ALIEN RPG Heart of Darkness: First impressions

TL;DR Heart of Darkness is a cinematic scenario for the ALIEN RPG written by Andrew EC Gaska. It has some monstrously huge ideas hidden behind a frustrating layout and opaque design decisions. It will require a lot of work to run, thanks mainly to the incoherent layout, but it will probably win a ton of awards.

This is my first impression of Heart of Darkness. I haven’t run it yet, and when I do, it will take a lot of work to get it (and myself) ready for the table. At first glance, it looks less daunting than Destroyer of Worlds, but I suspect it will be a stronger experience at the table.

As ever, spoilers ahoy!

What’s going on?

The PCs are a group of scientists contracted by Wayland-Yutani to investigate an unknown alien lifeform living in the accretion disk around a newly-formed black hole. When they get there, they find things have spiralled out of control. Erebos station is being turned into a biomechanical lifeform, the survivors are at each others’ throats, and there’s a new alien threat: the Perfected, who are the next stage (sort of) following an abomination.

Heart of Darkness expands upon the 26 Draconis Strain plotline that starts in Chariot of the Gods and continues (to an extent) in Destroyer of Worlds. It explains in more detail what happened to the Cronus at 26 Draconis.

There’s loads of stuff crammed in:

• Two sets of monsters—the creatures from Prometheus (squid-baby, the giant trilobite, the deacon) plus an evolution of the abominations from Chariot of the Gods.
• Neurological Distortion Disorder – a new thing to make you go crazy. (Well, an old thing as it’s in the core rules, but you probably had forgotten it was there. I had.)
• The heart of darkness itself – an old lifeboat turned into a terrible beating heart.
• Correction androids and their marshall—and escaped convicts.
• Project Ironfish (a mysterious secret project).

What you get

Physically, Heart of Darkness consists of one 76-page book, seven character sheets, handouts, maps, and a deck of cards (equipment, weapons, story cards, agendas).

It looks lovely with an elegant look and stunning illustrations. However, while the green-on-black text looks great, it’s not annotation friendly, and I will probably copy some of it from the pdf and pasting into a word document so I can annotate it.

Unfortunately, my book is already falling apart, and I’ve only been looking at it for a few days.

The Erebos

Stuff I liked

I like the overall concept—scientists investigating strange alien life is the sort of thing I want to see in an ALIEN adventure. (I’m not missing the classic xenomorph, as we have creatures from Prometheus instead.)

Physically I like the maps—they have a great presence on the table. And even though I’ll probably run this online, they’re good for that as well.

The seven characters (scientists, a company minder, and an android) are all the strongest I’ve seen so far from the cinematic scenarios, with agendas that will drive player conflict. Having played many convention games, I’ve always said that if you can get your pregens right, that’s most of your game done. The same applies to cinematics, and it’s nice to see here.

I like the big ideas:

• Erebos is harvesting plasma from the black hole. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds (and looks) fabulous.
• Nearly 80 years ago, the Cronus triggered an Engineer star crusher, turning a star into a black hole! That’s great – although I wish we saw more of this.
• The Perfected are a variant abomination, but after the ravening monster phase, they metamorphose into the Perfected – an intelligent Giger-esque alien race.

Stuff I didn’t like

Unfortunately, there’s plenty I didn’t like. Heart of Darkness feels like a movie—one where you enjoy the experience but when you leave the cinema, you say, “hang on, what about…?” Some examples:

