Dragons On the Fringes of Space - More Hostile Rpg Commentary

 “The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ”

― H.P. Lovecraft

 So we've been pitcing around a bit about the Hostile rpg campaign that we've run in the past year or so aka 'The New England Boi's'. And one of the things that's come up is the fact that the player's PC's haven't come up against Xeno's and my answer was .. yet. 


Now why is that?! Because of the fact that space is big and I mean really big! The odds of the PC's encountering the Xeno's are very rare. But the fact that the corporations have been searching for them indicates that there has been contact in the past. And its this contact that we see forming the basis for the player's future interactions and this especially true if we look at the reviews such as Shawn's from Drivethrurpg; "The book details a variety of "evolved" xenomorphs, that is, they have new features that make them a little different then the stock aliens. This includes some which breathe fire, other which create spores, or others which are puppeteers. Each one has a full explanation of their lifecycle and the game stats you need to terorrize your unsuspecting adventurers. It also includes a small 40-50 person mining colony which is being terorrized by the aliens. It has full maps and stats for the colony and colonists. " 
The evolved xenomorphs is very important here.These are xenomorphs with unconventional abilities & special characteristics. The players even if their familiar with the perfect organism from a certain multi million dollar franchise isn't going to expect them do some of the abilities that the 'evolved' have. The player's PC's even less so. 

PC's can stumble into the middle of the Xenomorphs at anytime because of the misdeeds of the corporations. The fact is that illict cargos, weird missions, and explority mishaps could create the perfect adventure fodder. But when combined with motive & player opportunity then its the perfect combination for trouble. 
The boring & routine can easily sucker the players into a trap take the ubitious Pioneer station. They in every star base, the appear almost at every fuel station & fill up point, and on every interstellar job site. But they are also the perfect resource &  trap; "The Pioneer Stations. The 600-ton Leyland-Okuda Pioneer is a general purpose industrial operations platform, a five-man space station designed to serve as an operations center, drone control, fuel store or supply dump". A multimillion dollar disaster or coffin waiting in space. 

At some point a cargo of eggs or xeno's is going to make to a Pioneer station & then let the mayhem begin. But could the xeno's be even more dangerous then the player's PC's  have ever encountered?! Are they more of a danger then the Earth has encountered?! If the forms of the aliens are only one plot point on their evolutionary graph and the PC's are food, sex, or simply storage is there more going on here?! 
These are the questions that you as the dungeon master have  to ask & keep asking. Because if the xenomorphs are changing & evolving between each encounter then they could be learning. Learning to become indifferent to mankind and its tricks. There is no place warmer in space to hide then mankind. But where that leave us in a hostile univere?! 

Currents of Death - A Hostile rpg Abyss One Shot Game Session Report

 So it's about  11:50 PM  I'm just getting back from a Hostile rpg one shot set on Abyss. And man that was an interesting game. The player's Blackguard PC's made it onto Abyss through a transport being brough in by the Takashi clan as 'mining consultants'. What's really going on is that the player's PC's have been brought in as specialized mercenary submariners & divers. And the party got involved with the backend of the Takshi clan's Jago's underworld network. And used these contacts to build up a picture of the submarine war that's going on in the waters of Abyss. The Srigala Hitam have spies among the aqutic proles & we actually have a prole among our party now! This is where things get interesting. The player's PC's are actually on Abyss working a back contract for the CCCP's bravata. Who through 'Mr. Ling' their contact in Srigala Hitam are actually looking for evidence of the xenomorphic invasive Zhuki species.

 

What they found instead was an underwater war between two of the mining concerns. The party was in a Advanced Motors Seafisher Stern trawler that was actually outfitted with ton of surplus  military sensors belonging too the Srigala Hitam. The party were acting as a part of the ship's crew & had to work the boat. And this didn't go over well. But they found themselves in the middle of a submarine attacking a mining platform. And their ship the 'Sea Star' found itself as a target.The 'Sea Star' managed put some distance between itself & the submarine. 


As the Blackguard made their way into the richer waters they found an injured aquatic prole belonging to their host clan. Paul Le'e is a contracted worker on the destroyed station & was considered 'expendable'. Successful first aid, quick rolls, and good results allowed one of our players to play something a bit different. 

