I want to run an Alien oneshot, using the DREAD rules. Do you

The players are on a ship, and there's a Xenomorph on the loose? I mean, what else do you want?

The players are on a planet, and there's a Xenomorph on the loose.

The players are loose and there's a ship on the Xenomorph.

The players are a xenomorph and theres a planet on the loose

>>49538066
The players are on a ship. They think there's a Xenomorph on the loose.

>>49538046

The Xenomorphs are on a ship and the players are loose.

>>49538046
the players are anywhere, there is also a Xenomorph.

If this plot is too simple for you:
The players are somewhere, there are also multiple Xenomorphs and a Queen.

If that seems boring to you how about:
The players are at whatever place.
There are Xenomorphs and Yautja, hunting each other and the players.

>>49538046
Don't let the players know its an alien campaign?
They are a private security force or mercenaries hired to sabotage some companies shit (Weyland Yutani) they fight through some big fucking complex/ compound. Kill the power or some shit, let the xenos loose then realise where shit gets serious

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>>49538046
I think that is a very good idea.

Keep it classic. Use the Nostromo.

But change up the Xenomorph. who says there's only one kind? There's several in the AvP games. Sure, that's not canon, but if you focus on the flavor of the original movie then things will be fine, see Isolation.

You definitely should not change the corporate bureaucracy hell behind it all. It wants whatever is found for research and making more money, so there's always an incentive for treachery.

The mystery of Alien is the creature itself. From derelict ship, over egg, facehugger, chestburster, all the way to grown Xenomorph warrior, that is the story. The chase scenes are just tension management.

But everyone knows that story already, so change it. How about something that takes over people, like The Thing? Or something that infects them, like the Shan from the Lovecraft Mythos. It could be smart mold that creeps up everywhere but eventually spores and consumes people in the room? Anything, really.

I don't know. Maybe preserving the dark air shafts hunt is a good idea. It should definitely be something that has a fast shape, like an attack spider. The bug aesthetic is pretty good, I wouldn't know what to change it to without making it lame.

In Dread it's always good to provide rope for the characters to hang themselves with. Guns are out of genre for Alien, and don't do Aliens, that is a boring game. But weapons should be everywhere: wrench, plasma cutter, improvised grenade, improvised incendiary, noise maker, hydraulic bolt gun, overcharged hatches, loading robot, electrified grating, explosive decompression, flooding with super heated reactor coolant, ... it should be a theme park of violence with props just lying around everywhere.

Structure according to number of players. Assume 25-35 blocks to collapse. Kill the first one at the beginning of the second act when everything has been established and the players are set loose. Then ramp up the frequency of drawing blocks.

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>>49538316
This.
Surprise them.

Horror is best served covered by something more mundane.
It's a sci fi game, you play simple working bees. Tell them something so they play fitting characters, if you tell them they'd be traders there will be some discomfort if someone builds a charming rogue with the wish to sell plunder and then only faces aliens.
Or pre gen characters.

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This is structured much like an Alien scenario in Dread.

>>49538434
Pregens are the only way I see to pull that bait and switch off. Otherwise the players will feel too duped over having made chars for another game entirely.

>>49538046
Players are spies hired to sabotage and steal/destroy Weyland-Yutani (Or change the name if you don't want to ruin the surprise). After they do that however, the xenomorphs get loose. Shit goes down.

You could make one of the players a traitor who has the goal of sabotaging the other players and/or capturing a specimen for retrieval.

>>49538226
It is actually a Yautja, not a xenomorph

>>49538454
Let them make chars for another game, don't let them build characters specifically to fight xenos, maybe steer them that way subtly but let the xeno be a surprise, something they really have to be careful and afraid of

>>49538465
>make one of the players a traitor
Why only one?

On the Nostromo it was Ash and Dallas, with a labor conflict layered in for tension. Then Ripley got the offer when she assumed command and logged into M.O.T.H.E.R: she was issued the company orders including the Crew Expendable part and knew full well that if she managed to somehow follow those orders she would be rich and in line for her own commission if she still wanted it, or a cushy desk job back home on Luna. She chose not to and the audience doesn't see it as a choice because in movies the hero is always moral. In games that is different.

>>49538634
>On the Nostromo it was Ash and Dallas
Dallas wasn't a traitor? Only ash, Dallas had no idea about the alien or company orders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djlbPIrLdTE

Is there maybe even an official story of another ship that got infected by a Xenomorph, or maybe even a Queen, that i could base this on?

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>>49539028
Anything like a canon only happened with the AvP comics and games. Like any good horror, Alien leaves everything as poorly defined as possible.

The closest thing I could suggest is the Colonial Marines Technical Manual released as fan material for Aliens. And you'd have to read between the lines quite a lot to distill out some non military plot.

