Attackmack
Topic Author
Posts: 134
Joined: Sun 17 Feb 2019, 03:22

Playing Cinematic without the agendas?

Wed 14 Aug 2019, 20:46

Never got the starter kit to the table this summer but looks like ill be GMing a group of beginners and first time players soon and to ease things for both myself (im more or less a beginner as well) and the players im thinking of removing the agendas and either removing "Lucas" altogether or make sure its a NPC I could use if needed.
I think we will have more than enough to get our heads around that removing agendas and hidden information between the players might be a good thing.

Ive read through the scenario and cant find anything that would be completely ruined by doing this, aside from the tension that might arise as players act upon different goals. And the story points but I can reward them based upon other things.
But if anyone see anything that would be a big problem with this please tell me before I make the decision :)
 
Pily
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun 14 Jul 2019, 09:16

Re: Playing Cinematic without the agendas?

Wed 14 Aug 2019, 20:58

I myself removed the Lucas agendas but i did keep the other agendas. Also it's really up to you if you want to add them or not. And if you feel it would help with a beginners group not having them right away then why not do that and see how it goes:)
 
Spamsolo
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun 11 Aug 2019, 23:03

Re: Playing Cinematic without the agendas?

Wed 14 Aug 2019, 21:35

I'm planning on running my first play-through shortly with a group of new RPG players and so I plan on removing most non-essential rules, supply rolls, agendas and rivals for starters. I think the core story will be more than enough to keep everyone's immersion.
 
Jhea
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri 02 Aug 2019, 12:35

Re: Playing Cinematic without the agendas?

Thu 15 Aug 2019, 16:29

Depends on how you want to play the game.
Have Agendas if you must.
Makes them a bit spicier, since cinematic play is pretty much a table top pvp game.

But i think it's totally doable without agendas. but you might want to have a back NPC to fuck things up, and make it more interesting in the whole setting.

If you have some kind of long campaign run, the 'agendas' and 'motivations' of the chars are pretty much an integral part of the story... but they have to be damped down much so the group can stay together and everyone can see their character grow etc.
It's not fun to have a new character everytime when you put some effort into it making a backstory etc. (at least for me)
I don't need a fancy signature quote from some dude, everything i say is pure gold! ~ myself
 
Attackmack
Topic Author
Posts: 134
Joined: Sun 17 Feb 2019, 03:22

Re: Playing Cinematic without the agendas?

Sun 18 Aug 2019, 10:01

Playing without agendas worked like a charm! The scenario has so much going on that the players had their hands full anyway and the session was tense all the way through!
Mostly they stuck together helping each other but towards the end they started to drift apart in their intentions and opinions on what to do, and how to do it.
It all fell apart in the end and everyone pretty much fought to save themselves and naturally everyone died :)
But no one felt cheated or mistreated, and it was a pretty cool ending to the scenario so its all good! Cinematic indeed!

But im really looking forward to regular campaign play in Alien! Im not sure how much xenos to mix into a campaign, and how to do it but I love the setting and the ruleset!
 
hibishop
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue 11 Jun 2019, 00:19

Re: Playing Cinematic without the agendas?

Tue 20 Aug 2019, 19:34

I like this idea.  I'll be running through the Alien Cinematic Play for the third time in a couple weeks.  Unlike the previous two play-throughs, this time I'll run without Secret Agendas (and without the character descriptions).  Other than the Attributes, Skills, Career, and Talent, the characters will essentially be clean slates.
  • Company Agent
  • Colonial Marine
  • Medic
  • Officer
  • Pilot
  • Roughneck
  • Scientist
  • Synthetic

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