• Heart of Darkness expands on the Neurological Distortion Disorder table (Core rulebook p.151). However, thanks to the proximity of the black hole, the PCs roll once every shift, adding one each time. Rolls of 6+ have a mental impact, and rolls of 12+ mean PCs attack each other. So why aren’t all the NPCs mad? After three days, everyone is rolling at +9. After four days, they should all be psychotic. And the station has been there for ten years! (To be fair, p6 mentions an “uptick in psychological problems”, which sounds like the NDDs increased when the new lifeforms were discovered [it’s not clear why], but that’s still over two months ago.)
• Why aren’t the PCs given a clear briefing on the Erebos station, with a staff roster explaining whom they can expect to meet, and the details of the life form so far observed?
• If the Engineers have the technology to turn 26 Draconis (a “red star”) into a black hole, and they want to destroy humanity, why don’t they use that rather than messing around with black goo or xenomorphs?
• If the 26 Draconis Strain (created by the science team aboard the Cronus) created the Perfected, then what is in “Perfected Space”? (p.44). Elsewhere, eg p.14, the Perfected want more of the 26 Draconis Strain so they can breed. Except someone can become Perfected by becoming an abomination – so why do they need the 26 Draconis Strain?
• Clerke, a dead NPC, works out what’s going on. But instead of leaving a clear record, he leaves clues around the station. Even his reports are super cryptic. Why? (One thing I’ve learned from running investigative games is to give the players the information they need; otherwise, they will be confused.)
• What’s going on with the hieroglyph notebook? It’s mentioned in Clerke’s reports on p.29, and Clerke presumably uses it to decode the Engineer hieroglyphs (see p.26). This came from the 26 Draconis expedition, and Clerke knows about it because it’s in the Cronus data files (otherwise, he wouldn’t know where to look – although we also know that the computer doesn’t decode the files until after the PCs arrive). So that means W-Y knew about the notebook – in which case, why weren’t they sending someone to recover it? I would have thought that would be worth a fortune – and would give a character an excellent motivation.
• Why doesn’t anyone use the FTL communications to Gateway station to report what’s going on? And why weren’t the PCs warned? (We know there are FTL communications because Clerke  tries to access the W-Y Network files on the Cronus. My preference would be for Erebos not to have any FTL communication – things are scarier when you’re on your own, and there are few FTL communications in the movies. However, FTL comms in the ALIEN universe is a bigger discussion – I’m not convinced the RPG gets it right.)

Some situations seem to wait for the players:

• On p.38, six Corrections Androids throw two convicts into “fire-choked cells (Intensity 12)”. Are they doing that all day? And what is a “fire-choked” cell anyway? Is it supposed to be on fire—if so, why are the androids chucking prisoners into it rather than trying to fight the fire? Does the marshal know?
• On p.42, a convict lurks, waiting to attack the PCs. Why? (Because he’s mad, presumably?)
• On p.44, the computer is only now finishing decrypting the black files on the Cronus. This was presumably set up by Clerke, who is “long dead” (p28). Why is it taking so long?

One thing missing is a countdown clock – what happens if the PCs don’t intervene? What do the androids do while they are offscreen? What about the convicts? Have the Perfected contacted either of them to get the 26 Draconis Strain?

Structural issues

Unfortunately, Heart of Darkness is riddled with the same structural issues I had with Chariot of the Gods and Destroyer of Worlds: it hasn’t been designed to be easy to run. Here are my problems this time:

• I took ages to work out who NPC Wicks was. She’s a convict, but her bio starts with her convict number rather than her name. Worse, the details you need to know about her are in three places: in her character bio (p.22), the bit where you encounter her on the map (p.41) and in warden Stykes’ character bio (p.21).
• What happened previously? While there’s some backstory, there’s no detailed timeline of recent events. How long ago was the lifeboat brought aboard? Why was it not mentioned in the message that brought the scientists here? How long ago did Clerke die? When did the prisoner revolt take place? (I will try and figure all this out and put it in one place—it will be in a future post.)
• There are prisoners and wardens, and it seems the prisoners escaped, but we don’t know why or how. Warden Stykes’ character bio explains that Wicks led a prison revolt just as Erebos was overrun with monsters, but this isn’t in Wicks’ backstory or anywhere else. It’s information I expected to be in a timeline, not hidden in someone else’s bio.
• And how many convicts are left? (16 with Wicks, but how many others?) And how many wardens? (Unclear.) Or androids? (Also unclear.) Page 5 tells us how many were aboard originally, but how many are still alive?) The PDT data on page 30 helps, but is incomplete; it would be nice to have everything in one place.
• Why isn’t the Cronus history presented as a handout? The PCs can get this information in two places (via the computer, p.44 and NPC Lavigne, p.50). However, what happened to the Cronus is hard to find – there’s a frustratingly vague summary on page 10 and hints elsewhere. You’d think that as this is the trilogy’s final part, we’d get the answers to everything!
• Some points on the map would be better as events: the p.42 convict attack mentioned above and the starfish mark on the glass in the Observation Deck p.31. The latter, particularly, would be best encountered early, before meeting the creature that made it – that’s how a movie would do it.

