Session Two of Alien: Chariot of the Gods (Spoilers Warning)

Our second session of Alien was played a couple of weeks ago. This recap will not be as detailed as session one. I should start by stating that everyone had a good time, which for me is the ultimate objective for any game. I don’t want to come across as having had a bad time. It’s just harder to recap this session because the notes weren’t as detailed and we ran out of our allotted time and had to handle the final parts of the game in narrative fashion.

Session two took a while to get going. I did not have my “A” game from the start. It had been a long tiring week at work and I was really mentally exhausted going in. Since we had re-scheduled the session I wanted to press on. Unfortunately I didn’t push the players as hard as I could have in their decision making and I felt like we were grinding gears and spinning wheels at times after the initial rest interval. I also made a tactical mistake by an NPC that detracted from a scene I was looking forward to – one that we had to skip due to time constraints. In addition to all that, I have had some seriously bad dice recently. This may have made some of the encounters less challenging than I was expecting.

After the ending scene of session one; the timely intervention of Sergeant Reid saving Captain Miller and Agent Wilson from the Neomorph threat, there was about an hour of calm in which the players were able to reduce stress after repairing the air filtration scrubbers in the central air shaft. The players were having a lot of luck on their air supply rolls. The crew of the Montero had been able to stay inside of their spacesuits, which was a good thing as it effectively made them safe from a biological threat. While cleaning the air scrubbers the crew found egg sacs of some kind in the old filters. The crew decided to burn them with Davis’ incinerator unit.

During the rest interval Wilson was approached by Agent Clayton and offered a chance help her leave the Cronus along with Medic Flynn. Clayton had a secret stash and a way off the ship if things went south. She wanted Wilson to join up with her should it be necessary to sacrifice the rest of the humans remaining on the ship. Wilson hated the idea of using his shipmates as expendables but skillfully played along with Wilson’s idea by promising cooperation (to an extent). Miller listened in to the conversation and had a separate discussion with Wilson about his real intentions once Clayton, Reid, and Flynn had left for the storage closets.

The crew of the Montero realized that Technician Rye had gone off on his own and Miller ordered him to head back to the bridge. Rye was pretty vague on his whereabouts just saying he had gone off to find additional oxygen tanks for the spacesuits. First Officer Johns of the Cronus was complaining of a headache and fatigue. Medic Blanchard wanted to check him out and get him something for the pain. While Cham was sealing the air vents on the bridge, Johns began shouting incoherently and he and Pilot Davis got into an argument. Suddenly and horribly Johns began mutating before the crew of the Montero’s eyes, leaping at Davis to attack her. John’s arms extended with a sickening popping noise and he smashed through Davis’ helmet with his bare hands stunning her. Cham swung an axe at Johns but buried it into the wall. Agent Wilson opened fire on Johns with his pistol but missed. Miller hit johns with the shotgun but Johns kept going. Finally, Blanchard took aim with his pulse rifle and took Johns out just as he was about to throttle Davis.

Once Rye got back to the Bridge, it was decided that Rye would fix the piloting station while Wilson assisted him. Blanchard, Cham, Davis, and Miller would EVA outside the Cronus to fix the navigational array and align the main engines. Clayton, Reid, and Flynn were still off working on the storage units. Wilson informed Clayton of what happened with Johns. Clayton said that she was going to speed things along and would contact again when finished. By now the crew was worried. Davis was worried that she had been exposed to the air on the Cronus and might now be infected by an alien lifeform. Everyone else was worried that any of the Cronus crew could mutate just like Johns had.

It was the next sequence that I messed up. I should have waited for Miller, Blanchard, Cham, and Davis to leave the ship. They had gone to med bay to make sure Davis was okay and capable of going outside. On the bridge, it was just Wilson and Rye. The problem is Rye wasn’t really Rye at all. Rye had been replaced by a special operative android named Lucas. Lucas was sent by a rival of Weyland-Yutani to make sure that the Montero’s mission to recover the Cronus would be a failure. Since Wilson was alone, Lucas decided to make his move to kill Wilson. The surprised Wilson would have had his skull crushed in by a wrench but for the use of story point to buy a success on armor save roll. At that point Wilson did the smart thing and ran for the med bay where the rest of Montero’s crew was preparing to EVA.

