Monday, March 29, 2021

Alien - A Great One-Shot Horror RPG


Free League came out with the Alien RPG in 2019. Due to its popular IP (intellectual property: movies, comic books, novels, toys) and a good solid system, it has done well in the market place for a new RPG.

The only thing marring the launch were some conspicuous typos in the early printings. To see if you have an newer printing, look on p.51, Pilot should have Piloting instead of Mobility as a Key Skill. I ordered my copy through Amazon and received a 3rd printing. I only spotted one uncorrected minor typo in my copy.

Link to corrections: Official Typo Corrections

I've played the game twice and I'm now running Hope's Last Day (I've run this 6 times already as of 1/2022), the published scenario in the core rulebook.


The first thing you'll notice is that the book is full color and has a lot of art, all of it consistent, evocative of the movies and are originals with an oil painting style, NOT cheap stills taken from the movies. It is a joy to open and flip through. The only drawback is that the book has a strong ink smell to it, probably due to all the black ink used throughout the book. If you tried to print PDF pages of this, you'll probably spend more in ink than the cost of the printed book. The fonts used is easy to read, especially for old gamers like me with bad eyesight.

The rules are succinct, but sometimes scattered, requiring a search through the PDF to find various rules. The index in the back of the book isn't extensive enough. When running the game, I used both the book and PDF, cut-and-paste sections of the rules, and a fan-made cheat sheet (and rules summary).

One major rule that's confusing to new GMs is this one bit:

Some GMs get confused and read the 2nd sentence separate from the 1st sentence - they are connected. The action is only cancelled if the Panic Roll is 10 or higher.

What I love about the game? It really delivers on giving an Alien movie experience. Survival horror at its best. The Stress and Panic system, plus Signature Attacks by the Aliens replicates the Alien movies to a T. The Stress and Panic system is a death spiral that gives the PCs an edge, as the stress goes up, they get more Stress Dice to succeed and fail. A 1 on a Stress Die = required Panic Roll, a 6 = a success; so it's a devil's bargain. If your Panic Roll is 9 or less, and you have at least one success, you'll still complete your action. Additional successes can be used to do extra damage or add Stunts (such as knock an Alien out of an airlock).

During one game, a PC decided to hack into the system with Comtech, but failed with a Panic Roll and the result was that PC and all friendly PCs in Short range increased their stress by 1. As a GM, you have to get creative as to why this happens. I ruled that the computer responded by announcing on the speaker system, "Too many passwords tried. System locked. Please try again in 24 hours." 

The only drawback is that a creature's Signature Attack is randomly determined by a 1d6 die roll. At some point, you'll have too many duplicates and it becomes less interesting. The Aliens are killing machines, so its Signature Attacks actually give the PCs a chance to survive. Only one of its Signature Attacks is an outright death critical. The core rulebook suggests that you use Aliens sparingly. I think this is to mitigate this issue of too many repeats; to keep things fresh by making the Alien appearance rare.

One issue is spiraling Panic checks. Sometimes one PC Panics and causes everyone else near them to make Panic checks which in turn causes another Panic check. This sometimes gets out of hand, turning horror into farce. At some point, I just stop asking for them.

One thing to know is that Panic and Crits escalate. If a PC has panicked and an additional failed Panic check below or equal to the current Panic is rolled, pick the Panic result one higher than the current one. This goes for Crits too.

So far, every one-shot has been a great Alien experience for me. I do have reservations about running this as a Campaign. Can you keep this fresh? If you always run into Aliens, does it get boring? Or do you rarely run into Aliens? Is it still an Alien game if you don't run into Aliens?

The Colonial Marines Operations Manual, a campaign module, is coming out in 2021. Can they replicate the Aliens (Alien 2) experience? I do hope so.

See you in the pipe, five by five.




Alien RPG won a Gold ENnie 2020 for Best Game.

My reviews of the cinematic scenarios published by Free League: Reviews and Spoilers for Draconis Strain Saga

Inspiration for your own games, I found some video shorts:
Alien: Isolation, Digital Series - Seven episodes



Running Alien RPG on Roll20. Pick the Aliens Character Sheet Template.
For Voice, I use Discord and the Sebedius dice roller. The Sebedius die roller bot lets you roll on the Alien Critical Hit and Panic tables and does the look ups for you.

Roll20 "Aliens" Character Sheet

Sebedius dice roller bot for Discord



Q: How does healing work in Alien RPG?

A: Humans who are not Broken naturally heal 1 Health per Turn (p.99 Recovery). If you are Broken, you must either get First Aid or wait 1 Turn (p.99 Getting Back Up). Medical Aid only works if you are Broken. Synthetics do not naturally heal, they must be repaired (p.111 Synthetics / Repairs).

