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7/6 Thurs 5:30-9:30pm.
Rich Food
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: James - inquist_games
Players: Morgan Hua (Dr. O'Grady), LakshnessMonster (Garcia - Student), Steven W - relnec (Dominguez - Gang Member), Lauren - geolaur (Helen Bloom - Homeless Drug Addict).
For 2-4 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
It is a cold and rainy December in San Diego, California. The investigators are volunteers at the St. Germain’s homeless shelter. The shelter is at maximum occupancy and the doors have closed for the night when there is frantic banging at the front entrance. Three regular guests have finally arrived, only they are missing extremities and have chunks of flesh bitten off. They tell a tale of cannibalism and corruption in society’s elite. The investigators must unravel a dark conspiracy and face the price of greed. Pre-gens will be provided. VTT: Roll20
Content Warnings: Cannibalism, gore, and possible temporary loss of player agency. There are no instances where an investigator may unknowingly eat human flesh. Additionally, there are themes of homelessness, drug addiction, homophobia, assault, and police brutality with some NPCs and Pre-gen backgrounds.
I enjoyed this scenario. It was quite creepy and the investigation was very interesting.
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The misdirection worked really well in this scenario and made the investigation key in figuring out what was really happening. A number of scenarios are just bread crumb linear plots. This time, you really had to examine everything, put the pieces together, and understand what was going on.
Three guests show up at the homeless shelter with various injuries. They tell us of an abduction by police and an odd party attended by rich folk (sort of a Eyes Wide Shut situation). The rich folk attacked them with their teeth, eating chunks of flesh off of them. They were then taken to a lower level holding room and they were able to escape.
We actually located a possible location of the building and did some breaking and entering and found no evidence they were held there. There were no traces of anything untoward happening there. We did find some scant traces, but it wasn't conclusive. We weren't sure if nothing really happened.
The PCs returned home and there were some spooky things that happened to each of us individually. Signs and portents.
The next day, things happened that made two of the homeless people rich. And we discovered they had lied to us and it was an auto-cannibalism ritual that made them rich. The third homeless person, Marissa, had asked the other two to help with her ritual and they got sucked into the ritual against their will. She only got $500 because her injuries were slight. We decided that she was going to try again and eat more herself this 2nd time around.
We located her at a development site set up for demolition. Before we entered the site, we had the foreman disconnect the explosives from the detonators.
As a precaution, two of the PCs put cotton in their ears (it didn't work). I injected a paralyzing agent in my jaw muscles and Dominguez's; this I hoped would prevent us from chanting and biting ourselves. We rushed the ritual. I failed my save throw and tried to gum myself. The others made their save throws. Garcia was able to disable Marissa with a spell (he secretly had spells) just before a dark entity could set off the explosives.
The misdirection about rich cannibals really worked. When Theo, one of the homeless who had lost two toes earlier, suddenly wound up in the hospital and had his foot amputated, we found two lawyers paying him off and we really thought he had just sold the rest of his foot to them. In actuality, a driverless car ran over his foot multiple times and he was paid to keep quiet by the startup that owned the car service. What really happened was the ritual made a contract with a supernatural being that made the car malfunction, which in turn gave a windfall to the victim.
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7/7 Friday 5:30-9:30pm.
The Diner
System: Horror the RPG (powered by Year Zero Engine)
GM: DontStopMeNow
Players: Morgan Hua (Bill - Head Chef), NoobishIndianGirl (Shelia - New Waitress), WishMoon (Mike - Diner Owner), Steve W - relnec (Det Hank - Retiring Detective), James - inquist_games (Brenda - Senior Waitress).
For 4-5 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided. Please contact GM after player assignments are announced.
Horror the Roleplay Game is a new ttrpg utilizing the Year Zero Engine. For this game we will be playing through one of the scenarios in The Dinner - a collection of scenarios for Horror. Introducing "The Diner Horror RPG Scenario Book," straight out of the twisted realms of the 1980s! Get ready for a heart-pounding, spine-tingling adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat! "The Diner Horror RPG Scenario Book" has been meticulously designed for cinematic play, perfect for those one-shot gaming sessions. With pre-generated characters at your fingertips, you and your friends can dive right into the action, learning and playing the scenarios in one thrilling sitting. Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of the 1980s horror scene, as VHS-style aesthetics come to life in every chilling detail. Dust off your Walkman and get ready for a nostalgic journey filled with retro charm and adrenaline pumping excitement.
Content Warnings: Diner meatloaf, horrible puns, maybe spiders, also maybe slime, and maybe a vampire, diner waitresses name Sheila and Brenda
The system was basically Alien RPG, but in a present day setting.
The scenario was pretty simple, but it was the Player interactions that made this a fun game. Loads of great roleplaying.
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Actually, if you replace the spider infection with Xenos, you'd actually get an Alien game. The only difference was the setting. The spider bite would infect you and then transform you into a spider-human hybrid. There were also different sized spiders: normal, softball-sized, and huge.
Basically, it starts raining spiders. Heavy metal band members rush inside the diner with spiders all over them. Two were bitten and have a bad reaction to the spider bites. We barricade ourselves inside. Hijinks ensue between characters. One of the NPCs transforms. We find that weed protects you against the spiders. And outside is a van with a tin of weed.
The fun bits are the interactions between characters. One of the waitresses, Shelia, was having an affair with two of the band members and in the end, she wound up shooting both of them (killing blows). The retiring detective and head waitress wound up protecting each other and marrying each other. The chef and diner owner bravely ran out to the van to get the weed, but wound up driving away (failed panic rolls), only to return and run over a giant spider. The sequence was really, run over the spider, back up, panic, back up some more, try to get the car go forward, but back up even more. Finally, got the car into gear (succeeded panic roll) and crushed the spider, saving both Hank and Brenda.
One really funny line was when I mentioned that Shelia should have an affair with the remaining band member, she said, "I'm done with dating musicians."
My PC's secret agendas were weak sauce though, much like some of the bad agendas in Destroyer of Worlds. I don't know what the other PCs agendas were and whether they added to the game's chaos.
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7/8 Saturday 8am-noon
Le Dossier Mönch
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: Joseph - SpoJino
Players: Morgan Hua (Said Kouzham - Lawyer and Moroccan Nationalist), Andy R - RandomAnswer (Sergeant Henry Evans - British Expeditionary Force), misty_lady (Yelena Volkov - Archivist and Egyptologist), princejvstin (Voira da Veiga - Aristocrat and Refugee Advocate).
For 3-4 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided. Please contact GM after player assignments are announced.
Morocco, 1939: After France declared war on Nazi Germany, the French Protectorate in Morocco seized all German assets in the territory. This seizure included the French military police (the Gendarmes) taking control of the Mönch Textile Factory in Casablanca. While doing so, they discovered a cache of documents that left them befuddled. A contact in the French Foreign Legion has reached out to you for help with some clandestine digging into this factory and the cache of documents currently in local, civilian police possession. Nazi Content: This scenario includes fictionalized images and handouts with Nazi and Nazi-like symbols. Nazis are unambiguous antagonists in this scenario and will not be portrayed as anything other than working against the interests of the investigators. This scenario is a modified version of a chapter from the upcoming Sons of Singularity “The Blessed and the Blasphemous” campaign. Scenario written by Patrick Chandler.
Content Warnings: Body horror, medical horror, gore, brutality, Nazis (including Nazi imagery).
Additional Safety Tools: X-Card
This game felt more like Pulp Cthulhu than purist. But I had a lot of fun anyway.
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I guess when you throw in Nazis and Nazi Experiments, a game always goes pulp.
This scenario was pretty much a straight line A, B, C finale. Introduction was a party where the PCs meet each other. We get asked to go find evidence Nazis were involved in a textile factory. We explored the factory, found horrible stuff in the hidden basement. Went over evidence the police had already confiscated. Uncovered Nazi informants and traitors. Decided to go to a French prisoner of war camp way out in the desert. Face the evil Nazi scientists who were reanimating corpses and destroyed the zombie factory.
The zombie-tank machine the Nazis were building was very Pulp Cthulhu-esque.
At one point, my PC was forging legal documents, picking locks, and making lists of traitors for the resistance. I was an "excellent" lawyer.
One of my favorite scenes was when a truck full of Nazis showed up and we hid in an alleyway. We all made our die rolls or spent enough luck. They didn't find us, but when they went back to their truck, I pulled an Indiana Jones and fired a Panzerfaust at their truck; I had picked it up from the factory's hidden basement and wrapped it in cloth to conceal it from casual onlookers. Boom! Dead Nazis.
The final fight at the prison camp was pretty good too. I shot one of the Nazi scientists. "I got your parts for you!" Blam! Yelena set the zombie factory on fire. Voira climbed on the tank and tried to open the hatch, but it was locked, so she fled from the zombies. Henry had to run back to where we hid our 2 Panzerfausts and finally used it against the zombie-tank. We then chased down the last Nazi scientist and shot him dead as he tried to steal a truck.
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7/8 Saturday 1-5pm
Viral
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: Jeff - SeattleEgg
Players: Morgan Hua (Enoch Eakins - cameraman), Chelsea - PixelWhip266 (Corina Trench - co-host), Laura - lsnow11 (Ku Hyeon - tech/skeptic), Hilmar - hilmar_firestarter (Marco Proudfoot - host).
For 3-4 players, ages 16 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided. Please contact GM after player assignments are announced.
You take the role of ghost hunters with a hit YouTube channel - you call yourselves the Spektral Krew! You are headed to an island off the coast of Sicily to explore its very dark past. The only public information is a pixelated satellite map and a pile of redacted documents, but a little digging on the Dark Web has revealed something far more sinister. What better way to make your final push for one million subscribers than to stream the investigation live from the island! This is scenario written by Alex Guillotte and Bud Baird, published 2022.