Miller began trying to negotiate with Lucas but he wasn’t having it. The conversation, however, stalled Lucas from going after Clayton and the others or from sealing himself in on the bridge. The crew of the Montero caught up to Lucas and attacked him. Everyone was shocked to see the white fluid spray out of “Rye” when he was wounded. To their horror, Rye kept coming at them even after he was set on fire by Davis’ incinerator unit. Finally the android collapsed and began to melt down in the fire. Miller extinguished the fire hoping to interrogate the remains of Lucas if they could connect him to a terminal for power. Upon a reboot, Lucas began trying to download his program into the Cronus and so Miller pulled the chord and they set Lucas on fire again to melt it down.

The party decided to head for the reactor room instead of going outside. Once they got to the reactor control room, Miller noticed that something was moving. It was an Abomination and it was hungry. As the creature began pounding on the reactor room door the crew of the Montero readied themselves before opening the door manually. A fight ensued. During the fight Davis had her armed ripped off at the shoulder before collapsing in pain and starting to bleed out. It should be noted that my dice went ice cold again and the group was able to finish off the abomination rather easily as a result. I could see that we were running out of time so I decided to push things along. The crew of the Montero heard Clayton scream out over the com-link just as their fight with the Abomination was over.

Blanchard took Davis to the med bay in an effort to save her life and arm. Cham, Miller, and Wilson ran forward towards Clayton’s last position. At this point, we had to wrap things up. There wasn’t enough left in the adventure (I did not use the option to have the Raiders show up in Act III) to make another session out of it with the long distance that some of the players had to drive.

Ending Conclusions:

-The players found Clayton and Flynn dead, ravaged by a mutated Reid.

-They found the canisters of alien material Clayton wanted to take back to the corporation.

-The players would have encountered the mutated Reid. We assumed they won that fight.

-The players would have encountered another Abomination on the outer hull while trying to repair the navigation array. This was a fight I would have really enjoyed doing but unfortunately we will never know how it would have turned out. Again for wrap up sake we assumed a win.

-The players found Clayton’s safe and her hidden escape vehicle, which also contained some more of the canisters. The safe contained a million dollars in corporate bonds.

-There was a brief discussion about what the crew wanted to do. The majority wanted to destroy the scientific data and canisters so that the corporation wouldn’t get it. Everyone but Wilson had forgotten about the damaged lab that had been sealed up, one that had canisters and samples of the strange parasitic organism egg sacs. So Wilson parleyed this to his advantage. The crew destroyed the stuff they wanted WY not to get but agreed to deliver the ship.

Wilson got credit for the ship and the contents of the lab and was given a bonus and promotion. The other players walked away with a million dollars in corporate script which Wilson “forgot” to include in his reports to his superiors. It was a win-win, except for the missing “real” Rye, and of course the poor crew of the Cronus dying to the last man. May Rye and the brave crew of the Cronus always have our sympathies, well except for Clayton (it was karma).

Alien: Chariot of the Gods (SPOILERS WARNING)

My group and I gathered for our first session of ALIEN RPG last night. There will be spoilers for anyone who has yet to play this scenario. You have been warned. All images may be subject to copyright. They are used here only to help visualize the recap.

Here is the first session recap to the best of my memory. It was a fun night to say the least. So many outcomes surprised us, especially when the improbable happened on the dice. Which is all a part of the fun!

Game Recap: Session One – Chariot of the Gods

Captain Miller – Paul

Pilot Davis – Hudson

Roughneck Cham – Talon

Agent Wilson – Scott

Medic Blanchard – Marc

Technician Rye – NPC (Marc rolling/assisting)

The crew of the USCSS Montero is awakened from cryo-sleep to deliver their cargo of Tritium/Helium gas canisters to Sutter’s World, a small colony operated by Weyland-Yutani Corp.  As the crew fumbles about the cryo-chamber drinking fluids and stretching their legs, the intercom crackles and the soothing voice of Mother, the ship’s computer, says, “Captain Miller, please report to my terminal for an important update.” Captain Miller grumbles about the summons but says, “Okay Mother, I’ll be there shortly.”

