Alien: Caster of Worlds

 The situation going into Act II was... complex... Two of the AWOL marines were still at large. Two members of Charlie squad (Hammer and Dante) were also AWOL somewhere. Captain Silva was down with a crushed spine and needed medical attention. A UPP invasion force has descended on the largely undefended colony. And...some sort of monster just dropped out of the ceiling in the marshal station where the characters were seeking refuge.  Silva's player needed a new character. I suggested he choose one of the small crowd of colonists (Liv, Netra, Fernando, Hyram, Dodds...) who were already with the party. He went with Marshal Hyram. We worked up some backstory for Hyram - including a relationship with our leathery old marine Francine and a history of conflict with the brutal insurgent leader Imre Botos.  We also added a new, fifth player who would be playing the AWOL marine - PFC Isaac Carvalho.  Carvalho's story included a history of his time in the colony. They started ...

We left our marines catching their breath, parked in the middle of the road on one of the quiet streets of the nearly empty colony. They take a while to calm their nerves and then head to the Eye of Oblivion in search of some information. Much of the first session was spent with the characters trying to squeeze information from people who didn't have much of any. I wanted to pick up the pace. So, I moved Ivan Stolls over to the bar and, instead of a hard-eyed insurgent, made him a wheeler-dealer eager to trade info. Silva spun a pretty good tale about the operation against 61 Cygni being a feint, and the marines returning in force. In response, Ivan offered up what he knew about two of the AWOL marines. In my version, after their meeting with the insurgents went badly, Wojcik was shot up and taken to the hospital by Reese. Reese's infestation made him overly paranoid and aggressive. He blew up the meet and was threatening people at the hospital until nurse Duncan knocked him ou...

The players have chosen Silva, Iona, Mason, and Zmijewski (another player chose Chaplain, but then had to drop before the first session). We begin with the four of them being pulled from their units and taking the elevator to the surface colony. On the way down the elevator jerks to a sudden halt, and the lights dim and flicker. The characters pick up some stress, but then the elevator resumes.  In the fort, they are greeted by Lance Corporal Francine - a leathery old marine with missing teeth. She's there to show the sorry state of the remaining marines but will take on a bigger role in future sessions.  The characters are joined by Dante and Hammer for Major Hatfield's briefing and they spy Mallory Eckford mysteriously watching over them.  After the briefing, they have some time before they are meant to head out. Each character can do a thing. This gives the players a minute to explore their character, try rolling dice for something, and try and get some additional gear...

Introduction This blog will be about my experiences running the Alien RPG. We'll start with an Alien: Destroyer of Worlds cinematic campaign. This will be a mix of design and preparation notes along with session reports on how everything played out.  Naturally, this blog will be filled with extensive spoilers for Alien: Destroyer of Worlds . So, read on, or not, accordingly. I'll also assume you're somewhat familiar with the adventure and will refer to the adventure contents, without necessarily explaining them. Bio   I'm an experienced GM having played and run a number of systems. I've played Alien: Chariot of the Gods and got to learn the system there, but never run Alien before. We're playing with 4-5 players - with various amounts of RPG experience - none of whom have played Alien before.  I've promised a mini-campaign/cinematic RPG experience that'll play out over 4-6 2-3 hour sessions.  Destroyer of Worlds Overview  This adventure is a glorious, ov...