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Angelman
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Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Thu 04 Aug 2022, 17:24

Hey, y'alls!

So, at this point I’m guessing that many of y’all have gotten your hands on the preliminary pdf version for Heart of Darkness, and I thought it might be useful and fun to discuss thoughts on running and prepping the cinematic story.

First of all, I friggin’ love HoD. I find it to be bold and brave and very ambitious, with some great pearls of drama, horror, and suspenseful moments. I can understand people who find HoD too new and original for the Alien universe, but I just love how this scenario dives headfirst into pure Giger-dome, and I know it will blow my players’ minds, too, so HoD is very much for us.

What y’all think about it?

The first thing I want to discuss is the pre-gen PCs. There is a LOT going on with them, and Gaska put together a great, dysfunctional PC team speeding towards collision. Regardless, some of these are better fit for PCs than others, and here are my thoughts on them.

***Obviously, the following discussion will contain spoilers***

HIGH TIER CHARACTERS
These are the pre-gens I deem most suitable as player characters. There are 7 pre-gen characters in the game.

Cpt. Lugar: Owns the Cetorhina; has been to Erebos several times in the past; is secretly searching for her great aunt Aly who was part of the original Cronus mission; knows the CotG backstory (=ties the entire 26 Draconis campaign together). Lugar has a lot of agency, resources, and interest in the mission and should definitely be a PC STARTING character. Her usefulness in the story is also frontloaded – she knows stuff and is on a personal mission – and should she die halfway through the story, leaving Agenda Cards unfulfilled, that’s no problem; Lugar going out looking for her grand aunt is more effective than her actually finding the Perfected Aly.

Prof. Hedenström: Connection to Deep Void/Frontier War campaign (=the “shadow government bioweapons project” he was part of is obviously Deep Void); is the resident expert on the 26 Draconis Strain; useful skill-sets; has an Ash-like character twist in the 3rd Act. Like Lugar, Hedenström has agency and insights that makes him a good PC, and he goes all Ash/Burke/Golic on the others in the 3rd Act (=motivated to become one of the Fulfremmen); lots of potential here! Hedenström’s usefulness increases as the acts progress, and it would really be a shame if he died early. (I’m sure gonna fudge Critical Hit rolls to keep him alive, if able).

Col.-Doc. Drabikowski: A usual-suspect (=UPP scientist) adding tension and potential RPG moments; useful skill-sets; motivated to stop the Fulfremmen; and the center character in a late-game complication (=UPP trying to retrieve “Ironfish”). Again, this is a character with much agency, having specific mission objectives apart from the rest. Like Hedenström, Dabrikowski’s footprints in the story matures with time and she should stay alive at least until the MSS stuff starts happening.


MID-TIER CHARACTERS
These characters work fine as PCs, but are not as necessary as the above three.

Sgt. Sajaad: The only combat character; strongly motivated to protect the team; strongly motivated to investigate alien stuff; connection to Frontier War (=basically a Church of the Two Divines cultist); significant character arc. Sajaad starts out as a very helpful and useful ally, only to gradually turn into a Golic-style enemy of the group, and there’s a lot of RPG potential here. She’s capable of handling many dangerous situations, but will probably also be the one regularly put in dangerous situations; she MIGHT last a while or she MIGHT bite the dust early on. Should she perish before fulfilling her Agenda Card arc, it’s no big deal – you miss out on a fantastic character journey, but one that is not central to the plot. Basically, Sajaad finding god amidst all the terrible stuff happening at Erebos is just icing on the cake, and the story will move fine without it. I’d say Sajaad is a great replacement character for a dead PC, as she comes with weird motivations that she can easily have explored behind everyone’s backs. And… it might be fun to see the face of the player who gets Sajaad midway through the story, only to discover that their quiet and loyal bodyguard marine is actually a wacko xenomorph worshipper!

Dr. Lark: Motivated to keep the others alive and well; files on all the other team members (=source of tension and RPG moments); rogue synthetic; a (benign) character manipulator. Dr. Lark is a plot device, the machine in the PCs’ midst that will turn biomechanical just like the Fulfremmen. As such, she doesn’t have to be a PC – her arc will work just as well as an NPC – but some players would love the challenge to play her. She’s more of an internal character, and a player could play her so subtly that her wants, fears, and desires never come to the surface. Whether a PC or NPC, however, Lark should definitely endure into act 3, to begin metamorphosing into a biomechanical being!

Others: All three listed Erebos prison inmates are great replacement characters, but only if all three are introduced as a group (with a minimum of two being PCs). It would be fun if, late in the game when things have gone to hell and PCs start dropping as flies, the prisoners become a fresh “blank slate” PC group with their own motivations. Cool stuff. Similarly, SOF Commando Sub-Lt. Pfluger might be a good late-in-the-game replacement PC; not enough there to sustain her as a PC for the full scenario, but definitely enough motivation and agency for an act or (at most) two.


