02: Destroyer of Worlds

[inland kraken]

Discuss here Destroyer of Worlds

[wicked verge]

One of these days, I think I might take just Act 1, rework it a touch to make it more its own story, and run it as its own cinematic. I really enjoy it but always feel I don't give it enough love. I think some folks out there may have made pre-DoW scenarios I should look into as well.

[sacred pagoda]

honestly DoW is so well made and detailed there is plenty of stuff that can be added. Im in the middle of making a 1 shot (3 hour-ish session) in the eyes of some Insurgents starting late act 1 and finishing in act 2.

[blazing birch]

the Caster of Worlds blog has ideas for how to narrow down the theme and focus of DoW to either the Manhunt, the Invasion, or the Hive: https://aliencows.blogspot.com/

[blazing birch]

My group has indicated they are not really interested in playing soldiers, so I am exploring how I can shift DoW to the perspectives of the colonist civilians and FeiFei caught between the opposing forces of the local insurgents, marines, and invaders. Act 2 and 3 are basically unchanged, dodging the invasion, black goo, and getting out via space elevator through the hived up fort, but I haven't settled on the hook and throughline for Act 1 and still gets them to see the bodyburster and baseline XX121 about. I'm thinking maybe centering on Marshal Hyams putting together a posse to look for the deserters to use as leverage to get seats on the last transport out? Marshals seem unlikely to breach an insurgent compound though, so the Act 1 climax will have to be tweaked. Has anyone else tried this?

[wicked verge]

I have not. I'd probably check in to see why they don't want to play soldiers. If it's not being as interested in action, DoW might not be for them.

[frank crescent]

An official source states that characters may now wear their Hazmat suits under their body armour. The source was quoted as saying "...I may have changed my mind on that one, honestly. My philosophy nowadays is I've made things brutal enough here - any PC edge is a good one."

[wicked verge]

That both seems reasonable and odd to me

[uneven kindle]

Who becomes squad leader if Captain Silva dies? Chaplain seems to have highest rank but does warrant officers take charge of field operations? Here in Finland we don't have warrant officers so I'm a little confused now.

[frank crescent]

@uneven kindle would any of the humans take an order from a synthetic? Technically the Warrant Officer is the next senior rank but in Chaplins case its more likely to be an honorific allowing him access to areas and intelligence not available to lower ranks. It's more likely to be the senior of the sergeants who take command.

[latent bloom]

I think I heard somewhere that a Warrant Officer is technically the ranking officer, but their authority tends to be limited to their specialty in the field. So once that specialty is encountered, the Warrant Officer has final say on how it's handled. For everything unrelated, it's the other ranking soldier.

[uneven kindle]

This is what I also thought of and we ended up putting Mason in command.

[uneven kindle]

Thanks! We ended up putting Mason in command.

[wicked verge]

clearly Hammer should be placed in charge 😉

[formal tundra]

Nah, Zmijewski all the way

Definitely the one that deserves to be in charge 100%

[neon cosmos]

Hello all! New to this discord. I've run CoG a couple months back and tonight I'm going to start up DoW with the same group. DoW looks to be significantly beefier so I was wondering if there were any gotchas I should be aware of? Any advice anyone has that has run it already? Lots to keep track of but also lots of ways things can go wrong (in a fun way!).

I was planning on trying to do this in about ~4 sessions of 3-4 hours each, but I've heard mixed things about the length of this thing. General knowledge has been 1 session per act, with the exception of 3, which should be split into 2.

If anyone has any advice or suggestsions, I'm all ears!

[gilded forge]

-I'd plan on 6 sessions, giving you two sessions per act.
-Add some material to Act 2 to help fill it out and connect things.
-Check the maps (particularly Fort Nebraska) for errors like missing Elevator connections.

[uneven kindle]

Don't try to fit everything in from the book. Streamline the story and use the bits of the book that you like the most. Try to make the story coherent as there is some gaps to fill in to feel it more logical. Also think carefully if you want to keep Chaplain as NPC or not. I gave him for my players and now I regret the choice.

I would not try to fit the first act in one session. We went through four sessions and it was not boring at all. Act II can be run in one session. Haven't yet played the third act so cannot comment on that one.

[blazing birch]

Yes! Cannot emphasize enough. The event listings have a small number of mandatory events for creating the act structure, the rest of the events are explicitly optional and should be used to control pacing (up beats and down beats). Don't feel the need, or even try, to use all the optional events. Just pick the events that fit your and the player's interests and expectations and use those.

Make the adventure your own with the focus that drew you to it. There are multiple major themes, pick a theme you like and use the events that reinforce that theme.

[formal tundra]

Yup, however you have to be careful with that, as Dave Semark said here #destroyer-of-worlds message the UPP on the hunt event wasn't marked mandatory but it really should be

Also i personally don't agree about the Chaplain part, as i believe he's a wonderful character for PCs, as long as said player is not afraid to be traitorous to the party under the hood.

[gilded forge]

I strongly suggest characters to players based on their style and experience. That can really go a long way, especially for the Chaplain player.

[uneven kindle]

How your sessions has been going regarding the environmental hazard effect of black goo? I'll let my players to find some apesuits after the bomb attack but I'm having problems to find a reasonable way to survive without the suits being punctured in later conflicts in the Fort Nebraska. Apesuits are armored for sure but if someone gets hit by a bullet or bitten badly by a xenomorph I find it hard to believe the suits does not puncture. And if a suit punctures the character inside of it would be affected by the black goo, right? Wouldn't want to get my players be in this kind of trouble as they are already having enough problems.

One option is that the black goo could be skipped completely as I haven't introduced it yet to players, the massive ship is above them already though.

[formal tundra]

Black goo effects shouldn't work if you're inside a building if i recall well, so once you're inside the fort you should be fine

[uneven kindle]

Excerpt from the scenario book:

"After one Turn, all areas of the colony
exhibit Periphery effects. The mutagenic
pathogen will not fully dissipate until everything
is dead or mutated into Anathemas.
It’s possible to survive in any zone with full
compression, vacuum, or HAZMAT gear. APE
suits will only protect in Periphery conditions.
Basically, anything with an independent air
supply—like a sealed APC or grounded ship
with an intact cabin—is safe. Tractors and
buildings are not.

Of course I could say to players that the fort (including the space elevator) is sealed and uses its own environmental generator to produce oxygen supply.

[formal tundra]

Interesting - i've never seen anyone playing the effect of the goo bombing when the players finally reach the fort, at least, and i myself didn't either when i played it with my players
But maybe it was intended to be according to that blob you just shared

Worse come to worse though, it's actually not that hard to beat that goo infection roll, and i don't think you have to roll on it too often either
So even if you were to still use it inside the fort, chances are your players could still avoid infection until they find another suit

[gilded forge]

I just used the effect once when the bomb goes off and only again if they have some specific and direct interaction with it

[pallid berry]

Can anyone confirm that the elevators from Level 1 of Fort Nebraska leading down to Sub Level 1 do not match up? Is that an error?

On level 1 there are 2 elevators on the west side and 1 on the east side, then on sublevel 1 there appear to be 4 elevators instead of 3. Its confusing but I cant tell if Im reading the map wrong or if its an editting error on the map.

[wicked verge]

I don't recall there being an elevator issue in DoW

[gilded forge]

YES. Elevators are super confusing on this. They don't all go from Level 1 to Sublevel 1 or 2. Check the book AND compare to the map references. It was pretty frustrating.

[pallid berry]

I'll try to get an image, dont have the pdfs, but yeah the difference in elevator alignment is very frustrating, or the maps are just difficult to read, hard to tell

[gilded forge]

Are you playing on Foundry? If so, might I recommend the Stairways module?

[pallid berry]

Naw, in person only. Just using the printed maps that come with the module

[formal tundra]

Yes i can confirm there is an issue with the map in fort nebraska, relating to the elevators

i don't remember which ones exactly outta the top of my head but i remember having issues with this when i ran it

[pallid berry]

ok great at least im not crazy

thats effing annoying considering how good the quality of everything is in this game, that they botched that so hard

[honest narwhal]

My PC's let the both the Drone in the Marshal Station and the Bodyburster get away. Mason's player keeps forgetting that she has an Incinerator Unit. Or course the Drone comes back in Act II...

[tardy vapor]

Following up on what you said in #gm-studio:

But yeah, don't use all of the events. Have some in your back pocket for another run.

What events do you "keep in your pocket?"

[honest narwhal]

Like Botos having a hunting party coming for them in Act II. Hammer's player shot and killed a civilian in Act I at the Eye of Oblivion. I was going to have Botos round up a group to put down the "fascists who murder the innocent and flaunt their power" as a punishment. But, I decided against it, since they let the Bodyburster and Drone live. So they were already gonna have a hard time.

[tardy vapor]

Interesting. I always felt like Act II was the weakest of them all, even including all of the possible Events.

Why in the hell would your players let the xenos live?!

[honest narwhal]

Yeah, Act II is the weakest, but it can be spiced up depending on how they did in Act I.

I probably shouldn't say "let" them live. But they failed to kill them, and I made rolls so that they ran away successfully. And again, Mason keeps forgetting she has an Incinerator, lol. So Act II for them was brutal.

Oh, and Chaplain's player didn't read his card right, so he thought he was still Jaell and wound up cutting out Dante's chestburster while it was still alive. It killed her, of course...

I'm basically letting my players hang themselves.

[wide yew]

I'm about to run destroyer of worlds tomorrow. Does anyone have tips or suggestions from a gm perspective?

[wicked verge]

What have you run before now?
Anything you're particularly worried about?

[wide yew]

I've ran chariots of the gods, and hope's last day before. But I've gotten some really good advice from others on here before and there was also a ton of resources to get for those but I don't see quite as much for destroyer of worlds

[wicked verge]

yeah, as far as resources, the only ones I can think off off-hand is the various homemade "street" maps for Act 2 that can be found in #legacy-resource-databank -- there's other DoW resources on there too, just don't remember them.

I never really have the chance to use video openings but if I did, I'd probably use this for DoW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngUI7z3sNRI

as for general tips/suggestions for DoW, Act 2 is definitely the most flexible, where you just basically run stuff until you think your players (or you) are done with it. It's definitely something that, if you're not keen on, could be just a single session or even less, or it can be multiple sessions of basically WAR!

Act 3 is definitely the longest easily. so just be prepared for that. Like, Act 1 can be a session or 2+, Act 2 can easily just be a session, and Act 3 is at least 3 sessions

Moreso than other cinematics, each act in DoW is almost its own cinematic. They're fairly different in tone and have a looser connection to each other

Act 1 is primarily investigative, Act 2 is human warfare, and Act 3 is more akin to the second movie.

It's been a long time since I ran DoW, so I can't recall any particulars otherwise

[frank crescent]

Don't forget lots of spare npcs. Civilian and military. You may need them.

DoW has a huge attrition rate.

[wicked verge]

Fortunately the cinematic makes that abundantly easy to slip in, it has a zillion NPCs to use for that purpose

[wide yew]

do you guys just keep a list of random names to use for NPCs then?

[wide yew]

cool I didn't know about this video. I'll probably play this as a way to immerse my players before we get started

[frank crescent]

There are plenty of named npcs in the scenario, plus you have the bar patrons, the marshals, the marine tank crew, and even some of the insurgents.

[wicked verge]

for DoW specifically?

[pallid berry]

Finally finished DoW tonight, took 5 sessions each about 5-6 hours. What a ride! Somehow Hammer was the last player left alive riding the space elevator. GREAT adventure, I could see it being even longer but... everyone else died. Love how the agendas intertwined as panic cascades took the wheel.

[honest narwhal]

Finally going to try to finish Act 3 for Destroyer, tonight. I told the group if it goes too late, we'd just split it into two. I imagine them getting into Ft. Nebraska will take some time. Judging from the comments here, I'll need at least two sessions for them to finish it.

[latent bloom]

To maintain tension, I'd end the session right after the nukes are set and/or you more or less have a race to the space elevator as they start to get outnumbered.

That should give you a full session for that race to the elevator w/ combats, and the queen fight. It would be good to have those while the players aren't tired and worn out from a long session.

[honest narwhal]

I like this as a stopping point! They'll already be stressed enough from the bombing and getting into Nebraska. Running into Xenos again will give them what they want, but stress the hell out of 'em.

[latent bloom]

One thing I was toying with was setting up the Charger as the big boss fight and letting the PC's get into the elevator on level 2 so they don't even know there's a queen in level 3. Either they look or maybe a facehugger or three keeps scrurrying up from there. Let them think they made it to the end and then BAM! face full of Alien Queen.

[honest narwhal]

Haha that's a good idea! The charger being the "fake" final boss.

[gilded forge]

My groups have never gone into that section of the base and have yet to battle the charger. Strong recommend on Nooch's suggestions.

[earnest osprey]

I'll be starting DoW for my group tomorrow night. Any pitfalls running it you all have run into? Besides people not fighting the Charger, apparently.

[gilded forge]

Act 2 can be awful for some because you don't have clear direction where to go or what to do. I've started to give the marines direction to visit a previously unexplored and distant area (typically the refinery) to get them out of the blast zone AND to give them some more encounters along the way.

The first time I ran it we did Act 2 easily in one night. This time it took two sessions and felt much more filled out.

[earnest osprey]

Agreed, it looks like Act 2 is very much a "GM fills in the blank" act.

[gilded forge]

Make notes of where they didn't go in the first Act and have them visit those locations to provide support. Along the way you could put the filler encounters like the executions, fei2 and tank assault, you could even have the tank event be the objective that they're racing to. But getting the players as far away from Nebraska was helpful (for me). The return to the fort from the outskirts is where I described the carnage, and introduced the other survivors.

[earnest osprey]

Makes sense. Did you do anything to neutralize their APC so they'd have to hoof it?

Because that seems like it'd be a good way to stretch out act 2.

[gilded forge]

Oh ya, we had a good time. Usually there's either a fissure, hazardous terrain, a major accident, incoming missile fire / aerial attack. One time it fell into a fissure and the other time it was destroyed by the UPP. Feel free to add the classic "I've got a missile lock incoming!" trope or just have it turn down an alley that ends up as a dead end.

[earnest osprey]

Excellent.

[gilded forge]

By act 3 most of the players have been pretty broken, so I don't get too far into the personal devastation and mutations. It became a buzzkill to have civilians dying all around them, some felt like they failed, so I gloss over that part. The mutated child can be a bit much as well as table for one, so read your room carefully before introducing those.

[latent bloom]

I was thinking that too

The kid part

[gilded forge]

One session I had the players get into shelter in a downed UPP ship. Through the cockpit they saw and heard the locals pleading and getting transformed, so that was a bit much.

[earnest osprey]

Interesting. I'll keep an eye on my group's mood then, but I have reasonable faith they can handle it.

It is a horror RPG after all, and the horrors of human violence still fall under that umbrella. But yeah, maybe a lighter touch in Act 2 before they have to deal with the mess of Act 3.

[honest narwhal]

Decided to split Act 3 into 2. In part I, one of the player characters got killed by having acid sprayed on them from an attacking Xeno. I gave her another character to play as. The party has been whittled down to only three. They survived their fight with the Charger, but burned through almost all of their ammo and no longer have fuel for their incinerators. They're also very wounded and "limping away to victory."

They have restarted the reactor and have armed the nukes. They just need to get the elevator entrance on sub-level 3 and turn Apollo back on. I said that they killed the boss (Charger) and now just need to escape, but they still have no idea about what's waiting for them in the elevator lift.

[wide yew]

What do you do to stop the players from just going back to fort Nebraska at the start of act 2? At the start of the invasion the players here to return to base so why wouldn't they just do that?

[earnest osprey]

My players have seemingly no concept of how to interact with civilians. They are on the verge of getting arrested for their shenanigans.

After visiting only two locations.

[gilded forge]

I have Hatfield order them to defend the others or intercept UPP forces

[latent bloom]

So a thing I'm doing with a PBP version of Destroyer of Worlds is having the ship from the end of Hopes Last Day being docked at the Starport and the Cronus being docked in space at the top of the Space Elevator. That, and Mason's memories are from the cleanup on LV-426 following the nuclear blast. Meyers is trying to weaponize the specimens from LV-426 and has problems (see the AWOLs), and Eckford comes in with the discoveries from the Cronus with promises to make it more stable.
It ties the modules and the movies together nicely for people without knowledge of the universe beyond them. It seems to be working well so far.

I'm thinking my "goal" for Act 2 is to get to the Starport where an Engineer beacon from LV-426 is being studied and when the UPP attacks at the beginning of the act that sets up the turn point for Act 3.

[bleak kelp]

Hi All, I am preparing the scenario, and have a question about Cpt Silva (PC). Since she is Captain of the Sin Eaters, wouldnt she knows of "Meyers Deadly Cargo", since the Sin Eaters were "Spec Ops marine assigned to escort Meyers' deadly cargo", and wouldn't she knows they were taken down / wounded?

[latent bloom]

I think she's captain of this squad, but not necessarily the entirety of the Sin Eaters.

[bleak kelp]

But she isnt. She is pulled out of her company, like all the other PCs, so she was with the Sin Eaters before. It's hard to believe she has no idea about what's happening/

[earnest osprey]

Project Life Force is classified, there could very easily be more Sin Eaters out there and Meyers just borrowed a few for security on the project. And with any classified project, there's two things an individual needs to get the info: appropriate clearance level and a "need to know". Without being directly assigned to it herself, no need to know.

[frank crescent]

Compartmentalisation. She knows what she's been told.

[earnest osprey]

Made it through another session, players visited the refinery after meeting Ms. Eckford right outside San Rocco, following up on Carvalho's dying words, ambushed the insurgents hiding out inside effectively enough that Silva was the only one who got shot at all, and got one survivor out of it to interrogate/hold. They got the location of the insurgent compound along with orders to drop their captive at the marshals before preparing to assault the compound.

