01: Chariot of the Gods

[topaz vector]

well, there is... if you, as wilson, kill them... trapping them on the montero and having them take the fall ...

[primal yacht]

that would be a twist

have wilson kill everyone, then a player takes over wilson while the other two are crew of the Cronus

[topaz vector]

its happened.

i ran it for a group once and wilson successfully locked them on the montero, assuming the cronus wasnt dangerous. heavy machinery with the permantently break stunt on the umbilical. the others couldnt think of a way across and the countdown ended.

wilson did NOT however gain the trust of the cronus crew (perhaps a little meta bleedthrough from the other players...) and so the cronus crew had to go it alone 😄

[elder anchor]

If they were all locked on the Montero, why did you start the countdown?

[topaz vector]

countdown already started

from memory, wilson was trying to get them to go over there, but they were hesitant and preparing and trying to make checks to get readings from the cronus and things, and eventually i kicked off the countdown to try to 'force their hand' a little when the dice werent giving them wins and just upping their stress, and wilson just took that opportunity.

[primal yacht]

hilarious

and they forgot about the Daisy

[topaz vector]

i reminded them

and both rye and davis said 'it wont be able to fly into deep space' . didnt ask, just said it, and miller and cham believed them. cham was lucas and tried to synth their way out but, the dice and the stress got to everyone else and all lucas managed to do was ram the cronus so i had 3 cronus engines destroyed beyond repair

[plain plume]

Future Z

[primal yacht]

average player intelligence

[elder anchor]

So instead of using the map provided in the box, I’m considering printing each floor in black and white on A3 printer paper

It’s not as pretty but the characters will be able to write notes on it

What do you think of this idea?

[topaz vector]

super helpful for players for sure. let me know when you have the files in easy to read b&w cos i want them too 😄

[elder anchor]

Well they exist on the website

I'm debating having the inverted version made instead and just using post-it notes

[topaz vector]

thats a whole lot more ink.

if youre gonna have a dark page, might aswell use the one in the box. the light page is great for readability.

buuuuut, if its in person, and you can dim the lights in the room, and give people fat glowsticks or something or small torches to light the map... can be very cool

[elder anchor]

The school I work for will print it in poster format for $2 a poster

A2 size

I'm planning to give each floor its own A2 poster

[elder anchor]

I'm planning to purchase 6 mini LED lamps

In addition to ambient light in the room

[elder anchor]

I actually think the inverted version is easier to read because all the information pops

[topaz vector]

youre all over it, this sounds awesome

[elder anchor]

The little icons are easier to read in inverted

[topaz vector]

may i offer this too, if youre into sound effects or tactile things... a soundboard app on your phone, and/or, a few handheld uhf radios for if they get split up

[elder anchor]

I never thought about the uhf radios

I've put a lot of thought into music but little into sound effects, with the exception of the motion tracker

I wish there were a motion tracker app which let me decide the tempo of the beeping

[topaz vector]

someone sent me something to tinker with a while ago but you have to understand sound waves to use it that way and i havent had the time to work that out yet. but yes a motion tracker for alien where you can tap the screen or drag to change the distance would be cool.

i cut my whole soundboard and ambient noises if they spacewalk or stay in eva suits, and just press 'slow breathing' so they have long slow breathing playing, as thats all youd hear in the suit unless people are on radio. sets mood well

[elder anchor]

Do you have a link to the soundboard?

[topaz vector]

i use 'custom soundboard creator' by hipxel from the google play store, really simple usage but you gotta find the sounds yourself (pretty easy to find for free in ltos of places online)

[elder anchor]

Does anyone know what year CotG takes place in?

[uncut maple]

2183

[elder anchor]

So the Cronus would have been lost in 2113?

[uncut maple]

Around about then yeah

[elder anchor]

https://youtu.be/iTEbjgwt5xg?si=K3VOFmbpCBD1211Z

I’ve been listening to a lot of ambience recordings for the Cronus and I think this is the best

I’m going to contrast this with the Nostomo sounds for the Montero

[topaz vector]

NICE

[elder anchor]

When the PC's have to take over members of the Cronus crew, they receive this to get them up to speed

I blurred out the info that the crew wouldn't know

Ava 6 is the only one who gets the unedited version

I originally completely erased the sensitive info, but decided the a blurred out look was more interesting

[topaz vector]

very cool, and very apt for the amnesia

[elder anchor]

What exactly are ship sensors capable of in Alien? Can they detect life signs like in Star Trek?

My assumption is that ship sensors are really just for navigation and finding other ships, not for doing any sort of deep scan

I know my players are going to ask to “detect life signs” on the Cronus

[quiet walrus]

Sensors, both visual and infrared are going to report that the ship is cold and dark. If your players want more detail then suggest they'll have to engage the umbilical and hook up a direct analogue link to the vessel for more information.

[hard oriole]

Sensors really shouldn't be able to detect bioelectrics through hulls designed to resist cosmic radiation

[lost dust]

A ship is unlikely to be able to "detect lifeforms" elsewhere the way Star Trek did. We can infer this because in both Alien and Aliens, their respective crews need to go down themselves to confirm if there is anyone needing rescue. The best the PCs could theoretically have hoped for is perhaps detecting infrared at a high enough level to denote life, but as Lurker noted, that's not the case, and even if it was, @hard oriole makes a good point, in addition to what I think is a radiation leak on the ship too? I might be misremembering that last bit

[clear idol]

I think that being in cryo makes you also less likely to appear on infrared

Possible that the hypersleep room has shielding or such installed to protect its crew

[lost dust]

As an aside and a spoiler for HoD and BBW, ||the Perfected can't sense anyone in hypersleep either|| Not super-relevant to this discussion, just a related tangent

[quiet walrus]

@clear idol makes a good point. At the beginning of Aliens the salvage crew seem unaware of Ripley and Jones' presence aboard the shuttle until they board for a visual inspection.

[elder anchor]

Good points from everyone

Probably the only thing the sensors would detect is a minimal amount of heat from the engines and support systems

[solar trellis]

It's funny that no matter what question someone asks regarding a certain type of tech (i.e. "do they have it?") I can usally come to a very quick conclusion as to yes or no... while basing that on essentially three movies' worth of information.

[topaz vector]

the montero as the ship type it is, is not gonna have deep life scans. mayeb a terraforming ship might, but the monteros sensors are to recieve radio signals, and find ships at certain ranges. yes theyll ask for tests, but the montero muthr should just say 'manual investigation required' or basically suggest it needs a physical connection to know

[hard oriole]

To be honest, planetary life scans are going to be at least in part based on AI scans of rapidly snap-shotted hi-res images to see if the differences between them fit the algorithms for organic movement. LIDAR & IR terrain reflectivity, comms chatter, and the like. The idea that individual biologically generated EM could be picked up at all across any sort of EM polluted gap, let alone to the point that you can distinguish species based on the result, is hillarious plot magic

[candid apex]

I'd go with what's best for the game first and handwave the reasons for it later. Artificial gravity, ftl travel and the capacity to accelerate to light speed within a reasonable time frame without smearing the crew across the walls are all needed for the stories to work but don't stand up to scrutiny, so you have a lot of leeway there.

[primal yacht]

so, if im understanding the scenario right, MUTHER on Cronus just activates itself and turns on power to the ship, an arbitrary time after players have boarded? the PCs dont need to do anything to bring power & MUTHER back online?

or did i miss something

[clear idol]

Maybe the MUTHER of the Monterro connected to the Cronus and booted its MUTHER

[flat wraith]

I think the point of the phrasing in the module is so you can turn on the ship whenever you want. It says "in response to the players" - so I generally play it as it turns on when the players interact with something (the reactor, the bridge, MUTHER, ect...) but you don't want to kill the PCs suffocating in their suits running out of air so you could also turn the ship on at an arbitrary time too. I think it's meant to be vague so you can do it when the timing/circumstance is right on the fly in the game.

[primal yacht]

that makes sense yeah

thank you!

[flat wraith]

For what it's worth - if you're getting ready to prep this, review the rules for air supply and stealth mode. The PC's should roll every turn, and they can move 2 zones every turn, which is generally a hallway and a room. So every new room is generally an air supply roll - which is a lot, but is great for the tension and almost gaurantees the party splits up. I usually wait until a PC hit's 1 air supply before having MUTHER power up the ship.

I also make it a point to point out all of the important rooms on the Cronus and what should be there relative to their mission. That way it's not a dungeon crawl exploration with dwindling air - they make a plan and generally race to their objective. With the air running out, they'll probably try to get the power on, so all you have to do is let whatever they do work on the appropriate turn.

[primal yacht]

The PC's should roll every turn, and they can move 2 zones every turn, which is generally a hallway and a room.

do you tell the players any of this info, or let them figure it out naturally? id be inclined towards the latter

[flat wraith]

It's in the core rules so they should know it even before the module starts.

[primal yacht]

gotcha

imagine having players that read all the rulebooks

[flat wraith]

Well, to put it a different way, if they know it from the beginning, they can be proactive and the tension is there from the start - both wins. I don't think there's any benefit to not explicitly letting them know that's the way it works from the start.

[primal yacht]

oh yeah for sure, i'll tell them the rules as the rules become relevant

im the guy who reads all the rules and teaches them, thats normal for our group, but theyre amazing players

[flat wraith]

Act 1 in a dark ship with air running out is one of the module's highlights I think so it's good to pull it off right.

[elder anchor]

Are there any rules for refilling air supply? Logically speaking, there should be equipment on the Montero (and the Cronus) that refills the supply. How would you handle this?

Obviously they’d probably have to return to the Montero, but what stops them from infinite refills?

[flat wraith]

I’ve always ruled there’s no way. If there was, you wouldn’t need to add compression suits to the map.

[elder anchor]

Though those suits also exist for the Cronus crew

[solar trellis]

I tend to ask for the air rolls when I feel it makes dramatic sense, so as not to have them run out way too early or just sort of cruise through.

[elder anchor]

I just want to make sure I have an answer ready if they want to go back to the Montero to refill their tanks

I’m going to tell them the Cronus air refillers are broken

Or maybe the machinery was left behind in the science module

[flat wraith]

You could just say that the only air is in the suits.

Scuba divers go out on boats without refillers in the boat. Because why would they? They refill the tanks back on shore.

[elder anchor]

Yeah but it doesn’t really make sense though. If the ship received damage in deep space, they’d need people to space walk for hours and possibly days

That would be impossible without a means of refilling air tanks

In the first film, they were on the derelict for quite a while and never complained about running out of air

My fear is that they will make a bunch of trips back to the Montero, which will reduce the tension

At the same time, I don’t want to handwave a resource they should realistically have

[flat wraith]

I mean, I think this is a mechanical abstraction meant to simulate the genre, not reality. In reality, they have enough air for normal stuff. But under the current stressful situation, you use the Alien RPG mechanics instead and it doesn't last as long. The ammo rules don't make sense either but we use them.

The game provides extra suits on the Cronus so the Act 2 repairs can happen, and the amount of air they have in their single suits is just enough to get them to a location on the Cronus where they have just enough info to make decisions once it powers on and the NPCs wake up. There's nothing in any book about refilling tanks, and it seems balanced enough as it is where I think it implies that was the author's intent.

[candid apex]

I'd expect some raised eyebrows at least if I claimed air tanks couldn't be refilled on a ship designed for long-range space travel though.

But it'd be a one-off for me, the Cronus would probably wake up just as they left it. Hasn't happened yet though.

