Alright Veeky Forums, world building stuff I want to run by you.
So I want to run a game set on earth in the "Alien" universe post "Alien Resurrection" It goes under the assumption that the crash that occurred at the end of the movie was planned by the military to bring the Alien to earth without it going through the official channels. If they have the technology to get Ripley's genes out of Lead 200 years after the fact, they can probably get alien DNA from a crashed spaceship. What system would you guys suggest? Should I go with pure aliens or weird hybrids created from their attempts to recreate the genome using contaminated DNA What is the political climate on earth where the military would be actively trying to take over the established corporatocracy? Also, alien based art would be great. I don't need anymore Giger though I have enough of that?
Also, I'm going under the assumption Bladerunner took place in the same universe. So go as dystopic as you want.
I also want your guys opinion on whether or not to consider Prometheus canon.
Whatever system you go with, I'd start your campaign using the basic premise from the first film: ordinary people vs one extremely killy and scary alien. Then later on move up to the second film where it's loadsadakka vs the xeno horde.
Caleb Ortiz
>What system would you guys suggest? GURPS. TL9 >Should I go with pure aliens or weird hybrids created from their attempts to recreate the genome using contaminated DNA Depends on your plot. What you said sounds awesome >What is the political climate on earth where the military would be actively trying to take over the established corporatocracy? Disseminated power systems setup to allow those with the keys to the castle to rule. See; Elysium
Thomas Baker
I don't consider that shit canon anyway. But thanks for the tip lol
Matthew King
What's that image from?
Carter Cox
'leaked concept art' for the upcoming reboot/sequel
Jason Thompson
Also, the main plot is that the military is attempting to take over the corporatocracy shadow government that has taken over earth. The military has managed to weaponize aliens and hold a very tenuous control over them while wheyland-yutani use military grade cybernetic soldiers to maintain order. The official earth government is caught in-between. Having lost control of the military and are stuck with thousands of official contracts with Weyland Corp preventing them from taking any official moves against them. Though I may use To introduce the group to the game. Afterwords moving them into the main storyline in a way that makes sense.
Evan Morales
OP, have you ever read the Dark Horse comics about Aliens and Predators? I prefer their canon to the movies.
Leo Clark
It's just fan art by a guy called Marek Okon.
I'd use CoC honestly.
Oliver Gomez
I haven't but I've heard good things. Is it available online? And CoC was one of my options, but I'm unsure how to run a combat heavy CoC once the main storyline goes into effect.
Brody Peterson
Yeah, I probably won't have time tonight, but I can get a link together with some of my favorite runs and either post it here later or make a new thread.
Nolan Myers
It's mostly just big plot points like [get the thing that might kill it] and then [oh god it doesnt kill it] [try this instead] [oh god everyone died] [time to blow up the moon]
Levi Cruz
Link this thread if you can later on then. I live on this board so I'll be looking for it. I Appreciate it
Xavier Wood
>the assumption Bladerunner took place in the same universe Don't forget Outland
>What system would you guys suggest? I was going to shitpost about the Aliens RPG, but no one actually plays Phoenix Command. Funnily enough, I ran a campaign where Bladerunner and what was part of the Alien universe, and I used "Classic" Traveller during that, after hearing about others doing so. Hell, the one Traveller's Aide Society Journal had stats for all the xenos in the first three movies.
Some of the Aliens and AvP comics by dark horse are pretty damn awesome, along with the first two AvP games, including Extinction, the RTS.
Also, if you want any USCMC guys to show up, the Colonial Marines Technical Manual is worth the read. A lot of shit from it got ripped off by the games and what over the years.
Jeremiah Flores
And Firefly.
Austin Bell
I was thinking of mentioning Firefly, but cowboy boots in space kind of triggers my autism. Strangely I am fine with revolvers and shotguns though. Plus the 'verse is some weird bastard system that makes no sense.
Otherwise Mal unwittingly flying spook with several crates of xeno-zip for some shady types, I could see it.
Mason James
Prometheus has been Lindelofed. Stear clear. I'd also avoid Resurrection, although that's not about story but about direction. The writing is pretty good. So no worries about your plot.
I wouldn't have 'the military' as separate entity though. I imagine a dystopian Earth in the Alien universe where law enforcement is more about mass psychology and crowd control than solving criminal mysteries. Bag it, tag it, fine someone. It's an administrative procedure. Military forces are only used off planet, mostly to keep colonies in check. The Colonial Marines are a corporate strongarm only thinly veiled behind a flimsy UN legitimization. A UN where the colonies aren't represented.
