Bengt Petter
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Sun 25 Jul 2021, 13:11

I don’t think an underworld supplement has been mentioned so far, but I would certainly love to see one.
That's an awesome idea! Such a sourcebook would add a lot of new nuance and expand the gaming world a whole lot. I'd absolutely pay top dollar for that, sir :)
Thanks, Angelman! I have a couple of ideas for other sourcebooks too. Those that have been mentioned so far, are focused around certain career paths: the marines, the colonists, the explorers, and the truckers. It’s easy to get why - we see them in the movies. They are all more or less in the bottom of the corporate food chain. That’s why they end up in lethal situations.

However, I think it would be interesting with a sourcebook about the rich. There must be people who have enormous resources and are able to access knowledge that is far beyond reach for common employees. Of course, the super rich in a dystopian capitalist system, usually don’t need to get their hands dirty. That’s their big advantage: they have people who take risks for them. But they are for sure involved.

So what I suggest here is a corporate sourcebook, with a focus on the rich and powerful and their dirty secrets. There are already several corporate factions in the basic rules, but the descriptions aren’t very detailed. In a new sourcebook, I imagine a focus not only on the rich and powerful, but also on the people who work more directly for the rich: mercenaries, spies, researchers, servants, corporate diplomats, heist crews etc. They would probably be able to access things that people like the marines or the truckers usually don’t.

A cruisal part of a corporate sourcebook would be corporate secrets and conspiracies. You should both get a number of interesting examples, and tools to create your own. It’s kind of already in the game, but the focus could be more corporate. How money and corporate secrets matters. You can also add some high security corporate facilities where the secrets can be explored. A couple of examples of sites: hidden labs, experimental android factories, newly discovered Engineer ruins and/or spacestations, hidden corporate archives with bizarre alien specimens etc. I would also love to see descriptions of the dystopian version of gated communities: well protected and luxurious residential areas with a comfort others could only dream of. A bit like Elysium in Blomkamp’s movie (I know that it’s not set in the Alien universe).

And in a a corporate sourcebook, I would also like to see some kind of mechanic to deal with an obvious core theme in this franchise: money. The rich can buy and sell basicly everything. Not just spacestations and corporations, but also secrets, specimens, people and entire planets. Top level capitalism should matter in a setting like this. I think it could be possible to create some kind campaign engine to make money matter also from a game point of view. A huge investment could be a true game changer or a start of a campaign. From a game point of view a fortune or a company could be a kind of ”base”, much like the ark in Mutant Year Zero. You build stuff to expand and get to the next level. And while you expand, there will be more problems to solve. You could go from owning an asteroid mine to running something much bigger - or maybe end up in huge debts...

So, just to wrap it all up: the corporate aspect is already there in the game, but not really from an hands on point of view. It’s more like a couple of Wikipedia articles. I would like a more playable approach on capitalism. Rich people and big money are for sure important in our world, and be even more important in a world of dystopian capitalism. What they do with their money and power is a key thing. And it matters to everyone in this setting.
 
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Angelman
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Sun 25 Jul 2021, 18:14

Again, those are very good ideas, Bengt :)

I'd also like some more discussion on interstellar politics and factions, in particular the UPP and other "nations". This could possibly be covered in a corporation sourcebook, though.
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged
 
Bengt Petter
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Sun 25 Jul 2021, 20:14

Again, those are very good ideas, Bengt :)

I'd also like some more discussion on interstellar politics and factions, in particular the UPP and other "nations". This could possibly be covered in a corporation sourcebook, though.

Thanks! The UPP is certainly an interesting faction. It’s also something completely different in this setting. They are by definition not corporate. I actually think that the UPP is interesting enough to be described in a separate sourcebook. Their priorities are most likely very different. They may not have a lot of fancy tech, but perhaps they have reached further out in space than any of the other faction? I imagine there could be a secret UPP star map, five times as big as the map in the basic rule book. It would be cool if they knew a lot more, but didn’t really have the resources to explore what they have found. That would also make a UPP campaign something completely different, reaching a lot further out into the unknown.

I’m thinking of the real world Cold War, where the Soviets had a partly starving population and a lot of people in Gulag camps, but also a huge army and a highly advanced space program. The UPP is probably a dystopian version of that.
 
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uscssrookie
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Sun 01 Aug 2021, 07:51

Is there a post/sticky where Free League takes a "pulse" of what the players might want?

One big thing that I would love to see is a "map pack." They could include things from the Core Manual like Novgorod Station, but also some "generic" settings that could be used in campaign play. Could have packs like "Ships," "Colonies" "Faculties", "Space Stations", etc. Sell three maps for 10 or 15 bucks. Maybe make them double sided?

The maps really add to the aesthetic of the game and players love them. Really immersive.
 
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Grimmshade
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Thu 12 Aug 2021, 05:56

But seriously, do we have any idea what's coming next?

Also, why don't the writers comment here on the OFFICIAL forums much? It appears they comment on Facebook more, which blows because I've never fallen into the Facebook trap.

Also, Map Pack is a good idea!
I'd also like a pack of common locations; maps (and details) that could be dropped into any campaign. Something like the station in the Core Book.
 
