Morgan's BigBadCon 2013 Adventures

Overall, I really enjoyed BigBadCon.  The focus seems more in the area of independent RPGs and LARPs. My favorite two experiences were Jason Morningstar's The Climb and Shaun Hayworth's Lotus Blossom's Bridal Path.  The other games were a lot of fun too.

The only one thing I would change about BBC is that I would only allow 2/3 of the seats as early sign-ups and then let the other 1/3 seats be filled by first-come, first-served sign-ins.  This would encourage more people to attend BBC.  I think making 100% of the seats as early sign-ups fills all the games early and people sign up for more games than they can play in.  One Chinese phrase is "Your eyes are larger than your stomach."  I think that is true for the sleep-deprived gamers who sign up for games -- they sign up for more games than they can play.

Minimum spoilers below about the games I was in.

I hide spoilers with JavaScript. If you have JavaScript turned off, you can skip the spoiler sections I have marked.

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Three Kings

Date/Time - Oct 4, 7:00 PM - 1:00 AM
Format: RPG
GM: Paul "Bezultek" S.
System: Achtung! Cthulhu
Maturity Rating: PG-13
Number of Players: 6
Game Length: 6
Characters: Provided
Description:  1939. The Nazis occupy Czechoslovakia.  You, and other members of the British intelligence service Section D, will parachute into Czechoslovakia. Your mission is to contact the Three Kings, leaders of the Czech resistance movement.  The game uses the Achtung! Cthulhu setting, based on the call of Cthulhu mechanic.


I saw the Kickstarter for this game only after it was funded and was curious as to the game.  I'm a fan of Godlike, so Cthulhu and WWII also interested me.

I met Paul at other conventions and he's a strong player, so I wanted to see his GMing style.  After picking our characters, Paul handed us our sealed orders (in a manila envelope).  Inside was background information on our mission and our identity papers.

The identity papers was our character sheets in a booklet format.  Paul was nice enough to put credits on the back thanking Gil T. for the idea.  See my comments on Gil's game: Here

We were a mix of Allies: Brits, Americans, a German, and a Czech.  Our mission was to contact the Czech resistance and to perform a mission for them.  We parachuted behind enemy lines wearing German uniforms. Well, we spent 4 hours trying to contact the Resistance and failed miserably due to bad die rolls.  This is when "Trail of Cthulhu" (ToC) players shake their heads and wag their fingers at Call of Cthulhu (CoC) players.  But I actually liked the failures.  It was actually pretty entertaining and interesting.

In our game, our leader decided to play a bad Nazis and round up the villagers and question them about the Resistance.  My character had a high psychology skill, so I could figure out if they were lying or not.  When we found someone who was lying about the Resistance, we would take them into another room and "question" them.  In the other room, we would reveal ourselves and try to convince them that we were there to help.  Well, all three of us in the room failed our persuade rolls.  The villager would then say, "Oh, as I've told you many times before, I know nothing about the resistance.  I can't believe you Nazis would go through this charade to get me to tell you something I know nothing about.  Nazis speaking in a British accent and pretending to be British spies.  I tell you, I know nothing."  That was pretty entertaining.

In ToC, a player would just do a spend and succeed.  How boring.

But the downside was that we spent 4 hours just to get our mission from the Czech Resistance, so Paul had to skip the middle of the game and we just went to the end game.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

One funny bit, was a player and his buddy who acted like D&D players; they were itching to kill some Nazis.  After flagging down a half-track, we hitched a ride.  I know how deadly CoC is, especially with guns at point-blank range.  Our leader wanted to kill all the Nazis.  But since we had already convinced them that we were "one of them," I thought they would have been more useful as future contacts and started pumping information from them.  After I was done talking to them, our leader asked the Nazis to pull over so he could take a leak.  Once out of the half-track, he started shooting, so we wound up killing all the Nazis and got lucky -- no one on our side got hurt.

When we found our contact, a priest, I impaled my spot hidden and found that the family Bible clutched tightly to his chest was actually an arcane tome.  I told my team that, but I guess, if the priest was going to throw some Cthulhu rituals at Nazis, they didn't care.

Our mission was to enter the citadel and rescue the children that were being tortured there.  Our ruse was that we had captured the priest and several Czech resistance fighters and were bringing them in.

One of my favorite bits in the game was when my character went insane and started a scalpel fight with a mad Nazi scientist in the citadel.  The scalpel did 1d3 and I wore leather which reduced the damage by one point.  So, the fight would have lasted forever except the scientist went for a gun and one of the other players shot him first.