Consider the zombie creation rules from AFMBE when designing Xenomorph mutations, make them so they tell your story. Mechanically I'd go with Nemesis. The psychology of trauma is clearly a theme throughout the Alien series, and the Madness Meter will model that excellently. The rest is fast and gritty. Mods easily. And it's fun to resolve.
For art go hunting for Isolation screenshots. That game is spot on and maybe the most true sequel to Alien, especially the design.
Joseph Moore
>how to run a combat heavy CoC That's easy: Use Pulp Cthulhu.
Josiah Martinez
Actually, there is a person who calculated the entirety of the Verse and did the equations to map out how it worked.
Adrian Price
Yeah, but it's some triple system with stable planet orbits. It's what astronomers contrive to make a joke.
Nathaniel Thompson
>Lindelofed What does it mean?
Otherwise you have been very helpful.
Levi Robinson
It's a writer, Damon Lindelof? He's the reason Lost sucked, mostly. He's one of those well connected guys who have never made a project better, but who keep getting hired to do last minute rewrites.
This is what happened to Prometheus. It was planned as a solid Alien prequel. Then the studio got worried that Millennials don't remember Alien, so they made NOT an Alien prequel, had the script rewritten 5 times, and the last hack to butcher the piece was Lindelof. He chopped any remaining consistency to pieces for a few visual plateaus and left us with Astronauts taking their helmets off, mapping the alien ship with flying drones and then getting lost, just a whole bunch of WHY?!
Prometheus is not canon. It is not the film it was intended to be. It has a sexy ship, that's about it. Nothing in that story makes sense. Trying to fit it into Xenomorph canon leads to paradox and silliness. Just ignore. Nothing to see here.
Christopher Myers
The Aliens novels by Steve Perry are alright. Though kind of pulpy and cliche, I really enjoy the psychic aspect of the xenomorphs. Ripley shows up in the book Female War and she has to live with psychically induced nightmares sent by the Alien Queen she jettisoned into space. There is also an Empress that lives on the xenomorph home planet who is absolutely massive. The warrior aliens on the home planet are as big as a standard queen by comparison. There was also a low-gravity planetoid in one of the novels that had xenos capable of flight and would spray acid from above.
If you're going for narrative heavy, and lethality towards the players with horror, I think CoC and wod do okay.
Zachary Hill
This is a damn good thread.
Anyone have recommendations for AvP comics? I only ever read one that my 80s comic guru uncle gave me when I was a kid, and I'd love to get more into it.
Andrew Scott
Oh.. a lot of things just clocked together for me on why Prometheus wasn't as good as it should've been... I like you.
Hunter Mitchell
Ok I may have reworked the campaign a bit now. I'm actually considering dumping the "military vs. Weyland Corp" theme entirely and have it take place on the Luna colony. The party is a group of smugglers who got duped into transporting a queen egg.
Was Luna colony terraformed?
Cooper Martinez
I don't recall any reference, but the trope says no.
It has bases, giant biodomes and cave galleries. But it's a necessity of space industry, not a resort. There's strip mines where ceramics and helium are gathered, refineries and centrifuges to separate raw materials, and assembly hangars with printers and sinterers to produce hulls and structural parts for anything from another lunar factory to the Sulaco. The advantage is gravity. Launching heavy parts from the moon is cheap.
Cameron Powell
>What system would you guys suggest?
The official Aliens RPG. I have a PDF if you have an email or something.
I also have the colonial marine tech manual, an in-universe guide to equipment, procedure and xenomorphs
Congratulations. You just won all the spam in the world. Enjoy!
Christian Walker
>The official Aliens RPG. I have a PDF if you have an email or something. Just put it on [SHARING WEBSITE OF YOUR CHOICE]
Samuel Rogers
Sent
You don't have a spam account?
Fuuuuck that. My comp is shit on a shingle and can barely download, much less upload. If user wants to after he gets it, he get a gold star
Connor Morales
just to be clear, they did not get her dna from the vat of boiling lead, they got it from the hair she shaved off during a3
Aiden Harris
Thanks user, also sorry. I'm a mobilefag I can't upload shit easily Oh shit really?
Jose Watson
No that can't be right, the alien's DNA wouldn't be in her hair. That's dead cells and shit she grew before she was even infected I mean, not like any situation where DNA is recovered after a little under 200 years is super believable, but I'm not buying that
her head got nicked by the clippers, it wasn't much but she definitely had a little cut there. plus im sure she bled elsewhere in the facility or had a sample taken by the doc. but yeah anything but her dna in hair seems out there to me to.
