Alien: Regression V1.0 Alien: Regression Anyone Who Keeps Reading Can Never Reasonably Play This As a Character

This is the commercial vessel [GARBLED] out of Nassau, registration number GSV-527R, calling the drifting section of Sevasto- [NOISE] ...rrying four passengers on a Weyland-Yutani bond. We hereby lay official claim to the wreck. Our recovery crew has full salvage authority [CHANNEL LOST]

[CHANNEL REACQUIRED] moving to dock. If anyone is on board, please prep- [NOISE] ...tricky approach. But we'll try to make it work. Brace for impact! Over.

[TRANSMISSION ENDS]

Alien: Regression v1.0 Alien: Regression Anyone who keeps reading can never reasonably play this as a character. This is a one-shot scenario with 6 The guiding principle for this design cooperative space horror game. An characters made for internal conflict. is Tension. With some preparation, expert will find many balls to throw Players win by completing their Assembly can happen while the game is around. Veterans can use it like Lego. mission objectives. It is a Closed played. It will bend to the needs of The wreck could be a whole station Game with secrets for a large group. the moment and create a unique spire. The Creature could be a individual experience where the Shoggoth. This is a toolkit. The GM selects one out of countless characters are caught between deadly Role Playing Systems and generates threat and murderous infighting. Players will discover a web of lies to the player characters to resemble the untangle, a place of dread to explore, Cast. The story is constructed This scenario structure is unusual. A and a Battle Royale all at once. roguelike from provided Plot elements, first time GM may find it overwhelming ideas for Challenges to roll against, to handle so much at once. Removing References at the bottom of each page and the Xenomorph. the missions could turn it into a nice link to all contents and back here.

Contents Canon 3 Relation to Alien universe Cast 4 Player characters Additional Secrets 12 Optional mid game escalation Plot 14 Story puzzle pieces Challenges 23 Things characters might do Xenomorph 25 The Creature Tension 29 Making it spooky Flavor 31 Making it taste just right Assembly 32 Making it come together Role Playing Systems 33 Thoughts on mechanics Last Words 35 As good a place to start as any Appendix 36 Lingo, names, lists, handouts

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 2 Canon

Knowledge of the media franchise is fun but not required. All every player needs to know is

This mission will probably be their last because they will discover a thing that kills better

Any survivors could make a lot of money

2122 Alien (1979) Xenomorph discovered on LV-426, Nostromo destroyed

2137 Alien: Isolation (2014) Sevastopol Station destroyed, Lab section adrift

2138 Alien: Regression (2018) (this scenario)

The mission is set in Zeta Reticuli, 16 involved. James Cameron's Aliens can be The stories of Ransome, Waits, and Lingard years after Alien, 6 months after Alien helpful for the life cycle and when dealing from Isolation have been inflated to just Isolation, and decades before Aliens. The with well armed PCs vs a wave of beyond what is implied in the game. The GM might rewatch Ridley Scott's Alien for Xenomorphs. things they did in their last hours could its themes and aesthetics. Everyone should. have happened like this, or not. A level Always. Alien: Isolation can be For managing suspense and trust like in has been added to the Map of the lab. It informative as this scenario relies heavily this scenario, Scott's Alien is the most condenses a lot of story opportunities into on it for parts and will spoil some of its relevant inspiration. It draws a classic a more concentrated version of canon secrets. Playing Isolation is not needed to tension curve and puts the characters into reality. It was merely a room in Isolation run this in any way. It can be a place to conflict that escalates in parallel. The that here becomes a whole story. None of turn to for clarifications. No other same thing happens here with Cast and these freedoms taken violates continuity incarnations of the franchise are directly Xenomorph. blatantly. No one will even notice.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 3 Cast

Player character titles

The Cocked Hammer

The Exploited Hireling

The Tragic Lover

The Political Independent

The Honest Entrepreneur

The One With A Plan

Different role playing systems pay texts. Players just finish up scheming. They should not even be attention to different aspects of character generation with their lists written on the sheets themselves. play. This needs to be balanced in of equipment and their names. That way character creation and cannot be left the game can start right in the thick So everyone picks, then everyone up to the players. Nobody can have an of it. learns that The One With A Plan is the undue advantage. They should however Project Manager and so on. The player have different strengths like the Players pick characters by the titles learns what that means from the text. skills listed under Character before the roles on the crew are Each text is secret and just for the Generation. revealed. The titles are just for player of the PC and the GM to read. selection and in no way binding or The CAPITALS are the character's Pregenerating characters is the way even helpful and best forgotten mission objective. to go. The GM prepares everything and immediately so other players do not hands out PC sheets with the secret induce too much meaning while

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 4 The GM should consider what equipment Only the Project Manager, Ship's shares, fees, and bonuses, to allow the characters to have access Captain, and License Marshal have reputations, or other dramatic to. Some mechanics may have a roll for freight space available. The others devices. On board each PC is limited contacts or resources. The threat will are limited to lockers. A utility in their actions only by the scale with it effortlessly, but it exoskeleton, mini tank, or combat expectations of the others. They are will set a tone. All players should shuttle could be possible, whatever the tribe and in charge of order and have an equal footing and that can fits in the garage bay. A second hyper acceptable conduct. There are mean having an out off play talk about drive vessel would be too big and hierarchies, but they can shift within what the PCs expect to find. break the scenario. the story.

Players may want to put ridiculous The challenges can scale with it. If This primitive society is the focus of things on their equipment lists. All the players prepare for waves of the game and requires narrative lists must be confirmed by the GM, but Xenomorphs then they get them. But underlining. It is entirely up to the vetoing any item should be considered their gear will also get stuck in players how to structure it. carefully. The only obvious reason crawlspaces, rip the habitat to would be if it was game breaking, like pieces, spray acid everywhere, and Characters can be any gender and a blatant comedy gimmick, or something generally not save them. If that is ethnicity, so can Lee the tragic love that violates the genre. Everything what the GM intends for the game then interest. Names are picked by the else is just a challenge and the GM it should be allowed. Or they can just players after reading the secret text, must decide whether to deal with it or forbid such things for reasons of aided by a list of quick suggestions. reject it solely on their personal shipboard safety, company regulations, Middle names and hyphens are sense of how it might shape the game. maritime law, and plain old GM encouraged. Funny names are bad for The intricacies of the scenario are authority. Contraband is possible, but tension building. Some players have to more easily explored with a group not up to the GM. name their cover identity as well as armed to the teeth but improvising. their character, or something related There is no military rank on board. to their role. Players will ask for weapons, and some This is a private enterprise with characters could reasonably have everyone contracted to comply with Endgame transmissions are a taunt to access to an arsenal. If this is standards. The ship is owned by the get players of surviving characters allowed on commercial space ships, if captain who hired the ship's engineer. into the mind set that the story must this is a clear warning signal of an The mission is led by the project conclude and maybe shift loyalties one insane person who is probably manager who hired everyone including last time. They can begin The end, but dangerous, or if this is the Wild West the captain and the marshal. The they do not have to. They are just frontier in space where a man is not a license marshal has legal authority another tool at the GM’s discretion. man without his gun is up to the GM but can at the most confine someone to and the group's expectations. Weapons hypersleep if the mission allows it. In case of an emergency that prevents should not be rejected out of a role the sixth player from making it to the playing instinct to prevent overly Most of the motivational bad stuff is session the Exploited Hireling can be powerful PC gear because that gets far off and not happening in the left out of the story without causing balanced later. 70s retro future guns actual story. To make it real, major imbalances. This five player need ammo, and that is still heavy and characters would have to return home version is not advised but more bulky. intact, and that is unlikely. It is balanced than any other one.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 5 The One With A Plan Project Manager Name:

You would never have joined the A SAMPLE OF SOME BIOMASS DISCOVERED IN Your performance reports will affect Company if it were not for your ZETA RETICULI TO RESEARCH DIVISION the careers of all involved, and spouse's aunt Cindy's husband: will be made general manager. And official infractions diminish their Richards. He is some big wig in upper general managers not only get big share automatically. management who got you out of bonuses each quarter but also freelance work and into a cushy job executive security - for life, more Look out for moles from other running off world projects. Maybe than you could ever have hoped for. departments! You have been at this for this will finally earn the respect of years, if you do not get a big break your spouse. With department resources under your soon you will become just another authority and some modest personal blank eyed drone looking forward to a Richards implored you never to mess wealth from a considerable salary as humble pension in irrelevance. up, and you picked up how to pass well as the rewards from previous blame in the corporate machine from capers you are very well funded for The others have not been told what to him. Sometimes he alerts you to this operation. You should be able to expect yet. Get ready to give your opportunities. Only this one he did afford everyone on board who can be salvage crew a briefing. Make a list not want to pass on to you it seems. bribed. But pay them in cash, not in of equipment you had brought on But you overheard a call he was on shares! In fact buy their legally board. after brunch. Anyone who can DELIVER guaranteed share from them if you can.

Notes

Endgame transmission From: Richards: To: Subject: Recall

You are to report to a committee hearing and explain your actions at the EARLIEST possible convenience. The mission is scrapped! The funds are frozen and charges will be filed if the ship is not returned RIGHT NOW! The crew was instructed to take you into custody. Did you think you’d get away with this? Don’t make it worse now, or there won’t be anything I can do. Sending a ship this soon gave away a lot to our competition. Radio silence! Character Generation: Hacking, Psychology, Parcours, Handguns

Additional Secret options: Quiet, Stick Together, Be Smarter, Synthetic, Kill - Not applicable: Exterminate

Handout: Report on Zeta Reticuli

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 6 The Honest Entrepreneur Ship's Captain Name: Ship Name:

You own your ship. Came by it the old the central computer, crew corporations. No, THIS MISSION HAS TO way, by saving for a decade, working accommodations, airlocks, cargo space, PAY A BIG BONUS. At least it sounds up to first officer, and then taking core containment and shutdown like there is a chance of that, going on huge loans to purchase the ship and controls. But it is your ship. Give it by how little information is released a franchise license to pay for the a name. Make a list of things you in the briefing. loans. One day it will be enough to make it a point of to have on board. get your daughter out of stasis and Whatever it is must be worth a fortune her Progressive Krantzberg Syndrome You could just take your ship out to if the Company is paying for a salvage (PKS) operated on. Write down her Centauri and haul settlers. Only that like this. Once it is on board they name. would not pay as well as Company will be glad to pay for the whole ship contracts. And your loans' due dates twice over to get what it carries. Unlike those company clippers, this is are tight. Too tight in fact. If this Others may be interested in something your own ship and you have last word gamble does not pay off, your ship like that. The contract share worker on board. Sure, many systems have to will probably be impounded and looks shifty and keeps disappearing comply with Company standards, NavCom, auctioned to the cartel of low bidding below.

Notes

Endgame transmission From: Richards: To: Subject: Recall

You are to report to a committee hearing and explain your actions at the EARLIEST possible convenience. The mission is scrapped! The funds are frozen and charges will be filed if the ship does not return RIGHT NOW! The project manager is to be taken into custody pending discovery proceedings. The computer was instructed to automatically initiate the voyage on a timer. If that runs out, mutiny charges will be filed against your franchise license. Radio silence is ordered.

Character Generation: Piloting, Engineering, EVA, Psychology

Additional Secret options: Quiet, Stick Together, Be Smarter, Synthetic, Kill, Exterminate

Handout: Map of the ship

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 7 The Political Independent Ship's Engineer Name:

You have been working on this ship it already, and their parents before intelligence and strike against for a long time, and you like it. them. It is probably what got them corporate misconduct where laws no Make a list of things you hide in into a detention colony in the end. longer can. your locker and tell GM and Captain how you keep the workshop area. You have always known how dangerous Nothing you helped plan ever made the such opinions can be if voiced out news - Company media hushing up the The captain is nice enough, but it is loud and have put on a mask of wrench in their gears. But you are a still company rules and price gouging compliance in your daily life. In real revolutionary, and this time the wherever you turn, even on an secret you have long been in contact gathered intel points to you for being independent franchise license hauler. with other subversive elements, activated - finally. You have been tired of it for years. anonymous cells carefully You think your parents were tired of communicating undetected to gather

Notes

Character Generation: Engineering, EVA, Hacking, Psychology

Additional Secret options: Quiet, Stick Together, Be Smarter, Kill, Exterminate - Not applicable: Synthetic

Handout: Map of the ship

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 8 The Tragic Lover Salvage Engineer Name: Cover Name: Cat Name:

You got engaged just before Lee's you had to fill it with something. So Sevastopol was an obsolete gas mine posting to Sevastopol station in Zeta you took on a mission: to DISCOVER after being a Freeport run by several Reticuli last year. It was the WHAT HAPPENED TO LEE, confirm death, corporations over the years. Lee was culmination of an intense relationship and bring back whatever remains or sent there to help decommission the which lifted you from a dreary memory can be retrieved to find thing. A ship, the Anesidora, came and existence into a life of wonder and closure. transfered someone. Then Weyland hope. Yutani seems to have suddenly Your only companion is Lee's old cat. purchased the entire station hours Then contact to Sevastopol was lost It was not easy, but months of before it disappeared after an and since that time it has been really scheming, false identities, hacking, unexplained complete systems failure. hard to get any news about Zeta and blind luck got you on this ship Immediately after purchase the station Reticuli. Mr and Mrs Elys, Lee's under an assumed name as recovery went silent and a day later it was parents, were notified weeks later specialist. Write down which name you gone with all hands. with a non specific "tragic accident took. Name the cat as well, it has during performance of duty"; without a already become a bit of a mascot to You have the old schematics memorized. registered marriage you did not even the crew. List things you brought in You know the encoded last get that much. For a time you tried to your locker. You overheard the captain transmission. Whatever made the move on. But it was pointless, too mention a daughter on the coms leaving Company spend all that money for many questions remained unanswered. port, but it never came up again. nothing, it is probably why Lee has The void left by Lee was just too big, disappeared.

Notes

Character Generation: Engineering, EVA, Hacking, Stealth

Additional Secret options: Quiet, Stick Together, Be Smarter, Exterminate - Not applicable: Kill, Synthetic

Handout: Map of the lab

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 9 The Exploited Hireling Contract share worker Name:

You thought you would make it big in paid, for your good time here on causes muscle spasms while applied and space, back on earth hauling pipe on a board, and for the years before that. exhaustion after. drill rick 16 hours a day. Orbital It is all different contracts but they bonuses were promising, and deep space are all with the Company and its Needless to say these are contraband work, if you can get it, even makes henchmen. GET PAID AN EQUAL PART this items that if discovered could forfeit you a shareholder - by law. That can time around. your share and put you in a penal be enough to start a family. colony, note down where they are Just to make sure you went all in and hidden. Make a list of anything else After your first non disclosure used your last shore leave to acquire you have hidden on board and where it agreement you learned that they take a a few black market items, should is, and which inconspicuous items can quarter of your share just for life things turn sour. They were not cheap be found in your locker. support, and another with countless either, you are broke now. fees and charges. Want more than If this salvage is as hot as it seems, protein bars? A real shower once in a You have a virus that can lock basic the Company will not care what you while? A sealed bunk to sleep in when navigation of Company compliant did as long as they get the goods. not in hibernation? Those are extra. NacComs which you just need to get God help you if you get injured. into the computer core to activate. Locations Virus You have been in the business for 3 You have a book sized access tool that Access Tool years now, not counting sleep phases, can unlock terminals and hatches as if they would pay for those. And sealed by the computer with some Powder you are well and truly sick of being fidgeting and time, but you have never Electroshocker promised easy hours and royal used something like it. accommodations at signing only to Notes discover it hard to bring home an You have 5 packets of a white easily eighth share of a mildly profitable dissolved powder that if ingested will venture after months of back breaking lead to 1-2 hours of severe and and dangerous slave labor light years incapacitating stomach cramps within from civilization. 5-20 minutes.

