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When I do player-facing panels, I double or triple the font size I use for the GM-facing panels. My players like it and use it fine ... when I have the screen arrayed. I've been TTRPGing since 1980, and I've never been able to habitually use screens. They make me feel "cut off" from my players. (I keep trying every so often, though.)

Received today an update about solo rules.

It sounds really good but I have a question that maybe can be solved in the next livestream which is going to be aired on thursday.

Would It be possible to play several players without GM? Or is It only possible to play with only one character?

Reading the report and the own crowdfunding page It seems only possible to play with only one character but It would be nice if several players can play without GM...

If somebody is online next Thursday and can ask this question, I will be very grateful (I don't know if I will be able to connect to the livestream)...

Decanox, I honestly think you can play with 4-5 players without any problem without a Game Mother. You'll need a player (assistant Game Mother) to resolve certain game situations with everyone's agreement. With the current rules, you can do that. In a close-quarters situation with a xenomorph, the xenomorph will win 90-95% of the time unless a player comes up with an extraordinary idea. All of this is discussed between the players to reach an agreement.

It's possible.

Arthur.

For those who might be interested…

Here’s a quick summary of what I caught, regarding the Kickstarter content, from this recent interview vid with Tomas Härenstam, by The Advanced Age Roleplaying Gamers:
https://youtu.be/reJw3X8TSoo?feature=shared

Stealth
GM runs mini-game of enemy movements behind a secret screen

Stress & Panic Rules
Confirmed that:
--Roll on the Stress Response Table if you score a Facehugger on a skill check
--Panic Table if you encounter something horrible

Armor Rules
Tomas Härenstam Indicates that vehicle armor fixed (you can’t stab trough vehicle armor anymore)
“Armor is a bit more important and plays a bigger role”

Now, armor straight-up soaks its Armor Rank point of incoming DMG.
There was also something about weapons having a max armor rank penetration ceiling (My guess = weapon’s listed DMG somehow corresponds to how high an Armor Rank that weapon can hope to penetrate)

Maps & Miniatures
Maps (& minis) made more towards miniature use, to sync well with the new emphasis on stealth.
Maps therefore more detailed, and should scale better with minis than the old maps did for the cardboard tokens.
The old style of maps will remain for more overview maps and such, i.e., for maps that aren’t key locations covering a few handful zones.

General Stuff
--Attempt to increase user-friendliness in all areas of the game; less page-flipping and better job at accessibility to make the job easier for the GM. (They talked a bit about Heart of Darkness here, which is a difficult scenario to run on the fly).
--The rulebook lore is 90% the same, but new stuff from Alien: Romulus is added (Jackson Star location, the special Pulse Rifle and other gear, the Corbelan ship).

VTT
(Note, I haven’t a clue what anyone are talking about when it comes to VTT, so the below is subject to my own faulty understanding of things and of what I happened to pick up on).
All of the new thing and some old stuff available as VTT add-ons in the Kickstarter
The VTT work starts when the relevant book is final, so that they don’t need to go back and change things every time the main source goes through an edit or update.

Starter Sett
They tried to make this simpler and easier to get into the game. For instance, the old Starter Sett rulebook was over 100 pages long, and this time around they want to make something you to get onto the game quickly.

The Chariot of the Gods scenario was too big and involved for a starter sett, they felt, so the new one has a shorter adventure & rulebook, and it will also be cheaper compared to the big 1st ed starter sett.

Hope’s Last Day is the new starter sett adventure, but it is updated and with a new map.

Supply dial for Air and Ammo. Supply rules slightly tweaked and also now covers ammo. It is not intended to have a separate dial for every consumable for every player, as that would be consuming. The dial is meant to work for special situations where a key consumable is extra important.

Rapture Protocol
First scenario in the Jeremiah Sage.

Smaller focus than the Draconis Saga, which swelled into a gigantic thing.

Space Truckers freighting things to a mining colony on a frozen moon.
The miniatures on offer are the pre-generated PCs & NPCs from RP


Current World Economic Turmoil
Short term, it won’t have a huge impact. The kickstarter is safe. They do local fulfillment, shipping to Michigan from where the stuff goes out to backers. Worst case scenario, FL will have to pay tariffs when products enter the US, but they have no plan to pass that over on the American customers.

Hard to say what anything means long-term, but FL might have to rethink things going forward, but it is impossible to say right now.


...Other stuff not in that video...


Lifepath character design
I talked with Dave Semark about his contributions to the current wave, and he was very excited for the Lifepath Character Design system he has created. Dave has made Lifepaths for many RPG systems, although none that I am familiar with (‘cause my range of RPG knowledge is weirdly small)

Tartarus Sector/Anchorpoint Station
Dave also did the Tartarus Sector write-up and since I struggle with understanding Alien franchise space-geography, I asked him if Anchorpoint Station lies within the Tartarus Sector our just outside of it. Dave confirms it lies outside of the sector and is not detailed in his write-up.

Decanox, I honestly think you can play with 4-5 players without any problem without a Game Mother. You'll need a player (assistant Game Mother) to resolve certain game situations with everyone's agreement. With the current rules, you can do that. In a close-quarters situation with a xenomorph, the xenomorph will win 90-95% of the time unless a player comes up with an extraordinary idea. All of this is discussed between the players to reach an agreement.

It's possible.

Arthur.

Telling this way, of course, it's true, it's not difficult to play without GM but with several players.

My concern was that rules are going to be specific to only one player... But it's true, I suppose it wouldn't be so difficult to adapt that solo rules to several players in the case they don't comprehend that aspect.