Speaking of the maps, while the player-facing maps are lovely, the GM-facing maps are just smaller duplicates. Annotated GM maps showing fire, radiation, and other hazards would be much more helpful. And as ALIEN doesn’t do printer-friendly maps, I can’t easily annotate the maps for my own use.

Typical GM map - no different to the player maps

I want to know more

The Cronus crew triggered an Engineer star crusher, deciphered hieroglyphs, developed the 26 Draconis Strain, and abandoned half their crew. I want to know more! This sounds like a cinematic scenario on its own – and I want to know what happened. As I said, this should have been a handout – an end-of-trilogy payoff. But another cinematic scenario would have been even better!

What happens if the Perfected win? It’s unclear – p.14 says, “…Erebos will go FTL and begin infecting colonies.” But it would be nice to have that fleshed out as a proper ending, in case it happens.

What are the Star Teachers? Page 26 says, “Anyone with Geholgod training [and that’s at least two PCs] will recognize the pictograms from Star Teacher artifacts discovered on Arcturus.” There’s no mention that Star Teachers are explained in the Colonial Marines Operations Manual, nor is there a short description for the GM to answer curious players.

What’s going on with the black hole? It appears to be singing, and Wicks blames it for everything. Is there something going on there?

Jumping the shark

Heart of Darkness has a couple of atmosphere-killers that feel out of place.

• First, a player can play the station cat. I’ve seen some GMs post excitedly about this, but I can’t imagine this doing anything other than ruining the atmosphere. To me, this is a jump-the-shark moment for ALIEN.
• The terrifying, giant starfish thing that the PCs encounter is nicknamed “cuddles”. (This is the trilobite – the huge thing that takes out the Engineer at the end of Prometheus.) Why give it such a silly name?

How would I do it?

What I dislike about Heart of Darkness is how it’s structured. I like the adventure itself, but I wish it were better presented. The issues I have with Heart of Darkness aren’t hard to solve – and they seem so obvious I wonder how they were missed in development and editing.

(I’m trying not to think that the problem is with me, of course. Am I being unreasonable in expecting clarity and logic? I don’t think so, but maybe I am.)

Here be monsters...

So, the changes I would make:

• Give the PCs a proper briefing with a more detailed crew roster.
• Annotate the GM maps to show areas of radiation, fire, etc. I’d highlight key locations, such as the actual heart of darkness.
• Add printer-friendly maps to the pdf bundle.
• Create a complete timeline of previous events in one place.
• Make the NPCs more dynamic. Add their actions to the Acts, so things change even if the PCs do nothing. (I would have Stykes take some androids and move against Wicks, while Wicks changes the course of the Erebos and sends it into the black hole.)
• Where it makes sense, move events from the map to the acts.
• Add a handout for the Cronus encrypted files.
• Add the hieroglyph notebook – and a PC looking for it. (And maybe an NPC—such as Wicks, who could have the Cronus files that Clerke later finds.)
• Get rid of the cat as a potential replacement PC.
• Tone down the NDDs – or at least make them more plausible.

What next?

After all this work, the next step ought to be running Heart of Darkness for my group. After all, I’m in a great position right now. But we have other games planned first.

And while I’m waiting, I will figure out what the timeline should look like.

Writing Children of the Stars (part 4 – running it)

With Children of the Stars finished (see here), it was time to run it.

Picking a date and casting

With five returning characters, I first emailed the players of those characters with a couple of potential dates to see when they were available.

With the date settled, I then emailed everyone who had played previously.

The hardest bit is waiting for players to sign up. Three days later, I had eight people; a couple of days after that, I posted notices on the uk-freeforms mailing list and Facebook remote larps group.

With a little over a week to go, I had 11 players – two short.

Who to drop?

With only 11 players, I looked at characters that might be dropped. I identified two – it wouldn’t be ideal if they were dropped, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

My options included:

• Finding two more players – that would be my favourite, but no guarantee of success. (I was running out of places to advertise it.)
• Give parts of the character to someone else – one character had information I wanted them to convey, so if I didn’t use that character, I would give it to someone else.