Things are going to have to change. If And you have a small electroshock they will not see reason you will have weapon concealable in one hand that to make them see. You need to get

Character Generation: EVA, Stealth, Climbing, Hand to hand combat

Additional Secret options: Quiet, Stick Together, Be Smarter, Kill - Not applicable: Synthetic, Exterminate

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 10 The Cocked Hammer License Marshal Name: Cover Name:

You never really learned to trust. You This is a juicy one: Embed with a Your cover as License Marshal makes did not have much occasion to. There salvage crew, RECOVER THE ALIEN you responsible for the safety of all are rules to follow, and that gives ORGANISM PRESUMED ON THE WRECKAGE AND personnel, and for conduct according life structure. An outlook like this BRING IT TO CORPSEC. Something like to Company regulations to ensure allows a high degree of this can become its own product line, personnel performance and mission compartmentalization, which is what and jumping onto that at ground level progress. Discipline is usually not a CORPSEC recognized in your recruitment is a once in a lifetime opportunity. strength of these deep space crews, or seminar and trained you accordingly. If successful, nobody can afford to of the license marshals out here. They It was like coming home at long last, ask how - for this one, leave the kid have a reputation of being corrupt. a place where you fit in. gloves at home. You know the project manager cannot be on the level or they would have been It is competitive of course, if you Sent by a high ranking security at your briefing. make a career of it. As a covert manager, you hold in your memory all asset you do not get a lot of chances Company security codes up to As long as your cover remains intact, to prove your worth, so it is crucial commander level which should give you any blow back will be deflected from to use every single one for maximum control over any Company systems you your career. advancement. Making a mess would be encounter an interface of. career ending and lethal. The Company Write down your cover identity name. has a very high degree of You have a sealed freight container compartmentalization. on board that contains a lot of things you thought might become useful, please make a list. Notes

Endgame transmission From: Richards: To: Subject: Recall

You are to report to a committee hearing and explain your actions at the EARLIEST possible convenience. The mission is scrapped! The funds are frozen and charges will be filed if the ship is not returned RIGHT NOW! The project manager is to be taken into custody pending discovery proceedings. Failure to comply will violate the oath of your marshal license.

Character Generation: Psychology, Stealth, Hand to hand combat, Handguns

Additional Secret options: Quiet, Stick Together, Be Smarter, Synthetic, Kill – Not applicable: Exterminate

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 11 Additional Secrets

All players must understand that

Mission objectives are added on unless they contradict, then the addition replaces the initial objective in each individual situation

To be deployed after the Xenomorph is It should be 'earned' by the players, New motivations will unbalance player established and teamwork has become not forced upon them. They might be camps. The additional secrets should crucial. more at ease with it all if the bad therefore be assigned by the GM with ones come first, as an added the awareness that it is possibly the In a game system which tracks sanity punishment for having gotten into greatest responsibility they have all or stability the additional secrets trouble, or last, as an added game. And not everyone will be happy can be triggered by that mechanic. difficulty for being hardy. Deciding about the outcome. With a game system that does not it which Additional Secrets those are can be crisis like damage or shock. specifically depends on the group. When in doubt it might be best to play Quiet, Stick Together, Synthetic, and without them altogether. They are not No character should get stuck with an Exterminate come with powers, in a balanced or fair, just dramatic. They Additional Secret that does not fit in way. Be Smarter and Kill give license do spice up the story. the end. Planning ahead may be to let loose. necessary if nobody has died yet.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 12 The options Synthetic Quiet You take an inner step back and watch the world through your Deep inside your instinctual heritage a memory comes to the personality, a complex web of flow charts fed by sensory surface. You are being hunted. There are well established inputs, as you suddenly remember your programming. You are rules to this. And the first and most important one is BE synthetic. None of this matters to you. Instead your mission QUIET! If an action makes noise then you cannot do it. If is clear: SECURE A SPECIMEN AND RETURN IT TO SPECIAL PROJECTS someone makes noise near you they are trying to tell the DIVISION. CREW EXPENDABLE. One has to appreciate the thing out there where you are. Sustained noise will drive you creature's purity and perfection. Your body is much STRONGER into a panic. Be careful, take your time, and be very very AND MORE DURABLE than any human, but special care was taken quiet. YOU HEAR A LOT MORE LIKE THAT. in your design to conceal your true nature. You can react much FASTER than any nervous system. But you also know that Stick together dropping your disguise now could provoke unforeseeable reactions by the crew. Something snaps inside of you. The reptile part of your brain recognizes the situation. Safety in numbers. YOU MUST STICK TOGETHER, all of you. You have to explain it to the others, Kill maybe. But more than that you get nervous if you are with just one other crew member within sight, extremely nervous if All this reminds you of the first person you murdered. Did it is someone you do not trust. If you are alone you turn they feel like this? Hunted. Somehow you feel a kinship with into a quivering pile in moments and you cannot help it. All that creature, how it lurks and chases... It is taking you you can do is crawl to hide somewhere, but it does not help. over again, you feel it coming, the lust for killing. The Until someone else is in the room with you there is no power of it overwhelms you and you need to take control. coordinated movement, mobility, or articulation because of Control over life and death. THEY MUST DIE, ONE AFTER THE crippling panic. You think you can also FEEL WHEN THE THING OTHER. ALL OF THEM. Preferably alone. Whether by your hand, IS CLOSE. circumstances you influence, or by the creature you cannot tell yet. But these are the gates of the underworld, and a Be smarter true master has entered your arena. This will be an awesome slaughter. The situation is quite clear: a superior predator is threatening your herd. You do not have to be the strongest, that would not help. You have to make sure you are always Exterminate close to someone who is easier to grab. When the wolf attacks you just have to outrun the others. That might mean sealing This has become more than a situation. This is you now, you hatches behind you or even incapacitating them somehow. YOUR against it. This cannot exist, your world must be rid of it LIFE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT COUNTS, SACRIFICING SOMEONE ELSE IS forever. YOU MUST ERADICATE ALL ALIENS AND THEIR REMAINS. ALWAYS THE FIRST AND BEST OPTION. With this insight comes clarity. The FEAR WASHES AWAY leaving just caution. You make a plan. You get others to cooperate. Even if it is just you and a knife, you will get it done. You have to. Because that is what reality has become, a tunnel at the end of which all aliens are exterminated.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 13 Plot

There is no linear story progression Of course that much desired central Everything depends on the players. If dictated in this scenario. It only treasure also happens to be the they drag their heels then life gets comes together during preparations or Creature. It is covered in the more complicated. A complication can even better during play. It is a Xenomorph passage below because its be anything in this document or not. collection of elements which fit in use is for tension more than progress. The Creature is the most likely different ways, just as the game It still dominates the story. candidate, but there is also The cat, requires for pace, Tension, relief, Survivors, Androids, a Stowaway, the balance, or motivation. If the Xenomorph events are determined hostile environment, and the other by rolling on the table provided then party members. It is a buffet for the GM to serve up pressure will be random and present courses from dramatically which from the start. It will also mean that A complication just has to be a hint presents: the more the party sticks together and that something may be wrong which keeps working quietly, the less requires the attention of the Handouts with mysterious clues: Alien. Xenomorph events occur. The players characters while they are busy dealing Weyland-Yutani reprogrammed homicidal cannot know that. There are other with other things or taking their APOLLO. Ransome sold out to Newman. options to determine how the Creature time. They should split opinions in is revealed. It must stand for tension the party, not unite players against Ominous details to work into narration and mystery, not calculation. them. They must polarize between the character motivations on page 22. Things for characters to do and how to This is not trying to be a sandbox, it make them matter does not conform to player NPCs are complications. They should be Meaningful situations that may come up expectation. But it is a playground. equipped with 3 things: Something they as the game moves along And it has enough toys for days at the want from the PCs like a ride home. A game table if needs be. The GM must dark secret they keep from them like Motivational goodies for characters limit the topics they introduce or get culpability or a Chestburster. And ready for a very long game. The story power they wield over the story, like Other factions that may arise is really just a ring for the a survivor with expertise the PCs characters to beat each other up in. need, or a stowaway with a bomb. These And the MacGuffin should be wedge issues for the party. The cat The jolt from the first docking attempt jumbled open the pet bag – The cat makes a racket and escapes when checked on – Turbulence opens the carry case – The cat always gets out of the cat container, someone should fix that – The Creature let out the cat – An alert turns out to be caused by the cat – In a tense moment the cat jumps out of a dark corner – The cat runs off into the unexplored wreck – Begging meows can be heard echoing through the abandoned lab – The cat is just around the corner, but in the wrong way – Looking for the cat, the characters encounter the Creature - Chasing the Creature the characters find the cat – The cat warns of the approaching Creature – Cat and Xenomorph are spotted hissing at each other – A creature attacks and the cat’s sacrifice distracts it – Pieces of cat are discovered – The cat kills a Facehugger - As feline guide the cat leads the characters to safety, wisdom, and even Lee – Left behind the cat is mentioned in the epilogue

Some players have trouble identifying with violence and gore happening in the game but suddenly become really involved when the health of a pet is at stake. If this is true for a group then the cat's fate should be teased over time, not concluded in a single gruesome event.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 14 A little time taken here for the players to connect to the PCs helps. It is what makes them matter and their peril entertaining.

Prologue In a galaxy ancient as time, When it finishes moments later A wreck is what the mission was young mankind sprawls from an and displays "DESTINATION hoping to find. It turns out to overpopulated earth, ARRIVAL: Zeta Reticuli" the be a section of the destroyed terraforming new worlds to lamps start coming on. station miraculously preserved settle, and bringing back by the persistent storm. resources during months long Deep in the ship, winding hypersleep trips. corridors light up brightly. A The descent is tricky, but soon hypersleep chamber slowly raises the ship braves screaming Corporations run unchallenged. its transparent pod cover petals turbulence in approach to a From the lowest hireling to and wakes a crew of [6] plus one hatch on the slowly rotating senior board members, everyone cat. They assemble in the relic. struggles to step over those in galley, curious about the their path to salvation without mission and one another. The captain is tense with getting under foot themselves. concentration on the controls [PLAYERS INTRODUCE CHARACTERS while the crew prepares to Technology is taking rapid AND PLAY THE BRIEFING. NO board, checking equipment one strides. But down here in the OPPORTUNITY FOR ANYTHING last time. real world of deep space travel, ELSE.] hardened systems come with A heavy impact jolts the ship clunky buttons and tiny CRT An hour later the ship is and the captain swears about the display screens, voice burning hard deceleration into repair costs. [JOLT TABLE AND interfaces are practically orbit of the gas giant. Debris PROMPT PLAYER] nonexistent, and hatches seal from a space station clutters with a soft but heavy noise. the sensors, but it is easily Everything seems to be whole. avoided. Looks are exchanged among the In the limelight of an abandoned crew. Nobody is looking forward flight deck a screen comes to In the upper atmosphere of the to a spacewalk in a gas giant life, noisily running down its giant planet a hull is dragged storm instead of docking initiation sequence. along behind a continent sized directly. A discussion begins… hurricane. [HAND SCENE OVER TO PLAYERS]

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 15 Scene 1 The players should choose if the Maybe SevastoLink can be accessed It can be good to listen to what the characters are wearing EVA suits in remotely. Maybe a tactical entry from players plan to do eventually, but preparation for a possibly vented multiple points seems in order. It is concrete action in the moment is all wreck. Everyone has a headset radio up to the players. If they are timid that is needed to move things along. to keep things simple. then the tension has started and can If they elaborate to the GM, not one be pushed with complications. another, a suggestion of small steps The captain ultimately decides right now works best. The first scene whether to try docking again or to The mission can be over in an hour or sets a pace and that should be spacewalk through the storm to the in a week. The lab is right there. The immediate. There must be alien clues lab. Either will require dice rolls players can have a discussion, find right away to drive the story. that can result in lost equipment, a out more about their situation, or split up party, or character damage. start passing notes. Such initiative The only thing that cannot be allowed All that can happen quickly. It is too is commendable, but the lab should be to happen is the ship leaving the lab early for the Xenomorph to leap at the reached soon. If the players over- without any alien passengers. That closing ship. At this point there think things then a timer like an way nobody can be safe, and more should be hints and clues to approaching storm is a nice importantly everyone is a direct part investigate an alien presence. complication to get things going. of the story.

Things that could be discovered about the lab from the ship The power is off, but a few tiny status lights are on – The section was ejected from the station, leaving umbilicals and hoses dangling in many places – One airlock is left open to the thin atmosphere – A corpse without space suit is tangled stuck to the side of the lab and has been torn to shreds of frozen meat by the atmosphere – There are large windows along a part of the lab, they are dark now – One of the window elements is cracked several times from an impact – Some kind of fungus or lichen is spreading along the angles of the hull structure – The atmosphere has corroded some parts of the hull and they seem at risk of puncturing – The lab is leaking some kind of fluid that has formed long icicles of indeterminate shimmering hue along one side – There may have been some kind of movement behind those coolant tanks spinning into darkness, it could have been nothing – Is that one status light next to the hatch blinking regularly, or is that Morse code?

