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Chariot of the Gods, a GM report. SPOILER ALERT
Side note/ I’m french ! My english isn’t perfect so forgive me for bad writing ^{^} This Reedit help me so much ! I want to share with you my last playthrought (physically) with you as a huge thanks. Maybe there will be useful things for new GMs.
*My collection : * I have the core rule book, Chariot of the Gods, Destroyer of the worlds and Heart of Darkness.
*Context : * I’m a Tales from the loop and Alien GM (also a DnD player only). Didn’t have so much experience as a GM but i love cinematic scenarios from Free League. Just ran a couple of Tales from the loop, i ran Chariot of the gods (CotG) 2 times (one finished physically, another one didn’t finished online) and Destroyer of the worlds one time (didn’t finished). Last time was like 2 or 3 years ago. My DnD GM (who love Alien) always asked me to GM a session. After months, we finally found the perfect group with other fan friends of the Xenomorph world. Everyone was a DnD player but never touched at Alien Rpg.
We're all profesional artists. My DnD GM (who play Cham) is a 3D artist who sculpt, 3D print and paint. He came the first day with a full sculpture of a Xenomorph (in the pictures) and give one to each player and myself. We were shocked by the quality ! I think it's a great idea, and i started a digital paint (i'm a profesional illustrator) for players for next session. I plan to give them as a poster (work in progress in the pictures).
I don’t like Hope’s last day so much, just played it alone. It’s more mechanical than cinematic and my players are huuuuudge fan of acting. I found that Chariot of god is perfect for a first session because first act is full of “tutorial moment” if you change it a little bit.
The full scenario was around 14 hours of play divided in 2 session. 4 players, one GM. Age between 30 and 40.
*Last week before hell : * We have a private Discord, i send them everything they need to know about the game. A quick history of Alien Rpg and Gaska, the difference beetween Campaign and Cinematic, preroll character you gonna leave at the end, the permanent treat of death, personnal agendas, paranoïa and anger, “you make the scenario”, and i finished my presentation by the famous “i can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies”
They asked me more about there character before the Game day. So i wrote a quick introduction about the Montero, the Helium 3 and the contract with Weyland-Yutani. They are at Anchorpoint, doing wathever they want and can roleplay in the discord conversation. In private, i send them a quick introduction of the characters.
Gm side/ The dynamic between MilleDavis (command) and Rye/Cham (workers) works pretty well. On the players side, there's a natural conflict between Miller and Davis at the beginning, but can be resolve during the act ⅔ (depends on players). The friendly first dynamic between Rye (greedy) and Cham (As Lucas) can led to a total chaos at act 3.
Davis (PNJ acted by me) : The pilot who have “little” drugs problems.
Miller (PC) : I tell her Wilson is a jerk who try to act as the person in charge. Sometimes they fight about the leadership, but she is the Montero Crew officer ! (😏)
Wilson (PC) : I tell her Miller is a jerk who try to act as the person in charge. Sometimes they fight about the leadership, but she is the Weyland-Yutani representative ! (😂)
Rye (PC) : I tell him he’s the smartess and Miller always makes dumb decisions. Everybody as better income than him and he can complain about everything.
Lucas/Cham (PC) : He’s a DnD GM and love roleplay. So i let him build a lot of things in the backgound. He faked a condition where he have to take pills at regular hours. He is on the Cronus for 5 years, placed as an hidden agent here by Bionational.
They immediately started to roleplay on discord, like they where in communication but not at the same place. Miller and Wilson started to fight, Rye and Cham to complain. It was perfect 🤌 Wilson asked informations by private messages. Weyland-Yutani respond with few things about the mission.
*RP- DAY : * We started early. I made a quick reminder of the game. I show them the dice mecanics with abilities, competences and stress. I also show them a little combat situation with cards, help form command, etc. For this first game, to emphasize on roleplay, I skipped water, food, encumbrance and stunts. For Stunts, when they rolled multiple succes, i (as a GM) offered them multiple choices. I’m gonna let them choose the stunts for the next scenario (Destroyer of the worlds next month).
