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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6131547" data-attributes="member: 92305">3. Alien Adventure IdeaNext, as the scouting party and what's left of the crew venture out, they'll most likely still try to find the source of the distress signal.Man, I'm thinking of a fantastic action sequence here. Imagine the PCs and the few NPCs survivors, running through the woods on an uncharted world. It's dark now. And there's some Aliens in these woods, chasing them.This would be particularly effective if the players keep trying to regain the ship. Have a few aliens--multiple aliens--kicking the crap out of them so that there is no chance but to flee.Darkness. Low ammo. Aliens leaping up into the limbs of trees, then down on another poor soul.Blood splatters everywhere.Do we stop for him?No, it's suicide. Keep running!It seems like hours they run. Stragglers from the crew get torn to bits. But, finally, it seems that the aliens have had enough for the night. The PCs aren't sure when, but they seem to be alone know.Keep moving or camp? Keep following the distress signal?Here's where the players end up with a number of characters that the GM thinks is fitting to play out the adventure. Each player should have his main character and one or two NPCs that (the player doesn't know) will give the player enough characters to "lose" to the aliens later on.In the forest, the ship's survivors come across a carved stone in the center of a clearing. It's a monolith with a flat top. It might remind one of the characters of the standing stones in Scotland, on Earth. Inspecting the pillar will reveal a reddish stain, as if someone has spilled port wine.NOTERemember that it is important for the PCs to be very limited on their equipment and supplies, especially ammo. Give the player no hint of what is about to happen to the ship when the PCs go off to scout. Play the game from the scouting party's point of view. Maybe allow them find some native creatures. Move the discovery of the stone pillar (above) to this encounter instead of later, if you want. Maybe even give them a hit of the alien by allowing the scouting party to find deep claw marks on a tree trunk (where an alien has climbed up), or maybe some of that gooey stuff that they excreet on a batch of leaves.The scouting party will not find the source of the distress call yet. And, they will return to the ship either because it is starting to get dark, or because they receive a short, frantic message on the comm as the aliens start to attack the ship. Then the comm goes dead.Either way, the scouting party will return to the ship after the attack--or during the end of it. Don't let the players get back inside the ship. The point is to keep equipment very limited. Don't give the PCs anything to fight the aliens. And, if the scouting party left the ship heavily supplied, make sure most of those supplies are used up (ammo depleted, NPCs carying equipment downed by the aliens) as the aliens start to come after them.If the PCs stand to fight the aliens that have ransacked their ship, simply kill several NPCs until the players realize that it's not a fight that they can win at this point. Force them into the wood. Do the running battle with the aliens chasing them. Throw natural obstacles at them--a stream. A cliff to jump from.At some point, the aliens will no longer be chasing them, and the survivors will stumble into the clearing with the standing stone.</blockquote>

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