Same for me but with Alien. Seth is great but inevitable; Alien is amazing but sparcley covered on UA-cam, and even less so not in the form of a Gameplay Podcast.
Love this review of a truly chaotic mega-game. Seth's reveal as the imposter at the end and the countdown to the ship blowing up created an unforgettable end game panic. I forgive you for blowing me up, but I'll get you back next time.
I'm running this scenario tomorrow (and possibly for many days to come) as our first introduction to the Alien RPG. Yesterday, one of the players told me that they've not actually seen any Alien films: they're in for a surprise.
"I open the inner and outer airlocks, venting all atmosphere into space, and exposing all living tissue that's not protected in a suit or a stasis pod to the cleansing vacuum of space."
funny thing about the ship being cold and needing to warm up... heat venting is actually a big issue for space craft engineering, because in the vacuum of space the only way to get rid of heat is via radiation, so it will retain any heat it generates for a long time, and any external heat it's exposed to will stick to it. space is only "cold" if you're in the shade, otherwise it's insanely hot.
It says in the module that the ship is in deep space between stars. So external heat is no issue in this scenario. Since the ship was basically completely offline until the PCs arrive, id say it would be unimaginably cold.
Love the review, Seth, and I agree with a lot of it. I actually figured out some of these complaints before my group played the adventure, so I got to change some things around. Here's a few modifications that I made when I ran this module that might help other people interested in running it: 1. After the Montero's crew wakes up, I gave my players time to breathe and get adjusted. The module says to let them eat dinner, work off their hydration, and let the players interact. I went the extra mile and gave each member of the crew things to do according to their roles (Cham and Rye working in the cargo deck, Davis and Miller on the bridge, and Wilson getting Special Order 966). This lets you introduce the Daisy to the crew, lets Cham and Rye load the cannisters onto Daisy before the arrival of the Cronus in case they want the money (Miller and Rye personal agendas), and allows the radar blip for Davis and Miller to foreshadow the Sotillo with the radar blips, then introduce the distress signal later on.. It's also the calm before the storm and lets the players partner up with their buddies. 2. The Alien RPG subreddit has great mappers on there, which include deck plans for the Montero and the Sotillo. Whether online or in person, I recommend checking them out and using the different floorplans. Not excusing the module for the lack of maps, but this is how I got around it. 3. With all the weapons given from the Montero and the shotgun and pulse rifle immediately available on the Cronus, my players didn't have TOO much trouble in actual combat encounters. I actually included a second Neomorph after the first, hibernating one, and the bloodburster were killed. I think the key thing is pacing and atmosphere, and incentivizing the players using the motion tracker they're given. Using the Roll20 jukebox for the motion tracker bloops was one of the greatest drivers of tension and was more memorable than the aliens themselves. 4. Give plenty of warnings about the inoculations before the players get them. I had Dr. Cooper's personal datapad explain WHY he didn't take his shot, just to cast doubt on the inoculations. One of my players still took it, and he wound up becoming an abomination later, but the ball was in their court and it was shocking when the player actually disappeared into the Cronus away from everyone else. 5. I just ignored the Analysis talent, since it was clearly unavailable. Best to just tell the players or make them do a wits-related roll. I actually wound up not using the Sotillo, since my players surprisingly never tried returning to the Montero, and got the Cronus back up and running, so it was on its way to Earth. The final act included Clayton's attempt to negotiate with the party (since Lucas had convinced everyone to kill her and Flynn, who I kept alive), them navigating the second Neomorph, and the final showdown between Ava and Lucas, after the rest of the players were incapacitated. Overall, we got 24 hours out of it, and it works really well when you tweak it to be a little more user-friendly.
Loved the review, Is there any chance of getting the audio file of mother announcing the reactor overload as a .mp3 download? {It'd be neat to have for GM's that run the adventure.}
Been looking forward to this review! Much appreciated. For the shuttle "Daisy" I'd recommend using a picture and the description of the Lifter Ship from Alien Covenant.
I'm running this game for my players. Due to time constraints, we ended the first session before the recommended end of act 1, but it was right about where Seth recommended. Also during some table talk, one of the players mistakenly confused facehugger and chestburster, calling it a "faceburster". Looking forward to the scene where Dr. Cooper pops.
@@cocoablack73 I should have watched until the end before commenting. I paused there because I thought it was a Freudian slip, when it was probably on purpose.
Seth, I hope you like making these videos as much as we like watching them. These people aren't kidding when they say it makes them happy when you release a new one. Thank you.
I finally saw ALIEN: Covenant. That blood burster was terrifying, especially the one that essentially replaced the guy's spine and then clawed its way out.
For the ultimate in deck plans I recommend "Alien The Blueprints" (Graham J. Langridge) This book includes the 'Daisy' actually, it's the same as the cargo lifter from Covenant. For the Sotillo, one or two of the Nostromo decks would work well. The book is a gorgeous accessory for this RPG or any fan of the movies.
Thank you for including those random quotes. I keep a list of all the random things said in my games. It's nice to look back at them and laugh. For instance: "...I'm a god." "Of what?" "...Alcohol." or "D&D; also known as, My And The Boys Doing Crimes" or even "WET WILLY IS A MELEE ATTACK, SURE"
Bought the Alien starter set + core book on your recommendation based on the last review, went thru the core book cover to cover and ran a couple solo one-shot sessions w/ my wife to test the mechanics, but haven't taken a crack @ the CotG campaign yet - this is great stuff man, glad I waited now. Can't wait to run this w my group!
Solid review as always. Regarding end of act one I ended up blowing the Montero early as Davis refused to leave the ship - which was odd considering her agenda- so blew the ship after she failed a roll. This created tension between the crew as they think her drug problem is what has cost them their paycheck and their ship. It also forced Davis onto the Cronus. Ended act one with the blood burster escaping into the vents so they have something more to worry about . Have Ava humming “you are my lucky star” as she wanders about.
Good review, Seth. And very interesting to hear behind the scenes of the scenario - we played this around nine months ago, after Hope's Last Day and before Destroyer of Worlds. I think our GM may have missed a bit about setting up Act 1 properly, because he blew up the original ship almost as soon as we landed on the Cronos. We didn't have mercenaries turn up, either. Our characters also deliberately left the flamer unit behind - they didn't think they'd need it to search a dead ship (as much as OOC we knew we would badly need it). However, seeing all the bacteria/spores in the air, we all insisted on staying in our space suits. As a result, nobody got infected. However, our blooming combat specialist was also the android (a bad call by the GM, I believe - he was effectively unstoppable and the only armed character!) and when he triggered in Act 3 he took out a couple of characters, then went and set off the reactor. To be fair, the damn neomorph took almost all of the rest of us out before he even managed to set it off. TPK. But still, good fun!
Just watched Mystery Quest finish this one and even though there were 7 hours, man...there was so much more. It's a game I hope to play or run one of these days now. Thanks for the review!
So Seth mentions at 28:30 about the voice of Mother in this video being a member of his group! So the person at 13.18 isn't an actor? Damn, It seemed so natural! Great work!