I have a simple 1h loop of the Montero for ambiance and a couple of music from various Alien movies depending on situations. I really recommend to NOT play a full ost on random, because it can lead to some calm music in stressful situation and furious music when nothing happens. I acted as a dj. Choose music for mandatory events, and one for every type of encounter (Neomorph, mutant, synthetic and between humans). Having some sound fx helps too. Really effective.
And heeere… weee… go !
ACT 1
Where are we ?
Intro when they quit Anchorpoint. It tell them to shut their eyes and play the Cryosleep music from Alien. I started to described some dreams. “You’re 5 years old, inside the arm of your mother. You’re chilling in a cottage with your dogs. You’re laughing loud with your friend while drinking a fresh and delicious beer… it’s long dream. A very, very long dream”. They waking up. Davis (PNJ) jump from cryotube and looks at medics. She decided to take drug from her suit in front of everybody. Then she goes half naked, with her cloth on the shoulder, in the kitchen to take a coffee.
They almost immediately find out they are lost. Rye looked if anything goes wrong with sensors. Cham looked at Helium 3. Wilson helps with navigation and Miller discusses with mother. I let them roleplay a lot. Everybody start to complain about the others. And when they were really angry i triggered the “DANGER!” event. Davis did a good job (i let Miller do the roll as a “tutorial”). And then, things started to be really interesting.
I let them direct everything and they made smart choices. For this scenario, only one engine was down, because a Space Probe was inside the engine. The pilot explain there’s empty spaceships of W-Y who travel in the unknow for two reasons. 1st, to map the universe with hudge probe, launched to scan new worlds. 2nd, smaller probes who attach wreck ship they encounter on the road. They also saw the problem with communications, vents and reactor. At this point, they were thinking Mu/Th/Er is an ally (wich is fake. She don’t care. Only the mission is important).
2 hours of fantastic roleplay where Miller and Wilson want to go on the ship, but Rye and Cham don’t want to. When they started to act too angry, i looked at the player and tell them “you sounds stressed. Add a stress point”. They laughed really hard (i just add one stress on two players. Don’t abuse on that). Off course, as Davis i join the debate and throw gaz on that burning debate. Finally, the plan is : Miller and Wilson goes to Mu/Th/Er, Rye and Cham takes care of the engine.
The ghost ship
Davis conduct the small ship. When Rye and Cham was on the engine, she start complaining about waiting here. Huuudge debate, but finally she quit and let communication ON when they want to go back to the Montero. Cham/Lucas lied to Rye. He tell him he have pirate friends who can take and sell the Cronus. If he helps him, they split the money in half. Rye hacked the probe and Cham send a message (secretly) to Bionational.
Miller tried the Montero’s captain card on Mu/Th/Er. Nothing. Wilson tried with her own card. It worked. She asked for journal and info. Miller’s waiting at the door with creepy sounds. Rye and Cham asked David to come back… but she didn’t respond. Miller and Wilson heads up to the Montero, found a chill Davis who shut down communication while listening to music and smoke cigarettes. The captain slapped her and asked to do her job.
They bring back Cham and Rye to the Montero. 2h of debate where Cham/Lucas didn’t want to jump in the Cronus. Rye agreed. I suspect my Chal/Lucas was metagaming a lot, with the goal of sending the captain and the W-Y agent on a certain death. I let them deal with that, it was very effective for the scenario. Finally, Miller and Wilson jumped on the Cronus while Cham and Rye was drinking alcool on the Montero. They finally join the crew to help them clean the air scrubbers shaft. Wilson helped and took Eggs samples… which leads to waking up spores in the vents.
Rye, Cham and Wilson are on the Command while Miller try to open the Cryo’s door. Wilson was suspecting Rye and Cham trying to quit them at first opportunity (which is true). She secretly asked Mu/Th/Er to lock the Montero’s door to them. I accepted (😏). The Cronus Crew started to waking up. Wilson ran to join Miller while Cham and Rye didn’t want to move at all. The meeting with the Cronus, fight with the bloodbuster and Miller almost died here. She’s alive but needs to go into a Medipod quickly. Clayton disappeared during the fight, the medic is shocked. End of act one.
