Let's Read the ALIEN RPG

[Chaotic Wooster]

We won't know until we see more.

I'm all for a return to the retro-futuristic aesthetic of Alien and Alien: Isolation, which is very much supported in the role-playing game. Space travel and colonization is expensively risky, no-one's wasting billions of dollars they don't need to on these ventures. Prometheus' cutting edge technology belonged to the wealthiest man in the solar system blowing his fortune on a quest for immortality.

As for the evolved creature, I don't see any issues so far. Unless Hawley's show is going to flat-out state a whole new slew of facts about the creature that directly defy the prequels, there's no conflict. We know that some engineers were messing with biotechnology and that David took their work to make it his own. That's it. Nowhere does it say the creature (or it's varients) aren't ancient beings.

One of the aspects of the Alien universe I like is the lack of overall clarity, the lack of definite truth. It gives wiggle room for the expanded media, including the role-playing game. The ongoing narrative of the line seems to specifically concern itself with one faction of engineers and their creations on the other end of the Middle Heavens to where the movies took place. It doesn't tread on any toes.

As I've said before, the movie I'd retcon is Aliens. Because the hive of easily killed idiot bugs annoys me and the queen is a liability, not to mention a redundent step in the creature's already complex life cycle. Aliens is a truly great action movie, but I think it does the creature a real disservice. I haven't gone so far as to rewrite anything in my own role-playing game campaigns to eliminate the hive and queen concepts though.

So am I worried? No, not really. There's good film-makers behind the series and the new movie, and Scott is still producing. I'm resigned to never seeing the third of his prequels at this point. There's already plenty of Aliens media worth ignoring entirely and dumping into molten lead... Alien Resurrection, the Predator crossovers, nearly all the video games, and however many of the books or comics.

 

[Stumpydave]

As I've said before, the movie I'd retcon is Aliens. Because the hive of easily killed idiot bugs annoys me and the queen is a liability, not to mention a redundent step in the creature's already complex life cycle. Aliens is a truly great action movie, but I think it does the creature a real disservice. I haven't gone so far as to rewrite anything in my own role-playing game campaigns to eliminate the hive and queen concepts though.

This, to me, is madness! Aliens was the film that really opened up the universe. This wasn't an isolated incident that happened to Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo, this was first contact and it was being managed by a profit hungry corporation with no ethics. If anything I'd cap it there, or at least include Alien 3. I wasn't a fan of Alien 3 but it definitely turned the bleak nihilism up to 11.

(I like that the xenomorphs are effectively social insects in space. I like that there is nothing in their psychology beyond, keeep the hive alive at all costs. I'm not a fan of the Engineer story or the Prequel films. These are big bugs that see us as food/hosts for their hive.)

 

[chuckdee]

As I've said before, the movie I'd retcon is Aliens. Because the hive of easily killed idiot bugs annoys me and the queen is a liability, not to mention a redundent step in the creature's already complex life cycle. Aliens is a truly great action movie, but I think it does the creature a real disservice. I haven't gone so far as to rewrite anything in my own role-playing game campaigns to eliminate the hive and queen concepts though.

I don't think they were idiots - I think they were overconfident. As seen in Alien 3 and Alien, when they are not swarming, they are very crafty. I see it as in the case of swarms and being in their hives, they become rabidly protective - sort of like other hive based entities. Also the expansion in the setting is invaluable, IMO.

 

[Baulderstone]

Aliens takes place in a much more Hollywood version of the Alien universe where the "game over" guy gets to make a last stand, the mother who lost her child gets a second chance, the sinister android isn't such a bad guy after all, and the weasel gets his comeuppance. I don't have a problem with that though. I'd rather have that than a sequel that just repeats the beats of the first movie. And while the movie relies heavily on war movie tropes, it wasn't a popular genre at the time, so it felt fresh, certainly more fresh than a slasher movie in space would have felt in 1986.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

In the Alien ttrpg games I've run and currently playing in, the player characters might have heard about the banned book written by a survivor of Alien 3's penal colony, but it's just weird stories you hear out on the frontier. There is other weird stuff going on that my games have been involved with and it's all about Weyland-Yutani's cryptic "Yes, collect some samples of that for us." messages that keeps it in the same universe.

It's been a lot of players saying things like, "Wait. Was that a squid??" and "Spores? Everyone! Put on your respirators! NOW!!"

