Seclusion: An Alien Solo RPG Campaign. Character Creation
In space, nobody can hear you play Alien RPG solo...
Welcome to my solo Alien RPG campaign, Seclusion. Over the next month or two, I’ll be taking you through a cinematic scenario that will mimic the look and feel of an Alien movie. The Alien movies are fantastic, classic spare horror and action flicks. If you haven’t seen any yet, go watch them! Or at least the first movie.
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| This book is fantastic. I love the art, the mechanics, and the lore! Credit to Free League |
There are also great books and games based on the Alien universe. I recommend taking a look at those also. Now I get the chance to play an Alien solo campaign using the amazing Alien Role Playing Game from Free League.
I’ve been playing Alien in my traditional group for the last couple of months and it is great fun. The cinematic scenarios recreate the feeling of the movie. The xenomorphs are deadly, players are forced to pick sides, and as always the biggest enemy is hubris and your fellow crew.
Now it's time to play it solo, which I admit is interesting and a bit stressful! How can I recreate the feel of a group of players who are each ready to plunge the knife into the back of each other or the feeling of being stalked by a xenomorph as you crawl through the air ducts?
I think it can be done and I’m willing to give it a go!
Tools and books I’m using
Alien RPG Core Rule book by Free League - If you are a fan of Alien you should get this book. It's filled with great art, world-building, and ship diagrams. The system is light and easy to pick up, but creates situations where you are constantly on the edge of panic.
Alien RPG Solo Rules Supplement by Parts Per Million - This is a third-party supplement created by Parts Per Million to help players solo Alien RPG. I won’t be using all the rules but I’ll use some. As of this writing, if you sign up for the PPM newsletter you’ll get the supplement for free.
For Art, I'll be using some self-created AI art.
A Cinematic Campaign
As I said above, this will be a cinematic campaign, which is one of the two ways to play Alien. The other is campaign play, that’s a more traditional long-term RPG play that can go on for months or years. Cinematic is meant to mimic the feel and pace of an Alien movie.
It will start slow and routine, but soon unusual and unexpected things start happening. Then something horrific is revealed and it becomes a race against time and horror until someone survives or everyone dies.
The campaign will be structured around three acts and I’ll probably aim for two posts per act.
Sadly stuff like experience, upgrading a character, spending money, space combat, and a whole lot more won’t get into the campaign. It's all good stuff so check it out in the core rules
Alright, let’s get into character creation. As this is a less well-known system than Starforged in the solo sphere, I’ll talk through how this character is created and why I’m making my choices. I hope this will inspire others to create characters and jump in!
In keeping with the movies, there will be swearing, violence, and body horror in this campaign.
Character Creation - Career
Right, so the rules say start with a career (or class as you can think of it) of character and go from there. There are 9 different careers in the game that cover the typical tropes of an Alien movie.
Colonial Marine - A gun-toting badass from United America’s Colonial Marine force, the backbone of security in the frontier (your experience may vary).
Colonial Marshall - Entrusted to keep the peace out in the colony worlds and space stations.
Company Agent - Working for the company, this character puts profits before people.
Kid - Yes, there are kids out in space. Who else is small enough to crawl through the ducts?
Medic - Life in space is bloody and often short. When you get a hand crushed, you hope you have a medic on board.
Officer - Running a colony, ship, or space station is hard work. Officers are kings and queens of their piece of the heavens.
Pilot - Getting around is always important and a skill set that is well paid.
Roughneck - After all the suits and officers are done planning, it's the roughnecks that actually do the work.
Scientists - Space is filled with discoveries and secrets, and people are willing to spend big bucks to send scientists to take a look.
So what will I pick? Well, I want a game like Alien and not Aliens, and I think Ripley was excellent in that movie. In this game, she would probably be in the Officer career, so I’ll go with Officer!
Attributes
There are four attributes in Alien that represent a character's mental and physical capabilities. I can spend 14 points on the four, assigning no less than 2 and no more than 4. For my career's special attribute I can assign a 5.
Strength - (2) - Not strong, more of a desk jockey. This will also be my character’s health. So they have 2 HP.
Agility - (3) - Decently quick but isn’t going to win any races.
Wits - (4) - Wip smart and clever, they’ve worked their way up through the crew.
Empathy (5) - My character's special attribute. They are skilled at speaking with the crew and getting to know how everyone is doing. People really trust them.
Skills
Now to skills. These are my character's knowledge and abilities. I get to spend 10 points across the 12 skills. I can add up to 3 points to the three career key skills and just 1 point into any other skills.
Key Skills
Ranged Combat (3) - Shooting a gun or other weapons. I think this may come in handy in this game.
Command (2) - Getting crew or others to listen to me is useful for an officer.