We were out on the water for three weeks on our 'fishing' tour & managed to dive on a vast floating Abyssian life  mat as the players called it. And their were several floating water craft drifting with the mat. They found several dead White Fanged Orochi in the area around the mat?! Note that the White Fanged Orochi is one of the top predators on Abyss. When they investigated the mat itself there were several somethings hiding within the mat itself. What they ran across was actually something that resembled a combination of an Orca & an H.G. Giger tenacled  nightmare! The player's PC's had come across a Xenosquid Queen - 120 Kg Str 18 (+4) Dex 17(+3) End 9 (0) Int 1 (-2) Inst 12 (+2) No. Appearing: varies Speed: x2 (12m/rd) Armor: 9 Weapons: teeth (2D6+2); tentacle grab (Average [0] Strength roll to avoid being caught, -1 for every additional tentacle being used) Attack: 6+ Flee: 3-

'She' was surrounded by several Xenomorph warrior Cobras 120 Kg Str 16 (+3) Dex 14(+2) End 9 (+1) Int 1 (-2) Inst 12 (+2) No. Appearing: varies Speed: x2 (12m/rd) Armor: 9 Weapons: teeth (2D6+2); Stinger+1 (2D6 or V/Difficult End roll to avoid Paralysis) Attack: 6+ Flee: 3-

This pretty much confirmed the party's worst fear that the xenomorphs & not the invasive Zhuki species had reached Abyss. 

Oh did I mention that this is where several of the Xenomorph Cobra warriors were snaking their way onto the 'Sea Star'?! This is where I decided to end for the evening until Saturday coming up! 

A View To A Xill - Hostile rpg Adventure Encounter One Shot Session Report

 The Blackguard have been called in by the CCP to look into a possible Zhuki infestation. However, the players started to dig & all did not check out with them. Deep inside the Soviet sector Omnibus IV is a research facility supported by the 'Chain Dragons' syndicate a part of the Vorovosky Mir criminal networks that riddle this part of CCP sector. The CCP is actually supporting the 'Chain Dragons' because they have been doing top secret research into a relic smaller then a pack of matches. That relic is actually an alien data storage device with billions of pieces of information it. The Chain Dragons have been using an older Mining Platform (Type NS) for research into the device.
And somehow they've accidently activated it pulling something across the hyperspace veil and onto the station. The alien immediately went into defense mode & is very pissed off having been ripped from it's own local space time. And immediately went on to infect 25 of the mining platform's personel. 

Xill High Caste 

120 Kg Str 18 (+4) Dex 17(+3) End 9 (+1) Int 1 (-2) Inst 12 (+2) No. Appearing: varies Speed: x2 (12m/rd) Armor: 9 Weapons: claws (3D6); teeth (2D6+2); Stinger+1 (2D6 or V/Difficult End roll to avoid Paralysis) Attack: 6+ 
Able to Planeshift Beyond The Local Space Time At Will 
While planeshifted Xill are immune to the following: immune to poison, disease, and suffocation. • Incorporeal: immune to non-silver, non-magical weapons. • Immune to mind-affecting psionics - the Xill can attack & impregnate a host with an egg four times a day, the host will have a Xill serpens burst from it's chest within 1-3 hours. 

Xill High Caste have vaguely reptilian creatures with flame-red, leathery skin and solid black eyes. They had roughly humanoid bodies about 4‒5 ft (1.2‒1.5 m) tall, with four clawed arms. Xill weighed about 100 lb (45 kg) on average. High Clan xill would wear clothing and jewelry; Lower Clan xill wore absolutely nothing. The High Caste Xill is telepathic enabling it pick up on surface thoughts & communitcate with those around it. If it so chooses. Xill are only interested in two things reproduction & gating in more of their kind from the Eth erm hypersubspacial lower realms. 

The 'Chain Dragon' personel cut off the section of the  mining platform that the Xill was in  from the rest of the facility.The Blackguard moved in with the intent of gaining the upper hand against the alien. And possibly collect any specimens they could for bonuses.  

 The players thought that they were dealing with a 'normal' xenomorph until it cut the power & gravity within their section of the mining facility. And then things got interesting as the party began to be hunted! The first of the scouts was taken out by a Xill warrior within the ore processing furnaces.This happened quickly and the thing faded back into underreality. The CCP's Soviet psionic that the party has had with them couldn't get a bead on the monster making things  nasty ( yes, I know there are no psionics in Hostile but there are within our campaign. Just go with it). 
And the second attack came when one of the marines got to close to one of the specimens in the lab & the Xill took out the marine but got shot up in the process. It couldn't fade away fast enough. The marines then located one of the 'nests' of the Xill only to learn that there were 10 of the horrors within the facility. 