This is actually about the BOARD GAME (which I love), but maybe you can gleam some other info from there as well.
Evan Moore
>Nothing in that story makes sense It kinda makes sense if you can justify Weyland picking crew based on whether they'll be missed / tell anyone where they're going (ie; the whole thing is hushed up), with 'make intelligent personal decisions' being a distant third to secrecy and more secrecy.
Chase Nguyen
>I'm going under the assumption Bladerunner took place in the same universe. Huh. I always felt like Blade Runner was in the same world as Mad Max. Whenever I watched those movies they felt like the same point in time along a dystopian arc, just one of them in LA, the other in the outback.
Aaron Cook
>Damon Lindelof Wow. I never looked into who actually wrote that movie because I pretty much just came home from the theater and tried to forget about it. But yeah, that guy's filmography may as well have an old woman yelling "Shame" next to it.
Sebastian Watson
You can be secretive without hiring stoners and retards.
Zachary Flores
Bladerunner was hinted at in the Alien background material to be part of the same universe, Weyland being an old business partner of Tyrel and considering Tyrel a bit weird for trying to give his meat robots human memory grafts. Weyland went full mechanical rather than meat robots.
Possible method of military take over could have been that the mega-corps that gradually took over Earth started hiring from an a-political multi-company/national but highly professional mercenary company. Mercenary company now has it's dicks in all the pies and is very gradually extends it's influence into other aspects of the companies.
By the time the game is set they could have pulled of multiple coups that by that point were little more than formalities.
So you got a Military dictatorship that's administering it's rule through the puppet Mega-corps.
Gabriel Johnson
Consider that the mission director didn't give a shit about the mission. I wouldn't put it past her to find a way to hire stoners and retards just to secretly stick it to her dad.
Robert Gomez
The robots in Alien seem to be fully sentient and sapient.
Is there anything actually stopping them from going Terminator besides not giving a shit?
Luke Bennett
They're not creative.
Watch Seegson Communications
Christian Powell
The boardgame features a simplified version of the RPG.
Ryan Stewart
My group has used both Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020 depending on the GM. Both versions we played included some form of hybrids, mostly human but with some xeno tendencies and able to touch the hivemind at the risk of being dominated by queens.
Gavin Bell
FAILSAFE WARNING CUT-OFF SYSTEM WILL NOT OPERATE AFTER PAGE 11
Jack Mitchell
seconding this. lawnmower man and terminator crossovers are possible too
Carson Anderson
When they aren't illegally modified they're programmed to be incapable of harming humans. Legal requirement on all androids, all the time.
Brody Howard
Except when the company overrides it for the mission CREW EXPENDABLE or buys the local android provider and uploads new directives before any of the company ships can make it there SEEGSON on SEVASTOPOL
Andrew Rodriguez
I believe that's a new thing in Aliens and they use it as a talking point when Ripley doesn't like the synthetic.
Colton Harris
>What system would you guys suggest? AFMBE, plus file related
Logan Rogers
Ok so I'm going to have this campaign take place at the Olympia Colony on Luna. Official cannon says that the moon was terraformed, but I kind of what to forgo that so I can keep the clostrophobic feel of the original film. Your guy's thoughts on this?
Camden Bell
What official canon are you referencing?
I'd go with the Technical Manual but not some AvP shit.
Josiah Wood
>In "Episode Two: Lunar Apocalypse", Duke journeys to space, where he finds many of the captured women held in various incubators throughout space stations that had been conquered by the aliens. Duke reaches the alien mothership on the Moon and kills an alien Overlord. As Duke inspects the ship's computer, it is revealed that the plot to capture women was merely a ruse to distract him. The aliens have already begun their attack on Earth.
Ryan Evans
According to the wiki, but I don't like that idea stylistically so I'm thinking about throwing it out
Xavier Bennett
Seems like Ripley was born on the moon though. I'd keep that in mind.
Nolan Jackson
She was born in Olympia Colony, I chose that location because Ripley is tied in to the Alien more than anybody else, and if I'm going to do a campaign I want to pay homage to that
Ryder Jenkins
Olympia was the bigger of two early colonies on luna.
I don't know what terraforming means in that context. But it could simply mean regolith dust storms that block the harsh sun a bit. Doesn't have to mean there's air and oceans. LV-f-me had pretty harsh conditions after decades of terraforming by the leading company in that industry.