At the marshals, they smoothed things over regarding the incidents at the bar and San Rocco, found Reese's corpse, and got attacked by the drone. Hammer and Silva nearly died to severe acid splash injuries firing on the drone at point blank, but were saved by Chaplain and Dante's efforts without lasting harm after the drone decided it was not worth it to stick around. Next week, they'll have to talk to the marshals again, but at least the receptionist can vouch for them.

[crimson pewter]

So I’m reading the booklet and there’s no clear route how each act should unfold is there?

[gilded forge]

Correct. Very fluid and to to each group.

You could always adjust your phrasing as the GM and emphasize that the players work together with the local Marshals. That might start them off with visiting the Marshals first, then the bar.

[latent bloom]

I had them assigned to assault the compound and get Botos first, and then they find intel that he made a deal with the AWOLs so they have to track them down.

[honest narwhal]

Finally finished our game.

PC's limped into the space elevator car. Encountered the Queen, failed the mobility roll. Chaplain stayed behind and held off Xenos for as long as possible but was torn apart. Xenos caught up to Hammer. Hammer was about to get headbit, but shoved a grenade in the mouth of the Soldier and took it with him.

Iona was the last one. She made it to catch Jaell and Colonel Meyers on their way up. The Queen and one of her soldiers climbed up after them. Jaell sacrificed herself by having the Queen follow her. She opened the cargo bay door and ejected all of the Xenos into space.

Colonel Meyers and Iona try to escape onto the craft, but the Colonel betrays him to make make sure no-one else finds out about Project Life Force. Queen didn't get ejected completely. Leapt onto the EEV and attacked Meyers to try to subdue him.

Iona didn't want to get killed by the Queen, so the PC committed suicide. Pretty dark ending.

[brittle mortar]

Yea pretty dark!

[tardy vapor]

02: Destroyer of Worlds

[crimson pewter]

Work in progress but Oblivion Bar is almost done.

[gilded forge]

Is this dungeon draft or something else

[crimson pewter]

Dungeonfog

[crimson pewter]

🤣🤣🤣 I just took a closer look and I put chairs on the wrong side of the bar. 🤦‍♂️ what happens when your making stuff while half asleep.

[crimson pewter]

So to be 100% on things Act 2 is just shit hitting the fan and getting from where they are currently to Fort Nebraska?

[earnest osprey]

Yup, it's the UPP invasion force arriving and fighting their way to Ft Nebraska

[crimson pewter]

Awesome thank you

[blazing birch]

And the UPP On the Hunt Event (p56) should be Mandatory according to the Dave Semark. Keep the pressure on them to keep moving. Staying still in a war zone is death.

[orchid jackal]

So last night my party finished destroyer of worlds and couldn’t have had a better ending. Yes 4 out of the 7 pcs died but they managed several successful mobility rolls to sneak past the cargo back in the lifter and escaped. It was genuinely impressive how well my players did

[crimson pewter]

Slowly making every map for DoW’s.

I can’t wait to run this

[earnest osprey]

My group's slowly playing through this. Yeahhh, FL's " expect it to take 3 sessions" is a pipe dream, my group's been at it for roughly 7.5 hours and have just entered act 2. Will say my Hammer player is getting crazy good value out of Overkill and just letting stress get high from use of full auto.

[wicked verge]

yeah DoW is practically a campaign in itself

[latent bloom]

https://tenor.com/view/were-gonna-get-you-creepy-gif-14291933

I used this for Wojcik (actually turned out to be Wright) in my PBP game. It's not exactly accurate but damn it nails the feeling.

[fringe obsidian]

Anyone have a flowchart/anything to help with the way Ft. Nebraska is built?

[wicked verge]

what do you mean by built?

[fringe obsidian]

Orbital parts, bastion parts, sublevel parts, etc.

A sideview essentially.

Which is the ground parts, which are what, etc.

[wicked verge]

I do not have such a thing myself

[latent bloom]

Hey for the Enthralling Gaze ablility - do the PCs include the stress dice in that roll? I'm assuming no and assuming no push as that's just for actual actions and not "saves" so to speak?

[wicked verge]

Your assumption is my own too

[earnest osprey]

Oh boy, my group's in Act 3 and I need to thin the herd. By a lot. I threw 5 Abominations at them, and Hammer turned thanks to a lucky black goo puke attack, but he and half a dozen of Fei2's civilians are the only casualties so far. They've still got the other half dozen, Fei2 herself, Eckford, all the backup marines, three MORE marines in the tank. Seems like the easy thing to do here is have some civvies turn plus the backup marine that Hammer was beating up.

[blazing birch]

All the maps in the scenario book are for the ground portion of Fort Nebraska. I don't think we have any info on what is at the orbital end of the tether.

Though Dallas Parker has some maps they made of part of the orbital station on the Reddit /r/alienrpg, iirc.

Also on their Artstation page.

[shell pine]

So I've just started reading through the pdfs for this scenario and I have a question about Mason's character. At the bottom of her character write-up/handout, it says:
Ask the Game Mother to give you the handout marked “Outbreak on Yaophora Station.” Don’t look at the other side.

What's on the other side? I'm guessing this would be clear if I had the physical boxed set, but I don't yet. I just bought the pdf from DTRPG. I see the handout about Yaophora Station in the handouts pdf, but I have no idea what would be on the other side and why they shouldn't look at it.

[latent bloom]

The other side is a map.

It's just saving paper. I think the opposite side is level 3 of Fort Nebraska - so definitely spoiler territory.

[shell pine]

Ahhh, I see. Interesting.

That is the next image in the handouts pdf: Fort Nebraska Sublevel 3. Okay, so running the game online, we can just ignore that instruction. 😄

[latent bloom]

Yeah - you're fine there. I never understood why that blurb warranted an entire extra handout for Mason. Seems like overkill.

[shell pine]

I mean, I love that backstory and that the player is given something to read. I guess it was too much text to fit on a Story Card or maybe it didn't fit the idea of a Story Card because it's backstory rather than something that comes up over the course of the scenario.

[latent bloom]

It's just weird that that much text is dedicated to something that barely makes a difference in the module. If Mason gets that much backstory why doesn't everyone? I'd think details of what Dante saw in her time in recovery or what Chaplain (Jaell) knows would be much more interesting to play out.

For my run through I re-wrote it so Mason was stationed on LV-426 after the nuke and the derelict ship wasn't completely destroyed. At least that has some connection for people who aren't Alien lore nerds.

[shell pine]

Is Yaophora Station referencing something from an alien novel? I’m not familiar with it.

[latent bloom]

I think it's either from Alien Isolation or the setting station from the core book. But I could easily be wrong on either of those. I've rejected Alien canon so thoroughly I'm beginning to remember movie details wrong 🙂

[latent bloom]

Can I just say how much fun I'm having running this module in a PBP game? The last scene was where the PCs meet the bodyburster. In the book there's a few sentences dedicated to how it plays out. Through a combination of PC decisions, me reading between the lines at the given module's backstory, and layering in events to keep the tension ramped up I think I've had the most memorable Alien RPG I've ever had. Picture this:

The PCs go to The Eye of Oblivion to meet Eckford and find out what she has to do with the AWOLs. Hammer and a restrained Wright are in APC outside. Eckford thinks she has the upper hand and when the conversation doesn't go her way she sends in her Dog Catchers to arrest the PCs. The patrons and bartender don't like corporate goons naturally, and a bar fight ensues. It only takes a round or two for that to turn hot and bullets start flying. Z is hot for the bartender, so when her and a dog catcher shoot eachother he flips out and opens up on the dog catcher. Hammer hears the shooting inside just as Wright start convulsing, then her eyes pop open - they're all black and she stares down Hammer making him lose a turn.
Things are about to get ugly in the bar when the east wing is completely obliterated by an orbital bombardment that just started. This doesn't matter too much to Hammer who watches Wright dislocate her thumbs and slowly crawl up to him and dribble sweat and saliva on him. She crawls past him, uses the intercom to taunt Eckford that she thinks there's something wrong with her cure, and puts the APC full throttle into the club.
Meanwhile, the PCs take cover behind the bar as they hear Wright taunting Eckford and the gurgles from the Dog Catchers Wright is ripping apart in the dark and dust of the bar.

She's spotted and the PCs take shots at her, but the last one to do so is Iona from behind the bar. She chases after them and ends up pinning him and vomiting the black goo on him. They get her surrounded in the hallway behind the bar and finally take her down when the bodyburster comes out and triggers Mason's overwatch. She misses and lights the entire hallway on fire with the flamer. They all run out the back alleyway as bombs are exploding around them and being chased by the Xeno. Silva gets grabbed and just barely misses a headbite when Z opens up again and pushes it away with a stunt. A few others fire and it dies, but not before crit chart lets it charge back at them for one more hit. Silva's out of ammo except for her pistol, and a shot gives it just enough damage to have it die and slide to a stop in front of her in the snow.
F'ing crazy scene...

[shell pine]

That sounds amazing!!

[shell pine]

The real question, though: How long in real world time did that all take to play out? 😄

[latent bloom]

long enough to get each piece of narration right 😉

[earnest osprey]

I believe Yaophora Station was only ever referred to by Mason's backstory. Don't remember seeing it hearing it anywhere else.

[pallid berry]

It IS weird, but like, isnt more = better, in terms of RPG content? It's an opportunity to say that any of the other members of the outfit deployed to cleanup of the Yaophora station would be people with intimiate knowledge of Xeno's that aren't necessarily "fully disclosed" and could be deserters or retired marines etc. If anything, Im in full agreement that Chaplain and Dante getting more background would also be awesome, im just thankful for more toys to play with

I've got a campaign NPC rolled up that is Mason's brother who became a conspiracy theorist after hearing about the Yaophora events, and has dark net radio talk show that is basically Info Wars but substitute Q-Anon for X-Anon xeno conspiracy theories, lol

[frank crescent]

Mason will have seen the Alien before, know how deadly it is, its strengths and its lifecycle. May be more suspicious of Dante and her symptoms. Won't tolerate half measures in dealing with them or maybe more desperate to flee. Maybe Ariarcus is Masons "I told you so ," moment?

[blazing birch]

I would also take it as a cue that if you have one player who is really into alien movies, EU stories, lifecycle, lore, etc. they can have a lot of fun playing Mason to leverage their player knowledge as character knowledge. Much like how in HoD (spoilers) || Hendstrom is a great match for a player that played in a CMOM campaign and knows about Project Lifeforce and Luger is a great match for a player that played in CotG and wanted to know more about the missing Cronus Lab/Lifeboat section. ||

[shell pine]

Ooh, good call.

[desert hazel]

Im finally GMing this for my group starting tomorrow. I was a player in it last year and the game mother was fantastic.
Ill post Q&A if the mood strikes me.

[visual mural]

I’m curious if anyone has thought about this or has an informed opinion. What do you think the battle plan to assault and defend Fort Nebraska would be? Assuming no alien outbreak and black goo bombing how would that play out? Major Hatfield leads a last ditch effort to repel the attack but what might that have been too. I assume Nebraska has anti aircraft defense beyond railguns. I just stated Act 2 and want to be able to describe how the invasion goes down with a little more detail.

[pallid berry]

the EMP is really why they are left with their pants down. auto turrents, anti aircraft rail cannons, any synthetic guards, even night vision goggles etc would all have been fried

at least, as a player in DoW that was plenty explanation for why we were walking into a smoldering graveyard, haha

[desert hazel]

Hammer shot the grenade launcher at xeno in cell#4 point blank from below. Explosive plus acid on himself and the android.

1. Android was checking corpse crits out #6 from acid and explosive effect .
2. Hammer suffers loss of right arm and concussion.
   Still need to find 2 more AWOLs.
   Shot wright at spaceport and Stols in interrogation.

[wind tulip]

For those who have run (or played!) DoW -- how did the encounter in the jail cell go? Did it feel significant enough for the climax of an in-person session? Or would perhaps the Medical Center be better for that?

[latent bloom]

It did for us (it was a play by post game)

I think the key is to have a split party. If it takes a couple of rounds for everyone to get there it will feel tense without too much danger of killing it in 1 round.

So subtlety push for some of the party to check on Reese while the others talk to Stolls if you can manage it.

Maybe even play up needing someone to guard the APC.

Also - as written the attack should be an ambush. So at least one PC should have to change their shorts at the very least after it’s over 🙂

[desert hazel]

Our group was split. Two were at interrogation and two at the cell. No visibility of the cocoon above the entry door also limits giant smart gun access, but our player simply went suicidal.

In the future Im not awarding story points for stupid suicide bomber actions unless it is what your Agenda can reasonably require.

[desert hazel]

It is only a drone.

I made clear that the beast at Yaphora was much larger.

I see it as the opening salvo of increasing action/numbers of opponents.

[latent bloom]

So… safe to assume they killed it easily without taking any damage? Was it lucky rolls? That happens in this system a lot too.

[desert hazel]

The character shot a grenade from pulse rifle at point blank range in the cell and both he and the android are now completely disabled so yes, absolutely the simple drone was obliterated.

Welcome new characters.

That's what I mean above though: "suicide bomber." Players are just killing willy-nilly (even with Empathy roll) and knowing their characters don't mean anything will do suicide stuff like this.
I'm going to incentivize not just Agenda, but "not killing innocents", and character survival. Not sure how beyond story points. Maybe graduated story points: Type A: a success. Type B: extra dice for a roll (not as good).

[frank crescent]

Character also in violation of USCMC Close Combat Regulations 95 thru 98. Needs to go on a charge. Captain Silva needs to reign that sh*t in post haste.

[desert hazel]

Calling in the Cheyenne dropship finally occurred in our DOW sessions. They did the rappel, one character failed and broke a leg. The other three landed on the roof and popped the lid: revealing Wojick finishing killing some UPP. I'm worried that they will just grenade launch at her and there will be no challenge or fear whatsoever.

The Cheyenne is currently providing cover, but with the blizzard it is limited so I just had it open fire in the courtyard.

Any thoughts on build-up or challenge to the PCs when they are looking down from the skylight at Wojick?

Perhaps an RPG hits the Cheyenne and it crashes into the roof before they can annhilate Wojick--causing them to have to scatter and survive first?

Thoughts?

[latent bloom]

It happened in a different place for narrative reasons, but I had Wojick (actually Wright) stalking through the dark killing UPP as the PCs were in the same room looking for her. So each turn in stealth mode I'd describe the sound of her disemboweling a UPP dude while they tried to spot her.

So if they can't see her from the skylight, they have to go in, meaning a grenade in the same zone as them isn't a good idea.

Also keep in mind, the module says she changes AFTER she's reduced to 0 HP if need be. So the challenge should be there.

I also upped her to the full anathema so she could use their attack table - face vomit and all 🙂

[desert hazel]

Great idea. Thanks.

[latent bloom]

I'm running it as a PBP game here and here's the gif I used when they saw her. Use it as inspiration 🙂

https://tenor.com/view/were-gonna-get-you-creepy-gif-14291933

[latent bloom]

oh also - I just remembered to up the chaos I actually started Act 2 before they found her, so the bombing started mid-search and blew off the side of the building throwing smoke into the air inside and knocking out the power giving her cover to sneak around (big penalty to observation for stealth mode).
Might be overkill but keep it in your back pocket if they don't seem impressed with the encounter as it starts.

[desert hazel]

That works too. I try to always have multiple distractions going on during action scenes. That seems to give the players plenty of complications and options. They are all very experienced roleplayers and GMs themselves.

[latent bloom]

Yeah - the layers of problems adds to the depth

The above worked so well for me that I'm stressing on how to top it for the rest of the game 🙂

[desert hazel]

Ebb and flow of action is good.

For Act 3 on the escape, my players are planning on fixing the ship in Hangar 1 with parts that they scavenged. I enticed Hammer's player steal a crucial part of the APC plasma cannon to trade for his addiction--which also goes to that ship. The effect of a non-functioning cannon when they are getting APC hits from insurgents while driving around has been comical.
Of course if they try to escape on the Hanger 1 ship, it will be a death march through the black goo effects so it will be for nothing and they will still /probably/ have to go up the space elevator.

[latent bloom]

That's cool. I like the alternative escape ideas so Act 3 doesn't seem like a railroad to Fort Nebraska

I had them enter the scenario via the Moynaham so they start at the Starport and expect to get extracted there.

There's also a Starcub at the refinery that the insurgents secretly got there to extract the AWOLs through a deal with Eckford.

I've made sure to mention the space elevator a few times, but I don't think any of them think it's more than plot points referring to Meyers right now.

[keen path]

Does anyone know if there a flow chart out there somewhere for Destroyer of Worlds?

[blazing birch]

RPG Nook has a good flow chart-like summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skXQ-iKapQ4&pp=ygUccnBnIG5vb2sgZGVzdHJveWVyIG9mIHdvcmxkcw%3D%3D

[pallid berry]

This is incredible!

[keen path]

Thank you! Not quite what I was looking for; I think this needs more of a physical aid for the GM at the table. Something to start with though. 😉

[blazing birch]

You are welcome. Once you make what you are looking for, please share it with us in case it might help others.

[desert hazel]

Their record so far.

[desert hazel]

CT SCAN

[earnest osprey]

My group wiped tonight to the queen

She called in 3 sentries for help as her first move and things went downhill really, really fast. So fast that they didn't actually land the killing blow on a single xeno, the soldiers and sentries all did their suicide move before my players could kill them, the on-fire queen survived with 2 HP, and the one fleeing survivor eventually ran all the way back to the nukes and set them off. They tried, they almost succeeded. That fight is brutal.