Let another player play two characters – one player volunteered to do that. If I do this, I’ll suggest that he plays his original character for the first scene but then plays both for the second scene (the additional character cannot attend the first scene).

Casting

My approach to casting was:

• First, those who had played before. They had agreed to play the characters from earlier episodes, so they were easy.
• Second, those who said “no” to lots of characters. For those players unwilling to play several characters, I cast them next (before those characters were taken).
• Then I cast the flexible players – those players who trust me and don’t mind playing any character are a godsend!

Finally, I double-checked the comments that players had left to make sure I hadn’t inadvertently miscast anyone.

Discord and Kumospace

Then I sent out the characters along with the Discord and Kumospace instructions. 

Disaster on the day

Unfortunately, things didn’t go that smoothly for play.

Although I’d written the game for 13 players, I had only 12 on the day. One player had kindly volunteered to play two characters, but unfortunately, he caught Covid and wasn’t well enough to play. So when it came to playing the game, I played his character and GM-ing the game. I don’t think I did either particularly well.

Then we had another technical challenge. While Discord was working fine, two players had problems with Kumospace. One was workable (it kept logging her out every few minutes ) but one player couldn’t get Kumospace working at all.

So I found running Children of the Stars very stressful. But from what I saw, most players enjoyed the game. I just need to remember that when I think about my experience!

During the game

So during the game, my attention was split. I was trying to play the missing characters and have an overview as the GM.

I’m not sure I did either well.

Luckily, those players who didn’t experience technical difficulties seemed to enjoy the game.

However, my sense of satisfaction was tainted by the challenges of the day.

Learning

A few points to consider for next time:

• Using both Discord and Kumospace may have been a bit much. I think Discord wasn’t needed for this game – I could have created different floors for Kumospace (or separate rooms on the same floor).
• It needed a little longer. In-person, this would be a three-hour game (but I’m hesitant to spend three hours online as I find that very tiring).
• I need to look at the structure – decisions I thought could be made at the end of the game needed to be made during it, but I didn’t spot that until we were running.
• I liked the two-part structure I created and may do that again.

Feedback and Epilogues

I asked for feedback following The Roswell Incident and All Flesh is Grass, and I did the same for Children of the Stars. Some players completed the form promptly, while others dragged their heels.

I used the feedback to create an epilogue for the game, which consisted of news about the big announcements and what the characters did after the freeform. This time there were big changes, and the game history is veering away from real history – aliens are among us!

Next game

The day after the game, my mind was already full of ideas for the next one, tentatively called Messages from Callisto.

Hopefully, it won’t take me six months to write! 

Writing Children of the Stars (Part 3)

This is the third part where I describe how I wrote Children of the Stars, the third part of my first-contact freeform series.

Because I’m discussing plots in this post, it’s pretty spoilery.

Here’s the overall process.

The process

1. Choose a subject
2. Themes
3. Character basics
4. Outline characters
5. Character Sheets
6. Structure
7. Plots
8. Rules and mechanics
9. Background
10. Finishing off

So far I’ve worked out who my characters are, and I’ve decided on the setting and structure of the game. It’s time for stage 7—plots.

My approach to writing Children of the Stars is that, although the series is linked (and has some returning characters), I want it to be playable by anyone. So I’ve tried to write characters and plots to be self-contained. (I may not be the best person to judge.)

Step 7 Plots

I started with The Midwich Cuckoos plot—the players must decide what to do about a village of strange children. To bring in an international angle (the previous two freeforms were US-only), I introduced several international characters who had villages of their own to deal with and hadn’t decided what to do about them.

In The Midwich Cuckoos novel, the Russians nuke “their” village, and I wanted that to be an option.

I organised the plots so they were each in their own Word file. I wrote the plot from the character’s perspective, including background, other people, objectives, and any handouts (or contingencies).

Once I had the cuckoos plot done, I started on the other plots:

The science projects: There are more science projects wanting funding than funds available—and several people have pet projects they want funding. Which projects will be funded?

Steering humanity: The aliens already on Earth have plans—but they conflict. It’s time for them to settle their differences—what do they choose? And are they going to make first contact with humans?