[lost dust]

You could say the means to supply air for tanks is the same as for the ship

I never had players had air problems before the ship turns on to pump air

[primal yacht]

CotG mentioned making a Stamina check vs Virulent(?) 6 to resist turning into an Abomination

im looking through the CRB but i dont see anything related to Virulence

[flat wraith]

It’s in there - it’s like a single paragraph on a single page on sickness

[primal yacht]

ah the ctrl+f feature just doesnt work at all lmao

[elder anchor]

I guess I won’t mention it to them unless that ask. If they decide to refill in the Montero, I’ll say it takes some time

[elder anchor]

Once they’re on the Cronus, I’ll make them fix the air scrubbers before allowing them to refill air tanks. I’ll probably make them fix the refilling machine as well

[elder anchor]

My biggest fear is that they’ll find a way to fuel their suits constantly while in the Cronus

[primal yacht]

im no expert, but refilling oxygen i think is more complicated than "open a valve and let fresh air in". there's probably a machine that pumps it, pressurizes it, etc, so that machine could simply be broken

youre the gm, so you can just say "no theres nothing that can refill oxygen, but there are extra EVA suits. of course, to swap EVA suits, youd have to temporarily expose yourself during the process"

[fleet patio]

You could also state the hose connections are different, seeing as the ships are of different eras. Switching to a Cronus suit would solve it, but that compromises their bodies, so. 😉

[fleet patio]

I gave the group a couple of O2 candles (heavy) that when planted, pumps out oxygen for a room. Makes for a good way to split the group as well, and creates a false sense of security.

[frail grotto]

Maybe refills take the best part of a shift. Or maybe the refiller is broken - Miller and Rye have an incentive to have went cheap on the maintenance of non-essentials. Wilson is scrutinizing their financials, and Miller or Rye may have signed off that they did maintenance they actually didn’t do to improve the ship’s finances on the books.

[frail grotto]

So, I ran CotG live for the first time. The party when I to the Cronos, went to the reactor control room to get power back on, got wrecked by the Abomination but all survived.
It was getting to the end of the session, so I decided to trigger the Montero going critical.

But I forgot to roll for the potential misses causing reactor problems in the Cronos, so I rolled after the session for the misses, and…the bolt gun has caused a rupture. So when the next session starts, they’ll have two, not just one, reactor overloads to deal with.
Am I cruel?

[candid apex]

Probably not, but you do risk cutting the scenario short. 🤷‍♂️

[elder anchor]

I think it’s fair game for the reactor to potentially blow up, but that’s a possibility that should be made clear in advance

It shouldn’t ever be, “Surprise! You blew up the ship!”

The characters are professionals who have probably gone through numerous safety trainings before getting their licenses

Their training is something I plan to frequently reference. For example, “Based on your previous training, you know that shooting guns in this room has the potential to damage the reactor, potentially causing an explosion.”

Then they can decide what they want to do from there.

It comes back to giving the players enough information that they can make informed decisions

[candid apex]

"your character would know that xyz" is something I need to say more often.

[solar trellis]

Yeah, your players are not their characters.

[elder anchor]

Here are my revised versions of the Cronus map

I kept the mostly inverted feeling but improved readability of the icons

Fixed the Deck C catwalk to look more obvious

Also removed the note about the EEV from the corporate office, though I left the EEV icon for those players with an observant eye

Added a more pronounced scanline effect. It looks good when you zoom but I don't know how well it will print

Chose a green map color very similar to Alien Isolation

For best results, make sure you view them in Browser mode or actually download the JPEGs

[elder anchor]

Printed really well! The words pop and even the scanlines came through

This is an A3 version which it a little larger and easier to read than the originals

[elder anchor]

Does anyone have any good Sotillo maps?

[elder anchor]

Thanks!

Where did you find that? @quiet walrus

[quiet walrus]

Just a random Google search. It's not the only one out there, but I thought it looked nice.

[nimble ocean]

It was me who did that one, a long time ago... Based on the blueprints of course...

[quiet walrus]

Tries not to act surprised...

[nimble ocean]

lol

[elder anchor]

@nimble ocean Do you still have a high res version?

Like a PNG or larger JPEG

[nimble ocean]

Sure, here is one a bit larger... Do you need it bigger? In that case I need to find the original file...

Found an up-scaled version too, but its a bit fuzzy when you zoom in...

Or this one...

[nimble ocean]

Can't find the original PSD file, but I can look tomorrow... Going to bed now....

[elder anchor]

This is a significant upscale! Thanks!

[elder anchor]

To me, the destruction of the Montero doesn’t totally make sense. Has anyone tried just locking the players out of the Montero?

[somber seal]

You have never met that one player that would find a way to break into something they are told they can't get into

[topaz vector]

The Montero destruction makes horror movie sense, even if it doesn't make real life sense

[flat wraith]

I did it with the Montero Muther just shutting down instead of exploding. It worked well.

Act 2 then became the decision to either fix the Cronus or reset Muther in the Montero. Either way, it doesn’t undermine Act 3. My game ended with Davis attempting to pilot the Cronus into the Montero after Wilson escaped onto it and tried to get away.

[solar trellis]

Not me, I love it and my players (through two times running this) loved that sequence. Especially when you time it with some other horrific event.

[olive sparrow]

This is really cool. What did you use to make the stairwells?

[plain plume]

Thanks. They are acrylic. Cut on my laser cutter.

[topaz vector]

anyone able to help real quick. I love physical handouts for players. imagery, tactile, things to get them in the vibe of wahts going on. were into act 2 tonight, and im just wondering if anyone has any images or things i should be printing off while im at work before i head to the game?

[elder anchor]

I give a few small handouts, but I really like to use PPTs to supplement my game

I have a big TV by the gaming table

I include photos, diagrams, typed messages from MUTHUR, etc

I also use it to teach the rules

I’d share them here but the files are huge

[topaz vector]

whats a ppt?

[elder anchor]

PowerPoint

[topaz vector]

aaaaah gotcha

yeah alas i have my soundboard app, and physical image handouts so far

[elder anchor]

How did you all handle the encounter with the abomination hibernating on the hull of the ship?

My idea is that the abomination was a crew member who transformed while out for repairs

[flat wraith]

I set it up as they see a suit tied to the antenna that looks like someone died mid-repairs.

[elder anchor]

That’s a cool idea

I was thinking that they would find the abomination literally inside an opened machinery chamber

[flat wraith]

I also made sure it didn't move at all until they got close. Also keep in mind, the hull of the ship is the perfect place for the "push away" stunt and the harpoon.

[elder anchor]

So you basically had it floating as a scarecrow

[flat wraith]

Kind of. The point of it being tied was to kind of portray desperation like the captain tied to the wheel on the Demeter in Dracula. And hopefully that makes the PCs think a little more that that little detail makes it more set dressing and not an ambush set up. It probably doesn't, but hopefully it moves the meter toward that possibility a little bit.

Like, the more "flavor" you can give it, the more it looks like "flavor text" and not a bad guy. You know?

[elder anchor]

I have another question: why would they choose to board the ship via spacewalk instead of the passageway umbilical?

[solar trellis]

I don't know, do people do that? Mine used the umbilical in both sessions

[topaz vector]

if the game muthr makes it sound like the umbilical is high risk

or if they take a peak out the window and see the airlock at the other end is damaged

[elder anchor]

But don’t they have to open that dorsal airlock either way?

[solar trellis]

• tries to remember map layout *

[elder anchor]

I just don’t see the benefit of the spacewalk over the umbilical. The umbilical seems like a safer and easier option

Here’s my idea:

Perhaps the dorsal airlock is the only one which is compatible with the umbilical

The other airlocks can only be accessed via spacewalk

[topaz vector]

depressurization hazards are a problem. and look, thing is, players do weird stuff, we all know that. so having an option is good

[uncut maple]

Maybe the characters are concerned about linking the ships together in case something goes wrong?

[topaz vector]

^^

also, maybe the montero has already begun its countdown, and theyre in a rush. maybe only half of them used the umbilical and now its damaged, all kinds of things can happen, plsu spacewalks are cool high tension moments

[elder anchor]

In the name of player agency, I’m thinking of giving them the option to repair the other airlocks from the outside

But those will require a spacewalk

So they can strategize and decide which airlock they want to open first

I don’t see any reason why they necessarily have to open the dorsal airlock first

The only risk is that they might enter through deck C and run into the reactor room monster a little early

[topaz vector]

well, them actions do be havin consequences i guess 😄

[elder anchor]

You know, I can fix this by making the internal airlock doors broken on Deck C

They can peer through the window and see that the internal door has a giant hole in it

So they won’t be able to open it without decompressing the ship

I’m really into the technical side of setting and making sure the ship feels logical and consistent

If the ship feels believable to the players, they’ll take the game more seriously

[solar trellis]

Personally, I don't worry about that much with this RPG because it's very about movie logic anyhow. Just my opinion, though!

[elder anchor]

To me it all comes down to player agency

I’m a big OSR fan

And I hate railroading

So I always want to give the players enough information for them to make choices on their own, with me functioning as neutrally as possible

[topaz vector]

you better hope they all understand theyre in a horror fiilm then, and make the horror film choices

[elder anchor]

Yeah it’s going to be a tricky balance

I’m going to play the monsters like how they’d work in reality

With them strategizing, playing patiently, and setting traps

So I’ll put the fear of death in them

I like most of the Alien sequels, but the xenomorphs should be smart enough to not run headfirst into gunfire

[frail grotto]

Realized that one of the symptoms of too much CO2 buildup is headache and seizures.

(https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24808-hypercapnia)

PCs survived two nuclear reactor upsets, Cronus crew have revived, Cooper became a proud dead neomorph daddy.
Probably will have some of the Cronus crew go into convulsions so the PCs pop a bullet into them, and then realize they killed someone with no alien inside them.

[elder anchor]

Check out my tokens

1 inch diameter

Some of them need to be redone but I think it’s a good start!

These are extremely easy and cheap to make. Sly Flourish has a YouTube tutorial on it

I added in some tokens from other adventures because some of the players didn’t want to play females

For example, the old bearded guy is now Miller

[topaz vector]

NICE

[solar trellis]

"females" heh

The PCs and NPCs are interchangable in terms of gender, so that's easy.

[flat wraith]

I think the newer free league games actually address this now. The character sheets have 2 first names depending on what gender you want to play.

...in The Walking Dead it does anyway. I assume the trend would continue because why not?

[solar trellis]

Huh, that would have been interesting. A lot better than what we got.

[crisp meteor]

Question regarding the cryopods on A Deck, what’s to stop the PCs from directly going straight to cryo pods and waking up the Cronus crew and proceeding straight to Act 2? Do they need to power up the reactor/get life support working for the Cronus crew to wake up or to get through the door to the cryo chambers? I ran the adventure before and misread it and started them on the wrong deck but I think they are supposed to start on A deck very close to cryo if I understand it correctly?

[uncut maple]

The cryo room doors are locked at first I believe, although they can be cut through. Also given the ship has been missing for 70 years, the players will probably assume that no one could be living after all that time

So they’d likely prioritize getting to the bridge/reactor and trying to get the ship running again

[flat wraith]

The air is freezing - its the same reason the PCs need their suits until the power comes on. If they open the cryosleep chambers first the NPCs inside will die.

Starting them on the wrong deck isn't an issue. Once the power comes on there should be an alert that they're opening so they'll know to go there.

[crisp meteor]

@flat wraith @uncut maple thanks. it didn’t come up the first time I ran it because they went to reactor first but I am running it soon again and wasn’t sure if they were able to wake up cronus sleepers prematurely. appreciate the info

[flat wraith]

I like pointing out all of the important rooms and what they do when MUTHER gives them the map so they have an idea of what they can do where to go to do it. Also, if you’re strict about air supply roles every turn, they’re more likely to split up to accomplish their goals quicker.

[elder anchor]

The cryo tubes will open automatically once MUTHUR reactivates the ship

The real question is, do the doors remain locked from the inside once the power kicks on?

I’m going to say yes

So the players have the option to cut the door open, or persuade the Cronus crew to let them in

[elder anchor]

Though on second thought, a WY administrator ID should open a locked door

[topaz vector]

on the montero, yes

not the cronos. its keyed to weyland corp

[elder anchor]

Hmmm that’s a good point

They would need to find a card or access key

But doesn’t it say that Wilson’s card can access MUTHUR on the Cronus?

[topaz vector]

I like to make them schmooze Clayton for the cronos one but yes, technically Wilson's will. At minimum I make sure Clayton's card is the only one that easily accesses the corporate suite

[elder anchor]

The location descriptions in the book are not that GM friendly, both in format and in brevity

I’ve experimented with different ways of making them info dump more manageable, from writing my own abbreviated descriptions to using OneNote to hyperlink the descriptions to the actual map

My plan now is to just print out the descriptions in A4 and put a highlighter to them

What methods have you tried?