[desert hazel]

Thanks for the heads up. We are just getting back to the base.

[desert hazel]

Company rep Eckford needed an appropriate vehicle to "slum" around in.

[desert hazel]

==
Question: What should I set as the chance for various effects if they get DANTE the Draconis strain "vaccine"?
d6 ?
1-4 - Normal chestburster
5 - Anathema
6 - Cured 'dead alien spore'

[slow ingot]

Hi fellowz Game Mothers. I'm asking for your opinion in prepping DoW for a long weekend.

I have a group (4 PCs) that I've run CotG for on an intense weekend this January. I used almost all events from Act 1 and 2, but almost none from Act 3 (didn't use the Sotillo). They explored around half of all of Cronus' rooms. We had plenty of good roleplaying, internal conflicts, playing out personal agenda and some fights with aliens. In the end, the cinematic took us ~11 hours of playtime. Most actuals plays and podcasts also spoke about 9-12 hours for CotG with some exemptions taking 15-18 hours.

With this in mind, we Now want to play DoW also on a weekend later this year. I've found 12 actual plays which ran Dow in 7 to 24.5 hours, with 15.7 hours being the average of these 12. Knowing this, my group comitted to 16 hours of playtime.

Still, DoW seems to offer SO MUCH content. Probably too much for a 16 hour weekend. From your experience, what can or should be cut? I was thinking of skipping the Border Bombers or oil refinery for example.

[latent bloom]

I'm only halfway through a PBP game of this myself, but here's my two cents:
-Act 3 is core experience of the module, so leave that mostly be. Cut some encounters that don't mean in much in the grand scheme so you're not rushing the final encounters with the reactor full of aliens and the queen in the elevator
-Act 1 can drop a lot of the investigation bits. You could have the briefing say directly to pick up Reese at the Marshal Station and then go directly to the insurgent compound based on clues there.
-Act 2 you can have the other two marines found in the same location wherever they go and fire off an event or two from that act wherever they end up. The consensus here seems to be Act 2 is the weakest, and you can probably remove it entirely if you need the time except for the PC agendas. Just make sure you narrate that it takes a few days to get to Fort Nebraska on foot so the hive has a reasonable time to form.

I'd keep the border bomber part because it's a good "oh shit" moment and it changes the dynamic of the whole colony dramatically. A few encounters on a moon where everyone is an infected monster is a plus for the game I think. That's more interesting than say, a couple more UPP encounters in act 2.

[slow ingot]

Very helpful, thanks

[desert hazel]

Will the EMP knock out sentry guns' tracking systems at Ft Nebraska? How about electronic devices owned by player characters such as cbrn, smart gun tracking and headset comms?

[frank crescent]

No to the sentry guns. For the rest see the event Falling Skies - Mandatory on page 56. Wouldn't want to be Chappy at this point.

[desert hazel]

I'm adding a few Seegson Working Joes to the reactor area. Dunno if they'll end up being hostile as reactor is down and APOLLO is simply running on battery power.

[wide yew]

Any suggestions on how I can guide my players to a good place since they are out on the streets of the town when the black goo event goes off? I had thought about creating a mini game of them trying to quickly find a solution as a timer before they have to start doing the virulence roll

[earnest osprey]

I just had one of the EMP'd dropships crash near them, whether it's a Krokodil or a Cheyenne, and combined the Safe Haven event with the start of Act 3.

[desert hazel]

Gm advice:
ACT 3: Locate the elevators and ladders in Ft Nebraska ahead of time! They're not easy to spot and line up on the fly (especially with my declining eyesight).

[lofty locust]

Which is a better depiction / redraw of Reese Wilbe?

[lofty locust]

Nevermind this one is definitely in the lead, compared to the official portrait https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1006341035112280164/1141824305005600779/3-1.png

[latent bloom]

https://tenor.com/view/lang-sounds-like-you-win-you-win-star-wars-the-mandalorian-gif-19355799

this one's pretty good 🙂

[amber iron]

Just finished Act 1. Two of the five marines got killed by the bodyburster!

[amber iron]

I'm starting ACT 2 tomorrow. Any tips?

My players got their asses kicked at the end of act 1 and they are going to need a little time to recover, but I can't give them too much time to recover or else Dante will pop

I'm also a little confused on how much time is supposed to pass. The book describes it as if act 2 begins immediately after act 1, yet it also says that the oblivion bar is now only serving UPP customers.

[amber iron]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't feel like the second act of Destroyer of Worlds knows what it wants to be. Are you fighting a guerrilla war against commies in an occupied city? Or are you trying to get back to base Warriors style?

[latent bloom]

Oh man, I wish I saw your last message in time. I ran into this and figured it out (at least for myself).
So I started Act 2 after the second AWOL was found. Reese in the slammer like normal. And then Wright turned into the bloodburster at Oblivion right as the first part of Act 2 started (the bombardment). That was off script, but it felt right.
So, Act 2 consisted of:
-Eckford trying to tell the marines if they can find an AWOL that didn't turn she could make a stable Draconis 26
-Meyers insisting they kill the remaining AWOLs even during the invasion
-Hatfield requesting support at the Starport
-David(ovich) hunting them and then getting to the last AWOL first and using them for leverage after the PC's initial escape.
-Two PC's experiencing effects from being puked on by Wright

I'm kind of implying that the marines are freeing the starport and will withdraw from there. You know, cuz act 3 will deal with that all on it's own.

But yeah - it gives you a bunch of ingredients but no recipe for Act 2

[earnest osprey]

Act 2 was definitely very open-ended for my group. I played it very much like they were fighting their way back to Fort Nebraska. Lots of dealing with the fallout of the invasion, lots of fighting, hiding from Krokodil patrols, dealing with civvies needing help, roadblocks, bombed out roads. I stretched Act 2 over a 3 hour session.

[amber iron]

I feel like act 2 should be the Marines trying to survive in a war zone, cut off from help. The invasion starts at the beginning of the act, a few days ago by and then the EMP blast happens, another few days and then the black goo bomb.

Act 2 is written like it's all supposed to happen over a very short period of time, but if that's the case then it's just too much story packed into too short a time frame

An idea: Act 1 ends with the announcement of the invasion. Act 2 begins like a week later or something. The Marines have been hiding out in the compound. But then the EMP burst happens and they think now might be the time to try to get back to fort Nebraska.

Of course by the time to get back, it's already overrun by aliens and that's act 3.

But for this idea to work, you either have to exclude Dante, kill off Dante, or just remove the subplot about Dante being infected

[earnest osprey]

My main issue is that I REALLY had to try hard to stretch the travel time just to last a few hour session. Ariarcus Colony's...not very big. You could walk to one end and back on foot in a couple hours.

If their APC's around and you don't take it out almost immediately, they'll be back to the Fort before you can even start thinking about when to set off Act 3

[amber iron]

Yeah exactly

That's why I think it makes more sense to run act 2 while the colony is under UPP control. The players can't travel so fast if they are having to sneak the entire way

[amber iron]

Plus I don't understand when exactly the aliens take over the fort

[wicked verge]

I presume the travel time is due to the colony turning into a warzone, so there are blockades and crashes and gunfire and such making it take longer. I'd say Act 2 could take at least a Shift, which gives enough time for Fort Nebraska to have gone to shit shortly at the start of Act 2 with xenos escaping and building their hive. The longer you can stretch it out, of course, the more likely it is for the xenos to build their hive.

[amber iron]

I feel like I can't recommend this adventure. It has a lot of cool elements, but the connective tissue is not there. It's too broad in scope without enough guidance on how to make it all fit together.

I enjoyed chariot of the gods much more. I'm going to run Heart of Darkness next.

[pallid berry]

I loved DoW but it’s super different from chariot and heart. DoW is more like a giant sandbox with a set beginning and ending, but you have to stretch act I or III AND ignore a ton of threads for it to work. I’m like 90% sure the intent was for players to run it 10 times and never have the same act II in any given game because it’s super open ended

I wish someone could do a process map / decision tree for it. That would be super helpful

[amber iron]

Yeah and I feel like it could have been a lot of fun, but the book needed to be fleshed out more and it also needed to be reorganized.

It almost suffered from an overabundance of ideas. They tried to fit too much content into too small a space. ||You have a search for AWOL Marines across an entire city, a Warriors-style trek across a war zone, and an alien takeover of an entire military base. There is a military invasion, an EMP bomb, a black goo bomb, and oil eating bacteria. There's the whole Chaplain /Jaell story, the enemy synth squad, the insurgents, the Dog Catchers, The various groups of Marines you meet along the way.. Don't forget about Fei, Botos, Meyers, and Hatfield either. Drop ships, ATVs, tanks, APCs, a SPACE ELEVATOR. ||

There's enough content here to fill a short campaign. Yet it doesn't feel like getting a lot of bang for your buck, because what you're not getting is any advice on how to make it all fit together

A GM willing to put in the time and effort could certainly make a fantastic short campaign out of it, and I might do that at some point in the future, but for the money you spend it would be nice to have some of that work done for you

[pallid berry]

I’ve read through the DoW book but I didn’t run that adventure, I was just a player. CotG was a freakin breeze to run compared to HoD. I don’t want to spoil that adventure here but yeah, very disorganized as well.

Or at least kind of a lot of moving pieces, all over the damn adventure book.

[amber iron]

Yeah having locations in one part of the book and events in another part of the book just doesn't work. Not for me anyway

[pallid berry]

It was kind of acceptable in CotG because it’s a ship they can access everything from the start, but yeah in DoW and (to a lesser degree) HoD it’s crazy

[latent bloom]

I really like DoW. But it’s almost more of a specific setting than an adventure. If you look at the pieces and say “what can I do with this” as opposed to “what am I supposed to do with this” there’s a lot to love. That being said, it’s not presented that way and I don’t think they meant it that way either.

Also - I’m running this PBP so I literally have at least a day to think about what to do between each turn/interaction.

[wind tulip]

Question about the Android PC in this scenario (or rather, the whole game): ||should they be impacted by the black goo? Chaplin was trapped outside the APC when the black goo came down, and I am assuming he's fine, though I'll allow the other PCs to be suspicious. ||

[gilded forge]

As per page 111 of the Core Rulebook, synthetics are typically unnaffected by alien pathogens as is the case in this scenario.

[wind tulip]

Huzzah, thank you!! For the answer and the page reference 🤝

[wicked verge]

As a reminder, spoilers are not needed in these channels unless it's a spoiler for something not related to the channel

[lucid glade]

I'm running DoW tomorrow night with my weekly DnD/RPG group. The first time with ARPG for all of us. 6 PCs - intending to run Silva as the NPC/backup. #wishmeluck

[lucid glade]

We played last night & ended just as the Drone cocoon dropped from the ceiling in front of Iona who had had enough of the Reese corpse and was trying to leave the cells as fast as possible.

I played it as an open sandbox for my group (due to their nature in other RPGs), so they had 3 obvious options to start: Starport, Bar, contact the Marshals for insurgency leads.

They elected for the bar & they uncovered 2 of the 3 breadcrumbs for other locations: Marshals & the Medical Centre.

They actually believed that the Medical Centre was a trap & the AWOLs were trying to eliminate any investigating Marines.

An encounter with Eckford, raised their suspicions over her (my Chaplain player piped up with exactly the right things to say at the right time to cause paranoia in the group), where they've bluffed her into believing they're heading to the Medical Centre, in the hopes of her team being caught in the "obvious trap".

At the moment their APC is being treated as a mobile safe space, so during Act 2 I'll be taking that away from them and in doing so ratchet up the sense of being displaced & no longer safe.

[woven schooner]

I just realized today that ||Jaell ||is probably supposed to be the same type of synth as ||Call || from ||Resurrection||. The art even looks like ||her||.

[wicked verge]

More likely a prototype/forerunner. Autons aren't really a thing until much later.

[woven schooner]

That makes sense. I forgot how big the time gap was.

[slow ingot]

Hey fellow GMs and survivors of DoW, in a few weeks time I will run DoW for the first time on a long weekend (Friday-Sunday nonstop). We did the same with CotG last year. To prepare for that, I would love to watch / listen to some really good actuals plays (video or podcast), but there are so many out there. I couldn't find the time to consume them all.

So, what are your favorite actual plays of DoW that could help me prepare, get into the feeling, and possibly grab some nice ideas?

[silent furnace]

Slices and Dices Destroyer of Worlds on YouTube is a good choice. The players' and Game Muthur are all excellent.

[earnest copper]

Seconded!

[lucid glade]

An update to my game - we have just finished Act 1 with a single fatality - Zmi succumbing to the Bodyburster's skull crushing attack.

The PCs steamrolled the drone in the Marshall's Station by somehow fluking the Intiative cards to be 1-6 off the bat. To this end they were able to maneuver the Iona out of the Drone's engagement range before starting to fire - the party enjoys the strategy that comes from manipulating the Initiative cards at the start of each round & the ability to swap quicker initiatives from targets. The Drone dropped quickly to some sustained firepower and Chaplain's cutting torch. It did get to rise again from its injuries to attempt to head-strike Chap - an attack that I did describe as being immediately fatal to a human but only doing damage to the android, I don't think the party was listening to me....

At the end of the Compound Assault; Chap, Hmr & Zmi initially engaged Wojick, forcing the Bodyburster(BB) transformation. At this point the Marines hit the tipping point for Stress & panic & the first round of actions were wasted due to Freezing or Seeking cover.

The BB's first round was a contemptible backhand to slam Chaplain away, before failing to grab Zmi by the head.

The second round had the BB finally succeeding to grab Zmi & starting to squeeze - unfortunately the armour failed to mitigate all of the damage & Zmi's skull was crushed inside his buckling helmet. This came as a shock to the group, as it finally dawned on them that Xenos are no joke and could 1 shot them with ease.

Focus fire by the party swapped the BBs faster initiative cards out, allowing a sustained amount of damage to force 3 critical injuries, before it was finally crushed outside by the APC being driven by Silva (Zmi's player immediately taking over the Capt).

We ended the session with the start of the orbital bombardment of Fort Neb.

[cobalt bramble]

I’m running it next week!

Any advice from Game-Muthurs would be greatly appreciated.

[lofty locust]

I've recently gotten a resin printer and I'm plannin' on printing out minis for my players and this scenario ~ does anyone know of good Colonial Marine minis for this?

[lucid glade]

papsikels have a line of xenos & marines that would be suitable. I have their "crusher"(?) printed out to use as the Charger variant in Act 3 - he's BIG, much heftier than the Gale Force 9 Queen, but that sort of works. I also grabbed the STLs from Black Site Studios for the Weyland Yutani Commandos.

[wide yew]

have you tried to size the models to fit on the official freeleague maps? Do you know what I would need to size my PCs and NPCs to have them fit approrpiatly

[lucid glade]

Sorry, no. we use a digital tabletop so I scale that to match our minis (using the Gale Force 9 marines for the PCs) - using 3rd maps as opposed to the FreeLeague ones as well. Also I think the scale on the Free League maps is not identical across the range?

[opal summit]

2021

[gilded forge]

Do you think Destroyer of Worlds can run with 6 PCs?

[latent bloom]

I'm running it Play by Post with 7. It's working well, but obviously I have time to manage all 7.

[latent bloom]

One thing I've been doing - almost unconsciously, is firing off a couple events at once to keep the party split and manageable. So for instance, I had Wright show up at the same they discovered Reese. So half the party went outside to meet her, and half went into the cell, and the encounters were properly balanced (as much as Alien can be 😉 )

[formal tundra]

Yeah it can, i've done it no problem. It was on VTT though

[wintry lake]

Yeah, it's confusing as hell 😄

[wicked verge]

that's a cool image!

[wintry lake]

Do you think a map like this would be useful to GMs and I should post it into the Resource Channel?

[sonic karma]

Hi. I just started DoW with my players and I ended the first session with my Marines split between mutiny and continuing the mission after their Reese encounter. I'm mulling over how to build up the game for them if they mutiny without jumping straight into act II territory. My first thought is having Hatfield declare them AWOL and have the NPC marine's start hunting them down. Any suggestions/ideas?

[latent bloom]

Plenty 🙂
-Have Eckford show up and try to make a deal for herself with Marines. She can use the Dog Catchers to push them
-Have Hatfield support the marines' decision against Meyers and tell them to find evidence against them
-Have Wright show up. She can tell the marines what's really going on. If you really want to shake them up, have her turn into the Bodyburster instead Calvaloro
-Keep in mind Act 2 doesn't have to happen all at once. You can have a few scenes of just bombardment without any UPP troops. You also don't need to wait to have all 4 awols found before it happens. It's probably better if you don't so they have some options as to what to do.

So, I had the second marine they found be Wright which they stashed in the APC while they went to the bar to see who this Eckford person was. While there, Eckford tried to make a deal and a fight broke out with the Dog Catchers. Simultaniously, Hammer was watching Wright in the APC get reallll sweaty. The fight ended as the bar got blown apart by the UPP bombardment and Wright went full Evil Dead stalking through the ruins for the marines. It ended with her turning into the bodyburster and the UPP ground attack.

[lofty locust]

What type of colony is LV-038? For worldbuilding

They mention that it comes under attack in the UPP raid of 61 Cygni, but I can't find any other descriptors

[frank crescent]

It has a Project Lifeforce links so possibly a decent sized civilian colony with a scientific research facility and small marine garrison judging by the UA's response. No other information available.

[lofty locust]

Did the Corinth Colony incident happen before or after the annexing on 61 Cygni? (Is the Colonial Operations Manuel before or afer Destroyer of Worlds)?

[frank crescent]

After - late 2184 onwards.