Great video, as usual! I hope you give us your wisdom on cyberunk red and it's adventures, eventually. And, just a thought, a cyberunk red adventure written by mr. Skorkowsky would be awesome! (and very useful)
I am getting ready to run this scenario, your insights and suggestions are invaluable. I have never liked running published scenarios mainly because of organizational issues. This particular module seems to have information all over the place so to me, is best used as reference material and then write the adventure in your own words, this way you know where everything is located in the adventure. Another idea is to watch other UA-cam videos on how other Muthers ran the scenario. The players always ask questions that the modules never seem to have answers for. In this way, you can at least have some ideas on what the players are likely to ask from other games. Thanks Seth for the review and commentary.
Okay, now this was a review I've been waiting for, for a long time. Thank you so much for taking interest in this game and doing a review on it. Good stuff as always, thank you and stay safe.
Can confirm on module length. It took my group about 18 hours to complete it and we were all pretty experienced with the game AND the survivors basically botched every roll possible and ended in a TPK. It was a lot of fun though!
In reference to the microwave burrito.... I'd imagine a ship like that would have a complex network of environmental control ducts and heaters. Power could be distributed pretty quickly and heat the whole ship evenly.
Interesting stuff, I just discovered your channel which was great since I just received the Alien Corebook today; it looks absolutely gorgeous and I'm eager to listen to a few talks about the material for the game. I haven't looked into RPGs since I stopped playing them 30 years ago, but now I am very interested in them, mainly for writing inspiration since I'm an amateur fantasy novelist who also likes to include horror elements. Thanks for a great presentation. By the way, you've got a great voice, you should work as a radio host or something.
Always enjoy the videos and in depth analysis of a game- and what game masters can do to anticipate issues and tweak a pre-printed product to add more enjoyment- like maps of spacecraft- things players will definitely ask about during the game
I cannot wait to play this game. Alien is my fav sci-fi movie franchise of all time and i love horror movies/stories. I found Alien RPG a year ago when it was first released and bought - couldn't wait to spring it on my tabletop gang. Just as I got it and started reading it, uncle Koe-Vid and the irrational fear thereof gripped California and suddenly no one could leave the house, and this game has gathered dust on my shelves. I've thought about playing online, but most of my players are not the web-cam types and I wouldn't want to play it with just voice and not face/body reactions. Unfortunately since that time, one of my long time players retired from military and moved back to TN, and my longest standing friend/player just got orders to go to Germany in a couple months, so now even when all this nonsense is behind us, I've lost my two longest standing players and friends from the table. Great review. I hope to one day run it. The same publishing company that made Alien RPG just inherited the rights to continue The One Ring - my fav RPG of all time, and other favorite franchise besides Alien.
Thanks for the review. I've been trying to figure out how to solo play this and now I have a good idea of what elements to focus my Mythic GME questions on. Been solo playing Forbidden Lands for the last three months, and it will be nice to switch settings without needing to learn a new game system. Keep up the great work, Seth.
Another option for the android is that he could end up becoming attached to the crew and developing a moral compass that conflicts with his orders, sort of like a reverse I, Robot. In that story, a robot that was previously thought safe violates Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, but in this scenario, a robot that was not designed with those laws in place puts them in himself after spending so much time with the crew.
Man playing as Cham was fun because I had no secondary motivations other than "Try and save your friends". I decided to play cham as the chillest nicest man in the universe to great effect. I stayed on the ship while everybody else explored and we'd occasionally cut back to what cham was doing and I'd just describe him as doing maintenance on the ship while he played Stevie wonder over the ship's speakers. Worked great as a way to cut the tension. Then the ship started to self destruct and I got to play the big damn hero by sacrificing myself to pilot it out to a safe distance while others got to safety. I got to play 3 separate characters over our 3 sessions and each was unique. What a great scenario
This is why I'm leery of adventures (and entire games) that revolve around solving a mystery or figuring out a pre-established plot. I find that often times the author of an adventure makes logical connections that my players (or myself) would not otherwise make. Or, holes in the narrative that have to be plugged with a lot of GM effort.
I haven't run one in this incarnation of Aliens, but I did run a campaign in the Aliens RPG in like '94. What I found worked was I always gave each Player an NPC to boss around in addition to their actual Character. To avoid gratuitous red shirtism make sure that each NPC had one needed Skill. So loosing one of these NPCs did set the party back.
The earlier model artificial PCs always were a little bit twitchy. Modern behavioral inhibitors (read: diluting the booze) prevents them from harming, or by inaction allowing harm to come to, a review. Love ya, Jack! :P
"...although I prefer the term Artificial Player Character, myself." Stellar reference, Seth! Pun intended. It's such a shame this adventure pivots entirely around all that Alien: Covenant hogwash, I wish there was a way to rejigger it to work with just the lore of the first two movies.
That's the main thing that keeps me from being interested in the game. It depends and revolves around the lore from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. I hated those movies. Somewhat difficult for me to have any enthusiasm towards the idea of playing in that world.
@@chrisbowden8060 Hear hear. Prometheus had some promise depending on how they followed up on it, but as the credits rolled on Covenant my brother and I turned to stare at each other and said ".....WTF did we just watch?" Don't get me started on how it wildly, almost hilariously flung itself off the rails. The final detail that utterly killed it for me was the ending scene where David coughed up an embryo pod that he somehow designed and built to be compatible with the stasis and life support systems of a colony ship he had no way to expect to encounter. Even if you could say "Oh he had the design specs for that class of ship in his databanks and could have made custom pods once he knew it was arriving," still seriously WTF? It absolutely beggars belief. What a ham-fisted crock. ...sorry, I have Feelings about Covenant.
@@cnkclark interesting opinion. I have much the opposite. Prometheus to me was total garbage from start to finish. All of the characters behave astoundingly stupid, the movie is so poorly paced that I thought the opening scene was what happened to the world the people go to, I had to look online to find out it was supposed to be the dawn of life on Earth. Lindelof is an absolute hack who has stated multiple times he doesn't believe movie should have answers or explain things, people should make up their own head Cannon and that's a phrase that makes me want to strangle myself. So much of the film is dependent on the characters being mind-bogglingly stupid though. The two guys are supposed to be expert geologist and managed to get lost in a complex that is being Matt real-time by hundreds of floating drones. People take their helmets off on a strange alien world where it appears some kind of ecological disaster has befallen. When the two guys make their way to the egg case and see the giant vagina snake, one character leans in without his helmet and tries to pet this. If your first thought of seeing a giant snake with a fanged vagina mouth is too lean and clothes and touch it you're beyond stupid. I could nitpick for ages, but I'll end with everybody's favorite trope where the one woman runs away from the falling ship by running in a straight line as opposed to just running left or right. Covenant however, at least started off a much better film and with a much better cast of characters. They were better rounded, less idiotic, and I loved the whole initial mystery of them not picking up the broadcast from the engineers Homeworld from a distance it was only when they were in the beam. Honestly it's biggest flaw was relying on plot hooks from Prometheus. I also was irritated at the fact that Prometheus at least ended on an intriguing hook. The survivors were going to go to the engineer Homeworld and deal with them directly. What Covenant takes place years after that fact and what little bit you find out is told in a very brief flashback. Honestly I really wish that Dark Horse Comics had been allowed to retain the license. For almost 40 years they carefully protected the Canon and lore for alien, Predator, RoboCop, Terminator. They built a tremendous amount of backstory, they maintained consistency, and they managed to keep the atmosphere of all of those films intact. To the point where crossovers not only seemed natural but didn't in any way look like it was a cash in. I liked their particular View on the engineers, that they were an arrogant alien race, one of the oldest around, and their arrogance allowed them to fall prey to the alien. Dark horse kept the nice blend of Science Fiction and lovecraftian horror, and I would be a lot more interested in playing a game based on their version of the universe
I enjoy Prometheus very much. Like most high-concept scifi it's easy to poke holes in it if you want, and I completely understand anyone who didn't like it. But I found it very compelling from start to finish. Covenant, however, is a big ol mess. I mildly enjoyed watching it the first time, but it didn't ever really grab me and I don't feel the desire to see it again.
