#231

Alien

This week we played act 3 of Chariot of the Gods. It took us about three hours (I left out the optional Sotillo events which would have easily added another hour), so the scenario as a whole took us about 10 hours total.

The ship blew up, everyone died. There was greed, betrayal, and noble self-sacrifice. It was great.

The session started with the characters dividing into two groups: the captain (a PC) and the two company agents (both NPCs), who said they were going to go talk to Mother and try to regain control of the ship, and the pilot (a PC), the secret android (a PC), and the medic (an NPC) who said they were going to sweep the ship from top to bottom and flush out all remaining aliens.

Both groups got into separate elevators. In the brief journey up, the captain and company agents decided to make a break for the emergency escape vehicle with the money and the samples, and leave the rest of the crew to die. Both groups went to deck B. Both groups saw each other across the corridor when the doors opened.

“Hey, weren’t you going to talk to Mother on deck A?” – the pilot

“Run for it!” – the captain

The fight ended with the captain and one agent escaping with xenomorph samples and a load of cash, and the two surviving PCs still on the ship then had to deal with the mess. Which they handled by overloading their reactor, blowing themselves up, and destroying the EEV with the blast wave.

What a great ending.

Everyone liked the system. The personal agendas worked great: I had almost no input into this session, I role-played the company agents, and threw in one xenomorph encounter when the PCs were trying to blow up the ship, but other than that it was totally hands-off. Everything came from the personal agendas.

We had a fun debrief with everyone sharing their personal agendas and me going over some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, and I think we’ll be playing Alien again some time.

Sylea Rising

Things continue to go in unexpected directions.

Last time, I started the new arc of the campaign by having an enemy sabotage their ship to kill them in what looked like a terrible accident. But, fortunately for the PCs, they merely misjumped a year away from home. I had visions of a dramatic vengeance-driven trek across the stars home, to punch their enemy in the face (and possibly toss him out an airlock with no vacc suit).

But the PCs liked where they ended up, and decided to hang out there for a bit.

So I prepared a bunch of stuff going on around there, we got through some of that this session, but one of the PCs was really unsure about whether they wanted to stay or to go home instead. The other two PCs definitely wanted to stay (they had no ties back home), but the uncertain one has a lover she doesn’t want to abandon.

And so, they’re going to sell their ship, buy a small cheap scout ship, and send the uncertain PC back home by herself! A year-long journey through uncharted space, alone! Wow.

So next session is… character creation again, as two of the players (that one and another) are rolling up vargr characters to replace their current human PCs.

I guess I now have a campaign set in the Vargr Extents.

Though, I should probably hold another session 0 to talk about what sort of game we want, as this has gone way outside our original scope.

Upcoming

I’ve planned out my next few big RPG purchases: the Dolmenwood kickstarter is now confirmed for either June or July, so that’s on the list, and I also want to pick up The Halls of Arden Vul, Barrowmaze, and Dwarrowdeep. I’m sure there’ll also be smaller adventures and zines and whatnot that catch my eye, but those are the main ones I definitely want.

So they’re all budgeted for now, and I’ll be picking them up in a few months time.

After Sylea Rising, I’m going to run Impossible Landscapes. And then after that, probably The Halls of Arden Vul but possible Barrowmaze or Dwarrowdeep. This is long-term planning, but it’s exciting.

Roleplaying games

• Game Mastering Makes No Sense
• Better Narration Through Visualization: A Lifestyle Guide
• Dolmenwood Developments
• Dolmenwood Core Rules
• Berthing Fees
• How I Make Zines