And then communications on the base went weird & the Xill began trying to send signals to it's own kind. And the marines shut down the mining communications systems. So our cat & mouse game continued. 

And then the Xill began to gas the station with knock out gas which caused the party's hackers to take control of life support! This caused all kinds of paranoia among the players. The alien is intelligent and highly motivated! 
There was talk about blowing the station and that didn't happen as the facility is still worth a packet. Two more Xill attacked the party in their control room & the party was insensed at this! The nerve of these beasties! 

The Xill moved two more of it's ilk into the corridor in order to plant gas grenades to knock out the party members! The players exitted into the mining base's vents & regrouped into another control room! 
The Xill took one of their own and used it as bait but the party blew the air lock in the hallway they were in! The party made their way to the mining facility's control room where they saw the hyperspacial gateway that the Xill had built! 

The party used the facility's reactor to fry the aliens within the mining colony's control room with electricity. They were careful to leave the lab that containing the alien's remains but destroyed any eggs or horrors that were left behind. 
The party was given half of their bonus because of the destroyed specimens. And they were fine with this & moved on. 
The Xill are part of the 3.5 OGL free to be adapted as needed.  The Xill originally appeared in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio but actually first appeared within  early White Dwarf's Creature Feature. Since then various friends of mine have complained that they were an Alien rip off so I thought it ironic to use the Xill as tonight's main foe. Xill are very intelligence & highly resourceful. They are driven by two instincts the instinct to reproduce & to dominate as insects sorta. The Xill are also intelligent after a fashion & so I thought it fitting to have them be more then a simple mindless monster. The Xill are telepathic & highly alien as well as dangerous. 

What Falls Through The Cracks - Using Alien Breeds & Other Zozer Games Resources To Update Your Hostile Rpg Campaign

What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.   [Werner Herzog]

 "ALIEN BREEDS is a roleplaying supplement for the Cepheus Engine and other classic 2D6 SF roleplaying games.  It details a new species of hostile alien predator with both an unnerving and horrific lifecycle as well as an ability to mutate ad hoc to suit its current environment. ALIEN BREEDS works well within Zozer Games’  own SF setting called HOSTILE, but it can be used in any Cepheus Engine game – as long as your players can handle this beast… and there is certainly no guarantee of that!

"Included with the book is a typical colony installation. It is a fairly small example, big enough to hold may be 50 or 60 people, enough for an extended science survey, a prospecting mission or the maintenance of some new equipment on planet – perhaps a powerplant, refinery, test mine or atmosphere processor."

"The colony layout is used in the included adventure – ‘Outbreak’.  "

 Last night it was time to trot out Hostile rpg's Alien Breed for designing xenomorph or alien monsters for your Hostile rpg. The reason isn't actually the monster but that is a part of it. But instead the adventure  'Outbreak' which has a typical colonial outpost. Now personally I haven't done as much running of Outbreak as other Hostile rpg adventures. As introduction 'Outbreak' certain shares the tone of the Hostile rpg universe's adventures. The universe has far bigger things within it's depths then one expects. And 'Outbreak' explores Hostile's themes of exploration, danger, and the unexpected. 

So I'm going to be setting up 'Outbreak' in  The "Autonomous Region" setting of Outworld which is the free Cold War Travellersque style free campaign setting by Paul Elliot. The "Autonomous Region" setting is actually the interstellar boarder within by own Hostile campaign for the United States & Russia. The Russians are having problems of their own with an alien species & the United States corporations have limited intelligence on this. Why?! 

What I'm actually doing is updating both Kosmos 68 & Outworld over to our own Hostile rpg campaign. There are several things that are different from normal Hostile, the biggest thing is psionics are a phenomeon within our own various Cepheus Engine games. And while psionics sorta gives an advantage to the PC's in a universe like Hostile's it's actually of mininium use. The "Autonomous Region" setting of Outworld is supposedly the most humanistically settled region of space. And yet there's been an 'Outbreak'. 
The events of Orbital 2100 were only one hundred & twenty five years ago. Which means that missions & such are ancient history. Space isn't civilized & won't be despite mankind's machinations. 