Does it? I've only seen the first two movies and everything seemed to make sense, other than needing to brush up on what a neomorph is and how the spores work
I ran this recently for most of my usual group. I dropped the Sotillo since things were going down the tubes sufficiently. The game ended with the three players and an NPC in the emergency shuttle as the Cronus self-destructed. All three players were holding guns on each other, knowing that the NPC had to live since they were the payday, but there were only three cryopods. Just a great place to have the game fade to black as we ended.
@@DrFranklynAnderson 😂😂.....actually Daniken's book was named "chariots of the gods". Plural. 😉 Anyway in my book it was a secondary title for book 1/3. 😆
Great review, Seth. And you can wack me upside the head with a torch anyday...er, I mean my character. Seriously, this was such an incredible scenario to play in. I can't wait to run my friends and loved ones through the gauntlet as well!
Based on the rules in the module, the android is actually supposed to follow the same stress rules as everyone else- until the point they are revealed as an android. Also regarding infections- #1. if the characters keep their space suits on, they can't really become infected with the spores (though they are pretty much guaranteed that they will need to remove them since they will eventually run out of air). #2. By RAW there are rules for resisting the infection- you make a roll to see if you move from stage 1 to stage 2 of the infection (you need to read the rules regarding how this particularly infection works, as it acts like a virus. These rules are found at the back of the adventure in the section about abominations), so a PC can potentially stave off the infection.
Would you be willing to do a rpg rules video for alien like you are for traveller and cthulu? Me and my friends love your videos of that style it makes learning new systems sk much easier :)
One thing i really liked about the adventure is the fact there are no aliens in it. Making it really clear that there is more to the rpg than just the quintessential black horrors.
oh yes I've been waiting for this episode. I think you are 100% right about the length because our game took 5 hours but is still not over and has one more act to go. Also thanks for the advice on the infection.
Getting ready to run this and I have to say that I totally believe we're gonna take forever to burn through this one because we're insanely heavy roleplayers. Can't wait to take them all down one-by-one in true Alien fashion!
I ran this adventure in 3 two hour sessions twice (for two different groups), so for me it averaged about 6 hours. It was awesome both times. I did skip some of the optional events- primarily the pirates that show up at the end. The module even suggests that the pirates are really only there in case you feel like you need an additional complication, but I found that by the end of Act 2 there was enough going on that there was no need for this additional complication, and it just served to draw out the scenario unnecessarily. Also the GM has some control as to when certain events are triggered, which allows the GM to slow or speed up the pace of the module's progression depending on how fast they want to get through it. I tried to find a balance between giving the PCs some time to explore with also keeping the tension high and the game lively by having events popping up that they needed to react to.
Played this one over two fairly long sessions a couple months ago. Our first act went pretty much the same as described, nothing was automated so we just turned on random stuff as we explored the ship, eventually finding the NPC crew and fighting off the neomorph. We didn't even know about the shuttle and didn't know about the reactor overload till someone decided in-character to steal the main ship and bail, only to blow up a couple minutes later. From there the GM decided that every NPC was infected and they all turned on us in unison which took out a couple more of us; then while we were locked in the medbay one of the PCs turned and the already injured survivors had no chance, we never even got to act 3. Overall it was a good time and went pretty much exactly how you'd expect an Alien game to play out. My only real complaint with the system was that it felt designed for this kind of one-shot where everyone dies, mostly due to the stress mechanic that makes it basically impossible to succeed at anything once you have about 3 stress dice. it works great for that kind of game, but I can't see actually playing in a long campaign with this system.
I see your post is now two years old, so you likely know this already by now, but in case.....there are two distinct play style options now available for Alien RPG: the cinematic play mode (seen here, and with two additional modules for this 'saga' now available), and the campaign mode (with a space marines book now out and a new book for colonist play now available on pre-order). One assumes that a third for space truckers is in the works.
We just did this last Saturday, our DM (Mother) had run it already a couple of months ago. It was excellent, took us about 12 hours with an hour's break and a fair bit of waffling. We meet up from around the UK a few times a year for a weekend of rpg, so we lose a lot of gaming time to just catching up in the first few hours. I was Davis, the pilot. I escaped with Clayton and Miller, everyone else... well. Really enjoyed it, great mechanics and experience. We'd played the Blade Runner game a few months back, and that was also fantastic.
I actually managed to run this in a single 5 hourish session, but mostly because I didn't implement a lot of the optional story beats. Which I wanted to do so if we revisit this oneshot (we recently gained a 4th player to our group), I can throw new stuff in a 2nd attempt to surprise them. I also ended up with 2 out of 3 infected PC's, one in Act 2 and the other very late in Act 3. I had drawn out the symptoms for the 1st player, so they were able to play as they slowly went mad and ended up hunting down another PC in Act 3 (which he had a blast doing). The 2nd player had gotten infected late in Act 3, which is also when I introduced the mercenaries, so these 2 PCs had the means of escape. Thus allowing them to survive and fly away, as I described the 2nd infected PC starting to feel the inoculation symptoms, to close out the oneshot.
Just finished this, took us 2 sessions of 4h each. The Lucas fooled the rest of the crew into going into cryo while she set the course towards Bionical, her "employer".
Seth, what tools and resources did you use to craft the Mother Siren audio with Gail? I'd be interested in my group producing some resources like this. It really adds a lot to the game
I bought the starter set a few months back, and yes, that has been sorted. That was really only an issue with the “maps and markers” pack that came out with the core rulebook.
You can find groups to play online with. İ know seth likes in person but my group plays with people across the globe. İ am running 3 games now and play in two. Could never do that with face to face. Hell if you really want to you could join one of my games.