 

                  

Agent Wilson says, “Shall I join you Captain?” Miller hand-waves the agent with an affirmative. Cham decides to check on the Montero’s cargo holds. Rye decides to check on the FTL drive and reactor core. Blanchard goes to the galley to brew up some coffee and then to med bay. And Davis decides to go to the bridge to check on the star charts.

                As Mother updates Miller and Wilson (who already knows) on the mission status, Davis decides to check the sensors and navigational charts. The sensors indicate that the Montero is on an intercept course for an unknown sensor contact. A ship of some kind perhaps? Or perhaps another object? Davis decides to leave the blast shield for the Montero down. Looking at the charts, Davis discovers that the ship is nowhere near Sutter’s World, in fact they are only about half-way there and slightly out of the main shipping lane known as “The Gauntlet.” The sensors ping that the object is getting closer.

                Mother completes the update to Miller and Wilson. They are to investigate a somewhat garbled SOS signal coming from another Starship which is nearby. Again on the bridge, Davis reads a sensor ping indicating that the object is getting closer. Davis decides to wait on Miller and Wilson to get to the bridge. Davis receives another ping indicating that the unknown object/ship is probably within visual range but Davis decides to keep the blast doors shut and wait for the captain.

                Just as the captain and Wilson arrive on the bridge the ship’s alarm rings out and mother’s voice says, “Warning, collision in 30 seconds, all hands brace for impact!” Captain Miller yells out to Davis, “What are you doing, take evasive action?!” Davis fires up the ship’s thrusters and finally opens the blast shield only see a dark area approaching the Montero against a star-filled background. Miller yell’s “Floodlights! Evasive Action!” Davis realizes her mistake of delaying a response to the sensor pings and not taking a visual reference through the viewpoint and yells back, “I’m on it Captain!”

The Montero’s aging engines thunder with thrust and her maneuvering jets fire to aid in moving the ship down and to the side of the oncoming object. The flood lights blaze and see the dangerously close face of another large starship running with no lights or other signals. The ship growls with Davis’ piloting effort, not designed to be maneuvered this aggressively. Wilson and Miller strap themselves in to bridge seats while Cham, Rye, and Blanchard grab onto the nearest large object or pillar to keep from losing their footing. Warning klaxon’s sound throughout the ship, “Brace for impact, Brace for impact, brace for impact!”

 

The Montero dips below the oncoming vessel, they are close, really close – the flood lights illuminate an older version of the Weyland-Yutani logo and the name USCSS Cronus. The front of the Montero clears the bottom of the Cronus and just when Davis is about to yell out a whoop of triumph there is a grating scrapping sound of metal on metal and the ship vibrates and shudders from the impact. “Cargo bay section 20 Hull breach,” mother warns, “Sealing off Storage 2.” Finally the grinding stops and the ship stops shuddering, “Warning, FTL drive Offline.” Miller lets out a stream of profanities and Davis is finally able to breathe, “We’ve cleared most of it Captain.”  Miller and Davis banter about her piloting skills and her lax approach to the object but in the end Miller realizes that despite Davis’ mistakes, it could have been a lot worse. Cham confirms that the cargo is secure, but that he won’t be able to reach the Power loader to offload the gas canisters until they either touch down on Sutter’s World or they repair the hull breach in compartment 20. Rye informs the captain that it will take at least 3-4 shifts to get the FTL operable again with Cham’s help. Miller is not pleased but she turns to the task at hand and brief’s the crew on their change in plans. They are to investigate the drifting ship that they just scraped on and recover scientific data while rescuing any remaining crew members (if any). Mother updates their information. It is the Cronus. A scientific research vessel missing for over 70 years.

The crew deliberates how to approach the boarding of the Cronus. They use the sublight thrusters to view the exterior of the vessel. Mother gives the crew specs of the vessel and a full schematic on the deck plans. The Montero’s crew discovers that the most accessible point on the Cronus is the ventral airlock. The airlocks on the Cronus lower deck appear to be damaged from the interior and are inoperable. They decide the front ramp access is problematic in space and too risky. While Cham and Rye go about setting up the umbilical, Wilson and Miller talk strategy. Blanchard gets some medical aid kits from the med bay and starts getting ready to go. Miller distributes the Montero’s available gear.