 

[AppleJax]

From the interview I think that Hawley is uninterested in the 'lore' and more interested in the themes of the Alien and amoral/hostile AI and the corps behind them.

So rather than rooting around in the origins of the Alien I expect the series to be more focused on its present day, avoiding all the lore talk I see online that frankly surprises me as I never thought of Alien as a lore-dense thing. But then to me it is the only the first film that counts. If I was Hawley I would go with a similar 'back to basics' approach, not 'retconning' anything, just focusing on what really matters.

The movies aren't lore dense. The expanded universe of licensed games, novels, comics, toys, etc. is lore dense. It's been accumulating over decades without oversight and the executives in charge don't know it exists because they don't do their homework.

That's where we got the lore about the Yautja, Hish, Amengi, etc. It was added by a successive series of comics, novels, toys, etc. Originally the Hish and Amengi were part of their own separate universe because the author who invented them knew nothing about Yautja, but then the back of a toy box invented new lore to make the two co-exist. The back of a toybox!

Absolutely none of this stuff is featured in the movies. Despite Disney mining Marvel comics for ideas, they don't the same thing for Star Wars, Alien, Predator or any of their other properties. They act like those IPs don't have expanded universes full of lore. At least until they hire an editor or director who is a fan of the EU and inserts elements of it, such as the rebels cartoon bringing back Thrawn.

I really don't get it. Hollywood is obsessed with mining certain lore dense IPs and driving them into the ground, while ignoring the EU of other equally lore dense IPs... while still driving them into the ground.

This is a key reason why I'm in favor of reforming copyright and reducing copyright terms to two decades or so. The corpos don't give a crap about the lore, but I would love to see what the fans could do with it. It's worked out so well for the Cthulhu mythos, after all.

I don't actually like lore as a concept because too often incompetent inexperienced writers think it can substitute for plot and characters when lore is at most salt you put on the steak that is plot. But if you need world building details, then you'd have to be an idiot not to piggyback off the hard work of others and especially when fans respond positively to it.

Nope. Just pick what you like to include in your game and ignore the rest!

Easy!

I don't the play the game. I hate how Fox/Disney has mismanaged the franchise. I won't give them a penny. I make my own games, with replicants, terminators, and predators too.

We won't know until we see more.

I'm all for a return to the retro-futuristic aesthetic of Alien and Alien: Isolation, which is very much supported in the role-playing game. Space travel and colonization is expensively risky, no-one's wasting billions of dollars they don't need to on these ventures. Prometheus' cutting edge technology belonged to the wealthiest man in the solar system blowing his fortune on a quest for immortality.

As for the evolved creature, I don't see any issues so far. Unless Hawley's show is going to flat-out state a whole new slew of facts about the creature that directly defy the prequels, there's no conflict. We know that some engineers were messing with biotechnology and that David took their work to make it his own. That's it. Nowhere does it say the creature (or it's varients) aren't ancient beings.

One of the aspects of the Alien universe I like is the lack of overall clarity, the lack of definite truth. It gives wiggle room for the expanded media, including the role-playing game. The ongoing narrative of the line seems to specifically concern itself with one faction of engineers and their creations on the other end of the Middle Heavens to where the movies took place. It doesn't tread on any toes.

As I've said before, the movie I'd retcon is Aliens. Because the hive of easily killed idiot bugs annoys me and the queen is a liability, not to mention a redundent step in the creature's already complex life cycle. Aliens is a truly great action movie, but I think it does the creature a real disservice. I haven't gone so far as to rewrite anything in my own role-playing game campaigns to eliminate the hive and queen concepts though.

So am I worried? No, not really. There's good film-makers behind the series and the new movie, and Scott is still producing. I'm resigned to never seeing the third of his prequels at this point. There's already plenty of Aliens media worth ignoring entirely and dumping into molten lead... Alien Resurrection, the Predator crossovers, nearly all the video games, and however many of the books or comics.

This, to me, is madness! Aliens was the film that really opened up the universe. This wasn't an isolated incident that happened to Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo, this was first contact and it was being managed by a profit hungry corporation with no ethics. If anything I'd cap it there, or at least include Alien 3. I wasn't a fan of Alien 3 but it definitely turned the bleak nihilism up to 11.