By then the priest had summoned something horrible and gigantic out of a well and it was killing everything in sight.  I believe all the PCs eventually escaped, but with massive san loss.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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He Who Laughs Last

Date/Time - Oct 5, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Format: RPG
GM: Dave Sokolowski
System: Cthulhu Dark
Maturity Rating: Adult themes
Number of Players: 6
Game Length: 6
Characters: Provided
Description: Hollywood – Your friend Becca’s tragic suicide has brought you together, but still doesn’t make sense. Perhaps her job as a personal assistant to a wildly successful comedian is related? Cthulhu Dark is a rules-light, atmosphere-heavy game system of supernatural horror and weirdness. Fans of modern horror encouraged to apply.


Dave has run this game several times and has been preparing it for publication.  All of the characters are people in the movie business: Actors, Stunt Men, Body Guards, Special Effects Experts, etc.

I really enjoyed  the system.  Each character had about six areas of expertise (a house rule).  The official rule gives you a single profession instead.  You get to roll 1d6.  If you try an action in your area of expertise or is related to it, you get to roll another 1d6.  If you want to risk your sanity, you can roll another 1d6.  You look at your highest die roll.  1 = barely successful, 6 = extraordinary success.  But if your sanity die is the highest die roll, you have to roll 1d6 and if it is higher than your current insanity, you increase your insanity and go bonkers. If your insanity goes reaches 6, you go incurably insane.  You may also risk insanity by re-rolling and adding an insanity die if you already haven't done so.

There were two great moments in the game, detailed in the spoiler section.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

While investigating a house, we found a ritual room.  Mike G.'s character decided to leave and pickup the pyrotechnical device he had in his truck so he could burn the place down.  One player triggered a gate and Becca's killer showed up and cast uncontrollable laughter on us.  We laughed ourselves unconscious.  Mike tussled with the killer and fled.  It was tension filled for us and for Mike as we didn't know our fate.  We were not told if we lived or died.  Mike returned later, but didn't find us.  So he set the incendiary device and left the house.  We woke up in a locked metal septic tank piled with burned bodies.  Luckily, Mike heard our banging and let us out.   How Dave handled the split party and tension building was masterful.

I also loved the dramatic ending.

My character was an actress and Becca's suicide seemed more like a murder.  Near the beginning of the game, we searched Becca's apartment and I took several of Becca's signature outfits in order to disguise myself as her.  I didn't know when it would be useful, but I wanted to be prepared.

In the end, as Becca's killer performed in the Hollywood Bowl, I walked on stage disguised as Becca.  I accused him of my murder; stunned and flabbergasted, he couldn't respond.  Finally, he broke out of his apoplexy and he started his killing joke that would slay the audience.  I wore an amulet that gave me protection from his spell as I strode up to him and stabbed him to death with a glass dagger and he exploded in a flood of blood like the scene out of The Shining, bathing the audience in blood.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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At the Movies

Date/Time - Oct 5, 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Format: RPG
GM: Morgan Hua
System: A Penny For My Thoughts
Variations: Streamlined with less psycho babble.
Number of Players: 4
Game Length: 4
Characters: Created in play
Description: Players will pick a movie that they haven’t seen yet, but have seen the trailer. We’ll improv our way through our own version of that movie.

The plan was to pick a movie, but that didn't happen and we picked superhero-noir as a unifying theme.  The reason I like to pick movie trailers is that it sets the mood, setting, and characters.  Without such an agreement, A Penny for My Thoughts sometimes runs off the rails.   I wanted to run with 4 players since the GM actually participates, so that's 5 players.  Unfortunately, I thought one player was a no-show, and I let a friend of one of the players in to fill the game at 4 players.  After I explained the mechanics, the no-show showed up, so I let him in the game.  By the end of the game, the narrations were beginning to get a bit long.  Thus reinforcing my thought that Penny should be max out at 4 players.  The narrations went a bit wild too as it looked like one of the players was getting punch-drunk from lack of sleep and started spewing out a stream of consciousness that sometimes made sense.

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The Climb

Date/Time - Oct 5, 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Format: LARP
GM: Jason Morningstar
System: Custom
Maturity Rating: Mature themes
Number of Players: 5
Game Length: 2
Characters: Provided
Description: Six climbers are on an illegal expedition in Bhutan. They are close to the summit, but only three will ascend – who stays and who goes? The Climb is a structured freeform larp in the Nordic tradition.