Health is more like scrapes, bruises, and fatigue which humans can recover quickly from (p.99 Critical Injuries). Synthetics just continue to accrue damage until they have a System Shutdown. (p.111 Synthetics / Death and Critical Injuries on Synthetics).

This also makes me think Xenomorphs recover all Health in 1 Turn if left alone. Xenomorphs grow quickly and I assume bleeding acid everywhere while fleeing is a bad way to stay hidden, so I assume they heal all Health instead of 1 Health per Turn. This will also incentivize Players to hunt down and finish off a Xenomorph that's injured.



Q: How does combat work? What happens when I try to attack a Xenomorph?

A: I'll do the combat step by step here:

1. Everyone seeing the Xeno gain +1 Stress. This assumes it's the first time they see one. (p.103 Stress Level)

2. Everyone draws an Initiative card (p.87 Drawing the Initiative). Most Xenos act more than once, they draw a number of cards equal to their Speed which is generally 2. (p.291 Speed)

3. Count up from 1 to 10. This is the action order based on each person's Initiative card. Each person gets a fast and slow action. (p.87 Slow and Fast Actions)

4. Let's say the Xeno goes first. It moves as a fast action and attacks with a slow action. Roll 1d6 and look up its attack chart. Resolve its attack. If the engaged target is still alive, PC gains +1 Stress if target takes any damage from the attack.

5. Let's say PC (Agility 3, Ranged Combat 1) gets to go. PC is firing a M41A Pulse Rifle (+1 Bonus, 2 Damage, Armor Piercing, Full Auto).

    5.1 Player must decide if PC will Aim with fast action and fire with Full Auto as slow action. Aim gives +2; Full Auto gives +2, but increases PC's Stress +1. (p.94 Aiming; p.96 Full Auto Fire)

    5.2 PC decides to Aim and fire using Full Auto. PC rolls 9d6 + 3d6 Stress dice. (9d6 = 3 Agility + 1 Ranged Combat skill + 2 Aim + 2 Full Auto + 1 weapon Bonus; 3d6 = 1 Stress for seeing Xeno + 1 Stress for taking damage earlier + 1 for Full Auto).

        5.2.1 Every 6 (on any dice rolled including Stress dice) is a success.

        5.2.2 If any of the Stress dice rolled a 1:
            5.2.2.1 The PC must make a Panic Roll. (p.104 Panic Roll)
                5.2.2.1.1 Panic Roll = 1d6 + 3 (3 = Current Stress level).
                5.2.2.1.2 If Panic Roll is 10+, PC's action is cancelled and immediately does the forced action instead.
                5.2.2.1.3 If Panic Roll is 9- and there was no successes, the PC has missed the Xeno.
                5.2.2.1.4 If Panic Roll is 9- and there was a success, the PC has hit the Xeno.
            5.2.2.2 Rolling any 1 on a Stress die means the weapon is empty (after it fired) and the PC forgot to reload. It takes a slow action to reload. (p.96 Ammo)

        5.2.3 If there is no successes and PC didn't have to make a Panic Roll, the PC may Push the Roll. If you Push the Roll, +1 Stress and reroll the attack with the additional Stress die. PC may only Push the Roll once per attack. e.g. if you miss again, you cannot push a second time. (p.60 Pushing Your Roll)

    5.3 If the PC hits the Xeno, decide how you want to spend the successes, most people spend it all on additional damage. If there are more than one target, you may want to hit secondary targets instead. (p.67 Ranged Combat / Stunts; p.96 Full Auto Fire)

        5.3.1 Assume PC rolled 3 successes. Damage would be weapon's damage (2 for the Pulse Rifle) for the first success + 2 more damage for the additional successes = 4 damage.

        5.3.2 Roll Xeno's armor. A Xeno Drone has 8 armor, but it is halved because of the Pulse Rifle is Armor Piercing. So, roll 4d6, every 6 reduces the attack damage. Assume Xeno rolled 1 success, so the armor reduced the damage from 4 to 3. Subtract 3 Health from the Xeno. (p.118 Weapon Features / Special / Armor Piercing; p.98 Armor)

        5.3.3 If the Xeno has Acid Splash (acid for blood), roll the Acid Splash + damage it just took. Roll 11d6 = 8 Acid Splash + 3 Damage. Every 6 rolled is 1 point of acid damage. Actually everybody in engaged range takes the Acid Splash, you probably should roll Acid Splash separately for each PC. (p.298 Acid Splash)
            5.3.3.1 Assume 3 successes are rolled, so PC takes 3 Health damage from acid.
            5.3.3.2 Acid will continue to burn each round until it burns itself out. At start of next round, roll half the number of dice, rounded down, until no damage happens. (p.298 Acid Splash)
            5.3.3.3 PC takes +1 Stress for taking acid damage.