I’m hoping that in 2e, they take on a more OSR approach to presentation

[solar trellis]

I highlight the PDF

The most relevant stuff, I mean. Or stuff that I would read out to players.

[candid apex]

Back when I first ran out I read it so often I probably knew most info by heart, the what I forgot I left out, scenario ran fine.

(that's not a recommendation, by the way)

[topaz vector]

if you think the description layout is bad in CotG, wait til you fumble your way through DoW 😄

[flat wraith]

…which is just training for HoD 🙂

[topaz vector]

true

urgh

😄

[solar trellis]

To be fair, those are much more involved locations. Especially HoD.

[elder anchor]

I printed images of each Cronus NPC and am using sticky tack to attach them to the front of my GM screen

The NPC names are also written on the back

This way, if they are talking to a lot of NPCs at once, I can simply point at which NPC is talking at any given moment

If an NPC isn’t present, I can just remove their card

Credit to Justin Alexander and his Advanced Gamemastery YT channel

[crude rose]

I thought that in-game npc and pc pictures are not good enough. So I did a few AI generations for each char in cinematics.

Cham, Davis, Miller, Rye, Wilson

[solar trellis]

Am not an AI art guy but those are pretty good. My biggest issue with AI art is that it seems incapable (at this point of course) of making pictures of women that aren't supermodels.

I rather like the game's art, myself

[elder anchor]

So I finally ran my first session of Alien

It went basically according to plan

They discovered the Cronus, boarded it

Tried to get into MUTHUR but Miller’s card didn’t work

They used the torch to get into the cryo chamber and then went down to C deck to visit the reactor

Because I didn’t want them getting too caught up with all the stuff in the reactor, I decided to activate the Cronus and end there on a cliffhanger

Made a couple mistakes: I actually picked a distant spot on the star map for them to wake up, but I didn’t consider that the tritium would have completely converted during that time

A player actually figured it out and asked me

So now they have non-explosive cargo which is a bit of a bummer

Basically I ended their cryo sleep too late instead of too early

I also made the mistake of not giving everyone +1 stress for finding the body

Other than that I think I ran it pretty well

[uncut maple]

Nice!! Yeah there’ll always be a couple hiccups here and there, but glad to hear it went well!

[flat wraith]

Yeah the scenario is pretty resilient AND handles unexpected player stuff well.

[elder anchor]

Would it be wrong for me to retcon the tritium thing

?

[flat wraith]

I mean, yeah.

[elder anchor]

It’s not that big a deal it the explosiveness of it is gone

[flat wraith]

For what it would fix scenario wise it's not worth it player buy in wise

[elder anchor]

Maybe it’s actually better considering that the destruction of the Montero has a history of killing PCs pretty early

[flat wraith]

I did a run through where the Montero didn't blow up at all and they never even moved the tanks (I unexpectedly had to make acts 2 & 3 happen in the same session and wrap everything up) and it didn't hurt the experience at all.

That part is really a B plot. The A plot is the NPCs changing and the repairs while a possible neo stalks them.

[primal yacht]

my players did similarly - one group went down to the reactor to turn it on. i didnt want to remove player agency by turning on the Cronus automatically as the book suggests, so i let them clean the control panels in the first room, which enabled them to turn on the ship. But they then discovered the Abomination when they went into the actual reactor chamber, which then started to wake up, so they booked it out and sealed the door behind them (which will bite them later when they need to go repair the reactor for the engines)

[flat wraith]

Mine did something similar, but I let them turn on the ship from the reactor room since that was why they went there in the first place. Someone was really low on air at that point so the timing worked.

...then they started searching a charred body for stuff that was sitting in the corner 🙂

[primal yacht]

aye, thats what happened with mine

the map makes it look like the reactor is split into two rooms

the entrance room, where i put the control panels to reactivate the ship, and then the reactor chamber itself, with the Abom and its nest

im not sure if its supposed to be two rooms? but the map looks like it has a divider there so shrug

[flat wraith]

Yeah I think it's supposed to be 2. The radiation from the reactor is leaking into the reactor room through that divider.

[primal yacht]

that makes sense yeah

i completely forgot to mention the radiation until after they powered the ship back on 💀

[flat wraith]

My Lucas got his arm ripped off early by the reactor abom. That freaked everyone out a bit ahead of schedule.

[primal yacht]

yeah i was afraid of that, so i had them roll stealth checks instead of auto waking it up

and giving them extra time when it slowly did begin waking to get out

i think that method worked out p well - they know something inhuman and monstrous is sealed down there, but no idea what it is

[clear idol]

So, have any of you also tried the Hammerpede in CotG?

[flat wraith]

I'm open to this.

Having all of the modules now, I've always thought restricting the xenos to just what the module has and nothing else detracts from the experience. Not a lot, but it is a thing.

[elder anchor]

I would have given them the opportunity to interact with the reactor before turning on the Cronus, but we were running out of time and I really wanted to end on a question mark

I immediately ended the session after the “cryo beds deactivated” message

[primal yacht]

that's a good ending cliffhanger

what's a hammerpede?

[elder anchor]

Ending on cliffhangers is a good habit in general, but is especially useful in horror themed games

[primal yacht]

oh absolutely

i was able to end our session right after the Bloodburster popped from the doc, and then immediately followed up with the other crew on the Montero hearing the self destruct alarm, so double whammy

[elder anchor]

My Wilson player is staying behind in the Montero and is privately asking for things he could do

Has anyone ever had Wilson set the self-destruct himself?

[primal yacht]

if my Wilson was a player I'd absolutely encourage him to

maybe a secret message from MUTHER telling him to

[topaz vector]

the penismorph from prometheus?

[primal yacht]

oh that thing

i never knew its name

[topaz vector]

hammerpede is the kinder one.

[elder anchor]

So I’m beginning to run into the problem of the players not wanting to split the party

They’ve been trained by a previous DM to never split up

Now they’re packing enough guns that they’re legitimately dangerous as long as they stay together

[uncut maple]

You could be kinda evil and have a door shut between them as they’re doing things or moving through the ship

But also, encourage them to play as their characters would. The characters don’t know they’re in an Alien game, so why not split up to cover more ground?

[topaz vector]

easy. make one of the tasks require them to be in two places at once. "i have to repair the external antennae? but that has to be monitored from the bridge at the same time?"

"we need to manually engage the reactor at the same time as manually patching into the engines to engage power correctly?"

"access to this door has to be controlled from the bridge? but the door only opens for 5 seconds before having to seal again?"

[elder anchor]

These are all good tips

One option I’m considering is mentioning that the oxygen will fail in a few days if not repaired

The reactor repair will require some to do a space walk while others work in the reactor room

I’ve also considered making the reactor so volatile that it also requires repairs in a certain time period

On top of that, if I give people some excuses for “medical research”, then some will want to go hunting for materials

[quasi parcel]

You control all the NPCs. Have them split up and start causing trouble at different parts of the ship.

Johns to the Bridge or MUTHUR, Reid to the armoury, Flynn to the medbay, Clayton to the Corporate Suite, meanwhile Cooper offers to explain what's happened.

Make the PCs choose who to follow and, if they still stick together, trigger some events in locations the PCs are not in.

[flat wraith]

Yeah - of all the tips, lean into the ones the module is using as a feature. For instance, Clayton will be watching which people are susceptible to bribery. She'll want to talk to one of them alone. I have Flynn freak out and run to a random part of the ship to hide (the second or third time he does this I have him turn to an abomination - however long it takes for retrieving him to feel like a normal task). Johns will flat out order people off alone and use his talent to do it - which gives the Miller player a chance to really push for control.
Let's also not forget Alien's built in split party mechanic - the panic spiral. Show them their first neo after they all have a bunch of stress. The thing doesn't even need to attack - just have it show up to cause a panic roll and run away, then watch as they all feed off each other's panic. You could even mention that splitting up mitigates that afterward if they don't pick up on it.
Finally, their agendas should help. Theoretically, the crew might get behind Davis's drug addiction or Lucas's need to dig for information, but as Act 3 approaches they'll all start realizing they can't necisarily count on eachother.
Finally finally, remember the xenos will always attack from ambush - so they should have a good chance at getting at least one good hit in.

Also - and it sound like it's too late for this - running the air supply rolls strictly by the rules almost automatcally splits the party in Act 1 for you because there's not enough air to get to MUTHER, the reactor (to get the power on they'd assume), and the hibernating NPCs.

Oh, and for act 2 I don't think there are enough suits for everyone to go on the spacewalk for repairs, AND the scrubbers take a full shift to repair, so that should help too - triggering another event while a PC or 2 is working on the scrubbers will force it.

[solar trellis]

Have they encountered anything dangerous yet? What's their in-game rationale for not splitting up?

[elder anchor]

Nothing dangerous yet. They don’t have an in-game rationale for it

That said, I haven’t done much to force them

I ended up waking up the Cronus well before their air got low

I just really needed to end the session and I wanted to end it on a question mark

They had also just entered the reactor room and I really didn’t want to awaken a monster so early in the story

I want the first monster appearance to be “Cooper’s son”

[solar trellis]

Yeah, I didn't mean to rush anything, I was just wondering if they had any reason to not split up. I mean, as far as the PCs are concerned it's just a derelict ship they found, there's no danger here. Though it can be tough to get players out of their D&D mentality and into this more cinematic mentality.

[left kelp]

I wanted to confirm what are the Synthetic Agenda while they do the pretend agenda of the character they are protraying? I can't seem to find it.

[somber seal]

It's called Lucas Agenda, as that is what is the name of the Synthetic

[shadow galleon]

Good morning everyone. I'll be running CotG in a couple of weeks. Has anyone had experience running the game for more than 5 players? I have a big group coming up and they all want to play together. It'll be around 7-8 PCs. Thank you before hand for your assistance.

[somber seal]

My biggest suggestion is to make some new PCs to play, this will require you to make agendas for the story for them, but it shouldn't be too hard if you ask some folks for ideas, at this many people btw, don't be afraid to kill some off if you want, as the backup NPCs they can play have static agendas unlike the starter characters

[shadow galleon]

Thanks!

[solar trellis]

oh god may the force be with you lol

[shadow galleon]

I ran a D&D game with them and it was crazy so, yeah. May the force be with me.

[flat wraith]

Wacky thought - have the Sotillo and the Montero find the Cronus at the same time. The other PCs can be on the Sotillo

[elder anchor]

Consider making the extra characters be mostly copies of Cham or Rye

[cinder herald]

thats cool! pirates just want cash grab and do not know anything, they can start lot of events, but then you will split attention a lot, but I love this idea good to think about for bigger groups. And maybe pirates can have more agenda for each act, maybe some other agent in crew.

[cinder herald]

we finished scenario with one group as a oneshot in 10h it was rush hours:/ (skipped lot of events on Montero just you wake- here is ship and you are about crash into etc, later we skipped Ava, pirates, few others not mandatory events) players got lot of successes with mother and start to over think that they want to control ship from Montero and stop cryopods to be waken. I was soft on rules and let them do it (my bad! Know the rules its bad GM job) I started to be frustrated from it and as I played for Wilson as NPC I used him as deus ex that he restore cryo process and when they tryed to go to Montero I launched real time t-10 detonation video so they was forced to act quick without meta talking. I was angry and thinking in my mind about situation to calm myself and understand that I am not here to win, I am here to play with them. They argued that their rolls was successful… I just call it order 966 and stoped discussion. I am sad from my thoughts, emotions and that my shitty GM made lack in their experience and on other hand I am angry that they tried to be smarty pants, but when I think about it, everyone when watch movie thinks that roles act stupid and if you are smart enought you can survive in world of Alien… interesting experience.

[left kelp]

Looks like that was a lot to unpack in 10 hours, I prefer breaking into multiple sessions I never runned any game that long. I believe you were the one that shared pictures of everyone dressed in Weyland Yutani uniforms that looked fantastic.

[cinder herald]

thank you for recognition. It was fun after all the missups, I just think about how to improve my GM skills and how to prevent a negative situation during the game. ❤️ and for sure one big rule: do not try to play game in shorter way than its mean to be.

