Alien RPG: Chariot of the Gods Part II & III

Issue # 2 of Chariot of the Gods
Art by Chris

Issue # 3 of Chariot of the Gods
Art by Chris

Overall, we had a lot of fun playing Chariot of the Gods (the first session was covered here). There was only one player death, which was surprising, but mostly due to unlucky dice roles on my part - the neomorph hisses at you...

I rolled randomly to see who changed into abominations, so in Act II many N.P.C.'s were mutated. 

One player was using Captain Miller, whose motive was money; another was Cham, which everyone knew was really Lucas the Android from Act I, but its agenda was still secret - stop all xenomorph information from getting into Weylan-Yutani's hands; the player using Wilson was trying to make a deal with Clayton, but Clayton ended up getting eviscerated by the neomorph; lastly, someone played the pilot, Davis, who was trying to calm her nerves with drugs.

In Act III, the players were low on weapons so they set the USCSS Cronus to self-destruct to avoid a fight with the neomorph that was still running around killing everyone. As the players were trying to escape, the neomorph emerged and attacked them but they managed to kill it, luckily. Too late to reverse the self-destruct, the players, along with the N.P.C. Dr. Flynn (who was near mental collapse from panic), gathered in Clayton's corporate suite. There they discovered the EEV (Emergency Escape Vehicle) but quickly realized it only takes three. Lots of arguments followed; mostly from fear and paranoia about which players were secretly out to kill the rest.

They finally came to a decision about who to leave behind and pushed the N.P.C. Dr. Flynn out of the EEV and locked the door, leaving him stranded on the Cronus with a one minute count down before it went KA-BOOM!  Pretty cold move by the players, but space is very cold.

I made one last random roll to see which of the survivors was going to transform into an abomination, as they had all been infected by the motes. Cham, who was the android Lucas, was not subject to the infection so it was a D4 roll between Miller, Wilson, Davis and Dr. Flynn.

The roulette wheel spun and Dr. Flynn's number came up. 

As Flynn was pounding on the EEV door, begging for the players not to leave him to his death, his head started to pulsate, his skin began to boil and his eyes went black as starless space. His pleas of desperation changed to those of a crazed mad man, then he repeatedly smashed his fists, head and body against the EEV door.

Art by Chris

The players quickly undocked from the Cronus and sped away with only seconds to spare before it exploded, rocking the EEV and all those within from its destruction.

Cham was swiftly shut down (so as not to kill the other players in hypersleep) then they all went night-night, bringing back with them all the information Weylan-Yutani could have hope for regarding motes, xenomorphs and the 26 Draconis Strain.

                                                              Next issue:

                     Destroyer of Worlds

Alien RPG Starter Set & Chariots of the Gods Act I

Chris's art for our first game of Chariots of the Gods.

So, a while back I bought the Alien RPG rule book. 

Later on I picked up the Starter Set as it contains the adventure Chariots of the Gods as well as dice, map, cards and a rules-lite book. I think it's worth picking this up as all these things would cost more than the starter set.

Chariots of the Gods incorporates Prometheus and Covenant, which I don't mind on their own but I'm not a fan of them being part of the overall Alien universe. Engineers just aren't scary and turning Christ into an engineer whose mission is to set humanity on the right path is not interesting to me... at all. The first Alien movie left so many unanswered questions, which to me, is far scarier. Those frigid depths of endless space is also in our imaginations and getting people to tap into that is where horror waits.

Having said that, we played Chariots of the Gods, as written, and are having a good time with it. If we continue with Alien RPG, I'll have to rewrite some things to cut out what doesn't work for me.

Two fights have taken place outside on the ship's hull, which is a first for us. Lots of fear and paranoia as the crew searches the halls of the ship. The player who was the android was revealed when he got impaled through the gut by a neomorph's barbed tail and sprayed the corridor walls with white android goo. 

One player got killed, horribly, and an NPC scientist's head blew up when a head-burster made an appearance.

Will the players survive and get the USCSS Cronus back to the safety of the Frontier? Or, will they turn into abominations or get their throat ripped out by a neomorph? Maybe they'll be stranded on a derelict Cronus, drifting though endless space and eventually freeze to death? Fun stuff.

If you're looking for an alternative to your gaming, Alien is solid. Rules are straight-forward, it's well-edited and written in a very utilitarian style, which I find rare in games today.

Alien RPG

I picked this up and I'm really looking forward to playing it. A nice alternative to Call of Cthulhu in terms of a horror RPG. The way it's written, edited and presented makes it very easy to comprehend. It isn't overburdened by fluff writing with rules buried somewhere in superfluous text. The dark artwork evokes the deathly stillness and emptiness of space. It's a very grim look at humanities future so there are many avenues for conflict besides just chest-busting aliens and face-hugging horrors. 

To save money in the year 2183, one-hundred year old ships are still in use and even the newer ships can be outfitted with retro technology, like monitors, providing a rationale as to why the Nostromo appears so dated. Greed and corruption drive corporations, while humans and their needs are secondary considerations in these conglomerates' megalomanical pursuit of wealth, power and galactic territory.

Paranoia abounds as some players can be agents for these megacorps, and who are ready to sacrifice the entire crew for profit or the discovery of a new weapon. 

Characters here don't have Divine Strike and Eldritch Blast to save them. In Alien RPG, the heroes are mere truckers and grunts with perhaps nothing but a bit of human compassion (or androids with altruistic programming) to separate them from sociopathic CEOs and remorseless creatures spawned in the freezing depths of infinite space.

Long term survival for players is not expected and that makes for exciting play and an interesting game. 

Even though the lite rules are redundant, the Starter Set looks like a worthwhile buy. I'd get it for the scenario: "Chariots of the Gods", the big map, game markers, cards and dice. The other published adventures look good and I hope to pick them up as well.

We have a few other games going right now, so it may be a bit before we actually get to play Alien RPG, but it looks great. Really well done with no agendas derailing the theme. I've traded in or sold off some newer games I've bought in the past few years, but Alien RPG is a keeper.