(I like that the xenomorphs are effectively social insects in space. I like that there is nothing in their psychology beyond, keeep the hive alive at all costs. I'm not a fan of the Engineer story or the Prequel films. These are big bugs that see us as food/hosts for their hive.)

The way I reconcile it is that the aliens don't have a fixed lifecycle. They adapt to whatever the environment provides. The alien on the Nostromo only had a handful of prey, so it was content to cocoon them and turn them into eggs or something. The alien on Hadley's Hope had 150 colonists, so it resorted to mass production. The aliens encountered by Paul Church were sick and dying, so they made do.

A perfect organism is one that is adapted for every environment. How do you adapt without changing to suit the environment?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

There's already plenty of Aliens media worth ignoring entirely and dumping into molten lead... Alien Resurrection, the Predator crossovers, nearly all the video games, and however many of the books or comics.

You were doing so well until this last part.

 

[AppleJax]

The EU isn't all bad. As with anything else involving many writers each doing their own thing, you get great stories, middling stories, and terrible stories.

Sometimes you get unintentional story developments.

For example, I noticed that you can put Gibson's Alien III, the Outbreak/Nightmare Asylum/Earth War trilogy, and the Red Harvest pitch into the same timeline because they don't contradict each other. They do, of course, result in a very weird series of events where Rebecca, Hicks, Bishop and Ripley are continually cursed to fight XX121s despite their best efforts. Hicks and Bishop fight off an airborne contagion shortly after Aliens, then over a decade later Rebecca and Hicks fight aliens again, then shortly after Ripley fights an Engineer trying to destroy Earth, then decades after that Ripley and Hicks try to stop the company from experimenting on the Derelict culminating in Ripley piloting a biomech suit to fight an escaped queen.

Can you see why this limits the storytelling potential of the universe? It's literally just the same characters fighting the same monsters repeatedly with minor variations.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

This, to me, is madness! Aliens was the film that really opened up the universe. This wasn't an isolated incident that happened to Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo, this was first contact and it was being managed by a profit hungry corporation with no ethics. If anything I'd cap it there, or at least include Alien 3. I wasn't a fan of Alien 3 but it definitely turned the bleak nihilism up to 11.

(I like that the xenomorphs are effectively social insects in space. I like that there is nothing in their psychology beyond, keeep the hive alive at all costs. I'm not a fan of the Engineer story or the Prequel films. These are big bugs that see us as food/hosts for their hive.)

I've laid out my opinions on the creature (and the franchise in general) much earlier upthread, and I find aliens = bugs the most boring interpretation imaginable. But I know Aliens is generally most peoples preferred movie, so whatever. I'm comfortable in the minority on this one.

I don't think they were idiots - I think they were overconfident. As seen in Alien 3 and Alien, when they are not swarming, they are very crafty. I see it as in the case of swarms and being in their hives, they become rabidly protective - sort of like other hive based entities. Also the expansion in the setting is invaluable, IMO.

Hive insect-type aliens just don't interest me. There's nothing there. I put up with it, because what choice do I really have at this point, but the individual creature remains far more interesting to me. And how bizarre is it that the moderate reconciliation is that a 'proper' drone/warrior is a mindless slave the queen's hive, while a disconnected loner is worryingly intelligent and malevolent?

Aliens takes place in a much more Hollywood version of the Alien universe where the "game over" guy gets to make a last stand, the mother who lost her child gets a second chance, the sinister android isn't such a bad guy after all, and the weasel gets his comeuppance. I don't have a problem with that though. I'd rather have that than a sequel that just repeats the beats of the first movie. And while the movie relies heavily on war movie tropes, it wasn't a popular genre at the time, so it felt fresh, certainly more fresh than a slasher movie in space would have felt in 1986.

So true. I like Aliens. It's a good action movie. But it's Cameron-Hollywood good. Which means there's nothing challenging going on, no real exploration of theme, and the very cringe-y 'Ripley gets her new family' ending. Hicks, Newt, and good ol' half-uncle Bishop. I think the movie is great in the looong build-up to the action, and that first ambush where the marines get curb stomped. Then it really falls off for me, the last act being far less interesting. Still decent action, don't get me wrong, but that's all it's going for at that point.