I'd construct what is needed. The result will be better suited for gaming, and you can keep the flavors pure.

Do you want just the party, or are there NPCs?
Do you want complete isolation, or a more open world?
Do you want survival horror, an investigation, or space heroes?
Does character psychology matter, or is that secondary to health?
Should the story be forgotten, or change the world?

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>>49539289
so, making up a subsidiary of weyland yutani that the players are working for, to cover the real companys name up until a certain point in the story, would be totaly fine within the official canon? That being said, i'd let them work for the company to bring a certain, unknown delivery, to Weyland. unfortunately, the delivery itself seem to be Alien Eggs, without the players knowing. Thats where things start to get crazy.

Good idea?

also:
>Do you want just the party, or are there NPCs?

as few NPCs as possible.

>Do you want complete isolation, or a more open world?

Pure Isolation.

>Do you want survival horror, an investigation, or space heroes?

Survival Horror and some investigation

>Does character psychology matter, or is that secondary to health?

i think physical Health is more important

>Should the story be forgotten, or change the world?

uhh. forgotten seems more likely within the franchise.

>>49539613
Don't worry about names. Weyland Yutani comes from production design. The characters just refer to it as The Company.

The mining tradition or flavor has always been essential to me, like train engineers for a company town in the Wild West. Undiscovered wilderness looming left and right, things that go bump in the night - and yet the only real threat is the evil that brings man here in the first place: money.

Consider a Solaris twist at the end, should a character make it back to earf.

I find it useful to have space to discover and use tactically in a one-shot. Maybe there's an abandoned station where there should be a backwater supply hub? But fuel reserves are low, so there's no choice but to dock. Explore first with shuttle? Get the fuel and get out to broadcast report as soon as out of sun shadow? Look for profitable salvage? Explore the hangars and find a W-Y shuttle full of mutilated scientist corpses? Restore station systems to look for survivors? Get cornered in crawlways while trying to avoid security hatches sealing off undocumented lower decks? Rig propulsion to drift the station into the sun? Standoff with capital W-Y ship come to collect the goodies and dispatch any witnesses?

>>49539777
>everyone dies
next:

You are the veteran crew of the rescue vessel Lewis & Clark.

You have been rerouted and tasked with an emergency recovery from a fuel depot in Zeta2 Reticuli.

The objective is Dr Joss Wren and his cargo of one live specimen in a containment unit.

Any other survivors are to be treated as contaminated and extremely dangerous mandating immediate cryostasis.

The fuel depot is to be cleared of personnel and sterilized with an N2 mine from the emergency stocks on board the Lewis & Clark.

This is a class-3 salvage situation and the legal framework mandates only that rescue be offered to any survivors encountered as long as that poses no essential risk to salvage ship or crew. Rely on superior force at all times.

This mission has been rated triple bonus with additional premium of triple completion standard upon successful recovery of the objective or cargo.

Everything concerning the mission including this communication have been ranked privileged A-7 according to the NDA in effect with all contractors. Observe radio silence within 1 parsec of Z2R.

>>49538046
The players are cops investigating a series of gruesome murders/deaths. The victims are mostly vagrants and the like. Give them clues like unfamiliar biological material and claw marks. Have thugs from Weyland-Yutani show up to 'tidy things up'.

Bump for interest

THE PLAYERS ARE SHIPS.

THEY ARE INSIDE A GIANT XENOMORPH

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>>49538434
let them simulate a ss13 shift.

OP here. I just came up with a new refreshing idea i think, i just dont know if it conflicts with the canon somehow.

What if xenomorphs learned to breed on their own by impregnating other xenomorphs with facehuggers? Creating a new form of "pure xenomorph"

Have it be set on a dead prospector outpost.

Prospectors were operating under the umbrella of [mega-corp].

You have to figure out what the fuck happened and why they are all dead.

The aliens are not on the loose, they starved/bled to death months ago already.

The problem is that a sleek chrome and black ship has just appeared out in the far orbits. It's moving hellishly fast in-system. It does not respond to hails. It is broadcasting a repeating but indecipherable signal. They want to know who killed their children. They are angry and they out tech you.

>>49546617
PUT THE BARBIE DOLLS DOWN.
Bad boy!
That is NOT what that is there for.

>>49546617
sounds neat

>>49543705
Did someone fix all the spelling errors on this yet

>>49547320
That is original set decoration.
It is not to be 'fixed' in any way!

Instead it is to be hypothesized whether the different spelling indicates a cultural development relevant to the story, or a failure in corporate quality control indicative of a larger issue central to the setting.

>>49546617
there's a somewhat similar comic book creature http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/White_Hybrid

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>>49540129
>yoink

This is pretty awesome.
Thanks.

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>>49546617
I feel like there are more efficient ways already explored in canon.