The Regiment: Colonial Marines

Yes, that's a great breakdown, Michael. This is important stuff!

Your summary of effects makes perfect sense to me. I'll figure out a way to convey that in the text.

I realized a bit later that if the primary shooter is using an area or messy weapon, it makes sense for them not to use the "vs. Group" rule, and just hit everyone as individuals.

Yeah. It's these kinds of hitchy bits that I am rooting out with fire.

It's a war game, so I want damage and groups and all that to be obvious, smooth and easy. Paul and I are meeting tomorrow night to hash some stuff out. Thanks for all your help!

As one last comment on individual vs. group, I wonder about a connection to whether the assault costs gear.

In our first WWII game, I was soldier with a BAR.  The first few beats of combat were fairly zoomed in: we were shooting at individuals (snipers and so forth).  Because both Assault and Covering Fire use gear inherently, I burned through 4 gear against two enemy soldiers, which seemed like a heck of a lot.  (Maybe it's not!)

At any rate, it occurs to me that perhaps the 1-gear cost of an Assault is part of the "vs. Group" mode.  (So if you just assault against a one-man position, or if the GM is resolving your squad's action as a couple of individual one-on-one assaults, it doesn't cost gear unless you bring in autofire, etc.  If you assault a group of individuals in 'Vs. Group' mode, that's when you pay 1-gear, appropriate for the longer timeframe being represented.)

I realize I'm mourning the separate Assault and Covering Fire moves!

As someone who didn't know about bases of fire and whatnot, the moves felt instructive about how to go about combat.  (Ah, I should be providing covering fire with the MG while my teammates assault them.)

This is either an important observation, or I'm not very good with change. :-)

Hello internet people,
I've been running the last couple iterations of this game and talking with John about the rules. The Assault and Covering Fire moves have merged in the latest version of the game. Grab that at http://mightyatom.blogspot.com/. I think you will find that what you are talking about has been specifically addressed.

A quick overview:

Attack - hurt the enemy - no roll, no gear cost.

Assault - to gain a tactical advantage while fighting directly against an enemy - Roll +Battle, Spend 1-gear

Combat Action - Roll +X while in a battle to do something but not trying to directly assault the enemy.

So, in the case you mention, first, you could roll +Lucky to jump from one rooftop to another to get a better view of the sniper, maybe negating his cover. Then, you could Assault the sniper, laying down heavy fire with your BAR (1-gear), allowing your squad to flank him. Then they could just Attack, getting a VOF bonus for flanking him, which is the result of your successful Assault move.

@fuseboy: I agree that there's instruction going on when the two moves are separate. That's why we did it that way in the first place. I strongly suspect that they will become separate moves once again, though probably not quite in the form they once had.

I have two quick questions:

1. does BOND reset at -4 ? You can easily go in the negative with the Aid move
2. Xenomorph have 1-grit. Shouldn't they be immune to stress instead ?

Thx for this great hack !

1. Nope. The new sheets (2.5) specify a reset at +4 only.

2. You could do it that way, sure. Since we see xenos being cautious and self-preserving in ALIENS, we decided to go with grit. Distinguishes them from the synthetic, too.

Glad you're digging the hack!

1. I'd hate to act like a rule lawyer here but having a negative bond is kinda weird as it allows you to regen stress by not helping a comrade, and this is necessary to easily come back to 0 if you're too deep in the negative with somebody.
"If you ignore a comrade who needs help, take stress equal to your bond and you both reset your bond to 0." => negative bond means you're healing stress. I can perfectly understand this: you don't like the guy and his suffering makes you happy. But did you planned for this use or is it a side effect of the negative bond ?

2. If I recall the movie correctly (Aliens, as the xeno in Alien is acting a little bit differently), the xenos are more intelligent/cautious when the queen is nearby (ie hive mind). I would thus reverse the grit bonus near the queen.
Example: Coldly brutal (2-grit, -1 grit when near queen)
This is what we see in the movie, where, when the queen is in the vincinity, the survival instact is higher (thus more suceptible to stress : retreat, cautious...).
Does that make sense ? :)

1. Yeah... negative bonds don't regen stress. I realize it can be read that way (it's getting tweaked). We've joked about it in our local games.

2. I think the xenos in the egg chamber are being more cautious because Ripley is holding the eggs hostage and the queen is telling the drones to back off. They're not afraid of Ripley, and they try to ambush her before the queen commands them. So, +1 grit. :)

But, in your game, handle it however you like, of course. :)

Hi everybody.

I have some questions regarding the starter mission:

1) What is the purpose of Bolden? How do you use him if he is detained aboard the USS Lincoln and has not access to comms or video during the operation? He wants to retrieve the specimens, right? How can he do that? What is the meaning of the +PATRON BONUS?

2) Why the Phoenix agents want the marines involved in this? How this will help them to recover the stolen specimens? My take is this: I understood that Phoenix Industries has no knowledge of the location of laboratories, and they intercepted the Borden's orders to find out the outpost epsilon real placement. (And THAT's why they started the rebellion.) But then, how could the agents start the rebellion if they did not know where the outpost was located?

3) How does the +INTEL bonus work in game? How does the +MOBILITY bonus work in game? Are just Color?

