As a follow up to my playtest and review of WOIN, I decided to report on my first campaign now that we are a few sessions in. After disscussing various options with my players, I decided to run an "Alien Invasion" game, using primarily NEW rules but allowing some elements of the NOW draft document.
Player #1 looked at the options and wanted to take the astronaut class and more specifically be a biologist with an interest in "ancient aliens"-style conspiracy theories; I houseruled the gaps in the draft doc and let him have at it . Player #2 wanted to be a military type, more specifically a demolitions expert. Rather than houserule more draft classes, I guided him into making a Marine-path character with a touch of Engineer. After looking at the rulebook, Player #3 expressed interest in playing an Alien defector who wanted to help the humans resist the invasion and wished to know which species was the invader.
At this point I revealled the twist to him...it wasn't going to be a straight up alien invasion, but two factions of aliens who were about to bring their war to Earth. It was inspired partially on a scifi/ethical philosophy idea I thought of over a decade ago and never got the opportunity to explore fully and partially on Outsider. The two factions (chosen randomly, of course) are the Venetians/Spartans/Saurians and the Borians/Ograns/Felans, but that is by no means exhaustive; both factions have many minor species under their umbrellas. After looking at the book further, Player #3 expressed interest in the random species generation tables and wanted to play the last member of his species, vowing to not let another neutral world get swept up in the conflict. We rolled up a bizarre combo: An orange aquatic flying energy-eater. Quickly houseruling the gaps, I came up with the 'Cantanari", a species of flying fish that feeds off underwater heat vents and requires a specialized suit to survive and is capible of limited flight and glidding. They had a peacefull culture ruled by a single planetary king before they made contact with the other aliens, and soon found out how brutal both sides could be. Not nessessarily my orginal vision, but I rolled with it.
In leau of homeworlds, I let my human players tell me where they were from. I elimated the +1/-1 to different stats to avoid racial stereotypes, and gave them a choice of bonus skill from a catagory selected by me based entirely on national stereotypes. Player #1 wanted to be from the UK (later decided on Scotland more specifically), so I gave him a bonus [academic] skill; Player #2 wanted to be from Oklahoma so I let him choose an [outdoor] skill. I let Player #3 choose Volcanic to repressent the undersea volcanic vents his species lived on. I also let him take the Organizational Membership exploit (with the understanding that he would "lose" the undetermined bonus exploit upon his defection but keep the benefit of an empire-level credit limit in order to get his specialized kevlar environmental suit and arm himself to the teeth (ballistic sniper rifle, blaster pistol, laser sword and energy flail). He was complaining it still wasnt enough..you know how power gamers are.
In the end, I had:
William McMartin, a brilliant astronaut-biologist who is an ancient aliens devotee
Bobby Lee Swaggart, a massive demolitions expert who loves hot rods
The Last Cantanarian, a tough-as-nails sniper who wants to save the Earthlings.
We are several sessions in; summary of the events of the invasion will be posted here soon.
Player #1 looked at the options and wanted to take the astronaut class and more specifically be a biologist with an interest in "ancient aliens"-style conspiracy theories; I houseruled the gaps in the draft doc and let him have at it . Player #2 wanted to be a military type, more specifically a demolitions expert. Rather than houserule more draft classes, I guided him into making a Marine-path character with a touch of Engineer. After looking at the rulebook, Player #3 expressed interest in playing an Alien defector who wanted to help the humans resist the invasion and wished to know which species was the invader.
At this point I revealled the twist to him...it wasn't going to be a straight up alien invasion, but two factions of aliens who were about to bring their war to Earth. It was inspired partially on a scifi/ethical philosophy idea I thought of over a decade ago and never got the opportunity to explore fully and partially on Outsider. The two factions (chosen randomly, of course) are the Venetians/Spartans/Saurians and the Borians/Ograns/Felans, but that is by no means exhaustive; both factions have many minor species under their umbrellas. After looking at the book further, Player #3 expressed interest in the random species generation tables and wanted to play the last member of his species, vowing to not let another neutral world get swept up in the conflict. We rolled up a bizarre combo: An orange aquatic flying energy-eater. Quickly houseruling the gaps, I came up with the 'Cantanari", a species of flying fish that feeds off underwater heat vents and requires a specialized suit to survive and is capible of limited flight and glidding. They had a peacefull culture ruled by a single planetary king before they made contact with the other aliens, and soon found out how brutal both sides could be. Not nessessarily my orginal vision, but I rolled with it.
In leau of homeworlds, I let my human players tell me where they were from. I elimated the +1/-1 to different stats to avoid racial stereotypes, and gave them a choice of bonus skill from a catagory selected by me based entirely on national stereotypes. Player #1 wanted to be from the UK (later decided on Scotland more specifically), so I gave him a bonus [academic] skill; Player #2 wanted to be from Oklahoma so I let him choose an [outdoor] skill. I let Player #3 choose Volcanic to repressent the undersea volcanic vents his species lived on. I also let him take the Organizational Membership exploit (with the understanding that he would "lose" the undetermined bonus exploit upon his defection but keep the benefit of an empire-level credit limit in order to get his specialized kevlar environmental suit and arm himself to the teeth (ballistic sniper rifle, blaster pistol, laser sword and energy flail). He was complaining it still wasnt enough..you know how power gamers are.
In the end, I had:
William McMartin, a brilliant astronaut-biologist who is an ancient aliens devotee
Bobby Lee Swaggart, a massive demolitions expert who loves hot rods
The Last Cantanarian, a tough-as-nails sniper who wants to save the Earthlings.
We are several sessions in; summary of the events of the invasion will be posted here soon.
