"A UFO With Exotic Wildlife Crashes, Releases Creatures" Topic

What sort of alien creatures would you sculpt, buy or convert to escape the belly of such a spacecraft (for 15mm gaming) and spill into the countryside or into town?

Would you go for 1) maximum variety, or prefer 2) multiples of just a handful of the really deadly species, or just 3) a couple of near-unstoppable beasts (like the "Rathtar"* in SW Force Awakens)?

Dan
* Rathtar:

1 and 2 for me.

1, if I could financially get away with it! After all, I might play the same scenario more than once and get bored with only one possibility.

Somewhere between 1 & 2 but with a couple of things that are harmless/friendly but don't look it.

x42

1+2 with hidden capabilities that the player must discover.
…I see redshirts.

Thinking more. A scary looking zoo keeper trying to get help salvaging his valuable cargo would be amusing.

x42

An episode of Teen titans was about this very scenario. Intergalactic big game hunters ship crash lands on earth and 3 creatures escape, which the Teen Titans help the hunters recapture.

Doesn't matter you can't kill them "endangered list"

Take a look at the book "Killer" by David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner.

link

I think a mix of 1 and 2.

Perhaps the more advanced species controlling the craft are busy recollecting their quarry after the crash. The missing displaced aliens could be various dangerous beastial types. The tech advancement of the main aliens might be interesting contrasted with the bio attributes of the more primitive….<shape changers anyone>

Hey throw in a bunch of bicycles some 80's kids with the ring leader from a dysfunctional single parent family and someone needs to call Spielberg

Wow. Published in 1990? How could I miss that Drake novel? Very cool.

Dan

Shape changing tech abilities are seriously (and maybe humorously) flawed. Tech has no ability to discern clothing as being separate from the biological creature itself so there's no historical or cultural discrimination…aliens assuming that they blend in perfectly to their 1920's North American setting looking like Roman centurions, Zulu warriors, etc…

Make the scenario have a twist by someone playing the escaped beasts, another playing the advanced Aliens and another the gun toting rednecks :)

The zoo-ship was towing several "bio-pods" each replicating a different planet's environments, with their respective dangerous lifeforms. When it broke up in orbit (accident or sabotage?) the pods came down in geographically separate areas. Some pods were destroyed on landing, some require containment of mostly harmless specimens, and some having lethal alien life on board.

Do a mini-campaign where the PCs have to investigate, deal with locals, and fight deadly space monsters, not knowing what they're getting into at each crash site.

Why choose when you can have all three?

PS: The Alien Factor YouTube link

That was the plot of a really bad movie back in the 70's. Starred Alan Hale as the local sheriff, I think it was a cinematography class project from an upper Midwestern university. Blew most of the budget on SFX for the last alien escapee the others were students in alien suits.

Or …

How about the alien UFO crashes off-world and, among the creatures that spill out of the ship, there's a small group of humans who become aware of each other's existence and team up for survival on the alien planet, despite language and other barriers (Pandorum-like)?

Dan

Yea, make it tougher on the players by not being able to kill the creatures, since they are "endangered", and/or rare, so needed for study, but they can kill you.

Reminds me a bit of the Aliens plot, where the corporate heads smell profits, so you can have some double-dealing to ensure the creatures don't get killed, even if that endangers the humans.

Lol. But, to make it more realistic, have a couple of people in the group be like Ripley (who answered by saying "you can bill me").

Dan

I would probably go for maximum variety with lots of different behaviours and abilities, all of which require different optimal tactics to defeat.

If it were an RPG, I would make them near indestructible, except for a fatal flaw that can be exploited by some other species, so the players have to figure out the puzzle and get them all to kill each other off.

Module S3 Expedition To The Barrier Peaks.

Make mine "1"

This is the premise of the cartoon "Lilo and Stitch". link

@War Panda: "Make the scenario have a twist by someone playing the escaped beasts, another playing the advanced Aliens and another the gun toting rednecks :)"

Excellent idea!

Dan
PS. This stuff is hilarious:
link

x42brown
..zoo keeper trying to get help salvaging his valuable cargo would be amusing.

Tom Reed
An episode of Teen titans.. ship crash lands on earth creatures escape,.. the Teen Titans help hunters.. recapture.

This is much the same premise of "The Keeper"; the only 2 part episode of the 60's series Lost In Space.
The Keeper: Michael Rennie (The Robe, The Day the Earth Stood Still).
In part 2 had to recapture several exotic, many dangerous creatures from across the galaxy that had escaped (thank you Dr. Smith) his huge spaceship.

The more I think about it, the better #1 sounds.
Especially for potential long term campaign games, taking *MHoxie's idea: The location, terrain can vary widely. Even using different military forces from various nations. Based on where one of 'the pods' came down.

MHoxie
zoo-ship.. towing several "bio-pods" each.. with their respective dangerous lifeforms. When it broke up in orbit.. the pods came down in geographically separate areas.

An unsuspecting colony on a quiet little plant, where life moves along at a slow pace, when one of their own is attacked by a creature not of this plant, and as they investigate, they uncover the fact that a zoo ship crashed landed far away from the colony, and was never reported for no one knew of the colony being there and now the colonists have to fend for themselves until help arrives which months away, and here's the list of creatures on board,
lot of #1
Lot more of #2
A few of (not more then 4) #3

How is that for fun!

Pretty sure I did something like this with Rogue Trader:

Two Merc outfits clash over the crash site of an advanced alien zoo craft. Secret alien animals scattered around by the crash, but the two sides don't technically need to fight-- one side is interested in the engine tech to get off world, the others were sent to collect animals for study.

Pretty much everyone died but one Guardsman with a bolt pistol was real lucky and becane a recurring hero.

Hmm … and, if the UFO crashed on a planet with nothing above Victorian/Edwardian level technology?

TMP link

RTJEBADIA,

That sounds like an awesome game!

What sort of creatures were there?

Dan
PS. For more ideas:
TMP link

This was maybe 10 years ago now, so I can't say for sure, but it was definitely creatures (and plants?) from Rogue Trader. I'm pretty sure there were at least gene-stealers and and an ambull.

Arguably King Kong (2005, probably the new one too) could serve as an inspiration for these types of games-- variety (from nuisance to big threat) AND a big unstoppable monster and mixing together, and often it's hard to tell what is most threatening at first glance.

Ah, Rogue Trader Death Planet games. I remember watching same at least 15 years ago.

Both deadly fauna AND flora…

I remember one fellow running same complaining about folks not taking 'sensors(?)', no matter how broadly he hinted.

'Yes, the plant IS electrical!'

Skull Island has more 'alien' monsters, but just about any monster flick has hunt and be hunted going on. ;->=

Jurassic Parks and the various Aliens come to mind.

Doug

Electrical plant?!?

That's an awesome idea!

Dan

Imagine these spilling out of the spaceship:

Dan

Ohmigod--I saw that on the Outer Limits--an alien race dumps its social misfits on Earth to let US deal with them.
YouTube link
But I don't remember the critters nearly as hideous as this!