The Consciousness: The alien encountered in All Flesh is Grass has withdrawn cooperation with the US government. What is it up to?

Intelligence task force: Some characters want to start an international task force for dealing with aliens. Will they succeed?

As I wrote the characters, I filled in a plot matrix, which I used to check that none of the characters had too little to do.

Assemble the characters

With the plots written, I then assembled the characters by copying and pasting the text from the plot documents into a blank character sheet.

In a few cases I needed to adjust the plot text to make the character flow properly, but that’s normal.

The last character

Once I had pulled all the characters together, I thought I had finished—then I remembered I needed a replacement character (in case one of the early scenes became violent). So I created a conspiracy nut writing a book about aliens—and let me pull in details from the first two games.

Step 8 Rules and mechanics

Children of the Stars is a purely talky-freeform. There are no items or abilities. There is one handout, for a character if they think to ask about something. But that’s about it.

Step 9 Background

I wrote the backgrounds as I wrote the plots. I ended up with four background documents:

• Setting and cast list: As described last time.
• Alien #1 background: I based this on the background sheet I used for All Flesh is Grass, updated slightly with some new information.
• Alien #2 background: This was a new sheet, but I used the same structure as the alien #1 background, which saved some work.
• US intelligence briefing: This was new information for the US government characters about what happened in Millville (in All Flesh is Grass) and what has happened since then.

Step 10 Finishing off

Step 10 can feel like it takes forever—getting everything ready so that a game can be run can take ages. But it didn’t take long for Children of the Stars, as I hadn’t written complicated rules, abilities or items.

• PDFs: I created pdfs of the game files (the characters and backgrounds) ready for sending to players.
• GM notes: I started a GM notes file. Should I set the game up so others can run it, I must work on this, but at the moment, the most important thing it has is a game timetable and the single handout.
• Discord and Kumospace: I’m running the game online, using Discord and Kumospace, and I have set these two up. I have also prepared an information sheet for the players on how to get the best from Discord and Kumospace.
• Sign-up sheet: I’ve prepared a Google Forms signup sheet and casting form.
• Post-game survey: I’ve prepared a post-game survey in Google Forms.

Next time

With the game ready, it’s time to run it. 

Furnace 2022

Last weekend found me in Sheffield for Furnace 2022. 

Furnace runs over a weekend – three games on Saturday and two on Sunday. It takes me about an hour to get there, so I don’t play the Saturday evening game (slot 5).

One of the nice things about Furnace is putting faces to names that I see on The Tavern. Anyway, on with my games.

Slot 1 Saturday morning: The Raven Stone (AD&D, GM: Simon)

A proper, old-school game of AD&D. We had six of us trying to figure out what was causing the dead to rise (the eponymous Raven Stone) and then putting it back where it belonged.

We nearly had a player-induced TPK when our mage decided to kill a room of kobolds by drop-kicking bottles of ‘nitroglycerine’ at them. We cleared the kobolds, yes, but sadly (or, deservedly) our mage perished in the inferno.

Although I’ve been roleplaying since 1981, this was my first proper game of AD&D. I never played it back in the day (it was Traveller and Call of Cthulhu for me), and I rarely play D&D now. I found the system confusing – it lacks a modern consistency (sometimes you need to roll high, sometimes low). Luckily Simon had all the modifiers in his head, and I just needed to roll the dice.

Slot 2 Saturday afternoon: The Haunting of Abbeyham Priory (They Came From Beyond the Grave! GM: Tom)

This was delightful fun with lots of hammy fun with five of us investigating a mystery in the style of a 70s Hammer Horror movie. 

The system was simple (although we had the usual business of finding that the skills don’t quite work for the situation you want) and I really liked the quips – each character has several catchphrases that give them extra dice when they say them. So we did that often, and the system rewarded us with more dice.

A great, light-hearted con game – although I can’t imagine playing this as a campaign.

Slot 4 Sunday morning: Perfect Organism (ALIEN, GM: me)

My turn to run something. I had a few preflight nerves, but I always get that with a scenario I’ve not run before. I had one player drop, which was fine - the other three were awesome and really leaned into the conflict and agendas I’d created.