        5.3.4 If the Xeno is reduced to 0 Health, roll on the Critical Injuries on Xenomorphs table. p.291.

6. Next person in Initiative Order goes. Most likely the Xeno will get its second action. ðŸ˜€



Q: Is it worth buying the physical versions of the Starter Set and Destroyer of Worlds?

A: I have both. Depends on the "price." I bought it during a sale. If you plan on running "Chariot of the Gods" (Starter Set) and "Destroyer of Worlds" a few times, it's not a bad price.

The Starter Set with the two dice sets (10 black and 10 yellow stress dice) were worth it as I couldn't find the dice discounted that much anywhere. For a few more dollars, I got the maps, cards (initiative, weapons, agendas, NPCs), pre-gen character sheets, cardboard markers, and 105 pages of rules. Chariot of the Gods was a separate 49 page booklet. One issue with the cards is that they don't give you duplicates, so there's only one of each weapon. Not useful to handout to players if you only have one of each card. Most PCs carry the same weapons such as a pistol, knife, and rifle, but you only have one card for each weapon. The markers are fairly large and are about the size of a room, so you can use them to mark which zone a PC is in, but not for zoomed in tactical combat.

Destroyer of Worlds has maps, cards (weapons, NPCs, agendas), pre-gen character sheets, and a 90 page scenario booklet which includes some tables and rules from the Colonial Marines book. You do need the Starter Set Rulebook or core book for various rules, especially the Other Hazards rules. Same issue with the weapon cards being one of each weapon, no duplicates. The Starter Set markers can be used to mark PC locations, but are too large to mark tactical positions.



Q (LT): One of my players has got a drug addiction due to a 13+ panic roll. My question is this, what side effect of drug taking can I give them that would be fair? The books don't offer much help in this area. 

A (MH): I thought there were several examples in the rule books and published cinematic boxed sets. Basically, the drugs reduce Stress and is their Significant Item, spending quality time with it reduces Stress by 1 (once per Act). And if they run out, it winds up as a Hidden Agenda or Story Card where they have to have to find drugs and take it to get a Story point.



Q: How long does it take and where do you recharge air for your space suits?

A: It's not in the rules, but I assume it'll take a Turn at a recharge station. Scuba tank refilling takes 10 to 20 minutes, so I assume something similar. I assume there's a recharge station at every airlock or where space suits are available for use. Up to the GM if the recharge stations are in working order. In a number of the published scenarios, they're either not working or malfunctioning to add tension to the game.



Q (bh): If someone rolls 3 successes on a Close Combat roll, and the target Blocks and rolls 2 successes, that removes 2 of the attackers successes, leaving them with 1 success, causing damage.

I assume that means the attacker effectively rolled 1 success and gets no stunts, but this came up and someone said it blocks extra damage, but the initial roll's extra successes still count as stunts. That doesn't feel right to me, and I don't believe the rules support that, but wanted to see if I'm possibly misunderstanding something.

A (MH): This is pretty interesting, on p.98 Armor says explicitly damage. p.92 Blocking, says Decrease Damage also.

In the Free League Forums, I found the following from Tomas Härenstam, rules designer:
This is the intended sequence:
1. The attacker declares the attack.
2. The defender declares whether to block or not.
3. The attacker rolls (and pushes if they want to), then chooses a stunt if they rolled several successes.
4. If the defender declared a block, they now roll dice and choose an effect. If the defender chose the "decrease damage" effect, the attacker loses successes and can thus lose their chosen stunt.
5. The results of the attack and the block are implemented simultaneously. If the defender chose to counterattack, the two attacks occur at the same time. If the defender chose to disarm the attacker, the attack hits normally, but counts as an unarmed attack.

This makes me think if Decrease Damage made the attack miss, the Attacker's Stunts are completely negated. And if the defender decided to not Decrease Damage, they can do so. So, it's only safe for an Attacker to use Stunts if they have two more successes than the Defender (if the Defender is Blocking).



Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Keep the Game Moving: Interview with Morgan Hua.

Host of interview was Ezra Denney. Keep the Game Moving is his channel.

Ezra also GMs for the Quest & Chaos channel on YouTube.

I didn't want to mention people by last name, so only used their first names in the interview. The co-GMs who we blanked on was Josh and John. Of course, I immediately remembered Josh's name right after the interview ended.

If you have any GMing questions, you can leave a comment below and I'll try to answer them.

