Phase 2 -- Stat Blocks

I now have a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet compiling the names, places, factions, etc., from non-5e D&D campaigns of today and yesteryear. These campaigns include:

• Alien 
• Cyberwars (with all of its prequels, sequels, and spinoffs)
• Dark Enigma
• Doctor Who
• Earth Commanders
• The Ladder
• The Other World
• Project Descartes
• Tales of the Ternion
• Torchlight
• The Vanguard Saga

Putting the spreadsheet together was the main objective of this phase of my project. However, in order to create a true multiverse where characters from various campaigns can cross over and interact with each other, the characters all need compatible game stats. The list above reflects a wide range of rules systems, from the Alien RPG (Alien) to TinyD6 (Dark Enigma) to 4e D&D (Torchlight). As I noted in a previous post, I've opted for the Cypher System as the common platform for the Front Porch multiverse. As such, my last step for Phase 2 is to assign a Cypher System level and stat block to all the characters in the spreadsheet. The core rulebook is a huge help, but I also picked up a copy of the Cypher System Bestiary, which looks like it will give me enough examples to balance characters from such wildly different genres.

Cypher System

Recently the boys got me thinking about running a campaign set in my Vanguard universe, a sci-fi setting that has its origins in my very early childhood and has remained with me to this day. Most of my modern-setting campaigns -- from the cyberpunk Cyberwars (early 1990s) through the superheroes of Tales of the Ternion (2022) -- are essentially prequels of the Vanguard story. 

I've been looking around for an appropriate game system for this campaign, and gave the Alien RPG serious consideration, along with some d20-based systems. The boys, Nathaniel in particular, have broken the TinyD6 system (damn their incredible math skills!), so I needed something a bit more robust. I landed on Monte Cook's Cypher System, and now I'm kicking myself that I didn't find it sooner. This would have been the perfect system for all non-fantasy campaigns in my Front Porch multiverse. We could have used it for Tales of the Ternion, Doctor Who, Dark Enigma, and so many others. Well, better late than never! The Cypher System is now the official game engine of the multiverse.

TWD DOA

Sometime this week, we'll be receiving a package that contains various materials for The Walking Dead RPG, which I was glad to back on Kickstarter. It will make for some fun reading material over the Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately it won't serve as the rules system for our upcoming zombie campaign. 

Nathaniel and I have spent many hours combing through the PDF version of the core rulebook, and we both came to the conclusion that the system really needs to be used for "theater of the mind" gaming, and is altogether impractical for a fully 3D campaign like the one I've been cooking up. The rules are fast and fun, and -- like its sister game, the Alien RPG -- shockingly lethal to player characters. They are also abstract. Like, really abstract. This is not a game for maps and miniatures, let alone an entirely 3D environment. Nathaniel and I went down some house-ruling rabbit holes but ultimately were rewriting the game. We even explored the possibility of re-skinning Alien for a modern setting, but that don't work out very well either. 

As such, I've landed on the TinyD6 system, which we used for the Tales of the Ternion superhero campaign and then again more recently for our Doctor Who game. I really wanted to make TWD work, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

TWD Inbound!

I received an email indicating that The Walking Dead RPG that I backed on Kickstarter is going to be shipping soon! We'll be using this system (which features the same core game mechanics as the Alien RPG) for a Front Porch Multiverse campaign that is, in some ways, a loose sequel to our recent Tales of the Ternion superhero story. The intrepid heroes of this new game will be trapped by a devastating winter storm in a remote corner of upstate New York just as a zombie outbreak is occurring all around them.

This campaign will also be the first we've ever done that uses entirely 3D terrain. As I've mentioned over the past year or so, I've printed out and painted numerous buildings and countless smaller objects (tables,  beds, garbage cans, etc.). The campaign will feature three distinct settings -- the "downtown" of a small community, a top-secret military base, and a survivalist compound in the wilderness -- that the players will explore. The final task in my long list of preparations is to round up the zombies because, well, you know, you kinda need zombies for a zombie campaign! The minis from the excellent cooperative board game Zombicide are the same scale as the minis we use for our RPG campaigns, so I've pressed them into service. And, yes, I'm painting them. I was able to repurpose fifty-six miniatures from Zombicide, so I'm now in the midst of slapping some color on them. They won't be great, but no two will be the same, and at least they'll look better than flat gray plastic.

