Hi Free League,
Before I start, I just wanted to say that I am absolutely loving your content so far. The Year Zero Engine is just amazing and easy to grasp. The Alien RPG itself is great for playing tense and nervous horror. So kudos.
But I do have a concern. That concern being that there is virtually zero info on how GMs can create their own cinematic games. We all love the Alien movies because of the sheer panic and horror when protagonists come face to face with Xenomorphs or sociopathic synthetics. It's not the slow paced scenes we come for. Instead, we love the sheer tension as a solitary character, split from his team, turns a corner and comes face to face with a Xeno that rips them in half, blood and guts everywhere. THAT is what Alien/Aliens is all about in my opinion. And this is why a strong focus on Cinematic games should be heavily supported.
Now don't get me wrong ... both Chariot of the Gods and Destroyer of Worlds are great and I'm proud to own them both. But as a GM, I don't want to just rely on your published adventures for cinematic games. I want to create my own. Thing is, the Cinematic mode is the thing that makes the Alien RPG so very unique. Every single RPG out there does campaign mode. It's the default pretty much across the board. But cinematic mode in Alien RPG is not only a cool idea, I feel it should be the *default* for this game. But instead, campaign play has 44 pages dedicated to it in the core book, and another 350 pages in the recently released Colonial Marine book. But we have nothing on how to create a proper and balanced cinematic game. Or more to the point, we have half a page in the core book. A tiny section that says these games should be done in three escalating parts and that's it. So right now, if a GM wants to run his own cinematic games, they really have to wing it.
So, please, soon, create a guide for us on how to create great cinematic games in a structured and balanced format so that we can run these one/two/three shot games of pure adrenalin terror for our friends so that they have nightmares at night as befitting this universe. Here is what I'd like to see:
- A guide on proper pacing and the amount of danger appropriate to each scene, depending on the emotional response that we wish to evoke in players.
- A proper guide on balancing. So if we have X number of players and X spare characters, what X kind of danger and monsters should they face and when.
- How to design good pregen characters for cinematic games, both in terms of building them with an appropriate power level, as well as working good secret motivations.
- General fluff on making quality horror scenes and elements.
- Whatever else you see fit that I didn't think of.
Basically, I'd love to see a 100+ page guide with step by step detailed instructions and templates to making these deeply horror driven games. Pleas give cinematic creation the same love as campaigns.
Thank you for time.