Orbital 2100's missions are the history for our own Hostile campaign moving forward! This approach has worked numerous times. This is similar to how explorers continue to run across 1900's Antartic exploritory missions of the past. And this includes Outpost Mars which is literally brimming with alien ruins of the past. 

Outpost Mars is going to be causing quite the problem for both the Americans, and the Russians within our games coming up. And it point of fact was one of the first Zozer Games product I bought. 

Dragons On the Fringes of Space - More Hostile Rpg Commentary

“The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ”
― H.P. Lovecraft

 So we've been pitcing around a bit about the Hostile rpg campaign that we've run in the past year or so aka 'The New England Boi's'. And one of the things that's come up is the fact that the player's PC's haven't come up against Xeno's and my answer was .. yet. 


Now why is that?! Because of the fact that space is big and I mean really big! The odds of the PC's encountering the Xeno's are very rare. But the fact that the corporations have been searching for them indicates that there has been contact in the past. And its this contact that we see forming the basis for the player's future interactions and this especially true if we look at the reviews such as Shawn's from Drivethrurpg; "The book details a variety of "evolved" xenomorphs, that is, they have new features that make them a little different then the stock aliens. This includes some which breathe fire, other which create spores, or others which are puppeteers. Each one has a full explanation of their lifecycle and the game stats you need to terorrize your unsuspecting adventurers. It also includes a small 40-50 person mining colony which is being terorrized by the aliens. It has full maps and stats for the colony and colonists. " 
The evolved xenomorphs is very important here.These are xenomorphs with unconventional abilities & special characteristics. The players even if their familiar with the perfect organism from a certain multi million dollar franchise isn't going to expect them do some of the abilities that the 'evolved' have. The player's PC's even less so. 

PC's can stumble into the middle of the Xenomorphs at anytime because of the misdeeds of the corporations. The fact is that illict cargos, weird missions, and explority mishaps could create the perfect adventure fodder. But when combined with motive & player opportunity then its the perfect combination for trouble. 
The boring & routine can easily sucker the players into a trap take the ubitious Pioneer station. They in every star base, the appear almost at every fuel station & fill up point, and on every interstellar job site. But they are also the perfect resource &  trap; "The Pioneer Stations. The 600-ton Leyland-Okuda Pioneer is a general purpose industrial operations platform, a five-man space station designed to serve as an operations center, drone control, fuel store or supply dump". A multimillion dollar disaster or coffin waiting in space. 

At some point a cargo of eggs or xeno's is going to make to a Pioneer station & then let the mayhem begin. But could the xeno's be even more dangerous then the player's PC's  have ever encountered?! Are they more of a danger then the Earth has encountered?! If the forms of the aliens are only one plot point on their evolutionary graph and the PC's are food, sex, or simply storage is there more going on here?! 
These are the questions that you as the dungeon master half to ask & keep asking. Because if the xenomorphs are changing & evolving between each encounter then they could be learning. Learning to become indifferent to mankind and its tricks. There is no place warmer in space to hide then mankind. But where that leave us in a hostile univere?! 

OSR Review & Commentary On Alien Breeds By Paul Elliott from Zozer Games For The Cepheus Engine Rpg or The Old School Traveller Rpg

 "ALIEN BREEDS is a roleplaying supplement for the Cepheus Engine and other classic 2D6 SF roleplaying games.  It details a new species of hostile alien predator with both an unnerving and horrific lifecycle as well as an ability to mutate ad hoc to suit its current environment. ALIEN BREEDS works well within Zozer Games’  own SF setting called HOSTILE, but it can be used in any Cepheus Engine game – as long as your players can handle this beast… and there is certainly no guarantee of that!"

When it comes to using iconic xenomorphs the Alien Breeds  supplement brings it home from zozar games for the Cepheus rpg or old school Traveller. This is a forty one page solid adaptation of the alien monster. But what Alien Breeds does is create a number of xenomorph variations in spades for adventures. Paul Elliott, always brings more bang for the buck as a author & designer.  Even though Alien Breeds is a good supplement its the inclusion  of the adventures & the installations   that makes it excellent for Cepheus rpg campaigns; "a typical colony installation. It is a fairly small example, big enough to hold may be 50 or 60 people, enough for an extended science survey, a prospecting mission or the maintenance of some new equipment on planet – perhaps a powerplant, refinery, test mine or atmosphere processor."
And  Alien Breeds   is perfect to add into the outer interstellar gulfs of TSAO: These Stars Are Ours! from Stellagama Publishing. The PC's climb aboard a Grey saucer & the last thing their going to expect is a nest of Xenomorphs. Yes I realize that  Alien Breeds   is for the vaulted 80's sci fi inspired Melee rpg setting  But TSAO has marines built into the interstellar setting & the xenomorphs are a perfect biological weapon for them. 