Good point. I hadn't considered the air. Another reason the module should probably just state what the temperature aboard the derelicts is instead of just the nebulous description of being freezing.
its very funny to look at this review after having been a player in this scenario. I was so excited to hear about the Mad AI that would listen in to everything we said through the vents and trying to lure us into spaces alone with secrets he had listened into, or about the alien ontop of the spacehulk! these two things, especially the mad ai, was incredibly fun and exciting! then color me surprised when I listen in to this and realize that the parts me and my player group enjoyed the most, was things our GM home made for this scenario.... it really showed how much was missing from this scenario to truly be called an "ALIEN RPG SCENARIO", cause without those things, the scenario was pretty empty
Great video! I've watched some podcasts of this interesting system, and I especially like the stress rules working for or against players. As in any game of horror, the GM needs to slowly ramp up the tension as you've mentioned in other videos, to keep everyone invested. I'm all for saving the big bad until the situation seems hopeless to watch the players panic and then aggressively scheme to survive.
I’d be interested to know how “well” the stress dynamic worked in the game sessions. Was it what you expected, and did it raise the tension level? Thanks!
@@pkamingusu7094 The GM assigns stress points when characters encounter horrific sights or creatures ala Call of Cthulhu sanity checks, which can cause many levels of panicked behavior, or actually improve your chances of performing an action out of desperation. What I noticed in the three game sessions I watched, each with a separate plot, was how the stress factor affected the actual players. They became concerned even if they merely played it off with a joke, and were more likely to not perform outrageous acts, but rather proceed with care as if in fear of 'dying', like in real life! I look forward to getting together with my crew to try this. Like CoC, it's a great one shot game.
It'll be a while before I want to tackle that one. With all the cards and fold-out maps I want to save it until my group and I can all squeeze into a small room and play in person again. It feels kind of a waste to do it online.
Great video, as always. Quick question: Is it advisable to let players choose the character they prefer, or is it better for me to assign each one a character that I think they will play well?
I have run Chariot of the Gods 7 times. The ONLY time it was a single 5 hour session was a TPK not far into act 2 when a traumatized character set the reactor to blow AFTER the Montero blew up. It was a glorious moment. However, most runs are 10+ hours. Its a challenging scenario, and its nowhere near as one shot as it says.
LOL, Seth starts playing Among Us at 26:30. I'm going to be running this for my group once we wrap up all the other games we got going. You've got some really good tips in here. Thanks a bunch, man.
I don't suppose you could share that audio of Gail Clendenin as the voice of MU/TH/UR giving the warning as it would be great to use that in an online game?
It is not yet clear to me how MU / TH / UR can activate order 966. Of course she is reacting to the creature presence, but who did update her? How does she know?
Oh oh oh I just thought of a great Alien scenario! It's a animal cargo ship full to the brim with cows and chickens, maybe a horse for transportation on the huge frigate, a mad geneticist could even Noah's ark it if you really want to more clichés
I spent 3 months building up a backstab of my group with my gamemaster in a Shadowrun game last year....The group was SO shocked they all ended up leaving the table and standing on the far side of the room. It didn't work. i died cataclysmically and built a new guy (which I knew i was prolly gonna have to do anyway). it's been nearly two years and i still get crap for it. It was amazing.
Great review Seth. Potential spoilers below........ ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... When my group played it I was also the secret Android (though in my case I was the captain). In the end most of the crew had been taken out. I convinced one of the characters that I knew was infected (but still alive) to come with me in an escape pod, putting him in Cyro so I could deliver him to my corporate masters. Then I blew up the ship as I left with sleeping crew member and data from lab. Our GM has threatened to use this as a hook for a later Campaign adventure......
For those who aren't sure what a flatbed cargo lifter is in the franchise, I refer you to the little ship from the end of Alien: Covenant with the crane used to fight back the Xenomorph while they were still in atmo.
This one played out weird for my group, Wilson and the NPC company rep got out in the escape pod with the samples, vaccines, and the cash (she was just starting to show signs of turning so he sneakily set her cryopod to only deactivate manually by him so he could turn her over to the Company for study, that player really played the character well) while the rest of the surviving crew were left stuck on a repaired and secured Cronus, they got very lucky dice rolls and i never used the Sotillo as it seemed like too much of an addiitional complication for what i mistakenly thought was only supposed to be a 1-or-2 session adventure (took us around 16 hours instead) so that was my bad, fun scenario though
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a facehugger.
I scratched my head over this comment for about 28 minutes. Well-done. 😆
That exact line just came out of my mouth!
😆
dodge duck dip dive and dodge
This
Seth:
> Actually gets to be a player
> Still fudges rolls
😂
LOL
Always a good day when I see Seth in my notifications.
Same for me but with Alien. Seth is great but inevitable; Alien is amazing but sparcley covered on UA-cam, and even less so not in the form of a Gameplay Podcast.
I am inevitable.
@@SSkorkowsky You HAVE been fairly consistent for about 3 or so years now, at least to my knowledge.
I concur
@@TanisHalf-Elven Hi Tanis. How you feel about the new Dragonlance Trilogy?
Love this review of a truly chaotic mega-game. Seth's reveal as the imposter at the end and the countdown to the ship blowing up created an unforgettable end game panic. I forgive you for blowing me up, but I'll get you back next time.
I'm running this scenario tomorrow (and possibly for many days to come) as our first introduction to the Alien RPG. Yesterday, one of the players told me that they've not actually seen any Alien films: they're in for a surprise.
They're in for a surprise. Best of luck with the adventure.
I got same situation, he just know few situations...It will be lot of fun
"'Oh, it's dodgeball time'. And I run at 'em with my two wrenches."
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.
"I open the inner and outer airlocks, venting all atmosphere into space, and exposing all living tissue that's not protected in a suit or a stasis pod to the cleansing vacuum of space."
*Nods approvingly in FTL* This is the way.
@Anne O'Nymous Nice.
@@DahVoozel He who controls the doors, controls space.
the end.
@@DahVoozel when the boarder is Lanius! 😳
funny thing about the ship being cold and needing to warm up... heat venting is actually a big issue for space craft engineering, because in the vacuum of space the only way to get rid of heat is via radiation, so it will retain any heat it generates for a long time, and any external heat it's exposed to will stick to it.
space is only "cold" if you're in the shade, otherwise it's insanely hot.
Also space is absolute zero not sub zero because of heat radiation
@@klaykid117 three point something kelvin due to CMB that's everywhere.
@@muninrob 2.7 Kelvin
It says in the module that the ship is in deep space between stars. So external heat is no issue in this scenario. Since the ship was basically completely offline until the PCs arrive, id say it would be unimaginably cold.
@@retroleum5122 heat loss is still really hard in space cause its not quite a perfect vacuum
I'm a simple man. Seth posts something, I press like.
He'd pretty much have to eat live baby on camera to not get a thumbs up from me at this point.
Yep
I love how Jack always has his lucky flask with him in every one of your videos Seth
Love the review, Seth, and I agree with a lot of it. I actually figured out some of these complaints before my group played the adventure, so I got to change some things around. Here's a few modifications that I made when I ran this module that might help other people interested in running it:
1. After the Montero's crew wakes up, I gave my players time to breathe and get adjusted. The module says to let them eat dinner, work off their hydration, and let the players interact. I went the extra mile and gave each member of the crew things to do according to their roles (Cham and Rye working in the cargo deck, Davis and Miller on the bridge, and Wilson getting Special Order 966). This lets you introduce the Daisy to the crew, lets Cham and Rye load the cannisters onto Daisy before the arrival of the Cronus in case they want the money (Miller and Rye personal agendas), and allows the radar blip for Davis and Miller to foreshadow the Sotillo with the radar blips, then introduce the distress signal later on.. It's also the calm before the storm and lets the players partner up with their buddies.