I often sound like I come down brutally hard on Aliens, which I don't mean to. What I dislike is how it set the course for the entire goddamn franchise ever since, and it's just got nothing to add. Again, aliens = bugs. Oh... Wow. Way to pop the mystery. I may not like everything that went on in Prometheus and Covenant, but it was definitely a more interesting take. It opened up possibilities again, which thankfully the rpg has taken onboard.

 

[Stumpydave]

That's cool. We can't all like the same thing. Personally, I think when it works is when its about Humanity thinks its something special and the Xenomorphs remind us we only score a 2 on the Trophic scale. Similar to Lovecraft's theme that we are insignificant in a vast and uncaring universe.

Knowing that we are somehow created or uplifted by a superior race and the xenomorphs are some kind of leveller device just leaves me cold. Knowing Weyland has known about and been chasing after this for years...it's too neat.

I much prefer the approach that the real bad guy is Weyland-Yutani, they're keeping the knowledge and evidence of non-human intelligence (the Engineers) secret whilst trying to weaponise a non-terrestrial creature rather than see it all seized and the potential profits taken away from them by the government.
The xenomorphs are an immediate threat to any protagonists but they're not the architects.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

I know we can go with our preferences, personal head canons, or whatever. Only the most frustrating pedant couldn't, and I've no idea how one of those can reconcile the entirety of the Alien franchise.

But I wouldn't worry too much about Prometheus' impact. The engineers didn't create humanity, they simply triggered the beginning of life on Earth and visited occasionally to check in. Their genetic tampering steered the direction of Human evolution, same as the Aucturian and the species we see in Alien Covenant, into something similar to themselves. It's all there, but honestly it doesn't much matter if you don't care for it.

For me, Scott's exploration of flawed god-like creators/father figures is interesting. The engineers created/attempted to re-create the alien creature, we created synthetic humans. Both mistakes as it turned out. Both capable of destroying the species that made them.

But that's all high-falutin' themes, and the socialist in me of course delights in making W-Y, Seegson and the other corporate/government factions the immediate concern. It's more useful at the tabletop, to be sure.

I've recently finished my prep' to referee the Lost Worlds campaign from Building Better Worlds. I think it does a bang-up job of delving into the Engineers deadly legacy in our galaxy, while never taking the focus away from the competing factions all striving to claim their work for profit and power. Having each of the player characters belong to a different faction is going to be interesting. Not that I expect my players will carve each other up to appease their corporate overlords or anything.

 

[Acmegamer]

That's cool. We can't all like the same thing. Personally, I think when it works is when its about Humanity thinks its something special and the Xenomorphs remind us we only score a 2 on the Trophic scale. Similar to Lovecraft's theme that we are insignificant in a vast and uncaring universe.

Knowing that we are somehow created or uplifted by a superior race and the xenomorphs are some kind of leveller device just leaves me cold. Knowing Weyland has known about and been chasing after this for years...it's too neat.

I much prefer the approach that the real bad guy is Weyland-Yutani, they're keeping the knowledge and evidence of non-human intelligence (the Engineers) secret whilst trying to weaponise a non-terrestrial creature rather than see it all seized and the potential profits taken away from them by the government.
The xenomorphs are an immediate threat to any protagonists but they're not the architects.

Fuck that, I'm level 4 thank you. Also, I love that they mention Omnivores but don't bother to put them actually on the chart/list.

 

[Cessna]

The problem with the XX121s, as shown by the Dark Horse (and later Marvel) novels and comics, as well as the video games and the later movies, is that there's only so much you can do with them as mindless beasts before it becomes repetitive and stale and writers resort to increasingly silly contrivances like a bazillion new castes, talking albino predaliens that can infect XX121s, androids that mimic XX121s, humanoid androids that are grown from XX121 eggs, giant facehuggers, humans and androids being infected with pathogens that turn them into weird monsters, mad scientists with god complexes, evil androids with Pinocchio complexes, etc.

This is an excellent post.

But to me, as a GM, it's not about the Aliens/XX121s. They're only there to put pressure on the players. Instead, it's all about how the players and PCs interact. I give them wildly different agendas and stick them into an odd situation. The real fun is in how they interact. XX121/Aliens/whatever are only there to spice things up if they start getting comfortable.

 

[AppleJax]

This is an excellent post.

But to me, as a GM, it's not about the Aliens/XX121s. They're only there to put pressure on the players. Instead, it's all about how the players and PCs interact. I give them wildly different agendas and stick them into an odd situation. The real fun is in how they interact. XX121/Aliens/whatever are only there to spice things up if they start getting comfortable.