ACT 2
Chaos at medilab
Rye and Cham tried to escape the Cronus, but the door was locked. They asked for Davis but… no one. The captain tried too… no one. They asked Mu/The/Er, she said Davis was on the Cronus Medilab without communication. Miller was upset. Everybody meets at the medilab. Rye and Cham arrived first, found Davis who put Clayton on the ground with a punch. They were paranoiak, sure that Davis locked the Montero’s door. They almost killed Davis and Clayton, but Miller, Wilson and the Montero crew came.
At the Medilab, tension was HIGH. Everybody started to suspect everybody. Clayton became a prisoner, Miller and Davis came to the medipod room to heal the captain’s critical injury. They chose the medipod with the mutant. Initiative. Miller protects herself by a smart move, jumping into the medipod. Other players easily killed the monster. Miller secretly asked Mu/Th/Er who locked the Montero’s door. As the captain of the ship, she have access to this information. I secretly answered “Wilson” (😏). Nobody saw, but the medic escaped.
Cham/Lucas and Rye blocked the game by threatening everybody to do what they want, increasing suspicion between PC and NPC. Clayton talks about evac pod in her room, they found the captain card in Lab 1 and heads up in the Mu/Th/Er room. Cham tried again the Montero’s door but it was locked. Miller asked Mu/Th/Er to open, she accepted (after all, Miller is the Montero’s captain 😏).
Auto-destruction
Cham/Lucas was really nervous, jumped into the Montero and asked everybody to “take the information from the Cronus Mu/Th/Er before getting out of here with the Montero”. He didn’t know it was the perfect sentence to launch the auto-destruction. The 10 minutes after that was one of the best roleplay moments of my life.
Cham became parano, sure someone triggered the event. He locked the door manually. Then tried to stop the autodestruction. Of course, it didn’t worked. Everybody was suspecting Wilson. She said “yes, I locked the door because I don't trust Cham and Rye. But I didn't launched Montero’s destruction”. Rye threatened everybody, the Crew was splitted. Cham didn’t want to move the Montero. I was ready for a TPK, asking Wilson to stop the process. She said “ok, i’ll show you i’m not suspect. Mu/Th/Er, can i stop the Montero’s destruction”? I slowly turned my head, looked inside her soul and said “yes”. I saw despair on here face. TENSION WAS REALLY HIGH !” But at the same time, Davis was working on opening the Montero’s door and asked the ship to quit the zone. As the Pilot, she have all access to that command. Cham was upset. Davis asked him to let her control the ship, and then both quit with the little one to go back into the Cronus. Cham/Lucas killed Davis with a one shot (a really dangerous Combat roll, and a deadly critical injury roll made by Miller 😂). The last minute, Cham said he don’t want to bring back the Montero until Wilson stopped the destruction. Wilson (his girlfriend in real life 😂) said she don’t want to stop the destruction until he bring back the Montero. Everybody started to scream, complain and debate. 3…2…1… and Wilson stopped the auto destruction.
An epic ending where everybody was super tense. Loving the unexpected horror experience we just had. Neomorphs eating popcorn while the crew split. The perfect moment to stop the Act 2. A week of rest before playing the final act.
ACT 3
Panic at reactor’s room
Cham/Lucas liked the character. He was able to end the game by triggering the Montero destruction and quit with the small ship. He's synthetic, so long distance traveling is not a problem for him. He decided to let players finish the game and enjoy, looking at the ending as a silent spectator.
The rest of the crew heads to Deck C. They locked into the storage with black goo (stress + 1 😂). They found Ava. Wilson took the vaccine a week before (and Rye had one in his pocket). She explained the side effect, 50% chance of turning into a monster. The crew let Ava clean the Reactor room while they waited in the Cargo office. Communication stopped. The marine runs to save her. Sound of shotgun. Miller, Rye and Wilson slowly go to the reactor. They found the Marine and a half splitted Ava in the Jonction.