Content Warnings: Nosophobia, Body Horror.
Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion
I heard many great things about Viral and was very excited about trying it out.
This game was very creepy and fun. I would have loved to play this game for over a longer period of time, maybe 8 hours instead of the 4 we did. Wonderful group of Players. I feel guilty in that I think my character, Corina, and Marco took up most of the screen time with amazing roleplaying. I felt Hyeon was slightly odd man out. If I played Hyeon, I would have demanded more screen time as the resident skeptic.
After playing in this, I highly recommend the scenario.
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The scenario is fairly straight forward. TV crew goes to haunted area, explore and get goaded to explore as much as possible because they're live streaming, so they get in deeper than what normal people would do due to a demanding audience. Then it turns into survival horror.
The island has lots of creepy areas: A bridge with lots of icons, mutated fruit trees, burned out area with candles, ash, and bone. We explored only a few areas. I can see this scenario can be much longer if the PCs explore more locations.
Most of the fun is the Players leaning into the live streaming trope of ghost hunters: Asking the audience where we should go; asking the audience to pay us in order to do stupid, dangerous stuff; faking stuff; competing media stars; wannabe media stars; getting 1 million subscribers; getting views.
I brought out the specially marked flashlights that randomly go dim or go out. Corina had a really high spot hidden and pretended her psychic sensitivity was sending her messages. Marco was a big ham.
During the game, Corina pulled down a mutated lemon, asked the audience to pay $500 and she'd peel it. Someone did. The juice looked like blood. So, I asked the audience if someone would pay to have her eat it. We kept on pushing up the price for various stunts. Marco got paid to enter the Cremation Pit, a blasted circle of ash surrounded by candles that were mostly blown out. In the center were still hot embers. Under that ash were human bones. I told Marco to pretend to touch the glowing embers and used blocking to make it look like he touched it. When we went into the Morgue. I asked if the audience would pay for one of our hosts to get on a slab and be slid into the mortuary cabinet for 10 seconds. Corina did it for $10,000. She put on a go-pro and I videoed from the outside and we did a split screen of her being slid in. She wanted to go in head first. Marco did a short monologue right before he closed the door. What happened was damned scary. Her 10 seconds felt subjectively like 10 minutes and bugs rained down on her inside. When we opened the door, she was pissed (and no bugs we could see). Of course, we had a 10 second count down before opening it up and thought she just freaked out. She threw her go-pro at us and ran off alone (complete horror trope!). The finale was a Ouija board séance and the survival horror events after that. After lots of running from really horrible stuff, we ended with a TPK.
I have hundreds, if not a thousand RPG books. I've played numerous systems and games. So, when a new game or system is published, I like to read reviews about the game or try the game out before buying it. So, reviews are a great resource. I've been burned a few times where I bought a Kickstarter and found out the game was a clunker or that the game was rushed into production and not enough thought was put into streamlining the book or a through enough editing was done.
Yes, I'm used to errata. Before the internet, game publishers were more careful about making mistakes and corrected them in newer printings. I fear, the trend these days is to push things quick to market and correct the PDF afterwards. But if you got the first print edition, you get screwed. For example Alien RPG, the first printing, Pilots don't have the Piloting skill.
My pet peeves for RPG books:
1. Not using a professional editor/proof reader. Using MSWord autocorrect and Google Translate doesn't cut it. One KS delivered a badly translated RPG. The game was supposed to be decades old and very popular in Sweden. They had an early release PDF to allow us feedback. I'm a native US English speaker and have a college degree. I sent feedback and a number of my suggestions were rejected. The response from the company? We have a friend who's a Swedish expat in the US who speaks English, we rely on that person's judgement for the final decisions. OMG. I sold my copy of Trudvang. Great art, lousy system.
And if you don't use a professional proof reader, then pre-release the PDF, so your fans can give you feedback. Arc Dream at first didn't do this for their The Conspiracy KS. I mentioned this and they happily sent out pre-release PDFs to backers. I noticed that one of the fonts that mimicked an old typewriter was too hard to read. It was atmospheric, but led to sometimes hard to read names. I sent back examples for them to look over such as J-2 vs U-2. When I got the final release PDF, I noticed that they fixed it. Can you imagine if they didn't? As an aside, Arc Dream does a great job proofreading. Minimal typos if any in their products.
2. Important Rules in the Sidebar. Sidebars are for examples and flavor text. When GMs read the core book, we read the main text and look at the sidebars later. Sidebars do not Highlight Rules, sidebars say, "Ignore me until later when you have time to read me."
3. Inconsistent phrasing. Not having a System/World Bible, so you use different names for the same thing throughout your core book. Then indexing the wrong words, so you can't even find the rule you're looking for. I'm looking at you Alien RPG. You can't find Air Supply in the index. You need to look up Consumables. And good luck on finding how Stun weapons work. It's under the detailed description of the G2 Electroshock Grenade p.125.
4. Rules in the wrong place or missing rules. See #2 & #3 above. I'm looking at you The One Ring 2e. If you buy the Starter Set, you can't play the game. Good luck on figuring out what Attribute Level is for monsters. It's not in the rules provided with the Starter Set. You need the core book p.143. The rules in the Starter Set are all Player facing rules, so all the GM rules are missing and there's no GM rule booklet in the Starter Set.
5. Renaming standard RPG terms to be cute. I prefer GM (Game Master). But there's DM (Dungeon Master), Master of Ceremonies, Keeper of Arcane Lore, Storyteller, Narrator, Director, Facilitator, etc. These are all cute and I can figure this out. But then they start renaming NPC to GMPC, etc. Hit Points to Conditions, Health, Stamina, etc. I bought Invisible Sun and I still haven't been able to read past the first book because you need to translate from Invisible Sun speak to RPG speak. It's a giant barrier to understanding the game and playing it. The excuse for renaming common terms is to be "immersive." It's so immersive, I couldn't get into it like trying to climb into a bathtub full of mercury.
6. Bad rule book organization. Making it hard to find rules when running the game. The core books are written to be easily read, but then information is spread out to various sections. The publishers don't want to duplicate info, to save page count, but when info is spread out everywhere, it's impossible to use the core book as a reference book. Mödiphius 2d20 games such as Dune and Achtung! Cthulhu were painful to use at the table. GM pauses the game in what seems like an eternity, trying to look up a rule because misapplication could probably kill a PC. And this happens multiple times during a gaming session.
RPG Game Reviews
One of my friends did a podcast. They decided to talk about Vampire RPG. During the podcast they admitted they've never played the game. WTF? How can you be opinionated about something you've never even tried? Let alone talk a whole hour about it? I've played and run Vampire before and found their comments uninformed.
Book reviewers review a book after they've read it. That is the experience of the book. But RPG books are a different animal. You need to read it and either run the game or play it to experience it. So, I have problems with RPG reviewers who just read the book and don't play it. It's like a movie reviewer who just reads the movie script. Or a book reviewer who only reads the blurb.
I understand some people make a living reviewing RPG books, so they don't have the time to run/play every publication and the output volume of their reviews is their focus. And reading massive amounts of RPG books does increase your ability to make an informed decision. But that doesn't replace cracking open the book and trying to use it in a game.
I've read mediocre reviews of a game I've played in that was very, very fun. I've also read a glowing review of a RPG, but when I looked at Reddit posts about people who tried to play the game, they found it was horrible. It read well, but played terrible. So, I now read reviews with a grain of salt and also consult other online sources, especially comments from people who actually played the game.
I also don't want spoilers for scenarios, but I want to have enough information to decide if that scenario or campaign is right for my gaming group.
So, when I do review a game or scenario, I don't do it until I've been able to play or run it myself. When I've only played it*, I would still want to read the scenario, to differentiate what is in the scenario vs any GM invented material. What's worse than saying, "Hey, that's a great scenario, I'd like to run it," and then finding out your GM invented half of the material or merged multiple scenarios to make the game that you played, so the scenario you're recommending has nothing to do with what's published.
*I want to differentiate my review of a published scenario vs my convention reports about the games I've played in. My reviews are informed opinions about a published scenario I've run, or played in and have read afterwards. A convention report is more about the experience I had. I generally do not go and read the convention scenario I've played in, unless I enjoyed it so much that I plan on running it myself.
Free League has been consistenty amazing at releasing beautiful RPG books. Vaesen are supernatural creatures invisible to normal people except for people with the Second Sight. The setting is mid-1800s Sweden with industrialization changing the world, creating a clash between urban/rural, rich/poor, industrialization/nature, locals/immigrants, seen/unseen, science/magic, upper class/lower class, church/old ways.
The conceit behind this game is that the PCs are Thursday's Children, people traumatized by a supernatural event which enabled them to see Vaesen. They belong to The Society, a group that is dedicated to investigating and solving disturbances with Vaesen. PCs also have a Dark Secret that will resurface during play.
The system is a d6 dice pool, counting successes (a 6 is a success). Most tasks only require one success. There are only 4 Attributes (Physique, Precision, Logic, Empathy) and 12 Skills (3 skills under each Attribute). The dice pool rolled is the Attribute + Skill. Various items and talents add extra dice. PCs can take 4 physical and 4 mental Conditions, but the 4th condition always Breaks the PC (either crippling the PC physically or mentally). If the PC survives the Injury, they can get some penalties or in some rare cases additional Insight just as how they got their second sight.
There was a big buzz about the game and I wanted to learn more about it. The first few times I played this game, I wasn't quite sure about it. First, I thought the system was ok, but not that exciting. Second, I thought it was almost impossible to kill a PC, so a game without threat takes away the excitement of danger. Third, I wondered whether a long series of Monster of the Week would get boring.
