I don't use playable aliens at my table. While there's nothing stopping anybody from running a decent horror game with playable aliens, it may undercut the psychological aspects of a horror game at all but the most committed tables. In any case, here's some ideas in varying levels of detail (with MoSh rules as my fancy strikes!).
1. THE ELECTRIC-TENTACLED SPECIES
Generalist large littoral predators with a weaponized electrical sense organ well suited to sensing and stunning smaller prey. Biology uses a hybrid ammonia-water solvent and world is much colder than Earth but very biologically rich. Sometimes hunt larger prey or ambush from the surface (by dropping from trees or rocks). Large with false trilateral symmetry. Culture has just developed primitive metalworking (copper) and with it, the telegraph (using electrical sense organ). Larger settled polities dam rivers to create favorable habitats for small prey and build boats to move goods and traverse perilous deep waters. Rapid cultural development but unlikely to consolidate into large polities of unrelated individuals; the species has well-developed conflict-resolution instincts and is not inclined towards wars of conquest. Capable of rich communication and interested in other species if they can demonstrate they are inedible or dangerous.
2. THE SOLITARY SPECIES
Possessed of tremendous might, intelligence, and longevity, but largely asocial, this species dies after giving birth. Hidden nests fortified and filled with the mother's tools and knowledge left for her daughters to master without explanation. Technological development is glacial; some things simply require more cooperation than this species can manage. However, relentless domestication efforts over hundreds of generations has produced a near-sapient domestic species which protects juveniles and assists in some manual tasks. Human comparisons to dragons and cephalopods are not entirely unfair despite a radically different body plan. Probably not inclined to friendly contact with alien intelligences but might be plied with metals and advanced technology.
3. THE TINY TYRANT SPECIES
Little colonial omnivores (ecological niche similar to bats); weigh about 4-6kg and nest in massive colonies (originally caves, now artificial structures) with hundreds-of-thousands of individuals. Intelligent, cooperative, and far more capable of complex social organization. Population and complex-organization kept in check by disease; large states are the result of the development of vaccination and sophisticate public health services. Largest superpolity and only global power is a semi-secular totalitarian state which contains over forty billion individuals and emphasizes total erasure of individual will as a form of salvation. Being so small, space travel was inevitable; largest polity has a substantial presence in orbit (about 1000 individuals or 6 tons). Luckily for other species, virtually all technology is controlled by the tiny educated elite, which has severely stunted development. Primitive nuclear weapons are in early development. Contact is restricted by a biosecurity blockade (a exposure to a novel disease reservoir this big would be an extinction event due to their high biocompatibility with Earth-derived life). Limited trade in cultural items through robotic intermediaries is permitted.
4. THE WHITE-FEATHERED SPECIES
Horse-sized quadrupeds with long snake-like necks and sleek eyeless heads with hundreds of teeth and multiple dexterous tongues. Omnivore that favors insects, fish, and plants but occasionally hunt larger prey by running it down and kicking it to death. Live in the terminator of a tidally-locked world and accustomed to the dark; massive covering of feathers are used for hearing. Have limited metal tools but make use of local flora and fauna to construct sturdy composite and ceramic tools. All polities are preindustrial and slightly less violent than similar human states and more disposed to complex systems with a globe-spanning trade network. Their music is utterly terrifying to the human ear. After a few aborted attempts to chew on the first human explorers, peaceful contact was established. Smuggled human technology is gradually destabilizing native political and economic structures.
5. THE BOWER-BUILDING SPECIES
View large engineering projects as a sex thing. Long-lived and relatively peaceful. Many limbs and spiny carapaces. Has not even reached industrial-age civilization but biosphere is rapidly approaching collapse due to the ecological impact of the largest projects (some stretch tens of kilometers and include dams and similar large structures). Examination suggests that this species is an atavistic relative of the species that hollowed out the Black Plains. Sociable and very interested in trade with humans to facilitate even bigger construction projects and stabilize local ecologies.
I love all of these.
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