The next story that we come to is The Curse of Peladon,
which features no fewer than four different kinds of alien. Chief among them
are the Ice Warriors, which I have already covered. Of the three new
introductions, Arcturus’ abilities are more a product of the device he is using
to move around, which must be customisable, so I’ll leave him out. That leaves
Alpha Centauri and Aggedor.
Both reappear a couple of seasons later in The Monster of Peladon, and Alpha Centauri also has a cameo appearance (voiced by the same actress, no less) in the Twelfth Doctor story Empress of Mars. To date, Alpha Centauri has also appeared in five audios and one original novel, all set on Peladon, and the race has been referenced in a number of other novels. Aggedor is slightly less popular, appearing in two novels and one audio – although in their case, it’s different members of the same species rather than the same individual.
Description and Biology
Alpha Centauri is a non-humanoid alien with a cylindrical
body and a globular head bearing a single massive eye. They have six tentacles
arising from their flanks, each of which ends in blunt pincers. The feet, if
there are any, are concealed beneath an apron-like structure at the base, but
it could well be that this is intended to be a large muscular foot, like that
of a snail. They have no visible mouth, although they must eat somehow, so
perhaps this is concealed beneath their clothing.
It’s also possible that the TARDIS translation circuits are
responsible for the voice sounding humanoid, and that they are actually
communicating by some other means or using their own translation device. This
might explain why the individual in the stories is never given a name, and only
referred to by the human name for their homeworld; it may be that their actual
name is a series of musical tones or something else equally unpronounceable to
humans.
We don’t know too much else about Alpha Centauri’s biology,
although it is stated that they are hermaphroditic, requiring two parents to
create a child but either one of them being able to bear the child to term. One
of the novels also states that they can change colour, although we don’t see
the one in the TV stories doing this.
Aggedor is a large bipedal creature with a shaggy coat and a
bulky body. It has long arms ending in three clawed fingers and a similar
number of clawed toes on the feet. The head has a long, broad, snout ending in
wide nostrils, giving it a somewhat pig-like appearance, and a single sharp
horn projecting from the forehead. They have sharp tusk-like teeth that imply a
carnivorous diet and, so far as we can tell, are mammalian. The horn is
probably of less use in combat with prey items than the claws are, and so may
be for contests with other aggedors in a manner similar to deer or antelope –
we don’t have horned mammalian carnivores in our world, but there’s no reason
why this shouldn’t be possible.
Game Attributes
With the majority of alien races I’ve described so far, I
have assumed a default combatant – a standard warrior, soldier, or the like.
Clearly, for Alpha Centaurans that’s not appropriate. Nor do we have any other
standard character type, as we do for the Ood. So, instead, I’m going to assume
that the typical member of the race that will be encountered is, like the
specific character featured in the Peladon stories, a diplomat of some kind.
Not necessarily of the “representing the entire planet” kind of that character,
but at least in the same profession. Either way, we’re not looking for anyone
with high combat skills, which will have some implications for systems where stats
are built largely around combat, as they are in D&D.
So far as we can tell, Alpha Centaurans are of roughly human
levels of strength and physical fitness and a diplomat wouldn’t be above
average for its race in this regard. On the other hand, they are slow-moving,
and having pincers for hands would be limiting with fine manipulation of
objects. True, this is partially offset by the presence of six limbs, which can
be used together as if there are more fingers per hand than there actually are,
but they still look fairly inflexible, so a low dexterity (or equivalent) is
hard to get around. The single eye will also rule out depth perception, making
it harder to use missile weapons, something that’s also often rolled into
dexterity.
On the other hand, we can reasonably assume that although
the range of statistics is probably human-normal, diplomats are likely to have
high intelligence and attributes and/or skills related to persuasion. Other
skills related to an understanding of the world would also be relevant. The
race is not especially brave or strong-willed, so any attribute related to this
is likely to be significantly below the human average.
Aggedor, as an animal, is best treated using a baseline quite different from that of humans. It’s somewhere between a bear and a gorilla in form and appearance, and likely has a strength and physical resilience comparable to those creatures – which, depending on the system, could be quite significant. It has claws, large teeth, and a horn to attack with – although the latter is probably not very effective in subduing prey (rather than wrestling with other aggedors) so can either be ignored or treated as having a lower ability rating than the main attack modes. Aggedors spend much of their lives underground, and there is some indication in the novels that they rely more on scent than on vision, so that may need to be factored in. Where the system gives intelligence stats to non-sentient creatures, aggedors seem likely to be on a par with apes, and significantly more intelligent than, say, the average placid herbivore.