[wicked verge]

DoW is a prologue to the CMOM campaign

[amber iron]

I tried to run Act 1 as a one shot but it was too long

[wicked verge]

I had that problem too long ago

[amber iron]

I would cut the space port and the oil refinery scenes

[wicked verge]

I didn't cut the spaceport but I did cut the oil refinery and I forget what else

[gilded forge]

I changed the Refinery scene into more of a hand-off between the Insurgents and UPP with Wright. The UPP was upset, where are the other 3? A shootout started and the UPP took out all the insurgents. The PCs arrived and saw Wright being grabbed by the UPP. Grenade Launcher to all. Boom.

https://tenor.com/view/starwars-obiwan-negotiations-were-short-master-you-were-right-gif-4918706

[latent bloom]

heh. I basically did the same thing. The PCs also came away with David's severed android head too - still taunting them of course 🙂

[sonic karma]

My act 1 took 3 sessions and they all died before it technically ended, so they decided to defect and are now playing UPP characters.

[gilded forge]

Ya I had them switch roles and play as the David7 androids from the UPP

[wind tulip]

Question about Level C of the Climber Car...where exactly are the cargo doors that it keeps referencing? E.g that's where...she moves through if the PCs are outside.

[lofty locust]

I have a question about Luca Mason - why is their comtech and observation so low if they're supposed to be the radiologist soldier of the group? Chaplain does all her rolls better

[frank crescent]

Because she's human and a marine first so has points split across combat oriented skills where Chaplain doesn't.

[wintry lake]

Luca is a bad-ass butt-kicker. Besides, that CBRN kit does wonders all on its own, adding another layer to Mason’s capabilities

Chaplain and Mason are paired together, also.

[lofty locust]

I'm lookin' for some maps for the various locations around Destroyer of Worlds that I can give to my players — something with all the data and the locations of people removed

[lofty locust]

It's unfortunate that Free League hasn't made downloadables for anything beyond Chariot of the Gods

[pale saffron]

Has anyone seen Botos join the crew?

My party reinstated him as a Marine

[orchid heart]

Well

That was intense

Good news is got the most kills bare-handed

Bad news, died lol

[unreal mortar]

my current cinematic is a session or two away from completion, and im looking to dive into DoW next.

noones really run a CM character yet, and i understand theres a much heavier combat focus in the mechanics compared to most 'space trucker' style cinematics, but what things have you all found really help combat flow better, or rules that get skipped or misinterpreted that i might need to be ontop of

[gilded forge]

Be familiar with Cover, Overwatch, and Explosions.

[latent bloom]

You might want to find a decent house rule around here for grenades. Unless you get a good roll the damage is generally underwhelming.

[unreal mortar]

i like the grenades rules as is, high risk to use a tool that may not pay off. classic alien

[wicked verge]

Don't forget that panic results below 10 don't deny successes

[unreal mortar]

this has been a big one for my players. they think theyve bombed a roll but love the 'success, but' aspect instead

[latent bloom]

This is a DoW specific recommendation, and I'm not sure everyone agrees with it but I'm going to bring it up just so you ponder it before playing:
Playing a marine should feel like being a badass, so don't worry if the human enemies aren't very difficult. The game is "Alien" and the real threat should be the Aliens. Killing people in DoW for the PCs is a little like Cham moving cargo or Davis flying the ship in CotG - requires a check, but probably has a high chance of working.

By Act 3 if the PC aren't completely in Lockstep with eachother the Xenos will murder them (and if not the radiation will).

[crisp dome]

Any suggestions insofar as changing the provided PC in DoW

[unreal mortar]

Yeah i wasn't gonna do any of the humanity checks for killing soldiers, maybe if they try to ice civilians they'll need an empathy check but

[latent bloom]

It’s not that so much as making the encounters too deadly.

[unreal mortar]

Oh yeah I always make encounters with most things's favoured toward the PCs because the dice and panic rolls are always gonna make it hard enough.

[fading stone]

Hi all, just arrived, first post.

Just starting Act III of Destroyer of Worlds

||After the EMP blast I'm wondering how the sentry guns on the walls of Fort Nebraska are still functioning? There is brief mention that the guns are shielded, is this implying they are shielded against EMP damage? Also, if the reactor is down, what is powering the sentry guns, or do they have an independent power source?||
Thanks in advance, cheers.

[frank crescent]

Each gun has a battery pack as a back up.

[pale saffron]

We just

beat

the last battle, through straight up fighting

[latent bloom]

Was anyone smart enough to grab the powerloader before getting in the elevator? 🙂

[pale saffron]

Nope

We fought using knives, guns and grenades.

• Dante's rocket launcher.

The final survivors were:
All the PCs minus Hammer and Iona
Botos
a random UPP soldier

[latent bloom]

Man, this whole thread is giving me the vibes to run this at my FLGS.

[latent bloom]

Tangent - lets say I was going to run this for people whose only exposure to the Alien universe is the movies. Would it work better if Ariarcus was changed to LV-426 some years in the future after the events of Aliens? The premise being the nuclear blast didn't destroy the derelict ship (so that's the Act 3 bomber) and Mason's backstory was she was part of the crew that re-discovered the derelict years earlier instead of the handout she gets which references things no one at the table has ever heard of.

[wintry lake]

I could see that being a good bridge for people, yeah!

[lofty locust]

Anybody have any NPCs that your PCs interacted/bonded with more than you thought they would?

[wicked verge]

It's been a very long time since I ran DoW, but I don't recall that happening. I did have one PC interact in the spaceport crowds a bit more than I thought, but not with any particular NPC

[latent bloom]

Hey does anyone know if there's a printable resource to get all of the cards a PC in DoW would have in their inventory?
In other words I'd like to hand out all their major inventory items to every PC at the table, but there's only 1 smartgun in the deck and I need 2.

[frank crescent]

@latent bloom have you checked out Mentorian's card mega pack in the #legacy-resource-databank ? Should be examples of pretty much everything you need in there.

[latent bloom]

oh awesome - I think that's it!

(I figured my question had Mentorian's name all over it 🙂 )

[torpid karma]

🤪

Not sure that all the equipment for DoW is there though...

[latent bloom]

I'm not too worried about it - we only need 1 APC and 1 Dropship, and I doubt the need for multiple UPP weaponry will be high.

[latent bloom]

Hey one more question - I'm throwing out the default assumption to my group of 4 sessions (Act 1 w/ 2 AWOLs and Botos, Act 2 w/ 2 AWOLS and events, Act 3 up to Jaell and maybe the reactor, Act 3 finale)

This may change if the group has any opinions on length, but does that sound reasonable for people who have run it (assuming I attempt to stay on track for that schedule)?

Edit: 4 hour sessions

[mellow vessel]

I’m gonna be running Destroyer of Worlds soon-ish, any big tips for handling everything? I already did CotG, but DoW feels like a much bigger scale scenario

[wicked verge]

DoW, narratively, can feel like 3 seperate scenarios:
Act 1: Largely investigation, uncover the MIAs.
Act 2: Action-military.
Act 3: Most akin to the vibes of Aliens.

Last I ran it, I think I took 5-6 sessions, most of those for Act 3

[gilded forge]

Same.

I'm usually 2 sessions for each act.

[wicked verge]

In my experience, it was 1-2 sessions for Act 1, not even a session for Act 2, and 3+ sessions for Act 3

[gilded forge]

I filled out Act 2 because of that. I felt like there was a lot more potential for it, and after getting some of the action in the CMOM I thought I'd bring some into DoW.

[golden wyvern]

How did you fill it out if I may ask?

[mellow vessel]

Why is Dante’s health 7? Is this a typo, or is she just extra beefed up?

[latent bloom]

I think that was a typo

[mellow vessel]

What do Chaplain’s “electronic tools” and “ammo satchel” do?

Nvm found the electronic tools in the gear section, how much ammo does the ammo satchel hold though?

[unreal mortar]

i think the ammo satchel is tehmatically inconsquential, as ammo rules across the board are pretty set, BUT, for a bonus id let players acquire reloads chaplain is carrying as a free action if they get close to him. provided he has some. (a regular reload takes up a quarter of an encumbrance slot, and an RPG reload takes up half a encumbrance slot

[mellow vessel]

So like Chaplain has this satchel that’s just kind of flavor for how he can hold a bunch of ammo reloads?

But I would count the reloads as separate items for encumbrance purposes

[unreal mortar]

id say they start the game with 1 encumbrance slot worth of reloads of a weapon of their choice. sure, start of scenario you give them the option to go to the quartermaster and load up with the gear they want but if they FORGET, atleast chaplain can be useful in having some reloads on their person. id say the ammo satchel shouldnt count itself as an encumbrance, as if it is empty, its not gonna be taking up space. give them 1 slots worth of ammo 😄

[mellow vessel]

Has anyone given stats to Zmijewski’s belt?

[unreal mortar]

i allow it to count as a weapon for the purposes of blocking

[mellow vessel]

Oooo good thinking

[mellow vessel]

Just realized that the book doesn’t give Meyers, Jaell, Botos, or Eckford signature items, even though the AWOLs and Davydovich have ones. I assume that’s an oversight?

[mellow vessel]

Where’ve you guys had the PC’s encounter Wright? At the spaceport like the book says, or have you played more loose with the location and time?

[latent bloom]

I’d tentatively plan for the starport, but definitely play it loose. Like all the alien module events,sometimes you can feel when you need it. The PCs may be stuck and need a little explanation, or maybe chappie painted himself into a corner and needs a foil.

[wicked verge]

ran DOW tonight, went pretty good

• hammer, silva, and chaplin all NPCs
• party splits up in eye of oblivion, half watches surveillance footage and half hassles locals, get told “i hope the proggies waste your ass” and meet the drunk captain who shares a shot with miller and points them towards the spaceport, fei points them towards the marshalls
• go to spaceport, meet suicide bomber in the process, neutralize bomber while wright escapes in the process
• wright gets snatched up by insurgents
• marines go to marshal station where they kill the xenomorph, while the marshals take note of the damage they kidnap stolls and draw down on the deputy that tries to stop them
• they use stolls to get the jump on the insurgents at the oil refinery, taking them prisoner, they confiscate the UPP radio and triangulate the insurgent compound in the process
• they return to nebraska with captives and intel, hatfield is pleased
• attack on the insurgent compound, they demanded use of the APC so the cheyanne lit up the drop zone and they used the APC turret to mop up the courtyard
• they rocket the door to the insurgent house open and determine that something is happening upstairs
• the team splits up zmliewski takes the first floor with hammer, getting lit up by insurgents. upstairs dante is the first to encounter woiczyk and gets a shot off before she transforms
• botos escaped, the insurgents are neutralized and zmliewski barely survived (1 health)
• woiczyk is killed after managing to bite dante (she passes the sickness roll), after the bodyburster is dead a broken but breathing wright is discovered
• silva orders chaplin to treat wright, miller reveals backstory and says wright and dante should be quarantined
• miller catches chaplin trying to strangle wright and manages to overpower and cuff him, he considers killing him as the UPP radio squawks to life
• charlie team is given an evacuation order as nebraska is hit and the UPP invasion begins
• end of session

[golden wyvern]

Sounds like your players had a blast

[wicked verge]

running act II today 🫡

[golden wyvern]

Good luck with it

[wicked verge]

really put them through the ringer with this one:

• pick up at insurgent compound, new arrival at game night so hammer is now a PC
• mason wants to kill chaplin and asks silva to do so as chaplin starts seizing, silva gets call from hatfield to proceed with mission and says “we’re leaving now, get to the APC”
• crew gets to APC everyone besides silva and mason are like “what the fuck is going on” as silva and mason come down the stairs with a seizing chaplin and Broken wright
• UPP spec-ops guys land as APC books it, gunship takes off and chases them
• gun ship is shot down by APC gunner (zmliewski) while mason interrogates wright in the back and gets the details on sublevel 3 and carvalho
• chaplin wakes up, spills the beans on meyers, hatfield, and jaell to pretty much the whole party
• charlie team gets a moment of respite before a sinkhole opens up beneath them and is narrowly avoided thanks to Iona’s driving skills
• crew makes it to the medical center in one piece, finds UPP soldiers lining up a group of UA government employees against the wall by the lobby
• part of Charlie team stealths up to the UPP ox while they are lining up their prisoners, mason knocks on the door and takes the crew by surprise as the rest of charlie team takes down the UPP executioners
• hammer and zmliewski execute any broken POWs with failed empathy rolls, some marines take stress in the process but not a lot
• UA loyalists flee back into medical center, charlie team goes after them with flashlights on as the power is out
• they coax the loyalist refugees from their hiding places with a successful manipulation roll, learn that surgical bay 4 is locked down
• cut into bay 04 and find dead carvalho and ovimorphed doc, light up xenomorph drone in process
• silva says “carvalho is gone, we’re leaving now” and orders charlie team to fort nebraska, the UPP ox is commandeered to help with the refugees

(1/2)

Continued:

• Charlie team books it to fort Nebraska, coming across a ridgeway under attack, they fail to prevent the ridgeway from getting destroyed in a UPP ambush and their APC takes critical damage in the process
• charlie team all load up into the UPP ox and make it within four blocks of fort Nebraska before the EMP blast goes off, stopping them in their tracks
• border bomber attack
• end of session

[golden wyvern]

Sounds like it was an intense session

[mellow vessel]

Anyone have any music recs for backing tracks?

[latent bloom]

Aliens soundtrack (obviously) and I find First Blood soundtrack complements it well for pure military, non Xeno stuff.

[unreal mortar]

the alien isolation opening menu is great for a base level vibe, and then theres a few tracks from the covenant soundtrack that are great in high tension moments

[mellow vessel]

Alrighty sick, I'll check these out!

[golden wyvern]

Dark Descent also has a good OST to use

[lofty locust]

How does this Moon, Ariarcus, have the Xenomorph XX121? How are the chestbursters and facehuggers actually involved?

[latent bloom]

-I think the official answer is undefined.
-The semi-official answer if you're playing the Colonial Marines campaign is that they boarded the Cronus before the PCs in CotG and got a sample first
-If you're only doing one shots, I think it's semi-implied that whoever survived from your run through of CotG eventually got it to Meyers, and if not from some remnant on LV-426

[lofty locust]

• But Chariot of the Gods didn't have any Xenomorphs— only Neomorphs and Anathemas
• I suppose the LV-426 option makes more sense, cuz the Colonial Marines and WY probably wouldn't leave any stone unturned there...

[latent bloom]

OOHHH crap I read your question wrong.

Mostly the same answer as above

-I think the official answer is undefined.
-If you're only doing one shots, whoever survived from your run through of Hopes Last Day eventually got it to Meyers, and if not from some remnant on LV-426

[lofty locust]

OH MY GOD
I forgot about how my players ended Hopes Last Day... Holy shit I can splice Hannah Singleton's success story into the writing for DoW!

Thanks for reminding me!

[latent bloom]

Also, if you read Mason's backstory there were xenos in other places too.

[latent bloom]

Glad to help :). I actually had the shuttle from the end of Hopes Last Day sitting in the spaceport quarantined off.

[lofty locust]

That's genius

I'll probably put it somewhere on the space elevator

[latent bloom]

...and the Cronus docked at the space elevator at the top - but that might be too on the nose.

[pallid berry]

In my campaign planning Yaophora station didn’t have many survivors, but the exfil party that rescued Mason has proliferated rumors and made a couple marines believers of Space Beast

[lofty locust]

With how my PCs ended CotG, the Cronus is gonna crash into one of Kruger 60's binary stars, but not before someone sends people up there to investigate the mayhem and bring back 26-Draconis Strain & Black goo samples

[latent bloom]

I changed Mason's backstory in mine to be a team excavating the derelict from LV-427 after the nuke because we all really only knew the movies as canon.

[lofty locust]

Yeah, I don't really fully grasp what/where Yaophora holds significance

I wish I changed it to LV-426 extraction crew

BUT the Hopes Last Day will fill in this pothole nicely

[latent bloom]

I don't know why I can't remember if its LV-426 or LV-427 lately 🙂

[pallid berry]

Whoa. So like USCMC came and pulled the Acheron engineer ship off the surface?

That’s sick

Or just investigating it?

[latent bloom]

If you're not opposed to changing the module, I made Eckford pregnant after microdosing herself so I could pull off a Prometheus homage down in sub Level 03 with a few of the HoD monsters. That worked well 🙂

[latent bloom]

Just investigating. But that's just because I was moving quickly and wasn't thinking about it.

Having an engineer head in sub-level 03 would have been cool 🙂

[latent bloom]

I actually really jumped the shark with this. Walter (now reprogammed as David) re-activated the LV-426 derelict and did the bombing at the end of Act 2 with it.

At the end of Act 3, that's where the PCs ended up instead of a shuttle. Then the real finale happened.

[lofty locust]

I gotta be honest, I LOVE the Deacon as like my favorite morph — but I don't see how a SquidBaby being birthed from a human, gorwing into a Trilobite, and then Implanting in an Engineer, can be done in HoD...

[latent bloom]

Without any major spoilers, it doesn't. It goes in a different direction.

It was just too good not to use here 🙂

[lofty locust]

Ah— I getcha ~

I have all the modules, I just haven't read through HoD yet

[pallid berry]

Wait what. Walter? Haha I have so many questions. I thought Walter was defeated / destroyed by David

[lofty locust]

Yeah— I believe in Covenant, David just kills Walter and takes his place aboard the ship by changing his hair

[pallid berry]

Hod has a LOT going on. I love the Chariot ties / Draconis background story, but k made tons of changes to the overall story for my group

[lofty locust]

Oh yeah— changes made for the group story to flow better, instead of tying neatly into cannon, is preferred for me too

I just try and link it where I can, so everyone can have an "A-ha!" moment

[pallid berry]

I guess we shouldn’t go too HAM on the HoD spoilers in here but yeah. I straight up removed most of the threats, streamlined a ton of the background info, and had to do some heavy NPC exposition dumps to explain wtf was happening.

