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[DreamThorn]

I'm thinking that, since we're going to need some rules and someone in charge anyway, we might as well make a forum game of it.

There is no set list of players; anybody can come, choose a species, and evolve it.  This should be clear from the topic, otherwise people might think that they cannot join because the game has already started.

Also, I do not think we need pictures for every species.  We should focus more on specific adaptations.

Some ideas to consider:

• Every week (?) is an era, after which the GM announces climatic, geographical and botanic changes.
• Every new adaptation must have a defined cause.
• Removal of an adaptation may sometimes occur if there is no need for it any more, but not always.
• The GM also manages a list of geographical regions, with climate etc. and gives updates as to which species live in which regions, for clarity.
• Extinctions are caused by competing species, but do not happen immediately.  Usually the fittest will survive and their competitors die out.  I think it might be good to have the GM do this, but he/she must be impartial.
  
• Expansion of a species to a neighboring region should have some kind of limit/cost depending on movement type.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Shoku]

Where I've tried making this a game elsewhere I've been met with dead silence but with a writing style that manages to avoid being mine it might go somewhere.

I've got about a million things I have a strong urge to add to that list but filtering out impractical things that would have me rambling forever-
Extinctions from competitors would mostly happen early on when two species met, otherwise climate change would be a major culprit. This means a lot of species would go dieing in sync.

With mass extinctions on a larger scale the web of relations between animals was often shot full of holes but enough could remain in tact for some really strong selection in favor of other animals taking over the roles of previous ones. In particular an animal that takes over a role will probably spread into different environments faster than anybody else can get a chance to do the same sort of thing. Mountains and ocean can block the spread of a creature indefinitely but you can usually go around mountains and storms sweep some non-aquatic animals out to some distant islands every now and again.

[DreamThorn]

New DF?!?

I'm outta here!

Maybe I'll come back someday.

[Shoku]

If it runs really slow for you too you could just designate a bunch of stuff to be done and return to stuff like this in five minutes bursts or such.

[Shoku]

The alternative evolution forum seems to have gone to crap :<
Everybody just wants to have some different group evolve into humans.

[Grakelin]

the Star Trek method of just adding a few features to human actors

To be fair, in Star Trek canon, all Humanoid races in the Galaxy are related to eachother because they were scattered through the cosmos by a Progenitor race.

[piecewise]

the Star Trek method of just adding a few features to human actors

To be fair, in Star Trek canon, all Humanoid races in the Galaxy are related to eachother because they were scattered through the cosmos by a Progenitor race.

I believe that is known as the Loophole effect

[Grakelin]

You will have to explain further.

[piecewise]

You will have to explain further.

The loophole effect is the "buffer" on the universe which protects humanity from it's own stupidity. Its effects include:

1.Chronological effects of time travel appear slowly enough to reverse
2.Space ship engines that are just barely strong enough to escape the gravity well of blackholes/suns
3.Making friendly alien races all pleasingly humanoid, usually with breasts regardless of species background
4.Allows lasers to move slowly enough to be seen and deflected
5.Large windows on space craft aren't broken by micro debris
6.The informant living just long enough to tell you everything you need to know
7.Gravity appearing randomly when convenient and being the same almost everywhere.
And various other temporal anomalies.


It of course doesn't apply unless the humans doing any of these things are grizzled, brown haired action men accompanied by spunky action girls, humorless old men, comical tech nerds and wise cracking rookies.  Robots which are humanoid in appearance or mannerisms may also be effected when the universe isn't paying attention.

[Grakelin]

I don't think the windows on the spacecraft are made out of glass, so much as some sort of hardened clear material.

In Star Trek it doesn't matter anyways, because there is a forcefield which prevents hull breaches from depressurizing the entire ship in one go.

[piecewise]

I don't think the windows on the spacecraft are made out of glass, so much as some sort of hardened clear material.

In Star Trek it doesn't matter anyways, because there is a forcefield which prevents hull breaches from depressurizing the entire ship in one go.

I remember watching some program on the discovery channel about the logistics of various aspects of the starwas/trek/gate universe. They posited that they might use plasma windows rather then any actual solid substance. Of course they could just make the windows out of quartz crystal so the ships aura is balanced or whatever it is that new agers say they do. 

I wonder why they just didn't use pressure doors rather then the forcefield thing to prevent decompression. It might have saved them enough money to buy proper uniforms rather then having to have everyone running around in skintight pajamas. 

[Grakelin]

Because you can't see through a pressure door.

[Shoku]

If you listen to the fanboys, all the series they call "bad writing!" on tend to ignore stuff like the progenitor race and the clear steel or whatever windows (as well as throwing rooms into the ship that serve no logical purpose.)

I recall an episode of voyager where they met a many million year old civilization that evolved from dinosaurs on Earth and left when they saw the meteor coming. I kept myself from fussing too much about all of the things that didn't make sense there but what matters right here is that some of the writers DO think that any species that ends up intelligent ends up humanoid, unless it's crystals or a small population of psychic space whales or such.

[piecewise]

Because you can't see through a pressure door.

yeah, I guess you won't be able to see the various red shirts have their eyes implode if it's hidden behind a door. Thats how spock should have died.

"Live long and HRRUUUUCKKKKKKKKK *POP*"

[Grakelin]

If you listen to the fanboys, all the series they call "bad writing!" on tend to ignore stuff like the progenitor race and the clear steel or whatever windows (as well as throwing rooms into the ship that serve no logical purpose.)

I recall an episode of voyager where they met a many million year old civilization that evolved from dinosaurs on Earth and left when they saw the meteor coming. I kept myself from fussing too much about all of the things that didn't make sense there but what matters right here is that some of the writers DO think that any species that ends up intelligent ends up humanoid, unless it's crystals or a small population of psychic space whales or such.

I saw that episode. I was actually very attracted to the first ten minutes, wherein the writer had obviously drawn on Brecht's 'Life of Galileo' (though, the rest of the episode was just Galileo in general). The dinosaurs didn't bail when they saw the meteor, though. They bailed when the meteor blocked out the sun. I didn't think it was so much of a stretch, except for the fact that we never found any of their cities.