Then the game should really be titled something other than Alien.

 

[Cessna]

Then the game should really be titled something other than Alien.

Why? Because that's how the movies work.

"You don't see them fucking each other over for a percentage," or "I don't know which species is worse," etc.

Look at any of the movies in the Alien franchise - Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Prometheus, Covenant - that's what happens. Look at the novels - Cold Forge is a great example of this. It's all about people with different agendas bouncing off each other and causing problems for each other, the Aliens are an external threat.

 

[Baulderstone]

Why? Because that's how the movies work.

"You don't see them fucking each other over for a percentage," or "I don't know which species is worse," etc.

Look at any of the movies in the Alien franchise - Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Prometheus, Covenant - that's what happens. Look at the novels - Cold Forge is a great example of this. It's all about people with different agendas bouncing off each other and causing problems for each other, the Aliens are an external threat.

It the same basic formula as zombie movies. The trick in making it an RPG is to think about how to handle PvP play. Some groups are fine with PvP, and in that case, you give players different, possibly secret, motivations. If your group doesn't like PVP, you can have treacherous NPCs, but that can quickly lead to the group simply mistrusting all NPCs.

 

[TristramEvans]

Absolutely none of this stuff is featured in the movies. Despite Disney mining Marvel comics for ideas, they don't the same thing for Star Wars, Alien, Predator or any of their other properties.

I'm not sure I'd describe the MCU as "mining the comics for lore". Most of the films are about as close to the comics as Xena is to Greek mythology

 

[AppleJax]

I'm not sure I'd describe the MCU as "mining the comics for lore". Most of the films are about as close to the comics as Xena is to Greek mythology

They’re very loose adaptations, but they’re still adaptations.

 

[TristramEvans]

They’re very loose adaptations, but they’re still adaptations.

true, we've never had an actual adaptation of any of the Dark Horse Alien comics (shame, some of them were bangers ), and unlike the Marvel films, the comics are the adaptations, not the other way around. OTOH, most recent MCU stuff I've seen has been adaptations in the same way that Lawnmower Man is an technically based on a Stephen King story

 

[Fenris-77]

Lawnmower Man is an technically based on a Stephen King story

We do not speak of this.

 

[Cessna]

It the same basic formula as zombie movies. The trick in making it an RPG is to think about how to handle PvP play. Some groups are fine with PvP, and in that case, you give players different, possibly secret, motivations. If your group doesn't like PVP, you can have treacherous NPCs, but that can quickly lead to the group simply mistrusting all NPCs.

Absolutely, yes. Not every group would even want to deal with, say, Ash from Alien or Burke from Aliens as a PC. In fact, the rpg as written is (in my opinion) not particularly good at handling this. In some adventures they have pre-gen characters with diametrically opposed secret motives, but the core rulebook also states (page 32) that once Player vs Player conflict escalates "beyond the point of no return" then the PC who has "turned traitor" becomes and NPC. I can see why some groups might want a mechanic like this, but I ignore that in my game.

 

[Fenris-77]

Absolutely, yes. Not every group would even want to deal with, say, Ash from Alien or Burke from Aliens as a PC. In fact, the rpg as written is (in my opinion) not particularly good at handling this. In some adventures they have pre-gen characters with diametrically opposed secret motives, but the core rulebook also states (page 32) that once Player vs Player conflict escalates "beyond the point of no return" then the PC who has "turned traitor" becomes and NPC. I can see why some groups might want a mechanic like this, but I ignore that in my game.

I think it's a far more appropriate and satisfying idea for the cinematic version of the game (or whatever the heck they call the one-shot version). I think PvP is usually terrible in a campaign, but it can really shine in short form applications.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

Absolutely, yes. Not every group would even want to deal with, say, Ash from Alien or Burke from Aliens as a PC. In fact, the rpg as written is (in my opinion) not particularly good at handling this. In some adventures they have pre-gen characters with diametrically opposed secret motives, but the core rulebook also states (page 32) that once Player vs Player conflict escalates "beyond the point of no return" then the PC who has "turned traitor" becomes and NPC. I can see why some groups might want a mechanic like this, but I ignore that in my game.