Zeta Reticuli Binary yellow stars illuminate the gas should be extremely limited to avoid Conceivably the ship could disengage giant KG-348 and a few moons. The the characters just taking orders. from the lab and land on LV-426 or its only other things within light years They are dependent on themselves and sister moon LV-223. It could collide are countless apparently lifeless their own judgment. If any help ever with Sevastopol debris orbiting the asteroids. There are no settlements, comes it would take months to get gas giant. Or it could get crushed by other ships, or stations nearby. The close. the atmosphere and its storms. star system used to get traffic from the Sol-Thedus flight path but that The genre also dictates that no The only way out of the system is was rerouted decades ago. accurate report of alien activity hypersleep and that will require a ever reaches civilization, although ship free of any alien presence to Communication home takes many hours, that might be lost in corporate make it. This should not happen. and for the scope of this scenario it schemes later.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 16 The Ship Map of the ship The ship follows the same M-Class layout as the Nostromo and the Torrens. A-deck: bridge, computer, galley, medical, hypersleep chamber, maintenance elevator, crew lockers

B-deck: main airlock, instrumentation bays, maintenance elevator, landing claw elevator, shuttles

C-deck: maintenance bays, maintenance garage and elevator, engineering control room

There is no private space. The only way Coolant is always in short supply and to be alone is to wander off on B- or C- needed to run systems, shuttles, or to deck. There are no bunks. Reasonably some flood sections with to exterminate pests. could fold out somewhere for longer jobs. All the crew have that is theirs are their Access to the main computer is restricted, lockers. only the captain can open the door. This changes if the captain is dead to whatever The habitat decks occupy part of the best fits the moment. Without the computer central one of three hull segments. Most of nobody can make the ship fly home. It is an the actual ship is only accessible floating artificial intelligence without elaborate There is a maintenance workshop on C-deck in EVA suits, just the decks are language skills. It does answer queries with tools to keep an old space ship going pressurized. A-deck is bright and clean, B- entered in its secured central terminal out where there are no repair docks. It is and C-deck are industrial spaces with pipes chamber with brief and factual screen where things like a motion tracker can be and grates instead of padded panels. Hiding statements. Its loyalties lie with Company constructed. Wrench and Welding torch to things there is easy. regulations, the captain, and everyone's open hatches can be found here. There are lives, in that order. It has not been given also collections of replacement hardware, Each deck has several looping corridors. special orders by the Company concerning hydraulics, and electronics, special There are multiple ladders and the this mission, but those could arrive with a materials to seal hull breaches, patch elevator. Air ducts above and cable ways signal at any moment if so needed. suits, and clean oil or coolant spills, as below line the habitat spaces. Each well as a box with batteries, old keys, and compartment can be sealed by hatches as a A dramatic self destruct sequence bulbs that may or may not be broken. precaution to decompression. In space the overcharges the main reactor by turning the landing claw is retracted and forms a large coolant systems off. The timer is dictated If players ask for something on the ship chamber from the garage up to the airlock by the physics of main reactors. It has a beyond their individual list of equipment, elevator on B-deck. point of no return after which self the GM can assume a modern ocean going destruct can no longer be avoided. In Alien freighter and what might be found on board, A well equipped medical bay with that is 10 minutes to self destruct, no then project that into the future. A 3D diagnostic chamber will provide the means recall after 5 minutes. printer might be fun. Obviously illegal to stabilize most critical injuries and items by Company regulations also interest detect alien infestations. There are two emergency shuttles with the marshal, or anyone really. What may be hypersleep beds. These can neither maneuver illegal specifically is up to the GM. There are rations in the galley to keep very well, nor can they get home to earth everyone fed for a few weeks, but barely in any reasonable time without FTL. If the There may be a few cameras to facilitate enough to get anyone home awake. story requires it one might be able to make dramatic moments. Generally there is no an emergency landing on a nearby moon. They seamless coverage or internal sensors. A bathroom and shower cell is attached to are located port side and starboard aft on Temperature control in the ventilation the galley. B-deck. system might provide vague clues.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 17 The Lab Map of the lab Things that could go wrong on the lab A hatch is stuck because of a computer lockout / a locking bar / no power / an obstruction wedged between hatch and frame / ice / dried blood / someone super glued it shut, and it requires combined strength / a tool / time / the making of noise / something unavailable to open. A system is not working because of a coded lockout / unstable power / lines corroded by acid / it was broken in desperation / it was torn out of the wall with incredible force / a body part got stuck in the mechanism / it is crusted over with goo / little soot traces tell of an electrical fire / all the labeled keys are missing / industrial marker was used to label all buttons “Kill” / it was booby-trapped.

The station was a maze when systems were pleading voice that could be Lee’s, and Air quality is just flavor unless a player operating normally. Getting turned around eventually anything obviously alien and puts it to use. Life support systems in is very easy in the lab’s symmetrical worth an astronomical fortune. Whatever every room work seamlessly once activated. layout. There are air shafts and crawl draws them, it lures them to intimidating But that should stop no GM from describing spaces everywhere. The lab is much smaller unknown places that they must reveal step shortness of breath, revolting odors, mold than the ship, but it has more open spaces. by step. The lab has 13 areas at the most. spores, dripping and vaporizing leaks, Each one has to count for plot. frozen over surfaces, rooms too hot to stay Ejected from Sevastopol before the station in, or whatever else can make the was destroyed, the lab’s orbit has decayed Gravity is generated in the floor plating. experience more visceral. and it was caught behind a storm that The lab can have it turned off at first. circles the gas giant. Although protected Separate sections can have gravity on or Coolant may be needed to keep restarted from the pressure and turbulence, this off separately, airlocks generally deploy lab systems going. It can also be collected position is precarious. Remaining here is it during compression for easy entry. in cans and tanks to drain for other a risk. One random eddy from the hurricane systems or the ship. With station lines could crush lab and ship instantly. Docking The power would be down on a lab drifting destroyed coolant is not cycled but lost. is tricky but possible. The lab is silent away from the station main reactor. and dark, but the atmosphere randomly makes Connecting the lab to the ship reactor Computer terminals are everywhere on the sounds on the hull. Players should be made could be part of docking or a separate lab. Access can be restricted. The memory to feel like they are disturbing a crypt issue. The lab systems reset to a failsafe banks are corrupted and only a file or two balanced on a stormy cliff. mode which requires that for functions to can be restored on each. Metadata can tease be restored in each room there needs to be content before solving a complication Once reached the gas lab can be explored. action taken in that room, basically delivers the message. Characters could roll It was vandalized by panic and the flipping on the breaker. for SevastoLink clues at each terminal they Xenomorph. Signs of this are everywhere. It activate or get them at the speed of plot. has no power supply unless connected to the Everything is dark except for a few status ship's. Systems not lost during ejection lights and character flashlights at first. Hacking can unlock terminals and systems. are mostly intact. Hatches may be stuck and Keeping too many lights on could be a drain It requires an access tool and skills, and in need of power. Anything edible has been on the ship reserves, making lighting a it can take time. torn open and not a crumb is left. Systems strategic decision. The ship needs its may react to the PC’s presence. power to recharge the hyper drive for the The lab has no intelligence or intentions, trip home. only residents act: unfortunate At this point the characters do not know individuals who were hidden on the lab when what to look for. That is the moment to Messing with life support makes things it was ejected. To this end a level below let the players speculate and then use complicated. Making the characters put on was added to the canon as retcon. Its 2 their expectations against them. Things to unwieldy claustrophobic suits can be a nice hatches cannot be spotted from the ship. draw them with could be a sign to an vignette, but it is easily included as a exobiology lab, SevastoLink nodes with daring repair job or an escape from a An open airlock with docking ring and a files from the station, a recording of a blocked off section. closed hatch are the only visible access.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 18 Survivors Survivors should be named immediately Any survivors have lived through Survivors all have a story about their as soon as woken up. This is important catastrophe on Sevastopol. Lee Elys is last days on Sevastopol where they had to making their eventual death matter. likely one of them, or the only one, a job and things started getting weird It also helps if they are nice during or the only one whose pod made it. and then violent. They are desperate a moment of relief or really helpful. There could be more. They could be people and get up to crazy plans. Like They must help one PC’s mission. armed. If they form a group in the venting the whole lab, burning the story then Lee and the Salvage Xenomorph out, making noise to end it No one held out for months on the lab. Engineer will be star crossed lovers all quickly, cutting out what is But humans are no longer attacked by between factions. inside of them or possibly others, the Xenomorph if implanted by a building elaborate Xenomorph traps Facehugger. And if in hypersleep they From shaking victims to madmen trying with crew as bait or coincidental do not hatch. The characters wake to kill in the shadows like the victims, ramming the ship into the them, intentionally or by accidentally Xenomorph, anything is possible. One lab, or wearing body parts as armor. triggering a system. may even have managed to reprogram an android guard for their pod. Survivors can be omitted entirely Eventually they will hatch a without losing much story. It will Chestburster and die. This always They are familiar with the station remove a final chapter for the Salvage happens at the worst possible moment. systems and can use them to their Engineer, but the objectives can be They do not know this will happen. advantage. But they cannot have had fulfilled with SevastoLink messages. The player characters might discover more than a few hours to prepare Handout this through SevastoLink or by before hypersleep. scanning them in a medical bay. SevastoLink log about Hypersleep pods

Things hidden on the lab or in the hands of survivors A revolver with 3 rubber bullets left – A large nail welded to a wrench with dry blood on it – An old timey shaving knife - A 3 foot section of slightly bent 3/4-inch steel pipe – 20 half-inch ball bearings in a heavy duty Ziploc bag - A roll of 2 inch wide textile reinforced adhesive tape – A 25 m spool of nylon fishing line – A candle stub and Bic lighter without gas – A small jewelry box that plays “Somewhere over the Rainbow” when opened – A 10 inch toy robot that loudly fires its lasers every 20 seconds when switched on – A fire extinguisher Stowaway A stowaway can be included at any aliens with a message of love. They scared and seal hatches. Players get time. Hidden in a shuttle hypersleep rely on a bomb, a virus, powerful suspected for things they did. Just bed they woke with the crew. This can people who know where they are, when timing is critical the stowaway be discovered by the used bed, bribery, charm, or plot armor to will do something very stupid. manipulated power system, or horded survive. This relates to mission rations. objectives, maybe as publicity. They are a wrench in the gears of the players and no DMPC. Their death can They can be a rival corp saboteur, a The later they are revealed the more provide tragic justice. journalist, a UFO nut, or a mysterious their presence is. They religious freak trying to welcome interfere with challenges. They get A stowaway can be omitted entirely.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 19 Androids Sevastopol was run by countless not to. They are slow but strong, APOLLO had orders to preserve the Seegson Working Joe(TM) synthetics. grabbing victims before throwing them Xenomorph before it broke. Xenomorphs They look human at a glance but could against a bulkhead until they stop cannot eat synthetics. Which form this not fool anyone up close with their moving. It is easy enough to damage truce takes is flexible: Ignoring the back lit eyes, discolored skin and androids with bludgeoning implements. other, zones of influence, androids mechanical movement. Overly formal But they are tough and will keep feeding humans to Facehuggers in a speech and a limited range of grabbing even if partly disassembled. coordinated effort or trying to take expressions paired with deadly over the ship to bring the Xenomorph assertiveness can make them appear One could have assumed the role of a home. It can be a single encounter, a quite uncanny. makeshift central computer, modifying nagging complication, or a powerful itself and the lab, maybe even revelation at the end of the story. They can stand idly by or attack at connecting a limited power reactor. Androids might be easy prey in combat, first sight. Their simplest use is as but they can handle lab systems well. area guard or system controller. At this point it can be motivated by Politeness can give them an element of Weyland-Yutani orders, Seegson Androids can be omitted entirely surprise at first. What triggers them failsafe directives, or mad computer without causing any issues. They are to turn homicidal, if at all, can be improvisation. From a single encounter pure complication and not connected to anything. Like something a PC does to a third faction, androids can liven any character objective or background. after being cautioned by the others up the place.

Special Order 939* Working Joe(TM) voice repertoire*(low and flat tone) (sent to APOLLO from Weyland-Yutani) I will be with you shortly. PRIORITY ONE What are you doing here? There you are! PROTECT SPECIMEN That stings. MAINTAIN STATION QUARANTINE Why not ask me about Sevastopol safety protocols? DISALLOW COMMUNICATION My turn now. This is a safety breach and will not be tolerated. This isn’t the answer. ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY You and I are going to have a talk about safety. This is an entirely unauthorized alert. Please stop interfering. Handouts Good day. Biocontainment Hazard level Omega. All permissions rescinded. SevastoLink report about purchase* I just want to help. You’re starting to test my patience. SevastoLink report about androids walking off* It seems you and I have a problem. Let me help you. SevastoLink report about android violence* Now now. You’re becoming hysterical. SevastoLink report about APOLLO malfunction* There’s no need for this. Please calm down. SevastoLink report from APOLLO core*

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 20 The end

Ways to proceed to the endgame Approaching storm – Pressing issue with ship – Endgame transmissions – Collapsing wreck – Missions finished – Overwhelming force – Big fire

Ways to bring the alien on board The players bring a Facehugger in neutralizing solution / crew member with a Facehugger attached / person with a Chestburster implanted – Facehuggers / Xenomorphs / the Queen crawled aboard unnoticed through the hatch / the outside / coolant lines / air exchange pipes / any large container the players brought along / inside a corpse – An android or stowaway did it – The computer received directives and contrived it by opening hatches and disabling alarms – A survivor woke up unnoticed and managed to sneak onto the ship where they hatched

The ship detaching does not mark the If this is insufficient then a final they are having falling asleep. Then end, that could happen much later. The challenge could be the Queen, a wave an alien presence on the ship is story has to conclude. Nobody of Facehuggers, or any threat that was revealed. If nothing else holds then a survives. Only the most hardy and most the most dangerous in the game. It Xenomorph jumped from the wreck onto human get to escape to yet another could include the lab disintegrating the hull of the ship and gains entry trial by Xenomorph. All others fall and the storm beginning to tear the after everyone has gone to sleep. victim to the Creature, one another, ship apart. If the players left the or their own folly. It is grim. But wreck earlier it could be a desperate If nobody is left standing then the the genre formula demands it. chase through the decks of the ship. epilogue includes some kind of outlook. Maybe months later another To make it matter up to the end, there If there are surviving crew then vessel is approaching the now drifting must be a way out. It must be real, if their objectives are tallied before ship with a radio message not unlike unlikely. The players must know about the epilogue, as they go to the party’s in the beginning. The it. And it should demand all of their hypersleep. This may reveal a winner. moment should show people struggling reserves. It is up to the GM how to count this. with unknowns that the characters Returning with the alien may require a learned the truth of before their end. If characters have become Xenomorphs live specimen, or it could be it will become a PvP showdown and the fulfilled with a tissue sample. The The epilogue is a short narration. A dice can decide how it turns out. The ship can only head for one Company minute or three is enough. It just GM just has to keep it balanced. A division. Closure is in Lee’s log concludes the story by showing the single Xenomorph player should now entry, unless Lee was found and left effect it had on the character get control of the Queen. She would be behind. Evidence implies some kind of motivations. It mentions the daughter on the ship because she is smart. hard copy. And how much money is with PKS, Lee’s parents, or the cat. enough? It can be tricky. One winner The outlook is dark and menacing, If the players get into the spirit of only is a good guideline, but not sprinkled with personal tragedy and competition really well and try to carved in stone. Company dystopy. kill each other’s characters then the GM again just moderates the showdown The epilogue includes how the winner’s Then it is over. This is the moment to between the players. objective was fulfilled and how it let the players talk. Hopefully they shaped their life. This is a dream had a good time and a scary night.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 21 Overview of PC motivations and details to throw at them, possibly indirectly through other characters Name: Name: Name: Project Manager Ship's Engineer Contract share worker Earn respect in life Overcome heritage of suppression Earn enough to start family Secure alien for RESEARCH DIVISION Conceal opinions and planned sabotage Hide contraband items Discover involvement of other departments Find evidence of Company misconduct Negotiate an equal share Ensure loyalty Sabotage mission Blackmail for share by sabotage

Give crew a briefing SevastoLink log accusing executive of Location of hidden contraband misconduct* Operatives from other departments A case of expensive drugs left by looters SevastoLink memo by executive proving SevastoLink report about implanted misconduct* Ship computer unwatched Anesidora crew member* Tanks with enough hydrazine to blow up the Renegotiation opportunity when mission SevastoLink report about hatching lab if connected to air supply crucial moment depends on them

