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games:board:battlestations:battlestationsalien

Alien Bushwack

Introduction

I had this idea in a particularly boring meeting at work today and thought I'd share before I started writing it up using actual rules (which I don't have on me at the moment). It's based on my fan worship of Alien and Firefly 🙂

Summary

I figure it will be a complexity 5 mission as it's multipart. Ideally it could use the airlock and brig modules of Stardock Omega 31 as well (for the marine ship that turns up later)

Background

A derelict ™ spaceship is found drifting in the far reaches of space. It can't be scanned because it has a permanent EMP effect on all electronic/energised equipment. No scans, no bots, no energy weapons. Specialist in xenobiology and first contact situations are attached to the player's crew to investigate (possibly NPC Diplomats if you have those rules). Their main purpose is to make sure they get eaten first while the players are working things out.

The derelict ship should probably be as large as possible to force the players to split up, in order to search within the given time limit. The limit being when a ship of the closest sovereign race who nominally has jurisdiction over the derelict turns up. This ship should be at least one size class larger than the player ship and have more marines. Hence this can be called the “Marine Ship”.

EMP of the derelict (which is some form of organic ship) stretches out to several hexes away, just to make combat interesting. The EMP shuts off in cycles of MD rounds on/6-MD rounds off (ie MD2 = 2 rounds on, 4 rounds off). Which should enable players to get a boarding missile/fighter/shuttle on. Ideally they should dock with the derelict.

There should be more NPC specialists at lower MDs. Possibly 6-MD or so. Ideally at least 2 - one to be infested and one to be the first victim.

The Plot

It's essential that at least one of the NPCs is separated from the PCs and out of line of sight. This NPC is infested (they looked into the wrong egg)

From here it can go either way- the PCs get back to their ship, or the Marine Ship turns up while they are still on the derelict.

  • Plot A: The PCs get back aboard before the Marines turn up. D6+2 rounds after leaving the derelict, or whenever the infested NPC is alone (whichever comes first) - the torso breaker comes out, killing the NPC - and it enters the ubiquitous (but unmapped
  • Plot B: the Marines appear while the PCs are still on the derelict. Marine ship turns up and demands their surrender, docks with them, and takes them prisoner. If the PCs are able to get to their ship and prepare to depart, then the creature starts making an appearance as above. If they surrender and go to the brig without a fight, then the creature does not appear until they are all locked up.

In the Brig

All weapons and armour are confiscated, and the NPCs (if there are any left) are put in a cell by themselves. If the creature hasn't yet hatched - it does so now, kills all the NPCs and disappears into the airduct. The PCs escape because of the creature and must either get back to their own ship, or help the Marines get rid of the creature (for which they will be rewarded an overwhelming success). The best way to get rid of the creature is to lure it to the airlock and dump it into space. The creature is attracted to a particular species - whatever species you made the NPCs (if more than one, choose one). Ideally the species it is attracted to is the same as one of the PCs. This PC is the next victim.

If the victim can stay in the airlock until the creature appears, then open it, they win.

The creature

Is unaffected by energy weapons and generates a personal EMP field. It always travels via airducts and is only seen when it attacks. If there are other characters in a room with the victim - it will attack them first (always choosing NPCs over PCs). No energised weapons work in the same module with the creature. The creature cannot be scanned - but the science station can determine where the creature is because of it's EMP. The module the creature is in, is broken until it leaves. Hence - as it wanders around it will disable parts of ships. Likewise if the creature hatches from the NPC while in the brig, the brig becomes broken and the PCs can escape.

If the creature is killed, the module it is in becomes slagged, every adjacent module becomes broken. And characters next to the creature takes damage equivalent to a grenade that is not stopped by armour (acid for blood ™).

games/board/battlestations/battlestationsalien.txt · Last modified: 2013/03/17 20:37 by 127.0.0.1