players. If the aliens stand out and are interesting to the players, they'll want to see more of them, and of they aren't interesting, you'll have "that one really dumb encounter".

It MIGHT work if you focus on the humans and their interaction with the aliens, and maybe make the aliens microbial or something, since finding intelligent life is a VERY BIG DEAL and I can't see any way for it to not be (even microbial life is a Very Big Deal, but still)

>>51086536
Are there any stories like this one? Misa like it.

>>51086315
Drop hints that aliens have existed. Things like ancient landscaping on moons, or artifacts planted.

>>51086315

Only if you're okay with your players dropping everything to try and make contact or run them down.

As >>51086609 says, everything changes once you throw in aliens. The amount of cash you can make off first contact alone will tempt players, and even if your setting has no cash or monetary exchange, there's the prestige of it all.

Not to mention the possibility of a technological leg-up.

So, no. Either flesh them out, or leave them out. If you're dead set, have the encounter happen to NPCs and have them tell the PCs about the spoopy strange ship they came across.

>>51089268
Literally the first line of the pasta tells you the story that it's based on. Read it.

>>51086536
Holy shit that story

>>51089730
Already read Blindsight, 10/9 want more.

>>51090291
Anything by Greg Egan or Peter Watts will do you good then.

>>51086315
Don't reveal them unless you want the entire focus of your game to shift to ALIENS ARE HERE ALIENS ARE HERE.

Discovering sentient life from another world is literally the biggest thing that could happen to us. It is bigger than the discovery of FTL, bigger than the nuclear bomb, bigger than metallurgy, bigger than fire. First Contact is an event that merits resetting the fucking Calendar.