[latent bloom]

Yeah so, to preface - Since I was only doing movie canon and had to explain who the border bomber was I changed a few things to tie it all together
-Davidovich was actually David because why not?
-Walter I don't think was ever show killed, just stranded on that planet. So filling in the blanks, David copied himself into Walter just in case

So, I ran into a situation where I had this ending on the Derelict and wanted David to be the bomber, but my PCs kind of made that impossible in Act 2. I ALSO had a PC die and re-inhabit Write AND get barfed on by an abomination so I kickstarted her transformation slowly into the new thing in HoD (again not saying what for spoilers) as a kind of foreshadowning and gave that player control of the Queen they managed to avoid and not kill.

So the finale was 3 factions:
-A PC playing Walter who had 4 neos hiding in the derelict with him
-A PC playing a stage 2 infected with the black eyes and a hidden Queen she brought aboard she could control
-The other 4 PCs which were a combination of original marines and the Bartender from the Eye of Oblivion

[frank crescent]

There's a W-Y station in orbit over LV-426 supposedly keeping track of the damage caused by the atmosphere processor explosion and to "monitor for survivors". It's called Kathar Station and it's mentioned in the CRB. We all know what its relly doing though, right?.
If you put the Starcub from HLD in make sure its permanently disabled.

[pallid berry]

I hadn’t caught that. That’s rad

[pallid berry]

I love how wildly different everyone’s stories turned out

In ours Hammer actually managed to escape with an insane fortune worth biological samples and all the evidence in the world to expose the USCMC corruption / collusion with wey-yu, experimenting on soldiers etc. so I have him in the wings as a warlord propped up by his own fortune and also having everyone by the balls willing to keep him quiet - not sure what his motivation will be but his position as a BBEG for campaign is great

[lofty locust]

So since Yaophora doesn't have any real origin, but I already gave my Luca Mason that handout, how can I tie-in the Xenomorph XX121 and Hadley's Hope (and I guess this new Kathar Station I just learned about)

[pallid berry]

Rename that LV426 station Yaophora. lol

It’s very reasonable to play it that right after Aliens ANOTHER cleanup attempt went awry in orbit

Also kind of helps explain / lend credence to how few marines were on the Sulaco - because a rendezvous contingent platoon including Mason was supposed to meet with the sulaco crew after their mission

[latent bloom]

For simplicity and convenience, at least consider saying "since we don't care about the greater Alien setting, do you want to just say this happened on LV-426 after the blast instead?"

[pallid berry]

I need to sit down and just READ all the lore in all three source books again before starting my groups campaign. There’s a lot in there

[latent bloom]

Once I heard Arcturians aren't just colonists on Arcturia which is super obvious from the movie I gave up anything the core book says about the universe.

[latent bloom]

Yeah - the great thing about one shots and no canon is ANYTHING can happen 🙂

[pallid berry]

lol yeah it’s WILD how much lore is given to Arcturians for them to be such a weirdly unobtrusive small role off screen but such a big part of the canon universe. Doesn’t vibe with me either

It would massively change all of interstellar human earthlings society to find bipedal intelligent life that shares genetic traits with us.

[mellow vessel]

I mean to be fair most people in universe think they’re just lost colonists anyway

[latent bloom]

The fact that there's an in-universe explanation is part of the problem. Which other Bill Paxton improv jokes should be canonize too? Does every APC come equipped with sharp sticks? How many other outfits have the standard name "chicken shit"? It's just so f'ing stupid that anyone could have taken that comment any other way but here we are with a planet of weird sex aliens because Bill Paxton wanted to try something on take #5 of that scene.

[pallid berry]

Wait was it bill paxton? I thought it was banter between Apone and Frost

Because yeah that’s a good point lol

He’s a jokester it’s absurd to canonize improv throw away lines

[golden wyvern]

Frost and Spunkmeyer I believe

[frank crescent]

It was Ricco Ross as Frost who improv'd the "It doesn't matter when its Arcturian, man."

[latent bloom]

Didn't Paxton say "except yours was a man"?

[frank crescent]

He'd just come off the Full Metal Jacket set. Auditioned for Hicks, offered Drake, declined and Cameron offered him Frost with rewritten part.

Except the one that you had was male - Spunkmeyer.

[latent bloom]

huh. Well you can't deny it's Paxtonesque 🙂

I think my point still stands though. They were throw away improv lines not in the script. If I recall the actual script ends at "arcturian poon tang," and the rest was improv.

huh, so it is. They did have Paxton prominent in the scene though - I guess that's where my mind went.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cy5ltT_dLM

[pallid berry]

Yeah the first time the word arcturian is mentioned I always thought was frost

Admittedly for a “super fan” I don’t have all the Aliens marines straight

Like who even is Bowsky and where was he? Did they ever find him?

;D

[wicked verge]

ended the scenario tonight

total TPK

[mellow vessel]

Oh shit

How’d that happen?

[wicked verge]

recap:

• party starts off outside for nebraska right after the border bombing
• ground zero was spaceport, PCs in periphery
• players dispatch sentry guns and send chaplain out of APC to hack gate, get inside
• eckford is waiting for them in an ape suit, gets caught and convinces then to tag along with one million dollar promise
• party gets to work, restarts generator and discovers extent of xenomorph infestation but avoids aggroing passives
• reactor now warming up, party heads to APOLLO where they see jaell
• chaplain seizes and attacks mason who heads over to aid him, party kills chaplain and wakes up Jaell who offers to use her access card to take them to sublevel 3
• power comes back on
• party goes to sublevel 3, uses medpod to remove tumor from wright
• eckford gets her stuff, mason and silva demand to see it before she is allowed to leave with them, eckford refuses
• mason, jaell, and silva murder eckford
• jaell uses the chaos to draw dante away from the medpod, preserving the chestburster inside her
• party splits up. jaell, iona, dante, and silva stay with elevator while zmliewski, mason and hammer head to the nukes
• hammer immediately dies to charger, zmliewski and mason retreat and deploy blastdoors to buy time while they suit up in power loaders
• meanwhile at elevator, an argument escalates until silva and iona get in fight. silva is killed with jaell’s help. dante flees in chaos and jaell gives chase.
• zmliewski and mason, unaware of what’s happening downstairs head back in and take on charger. zmliewski grapples with power loader while mason unloads with pulse rifle. charger killed.
• at elevator jaell has chased after Dante, grappling her and dragging her away from medpod, iona helps with promise that jaell will “set me up with a nice beach”
• dante broken, dragged back to elevator
• iona and jaell use piloting to break elevator clamps, zmliewski and mason are now stranded as elevator ascends

(1/2)

(2/2)

• dante is helpless as xenomorphs take her and cocoon her to walls
• zmliewski and mason arm nukes, head to elevator to discover their fate
• zmliewski and mason run to APOLLO and try and see if they have any chance, learn they’re screwed
• mason goes “we got a few hours, think that bar still made it?” and starts hiking to eye of oblivion with zmliewski
• Dante wakes up on elevator stuck to wall as chest burster hatches, instant death
• in the streets of ariarcus a hazmat-clad zmliewski and mason trudge through the streets, noticing the ship severing the tether as they arrive at the eye of oblivion
• the bar is empty and dark, but alcohol was still left by fleeing patrons
• the pair takes their hazmat suits off and do a cheers as the nukes go off

End

basically once they allied with jaell they were hosed lol

[mellow vessel]

Man that’s a downer of an ending

[wicked verge]

it was brutal lol

my players LOVED it tho

[unreal mortar]

i dunno about a downer, it seems like a pretty fair ending to DoW 😄

[wicked verge]

oh yeah I left something out

very important

after betraying everyone jaell and iona were immediately instakilled by the queen

like as soon as they entered the cargo bay

[unreal mortar]

like, with a roll and an initiative, or... did you jsut decide theyre dead?

[wicked verge]

nah it was all rolled

head crush for jaell, tail stab for iona

both hit

dante was already broken and defenseless

[unreal mortar]

yipes. onto HoD now i guess 😄

[wicked verge]

Lmaoooo I’ll probs chill for a bit it was crazy intense

soooooo cool though

probably one of my best GM experiences ever

[golden wyvern]

Oh that must have been an intense playthrough

[wicked verge]

they probably would have made it if they didn’t wake up jaell

[mellow vessel]

Do y’all tell ever Dante secretly that they have a chestburster, or do you let them figure it out from the story card and context clues?

[unreal mortar]

i tell them they have back pain, i tell them they feel ill, and eventually i hand them the card. late act 2 though

[mellow vessel]

Oh Act 2? The module has that as an Act 1 thing, and then the nosebleed is Act 2

[unreal mortar]

yeah the headaches and stuff start act 1, but i dont give them the card til act 2 OR, if a xeno ever gets involved early on, i make a point to say it ignores dante

[golden wyvern]

Ah, that is interesting

[odd tusk]

just wondering, what's the time difference between Chariot and DoW?

[frank crescent]

A year give or take a few months. Chariot is 2183 and Destroyer is mid 2184.

[odd tusk]

Ahh, thank you

[lone tangle]

About to start running this for the first time and Cripes, the character sheets are riddled with inconsistencies.

Before I run this at a convention I will have to get very busy with GIMP to fix it all.

[mellow vessel]

What kind of inconsistencies ?

[odd tusk]

I'm just about to run this for a discord community and I'm curious about the inconsistencies too

[lone tangle]

Well, some CSs list the U1 separately in the encumbrance and equipment lists, some don't although the text on side 1 suggests the character's rifle has the device.

<EDIT> Going back over the CSs it seems bogus to list the U1 anyway. Everyone listed with one also has an M41A and those have an integral U1 presumably figured into the wt of the rifle.</EDIT>

Some sheets list the combat knife in the equipment/encumbrance list or the weapon lists or both, some don't.

Since the "feel" of the characters is (I believe) meant to stress the "loaded like a pack mule" aspect of a marine on ops, the inventories and equipment lists should match and be uniform.

Nothing breaks immersion like having a character die, giving the player a new sheet and then having to answer "I thought this guy had a knife? It's not listed."

Also: Zmijewski's significant item is listed as one thing on side 1 of the sheet, and a completely different thing on the inventory side.

Don't get me started on the stupidity of the bugs in the Character Sheet on Roll20.

The push button does the arithmetic wrong, and the running total of encumbrance doesn't work unless a fractional amount is entered (pistol, 0.5) at which point the automation howls (and keeps howling) that it doesn't like fractions (it does) but the tally starts working properly.

These errors are annoying in the "free" sheet, but absolutely enraging when one pays for the Roll20 starter set and finds one is using the same bloody sheet, bugs'n'all - and the initiative deck doesn't "deal to turn order items" properly.

FYI; If you want to use ROLL20 for any of the cinematics, I suggest not buying the Roll 20 Alien sets and gussying up the cards etc from PDFs using GIMP instead. It's not hard, but takes time. Bonus is I found it helped solidify understanding as I went about it.

I use the tabletop as a player mat rather than just a map, with space for player whiteboarding and useful tables.

I made my own initiative deck by deleting all but the ace-ten of spades of a Roll20 card deck and replaced the back with the initiative card backing, which does deal to turn order properly.

And because we lose the neat action-tracker on the initiative cards, I made two infinite decks of slow and fast action counters that I can deal to players.

I tried out the Starter Set for Roll20 but found it did nothing better than I had already done things, did some of them much worse and offered only the ability to read the book in Roll20, which I didn't need because I have it and any other docs I need open in other windows.

Here's an example of what I did with the cards so they can be made visible to players who care.

Best part of Roll20 is that it is relatively easy for newbies to pick up, doesn't suffer much from tech problems, and it allows me to have a team from all over the world at the same table.

CAVEAT: Not affiliated in any way.

Sorry for going off-topic a bit.

[mellow vessel]

No worries, I thought you were talking about like lore inconsistencies. Yeah the equipment stuff is kind of all over the place

[upper python]

I'm about to start playing DoW but can find any fun assets/resources. I found the personnel file handouts for the AWOLS but thats that.
For CotG i found loads of stuff, MUTHER hard copy file, banter cards and great adventure summary sheets.
Are there any more maps/ handouts / cheatsheets i've missed? Can't even find printer friendly character sheets.

[latent bloom]

I made some printer friendly sheets from the form fillable pdf. I couldn't figure out a good way to get them in the databank so I left a link in the main chat for someone else to do it if they wanted them. I'll see if I can find it.

[latent bloom]

#arpg message

[golden wyvern]

Oh, could you share those of the awols, need those as well?

[latent bloom]

Oh sorry - didn't make those.

These were kind of a rush job to get my game going as is.

They're the form fillable pdfs though so it should be pretty quick for just those 4

[golden wyvern]

Ah right

I have seen somebody make some really good looking wanted sheets for the AWOLs here a few months ago

But I can't for the life of me recall who it was

[upper python]

Thanks! I'll print them straight away!

[upper python]

I have then saved, but can't remember who/ where i found them.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post resources not made by me

[golden wyvern]

I should have saved them then

[upper python]

I found them!

https://www.reddit.com/r/alienrpg/comments/wpp0c2/dow_made_dossier_handouts_for_the_awols_pretty/

[golden wyvern]

Awesome!!!! Thanks a lot, these will be saved asap

[mellow vessel]

Welp, after ruining my combat encounters with insane successes time and time again, Hammer’s head has been crushed by the Bodyburster

[golden wyvern]

Oh no

How terrible

Anyway

[sly sigil]

Hey there! Feel free to ping me. I just started DoW & my players want to return to the Fort Nebraska after killing the xenomorph at the marshall station. One of them died & the other is incredibly wounded + I think they want to bring it's body to show what's going on. Does anyone have ideas,tips, etc for a return to the base so early?

[unreal mortar]

body dissolves in acid? or, maybe when they arrive have the major chew them out for returning before completing the mission, take their 'evidence' and send them back on the street to look for the other AWOLs

[sly sigil]

yea I was thinking he chews them out, but was kinda unsure what his reaction would be. Like one died & the other is super low health so maybe he'd be a bit lenient? idk

also like... what do you think the consequences would be as far as the AWOLs go?

I kinda want Chaplain to have a time trying to destroy the evidence so having the body dissolve seems meh

[unreal mortar]

chaplain should have been trying to conserve the material while it was alive, but one awol dead is a good result for the major.

theylll want the unit out there recovering the rest of the awols now. but with a marine dead, this could be a chance to give that player a new PC, or, introduce 'wright' who has been stalking them as per the event, and give that player Wright, so they can team up with the unit. but, only team up once the unit has left the base again. the injured player might get a expediated patchup, or if theyre considered not fit for duty (or better yet, infected) the major might keep them at base and send out another marine in their place

[sly sigil]

ahhh using Wright is a good idea thanks. Save the 2 unused marines for the next time someone dies lol. Then yea put the almost dead PC on med leave & have him use one of the backup pregens. thanks yea

although I'm not sure how Chaplain could conserve the xeno while it's alive lol

[unreal mortar]

thats up to them

so long as J is in control they need to try to get xeno materials, whatever that means to them.

if Chaps in charge they can protect the team

[sly sigil]

like what nonlethal ways are there to capture one? I'm really new to the system & haven't read all the weapons and stuff

[unreal mortar]

the acid burnin thing was only in resurrection, so i imagine if they can find a container, or even a room they can seal off with no vents, they might be able to pretend 'im sealing it to protect everyone' but infact theyre sealing it for collection later? maybe?

[sly sigil]

ooooo. I saw ressurection probably like 2 decades ago lol. I was curious bc I think I looked at tranq guns & it specified humanoids. I guess they do have to breath tho yea

[unreal mortar]

freezing them works

makes them hibernate

[sly sigil]

yea yea that's valid given the climate

[unreal mortar]

so, get em in cryo or hit them with coolant or something

true youre in the snow

[sly sigil]

all right thanks this has been helpful

[golden wyvern]

If you are worried about what Hatfield might say, just tell them that he’ll inform the Colonel about this development, and that in the mean time that this is to be kept classified

Play it up from that angle

Simple and to the point

[sly sigil]

less worried, more was looking for insight into how to handle it. I think I get it, but still open to suggestions/tips.

[latent bloom]

A couple thoughts:
-if they have a xeno corpse, it might be time to introduce Eckford willing to take it off their hands and maybe start sewing distrust with Meyers
-Hatfield could send a dropship for the injured marines to let the squad continue their mission
-You could lay the seeds of Hatfield being on the PC's side while Meyers sees them as completely expendable over the radio.

So between Hatfield wanting them to return, Meyers pushing them on, Eckford interfering, and Chaplain trying to cover things up, you should have plenty of options for things to do.

And the nuclear option is have Wright show up, but have her be the bodyburster, and have her start changing right before the bombardment that starts Act 2. There's no reason you can't search for the last 2 AWOLs in Act 2.

[sly sigil]

oh that's good stuff, sounds drama filled which i love thanks! One thing I'm still unclear about is why they would want to side with Eckford?

I guess she could give them information about the bugs?

[latent bloom]

I like to play her as trying to save the AWOLs by saying she's trying to get them off the moon in cryosleep to get them to a better medical facility - play off the PCs loyalty and comraderie.

[sly sigil]

ah yea that makes sense. So "you give me the corpse, I help you find the AWOLs"

[latent bloom]

...of course, she just wants the research, but it's all the same before they're off moon.