[hard oriole]

Tastes like chicken

[elder anchor]

What kind of information or functions would likely be available on the terminals spread throughout the ship?

My players are really curious about them

I’m guessing ship intercom, oxygen levels, temperature, status of the ship’s subsystems

There’s probably an access point for a synthetic to directly interface

Maybe health statuses for the entire Cronus crew

[topaz vector]

health status for those wearing the watches that get those readings, or people in EVA suits connected to cronos.

[sick charm]

Hey! Has anyone here written out scene descriptions for CotG they'd be willing to share?

[flat wraith]

One thing I see a lot of people miss is the air supply rules once the PCs get on the bridge. You're supposed to roll every turn, which is 2 zones, which is basically a hallway than a room. It (seems) to run out quick which is great for tension and encouraging the party to split.

A lot of people play the air supply rolls more loosely, but I don't see any gain from it. The scenario works fine if you do, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

[sick charm]

Good to know!

[flat wraith]

What do you need beyond whats in the book?

[sick charm]

I saw some online streams of the game and it seemed they had more than in the book

I can always add my own flair, just didn't know if people focused on certain scenes

[flat wraith]

Ah okay. I think that's people filling in the gaps in the book to make it make sense for them.

[sick charm]

That makes sense 🙂 Im planning on our first session this Thursday to end when the first crew member of the Cronus has an explosive headache, so I'm certain I'll manage.

I saw some people recommend adding details like the Cronus's auxiliary power has been on to maintain some heat in the ship and the cryo chambers, as well as the AI

So I'll probably play into that a little, else it would be frozen in the ship

[flat wraith]

I ran it mostly by the book, except for a little extra time for the PCs talking at lunch before finding the Cronus, and a little extra chatting with the Cronus crew for more motivation.

[sick charm]

Did you add the android or Sotillo?

[flat wraith]

Yeah both.

But the trick with the Sotillo is not decide until Act 3 to use it or not. You'll know if you need it if you run out of PCs for your players, or if you run out of monsters. If neither of those things happen your Act 3 will probably turn out satisfying on it's own.

[sick charm]

I'm planning to have the ship pick up a ping at the start

But then I may or may not use it

How'd the android go? Did you get into PvP?

[cinder herald]

usually android sneaks with crew and tries to be not seen untill act 3, and even when he is hurt, he tries to act he is friend so he can still win just by sneaking and making some twist at end.

air is very good advice, roll for it that it is mandatory stress for them. They will focus on their air supply and air filters and not goofing around

[flat wraith]

Mine actually got revealed by being attacked by a xeno each time I ran it. ...Which in itself was satisfying.

[sick charm]

what'd the crew do at that point??

[cinder herald]

its great event for players

[flat wraith]

got +1 stress and a panic roll 🙂

But seriously - they try to convince the crew they're "good guys" or generally just take a new PC at that point.

[cinder herald]

relax, let them play and enjoy the show ❤️

from my perspective they tried to be "geniuses" to overwrite mother or to steal cronus as it is conected to Montero, so be tight on rules that they can learn info, but as in Alien 1 - Mother have her directives, they are just needle in the see and not Steve Jobs of Alien Universe. order 966 is strong there, they can just have information but not overwrite orders

good to sneak info that they can start self destruction from mother or from reactor room.

thing I do not know why escape pod is on map to be seen behind corporate suit. In my perspective, they should not know this information from map

so if you can... hide it... they can be smarty pants and look for it quite quick

[flat wraith]

OH - one thing I've always done was point out all the main rooms and what they generally do when MUTHER gives them the map of the Cronus. You don't want it to be an exploratory dungeon crawl while they're running out of air. They should be able to put a plan together where to go before they even step on the Cronus. That is what encourages the party splitting more I've noticed.

[cinder herald]

yes! great to take them around, point on eva suits room for example, and where they should go. GM should not punish players that they can not just see all info in seconds.

[flat wraith]

Yeah totally.

Odds are you'll get people heading right to reactor room to try to turn on power before the air runs out, people going to where the cryobeds are because of the mission, and people going to the bridge or MUTHER for more info.

[cinder herald]

in destruction event, I started real time clocks to have tempo... it is good to push there... its funny, they will be angry that you are pushing them but it is very adrenalin moment

[flat wraith]

I did the same. There's a great youtube video for the full 10 minutes.

[cinder herald]

they will panic, they will do mistakes, but they will love it after game 🙂

[flat wraith]

I did it once where Cooper didn't pop until after that started.

...because I'm a jerk 🙂

[cinder herald]

https://tenor.com/view/raccoon-yes-gif-5426936545941509697

[clear idol]

Hahaha

Glorious

[uncut maple]

Nothing quite like fucking with your players lmao 👿

[flat wraith]

I knew they were actually pretty good players so they could handle the multiple layers of s*** I was shoveling on them 🙂

Another thing to think about:
At the end of Act 1, you have 5 NPCs to run that show up all at the same time. Figure out what they're going to say and do ahead of time. That's a lot to improv on the fly.

[primal yacht]

i wish i had that advice before waking them up, yeah 💀

[flat wraith]

Yeah - the first time that happened to me I was a babbling idiot. Lesson learned for the next time 🙂

[cinder herald]

5 people to play!!! madness, on one hand I was happy that my players Steve Jobs Mother to stop them waking up. On other it ruined lot from act 3. So maybe if you want to let them be little clever heads, you can slow down waking protocol to other NPCs

or just general slow protocol down and let Cooper and some lower grade wake that they should take a look around ship and start needed engine/bridge/air supply etc

[primal yacht]

if the players used Mother to stop the cryopods from waking up, maybe Ava could override them? im not sure how much control Ava should have, or whether she'd want to wake them, but it's an option

[cinder herald]

we had 4 players so I made my Wilson (npc) deus ex here. so they torched the cryos to be closed, they tried everything to broke my game 😄

[flat wraith]

I think the easiest answer is the players can't stop the waking process. That's kind of critical for the module unless you want to start making a ton of stuff up on the fly.

I liked having Johns use his talent to give the Montero crew terrible orders. "Davis! Go into that air tunnel alone and make sure it's clear!"

[primal yacht]

are there any other ways into the Reactor besides the one main door?

vents, maint shafts, etc?

[flat wraith]

I want to say yes, but I don't remember

I think it's a good idea to have a couple ways in for Lucas in Act 3 - so he has choices.

[primal yacht]

makes sense

[sick charm]

is Lucas a part of the original crew?

or is Lucas a separate NPC stowaway

[primal yacht]

my players permanently sealed the doors so they'll need to figure out a new way in

Lucas is part of the crew

[solar trellis]

He is definitely part of the crew. How long he's been there isn't specified and I know it's caused some questions regarding backstory.

[cinder herald]

you choose who is Lucas, Lucas is one of players but in disguise. Usually its better him to be Cham, Rye or Davis, due their agendas are poor and Miller and Wilson are quite forwarding the story.

[sick charm]

@flat wraith how do the disease rolls work?i

I see that the Neomorph egg motes have a Virulence of 9 and the players need to roll stamina...but what does Virulence 9 mean?

[primal yacht]

you would roll 9 dice vs the player's stamina

since its an opposed check

(i asked this same thing a couple weeks ago)

[sick charm]

oh thank you

[flat wraith]

for what it's worth, I deviate slightly with this. Since the PCs roll disease out in the open, I give ties to them. I roll the opposed roll in secret, and I don't want them to know for sure if they failed if they roll no successes. (Also, I go by the book and pick someone so the roll doesn't even really count, but sometimes I use the "worst" PCs roll to guide that choice)

So again - that's not RAW, but it might be useful.

[solar trellis]

I just choose who gets it, am I a monster?

[left kelp]

Oh mine was Miller! I didn't know that it should one of those three. 🥹

[flat wraith]

Nah, your supposed to. I just add some window dressing like music and stuff

[somber seal]

It's not a requirement, it's just simpler to run, considering the fact that those characters have less overall important agendas to the story of the cinematic

[left kelp]

Well I passed Act 1 and Miller(Synth) is on the Montero with Davis. So will see how it goes from there the Blood burster has popped out at the end of Act1.

[somber seal]

Good luck 👍

[elder anchor]

Wow you made the captain into the synth?

[left kelp]

Yeah it's my first run, so I didn't know the implications really.

[elder anchor]

It’ll work fine. The main issue is that you’re giving two especially fun roles to the same person

I made Cham the synth and it’s working well. Right now the narrative is dominated by Miller and Wilson. The other players have no clue about Cham

The Cham/Lucas player looted two scalpels from the medbay and is hiding them on his person

[clear idol]

Nice

[cinder herald]

its not mandatory:) Miller is actually good idea that he picks ship and go for this event, I just overthink it from scenario perspective

[solar trellis]

Yeah, the biggest thing is that Miller and Wilson have pretty good agendas that are already pretty impactful on the narrative of the game, so if you make one of them Lucas you're kind of removing one of the best opportunities to really get the game all twisty and shit. It's certainly doable but why would you unless you had to?

[left kelp]

I simply didn't know at the time and I have already passed Act one. I thought anybody could be a Synth and it didn't click regarding Agenda for the ship.

I will see what will happen

Maybe give some other players some agenda of the captain.

There's going to be alot for trial and error for my first time hosting this.

I'm planning to host in person so I figured hosting online firstly to get familiar with it.

[cinder herald]

relax:) they just love that someone make fun for them 🫶

[elder anchor]

Here is a technique I’m going to use

So I printed photos of each Cronus member in cryo

So when they converse with the PCs, I can simply point to which NPC is speaking

Also, I plan for them to not say much unless asked, and will rely mostly on body language descriptions

Until Cooper dies, they’re saving most of their info for an official debrief

I also made this to help me with the RP aspect

I just realized I should play Clayton like she is Gus from Breaking Bad

[flat wraith]

You might at least want some sort of default speech or action for each to take. There’s nothing really proactive in that grid and you might end up with one group staring at the other without much happening. Or it might go the other way and turn into a data dump the first time a PC says “who are you?” and “what happened?”

[left kelp]

I wanted to ask how much information can the corporate agent Wilson get from the Muthur on the Cronus? If he succeeds with Com tech what further info he can get?

[elder anchor]

My plan is for them to at first be suspicious of the Montero crew and refuse to open the doors until persuaded

Once the door is open, the Cronus crew is mostly tight lipped except that they need to collect some things before boarding the Montero

On their way to collect the biological materials, Cooper will die

Then Montero will begin the self-destruct

After that, the Cronus crew will mostly spill the beans and will pursue separate agendas

[flat wraith]

That's fair - I'm just saying I'm not skilled enough to improvise 5 simultanious NPCs based on something that general. I literally had less anxiety going into the game having a single "event" type of thing listed for each one I could fire off if things got slow.

[elder anchor]

My plan is to display the five photos, physically describe the Cronus crew’s body language, but then be more reactive than proactive in the conversation

The PCs will be welcome to point to the person they want to talk to and engage with them

Cooper will be doing most of the talking

[flat wraith]

Jesus all this talk makes me want to run this again 🙂

[flat wraith]

If you want it, here's my basic NPC reaction list (in case your PCs also decide to be tight lipped and mostly reactive 🙂 ):
-Reid - sees the Montero crew as potential infected and waves a gun at them to make them stay away
-Flynn - runs away from every one and hides in anther room the first chance he gets
-Johns - sees the Montero crew as resources and attempts to order them to secure and repair the ship
-Clayton - watches to see who emerges as "in charge" and tries to persuade them to go to her room to escape together (after also asking for samples)
-Cooper - initially tries to calm everyone down and take charge (pre-headache).

The nice thing about this is it shows off each individual's personality and gives the PCs something to react to that's a manageable little chunk and not something you have to worry about delivering paragraphs of exposition to get through. You don't need to use it, but it's nice to know it's there if the table goes silent and everyone is looking at you for what happens next.

[sick charm]

So my Davis player is going to be Lucas (naming the android Lucy since she is fem-presenting). Any story reasons yall have of why David, the pilot, makes sense to be the android?

How long as she been an android, was the original Davis bodysnatched?

