univoxs
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri 30 Oct 2020, 19:05

Re: Any tips for Campaign Play?

Fri 30 Oct 2020, 19:21

My plan was always Campaign play. I have been a little pressed for time as I have been running a D&D 3.5 sandbox for the last year, so I admit I have not done more than a passing read of the core Alien book. My first idea is to use Delta Green adventures and adapt them. I will probably have the players be in the vein of space truckers with room for corporate spies to be crew members, or retired colonial marines. That way all the careers are essentially available.

A suggestion I have is to make your own evil Corporation. The novels often reference rival smaller corps. This will give you the GM agency to do things with the corp that you couldn't do with WY including having your party actually defeat them.

I don't plan to whip out the Xeno's themselves until much later in the campaign. There are plenty of other critters to wrestle with as well as androids and space pirates etc. I plan to leave bread crumbs along the way about the Xenos. The conceit about this game is that its called Alien, we all know they should be coming at some point. The key will be to make it matter when they are introduced.

The 'mcguffin' campaign idea is pretty easily used here (though I lean on the trope too often). The party has something, most likely information about the xenos or maybe even someone in cold storage who has been impregnated, and corps will literally kill to get it.
 
i3ullseye
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed 11 Nov 2020, 06:01

Re: Any tips for Campaign Play?

Sun 15 Nov 2020, 06:45

For me.... the XP breakdown is OK I think. I don't know that anyone has enough time in to know if a longer term campaign has balance issues or not. But a few things jump out at me....

In Cinematic mode, having a buddy and a rival can be kind of fun. In longer term games, the ide stinks. Getting one of your XP for making sure to hinder or screw another player over just doesn't work for me. But the Rival and Buddy system is potentially 2 XP per session. So I think the base 1 XP per session becomes 2 and throw out the Rivals/Buddies.

Let's break down the whole list......

-Did you participate in the game session? You get one XP just for being there..... I would up this to 2 XP

-Did you risk or sacrifice something to further your Personal Agenda? ...... I am not sure secret personal agendas work for longer term group play, but maybe it does. Maybe a secret corporate agenda or something. But I am not sure every PC should have one, and if they do, they should be barred from a group agenda in some way so as not to get far more XP over time.

-Did you risk your life for your Buddy PC? Did you challenge or stand up to your Rival PC? ..... Both of these should be gone in my opinion.

-Did you make a Panic Roll? ..... I like this one. If there was never any risk, no extra reward.

-Did you overcome a dangerous event, using violent or non-violent means? ...... hmmmm...... this one seems a bit odd. Like just an excuse to add another XP. Isn't every session going to have a dangerous or challenging event? I think this one the whole group gets as a unit really.

-Did you make a significant discovery or revelation? ..... I like this one, but it should be something monumental. I think this is another that the whole group either gets or doesn't.

-Did you perform an extraordinary action of some kind? ...... Again, this needs to be epic level action I think. This one should be very rare.

-Did you earn any money? ..... Hahahaha.... no.... Cash is its own reward.

I think these adjustments would be enough to tone down how fast XP would be gained, but I have in no way run enough games to verify any of this long term. It just feels right. And maybe things progress too slow for my players, and I find a way to accelerate it. But it certainly wont be with Buddies, Rivals or Money hehe. So this way, you can reliably expect everyone to hit 3 or 4 XP per session. A new bump every 2 sessions of campaign play. That feels about right I think.

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