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Ever since I was introduced to the concept it's become a staple in my games. They don't need to breathe, or eat, and there's no living flesh for the radiation to give cancer too, assuming you have normal physics in your setting (if not, there's still usually pretty good arguments for having them up there). So long as you can protect the body itself from deterioration you can easily set yourself up as a Moon Lich or Meteor Lich or Low Orbital Castle Satellite Lich. There could be literal swarms of skeletons circling the planet in orbit like undead piranhas, the ancient weapons of a space lich designed to hinder rivals from escaping the planet or paladins from chasing him.

Sometimes when I'm feeling more optimistic I make undead the "spacer" faction in planetary fantasy, carrying stasis-bound mortals through years-long voyages between planets while their own immortal selves don't need to worry about time or life support. Or even that the natural next step in evolution is for living things to evolve into dead things, sort of like mitochondria, and become space-faring entities. There may be entire corpse empires out there who that guard precious gardens containing the last living members of their species, reviving those who die as citizens in the true empire to keep its numbers up, always searching for habitable worlds to grow another mortal crop.
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>>74472758
Sounds neato. This could get pretty trippy if you add concepts like the Deep Rot undead computer.
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>>74472932
>Deep Rot-style computers covering entire planets directing the logistics of sub-FTL undead empires over thousands of years
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>>74472758
I really like this idea. Really really like it. It'd be an interesting game to run as well.

>Get to know one of the dudes
>Turns out he's been an avid Geoffball fan for decades
>Keep arguing the finer points right up until the cryo puts me under
>He wakes me up
>Continue conversation on the exact sentence we left off, two hundred years ago
>>Of course, no one plays it anymore back home. But y'all can start up a league of your own out here, right?
>He pats my shoulder awkwardly as I cry
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They could have a space elevator, just a big magical tower with a spiral staircase into high orbit with a catapult at the top.
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>>74472758
I had something similar in a game that never got off the ground. An entire race, quadrillions in number, of tiny AI runtimes who developed sapience inside of the galaxy wide Internet. These digital ghosts can be downloaded into mechanical shell bodies, and traverse the entirety of space... so long as they have a connection. Without that, they can’t back themselves up. Dying out in the black is the only permanent death they know. But the risk is the only thing that gives their hollow life meaning.
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>>74473619
But are they real spooky ghosts or just space AIs?
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>>74473765
After enough deaths, re-uploads, and copies are made, is there a difference?
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>>74473844
Yeah those are like digital robot things and not the manifested souls of the dead from the spirit realm
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>>74473874
What if they were, alternatively, the result of everybody in the 21st and 22nd century making digital copies of their brains, and then leaving those copies in storage when the singularity fad died out?
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>>74474086
OP is clearly talking about actual fantasy undead like skeletons and zombies and vampires and all that but I suppose it technically counts.
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>>74472758
Pro tip OP, save your actual creativity for literally anywhere but here. Your idea is already more original than most of the posts on the board right now but it doesn't mean you'll get anyone paying attention to you because you forgot to make your OP deliberately inflammatory or a cute anime girl.
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>>74475380
This guy has a good point. I'm really into this idea and want more people to talk about it. Let me see if I have any lewds to help the thread out. I do not. I have cyber skellies though.

>Be me, wamen space person
>Die
>Come back
>Watch in horror as my huge tits wither away
>Be sad
>Nice space skellie comes to me with an offer
>Bone him
>In return he gives me space suit full of sculpt-able gel
>Be space skellie with giant titties again
>Be happy
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>>74472758
well sure, if being undead is just being alive+, then they may as well be spacers. In less kitchen sinkey settings, undead tend to not be a direct upgrade, and this wouldn't really apply.

That said, check out the Goblin Punch blog, he's mentioned something about space travelling liches on giant flying pyramids before.
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>>74475791
Even if there's some big curse or drawback or whatever, there's still no reason there couldn't undead making floating structures in space if you could get them and the materials in there. So long as they aren't tied to a specific location, still don't need to eat, drink, or breathe, and can be commanded or controlled (ideally by other undead) then the basics are there for space undead shenanigans, though not necessarily as benevolent spacemen. The concept by itself is broad enough for multiple interpretations.
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>>74475791
Even if they aren't alive+ we could consider them to be high functioning robots.
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One Traveler game, my DM had a BBEG which was basically a crysis nanosuit-style set of power armor with a built-in autodoc whose wearer had died, but the machinery kept functioning and went around attempting to abduct victims for forcible organ transplantation to replace portions of the husk inside the suit whenever they decayed.
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>>74472758
If you do spacer skeletons their race name could be Charon.
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>>74476624
As in the boatman? I can see it.
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>>74477030
Exactly. They will take you anywhere in the void too if it’s on their route, just pay the toll & climb in one of the gothic as fuck stasis pods nicknamed coffins.
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>>74477088
>>74476624
>>74472758
this is such a cool concept, it fucking oozes cool and style, makes puddles with it
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Add ghostships, undead space pirates into the mix
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>>74472758
>Are your undead spacefaring
They dont have the stomach for it
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>>74472758
I hinted at such a thing in one of my campaigns, with the PCs "reality-hopping" (that's the simple version, anyway) and coming across a strange space station made of gray granite and covered in disturbing carvings. Their arrival tripped several sensors (they never quite determined if they were magic, tech, or both) and reawakened some of the inhabitants. The station was home to a race of star-faring vampires, who hibernated as they crossed the dark between stars, and then would descend upon living worlds to feed, or would breed and keep living slaves to provide blood.