I wanted to get more Vaesen under my belt, so I played 5 games of Vaesen at VaesenCon. I saw enough variety from different GMs and scenarios that it assuaged my fears. I actually bought a HC of the book and read almost all of it. I skipped the monster section, so I could still play games without having spoilers ruin them.
Reservation 1: The System. It's fine, but one thing that works really well is if you want to Push a roll, you take a Condition. That's a big deal. You only have 4 physical and 4 mental HPs. Also each Condition reduces your dice pool for related tasks on a 1-for-1 basis. It makes Pushing and taking Conditions a major risk factor. This raises the tension level during play.
Reservation 2: Hard to Kill PCs. Some monsters can cause 2 or 3 damage and it can go up if it rolls multiple successes. This can Break a PC in one hit. If the PCs lose the fight or abandon the Broken PC, that PC is basically dead. Seeing a Vaesen can cause 2 Fear, that's 1/2 of your mental conditions. So, Vaesen can be a very deadly.
Reservation 3: Lack of Variety. There are 21 Vaesen in the core book. There are more in published supplements and fan based supplements. Also the Vaesen are based on Folk and Fairy Tales. I bought a copy of Swedish Folk Tales for inspiration. And for people who memorize Monster Manuals, the GM can make up anything they want to switch things up. Most Vaesen are almost impossible to kill without knowing their secret weakness. I'm also using the Society's HQ, a rundown castle full of cobwebs and mysteries, which the PCs need to cleanup, upgrade, and explore. I'm also tying in various character's Dark Secrets and fallout from their actions when they solve a mystery. In my Upsala, I've highlighted the social pressures from the various social classes in the city.
Why is the basis of the game Monster of the Week?
Well, one of the ways of getting an Experience Point (XP) is meeting a new Vaesen, so that's designed into the game. Another is confronting a Vaesen. Each PC gains XP at the end of each session. Every 5 XP allows the PC to bump up a Skill or add a Talent.
Another basis of the game is developing your HQ. The Society (as a whole) gains Development Points (DP) by learning about Vaesen. DPs are spent upgrading the HQ which gives benefits to all the PCs. DPs are gained at the end of each scenario. But fixing things and opening up sealed rooms and areas of the HQ comes with its own danger and more opportunity for adventure. The problem is when you play random one-shots, you never see this aspect of the game.
I've decided that I wanted to make developing the HQ and exploring Upsala as roleplaying opportunities. To make the game environment richer vs just Monster of the Week. Dark Secrets also allows the GM to personalize the various horrors that show up, making it very personal. I've run multiple sessions so far and I'm really enjoying bringing in reoccurring NPCs and city locations.
I also have a deep love of folklore from various cultures, so I plan in using this knowledge in my games.
Overall, Vaesen is turning out to be a really good game. No wonder it's doing so well in the market place.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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The scenario in the core book:
The Dance of Dreams
Location: A roadside inn, 3.5 hrs south of Upsala, Sweden
Pages: 16
Run Time: 1 session Hook: Olaus Klint, a stranger, requests the PCs meet him at the Witch Cat Inn where a Shadow Theater play will be held.
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The Plot: A Revenant has mistaken the current occupants of the inn and the PCs as its enemies (either missing or long dead). It has possessed and affected the dreams of Sophia, the innkeeper's daughter, who performs a shadow theater play re-enacting his murder. Once that is done, it tries to kill the innkeeper and the PCs. Vaesen: Revenant (p.150, core book)
This is pretty straight forward, the PCs need to locate the Revenant's body which is in the garden root cellar. Then carry it over a graveyard wall and bury it on consecrated ground. It's more of a race between it trying to kill everyone and the PCs carrying out the needed tasks.
Hints as to where the body is and the solution is in Nora's Journal which is in her sealed bedroom.
The other events don't matter: Olaus Klint and the Rosenbergers, Nora's whereabouts and death.
My issue with this being the only scenario in the core book is that it's a kill the monster of the week scenario, where the only solution is to destroy the Vaesen. IMHO, this sets the wrong expectation for what this game is.
Q: Equipment rules seem confusing. p.88 Equipment in the Headquarters. It states that you keep the equipment you started with plus one newly acquired item or weapon. Does this mean you keep only 1 extra item or 1 from each completed adventure?
A: One extra item apart from your starting equipment. Period.
This is to prevent the PCs from becoming pack rats. This is for equipment that gives any type of bonus. Normal items that give no bonuses can be carried. You don't want the PCs to have a giant inventory with multiple bonuses for everything.
At the start of each adventure, the PC would have their starting equipment + 1 item they got from a previous adventure. In the Preparatory stage (p.73 Preparatory Equipment), they can then spend resources to buy other equipment that gives pluses. During the adventure (p.73 Shopping During the Mystery), they can also buy equipment. At the end of the adventure, the PCs would keep their starting equipment + 1 item (from any equipment that wasn't used up). If the PCs had upgraded their castle, they can keep more equipment based on the upgrade specifics (p.89 Armory, p.90 Weapons Corridor, p.91 Cellar Vault). As a GM, I'd let them permanently replace starting equipment with something they would rather carry instead. The replaced items are lost.
I'm tempted to explain the missing items as either being borrowed by other Society members, ghostly thievery, or just being used up between adventures. You can turn the quest for the missing items into an adventure.
Q (C): How do you play The Sight in your games? While I love the idea and its potential for generating exciting play, I'm confused about how to make it work in game.
If I understand it right, The Sight allows the PCs to 'see' Vaesen others can't see - as the book says, 'you have the ability to see vaesen – even when they are trying to remain invisible.' But reading the excellent descriptions of each vaesen in the book, there are very few that seem invisible by default. So what difference does The Sight actually make?
A (MH): I assume they're all invisible or have a glamour that makes them look like normal people or normal things (trees, rocks, a bird, a cat, a deer, etc.). Only people with The Sight can see their real form (even when invisible) or when the creature wants to be seen. Some people might catch a glimpse of their real form from the corner of their eye or during trauma or in dreams. Those are my thoughts on this.
Most if not all Vaesen have Enchantment which includes invisibility (Distort Vision, p.118 core book).
Q (CD): I really don’t like “Monster of the Week” type games where the monsters are invariably the characters’ enemies, and the adventures are resolved by combat with the monsters. So, in Vaesen, is it necessarily the case that the Vaesen are the characters’ opponents? Or rather, do the characters sometimes help the Vaesen? And where there is conflict, is this ever resolved by negotiation rather than fighting?
A (MH): In the core book, it tells you it's almost impossible to kill a Vaesen. In some cases, you must some how figure out the secret, secret method. That said, if you go toe to toe against one, a lot of your PCs will get broken. And there's a chance of a TPK.
I do think a number of the published scenarios do veer away from the above philosophy or at least forget to reiterate this and lack guidance for the GM. So, the default of kill the Vaesen is what happens. Even the scenario in the core book is a vanquish the Vaesen scenario. I wonder if it would have been better if the core book scenario was different and required some sort of deal making solution instead. Then that would illustrate the philosophy of the game better.
I've played in a variety of Vaesen games at online conventions run by various GMs and a fair number of them are kill the Vaesen (monster of the week). Very few are let's make a deal.
Q (CD): Thank you, that provides a different perspective to a lot of the answers here, and I’m really grateful for it. How difficult do you think it would be to alter the adventures so that a different (non-violent) resolution was possible?
A (MH): I'd start off with a scenario that doesn't require vanquishing the Vaesen to set the tone for the whole series you're running. The issue with the core book scenario, The Dance of Dreams, is that it's a vanquishing scenario and there's no way around it.
I would mix in Vaesen banishing/killing scenarios with others, but I'd start with a few non-vanquishing scenarios first, to help set the mindset of the Players in your gaming group.
For how to alter the adventures, the problem is when the PCs figure out which Vaesen it is, they're given the "cheap" ritual to banish it. So, they think that's the only solution. Maybe make it harder for them to identify the Vaesen, so they'll need to get eyes on it or talk to it to differentiate it from the whole hosts of what it can be, so they must talk to it. Don't let them do a Learning roll until they know "enough," which is up to the discretion of the GM. When roleplaying a Vaesen, think about what it wants and why it's unhappy and what would be satisfactory to it. Some Vaesen are not reasonable, some are vengeful for the wrong that was done to them. A number may require punitive damages in addition to compensatory redress before they back off.
Some Vaesen are powerful and they know it and are unreasonable. In one scenario, my PCs asked a powerful Vaesen to remove a curse (from a different Vaesen) from one of the PCs. The PCs were willing to do a one-for-one trade to remove the curse. My Vaesen required a three-for-one and didn't budge. Eventually, the PCs gave the Vaesen three NPCs (to be entranced as its slaves) to remove the curse from one PC.
Q (MH): I find that having the PCs do a Learning test to uncover which Vaesen it is and to figure out the required Ritual seems anti-climatic and too easy. Is there a better way to do this?
A (MH): My experienced investigators try to narrow down what possible Vaesen fit the mystery even before they leave Upsala by looking through The Society's library. After a successful Learning test, I hand out a list of known Vaesen that fit the known parameters. So, instead of giving the exact Vaesen, I give a list of possibilities.
Some GMs hand out the Vaesen Custom Card Deck and let the Players flip through the cards, or hand out a subset of the cards. The only issue is that this isn't an exhaustive list of Vaesen and if the Vaesen is new or unique, you won't have a card for it. Some people hand out the Johan Egerkrans art book. But you run into the same problem if it's not in the book. Though, I would say that the cards and the book are the Vaesen that The Society has documented, so if it's totally new, then they might have to do research locally to uncover what exactly the Vaesen is and the required Ritual.
