Alien PBP Website

[cinder dragon]

by Grandmother

Alien RPG play-by-play website preview / development thread.

I’m building a dedicated Alien RPG play-by-post platform focused on immersive campaign rooms, realistic location movement, hidden information, structured narrative posts, and proper Game Mother tools.

The main idea is to make PBP feel less like a normal forum and more like an actual cinematic campaign space. For example, if a character enters a room later, they should not automatically see everything that happened there before they arrived. Rooms, communication channels, permissions, secret information, and presence/history all matter.

Planned and ongoing features include character sheets, structured posts, hidden thoughts/notes, Game Mother controls, dice tools, maps/resources, music or atmosphere links, and tools to make online Alien campaigns smoother and more cinematic.

I’m looking for reliable Game Mothers and players who may want to test the system once it reaches beta. Criticism, ideas, and feedback are very welcome.

This is a passion project, so development will not be instant, but I’d like to build it into the best Alien RPG PBP platform I can.

DM if interested. I’ll make contact once the system is ready for testing.

From the screenshots, these are some of the newer things I’ve worked on since the video I posted in the other channel:

UI redesign and cleaner Alien/sci-fi atmosphere, better structured posting, character sheet support, improved room/session layout, and more Game Mother control over room management, visibility, secrecy, and who can access what.

I’m also working on tools like a side dice roller that can attach rolls to posts without flooding the main narrative feed, so dice results support the story instead of turning the room into a noisy chat log.

The general direction is to make the site feel more like a controlled cinematic campaign space than a normal forum: rooms, permissions, hidden information, character tools, posting structure, dice, resources, and atmosphere all working together.

[cinder dragon]

ROADMAP

COMPLETED
1–6E foundation already done

CURRENT
7A-LITE — Room Ambience Control

NEXT SESSION TOOLS / ROOM LAYER
7A — Full Room Resources
7B — Game Mother Ops Drawer
7C — GM Room Notes / Countdown / Hazard Mini Tools

CHARACTER LIVE-PLAY LAYER
8A — Character Sheet Quality Improvements
8B — Character Status Panel
8C — Derived Health / Resolve Helpers
8D — Stress / Health / Radiation / Fatigue Quick Updates

SECRECY / NARRATIVE PERMISSION LAYER
9A — Selected-user Hidden Post Blocks
9B — Hidden Agenda System
9C — Buddy / Rival Relationship Links
9D — Character Control Status

PRESENCE / SESSION MANAGEMENT
10A — Room Presence Management Improvements
10B — Party Movement / Batch Move
10C — Entry/Exit Event Visibility Rules

NOTES / DEBRIEF / XP
11A — Player Private Notes
11B — Game Mother Notes
11C — Session Debrief / XP Review
11D — Story Point / Act Agenda Review

CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE
12A — Campaign Mode Metadata
12B — Campaign Framework Metadata
12C — Campaign Safety / Session Zero Brief
12D — Campaign Focus / Tone Profile
12E — Campaign Goals / Rewards

CAMPAIGN WORLD OBJECTS
13A — Campaign Organizations / Factions
13B — Faction Standing / Reputation
13C — Credentials / Legal Flags
13D — Star System / Location Dossiers
13E — Location Secrets / Reveal States

INVENTORY / DOCUMENTS / OPERATIONAL PLAY
14A — Structured Character Inventory
14B — Encumbrance Helper
14C — Supply Tracking
14D — Room Inventory
14E — In-world Terminal Documents

SHIPS / JOBS / TRAVEL
15A — Campaign Ship / Home Base Asset
15B — Link Rooms to Ship/Base Asset
15C — Travel Log / Hypersleep Manifest
15D — Ship Components / Crew Positions
15E — Jobs / Contracts / Cargo

ADVANCED GM OPS
16A — Pressure / Pacing Console
16B — NPC Records
16C — Threat Dossiers
16D — Outbreak / Exposure Tracker
16E — Passive / Secret Rolls
16F — Opposed Rolls
LATER SCENE SYSTEMS

17A — Scene Time Tracker
17B — Scene Zones
17C — Stealth Mode
17D — Motion Tracker Contacts
17E — Initiative / Action / Hazard Tools

MUCH LATER
18A — Vehicles
18B — Space Combat
18C — Campaign Star Map Visual UI
18D — Site-level Direct Messages
18E — Uploads / Media Library
18F — Broad Custom Reference Tables

FINAL HARDENING
19 — Security and Testing Hardening Pass

[light copper]

Looking good! Don't mind me just giving some encouragement. This set up is so freaking cool of an idea. I'm thinking it will be very useful for Solo games too.

[cinder dragon]

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

For now I’m mostly designing it around multiplayer campaigns, with Game Mother tools, player permissions, room visibility, hidden information, and group play in mind.

That said, I agree — I can definitely see how the same structure could become useful for solo games too. It’s not the first priority right now, but I don’t want to rule it out for the future, especially once the core system is more stable.