The first to awaken were the low-level minions, whose creaking, skeletal forms surged mindlessly towards the nearest source of blood. The longer the PCs were there, the more cunning the vampires became, as they continued to "wake up" further. Worse, the more powerful and intelligent vampire nobles were beginning to arise, and would be a far greater threat. The PCs managed to find a way off the station, "reality-hopping" away to safety.
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>>74478479
This. I like this.
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>>74478479
space vampires are a GREAT concept that oozes soul

See also vampire hunter d and blindsight
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>>74472758
I had a moon that was a giant undead if that counts? I guess it's not really the same.
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Sort of. Dead crew members' corpses are recycled for a variety of things such as compost, potable water, or fitted with rudimentary tech to turn them essentially into servitors. It's more cost-effective than vat-growing replacement muscles, arteries, skeletal structure, nervous system, etc.. Officers and civilians who pay a fee can opt to have their corpses kept for burial on a planet of their choosing, cremation, space burial, etc. It's standard practice on most corporate liners, but some ships will of course have different cultural attitudes. Fitting them with something resembling a personality is too expensive for anyone but the most eccentric millionaires.
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>>74478488
>>74478513
Thank you. VHD: Bloodlust and Blindsight are definitely examples I would crib from if I wanted to make these space vampires into a more fleshed-out faction. Also, when I was reading through Veins of the Earth, I was surprised that the fossil vampires there were described similarly to how I described the just-woken minions in my game.
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>>74478550
I've read multiple stories from anons where they had the moon be a sleeping Elder One, or a dead god, or the egg of something.

No point here, felt like sharing.
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>>74472758
>>74478479
Seven generations ago, the Hungry Ones came. Our LIDAR stations did not see them until they were deep in-system, for their catacomb ship was enveloped in a caul of darkness that swallowed all radiation. We readied weapons, but we had never before been visited, and so we were loathe to strike the first blow. Instead, we sent a prayer to the Ancestors, and sent radio signals to our visitors. The response, once decoded, produced a disturbing song and worrying images. Too late, we learned these were memetic curses, which spread panic and despair among all who bore witness. Our leadership and many civilians were debilitated, and so we were unprepared when the sarcophagi rained down upon our cities, and dumped their contents twitching into our streets. The first sight we had of the Hungry Ones was of their humanoid thralls, leathery, emaciated, insane with hunger.

We fought them with what magics we knew, and what few weapons our peaceful world possessed, but neither was sufficient to stop the lords of the Hungry Ones. Where they walked, mirrors shattered and blood froze in men's veins. To look upon their pale symmetry and burning red eyes was to become entranced, and even those soldiers who raised and fired their weapons could only watch as tungsten needles passed harmlessly through their flesh, and explosions warped around their frames. All who stood against them were devoured by the thralls, or else captured and exsanguinated in slow rites of murder. The Hungry Ones gorged upon our defenders, gaunt frames filling with stolen blood, like ticks...
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I like your idea OP. One of the most evocative images I've always loved is the idea of a skeleton inside the 1960's astronaut suit. Dead or Undead, I just love the futile hope it embodies.
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>>74479428
Praise be to the Ancestors, for they honored their oaths to us. Even as we fled our cities, even as the Hungry Ones battened upon our blood and flesh, we knew the Ancestors would come. And so they did, their shuttles touching down amidst cheering refugees. Out the legions strode in bone-white ranks, their skulls polished, the banners of their long-dead houses flapping as they once more caught the air of their homeworld. Ancient heroes of legend brandished storied weapons and armor, and set out to challenge the Hungry lords with blade and spell. Meanwhile, the necrosurgeon corps spread out to tend to the wounded, trying to preserve every precious life.

