GRWelsh
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Posts: 5
Joined: Mon 04 Oct 2021, 14:28

Scenario Idea: Refinery 227

Mon 04 Oct 2021, 14:57

I recently bought the ALIEN core rule book, and here is a scenario idea I had. It is in rough draft form and still half-baked but I welcome any suggestions and criticisms.

Background: The characters are unemployed contractors offered a huge payout if they take a nine month job to be transported to a refinery located beyond the Outer Rim to get it up and running again. At the end of the nine months, they are to be replaced by a permanent crew of over a hundred workers with heavy machinery, robotic vehicles, and construction equipment to make further repairs and improvements. If the characters accept this assignment, they'll make so much that they'll never have to work again... If the characters ask why they're being paid so much, the answer is there is a labor shortage and the company signed a contract with an interplanetary government which is time sensitive. If the characters ask why the refinery is not currently operational, the answer is that it was owned by a company that was nearly bankrupt from bad investments and was unable to keep in running. It was recently acquired from a company merger, and the new company signed the government contract. The characters happen to have the right skill sets and are nearby and the company can't afford to take no for an answer. The characters could negotiate for more money, but 90% of the payout is at the completion of their contract. To them the job seems easy but tedious... They've done refinery repairs before.

Start: After a period of hypersleep, the characters are dropped off at the refinery which is abandoned and in disrepair. Water drips everywhere. They power it up and get things running again. There is a lot of old automation, some that still works, some that needs repair. A lot of unrefined ore needs processed and prepared for shipping. They split up to do their various tasks, but stay in communication. The lights flicker, and there are power outages. They find some stuck doors, some welded shut.

Once on site and work is underway, things begin to seem fishy as a number of characters find things out independently. A character tries breaching a stuck door using heavy equipment like a mining laser that will cut through anything. Someone gets the refinery A. I. working and it shows concern for all of the workers who were supposed to be emergency evacuated: "Did they make it? How long have I been off-line? Did my warnings make it to the core worlds? I stated that no organics were to be sent here." Another character may discover the acquisition of the refinery was done by a holding company which was a front for Weyland-Yutani.

INSERT ALIENS/MONSTERS HERE (the twist could be that they have nothing to do with the classic Xenomorph alien)

For the Game Mother only: The story behind the story is that the Weyland-Yutani corporation acquired some confidential documents about a possible infestation of alien life forms through industrial espionage, and bought the company owning the refinery to keep it quiet because they do not want another 'Acheron Incident' with colonial marines getting involved and all assets destroyed. The company had the characters hired as guinea pigs with the option of paying them 90% at the completion of their contract. The relief team of over a hundred workers is a sham, and in reality will be company security and scientists.

How it could end: The refinery A.I. may help the characters set the reactor to overload as way to destroy the refinery and everything in it. There is one last escape ship which characters may attempt to board after initiating the reactor overload.
Last edited by GRWelsh on Mon 04 Oct 2021, 20:13, edited 5 times in total.
 
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Skillstuntman
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed 22 Sep 2021, 00:26

Re: Scenario Idea

Mon 04 Oct 2021, 15:12

Good stuff, This would be a good scenario to use the swarm alien in the core rule book. I could image them going down, and discovering the swarm (when its too late) then have to figure out ways to contain them before giving up. They could hack the AI to blow up facility before running for the Chopper! Whoops, wrong franchise.
 
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Angelman
Posts: 358
Joined: Sun 11 Apr 2021, 12:46

Re: Scenario Idea: Refinery 227

Wed 20 Oct 2021, 14:59

I think this is a fine premise for a scenario, although it might lack a few twists and turns yet. The underhand company business is the crux of the story, and I would try to expand upon this plot and possibly leave the xenos out of it entierely. There WERE xenos here once, but they're not here now; in fact, signs seem to indicate that xenos were somehow taken off the refinery and moved towards... (Climax reveal=) the characters' own home colony! Shock! Horror! That way, you keep the suspence building and building without eventually collasing into an all-familiar action/chase fest. Instead, you've got a great set-up with established stakes for a follow-up, xeno-heavy scenario centered around saving the colony which is about to receive a shipment of xenos!

To throw more wrenches into the refinery plot, you could have rival corps come snooping around, all geared up to snatch some critters for their bio-warfare research.
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Someone gets the refinery A. I. working and it shows concern for all of the workers who were supposed to be emergency evacuated: "Did they make it? How long have I been off-line? Did my warnings make it to the core worlds? I stated that no organics were to be sent here."
This is the dramatic highlight of your story thus far; very cool idea deserving of being a cliffhanger session end moment!

But, you'll either have to kill the AI (I assume you mean Synthetic) off to prevent a big exposition that robs the story of its mystery, or have the synth suffer from a amnesia-inducing head injury. Something like that.

It could also be very effective if, once the PCs befriend/trust the synth, it flips on them with newly transmitteded company codes & orders, or at least have an evil-twin sibling synth starting to stalk them.


These were just random thought. Well done, mate!
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged

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