Alien Thinking

I've been thinking about aliens today.	And why not?  Beats thinking 
about reality, after all....

Specifically, I've been thinking about alien psychology, at least to the

degree that it relates to game play.

To simplify matters to an appalling (but gameable) degree, there are 
three basic responses when a human being feels threatened:
   Flight -- running away from the threat,
   Fight -- attacking the threat,
   or Freeze -- holding still and hoping that the threat won't notice
you.

The rules assume Freeze as the default human response (which 
seems reasonable enough), and the Suppression system models that 
quite well.  What's more, it's quite easy to "tweak" the system a little

to allow for a greater range of response, such as:
     Timidity -- Units recieve *two* Suppression markers when they 
come under fire, rather than one.
     Boldness -- Units may automatically remove one Suppression 
marker when they are activated.
     Caution -- Units automatically go "In Position" when they recieve a

Supression marker, and must come out of position (as per the rules) 
before they can move.

I've been thinking about the other two responses, though, and how 
best to model them without mutilating the system too badly.  I've got 
some preliminary ideas, so I thought that I'd throw them out there 
and let the list at large tear them to bits.

For Flight, which appears to be the default Herbivore response, you 
could do the following:
     When a unit is activated, it must immediately make one 
confidence check for every Suppression marker that it has.  For each 
failed test, the unit must spend an action to make a Combat Move 
away from any and all visible attackers.  If the tests are passed, the 
unit may act normally.	(I have this particular system in mind for my 
Grey aliens, who would be making that confidence test at a 
considerable penalty.)

For Fight, on the other hand....  The problem here is that, when facing 
modern (or future!) firearms, the Fight response is likely to get you 
killed.  Nevertheless, it's still appropriate, and can be a nasty thing
to 
face under the right circumstances (The 
Niven/Barnes/Pournelle "Grendels" are a fine example.)	Here's one 
way to play it, assuming an intelligent foe:
     A unit with two or more Suppression markers must immediately 
make a confidence check when it is activated.  If this check is passed, 
the unit may attempt to remove the markers as normal (probably at a 
bonus, since we're assuming an aagressive species).  If the check is 
*failed*, however, the unit must immediately charge the nearest 
enemy unit, with a movement bounus of +d8" for this movement 
only.  (With sufficiently nasty aliens, give this charge a "Terror"
effect 
and you'll give them a slightly better chance of surviving.)

And of course, on top of all that, there are some completely alien 
responses to consider.

You've got the Remorseless Killing Machine option, which ignores 
Suppression entirely, and has plenty of fictional precedents.  More 
interestingly, you've got GDW's "Kafers", who react to stress by 
boosting their intelligence.

(Easy enough to do with SGII: Kafer units start as Greens, but for 
every Suppression marker they receive their quality level improves by 
a step.)

Are there any other obvious options that I'm missing here?

-- 
John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim