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I think it was established by FL some years back, that Xenomorphs and other monsters are not NPC; monsters are not "characters". That said, my memory is awful so I could be mistaken.

When I started GMing Alien RPG, I allowed my players to pin xenos, and thereby set a unfortunate precedent in our games. I have regretted it mightily, as it weakens the xenos greatly, thereby diluting the horror aspect of the game; with a single (extra) success using their pulse rifles, each CM player can halve an alien's effectiveness, and therefore scariness.

The solution in my game, having established the mistake (and we're too stubborn to change), is to rule that while I continue to allow pinning of your garden variety xenomorph, I do not allow it for bigger and badder variants, like chargers and praetorians and queens, etc. That helps a bit, and it actually makes the bigger variants even nastier, comparatively speaking.

*shrug*

If you have a choice as a GM, without upsetting the players or whatever, then don't allow PCs to pin xenomorphs. That's my advice, at least.

Okay, wading into the hive on this one myself.

Rules as Written:
You pin down your enemy.
PCs need to make a Panic Roll.
NPCs instead miss their next slow action.

No mention of terrifying space monsters there - PCs and NPCs mentioned, not "opponents" as used later in the same sidebar.

later ... "In combat, Xenomorphs follow special rules."

There is no mention in the entire Xeno chapter of panic affecting xenos - which avoids one of the major purposes of pinning in the first place.

Ash: "A survivor...unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."

Now... my thoughts. Pinning fire is about intimidation - people stop because they don't want the obviously unfun consequence of being shot.

Xenos ... don't care. Nothing about humans, or anything they can do, intimidates a xeno for even the briefest instant ... especially in a group when they start coordinating or if you use alien queens - once the queen is in the mix I would rule that she/it happily sends warriors and drones into a hail of gunfire without hesitation if they want... *and the drones/warriors would do it*

Even when Ripley is directly threatening the hive with flamethrowers ... the queen is scheming an attack rather than really backing down.

Now, regarding the sentry gun scene - I'd say they weren't pinned at all. They. kept. coming.
Until they beat down the door. and continued coming despite the corridor guns. Until they retreated.

And that retreat always seemed "ordered" to me ... the queen could have thought "you know, this isn't working but I have an idea..."
And then the lights go out, aliens in the ceilings etc... all changed tactics that continued advancing despite the established obstacles.

To mix Cameron-inspired metaphors here:
Kyle Reese: "Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."

I think that sentiment directly applies to XX121 as well.

Great post, @ExileInParadise, and I agree wholeheartedly.


About the queen pulling back the warrior swarm and then the light goes out... has it ever been explained/explored what exactly went down there? I mean, the queen can't actually have understood how power and electiricty works, could she? Was it a coincidence, perhaps? Damage caused by some frustrated outburst of hers, or by the sea of acid blood spilled by the warrior swarm?

As far as I know, no, the alien swarm and the lights going out is not explained.

However, if you go back to Dan O'Bannon's original concept for the creature, and the non-canon pre-production artwork for ALIEN(1979) there is an easily plausible explanation ...

The Xenos were easily smart enough to shut off the lights - even without as queen.

In the ALIEN pre-production artwork, there are pictures of an "alien temple" with hieroglyphics on the wall and a mural depicting the lifecycle conceived by O'Bannon and Giger.

The character who became Kane in the movie lowers themselves down into the temple from a hole in the peak of the pyramid.

At the base, they find the artwork, and an altar ... and eggs.

In an interview, Dan O'Bannon was asked if the xeno was intelligent and so he went into the original concept a bit.

Short answer: yes. Civilization building intelligent.

That temple in the artwork was basically a sacrifice chamber where adult intelligent xenos brought a cow-like host to continue their life cycle.

The xeno we see in ALIEN was a savage just-born that only knew a few hours in the hold of an alien (to it) space freighter.

Had it been born on its homeworld, the adult xenos would have taken it and weaned it through the immature savage stage until its full intelligence developed.

And to top it off... there was the proposed original ending to ALIEN: Ripley loses.
Then the xeno sits down in the shuttle cockpit seat, and dictates the audio log entry *in Ripley's voice* as it takes over the shuttle.

The studio said heck no to that ... and good thing they did for ALIENS fans...

So, yes, with all that from the interviews, DVD commentaries, Book of Alien art, Giger's ALIEN book, etc - it's no big thing to me how the xenos sabotaged the colony power ...

Sorry Hudson, they aren't just animals.

And all of this is why my friends won't let me GM them in an ALIEN RPG game ... they know I'd run the xenos not as animals muhahahaha.

According to some of the Dark Horse comics (IIRC) the aliens can retain some practical knowledge from the host, so they may know how to disable lights and also know spaceships hold people and can go to places away from right here.

I believe many things are not explained or badly explained by the people in the movies, like saying aliens have no remorse and feeling of morality, maybe, but they are not robots, they react defensively to fire for example. Also the queen is quite intelligent, and probably have psychic communication (or at least some low frequency sound communication) as pheromones alone can't convey such complex information like the tactics and stratagems she pull on the Aliens movie.

Aliens tend to be more cautious on their own, specially if alone or in small numbers, but if the queen wants it they are controlled and used like disposable robots.

At least that is my take. But I wouldn't allow for them to be pinned, a single alien may retreat after a dangerous burst but not stay pinned there.

wow ExileInParadise these are good thoughts. Great great post. Thanks.

Arthur.

[quote=Rolando post_id=89031 time=1705164722 user_id=13613]
I believe many things are not explained or badly explained by the people in the movies, like saying aliens have no remorse and feeling of morality
[/quote]

The reason Ash specifically says the xenos have no remorse may be from *talking with the one on the Nostromo*

There are some cut dialogue lines from that scene where Ash chides them for not even trying to communicate with it...

... Ripley then starts asking if Ash did and what did he learn.

Ash's reply is to smile and say "let me take some secrets to my grave" and is then burned.

I see no reason why not. Also even though rules say you cant I allow grapple attempts vs xeno's (Ripley did it to a queen with a loader. I am happy for my PC's to do the heroic, maybe dangerous, possibly stupid things that on screen characters can do)

It's worth noting that not all Xenomorphs are big enough/bad enough to charge down the hail of sentry-gun ammo. Especially Early in the infection.

While the mechanics don't provide for pinning, for the smaller forms (facehuggers, chestbursters, starfish), a hail of fire would have me at least considering "roll twice and take the safer action"... from the xenomorph's point of view.

They're alien, not idiot.