Miller: Motion Tracker and Pistol

Wilson: Opts for the Harpoon Gun

Blanchard: Takes the Bolt Gun

Rye: Doesn’t take anything extra

Cham: Takes the cutting torch and grabs a fire axe from a fire extinguisher station

Davis: Is staying aboard Montero to monitor the away team.

The team dons their compression suits and heads out. Cham and Rye lead the way, setting up the umbilical airlock after Davis lines up the Montero with the Cronus. Cham discovers the outer airlock door damage to the Cronus A deck ventral airlock. Cham has to use his cutting torch to get them inside the door. He rolls an outstanding success banking stunts for later. At the inner airlock door, Rye takes readings – it’s very cold (below freezing) and the air is fouled with a high concentration of carbon dioxide. It isn’t lethal levels yet, but it certainly isn’t healthy in the long-term. Miller correctly states, “Their Air Scrubbers must be Offline.”

The crew decides to split up. Miller, Wilson, and Rye will go see Cronus’s Mother Computer. Cham and Blanchard will go check on the Cryo Chambers. Right before they set out, Miller uses the motion tracker. She picks up a movement blip near the stair well. “What the hell?” she exclaims and the crew sticks together for a moment making their way to the stairway. They end up finding nothing and the blip goes away. Miller botches the power roll and it loses two of the five cells. “Aging piece of shit,” she groans.

Wilson uses his access card to open up Mother’s chamber. Wilson, Rye, and Miller successfully bring Mother Online. Wilson tries to download the science data from Mother but the data is stored in the science lab. He is able to access the ship’s logs and pull the last entry by XO Johns. Mother informs them that the Air Scrubbers need maintenance and the Reactor is not at full capacity due to a contagion present in the reactor control room. All Mother can say is that it is organic in nature. The lights on the Cronus come to life and the Air Shaft thunders to life causing a mist in vent system as warm air hits cold. But the Scrubbers must have their filters changed. The system will not rid the ship of dioxide until that is taken care. Blanchard and Cham find that the door to the cryo chambers has been sealed and reinforced. Cham says he can get it open but that it will take a bit of time to do so.

Mother informs the crew that the cryo chambers are being deactivated. Wilson tries to override that decision but Mother determines that her crew needs to be revived due to their long sleep and the possible failure in one of the cryo chambers. Cham and Blanchard get the door to the cryo chambers open just as the crew of the Cronus begins to stir. Davis is watching the events unfold on the Montero. Davis notices that the two mothers are “exchanging notes.” Davis notifies Miller and Wilson who both groan in unison. Great. Time to talk to Cronus people and figure out what the hell happened here.

The crew discovers that five crewman of the Cronus are still alive. Two of the tubes are filled with desiccated corpses. The Montero’s crew assists the Cronus members in their recovery but continues to wear their suits. Oxygen levels are checked and most of the crew is successful at maintaining their supply.

Cooper, a scientist, complains about headaches and nausea. Blanchard checks him out. His blood pressure is elevated but he would have to be moved to med lab to learn more. The Montero’s crew starts to question the Cronus survivors but they aren’t getting much. The Cronus crew is too disoriented by their long sleep. Johns, the Cronus XO starts to give them some information but is shut down by Clayton, the company rep on the Cronus. Before anything else happens, Cooper starts rambling incoherently and then goes into spasms and convulsions. A bloodbirster is born.

 

The crew of the Cronus yells out almost in unison to “kill it, kill it now!” Before the creature can act, Captain Miller freaks out and empties her handgun at the creature wounding it in an uncontrolled series of shots. Cham takes a swing at the creature with his axe but misses wide hitting the cryo chamber wall. Wilson shoots the harpoon gun right into the creature’s mouth, through its tail and into the cryo chamber behind it, effectively spearing and pinning it. The creature shrieks out and gushes fluid all over the place but wriggles and dies. Everyone from the Montero freaks out. Miller and Wilson get into a heated discussion with Clayton and Flynn (Cronus Medic) about what is really going on aboard this ship. They get a little bit from Flynn because he is dismayed that his friend Cooper didn’t take his shot of a “vaccine” they developed to stop what happened to Cooper from happening. Again, Clayton shuts Flynn down before he gives up too much, but it’s enough to worry everyone from the Montero. Miller orders Davis to lock the airlock doors on the Montero. Effective immediately, there is a quarantine in effect.