[flat wraith]

Probably a thread not worth pulling. You'll just find inconsistencies and it'll never be addressed in the actual game.

[sick charm]

that is fair

[candid apex]

True, it just is. Maybe worth for the player to play up the drug addiction instead of hiding it as a cover story, but that's best left to the player.

[solar trellis]

I usually run in roll20 so I can have the photos there but will definitely print out the NPCs if I run this in person. Really helps the players remember who's who.

I see you also do the thing where you use a pop culture figure as a reference point for an NPC, I should look mine up and post them.

[cinder herald]

yeah I give them agenda for disguise player act 1 and for Android and later I give them act 2 of Android there they go as wind blow.

[left kelp]

I wanted to ask once more, how much information can the corporate agent Wilson get from the Muthur on the Cronus? If he succeeds with Com tech what further info he can get?

[flat wraith]

I’m fairly sure anything

[topaz vector]

whatever the GM decides muthr will give. often with comtech stuff, its very important as a GM to ask specifically, what they are searching for, before you make them roll

[flat wraith]

Like, MUTHER should be the only other way to get the scientific data besides directly from the lab. So it’s a way to fulfill Clayton’s request. A terminal is too easy to get that data from.

[topaz vector]

for instance if its a simple request, no roll, just give them the answer (assuming theyve made it into the muthr room with a keycard or hacking already)

if its something you think is difficult, they roll, and with 1 success they get specifically the answer to what they asked

if they get stunts and want 'bonus GM information' or whatever that stunt is, its up to you what you give and what you dont give in that moment. i find its a great opportunity to drop lore youve been itching to give up, rather than ask them 'what more do they want'

if they just blindly ask 'can i comtech to access information from muthr' and you let them roll, youve shot yourself in the knee already

so let them be specific, and then the reward for their success is clear

[solar trellis]

Honestly, whatever you want them to get. The MUTHUR could very well be slightly damaged if you want as well. I have seen people say it does crazy stuff like identify where bio signs are found, I'm generally one to limit what it gives.

Also, as a reminder, easy stuff shouldn't require a roll.

[left kelp]

Hmmm I like the answers very much appreciated I won't @ you guys as to not bother you. Really good insights that I will follow, because I thought Muthur just gives everything but I was like surely that's not the case haha.

[flat wraith]

OH you know what I DO like giving to MUTHER? Order 966, but when someone other than Wilson asks for it. Someone no doubt will ask why the Montero exploded. Respond with CLASSIFIED…. ORDER 966. And let eeeeveryone at the table hear that response:)

[topaz vector]

standard ship diagnostics sure, hand em over when they access muthr. but potentially hidden or password protected information, thats when comtechs come in

[topaz vector]

yes yes 100 times yes. great to drop a 'classified, order 966' or even, if youre feeling spicy, drop a 'classified, order 966, username: J J Wilson Password?: ...'

give enough to stir the pot, and if they then succeed on a comtech maybe they hack the password, but if they fail, they still have enough info to go kick the beehive

[flat wraith]

When I run this I generally don’t blow up the Montero, I just shut it down and comtech tells them MUTHER is doing it. So they need to cut power and reboot, but also, it’s a funnel to asking her why she’s doing it so the above will happen.

[sick charm]

Session 1 Recap - The Bloodburster that came out of Dr. Cooper bite into Wilson's leg, cutting his artery and causing him to bleed out

MU/TH/UR/6500 is going to initiate self destruct on the Montero at the start of next session

[left kelp]

I was wondering is it possible to run this module for 6 players and use one of the Crew from the Sotilo to add onto the Montero?

[topaz vector]

im doing exactly that

i added micky horton from the sotillo, and have a backstory addition that the background to hortons connection with the sotillo captain is instead the same connection to Miller, and it is a secret they share with one another.

its gone great so far, but make sure to play on the 'family' aspect between the two as a gm, to see where the strains are, and see if others pick the inconsistency to the story, even at base value that mickys last name is horton not miller

[left kelp]

Ooh nice what Agendas did you give Micky for each Act?

[topaz vector]

first was keep hanging around Cham and Rye to learn mor about being a mechanic, then act 2 was find a weapon, you know these adults are idiots. act 3 were just going into it, and Miller is dead, so theyre last agenda is 'stay close to the group, dont go off alone, and get clayton what shes asking for so she takes you with her in the EEV'

[left kelp]

I'll copy this.

[lost dust]

Do you think you'll commonly run for 6 players for future games, or just this one you're doing now @left kelp ?

[left kelp]

Never really, run beyond what the system is required I feel. I feel more players gets a little tricky or harder even. It's the in person one looks like there's more than 5 which I am hesitant I much prefer 5 it's a good number.

[lost dust]

I was just wondering since you were asking about running this one with 6

[left kelp]

Oh this would be a one off it's for some work colleagues that we have been playing D&D for a while and someone is leaving and I stepped wanting to be DM for this lovely rpg with Chariot of the gods!

[left kelp]

I have hosted in the past for like 8 players and it's pure chaos my comfortable number is 5.

[lost dust]

Out of the official scenarios, I feel if any of them were to be selected for running a high player count game, it'd be Destroyer of Worlds

[left kelp]

Ooh interesting, that's good to know. Well I ordered the starter set from Free League and it arrived along with the core Rulebook. However, I'm waiting for their announcement mid or late September!

Depending on that I might commit to buying the other modules or expansions.

[lost dust]

You mean for 2nd edition? I think that's a little bit later in the year as far as announcement, but I could be wrong on that

Unofficially, I of course am going to promote my own cinematic: #legacy-resource-databank message

[left kelp]

They mentioned Fall so around September or maybe November.

[left kelp]

Oooh is this your making?

[fossil seal]

Well that ended ... strangely.

Clayton lured Flynn and Wilson to the executive suite after placing an urn there. She shot Wilson (who refused to draw a precautionary pistol despite my repeated heavy hints that Clayton was behaving oddly) at point blank range and killed him outright (the plan was for a wound but my dice pulled their usual end-of-session shift from all-suck-all-the-time to AWESOME!) , shot the urn to cover her tracks (with dead witnesses) and fled in the EEV with Flynn and several urns.

All the surviving Cronus crewmembers bar the escapees ended up dead when the Sotillo crew boarded with extreme prejudice and firepower, only to be offed by Rye & Cham, alone now after Davies was killed while undergoing withdrawal in the mistaken belief he was about to birth a bodyburster and Williams morphed to stage II and triggered another bout of firepower.

Rye was a bit upset that Cham turned out to be Lucas at the very end, when they took possession of the Sotillo and fled.

Not as surprised as Lucas will be when he wakes from cold sleep to find Rye was infected by aerosol Black Goo (Thank you Clayton).

I plan to have the Sotillo fall into WY hands, and the EEV into UPP "custody", as a precursor to DoW. I will make handouts for the cast so they get some closure (and shut down the very engaged player of Rye who wants to keep play-by-posting her and switch the concentration to the new characters in DoW).

[elder anchor]

It sounds very memorable!

Sounds like a successful playthrough

But did anyone get killed by a xeno?

[fossil seal]

The Xenos ended up being complete walkovers. Walks-over?

The best was when I put a mummified one in Junction A2 on A Deck. The players were so upset at seeing it they welded shut all the surrounding doors and repaired enough systems on the bridge to cut power to the entire section.

😆

The real fun was that they didn't split effort on the "takes one full shift" jobs, so at the end of a very long day and in the face of several casualties, they still had no engines.

It is crucial for a realistic attempt to head for home in the Cronus that the team get busy fixing the flight deck and the engines at the same time, once the reactor is back up.

That Reactor Xeno was also a complete walk-over, and ended up getting locked in the actual core. One player risked the RAD damage to do that.

But was scared stiff of the mummified Xeno.

I find it ramps up the tension at start of game if the Cronus interior lights are all behaving like cheap fluorescent shop lights with knackered self-starters.

The on again, off again behavior can ratchet up the paranoia, and is a great excuse to pile on mobility and visual observation penalties that do little but cause player anxiety.

The players were all very complimentary about the experience, but I have to say they were just about a perfect group, the best I've had in years in any game, and their buy-in, in-game scenery-dressing and co-operation with each other was awesome.

All I had to do was say "Riff on the original movie if you are confused about how things look" and they were out of the gate like greyhounds.

A genuine pleasure to watch in action.

[elder anchor]

So I’ve come up with an idea for locking doors, which is to require them to weld it shut

That way, they can weld a limited amount of doors because of the supply roles

What do you think? I’ve been very concerned about this issue of what doors can and can’t be locked

I need an answer for the players which makes sense and is internally consistent

[fossil seal]

Doors should be lockable IMO. I suggest if someone can access a computer terminal or a bridge station they can lock or unlock any door. Doors might be more permanently locked with a company/captain's keycard. Don't forget that the ventilator shafts also offer passage for critters, and though they can be closed off at GM discretion, the corridor & room vent grills can't and so would also need welding shut.

[elder anchor]

That’s really good advice

I wish the books would explain those sorts of details. I’ve had to make so many resources just to be able to run this game confidently

Lots of small but important details have to be made up on your own

[fossil seal]

If running online, I would make notes on what things you might find hard to remember and make yourself one or more "gm shield" type documents you can have open during play.

I have a pdf of human/android-centered stuff like panic and crit tables, and another of xeno -centric stuff like attack modes, stats and crits.

I made them using free software like LibreOffice and Gimp from the original materials.

I also made a "skills and stunts" cheatsheet in LibreOffice to make available to players, and a "Talents" cheatsheet.

[elder anchor]

I’m playing in person and prepared many of those things, such as the player cheat sheet

I own a GM screen

Copied and pasted together and printed a list of nearly all guns, armor, and equipment

Consolidated all the Abomination info and tables onto a single piece of paper. Did the same for Neomorphs

Wrote and printed a quick NPC character reference form to help me run the Cronus crew

Our gaming room has a giant flatscreen TV with Apple TV, so I even made a PowerPoint to help me run certain sections

I created a lot of Montero slides to help teach them the exposition

And to let them know what resources are available

Created many slides for the Cronus as well

I even created a separate PowerPoint just to teach the basic rules

I also had to print the maps and room descriptions and go to work on them with a highlighter just to keep up with all the details

I’m hoping that for 2E, they make substantial changes to the formatting and presentations

I own a lot of OSR products, like Mothership and Into the Odd, that are also very elaborate but are infinitely easier to prep and run

[primal yacht]

question

if a player/npc is breathing air on the Cronus once power is back on, but before the air filters have been cleaned, should i make a spore check for everyone breathing the air? or only if they trigger a spore sac in proximity?

[flat wraith]

You honestly could go either way because it’s not rely defined. My experience is everything is easier to run if you assume the spores are in the air scrubbers so as soon as they come on everyone’s infected. It keeps the story on track and it’s less to keep track of.

If you don’t and you have careful players, they might evade the spore threat entirely - or at least make you work harder to encounter it.

[primal yacht]

gotcha

gracias o7

[topaz vector]

qq is there a resource of the pregen characters character sheets already made?

preferably printer friendly

[elder anchor]

I ended up writing them out by hand

[topaz vector]

yeah ive just ripped them from my roll20 at this point

ah well

its an in person game so ill hand them the ones from the starter set but i wanted to send them something in advance so they can have a bit of a heads up

[elder anchor]

I printed the character columns, cut them out, and stapled them to the backs of their corresponding characters

I wanted to make sure I’d have everything immediately ready in case a player took over a member of the Cronus crew

For the Montero crew, I just photo copied the premade character sheets and stapled them to their bios

[left kelp]

@topaz vector yes there is I believe

[jaunty panther]

Reddit has a few

Printable too

Just take ur pick

[jaunty panther]

Instead of having everyone infected right of the bat Im giving just enough air until they find out about it and have to really scavenge for air supply untill they can get enough innoculants for all since I’m only giving 2 at the start

Also have to be wary about any damage to their suits since it there’s an acid burn and damage, I’m taking it as a broken seal

[elder anchor]

So the book mentions that the urns and the black goo have to be kept in cold storage

Or risk leaking

But does the book list any options for cold storage?

[topaz vector]

Don't turn off cryo? Or, maintain one of the rooms as cold storage.