The scenario worked well (phew!), and I didn’t even kill any of the characters (although there weren’t many NPCs left alive by the end.) 

Some lovely moments: All the character banter, particularly the ICC lawyer and the W-Y executive. The players gamely ignoring what they knew and playing their characters. One player throwing an NPC into the path of an attacking facehugger. Kathar Station blowing up.

Slot 5 Sunday afternoon: Mischief Night (Liminal, GM: Sue)

Four P-Division agents tracking down some missing cream for a Halloween-themed adventure. Very irreverent, with some great banter around the table and trips into Northampton’s medieval tunnels and a creepy fairy realm.

I really like four-player games – it gives me space to develop a relationship with the other players and their characters, which I don’t find so easy with higher player counts. However, I appreciate the difficulty at conventions as it means you need more GMs.

Furnace 2023

I’m already looking forward to Furnace 2023 – but next for me is Retford freeforming in November and then Airecon in March.

Writing Children of the Stars (part 2)

Last time I covered the initial steps in writing Children of the Stars. This time I’ll talk about outline characters, setting, character sheets and structure. Before I do, here’s a reminder of my overall process for writing freeform larps:

The process

1. Choose a subject
2. Themes
3. Character basics
4. Outline characters
5. Character Sheets
6. Structure
7. Plots
8. Rules and mechanics
9. Background
10. Finishing off

So far I’ve done stages 1 and 3 (although as you’ll see, I’ve also pretty much nailed 5 and 6.)

(You can read the overall summary of the process here.)

Step 4 Outline characters

The next step is to write character outlines, so I know who the characters are when I come to dropping them into plots.

This is an example: 

McDonald: US government Chief Science Director. Early 50s.

• Start: Washington
• Continuing character? No.
• Plots: Science projects, the children, keeping America in front
• Opening para: You are Chief Science Director McDonald—you are responsible for allocating America’s science budget. The budget needs fixing in two weeks’ time, and while much of it is already allocated, you still have funds still unallocated. While you like to keep an open mind, your main priority is maintaining America’s technological leading edge. (You are very proud of American achievements like the space shuttle.)

I kept these brief and wrote them for all thirteen characters. 

Setting and background

At this point, I also wrote the setting and background. I like to settle this early so I have a clear idea of where the game is set. With some help from A Year in History: Timeline of 1983 Events I ended up with this:

It is 1983. The space shuttle has been flying for two years. Michael Jackson’s Thriller tops the US album charts. W and Z particles discovered at CERN. The last-ever episode of M*A*S*H is screened. The CD player is released. Pioneer 10 crosses the orbit of Pluto. Return of the Jedi completes the Star Wars trilogy. Over a million people demonstrate against nuclear weapons at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament march in London, England. A baboon embryo is successfully ‘conceived’ in a laboratory dish in San Antonio, Texas. ARPANET is moves to TCP/IP. The Soviet shuttle Soyuz T-10 explodes on launch. The first version of Microsoft Word is released.

And in December, the 1983 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Science Conference is held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Cast

• Dr Abdaluni: NASA’s Chief Scientist. Mid 40s.
• Dr Bakker: A scientist working for the US defence contractor Shark Systems Inc. Mid 30s.
• General Billings: Head of the USA’s Department of Extra-Terrestrial Defense (DETD). Mid 60s.
• Dr Blake: Head of the US’s Xenobiology Forensic Investigation of Life and Extra-terrestrial Science Working Group. Early 70s.
• Dr Chén: Administrator in the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. Mid 40s.
• Jackson: A retired bounty hunter. Mid 60s.
• McDonald: Newly-appointed US government Chief Science Director. Early 50s.
• Dr Russo: US science advisor. Mid 30s.
• Saito: Hosata Manufacturing executive. Late 20s.
• Sánchez: An intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech. Mid 20s.
• Dr Sokolov: Director at the USSR Academy of Sciences. Mid 30s.
• Dr Visser: UNESCO Deputy Science Director. Mid 40s.
• Dr Wescott: UK science advisor. Mid 40s.

This is the public information that’s also on the game website.

Step 5 Character sheets

I like to define my character sheets at this point so I know what sections I am writing for the players.

However, I already had this sorted as I was using the same character sheet layout I used for The Roswell Incident and All Flesh is Grass (the earlier two episodes).

