Andy GW
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Campaign Sourcebook

Mon 20 Apr 2020, 17:35

What I'd really like to see at some point is a campaign supplement for this great game. I've heard there might be a Marines supplement in the future, which is cool and all, but not really my thing. I'm more into Alien than Aliens.

Now I'm not suggesting something as monumental as say Masks of Nyarlathotep or the Great Pendragon Campaign, but something of that ilk, something that provides a meaty, multi layered campaign. I think Call of Cthulhu is a good example here, it may not be sci-fi but it has the same element of horror and mystery. 

A great campaign supplement really puts a game on the map. Those two I mentioned above are classics, and there's many more... eg Darkening of Mirkwood for One Ring.
 
Vindictus
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Tue 21 Apr 2020, 04:35

I feel like a campaign wouldnt really work in this setting anyway.

Because the setting is incredibly bland outside of aliens and theres only so much you can do with aliens.
 
Andy GW
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Tue 21 Apr 2020, 15:12

I disagree. It's only bland if you limit yourself to the very narrow definition of the title. I used to play D&D, but not every scenario contained a dungeon or a dragon.

TBH that's why I think a campaign book is even more valuable. To expand upon those preconceptions.
 
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Rhonin84
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Tue 21 Apr 2020, 19:22

Andy GW, I agree with you, a campaign source book would be ideal.  I can come up with one shots all day but  I want something that might last a little longer.  I've been working on a campaign idea that we are going to start soon.  
Roy Batty: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
 
Vindictus
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 02:07

Well its not just the blandness of the setting. The other issue I have is the life expectancy of player characters isnt really conducive to long term campaigns.

If youre playing an empathy character with 2 health and no combat skills your likelihood of surviving combat is incredibly low... and if you dont have combat your players are going to get bored.

The game's core mechanics seem built around frequent character death in mind. And that directly works against the character development necessary for a longer campaign.

A campaign book would not only need to vastly expand on the setting and add more unique aspects than just aliens, but also increase character survivability to the point where a character can reasonably survive an encounter.
 
Bengt Petter
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 12:26

I think Vindictus has a point. It’s a very deadly game and the death rate is a challenge if you want to play longer Alien campaigns. I also agree that a campaign book would need to expand vastly on the setting. The tables in the campaign chapter isn’t really enough, I think. Simply because they don’t really reflect the depth that’s already there in the setting.

To me it’s all about what I see as the core themes: exploring the unknown, the encounter with truly Alien life, the AI challenge to mankind, and the power of corporate capitalism. To really grasp at least some of these core themes would for sure be needed in any interesting Alien campaign. Of course, it can be done in many ways. A way to expand the setting in a campaign friendly style could be to develop larger and more complex locations. It could be space stations, Lunar bases, asteroid mines, really large spaceships etc. So far, there isn’t much of that in the game - and no really good tools for creating interesting locations.

Having all this in mind, a few ideas for future campaign modules pops up in my brain:

1. Back to basic. The derelict in the original Alien movie is a truly interesting location. And we really only get a glimpse of it. There could be more to find out. And what happened there right after the initial visit? Were there any more corporate visits later, perhaps by other factions than WY? Could there perhaps be other derelicts or related objects nearby (not just those we find in the movies)? There is a quite large time span between Alien and Aliens that could be explored further. And there isn’t much that is more Alien than the original derelict.

2. AI is the real challenge. They are already there in the movies: the androids who challenge mankind in a profound way. An AI timeline is hinted (the different David models etc.). A possible interpretation could be that the androids are the real threat - and not the xenos. Still, the androids are not very central in the basic rules. I think they should be. Rethinking the entire setting from an android point of view could be really interesting. I can imagine android factories, android research, different android models, android agendas and programming (career paths seems quite irrelevant for androids). This could be a way to develop the setting in a way that’s very true to the core themes. Real world scientists like Nick Bostrom and Max Tegmark have written books about superintelligence (AI) that could very useful also for fictional development. The danger of AI is a real thing.

3. The xenos are a part of a much bigger picture. In the original Alien movie we see The Pilot and his (her?) biomechanical spaceship. It feels truly alien and horrifying, and it’s something far beyond staple sci fi. The biomechanical visions that H. R. Giger brought to the franchise are profound. Biology and technology can be combined in ways previously unknown to mankind. That logic can for sure be used to create new bizarre locations, technology, weapons, energy solutions and creatures (not just slightly different versions of the brand xenos). Think big and brave rather than lame and repetitive! I have already expanded on the Gigeresque aspect here: viewtopic.php?t=4968 It’a not a campaign idea in it self, but it can for sure be used to create new campaign locations and bizarre things and creatures that could feel just as alien as the original movie.

