Aliens RPG Post Mortem

[Ovinomancer]

@Ovinomancer I don’t disagree with what you’re saying for the most part. I think the skills are a little broader than you’re saying, but I agree that they’re designed toward a specific scenario type that aligns to the movies at least somewhat.

I also think that the rules are mostly presented in a traditional play mindset. The Analysis Talent displays that pretty clearly; it lets you ask the GM questions, and they must answer truthfully…but then it goes on to explicitly say thecan be vague in order to not spoil the scenario.

It’s pretty hard to read that in anything but a traditional mode.

I know @Manbearcat wants to approach the game from a more Story Now direction. I’d like to hear an example of what you want to do with your scientist in play that has needed to be decided on the fly, as you suggest. I’ve no doubt that’s the case, but without the details of the situation, it’s hard to comment any further.

You mentioned experiments and gene-splicing…maybe an example related to one of those?

In the first session, I had used analysis on a sample of native algae that was attacking the airlock seals in the habs. Okay, cool. I then wanted to release MY version of the algae, that I had been working on splicing onto terran stock, and hope that it could outcompete without the negative side effects. I don't know what move to make here. We ran it as another Wits/Observation check, I got 3 successes, and it worked without issues. But, even here, I had 2 past the necessary and I don't know what I should be able to do with these extra successes.

 

[prabe]

As @Ovinomancer sez, you can flex the rules, but it really isn't intended for much other than doing things with the looming threat of Very Bad Things being Damoclesian over your head--and there are some actions that are ... not contemplated in the game's philosophy, and therefore require a jarring amount of negotiation.

 

[MGibster]

Yes, there is a good reason to do the maintenance (beyond that the rules call for rolling it): it's one of the resources to manage in the trade-mode game. The quest for spares is a significant drive. (pun intended). And it's driven by the strong potential for breakdowns.

That's true. Odds are good I'll never run a campaign and simply stick to cinematic scenarios where weekly maintenance is unlikely to come up. And even if I were to run a campaign, I despise unnecessary bookkeeping and wouldn't bother with weekly maintenance checks because that's just not exciting. Though you're right; It's right there in the rules. It doesn't seem likely that routine maintenance would be done under high Stress situations even in campaign mode.

Essentially, ship travel in Alien RPG is never "routine".

I'm going to have to disagree here. When you're at the point where a bunch of rough neck "truckers" are hauling ore from point A to point B then ship travel is routine. Unless there's some extenuating circumstances, I wouldn't require a character to roll a Pilot check to dock their ship but I'd require one for landing on LV-426 with it's high winds and poor visibility.

Functionally, there is a huge bit of resource management in the game... easily more than in D&D or Traveller. It's a different mode, but it's still resource management.

This is true. Gumshoe is another system that is heavy on resource management. I find it adds some tension to the game but some people aren't in to that.

Panic results create incoherencies when applied outside of combat. This isn't just a fictional issue, but ties into the assumed action economy and also the nature of skills and talents and the combat system. It's not just the table entries.

I completely agree here. I had a player attempt to sabotage an airlock to keep another PC from getting back onto the ship. So I had the PC make a Heavy Machinery roll to do this and the Panic die came up and the result was that she fled to safety which just didn't make a lot of sense given the situation.

The skills and talents are extremely narrow and focused on a specific set of assumptions as to what play will be about. To me, this is as big an issue as the panic, because you have to do a lot of work to ignore these when applying them outside of pretty much combat or exploration of a combat zone.

And for me that pretty much works out just fine because I'm only running Alien with an extremely narrowly focused set of assumptions. Of course I'm only running in cinematic play rather than campaign and long term research and gene splicing just isn't going to come up in most scenarios.

 

[hawkeyefan]

In the first session, I had used analysis on a sample of native algae that was attacking the airlock seals in the habs. Okay, cool. I then wanted to release MY version of the algae, that I had been working on splicing onto terran stock, and hope that it could outcompete without the negative side effects. I don't know what move to make here. We ran it as another Wits/Observation check, I got 3 successes, and it worked without issues. But, even here, I had 2 past the necessary and I don't know what I should be able to do with these extra successes.