LOW TIER CHARACTERS
These characters are either too uninteresting to be player characters, or their function in the story is more in line with NPCs than PCs.

Dr. Ejiri: Motivated to keep the others alive and well; motivated to stop the Fulfremmen; skilled leader; stress reducer. Dr. Ejiri is a blank slate, a nothing character best suited as a GM device to guide the players along. Some players would love to explore a “freeform” character like this, with no set character arc, but to be honest, Dr. Ejiri is kind of boring.

Prof. Navarre: This character is nothing but a conflict generator, tied directly to another character’s (Drabikowski’s) arc, with nothing going on for themselves. He has a secret and a private mission, but neither are likely to come into play except for the one scene where Navarre confronts Drabikowski (which, in many groups, will happen privately between the two players having a chat away from the table). Like with Lark, Navarre’s internal stuff might never come into play, and it is a shame that Dr. Lark isn’t given some info on the real Navarre that could set up a confrontation between the two. Basically, Navarre is the most clear-cut NPC of the bunch, there just to be a wrench in the machinery and a stimulant to Drabikowski’s character. He’s basically Burke.

Grey 88-80: Lugar’s synthetic assistant has NO agency on its own (=acts only when ordered to) and is therefore poorly suited for being a PC, even a replacement PC. However, weird players (like myself, to be honest) would love the challenge of playing another character’s sentient tool, so there is that. But yeah, Grey is a last resort kind of PC choice.

Adrien: Ok, you pretty much HAVE to let a player pick the cat as their replacement PC, right? You have to. But beware, Adrien has very little agency and no real motivation in the story – he’s got nothing to do and, apart from the novelty factor, is probably not the most interesting character to play. He’s also a very difficult character to play in any way that is interesting to the story, ‘cause, as an actual cat, Adrien’s got no investment into anything going on. The best use of Adrien is as a stress reducer who manipulates other PCs into falling in love with him, so that he can become a source of trouble… which is clearly an NPC function. As it happens, my girlfriend accidentally learned that you can play a cat in HoD (=she glanced at one of the official preview pages released by FL which spoils this fact), and now she demands to get to play Adrien, but I have no idea what to do with him as a PC…
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged
 
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Angelman
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Thu 04 Aug 2022, 17:48

I'll follow the above musings on potential PCs with a short list of factions and interest groups represented by the pre-gens and NPCs in the story. Cross-faction tensions could become a source of conflict and tension between team members. Several pre-gens are affiliated with more than one faction. (Erebos St. crew & inmate NPCs are added in italics).


UA
  • Cpt. Lugar
  • 1st Mate Grey (Lugar's synthetic assistant)
  • +Mr. Hobbs (Erebos' Chief Cook)
  • +Warden Stykes (Erebos' prison warden)

3WE
  • Dr. Ejiri
  • +Dr Web (Erebos’ Science & Medical Officer)

UPP
  • Col.-Dr. Drabikowski
  • (Prof. Navarre, secretly; actual Col.-Dr. Bartolo Abeijón)
  • +Sub-Lt. Pfluger (UPP SFO Commando & only survivor of her team)

ICSC
  • Sgt. Sajaad
  • Prof. Navarre

Weyland-Yutani
  • Dr. Ejiri
  • Prof. Hedenström
  • Dr. Lark
  • Sgt. Sajaad
  • +Crash (Stykes’ sentient corrections drone bodyguard)
  • +Erebos Inmates (technically WY property): Cecil (“intellectual” murderer), Wicks (gang leader & former station manager), Mr. Man (gangster & hacker)

Geholgod Institute
  • Dr. Ejiri
  • Prof. Hedenström
  • Prof. Navarre
  • Col-Dr. Drabikowski
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged
 
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Angelman
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Thu 04 Aug 2022, 18:17

Additional character handouts
I’m planning to prepare a one-sheet extra handout for each of the characters, with info on stuff that only they know. Thus far, the list goes like this.

Cpt. Lugar: Summary of the Cronus mission (info from CotG). Lugar will also, in my game, have had contact with survivors of CotG, and will basically know what those PCs knew. Lugar has also been to Erebos several times in the past, and will therefore possess info on the station and inhabitants.

Prof. Hedenström: Summary of 26 Draconis Strain properties and research. He knows about the “vaccine” properties (and how badly it works), and might possibly recreate it during HoD. He also knows much about the WY & CMC interest in the black goo, xenomorphs, and Engineers.

Col.-Dr. Drabikowski: Info on Project Ironfish and possibly some UPP special projects (Darkstar & Morana), although the latter isn’t all that relevant, really.

Sgt. Sajaad: A summary on the Space Beast, Church of Immaculate Incubation, Children of the Two Divines, etc., everything needed to play a secret cultist and evangelist missionary.

Dr. Lark: Medical files on all other PCs in the group + any WY people at Erebos. Basically, Lark will know too much about everyone to make anyone uncomfortable; some secret info (Hedernström’s sentence for instance) will be redacted, however. Buried in the file will be info on Dr. Navarre that doesn’t fit with the current (imposter) Navarre.