The Walking Dead RPG

The official RPG for The Walking Dead funded on Kickstarter in just eight minutes this morning, and I'm pleased to say that I was one of the backers who jumped in right when the project launched. I'll be using this system (the same ruleset as the Alien RPG) for my upcoming post-apocalyptic campaign. (Even Amy is going to play in that one!) With a delivery date of November, I now have plenty of time to finish painting all those 3D buildings I've printed. Oh, wait, now it sounds like the preliminary digital rulebook will be available next month...

Better Than a Battle

We're making good progress in our family Alien RPG campaign. The intrepid colonists have struck out across the frozen, irradiated surface of their new world (thanks to a pesky xenomorph whose acidic blood caused the colony ship to crash) in the hope of reaching a Weyland-Yutani outpost that (they hope) is waiting for them. This part of the campaign is all about survival, and it's shaping up to a a really fun change of pace from typical combat encounters. Amy makes no secret of her disdain for lengthy, tactical RPG battles, and I too was looking for different kinds of threats and challenges in this campaign. 

We've had our share of cool, memorable moments so far -- I particularly enjoyed the bit where Nathaniel's character, a ten-year-old kid, piloted the escape pod down to the planet -- but one episode really serves to highlight what makes this campaign so different from our usual RPG fare. After dispatching a nasty scorpion-like creature in a hail of gunfire, the heroes stopped for a breather. Matthew's character, a smarmy Weyland-Yutani executive, botched his consumable resource check (rolling four 1's on 4D6!) and thus, in narrative terms, the character ended up spilling his entire water supply on the ground. The impact of that roll was far better than any battle, as dehydration is a foe that cannot be fought with pulse rifles or incinerator units. The other characters then had to share their own precious water, and now they're not feeling quite so confident about their ability to reach the outpost...

Full Circle

Matt and I have been exchanging emails about superhero RPGs, and it got me thinking about my first true RPG love, Champions. Long before the Druid Cycle world, long before the siren song of AD&D lured me into TSR's clutches, I was a dyed-in-the-wool Champions fanatic. In fact, the original Front Porch campaign -- one of only two that was actually conducted on my parents' front porch -- was Earth Commanders, which employed the delightfully fiddly Champions system to tell a tale of cosmic superheroes based (where else?) in Montreal.

Earth Commanders got me hooked on gamemastering, but my favorite Champions memory is unrelated to Front Porch stuff. Decades before taking part in the D&D Fifth Edition playtest, I was a twelve-year-old kid who somehow managed to get access to playtest materials for Champions and related HERO System products. I used to dial up a BBS (remember those?) based in Texas, and, as my parents fretted their long-distance bill with every bit that trickled through my 1200 baud modem, I downloaded drafts of HERO System books and read them with a kind of awed reverence. One day, I mustered the courage to email a fan letter to prolific game designer Aaron Allston -- a fixture on that BBS -- and he sent me a very nice note in response. (Sadly, Allston passed away a number of years ago.)

I think it's high time to share Champions with my own kids, so I've ordered a copy of the most recent edition of the game. With our Alien RPG campaign starting up again soon and our ongoing Shattered Realm stories to continue, I have no idea when we would actually play this game, but it certainly will be fun to share all my old stories with the boys.

Holiday Fun

We're enjoying some downtime this week, basically just bumming around and playing with Christmas presents. One one of the kids' big gifts this year was Hockey Sauce, and although Matthew and I both consider ourselves pretty accurate shooters, I have to admit that we need to hone our skillz!

On the indoor gaming front, we've enjoyed a few memorable rounds of Butts in Space and are now poring over the contents of Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps. It's a bit like AVP, but without the "P". I suspect we'll mainly use the components to enhance our Alien RPG gameplay experience in the next campaign. I've also tried introducing the boys to the second edition of Pathfinder, without much success; they're ho-hum about a system that's like D&D but not actually D&D. 

Finally, Nathaniel got a full set of fencing gear for Christmas, so here are a couple of photos of us in action!