Tuesday, March 09, 2021

Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed - Shotguns, a Closer Look

Winchester 1897 12 Gauge Shotgun - "Trench Gun" for WWI

Time to talk about shotguns, a favored weapon. Why? It does massive damage. Look at the following chart:


They're not concealable, but in the 1920s, people won't bat an eye if you had one in your trunk or transported one in a carrying case. People would have one available to go hunting vs a handgun.

The only drawback is that they mainly hold two shells, meaning you can only fire twice before having to reload. But by 1920, the Winchester 1897 12 Gauge Shotgun holds 5 shells and you can pre-load one shell in the barrel for a total of 6 shots, but loading takes a long time. This weapon was used to clear trenches in World War One. Though carrying one of these might raise eyebrows as the single barrel is shorter and probably not used for hunting.


The story is that the military used 12-gauge shotguns with 00 buckshot in the Spanish-American War in 1898 to kill insurgents in the Philippines. Nothing else stopped the knife wielding attackers.

00 buckshot is 9 pellets, each slightly smaller in diameter than a 9mm bullet.
From the Live Demo video above, at point-blank and short range, you can only hit one target, the spread of pellets isn't enough to hit more than one target. At medium range, you can hit 1.5 targets.

Birdshot will probably do no damage unless you're at point-blank. Even then, a leather jacket probably will stop all the pellets.

If you watch shows such as Supernatural, you can try to load shotgun shells with rock salt. According to this article, it can only do damage at point-blank.

One way to conceal a shotgun is to saw off its long barrel and stock. Thus the sawed off shotgun, easily concealed beneath a trench coat.


And if you're trying to kill something real tough, fire both barrels at the same time. And load solid slugs which can impale on an extreme hit vs buckshot which don't impale and can only do maximum damage instead. See p.406 Keeper Rulebook, Shotgun solid slugs. 12-gauge solid slug does 1d10+6 and base range increases to 50 yards.
Buckshot: 4d6 damage = 14 avg damage; on extreme success, automatic max damage 24.
Solid slug: 1d10+6 damage = 11.5 avg damage; on extreme success, avg damage 27.5, max damage 32.

In extended gunfights, where you need to fire more than both barrels, you can load one shell and fire, but with a penalty die. See p.113 Keeper Rulebook, Reloading Firearms.

I think the only drawback not in the rulebooks is that if it's raining, the paper cartridges might swell and jam the barrel and you won't be able to reload. And if the cartridges aren't taken care of well, such as just shoved into a pocket, the cartridges might get damaged or bent, or swollen from moisture. Keeping the cartridges in the original box or a waterproof bag would go a long way in keeping the cartridges usable.

p.s. A note on recoil. If properly braced, it doesn't really matter how small (PC's SIZ) the shooter is. It just needs some proper training. Only in cartoons and old movies does a shotgun's recoil knock you off your feet. Here's a link for how to properly brace a shotgun: https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/correct-way-to-shoulder-a-shotgun/



The following is from my Q&A on Combat:

Q (MH): How does a double barreled shotgun work?

A (MH): Shotguns have under Uses per Round either "1 or 2" or "1 (2)". "1 (2)" are single barreled shotguns. "1 or 2" are double barreled shotguns. Also under Name if you see a "(2B)" it's a double barreled shotgun.

Single barreled shotguns "1 (2)" act like handguns where you get a penalty die if you fire twice.

For double barreled shotguns "1 or 2", you can fire at:
  • one target with one barrel. Normal attack roll.
  • one target with both barrels. Two attack rolls, one for each barrel, no penalty die.
  • two targets, one with each barrel. Normal attack roll for first shot, Penalty die for 2nd target.
See p.405 Keeper Rulebook, 2nd column, bottom, Uses per Round.
Damage listed is for a single barrel. Shotgun pellets do not impale, so an Extreme Success only does max damage. See p.406 Keeper Rulebook, 2nd column, Shotguns.

Optional Armor Rule, see p.126 Keeper Rulebook. Armor is reduced from each damage die. e.g. Creature has armor of 1 gets hit with a 4d6 shotgun blast; armor will stop 4 pts of damage from pellets.

Optional Point-Blank Rule, see p.127 Keeper Rulebook, Point-Blank Revisited. Rifles, full-length shotguns, and bows do not get a bonus die at point-blank range. Short-barreled shotguns (such as the Winchester 1897 "Trench Gun" used in WWI or a modern Remington Tac 14) or sawed-off shotguns do gain a bonus die.