My second time refereeing the Chariot of the Gods quickstart scenario, the player in charge of the corporate asshole saved himself by using the crew's engineer as a speed bump for a pursuing abomination. Firstly, he just shoved the the guy into the monster in a panic, then he climbed over the poor greasemonkey on a ladder, stomped on his head and knocked him down to be ape-smashed to death on the deck below.

Everyone thought it was hilarious. Yes, even the guy who'd been utterly fucked over.

Admittedly, that's in a cinematic scenario. The player just grabbed the spare crewman's character sheet after we'd finished laughing. I'm starting The Lost Worlds campaign tonight. While we do have some corporate employers, none of them are the Burke-esque asshole corporates. Still, personal agendas and rivalries might lead to some wickedness... We'll see.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

I'm playing in Heart of Darkness and I've almost died a couple of times in three sessions. We ended on a cliffhanger last time where me and another player who have teamed up (with similar motives) are being jumped by over whelming odds. HOWEVER, an NPC is my character's friend so when (not if) I die I am just going to switch to the NPC.

I will say my rival is the chief of security and a bad ass so all I've really done is stayed away from them and told the partnered character that I think the security chief is losing it and should not be trusted.

I would also add Heart of Darkness is based on a ship and an immense space station so it has a real sandbox feel to it so far.

 

[Baulderstone]

My second time refereeing the Chariot of the Gods quickstart scenario, the player in charge of the corporate asshole saved himself by using the crew's engineer as a speed bump for a pursuing abomination. Firstly, he just shoved the the guy into the monster in a panic, then he climbed over the poor greasemonkey on a ladder, stomped on his head and knocked him down to be ape-smashed to death on the deck below.

Everyone thought it was hilarious. Yes, even the guy who'd been utterly fucked over.

Admittedly, that's in a cinematic scenario. The player just grabbed the spare crewman's character sheet after we'd finished laughing. I'm starting The Lost Worlds campaign tonight. While we do have some corporate employers, none of them are the Burke-esque asshole corporates. Still, personal agendas and rivalries might lead to some wickedness... We'll see.

If I was playing an Alien one-shot, I'd be disappointed if nothing like that happened.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

I'm playing in Heart of Darkness and I've almost died a couple of times in three sessions. We ended on a cliffhanger last time where me and another player who have teamed up (with similar motives) are being jumped by over whelming odds. HOWEVER, an NPC is my character's friend so when (not if) I die I am just going to switch to the NPC.

I will say my rival is the chief of security and a bad ass so all I've really done is stayed away from them and told the partnered character that I think the security chief is losing it and should not be trusted.

I would also add Heart of Darkness is based on a ship and an immense space station so it has a real sandbox feel to it so far.

View attachment 76739

Heart of Darkness looks really good. I have it, but we dawdled so long before starting it that we're just going into the Building Better Worlds/The Lost Worlds campaign instead. I'm stealing stuff from HoD though.

Anyone playing the cat?

If I was playing an Alien one-shot, I'd be disappointed if nothing like that happened.

It was the FIRST thing that happened. They start exploring the derelict ship, the exec and engineer go to [redacted for spoilers] together and run straight into a lurking beastie. The exec shows his true colours, and the rest of the crew are none-the-wiser. He concocts a story about how the engineer was killed despite his attempts to save the guy.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

Heart of Darkness looks really good. I have it, but we dawdled so long before starting it that we're just going into the Building Better Worlds/The Lost Worlds campaign instead. I'm stealing stuff from HoD though.

Anyone playing the cat?



It was the FIRST thing that happened. They start exploring the derelict ship, the exec and engineer go to [redacted for spoilers] together and run straight into a lurking beastie. The exec shows his true colours, and the rest of the crew are none-the-wiser. He concocts a story about how the engineer was killed despite his attempts to save the guy.

When the cat (Adrian) was introduced as a possible player character a couple folks who want to play it started being much more reckless. Its appearance is coming up SOON. lol Right now Dr. Lark is carrying it around.

I am ready to go back to a Building Better Worlds exploration campaign wants this ends.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

When the cat (Adrian) was introduced as a possible player character a couple folks who want to play it started being much more reckless. Its appearance is coming up SOON. lol Right now Dr. Lark is carrying it around.

I am ready to go back to a Building Better Worlds exploration campaign wants this ends.

