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Burblers

LittleWasp

LittleWasp

Well-Known Member
This isn't really something I intend on pursuing, per say. It's just a little idea that sprung into my head that I had fun musing about for the past few hours.

Namely, a 'species' of bizarre, shifty interstellar traders called Burblers: Floating metal suits with feeler tendrils that make strange sounds and smells and leak gross fluids, all while trying to sell stuff to you. They fly around the galaxy in unusually tiny, unarmed ships that carry 1-3 Burbles and the single item of cargo that they are selling.

How they get their cargo is unknown, as they only wish to discuss direct business, but is usually bizarre, powerful alien technologies and weaponry that aren't found anywhere else, built with wholly alien materials. While usually they peddle their item to others, they sometimes seek out specific individuals to offer a sale to: Being unusually capable of reaching their customer no matter where they are or what guards they have in place. The prices for their goods are seemingly random and non-sensical: They rarely ask for generally accepted currencies. A powerful starship cannon sold in exchange for 500 baked pastries, each of a unique recipe. An alien holodeck installation in exchange for a pint of human tears. An Aether generator for a different Aether generator. An ancient alien warship, filled with the dessicated remains of its old crew, in exchange for fifty seven sentient individuals.

The general idea here is something like the Bentusi from Homeworld, except with a 'deal with the devil' vibe to it. The burbles themselves are amiable, but singleminded, and don't enjoy being held up by idle conversation.
Burble.webp
Pic related; my quick doodle of a Burble.
 
I do have a certain player that wants to have n ancient transforming warship.

If there was a good backstory and reasoning behind these I'd love to have them show up. They sound like some kinda sales-bots that have malfunctioned.
 
So this is how I would do this

The first thing this reminds me of is that Amazon-bot that buys random things.

Though we'd need to sarpify it a bit more. There would need to be a reason for these things to exist as well as a source for this weird stuff, an origin, ect. I'm thinking there is a planet out there somewhere with a species that wants to explore the universe but isn't really suited for space travel. Instead they created and sent out these Burbles to bring back samples of stuff (which is why they might be eager to trade for Yamatain pop-music and one cup of every type of coffee sold at sarpbucks for an aether generator. Perhaps the scientists that are running this project have a repository of stuff they don't need any more, and the Brubles just pull from that to try and constantly trade for new things to study. Along the same lines these scientists would think nothing of bringing back corpses for study so I could see some very dark trades being made.
 
I think it should remain a mystery where they are from and what their purpose is. Detailing the origin would ruin the fun, imo.
 
As much as I agree, I don't think we should include something in SARP that is beyond explanation because SARP isn't that kind of RP. Though I don't think it is necessary that we explain where these burbles come from, they shouldn't get magical powers to let them get into places where our characters wouldn't normally be able to get to. If players try hard enough they should also be able to uncover the mystery of these creatures.
 
What Arsenic said. They're meant to be shadowy and mysterious, dealing in objects that can't be found anywhere else. Whether it's any better than the common sort is another thing entirely, though. It's meant to be like they pull their stock from another galaxy entirely.

A galactic pawn shop sounds cute. :P I imagine them selling eldritch tea sets.

Zack definitely has a point, though, and it's the main reason why I probably wouldn't try and include the Burbles, at least in their current state.
 
If they had TTD tech they could be pulling their inventory from another universe entirely. It might be funny to see them selling coffee beans grown in an anti-matter universe.

Teleportation tech would let them reach some interesting places.
 
I think, plot-wise, they'd be good mixed with criminal groups: Some big pirate band got sold some massive alien weapon and are going to town with it, so someone has to stop them!
 
Zack said:
I do have a certain player that wants to have n ancient transforming warship.

If there was a good backstory and reasoning behind these I'd love to have them show up. They sound like some kinda sales-bots that have malfunctioned.
Click to expand...
Do. Want.
 
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