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ExileInParadise
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Thu 12 Aug 2021, 22:35

Also, why don't the writers comment here on the OFFICIAL forums much? It appears they comment on Facebook more, which blows because I've never fallen into the Facebook trap.
Probably a simple view of "number of members" = reach or somesuch.

Would be better to funnel facebook interest here instead - post here, and link the posts here on facebook.
We live, as we dream -- alone. ~ Joseph Conrad
 
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Angelman
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Mon 04 Oct 2021, 20:59

I just stumbled upon this interview from September 24th: https://www.tomshw.it/culturapop/interv ... ns-manual/


Here's a Gaska quote about future projects: "Heart of Darkness is the next Cinematic Scenario. This will close out the 26 Draconis Saga trilogy of scenarios. After that is the Explorers/Colonists campaign called the Building Better Worlds Handbook, which works off of clues from the Marine book and Heart of Darkness to open a new chapter to the ALIEN saga."
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged
 
Bengt Petter
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Sat 09 Oct 2021, 16:06

Corporate secrets and conspiracies are cruisal to this setting. I think tools for creating such stuff on your own should be included in a revised version of the basic rules. It could also be avaliable through a PDF. Actually, I would rather have a tool for corporate secrets than what’s now the campaign chapter. The cinematic approach is cool and fits the setting well, but the campaign part could be improved a lot.
 
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Angelman
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Sun 07 Nov 2021, 17:36

I just stumbled upon this interview from September 24th: https://www.tomshw.it/culturapop/interv ... ns-manual/


Here's a Gaska quote about future projects: "Heart of Darkness is the next Cinematic Scenario. This will close out the 26 Draconis Saga trilogy of scenarios. After that is the Explorers/Colonists campaign called the Building Better Worlds Handbook, which works off of clues from the Marine book and Heart of Darkness to open a new chapter to the ALIEN saga."

Another tidbit: In this video [https://youtu.be/m-5H7ESt86g], Gaska mentions that Heart of Darkness is supposed to drop this year (2021) and it's a boxed set scenario like Destroyer of Worlds.

Furthermore, the Colonist/Explorer book, Building Better Worlds, will drop next year and expands the setting outside of the current map, and will contain an "explorer campaign like the marines one".


Also, every sourcebook is set one more year into the future and builds upon what happened in the last one. So, the BBW campaign will reference stuff that happens in Frontier Wars, for instance.
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged
 
Midnightplat
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Re: What's next (after Colonial Marines Manual)?

Tue 13 Sep 2022, 03:24

Refreshing this thread since I just learned about Building Better World and the possible Space Trucker book.

Here's another interview with Gaska back in May https://youtu.be/CpKOPT3Lgs8 talking about "Building Better Worlds" and a Space Trucker book. Found out about it on Twitter when I was pointing out the arguable "over support" Marines have in Alien game content wise, and an observation I've seen most Alien RPG games tend to lean to either Marine campaigns or Space Trucker one shots. On top of being led to a pretty cool actual play podcast https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... i4podX-spF

Word in those threads is that the Building Better Worlds book is basically done, as far as the writing, I'm guessing we'll get some info on it once Heart of Darkness is out in print (which should be real soon?). I've joked it would be cool if they did it as a kickstarter offering a Alien: Ripley Mode (a la The One Ring: Strider Mode) as a stretch goal. This of course is just to set them up for a Bladerunner: Gaff Mode.

Anyway, some of the comments here seem to be thinking the game may go "beyond the map" which is more exploration, which could be cool, but that's a bit different from colonizing. Explorers find new worlds and survey them to see if there's any worthwhile reason to colonize them (like resources). Maybe it'll wind up in one of the scheduled books, but I see that going further, maybe for a third book. Colonial life would be more "working for the man (corporations)" on a mining, agricultural, unspecificed research, or maybe manufacturing world. Would love to see rules on industrial and wildcat mining, commerical and subsistence agriculture, etc.

I imagine some colonies will be more members of United Americas, UPP etc, and others will have people nominally members of those states but are basically company towns. This could enrich the Marshal character with two paths. One produced through the entity (UA, UPP, etc) governing colonial worlds to some sort of common peace officer standard, the other being basically "company men" who basically exist to keep the colony subjugated to whatever corporate power set it up. How "justice" works on colonial worlds, probably varying interacting systems, could definitely be fleshed out (like Colonial Marines Book, mentions the Marshals sort of report to the FBI, which is actually how justice is administered under the present Antarctic treaty, but there is the climax to the campaign that seems to grant the Colonial Marshals broader investigative powers more akin to what you'd expect from The Bureau.)

I don't know if a "criminal org" book is altogether necessary. The corps are the most criminal actors in the galaxy, IRL organized crime analogs would simply be proxies used on occasion when the corp didn't have the assets or really wanted deniability. Rules for crime are simply showing colonial law (Marshals) and commerce/trade/customs law (Colonial Coast Guard, which should definitely be developed in both books) and outlying common plots to subvert (real organized crime isn't so much "genius masterminds" as folks turning common exploits of systems into a form of livelihood ... the omerta codes and tattoos and what have you, that's just window dressing, at least from an investigative standpoint of the actual racket being perpertrated, though RICO in space would be a fun lark, though that's what all the conspiracies in the game so far basically are).

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