Bengt Petter
Posts: 772
Joined: Sat 09 Apr 2011, 11:27

Re: Buddies and Rivals

Wed 08 Jul 2020, 09:37

Quite so. But what I'm suggesting is that the "corporate" might also incorporate (pun intended) other kinds of institutional entities, not necessarily corporations, per se.
But that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that most characters in this game have corporate connections. I think that aspect should be more emphasized. Dystopian capitalism is (or rather should be) a core theme of this setting. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be other relationships too.
 
Bengt Petter
Posts: 772
Joined: Sat 09 Apr 2011, 11:27

Re: Buddies and Rivals

Wed 08 Jul 2020, 09:44

Most FL games have some sort of Buddy system. It may be called different thing in different games. The idea is for your character to have a best friend for roleplay purposes. How much each player wants to play on this varies from player to player and even session to session and who that best friend is can also change from one session to the next if the player wants to.

Alien also have a Rival system because that fits the Alien setting. Regarding the Rival and campaign play, you are not suppose to have PvP play in a campaign. In a campaign, the rival is just someone that you dislike, or you dislike the characters position or just the fact that the character is payed more than you. This is just for flavor, for roleplay purposes, or if you want to look at it very gamey, a way to earn some extra experience points each session.

In real life, you don't like everybody in a workplace equally well. That doesn't mean that you want to kill the ones you don't like. If a player is not comfortable with this in campaign play, just skip it, especially the rival system.

Most Year Zero games have a best friend system and actually also a buddy/rival NPC. it works well. Some players like this and have an easy time to play this in roleplay scenes others just skip it.
It’s probably here I think the game goes slightly wrong. Of course, you could have a buddy/rival in any setting. But in a world of dystopian capitalism, relationships tend to be more corporate. I think the game should reflect that a lot better. If you watch the movies, that’s how all the relationships between the characters work: they are where they are because The Company sent them. They share a corporate past. That’s the premise, not really just the more generic buddy/rival. That could still be used, but with something more added to it.
 
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Vader
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Re: Buddies and Rivals

Wed 08 Jul 2020, 11:54

But that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that most characters in this game have corporate connections. I think that aspect should be more emphasized. Dystopian capitalism is (or rather should be) a core theme of this setting. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be other relationships too.
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I know - but my point is, I don't agree. In my mind, dystopian capitalism is certainly one possible theme that can be explored in this setting - there is basis for that in the original movies - but I can't see that placing it as a (or the) core theme for the entire game really would be warranted. Each of us who run our own games is certainly at liberty to put it there if we so prefer, but I can't see any justification to force that priority upon everyone who picks up the game.

For me, it's not what the setting is about.

That the "truckers" in ALIEN have a connection to The Company is obvious - they're its employees.
Same goes for Burke in ALIENS, Ripley of course has the aforementioned past as a Company employee, and Newt is a resident of a Company-founded and run colony - but there is no obvious evidence in that movie that any of the Marines have a direct connection to any megacorp, or a past involving one.

However, the question of institutional relationships in a somewhat wider perspective - not restricted to megacorps - is interesting. A character might be an ex-con, with ties to a criminal network. Or a rehabilitated former member of a cell of Neo-Luddite extremist eco-terrorists ... or perhaps not so rehabilitated...? Such background connections could also influence relationships with and attitudes towards other PC's.
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion

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