[sly sigil]

yea yea

[latent bloom]

I also had her microdosing 26 Draconis as a fertility treatment as a call back to Prometheus and to set up possible monsters from HoD once the PCs get to level 3 - but that's totally off script. I just thought it was fun 🙂

[sly sigil]

hahaha okay that's a pretty awesome idea

[golden wyvern]

She can offer them money, all sort of expensive stuff, maybe even a career at WY

You can also play that Meyers wants the awols dead while Eckford wants them alive

[sly sigil]

I did notice some of the WY equipment is very expensive & good, true

[latent bloom]

...also, sooner or later Dante will get REAL interested in what Eckford knows :). Especially the location of the pualing medpod.

[sly sigil]

I was a bit apprehensive about giving them free reign of the armory, but after how the first session went I probably shouldn't be worried about giving them WY weapons & stuff lol

[golden wyvern]

I personally would limit what they can get

If they can all run with plasma's and rockets

[latent bloom]

Honestly, they should feel overly equipped and badassy in Act 1.

No one cares about the challenge against humans.

Let them steamroll the insurgents. That's basically a comtech roll for a space trucker

[sly sigil]

yea I kinda skimmed thru & made a list of sensible stuff the armory would have. But maybe ya know she offers a plasma rifle or 2 or something

[golden wyvern]

Insurgents should be easy

Single drone should be easy

[sly sigil]

yea for sure

[golden wyvern]

UPP troops is more on their level

The hive in Act 3

That should be a nightmare

[sly sigil]

yea lmao

[latent bloom]

Not if you play them right. If they attack from ambush and in close quarters and are engaged most of the time they'll drop, but not before dealing some heavy pain.

[latent bloom]

In mine it was the radiation that got them the most. Thems dice is fickle.

[sly sigil]

oh I totally forgot about the ambush rule dang

so probably should have been 2 dead PCs lol

[golden wyvern]

I feel the one in the marshall station should be easy

To give them that false sense of superiority

Get them be overconfident

[latent bloom]

I get that. I did it more like a jump scare since it's the first time they see one.

[sly sigil]

yea I played HLD first & the drone killed 2 & ripped the synth in half, so they def feel like they made out better this time lol.

[golden wyvern]

Ah Nice

Good good

That will so come back and bite them

[sly sigil]

I have a feeling I"m going to have to make more pregens & figure out new personal agendas sooner rather than later lol

[golden wyvern]

Or come up with some sacrificial npc’s they come along

Maybe a marine or 2

Or some lost civies

[unreal mortar]

this is a fantastic angle to exploit! thankyou so much for this little gift 😄

[sly sigil]

it does make sense in a way. Meyers is like "man theyre screwed" but Eckford wants to do further testing/research on them alive

[unreal mortar]

also meyes doesnt want the research to get out into the wrong hands. and Eckford is absolutely the wrong hands

[golden wyvern]

My pleasure

Go nuts with it

[golden wyvern]

That said, Meyers and Eckford are both part of the project so you should feel free to let them try and incriminate the other in order to gain the sympathy of the players

[sly sigil]

so with the chestburster in the medical facility, do you assume there's vents or something it can escape to?

[unreal mortar]

theres always vents. or a gap under the door, or a window grate. if you need to get out as a squidgy little blood wet beasty, you can

unless, the players specifically used stunts to seal something off with like a bolt gun or cutting torch kinda thing

[sly sigil]

yea it just seemed like it was a sealed location or something when I looked at the map

[sly sigil]

I kinda wanna make it a bodyburster tho, but that'd take away the real from Woljcik hmm...

[mellow vessel]

Keep the chestburster imo, having an “easy” target for the marines will make the players cocky

It’ll make the hell that’ll come later even more fun

[sly sigil]

yea I'm kinda torn being doing that & letting it get away. I guess I can just make a morale roll kinda thing for it

[golden wyvern]

You could play that it scurries off the moment somebody tries to attack it

But yeah, I also have the bodyburster at the hospital as I made a serious rewrite for the end of act 1 and act 2

With a ton more of action

More insurgents

More UPP

More utter chaos

[sly sigil]

did you keep woljcik as one too or what did you do there?

[golden wyvern]

I changed her place in the mansion with Wright

And Wolcjek was captured by the insurents and placed on a truck towards them but all contact got lost

The PC will later find the truck and get told by Wright that last she knew Wolcjek brought Carvallo to the hospital

She fled back there, mid transformation

And has been nimbling here and there

[sly sigil]

ahhhh i see thanks. i'm hopefully gonna be running this part today. Expecting 1 more session in act 1 before I end it, but trying to think about diff "what if"s

[latent bloom]

I did the same.

[sly sigil]

doing it like that would let me roleplay the insurgents a bit more before the act ends hmm

[golden wyvern]

That was my thinking as well

I can do more with the insurgents, give the players something to figure out

And it also means that the whole mess with the bodyburster moves to act 2

And act 2 is badly in need of extra content

[sly sigil]

yea I think it could be a fun angle if they believe the "hear say" from people in town or get info from eckford & wanna hear the insurgents out

[latent bloom]

I actually had the mission be recover a "bioweapon" (the oil eating bacteria) from Botos and they go directly to the compound in the dropship from the briefing. From there, they discover evidence they got the bioweapon from a mysterious woman (eckford) in exchange for smuggling the AWOLs off the moon durling the lockdown.
So from there they find AWOL 1 in the jail, and AWOL 2 whoever ends up being the bodyburster and kicks off Act 2. And from there they have 2 more AWOLs to find while the ground becomes significantly more hostile - with the ACT 3 change happening roughly the time they find the last AWOL wherever they go.

I like giving them a compound full of UPPs and no xenos because if they're playing marines, they want to shoot stuff and be badass and that gets it out of the way early.

sorry - tangent.

[golden wyvern]

That is why I went with a ton of insurgents there

Let them play out the soldier a little more

[sly sigil]

no that's a good start I think.

I def wanna do more with them bc I love faction play

[golden wyvern]

You should

[latent bloom]

That's why I had Eckford make a deal with the insurgents. I like it murky. I also have the insurgents making deals with the UPP in act 1 for weapons, but then when the UPP actually invade the insurgents actually help the marines fight them off.

So there's the Colonial Marines/Meyers, W-Y/Eckford, the UPP, and the Insurgents - all with different motives which shift their loyalties to eachother as it goes on.

[sly sigil]

yea thats how I like to run stuff. Gives some agency to players, do they wanna keep following orders, defect, make a deal with the company that wins no matter what, etc

[golden wyvern]

Same here

It feels more in line with the movies if things aren’t as straightforward as they appear at first

[latent bloom]

The end of my Act 2 was the insurgents pinning down Davidovich and his commandos in the oil refinery while the marines went in and took him out, and found Wright and Cavalarho - but he already bursted so they were stalked by a xeno inside.
Long story short, Hammer ended up attaching Davidovich's severed head to his belt 🙂

[golden wyvern]

Ouch

[sly sigil]

lmao nice

[golden wyvern]

Yeah I have plans for Davidovich and his commandos but I am gonna have to see what models Paps will make for them

[latent bloom]

DoW is really a great sandbox if you let it be.

[golden wyvern]

Oh yes

That is also what makes it a lot of fun

[sly sigil]

I think this is the general flow chart. Pretty sure they'll take WY help but if not wanted to cover my bases. Just need to write a scene for the compound and should be ready to do this wooo

[sly sigil]

er more like this. sorry I think that's probably good

[sly sigil]

went to look at the description of Sublevel 03 again to see how wright should describe it bc the book says she mentions it specifically. In the description it says PCs are unaware of it being bio/xeno weapons lol. I'm not messing up by telling them am I?

[sly sigil]

like it just seems really early hmm...

[sly sigil]

my players perhaps took "Kill the AWOLs on sight" too literally

[unreal mortar]

just following orders

[sly sigil]

Dante shot Wright point blank bc she mentioned wanting to get the thing inside her out. Kinda funny when i think about it.

[unreal mortar]

wait, does dante know yet at this point?

[sly sigil]

they're about to lol

[unreal mortar]

tehe

[sly sigil]

so due to killing the guy with grenade belt while he was next to the party, 2 are wounded & Chaplain was shredded. The injury says he can still be plunged in & the party wants to get another body for him. It seems plausible in narrative but idk if it's better to just say make a new character.

[latent bloom]

I ran into something similar - just ask the person playing. They either have a vested interest in playing Chaplain, or a vested in interest in playing someone who can do something 🙂

I let him pick another PC at any point and he never ended doing it.

[sly sigil]

oh he's all for it. it just seems kinda like setting a precedent for saving androids, but I guess its fine. i need to look at synth injur table again

[sly sigil]

right so that result, System Shutdown, is the only way they can die so hmm... I guess in most cinematic scenarios it's pretty difficult to transplant the synths CPU or whatever..

Like once act 2 hits they'll have a hard time I imagine

[mellow vessel]

How did you all handle Davydovich’s pursuit in Act II? I really want to make sure the players feel the tension and the chase

[limpid rivet]

So, quick question about epilogue:

How many space suits the players should start with? (Number of human players -1)? If yes, is there possibility to just autopilot the transporter and somehow dock it to the space elevator? If you can dock it, then do you need space suits in order to survive?

[latent bloom]

I think the intent is clearly to have that no-win situation for at least one PC and have them duke it out or work it out some other way. But honestly, by that point in the module I'd go with what would be the most satisfying for the players which you should have feel for after everything else - the nihilisting ending where one is sacrificed or the happy one where there's a way around not enough suits.

[limpid rivet]

Well the thing is they even built attachment to their NPC comrades (Which are Żmijewski and Iona) they will be sad if they survive and they won't be able to go with them and save them. Which obviously be great revelation.

So thats my question, should suits be there for NPCs and it just only affecting the players, or there is just simply not enough suits for everybody?

[latent bloom]

I think by default - the PCs. Although it sounds like you'd get the same effect for the NPCs as well :). I found that "built attachment" thing in my playthrough as well more than in the other modules so I let them all get out but tacked on an additional scene for the ending. I'd honestly trust your judgement call as to what would be most effective over the book since you know the group at this point.

[frank crescent]

Number of suits won't matter if there are more than five survivors. Thats the max the EEV will support. If they aren't duking it out for the suits they may just end up fighting over the cryopods.

[latent bloom]

side thought - it's funny they're attached to Zmijewsky 🙂

[sly sigil]

lol I was wondering how you did that since he's such an asshole

[limpid rivet]

he lost his balls during acid spray because of the Alien damage

one of the PCs was playing him, but he has got 2 serious injuries so he swapped to Hammer instead

and apart from that Żmijewski even though he's an asshole he's so comic relief they love him

[limpid rivet]

True but they still have Chaplain and Davydovich so they won't count since they dont need to hibernate

Along with it they have Dante, Iona, Żmijewski and Eckford, they would not probably care about Eckford but for Dante and others well - they are trying to save everyone and it seems they will manage to get out chestbuster from Dante on time

[limpid rivet]

Good point. I think I will just go with the flow and I will decide on the end about the number of suits, and how the dynamics between NPCs and PC will look like towards the end 🙂

[odd tusk]

Hey all, was wondering if anyone has attempted to make a prequel to DoW with the AWOL'ers? And played with the same player into DoW?

[latent bloom]

It's an interesting idea, but it would be tough to have the players on board where they get railroaded into being facehugged by the end. They simultaneously know they can't win, but also have plot immunity.

[lone tangle]

So my players go to the bar and get solid intel, then one of the plotters bolts and Zmijewski is ordred to give chase. Long story short, plotter ends up stabbed in an alley, but still alive since I replaced "Severed Leg" crit with "Punctured Lung" - if ed 2 does anything it should fix the One Overly-Random Crit Table To Rule Them All thing. Back in the APC Chaplain fixes up the plotter and they interrogate said plotter, who gives up plot leader and location.

Lots of talk, but the team was not really ready so I make plotter say "I got rights! Take me to the Marshal station or take me to the med center so's I can get proper treatment".

They report in to CiC and get told to assault the compound (of course). Then they do some very strange things.

They start by saying they are going to ask CiC to send reinforcements, maybe a better equipped squad. I am aghast that they have completely ignored their briefing as characters and the whole point of assembling the scenario as players. But I gently point out the Need To Know bit (I was too pissed to point out the 'Best for the Job' part to be honest) and they get the picture.

(I mean, where could the "ask CiC for better team" go? Everyone pulled into solitary confinement pending charges of dereliction of duty, failure to follow direct orders and so on? Spending Act1 in jankers, act 2 watching the warder staf dwindle and listening to muffled explosions and finally being killed in act 3 by something I won't discuss so I can allow them to rewind time, reconsider a course of action that doesn't involve me playing the entire thing out NPC v NPC on my own?).

Then they state they are taking the prisoner ... to the Fort! They have orders not to make the problem public, orders to assault the compound, but they are going to stroll back to the Fort and secure a talkative prisoner who has overheard all this.

And of course they missed my heavy-handed hint to go and get more clues from any of two locations first. The marshals were "untrustworthy", and the med center not worth their time.

<Sigh>.

So now they are plotting out the details of an assault. They don't seem to want the dropship, though one player, the leader of the charge for the 'let someone else do it' idea, was enamoured of the idea of pounding the compound with the dropship's awesome armament until I pointed outthat they do not know where in the compound the asset they are charged with recovering "if at all possible" is right now, that the political situation might be inflamed by apparently indescriminate aerial bombardment of a private residence and the ever present problem of the pipelines going hither and yon through the theater of engagement. I also said I was absolutely OK with them levelling the compound wih rocket fire if that was their prefered plan as long as they were aware as players of the consequences that might be obvious to their characters.

The urge to point out that they equiped with smoke grenades before decamping, and that Zmijewski has the tie breaker in "no-one can see" firefights is overpowering.

The players are having a ball. The problem of course is that of the Texas Hold-em viewer: I can see all the cards, so what seems to the players to be logical is revealed as reckless to the viewer. 😅

[sly sigil]

Anyone got some ideas for a short scene I could do to stretch out this next session so I end with Act 2 starting? Only 1 AWOL left, party is at hospital. Theyre gonna call for reinforcements & to take the injured. Probably throw a lead to the Oil Refinery which leads to the Compound. could use another stop or 2 tho...

[sly sigil]

I guess going back to the bar to get a lead to the oil refinery works hmmm

[golden wyvern]

You can always throw in a run in with some unhappy colonists

[sly sigil]

at the bar or just in general? either way yea. Hmm I wonder how to do that. i thought there was an event like that in Act 1 but I dont see it

[latent bloom]

I think there was an ambush event

You could also throw Eckford and the Dog Catchers at them wherever they end up too.

[sly sigil]

the ambush is insurgents, I thought there was one about colonists specifically. but yea they met Eckford last time. I think they're going to call her & try to make a deal but idk if i want to bc they were really rude to her lmao

They were very against making any deal with her, so I'm not sure why she would trust them now lol

[golden wyvern]

The spaceport, there is such an event there

But you can easily port this over to other places in the colony

You can do a lot with a restless mob of angry civies

[sly sigil]

ahhh yea okay thanks

[sly sigil]

so it's looking like "clean up" the hospital -> call Hatfield/decide to search for clues for insurgents compound -> stopped by angry civies -> go to Oblivion forlead -> go to oil refinery -> use insurgent comms to find base/ raid compound ->

[sly sigil]

hey back again lol. Anyone have neat ideas to expand on Act 2? It feels very sparse.

[latent bloom]

The ideal way is to still have AWOLs unaccounted for but it sounds like that ship has sailed?

[sly sigil]

yeaaa

[golden wyvern]

Go ham with the UPP invasion

That is what I have done to expand Act 2

Have the insurgents come after the marines

Lookin for revenge and take back the awols

[sly sigil]

I feel like I can get some mileage with the davids but some of the other ones idk

having some insurgents show up as they leave is good too yea.

[latent bloom]

Don't make it "filler" though. Seriously the module isn't about act 2 so if it's going nowhere just let them get to the base.

What "should" happen in Act 2 is the confrontation/chase with Davidovich.

The rest is window dressing.

[sly sigil]

yea that's fair.

they also have a frozen Xeno. I feel like that's ripe for something but idk what

[latent bloom]

One thing I did almost by accident is stretch out the events that start act 2
-So the first encounter happened purely during the bombing. There was no invasion yet (this happened to be a fight with Eckford and the Dog Catchers)
-The next is UPP fighters in the air and drop ships at the base and starport. (this is where their dropship would get attacked)
-Finally, troops on the ground fighting insurgents fighting marines. Here's good for a 3 way faction fight.

That change of scenery and environment was kind of enough for Act 2 when I did it and it stayed mostly interesting.

[sly sigil]

yea it's just when I first read it I was like "oh i can probably get a couple sessions out of this" but now I'm like "ehhhh 1 for sure.." but you're right I shouldn't just make filler. hmmm what to do with frozen alien...

I guess since they made a deal with Eckford she can show up to collect it & maybe they double cross her or something

[latent bloom]

I think the point of Act 2 is for the players to deal with whatever situation they've gotten themselves into in a more hostile environment. If that situation isn't there or is relatively small, Act 2 should probably size itself accordingly. That's my take on it anyway.

[sly sigil]

Yea I'm thinking maybe insurgents show up at the compound & there's a fire fight. while that's going on Eckford comes to collect -> They leave & the Davids show up to start the chase -> Fissured highway makes them either engage with Davids or find some alt route. Then if they run I can do some of the other Events. either way that should be close to a session & probably start next session with Act 3 opening

[sly sigil]

well that was a real doozy jeeeeeeeze. when the davids caught them they tried blowing up the drop ship. needless to say that didn't go well. but they handed over the xeno to Eckford beforehand so I just took some prisoners of war & let them go. There was a panic death spiral it was so nuts

[latent bloom]

Hey with only 5 PCs which 2 pregens do you leave off? It seems to me Iona and Zmjwesky are the logical choices. I know it says let the players choose, but some are obviously more interesting and/or integral than others.

