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this is great. Love everything. I'm keeping this for the replay of Hope's Last Day.
maybe with the sequel.
thanks.

this is great. Love everything. I'm keeping this for the replay of Hope's Last Day.
maybe with the sequel.
thanks.

Glad you liked it and honored that you'd consider using it in your own games

<3

Hey y'all,

Continuing my efforts to slightly expand and utilize the HLD scenario for my coming Halloween session, I've written a couple of new events to add even more mood and horror. Let me know what you think, and feel free to add other events, too.

Hope’s Last Day – Additional Events

WITNESS TO DEATH: When a motion detector is used with no scripted Xenomorphs nearby. There’s a ping, moving fast and growing closer. It comes from outside, and there’s a window nearby. Spying out, the PCs see a young man in an overall running down the alley/street, cradling an arm against his chest as if injured. (He might approach, move away from, or pass by/beneath the PCs position and window, whatever fits their current position).

He makes for an abandoned vehicle (such as the six-wheeled truck visible in Aliens as standing across the street from Billy’s Bar). The storm howls outside, and he doesn’t hear any calls or banging on windows, etc. Fumbling with the truck (or whatever), he gives up on it almost immediately (this could be a vehicle that Singleton recklessly wrecked a few days ago).

If the PC(s) to go help, the man turns with a sigh of relief as the PC(s) appear in a doorway/staircase. Just then, the deep shadows behind him comes alive with barbed edges and humanoid silhouettes; the man disappears, screaming, his voice cut short. Alternatively, if the PCs don’t seek him out, the young man continues down onwards and is suddenly plucked off the street by nearby black, skeletal arms reaching from a shadow.


DEMON IN THE DARK: When a Panic Roll is triggered with nothing obviously scary nearby (i.e. a random Facehugger freak-out). The PC reacts (as per Panic Roll), but the others can’t understand why. After a few seconds of confusion, they hear it, an angry hiss/a heavy weight moving across the roof overhead/heavy thuds of something moving through a nearby room or hallway (whatever fits). If in use, any motion detectors also signal nearby movement.

Let the players take whatever action they want in response to the creature, and make Mobility (hiding), Observation (spying through a door/window), Comtech (tracking the creature on Motion Detector), etc. The creature moves about, then stops and hisses, searching for prey. It is just beyond reach for the PCs, and/or disappears around a corner up/down stairway, in/out a door before any foolhardy PC can try something stupid (like shooting at it). It happens quickly, and the PCs check for Panic (i.e. Alien creature encountered) immediately after it’s gone. (This is intended as a tension building encounter, not an invitation for the group to commit suicide by Xenomorph).


SIGNS OF LIFE: When PC(s) spend any amount of time in a location, taking a rest or searching for something, or whatever. A weak echo reverberates through the ventilation ducts/water pipes/whatever, a high-pitched child’s scream followed by distant thuds of shotgun fire. There’s a short pause, before a male voice cries out: “Holy mother of…” In the silence that follows, PCs gain +1 Stress Level.


PROCESSING PLANT 1 TECHNICAL ISSUES: When PCs are near an Access Terminal in the Command Center/Ops (E2) or A1/B1 offices, a screen flickers to life and displays system warnings scrolling over the screen. The automated systems log a series of issues over at the Atmosphere Processing 1 plant: several lights are apparently out, a door is jammed, the sub-level temperatures are above normal and slowly rising, similarly the cooling pipes temperature is slightly over the safe limits (these will all be red-hot by the time Ripley moves through the P1 basement), and a large number of colonists (i.e. their transponders) are located over at the processing station, sub-level 3, under the main cooling towers. Looks like a goddamn town meeting.

Alternatively, PCs viewing the AP1 in the distance spots an orange emergency light starting to pulse, alerting them to the fact that somethings going on over there. Again, the light signals nothing particularly pressing (just a jammed door or something; Holroyd probably recognize what the light warns about).

This event is meant as a story beat only; a mood/atmosphere lead-in to Aliens. The PCs are not supposed to be able to do anything about this.

As for the Hadley's Hope map... Does anyone know of any resource pinpointing locations on the map? Like... where was Newt hiding? Where is the colony is the water that Newt ends up in? Where is the door (elevator?) where Burke meets his doom ? etc. Have anyone gone through Aliens to pinpoint where stuff takes place?

As for the Hadley's Hope map... Does anyone know of any resource pinpointing locations on the map? Like... where was Newt hiding? Where is the colony is the water that Newt ends up in? Where is the door (elevator?) where Burke meets his doom ? etc. Have anyone gone through Aliens to pinpoint where stuff takes place?

In the movie, Newt was hiding in the air shaft outside of medical.

The water is not a given location - it was a consequence of the acid burns through the roof and the constant rain draining into the lower level.

The door where Burke is captured leads out of medical - he retreated from Operations as the alien swarm came in - went through medical to the other side and was grabbed on the far side of medical.

Thanks, ExileInParadise,

I guess I haven't been paying attention to Hadley's Hope spatially while watching Aliens. I had no idea that the "that's inside the room" swarm occurs in Ops! Operations is where Col.Admin. Simpson scolded Lydecker about the kids playing in the hallways, right?

About the submerged basement, I was thinking, while reading HLD, that perhaps that swa somewhere below the sublevel Mass Housing? With the leaking water pipes on in A Block above?

I'll make sure to do some location-and-map scouting when next I watch it

I guess I haven't been paying attention to Hadley's Hope spatially while watching Aliens. I had no idea that the "that's inside the room" swarm occurs in Ops! Operations is where Col.Admin. Simpson scolded Lydecker about the kids playing in the hallways, right?

Just outside of operations is where they walk and talk down the concourse (I think Michael Biehn calls it Concourse A in the commentary) and at the intersection (quarter and search by twos) is where they yell at the kids

Just outside of operations is where they walk and talk down the concourse (I think Michael Biehn calls it Concourse A in the commentary) and at the intersection (quarter and search by twos) is where they yell at the kids

That's very cool. I'll definitelly have to look out for that on the next viewing! Damn, there are so many things I've missed that I think I'll have to watch it again really soon

By the way, we played Hope's Last Day yesterday, and it was pretty fun. We had 4 players (with MacWhirr as an NPC) and it took us, perhaps 5h to finish (I extended a few things). It was a very enjoyable game to run, and my players loved it. Personally, I felt I didn't do a particularly good job, and I didn't manage to land the horror elements all that well and it turned into more of an action-y chase story. But that was all right; the players had a good time and that's what important. Surprisingly, every character survived and got away on the shuttle; MacWhirr & Singelton (or "simpleton" as we ended up calling her) got immediately face-hugged when they opened the shuttle door. They had run ahead of the rest, Singleton having closed a door on Hirsch as they fled, hoping to slow him down to allow the dozen pursuing Xenomorphs to catch up with him rather them them two "boss people"; and when the opened the shuttle door, they got face-hugged, which felt quite dramatically appropriate. The rest got into the shuttle, except for Holroyd, who stayed behind to keep critters off the shuttle. All in all, a strong ending.


HLD is a fun little scenario

nice. You should write a play report. Play report are very fun to read. If you like, I don't want to force you.

nice. You should write a play report. Play report are very fun to read. If you like, I don't want to force you.

Hm... perhaps I should It's a lot of work and I don't know if that many people read them, (well, not my previous ones at least), but perhaps HLD is the one to do. I'll think about it and see what I can manage!