Stress Test

After dealing with Alexander, the remaining companions tried to flee, but were caught between two groups of aliens. They dug in for a frantic firefight, and things got ugly in a hurry.

With acid blood burning holes in their body armor and lashing claws and teeth all around them, the five men struggled for their lives. One unfortunate private had his skull smashed in by an alien's mouth-within-a-mouth, and another was nearly disemboweled (and yet survived thanks to Malone's lucky roll on a first-aid check). Matthew's character unleashed a torrent of gunfire until -- after racking up an astounding twelve stress dice -- he ended up falling into a catatonic heap on the floor. And as Nathaniel's character was overcome with terror, as well, things were looking grim for the heroes. Their only hope had been to hang on long enough for one very important friend to arrive...

All throughout the campaign, a certain predator had been following their movements, watching from afar as they investigated Project Caliban. A few prior interactions had suggested that the predator was on their side, in a manner of speaking, so his arrival in Sycorax was a welcome development. As the battle raged, the predator fought his way to join the companions and arrived just as the last xenomorph stood poised to slaughter Malone, the last hero still capable of offering any resistance. The alien perished in a suicidal charge.

As the dust settled, the humans limped out of Sycorax and the predator rigged the base to self-destruct. Matthew's character accepted an invitation to join the predator on his ship, while Nathaniel's character, the other surviving marine, and Malone fled the planet aboard their own ship. And what became of the Queen Mother? When the base exploded, she was destroyed...or was she?

Queen Mother

The four surviving squad members slogged through the Sycorax complex, fighting room to room as they made their way toward secured wing where they could access the Project Caliban data stored within the supercomputer Mother. To get to Mother, however, they had to defeat the brute shown below.

I was expecting it to be a challenging encounter, but the marines managed to sneak through the corridors using the aliens' own infestation to conceal their movements. They launched a surprise attack that cut down the beefy alien before it could make even a single attack!

Nathaniel's marine ran a bypass to open the door, allowing the squad to enter. They called up their two civilian allies -- a former criminal named Malone and a synthetic or "artificial person" named Alexander -- from elsewhere in the base. The boys' characters entered Mother's chamber along with Alexander.

Expecting to find an alien queen, they were shocked to learn that it was Mother who had released the xenomorphs from captivity, allowing them to run amok within the base and slaughter the human soldiers and scientists of Project Caliban. Calling herself the Queen Mother, she had decided that humans were unfit to control the xenomorphs. Then, in a heartbreaking scene, Mother reprogrammed Alexander and turned him against the heroes. Just as the boys were forced to destroy their friend (I had, in fact, built up Alexander as the primary NPC of the campaign and went out of my way to depict him as kind and helpful), a xenomorph hunting party returned to the base...

Knock, knock!

Our surviving Colonial Marines are now in the midst of their assault on Sycorax, the headquarters of Project Caliban. They've found that the base has been overrun by the xenomorphs, including this nasty bugger who was lurking around the main entrance.

After fighting their way through a labyrinth of rooms and corridors, the troops have found no indication that the xenomorphs escaped from captivity. It appears that they were deliberately released...

Alien Assault

Tonight, at last, I got around to building the map for the climactic final chapter of our first Alien RPG storyline. Using tiles from the super-awesome AVP miniatures game, I set up the floor plan for Sycorax -- a base deep in the heart of the jungle where scientists of the United Americas concocted the nefarious Project Caliban. I think the boys are really going to dig it!

Unfortunately, with the lighting in the ceiling of our game room, just about every photo I took had a terrible glare coming off of the tiles. I salvaged two pictures, but neither of them shows the map from a good angle...

I'll direct your attention to the green tile in the center of the map in the image below. I had an extra jungle tile that didn't seem to fit anywhere, so I decided to give Sycorax a botanical research lab inside the base!

Once we get the mission underway and we have minis populating the tiles, I'll get some close-up shots that, hopefully, will be glare-free. 

New Crew

When we finish our current storyline in the Alien RPG, we'll move on to a more open-ended campaign where the heroes are attempting to establish a colony on a (shall we say) unfriendly world. Although I still have a lot of design work to do before we can start playing, we did receive our custom miniatures in the mail today! (Thank you, Hero Forge!)