These character sheets consisted of a background section, followed by “Other Folk” (for information that character knew about other people) and then “Your objectives” (for that character’s goals for the game). The sheets also had starting locations and suggested first moves, although I knew that would be less important this time.

Step 6 Structure

I also knew the structure of Children of the Stars, as that was one thing I decided early on. This is what the game structure looks like.

• Start: Welcome and introductions
• 0 to 30-45 minutes: Characters start in initial groups.
• 30-45 to 150 minutes: UNESCO science convention
• 150 minutes: Game end and decisions

So I think it will be about 2.5 hours long—maybe three hours.

NEXT TIME

So I’ve done all this and haven’t started writing any plots yet! That changes next time.

Writing Children of the Stars (part 1)

Children of the Stars is the third part of The Fermi Solution, my ongoing series of small (13 player, 2-3 hour) freeforms about first contact with aliens. The Roswell Incident and All Flesh is Grass were the first and second, and you can read about them here on my blog.

I’m also collecting the various “how to write a freeform” essays and articles I’ve written over the years. I’m pulling them into a single document; when it’s done, I’ll put it on Lulu. And as I’m writing about the freeform process (overall summary here), I thought I’d better use Children of the Stars as an example (as I sometimes cut corners, as we’ll see).

Basic themes

I didn’t start writing Children of the Stars until I had run All Flesh is Grass and got all the feedback. I didn’t know what I wanted from it, other than to get the big projects that would affect world history started.

I also knew there would be another first-contact situation to deal with, as that’s a theme of the games. (I may have to ease off in future games because I’m ending up with so many aliens!)

The Roswell Incident and All Flesh is Grass are both set in the USA, and I wanted more of an international feel this time. So I’ve set Children of the Stars at a UNESCO science convention in Geneva.

So my themes became:

• First contact: There are already aliens concealed amongst humanity. I want them to think about revealing themselves to humanity.
• Science projects: The players need to decide which science projects to fund—of course, there are conflicting interests, and which projects are funded will affect future episodes.
• All Flesh is Grass followup: The last game ended with an impasse—what has happened since?
• The Cuculus: The new alien.
• Protecting national interests: With different countries represented, national interests will become important.
• The Harvesters: The Harvesters are my Big Bad. So far, they’ve only been hinted at. 

And then a detour

In both the previous games, I started each game by having the players start in predetermined locations for them to roleplay a while before getting properly started. This time, I wanted to do more than that.

I also wanted to solve a problem we had in writing Diemos Down at Peaky 2022. We started Diemos Down with a flashback, but we hadn’t structured the character sheets correctly and it was confusing for the players.

I didn’t want a flashback, but I wanted two scenes separated by a few days. But I wanted to give the players their entire character sheets as I didn’t want to break the game while everyone read the second part of their character sheet.

So to address that, I structured the character sheets in two parts, each with its own background and objectives. Part 2 is at the conference in Geneva. Part 1 is one of four locations, depending on the characters.

And because this was a relatively new thing for me, I thought I’d try it out by writing a couple of the characters first.

This is not how I recommend writing a freeform, and you won’t see that suggested in my book. In my defence, I was trying something new, and I wanted to see if I could make it work before I went any further.

I think my approach will work, but I won’t find out until I run it.

The process

This is my overall process for writing a freeform.

1. Choose a subject
2. Themes
3. Character basics
4. Outline characters
5. Character Sheets
6. Structure
7. Plots
8. Rules and mechanics
9. Background
10. Finishing off

Step 3 Character basics

So with 1 and 2 complete, I needed to think about character basics. I already knew I wanted some returning characters, so my first task was to choose them. I ended up with five returning characters (it’s nice if the same players play them, but I intend to write the game so that a new player can pick those characters up).

I planned this around the two-part structure I had developed. So (and without giving too much away):

• Mexico: Two characters and a revelation.
• Washington: Four American government-types discuss science projects—there’s never enough money.
• Paris: Four international scientists/intelligence officers consider an alarming alien presence.
• Morocco: Three characters discuss the future.

And that was my thirteen characters.

Next time

Next time, we talk about outline characters, character sheets and structure.