Once the PCs narrow down the Vaesen to the most likely suspect, I tell them the Ritual associated with it. I just tell them, "When you had looked up the possible Vaesen earlier in the library, you remember (or had written down) the specific Ritual for this Vaesen. It was ..."
I've played a few Vaesen games and I'm sort of on the fence about the game. So, I decided to immerse myself in the game to see if I really liked the game. The verdict is thumbs up!
After the lottery, I got into 4 games, and soon, I got into 2 more games via waitlist. I turned one game down, so someone else would get a chance to play. I played in 5 games over 3 days. All the games were fairly good and I had a good time.
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The silk road city of Samarkand. A man that disappeared from a locked room. A mystery that will risk the lives of the
investigators and delve into the mysteries of the Djinn.
I enjoyed this game because there was lots of information to put together through investigation. Lots of history and Arabian Nights lore. The GM did have to speed up the game in some parts to get us to finish on time, so the ending was rushed. I'd say this game has a high level of complexity.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The scenario is pretty complex. There's various things you need to find out from various sources to figure out what's going on.
There are various factions: Moon cultists, the Emir, Reactionaries. There are lots of locations and lots of NPCs.
Moon cultists were infultrating and taking over Samarkand. Their goal? The revival of Tamerlane's spirit and a new world empire. After visiting numerous locations and speaking to NPCs, we learned that djinns were wary of beads, teeth of an ass, and bones. So, we loaded up on these things. There was also a warning of Beware of the Tune, so we got wax ear plugs. Cultists were also everywhere watching us, following us, and finally trying to capture or kill us.
A person possessed by Tamerlane's spirit can turn into Riders of the Red Sand. They can turn into a pile of blood red sand in order to escape or avoid capture.
There were clues that the cultist HQ was the Stone Bridge and a fort complex underneath it. A ritual was going to happen in 4 days, at the full moon.
We got there early, faced the cult leader and cultists. He played a musical instrument that called up a djinn. We smashed the musical instrument and freed the djinn which turned on him. We entered the fort and freed the simurgh and all the other captured djinn inside. (This was a bit rushed because we were in the last 1/2 hr of the game.)
What was neat was all the history we got about Tamerlane, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan. We also got great lore about djinn and simurgh. The complexity of the scenario was also a big plus, but due to its complexity, it probably takes more than 4 hours to complete in a proper version of the game. GM admitted that some of the obstacles and combats were either removed or shortened so that we could finish the game on time.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
May 5 (Fri) 5 - 9pm (4 hrs)
Hope is a Sad Thing
GM: Diesel (Diesel#9263)
4 Players: Morgan Hua (Aleksander of Ingrid Backlund - Occultist), WishMoon (Rek Jaeger - Hunter), Puddy_R (Captain Magnusson - ex-sailor), Calijah (Erik Forsmark - Priest)
Tags: Ages 21+, Suicide, PvP, grief, Possession, Blood and gore.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
The Society is called upon to investigate a mysterious cabin, one where older members of the Society traveled to and
never returned.
Overall, I liked this scenario. It's designed to be deadly, so the GM warned us and told us not to use long running PCs as it could lead to PC death. That said, Captain Magnusson came out of retirement to join the adventure. What a brave soul.
A fairly simple scenario. But very scary.
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I took a pre-gen who was an Occultist with a crystal ball. So in the introduction, I let everyone else introduce their characters first, then I showed that I was spying on everyone with my crystal ball and taking notes.
When Linnea Elfeklint visited us, she asked if we knew why she was there and I, being a smart ass, looked at the scenario description and blurted out that I had a vision of a mysterious cabin. 😊
Linnea told us that 40 years ago, four of her companions went to the cabin and disappeared (with the cabin). She asked us to look into it and find out what happened to her friends. We looked up records in the society and found out that the cabin appears and vanishes randomly in time and space. Society members who investigated it never returned.
Captain Magnusson wanted to have a connection with someone in the same forest as where the mysterious cabin had shown up, but he failed his roll, so there was going to be some toll associated with it. When we went there to speak to his connection, he warned us not to mention the scar across her face as she's sensitive about it. We found her chopping wood outside of her cabin and her back toward us. He spoke to her and when she turned around both her eyes were freshly cut out with bloody Xs. That was a great moment. Somehow she could still see without her eyes and she seemed enthralled by the cabin and told us she couldn't explain it, but we had to see it for ourselves. It was all so creepy and unsettling. I immediately asked if we could buy some firewood from her. I wanted to burn that mysterious cabin down from the outside.
When we got to the mysterious cabin, just at nightfall, it seemed innocuous enough. It was just a single room windowless cabin. Well shit, nothing to be scared of at all. So, I opened the door and it was bigger on the inside than the outside. Inside was a grand manor. Once inside, we found 4 envelopes with invitations to visit with each of the 4 missing Society members in various rooms of the house.
We went to the smoking room first. The Society member who hadn't aged at all, wanted to give us a gift, bugs that wanted to crawl into our ears. After a fight, Aleksander deflated her skin balloon which held multitudes of bugs, the swarm of bugs flooded us and got us infected.
The entrance was now sealed and there was no exit.
Then we went to the dining room and found a dead Society member stabbed to death. In the kitchen was another dead Society member, but he animated and spoke to us, telling us bits of information and that we needed to talk to the big boss before we could leave. These 2 scenes lacked the creepiness and fright level of the smoking room. Maybe one lull scene was ok, but two in a row defused the tension too much.
The ballroom was the grand finale. We met the last Society member who offerred us a deal. He would rewind time and undo our greatest regret, cure us of the ear bugs, and let us go. We only had to accept. The ballroom was full of mannequin-like Society members from various decades. They were dancing before we arrived. The big boss said that these were people who turned down his offer. Yeah, when a deal is too good to be true, it's not a good deal. We turned down the deal. I also stated that without my trauma, I would not be a Society member and all the good I did after my trauma would be wiped out also. With our rejection of the offer, Angel wings came out of the last Society member and he shed his human skin. I had an oh-shit moment: Did I just turn down an offer from God? Then his horrible visage was revealed and the Devil proceeded to attack us. Rek (shot the Devil to no effect) and Eric (sacrificed himself to buy us time to escape) died. Magnussen and Aleksander (gained a permanent frozen facial injury and was just short of being physically broken) were able to escape through the entrance that had reappeared.
Aleksander decided to join the priesthood with the devil whispering in his ear (the ear bug) forever.
The beginning was very scary and creepy. A number of us didn't want to enter, but Rek (this is sort of annoying) pushed Aleksander and Captain Magnussen into the cabin against their wishes. So, kudos to the GM for making it terrifying. The grand finale was also very satisfying.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
May 6 (Sat), 11am - 3:30pm (4.5 hrs, went over by 0.5 hrs)
Thursday's Children; Friday Morning
GM: Chance Boon (Chance#1736)
4 Players: Morgan Hua (Moses Westmark - Entertainer), Michael C (Baxter Faire - Hunter), ComteDeGuido (Sterling Masters - Servant), myrtheus (Elias Dulmoore - Occultist).
Tags: Ages 21+, strong content, Death, Course Language
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
It sounded easy enough...something had been luring the children of Immel into the woods at night...in the morning,
they would be found in the same clearing. Scrapes, bruises, no memory of the night, but mostly unharmed.
This happened every 10th day, for the last 11 weeks.
It was decided that a group would be sent out to investigate, but 10 days later the people of Immel found the group in
the very same clearing...in far worse shape than the children...
I enjoyed this scenario. The complexity of the mystery is moderate.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The scenario was of moderate complexity and fit in the four hour timeframe.
The obvious thought is some sort of Pied Piper or Fae influence.
After lots of investigating, we figured out that the children were actually being protected every 10 days. The Society members who had died were outside of the fairy circle. The children were inside, dreaming sweet dreams, safe and sound. One of the NPCs was called a babysitter, so at first we thought she was babysitting the birthed thing of evil. After more information, we realized she was babysitting the town's children.
We finally figured out that the creature was a Weird that was insubstantial and only was killable when wet. To banish it, we had to cleanse the pool of water where it was created with oak ash. Of course, in the final showdown, we had to fend it off while cleansing the pool. We thought the Hunter would be best against the creature, but the Servant punched the hell out of it, dealing more damage to the creature with his fists than the Hunter with his gun.
As an afterthought, I'm not sure why there's a 10 day cycle for the Weird since the children are only protected once every 10 nights.
Various NPCs had the tendency to jump out of nowhere (screaming plot point), but other than that, I enjoyed the scenario. The pacing was pretty solid.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
May 6 (Sat), 5 - 9pm (3.5 hrs, we finished 0.5 hrs early)
God of the Gaps
GM: Diesel (Diesel#9263)
4 Players: Morgan Hua (Johann Ludwig - Doctor), Puddy_R (Dr Mysterio - Entertainer), Śraddhāpa (Geir Hansen - Doctor), Rain of Terra (Ingen - Entertainer)
Tags: Ages 21+, strong content, Harm to children, grief.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
The Society is called upon by Upsala officials to investigate something that should never be lost: Upsala's new train
system has lost a train on its maiden voyage.
A fairly simple premise, but we floundered trying to figure out a solution.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The premise is pretty simple, a train with 50 people disappeared during the grand opening. Various prominent people were on the train.
So we followed the tracks, when we entered the train tunnel underneath a bridge, we were asked the question, "Trade?" When offered minor things, the Vaesen got angry and punished us. After giving the Vaesen a suitcase of gold, it released one train passenger. A goat, one train passenger. But it was not interested in a second goat.
After some research, we confirmed it was a Bridge Troll.
We were at a loss as to what to do. We argued about Troll relocation. Troll extermination. Troll appeasement. Tricking the Troll. We spent too much time discussing what to do.