There is a long discussion on strategy. The crew of the Montero decides to withdraw to their own ship and regroup. Rye has slipped away to head back to the Montero already. He wants to fix the FTL drive on the Montero. As Rye is heading back, Mother informs Miller that a cascade failure is eminent aboard the Montero. Miller tries to override. Wilson tries to override. No dice. At the airlock, Rye is yelling at Davis to let him in. Davis is not complying. Even after the Mother warning, Davis is still not letting Rye into the ship. So Rye hacks the airlock and gets into the ship. Rye tries to stop the drive failure. He informs Miller that this is impossible, they must abandon ship. Everyone is REAL worried now.

Mother takes control of the ship from Davis and begins to thrust away from the Cronus. Rye and Davis barely make it into the umbilical and detach it from the Montero before it shears off from the strain. The Montero goes to full sub-light speed away from the Cronus. Ten agonizing minutes go by and the Montero explodes. The Cronus shakes from the shockwave but is far enough away from the Montero to not be damaged by the blast. On her way out of the Montero, Davis grabbed the incinerator unit. She’s seen all the footage on the body cams. She’s not leaving a potential weapon behind!

 

Aboard the Cronus the crew of the Montero feels doomed. After checking out the bridge, they fully realize they have work to do. Scrubbers are the priority. Agent Clayton takes Reid (Cronus Marine) and heads to the corporate suite. The Montero’s crew wants to see what is left in the armory. As they near the armory, they run across a dead man in a space suit, his brains blown all over the wall, a shotgun lying on the floor. His arms are strangely elongated and have ripped the sleeves on the compression suit. Captain Miller theorizes that the “vaccine” might have done something to make that crewman mutate or go crazy. Despite Flynn’s (Cronus Medic) insistence that everyone take the vaccine, Miller instead tells everyone to remain in their suits, “None of my people are taking that shit.” The tension builds. Miller grabs the shotgun and shells. She offers her pistol to Wilson. Blanchard finds a pulse rifle in the armory much to his delight. Davis, Blanchard, Rye, and Cham head to the cargo hold to get the replacement air filters for the air shaft. XO Johns and Flynn go to see if they can find any more compression suits. Miller and Wilson want to go check on Clayton and Reid to find out what the hell Clayton has been up to. Neither Wilson nor Miller is trusting Clayton very much at the moment.

 

As Wilson and Miller enter the corridor to the corporate suite, an air return vent explodes outward as a large grayish white xenomorph surprises them; lashing out at Miller with a horrifying scream and sharp tail. The tail strikes Miller in the chest but doesn’t penetrate the upper chest piece, leaving a deep gash in the metal instead. Wilson freezes in panic. Miller jams the shotgun into the xeno’s face and pulls the trigger, wounding it. The creature lashes at Miller then Wilson missing them.  The Neomorph then attempts to grab Captain Miller and pull her into the vent system. The creature almost has Miller but the slickness of the creature’s blood on Miller’s arm causes it to lose its grip (Story Point saves the day!) and it turns back to Wilson. Miller had emptied then dropped her shotgun after her initial attack and thus picked up the shotgun and tried to use it like a baseball bat but missed. Wilson tries to find courage with his spear gun but this is too much horror. Wilson drops the spear gun and runs around the corner towards the stairs. The others hear the shotgun and shrieking coming through the vents. They run for the corporate suite. The Neomorph eyes Miller and starts to attack again when the door to the corporate suite opens and Sergeant Reed says, “Not on my watch you filth!” BOOM the shotgun in Reid’s capable hands splatters green goo and blood all over Miller and the wall. The xeno appears to be dead.

To be continued….