4) Are the facility security forces and the phoenix spec ops teams woking together, or just the opposite? Was the confrontation between the facility security forces and the phoenix spec ops teams which caused the breach in the xenomorph containment? If the engagement move is failed, is the containment still intact when the marines arrive? Because the spec ops are just behind the marines.

I would add a fifth question:

5) what directive would you give to the synthetic ?

1) What is the purpose of Bolden? How do you use him if he is detained aboard the USS Lincoln and has not access to comms or video during the operation? He wants to retrieve the specimens, right? How can he do that? What is the meaning of the +PATRON BONUS?

Purpose
a) Bolden is high-ranked WY employee, hence he probably has most security codes from the site. I'd actually allow clever players with PATRON to keep him close while having his outside communications jammed (so he can't report problems to WY until he's back on the ship). Though he could be persuaded to give his access codes, I doubt it'd be pretty
b) Bolden is one of very few people around who actually has some idea what's going on inside, so he could give valuable answers to the team (though how to make him give those is whole other story)

How do you use him if he is detained aboard the USS Lincoln

Good question, actually. Though main bonus of this is that he won't interfere with your operation. But I agree that "ok, he's out of the picture, proceed without this problem" is kinda dull. Maybe he could instead

He wants to retrieve the specimens, right? How can he do that?

'
Well, I suppose he has some sort of sealed container for this purpose. Or it is there for him to pick, in some secret safe with keycode in his brain)

if it's about "When Bolden makes the move to retrieve the specimens" ? I'm not sure. Mainly because it seems that he could do this WAY before marines get on site (as on failed engagement move Phoenix has time not only to intercept the call, but to move onto the location ahead of the marines)

by default I suppose he somehow dials main WY headquarters by some sort of "interplanetary phone", and phoenix intercepts the signal. Only problem I get with it is how they decode the location in this case, if Bolden is not there yet (so nothing to triangulate), and I doubt he just names the exact quadrant during the call...

What is the meaning of the +PATRON BONUS?

In general PATRON means that you have a nice and cozy relationship with your commander, who can help you without risking his skin. In this particular mission it's obvious at first sight, that WY operative who you'd have to nursemaid is a liability, and he chooses to help you by containing this guy on the ship

2) Why the Phoenix agents want the marines involved in this? How this will help them to recover the stolen specimens? My take is this: I understood that Phoenix Industries has no knowledge of the location of laboratories, and they intercepted the Borden's orders to find out the outpost epsilon real placement. (And THAT's why they started the rebellion.) But then, how could the agents start the rebellion if they did not know where the outpost was located?

Phoenix:"secret WY base is on this planet, but WHERE? let's make them go for retrieval, then go right after them, feed them some lead and take everything".
basically it's duck hunt.

3) How does the +INTEL bonus work in game? How does the +MOBILITY bonus work in game? Are just Color?

re-read the mission sheet, it's all there. basically INTEL gives you access to data otherwise unavailable (there's two pieces, I'd say it's either one or the other, player's choice) and mobility gives you ability to insert and extract anywhere on the map instead of fixed location.

4) Are the facility security forces and the phoenix spec ops teams woking together, or just the opposite? Was the confrontation between the facility security forces and the phoenix spec ops teams which caused the breach in the xenomorph containment? If the engagement move is failed, is the containment still intact when the marines arrive? Because the spec ops are just behind the marines.

a) by default security is WY and Phoenix are against WY. Actually, if Phoenix were able to infiltrate the facility they won't need this rebellion in the first place.
Though for WY secrecy probably is too important to allow marines live anyway. but it's debatable and GM/MC's choice
b)

Was the confrontation between the facility security forces and the phoenix spec ops teams which caused the breach in the xenomorph containment?

Not necessarily. It could be players against security people or players against phoenix.
 

If the engagement move is failed, is the containment still intact when the marines arrive? Because the spec ops are just behind the marines.

on failure phoenix is ahead of the marines, I think
anyway: yes, it's possible, that when marines do the insetion, containment is NOT breached. However it's pretty far inside the compound, so there's a lot of opportunities for this event before you get to the actual containment cell

5) what directive would you give to the synthetic ?

depends on a MC/GM's whim
could be:
-Destroy any traces of xenomorf experiments
-Obey orders of specialist Bolden
-Preserve human life (if it's marine synth rather then WY)
-preserve Weyland-Yutani property and interests (always good)
or even
-gather intelligence on X (if X is an officer PC, who has dark history with the WY)

Thanks for the answers.

Only problem I get with it is how they decode the location in this case, if Bolden is not there yet (so nothing to triangulate), and I doubt he just names the exact quadrant during the call...

I guess he had to send the outpost location to the marines.

Obey orders of specialist Bolden

I like this. But I suppose the player chooses his directive, and the GM fill the details, right? May a player change his directive type if the unit is sent to a new mission?

I think the best way for Bolden to get the specimens is through Technician Porter, who has one inside him. Maybe we need a custom move for those times in life when a face-hugger attacks a player character. :)

Rule questions:

1) In the character sheet: What do you write in "Deployment"?
2) In the unit sheet: What do you write in "Theater of Operations"?