There is a food storage area where the food has spoiled, could be repurposed by a smart crew

I had a group gather all the urns and stuff them into the Kronos crews cryo tubes, only to have wilson and Clayton override the sleep timer real quick after to try to transfer them to the eev

[jaunty panther]

How long were most of your guys campaigns?

I’m thinking of maybe doing 4 sessions

[flat wraith]

2 to 4.

2 if you only hit the minimum of plot points. 4 if you want to live in the PCs for a bit and play the tension like a violin.

[topaz vector]

im gonna do my best to run the gauntlet of CotG in 4 hours in one go

cutting almost all of act 3, streamlining the cronos entry, and stripping back the events.

wish me luck 😄

(most times it takes me 3-4 sessions at 3 hours a piece because i like slow pacing, but this is at an event so i dont have that freedom)

[flat wraith]

I’ve done it in 2 3ish hour sessions. My advice: Cut the Montero exploding and only require 1 repair in act 2 and let the PCs do what they will in act 3.

[topaz vector]

yeah the sotillo is out completely for me. gotta cut the dead weight 😄

[solar trellis]

This entirely depends on how long your sessions are and how RP-ey your players are. Both times I did it it took easily 10 hours, if not more.

[elder anchor]

Our second session is scheduled for tonight and Cham/Lucas just canceled…

I don’t know if I should reschedule or not

We could play Into the Odd instead but that would be a new adventure entirely

If I play without him, he’s more likely to cancel other sessions in the future

Or be emotionally uninvested

I shouldn’t have picked him as Lucas. He cancels more than anyone

[topaz vector]

you want advice, or an ear? 😄

[elder anchor]

I guess I want both

When do you guys reschedule and when do you barrel on?

Part of what makes this difficult is that I can’t reveal why Cham’s absence really matters

So insisting that I have every player makes me look a little neurotic

This session is especially important because it’s when the Cronus crew wakes up, when Cooper dies, and when the Montero blows up

[topaz vector]

on one hand it sounds like this player is alot of work, id continue without them. for this session at least, and if they get pissy, continue without them in general.

Cham/lucas is super important for the intrigue later, so, DMNPC them yourself.

now, if you can manage to make it through this next session continuing with Chams objectives and not exposing lucas, they return next session, you tell them whats happened 'TO CHAM' and they continue playing

they need to understand that with this type of game you can keep a character on ice like you might be able to in other syste,s

however if more than one person cancels leaving your player count too low, postpone the session

[elder anchor]

I’ve decided to postpone it

My mood is too soured

If it were an Act 2 or 3 session, I’d probably continue, but this upcoming session is too consequential to play without Lucas

[topaz vector]

totally get it, you made the right call

No RPG can sometimes be better than Bad RPG 😄

[left kelp]

It is what it is at times, 😅

@topaz vector Oh did those props I sent you are helpful 😎

[topaz vector]

yes, got them printed and ready to rock for friday night

[left kelp]

Lets goooo Im doing mine in October hehe

[jaunty panther]

Yea I basically gutted the whole act 3 and my third act is just going to be a three way battle between the android, alien and crew and they find a way to get tf off the ship after all the reveals and twists have been made

[topaz vector]

nice. i get the feeling im gonna have to be very thin on reveals. main reveals will be lucas, cooper not takign the antidote (hopefully after the montero crew have taken it) and the bonus creature in the reactor core. im also stripping the weapons to bare bones so they arent over equipped for it. putting pressure to find a way out rather than 'fight' their way out. alot of sealing things behind locked doors and welded vents hopefully

[jaunty panther]

I’m planning on only giving them 2 two inoculants right after the bloodburster scene so players will have to decide who gets it first while the rest has to scavenge for o2 tanks and be super careful to not break the seals of their suits. After the abomination reveal I’ll give them 3 true cures

Any amour piercing or critical injury will count as breaking the seal

Or they run out of o2

So they will have be very careful to decide if those inoculated are combat ready as they can take the damage or those not should be armed since they are really vulnerable

I have quite a few reveals like Cham being android controlled by Wilson to eliminate some of the crew who planned on destroying the samples or betraying the company. Also the headless person at the start being killed by one of the scientists after being experimented on with the inoculant since he lied she was killed by a bloodburster.

[left kelp]

I wanted to ask, in regards to the Synth they have their own agenda, do I even give them the agenda of the character their pretending to be as well?

Any guidance is appreciated.

[candid apex]

I give them both. The synth one (Lucas) is the real one, the other they can pretend to pursue while they're undercover.

[left kelp]

Perfect, I wasn't sure but now with your answer I'm confident. Thank you for that.

[candid apex]

You're welcome, enjoy the game!

[topaz vector]

This is why cham is a great Lucas. His agendas are so simple

[somber seal]

Any time I have seen someone play Cham that wasn't Lucas, Cham died very quickly, even when I tried to play Cham and survive the whole thing, I panicked while fixing the Air Scrubbers and was infected immediately through a tear in my suit

[left kelp]

How does one tear the suit or is it just up to the GM?

[clear idol]

When you take damage

That is a simple indication

They are eva suits as we have seen in Alien and in Alien Isolation so it has plenty of soft parts

[candid apex]

I usually say you can only reach the air scrubbers through the vents and you can't get into the vents while wearing a space suit. Too bulky..

[left kelp]

I see good to know.

[clear idol]

That is an indicator that I use myself

I have also seen DorkTales play that you get the headcrush attack from the Abominant and you save it that it destroys the helmet instead

[left kelp]

I do have another question, when a character moves out of engaged range from a hostile character of Xeno. What do they need to do I remember somewhere saying they must make a Mobility roll and if they succeed nothing happens but if they fail the hostile character or Xeno gets a free attack? Is this the same vice versa?

The Xeno would roll a D6 to see what they do on the retreating character.

[candid apex]

That's correct as I understood it

[left kelp]

Has anyone ran a one shot of Chariot of The gods. Like a short version of it? How did it go did you remove some Acts?

[topaz vector]

I TRIED ...

I really tried

but i only made it to late act 2

if you wanna run it as a one shot you need about 4-5 hours of unbroken playtime i reckon

and you gotta disregard alot of unnecesary events, aswell as allow tasks to be done in shorter time spans

[left kelp]

Daaanm

Fair enough.

It's just that Start Set has all the goodies but Hope Last End doesn't.

[topaz vector]

yeah the starter set is a great setup for 3 sessions (roughly 3 hr session) but alot of people wanna run it shorter, and hope last day you dont have any of the bonus bits but, it WILL work as a one shot

[primal yacht]

second CotG session went well!

Miller, Cham/Lucas, Davis, and Reid all went to clean the air filter silo, Davis left, and Cooper's neomorph came back, the party's first real encounter/fight of the game so far

neomorph killed Miller tragically, i gave Reid to the player, whose turn was up next, and Reid rolled 3 successes on the magnum to blast the neo dead

group had a somber sorta-eulogy for Miller, and regrouped on the bridge, where they ran diagnostics and found out about the repairs needed for the comm array, engine, and reactor

me: "to activate the engines, the Reactor needs repairs"

them: "okay, back to the Reactor room that the monster is in"

me: "yep, the room that you... sealed...."

them: "yeah?"

me: "the room that you sealed permanently"

them: "OH NO"

their reactions to finding out they needed to reenter the room that Cham/Lucas used a stunt to permanently seal was exactly what i had hoped for 😂

[left kelp]

My players one shot the blood burster with a shotgun... Lol

[clear idol]

Awesome

[candid apex]

I did, took 9 hours. None of us set out to do this.

[solar trellis]

I would really suggest waiting until you can run the whole thing, it's such a good module you don't want to waste it. Run Hope's Last Day instead, it's pretty good itself and doable in four hours.

[left kelp]

I'm going to have to print some stuff then.

[topaz vector]

agree

[left kelp]

Yeah I decided to go with Hadley Hope, now it's printing out some prop.

[jaunty panther]

Possible and has been done but is hard

[slim silo]

I've got six players playing this shortly - decided to create another character - a science officer who will in fact be Lucas. Be interesting to see how this pans out with the additional player. I will probably add another Neomorph and maybe a coupple of space zombies (or whatever they're called) to try and balance it out a bit. Also - no way anyone should have a pulse rifle in this scerior imo.

[primal yacht]

ive limited the weapon access greatly

the Montero just has one service pistol - no flamethrower, grappling hook, etc. they found a shotgun on the cronus next to the corpse, with limited ammo, Reid was able to get a revolver (i didnt give her a shotgun), and after they lost the service pistol (panic roll, dropped into electrified water), they were able to find the heavy pulse rifle listed in the Armory, but thats the limit of what they'll find. once they run out of ammo, thats it

the rifle might give them a false sense of security, as they havent encounted an adult neomorph or abomination yet

[slim silo]

Interesting - I shall make notes on your finds and observations.

[primal yacht]

the issue i did have - when the juvenile neo attacked the party, one player didnt have a weapon, so he felt less capable of doing anything

(although he did end up bullrushing it and judo slamming it into the electrified water, which i allowed solely because its a juvenile neomorph, was focused on another PC, and also was missing an arm (another PC shot it off when it burst from Cooper's head))

[flat wraith]

I did this with Lucas when I had 6 players. Said he was being shuttled to Sutters World and gave him Cooper's stats. It worked fine. I'd leave in the Pulse Rifle. If you play it right, the neos/aboms will attack from ambush so it won't matter until a turn or two later when the damage is already done, and you get the possibility of a miss and explosive decompression in a room which is always fun.

The flame thrower doesn't have that problem and is a better weapon, so a smart party gives it to Davis... who will eventually run out of drugs and panic it out of ammo which is another fun scenario.

[elder anchor]

So finished session 2, which went from Cooper’s death, through the destruction of the Montero, to some exploration

The players had fun but I think I was only soso as a GM

I felt very self-conscious when I first started running the Cronus crew. It took me over 30 minutes to get into the zone where I could improvise fluidly

Cham/Lucas immediately tried to shoot the bloodburster before it fully exited the head

I didn’t want to let him get a free shot, but in the name of player agency, I let him do a Mobility check to see if he can react fast enough

[primal yacht]

I felt very self-conscious when I first started running the Cronus crew. It took me over 30 minutes to get into the zone where I could improvise fluidly

yeah i felt the same way, this is normal. thats 4/5 new npcs all introduced at once, and then an immediate bloodvurster

[elder anchor]

He passed the check, took a shot, and then missed

We drew initiative after that, and the bloodburster went first and immediately ran out the door

It was a relief for me because I really wanted it to get away

[primal yacht]

My Cham/Lucas did the same exact thing, but hit, but i didnt want to just kill off the alien immediately, so i had the shotgun blast tear off one of its arms

[elder anchor]

That’s a cool way of handling it

[primal yacht]

so went it returned as a juvenile, it was missing an arm

i was inspired by AvP tbh

i loved the xeno with the scarring

[elder anchor]

Cham threw me a curveball by stealing Clayton’s ID card as she was just waking up

He still has it

Wilson met with Clayton privately and informed her that Cham stole it

So we’ll see how that plays out

[flat wraith]

Yeah - this is why I prep what they each do ahead of time.

[flat wraith]

They literally have ALWAYS killed mine when I've run this 🙂

[elder anchor]

I made pretty good notes for them but I got badgered with questions right away, many of which I didn’t want to answer at that time

The PCs were also rushing to get the Cronus crew straight over to the Montero, but I wanted to delay them

So I fumbled a bit

Once Cooper was dead and I took a five minute break, I did much better

[flat wraith]

Yeah, it's tempting to "do it right", but the scenario is resilient. All that really needs to happen is the Cronus crew starts changing, and then the Montero crew does. And then people need to act on their act 3 agendas. Everything else can literally happen any way the PCs want and the scenario handles it. I'd just let them do what they want. They get agency, you get to relax a little and just react, everyone wins 🙂

[primal yacht]

after running this, i realized that if you just read the Bloodburster section as is, it runs away without any chance for initiative even being drawn

[elder anchor]

I think going forward, now that my main scripted events are over, I can relax and be more in the moment

[elder anchor]

Mine got lucky and drew the early initiative anyway

[primal yacht]

well i mean, as a GM, i dont think the scenario intends for us to have any initiative at all

like its a cutscene

everyone's too shocked to react to the thing i think is the intention

[elder anchor]

But I’m the intro to ACT 2, it mentions the possibility that the party kills the bloodburster early

[flat wraith]

Yeah - I though it also says that it runs away the second round of combat too. I may be wrong though.

and honestly, for the first xeno they meet to run away and 0 combat or player agency is kind of shitty.