This game was brilliant.  Jason put three blankets on the ground that represented 3-men tents.  GM + 5 players = 6 players.  He turned off the lights and handed out one flashlight per tent.  We started with two players in each tent.  He also put up a soundtrack of blowing wind and snow.   At the 40 minute mark, there's a Chinese weather report and 5 minutes after that, there would be break in the storm and at that time, 3 players would head to Camp IV and from there 2 of the 3 would Summit.  Because of the sound track, we could only hear muffled conversations in the other tents.  Before the 3-man team leaves for Camp IV, each player has to put a coupon in a folder.  Each player can put in either a help or hinder coupon.  45 minutes later, the sound track would end and that would signal the end of the game.

In this game, only two people put in help coupons.  The result was two deaths, and injury, and a successful summit.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

I had read Into Thin Air and several other accounts of that Everest disaster.  I've also seen several documentaries about that incident.  I knew that survival at the altitude was hard and so, I decided to conserve energy and stay in my tent.  Every time someone left or returned to the tent, I would tell them to just stay put and conserve their energy.  There was a lot of running from tent to tent in this game.

Jason's character had almost got me killed in a previous climb, and wouldn't you know it, we were in the same starting tent.  One of the first questions he asked me was whether I was still pissed at him.  I told him that I still was.  I also berated him for leaving the flashlight on as we need to conserve power in case anything happens.

The Climb was being financed by a millionaire novice climber.  I argued that if the millionaire was healthy, the three to go would be Jason's character, me, and the millionaire.  If the millionaire was not going, I would be happy to stay at Camp III with him.  The weather conditions were horrible and maybe next year it would be better.  It was clear that the millionaire would be willing to finance a second expedition next year.

I put in a help coupon even though the hinder coupon would have probably killed Jason as the coupon lists the order of death and Jason was first up.  Jason told me he was retiring after this climb and he was coughing at altitude, so I figure, this was the last I was going to see of him anyway.

Well, it wound up that I was left behind with the millionaire and the meteorologist, another weak climber.  During our wait at Camp III, I got the millionaire to promise he'll let me train him on various mountains before we reattempted this mountain next year.  We finally got radio contact from Camp IV telling us what a great view they had and what a great time they had.  They also figured out that I had tossed in a titanium screw that helped them get past a crevasse and they thanked me -- or rubbed it in my face it as it seemed at that time.  It was then that both the meteorologist and the millionaire privately boasted that they left surprises for the group that went to Camp IV. 

Later, disaster struck Camp IV and I had to take the millionaire with me to Camp IV.  On the way there, the millionaire died.   Once there, I discovered that Jason's character died and the team leader was seriously injured.  All the climbers returned to Camp III and before the game ended, the meteorologist broke down and confessed that she had caused one of the deaths by putting in frayed rope.  She had a connection with the millionaire and didn't expect him to die and thought that maybe she had caused his death.

In the game wrap up, we found out that only the team doctor and I had put in help coupons.  Karen T. played the doctor. Each character sheet had told us how we felt about each of the other climbers.  She said I didn't act like the character summary that she received, so she was weirded out -- I was too nice, so I must have had an ulterior motive.  So, she decided there was something wrong with me and left me in Camp III even though I was one of the strongest climbers.  Go figure.  Hey, I lived to climb another day.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Lotus Blossom’s Bridal Path

Date/Time - Oct 6, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Format: RPG
GM: Shaun Hayworth
System: Tenra Bansho Zero
Maturity Rating: PG-13
Number of Players: 6
Game Length: 6
Characters: Provided
Description: Toki wa Sengoku – an age of warring states. The world is stained by hundreds of years of continuous war, with no end in sight. This is but one tale of many in the land called Tenra. . . a tale of war, loss, and struggle. . . a tale of pain and bravery. . . the tale of Lotus Blossom’s bloody bridal path.

The Ayanokoji and Takatsukasa clans have been at war for many decades. It is a war that has cost the lives of many men, destroyed many rice fields, caused much pain and suffering. It is a war that has cost Lord Ayanokoji the life of his son. It is a war that must end.

Lord Ayanokoji is so convinced of this fact that he has made a decision to sacrifice one of his most precious treasures: the kugutsu named Lotus Blossom. He is sending this priceless treasure to the lands of his longtime enemy to marry the young lord of the Takatsukasa: the dashing Lord Shinji. It is the hope of Lord Ayanokoji that this gift will serve as such a gesture of goodwill that the heart of his enemy will be softened, and that this bloody war may be brought to a final conclusion.