Adrien is the ship's cat for my Lost Worlds campaign, the pet of the XO. Thankfully, no-one's going to be playing him in campaign mode. I... I don't think I could handle that. I am a jaded referee of many decades experience. But nothing scares me like the idea of one of my players as a cat for a full campaign.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

Adrien is the ship's cat for my Lost Worlds campaign, the pet of the XO. Thankfully, no-one's going to be playing him in campaign mode. I... I don't think I could handle that. I am a jaded referee of many decades experience. But nothing scares me like the idea of one of my players as a cat for a full campaign.

Unless the aliens are a LOT SMALLER I have no desire to be the cat.

 

[Baulderstone]

Unless the aliens are a LOT SMALLER I have no desire to be the cat.

Jonesy not only survived the first movie, he had the good sense to not go back out there in the second movie.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

Unless the aliens are a LOT SMALLER I have no desire to be the cat.

The art in Heart of Darkness shows Adrien carrying along a trilobite baby (the thing that Shaw had to self-abort in Prometheus) like he's proud of himself. Guess I could see that.

 

[AsenRG]

Adrien is the ship's cat for my Lost Worlds campaign, the pet of the XO. Thankfully, no-one's going to be playing him in campaign mode. I... I don't think I could handle that. I am a jaded referee of many decades experience. But nothing scares me like the idea of one of my players as a cat for a full campaign.

So, you can't run Witchcraft without banning the catfolks?

I still have fond memories of playing as one of those. Some of the NPCs likely have nightmares, though...

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

So, you can't run Witchcraft without banning the catfolks?

I still have fond memories of playing as one of those. Some of the NPCs likely have nightmares, though...

Is that Eden Studio's Witchcraft? That's one I never picked up.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Is that Eden Studio's Witchcraft? That's one I never picked up.

You really should, it's a great game and it's completely gratis on DriveThru.

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com

 

[AsenRG]

Is that Eden Studio's Witchcraft? That's one I never picked up.

You really should, it's a great game and it's completely gratis on DriveThru.

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com

Yes and yes!

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

You really should, it's a great game and it's completely gratis on DriveThru.

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com

I've a lot of Eden games, but never got Witchcraft. I'd need to track down a physical copy if I were to ever get around to reading it. I can't just casually sit and flick through a .pdf.

Back to Alien. First session of The Lost Worlds under my belt. Not an amazing session, since it's a LOT of exposition, character introductions, and rules refreshing, but everyone is coming back for more. They're off to their first planet. So we'll hit the ground running in a fortnight.

Now discussing refereeing The Frontier War on the weeks when we're missing a player. Tempting, since it's very much a companion campaign...

 

[Voros]

 

[Voros]

You really should, it's a great game and it's completely gratis on DriveThru.

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com

Got it thanks!

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

So how compelling is the ALIEN game if only the original Alien movie (and material pilfered from it's adaptions/screenplays) is considered canon?

I ask this because I'm considering running a non-canon Alien colonial campaign using the expanded rules for such in Building Better Worlds. And because I'm currently on a bit of an obsessive delve into the original movie. I've re-watched both editions of the movie, re-read the comic and I'm re-reading the novel, plus having a few of the extra books that go along with it like The Book of Alien, etc.

I'm not criticizing the sequels or prequels (anymore than I have already in the thread), but rather considering if everything established in them was ignored. No queens in their hives, no black goo monsters, etc. The same applies to all the supposed lore around Weyland-Yutani and the other elements of spacefaring humanity in the future. Just Alien.

Now, taken in isolation (no pun intended), the original film is stripped down and simple. A tired and irratable crew are woken, forced to investigate a message, push their luck and die horribly as an ever-changing monster hunts them down. We know very little about how it functions. And there's lots taken for granted, assumed from details that came later...

We don't know that the full grown creature has acid blood. True, the unshot sequence of the attempted airlock ejection would have confirmed it, but the finished film doesn't. It leaks a lot of slime, but the crew touch that and don't dissolve.

Scott has discussed it as having an incredibly short life cycle. The near-albino 'white worm' from seeming to be it's prime, while it's darker colouration from later actually suggesting haemorrhaging, the rapid collapse of it's body. This is supported by how sluggish it is in Ripley's final encounter. The creature was either hiding somewhere quiet to die off, or perhaps entering a cocoon state leading to yet another stage in it's life cycle. That's why it's slimey and slow, barely aggressive at all anymore.