2. The Alien RPG subreddit has great mappers on there, which include deck plans for the Montero and the Sotillo. Whether online or in person, I recommend checking them out and using the different floorplans. Not excusing the module for the lack of maps, but this is how I got around it.
3. With all the weapons given from the Montero and the shotgun and pulse rifle immediately available on the Cronus, my players didn't have TOO much trouble in actual combat encounters. I actually included a second Neomorph after the first, hibernating one, and the bloodburster were killed. I think the key thing is pacing and atmosphere, and incentivizing the players using the motion tracker they're given. Using the Roll20 jukebox for the motion tracker bloops was one of the greatest drivers of tension and was more memorable than the aliens themselves.
4. Give plenty of warnings about the inoculations before the players get them. I had Dr. Cooper's personal datapad explain WHY he didn't take his shot, just to cast doubt on the inoculations. One of my players still took it, and he wound up becoming an abomination later, but the ball was in their court and it was shocking when the player actually disappeared into the Cronus away from everyone else.
5. I just ignored the Analysis talent, since it was clearly unavailable. Best to just tell the players or make them do a wits-related roll.
I actually wound up not using the Sotillo, since my players surprisingly never tried returning to the Montero, and got the Cronus back up and running, so it was on its way to Earth. The final act included Clayton's attempt to negotiate with the party (since Lucas had convinced everyone to kill her and Flynn, who I kept alive), them navigating the second Neomorph, and the final showdown between Ava and Lucas, after the rest of the players were incapacitated. Overall, we got 24 hours out of it, and it works really well when you tweak it to be a little more user-friendly.
This is some really great advice. I know it’s been 2 years, but how did you get the motion tracker sounds into the Roll20 jukebox?
Last time I was this early the air was still breathable.
Loved the review, Is there any chance of getting the audio file of mother announcing the reactor overload as a .mp3 download? {It'd be neat to have for GM's that run the adventure.}
Been looking forward to this review! Much appreciated. For the shuttle "Daisy" I'd recommend using a picture and the description of the Lifter Ship from Alien Covenant.
I'm running this game for my players. Due to time constraints, we ended the first session before the recommended end of act 1, but it was right about where Seth recommended. Also during some table talk, one of the players mistakenly confused facehugger and chestburster, calling it a "faceburster". Looking forward to the scene where Dr. Cooper pops.
Faceburster is what happened to the scientist at the end of Alien Resurrection when that poor infected guy grabbed hold of him
2:08 "If a gamemother"? I'll allow it, that term probably makes more sense anyway.
I honestly thought it was a euphemism for a GM that "mothers" the party by making sure they take out all the not safe extras.
That’s what they call the GM in the core rulebook. Except it’s spelled “M/U/T/H/E/R” haha
Seths a mom :) who’s the father? Cthulhu?
@@cocoablack73 I should have watched until the end before commenting. I paused there because I thought it was a Freudian slip, when it was probably on purpose.
The MU-TH-UR 6000 (simply known as "Mother") was the computer on the Nostromo who auto-piloted the ship while the crew was in hypersleep.
Seth, I hope you like making these videos as much as we like watching them. These people aren't kidding when they say it makes them happy when you release a new one. Thank you.
I finally saw ALIEN: Covenant. That blood burster was terrifying, especially the one that essentially replaced the guy's spine and then clawed its way out.
For the ultimate in deck plans I recommend "Alien The Blueprints" (Graham J. Langridge) This book includes the 'Daisy' actually, it's the same as the cargo lifter from Covenant.
For the Sotillo, one or two of the Nostromo decks would work well. The book is a gorgeous accessory for this RPG or any fan of the movies.
Thank you for including those random quotes.
I keep a list of all the random things said in my games. It's nice to look back at them and laugh. For instance:
"...I'm a god."
"Of what?"
"...Alcohol."
or
"D&D; also known as, My And The Boys Doing Crimes"
or even
"WET WILLY IS A MELEE ATTACK, SURE"
Bought the Alien starter set + core book on your recommendation based on the last review, went thru the core book cover to cover and ran a couple solo one-shot sessions w/ my wife to test the mechanics, but haven't taken a crack @ the CotG campaign yet - this is great stuff man, glad I waited now. Can't wait to run this w my group!
Solid review as always. Regarding end of act one I ended up blowing the Montero early as Davis refused to leave the ship - which was odd considering her agenda- so blew the ship after she failed a roll. This created tension between the crew as they think her drug problem is what has cost them their paycheck and their ship. It also forced Davis onto the Cronus. Ended act one with the blood burster escaping into the vents so they have something more to worry about . Have Ava humming “you are my lucky star” as she wanders about.
Good review, Seth. And very interesting to hear behind the scenes of the scenario - we played this around nine months ago, after Hope's Last Day and before Destroyer of Worlds. I think our GM may have missed a bit about setting up Act 1 properly, because he blew up the original ship almost as soon as we landed on the Cronos. We didn't have mercenaries turn up, either.
Our characters also deliberately left the flamer unit behind - they didn't think they'd need it to search a dead ship (as much as OOC we knew we would badly need it). However, seeing all the bacteria/spores in the air, we all insisted on staying in our space suits. As a result, nobody got infected.
However, our blooming combat specialist was also the android (a bad call by the GM, I believe - he was effectively unstoppable and the only armed character!) and when he triggered in Act 3 he took out a couple of characters, then went and set off the reactor. To be fair, the damn neomorph took almost all of the rest of us out before he even managed to set it off. TPK. But still, good fun!
Just watched Mystery Quest finish this one and even though there were 7 hours, man...there was so much more. It's a game I hope to play or run one of these days now. Thanks for the review!
So Seth mentions at 28:30 about the voice of Mother in this video being a member of his group! So the person at 13.18 isn't an actor? Damn, It seemed so natural! Great work!
Great video, as usual! I hope you give us your wisdom on cyberunk red and it's adventures, eventually. And, just a thought, a cyberunk red adventure written by mr. Skorkowsky would be awesome! (and very useful)
He's done a couple Cyberpunk Red videos. He has one on the Jumpstart kit, and one on the module "The Apartment."
I suspect Seth is in fact, not sorry about blowing up Gail's character.
Yeah... probably not sorry >D
I am getting ready to run this scenario, your insights and suggestions are invaluable. I have never liked running published scenarios mainly because of organizational issues. This particular module seems to have information all over the place so to me, is best used as reference material and then write the adventure in your own words, this way you know where everything is located in the adventure. Another idea is to watch other UA-cam videos on how other Muthers ran the scenario. The players always ask questions that the modules never seem to have answers for. In this way, you can at least have some ideas on what the players are likely to ask from other games. Thanks Seth for the review and commentary.
Okay, now this was a review I've been waiting for, for a long time. Thank you so much for taking interest in this game and doing a review on it.