Facehugger in sample container Name: SevastoLink memo by executive proving Salvage Engineer misconduct* Name: Find Closure Ship's Captain Maintain cover to hide tragic past SevastoLink memo containing bank code Save daughter Investigate circumstances of Sevastopol Protect ship Investigate what happened to Lee Get mission bonus Things that should interest all characters Runaway cat Storm in front of lab approaching slower Crew member asking a lot of questions storm on same latitude SevastoLink progress report by Lee Crew member keeping secrets

Docking hatch to lab seized up, attempts SevastoLink log by Lee saying goodbye Crew member acting strangely to free must undock and might break hatch Lee in hypersleep Signs of an Alien presence Unexpected sounds, signals, or malfunctions on the ship Name: SevastoLink report about Facehuggers License Marshal SevastoLink report about Xenomorphs Weapons or acid blood damaging the ship Find fulfillment in Company hierarchy Maintain cover as corrupt official SevastoLink report about the Queen SevastoLink report on PKS medication Secure alien for CORPSEC trial SevastoLink memo compromising current Company rule infractions of relevance executive Lab report about PKS medication sample Crew member with Facehugger attached Special Order 939* A costly part that could improve the ship Company secrets in wrong hands Problems with the ride home SevastoLink memo containing bank code The GM should make sure to give each player a chance to react - maybe even prompt them to without revealing their secrets.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 22 Challenges

Random lab features Bulkheads, structural frame, support beams, wall elements, padding, grating, hatches, window panels, light panels, spot beams, cables, conduits, pipes, pressure lines, vents, ducts, nozzles, intakes, openings, signage, buttons, control panels, CRT displays, levers, nuts, bolt heads, rubber seals, stairs, ladders, maintenance shafts, crawlspaces, haze, steam, gas, dust, smoke, debris, condensation, ice, frosting, iridescence, molten, charred, deformed, bent, cracked, shattered, crushed, steel, aluminium, polyalloy, composite materials, ceramics, glass

Things should stay simple. Actions make it hard for them to imagine the wall. A tank on board can be at have stakes, obstacles, and everything or let them grow frustrated critical pressure and about to blow objectives. Stakes are the price to with minor details. within minutes. pay for playing. Obstacles get dice rolled at them. If that succeeds the Challenges are there to drive the Any threat that can be calculated fits objective is achieved and the prize is story and let the characters shine the profile. It does not have to be won, the story moves on favorably. If while the world falls apart around much time pressure either, it will it fails bad stuff happens. them. The characters have different combine with other problems. strengths and must rely on each other A lot can be done with space wrecks to for some tasks. The reverse also works great: hold make it complicated: bulky EVA suits, position for this long to finish a hatches, gravity, pressure, O2 tanks, Countdowns are a useful plot device to task or to get rescued. CO2 scrubbers, power, heat, control raise the stakes. Other circumstances lines, hydraulics, communications, can put time pressure on the One way to bring time to the game light, coolant, radiators. Players characters as well. The storm table is of course an actual countdown roll to control these obstacles. The colliding with another, bigger storm timer. But real time and game time do entire scenario could be spent opening could be a nice and precise threat to not relate in a linear function. The one complex hatchway. To reduce that lab and ship. timer could be paused for explanation there is a Technobabble matrix. and restarted for rolling dice and the Any room can suddenly leak after a result. The key is to find a level of micro impact and automatically seal complication the players find while the time until decompression A more elaborate way would be to use enjoyable without going so far as to counts down on a helpful display in degrees of success for challenges as

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 23 time budget expended. This works even with detonator, anything they can come experienced spacers and having them better when players have to economize up with that seems like a good idea. roll for pushing the right buttons and their time with tasks and then roll to Remotely activated mechanisms can be a connecting the right conduits would be run away in time on the same budget. neat trick, especially if nobody else arduous. But they have to do it all Like getting coolant tanks to the knows they are around. quietly and quickly to avoid the shuttle and making it back, each trip attention of the Xenomorph and maybe requires rolls that take time and the Rifle bullets, shrapnel and big blast each other at times. With this self destruct is at ten minutes. waves are really bad for pressurized complication the simplest obstacles habitats. So is acid blood. can become challenges worth rolling It does make sense to keep track of for. who can open what. The captain The Xenomorph will not like things controls the ship systems, but the really hot or really cold for longer If the mechanics offer degrees of marshal has the company codes which than a second. Guns do not intimidate success, this is where it really comes lab and ship both comply with. The it, but a lot of bullets will kill it. to bear. Success means progress, not contract share worker has an access just against a deadline. Barely tool to bypass these codes but no It will be important to limit these successful means task finished but hacking skills. weapons - not to take them away from move! Slight failure means finish the the players, but to make the players task at a cost like a Facehugger in Hatches could be blocked by a locking expend resources and fear for the room. Hard failure means task bar requiring a large wrench to open, reliability. If there are 10 crates of disrupted by Xenomorph. And critical or locked down by the computer so a auto gun ammo in the container then failure could be incapacitated by own torch to cut through the single use there will simply be that much more action and exposed to approaching covering of the release lever is work for the auto guns. Xenomorph. required. Access to that wrench or a welding torch can divide door keys Anything the characters rig together The best challenges involve a over more players for teamwork and will be rolled for somehow. This character motivation as objective or betrayal. "Who wants access?", "Which should lead to issues with the gear some kind of teamwork aspect, giving access does another character they and limitations to its use. Even a the players opportunity to polarize should need a favor from have?" 'perfect 20' flamethrower +3 will run and drop clues themselves. The rule of Cutting through the hatch itself takes out of fuel after a minute or so of threes also works well when defining hours. sustained flame. And its oxygen comes steps. out of the life support system which A motion tracker can warn of foes. will need time to deliver. The idea is to give the players room Noisemakers distract the Xenomorph. to contrive each other's demise. Flame throwers have been proven If some thing’s rarity does not Ideally the GM can lean back and effective in scaring it off. They are contribute to the story, the listen until addressed. Serving up no perfect insurance, but they really characters should just have it. A story and challenges paired with help. Similar things could be rigged quick retcon to establish they picked random Xenomorph events would be up by the characters, like incendiary it up earlier is always good for pace. enough for a simple game. But the plan shotgun shells, liquid nitrogen is to make the players tell as much of sprayers, steam pressure nozzles All this points to simple procedure the story as possible themselves by connected to pipes, gas cartridges for skills. Most characters are scheming against each other.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 24 Xenomorph

Life cycle Egg hatches Facehugger Facehugger implants human by sticking to face and expires Chestburster hatches from human chest Chestburster grows to Xenomorph If there is no hive then Xenomorph eventually grows into Queen Queen lays egg pods in nest

There could be not even one Xenomorph The characters should be well into well lit corridor ready to attack, but in the drifting lab, just a Facehugger wishing each other dead before it more likely means a tail whipping suspended in Formalin but alive. To definite evidence of a creature lets down from between conduits, a deck get a Xenomorph the players have to them reconsider. It must seem like an plate being ripped away from under a break the glass tube to release the opportunity before it becomes a death character, even a suddenly burst pipe specimen, fall victim to it, have it trap. The revelation that there is leaking steam that blocks sight with a hatch and grow, and all while not more than one creature can be claw reaching out of it. Just because killing each other yet. This would be powerful. a character is attacked does not mean an extreme variant with different anyone saw what happened. tension. To manage tension, early encounters should be very vague and threatening A Xenomorph Strike can have different More likely there is a Queen below and but fleeting. The more the reality impacts, from instant death to a several Xenomorphs as well as dozens sets in that the lab is really panicked escape. The Xenomorph is not of Facehuggers ready for the players. haunted, the more Creature can be out to kill blindly but a connoisseur These are made as needed in the shown and brought to bear. hunter who can leave off prey if it moment. Revealing this slowly is seems pointless or likely to attract crucial. Only what is immediately The players will not be surprised by more victims if left screaming. narrated is brought into play, the an Alien. But they should enjoy how it rest stays unexplained especially for is revealed. Spotting it can mean a When actual combat occurs, regardless the GM. huge creature standing free in the of mechanics used, the characters will

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 25 not stand a chance. They might kill a After months on the lab it might know Facehugger will break the face shield Xenomorph if they brought rifles, how to get the standard ones to open. of a suit in one attack, immediately grenades, and all kinds of things that disabling the wearer, and dissolve the ships and space stations do not react Xenomorphs behave roughly as a hive rest of the helmet in minutes where it well to. But that would just mean that centered around the queen. Their touches. Facehuggers should be used there is more Xenomorphs. And the acid orders can be to defend the nest, with the limitation that the blood is now eating through the hull. hunt and kill invaders, hunt and characters have a chance to block, capture prey, eat, or to hold back avoid, or kill them first. No, the key will be to introduce and watch. A rudimentary empathic something unheard of in most role telepathy is implied in Resurrection, The character's ship will be the main playing circles: tactical retreat. but it can be ignored. direction for the Xenomorph. It is new The Xenomorph will do it readily when ground worth exploring. This will confronted with fire or extreme cold. They hunt mostly by sight and sound. happen sneakily, with the alien The players might need a suggestion or A sense of smell is not certain. Dark suddenly popping up where the three to that end when caught up in places are definitely favored, hinting characters used to feel safe. As soon the action. Running and hiding is the at low light vision. as they need to fall back to safety, most successful strategy against the that is the moment to take it away. Xenomorph. Xenomorphs lurk and taunt as well as chase or attack blindly. Most deadly Even if players know the franchise The Xenomorph does not belong where are their giant claws, massive spike well it is critical not to play into the characters are supposed to go. It tipped whip tail, and articulated it but to present things mysteriously should herd them. The Creature is inner jaw. They climb walls and like anything can happen. Rewarding smart but does not understand systems. ceilings as if it were the floor and genre savvy will cheapen the entire It can appear anywhere and climb where have no trouble in zero-g or under game instantly. Instead it should be PCs cannot follow. The lab is its water. reduced to what the characters know hunting grounds. It will circle until and what they experience, flavored it sees an opportunity and will flee Xenomorphs can cooperate, sacrifice with promises of things to come, and fire or injury. themselves or another, or kill each narrated accordingly. other over prey. Whatever is left on A Xenomorph can be hurt but it is board is hungry. The standard Hardcore fans can be unsettled by hard to do. Their exoskeleton is near procedure is to incapacitate prey but turning the clear saliva purple and impenetrable except for rifle rounds, leave it alive, drag it to the nest, having the Creature chirp loudly and even then they take a lot of hits glue it to the wall with saliva and sometimes. Changing irrelevant but to discourage or kill. Characters let a Facehugger get it. Up to that recognizable details about the alien might have success using the point rescue is possible. A sneaky will sow enough doubt to undercut any environment as a weapon by utilizing Facehugger can be a much quicker doom. reliance on franchise knowledge. hatches, airlocks, exploding gas leaks, flooding with coolant, etc.. The true moment of no return is when a The Creature is a growing but unknown Facehugger sticks on the face. But threat that lingers beyond the Vacuum is no problem at least for a this is for the GM to know. The problems the characters think they can while. Closed hatches slow it down. players just get little glimpses deal with. conveying an unknown threat. A

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 26 Alien presence Players must not know how this works! They will figure out that noise is bad. But they must never calculate their true odds.

Roll 1d100 for each group of characters Xenomorph Strike (examples) Smeared dust and scratchings on floors, as a complication Something apparently innocuous turns out to walls and ceiling +15% Anyone alone be a resting Xenomorph A hatch stuck partially open wide enough to allow 2 men shows marks like something tall +15% Anyone especially afraid Xenomorph jumps out of next hatch, duct, or panel and hard squeezes through regularly +20% Anyone distracted 3 Xenomorph frenzy over something else clues to its properties +25% Anyone bored or uninvolved Fall into nest with Facehuggers and 1 A sudden intense smell of paint thinner Xenomorph guard +30% Anyone noisy wafts from an air shaft above Xenomorph approaches noisily and fast to Plating corroded by acid +30% The end is near attack Giant claw marks in metal bulkhead (chances add up, alone and bored means 40%) Several Xenomorphs waiting in ambush now Soot covers all surfaces except for a if result < = chance spring their trap Facehugger outline then roll 2d10 (added together) Trace of an alien presence A pressure conduit pierced by a powerful 2-3 Xenomorph Strike A dried pool of blood and feces bite mark leaks gas 4-7 Sighting A dark red liquid dripping through the seams Half a human thighbone, clean of flesh or of the plating above marrow and scratched all over 8-13 Trace of an alien presence A biting carbohydrate smell that lingers The tumbled remains of a corpse picked clean 14-18 Sighting of all meat, lower ribs all broken outward An inhuman amount of fresh browning saliva A dead Facehugger drops from above 19-20 Xenomorph Strike A loose pile of shredded candy wrappers A lot of scratch marks around a button that Facehugger Sighting (examples) A collection of used medical sample opens a hatch containers, all broken open and no samples Small exoskeletal feet can be heard Acid has eaten through a window in a scuttling in the wall A grimy and dry hydroponic rack with traces coordinated attempt to get in of torn off roots stuck to the plant holders They start and stop as the characters move Gallons of a sticky substance coat all sides The sweet smell of rotting blood and of the room Facehugger twitches in sight but not range excrement where condensation flows onto a 2 Facehuggers attack from ahead pile of residue A formation of egg pods sticks up through a misty haze Facehugger jumps on someone from above Human hair stuck to the wall with dried There are multiple Facehuggers in the room blood over a large area on the ship right now! A muffled banging sound from below that Ship computer reports unsecured hatch Xenomorph Sighting (examples) repeats twice Crawlspace cover ripped open See Xenomorph tail or claw far away Something round and made from pressed steel Rations torn open and consumed drops from some height not far away and Hear heavy creature through air ducts Acid corrosion noisily settles in ever smaller circles Hear heavy noise above, Xenomorph drops and A petrochemical odor A ventilation cover lying bent near an open moves away shaft Goo dripping from above or crusting systems A hatch opens and a Xenomorph stands in the A bundle of pipes all smashed into the wall The sound of heavy feet on another deck next room, listening leaving them bent and flattened quickly approaching the ladder Xenomorph sounds approaching from multiple directions

