Alien: Caster of Worlds

In this series of posts, I'm taking an act from DoW and providing guidance to run it as it's own story. Each will have it's own three-act structure and take the characters a dramatic adventure. Even these, more focused, cinematics will still likely take 3-6+ sessions to complete. For this post we're looking at Destroyer of Worlds Act III: The Lion's Den DoW Stand-Alone Cinematic: The Lion's Den (Act III) Overview  The USCM has lost contact with the small garrison that remains in Ariarcus colony on Kruger 60. A squad of marines is sent to investigate. On arrival, they realized they aren't the only ones who want to find out what's happened underneath Fort Nebraska. When they get there, what they discover is worse than they could have imagined.  Characters  The seven suggested PCs work well for this scenario.  It can support larger (4-7) player counts and all the firepower you want to give them. They've got a rough road ahead of them. Dante and Chaplain...

In this series of posts, I'm taking an act from DoW and providing guidance to run it as it's own story. Each will have it's own three-act structure and take the characters on some harrowing journey that they are unlikely to survive. Even these, more focused, cinematics will still likely take 3-6+ sessions to complete. For this post we're looking at Destroyer of Worlds Act II: The Storm DoW Stand-Alone Cinematic: The Storm (Act II) Overview  A small squad of marines is part of the skeleton-crew garrison in a hostile, mostly-abandoned oil colony. They find themselves fighting for their lives when a UPP invasion force arrives. It seems like things can't get any worse. But they do get worse. Much worse. Characters  The seven suggested PCs work well for this scenario. This scenario runs like a war movie. It can support larger (4-7) player counts and all the firepower you want to give them. It still won't be enough. Dante and Chaplain: Dante shouldn't start this v...

The Destroyer of Worlds adventure contains an abundance of ideas and content. It has so much content that each of it's three acts can be expanded out into it's own stand-alone cinematic. The author (the incomparable Andrew E. C. Gaska) has suggested these could be run in a sequence - with each expanded cinematic leading into the next. That could work. But that's not what I'm exploring here. In each of these series of posts, I'll be taking an act from DoW and providing guidance to run it as it's own story. Each will have it's own three-act structure and take the characters on some harrowing journey that they are unlikely to survive. Even these, more focused, cinematics will still likely take 3-6+ sessions to complete. DoW Stand-Alone Cinematic: Manhunt (Act I) Overview  A somewhat rag-tag group of marines is assembled to hunt four AWOL soldiers in a largely abandoned and unwelcoming colony. Through their investigations, they realized the missing marines were ...

  The Alien RPG offers two modes of play: Campaign play is similar to what you find in most RPGs. We have a central group of characters. We follow them from adventure to adventure. Their experiences and actions have consequences for those characters and the worlds they inhabit. Those consequences carry over from one chapter to the next.  Cinematic play represents a self-contained story. It takes on a three-act structure with a proscribed beginning and end. The characters are central to the story, but they aren't necessarily expected to survive it. Cinematic play is a thrill-ride headed towards a dramatic conclusion.  I've only played and ran Alien with the cinematic play mode. And I love it. I love that the characters have a real reason to fear for their lives. I love the secret agendas and the intra-party conflicts they inspire. I love the strange-bedfellows party compositions as dead characters are replaced with whoever happens to be around. And I love that a meaningful...

Now that we've finished our play-through of Destroyer of Worlds, it's a good time to reflect on the experience. Overall we had a great time. The players and I all found it to be very rewarding and enjoyable. That's a credit to the adventure. It's a great set-up and setting and contains an over-abundance of fantastic ideas and scenes. But also I skipped about two-thirds of the adventure's content and added (or at least re-mixed) much of what occurred.  Destroyer of Worlds is a strange beast of an adventure. (Which is why I'm still writing and thinking about it).  Some changes and recommendations:  Get rid of the other marines. Reducing the marines to a skeleton crew kept the PC at the center of the action. It also made it seem like the UPP war was largely unwinnable. This forced the PCs to pick their battles and priorities.  Move Wojcik's death off-screen. The adventure pulls out all the stops on alien variants. I wanted some variations but also wanted to ke...

The final session began with the group consisting of the marines Zmijewski, Dante, and Carvalho, accompanied by Marshal James Hyram and recently-rescued UPP soldier Li Xiu Ling. They had been sent by a UPP major to clear out the Fort Nebraska sublevels. Carvalho had been downed by an alien that escaped into the maintenance tunnels. The powered-up space elevator, with the promise of escape, beckoned to the group. The marshal and Li patched up Carvalho and his melted foot. Then the group made their way into the elevator. They checked that the cargo area of the climber was clear. The marshal radioed the major with a tale of needing to move the elevator to enter sublevel 3. Then they removed the restraining elevator clamps and blast shield and sent the climber car hurtling off towards the orbital platform.  As the elevator was rising, Zmijewski heard movement coming from the officers' lounge. The door opened to reveal Colonel Myers. The base CO had come to the climber to use the radio ...