[slow ingot]

I do let my players choose. If they enjoy one PC more than the other they will have more fun roleplaying them. That's more worth to me than a Personal Agenda

That said, Iona is indeed the one I'd leave out. Or Hammer

[indigo ingot]

Where did the Xenomorphs on Ariarcus come from exactly?

[blazing birch]

I don't think it is stated explicitly, so whatever works for your game. They could be eggs recovered from LV-426, or Rim, or Romulus, or anywhere else. There is a strong hint between the interesection of Aliens Fireteam Elite and Colonial Marines Operation Manual info that || Gen. Vaughn had access to the Katanga Refinery Hive and was using it to supply Project Lifeforce.||

But seriously, it is your game, pick whatever answer sets up interesting future adventures.

[latent bloom]

Yeah - I think the only actual canon is "General Meyers got them"

I had the ship from Hope's Last Day quarantined off in the spaceport - that's where my run of it got them from.

[indigo ingot]

I wonder if Ariarcus had a Xeno-city just like Lethe

🤔

It would add a lot to the campaign

[blazing birch]

That would be a cool angle for expanding an Ariarcus campaign.

[indigo ingot]

It would make sense why there is a Xenomorph studying facility in disputed space, why put such an important asset there otherwise?

And why a few scientists would bring the Draconis strain there to begin with

[smoky prairie]

hi there, did anyone had good encounter with Wright? in two plays, they are always scared/angry from Wright after what happened to Wojczyk and want to kill her or take her to jail in apc. Anyone made her more conected with crew?

[indigo ingot]

It also kind of doubles down on the “fan servicey” elements of destroyer of worlds by using dark horse inspired space jockeys via the ancient citizens

[blazing birch]

Agreed. Destroyer of Worlds has about three campaigns worth of ideas in the text and can easily inspire several more beyond the explicit content of the text. It is a real gold mine. And under recognized for this feature.

[amber iron]

Started a new group on destroyer of worlds today. They enjoyed themselves despite chaplain getting one-shot

[golden wyvern]

Oh dear

What happened?

[amber iron]

He used his bodyguard talent to protect another PC from a xeno

[golden wyvern]

How noble of him

Guess the xeno rolled damn well?

[amber iron]

Yes very

[golden wyvern]

Things get bloody real fast when that occurs

[stark urchin]

Hi there! I'm running Destroyer of Worlds tomorrow in less than 24 hours! I'm excited for it but unfortunately we don't have enough players, only two, and we really want to play tomorrow.

Do you think it will be fine if I let my two players play more than one pre-made character?

[wicked verge]

At the same time? Why are you looking to do that?

In general, you want additional characters available for whenever a player's PC dies so they can pick up another one.

[indigo ingot]

Gonna add Xeno city underground in Ariarcus

Along with guardians

And ancient citizen bodies

[stark urchin]

I see, so just let them play one character and let the pre-made become backup characters, got it

[smoky prairie]

any links for NPC/PC sheets? Eckfort, Wright, Davydovich etc.

[smoky prairie]

and what is proper charger sound? Trex from Jurassic Park?

[smoky prairie]

hey, is there any repaired sheets for Dante and Zmijewski? after 3 plays we found talents/personal items problem with those players in sheets

[wraith lance]

If you can find clips of the Charger sounds from Colonial Marines, Fireteam Elite, or Dark Descent I’d suggest those

[wraith lance]

@wicked verge how long did it take you to figure out what was happening to Dante when we played the first time?

[smoky prairie]

thx: https://youtube.com/shorts/1733qMBlKL8?si=40lLfw8ZrJtxDbhg

[mellow vessel]

So does the whole Fort have Weak radiation, or is radiation only in the specified areas? It’s not super clear to me

[smoky prairie]

as I understand it is around entrance to fort and yard and in reactor/armory section

[smoky prairie]

do you give to players experience points after sessions? I let them gave point and now in session 6 they are very overpowered in my opinion

[mellow vessel]

No, in cinematic scenarios you just give them story points after they finish Acts

[golden wyvern]

Experience points is only for campaign play, not for the Cinematics

[smoky prairie]

thank you

[golden wyvern]

That is also why the characters in the scenario already have several talents

[fiery willow]

A couple of questions. 1) how long has this taken to run for you guys? 2) Is it OK to run HoD before this?

Oh, and one more: I'd have four players, can you run it just with those or do you need to have them double-up on PCs?

[mellow vessel]

My group’s going to be doing our 9th and final session next Friday. Our sessions have ranged from around 2.5 to 4.5 hours each

[gilded forge]

1 - Typically 5-7 sessions at 3 hours each.
2 - Sure you can run Heart of Darkness before.
3 - 4-5 players is ideal.

[fiery willow]

4-5 players with one PC each? When I was a player we had four players and each had 2 PCs, which I hated. Do you need to tone down the encounters?

[mellow vessel]

I have four players as well and it feels perfect

Each with one PC

So far 2 have died haha

[fiery willow]

Are you running all the other NPCs that start with them? I feel I need to re-read the adventure.

[mellow vessel]

Yup

[gilded forge]

Yes, one PC each. The other characters are in the APC as backups

[mellow vessel]

So far my Hammer player died and took over Z, and then just recently Chaplain died and he took over Iona

Yeah there are a lot of NPCs throughout the module, but most are pretty minor

[fiery willow]

OK, cool, thanks. I have the opportunity to run something for a long-term 5e group (where I'm a player, the DM is asking about a bit of a breaker), we did COTG before so I'm wondering which of the two later cinematics might be best. I think I liked the intrigue of HoD more but feel I could tone down DoW a little from the constant-fighting it was for my group when I was a player.

[mellow vessel]

Does anyone remember what Wright’s rank is? I don’t have the book in front of me rn

[torpid karma]

Wright = Lance Corporal

[mellow vessel]

Ty!

[smoky prairie]

DoW is great every act is different type of action 1. more detective work, 2. military thriller, 3. run for life and xeno finale, my players love it

[latent bloom]

I "read between the lines" a little when I ran it play by post to up the intrigue and leaned into the factions a bit. I had the colonial marines have no jurisdiction outside Fort Nebraska or the Starport so that had ask the Marshall permission for any other engagement outside those areas, and of course the Marshall didn't like them being there. I had the insurgents want Ariarcus free, so they didn't like the colonial marines and only liked the UPP because they gave them weapons, so once the UPP landed the insurgents fought both of them. I also had Eckford make the deal with the insurgents to get the AWOLs off the moon in one of their ships after Myers ordered the lockdown so she was actively trying to obstruct the PCs early on until she realized one of them had a chestburster too. There was lots to play with there.

[latent bloom]

...and if I may suggest:
Have the initial briefing be to hunt down and kill/capture Botos. Have the first location out of Fort Nebraska be the insurgent compound and give them the APC, the dropship and everything else to be badass. That gets all machine gunning out of them early on so they can feel like badasses before the Aliens come out.
From there, they find evidence the insurgents are planning on smuggling the AWOLs off the planet, and start the investigation there. At some point have one of the insurgents say they were paid by a woman who turns out to be Eckford.

Then you can trigger act 2 wherever you want. Just have the bombardment decimate wherever the PCs are (and all other major areas).

For my game, I had Botos have the oil eating bacteria as payment from Eckford to get the AWOLs off the moon. His plan was to release it, thereby destroying all the oil on the moon and making it worthless for the UPP and Colonial Marines so they'd have no point in staying.

The other thing I did so the PCs could get a little bit of flavor of the setting was to have them come in on the Moyneham and disembark at the starport where Hatfield stays behind using it as a command post. Then they get ambushed on the way to Fort Nebraska where they the briefing. Later, when they radio in about the AWOLs Meyers tells them to find and kill them, whereas Hatfield suggests they bring them in first, so there's some friction in command and the PCs can see Hatfield may have their interests more in mind than Meyers.

[fiery willow]

Heh how did I know you would have modded the shit out of everything

sounds fun

[latent bloom]

Yeah I really didn't mean for it to go that far 🙂

But I kept trying to solve problems and it ended up there.

Like
-So most groups never make it to the Starport, but it's a good location. How can I make sure they see it? Maybe they start there!

Or
-It's not much of an investigation, just "hey find these guys" and people saying "I think I saw them over there!". How can I make it a REAL investigation? Have them figure out there's AWOLs themselves!

[latent bloom]

Also, not going to lie, I LOVE the intrigue map that sets up.
-Insurgents vs Marines vs UPP
-Eckford playing both Meyers and the Insurgents to get her specimen
-Hatfield loyal to the marines vs Meyers going rogue for his own project
-The Marshall just trying to keep the peace undermined by the Marines and the Insurgents
It just makes playing the NPCs really fun.

Oh yeah. And Eckford can't have kids. But is pregnant anyway. I also homaged Prometheus with her when everyone got to sub level 3. Needed to pull out the old Heart of Darkness alien section for that one 🙂

[smoky prairie]

so about yesterday

[mellow vessel]

That is a kickass setup

[latent bloom]

My razor sharp detective skills tell me that's the space elevator 🙂

[smoky prairie]

https://tenor.com/view/hat-tip-thanks-thank-you-welcome-youre-welcome-gif-18643868

[mellow vessel]

So uh

My players just two-shotted the queen

[gilded forge]

that sounds like a great session!

where do they think they are going? the climber car terminates at the top and there are only enough suits for maybe half of them.

[mellow vessel]

They haven’t gotten that far yet lmao, we ended the session after that combat

The hallway fight actually gave them some hell, but they breezed thru the queen

[gilded forge]

My groups are usually toast by that hallway and are mostly finished off by the queen. nice work! they got the facehuggers and everything?

you could always add a stowaway on the upper levels

[mellow vessel]

They all shot from the doorway lmao, not close enough to trigger the eggs. Don’t worry, they’ll get some facehugger action next session

[latent bloom]

This is what makes this game great. You know KNOW the GM isn’t responsible if live or die because Alien is impossible to balance

[fiery willow]

Balance? We don't need no stinkin' balance!

[golden wyvern]

Another glorious day in the Corps, urah!!

[odd tusk]

Hi all,
I've just got gone running CotG and that took me 3 sessions (3 x ~3.5 hours). Just wondering how long DoW takes to play through?

[latent bloom]

It's highly dependent on how you want to run it. A bit more so than CotG. BUT I would say 4 sessions minimum if you try for it. Act 1 w/ 2 AWOLs found for 1 session, Act 2 w/ the other 2 AWOLs found for 1 session, and 2 sessions for the base - 1 session to get to the control room and the andriod (forgot her name) and the last session to get to the basement with the queen.
You don't want to try to do Act 3 all in one session because you'll be rushing the queen fight and probably the lead up to it as the reactor restarts.

[odd tusk]

that's great detailing. Thank you

[latent bloom]

No prob - keep in mind, the above is probably minimum. You'll probably need to be pushing the whole time to do it that way.

I would say a "comfortable" number is more like 6 sessions. 2-3 for act 1 (because there's a lot of setting packed in there if you want to explore it). 1-2 for Act 2 - mostly for loose ends and non-alien combat encounters, and 3-4 for Act 3 if you include being outside the base fighting abominations, inside the base getting to the control room, taking some time so they understand what happened in level 3, the optional events, being stalked before the reactor starts, being chased after it starts, ect...

[golden wyvern]

DoW is pretty easy to expand, you can really go ham once the UPP shows up.

[odd tusk]

i was going to ask, is it as easy to run as CotG, more difficult or just different?

[gilded forge]

I like it better than CotG, lots of fun. For Act 2 if you blink you'll miss it. It's Improv Central unless you thoroughly prepare.

[latent bloom]

I think it's just as easy as long as you don't fall into the trap of wanting to explore all of the implicit stuff.

[latent bloom]

Like, as written, there's probably a better than average chance the PCs won't go to the starport. But it's a cool place and some part of your brain will probably push to get it in there.

[odd tusk]

ooo, sounds interesting

[latent bloom]

Like honestly, you could expand it into a full on campaign. I did it Play-by-Post so I had plenty of time to explore a lot of it. I had the insurgents only allying with the UPP to get weapons to fight the colonial marines, and then they turn on the UPP when they invade in Act 2 because they are trying for freedom the whole time.
I had Eckford hire the insurgents to get the AWOLs off of the planet because Meyers locked down the colony and was going to shut her out of the research. So lots of floating alliances between the Colonial Marines, WY, the UPP, and the insurgents.

There's so much just under the surface that if you're looking for a rabbit hole you can find any number of them to jump down.

[gilded forge]

My DoW is usually 6 sessions at 3 hours. Occasionally as few as 5 or as much as 7

[latent bloom]

I also expanded the ending. My PCs got of the space elevator and instead of finding an escape shuttle they spacewalked to and were picked up by the border bomber ship being piloted by David(ovich - same guy in my game).

[gilded forge]

That part always felt ugly, when everyone comes out at Act 3 looking for friends.

[latent bloom]

David had a bunch of neos (now played by a previously dead PC), and one of the other PCs got infected and I had him start getting a psychic connection the xenos setting up what Draconis actually creates in HoD. And of course, that PC conveniently got to also control the Queen who also escaped out of the space elevator that the PCs never actually killed.
So a nice 3 way battle there.

It was also like a mini act 4. Act 3.5.

[golden wyvern]

I even have an alternate endfight should my players plan to go towards the spaceport to escape instead of the base

[latent bloom]

I actually had them arrive by that ship instead of the space elevator to encourge that. Of course, they witness it blow up if they try to get there in act 2 🙂

[golden wyvern]

Haha

I have a little backup in case the players decide to screw over Eckford and try to take her escape shuttle

She has a little surprise in case anybody feels brave all of a sudden

A Berserker

[latent bloom]

I had my Eckford have a little too much faith in the draconis and used it as a fertility treatment mirroring Shaw. She was definitly trying to get to that medpod on level 3 by the end 🙂

[golden wyvern]

Nice

[flat iris]

Do you guys adjust the handout that the players get about the AWOL marines at the beginning? The one in the PDF seems like it has too much info.

[gilded forge]

Yup. Way too much info. Name, Rank, Pic.

[gilded forge]

GM: "Here's the card for Reese"
Player: "Why does it say he's dead?"
GM: 👀

[latent bloom]

Yeah also - put a post it over Chaplain’s bio if you’re letting the PCs pick their own character unless you want to spoil Act 1 for everyone.

I also never figured out why Mason gets their own handout for “saw an alien before” with nothing else that relates to the scenario.

[short belfry]

Hi, just got the nice little box and reading through it. Sooo. Spoiler I guess
||The players directly know that one of the deserter is infected by a chestbuster? If they ask about it, Hatfield responds something along the lines of "do your job, don't aks questions" ?||

[latent bloom]

i don't think they do.

[golden wyvern]

They know nothing other than what they are told in the briefing

[short belfry]

Doesn't it say to give them the card of the 4 dudes?

Cause it's written on them

[golden wyvern]

Yes, and you should ignore those cards as they reveal too much

[latent bloom]

That's generally considered a screw up on Free League's part. I think the intent was to share the pictures, but nothing on the other side of the card.

[short belfry]

Yeah that's what I thought too

Cause that would be very anti-climatic right? x)

[latent bloom]

As a sidenote too - don't hand out all of the character sheets to your players to pick who they want to be. Chaplain's bio contains huge spoilers for Act 1 that only his player should know.

[short belfry]

Yeah, that's was my thoughts too

I'll give it to my SO, so I can explain to her before the game what's up with the character

[latent bloom]

Just a heads up in case you missed it 🙂

[short belfry]

Thank you very muuch tho

Those could be sad things for the game :c

[golden wyvern]

Aye

It is more fun to let the players figure it out on their own

If they can manage that before everything goes to shit, well, that is their responsibility

If you do want to give your players something, a guy on Reddit made these. I have sadly forgotten the guy's name but he does deserve the full credit for these awesome wanted posters

[latent bloom]

I took a step further and had the main mission be "Attack the safehouse and apprehend Botos". And then from there they find evidence he was working with the dog catcher lady to smuggle out the above. Kind of let the mystery unfold instead of the mission being like "Find these guys!" and then when they go somewhere someone's like "Hey those guys are over there!" over and over.

[golden wyvern]

Oh yes, it is a great cinematic to add your own twist to

[flat iris]

I'm a little confused reading over act 3 - is there a good blog or video that breaks it down?

[latent bloom]

None that I know of - what are you looking for?

It's basically:
-Get to the control room to control the space elevator and meet Jael
-Get to the reactor to turn on the space elevator
-Get to the elevator on level 3 and discover what was happening there right before you encounter the queen
-Sidequest to the nukes to blow the place up and meet the crusher

[flat iris]

ok I'm re-reading - here's where I think I was lost

The climber car - the queen is actually inside there? There are 3 levels to the climber, is that right?

I didn't realize the diagram on page 49 was actually the inside of the climber - i thought it was another part of the fort

[flat iris]

so there's a queen and massive amount of xenos in the climber cargo hold - and if you kill them inside the climber their acid destroys the climber. seems nearly impossible. but maybe that's the point.

[latent bloom]

This is a hot take, but DoW really feels like an outline that you fill the details in with. Like, they don’t actually say it, but you CAN sneak by the queen and start the climber. And she IS right next to the airlock.
It might be an homage to the movie, a stand up battle before the lift even starts moving, or a cat and mouse chase with facehuggers popping out of the vents. I think the module wants you to make something with its toys.

[blazing birch]

My take is that marine characters know all about XX121 acid blood by this point. So they either figure out the queen is in the elevator car before departure (in which case they could lure her our of her nest and then take the space elevator), or they realize once the space elevator is moving, in which case they know going in guns blazing will destroy the elevator car, so it again becomes unconventional (blow it out the airlock or keep it locked in there until we can get off the elevator) or heroic sacrifice (they go in guns blazing and expect not to survive the damage to the space elevator but at least keep the queen from getting off planet).