[primal yacht]

thats also fair

[elder anchor]

Wilson and Clayton met one on one and had a cool meeting

She told Wilson about the escape pods

And her intention to kidnap Flynn

[primal yacht]

i feel like i cant do much with wilson and clayton right now

because theyre both NPCs

[elder anchor]

I have five players in this game

Face to face

[primal yacht]

optimal

[jaunty panther]

I got 3 playing miller, Davis and Rye

[topaz vector]

in moments like this, liek in a few of the cinematics, there is 'scripted text'. these can be compared to a video game cut scene, or just a horror movie beat. OBVIOUSLY the logical response is 'i run, i shoot it, i get out of there' but you gotta remind them theyre in a horror movie. this is a horror beat. they need to let you get through the scene setting just as much as you need to let them have player agency. the scripting doesnt say it attacks, it just exits the body in a cool way, and now you all have initiative, a chance to act. the cooper moment is a great reminder to everyone in the game that this is a horror RPG.

[elder anchor]

I was in the middle of the description and was being interrupted with, “I shoot it”

So I said, “Let me finish the description”

I spoke a few more words and got interrupted again with, “I shoot it”

[topaz vector]

yeah sounds like you were handling it as best you could

some players just dont allow that horror tension to build, either through fear of it, or misunderstanding whats trying to be achieved

[elder anchor]

So I finally said that if he could pass a mobility test, I’ll let him get a free action before drawing initiative

He passed the mobility check but missed the shot

The xeno then drew the earliest initiative card and ran away

[left kelp]

Danm

https://tenor.com/view/taylor-bartley-sad-corner-hungover-dunce-gif-11450326191093783590

Is what I would do if it becomes a reoccurring theme lol.

[topaz vector]

yeah, it sets a bad precedent of you getting cut off in future, so id clarify that all after the fact and say 'by the way, some scripted events i really need to read out, and when things kick off, we'll take initiative cards' or something to that effect

you handled it as best you could but players like that are likely to take a mile if you give them an inch

[left kelp]

I had in the past, a player like that not in Alienrpg but a different system.

"I'm going to cast it before he speaks" or "I'm doing it now" and I'm like hold on I haven't even described the scene "Oh right but I'm telling you now that's what I will do right off the bat"

It became a habit after a while, that I cut out like an uncomfortable ingrown nail lmao.

[topaz vector]

rightly so

[elder anchor]

Live and learn. Bit by bit I’m getting better at GMing

This was only my 8th session ever

[left kelp]

https://tenor.com/view/the-outpost-the-outpost-series-the-outpost-tv-fantasy-tv-fantasy-gif-14623595

[elder anchor]

Did six sessions of D&D 5E and now two Alien sessions

On a positive note, I learned a couple useful tricks

[topaz vector]

every session i learn something new for sure. and every system i learn cool things i like to use across the board aswell

[elder anchor]

1. If you ever feel unconfident in your ability to describe a certain room, an easy way to prep it is to draw the room on a post-it note and put it on your GM screen

[left kelp]

Have you ever had the "Uhm Actually..." player yet haha. Those are a piece.

[elder anchor]

I drew post-its for the Medlab and the two science rooms

It made the descriptions 10x easier

[jaunty panther]

You could say that they are in too paniced a state to do anything

If they do it again

[elder anchor]

2. Printing profile photos of the various NPCs and attaching them to the player-facing side of the GM screen makes running multiple NPCs much easier

I just point to whoever is speaking in a given moment

I don’t think I would have survived running the Cronus crew without them

[jaunty panther]

I feel like luckily since alien isn’t too popular (and there’s not much to min max or anything) that won’t be too much a problem for most groups

[left kelp]

This and it makes absolute sense.

[left kelp]

Emphasis on the word "Most" hehehe

[jaunty panther]

Honestly I’m too worried about my group doing stupid shit and dying before they go through the arcs I have planned

though usually im a big reason why that happens when I’m a player oops

[left kelp]

So far in my game

The Bloodburster got one shot by a shotgun. Now the big boy is stalking Miller and Cham on the Montero because they had to go back and redirect the ship to blow up out there.

Part of me was like.... I want to keep my baby Bloodburster

But the play did overwatch Stance and Boom.

Wilson unloaded the entire shotgun.

So yeeeeah

So far go dice rolls.

I have watch alot of live play and seen terrible failures but these guys

5 stress on 3 and 2 stress on the other two because they stayed on the Montero.

[jaunty panther]

Mmm

[left kelp]

https://tenor.com/view/alien-weyland-yutani-xenomorph-gif-27049551

The session ended with the two on the Montero facing off against Adult Neomorph

[jaunty panther]

Nice

I’m gonna be doing something very different and planning on actually having the Cronus self destruct due to a sabotage reactor meltdown cuz I have a cool reactor session in mind

[left kelp]

Ooh so they escape on the Montero?

[topaz vector]

i saw someone considering chariot of the gods from another perspective. what if you start with the Playerss being the crew of the Sotillo. have them arrive as pirates to the Cronus, therefore with different mentality to the boarding. then, have the Montero crew arrive as NPCs and see how the pirates play it out. do they try to be cunning and decieve their way into 2 new ships, or do they try to gun their way into control, waking all the monsters on the Cronus, aswell as exposing themselves to the pathogen

[jaunty panther]

No I’m planning on Wilson getting bad hypersleep sickness and using it as an excuse to stay on the montero were he’s safe from the action there

He’s gonna be the main villian in the betraying the crew to make sure Cronus coverup has no loose ends if you know what I mean

[topaz vector]

just chillin on the ship, keeping an eye on things....
https://youtu.be/iTKVZkAVnVA?si=ciujJormPj2oFp64

[left kelp]

Wow very nice!

[jaunty panther]

You get the vision

[elder anchor]

So I put a little twist to the air scrubbers thing. The oxygen system is going to entirely fail in 48 hours

I wanted to give them some sense of urgency

To add to the complexity, Reid is going to go after Cooper’s son, with or without help. Johns is likely to follow

Flynn will be neutral

Wilson and and Clayton are already working together, but Cham/Lucas has stolen Clayton’s ID card

They haven’t encountered the living abominations yet

And they’re going to be in for a surprise once people start turning

So I’m expecting shit to hit the fan in our next session

I’m going to add to the complexity by adding hunger and fatigue

I’m turning this into Alien 3

[jaunty panther]

Nice

For ppl running Davis with her drug addiction, how did she take her drugs without opening her suit? Or did your group have to fix the air scrubbers before she could take them?

[solar trellis]

The suits only have so much air

Generally people have to get out of them at some point pretty soon after getting on the Cronos

[bitter loom]

I'll be running this cinematic tomorrow, with only 2 players. I plan on removing a lot of the PvP possibilities ( no Luca, for starter) and making it "shorter" by removing the Silleto, hoping to play it out in one session of ~4-5 hours. That will leave me some event if we ever replay it with other people. Any tips on event I should remove/modify to make to most of it while keeping the most of it? 😄

[candid apex]

That's a tall order, I'd say all but the compulsory ones

[bitter loom]

So I go / A ship / Boarding / They move a bit with strange noises / Ships wake up and wakes up the crew / Strange stuff / Cooper things / Fight or flee / ??? / Profit ?

Maybe removing the "sleeping" abomination but adding a wake one ? So I can build the tension a bit earlier 🤔

[candid apex]

Don't let them explore at leasure. It can be a sandboxy scenario but you won't have time for this. Once they board, lights go on and mother activates and wakes up the crew.

An alert will pop up, signalling that the montero has detached and is drifting away. Hopefully they'll split up and you can pop Cooper

You don't have time to build tension and dread. This scenario normally takes double the time you want to run it in, so trim off any excess fat you can find. You'll have a much diminished experience, but that's the trade off for running out quickly.

[bitter loom]

In the book they say it's 4-5 hours, but that seems short

Well, I can always see with the player if they wanna do it in one or two session 🤔

The second and third arc seems to go pretty fast compared to the first one

[jaunty panther]

I feel like a majority of the ppl agree to remove the pirates since like honestly abominations, neomorphs, spores, broken ship and (usually) an android is more than enough stakes

But you could do what I’m doing and have one of the montero npc’s be lucas

In fact the reveal for that will be at end of the session I’m doing tmr :3

[candid apex]

I ran this is one session and it took 9 hours. Another time it was 4 sessions. I honestly can't tell you why it says 4-5, I don't think anyone has managed that without heavy editing. If you and/or your players are new to the system, there's even less of a chance to pull it off.

Hope's last day in 4 hours on the other hand is very doable.

But that's only one act. This is three.

[bitter loom]

Well I only have the starter kit

I'm not new to gming, but new to Alien, and the vibe is VERY different

It's seems simple to run on the mechanical parts, but boy the horror seems hard to pull of

I will try a low-lit room with candle and some screen in black/green to capture the Alien vibe plus I will dabble for the first time with sounds '-'

[candid apex]

That's fine, I'd recommend to take multiple sessions for this. The scenario really benefits from building up of tension and you need time to do that. Let it breathe a little.

Like I said we just played for 9 hours when I first ran this. We didn't mean to, it just happened. It's a great system, don't rush it.

[jaunty panther]

I agree!

Mine is 4 but that’s cuz I wrote a lot of custom stuff

Ideally 2-3

[jaunty panther]

Pls pls pls use music! It helps the vibe so much!

[bitter loom]

Any good playlist to get ?

[clear idol]

The OST for the Alien movies are always a good first place to go to

[elder anchor]

Removing Lucas means you’re taking out the most interesting variable

In our session, Lucas has stolen Clayton’s ID badge, though he doesn’t yet know what to do with it

[elder anchor]

If you go on YouTube, you can find the soundtrack to Alien Isolation

Use a program like 4k downloaded to download individual tracks

Those tracks are phenomenal

I made a playlist that includes some movie music, but most of it is from that game

[bitter loom]

Yeah, but with only two players, that seems like a weird thing, no?

[elder anchor]

Oh sorry I missed that part

Wow that’s a lot of NPCs to handle then

I had five players and still found the Cronus crew to be a challenge

[bitter loom]

I might remove some people, or kill them faster to make it easier for me

[jaunty panther]

Not lore accurate but leaving this here incase anyone wants to use it #gm-studio message

[bitter loom]

So we played for about 3h30, and they just got the engine repaired and the engine room cleaned. Cooper is dead and the bloodbuster is on the loose, probably a young one now. The neomorph in the engine room killed Johns. Reid was kill by Davis (PC) while space walking to repair the comms. Reid went crazy trying to help repairing the antenna so Davis pushed him in space. We will continue next week 😄

The neomorph that killed Johns fled into the vents, because it is fun

So my PC are on deck C with two young neomorph, while Miller, Wilson and the other 2 from Cronus are on deck B, unaware of what happened to Johns

[candid apex]

I love it when they split the party

[bitter loom]

I told them that they should not hesitate to do a little bit of the horror movie stupid moves x)

[elder anchor]

We are about to go into session 3. Montero is gone and Cooper is dead. The Neomorph escaped

I created my own time constraint, which is that the oxygen system will fail in 48 hours unless repaired

They haven’t found any of the hidden abominations yet

So I’m expecting a bloodbath

Cham/Lucas has stolen Clayton’s ID, which puts him at odds with Team WY

[clear idol]

Excellent

This is gonna be juicy

[candid apex]

I don't even need to tell my players that. It quite often seems more efficient to split up as you get more done that way. Fixing up the air scrubbers isn't faster with 5 people present, for example, so it's easy for some of them to do something else in the meanwhile.