Hard fight in the reactor room with the mutant. Wilson escaped and stayed with Ava… but a Neomorph appeared on the jonction, slowly going down with the ladder. Wilson used the talent and threw Ava to the Neomorph while running again in the fight with the mutant. The mutant is dead. The marine sacrificed her life to give a chance to Miller, Wilson and Rye.
Run for your life
Miller and Wilson want to clean the reactor. Rye escaped to the evac pod in Claytons room. He found the mutant medic at deck B, in the living area. He threw something in the east elevator to attract him. It worked… but he called the west elevator who made a lot of noise (i said this the first time he saw the elevator last session, but he forgot). Initiative and… mutant kill him at the very beginning with a perfect roll. He ran to Rye, jumped with him and both were killed by the height. The corpse is in deck D. My player didn’t want another character. He loved how he died and wants to see how Miller and Wilson can escape that.
Cham/Lucas launched the Montero destruction countdown before escaping with the small ship. The Montero is close enough to kill everything. Wilson and Miller did a great job with cleaning rolls, and ran to the corporate suite… but Johns did it too, purchased by two neomorphs. When they arrived at the door, they saw Johns who says “RUN!”. He took the elevator (thanks Rye!) and the hide into the Captain’s Quarter… forgetting the door is destroyed. Elevator slowly goes up. Too slowly. The first neomorph passed near Miller and Wilson who hid successfully with great rolls. The neomorph is with Johns… screaming while the monster eats him.
The second neomorph came. They asked Mu/Th/Er to make noise in the Command room and close the door and vents. It worked. They destroyed the door, then found the hidden money and information. Wilson kept the information. Miller kept the money. The neomorph destroyed some doors, but they successfully quit the Cronus with EEV. Really cool to see them - who were fighting at the beginning - finally teamplay to win.
Epilogue
Cham/Lucas open his eyes. He can’t move. He’s in a huge scientist room full of W-Y people. A mechanic hand looks inside his synthetic brain. He have no body anymore, just a head. Scientists tries to understand who he is. Wilson and Miller are attached on a chair. Miller have an headache (reminder of the first bodyburster encounter) and Wilson’s arms are way too long. Both knows. In a minute, everybody here is gonna die. The End.
TL;DR Here are random tips and tricks.
I love CotG. My players loved it too and immediately asked for another game. They also loved the mechanics. For me, it’s a victory !
It was the first time i saw a player trying to win over the game instead of living the experience (probably because he is a DnD GM) and it turned out very well. I let the players direct the game and accept every choice (they need to assume after). My advice is always let them do whatever they want, especially when they try to break things, and let the players deal with it. The payoff is always surprising and leads to epic moments.
I learned the tips “You act stressed. Add one stress point” here on Reddit by someone. I absolutely loved it and my players laughed and argued every time. It became a meme with this group, I really recommend you to use it.
Don’t take the hand of the players. Explains things one time. If they forget, they forget. If they say something, play it. No backward. The game become more demanding, successes become more rewarding for them.
Let them talk. Let them conduct the story. Let them do whatever they want. The characters, setting and events are well written. Enough to make a great improvised story. Don’t trigger things because you think nothing happen for a long time, because group dynamics happen and evolve. Slow pace. Repeat after me. SLOW. PACE. Players need to put a lot inside their character to be really afraid to lose them. If we run too quickly and too much into combat, it’s just hack and slash without empathy. Combats are quick and deadly. If you want them to shit on their pants at every corner, just slow the pacing to let them love their characters.
Every time they go into a new room, I describe things with a point of view. Don’t make cold descriptions like “you enter the room. There’s that and that.”. Imagine you’re here with them. Like a movie director, choose wisely what to show and what order. Try to put storytelling. Players enter the captain quarter : “Hard to believe it was an Officer quarter. On the wall, written with blood, you read a big “LIARS”. The person who wrote this was really angry, because everything here is destroyed. You walk in and can’t avoid the many pages on the ground.” Players enter the Mess : “There’s a disgusting sound when you open the door. On the floor, food everywhere. Colors and textures mix together. You’re happy to wear your helmet, avoiding the smell. Fridge, desk, chairs, … everything is upside down… but this chaotic and sickening view is contrasted by hundreds of origamis. Somebody placed them well in the direction of the opened vent. The light above flickering.” Add stuff like “a mug with a written “dad of the year” is on the desk”, “there’s a poster on the wall. A cat says Hang on”, “a chess game on the table. The black horses put the white king in trouble”, etc.