Lots of options depending on player choice and when they find out the queen is there.

[fiery willow]

Gonna be doing this next. Any community suggestions as to common changes to the module? I've done it as a player and loved it but haven't run it yet

[latent bloom]

I’m doing it right now (again). I do have some changes I believe are improvements. I can go into detail in the morning, but I think I already listed them in this channel

[fiery willow]

Heh don't want to read the whole damn channel.

enh who am I kidding I probably will

[latent bloom]

I almost typed it, but then I realized it was here. Start about here:
#1047576101448339487 message

[fiery willow]

Will check it out

Funnily enough your responding to me lol

[latent bloom]

Yeah right? I remember the conversation but I forgot who it was with 🙂

[fiery willow]

Sometimes I feel like only ten of us are playing this game. Obviously not but where is everyone else? Are they do self sufficient?

[latent bloom]

I feel like there are plenty on the sidelines. I see that all the time on game store discords. Usually for D&D. Then every now and then one dips a toe in to ask for a game but there's like a year wait until a campaign ends so the timing has to be perfect.

That why I post all the time. I like to spread propaganda for gaming in general to grow the community. Nothing like hearing about it every damn day to keep people reminded :). Like that "where's the beef" commercial. Once it's normalized in your head we got ya.

[fiery willow]

Yes I am kind of the same. Plus it's a good distraction to be here lol.

[fiery willow]

Some good stuff in there.

I like the idea of having the PCs engage in some kind of "regular" combat before meeting the xenos, especially an ambush on the way to the Fort from the spaceport. Thinking of starting at the spaceport with all the other marines, having their names called out (and them not knowing way) and shepherded into the APC where they can start their "meeting each other, but not knowing why" bit and then interrupt with the attack.

[latent bloom]

Yeah. That’s gets them to the spaceport which has a decent chance of being skipped in the normal setup

And the insurgent compound gives them all the toys up front. “Yes you get a dropship right out of the gate”

Plus, they’re marines. Space truckers truck. Marines kill people. They should be good at it and that’s the default

That makes the xenos that much more scary

[fiery willow]

I don't want to give them a dropship right away, myself, I want to save that as a bit of a moment for after a downturn in their fortunes. Viable concept, though.

[latent bloom]

They have it for such a short period of time it just seems a shame

[fiery willow]

I think there are ways to add more content for it in the middle maybe.

[latent bloom]

Oh yeah - that makes sense.

[fiery willow]

I am prepping to start this next Tuesday, but to get the players ready I'm hosting a watch of Aliens on 4k on the old OLED, super excited. A couple of them haven't even seen it.

[latent bloom]

Hey so here's a question. Using my above format I did the insurgent raid first and got the end of the session. So TECHNICALLY here they could go after any of the AWOLs. It feels right to have Reese found first and Wojcik found last, but I'm wondering if letting them decide completely the order would be more fun for them.

So specifcally the leads are:
-They got a radio call from Hatfield that Ivan Stolls has been captured and is at the Marshall Station and needs to be taken to Fort Nebraska for debriefing. (Reese)
-They have a note found to Stolls saying do NOT let them go to a doctor or the deal is off (implying they want to get checked out by a doctor and pointing to San Rocco and Calvharo)
-The same note tells Stolls to bring them to the redvenous point for extraction (the old refinery but the players don't know where it is yet)
-And then I'll add Wright in somewhere that feels right unless they check the starport first.

So, I COULD give away the refinery as the rendezvous point via interrogation to open up all the paths, but I'm not sure if I should right away as the bodyburster makes a nice bookend to act 1

[tough thunder]

Is the adaptation to the Evolve Edition complicated ? I assume that not

[crimson finch]

I'm getting ready to run dow for the first time. I've run chariots probably 10 times with different groups of people. I remix the assets and peel back some of the rules to really lean into the cinematic components of play. That being said, I'm going with a comic aesthetic a la the Dark Horse comics of the late 80s, early 90s. Here is my remixed character sheets.

Oops, that was template before editing, this is the complete one

[spiral wagon]

Hi,

I'm runnig DoW on this Friday and I'm a bit confused. This story has so many secrets, scripted events and things that must be kept in mind that my head gonna explode. My memory is rather poor, I usually use notes for everything.
I'm wondering if you guys have any useful material or method to do everything in the right time and place. I'm afraid I'm gonna forget hald the stuff while running the story.

[latent bloom]

Yeah, there's a lot there. I think it's useful to think of it as a toolkit and not set in stone. The good news is you know have to know enough to run the next coming session and not the whole thing. And the events you can kind of pull as you need them when things are slow or they feel right. So if you're running it exactly how the book says, you might want to get comfortable with the Eye of Obvlivion, the Marshall Station, and the spaceport.

And the worst case scenario if you forget everything, just remember the one main thing that happens in each:
-Marshall station - Reese is dead and xeno attack in the cells
-Eye of Oblivion - Fei2 pretends to like the UPP but secretly helps the colonial marines' side and the normal people. Also clue pointing to San Rocco
-Starport - possible riot. Encounter Wright w/ maybe a chase with grenades.

If things get stuck, boring, or past where you prepped, throw in the abush from Botos's people or an encounter with Eckford.

And honestly the above isn't too bad to memorize and get comfortable with. Once you are, think about each one and maybe review it and tack on details that are cool a little at time until it's tough to manage.

[spiral wagon]

Thanks.

[spiral wagon]

I'm wondering if the PCs should do sickness rolls after fighting Wójcik in the Act I. It would make sense but probably ruin the whole game so I suppose it's wise to skip it.

[latent bloom]

I think that's built into her attack table actually - so you don't really need to plan for it.

If they do get sick you can have them only at stage 1 for most act 2 too - so they're still in control. It's just the whole party needs to deal with the inevitability.

There's plenty of NPCs so I wouldn't worry about any PCs dying too. You have 2 backup marines and early on Botos, Wright, and Eckford if you need them.

[spiral wagon]

That's cruel. I mean the whole game is, but I would rather not infect anybody there.

[frank crescent]

The thing with DoW is that its rare to finish the game with the same team you start with. There will be casualties, which is why so many of the npcs are statted out. Use them and have extra backups just in case. This is Alien/s. Things are supposed to go south once in a while.

[golden wyvern]

Game over man! Game over!

[latent bloom]

Yeah - Alien is a horror game so players should go into it knowing they're going to get messed up. When expectations are right it IS fun.

That being said, you can totally play it safer. But by default about a 50% casualty rate is probably about right.

Speaking as a player - there's a thrill to surviving when you know the GM isn't sheltering you.

It's also nice to know when you do something dumb there's consequences.

[frank crescent]

75%. I have yet to finish a game where Chaplin makes it out in one piece.

[latent bloom]

...not to mention that REAL thrill of that Alien attack die right before it settles on a number.

[latent bloom]

Yeah this is probably closer.

[spiral wagon]

It's probably more thrilling to run this game than playing it. 🙂

[golden wyvern]

A good GM and the right players will make it even more thrilling to play

[fiery willow]

holy hell these are amazing. Not my jam in terms of this particular campaign but really nice

[fiery willow]

That's my opinion on every game, personally. But I (probably) have ADD so I have a problem being a player in general, there's so much less to do.

[crimson finch]

thanks! My chariots assets are completely different. More in line with the actual arpg aesthetic

[crimson finch]

This is what my VTT assets look like in there. I'll probably reskin my agenda and initiative cards to match the aesthetic for DoW.

[spiral wagon]

Do the Stage III Lusus Freak and the Stage IV Nocuous Terminal use the same stats and attack table?

[spiral wagon]

The DoW book doesn't really specify.

[latent bloom]

No - because when they're fully in the Terminal stage they're just powder 🙂

[spiral wagon]

I'm wondering how players should know that any contact with these monsters causes their death. Virulence 4,7,8 against Stamina 2. There's no way anyone could make it.

Maybe the Eckhart and her soldiers in the APE suit is a hint. But still.

Ok, direct contact is required.

[latent bloom]

It's supposed to be pretty lethal. Also, remember the disease has to beat the Stamina roll. Virulence 4 most likely fails even with no successes on an opposed roll.

[spiral wagon]

I hope so. We'll see. 🙂

[latent bloom]

Also, it's not immediately lethal. The player has some time to use their new "abilities" and may even make it to the end if it happens in Act 3.

[spiral wagon]

Definitely.

[frank crescent]

Stamina 2 plus the characters STR. Dante's rolling 7 dice, Hammer 8, Mason 6, Silva 5, Iona 7, Zmijewski 5 and Chaplain's unaffected.

[spiral wagon]

Oh shit, right. I didn't count with the strength.

One more questeion.

The 26 draconis strain is responsible for the fact that Reese had a chestburster that turned into a drone, Carvalho tuned into Anathema stage I and Wójcik started as an anathema but turned into a bordyburster?

I mean the incosistency.

[latent bloom]

Just to be super clear, here's what happened:

So project lifeforce took the 4 awols and facehugged them with standard xeno facehuggers. They were testing 26 draconis - the same compound in the chariot of the gods to arrest development of neomorphs in people - on those AWOLs to see if they could neutralize already implanted chestbursters.
It worked on Wright
It didn't work on Reese and Caravalho who did/will create chestbursters
And it merged the chestburster's DNA and Wójcik's to create the bodyburster - the anethema was kind of the "standard" effect of 26 Draconis if it goes bad. That effect basically hid the development of the new bodyburster.

[frank crescent]

Carvalho tried to beat the chestburster at the med centre but wasn't quick enough. And what Nooch said.

[spiral wagon]

Thanks, it helped.

[golden wyvern]

It is still experimental stuff that they haven't fully figured out yet, hence why its effect vary

[frank crescent]

It worked on Wright though.

[fiery willow]

The game is low-key antivax lol.

[fiery willow]

Does anyone have handouts I could use to give players for choosing characters that don't have the jaell secret on them?

[fiery willow]

If there aren't any I might just write my own little entries.

[torpid karma]

You mean something like this?

Got the rest of the characters too... But only if this is what you are looking for?

[fiery willow]

Yeah I haven't gone over all the sheets but I know the one for chaplain has spoilers

So I was looking for pdfs of everyone with the spoiler parts cut out

[torpid karma]

I haven't got any PDF, but here is the rest (two Chaplin)...

Hope that helps...

[fiery willow]

That's great, thanks.

I'll have to run by my party whether they want to play all the secrets hidden or all exposed and meta RP thy don't know. We did a mix for COTG and it worked pretty well.

[torpid karma]

True, but it might be fun to keep it a secret ...

[fiery willow]

It can be fun either way. It's a bigger challenge when the secrets are out.

[torpid karma]

I always keep it secret myself when I run it...

But do what you think is right for your group...

Have fun 😄

[fiery willow]

Yeah I've run COTG three times kind of half-and-half, ready to pick one of the other this time.

[latent bloom]

I altered Mason's backstory slightly to be a cleanup crew on LV-426 since most of my players don't know the expanded lore beyond the movies. So that sheet was altered

I did that thing where their primary mission was going after Botos, THEN they discover the AWOL dossiers at the compound. Because of that I had to redact a bunch of Silva's sheet too.

I doubt either of those apply to you, but in case they do those are the effected parts.

[spiral wagon]

Today's DoW session went exceptionally well. My players killed basically everyone who supposed to provide them clues to advance. Also, Dante insisted only the operation although both the doctor and the autodoc told him he was gonna die. So we lost him. Also, when Wright showed up the first thing they did was shooting him with an rpg. Ms Eckhart and the APE suit soildiers are also done.
At least we laughed a lot. 🙂

One of the guys closed the cell door on themselves right after they entered the cell to investigate Reese "sleeping" on the bench. It was a funny day.

[golden wyvern]

Haha, you got murder hobos

[spiral wagon]

Of course they killed Ivan Stolls just to be on the safe side. Later I told them he wasn't infected. 🙂

I got a messenger message from a player during the game that "I will be the last one exiting the APC and I shoot Wright in the head". Yeah, he survived the RPG and they duck taped to a seat.

Dr Litvin was also shot. 🥲

[golden wyvern]

Makes you wonder when the Law comes visiting them

[spiral wagon]

That's a good question. I was so busy trying to keep the story together I forgot to send the cops on them.

[golden wyvern]

Warcrimes galore

But it does offer you as GM more to play with

Maybe even a confrontation with other marines

Oh the glorious mess you could make

And then there’s the angry civies

[frank crescent]

MP's. The marshal's don't have jurisdiction.

[golden wyvern]

MP and a squad of marines armed to the teeth

[tough thunder]

As I'm going to GM for the first time Destroyer of Worlds (using the new edition of the rules-, is there anything I should pay attention to? Or some useful ressources outside what is provided in the box?

[fiery willow]

seconding the question about external resources.

[fiery willow]

I'm about to send the character sheets to my players to choose from. Other than Chaplain, who else do you guys think is "essential" to start with?

[tough thunder]

And another questions:
Is there somewhere a list with the most important/Critical info on each act/location? To be sure to not forgot one

[tough thunder]

I started a few days ago with my home group but one player was missing. They went to Oblivion part and now are heading for the Marshal’s office. Except 2 of them that are following one insurgent that was leaving the bar.
The missing player will have to select which characters he play but I’m inclined to ask him to play Chapelin. So he would be with the rest of the group going to Marshal’s office.
And then I can make the 2 NPC being captured in the ambush.

[fiery willow]

On the hunt for a few things I have heard exist but cannot find...

I heard someone made some handouts for the AWOLS that gives some information about them (the kind of stuff that would be given to the Marine PCs), would love those.

Any sort of handouts that might give historical context regarding Ariarcus, i.e. what the PCs would know.

Also something more generic to the ALIEN universe itself, i.e. something that tells the players who the UPP, United Americas, etc. are and a vague history

[torpid karma]

Someone made these of the AWOLS... Perhaps that would help...

The other stuff I don't have...

[fiery willow]

Ok yeah those are the ones, thanks!

[fiery willow]

Why was the evacuation of Ariarcus stopped? Who stopped it?

[torpid karma]

The evacuation were canceled on Colonel Meyers’ orders. The official explanation is that it's due to imminent threat of the UPP invading this sector of space and the military will not evacuate the colony until the threat is neutralized...

The real reason is: ||Colonel Meyers knows he can’t risk any Xeno materials falling into UPP hands, nor can he risk the AWOLS getting off-moon, lest they have an interstellar outbreak on their hands. He immediately stopped the evacuation and ordered a crack squad of marines to retrieve the AWOLS...||

[fiery willow]

Ugh, finding stuff in this book is a nightmare. Where does it say how the PCs should be pointed to the Medical Station?

I can't find it and neither can chatgpt (what a fail heh)

Oh I found it, the weird religious dude tells them

man this thing is in desperate need of a flowchat

especially of the AWOL's path to how they got places

OH and Wright knows, god the information is all over the place.

[fiery willow]

First session of DOW: go to the Oblivion, some great RP as Silva tries to get the bartender to show her the footage. Two dudes step in "what's this Marine want" but when shit's about to go down I have Fei2 step in and help them with the footage of Reese getting picked up by the Marshall.

To the Marshall station: Mason and Chaplain go in to find Reese, who I've changed to have not actually popped yet. They wake him up, he starts flailing. Mason of course has seen this before and is like "Chaplain get away" but the xeno pops and gets a 1 on init. Zips between Chaplain's legs and goes for Mason, Chaplain tries to defend with his special defend-a-friend but fails. Xeno rolls 6, rips Mason's throat out and runs away. Chaplain rolls to save him with like 12 dice and only gets 1 success... which isn't enough because a throat bite means -1 dice. Mason dies.

I freaking love this game.

[fiery willow]

OK I was wrong, Wright doesn't know that the two Marines went to the Medical Facility. The only clue is some rando religious guy who saw them, which feels so boring of a clue to me. Ideas?

[spiral wagon]

Can the players wear a hazmat suit over the armor or they have to choose between them?

[frank crescent]

Armour over the hazmat suit. If they take any damage, the suit is compromised.

[spiral wagon]

That's weird. I haven't really thought about hazmat suit damage and it make sense. But the hazmat suit covers their whole body but the armor doesn't.

[frank crescent]

Discussed with Gaska on FB. He suggested you can combine the two for this sort of situation but the the hazmat becomes useless if it gets holed.

[spiral wagon]

That's for sure.

[frank crescent]

And wearing the armour over the top offers the suit some protection.

[spiral wagon]

I guess if the armor stops the inflicted damage we can say it protected the hazmat suit. If it damages the player then the suit is damaged as well.

[golden wyvern]

Pretty much

[spiral wagon]

Is there a source where I can find some non official maps for battle?
I'm thinking about re-using something I have but there are some encounters in act 2 that would require something.
Like when insurgents try to blow up a tank with rpg.

[spiral wagon]

I'm not expecting maps for specific scenarios from the book. Just different kinds of ones I can use.

[spiral wagon]

https://sites.google.com/view/alienmobius-resources/generators/generator-geomorphs-map
I found this.

[spiral wagon]

What gear do the David 7 androids have?

[golden wyvern]

Basic UPP body armour and AK4047

Though feel free to spice them up a little if you want to

[frank crescent]

AK-4047's, combat knife, 6B90 body armour. Add in a couple of Norcomm hand grenades and an RPG or two to spice things up.

[golden wyvern]

Mine also come with a few Grach 4043, KS-4023 and a PKM-4074

[fiery willow]

Tip: get your character sheets laminated and give your players dry erase markers. Works great and you don't mark them up permanently.

[fiery willow]

any pics of a bodyburster (e.g. Wojcik post-transformation)?

[amber iron]

The base is too big 🙁