Obviously there's more.

My possible colony game would, naturally, involve a lot of the players NOT dealing with any such creature often. But dealing with the challenges and frustrations of the world and other people. The original movie doesn't give us so many names for organizations, but does lay out the pretty bleak profit-first, people-last future. Only Parker and Brett are friendly and have clearly served together for a time (Brett seemingly being the technician Parker will want with him to help run a ship). Dallas and the other officers have little affection, or even interest, in one another above professional courtesy and the basic social requirements of spending time together. Dallas seems to know Kane from previous jobs. But the feeling from the movie is that the crew signed onboard at the point of departure, not that they're close-knit and worked together for years. This seems likely to carry into colonial efforts. Professionals doing thier jobs, perhaps with families present.

Building Better Worlds takes the lead from Aliens, emphasizing the uprooting of families to take to other worlds. I'm not arguing that definitely wouldn't happen. But I wonder...

 

[AppleJax]

So how compelling is the ALIEN game if only the original Alien movie (and material pilfered from it's adaptions/screenplays) is considered canon?

I ask this because I'm considering running a non-canon Alien colonial campaign using the expanded rules for such in Building Better Worlds. And because I'm currently on a bit of an obsessive delve into the original movie. I've re-watched both editions of the movie, re-read the comic and I'm re-reading the novel, plus having a few of the extra books that go along with it like The Book of Alien, etc.

I'm not criticizing the sequels or prequels (anymore than I have already in the thread), but rather considering if everything established in them was ignored. No queens in their hives, no black goo monsters, etc. The same applies to all the supposed lore around Weyland-Yutani and the other elements of spacefaring humanity in the future. Just Alien.

Now, taken in isolation (no pun intended), the original film is stripped down and simple. A tired and irratable crew are woken, forced to investigate a message, push their luck and die horribly as an ever-changing monster hunts them down. We know very little about how it functions. And there's lots taken for granted, assumed from details that came later...

We don't know that the full grown creature has acid blood. True, the unshot sequence of the attempted airlock ejection would have confirmed it, but the finished film doesn't. It leaks a lot of slime, but the crew touch that and don't dissolve.

Scott has discussed it as having an incredibly short life cycle. The near-albino 'white worm' from seeming to be it's prime, while it's darker colouration from later actually suggesting haemorrhaging, the rapid collapse of it's body. This is supported by how sluggish it is in Ripley's final encounter. The creature was either hiding somewhere quiet to die off, or perhaps entering a cocoon state leading to yet another stage in it's life cycle. That's why it's slimey and slow, barely aggressive at all anymore.

Obviously there's more.

My possible colony game would, naturally, involve a lot of the players NOT dealing with any such creature often. But dealing with the challenges and frustrations of the world and other people. The original movie doesn't give us so many names for organizations, but does lay out the pretty bleak profit-first, people-last future. Only Parker and Brett are friendly and have clearly served together for a time (Brett seemingly being the technician Parker will want with him to help run a ship). Dallas and the other officers have little affection, or even interest, in one another above professional courtesy and the basic social requirements of spending time together. Dallas seems to know Kane from previous jobs. But the feeling from the movie is that the crew signed onboard at the point of departure, not that they're close-knit and worked together for years. This seems likely to carry into colonial efforts. Professionals doing thier jobs, perhaps with families present.

Building Better Worlds takes the lead from Aliens, emphasizing the uprooting of families to take to other worlds. I'm not arguing that definitely wouldn't happen. But I wonder...

I think there’s room for distinct horror and action horror games.

An Alien game would basically be Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu in space, where most of the cast is expected to die and even a final survivor is no guarantee. Any survivors would be left with permanent psychological scars, maybe physical.

An Aliens game would be TSR’s Bug Hunters game. Maybe include Aliens vs Predator while you’re at it. Action horror where the PCs are a team of military or mercenaries, possibly combat androids or replicants a la Blade Runner. In the case of the later situations, cloning or backups would offer the means for PCs to recover from death by replacing the dead version with a clone or backup a la The 6th Day or Altered Carbon.

Corporate and legal banality would be omnipresent, character backgrounds would be largely working class, etc. Not quite cyberpunk but… starpunk? Spacepunk? Astropunk? Formicapunk?