Manipulation (2) - Tricking others into doing what I think is best.
That’s 7 points spent. I can spread 3 more points around.
Observation (1) - Got to keep a keen eye out.
Comtech (1) - This character is decent at accessing computer terminals.
Mobility (1) - Sometimes you just gotta run away.
Talents
Next up is talents, which are special skills, tricks, or moves a character can make if it's appropriate. There are three for the Officer.
Field Commander - Gives you the ability to make a Command skill move as a fast action in combat.
Influence - Allows you to push an empathy-based skill roll twice. So you really get somebody to listen to you.
Pull Rank - Allows you to use the Command skill against other characters to make them do what you want.
I’ll take influence. Also because this is a solo game, I’m thinking it's going to be pretty difficult. I’ll give my character a general talent that any career can take.
Rapid Fire - This character will be able to fire a pistol or rifle using a fast action with a negative modification.
Personal Stuff
Alright, that’s all the mechanical stuff out of the way. Now time to get to know this character better.
Name - Eugene Bryant, I took a combination from some of the suggested names.
Appearance - Jumpsuit with a mission patch and he impatiently taps his foot. He’s mid 30s.
Personal Agenda - This is the background thing that drives Eugene. I’ll say Eugene has messed up in the past and wants to avoid taking the blame for any more mission screw-ups.
Buddy - This is a person that Eugene gets along with well. Let’s say the ship's Medic, Juno Blanchard.
Rival - Someone Eugene hates. Of course, it will have to be the Company Agent, Conrad Schmidt.
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| Eugene Bryant. Doesn't look excited to be here. |
Gear
Most gear is set by your career choice.
An M4A3 Service Pistol (two reloads) - Standard issue service pistol, been in service for over a hundred years. No ship officer would be caught dead without it. 1 Damage and +2 bonus to ranged combat rolls.
Samani E-Series Watch - Dual-faced watch. Contains oxygen and pressure sensors. Survival +1
M314 Motion Tracker - Perfect for hunting down rats or crew who aren’t working. 4 Power
IFF Transponder - The ship always knows where you are and that you belong there. Surgically Installed.
Signature Item - This is an important item to Eugene that carries special meaning to him. I’ll say it's a laminated photo of his family back home.
Cash - (2D6*100) $400
And that’s it for Eugene! Now, who is the crew, what is the ship, and what are they doing? Let’s find out.
The Crew
Let’s face it, the crew doesn’t come off well in any Alien movie or book, so I don’t have high hopes for these people. But let’s get to know a few of them anyway.
Lloyd Darrington - Captain (Officer) - Lloyd is a career-long long-haul trucker officer, recently promoted to captain of his own ship and crew. Lloyd, or Cap’n as the crew calls him, is fiercely loyal to his crew and deals with the crushing debt of ship ownership.
Conrad Schmidt - Company Agent - Conrad is a suck-up, sycophant, and brown noser. His ass-kissing pissed off the wrong director of the company and that got him posted on the ship doing crap runs and coordinating with the company. He’s bitter and tries to boss the crew around.
Juno Blanchard - Medic - Juno is from an impoverished colony world where medical school was out of the question. Juno did the next best thing and signed up for a company medic school and has been riding on ships as a crew medic ever since.
Kat Masterton - Roughneck - Kat is a hard woman. She grew up on an oil rig of a planet and was repairing equipment before she could talk. She’s here to get paid and nothing else.
Casper Edmonton - Pilot - A hot shot young pilot, nobody knows why he is out here flying glorified tug boats. He won’t say anything about it. He takes a lot of drugs and has stopped hiding it a year ago. The Captain looks the other way because Edmonton is a damn good pilot, even high.
Jessica 7 - The ship android. It takes care of the ship while the crew is in hypersleep and does other less safe activities.
The Ship and the Mission
The USCSS Bison CM88G, is an M Class Commercial Star Freighter of a similar design to the USCSS Nostromo which disappeared mysteriously decades ago.
Items in bold are randomly rolled for.
Under contract by the Wayland Yutani Corporation “Building Better Worlds”, the Bison is on its way to a new colony on the outer edges of the frontier. The cargo is defensive weaponry and barricades, apparently, the locals have had some problems with the native fauna. The job seems to be a straightforward run despite the annoying insistence from Conrad to hurry things up.
Currently, the crew of the Bison are in cryosleep with Jessica 7 monitoring ship functions and crew life signs. Standard protocol means the crew should be woken up at any signs of unusual activity or any emergence. The crew is 21 days out from the colony world of Hannibal.
All is well with the crew of the USCSS Bison. For now.
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Thanks for reading along. What kind of character would you create for a Solo Alien RPG adventure?
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