We discovered a prominent person had made a Trade of the train and all its passengers just as the train entered the tunnel. The passengers and train were now all in a fae pocket universe. The Troll was slowly consuming their life force.
Eventually, we found a ritual that would open a gateway back to our space, but the cost was human sacrifice. So, we found a willing victim at a hospice and traded him, Johann, and Geir to the Troll. While in fae, the PCs opened an escape portal. Geir sacrificed himself, distracting the Troll as the passengers escaped. Geir tried to be as humane as possible, letting the victim have final words with his granddaughter -- one of the missing passengers, doping him up so he'll feel no pain, and Johann made the final cut needed for the ritual.
After the passengers were saved, Johann made sure they knew which prominent person was responsible for their plight. As an epilogue, thugs hired by one of the surviving passengers kidnapped that prominent person and had him thrown into the tunnel. "Trade!"
Geir's statue was also errected at the tunnel exit.
The pacing of this game was incredibly slow because we spent most of our time arguing about what to do.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
May 7 (Sun), 11am - 3pm (4.25 hrs, went over by 0.25 hrs)
Viktor Wikström, a promising young violinist, has been found dead under mysterious circumstances in his affluent flat
in Copenhagen. His name is known throughout the upper class and the music world of the city. A dear friend of Viktor
has enlisted the Society’s help in hope that they will get to the bottom of this.
I enjoyed this scenario. The complexity of the mystery is moderate.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
In the beginning we got information about three violinists. One to perform to sold out audiences, one who disappeared, and one who died. Our mission is about the one who died. In the end, we find that all three are connected.
This scenario had just the right complexity for a 4 hour game.
We find that Rolf and Finn (and their friends) take picnics in the cemetary and had inadvertantly attracted the interest of a Valravn. In exchange for music, it would aid the person it has attached itself to. Rolf and Viktor were rivals in the orchestra and the Valravn's power over a murder of ravens killed Viktor. Rolf, transformed into Bertram Black, is giving concerts.
In the end, we got the Valravn to loosen its control over Rolf by invoking memories of Rolf's sister Ida (Moonlight Sonata duets and her choker). And we cut a new deal with the Valravn. The Valravn can move on if given the heart of a living child. Dr Ludwig agreed to do so within 3 years. Dr Ludwig will be specializing in pediatrics.
I got both the Blade Runner Core Rules (2022, 240 pages) and the Starter Set box. Free League always have great looking books, but their rules organization and index is always a mess. As a GM, you'd say, "Oh yeah, I read that rule somewhere, now where is it?" You can never find it easily. The good news is Blade Runner is the first Free League core book where you can actually find things. Thank goodness.
The hardcover book has dark and glossy pages to showcase the moody art.
The setting is Los Angeles 2037. The first Blade Runner movie is set in 2019. The second movie was Blade Runner 2049, so the game is set between the two movies. PCs are all Blade Runners, but they can be either Human (1st movie) or Nexus-9 Replicants (2nd movie).
Blade Runners have the job of finding and "retiring" Nexus-8 Replicants and any rogue Replicant. There are 7 character templates: Analyst, Cityspeaker, Doxie, Enforcer, Fixer, Inspector, Skimmer.
The game is designed for 1 GM, 1-4 Players. For people used to having more players, this might be a problem. The PCs are also encouraged to split up, so their investigation goes faster. Their KIA (iPad communication and computing device) allows the PCs to update and communicate with each other when needed. I can see how 6 players might be too many as each pair of investigators would leave out 2/3 of the other players from the action. Too much downtime (not to be confused with Downtime Events) for the players not in the scene.
The system uses polyhedral dice. One die for the Attribute, one die for the Skill. Base die is 1d6 and can go up to 1d12. On die rolls of 6+ = 1 success, 10+ = 2 successes. Roll both dice and count successes. Most of the time only 1 success is needed. 2 successes is a Crit in combat.
Fans of Free League games are complaining because they wanted to be able to make a mashup of Blade Runner and Alien RPG. Alien RPG uses a d6 dice pool, so the systems aren't compatible.
There are two types of Hit Points: Health (physical) and Resolve (mental). When you push a die roll, you can hurt yourself mentally or physically. Humans can push once, possible damage based on what type of skill they push. Replicants can push twice, but possible damage is always mental even when they push a physical skill. When either Health or Resolve goes to 0, the PC is Broken.
Physically Broken, a PC is down and out. Mentally Broken, there's a random chart. For Humans, ennui sets in and there's lack of motivation for further investigation. For Replicants, there's some sort of emotional breakdown and if noticed, they may be subject to a Baseline test. Failure of the Baseline test leads to recalibration and on a third strike "retirement."
Combat is deadly. Two successes = a roll on the Critical Injury chart.
Chases rules are also codified. Pursuer and Prey pick their Chase Maneuver from a list of available options and reveal their choices simulataneously (made easier with the cards from the Starter Set). Then a random obstacle is picked and that segment of the chase is resolved. Rinse and repeat until the chase is over. There are obstacles for foot, ground vehicle, and aerial vehicle chases.
Free League always seem to have a good grasp of what an IP (intellectual property) is about. For Blade Runner, it's about what makes you human. So, for longer term play, Players have to decide between Promotion points and Humanity points. You gain Promotion points by retiring Replicants and doing your job (solving cases). You gain Humanity points by doing nice things such as not turning in a harmless Nexus-8 Replicant.
The core book doesn't include a sample scenario. It does have advice and 8 random tables to help you generate your own scenario.
Starter Set
The Starter Set has a condensed rulebook (80 pages), large map of LA, 4 pre-gens, a scenario book (56 pages) - Electric Dreams (Case File #1), 26 scenario handouts, dice, and cards with NPC portraits, inititive, and chase options.
I've played the scenario Electric Dreams and I've run it twice. It took 2 sessions to play for a total of 6 hrs to complete the scenario. The amount and quality of the handouts is outstanding. The scenario is really well written. I did find a few things that needed clarification. I'll put that in the spoiler section.
One nit is that I looked for the Downtime Events chart in the condensed rulebook, but it is instead in the Electric Dreams case file, p.11-12.
I ran into organization issues in the scenario book. Information is spread out in different sections and is hard to find. You wind up flipping through the 56 pages over and over again, looking for stuff you swore you've read or knew must be in the scenario book such as stats for NPCs.
This is an amazing product and I highly recommend it. It does set a high bar for a scenario.
This is supposed to be the first case file in a set of 3. I'm eagerly awaiting Case File #2.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
One Player mentioned that there is no fluff in this game. The newspaper handout looks like standard newspaper articles, but you'll realize that even the ads are clues to the case. It's all tied together.
Of note is the pre-gen Percival and Leah have the same Incept Date. Also Percival's Key Memory is of a Leah dying. Lazy memory designer? Does Percival have some subconscious wish to save Leah this time? Also Percival may develop the same issues Leah has, straying from the baseline because he has traumatic Key Memories also. And is his implanted childhood memory of Leah the same girl as the photo found in Leah's apartment? Does Percival have a reaction when he see's Lilith's daughter Sarah? Interesting things to think about.
Lilith is the model for Leah and Dinah (Leah's Implanted Memory of a daughter). So, all 3 look like the same person, but at different ages. Sarah, Lilith's real biological daughter, also looks like Dinah. Lilith is pretty old to have such a young daughter, so it's possible that Sarah is a clone of Lilith. These are interesting ideas to play with.
The background on Dinah's picture has the same sky as Arcadia, found on the back of Handout R, the Offworld pamphlet. This drives Leah to want to go to Arcadia and incidentally with Sarah as her replacement Dinah.
Underground Replicants (p.39) don't have their information in the LAPD database, but for some reason Styles is in it (p.24) and Handout H (p.27). This may be the reason Sandor went after Styles at the Snake Pit. In two of the games, the PCs wanted to crack Sandor's KIA and see what he knew. I decided it would require LAPD authorization and a Tech roll to do it, probably requiring at least a shift, so the PCs would have to do some other investigating before they could open it up for examination.
Styles profile (p.17) states that he doesn't know where Leah is. That is not quite correct. He believes she is at the Safehouse whose location he knows. Storywise, she'll always leave to go on her mission to kill Lilith, even if the PCs get here before Countdown Event #5. If the PCs are here early, then they might have a chance of getting to The Memory Lab before Leah gets there.
I also wondered why Leah suddenly decided to kill Lilith. The clue is the Synth magazine with the article titled, Trauma Gives Control. While in the Safehouse, Leah read the article and it triggered her and she wanted to kill Lilith before she went offworld.
PCs also wondered if there was a database of bullet rifling for registered Blade Runner weapons. In reality there should be. If you do say it exists, then it would be too easy to link Sandor's death with Leah's weapon unless she used an unregistered weapon.
Both pre-gen Replicants carry PK-D FKM890 which only shoots Sonic Rounds. But Leah carries a PK-D 5223 Blaster (p.14). I didn't see this and made the mistake of saying Leah carried a PK-D FKM890. I also found it odd that one clue is that Leah visited Bullet Bob's Runner Surplus to buy .44 ammunition. Don't cops buy ammunition for shooting practice? Don't they have extra ammo on them for reloads? So why is this a clue? I guess this is to tell the Players that Leah bought a box of ammo after the shooting which means she wasn't kidnapped. This also means she never returned to her apartment to pick up her stuff which makes sense because she left her clothes, the framed picture, and the butterflies in her apartment. When my Players searched her apartment, I left all her things there, so they wouldn't immediately think she was on the run, but there was a chance she was kidnapped. This also makes me think there should be boxes of ammo in her apartment whether she has a registered or unregistered PK-D 5223 Blaster.