Good stuff as always, thank you and stay safe.
Can confirm on module length. It took my group about 18 hours to complete it and we were all pretty experienced with the game AND the survivors basically botched every roll possible and ended in a TPK. It was a lot of fun though!
I don't play this I'm here for the Traveller and Cyberpunk, but now I wanna play this TOO.
I should really get some friends to play this with.
"...no one can hear you get sexy." LMFAO!!!
In reference to the microwave burrito.... I'd imagine a ship like that would have a complex network of environmental control ducts and heaters. Power could be distributed pretty quickly and heat the whole ship evenly.
Lots of really great advice! I’m going to be running this in a couple weeks for my group. We’re all brand new to the Alien RPG.
Interesting stuff, I just discovered your channel which was great since I just received the Alien Corebook today; it looks absolutely gorgeous and I'm eager to listen to a few talks about the material for the game. I haven't looked into RPGs since I stopped playing them 30 years ago, but now I am very interested in them, mainly for writing inspiration since I'm an amateur fantasy novelist who also likes to include horror elements. Thanks for a great presentation. By the way, you've got a great voice, you should work as a radio host or something.
"Generations of hasty alley sexy" caught me completely off guard XD
Always enjoy the videos and in depth analysis of a game- and what game masters can do to anticipate issues and tweak a pre-printed product to add more enjoyment- like maps of spacecraft- things players will definitely ask about during the game
I cannot wait to play this game. Alien is my fav sci-fi movie franchise of all time and i love horror movies/stories. I found Alien RPG a year ago when it was first released and bought - couldn't wait to spring it on my tabletop gang. Just as I got it and started reading it, uncle Koe-Vid and the irrational fear thereof gripped California and suddenly no one could leave the house, and this game has gathered dust on my shelves. I've thought about playing online, but most of my players are not the web-cam types and I wouldn't want to play it with just voice and not face/body reactions. Unfortunately since that time, one of my long time players retired from military and moved back to TN, and my longest standing friend/player just got orders to go to Germany in a couple months, so now even when all this nonsense is behind us, I've lost my two longest standing players and friends from the table.
Great review. I hope to one day run it. The same publishing company that made Alien RPG just inherited the rights to continue The One Ring - my fav RPG of all time, and other favorite franchise besides Alien.
uh..should I watch this?
It's a 30 minute rant about some jerkface Game Master who ran me through a very long but fun game.
Are you the jerkbutt GM?
No one gets to call Rom a jerkbutt GM but me and the rest of the Two Wrenches.
@@SSkorkowsky Yeah, what he said!
@@romelwell quiet down jerkbutt!
Thanks for the review. I've been trying to figure out how to solo play this and now I have a good idea of what elements to focus my Mythic GME questions on. Been solo playing Forbidden Lands for the last three months, and it will be nice to switch settings without needing to learn a new game system. Keep up the great work, Seth.
Another option for the android is that he could end up becoming attached to the crew and developing a moral compass that conflicts with his orders, sort of like a reverse I, Robot. In that story, a robot that was previously thought safe violates Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, but in this scenario, a robot that was not designed with those laws in place puts them in himself after spending so much time with the crew.
Thanks Seth! Best RPG reviews on YT.
Loved playing this scenario just before lockdown in the UK. The personal goals are what makes these games. We did the Marines scenario recently, too
I also got to be Cham/android! Yaaaaaaas
Man playing as Cham was fun because I had no secondary motivations other than "Try and save your friends". I decided to play cham as the chillest nicest man in the universe to great effect. I stayed on the ship while everybody else explored and we'd occasionally cut back to what cham was doing and I'd just describe him as doing maintenance on the ship while he played Stevie wonder over the ship's speakers. Worked great as a way to cut the tension.
Then the ship started to self destruct and I got to play the big damn hero by sacrificing myself to pilot it out to a safe distance while others got to safety.
I got to play 3 separate characters over our 3 sessions and each was unique. What a great scenario
This is why I'm leery of adventures (and entire games) that revolve around solving a mystery or figuring out a pre-established plot. I find that often times the author of an adventure makes logical connections that my players (or myself) would not otherwise make. Or, holes in the narrative that have to be plugged with a lot of GM effort.
I haven't run one in this incarnation of Aliens, but I did run a campaign in the Aliens RPG in like '94. What I found worked was I always gave each Player an NPC to boss around in addition to their actual Character. To avoid gratuitous red shirtism make sure that each NPC had one needed Skill. So loosing one of these NPCs did set the party back.
The earlier model artificial PCs always were a little bit twitchy. Modern behavioral inhibitors (read: diluting the booze) prevents them from harming, or by inaction allowing harm to come to, a review.
Love ya, Jack! :P
"...although I prefer the term Artificial Player Character, myself." Stellar reference, Seth! Pun intended. It's such a shame this adventure pivots entirely around all that Alien: Covenant hogwash, I wish there was a way to rejigger it to work with just the lore of the first two movies.
That's the main thing that keeps me from being interested in the game. It depends and revolves around the lore from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. I hated those movies. Somewhat difficult for me to have any enthusiasm towards the idea of playing in that world.
@@chrisbowden8060 Hear hear. Prometheus had some promise depending on how they followed up on it, but as the credits rolled on Covenant my brother and I turned to stare at each other and said ".....WTF did we just watch?" Don't get me started on how it wildly, almost hilariously flung itself off the rails. The final detail that utterly killed it for me was the ending scene where David coughed up an embryo pod that he somehow designed and built to be compatible with the stasis and life support systems of a colony ship he had no way to expect to encounter. Even if you could say "Oh he had the design specs for that class of ship in his databanks and could have made custom pods once he knew it was arriving," still seriously WTF? It absolutely beggars belief. What a ham-fisted crock.
...sorry, I have Feelings about Covenant.
@@cnkclark interesting opinion. I have much the opposite. Prometheus to me was total garbage from start to finish. All of the characters behave astoundingly stupid, the movie is so poorly paced that I thought the opening scene was what happened to the world the people go to, I had to look online to find out it was supposed to be the dawn of life on Earth. Lindelof is an absolute hack who has stated multiple times he doesn't believe movie should have answers or explain things, people should make up their own head Cannon and that's a phrase that makes me want to strangle myself.
So much of the film is dependent on the characters being mind-bogglingly stupid though. The two guys are supposed to be expert geologist and managed to get lost in a complex that is being Matt real-time by hundreds of floating drones. People take their helmets off on a strange alien world where it appears some kind of ecological disaster has befallen. When the two guys make their way to the egg case and see the giant vagina snake, one character leans in without his helmet and tries to pet this. If your first thought of seeing a giant snake with a fanged vagina mouth is too lean and clothes and touch it you're beyond stupid. I could nitpick for ages, but I'll end with everybody's favorite trope where the one woman runs away from the falling ship by running in a straight line as opposed to just running left or right.
