Is it possible to have aliens in a sci-fi RPG that are neither generic "orks/elves/Earth animals except humanoid IN...

Learning from example is close enough to communcation if they dont have that generational dieoff.

Dromaeosaurids were among the most intelligent dinosaurs. Figuring out how to use tools, and making tools that work with/for their form, instead of against it, would be believable.

Pick your favorite dromaeosaurid dinosaur(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromaeosauridae), and try to figure out how something built like a theropod would make tools and modify their environment to suit them.

By communicate concepts i mean something like
>Hey junior, come over here. See those fishes? Those can eat us, avoid them. Those red ones? Nah, they talk a big game but only munch on coral

Not

>Go away, you!

or

>Eyy bby, u want som fuk?

I suppose their medium is a pretty good one for transfering complex information as opposed to making sounds but until they develop the need for more complex communication and evolution selects for that over the old model, i don't see it happening.
There is always that video with the octopus learning how to solve a problem by example. You can feel the little guy's exitement as it tries again and succeeds.
Also, they can lear to recognize symbols and to assign them a meaning. So they can do abstract thinking, too

The Valen, which are semi-aquatic predatory creatures that look like a large, almost building sized shell covered in tubes similar to a naturally grown pipe organ that they use to communicate. Their eyes and mouth hang under the water, with their underside covered in gills and two, long, crane like arms that serve as natural fishing spears, using large claws to quickly pluck food from the water bellow. They have four long tongues that can help snare food, which are used to help operate tools, along with the mouth itself, which is a large flower shaped collection of muscular flaps holding a vast array of barbed teeth, similar in design to the interior of a penguin's throat which uses rings of muscles lined with teeth to shred and chew as its swallows food. They are highly social, historically living in large pods that float across the shallow seas of their homeworld, and have a natural disdain for spaceflight due to their physical size and body structure, but have developed a number of advanced technology to allow them to efficiently perform tasks that would otherwise be too difficult. Their early society was slower to start, but eventually became far more heavily focused on robotics and automation, essentially making them a bit of a late bloomer technology wise. They see conflict in everything, even friendly games, and are always looking for a way to gain the upper hand in the most efficient way possible. Despite their culturally warlike ways, they see actual physical conflict as the most inefficient way to solve a conflict, and avoid it as much as possible due to the risk of destroying what is being fought over in the first place.

Octopi can communicate concepts as advanced as "If you take these plant shells, you can hold them together to create armor" and "if you disguise yourself just so, you can sneak right up on fish".

That's GOOD ENOUGH for me.

As spacefaring creatures? Having to carry around all that extra mass of water makes space travel even more difficult.

Nemo Ramjet came up with a non-humanoid intelligent dinosaur. Pic related

There are labs with biologists dedicated to teaching octopi stuff. If they would have developed a means of communication we would know already.

The same pattern recognition skills that make them succesful animals must also be pretty benefical for a gregarious species, even if they themselves aren't one.

Like human endurance, the same ability that allow us to chuck a spear at an animal and persue them until they die from the wound is also very useful for migrating all over the world.

Or the fact that we are the primates who can swim the best, primarily because of our ability to rotate our arms to chuck spears allow us to make all kinds of weird swimming manouvers. Also we don't sink.

That's because you are unimaginative. It's okay, not everyone can be I suppose.

you don't need that much water.

Not having to worry about bones is so much easier.

The Ceph are more or less octopodes, with ten tentacles, four eyes on stalks located around the lower rim of their body just above the tentacles, and an artificial shell at the top of their head which is used as a CPU by their distributed nervous system to mediate the many sub-brains they have controlling their limbs, eyes, and chromatophore skin which is used to communicate.

They are an artificially evolved race, whose early evolution was drastically manipulated and controlled from the stone-age onward, and would likely never develop fire on their own otherwise.

The Skyl are in the same boat. Five eyed creatures whose head is composed of a large, solid bone-like black beak with a second jaw of teeth resting inside that moves in a spreading motion when chewing, muscular forward facing claws used to manipulate tools, and a number of wings used to glide short distances but incapable of free flight, and geko-like climbing feet on their hind legs. Their early evolution from animal to intelligent sophont was overseen by the same entities that manipulated the Ceph, and eventually were driven to extinction by said entities, although they are being resurrected through cloning tech in the quest.

There are some others too, but both are confirmed to have at least been moderately modified in their evolutionary past by other aliens, including humans.