Some questions about ALIEN?
I ran my first ALIEN game, the cinematic version of the Chariot of Gods. It was really something different from what I am used to. It was very intense for everyone. I really enjoyed it a lot, and I thought that the FG implementation of the rule set was outstanding. I am thinking about running a Colonial marines campaign once it comes out. I have many questions about running ALIEN in general, and about the FG version. I hope others will share their understanding of the rules.
How do you visually tell what a zone is? For example, consider the bridge of Cronus. Is the life support monitor and the sensor station in the same zone? How much movement is required to move from the command station to the comm station? An abomination walked into the bridge, and it was very difficult to determine who should be able to do what.
How do you modify consumables such as air on the main tab? If a character replenishes their air supply of their suit, how do they increase the number? If a player accidently equips a suit twice how do they fix the air supply?
Is there some wat to add an explanation of the skills to the character sheet? I am thinking of the way the 5E skills explanation appears when you click the little circle to the right of the word.
What does “If you are suffering from a panic effect (7+ on the Panic Roll)” mean? A 7 is “NERVOUS TWITCH. Your STRESS LEVEL, and the STRESS LEVEL of all friendly PCs in SHORT range of you, increases by one.” How is the duration of this not effect is instantaneous? How long is the duration of this effect?
Related to the previous question is how do implement Panic Roll result replacements? A few times something triggered panic rolls by multiple characters. Let’s say that the first character gets the above-mentioned nervous twitch result. Then another character gets the following result: Flee…every friendly character who sees you run must make an immediate Panic Roll. What happens to the character with the nervous twitch result? The second result REPLACES the first result, so does the “all friendly PCs in SHORT range of you increases by one” not happen? This chain reaction stuff became a huge rules nightmare for use.
The results of the xenomorph attacks are a long text explanation inside a little box. There is no way to increase the size of the box, and display the entire result all at once. I found this a bit frustrating.
When you roll two dice at the same time, the total displays in the chat, but you can’t see the result of each die since the chat box shows black numbers on a black die.
How do bolt guns and ammo work? Do they have a limited number of shots (5 or so) and you lose one ammo each time you shot it, or do you only lose one ammo when you roll a face hugger?
Is initiative open knowledge before combat starts?
How do xenomorphs and actions work? I think that xenomorphs need to move to close range, and then engage, and only then they can finally attack. So a xenomorph at close range needs to spend both its actions engaging. It can then attack the next time it gets to go. Is this correct?
The combat tracker was really strange. It kept jumping around. We tried to figure out when it jumps, but could not. I think it is either an alien not on the map or a concealed alien. It might be when a player pushed the end turn as opposed to the GM.
Thanks in advance for your answers.