[Other] [Alien RPG] Chariot of the Gods

[Nyx89]

Game Name [Alien RPG] Chariot of the Gods

Game System Other Roleplaying Games

Theme Space Horror, Sci-Fi Action, Sense of Wonder

Flavour In space, no one can hear you scream...

Plot Summary Hook The job was routine, the money fair. Then the damn company diverted you to answer a distress call from a ship that disappeared almost 80 years ago--a derelict carrying something bizarre, twisted, and alien. What the ship's frozen crew brought back with them was bad enough--what they themselves were turning into was a bloody nightmare. Add to that an annoying sensor ghost shadowing you in the void, and your stress level is shot. It's all a bit much. You don't get paid enough to deal with monsters. But hold your breath, count to three, and play your cards right with this one, and you just might walk away very rich. Oh, who am I kidding? You're all going to die. The Story You are space truckers on the starfreighter USCSS Montero, running "the Gauntlet" -- the trade route between Anchorpoint Station and the Frontier. Your ship's cargo hold is packed with dozens of tanks of dangerous Tritium gas that is in the process of decaying into extremely profitable Helium-3. Usually cargoes such as these are towed in massive tanker modules that transport much higher concentrations of the gas a safe distance from a freight hauler. The Montero isn't rated as a commercial towing vehicle, however, and this small run is a special order for a Weyland-Yutani corporate account on Sutter's World--a newly established Frontier colony. While the trip so far has been fairly routine, the Montero's sensors developed a glitch before you left Anchorpoint and sporadically pinged contact with a sensor reflection before you activated the displacement drive and went FTL. Your cargo run so far has been without incident. Now, you are just awakening from hypersleep, ready to deliver your goods to the colony of Sutter's World. About the Game / Character Applications So I have acquired the Alien RPG Core Rulebook and the cinematic scenario "Chariot of the Gods" and I would really like to DM this for some of you! Fair warning, from what I've read so far, this can be a pretty brutal game, and you can expect not everyone to survive. If your first character does happen to kick the bucket, don't worry, you'll be able to keep playing, creating another character that's still in hypersleep at the beginning of the game. However, to make things more dramatic, I'm only going to allow everyone one backup character so if all of those characters die, well, that's just the risk you'll all have to take! The cinematic scenario comes with pre-gen characters, but I don't really think it's fun to play a pre-gen character so instead you will be able to create your own characters but there will be a limit of 5 players and each player will get a separate role on the ship. Your character will also be assigned a "personal agenda" that goes with their role, and you will be able to acquire "Story Points" (like Inspiration) for how well you are able to role-play your character and how well they do in going after their goals. It doesn't matter if you've never played this before. I can explain all rules as we go along, and I will be able to walk you through character mechanics, but basically the system is a 2d6 system for the most part. You'll be able to assign your attributes and skills after you are selected as a player so please no rolling for anything in this thread. Ship Roles -Captain -Pilot -Company Agent -Engineer (Roughneck) -Medic Please note that unfortunately I will not be allowing a playable android for reasons which you'll find out later so everyone on the ship is human. To apply, please fill out the following, and if you have any questions please ask! I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. I'll reserve the first post for Q&A. Name: Age: Pronouns/Gender: Ship Role: Appearance: Personality: Brief Backstory: Were you born on Earth or in the Core Systems? Were you a colony kid? Did you grow up on a space station? Feel free to use this page for inspiration or planet/colony names if you are interested. Deadline for applications will be October 7th, just in time for spooky season!