But there are those who wish to see the war continue. Bandits who prey upon the dead and dying. Neighboring kingdoms rightfully fear a possible alliance between these two powerful nations. Samurai and warriors who have given themselves to hate and cannot let go of their swords. Even the inscrutable Shinto Priesthood have their own reasons to oppose the coming peace.

Lotus Blossom’s bridal path will be paved in blood.

At first I was worried that the world was a mish-mash of every conceivable anime concept possible.  Most systems like that fail. I didn't know that this system was very popular in Japan and is over 10 years old, so it has been extensively tested and updated.  When I mentioned my concerns about the world to Shaun, he said he had the same concerns, but it actually works, and he's right, it does.

I highly recommend the game and system.  It is designed for one-shots and to finish in one sitting.  The escalation of skills and abilities is all focused towards a climatic ending.

The game starts off with individual introductions, called Zero Act, a technique that Duane O'B. uses in his games.  We get Aiki chips for creating cool moments.  Points can be awarded by either the GM or other players.

We then convert Aiki chips to Kiai points based on our Fates and die rolls.  Spent Kiai points add to your Karma which let you increase your Fates.  It sounds complicated, but it works as each step powers up your character.  Since the only way to gain Aiki is good role playing, good role players get awarded power ups faster than power gamers.

The game is played in scenes with intermissions where characters power up.  At our final boss battle, one PC was rolling 48d6 on a single attack.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

I'm going to complain about a player.  I won't reveal his name, but he was in Dave's "He Who Laughs Last" game also.  In that game, one character was an EMT with medical skills and evidence collection.  This player was sitting next to me.  I asked him several times to go to the morgue and to look through the autopsy files of our dead mutual friend.  He refused several times and finally told me that he didn't want to risk losing his job.  WTF?  Well, this guy never really did anything throughout the game.  Luckily, we really didn't need him.

So, guess who shows up for this game?  Yep, the same guy.  Shaun lays out the PCs and says that luckily we are short one player because his 6th character didn't really print out and it was really a backup character -- a loner sniper.  So, we discuss which characters we're interested in.  I mention that I would be interested in the General who is escorting Lotus Blossom or the Samurai with devices that burst out of his body.  Meanwhile, this guy has picked up the General's character sheet and has clutched it to his chest and says, "I have him."  I retort with, "Choosing him doesn't mean you can keep him."  Picture a man with greying hair clutching a sheet of paper to his chest like a favorite teddy bear that his parents wants to take away from him.  Yeah, it was like that.  So, I ignored him and finally decided to pick Lotus Blossom.  The other two female players didn't want to play her.  What I was afraid of was the two main drivers for this game were Lotus Blossom and the General.  I didn't want that guy to ruin the game by doing nothing.  Sitting next to me was Joseph H. and he tells me that that guy was in three of his games and nods knowingly.  Luckily, after looking over the General's character sheet, the guy gives him up and Joseph winds up with the General.  The guy picks the loner sniper.  I think he gave up the General because he found out the General had become a man of peace.
 
My character was a gorgeous living doll with the ability to direct people's dreams whether they were awake or asleep.  She was also a Zen archer.  My handmaiden was a super Ninja.  The General was a bad-ass who wouldn't kill.  His two underlings was a Samurai who Hulks out and the Ronin Sniper who destroys Mechs.  Our mission was to take Lotus Blossom to the enemy's territory for a wedding so that peace would reign between our territories.

The first set of scenes were our introductions:

The General is on a battle field and is told that one of his men lost control and kill several prisoners.  He winds up executing the Samurai himself.  Then the Daimyo shows up to congratulate the General on defeating the enemy's army and while speaking to the General, the Ninja shows up and tells the Daimyo that his son is dead.

Next scene, a flashback, the Ninja is guarding the Daimyo's son.  A Mech does a surprise attack, the Ninja's family attacks and disables the Mech, but in this world the Mech is controlled by innocent children.  Once they lose their innocence, they cannot pilot the mech.  When they finally disable the mech, the hatch pops open and the child inside brings up a fire arm and fatally shoots the Daimyo's son.