Thanks anyway!Telling this way, of course, it's true, it's not difficult to play without GM but with several players.

My concern was that rules are going to be specific to only one player... But it's true, I suppose it wouldn't be so difficult to adapt that solo rules to several players in the case they don't comprehend that aspect.

Thanks anyway!

Thank you, Angelman, for the summary of the interview with Tomas Härenstam.

Stress & Panic rules (tables)
Having two tables is very interesting, one for the Stress Response Table and the other for horrible or very stressful situations (Panic Table).

Maps are going to be... 1 meter by 1 meter for the use of Miniatures, that's correct. After looking at the new maps very often (to get used to it), I still hope they've corrected some things. In my opinion, there were too many elements in the maps for them to be clear. Maps must be clear; it's very important. I still have a slight preference for the old-style maps.

Thank you very much for summarizing this for us, Angelman.

Arthur.

Thank you, Angelman, for the summary of the interview with Tomas Härenstam.

My pleasure, sir

Just to add that there's a Free League "League Lounge" chat regarding Alien Evolved Edition going on right now:
https://www.youtube.com/live/1J-RUdkLqsw?feature=shared

(I'll watch it later, though. Not sure if I'll have the energy to do a summary, but we'll see)

Summary based on yesterday's League Lounge video:
https://youtu.be/YbTdqzyKgY8?feature=shared

Solo Mode
--You cannot play existing adventures with solo mode
--Clever countdowns and danger levels drives the stories, and make sure you won’t die from a xeno attack early on in a solo story


Could one get xeno miniatures for solo game?
--Sure, that sounds fun
--There are 4 xenos in Rapture Protocol (2 big and 2 small ones), and another xeno mini in the starter sett (um? What?)
--For the next cinematic adventure – the design for which has started – will include a larger stable of xenos


Skirmish Play
--Grew out of them playing around with skirmish things based on the RPG rules just for the fun of it. This led to moving-figures-on-the-map kind of mini-games
--This system does not replace the RPG system, but you can play RPG adventures and then switch to skirmish play when appropriate if you want to


Rapture Protocol Adventure
--Inspired by Alien: Romulus? = Biggest inspiration is Alien from 1979. But Romulus happens to align with the style pretty well
--Collaboration with recent movie makers? = No, FL had no insight into the movie before release


Rapture Protocol in the chronological order
--2177 (two years before Aliens), in an environment before the secret of the xenomorph existence is out, so to speak


Ammo Rules
-Ammo is a small change. It is basically a Supply Roll, very similar to any consumable roll in the original Alien rulebook. The supply dial is basically a general consumables dial


If you already own the previous sourcebooks (CMOM & BWB), is there anything significant that has been changed in the new reprints?
--The changes in these books are much smaller than the rulebook, basically amounting to updating stat-blocks and vehicles
--Since reprints for these books were coming anyway, they felt it was logical to update them to the Alien Evolved look and rules, too (but the rules is basically ammo and armor rules)


Armor Rules
--Armor is a bigger change. The original edition had more abstract armor rules, but now it is a static “soak” value (not based on lucky rolls)
--The old rules didn’t really work in more military situations, especially for armored vehicles etc.


Art Book
--The Digital Art Book is basically pretty stuff from all of the books to use as a reference


Proof-reading & feedback
--The pdf will go out for proof-reading, and the files will be updated based on the feedback
--Hopefully, the pdfs will be shared with backers a couple of weeks after the Kickstarter ends; the files go out to IP holders shortly after the Kickstarter ends


Hope’s Last Day
--New version of the Starter Set. A full 3 Act adventure, with updated agendas and everything.


Online NPC/PC character generator?
--Nothing right now, but the Lifepath should help people to roll up cool characters
--Some VTTs might have tools for that sort of stuff


Cheat Sheets for new rules
--Yes, there will be summary pdf for the new rules
--This will allow you to play the new adventures with the original rulebook rules, for instance
--The new rulebook will have appendices for how to “convert” original ed. scenarios for the Alien Evolved rulebook
--Updates for CMOP & BBW basically comes down to updating NPC stats etc


How detailed is the new Lifepath system
--You role up your origins, your career, and your life, giving you small snippets of story and background to inform your entire character generation


Plans for a Corporate sourcebook
--“Corporate would be nice”
--FL has been talking for a looong time about doing a Space Trucker sourcebook, and a corporate section could potentially be part of that
--Still early days for the Space Trucker book project


Will there at some point be more material specifically on how to run Alien games?
--This is sort of what campaign play does, compared to cinematic play, with the campaigns giving lots of discussion on how to run them
--The new rulebook will have a separate Tartarus Sector write-up, which will have ideas for what to do in that sector


What are some limitations with working with licensed IPs
--It is mostly a fun, big dream; a privilege
--And it helps to have outside eyes on projects to keep things in line and getting fresh feedback from IP holders

3 days left! Tell your friends! Hoping to at least get that GM screen. Wish the minis were the last unlockables, I honestly have no desire to play with them

Thanks for the write up, Angelman! I am hopeful that in that appendix that has updates for existing adventures they will have updates for stuff in 1E CMOM/BBW.
I kinda read it that way but not sure

We're 70,000 SEK short of reaching the next goal (new GM Screen). 70,000 SEK is the equivalent of 70 people with a Roughneck Bundle (1098 SEK), which is what I got... you get the Evolved Core Rulebook + Hope's Last Day Starter Set + Rapture Protocol Box Set + complete PDFs included...

Come on everyone... last push... we're almost there...

Arthur.