Covenant however, at least started off a much better film and with a much better cast of characters. They were better rounded, less idiotic, and I loved the whole initial mystery of them not picking up the broadcast from the engineers Homeworld from a distance it was only when they were in the beam. Honestly it's biggest flaw was relying on plot hooks from Prometheus. I also was irritated at the fact that Prometheus at least ended on an intriguing hook. The survivors were going to go to the engineer Homeworld and deal with them directly. What Covenant takes place years after that fact and what little bit you find out is told in a very brief flashback.
Honestly I really wish that Dark Horse Comics had been allowed to retain the license. For almost 40 years they carefully protected the Canon and lore for alien, Predator, RoboCop, Terminator. They built a tremendous amount of backstory, they maintained consistency, and they managed to keep the atmosphere of all of those films intact. To the point where crossovers not only seemed natural but didn't in any way look like it was a cash in. I liked their particular View on the engineers, that they were an arrogant alien race, one of the oldest around, and their arrogance allowed them to fall prey to the alien. Dark horse kept the nice blend of Science Fiction and lovecraftian horror, and I would be a lot more interested in playing a game based on their version of the universe
I enjoy Prometheus very much. Like most high-concept scifi it's easy to poke holes in it if you want, and I completely understand anyone who didn't like it. But I found it very compelling from start to finish. Covenant, however, is a big ol mess. I mildly enjoyed watching it the first time, but it didn't ever really grab me and I don't feel the desire to see it again.
Does it? I've only seen the first two movies and everything seemed to make sense, other than needing to brush up on what a neomorph is and how the spores work
I ran this recently for most of my usual group. I dropped the Sotillo since things were going down the tubes sufficiently. The game ended with the three players and an NPC in the emergency shuttle as the Cronus self-destructed. All three players were holding guns on each other, knowing that the NPC had to live since they were the payday, but there were only three cryopods. Just a great place to have the game fade to black as we ended.
Damn it....that's the title of a book I've started to write a few years ago.....😯
Nice video Seth.
Is your name Erich von Däniken? 😜
@@DrFranklynAnderson 😂😂.....actually Daniken's book was named "chariots of the gods". Plural. 😉
Anyway in my book it was a secondary title for book 1/3. 😆
Great review! The random player quotes at the end were really funny too. Please keep those coming with future reviews :-D
28:10 I ashamed by how hard that made me laugh
Great review, Seth. And you can wack me upside the head with a torch anyday...er, I mean my character. Seriously, this was such an incredible scenario to play in. I can't wait to run my friends and loved ones through the gauntlet as well!
Your reviews are great. Thank you!
Got to play with my party and then a Seth video comes out both on the same day? Very nice!
Isn't the 'Daisy' the same flat bed cargo hauler thing as we see in Alien: Covenant?
it may not be identical, but its the same type of ship.
Based on the rules in the module, the android is actually supposed to follow the same stress rules as everyone else- until the point they are revealed as an android.
Also regarding infections- #1. if the characters keep their space suits on, they can't really become infected with the spores (though they are pretty much guaranteed that they will need to remove them since they will eventually run out of air). #2. By RAW there are rules for resisting the infection- you make a roll to see if you move from stage 1 to stage 2 of the infection (you need to read the rules regarding how this particularly infection works, as it acts like a virus. These rules are found at the back of the adventure in the section about abominations), so a PC can potentially stave off the infection.
One of the PC's infected was due to damage to her suit that compromised the life-support subsystem.
Would you be willing to do a rpg rules video for alien like you are for traveller and cthulu? Me and my friends love your videos of that style it makes learning new systems sk much easier :)
One thing i really liked about the adventure is the fact there are no aliens in it. Making it really clear that there is more to the rpg than just the quintessential black horrors.
oh yes I've been waiting for this episode. I think you are 100% right about the length because our game took 5 hours but is still not over and has one more act to go. Also thanks for the advice on the infection.
Getting ready to run this and I have to say that I totally believe we're gonna take forever to burn through this one because we're insanely heavy roleplayers. Can't wait to take them all down one-by-one in true Alien fashion!
I ran this adventure in 3 two hour sessions twice (for two different groups), so for me it averaged about 6 hours. It was awesome both times. I did skip some of the optional events- primarily the pirates that show up at the end. The module even suggests that the pirates are really only there in case you feel like you need an additional complication, but I found that by the end of Act 2 there was enough going on that there was no need for this additional complication, and it just served to draw out the scenario unnecessarily. Also the GM has some control as to when certain events are triggered, which allows the GM to slow or speed up the pace of the module's progression depending on how fast they want to get through it. I tried to find a balance between giving the PCs some time to explore with also keeping the tension high and the game lively by having events popping up that they needed to react to.
Played this one over two fairly long sessions a couple months ago. Our first act went pretty much the same as described, nothing was automated so we just turned on random stuff as we explored the ship, eventually finding the NPC crew and fighting off the neomorph. We didn't even know about the shuttle and didn't know about the reactor overload till someone decided in-character to steal the main ship and bail, only to blow up a couple minutes later. From there the GM decided that every NPC was infected and they all turned on us in unison which took out a couple more of us; then while we were locked in the medbay one of the PCs turned and the already injured survivors had no chance, we never even got to act 3. Overall it was a good time and went pretty much exactly how you'd expect an Alien game to play out. My only real complaint with the system was that it felt designed for this kind of one-shot where everyone dies, mostly due to the stress mechanic that makes it basically impossible to succeed at anything once you have about 3 stress dice. it works great for that kind of game, but I can't see actually playing in a long campaign with this system.
I see your post is now two years old, so you likely know this already by now, but in case.....there are two distinct play style options now available for Alien RPG: the cinematic play mode (seen here, and with two additional modules for this 'saga' now available), and the campaign mode (with a space marines book now out and a new book for colonist play now available on pre-order). One assumes that a third for space truckers is in the works.
We just did this last Saturday, our DM (Mother) had run it already a couple of months ago. It was excellent, took us about 12 hours with an hour's break and a fair bit of waffling. We meet up from around the UK a few times a year for a weekend of rpg, so we lose a lot of gaming time to just catching up in the first few hours. I was Davis, the pilot. I escaped with Clayton and Miller, everyone else... well. Really enjoyed it, great mechanics and experience. We'd played the Blade Runner game a few months back, and that was also fantastic.
I actually managed to run this in a single 5 hourish session, but mostly because I didn't implement a lot of the optional story beats. Which I wanted to do so if we revisit this oneshot (we recently gained a 4th player to our group), I can throw new stuff in a 2nd attempt to surprise them.
I also ended up with 2 out of 3 infected PC's, one in Act 2 and the other very late in Act 3. I had drawn out the symptoms for the 1st player, so they were able to play as they slowly went mad and ended up hunting down another PC in Act 3 (which he had a blast doing). The 2nd player had gotten infected late in Act 3, which is also when I introduced the mercenaries, so these 2 PCs had the means of escape. Thus allowing them to survive and fly away, as I described the 2nd infected PC starting to feel the inoculation symptoms, to close out the oneshot.
Just finished this, took us 2 sessions of 4h each.
The Lucas fooled the rest of the crew into going into cryo while she set the course towards Bionical, her "employer".
