Topic: Aliens ( the movies ) Diet and Metabolism?

[Warl]

Was just thinking about this after reading some of the books and such. And taking the new Prometheus movie(s) into account.

Aliens don't eat their "Prey".
They use them as Incubators.
So what are they "consuming" and how are they "consuming" it to both grow so fast and to produce the resins they use to build their nests?

Now Given.. this is a movie/comic book critter. It's Fantasy, not reality.

But just looking at this from a Biology stand point.

Those critters seem to grow at extreme rates, with out actually consuming an equivalent source of Matter to convert into their own mass. In fact it doesn't seem they actually Consume Anything at all. They Just Grow, as if Creating Mass from thin air.

On top of that, they then seem to be able to Lie Dormant for millennia, without any form of sustenance  in hibernation, or in eggs states, viable without break down of life.

So what do other think.

And how would you Incorporate it into your own game?
Just ignore it like the movies and books do for the Flavour of the genre?

What if your PCs have the resources and are studying them to learn these things and looking at how they develop as to find a means to effectively limit their growth potential by removing their source of "food".

keeping in mind that it is Obvious that Living creatures are not their food.

[markc]

(Note you may want to check the last link first as it seems to have the most info) 
  Here is some info, http://www.jamescamerononline.com/AliensFAQ.htm but not the info you asked about but interesting non the less, especially the part that was cut out of the first film about 2 people turning into eggs.
 Here is some more basic info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(creature_in_Alien_franchise) and another that seems to have all of the info from the various sources I looked at, http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/Xenomorph


MDC



 

[Warl]

thanks mark, I'll check those out.

[egdcltd]

Paraphrased from the Aliens Adventure Game:

The Facehugger alien is hatched from an egg, and inserts a new egg into a host body, after which it dies. It's only purpose is finding and infecting hosts.

The Chestburster, the immature form of an Alien warrior, requires a large supploy of food, inorganiuc material and water. This totals twice its eventual adult weight, which is 300 lbs, of which 1/4 must be hydrocarbon based, 1/2 inorganics, especially those high in silicon, and 1/4 water. After it reaches adult form, it doesn't require food any longer, but it can lay an egg a day on consumption of 15 lbs of organic and inorganic material. Presumably, food would also be required to resupply its web and stingers.

[Frabby]

Allan Dean Foster's novelization of the movie "Aliens" establishes that, after bursting from Kane's chest, the alien moved via the air ducts, found the Nostromo's food storage room, and essentially munched the entire room's contents. The crew find the room devastated, with cans and containers messily ripped open.
They find this out after Brett was attacked by the full-sized alien, where Parker and Ripley got a glance at how big it had grown since. Which I seem to recall was four days after Kane's death.
(I may remember wrong. It's been literally decades since I read that book.)

One step lower on the canon level there's the Aliens RPG which does establish the rather large amounts of food these aliens need (or was it only for the queens). In any case, although they need to eat a lot a very large percentage is in fact anorganic material, i.e. they can literally eat rock. But again, I briefly read the rulebook/sourcebook back in 1992. Somebody else may be able to fill in the details.