Bengt Petter
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Joined: Sat 09 Apr 2011, 11:27

Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Wed 31 Mar 2021, 21:13

The first and the third of these three campaign drafts may include xenos in some form - if you like. The main idea is to present ideas that should be possible to expand on in different ways. Hopefully it’s a fresh take on what Alien could be, without stretching to far away from the franchise core.

The U. P. P. crime syndicate
You work for one of the oligarchs in the Samarkand-Bukhara scrap cluster, a huge black market sector in space. The cluster consist of clunky spaceships and parts of old U. P. P. space stations. Here you can buy and sell what ever you like - drugs, slaves, androids, diamonds, minerals, exotic organisms or maybe an entire asteroid. The people who live in the scrap cluster are rough and corrupted; this is an autonomous part of the U. P. P. territories where capitalism is allowed to at least some extent. As members of a crime syndicate you need to deal with people from other syndicates, corrupt cops, android prostitutes, dodgy traders, war veterans and corporate spies. You might also need to navigate within your own syndicate; there is allways some Oleg or Dmitri who wants to cause you trouble. Maybe a xenomorph egg or an extremely valuable Engineer artifact will change everything for your syndicate - or the entire scrap cluster.

The Fiorina 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit
It’s a couple of years prior to Ripley’s arrival and the large facility is still full of people, most of them double-Y chromosome maximum risk prisoners. You might be one of them or you might be here for some other reason, perhaps as a corporate representative or a prison guard. Your days are long and often dangerous; accidents and fights between prison gangs are common. Most of you have secrets in some form, perhaps a hidden identity, a corporate agenda or valuable knowledge about the facility itself. Sometimes new spaceships arrive with new prisoners, a new warden, curious scientists or corporate representatives looking for info or just more profit. At some point, you will probably try to escape or leave Fiorina 161 in some way. How will it be done? What do you need to get away? Where will you go? Who or what will try to stop you? How will The Company react?

The Space Nest
You are a part of a big corporate expedition and you have just made a sensational discovery: a partly fossilized and partly still functional Engineer spacestation. Or what is it really? Nobody really knows what you have found. It looks like a gigantic, grey wasp nest, surrounded with large clouds of debris. It’s possible to enter the nest, and it’s full of bizarre chambers and strange artifacts. Of course, the discovery is a huge thing for both your expedition and The Company itself. Some of the artifacts found by crew members disappear and some people are getting murdered. Perhaps there are spies among you? Are you the spies? More corporate representatives are on their way, maybe even from rival factions. While more people arrive, the Nest itself starts to change. The presence of living organisms seems to have activated something. Could the nest be controlled or is it controlling you? Is it a part of a much larger system? A system of what? What first seemed to be a major discovery in the history of mankind might end up in a disaster of enormous proportions...

Edit: I just corrected a couple of language errors.
Last edited by Bengt Petter on Fri 02 Apr 2021, 19:24, edited 5 times in total.
 
Byrax
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Location: Mythic North

Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Thu 01 Apr 2021, 14:46

Good ideas!

As for The Fiorina 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit setting, perhaps the breakout scenario plot "Arbetsläger 23" from old Mutant UA:s "Kalabaliken i Karle" could be refitted?
 
Brian McReynolds
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Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Thu 01 Apr 2021, 20:12

The Classic Traveller scenario 'Shadows' could, with a little bit of tweaking be used to represent the discovery of an Engineer facility on a previously unsurveyed world. Likewise with the scenario 'Twilight's Peak' (also a Traveller module), which contains an Ancients' facility, which could also be re-skinned as an Engineer facility.
 
Bengt Petter
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Joined: Sat 09 Apr 2011, 11:27

Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Fri 02 Apr 2021, 16:19

Good ideas!

As for The Fiorina 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit setting, perhaps the breakout scenario plot "Arbetsläger 23" from old Mutant UA:s "Kalabaliken i Karle" could be refitted?

Thanks. My memories of ”Arbetsläger 23” are quite vague (and I’ve sold most of my MUA collection), but maybe that’s useful if you want to run something shorter. What I had in mind was rather something more like a prison TV series. I think I would put quite much effort on integrating corporate secrets into the plot. Some people might end up in such a place just because they know stuff about The Company. I also like the fact that you could add new characters just by having new transport ships arriving. Such arrivals are probably quite important events. And since it’s kind of a prequel concept, I would add at least a few of the characters from the movie. Maybe the doctor Jonathan Clemens arrives during the campaign.

To create prisoner characters would be interesting. You could work with their criminal records and corporate past (if they have any). Prison gangs, corrupt guards, dirty secrets, organized crime and old contacts are things you could develop too. And the double-Y syndrome is something that could be a playable feature, giving the prisoners violent and specific backstories. Most of them will likely have many enemies, both inside and outside the prison. Perhaps the double-Y syndrome could make people more resilient to pain, panic and fear. It would make sense that the prison is full of murderers, manslaughters, rapists, and sadists. Probably there are some really extreme cases with serial killers and canibals. A growing group of devote Christians would be an interesting contrast.
 