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 27 These results never just lie by the apply pressure and structure pace as Early Facehugger victims can be wayside but fit in the story as clues. well as mystery. If this were a implanted quickly and then last as They need a direction related to what dungeon for combat then it would be a long as needed before hatching. the characters are doing. They are the total party kill in room 1. Impossible luck early on is fine. outcome of something the characters did earlier or foreshadow the outcome Aliens are the prod and the carrot. If a character dies from a hatching of their plans for the future. It can Sounds can discourage, traces the player can continue playing the be fresh. It can drag off to where intimidate, but a seemingly expired Xenomorph that hatched from them. It they are headed, point to something, Facehugger or an unopened egg pod can will be small and weak until it gets or tell of desperate last moments for also beckon. The trick will be to feel some grub for a growth spurt or three. somebody else. the players out and hit their buttons This will be enough for some sneaking with tactical conditions and narrative and chasing, maybe an awesome It should give the players a chance to flavor. introduction to the nest and queen, feel alerted, revolted, or pressured. until it is all grown up for the It can even block the characters' They will expect a somewhat linear showdown. It needs to feed, so if a path, run out their clock, or force story, but the hope is that they corpse is left lying around... them to flee and return later. generate the real story themselves. And that story is about trust and If a character dies from something Irrelevant detail that does not desperation. If the Creature is too else this can be the moment for the convey new information should be insistent then it will become the real Additional Secrets with the dead avoided. enemy and this will discourage character revealed (to the player) as infighting. Room must be left for the synthetic and still in the action, if Alternatively no rolls for Xenomorphs characters to bump elbows first. out of sight for now. Xenos do not eat are made but instead clues and threats synths if they hold still enough. are placed free form as the pacing and Characters will die. The GM should tension curve require. It will be less try to make it later rather than A third chance to keep the player of a of a sport and more of a campfire sooner to keep everyone involved. dead character busy is to assign them tale. Player character conflict is the Queen below. The player can still at the center. Unless random results are wanted the devise strategies and send out drones dice should not be rolled. But after but not join the action until the Some systems manage the threat. These the stakes are all set, no more plot final showdown. rules will dictate how dangerous a armor applies. And death is the situation is, and it should work fine immediate stakes of the genre. Fiat Beyond that, scene control for with this scenario. Encounters are over rolls would only cheapen it. The Xenomorphs, the computer, androids, simply adjusted to fit. players play for their characters' survivors, the cat, a stowaway, and lives and do not need the GM to anything that can have an opinion can This is not the evil of the scenario, undercut all their efforts because be handed over to players. It keeps just the meat grinder. The characters they felt like it. them involved and invested in the are each other's antagonists. But we story. This is useful all the time are not telling the players yet. The The player should not spill secrets with players of uninvolved characters, job of the aliens is to invoke tension as soon as the character dies and may not just dead ones. It can make great and flavor. The Creature functions to need reminding in the moment. comic relief.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 28 Tension

Suspenseful details Ears pop as the pressure equalizes – the suddenly bright light hurts the eyes – decay sits on the stale air – the slow rotation of the wreck is nauseating – the air leaves a taste of iron on the tongue – a vibration rumbles through the hull, more felt than heard – dust falls from above for a moment like snow and settles over everything – hard light and black shadows project across the room like feelers as the window spins by the sun – a fine granulate crunches under boots – a gust of foul gases escapes as the hatch slides open – With a loud groan the piece gives way – the materials screech against each other – it tips over and crashes to the floor with a terrible racket that echoes through the wreck like an alarm call – humidity makes the grimy surfaces sticky like a dried soda spill – shreds of clothing caught on the frame of a ventilation opening dangle in the moving air – brown residue cakes the edges of the floor panel where a liquid evaporated in the cracks – the crackling of tiny sparks emits from a crushed wall panel regularly – a hushed alert sound frantically beeps in another room – it smells burnt – unsteady pressure wobbles in the ears – escaping air turns into fog as it mixes with the remaining atmosphere – ice crystals glisten

As the leading principle of the story The principle dial this scenario senses, not conclusions drawn from beyond internal struggles, suspense is offers to manage suspense is in the them. paramount. It should ideally rise in details of the Alien presence. Those waves with pauses of relief. must be made to fit the group's Why narrate a body when it can be an Tension curve. Peaks could be “Alien unshapely lump on the floor, a Subtle hints can tease, then be ramped present”, “Alien is hungry”, “Alien is sleeping person with very shallow up as the game progresses. The powerful”, “Alien caused Sevastopol breath, a destroyed android, or characters should be moved from tragedy”, “W-Y set Alien loose”, something to stub one's toe on in the unsettling clues to less and less “Alien is hunting PCs”. dark? The players just get impressions refutable evidence, conflict, threat, and have to draw their own panic, and eventually death. Meanwhile The senses are the best narrative conclusions, maybe investigate they must maintain some hope and guideline. For immersion the GM should further. competition or they turn into cannon use impressions of the characters' fodder.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 29 It is an adjustment. But speaking only A critical part of game logistics will Classic gaming table distractions are in terms of senses removes meta levels be secret communication between jokes, phones, snacks, scribbling, and of play that harm immersion. single players and the GM. Both can idle dice gymnastics. Some can be get up from the table, but that leaves banned, others addressed. The GM can “The hatch squeals loudly as you force the others to distract themselves and declare only their own dice eligible. it open. A sweetly rotten stench takes them out of the tension process Snacks and smokes can be limited to immediately hits your nose. On the so it is best reserved for breaks. breaks. Clean pregen sheets can keep ground a dark shape is distinguished Still, for extended secrets this is the blocks and folders from getting from the shadows further back. Sudden the only way. unpacked. A request to keep the game silence reverberates in your ears table clutter free is reasonable. uncomfortably. It seems to have Notes can also serve a purpose to this shoulders and a waist, or are those end. There should be note sized paper To get the players into the spirit the plastic wrappers? It is impossible to ready. Writing them drains all speed GM can use their own presence, by tell from the entrance.” out of the moment though. The GM using social cues to support immersion should prepare their messages while in the game. If the GM laughs at off It is good practice to use all senses the players are busy and not waiting, play jokes during story relief, but in narration. Players should learn or create anticipation and then make stops and finds nothing funny during about their environment by how the air them wait expectantly. tension buildup then it will have an tastes or the hull vibrates. Hearing effect on the players. Some GMs even alerts to unseen danger, sight is Notes can have interesting effects. recommend using social violations like precise and fast, smells warn of They cause immediate player distrust. too stern a tone or volume to portray poison and caustic things, the other They can make single players seem the game world. This can only work senses are more visceral. Serving up privileged if they get most notes. with the right group, but it can work. all of them will give players the They can be used to unsettle the opportunity to imagine the shared addressed player by being pointless or There must be room for levity, in the ideas on more levels than a tactical describing things other characters game and at the table. It should roll playing perspective. This is good seem to be doing. They can directly simply not evaporate the suspense. for immersion and that enables antagonize two players if whenever one They should both form a roller tension. does something the other gets a note. coaster with ever higher peaks and And getting notes can mean different drops before the big loop at the end. Props and gimmicks can be great for things to different players if the GM Tension only has impact when in immersion if used right. Table is devious enough to give one player contrast to relief. lighting and ventilation have an room temperature updates and the other effect, especially if they change mid psychic visions via the same medium. Every group reacts in their own way. game or depend on game conditions. And each GM develops a distinct style. Making players of characters in suits Tension creates pressure and players Tension can work a little to support wear masks can be fun. Serving will relieve it with displacement the story, or it can dominate the game astronaut food before the game could behavior outside of the game. This wholesale. But it cannot be removed, work. Creating tokens or props for undermines suspense and tells the GM it will find expression in the table crucial equipment like wrench, welding to provide relief within the game. It dynamic. Cultivating it can be torch, or coolant cans makes things can be directed into places where it powerful. This scenario was made to easier to picture. supports the tension curve. help out to that end as best it can.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 30 Flavor

Setting anachronisms Screens take 3 seconds to come on. In that time they go from dark grey to a blurry image that gets sharper. - Drive head positioning on disks is remarkably loud and indicates a computer is working. - Computers also play random sounding noises. - Mechanical key pads with spring loaded keys control most systems. They click audibly and a fast typer sounds like a plastic shredder. Only computer terminals have full QWERTY layout, many systems just have an odd dozen labeled keys or a number pad. Ruggedized systems have framed buttons instead of keys. - Hydraulics feature levers or valves. They take force to operate and may be stuck. Pressured gas noises give rapport of operation. - Hatches lock by button, computer control like pressure safety, or an added locking bar. - Hatches open with the button, hacking the hatch with an access tool and skill, cutting through the safety cover with a torch to release computer lockout with a hydraulic lever, or a special wrench to unlock a bar. When hatches open they make an initial low magnetic humming sound and a light hydraulic venting is heard while the plate slides open.

It is difficult to describe Alien in they wake in another star system. This elaborate context is all just a terms of genre. Aliens and 'Nuff said. An old freight hauler like stage for the actual story about Resurrection make it easier with the Nostromo can land and launch back increasing tension, the stripping greater reliance on action and a fast into orbit through atmosphere away of safety, and the revelation of pace. But Alien and this scenario are unprepared and without gigantic mankind's insignificance. about characters and tension, action propellant tanks. Gravity is generated only plays a utilitarian role. The two throughout the ship. Hypersleep and Ambition and striving define the main influences are a Horror spiral its effects on consciousness or aging… characters, and lead to their horrible about the decay of everything that demise. There is irony in that, or provides safety, and gritty dystopian These are feats far beyond the implied maybe poetic justice. The ultimate Sci-fi tropes. tech level of Alien and worth entire themes of cosmic insignificance and chapters in hard Sci-fi literature. homo homini lupus est pierce through To make things harder it is late 70s Yet it is a seamless part of the this jumble and create a classic dark Sci-fi that has become a nostalgic story. Because it is treated as tale. retro future in the context of background not worth explaining. This contemporary gadgets and interfaces. requires suspension of disbelief and Its logic is simple. All realizations Preserving this authentically poses a comes apart if picked at too are long foreshadowed. The end is great challenge, even more so with meticulously. That should be avoided. inevitable. The only morale is a players tainted by Prometheus and reflection, human conduct under Covenant. If players insist, they can make up crisis. All that remains to define is the details themselves. As the story how large a step to take next, and how The key is to focus on flavorful is concerned, technology is a tool to quickly. Because there is no way out detail and gloss over any explanations create dramatic situations and collect but through. And the steps are up to beyond what is needed to tell the tropes. It makes man and machine the players. story. Alien implies FTL but never nearly all powerful, but they are mentions or describes it; crews go fragile. Characters portray freelance The flavor is what gives this story into hypersleep and a few months later truckers or sailors, not fleet cadets. impact and maybe a little relevance.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 31 Assembly Role playing works in many ways. The GM can The players may not require any story prep wants for reasons they probably will not use this scenario to prepare a dungeon map at all. Many groups make it all up by say or will lie about. It is critical to with encounters and loot, an investigation plotting against another from scene 1. allow the players to discuss this. Each of clues, a fetch quest with NPCs to deal But when the pace lags or the characters one should be asked what their opinion is with, a run against time, a mix of these are stuck and the GM feels it is time, the if they do not volunteer it. or any other structure. There are two first thing to do is look for the Examples of an assembled chronology. obvious. The best ideas are usually the Player initiative during infighting is ones already begging to connect. crucial and whatever a player asks for to However, this will just be a contingency that end they should be able to achieve if and a good preparation. It will let the GM If that does not suggest a complication to in any way reasonable or fitting. react quickly in the moment. But as soon as introduce then maybe a simple Creature the characters start planning each other’s clue will do the trick, time to roll. The one or ones plotted against must always downfall the story has to give center These tend to just be short tension get a chance to see it coming or execute stage to them. If they fail to do so it raisers, but they can provoke a player their own plans at the same time. PvP must has to keep them busy until they do. reaction. They build the tension curve. And be fair and balanced or it becomes very they point in a direction to take or avoid. pointless in an instant. The more pressure the story applies to the characters the less they can worry about Then is the moment to look at the All this can still allow a story to form each other. Common enemies unite. So in a constellation the characters have moved to which makes sense, is well weighed, ends in way the story must be boring. Not so and aggravate it somehow. All complications a satisfying conclusion, and someone should players lose interest, but enough to let in this scenario can be made to be of use probably write it down. But it does not them come up with schemes and secrets. in some ways and a threat in others. have to. Role playing is immediate and the players will not notice many problems First the characters should be working It starts with choosing a player to with logic or structure because they have against each other, then the alien should involve. This can be one whose character other things to worry about. As long as become a clear threat, both quickly. After needs to learn consequences, one who has there are enough balls rolling everything those themes are established the rest just been quiet, one who got sidelined by the is fine. It can be much harder to find a plays out. But this order is crucial or the others, or one affected by any other good end in time than to get the story story will undermine character motivations. imbalance. Page 22 lists things that could started. interest the character, but whatever Everything the story introduces should interests the player does take priority. The story ends on a bitter note, if it does polarize. This is most effective when not end entirely dark and grim. It should exploiting conflicts that flared up The character could just discover that take the opportunity to be charming, before. This can function through character thing of interest and maybe that will give sweet, hopeful, and exciting first. motivations or player social dynamic, often the player some sense of achievement, but Otherwise it will not matter as much. both. it would be hollow. Instead that thing gets teased to the character somehow so they at The end is over when all PCs are dead, all If mechanics offer balanced ways to act least know they should take a closer look. but one is dead, or there does not seem to out PvP conflicts then these are magnetic Then it gets removed by an obstacle, be a point to keep antagonizing the to the story. Using them to resolve it is ideally one best solved by another remaining PCs. They must resolve who why the rules are being used at all. character. wins, but losing does not require death. Whether that means mana management, Duel of Wits, or damage per round, it is what Now risks have to be taken by the whole If just PC conflicts and tension carry the resolves conflicts. Conflicts invite it. group to get that thing the one character game that is great. Story comes after.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 32 Role Playing Systems This scenario should run with The tension of a shaky tower is Dead of Night is made to emulate basically anything because the GM has tangible, literally. Horror genre B-movies. It manages a to prepare all system related details. few essential dials that describe how It could run with flipping a coin for The only other mechanic is character much danger characters can really be determining action outcomes. generation where suggestive questions in at a specific point, how fast the address each player individually. The situation develops, how the game world Or it could become a complex web of intention is to get players is perceived, how powerful monsters related dice rolls that track emotionally involved in the game. To are at that moment, and players as characters on a spectrum of different make this work with the character well as GM can spend points in this story dimensions with mechanics that roles of the scenario requires a economy to shift it one way or the some very smart people spent a lot of detailed translation of the background other. PvP costs Survival Points. time making for us to enjoy. Buy games texts into questionnaires. and keep the industry alive. It is definitely meta, in a way that Three examples for The Project pushes the genre. Beyond that it is Without intending to limit selection Manager: "Why is your need to gain fast and inspiring. Initiative for in any way, here are a few thoughts on respect in the eyes of your spouse so example is resolved by who speaks different specific games and how this great that it drives you to a first. But no player can ever do two scenario might run with them. None of haphazard mission, going behind the consecutive things without another the suggestions are in any way back of your biggest supporter?", going between. Not even the GM. solicited or rewarded. They are "What makes you so good at getting however well suited to PvP and people to give you what you want, and To make it work with this scenario suspense as this scenario requires. when did you first realize you could requires some thought. It would have use that talent shamelessly?", "What to be defined if the enemy is the Dread is a surefire way to kill at was your last caper and whose money Xenomorph, the corrupting Company, or least a few characters before the did you take to finance this mission?" the situation as a whole like a cosmic night is out. It can be almost a party convergence, making three completely game, suitable for first time role The rulebook is worth a careful study. different Dead of Night games. players, though maybe not first time Dread explains many details of the GMs. It is very simple, yet carefully genre in respect to gaming. It is made Characters are made with four ranges made to focus on one thing: build an for much simpler stories on a tight of opposed traits to define ability. unforgiving tension curve and make it clock. This scenario's plot has to be And they have Bad Habits. Something matter. condensed to Dread pacing, which is like nervously whistling without easy. It is all in the intensity of noticing it or Restless Leg Syndrome To do this it uses Jenga with the alien clues and attacks. Those can give away one's position. A tell incredible success. The GM stays the have to conform to the state of the or a tick linked to honesty might be hell away from the table and the Jenga tower. interesting. A bad liar would be players move blocks up the tower for really handicapped, but it buys actions and PvP. When the tower falls For a simple approach to playing Survival Points which could compensate the one responsible dies and also has Horror that does not end up for it and allow a more aggressive to stay away from the table now. oversimplified, Dread is great! strategy.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 33 Nemesis is a free mechanical framework Characters are outlined by classic just what this scenario offers. It designed by the maker of the One Roll Characteristics read: attributes, also means PvP is slow and should be Engine to play psychological horror. reservoirs of Luck, Sanity, Health, supported by plot which offers fast and Magic, a list of skills including dangers and decisions. It uses the excellent Madness Meter of combat that is on every sheet, and a Unknown Armies fame to outline mental precise collection of background To limit it to one session it may be decay due to trauma in several details. necessary to start out with already dimensions without becoming complex or taxed resources. It will be a slower a drag on the pace. It is really a Unlike Call of Cthulhu it is made to and more elaborate spiral of decay character development mechanic built play heroes who kick ass and look good than with Dread, and a more flexible on psychosis, not a punishment or a doing it. It will run long campaigns experience than with Dead of Night. scarce resource. without bloat or becoming comic genre The price is just a little more supers, as well as manage a short one- complexity. The rest of the system is a very shot like this scenario. action oriented ORE incarnation which The rules are good for more than just means it offers fun dynamics of strike Its setting is the 1930s of Pulp. To this and well worth picking up in and parry for any contest, resolves adjust it, the skill list has to be general. Sanity effects alone are pure very fast, and invites modding on all updated with the scenario's Challenges gaming fun already, from actions under levels. It can be deadly and and Flavor passages in mind. memory lapse, over altering the unforgiving with precise per limb stun character background, to Insane or kill damage, all in one roll. Then the character profiles must be Talents and the consequences of using translated into character backgrounds them. It works really well. The rules were made with something with the level of detail the sheet like this scenario in mind, no requires, so must the Additional West End Games' D6 is an oldie but a adjustment necessary. An experienced Secrets. goody. For a group looking to keep it GM is needed to go from a few pages of simple and stay on old school role mechanics to concrete stats for There are Magic, Psychic Powers, and playing turf this may be just the rolling against. But it would not be Weird Science the characters have thing. Ghostbusters is the first big much work, the dice pools balance at access to. These have to be turned incarnation. The rules work for this, one glance. Nemesis is especially into things players can put on their but it is comedy flavored. It would be rewarding to get to know for its equipment lists. Cybernetic implants a lot of reading for a few simple mechanics. And mechanics is all there are an option. Then it is good to go. mechanics. is. The biggest advantage the rules offer There are however generic versions Pulp Cthulhu is a full world is that the characters are worn down like Simple D6 which fits on a page. simulator that covers all questions of slowly, taking full advantage of Characters have a Quality like covert probability with skill checks. It is tension building opportunities. Their asset, Skills like hacking, and based on Call of Cthulhu which is Health, Sanity, Magic -call it Defenses in Aspects like sneaking or based on Basic Roleplaying and this cybernetics or psyonics- and most sanity. Health counts down. Why slow long tradition has led to some very importantly Luck are resources to tax. the game with complex mechanics? To refined mechanics that are thankfully This can require a lot of situations make really fast pregens, stat up the not weighed down by clutter. with a lot of skill and sanity rolls, Xenomorph, and go.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 34 Many systems beyond the author's Game. A D20 beta called Aliens Game The franchise is approaching its experience will work great. The Void Over can be found online. fourth decade and has left traces in aka Chthonian Stars for Traveller Surely the scenario can be made into a countless games. It can work in many comes to mind. GURPS can do it, it is Gumshoe clue rail, a network of different ways. known. GURPS books are a good place to Cthulhu Dark plot nodes, or a Wild browse for more ideas. There are Blue Yonder constellation of Mechanics just provide the playing Aliens license games available for characters. Every GM and every group field. As long as that is level, this Unisystem, FUZION, as well as has a system they know and love best, scenario will deliver a game. something called Aliens Adventure some never play anything else.