Reflecting on Role Playing Gaming in the Star Wars Universe

As I said in my introduction, seeing Star Wars in 1977 was a major contributor in sparking my imagination. While I’ve been critical of most of Disney’s efforts with the franchise, I’ve remained a fan of that galaxy far far away. Star Wars has long been one of my favorite places to visit in the role playing medium and also in computer games. I go through periods of apathy towards Star Wars for a variety of reasons I won’t go into, but I also keep coming back to it because deep down inside I will always be a fan despite the flaws, warts, and even poor story writing in recent years. What better way to celebrate Star Wars Day than to put a blog post up about my experiences of gaming in the Star Wars universe?

I was a Star Wars fan before I was a gamer. When West End Games announced an official role playing game for my beloved original trilogy of movies I was beyond excited. Would we really be able to tell our own stories in that far away galaxy? The answer was of course YES! The D6 system was simple and pretty innovative for its time. We didn’t have a lot to run on in the early years so we made up a lot of stuff to go with the sourcebook and main book. For almost twenty years, Star Wars became my go to game. I can’t even count the number of one-shots and mini-series I ran with the D6 version of the game. It was quite a ride.

When Wizards of the Coast acquired the rights to do the Star Wars RPG it was as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in anguish followed by a horrible silence. The nerd rage was real on the internet. I was determined to give the new system a chance and try to keep an open mind. Sadly, my worst fears were realized upon playing the Star Wars d20 system. It was a stinker.

It didn’t take long for WotC to see the need for a relaunch thus a Revised d20 edition came about. The famous line from Star Wars is as apt as any to describe the relaunch, “It could be worse.”  It was worse. The fluff and production qualities were really top notch. But the system? It was D&D 3.5 crossed with D20 Modern and I disliked it with a passion equal to the heat of Tatooine’s twin suns. I was sticking with D6!

In 2007 WotC rolled out Saga Edition Star Wars. I was more than skeptical. I had lost all hope that a new edition of Star Wars could win me over. I once again tried to keep an open mind. I looked at the preview material. I kind of liked what I saw. I then read the core rule book. I was impressed with the changes, the additions, and the streamlining. Better yet, it seemed to get The Force rules “right.” Sure, there were some flaws, as with any system, but this was a step up to me. It didn’t seem like D&D in space.

I decided to run a series of games set during the Old Republic Era. Six planned game sessions’ worth of story arc ended up in ten very successful game sessions. The demand for a sequel became too good to pass on. What was planned as a part two consisting of ten sessions ended up going twelve. Those 22 game sessions of Saga Edition Star Wars are some of the very best games I’ve been a part of. If I may be so bold, the resulting stories were worthy of Lucasfilm film cans. I couldn’t ever be more pleased and proud of a campaign than that one.

I took a pass on the Fantasy Flight Games version of the Star Wars RPG after reading the beta release booklet. Saga Edition had gotten Star Wars right for me for the most part. So much so that I had parted ways with D6 Star Wars (something that I never thought would happen). Besides, the new version of Star Wars from FFG used specialty dice with symbols on them. That was an annoying non-starter for me. I guess I’m just getting old and set in my ways.

I was recently invited to play in an online game of Star Wars using a variant of D&D Fifth Edition that someone has created for Star Wars. I’m really looking forward to this game, which is set 100 years after Return of the Jedi. The GM shares my feelings that the latest Disney trilogy was at best “underwhelming.” So he’s going to chuck the official Disney arc and come up with his own stuff. I don’t normally get to be a player in that galaxy far far away as I’m normally on the Game Master’s side of the screen. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this next adventure.

Has Star Wars been a fun part of your gaming past? Please post a comment.

Some Horror Game Mechanics I've Experienced

As I mentioned in my previous article, I have a rather limited experience in role playing games focused on the horror genre. I’ve also come to the conclusion that player “buy in” is a critical element in having a successful experience in horror games. This time I want to look at some of the rules or mechanical aspects that I’ve encountered in those experiences that were used to try and help set the right tone for the game.

Most of my experiences as a player came using Call of Cthulhu, which is based on the Basic Role Playing system. In that system they have an attribute called Sanity or SAN for short. Witnessing traumatic events or supernatural phenomenon can cause a player to make a “SAN loss” die roll to see if their character takes psychological/emotional damage due to the triggering occurrence. This kind of makes sense on paper. I should say that my only experience with the SAN rules in Cthulhu are as a player. Whether or not my game master got the rules right or wrong is unknown to me. I can only comment on how it worked from my side of the screen as a player.

