Alien: Quarantine - Character Creation
The Campaign:
As we are starting anew, we will need new characters. Now, I have an idea for this campaign, which has been named Quarantine. It will take place in a new colony, where people are struggling to survive, like Hadley’s Hope in Aliens. So with that, let’s get creating.
For this, I’ll be creating three characters and I will jump between their points of view as the story progresses (similar to my Twilight 2000 play-through). I won’t go through the full rules of character creation, you can read that here if you’d like to see how I created a character for the first campaign.
I’m also aiming for this campaign to unfold over three acts which will equal about ten posts, including this one. I have nothing else preplanned, except that I want it to tie into the events of Seclusion.
Let’s start!
Character Creation:
There are nine classes in the Alien RPG, but I’ll remove the “Kid” class and that gives me eight. I’ll roll a D10. If I roll a 1-8, I’ll make a standard character that goes with the class I rolled. But if I roll a 9 or 10, that will make the character an Android which changes things a bit. If I roll an Android, I’ll use a D8 going forward, as I only want one Android.
Character #1:
I roll a 9 off the bat. Well, there you go! I’ll say an Android can only be a Company Agent, a Medic, an Officer, a Pilot, a Roughneck, or a Scientist. A D6 gives me Officer.
Class: Officer - Android
Attributes: 6 Strength, 2 Wits, 5 Empathy, 4 Agility (Androids get 3 more attribute points than humans.)
Skills: 2 Ranged combat, 2 Mobility, 3 Command, 1 Medical Aid, 1 Comtech, 1 Observation
Talent: Field Commander - Can use Command as a fast action to give orders in combat.
Name: Androids have simple names and no last names. How about Susan?
Appearance: Susan wears a company jumpsuit, dirty constantly traveling around the colony.
Personal Agenda: As an Android, I think Susan’s main purpose in life is to maintain the safety of the colonists, at all costs.
Budy and Rival we will leave until the game starts and we have some NPCs to all connect with.
Items: Susan starts with a Motion Tracker and Binoculars. She starts with no money (doesn’t need it).
Signature Item: Doesn’t need any.
Background:
Susan 3, looks 35 years old but was commissioned 2 years ago. A Wyland-Yutani Terraforming Administrative Synthetic, Susan is in charge of the massive Terraforming station at the colony of 49 Delta Capricorni, Delta for short. The Terraforming operation on this planet is particularly difficult, and the company was unable to secure insurance for a human-run operation. So instead they had to ship off a Susan model.
Susan stays to herself mostly and is mistrusted by her human colleagues, who feel she has too much power over their day-to-day lives and the colony administration. Susan has the authority to monopolize the full power output of the colony’s fusion reactor if and when the Terraforming plant requires it. This is something that has caused a huge amount of anger with the colonists as they find themselves in blackout conditions for hours and even days at a time.
Character #2:
Class: Colonial Marine
Attributes: 5 Strength, 3 Wits, 2 Empathy, 4 Agility
Skills: 3 Ranged Combat, 1 Heavy Machinery, 1 Close Combat, 1 Stamina, 1 Observation, 1 Survival, 1 Command, 1 Mobility
Talent: Banter - Increases the amount of stress that can be reduced by resting
Name: Vic Diem - Friends call him Per Diem
Appearance: Dirty work clothes, buzz cut
Personal Agenda: Living a quiet life now, does not want any more fighting.
Items: M3 Personal Armor, Signal Flare, $100
Signature Item: A tarnished medal
Background: A recently separated Colonial Marine, Corporal Diem saw combat across a dozen worlds, mostly bush war shit. Diem will be the first to tell you about the stupidity and pointlessness of war in the 22nd Century. He’s fought the Union of Progressive Peoples, pirates, rebels, and private Mercs he swore were Wayland-Yutani.
To him, it was all orders, until he just couldn’t take it anymore. His contract was up for renewal and instead of the huge signing bonus, he left. Not wanting to go home (what was home anyway?) he shipped out on the first colony ship going to the ass end of space and ended up at 49 Delta Capricorni.
On Delta, he works as a laborer on the hydroponics farm. The pay is shit but at least he can be at peace here…
Character #3:
Class: Scientist
Attributes: 5 Wits, 3 Empathy, 3 Ability, 3 Strength
Skills: 3 Observation, 1 Survival, 2 Comtech, 2 Manipulation, 1 Mobility, 1 Stamina
Talent: Analysis - Increases the information a scientist can gather from an alien specimen.
Name: Elena Sanchez
Appearance: Unkempt, untidy with a stained lab coat.
Personal Agenda: Need to make a discovery or your career is over.
Items: Digital Video Camera, Seegson P-DAT,
Signature Item: Data disc with their doctorate on it
Background: Everything in life was set for Elena. She grew up in the best family and went to the best schools and universities. She got her PhD at the extremely young age of 23 and everyone expected her to change the world. But it never happened. Years in the lab led to no discoveries. She was let go by one University and then by a corporate-backed research institute. Oh, there were discoveries, but they always seemed to be a fraction too late, or the company purposely chose to not invest in them.
Now in her 30s, Elena felt her only hope was to go to the stars to find discoveries in the frontier. Surveys showed 49 Delta Capricorni has unusual biology in the atmosphere and that drew Elena here. She has been here since the colony was established, scouring samples from all parts of the world.
So far nothing… But the next resupply ship isn’t set to come for another 3 months. Her work intensifies as she works with a possessed desperation looking for that once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
49 Delta Capricorni
A sad, dark system at the very edge of known space, 49 Delta Capricorni is one of the newest colonies belonging to the Wayland-Yutani profile. The world has an atmosphere but it is extremely toxic to humans. This required a large Terraforming operation which is costing the company billions to supply and operate.
Terraforming 49 Delta Capricorni has been complex. It seems the biology of the atmosphere responds and adapts to whatever chemicals the company pours into it. Despite clear business cases suggesting the company abandon the colony, WY is keeping to its motto of Building Better Worlds, at least here.
But everyone knows the company does nothing unless it expects compensation in return. None of this matters to the colonists of 49 Delta Capricorni. 112 people of various ages and professions, the colonists are there primarily to keep the Terraforming plant working and prepare for the day when 49 Delta Capricorni will be safe for expanded human settlement.
It’s a hard life but the colonists have carved out a routine and a bit of happiness. With another decade of terraforming expected, the colonists have settled in for the long haul.
Until…
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Thanks for reading and be sure to tune in next week for the start of Alien Quarantine!
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