Dr. Ejiri: CVs and team assets files on everyone. Basically, info he needs to lead and put individual team members to their most suited tasks. Probably also contains some company concerns and such, plus assessments on individual team mates’ worth to W-Y (=”protect Dr. Lark, who has a substantial dollar value attached to her”, etc.).

Prof. Navarre: Much the same info as Col.-Dr. Drabikowski + info on Drabikowski’s family and background (to use to manipulate her). Perhaps, just to give him SOMETHING to do besides not confronting Drabikowski until Act 3, he could know something about Dr. Ejiri’s secret past (which is something NOBODY in the story knows or suspects, making the secret rather pointless as a story device).

Thoughts?
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged
 
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Nuamorph
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Wed 16 Nov 2022, 12:30

Angelman,

I'm running Heart of Darkness this weekend (having run HLD, CotG and DoW already) and I just wanted to say your notes here have been a great help.

I also absolutely love the way HoD brings in Giger's other artistic material and even David's drawings and hints about what he wanted for Shaw in Covenant. Not to mention the interesting implications for the setting, e.g. Clerke's musings about the Perfected being the reason the Engineer's want to destroy humanity and the Border bombings and so on.

I'll post more about my sessions and thoughts when we finish the scenario.
 
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Angelman
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Wed 16 Nov 2022, 16:59

Angelman,

I'm running Heart of Darkness this weekend (having run HLD, CotG and DoW already) and I just wanted to say your notes here have been a great help.

I also absolutely love the way HoD brings in Giger's other artistic material and even David's drawings and hints about what he wanted for Shaw in Covenant. Not to mention the interesting implications for the setting, e.g. Clerke's musings about the Perfected being the reason the Engineer's want to destroy humanity and the Border bombings and so on.

I'll post more about my sessions and thoughts when we finish the scenario.
Thank you, @Nuamorph. It's great to hear that this came in handy. At some point, I'll also do the individual info-handouts for the various PCs, which I hope will be equally useful, but alas, I'm not "there" yet.

I'd love to hear about your adaption of the story and how your games went. This is a scenario that I think ANY gamemaster could do with some play-through and analysis work for :) Awesome stuff, mate.

As for your lauding of how HoD brings out more of the Giger stuff, I actually count this as a genius feature of the entire game. It's not even hyperbole to say that our beloved Alien franchise is MUCH better when guided by Gaska's impressive work in the RPG. Good boy, him!
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged
 
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strangecoloursFL
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Wed 16 Nov 2022, 20:30

Question about Abeijón. Is Abeijón assumed to know about the rendezvous when the action commences in Act I? The only reference seems to be that it is revealed to him as his Act II agenda, but he couldn't reliably find this out 'in the field' while on Erebos. I'm adding it to the pre-game background for that player, so that they have some knowledge of and could imagine how their role could play out. Have other GMs considered this at all?
 
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Nuamorph
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Mon 21 Nov 2022, 12:25

Question about Abeijón. Is Abeijón assumed to know about the rendezvous when the action commences in Act I? The only reference seems to be that it is revealed to him as his Act II agenda, but he couldn't reliably find this out 'in the field' while on Erebos. I'm adding it to the pre-game background for that player, so that they have some knowledge of and could imagine how their role could play out. Have other GMs considered this at all?
I read it that he already knows about the Snova Trakhnu etc. He's sent to keep an eye on Drabikowski, kills somebody to be in the position and in Act II he clearly already knows Sub-Lieutenant Pflüger long before the ship comes near the station. So I would say the only real reading is that he's fully briefed on the operation as this entire mission was planned well in advance.
 
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Nuamorph
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Mon 21 Nov 2022, 12:27

It's not even hyperbole to say that our beloved Alien franchise is MUCH better when guided by Gaska's impressive work in the RPG. Good boy, him!
Yeah I couldn't agree more, Gaska is fantastic!

I've run one session of HoD so far and I'll post my notes when I've finished.

I'll just say that I added some semi-scientific jargon, more explicitly tied things to what David was doing in Covenant and despite having misgivings about Adrien originally I think he's a great addition to the scenario.
 
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Angelman
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Re: Heart of Darkness prep & GMing discussions

Mon 21 Nov 2022, 14:06

It's not even hyperbole to say that our beloved Alien franchise is MUCH better when guided by Gaska's impressive work in the RPG. Good boy, him!
Yeah I couldn't agree more, Gaska is fantastic!

I've run one session of HoD so far and I'll post my notes when I've finished.

I'll just say that I added some semi-scientific jargon, more explicitly tied things to what David was doing in Covenant and despite having misgivings about Adrien originally I think he's a great addition to the scenario.
Sweet :) Please do share your prep and findings. I'm especially curious about how you get Adrien to work! Also, droping some David ramblings into the mix would add great flavor, I think. Cool stuff, mate.
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged

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