I also added some extra details to Sandor's body. If you look at the picture of The Snake Pit, the mirror looks like it got hit at head height, so the bullet must have travelled upwards through Sandor's body to strike the mirror at that height. Sandor was killed by a single bullet that went through his heart. So, I made the entry wound about waist high, travelling upwards, through the chest and heart, and exiting out through his side. Sandor was facing the stage and Leah held her gun at waist level, muzzle at an upward angle, and shot Sandor. Holding the gun this way, close to her hip helped conceal the gun from casual observers. If Leah had an unregistered Blaster, did that mean she pre-meditated the murder of Sandor? She knew Sandor was looking for Styles at The Snake Pit. Wouldn't Sandor notice Leah's change of weaponry? Unless Leah had already switched weapons earlier and lied to Sandor about why she changed weapons. She could have said she wanted better stopping power.
Did Leah buy her unregistered Blaster from Bullet Bob's or Doc Badger's? I assume from Bullet Bob's. I doubt Doc Badger's would sell illegal firearms in the open. And Leah, being a Blade Runner can legally buy an used PK-D 5223 Blaster from Bullet Bob's without any questions.
PCs at the Snake Pit also questioned if there were bouncers there and if there was security video. There probably should be bouncers, but the big group of Anti-Replicant hecklers was too much for them to handle or Taffey Lewis is too cheap to hire more than one and maybe Styles unofficially works as the bouncer. There was no security video because what happens in the Snake Pit stays in the Snake Pit. I decided that once in a while there was some Anti-Replicant action, but it was always one or two guys who just get thrown out. This time KILL magazine organized a protest. Not only that, they had some people on the outside to take photos just in case the riot boiled out in to the street. One of these photos was used as the KILL magazine cover photo.
Two Animoid Row Vendors (p.45), Abdul Ben Hassan's Reptiles and Runciters Zoological aren't on the map. There are also various shops on the map (p.42-43) that aren't in the directory. Also note that there's a Metrokab waiting area on Animoid Row, so there must be a taxicab stand for the busy area near the Metrokab waiting area.
In one run, the PCs chased Styles and another N-8 who disappeared in Animoid Row. They had slipped into the The Aurelian's Shop. The PCs intuitively entered the shop and found them hiding in a supply closet and retired the N-8s. Aurelian fled the shop. Where does he go? The Safehouse.
Countdown Events (p.10) #3, The Wallace Hit Squad (p.19). I found this timing a bit rushed. Depending on how the scenario plays out, you may want to delay this. When the PCs visited The Memory Lab a second time, I decided a kill team was there staking out the place and had seen Leah enter (I moved her event #5 up and have it happen earlier). They were waiting for Leah to exit to grab her, but the PCs arrived and the kill team decided to act and get both Leah and the PCs at the same time. Two birds with one Ender Assault Rifle as it were. What was interesting was that the PCs thought the kill team was from KILL magazine. So, that could be an interesting twist. What made the Players think that was because Quell was impossible to read and she didn't make any obvious threats. Storywise, without any foreshadowing that Quell would act, it's impossible for the Players to know that they're on a ticking clock and their lives would be in jeapordy. But Quell would never show her hand for plausible deniability. I did tell the PCs several times through Deputy Chief Holden that Wallace Corp was breathing down his neck to solve the case as a hint to the Players.
The Moonbus probably goes to a lunar spaceport or docks with an interstellar spaceship after leaving Earth.
Missed Dues and Blackwater Creek (CoC 7e, 2016, 80 pages) are two scenarios that are included with the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen Pack which includes GM screen, scenarios booklet, character sheets, and 3 maps: Arkham, Lovecraft Country, Earth.
I have the 2015 KS edition of this, so there may have been some changes. My copy of the scenarios has 93+ pages and also a Keeper Reference booklet (22 pages), and color maps of locations from the scenarios in the Keeper Rulebook.
You have an option of either using the pre-generated mobsters or using existing PCs. There are no pre-gens of regular investigators of university professors and librarians. You can use the pre-gens from the QuickStart or some of the other published products such as the CoC Starter Set or Doorways to Darkness.
I played Blackwater Creek and ran Missed Dues, in both instances the PCs were mobsters. I do want to say that as mobsters, there are viable solutions to scenarios that law abiding citizens would never attempt. It's sort of fun to have no qualms about murder, intimidation, or blackmail. So, some scenarios with mobsters as PCs have an easier solution than with law abiding citizens.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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Missed Dues
Time Period: Oct 1922
Location: Miskatonic University, MA
Pages: 37
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: 6 mobsters
Hook: "Sticky Jack" Fulton did a job on the sly and didn't pay the mob their percentage. It's been a week and now he's missing. Find him and get the missed dues.
I ran this with mobsters, but not the pre-generated ones. I was running a series of mobster scenarios, changing the hook for various published scenarios, giving them a mobster slant. So, they used their pre-existing PCs.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The Plot: You don't have Jack's home address, so look for Jack's apartment. After a few twists and turns you find it. Inside is a house of unspeakable madness. Get out alive.
The Bad Guys: Cultists, crazed woman, Servitors of the Outer Gods, Azathoth.
A pretty simple scenario. It all depends on where the PCs go to find Jack. There's lots of locations where you can get his address. Eventually, PCs enter the apartment and things are really messed up in there with various scenes of horror. One door leads to outer space and the Outer God Azathoth. This could lead to a TPK or permanent insanity.
When I ran this, I gave a few clues, like the sound of unearthly piping coming from the other side of the door. The door was more than ice cold. I had a split party, so I think only two PCs decided to open the door. One went insane. The other closed the door and fled. The other PCs were in other parts of the apartment looking for Jack and found their own horrible tableaux.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Blackwater Creek
Time Period: Sept 1926
Location: rural Massachusetts (can be tied to Miskatonic University scenarios)
Pages: 49
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: 6 mobsters Mobster Hook: Bootleg whiskey is being made out in the boonies. Find the makers and cut a deal with them.
MU Hook: Prof Roades and his wife are missing. The rest of the archaeological expedition has returned from the dig site. The new school year is about to start, see if Prof Roades is ok.
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The Plot: The whiskey is made with corn tainted with corrupted water. Deal with either the source of the corrupted water or with the bootleggers.
The Bad Guys: The Sheriff (if you're mobsters), bootleggers, tainted locals, crazed pig, Shapeless Mass, Embryonic Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, The Womb of the Mother.
This scenario has a lot of NPCs and various creepy things and events all over the place. The more you investigate and interact with the locals, the more horrible things you'd find.
I think this scenario might be better if normal investigators were used. We used mobsters and the instant we got our hands on the tainted booze, we decided to leave, abandoning the scenario early. The problem was Jimmy, the boss's kid brother, wanted to investigate more, but everybody else wanted to skedaddle. My character Lenny automatically backed his brother Mickey. And Mickey wanted to leave. I was willing to back Mickey up, up to and including shooting Jimmy and blaming the bootleggers who we had already murdered for his untimely death. After seeing how it was, Jimmy did the smart thing and decided taking the formula for the booze and cases of the product was all we needed.
Meta-wise, I knew there was more to the scenario (and so did the Player who ran Jimmy), but we abandoned the scenario. I think the GM should have played it out a bit more because even with the booze, we'd find out we can't replicate the addictive effect of the tainted booze and we'd have to return to the farm and investigate more. So, maybe with better handling, playing mobsters would still work out.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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Hope's Last Day (Alien RPG core book, 2019, p.368)
Pages: 16
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: 5 terraforming colonists, Space Truckers
Hook: PCs return on a maintenance run and find things amiss at Hadley's Hope.
This is a great introductory scenario. It runs exactly like an Alien movie.
The time frame is two weeks before Ripley with the Colonial Marines arrive at Hadley's Hope.
The PCs return from a routine maintenance run and find everything has gone to hell.
This scenario takes about 4 hours to run, perfect for a convention time slot. I've run this about 12 times already. It's really the 3rd act in a full scenario.
I was introduced to this game with this scenario, I love this scenario.
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This scenario is pretty basic. Find out things have gone to hell at the colony, get the key card to unlock the shuttle, get onboard, get off planet. It's survival horror.
I start the PCs at the West Lock, explaining that decades of terraforming has made the atmosphere breathable. No IRC Mk.50 Compression Suit is needed and they didn't have any because they didn't need them for their job. It's just a bit chilly and dark. Their Daihotai Tractor broke down and they had to hoof it back. PCs can role play "What's the Story, Mother?" handout for background information or they can just read it. I also downplay the snake-like Xeno, saying that it's just another bug hunt. Colonists have run into and taken care of other bugs on other planets before. No big deal. I also ask the Players if their PCs have family or a significant other at Hadley's Hope, they've been there for years. Most gamers say, "No."
Daihotai Tractor
Since the PCs have lived on Hadley's Hope for several years, if not decades, they know the facility like the back of their hands. So, I hand out the maps for everything. Some Players have problems initially reading the maps. The black boxes and rectangles are rooms and hallways on your current level. The white boxes and rectangles are rooms and hallways on either the level above or below your current level.
3D perspective view of Hadley's Hope
There are a few odd things on the map. The PCs arrive at the West Lock but the first thing you'll notice is there's a ladder. It goes nowhere. I believe it's an error on the map and shouldn't exist. The next thing is that there are ladders going through several levels that need to be mapped out. Players need to know which ladders give them access to which levels.
Ladder Locations Annotated
The North Gate Wall is a jet blast deflector for the spacecraft landing pad.
The scenario has an announcement over the intercom that repeats and then gets cut off, but I prefer one of those annoying automated messages that repeats forever on a loop until it's shut off. I tell the PCs that emergency messages like that come from the Command Centre. I don't do the gunshot and scream (p.375 Kicking Off the Action), but I still increase their stress due to the emergency message.