In my experience, shotguns generally become the weapon of choice for veteran CoC Players. Due to the massive amount of damage it does. PCs would move into point-blank or wait until an enemy comes into point-blank for a bonus die before firing. Though an extreme success would only result in maximum damage instead of an impale. See p.406 Keeper Rulebook, Shotguns.

What's interesting is that Delta Green does something different. Shotguns always gain a +20% to hit (similar to a bonus die). Armor stoppage is doubled. Single barrel is 2d8 and firing both barrels is 3d8, rolling only once to hit. See p.94 Delta Green Agent's Handbook, Shotguns.

So, you can house rule something similar, such as 6d6/3d6/1d6+2 damage for a double barreled shotgun blast, requiring only one die roll to hit if firing both barrels.



Q (MF): For a shotgun how do you read Damage and Base Range? Does the level of difficulty change? What do the numbers between slashes mean?

A (MH): The numbers are for a single barrel firing 00 buckshot. The closer you are, the more damage a shotgun does as you get hit by more buckshot. The damage corresponds to the range: short/medium/long. For a 12-gauge Shotgun (2B), firing one barrel: 4d6 is at 10 yards or less (short range), 2d6 at 20 yards or less (medium range), 1d6 at 50 yards or less (long range). See p.406 Keeper Rulebook, Shotguns.

See p.112 Keeper Rulebook, Range and Firearms Difficulty Levels: Long range (2x base range) is Hard difficulty level. Very long range (4x base range) is Extreme difficulty level.

See p.406 Keeper Rulebook, Shotgun solid slugs. Base range 50 yards. Which leads me to believe that firing buckshot has a lower base range than solid slugs. For Handguns, almost all of them have a Base Range of 15 yards. Rifles 110 yards. From the article below, 30 to 50 yards is where the shotgun becomes unpredictable which leads me to believe shooting below this distance is where you need a regular success.

As a judgement call, I'd do the following:
If the shooter using a 12-gauge shotgun has a DEX of 50, DEX/5 = 10 feet is point-blank range.
Mossberg 500 with 14" barrel is 28" length overall (combat/tactical shotgun).
Winchester shotgun with 30" barrel, overall length 51" (hunting shotgun).
0' to 4' (GM potluck, depending on weapon and situation: too close to shoot, 1 penalty die for hip firing, or bonus die for point-blank.) See p.127 Keeper Rulebook, Point-Blank Revisited.
4'+ to 10' (bonus die for point blank, regular success to hit, 4d6 damage)
10'+ to 10 yards (regular success to hit, 4d6 damage)
10+ yards to 20 yards (regular success to hit, 2d6 damage)
20+ yards to 50 yards (hard success to hit, 1d6 damage)
50+ yards to 100 yards (extreme success to hit, 1d6 damage).

If this is too complicated, then I'd just rule that max Range is 50 yards. And you only need a regular success to hit. But use the short/medium/long ranges to determine damage.

Shotguns are typically considered close-range firearms, especially when loaded with buckshot. Beyond about 30 to 50 yards, the spread from most shotguns becomes too unpredictable to reliably guarantee that any of the pellets will hit the intended target. 

Hunters are urged repeatedly not to try for ducks that are more than 50 yards away.

The heavy shot used for geese is dangerous for 1,400 yards -- almost a mile. A Winnipeg ballistics engineer says that heavy shot for geese is the same weight and travels at the same velocity as a .22 caliber bullet. 

A heavy goose shot, fired without careful aim and caution, is the same as a dozen .22 bullets scattering over the countryside for a mile: This means that hunters must be extra careful. They should check to see that they have a clear range for the danger distance of the shot. In heavy country, or marshes where there are many hunters, a man must be extremely careful that his stray buckshot doesn't wound or kill a fellow hunter.




Q (A): What's the range and damage for a sawed off shotgun?

A (MH): See p.403 Keeper Rulebook, 12-gauge Shotgun (2B sawed off). By shortening the barrel of a shotgun by sawing it off, it decreases the time the pellets stay in the barrel and doesn't allow enough time for the propellant (gunpowder) to completely ignite before the pellets leave the gun. This leads to a shorter range. Also the pellets spread out sooner. It also has a fair amount of recoil if held like a handgun vs braced against the body. If you look at the base range, it's only 5/10 yards, short/medium. There is no long range. I assume the shot becomes spent and too spread out to do any damage at long range.

There are no stats for using a slug in a sawed off shotgun. I'd say it's very ineffective and the slug might just tumble after leaving such a short barrel. Worse case scenario, give it the same range as the pellets for a sawed off shotgun, 10 yards, instead of the 50 yards for solid slugs.

See the following video on Sawed Off Shotguns: https://youtu.be/ambeh2YE49g