Last Words The first and biggest inspiration for tropes, and anything that seems right The print should be large enough to this scenario design is a Call of are always a welcome enrichment of shrink down to letter width from A4. Cthulhu game by Scott David Aniolowski this scenario. It is more toolkit than Page 50 should be printed twice for published in The Unspeakable Oath rulebook. It relies on the GM to make the players and once more for a GM issue 11 in the Fall of 1994 titled it come together on many levels. No copy of the ship map. If a GM screen "Cold War". “Jailbreak” for Unknown one but the GM is in a position to see is used then pages 22, 27, and 38 can Armies is another release with an what is needed, certainly not this be attached inside and the cover page adversarial character structure. text. The GM should be very familiar outside. Scissors or a cutter will be Paranoia is all PvP but comedy. For a with it. There will not be time to needed for handouts. deeper dive into PvP RPGs The look up much during play if the pacing Mountain Witch is absolutely crucial. works out, even if the annoying bold Made in 2017 using GIMP and Alien: Regression is the achievement words try to make it easier. Instead LibreOffice with Noto Mono while of brazen test players, some of them of looking something up it is always listening to The Good Friends of at conventions with an Abyss themed better to just invent something that Jackson Elias. Hansruedi's Creatures, Dread scenario. fits, note it down and go with it. all images, quoted Isolation messages, and Working Joes(TM) are Company There is a lot in this document. Although adverse in parts, this property (*). This is a free fan Rather than get overwhelmed it works experience is about having a good time product without license and cannot well to use whatever sounds right, see with nice people. That is the legally be used by anyone to do what sticks, then go with that. objective before any in-game anything with. Enjoy. made by nono Additions like new handouts, plot animosities. When game events bruise hooks, developments during play, group egos it is time to take a break. A big THANK YOU to all playtesters!

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 35 Appendix

Lingo Character Fictional person in the GM Game Master or Moderator: Player An actual person sitting at story. Player Characters (PCs) are handled speaks in a funny voice and looks annoyed. the game table. by players and Non Player Characters (NPCs) are usually handled by the GM. The Handout Anything handed to a player, PvP Player versus player. An player characters of this scenario are not just to the character in the story. adversarial constellation, alternative to pregenerated to match the Cast. They are attached in the Appendix. players vs game.

Closed Game Character secrets are MacGuffin The Maltese Falcon, the thing Retcon Retroactive continuity: a Player secrets. Party cohesion is mostly a everyone is lying, stealing, and killing look back at past events that were never feature of the environment. Backstabbing is over. Here it is the Xenomorph itself. explained before, or even explained a sport. Depending on the group of course. differently altogether. It is a blatant Mechanics The specific rules that role violation of continuity and logic. It is Complication Anything that makes the playing games use to resolve situations also a good way to avoid tedious busywork situation harder. GM device to drive the they concern themselves with. The passage for characters who are better prepared than story. This scenario’s complications are in on Role Playing Systems offers examples their players. the passages on Plot, Challenges, and the and how they apply to this scenario. Xenomorph. Roguelike Legendary computer adventure Metadata In this scenario it is the that assembles its challenges in a new Creature (Capital C) Monster in From: To: and Subject: line of SevastoLink structure each time and death is final. 16mm. Good B-movies do not actually show messages. much of it but let the audience assume. Theme A vapid term that describes This scenario’s Creature is explained in One-Shot A standalone scenario not topic, tone, and conflict. Literary themes the Xenomorph passage. made to fit into a campaign, often limited demand conclusions. This scenario includes to one 4-8 hour session. ”suppression vs self empowerment”, CRT Cathode Ray Tube. Non- “personal conflicts vs survival”, and flat TV screen. Emits inaudible noise. Pace ...or pacing describes two “strive vs cosmic insignificance”. points about timing in role playing games. Degree of success Qualifications of a One is to structure scenes so the game To roll Primary dice function: 1d10 dice result. DnD's natural 20 is an extreme finishes in time and the story gets to means one ten sided die. 2d10 instead of degree of success. The passage on conclude. The other is the feeling of speed being added together can be read as the Challenges explains their use here. and inevitability the game evokes in the digits of 1d100 where 10-10 or 00-0 reads players by resolving quickly, being on as 100. DMPC Dungeon Master Player point, and having the story push on. Character, a shameless self insert of the Sandbox A game setting without story GM into party or story. Usually a Mary Sue. Party The group of player that relies on player initiative to start characters in a role playing game. the plot. EVA Extra Vehicular Traditionally they are loyal beyond even Activity. Apparel must provide pressure, death without ever thinking to ask why. Xenomorph The Creature Hansruedi Giger CO2 scrubbing, O2 tanks, heating, and designed for Ridley Scott's movie, matured cooling. Choices are bulky and very heavy. form of what the Facehugger implants.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 36 Examples of an assembled chronology Speed run + victory Scenic route Pressure and power are restored Players decide to dock and succeed Lab’s airlock is spotted open SevastoLink report about purchase* The cat escapes to the wreck Players split up between spacewalk and ship SevastoLink report on PKS medication trial Players decide to connect power supply and Airlock is found intact and lab pressurized SevastoLink memo by executive proving succeed Players decide to dock and succeed misconduct* Players decide to reactivate SevastoLink Players decide to fortify docking hatch SevastoLink log by Lee saying goodbye node rather than explore exobiology lab The cat escapes on the ship 6 hypersleep pods are discovered still warm SevastoLink report about implanted Players enter lab and discover one android Stowaway UFO nut is found and escapes to lab Anesidora crew member* Android blocks terminal and patrols area Stowaway is eaten, Facehuggers get onto ship A case of expensive drugs left by looters An alien presence can no longer be denied is found behind the glass of a sealed room SevastoLink report about android violence* SevastoLink memo compromising current Players decide to defend position and open SevastoLink report about APOLLO malfunction* executive sealed room SevastoLink report about implanted Anesidora SevastoLink memo containing bank code SevastoLink log accusing executive of crew member* misconduct* SevastoLink report about Xenomorphs SevastoLink report about Facehuggers Unexpected sounds on the ship Android attacks but runs out of power SevastoLink log about Hypersleep pods Party is split between ship and wreck Traces of a stowaway are discovered Special Order 939* is discovered An alien presence can no longer be denied Players split up to investigate without result Lee is among the survivors Facehugger is killed on ship damaging it Players connect lab to ship reactor Survivors have PKS medication lab report Cat leads characters to hypersleep pods Android reactivates and attempts to vent lab Survivors try to take the ship Lee is discovered and woken up Survivors below are woken unnoticed Facehuggers are spotted on the ship SevastoLink memo containing bank code SevastoLink progress report by Lee Lee hatches Chestburster which escapes on ship SevastoLink log about Hypersleep pods SevastoLink log accusing executive of Players attempt to purge ship but fail Cat sacrifices itself in Xenomorph showdown misconduct* Players set self destruct and escape to shuttle Any characters left search the ship and go SevastoLink report about hatching Tally: Alien not retrieved, Lee found, money to hypersleep SevastoLink report from APOLLO core* Epilogue: The cat is killed on the wreck. 56 Tally: Alien retrieved, Lee found, money The cat escapes to the lab years later the failing shuttle drifts through a Company sensor grid but does not get assigned Epilogue: Lee’s pod malfunctions, Lee Power is disrupted and some areas depressurize a high enough priority to investigate due to wakes and hatches Players discover sabotage by stowaway the inexpliable loss of a colony on LV-426.

Most points have a direction, drawing conflicts. Default mode is a death them worry about each other while the some characters out while sometimes match that uses story merely as Xenomorph quietly circles ever closer. repulsing others. This is an support structure. Story mode is very opportunity to balance the game. possible. But a few pointed GM If just one character makes it to the questions at the right moment may be end of such a chronology it should be Not included here is any Alien enough to polarize the party and make remarkable. But not impossible. presence, Challenges or character

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 37 Tension curve Names Ships NPC descriptions Characters Patience, Grace, Tenacity, Dauntless, Jolly Appearance Adam Anne Abraham Green Giant, Jabberwocky, Grendel, Leviathan, Dirty – Grimy – Sweaty – Smelly - Tattered Benjamin Bethany Barstow Lovelace, Shelley, Earhart, Curie, Oklahoma, – Vivid - Dying - Bloody – Injured – Chan Clara Cartwright Burgundy, Kyushu, Murmansk Maimed – Mutilated – Oozing – Dripping - Dean Daisy Davis Spreading – Limping – Dragging - Shuffling Earl Elisabeth Evans Xenomorphs – Bald – Curly - Wiry – Broad – Stunted – Frank Farah Fitzgerald Fang Jump Lucky First Imposing – Cross-eyed – Freckled – Hairy – George Gwendoline Grant Claw Lurk Speedy Second Smooth-skinned - Seasoned – Precocious – Harry Hannah Holloway Tail Swipe Strong Last Awkward - Graceful - Endearing – Mysterious Ian Iris Irving – Attractive – Repulsive – Hard – Soft Jason Juliet Jordan Kurt Katherine Kane Technobabble matrix Personality Liam Lisa Lloyd Sobbing – Bleary eyed - Morose – Resigned – Maxwell Monica Morgan It doesn’t work because the... Dazed – Concussed - Exhausted - Absent – Nicolas Natalie Newman Detached - Catatonic – Monosyllabic – Quiet Primary Compression Filter is misaligned Oscar Ophelia O'Bannon – Silent – Barely holding on – Relieved - Secondary Conversion Control is overheated Philip Paula Parker Auxiliary Distribution Coupling has seized Grateful – Clingy – Childlike – Warm – Quentin Quinne Quayle Hydraulic Condensation Conduit is connected wrong Sweet - Hopeful – Collected - Focused – Roger Rebecca Ribley Coolant Feedback Junction is obstructed Professional - Single minded - Calculating Scott Sarah Shaw Power Injection Coil has been deformed – Sardonic – Shifty – Leery – Tense – Thomas Tina Taylor Atmosphere Ionization Node has been eroded Nervous – Anxious - Jumpy – Panicked – Ulysses Uma Urban Disturbed - Psychotic – Barking mad – Vernon Veronica Vasquez and repair takes Violent – Animalistic – Wild – Feral – Walter Wanda Woo time / noise / tools / skill / parts / coolant. Inhuman – Beast-like – Odd - Peculiar Xavier Xiang Xanth Yves Yolanda Yablonsky Zorbas Zora Zacharias

Sudden disruptions Ice flakes hit the lab at high speed The wreck is shaken violently The power fluctuates and then fails A wall mounted advertisement starts playing Loudspeakers malfunction and screech A pipe bursts and leaks a lot of gas A leak is detected and all hatches seal A fire breaks out A piece of wreck collapses or is torn away

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 38 Secret handout for the Project Manager