[Nyx89]

Reserved for list of applications and Q&A

[Mitsubachi]

Application Name: Yumiko Sugihara Age: 25 Pronouns/Gender: She/Her/F Ship Role: Medic Appearance: See right Personality: Yumiko is bright, enthusiastic and diligent in her work - which really annoys the gruff space-truckers with whom she finds herself sharing this voyage. She is a little naïve, however, and does not quite understand all their crass jokes. She has planted a seed in a pot in her bunk room and is trying to nurture a small plant. Brief Backstory: Yumiko was born on Earth and grew up dreaming of the stars. She was a bright student and developed a passion for studying alien lifeforms and environments. Her masters degree at university is in xenobiology, and she earned the Albert Einstein Award for her thesis on, “Connected Interstellar Ecosystems.” After that, she was recruited by Weyland-Yutani as a scientist to research the suitability of alien planets for human life, genetic engineering in plants to survive in alien environments, and terraforming techniques. Yumiko is emotional and passionate about her subject (sometimes overly so; she is very inquisitive). Her secret wish is to find, communicate with, and befriend intelligent alien lifeforms. She has a belief in an interstellar “cosmic ecology” that binds all the creatures of the galaxy together. The reality of her appointment with Weyland-Yutani did not quite live up to Yumiko's expectations; she has been stuck in lunar modules trying to grow different kinds of fungi and has got nowhere near any alien planets (or real alien lifeforms) yet. But her background in biology meant she could take - and pass - examinations to become a junior doctor. So Yumiko started applying for any ship medic positions she could find that were going out of the Solar System. Eventually, she found herself on the USCSS Montero, and is finally heading for the frontier! Yumiko happily puts up with the rather basic accommodation (and her grumpy crewmates) on the promise of a terraforming research post on the frontier, once she gets to Sutter's World and she can pursue her dream...

[Vaynol]

Oooooo I've never played the Aliens game and I don't have the books, but I'm always game for something new. I'll see about getting something sorted for this one.

[cybersavant]

Which role you're applying to
pilot
Name, gender, age, birth place:
Mitchell 'Mitch' Ian Andras, male, 23¾, Born 2160 on colony world Vaesen - LV-636
Backstory and a character portrait:
The stars are the limit and they are limitless. You aren't content to keep your feet on the ground and on the Frontier, there's no need to. From starfighters to dropships, freighters to frigates, there's always something that needs flying and some aerospace-stunt that only you can pull off. You aren't in this for the money, although it doesn't hurt. You're a thrill-seeker and an adrenaline junkie. Danger is the rush you live for, but stay frosty. Otherwise, the next time you find yourself dodging through an asteroid belt or seeing the ground rush up to meet you might be your last.


Mitch finds comfort in the the cold embrace of space. The lighted-studded void more or a companion than fellow shipmates. He delights in flying ships, any ships. His past known only to himself. He chats well enough in small groups, after a time, but he isn't an instigator, more of a responder. Mitch drifts from contract to contract, crew to crew, ship to ship. Initially he spends the first few weeks almost alone, getting to know the new ship, becoming intimately acquainted with its nuances.

Mitch grew up on the sparsely populated colony world, LV-636 Vaesen. His father worked himself to death mining resources for the corps. His mother fared little better. In his early teens he found scrunge work in and around the spaceport; and there he availed himself of every opportunity to talk with the truckers and pilots, learning how to operate ships. In his late teens, after his father died, he hopped on with a maverick, a pilot, one James Bishop. Bishop took odd jobs and never asked questions. He had his own, small ship and no crew, until Mitch tagged along. Bishop exploited Mitch's natural talent and youthful inexperience. Mitch grew up fast, and once it was evident he'd gleaned all he could from the rogue, he jumped ship and started his wandering career.


str 3 agi 5 wit 4 emp 2
heavy machinery 1
ranged combat 1 mobility 1 piloting 3
observation 1 survival commtech 2

pilot – like the back of your hand

pilot shades
service pistol, compression suit

[Mitsubachi]

Huzzah! Glad to see Mitch.

[Vaynol]