5E - Alpha Centauran diplomat
Medium monstrosity, neutral good
Armour Class: 9 (natural)
Hit Points: 14 (3d8)
Speed: 20 ft.
STR 10 (+0) | DEX 8 (-1) | CON 10 (+0) |
INT 14 (+2) | WIS 8 (-1) | CHA 16 (+3) |
Saving Throws: Intelligence +4
Skills: History +4, Insight +1, Perception +1, Science +4, Persuasion +5
Combat Skills: Melee Attack +0,
Senses: Passive Perception 11
Challenge: 0 (10 XP)
5E - Aggedor
Large animal, unaligned
Armour Class: 12 (natural)
Hit Points: 34 (4d10+12)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 17 (+3) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 16 (+3) |
INT 4 (-3) | WIS 12 (+1) | CHA 7 (-2) |
Skills: APerception +3
Combat Skills: Melee Attack +5
Senses: Passive Perception 13
Keen Smell: The aggedor has advantage on
Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Multiattack: The aggedor makes two attacks,
one with its bite, and one with its claws.
Bite: Melee
Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3)
piercing damage.
Claws: Melee
Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+3)
slashing damage.
Challenge: 1 (200 XP)
BRP - Alpha Centauran
STR 3D6 (10-11) | CON 3D6 (10-11) | SIZ 2D6+6 (13) |
INT 2D6+6 (13) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
DEX 2D6 (7) | CHA 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 12 | Move: 8 | |
Base SR: 6 | Damage Bonus: 0 |
Armour: None
Skills (diplomat): Etiquette 75%, Insight 40%, Knowledge (Politics) 60%, Persuade 70%, Status 40%
Combat Skills: Brawl 15%
BRP - Aggedor
STR 3D6+15 (25-26) | CON 2D6+6 (13) | SIZ 3D6+9 (19-20) |
POW 3D6 (10-11) | DEX 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 17 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 4 | Damage Bonus: +2D6 |
Armour: 3-point (skin and fur)
Skills: Sense 50%
Combat Skills: Brawl 60% (1D8+2D6 damage)
GURPS - Alpha Centauran diplomat
ST 10 | DX 8 | IQ 14 | HT 10 |
Thrust: 1d-2 | Swing: 1d | ||
Speed: 4.5 | Move: 4 |
Advantages: Administrative Rank-3, Contact Group
(Federation Diplomatic Corps), Extra Arms (x4), Legal Immunity (Diplomatic)
Disadvantages: Duty (Federation, quite often,
non-hazardous), Fearfulness-1, No Legs (Slithers), One Eye, Pacifism
(Self-Defence Only)
Skills: Area Knowledge (Federation)-14, Current
Affairs (Politics)/TL10-15, Diplomacy-15, Law (Federation)-12, Politics-14,
Research/TL10-13, Savoir-Faire (Federation)-14
GURPS - Aggedor
ST 20 | DX 13 | IQ 5 | HT 14 |
Damage: 1d+2 | |||
Speed: 6.75 | Move: 6 |
Advantages: Discriminatory Scent, Night Vision-6
Savage Worlds - Alpha Centauran diplomat
Agility: d4 | Smarts: d10 | Spirit: d4 |
Strength: d6 | Vigour: d6 |
Skills: Academics d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d10,
Research d4
Edges: Connections
Hindrances: Mild-Mannered, One Eye, Pacifist (Minor)
Pace: 4 Parry: 2 Toughness: 5 Size: 0
Savage Worlds - Aggedor
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d6 (A) | Spirit: d8 |
Strength: d12+1 | Vigour: d12 |
Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d8
Edges: Brute
Bite/Claws: Str +d6
Pace: 6 Parry: 6 Toughness: 10 Size: 2
STA - Alpha Centauran diplomat
Control: 8 | Fitness: 8 | Presence: 10 |
Daring: 7 | Insight: 9 | Reason: 10 |
Command: 3 | Security: 0 | Science: 1 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 1 |
Stress: 8 | Resistance: 0 |
STA - Aggedor
Control: 6 | Fitness: 11 | Presence: 10 |
Daring: 8 | Insight: 5 | Reason: 2 |
Command: 2 | Security: 2 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 13 | Resistance: 1 |
Claws: Melee, 3^, Intense, 1H
Bite: Melee, 4^, Vicious 1, Cumbersome
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