There are Hidden Xenomorphs (p.375) throughout the facility, but I found it easier to have them marked on the GM map so that I'd remember where they're located. Otherwise, you'll forget when the PCs walk by their location.
Sublevel Areas (p.381) tunnel to Processor 1 is barricaded, but there should be an active Sentry Gun posted there on the other side of the barricade (as per Aliens (Special Edition) 1986). The tunnel is south of the Maintenance Offices on Sublevel 1.
If the PCs go the Vehicle Bay, I tell them all the vehicles are gone. They see various personal items left behind in a hurry from people evacuating the facility. There's an abandoned teddy bear that's been run over by a vehicle.
p.382, The Escape. I found that having one Facehugger per PC/NPC is a bit overkill. I prefer that the Xeno from the North Lock and/or Billy's Bar track them as they get to the Shuttle, then as they fight off a Xeno, franticly unlock the shuttle, and try to climb onboard, a few Facehuggers scamper down the access hatch and attack those not engaged with the Xeno. If the PCs do get onboard, just when they think it's safe, if anybody is infected, this is when the Chestburster comes out.
I found if you have too many Xenos, you start repeating Signature Attacks and it gets boring. You need to keep the number of Xenos low, so the Signature Attacks vary. If you keep on rolling the same Signature Attack, just pick a different one.
When Sigg does his Analysis on Xenos, I shy away from explaining exactly what's going on. I even give some disinformation that's more reasonable, such as the variety of Xenos they're running into might be due to the terraforming waking up the local fauna and the Xenos are just different lifeforms on the planet vs the less than believable lifecycle. That would explain the commonalities such as acid blood, exoskeletons, and lack of eyes.
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Chariot of the Gods (Starter Set, 2019) Pages: 52
Run Time: 3 sessions
Pre-Gens: 5 Space Truckers (for 3-5 players)
Hook: Crew of the USCSS Montero, a starfreighter, wake up to find they're not where they're supposed to be.
I've played in this twice and ran it twice. The first time I played it, it was finished in a 4 hr session, but it was an earlier version from the first printing of the core book. The second time I played it, we killed all our backup characters before they were activated, so we finished in 2 sessions. Both times when I ran it, it took 3 sessions.
This game is a nice slow burn. PCs wake up on their ship and start to figure out things aren't quite right.
It's a nice scenario. I like how Free League constructs their scenarios. They give you mandatory events that the GM must run and various optional events to add flavor or to tweak the pacing of the game. If the scenario has locations, they have detailed text for each location. The events are also separated into three Acts. Once an Act is over, unused events are discarded. Usually, the last Mandatory event in an Act closes that Act.
The marker tokens included in this set are large and are only useful for marking which zone a PC is in, multiple tokens in the same zone are generally stacked. It's not for any tactical use. The same tokens are used for Destroyer of Worlds and Heart of Darkness.
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This is the exact setup as Alien (1979). But instead of going to LV-426, they run into the USCSS Cronus, a derelict science vessel.
The science vessel has been in shutdown mode for 75 years. The ship picked up the black goo from Prometheus (2012) and things went horribly wrong. Surviving crew members are in cryochambers. Throughout the ship are subtle and not so subtle evidence of violence aboard the ship. The crew did develop an inoculation against the black goo, but it has side effects.
There are several ways to get on the the Cronus. First the Montero has to match the velocity and spin of the Cronus. The two choice ways of getting onto the Cronus is either using the Daisy (p.8 USCSS Montero, Cargo) or the Umbilical (p.8 USCSS Montero, Passageway Umbilical). So far, no one has ever picked a spacewalk.
WY-37B Flatbed Cargo Lifter Shed "Daisy"
Without power, the Vehicle Bay ramp on Deck D will not open. If the PCs are ingenious enough, they can probably figure a way to temporarily override the door system and power it from outside, using the Daisy's power system. Doing this will decompressurize Deck D. Loose objects, such as two ATVs, will come tumbling out. Possibly requiring a Piloting roll to avoid them (p.28, Deck D, Vehicle Bay, Garage).
All airlocks are either welded shut or damaged. The airlock door on Deck A, Junction A-1, is the easiest to attach to the umbilical (p.20 Deck A, Cryo Deck, Main Airlock, Junction A-1).
Players noticed an airlock door on Deck C, next to Junction C-1. It is actually an elevator platform that lowers to the planet surface, but it is out of order (p.26, Deck C, Cargo Deck, Junction C-1).
When the PCs come onboard, the Cronus is basically a popsicle stick with some emergency power. They need to bring the reactors back online to power up the ship and engines running. Due to the cold, the PCs will be wearing IRC Mk.50 Compression Suits with a limited Air Supply (p.10, Gear on the Montero).
These suits are cumbersome. They're not comfortable, mobile, nor easy to work in. The whole goal is to have the PCs run out of air before they fix up the Cronus. Once the Cronus starts defrosting, the frozen bits of black goo, spores, and Xenos start becoming active. Then it becomes a race between fixing the ship, getting infected, fighting off Xenos, and questioning the Cronus crew.
PCs will try to refill their Air Supply. I think it may take some work to hot swap the air supply canisters, if they can be removed at all. They might have to be recharged in place. e.g. hooked up to a recharge system. Remember, the Cronus has been drifting for a long time. I decided any recharge station had already leaked their air and won't be operational until the ship is powered up and the air filters scrubbed.
To prevent the PCs from just abandoning the Cronus, the Montero will self-destruct. While exploring the Cronus, there's always a PC that decides it's safer to stay on the Montero. Wait until the countdown happens. The only way to save the crew is to pilot the Montero away from the disabled Cronus. Whether the pilot survives or not is up to various die rolls. The good news is that some of the Cronus crew should be available as a backup character.
I forced my PCs to enter the Air Scrubbers Shaft from the upper levels via an Air Duct. It starts off frozen, but once it starts thawing, it's like that dark room with chains and dripping water in the movie. Cleaning the filters may require either harsh chemicals or a flame unit. If the Egg Sacs aren't a challenge enough, you can send a Xeno after them.
At some point, events will overwhelm the PCs and they'll probably have to abandon the Cronus also. Some may survive on a hidden EEV pod.
There's an optional use of the USCSS Sotillo, a group of space pirates. I found it odd and never used them. I've hinted at their existence, just in case I needed another set of replacement PCs, but it's really odd to bring them into Act 3.
Someone asked, "How did you decide what the 26 Draconis inoculation did?" CoTG p.5, Mother's Note. 95% it turns you into an Abomination. 5% it doesn't work and you turn into a Neomorph (this happens to Cooper, he didn't take the inoculation). The crew in Cryo were all inoculated except for Cooper. I'd assume the rest would turn into Abominations. If you want to roll dice, roll d66: 11-64 Abomination. 65-66 Neomorph.
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Destroyer of Worlds (box set, 2020)
Pages: 90
Run Time: 2-3 sessions
Pre-Gens: 7 Colonial Marines (for 3-5 players)
Hook: Colonial Marines sent to capture 4 AWOL marines.
I've played this once and ran it twice. When I played it, it took 3 sessions. When I ran it, it took 3 sessions and 2 sessions.
PCs are on a frosty moon, almost ready to deploy to fight the UPP on 61 Cygni, then they get pulled to do MP (Military Police) work.
I just find it odd that with fusion reactors that can terraform a planet, FTL drives, etc., they're still using petrochemicals. Maybe they need it for plastics.
The pre-gens are marines and the chain of command is: Gen (General), Col (Colonel), Maj (Major), Capt (Captain), Lt (Lieutenant), WO1 (Warrant Officer), GySgt (Gunnery Sergeant), Sgt (Sergeant), Cpl (Corporal), PFC (Private First Class), Pvt (Private).
If Chariot of the Gods is Alien, then Destroyer of Worlds is Aliens (1986).
Act 1, PCs are sent on a fool's errand to capture the 4 AWOL marines. It actually doesn't matter if the PCs find or capture them. It's a MacGuffin to explore locations on the moon. All that matters is that the PCs figure out that the AWOL marines were infected (with Chestbursters) and later inoculated with the serum from Chariot of the Gods. W-Y, UPP insurgents, and the PCs are all after the AWOL marines.
Act 2, UPP invade the moon. PCs thought they missed out on fighting the UPP? Well, the UPP came to them! An EMP blast happens before a fullon military assault happens. As the USCMC is overwhelmed, Oil-Eater bacteria are released in a scorched earth tactic. PCs either continue with their mission or decide to return to Fort Nebraska. This Act is can be pretty short.
Act 3, Escape the moon. Black goo bomb hits the city. Xenos from the Fort escape containment. People transformed by the black goo rampage everywhere. PCs figure a way to get into Fort Nebraska, fix and get on the space elevator. Before they leave, there's just one more thing, set off the nukes in the Fort. Of course, the Xeno Queen is hidden in the cargo bay of the space elevator for one final surprise fight.
The scenario leaves it up in the air as to who used the black goo bomb, but I heard that in the Colonial Marines book that question is answered.
If Players get to peruse the character sheets before picking, Chaplain's character sheet gives too much away to the other Players. I'd heavily edit the second paragraph and add a "Possible Malfunction" card with information about Jaell (the second paragraph). Add the card reference to the character sheet, just like Mason has for the "Outbreak on Yaophora Station" card.
I found most of the Agendas cards were weak sauce. When I ran it, I handwaved it as: Easy, free Story Points, needed for later. If I ran this again, I'd probably redo most of them and make them more interesting. I'd probably add more Story cards too.
For unpicked PCs, I have them offscreen in support roles such as guarding the APC. That way, they can still be replacement PCs.
The scenario is built like a sandbox, but almost everybody goes to the Eye of Oblivion bar. Even though the text doesn't spell this out, it's a stripper bar. So far, no one has ever gone to the Spaceport.