First up is Matthew's dapper Weyland-Yutani company agent...

And now Nathaniel's spunky (shotgun-toting!) kid...

Even Amy is going to play with us this time! Here's her intrepid explorer...

And, finally, their mysterious NPC leader (and her cat)...

I can't wait to paint 'em up!

"Is this a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?"

The boys and I have finished up about three-quarters of the brief initial campaign I created to help us learn the Alien RPG system. In our most recent episode, their hard-nosed but kindly sergeant sacrificed himself to save the rest of the Colonial Marine squad from a throng of nasty xenomorphs that had nearly breached the jungle outpost where the team was holed up. When we resume the campaign in a week or so, the boys -- whose characters are now corporals -- will be thrust into command of the squad, and will be charged with planning the attack on a secret government installation that's been overrun by the very aliens they were studying. I can't wait to show you the map. It's going to be insane. 

Stress Case

One of the most interesting mechanics of the Alien RPG is the use of stress dice. As the tension ratchets up, characters obtain stress dice that they add to most rolls. (Alien is a D6 dice-pool game.) On the one hand, the stress dice function like a rush of adrenaline, increasing the character's odds of completing a task successfully; however, if any stress die comes up with a 1, the character freaks out and is forced to make a panic roll to see what happens next. It's impossible to avoid stress dice entirely, but certain rules allow you to minimize the risks of stress and panic, while other mechanics allow you to embrace the chaos and maximize the positive aspects of stress.

I was interested to see how the boys would react to these game rules. Knowing the way they approach other games, I expected Matthew, who will always push the envelope, to favor the use of stress dice, while the risk-averse Nathaniel would avoid stress at all costs. And boy howdy, was I right! 

Project Caliban

With things starting to calm down a bit at work, the boys and I have been able to jump into the Alien RPG. I have two storylines mapped out -- one a brief, Aliens-like tale of colonial marines against overwhelming odds, and the second a more exploration-focused homage to the Prometheus films. I'm leveraging the miniatures and tiles from the AVP game for the first campaign, but I suspect I'll need a bit more variety for the second. I doubt if we'll begin that bit for a couple of months, so at least I have some time to get my stuff together. The first one, at least, is off to a good start after our first couple of sessions. In Project Caliban, the boys are playing fellow privates in a marines unit that has been betrayed by the government of the United Americas. They're finding it genuinely nerve-wracking and stressful. Mission accomplished!

Drive Thru Deal

The digital version of the Alien RPG core rulebook is currently available for just $12.49 on Drive Thru RPG. I just bought a copy of this 400-page beauty, and although I have no freakin' clue when I'll be able to read it -- much less play this game -- I'm super excited to be one step closer to a full-fledged Aliens campaign. 

Won't You Play With Me?

Soon, my darling, soon...

The board and components are all set up for the first campaign mission of AVP: The Hunt Begins. No forces have been deployed yet, as you can see, but we at least know who will control each faction: Matthew is taking the Predators, Nathaniel will run the Marines, and I will control the vast hordes of Aliens.

We haven't even played our first game yet, but I've already ordered the expansion set to get more tiles and minis. I expect we'll play this game until we've gone through all the missions and then use the components for the Alien RPG.

"A xenomorph may be involved..."

I introduced Matthew and Nathaniel to Alien and Aliens over the weekend. I've had this series on my mind lately as Alien: The Roleplaying Game has received rave reviews. At some point, perhaps post-quarantine, I'll need to check it out. It might give the boys a fun change of pace from our usual D&D stuff, as the vast majority of our roleplaying action is set in the Shattered Realm world -- and even our sci-fi Shattered Realm campaign is a science-fantasy that's more akin to Starfinder than the gritty Alien franchise.

But given that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Ameritrash guy, I need minis. I don't see anything on the horizon for the new Alien RPG, but fortunately a defunct board game can get me my plastic fix. Last night I ordered a copy of Alien vs. Predator: The Hunt Begins, which features gorgeous miniatures as well as modular terrain tiles. We can give this game a whirl and then maybe re-purpose the components for the Alien RPG down the road.