Seth, what tools and resources did you use to craft the Mother Siren audio with Gail? I'd be interested in my group producing some resources like this. It really adds a lot to the game
I can't thank you enough for the mp3 of mother for my game, that was an awesome addition!
For those that have bought it recently, has the 'misprinted' map been sorted out in later prints of the Starter Set?
I bought the starter set a few months back, and yes, that has been sorted. That was really only an issue with the “maps and markers” pack that came out with the core rulebook.
None of my players would take the inoculations. So I started to change the NPCs into abominations much quicker and they seemed to like it.
Excellent review! Thanks for taking the time to make it for us.
Sotillo = “The Betty” from Alien 4.
Seth, I like how Jack was back on your side and not just the YT comment naysayers like in a few previous videos. I like when you and Jack get along.
It’s kind of depressing but I don’t have anyone to play RPGs with anymore. So I watch seth’s videos to kind of live vicariously through him.
You can find groups to play online with. İ know seth likes in person but my group plays with people across the globe. İ am running 3 games now and play in two. Could never do that with face to face. Hell if you really want to you could join one of my games.
10:34 Couldn't be that cold if there's still an atmosphere. Air turns liquid at -196°C.
Or am I missing something?
Good point. I hadn't considered the air. Another reason the module should probably just state what the temperature aboard the derelicts is instead of just the nebulous description of being freezing.
Took about 6-8 hours with a fairly experienced GM. We even included the Sotillo.
Sounds like a blast. I have the Starter Set coming.
its very funny to look at this review after having been a player in this scenario. I was so excited to hear about the Mad AI that would listen in to everything we said through the vents and trying to lure us into spaces alone with secrets he had listened into, or about the alien ontop of the spacehulk! these two things, especially the mad ai, was incredibly fun and exciting! then color me surprised when I listen in to this and realize that the parts me and my player group enjoyed the most, was things our GM home made for this scenario.... it really showed how much was missing from this scenario to truly be called an "ALIEN RPG SCENARIO", cause without those things, the scenario was pretty empty
I'd be curious to hear what he added!
Going to try and run this, and I have almost zero experience running games.
Great video! I've watched some podcasts of this interesting system, and I especially like the stress rules working for or against players. As in any game of horror, the GM needs to slowly ramp up the tension as you've mentioned in other videos, to keep everyone invested. I'm all for saving the big bad until the situation seems hopeless to watch the players panic and then aggressively scheme to survive.
I’d be interested to know how “well” the stress dynamic worked in the game sessions. Was it what you expected, and did it raise the tension level? Thanks!
@@pkamingusu7094 The GM assigns stress points when characters encounter horrific sights or creatures ala Call of Cthulhu sanity checks, which can cause many levels of panicked behavior, or actually improve your chances of performing an action out of desperation. What I noticed in the three game sessions I watched, each with a separate plot, was how the stress factor affected the actual players. They became concerned even if they merely played it off with a joke, and were more likely to not perform outrageous acts, but rather proceed with care as if in fear of 'dying', like in real life! I look forward to getting together with my crew to try this. Like CoC, it's a great one shot game.
I was so excited for this video. Hope you play "Destroyer of Worlds" next. I had a lot of fun running it but it's long
It'll be a while before I want to tackle that one. With all the cards and fold-out maps I want to save it until my group and I can all squeeze into a small room and play in person again. It feels kind of a waste to do it online.
@@SSkorkowsky well I can Hardly wait for that videos, Good Luck
I got the starter set for my birthday and can't wait to play it with friends
Great video, as always. Quick question: Is it advisable to let players choose the character they prefer, or is it better for me to assign each one a character that I think they will play well?
I'm a fan of letting them choose which pre-gens they want, but might give suggestions.
I have run Chariot of the Gods 7 times. The ONLY time it was a single 5 hour session was a TPK not far into act 2 when a traumatized character set the reactor to blow AFTER the Montero blew up. It was a glorious moment. However, most runs are 10+ hours. Its a challenging scenario, and its nowhere near as one shot as it says.
Actually it says at leaste 4-5 hours not in
LOL, Seth starts playing Among Us at 26:30.
I'm going to be running this for my group once we wrap up all the other games we got going. You've got some really good tips in here. Thanks a bunch, man.
I don't suppose you could share that audio of Gail Clendenin as the voice of MU/TH/UR giving the warning as it would be great to use that in an online game?
It is not yet clear to me how MU / TH / UR can activate order 966. Of course she is reacting to the creature presence, but who did update her? How does she know?
...are the sound clips from mother from this video available somewhere? Planning on running this adventure soon, and they'd come in really handy.
Agreed, it would be awesome to have them.
Oh oh oh I just thought of a great Alien scenario! It's a animal cargo ship full to the brim with cows and chickens, maybe a horse for transportation on the huge frigate, a mad geneticist could even Noah's ark it if you really want to more clichés
I spent 3 months building up a backstab of my group with my gamemaster in a Shadowrun game last year....The group was SO shocked they all ended up leaving the table and standing on the far side of the room. It didn't work. i died cataclysmically and built a new guy (which I knew i was prolly gonna have to do anyway). it's been nearly two years and i still get crap for it. It was amazing.
"Generations of hasty alley sex" had me rolling on the floor.
Interesting enough the "Daisy" appears to be the craft Tennessee pilots in Alien Covenant used to rescue Daniels and the Synthetic
Playing in the same room? That was a thing at one time wasn't it?
Ah yes, in-person gaming. It was quite common, actually, in the Beforetime.
I have dim memories of sitting at the same table as six or eight other people. The SAME TABLE, I tell you! It was madness!
Yes. Things were good before "the event".
I've been waiting for this one!
Great review Seth.
Potential spoilers below........
......
......
......
......
......
......
......
When my group played it I was also the secret Android (though in my case I was the captain). In the end most of the crew had been taken out. I convinced one of the characters that I knew was infected (but still alive) to come with me in an escape pod, putting him in Cyro so I could deliver him to my corporate masters. Then I blew up the ship as I left with sleeping crew member and data from lab. Our GM has threatened to use this as a hook for a later Campaign adventure......
For those who aren't sure what a flatbed cargo lifter is in the franchise, I refer you to the little ship from the end of Alien: Covenant with the crane used to fight back the Xenomorph while they were still in atmo.
This one played out weird for my group, Wilson and the NPC company rep got out in the escape pod with the samples, vaccines, and the cash (she was just starting to show signs of turning so he sneakily set her cryopod to only deactivate manually by him so he could turn her over to the Company for study, that player really played the character well) while the rest of the surviving crew were left stuck on a repaired and secured Cronus, they got very lucky dice rolls and i never used the Sotillo as it seemed like too much of an addiitional complication for what i mistakenly thought was only supposed to be a 1-or-2 session adventure (took us around 16 hours instead) so that was my bad, fun scenario though
*I'm starting to get a feeling that seth will be doing a Alien Overview , Review & walk through guide .*
*I would love it if seth did a Alien , Kult & Battletech how to play series .*
The Daisy is the same thing they had in Covenant. The cargo loader they escape the planet with.
Your group sounds like great fun XD
Any suggestions for the optimal number of players for this one? Would 3 be too little?