One of the Act 1 Events, Have You Heard the Word? (p.54) references the short story, Space Beast. I could only find a copy of this booklet on the internet. It was a promotional item for a coffee table book. It's pretty terrible and is a retelling of Alien 3 from the viewpoint of the prisoner Robert Morse. Not much detail is given about the Xenos other than they're killing machines. The only reason I can figure that it's been banned is that it badmouths W-Y, putting full responsibility on them which creates a liability issue. Instead of using the promotional item, I'd make it more like a religious pamphlet where the Space Beast is here to test man's faith during the Apocalypse.
Most of the time, just using the Destroyer of Worlds booklet with the extra Colonial Marines rules and tables was all that was needed to run the game except for Other Hazards rules for Falling, Explosions, and Disease (p.74-75 Starter Kit Rulebook or p.108-109 core book). W-Y APEsuit (Suits and Armor, p.92 Starter Kit Rulebook or p.128 core book).
I found all 3 Acts pretty good, except for the Xeno vs Xeno fights in Act 3. What's more boring that watching two sets of Xenos fighting each other. I'd only give a hint by showing the two Xeno types fighting each other early on. Later, I would have one or the other type of Xeno be an obstacle for the PCs then they can decide if they want to lure the other type of Xeno into the fight as a distraction.
Of note is Fort Nebraska Sublevel 2. Munitions is probably ammo for small arms including cases of M-5 RPG Launchers. Ammo Depot is ammo for vehicle weapons such as APCs, Dropships, and Tanks. Nuclear Storage is what you use to nuke it from orbit. Both times, PCs used the ventilation shafts to enter this area.
When PCs get Broken, I had the Xenos drag their Broken bodies away to be cemented into the hive. This is pretty cool and very much on point with the movies. When a PC gets Broken, they're suddenly taken away, screaming, and the Xeno is gone too. It's sort of odd that the broken marines are packed into the Maintenance Pits, but I'd make that a non-exclusive area. They're cemented throughout the Reactor area, but a majority are in the Maintenance Pits.
Overall, this scenario is jam packed with cinematic action.
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Heart of Darkness (box set, 2022) Pages: 80
Run Time: 3 sessions
Pre-Gens: 7 Science Team Members and Space Truckers (for 3-5 players)
Hook: W-Y science team is sent to a space station orbiting a black hole to investigate a new life form. The space station uses prison labor.
I played and ran it, both times took 3 sessions.
PCs are a mix of contract scientists for W-Y and crew members from the ship that takes them to a space station. When they arrive all hell breaks loose.
This scenario is also very sandboxy. Lots of options for the GM to use when running it. And various options for Players when playing.
Like Chekhov's Gun, you know when you have a space station orbiting a black hole it's going to fall into it. Guaranteed.
The PCs are guest scientists and crew of a plasma tanker, the USCSS Cetorhina. The Cetorhina runs from Earth to Erebos Station, a plasma farm, loading plasma energy and rare elements as cargo, going to either Earth or the Frontier, offloading the cargo, and returning to Erebos Station in Draconis 26. The Cetorhina has done this 8 times in 6 years. Erebos Station is operated by prision labor and watched by a Warden and Corrections Androids. A black hole causes plasma streams to circle it like water down a drain. Erebos Station harvests the plasma. The proximity to the black hole causes accelerated NDD (Neurological Distortion Disorder), mental issues. Appropriately dispensed medication helps ameliorate these problems. W-Y probably pays hazard pay to the human employees and probably doesn't care too much if the prisoners go crazy. The prisioners here are high-risk lifers: violent gang members, organized crime figures, and terrorists.
Instead of bringing in prisoners and supplies this time, the Cetorhina is bringing a bunch of scientists. Sparkling xeno-life has been spotted in the plasma stream. The scientists are lured by lucrative contracts to study this new life.
I noticed Clerke's Clues (p.28), Weaponizing the Virus (p.34), and Deck C - Medlab (p.32) info is all spread out everywhere and needs to be understood by the GM before running, otherwise info will be skipped or missed. Clerke's Reports (p.29) are pretty fragmentary if you just hand them out piecemeal and make the PCs do a treasure hunt betwen terminals. A bit odd and I doubt the PCs would do that. I actually handed out all of Clerke's Reports in one go in the Medlab.
The Hessdalen Lights make more Perfected and so does the 26 Draconis Strain. So, I'm not sure why the Perfected want the 26 Draconis Strain. Maybe it works faster or lets them make a black goo bomb? The Hessdalen Lights need radiation to survive and the 26 Draconis Strain doesn't. So, maybe it's a better way to make more Perfected and has a higher survival rate.
In the game I ran, the Players mainly picked crew members of the Cetorhina, so they were focused mainly on fixing their ship, scavenging parts, and getting out of there.
When I played, the Players mainly picked scientists, so we were focused on discovering how the Xenos worked and how to kill them.
If you want to focus more on the prisioners. You can bring in more of the conflict between the Warden and the prisoners. My players never went to Deck H, so they never ran into the surviving prisoners. If you want more emphasis on the prisioners, you'll need to use more of their optional events and even put a few on other decks and have them take over sections of the space station. This is if you want a different feel in the scenario than what is written.
Act 1: At the start, I showed pictures of the black hole (scenario cover or box cover) and the exterior of Erebos Station (p.7) while reading out "What's the Story Mother?" (p.9). When the PCs arrive, docking port Terminal 2, Deck G will open up to them. As they try to dock, a gravity shear smashes the Cetorhina into the right side of Erebos Station, causing structural damage and plasma fires on Erebos Station (right side of Decks F, G, & H). Depending on how they pilot their ship, they'll crash into either Deck E, F, or H (p.16, Crash Location Chart). The accident will disable the Cetorhina until it can be repaired and separated from Erebos Station. Captain Lugar of the Cetorhina has been to the station numerous times, so she has some knowledge of the station's layout. To put out the fires, airlocks can be opened to vent areas out to space (p.26, Plasma Fire). PCs may have to go into the Chute, to shut the emergency doors between each floor (p.27, Emergency), before they open up the airlocks (p.38, Plasma Vent), otherwise they may space the whole structure. The emergency doors should close by themselves, but the crash and the plasma fire may have affected the mechanisms, and the structural integrity of the station. Exterior airlocks are all secured and would require ComTech rolls to open from the outside.
Act 2: Just as a Deacon Xeno is about to kill a PC, it is told to stop and the Perfected shows up with a deal. It wants the 26 Draconis Strain in exchange for what is most likely a bad deal. The PCs are directed to the Cheiron. Most PCs will go along with this just to have a truce with the Xenos. The Perfected cannot sense the Pilot (p.50). They want his infected blood. This is not made clear at all. PCs may be puzzled as to why the Perfected can't get this themselves. Or how the Perfected knows the 26 Draconis Strain is on the Cheiron. The only thing I can think of is that Perfect Aly (on Deck B, p.31) has some residual memory of hiding Lavigne in the hypersleep chamber and the Hive has finally figured this out and still can't find Lavigne and need the PCs to do this. A bit weak sauce, but the only thing I can think of that works.
By now I've asked for NDD and Radiation sickness checks. So far, nobody's suffered anything. I'm not sure if it's even worth asking for the die rolls, especially the Radiation checks.
The PCs never went to Deck B, so never ran into Perfect Aly. I actually think it'll be better to change it so that the first Perfect they run into is Perfect Aly, if Aly's grand niece, Lugar, is in play.
They did discover Asteroid 1113B (p.8 & p.34) and its collision course with the space station. Finding this out doesn't really matter other than it creates a ticking clock for either moving the space station or fixing the Cetorhina.
In both my play and run, the PCs didn't give the 26 Draconis Strain to the Perfected. The Players in the game I ran found the Ladder to the Ventral Aux Hatch and was able to sneak away, get the Power Cells from Cargo Bay 1 (p.18), use the EVA pods to transport the batteries back to the Cetorhina (got a 3 successes on Mobility, the sneaky bastard). They also used the EVA pods to get the Thruster Compression Coil (p.18) and cut away the Hive tendrils (originally they were going to cut the Cethorina free (p.18), but this takes a whole shift), so they decided to cut the tendrils and risk hull damage by pulling away from the space station (p.57).
One PC started working on Weaponizing the Virus (p.34), but it was too late. It takes a whole shift to do this. So, the PC packed up whatever he could and took it to the Cethorina.
Act 3: The PCs broke free of the space station and let it fall into the black hole. But it's not over yet, there's a Ninth Passenger (p.57). And the PC with the Virus lab decided to become Perfected and infected himself. There's no real rules for this, so I went with the Effects on p.70. Gave the PC the Fulfremmen Speed, Health, and Armor Rating. As crew members are snatched away by the Ninth Passenger, they're transformed into Xenos and the Perfected ordered them to take over the ship. In the end, only the Perfected and Adrien the cat were the last surviving PCs.
In the game I played in, one of the scientists switched the 26 Draconis Strain with the Weaponized Virus and gave that to the Perfected. My PC called the UPP for pickup and we got off the station.
When I played this, we mainly picked the scientists. When I ran this, the PCs picked were all the crew of the Cetorhina. Only when the PCs started dying did the scientists get picked as PCs, but the game turned out fine even though I was worried that there were no active scientists at the start of the game.
Overall, depending on what the Players are interested in or what the GM wants to emphasize, this scenario can be played with a specific focus. Though the scientist clues and clue trails are more developed. So, if you want a different focus, you'll have to pick events more in line with what you want to see happen and even create your own events.
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Here's my original review of the system and Q&As: Alien RPG Q&A
7/8 Saturday 8am-noon
7/8 Saturday 1-5pm