Next scene, flash forward, Lotus Blossom who is betrothed to the Daimyo's son, is embroidering a robe for him.  She hears approaching footsteps and puts the work aside and waits.  The Ninja shows up and tells her of the news.  Lotus Blossom orders that the castle should be prepared for mourning and should be ready when the body is brought back to the castle.  After the Ninja leaves, she starts undoing the embroidery.

After these scenes we power up.

The second set of scenes were character interactions as we are told of the betrothal and prepare for our trip.  That was when I found out that my betrothed loved strategy and I bought a beautiful Go set for him as a gift.  I also wanted the General to teach me Go, so I would have something in common with my husband to be.  The General refused, on the grounds that it was too warlike for a lady.  After several letters, going back and forth, I failed to convince him.  I had separate Go board that I would use to learn how to play with as I would not play with the Go set that would be a gift -- as that would be inappropriate.  The last shot of the 2nd scenes would be a weathered homemade Go board sitting by itself in Lotus Blossom's quarters -- a shaft of moonlight illuminating it in the darkness.

After these scenes we power up.

We board a luxurious dirigible and live in state rooms as we fly to our enemy's domain.  To while away the time, the General trains with the Samurai.  Lotus Blossom writes poetry and sends a Haiku back to her Daimyo as a parting gift. Enroute, air pirates attack our dirigible.  We beat them off, but the pirate boss, Flying Razor, cuts our dirigible in half and we crash land.

After these scenes we power up.

We travel by land and we find that our destination is undersiege by the Flying Razor.

We sneak through enemy lines and gain audience with the Daimyo.  I use my dream ability to convince the Daimyo to let the General lead his troops.  And we also seal the marriage deal.

After these scenes we power up.

We go out and do the boss battle with Flying Razor and defeat him.  One interesting mechanic is that damage is based on the difference between successes.  One point of damage per difference.  One option is to "take it."  In that instance, you do full damage to your opponent, but he will do the same thing to you.  Flying Razor rolled 50d6 vs the General's 48d6.  By then, the General had removed his pacifism Fate, so he was allowed to kill.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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The Only Good Bug is a Dead Bug!

Date/Time - Oct 6, 3:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Format: RPG
GM: Morgan Hua
System: Nemesis/ORE
Number of Players: 6
Game Length: 6
Characters: Provided
Description:  Mars settlement went dark and your squad of Space Marines have been sent in to find out if Bugs have infested Mars.
Your mission: find survivors, kill bugs, and get out alive.
Solider, what else do you need to know?
—
Would you like to know more? See below.
—
The game is set in the Starship Troopers movie universe.
The system is ORE which is a very deadly game system that uses up to 10d10. As a Space Marine, you’ll have state of the art weapons and armor, but if you bite it, you might have to play a Civilian.
This is not a pure combat game. It will be part investigation and part combat as your squad tries to figure out what’s really going on. If you don’t, you might all just die.

I play tested this game and ran it at KublaCon and Celesticon, so this was the last time I was going to run this game.  I wound up on the last timeslot of BigBadCon. Due to gaming fatigue, I wound up with only 3 players even though 6 people had signed up.  Since I had a full squad as PCs, running the game with only half a squad would be a challenge as they would not have all their full complement of equipment or skills.

I think this game turned out ok, but not as good as the previous times I ran it.  Sorry, Chris O.  I don't think the game was as good as it could have been.  This run felt a bit rail-roady to me, but since it's a Paul Verhoeven movie, you can't end the game by just leaving the planet in the 2nd Act without facing the big baddie in the 3rd Act.  The producers spent a lot of money on sets and special effects and the audience who paid for a ticket need to get their monies worth.

Detailed construction of the game in the spoiler section below.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

Mars

I wanted to build a game that was the movie Aliens, but I wanted surpises, so I decided I was going to do a Starship Troopers/Aliens hybrid.  Then I can use not only the Starship Troopers Bugs, but also throw in Alien Xenomorphs, and Bug Alien hybrids.  As a bit of fun, I wanted to use the Aliens terraforming colony, but put it on Mars.

I was able to get pictures of Mars terrain from NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover program.

To get them into the mood and see the world setting, I show them a video clip of Starship Troopers proproganda.