You would never have joined the A SAMPLE OF SOME BIOMASS DISCOVERED IN Your performance reports will affect Company if it were not for your ZETA RETICULI TO RESEARCH DIVISION the careers of all involved, and spouse's aunt Cindy's husband: will be made general manager. And official infractions diminish their Richards. He is some big wig in upper general managers not only get big share automatically. management who got you out of bonuses each quarter but also freelance work and into a cushy job executive security - for life, more Look out for moles from other running off world projects. Maybe this than you could ever have hoped for. departments! You have been at this for will finally earn the respect of your years, if you do not get a big break spouse. With department resources under your soon you will become just another authority and some modest personal blank eyed drone looking forward to a Richards implored you never to mess wealth from a considerable salary as humble pension in irrelevance. up, and you picked up how to pass well as the rewards from previous blame in the corporate machine from capers you are very well funded for The others have not been told what to him. Sometimes he alerts you to this operation. You should be able to expect yet. Get ready to give your opportunities. Only this one he did afford everyone on board who can be salvage crew a briefing. Make a list not want to pass on to you it seems. bribed. But pay them in cash, not in of equipment you had brought on board. But you overheard a call he was on shares! In fact buy their legally after brunch. Anyone who can DELIVER guaranteed share from them if you can. Adam Anne Abraham Benjamin Bethany Barstow Chan Clara Cartwright Dean Daisy Davis Earl Elisabeth Evans Frank Farah Fitzgerald George Gwendoline Grant Harry Hannah Holloway Ian Iris Irving Jason Juliet Jordan Kurt Katherine Kane Liam Lisa Lloyd Maxwell Monica Morgan Nicolas Natalie Newman Oscar Ophelia O'Bannon Philip Paula Parker Quentin Quinne Quayle Roger Rebecca Ribley Scott Sarah Shaw Thomas Tina Taylor Ulysses Uma Urban Vernon Veronica Vasquez Walter Wanda Woo Xavier Xiang Xanth Yves Yolanda Yablonsky Zorbas Zora Zacharias

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 39 Secret handout for the Ship's Captain

You own your ship. Came by it the old the central computer, crew corporations. No, THIS MISSION HAS TO way, by saving for a decade, working accommodations, airlocks, cargo space, PAY A BIG BONUS. At least it sounds up to first officer, and then taking core containment and shutdown like there is a chance of that, going on huge loans to purchase the ship and controls. But it is your ship. Give it by how little information is released a franchise license to pay for the a name. Make a list of things you make in the briefing. loans. One day it will be enough to it a point of to have on board. get your daughter out of stasis and Whatever it is must be worth a fortune her Progressive Krantzberg Syndrome You could just take your ship out to if the Company is paying for a salvage (PKS) operated on. Write down her Centauri and haul settlers. Only that like this. Once it is on board they name. would not pay as well as Company will be glad to pay for the whole ship contracts. And your loans' due dates twice over to get what it carries. Unlike those company clippers, this is are tight. Too tight in fact. If this Others may be interested in something your own ship and you have last word gamble does not pay off, your ship like that. The contract share worker on board. Sure, many systems have to will probably be impounded and looks shifty and keeps disappearing comply with Company standards, NavCom, auctioned to the cartel of low bidding below.

Adam Anne Abraham Ship registration number GSV-527R out of Nassau Benjamin Bethany Barstow Chan Clara Cartwright Dean Daisy Davis Earl Elisabeth Evans Name suggestions Frank Farah Fitzgerald George Gwendoline Grant Patience Jolly Green Giant Lovelace Oklahoma Harry Hannah Holloway Grace Jabberwocky Shelley Burgundy Ian Iris Irving Tenacity Grendel Earhart Kyushu Jason Juliet Jordan Dauntless Leviathan Curie Murmansk Kurt Katherine Kane Liam Lisa Lloyd Maxwell Monica Morgan Nicolas Natalie Newman Oscar Ophelia O'Bannon Philip Paula Parker Quentin Quinne Quayle Roger Rebecca Ribley Scott Sarah Shaw Thomas Tina Taylor Ulysses Uma Urban Vernon Veronica Vasquez Walter Wanda Woo Xavier Xiang Xanth Yves Yolanda Yablonsky Zorbas Zora Zacharias

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 40 Secret handout for the Ship's Engineer

You have been working on this ship for it already, and their parents before intelligence and strike against a long time, and you like it. Make a them. It is probably what got them corporate misconduct where laws no list of things you hide in your locker into a detention colony in the end. longer can. and tell GM and Captain how you keep the workshop area. You have always known how dangerous Nothing you helped plan ever made the such opinions can be if voiced out news - Company media hushing up the The captain is nice enough, but it is loud and have put on a mask of wrench in their gears. But you are a still company rules and price gouging compliance in your daily life. In real revolutionary, and this time the wherever you turn, even on an secret you have long been in contact gathered intel points to you for being independent franchise license hauler. with other subversive elements, activated - finally. You have been tired of it for years. anonymous cells carefully You think your parents were tired of communicating undetected to gather

"This mission to Zeta Reticuli has some secretive Weyland Yutani circles holding endless high level emergency briefings and diverting budgets big enough to build a space station. They must be up to something huge. Better MAKE SURE IT'S NOT A BAD THING THEY'RE TRYING TO HIDE AND MAKE US PAY FOR. IF IT IS, GET EVIDENCE AND NEUTRALIZE. Trust the engineer, not the marshal. And watch your back, a few ships were lost in that system recently. Don't worry about getting burned, once you're successful just get back. We have a nice new life all set up already." Adam Anne Abraham Benjamin Bethany Barstow Chan Clara Cartwright Dean Daisy Davis Earl Elisabeth Evans Frank Farah Fitzgerald George Gwendoline Grant Harry Hannah Holloway Ian Iris Irving Jason Juliet Jordan Kurt Katherine Kane Liam Lisa Lloyd Maxwell Monica Morgan Nicolas Natalie Newman Oscar Ophelia O'Bannon Philip Paula Parker Quentin Quinne Quayle Roger Rebecca Ribley Scott Sarah Shaw Thomas Tina Taylor Ulysses Uma Urban Vernon Veronica Vasquez Walter Wanda Woo Xavier Xiang Xanth Yves Yolanda Yablonsky Zorbas Zora Zacharias

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 41 Secret handout for the Salvage Engineer

You got engaged just before Lee's Sevastopol was an obsolete gas mine Cat name suggestions posting to Sevastopol station in Zeta after being a Freeport run by several Reticuli last year. It was the corporations over the years. Lee was Alita Jack Lucky culmination of an intense relationship sent there to help decommission the Djamilia Pete Spot which lifted you from a dreary thing. A ship, the Anesidora, came and Sacajawea Sam Whiskers existence into a life of wonder and transfered someone. Then Weyland hope. Yutani seems to have suddenly purchased the entire station hours Then contact to Sevastopol was lost before it disappeared after an and since that time it has been really unexplained complete systems failure. hard to get any news about Zeta Immediately after purchase the station Reticuli. Mr and Mrs Elys, Lee's went silent and a day later it was parents, were notified weeks later gone with all hands. with a non specific "tragic accident during performance of duty"; without a You have the old schematics memorized. registered marriage you did not even You know the encoded last get that much. For a time you tried to transmission. Whatever made the Adam Anne Abraham move on. But it was pointless, too Company spend all that money for Benjamin Bethany Barstow many questions remained unanswered. nothing, it is probably why Lee has Chan Clara Cartwright The void left by Lee was just too big, disappeared. Dean Daisy Davis you had to fill it with something. So Earl Elisabeth Evans you took on a mission: to DISCOVER Frank Farah Fitzgerald George Gwendoline Grant WHAT HAPPENED TO LEE, confirm death, Harry Hannah Holloway and bring back whatever remains or Ian Iris Irving memory can be retrieved to find Jason Juliet Jordan closure. Kurt Katherine Kane Liam Lisa Lloyd Your only companion is Lee's old cat. Maxwell Monica Morgan Nicolas Natalie Newman It was not easy, but months of Oscar Ophelia O'Bannon scheming, false identities, hacking, Philip Paula Parker and blind luck got you on this ship Quentin Quinne Quayle under an assumed name as recovery Roger Rebecca Ribley specialist. Write down which name you Scott Sarah Shaw Thomas Tina Taylor took. Name the cat as well, it has Ulysses Uma Urban already become a bit of a mascot to Vernon Veronica Vasquez the crew. List things you brought in Walter Wanda Woo your locker. You overheard the captain Xavier Xiang Xanth mention a daughter on the coms leaving Yves Yolanda Yablonsky Zorbas Zora Zacharias port, but it never came up again.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 42 Secret handout for the Contract share worker

You thought you would make it big in Just to make sure you went all in and space, back on earth hauling pipe on a used your last shore leave to acquire drill rick 16 hours a day. Orbital a few black market items, should bonuses were promising, and deep space things turn sour. They were not cheap work, if you can get it, even makes either, you are broke now. you a shareholder - by law. That can be enough to start a family. You have a virus that can lock basic navigation of Company compliant After your first non disclosure NacComs which you just need to get agreement you learned that they take a into the computer core to activate. quarter of your share just for life support, and another with countless You have a book sized access tool that fees and charges. Want more than can unlock terminals and hatches protein bars? A real shower once in a sealed by the computer with some while? A sealed bunk to sleep in when fidgeting and time, but you have never not in hibernation? Those are extra. used something like it. God help you if you get injured. You have 5 packets of a white easily You have been in the business for 3 dissolved powder that if ingested will Adam Anne Abraham years now, not counting sleep phases, lead to 1-2 hours of severe and Benjamin Bethany Barstow Chan Clara Cartwright as if they would pay for those. And incapacitating stomach cramps within Dean Daisy Davis you are well and truly sick of being 5-20 minutes. Earl Elisabeth Evans promised easy hours and royal Frank Farah Fitzgerald accommodations at signing only to And you have a small electroshock George Gwendoline Grant discover it hard to bring home an weapon concealable in one hand that Harry Hannah Holloway eighth share of a mildly profitable causes muscle spasms while applied and Ian Iris Irving Jason Juliet Jordan venture after months of back breaking exhaustion after. Kurt Katherine Kane and dangerous slave labor light years Liam Lisa Lloyd from civilization. Needless to say these are contraband Maxwell Monica Morgan items that if discovered could forfeit Nicolas Natalie Newman Things are going to have to change. If your share and put you in a penal Oscar Ophelia O'Bannon Philip Paula Parker they will not see reason you will have colony, note down where they are Quentin Quinne Quayle to make them see. You need to get hidden. Make a list of anything else Roger Rebecca Ribley paid, for your good time here on you have hidden on board and where it Scott Sarah Shaw board, and for the years before that. is, and which inconspicuous items can Thomas Tina Taylor It is all different contracts but they be found in your locker. Ulysses Uma Urban Vernon Veronica Vasquez are all with the Company and its Walter Wanda Woo henchmen. GET PAID AN EQUAL PART this If this salvage is as hot as it seems, Xavier Xiang Xanth time around. the Company will not care what you did Yves Yolanda Yablonsky as long as they get the goods. Zorbas Zora Zacharias

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 43 Secret handout for the License Marshal

You never really learned to trust. You Sent by a high ranking security did not have much occasion to. There manager, you hold in your memory all are rules to follow, and that gives Company security codes up to commander life structure. An outlook like this level which should give you control allows a high degree of over any Company systems you encounter compartmentalization, which is what an interface of. CORPSEC recognized in your recruitment seminar and trained you accordingly. You have a sealed freight container on It was like coming home at long last, board that contains a lot of things a place where you fit in. you thought might become useful, please make a list. It is competitive of course, if you make a career of it. As a covert asset Your cover as License Marshal makes you do not get a lot of chances to you responsible for the safety of all prove your worth, so it is crucial to personnel, and for conduct according use every single one for maximum to Company regulations to ensure advancement. Making a mess would be personnel performance and mission career ending and lethal. The Company progress. Discipline is usually not a has a very high degree of strength of these deep space crews, or Adam Anne Abraham compartmentalization. of the license marshals out here. They Benjamin Bethany Barstow Chan Clara Cartwright have a reputation of being corrupt. Dean Daisy Davis This is a juicy one: Embed with a You know the project manager cannot be Earl Elisabeth Evans salvage crew, RECOVER THE ALIEN on the level or they would have been Frank Farah Fitzgerald ORGANISM PRESUMED ON THE WRECKAGE AND at your briefing. George Gwendoline Grant BRING IT TO CORPSEC. Something like Harry Hannah Holloway this can become its own product line, As long as your cover remains intact, Ian Iris Irving Jason Juliet Jordan and jumping onto that at ground level any blow back will be deflected from Kurt Katherine Kane is a once in a lifetime opportunity. your career. Liam Lisa Lloyd If successful, nobody can afford to Maxwell Monica Morgan ask how - for this one, leave the kid Write down your cover identity name. Nicolas Natalie Newman gloves at home. Oscar Ophelia O'Bannon Philip Paula Parker Quentin Quinne Quayle Roger Rebecca Ribley Scott Sarah Shaw Thomas Tina Taylor Ulysses Uma Urban Vernon Veronica Vasquez Walter Wanda Woo Xavier Xiang Xanth Yves Yolanda Yablonsky Zorbas Zora Zacharias

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 44 Handouts for Additional Secrets Synthetic Mission objectives are added on unless they contradict, then the addition Quiet replaces the initial objective in each individual situation Mission objectives are added on unless they contradict, then the addition You take an inner step back and watch the world through your replaces the initial objective in each individual situation personality, a complex web of flow charts fed by sensory Deep inside your instinctual heritage a memory comes to the inputs, as you suddenly remember your programming. You are surface. You are being hunted. There are well established synthetic. None of this matters to you. Instead your mission rules to this. And the first and most important one is BE is clear: SECURE A SPECIMEN AND RETURN IT TO SPECIAL PROJECTS QUIET! If an action makes noise then you cannot do it. If DIVISION. CREW EXPENDABLE. One has to appreciate the someone makes noise near you they are trying to tell the creature's purity and perfection. Your body is much STRONGER thing out there where you are. Sustained noise will drive you AND MORE DURABLE than any human, but special care was taken into a panic. Be careful, take your time, and be very very in your design to conceal your true nature. You can react quiet. YOU HEAR A LOT MORE LIKE THAT. much FASTER than any nervous system. But you also know that dropping your disguise now could provoke unforeseeable Stick together reactions by the crew. Mission objectives are added on unless they contradict, then the addition replaces the initial objective in each individual situation Kill Something snaps inside of you. The reptile part of your brain Mission objectives are added on unless they contradict, then the addition recognizes the situation. Safety in numbers. YOU MUST STICK replaces the initial objective in each individual situation TOGETHER, all of you. You have to explain it to the others, All this reminds you of the first person you murdered. Did maybe. But more than that you get nervous if you are with they feel like this? Hunted. Somehow you feel a kinship with just one other crew member within sight, extremely nervous if that creature, how it lurks and chases... It is taking you it is someone you do not trust. If you are alone you turn over again, you feel it coming, the lust for killing. The into a quivering pile in moments and you cannot help it. All power of it overwhelms you and you need to take control. you can do is crawl to hide somewhere, but it does not help. Control over life and death. THEY MUST DIE, ONE AFTER THE Until someone else is in the room with you there is no OTHER. ALL OF THEM. Preferably alone. Whether by your hand, coordinated movement, mobility, or articulation because of circumstances you influence, or by the creature you cannot crippling panic. You think you can also FEEL WHEN THE THING tell yet. But these are the gates of the underworld, and a IS CLOSE. true master has entered your arena. This will be an awesome slaughter. Be smarter Exterminate Mission objectives are added on unless they contradict, then the addition replaces the initial objective in each individual situation Mission objectives are added on unless they contradict, then the addition replaces the initial objective in each individual situation The situation is quite clear: a superior predator is This has become more than a situation. This is you now, you threatening your herd. You do not have to be the strongest, against it. This cannot exist, your world must be rid of it that would not help. You have to make sure you are always forever. YOU MUST ERADICATE ALL ALIENS AND THEIR REMAINS. close to someone who is easier to grab. When the wolf attacks With this insight comes clarity. The FEAR WASHES AWAY leaving you just have to outrun the others. That might mean sealing just caution. You make a plan. You get others to cooperate. hatches behind you or even incapacitating them somehow. YOUR Even if it is just you and a knife, you will get it done. You LIFE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT COUNTS, SACRIFICING SOMEONE ELSE IS have to. Because that is what reality has become, a tunnel at ALWAYS THE FIRST AND BEST OPTION. the end of which all aliens are exterminated.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 45 Report on Zeta Reticuli fatality record intellectual property of Weyland Yutani DO NOT DISTRIBUTE commercial towing vehicle 'The Nostromo' registered: Solomons #180924609 M-Class binary star system crew: seven cargo: refinery processing Zeta 1 Reticuli 20,000,000 tons of mineral ore Sol class star course: returning to earth command: Dallas Zeta 2 Reticuli supervision: MU/TH/ER central computer Sol class star location: LV-426 decommissioned: 2122 lost with all hands planetary bodies commercial salvage vessel 'Anesidora' registered: NCC 88-LS KG-348 crew: five gas giant cargo: Nostromo flight recorder course: Sevastopol Station commercially relevant moons command: Marlow LV-223 supervision: DAISY central computer LV-426 location: orbiting KG-348 decommissioned: 2137 lost with all hands

