>Party is a bunch of old-west outlaws. >They get inside

Please, /tg/. You're my only hope.

My first guideline for horror games is the same as my one for comedy games; they have to be fun even if the horror (or comedy) doesn't work as intended. Give them meaningful goals and obstacles that make sense. Allow them to get creative. Make your NPCs memorable. That sort of thing.

Identify themes to your horror. Alien is about human frailty in a brutal, uncaring universe (space, the huge ship and the casual biological superiority of the alien) combined with a healthy dose of kinky eroticism. Read GURPS Horror for advice.

If you're going for the feel of alien, they need to be trapped on the train. Have a good reason why they can't get off; the driver and stoker have barricaded off the front of the train, angry indians are hunting them down, it's the middle of winter and they risk freezing to death, whatever.

Instead of having all the players as bandits, have some be bandits, some be passengers/train employees. The first act should just be the train robbery itself. Figure out the specifics of that. If they are going loud, that means a pretty big group of bandits. If they are going quiet, how do they go about it.

Also, I'd introduce some kind of a way to keep people on the train. Perhaps a cave in traps the train in a tunnel, trapping them and making people easy pickings for whatever was just freed, forcing the pcs to work together to survive.

Man, I might steal this, it sounds like a baller CoC scenerio.

>>51875272
>>51875344
if they have to be trapped on the train then I say have it be in the middle of winter and the next town is only a (reasonable) amount of time away (as well as it's where they have their getaway carriage waiting maybe?). it keeps them on the train and it gives them a bit of hope

An alternative to having them stuck on the train is to have the train get stuck, maybe by the monster's actions to help establish how dangerous it is. Then the setting could be an isolated or abandoned town, or a patch of wilderness. At any rate something still needs to make running away either temporarily impossible or suicidal with the monster still around.

>>51877707
I'd say to have it be winter, and only have the train get stuck if they manage to stop it themselves.

File: D2593C4C-6A6A-4AC1-82BB-73C9E1EC68C1-758-000000BD6D5F60D2_tmp.jpg (634KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

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Not too knowledgeable on CoC, but aren't Shogoths like The Thing? At least, from the John Carpenter version.

>>51871972
How are they boarding the train?
Are they making it stop by placing obstacles or are they riding up to it on horses and hopping on? If horses have the critters get spooked and run off. Trapping them on the train. If otherwise Have them need a secondary objective to leave. If they hsve to jump off the train while it's moving have the train be MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE because the conductor just wants the shoggoth off his train or is rushin to the next stop so the marshalls can handle it.

>>51880569
>Conductor, we have a problem.
>Conductor, we have a problem.

>>51881863
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLd-yWOApo