Mars Terrain

Mars Terrain

Aliens Terraforming Colony

The first bit was how do I get the players onto Mars.  Well, I loved Felix Baumgartner's Orbital Jump.  So, I got video of him entering from orbit and made a short video with Starship Trooper's background music.  I wanted to players to solve the problems themselves without the ability to call for help, so I basically told them that Mars colony went dark, but the military is too busy taking the Dreadnaughts to Klendathu to fight the bugs.  So, on the way from Earth, they're going to just drop them in their battlesuits via orbital insertion. This is when I show them the video.  To prevent them from just radioing for help, I had the bugs generate a jamming field that prevents radio broadcasts from the planet.  As a hint, I let them notice that there's two periods of ionization blackout.  There should have been only one -- the second one is bug generated.  One of the Terraforming chimneys is inoperative and inside are special bugs that are jamming the signals.  The Terraforming plant is several miles from the Colony.

Terraforming Chimneys

I looked up what a squad and fireteam is in the Marines and Army and decided on a hybrid since fireteams consisted of four members.  I needed a fireteam of 6 for the game.  I wound up with: Team Leader, Grenadier and Radio Man with Tactical Nukes, Automatic Rifleman with SAW, Medic and Psychic, Sniper with 50 cal., and Scout with Chameleon Suit.  I didn't reveal their special equipment or abilities until they picked their characters.  In this case the specials were Nukes, Psychic, and Chameleon Suit.


The colony has about 50 personnel, enough to give me survivors and victims to turn into Aliens.

Since we're using ORE, I had to make hit location charts for the beasties.

Alien-Human Hybrid

Warrior Bug

I also had to find pictures of people in space suits to be used as NPCs.


The game is pretty straight forward.  The players land, but get separated, they fight bugs, and find the colony has been attacked.  They find survivors and several holed up in the command center.  On the landing pad is a damaged shuttle.  Electronics are severed and the gas tank is punctured, but it can be repaired over 5-8 hours.

Encounters with Bugs, Alien-Bugs, Alien-Humans, Alien-Queen, Alien-Hive, Alien-Eggs, all cause sanity checks.  Earlier on, I had players fill out a background questionnaire, I will use that to determine their insanity if they go insane based on their I love/hate answers.  As an added twist, in addition to picking fight/flight/freeze when they "lose it," I then shuffle their responses and deal them back randomly.  This only applies when more than one person "loses it" at the same time.

In their exploration of the colony, they should run into a Bug/Alien hybrid with acid blood.  When killed in close proximity, their blood will reduce the player's armor by a point.

When they find the medical bay, they'll find cylinders with dead Alien Facehuggers.  The Terran Federation has been experimenting with Aliens.  Trying to infect Bugs with Facehuggers in an effort to wipe the Bugs out.  Unfortunately some Bugs escaped and were never found.  The scientists thought that the Bugs would just die out in the inhospitable terrain of Mars.  One of the escaped infected Warrior Bugs actually converted into a Fertile Queen Bug.

They'll also find, if questioned that some colonists have been kidnapped by the Bugs which is unusual.

After finding there are survivors and maybe there might be survivors at the Terraforming plant, the players have two choices:  either get to the plant overland or an underground tunnel.

If they go overland, they get ambushed by several Warrior Bugs and a Tanker Bug that throws flame.
If they go in the tunnel, they get ambushed by human-alien hybrids from the Aliens movie.

Once in the Terraforming plant, they can repair the control center and look at the factory's cameras.  The camera in the inoperative chimney is out, but near the reactor core they see a survivor mouthing the words, "Help me."

If they investigate the chimney, they'll find a new kind of bug that causes radio interference.  Electrical sparks dance on their wings.  The shape of the chimney funnels their effects into the atmosphere.  Once the bugs are eliminated, they would be able to contact Earth and get a transport ship to pick them up from Mars.

Interference Bugs

In the reactor core, they'll find resin coating the walls and further in they'll find survivors glued to the wall with strange egg-like objects in front of them.

Alien-Bug Egg

Some survivors will be infected.  In the reactor room are Acid-Warrior Bugs and Aliens.  They are protecting the Alien-Queen Bug.

Alien-Queen Bug

When they kill the Queen Bug, its pregnant sack will dissolve, flood the room with molecular acid and bug larvae.

Out of all the games I've run, only once was the Queen just shot and then the squad left by laying down suppressing fire.  In the other three games, the players nuked the room.  Twice the nuke-tastrophe was by an insane character (once by Scarecrow who stole the nuke, and once by Mecha) and once it was done deliberately by Ocean once he got his hands on a nuke.  In the nuke-tastrophe, I give the PCs one chance to run for it before the nuke goes off.  After all, it is a Paul Verhoeven movie.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===