In practice, when one of our characters would have to make a SAN loss roll, it was more of an “all or nothing” proposition. You either stayed sane and continued to function normally or you flipped out and either fled in terror or you snapped enough to become a threat to yourself and others. In either case, you pretty much lost control of your character for the duration of the game session at a minimum. The character in question would become an NPC.  If you were really lucky, your character would make a full recovery. If not, it would be time to make a new character. In the end, I think most of us found the SAN loss rules more of an annoyance than finding them to be terrifying. It didn’t really seem to add much to the game beyond player frustration when SAN rolls were failed.

The Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft campaign that I attempted to run had rules for Dark Gifts (Note: A friend reminds me this is actually called a Powers Check). A player could choose actions that would grant him gifts or favors from the dark powers that oversee the Demi-plane of Dread. These gifts would grow in power over the course of time. There were always consequences for these gifts and the consequences would also grow over time. At some point, there was a chance that the character would become so infused with these Dark Gifts they would become a dark lord of their own Ravenloft domain. Power had a price and the dark powers always get what’s due.

In practice, it was darn near impossible to get any of the players to allow their characters to start down the path of the Dark Gifts. What sounded ominous and horrifying on paper didn’t translate that well into actual gameplay in large part due to the traditional D&D mindsets so dominant in my groups. The D&D mindset consists largely of Find, Kill, Loot and (in our group at least) make sure to distrust/avoid anything the dungeon master does to try and engage you in plots or subplots. It’s not really the fault of the rule mechanics for Dark Gifts that they didn’t actually come into play. The rules were sound. Getting any of the players to “go for it” on the other hand seemed like a non-starter.

The Alien Role Playing Game has rules that cover stress and panic. Stress builds up over the course of an adventure. The adrenaline rush that stress gives to a player’s character can actually be beneficial in overcoming challenges. The risk is that every player character has a breaking point. Some stress is good. Too much stress and a character can break. And when a character breaks they can flee or freeze or worse. I’m very intrigued by this set of rules as stress comes about via both “in game” events or when a player “pushes” an ability test for success. That’s right, some of the stress is going to happen to anyone but part of the stress is going to be self-inflicted. It looks great on paper to me. Hopefully it will play out as well at the table and help add to the immersion of a horror RPG experience. Time will tell.

Have any of you experienced any rules mechanics that successfully enhanced a game’s immersion level or overall atmosphere for the particular genre you were using? Please leave a comment.

The Horror Genre: It Hasn't Been My Strong Suit

As I’ve been preparing to run the Alien Role Playing Game, I've been thinking about my experiences with playing and running games within the horror genre. The Alien RPG is one of action, exploration, and horror. A campaign of Alien may include all of those elements. I’d like to focus on the horror element primarily as I haven’t found a lot of successful gaming experiences within that genre.

My experiences as a player within the horror genre have been limited to playing in several Call of Cthulhu games using the Basic Role Playing engine. These games have been a mixed bag for me. The worst of these experiences felt as though the game master was using the lethal nature of the BRP game system to fuel a total party kill scenario designed for his own amusement. While that may not actually be true, it was pretty much the perception at the time. It was demoralizing to be continuously slaughtered each time the Call of Cthulhu system was the game to be played.

The best experiences that I’ve had playing Call of Cthulhu were with game masters that had crafted a fine detective story involving the discovery of otherworldly horrors. Most of the enjoyment was found in the solving of the puzzle and/or perhaps delaying some inevitable doom.

As a game master my only experience with attempting to run a horror game was using Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2^nd Edition’s Ravenloft Setting. I had high hopes for the campaign that I had created. I had become intrigued by the Demi-plane of Dread upon the publication of the boxed set. I had been a player in the Ravenloft modules prior to that. Gothic horror seemed to be something that would bring something fresh and new to our regular gaming table. To my surprise, the campaign fell flat. I had followed the advice found within the campaign boxed set. I had set the table with fascinating tales, Gothic horror creatures, and chilling discoveries. Yet my campaign felt more like the Demi-plane of Dud than one of dread.