Lance Fletcher Name: Lance Fletcher Age: 30 Pronouns/Gender: He/Him Ship Role: Engineer Appearance: Lance’s fairly rugged appearance at a surface level would be what you would expect from a ship’s engineer. Handsome in a rugged kind of way, he is not a person that pays particular attention to the way he looks. His short, cut hair frames a weather-beaten face and dark eyes that have shadows beneath them. Those eyes indicate that there is more going on with Lance than seems apparent at first glance — tired eyes that perpetually seem to have just a small hint of a lack of sleep about them. Personality: There is a simplicity in tending to machinery and engines that Lance prefers to dealing with people. They don’t speak back, they don’t argue, theirs is a simple sophistication that suits the quiet engineer right down to the ground. Lance has deliberately sought out work on the starfreighter USCSS Montero because it takes him away from a planet and a society that he doesn’t really identify with or see himself part of. Although he tries to shy away from company wherever he can, on an instinctual level Lance recognises the bond that each of the shipmates share and the fact that they all rely on each other. There is also a part of him that realises that this is essentially his last chance at making something of himself and so he does try to make an effort with others when the situation calls for it. The truth of the matter is thus: there are those precious few who have taken the time to truly get to know Lance who can attest to the fact that hidden underneath, this strangely tormented individual is more complex than they could possibly even begin to imagine, and this is a trait that manifests itself in the strangest and most random of ways. Brief Backstory: Lance doesn’t talk about his early past, save to say that although he hails from Earth itself, his time there is not filled with happiness or good memories. Of his true parents, Lance says nothing and what little can be gleaned from the things he does say about his past speak of a cold, sterile life lived with adoptive parents that cared little for him save for what they could use him for as he passed from childhood to teen life to adulthood having displayed an aptitude for mechanics and engineering. Perhaps said adoptive parents had found a way to rid themselves of what they perceived to be a burden. Regardless of the reasons why, when Lance enrolled from the college he had went to, and his adoptive parents had considered their role in his upbringing done and dusted, he left home. Wandering from place to place, never really staying in any one area for particularly long, Lance used his demonstratively useful abilities to forge a comfortable life for himself, if one could really call the existence he lived a life. The true problem with Lance is that there wasn’t a real purpose or direction that he had for himself, so essentially he was trapped in a day-to-day existence that, although allowed him to carry on going, was as empty and manufactured as the rest of his life. Fortunately, fate showed its hand in the strangest of ways, and Lance’s talents eventually brought him to the attention of Weyland-Yutani through word of mouth. For there, the rest is history, and events conspired to land him on the USCSS Montero, heading into deepest darkest space. A situation that does not displease him in the slightest.

[MrD]

Lance Fletcher Name: Kurt Weaver Age: 37 Pronouns/Gender: Sir/Cap/Boss/He/Him/Male Ship Role: Captain Appearance: Standing at 5' 9'', Full bearded. Always wears his lucky hat - Not that he feels he needs luck as everything in space is just a matter of numbers. Whilst company overalls are the uniform of the crew he isists on wearing his antique aviators jacket - something he won in the lottery and which apparently used to belong to some movie star back in the day. Personality: Anyone meeting Captain Weaver for the first time would probably decribe him as grizzled. After getting to know him for a while they'd probably add to that description as - set in his ways. "You don't get to be a ships captain if you can't navigate your way through all the red tape and bul***t the company tie everything up in". Weaver knows the importance of working with a good crew and while he doesn't ever admit it openly his current crew are about the best he's ever worked with. He keeps praise to a minimum as he doesn't want the crew to get soft and maintaining order usually precludes fratinisation. Always one to keep a cool head he's the one people turn to in a crisis. Brief Backstory: In it for the long haul. He's worked in shipping for most of his adult life. Qualifying as navigator right out of college he signed on with the company aged twenty two and after working core systems freight initially switched to deep space where the real money lies. Staying calm under pressure and and a knack with good decision making he rose steadily to the rank of captain. Initially he had plans to earn enough to buy a place on Titan near the great lakes and retire but as the years passed he found the ships he worked on became his home and the crews he worked with became his family. Eventually realization set in, a static life in a small home on titan was never going to be the life for him. Deep space was in his blood and the thought of giving it up filled him with dread. In one particular lucid, introspective, whiskey fueled, moment he realized he never wanted to leave and so he's in it for the long haul. He's no plans to do anything else. His company pension keeps growing and one day in the future the company may pension him off but for now he's happy doing what he does best - "Flying straight and shifting freight!".

[MrD]

I've DM'd the first Blade Runner scenario from FL and it was a blast. Very RP and not advised to start fights as it can be brutal but it made it really fun from an RP point of view. I've heard good things about this Aliens version as well.