Personally I can see  Alien Breeds   being a perfect add into the mythos of the TSRO universe. Their origins are mysterious & should be kept that way. In the Dark Horse Alien comic book universe it was implied that many alien races have used the Xenomorphs as biological weapon systems & have run afoul. I'm looking forward to getting more titles from Zozer games in the near future.  Alien Breeds   is a five outta of five in my book. 

OSR Commentary On 'Outworld Authority' & 'Kosmos 68' By Paul Elliott From Zozer Games Two Free Campaign Settings

 “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”

― H. P. Lovercraft, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

For me there's only one real Aliens rpg game & that's classic Traveller or should I say Cepheus engine.. And now looking over 'They might Be Gazebos' blog post rpg review  about the  Godstar rpg left me a bit cold. That's a great review but the Godstar rpg doen't sound like its up our group's alley. 
  Believe me we've got Dune rpg covered six ways from Saturday. But then behold there's this setting called Outworld Authority   & its free!  
Outworld Authority clocks in at twenty one pages of Alien, Aliens, Outlands film inspired Eighties gritty Cepheus Engine rpg Traveller campaign goodness. 

Based on all of my favorite 80's films Outworld Authority is Cepheus Engine rpg interstellar scope cut down to managable campaign level. The Traveller rpg setting  is huge & overwhelming in its scope.  Even Cepheus Engine has some of its product's campaign settings that have this quality built into them. Outerworld Authority has everything going for it & none of the manure that one finds with some products. All this in twenty one pages of great setting plus paired back world generation, Alien pop culture references, and everything you need to actually run a complete campaign. But wait there's more because Paul Elloit made another free campaign setting called Kosmos 68 which is basically Soviet  campaign space powers for the Outerworld Authority setting. 

Tonight its all about watching Outlands & coming to grips with possibly thinking about getting into a Cepheus engine rpg campaign  that DM Steve is running or is it threatening to run.This was after he discovered my print outs of the two campaign setting books. But what he doesn't know about is two very important facts. Fact one is that the fact that I own a copy of  Omer Golan-Joel, & Richard Hazlewood 's Near Space maps  which is far more then it seems; "The area of space surrounding Sol warrants a proper sci-fi role-playing game adaptation. Indeed, many games adopted the region, either as a two-dimensional abstraction or as some representation of the real three-dimensional space. However, currently, there is little in the way of an up-to-date, concrete star-maps of Sol's immediate neighborhood for the various older-school sci-fi RPGs, such as the Cepheus Engine, 2d6 sci-fi games, and several other games utilizing a two-dimensional hexagon star-map. This product comes to remedy this issue." 

This is going to help fill out some of the adventure opportunities of the Sol solar system. And here's where things get very interesting for our campaign. 

Alien Breeds is a supplement for the Hostile rpg game which is another Cepheus rpg diriviative by Zozar games. The  Hostile rpg game is far more expansive then the Outworld Authority rpg setting clocking in at three hundred & seven pages of sci fi 80's goodness. Alien Breeds presents a xenomorph just slightly shy enough of avoiding lawsuits but does an execellent job of giving us a very dangerous & near perfect lethal alien life form. I couldn't get my dollars into Paul's hand fast enough because this is a perfect combination of monster book & adventure supplement waiting to happen to the player's PC's. 

Yes Alien Breeds will easily work with both  Outworld Authority  & Kosmos 68 but it runs about five dollars US for the pdf.  Alien Breeds perfect for a crew of Horizons Survey space craft also a 'pay what you' like title for a solar system exploration space craft to have a close encounter with those very sinister life forms. 

If all goes well then eventually we'll transition over into the Hostile rpg game but its all going to be matter of scheduling game play in the age of Covid. Six feet apart,masks, & getting eight players to show up from work at the same time. But who can resist the 'perfect organism' at the edge of the solar system murdering colonial marines & settlers!?