DeusXLondon
Posts: 70
Joined: Tue 23 Mar 2021, 11:34

Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Tue 06 Apr 2021, 16:27

HI All

Other great sources are Eclipse Phase, their X-risks book has an awesome bestiary of serious non-hissy threats; or for the real detail nut, you can roll out the ancient Phoenix Command Alien set :)

Regards
DX
 
Byrax
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Location: Mythic North

Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Tue 06 Apr 2021, 16:46

Any specific scenarios from Eclipse Phase that would work fine plot-/settingwise with Alien?

PS Checked out Those Dark Places, a Outland/Alien/Prospect/Event Horizon/Dead Space RPG-light - very good. The intro scenario "The Argent III Report" was rather (morbid) bleak (in a good way), and would work for Alien with some adjustments.

PPS Death in Space looks nice as well; currently on Kickstarter.

PPS maybe some scenarios from Coriolis could be borrowed as well? The Dying Ship for instance. Ghazali is already an "alien" outbreak of sorts if I remember correctly?
 
DeusXLondon
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Joined: Tue 23 Mar 2021, 11:34

Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Wed 07 Apr 2021, 17:54

Hi Byrax

For Eclipse Phase most of the Firewall, Gatecrashing or Argonaut campaigns and missions can be very alien like. The Mars and Lunar Exclusion zones could easily be extra-solar.
As I recall the whole Exsurgent virus and ETI 'factors' main setting plot arcs should require very light re-skinning if you wanted an Exploration campaign perhaps starting in Sol and heading outwards.

DX
p.s. Cold and Dark from Wicked World Games also had some nice ideas in terms of modelling stress/san loss, but it can be hard to find, as it came out a decade ago.

p.p.s The current Blue Planet Recontact(v3?) kickstarter that just started also makes a great setting if you wanted aliens corrupting a very well detailed water-world.
 
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Diego
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Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Tue 20 Apr 2021, 20:05

What other scenarios have you sprinkled into your campaigns so it's not just running from space monsters every week? (I was thinking of running it a bit like Traveller and only dropping in aliens once in a while and letting them otherwise deal with troublesome cargoes, shady businessmen, piracy, corporate crooks, getting caught in political crossfires, and so on so that when a xenomorph shows up it's actually a surprise.)
Well, I've been running the same ongoing campaign now since the book first came out. We actually had the first 'death' last week (Though retirement might be a better phrase given what happened). To answer your question though, it's hard to say exactly what I've been doing. But to give a rough list

1) There is an ongoing plot, a mystery that I started in the very first session. Much of what drives them and gives them purpose is uncovering this.
2) I have often inferred the presence of the Alien as a threat, though my main group has only ever had fleeting encounters with them.
3) To make them feel it is still Alien I run cinematic one shots every now and then as flashbacks where they find out what happened to other people. So my players have had 'many' encounters with the main threat.
4) The licence holder for their vessel gives them work every now and then. Basically every in game year Seegson forces on them a contract. This allows for some more casual stories that are not so high action or intense horror
5) The universe has it's own plot, with space nations squaring off against each other. I also put in a Red Faction/Expanse style terrorist group pushing for Frontier rights.

This has kept the game nice and plot filled without having to always fall back on the Alien.
Alien: Wanderer
https://alienwanderer.obsidianportal.com/
Session 9+ now up
 
jason78ka
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Joined: Fri 29 Nov 2019, 02:42

Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Sun 25 Apr 2021, 09:21

Had I my druthers, and a fully game group, I'd love to do a troupe style Colonial Marines/PMC campaign. Lean pretty hard into the procedurally generated jobs, but also baldly rip-off Resident Evil 5 for a backgroundy type meta-plot.
 
Oliver Mankell
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Re: Long-term campaigns: tips? ideas? scenarios?

Sun 09 May 2021, 14:31

I’ve been putting a bit of thought into how I want to run an Alien campaign and would ideally like have the best of both worlds, with an overarching plot punctuated by cinematic scenarios.
I thought that I would start with two cinematic scenarios. One featuring marines and with corrupt Colonial Marines involved with Weyland, while the other would feature a mix of civilians, colonial marshals, the classic xenomorph, and more direct company involvement.

The starting campaign characters would be drawn from the survivors of these scenarios. A small number of politicians, marshals, and military commanders have formed a clandestine group to counter Weyland-Yutani’s corrupt activity and its bio-weapon plans. Recruited to this cause, the player characters have their deaths faked and are given new identities in a joint marshal/marine investigative taskforce. They are given a ship (I chose a Mantis class, as it’s not too big and I like the look of it). To maintain their cover, they will be performing law keeping duties where independent investigators are required, both in military and civilian contexts.

Where possible, when the group follows up leads to find the aftermath of an incident, then they are given characters from the incident to play out what happened as a cinematic scenario. Survivors from these scenarios might also be recruited and form a pool of back up or alternative characters for players whose characters die or who just want to change things up a bit—a rotating crew makes sense and can help keep things fresh.

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