The game uses the ALIEN RPG system which provides an exciting player experience exactly in line with expectations from the movies, in this case, especially ALIENS. Players will get the most from the game by "leaning in" to the milieu and scenery chewing a-la Hudson (at the right moments) is of course to be applauded.
As characters progress through the story they will accumulate stress, which can be beneficial by increasing chances of success when skill rolls are called for, but can trigger panic too. Stress can be relieved by finding a safe place and resting for ten minutes or so. Are there any safe places? Better hope so.
Combat is deadly, and PCs should strive to only involve themselves in it in a manner that emphasizes their advantages, namely the pulse rifle, the grenade launcher, the incinerator unit and (of course) the smart gun. Lock and load, marine!
The PCs will be organized (most likely) with a command structure, and best use of game time will be for all players to remember they are pretending to be military personnel with a pounded-in respect for that hierarchy. Mutinous dissent will almost certainly bring disaster down on everyone.
Background:
Located within the Outer Veil, Kruger 60 and 61 Cygni are two colonial systems located very close to the UPP border in an area of UA space called the Advance. The Advance splinters off the American Corridor and juts Spinward into UPP territory.
The Kruger 60 system has been a key oil supply and military staging post for the United Americas Allied Command (UAAC) and the Colonial Marines for years, and has been strategically important during the so-called Oil Wars. The severe petroleum shortage throughout the colonies has led the United Americas, the Three World Empire, and the Union of Progressive Peoples into a race to secure new sources of crude oil.
These Oil Wars have created severe border tensions.
Stretched too thin, the UAAC and the Colonial Marines maintain an uneasy peace throughout the colonies.
Tired of severely rationed supplies and the mega-corporations’ mistreatment of the working class, insurgency groups have cropped up in defiance of their local governments—and the resource poor UPP is poised to take advantage of this development.
Recently, the UPP expanded their borders to engulf 61 Cygni, annexing the colony on LV-038 in the process. Allied Command sent a task force to challenge the claim. The nearest system, Kruger 60—and the moon the PCs are on—is feared to be next.
(Courtesy Free League, no infringement of copyright intended).
Ariarcus colony is based on a moon in the Kruger-60 system. It is extremely cold and dark, and any colonist that could afford to get offworld has gone, either because the original opportunities for free enterprise have evaporated or because of fears of war, leaving large parts of the town derelict.
Current population is about 2200 colonists, some 400 marines (split between the ground and in orbit) and around 40 military scientists.
Pipes of various diameters, from a few inches to several feet, run overhead in most of the streets to convey the oil form the refinery to the elevator cable, which also serves as a pumping conduit to orbit as well as providing the space elevator with its anchor. The old on-,moon refineries are long closed down and gone cold.
A military lockdown has recently been ordered, grounding all spacecraft and immobilizing the space elevator. This has only fed the already rabid rumor mill and induced panic in some colonists, fatalism in others and rebellion in a select few.
You've been assembled with your regiments, all eager to take it to the UPP and show them some tough love (Marine style), but now you've been pulled off the line and are standing here with a bunch of mostly strangers for some bulls**t "Important Mission".
The Games
ACT 1 - The marines are tasked with finding and capturing a small group of AWOLS with stolen intelligence. They will have to deal with disgruntled colonists, insurgents and possible UPP agents. All materials required will be supplied, including paper, pencils and a pool of the dice needed to play. Pre-generated characters will be supplied.
ACT 2 - The marines have their quarry (hopefully) and must now return them to Fort Nebraska through an increasingly hostile environment. They have their weapons, equipment and a nice cozy APC, but will need their wits to survive this one. All materials required will be supplied, including paper, pencils and a pool of the dice needed to play. Pre-generated characters will be supplied.
It will not be necessary to have played in ACT 1 to take part in ACT 2 - though any who wish to do so may of course join the "fun".
The System
Alien uses a variant of the Year Zero RPG engine. When called upon to test against some challenge, the player rolls a pool of black dice and looks to get one or more '6's - successes or 'hits'. One is all you need usually, but each extra success may grant a 'stunt', some way of improving or augmenting the success, dependent on the skill being used.
Certain events call for the accumulation of STRESS by a PC. This manifests as adding a number of yellow Stress Dice to the pool of dice rolled. Stress dice succeed on a '6', but also can force a panic check is a '1' is rolled. Panic events force PCs into some line of activity (freeze, run, drop some item) until the panic is over.
In addition to Skills, PCs have TALENTS which modify the character's abilities in unique ways - life saving field medicine, turning a panic event into a 'shoot until the bad things go away (probably while screaming a battle challenge)', or being VERY persuasive. Many games have a similar feature, so this should not be new to most players.