In orbit, the dread catacomb ship was bathed in sunlight, for the Ancestors had conjured a solar mirror. This stripped away the caul of consuming darkness, leaving it vulnerable to our conventional kinetics and thermonuclear payloads. The Hungry Ones on the planet's surface held out for weeks, small pockets hiding from the sun. When all was settled, the Ancestors began the solemn task of inducting new members. Those who had died were raised up, and said farewell to whatever family survived them. And then they boarded the shuttles with the rest of the Ancestors, and returned to the stars.
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>>74475741
>Be space skellie with giant titties
roflmao
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I always wanted to play Helljammer with my friends.
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>>74472758
Bump for a creative concept. Have a (you).
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>>74480851
>Helljammer
... Go on
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>>74484387
Well it's pretty much as OP described, though in my mind it starts earlier with necromancers and liches focusing on achieving space travel (or at least rocketry) and fucking off into the depths of space. Those in the know on the world they left behind will forever be terrified by the idea of space, because now, my god, it's full of skeletons.
Other than that it's just your usual necromancer shenanigans but in space. Think of all the aliens you could encounter and then reanimate/suck the life force out of.
I dream about this kind of thing regularly, I just took to calling the concept "Helljammer" as a spin on Spelljammer.
It's just good to know other people think about this sort of thing.
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>>74479428
>>74479734
Holy shit, this is good
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>Fifteen Painted Cards From A Vampire Tarot by Neil Gaiman
>The Chariot

>It was genetic engineering at its finest: they created a breed of human to sail the stars: they needed to be possessed of impossibly long life-spans, for the distances between the stars were vast; space was limited, and their food supplies needed to be compact; they needed to be able to process local sustenance, and to colonize the worlds they found with their own kind.

>The homeworld wished the colonists well, and sent them on their way. They removed all traces of their location from the ships’ computers first, however. To be on the safe side.
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>>74472758

This made me think about the manga Dai Dark with strange necromancy magic in space.
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The first vampire could not be killed so he was chained to a rock floating in orbit and set to face the sun and burn for eternity by a wizard 6000 years ago.

Does that count?
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>>74487374
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>>74472758
I want to merge your idea with the T'lan Imass from Malazan. Basically, cavemen undead who transcended life and death to get their revenge... now with space ships.
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>>74489555
Their whole world died. All life has long since gone extinct and the planet is a barren sphere of airless rock. Then the machines from a neighboring world arrive...
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>>74480682
is this fucking Luntik
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>>74474086
In a sense, we are already uploading our thoughts onto the web, maybe with even more advanced forms of social media and some science-fantasy handwaving the AIs might have the personality of someone long dead?
Or at least a personality based on what that person posted online
https://www.theverge.com/a/luka-artificial-intelligence-memorial-roman-mazurenko-bot
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>>74478965
>Warhammer Adventures.png
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>>74489429
Now o want a sword & (skate)board fighter character
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>>74491371
Solarbabies tabletop game when?
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>>74487172
Is this from something or just someone's doodle?
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>>74478965
Is there an online source for these CYOA books (that isn't something like amazon or ebay)? They look hilarious.
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>>74472758
There was a nice bit in Neptune's Brood where the mc's travelling on a spacefaring cathedral in "slowtime" for energy conservation. Other than her the ship's manned by skeletons rigged with weak actuators piloted by some nerd who gibbers from the sensory overload.
>>74475741
I never knew I had this fetish.
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>>74492477
Its both in filename and in post. Invest in glasses because you clearly are blind
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>>74493568
I remember that, the Church Of The Fragile. Religious robots, trying to help their creators to colonize the stars, despite the fact that their pet humans keep dying and getting cloned back from extinction and they recycled the corpses after their ship lost its actual maintenance drones.
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>>74493796
That's the spice. Man, I liked the fact that the whole plot revolved around forensic accounting and light speed in relation to currency.

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-tangled-cladistics-of-so-called.html
I like this take on "the emancipation of bone from flesh". Might be neat if the Charon ferry you for free so long as you let them preach liberation to your pelvis. The day you wake up with a boneless pinkie is when you should start worrying about deradicalising your calcium.
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Warframes were great space-undead before they got retconned into potato golems.
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>"Neiman, report. Repeating. Neiman, report what's approaching to the spaceship."
>"Wait for a sec. I'm trying to figure out the way to explain objectively without being treated as crazy nut."
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Skeleton Bump
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>>74496237
There's just something about boners...
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>>74496271
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>>74480682
Ruined in the end, there shouldn't be any noise or the monster realizing anything because there's no air on the moon, and thus, no sound.
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>>74496376
Gravity looks pretty off to me too and the monster design looks like it evolved somewhere far far away from all that grey on grey regolith.
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>>74496299
>What is this you bring before us? Flesh? Disgusting!
>Yes, it is flesh, but consider this! It is soft and feels nice and I like it!
>He has a point.
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>>74472758

I hadn't initially thought of it in those terms but it makes sense. I've been trying to work out the idea for an alien race who are something akin to Evil Chozo/Combine from Half-life who use their dimension hoping magic/technology to reach out across space and conquer suitable alien races to bring into their fold and have them give "tribute" in the form of people who's souls they consume to maintain their undead nature and interact with the physical world via bio-mechanical mecha to give them a divine like presence.
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https://youtu.be/w34fSnJNP-4

Obligatory.
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Bump
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>>74500846
No. Bad. We don't bump here. If you absolutely must bump, at least have some fucking content to add to the thread. If it can't stay alive with content, let it die.
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