[bitter loom]

Then again, they were only two, so they could have done most of the things together and let an npc team do other things

[elder anchor]

My worry is that the party won’t ever split for any reason

I have a player which is convincing them to never split up period

I guess I’m going to have the Cronus crew try to make their own teams

Reid is going to lead a party to hunt the Neomorph

[jaunty panther]

What I did was pull character aside and given a secret task by an npc or in private give them some personal task

Like I had Reid tell Rye they’re planning a mutiny and need to steal the samples as leverage against corporate

Or had Davis sneak off to find some drugs after eavesdropping where she could find some

Leave breadcrumbs so it feels like it’s their own choice they split

[primal yacht]

there's the classic "neomorph drops from the ceiling inbetween the group", though thats a little more forced

[flat wraith]

No this is actually perfect - that's what the ambush rules are for. It codifies how to do this.

...and if the party doesn't want to split up that's fine too. You can ambush them with an NPC when they turn in to an abomination. And if they STILL don't split up, whatever PC gets the infected agenda will have a fun time.

And even if all of this turns out to be a cakewalk - you can have the Sotillo show up with the entire crew getting infected. You'll have all the neos you need.

[jaunty panther]

what I did was describe the walls of the ship as having "gun metal grey ribbed pipes" like 3x then non-chalantly say they passby the dangling white ribbed pipes and let them be like "-what a fucking minute"

[primal yacht]

hilarious

[jaunty panther]

and the second they question it I try to gaslight them

"I mean they were always white, right?"

giving them a stress for being anxious

and then they turn around to confirm if they were white or not- there is not dangling pipe

and since theyre playing REAL close attention now, they spot something slick and shiny in the mess of metal and wires

something dripping

something sharp

something ready

to pounce~

que chase

[flat wraith]

Depending on your group that may backfire. I know mine would be like "I flame the ceiling!" before I finish saying "white ribbed pipes".

No prob with a xeno but a single neo can be squishy.

especially in the wrong initiative order.

[jaunty panther]

thats when you curve ball them by saying how the lit flame flows down the 02 pipe directly into a flammable gas tank

punish knee jerk reactions but reward paitence and paying attention :3

now that small explosion may or may not have hurt anyone

but it was definietly LOUD

[flat wraith]

I mean, if you didn't mention the flammable gas tank before they fire that's kind of a dick move - no?

Like, I make it a point never to undermine player intent (as far as I can tell what it is anyway) because then what's the point of playing?

[jaunty panther]

I mean o2 is combustible, if you tell them it’s o2 pipes and your try to burn it then yea bad thing a rye

[candid apex]

I think there are better ways to split them up

They have multiple jobs to do to fix the place up, so one of the npcs should probably suggest one of the pcs come with them to get the reactor going, while another will show one where the clean air scrubbers are or how to get to them.

I'd like to see the first party that goes into the vents as a group to clean that mess, space suits will have to come off in my game and the neo can chew through them one by one.

Clayton will want to speak to wilson in private too, for example.

[jaunty panther]

Yea personal and public tasks are great

Especially if they know they can be rewarded with story points

[elder anchor]

We had a very successful third session

[jaunty panther]

ooo

[elder anchor]

While Rye, Cham, and Flynn were working on the air scrubbers, Wilson, Clayton, Davis, and Miller went down to the vehicle bay to retrieve replacement air filters

On their way back, they were ambushed by the Neomorph dropping down from the catwalk

Wilson of all people nearly managed to kill the Neomorph with the bolt gun

He severely injured it

Before it ran though, it impaled Davis with its tail, killing her instantly and dragging her body off

Flynn and Johns were on their way to help but didn’t make it in time

They managed to get the filters back to the air scrubbers

Then Rye started acting weird

When Flynn insisted that Rye might be infected and that they should kill her, Rye got pissed and threatened to beat the shit out of him

Cham/Lucas came to Rye’s defense and defused the situation

Around this time, hunger began to set in

While all this was happening, Johns and Reid were trying to hunt down the Neomorph

Johns suddenly returned with shotgun pellets in his arm, claiming that Reid freaked out, shot him, and then tried to bash his head in. He barely got away

And we ended it there!

[elder anchor]

A particularly exciting moment was when the Neomorph first attacked

I rolled its target randomly and it actually went after Wilson

But Wilson used his talent to switch places with Davis

Davis actually got extremely lucky and survived the first attack without being hurt

Davis then tried to retaliate with the flamethrower but panicked and missed

While this was happening, the others were running for the elevator

Davis getting caught in this exchange ultimately led to her death

This sounds weird but I’m proud I finally killed a PC

We’ve been playing 5E with another DM for five years and no PC has ever died

We’ve never had a PC die in any game up until now

[flat wraith]

I think this is one of the great parts of Alien. It's kind of impossible to balance. As GM, you never actually choose to kill a PC. The danger is real from a PC perspective all the time and not predetermined.

[elder anchor]

It’s was all the dice

They failed a mobility check which attracted the xeno

They then failed an opposed observation/mobility check to spot the Neomorph

Once the fight began, I chose the targets and the attacks entirely randomly

Davis got unlucky and was impaled

To be honest, I cheated a little bit, as Wilson actually did 4 damage - enough to down a juvenile Neomorph

I chose to give it 5 health instead, as this was the first ever encounter with a xenomorph

It would have been too anticlimactic for me

And would have forced me to rely entirely on abominations

[flat wraith]

Did you forget the Alien crit table?

[elder anchor]

No I didn’t forget

But there’s a possibility of instant death on that table

Next time around, I’ll make up for it by having them face a weakened Neomorph, and I’ll be totally honest about it

I’m just pretending that this Neomorph was somewhere between Juvenile and Adult, hence the extra health point

[jaunty panther]

since this is gonna be my final session im throwing down all all gloves

since they killed the neomorph, abominations, and eggs in the filter

now im sending out my synth military to clean out any remainding survivors half life style and I think im just gonna go nuclear and introduce XX121 in the abandoned science module of the ship they will explore to escape

im not sure whether I want to have it be under the whole ship or teathered, trailing behind

[flat wraith]

Technically, president has been set that David did make his Alien out of neomorph stuff. You could mirror that somehow

...that I have no advise on how to do yet...

It might be too many jumping sharks, but maybe AVA figured out and copied David's research for those 70 years and managed to make one.

[quiet walrus]

So Ava is a Company plant with a hidden David Transmission sub routine. Shes had a a lot of spare time on her hands to mess around with black goo samples and she used one of Col. Myers boarding party as a host?

When you look at Resurrection, this is totally plausible.

[flat wraith]

It might be easier to say one of the existing crew in case DoW or the CMOM campaign doesn't happen to pan out in the future.

So is AVA AND Lucas too many betrayer androids? That would be my only concern.

[quiet walrus]

This feels like the nuclear option. Gloves are off.

[jaunty panther]

Thats what I plan to do with enviornmental storytelling in the whole science sector

my crew almost immediately killed ava but kept her hard drive

they dont trust the company at all anymore

I think Flynn is the only chronus npc left alive

Haven’t introduced the pirates and and really plan to

[jaunty panther]

But yea my plan is that they were harvesting black goo to use to synthesis a xenomorph

Like yea canonically specking it would probably be a protomorph like in covanant

But like

Rule of cool ig

[flat wraith]

Well, when Covenant came out that was supposed to be the canon birth of the xeno until fans were like "no that sucks - try again". So you're within reasonable bounds there I imagine.

[jaunty panther]

Yea

I already played the neomorph as this very animalistic beastial creature

I want the final beast they face to be very calculating and stealthy

[flat wraith]

You shouldn't plan on using them, but they're useful to have in your back pocket. You'll know if you need them if you run out of monsters or PCs. But your synth military may serve the same purpose.

[jaunty panther]

My issue with the pirates is that they feel just kinda thrown in and out of left field like you’re telling thsi ship has been undiscovered for 70 years but it just so happen two different ships find it at the same time

To me the synths in the montero feel a bit more believable if you reframe it as weyland yutani knew the whole time what they were getting themselves into, they just needed fodder to carry the samples up safely with as little cost as possible

“Let the minimum wage bottom feeders do the heavy lifting since they’re cheaper and more Expendable than androids”

[flat wraith]

That's fair - but from a practical point they aren't as useful since they can't be turned into abominations or neos. And are a little boring to play if you're a PC. That's the purpose of the pirates. BUT if you have an actual xeno you probably won't run out of monsters.

And just to be picky - the pirates were following the Montero the whole time. It's not just chance they both found the Cronus at the same time. It's foreshadowed in the Whats the Story MUTHER blurb about the sensor glitch.

(...one of my PCs was obsessing about the glitch the whole time so it's seared into my brain a little 🙂 )

[jaunty panther]

Ahh you’re right about the abomination and Neo part

[jaunty panther]

Imah be real I had no idea about that sensor glitch being the pirates I thought it was the chronus

Damn

[flat wraith]

Easily reworkable to caused from the Doohickey field being generated by the Sync compartment 🙂

[jaunty panther]

We Stan our mcguffins

[flat wraith]

Just a sidenote too - the pirates are weirdly well crafted for the module. One of them has an agenda to get drunk which lines of perfectly with seeking out Clayton's suite.

[jaunty panther]

Mmm

Maybe if I were to run this campaign again I may try them

[flat wraith]

I mean they're not spectacular, but it was nice too see they weren't totally random either.

[jaunty panther]

The issue was I had a neomorph chase planned as a finale as one og my npc’s is being amputed at the same time but since they shot the Neo out of airlock as well and the abominations, I needed to think fast to make a new threat

Was really hoping one of the pcs get infected maybe to have another neomorph and a cool hidden role to play as they reveal getting bloodbursted

But they were waaaay more safe than I thought

Immediately straight for the air scrubbers

[flat wraith]

Yeah - that's a pretty much textbook "that's what the pirates are for" situation. Non vaccinated outsiders poking their fingers into the black goo urns going "what's this?"

[jaunty panther]

We live n learn

You know since i havent actually confirmed the miliary came from the montero itself

I could just have my cake and eat it by having the human crew of the sotillo lead the synths

Once they THINK things are cleared up come up on board and get infected

Maybe if a gunfight breaks out on a missed bullet it breaks one of the spore samples

[whole frigate]

Not a new GM, but new to ALIEN rpg, and I was curious- has anyone else felt really overwhelmed with the sheer amount of stuff to keep track of in this module- between the events, all the NPCs, the now-numerous things hunting the party, and all the rules and mechanics with combat, stealth, shifts and stims I've been really struggling to work it into something cogent for my players. We're in Act 3 and I'm considering cutting content altogether just to better manage what's already going on in the module.

[solar trellis]

Remember that the whole Sotillo thing is optional and you can only use it if you feel your narrative needs it at the time (i.e. hold it in your pocket).

Yes, it can be a lot, the cinematics are not "easy" to run. My advice is to a) read the thing like three times and b) don't keep track of where bad guys are or pre-set events are, but make a list of things that can happen (xeno attacks, the Montero going to self destruct) with "triggers" that can set them off.

It's really a lot of improvisation, not planning for the way things will go but planning possible responses to actions of the PCs.

[flat wraith]

Yes. It's not just you.

But there's almost no better way to do it. If you look at the descriptions in the rooms, they're JUST enough to get the important details out and not screw up. It all makes sense together and it helps to read it all (including PC and NPC agendas) and understand how it intertwines so you understand what it's trying to do so you understand how to improv on it. But that's point B. And getting from point A to point B is just tough.

Honestly, the best way to get it is to run it more than once, but obviously that doesn't help the first time.

[bitter loom]

This is, sadly, the best advice x)

And I get the feeling that is it gonna be the same for the next cinematics

[flat wraith]

Yeah - since you're already in Act 3 I don't think there's much specific advise left to give. What I've noticed in retrospect was to determine which rooms were important vs window dressing by cross referencing with each of the PCs agendas. And also to put 2 and 2 together and figure out the purpose of each NPC - not just their stats and initial reactions.

...same goes with the xenos

[candid apex]

I'll be honest here, I forgot about half the rules when I first ran it. As long as you get the basic dice mechanics right, you'll be ok

Attribute + skill = number of base dice, then add stress dice. Any 6 is a success, 1 on a stress die is a panic roll.

But yeah, it's a lot.