Yeah, it’s hard to say. The book gives advice for three campaign types and colony is one of them, but the bulk of what’s offered is random tables. Not much for the kind of “between crises” long term type things that would seem important to such a campaign. My guess is that they’ll create a colony campaign book which will expand on that much as the Colonial Marines handbook explored how to handle a military focused campaign.

In the absence of that, yeah, that kind of thing would be tough. To take your example specifically, were the stakes of failure established? I’d expect so, but curious. For your bonus successes, extra questions maybe? If any pertained. Or else additional instances of success (the whole installation versus one door, etc.) or doing it in half the time or similar. Those are what immediately spring to mind, but it’s possible none of them apply.

And this may be a stupid question, but was a roll even needed? Should you just succeed? Again, I think this is where the stakes need to be established.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Yeah, it’s hard to say. The book gives advice for three campaign types and colony is one of them, but the bulk of what’s offered is random tables. Not much for the kind of “between crises” long term type things that would seem important to such a campaign. My guess is that they’ll create a colony campaign book which will expand on that much as the Colonial Marines handbook explored how to handle a military focused campaign.

In the absence of that, yeah, that kind of thing would be tough. To take your example specifically, were the stakes of failure established? I’d expect so, but curious. For your bonus successes, extra questions maybe? If any pertained. Or else additional instances of success (the whole installation versus one door, etc.) or doing it in half the time or similar. Those are what immediately spring to mind, but it’s possible none of them apply.

And this may be a stupid question, but was a roll even needed? Should you just succeed? Again, I think this is where the stakes need to be established.

And all of your questions illustrate my point!

 

[Manbearcat]

I’ll post some things to engage with what’s been written above (and answer your questions @hawkeyefan ). Just not today. Fall/Winter Sunday’s are full knuckledragger mode!

 

[Justice and Rule]

I completely agree here. I had a player attempt to sabotage an airlock to keep another PC from getting back onto the ship. So I had the PC make a Heavy Machinery roll to do this and the Panic die came up and the result was that she fled to safety which just didn't make a lot of sense given the situation.

To me, that reaction actually works: the person was so out of sorts that basically had a panic attack and had to leave. We're talking about a stress level of 7 or higher, which is where people start to get unglued. I can totally make up reasons why bugged out, even if for a minute. I imagine someone trying to sabotage the airlock, but they keep making little mistakes and suddenly they just get overwhelmed with emotion and panic: it's not getting done, they can't do it, they can't stay there if that person comes back...

I think it requires a bit more cajoling than in combat, but being a bit irrational is part of panicking and it's why I like it.

Edit: Sorry, forgot that fleeing was actually higher up on the chart.

 

[prabe]

Ah, the Stress/Panic system, which seems carefully calibrated to be everything I hate in a Madness system. Not only does it end up with implausible results (both in general and specific to instance and character) and not only does it intermittently take control of your character; it actively keeps your character from being able to do anything while it spirals relentlessly tighter. I'm sure this is a reasonably realistic depiction of what it's like to be in a full panic--but it is, for me, pretty much the opposite of fun to play. (Note: I do not care for Madness systems in general.)

 

[MGibster]

To me, that reaction actually works: the person was so out of sorts that basically had a panic attack and had to leave. We're talking about a stress level of 7 or higher, which is where people start to get unglued. I can totally make up reasons why bugged out, even if for a minute.

That's a valid point of view. This was the first game of Alien I had run and I think I forgot about the roll once rule. i.e. You can't just re-roll the dice if you've already failed unless the circumstances have changed somehow. They barricaded the bridge and I didn't make them roll for that because they spent an entire shift doing it.

 

[Justice and Rule]

That's a valid point of view. This was the first game of Alien I had run and I think I forgot about the roll once rule. i.e. You can't just re-roll the dice if you've already failed unless the circumstances have changed somehow. They barricaded the bridge and I didn't make them roll for that because they spent an entire shift doing it.

Yeah. If someone has already pushed, you can't just chip away at it. But I can understand panic reactions needing a bit of experience when it comes to contextualizing them. It's really easy to think about it only in terms of combat or something, but I think all of them work well enough in non-combat situations as long as you remember that while the scene might be relatively calm, your PC is currently not.