What made those Call of Cthulhu sessions successful or unsuccessful? Were the failures caused by the lethality of the BRP system combined with a self-serving GM or was it something else? The more that I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realized that while mechanics do matter, player “buy in” is critical to the success of a game.

When a Cthulhu game was an epic fail, what was the real cause? Could it be the group of players and their mindset that was responsible for the ensuing bloodbath rather than a “killer” GM?  The vast majority of our games being played at the time were Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adventures. The standard operating procedure in AD&D is to find places to explore, creatures to fight, and stuff to loot. You can't really approach a Cthulhu investigation in the same manner that an AD&D group uses to approach a dungeon crawl.  Well, you can do that but it’s going to be one very bloody and gruesome end for the PCs in almost every case. Mechanically speaking, it seems to be a lot easier to die in BRP than it is in AD&D. I think perhaps that the group’s AD&D mindset combined with a more lethal combat system resulted in the perfect storm for failure. The fact that some of the latter Cthulhu games were successful may have been the direct result of more cautious play from the players involved than was typically found by players in the average AD&D group.

As for my failed Ravenloft campaign; I had thought for quite some time that the dud campaign was entirely my own failing to convey the elements of the setting properly. Or that AD&D was just a poor choice for running a game in the horror genre. But as with Call of Cthulhu, player “buy in” mattered. The players in my campaign treated the game no differently than if they were playing in Greyhawk, or the Forgotten Realms, or in a hundred of other fantasy settings. Their approaches and expectations were formed by the AD&D mindset. It didn’t matter if the game had Gothic horror elements or not. They were going to play the setting the same way they had played all of the other settings: Find it, Kill it, and Loot the stuff. This resulted in a facade of horror painted over the top of any typical AD&D game. The players didn’t buy in and I certainly didn’t do a good enough job in selling them on doing so.

As I prepare for Alien, I hope to do better at conveying the right mood and setting tropes. I also hope that my players will “buy in” and embrace the game as I have during my first read. The system does matter. But player “buy in” seems to matter even more. I really hope to have the right mix of system and player expectations this time around.

Has horror worked well for you in the past as a player or as a GM? Please share your thoughts if you like.

Welcome to My Blog

Hello, and welcome to Nuke the Site from Orbit.


I'm a veteran gamer of all flavors. From board games to role playing games and just about all types of gaming between. I hope to share some experiences from my gaming activities and my thoughts and opinions on games systems, game design, and game mastering.

But first a little about my interests and gaming background. In 1977 I went to a movie theater with my dad and saw a movie called STAR WARS. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this film changed my life in a very big way. Star Wars triggered my imagination in a way that no book or movie had ever done before. It got me into fantasy and science fiction all on its own. From the moment the lumbering Star Destroyer came onto the screen chasing a doomed Rebel star ship over a desert world with two suns I was enthralled. My father showed us how to create "X-Wing" fighters out of cardboard boxes and Lincoln Log flight sticks. We re-fought the Battle of Yavin in our home's basement for hours on end.

My family moved from Utah to California in 1978. In 1981, I was introduced to a boxed gaming set called "Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set" by a cousin who was into fantasy fiction. Shortly thereafter I was given an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook for my eleventh birthday so that I could join a gaming group made up of local Boy Scouts. All of that started me out on the path of being "a Gamer." From the moment my naive first AD&D character died picking the lock on a stupid treasure chest to today, I have been involved in a multitude of gaming activities.

It would take me a long time to run through all of the gaming systems and groups I've been a part of. It would also be pretty boring to recap every system I've played or ran or read through. Instead, I hope to share little tidbits of that experience over the course of any posts I create in the future. I've made a boatload of friends over the course of my gaming hobbies, which now stretches to nearly forty unbelievably fast years. I am truly grateful for the camaraderie that I have shared over games of all sorts. Grateful for friendships that have spanned decades. And so very grateful to have an outlet for my insanely overactive imagination, for without these games (computer, tabletop, online, etc) my head would surely explode from the pressures within.

I look forward to sharing my gaming experiences and thoughts with anyone who cares to read about them.


Best Regards and Good Gaming!