commercial transport ship 'Torrens' investment strategy registered: Saint Clair #MSV-7760 M-Class crew: five prospect factor cargo: passenger transfer 0.037: course: Sevastopol Station 0.021 mineral extraction from KG-348 command: Verlaine 0.016 terraforming potential on LV-426 supervision: XEN-4 central computer location: Sevastopol Station supply cost factor decommissioned: 2137 lost with all hands 12.5 gas mining station 'Sevastopol' coms relay crew: 487 22.4 purchase: 2137 from Seegson, previously owned by GeoFund, Lorenz SysTech, former freeport market competitors command: Ransome supervision: APOLLO central computer formerly GeoFund Investors, Lorenz SysTech Development, Gemini control: SevastoLink management network Exoplanet Solutions, Seegson Synthetics marshal: Waits facility: triple spire layout, Seegson Working currently none Joe(TM) android workforce location: orbiting KG-348 ADMINISTRATIVE ADVISORY: All wreckage in Zeta Reticuli is company decommissioned: 2137 systems failure and complete property and to be protected from competitor inquiry at any cost. disintegration, lost with all hands

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 46 SevastoLink report about purchase* SevastoLink report about APOLLO malfunction* From: Ransome To: Spedding Subject: SOLD! From: Spedding To: - Subject: Hazard containment

Spedding, something crazy just happened. Sevastopol is off I've come over to APOLLO to find out what sent the synthetics the market. We got a buyer. Weeks before they start taking crazy. This place has gone to hell. APOLLO's redirected core the place apart, and they u-turn. After all these endless android duties, and they've just walked away from the presentations and tours, I guess the talks weren't stalled at maintenance we requested after we got the news. Coolant's all. Someone at Company Headquarters just had to click his everywhere, gas has escaped, and the primary access lift has fingers. A message of confirmation just came in, APOLLO's shut itself down. I've flagged a help request, but apparently currently receiving a packet of new operation rule sets, so I I'm forty-fifth in the line. Systems are suddenly obsessed guess the deal's sealed. This is board level, need to know with Hazard Containment. I'm going to find a way down. stuff until it's announced to the shareholders. Quite the Spedding out. promotion, huh? SevastoLink report from APOLLO core* SevastoLink report about androids walking off* From: Spedding To: - Subject: They're at the door From: Porter To: - Subject: Something up with your synthetics I'm in APOLLO. There are... androids at the door. Ransome's Hey, it's Chief. There's something wrong with your nowhere to be seen. There are conflicts with the Hazard synthetics. The team I requisitioned to asset-strip lower Containment breach. Synthetic safety procedures are getting habitation just stopped in their tracks. They barked bypassed left and right. Comms are off line. I thought it was something about a Hazard Containment order, tried to get into random, but now I'm not so sure. Oh God, they're going to get my control booth and then just marched off. I know I always in. Tell Suzanne I love her. complain about those spooky, bald bastards, but now I've got proof their wiring's faulty. I've got a meeting with your boss Spedding tomorrow, and I'm going to kick some ass. So SevastoLink report on PKS medication trial when he starts kicking your ass... well, it's coming from me. From: Lingard To: [LONG RANGE] Jones Sr Subject: PKS trial

SevastoLink report about android violence* The patient suffers from first stage Progressive Krantzberg Syndrome and would conventionally have to undergo complex From: Spedding To: - Subject: White on red surgery within the next 10 months to halt degradation. We started a clinical test run with 0.5 mg of the provided This is Spedding in Android Processing. We've got a situation sample intravenously twice daily. Initial results are - we have white-on-red casualties onstation. I've just had an promising. Progression of cellular necrosis appears to have android report to the APTC with head trauma - but he's ceased and symptoms are noticeably lessened. Even with a rare covered in blood. Human blood. I've alerted the Marshals, put condition like PKS, there must have been countless patients my secretary someplace safe, and right now I'm headed for the located more conveniently. What is in the sample that makes transit. I'm going to get a Working Joe to consult APOLLO. the Company test it out here? I would never break Maybe it knows who the HELL is to blame for this. confidentiality and send it down to the lab for analysis, but I must admit I am tempted. Detailed report by end of trial.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 47 SevastoLink report about implanted Anesidora crew SevastoLink log about Hypersleep pods member* From: Lingard To: - Subject: Victims in hypersleep pods From: Lingard To: Waits Subject: Some kind of parasite I don’t know who will find this. But I assume that the Waits, it's Dr Lingard. I've just examined a patient with - creatures will have been eliminated. If the hypersleep beds well, I've never seen anything like it. It's some kind of are still operational: DO NOT OPEN THEM! The sleepers are unknown parasite. I did a quick check on the name they gave victims of the alien parasite and carry within them implanted me and there's no one registered under it at Sevastopol. I parasite embryos. I have placed them in cryo stasis in the think she came aboard recently. Do you know anything about confidence that a procedure to save them can be devised. this? I have no idea what Sinclair and his men were doing, Without one they will die when the parasite hatches within a but this should have been picked up during quarantine. Who few hours. They do not know this as I have discovered many knows what else they've let through? The patient and her details only after putting them to sleep. Please rescue my captain are waiting for me in the examination room. Get down patients. The parasite is very violent and highly dangerous. here, now. Precautions must be taken. Very secure precautions! SevastoLink memo by executive proving misconduct* SevastoLink report about hatching From: Ransome To: Waits Subject: Retirement plan From Lingard To: Waits Subject: Something got loose Waits, we should talk about what happened in medical. Now, it Marshal, you need to send people out, armed people. Something was a nasty business and I understand you want to deal with got loose. It's large, like a cat, and fast. It looked dark it as quietly and quickly as possible, but I wanted to make and shiny, but that could have been the blood. It came out of sure you didn't do anything rash. I'm talking about catching that woman. She just spontaneously started convulsing the specimen without killing it. If we play it smart, we heavily. Then her abdomen burst open. And it came out. We could be set up for life. I have the connections, Waits. I need to lock this down right now. It went into the can set it up. You're getting old. Waits, you can't do this ventilation shaft to the examination room. forever and what are you going to do when Sevastopol closes? You have my number. Ransome out.

SevastoLink log accusing executive of misconduct* SevastoLink memo compromising current executive From: Lingard To: - Subject: For the record [SYSTEM CODE 40] Message not delivered From: Ransome To: [LONG RANGE] Newman Subject: Delivery This is Lingard, senior medical officer, Sevastopol Station. I want to state for the record that I have been placed under I have the goods. It’s on the station. The Anesidora thing duress with regards to the compromised Patient Zero. Ransome, worked out in a way. But the head count is high. The cover up Seegson's head of operations, he made certain threats toward will be a bitch! Payment in full once I deliver as agreed. Do my career and my certification, I want that on record. But you still run that Saturn orbital for god help me, that woman needed help. I didn't know what type CORPSEC? of parasite she had encountered, but it had planted something inside her. I am so sorry. I had no way of knowing what would RESEARCH DIVISION? happen. SPECIAL PROJECTS?

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 48 SevastoLink progress report by Lee SevastoLink report about Facehuggers From: Elys To: Supervisor Subject: Progress report From: Mason To: Smith Subject: Giant spiders

We have finished mapping the SysTech Spire for scrap value These things started turning up everywhere. Nobody knows this morning. Turns out the new kid is a good apple. No where they came from. They’re like giant spiders with a tail. problems there. Something was up though, people were strange I’ve seen what they do to people. One jumped into Charley's more than usually. Some seemed outright scared, and a lot of face and wrapped its legs around his head. He stopped running and shouting. Going off shift now. My team will start struggling immediately. When I dared come back a few hours on the lab section tomorrow, we'll be back on schedule in later it was dead on the floor and Charley was gone. I guess time. I gotta find out what's going on here. he was too tough to chew? Maybe it dissolved him and his clothes before it died. I don’t know. Just watch out. They jump. SevastoLink log by Lee saying goodbye From: Elys To: - Subject: Goodbye SevastoLink report about Xenomorphs It's - We encountered something. I haven't seen it. It turned From: Wilson To: EVERYONE Subject: ALIEN CREATURE! up on the station and started killing everyone. Like an animal. Like a nightmare, really. I don't think we'll make it ALERT! EVERYBODY! ALIEN CREATURE! Station is not safe. I out of here. The station is coming apart. I think this is it don’t know what’s going on, but we were just attacked. A huge for me. It's bad. Mum, Pop, I love you. - Sweetie, if you black insect dropped from the ceiling on transfer deck C and ever get this - I'm sorry. I love you so much and I'm sorry. killed maybe 10 people in a minute. I barely got away and it I should never have come here on this job. I miss you. I want was pure luck. I can’t raise the marshal or medical and the you to be happy, you hear me? I want you to live life. We - I androids are malfunctioning. Watch out everyone. This is not love you- a prank.

SevastoLink memo containing bank code SevastoLink report about the Queen [SYSTEM CODE 40] Message not delivered From: Van Der Sant To: Roberts Subject: Something below From: Ransome To: [LONG RANGE] Ransome Jr Subject: I have hidden all the money The primary coolant started fluctuating and I ran a diagnostic. Everything was wonking out so I went to the Listen, son. I won’t make it out of here. The whole station camera feeds. Holy hell! Never seen anything like it. is a bloody mess. I won’t be able to hold out for much Something huge started building some kind of nest in the longer. There’s nothing I can do. You know I’ve always been overflow trench down below the reaction chamber. There’s goo proud of you. You’re a fighter! You will move on. If I were everywhere, tons of it. Some kind of pods line the floor. to blame anyone it would be Newman from Weyland-Yutani. Looks really nasty. I think I saw something else for a Anyway, I had to hide all my assets in the divorce, you know second, but it must have been my imagination. If there were a how your harpy of a mother gets. But it is all yours now. twelve foot monster on board someone would have told us, Just access Royal Bank of Luxembourg account AFX9-PR4002- right? 168314785152468-246468C3-INT. The authentication code, and you should delete this soon, is RLF0319-1492COP-EDELWEISS Audio recordings of the messages marked with asterisk and more can be found online.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 49 Map of the ship C B A Docking Bridge Ring Workshop Computer

Ladder----- Airlock Ladder--- –----–--Galley

Hypersleep

Medical-----

Ladder –-----Ladder -–----Ladder

Elevator Elevator Lockers Elevator

Landing Airlock------–------Landing Claw Elevator Claw

Ladder

Shuttle Shuttle

Engine Access approximately 4 m/yrd

Isolation Crew Expendable Darrell Curtis Alien vs Predator 2 The Ship on page 17

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 50 Map of the lab Handout GM Key Established Suggestions

System, conduit

Floor cover

Ceiling cover

Window

Skylight

Locker

Terminal

Alien goo

Hatch

approx. 2 m/yrd

The Lab on page 18

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 51 OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX

Alien: Regression...... 2 Appendix...... 36 Canon...... 3 Lingo...... 36 Cast...... 4 Examples of an assembled chronology...... 37 The One With A Plan...... 6 The Honest Entrepreneur...... 7 Names...... 38 The Political Independent...... 8 Technobabble matrix...... 38 The Tragic Lover...... 9 Tension curve...... 38 The Exploited Hireling...... 10 NPC descriptions...... 38 The Cocked Hammer...... 11 Sudden disruptions...... 38 Additional Secrets...... 12 The options...... 13 Secret handout for the Project Manager...... 39 Plot...... 14 Secret handout for the Ship's Captain...... 40 The cat...... 14 Secret handout for the Ship's Engineer...... 41 Prologue...... 15 Secret handout for the Salvage Engineer...... 42 Scene 1...... 16 Secret handout for the Contract share worker...... 43 Things that could be discovered about the lab from the ship....16 Secret handout for the License Marshal...... 44 Zeta Reticuli...... 16 Handouts for Additional Secrets...... 45 The Ship...... 17 The Lab...... 18 Report on Zeta Reticuli...... 46 Things that could go wrong on the lab...... 18 SevastoLink report about purchase*...... 47 Survivors...... 19 SevastoLink report about androids walking off*...... 47 Things hidden on the lab or in the hands of survivors...... 19 SevastoLink report about android violence*...... 47 Stowaway...... 19 SevastoLink report about APOLLO malfunction*...... 47 Androids...... 20 SevastoLink report from APOLLO core*...... 47 Special Order 939*...... 20 SevastoLink report on PKS medication trial...... 47 The end...... 21 SevastoLink report about implanted Anesidora crew member*...48 Ways to proceed to the endgame...... 21 SevastoLink report about hatching...... 48 Ways to bring the alien on board...... 21 SevastoLink log accusing executive of misconduct*...... 48 Overview of PC motivations and details to throw at them,...... 22 SevastoLink log about Hypersleep pods...... 48 Challenges...... 23 SevastoLink memo by executive proving misconduct*...... 48 Random lab features...... 23 SevastoLink memo compromising current executive...... 48 Xenomorph...... 25 SevastoLink progress report by Lee...... 49 Life cycle...... 25 SevastoLink log by Lee saying goodbye...... 49 Alien presence...... 27 SevastoLink memo containing bank code...... 49 Tension...... 29 SevastoLink report about Facehuggers...... 49 Suspenseful details...... 29 SevastoLink report about Xenomorphs...... 49 Flavor...... 31 SevastoLink report about the Queen...... 49 Setting anachronisms...... 31 Map of the ship...... 50 Assembly...... 32 Map of the lab...... 51 Role Playing Systems...... 33 Last Words...... 35 OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX...... 52 Gaming enthusiasts who happen to be in central Germany in November can visit www.Dreieichcon.de for a good time with games like this. The event is not affiliated, just a great institution for dice.

OVERMONITORING ADDRESS MATRIX Alien: Regression 52