4. Explore the unknown. In Prometheus we meet a crew set to explore a remote planet depicted in ancient cave paintings. There must be many other expeditions that are sent to explore newly discovered planets. I would say that’s a career path that could be used for Alien campaigns. To make it more interesting from a game point of view, I would add some new rules for expanding the star map. The factions could all have secret star maps of their own, and there might also be some extremely rare Engineer holographic maps (like in Prometheus). Mankind is insignificant in the vast space, just like in the Lovecraftian lore (a sister lore to Alien).
Last edited by Bengt Petter on Wed 22 Apr 2020, 22:47, edited 6 times in total.
 
Andy GW
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 20:51

Expanding the setting are all reasons why a campaign book is a good idea not a bad one.

Death may be an issue but that's also down to play style. Original Traveller was very deadly, Call of Cthulhu is super deadly, and yet it has many globe spanning campaigns. My group doesn't get bored without combat, we are all CoC players where combat is rare; the horror and the mystery, and lethality are what we're here for. Granted that's a personal preference and why I mentioned that my play style is Alien not Aliens

As you point out Bengt Petter, there's a lot missing from the game - a campaign supplement would be welcome to fill out those gaps. You also suggest a lot of great ideas.

I would like it to be a search into something unknown with multiple layers. The top layer is an ancient race, the engineers for example, and the artefacts that are slowly being discovered. Did they create the aliens, or was it an accident or are they not connected at all? Below this is the machinations of the corporations. Some of which think they know all there is to know about layer A (eg Peter Weyland) but in reality only know a fraction. This layer also contains room for synthetics and their -potentially- emerging independent AI (perhaps also intertwined with aspects of the aliens in layer A). Finally with have layer C, where the characters are, doing things just to get by. Some aspects of the campaign would focus on lower level scenarios, but with hints or threads to something deeper that is slowly unravelled as the campaign progresses. Finally all leading to a revelation of sorts. 

Above all questions should be posed for which there is no answer. Resolve some but leave some unanswered so that player imagination feels the blanks and provides "what ifs". Answer everything and you lose mystery. Just why do they engineers want us dead, didn't they create us? etc etc.

I think of Mountains of Madness for CoC, a massive campaign where the players travel to the Antartic and a great unknown to slowly discover the layers of whats going on while battling the elements just to stay alive . Twilight's Peak (Traveller scenario from ages back) also has hints of this. If I had the time... I'd steal all those ideas, re-work them slightly and string them together. I don't have the time or the art skill to make it pop!  :D 

Coriolis has a campaign supplement which tbh sounds similar to this, I think Alien would benefit from one too. I want a space horror game, horror and mystery. No other game out there has the same aesthetic as this. OK there is Mothership, but that's an indie title which likely won't get the same level of support. Ultimately it will give the title more longevity. There's only so many one shots you can run with this thing, what then, move on? Personally I think that would be a real shame. 
 
Vindictus
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Wed 22 Apr 2020, 23:42

But characters dying way too easily seems like a huge problem for long term campaigns. Because you cant increase attributes with XP. theres no way to increase your health as the game progresses. And xenomorphs have instant kill attacks anyway that can kill you regardless of your health. It seems like campaign rules would need to get rid of the signature attacks of xenomorphs and replace them with something less cinematic.

Call of Cthulhu is super deadly
Not as deadly as this. The aliens can kill characters before they even get a turn. And it doesnt even have to be a surprise attack. They can pull two back-to-back initiatives.

Some of my players have complained about aliens getting to go twice (or even three times!) before they even get to go once. The alien disarms them on the first attack them kills them with the second attack they dont even get a block reaction. Players hate feeling completely helpless when they get murdered. At least they get to jump back in with another character. But I question if that would really work in a longterm campaign...

I suppose you could have a campaign that revolves around a colony ship. When a character dies you just wake up a new character out of cryosleep lol.
 
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Konungr
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Thu 23 Apr 2020, 00:31

I picture a campaign being more of an anthology. A singular narrative told over the course of many smaller stories. You do this one shot. You do this month long game. Another couple one shots. And as the players keep seeing the peripheral of a larger narrative from different characters points of view you can then wrap that narrative up with a final game that directly deals with the central elements. Maybe bring back some of the survivors from previous games? Maybe have all new ones. Depends on how the other stories go really.

Consider the resident evil games as a comparison.
 
Bengt Petter
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Re: Campaign Sourcebook

Thu 23 Apr 2020, 00:58

I would say this is also a discussion about what this setting is really about. It’s easy to get why people would expect to include xenos in an Alien campaign - it’s in the brand name. And you can make them weaker or put in some kind of containment, perhaps more safely than in Alien Resurrection. Another possibility is to have the xenos involved in some other, less dangerous form - like eggs, embryos or larvae. The action could be around them, and not with them.

You could also question if the aliens have to be there at all. As I pointed out above, there is a lot more in the setting. It’s a matter of how you see the Alien universe. Personally, I’m more interested in the corporations, the androids, and the exploring of space. There is so much more than angry xenos with acid blood.

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