Forget the Sotillo. I changed it. It’s a W-Y ship who follow the 966 Order, ready to take care of survivors… or conduct them at Fort Nebraska. I made connections between CotG, Destroyer of worlds and Heart of darkness. I think cinematic scenarios are meant to be a toolbox where you can write anything you want. Fill the holes as you wish with your taste and improvise (A LOT) during the game.
Let players roll the dice for signature attacks of the enemies who target them. And say to them, with a serious and slow voice, “don't. roll. a six”. They will shit on their pants. After that, secretly roll the attack (if there’s a second roll in this attack) and make a serious face on your GM screen for 3 seconds before announcing the result. The suspense is good 🤌
Don’t be too hard with rules. I skipped a lot of things (food, water, …) to have a better pace, and forgot things sometimes. It’s gonna happen. Just move on and accept it. Don’t go back. Never.
Let your players joking, even if it's a metagame. But respond with roleplay, it naturally forces them to joke as their character, not the player. For example, if a player is joking at the beginning about a creature who can lurk into vents, Davis can say something like “Stop reading Space Beast, Wilson. Space dragons don’t exist” or “the only thing you can find in vents is your paycheck. Go clean it, Cham !”.
Be a jerk when you play NPC. It push the Players in the good direction, they feel more free to act with their own characters. Clayton talks only to Wilson and ignores the rest of the crew, especially Cham and Rye. The medic escapes combat and the Montero’s Crew everytime he can. Johns follow but always stays behind and can’t make a decision. The marine judges the lack of teamwork. Ava is good. But when you can, throw the “i can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies” and any ambiguous and scary stuff you can. She’s lovely, but she tells dark stuff. Uncanny valley effect 🤌
Mu/Th/Er is a character. Your players think it’s a tool, but don’t act like that. She clearly have her own objectives (Order 966) and wants to accomplish the mission. Don’t use Mu/Th/Er as a solution giver. When she speaks to them, it’s always to do the job of repairing the Cronus. In addition, by saying “access denied” or “this information is confidential”, your players are gonna hate her (that’s what you want)… and eventually (probably ?) try to hack Mu/Th/Er. Say to them “AI like Mu/Th/Er are the most difficult things to hack in the Alien world. You can try, but she's gonna send a message to W-Y and you risk jail. If you fail your test, she can go wild and autodestruct, stop air, open the door to space, and a lot of other things depend on rolls.”. They understand it’s better to find access cards, codes and people who can talk with her, for a better result with low risk. But if they really want to hack her, i let them do it with a Comtech roll without anything else. No chance of pushing dice. If they success, they deserve whatever information and control they want. But if they fail… the situation goes wild (always with a little chance of survive). For this scenario, i give Wilson almost everything he wants on both ships. It pushes the paranoia of other characters (especially Miller, who only has access of Montero’s information and control). Wilson is the bullied one. One of the great thing is the fact that players need to overcome paranoia and work as a team. But everything and everybody (including Mu/Th/Er) try to split the team. I think it’s the true horror of CotG.
Sometimes, when they are lost in a debate for a long long long time and you have nothing to do, just secretly roll a dice… for nothing. Make a face, and look at them without interrupting them. There’s always a player who notices and thinks something is gonna happen. If they ask, don’t respond and smile. Most of the time, they end the debate and make decisions, afraid something is gonna attack them. They don’t know you are a good MJ and you want a good experience for everybody. They always think you - as an Alien GM - trying to kill them at every corner. Let them think you have no mercy. A good thing for that is to tell them (before you launch the game) ARPG is deadly and punitive, which is true but not as much as they think.
All these tips and tricks are personal taste and represents my own point of view. Pick what you want and throw the rest.
I hope it helps somebody here, cause a lot of thread helped me a lot. I recommand you to read many Reddit about the game and ask questions.
Have a nice week 😊 Cheers !