Hey friends!
I'm prepping an Aliens game to pitch to my table (either using the dedicated RPG or more likely Mothership) and I need a hand with some stuff.
Long story short, my group loves old school British shit ranging from Waterloo to Malaya, and I want to give them a chance to live out that chicanery.
As such, I want to run a game following Three World Empire Royal Marines Commando (basically the Anglo-Japanese equivalent to the Colonial Marines) as they slog throughout the galaxy suffering from rigid hierarchies, dirty commies, and those bloody yanks.
I want to keep the eponymous star of the show a secret (after the second mission I will begin rolling to determine whether this mission is THE ALIEN), but otherwise would like a series of missions that are fun pastiches of British Militaria like Aliens is of Vietnam.
To that end I'd love help sourcing:
>Any info on the Three World Empire is welcome!
>Any adventure modules concerning British military misadventures, especially Victorian, WWII, or Cold War would be amazing - I don't care what system or setting I will do the retrofitting myself
>Any 40k shit that might work (given the Bri'ish-ness of James Workshop)
>Any original ideas!

>>96056995 (OP)
Finally, just to get things going, I'm thinking of the first mission being the team running security for a combination of an extremely fancy (full / mess dress) gala for the officers ans magistrates on a far off colony and huge enlisted blow out for the 'help' and lower class, with our brave Commandos being part of a skeleton crew stuck pulling security.
Inevitably, terrorists have taken this chance to sabotage the colony and cause a dire hostage situation by loosing the Magistrate-General's menagerie of alien bullshit on the enlisted men's ball and taking the fancy folks hostage - especially the queen bitch Weyland Yutani VP in attendance.
It falls to our brave Commandos needing to save the day, since the terries didn't know about their patrol.
So it begins as Pride and Prejudice and boredom but ends up like Die Hard or the Iran Embassy Siege.
Thoughts? I love running this stuff by others but don't want my players knowing beforehand.

>>96056995 (OP)

Don't have anything specific to suggest but you might want to look at Hostile from Zozer Games. It's a derivative of Traveller in a very Alien inspired setting. And the creator is English, for what that's worth.

>>96057202
Ooh! I'm a gigantic traveller fag so that's really helpful. Thanks for the tip.

CMSS13 has three worlds stuff. You can play as a response team from there:
https://cm-ss13.com/wiki/Three_World_Empire
Also, the PVE sub-server lets you do full games as them but only when they feel like it.
https://cm-ss13.com/wiki/Royal_Marines_Commando

Also, this:
https://cm-ss13.com/wiki/Professor_Von_Bandolier

>>96058699
Anon this is incredible!
Also cackling that one of the weapons for the RMC is literally just an Aug. Weyland-Yutani must have nuked Steyr from orbit or in the courts!

>>96056995 (OP)
I honestly don't know why anyone would think xenomorphs are a threat when PCs have projectile weaponry.

Aliens had xenomorphs getting their shit pushed in by regular grunts and even then the only reason the grunts didn't merc them all straight away was because the aliens were essentially encountered in a nuclear plant so firearms were forbidden and ammo collected to ensure stray shots didn't cause a meltdown. The Marines that did fight back snuck some ammo and with their limited supplies still beat the shit out of the morphs until they ran out.

>>96059410
They're situationally *super* dangerous, but yes they're entirely non issues if they're fighting the sort of fight humans do. That's where the series keeps fucking up.
They're great monsters, but you need to use them wisely otherwise you waste them and make them feel like chumps to the players.
It's all about context. Any tabletop enemy can be a joke in the wrong circumstances.

>>96058970
the game is free but also being DDOS'd right now. If you can make an account during the few hours where the byond site is not being fucked then I would recommend trying Space Station 13. The CM servers are very different from the standard experience but also really cool if you're in the mood.

>>96059824
Surprisingly, the original zombies in Night of the Living Dead were pretty easily put down with the survivors in the house only having trouble because it was dark and they lacked weaponry.
Even Dawn of the Dead had densely packed cities with less firearm access struggling while rural folks were just blasting zombies no problem. These concepts were abandoned in the later films, however, they were prime examples of situationally threatening monsters as you mentioned.

Xenomorphs on a ship where their acid blood can put a hole in a ship? That's a big threat. Put in a typical environment with a populous armed with standard firearms? They aren't a threat without having them be a fuck huge swarm or having stemmed from aliens that were basically bulletproof already.

>>96062550
Thing is, the xenomprohs are explicitly smart, smarter than most people assume that they are. If you have a xenomorph in a situation where they are outnumbered and outgunned they will act like a slasher villain and pick people of in the dark when they have the advantage to eggmorph them until they can get a queen and a hive going. The xenos only start using swarm tactics when they have a hive, a queen and a constant supply of xenos that they can throw at the problem.

>>96062560
Xenomorphs have typical predator species level of intelligence. So smarter than herd animals but dumber than primates, corvids, etc.

So, happened to be rereading Pic Related and just had an idea for a mission, wanted to get your guys' thoughts on the premise:
>Our daring Commandos are midway through shore leave on a luxury space station that serves as a port of call, heavily segregated between glitz and glamor and the sort of grungy underbelly we expect from Alien
>Really emphasize that it's their first real time off in ages
>They each have shenanigans but ultimately wind up at a fancy bar since their CO gave them a liberty stipend
>End up running afoul of some off duty USCMC
>Barfight ensues (a la this scene: https://youtu.be/9xRcAi9ovps?si=bLHTJ43f3wE4W3nY)
>Fight is broken up by the 3WE Navy, who dutifully inform our heroes that their leave has been cancelled and they're due back on ship - priority one
>Schlep back to their ship, change out of their uniforms and into utlilities
>Finally get to the briefing
>Learn that they're being assigned to provide security for a rich Corpo exec and her newlywed husband as they take a booze cruise through the stars - hubby is a 3WE Admiral's son - daddy called in a favor it seems.
>So they begin just being bogged down and overwhelmed by how obnoxious their VIPs are and keeping them from killing themselves, but then one by one guests start dying
>The commandos then have to keep order, keep their people alive, and desperately try to figure out who or what is killing the guests
I'm thinking I'd have multiple 'right' answers to the mystery based on the party's choices, which is a trick I've had a lot of success with in the past.

Sharing along some old-school Royal Marine uniforms that struck me as super fitting for the Aliens-verse. Like just combine it with a jumpsuit and we're golden.

>>96066216
Im pretty sure xenomorphs hivemind when a queen is created and they have shown intelligence higher than a simple animal throughout the series. They knew to cut the power in Aliens.

>>96070763
Yeah, they hivemind once they get a queen. Before then they operate individualistically but tries to get a queen going by eggmorphing people (like in the deleted scene from Alien 1). Both the RPG rulebook and Ridley Scott himself claims that the xenomorph is intelligent, especially when operating without a queen, but even before then it's capable of intelligence and reasoning higher than your average earth predator. Them cutting the power in Aliens (or Aliens in general) is a great example and the marines in that movie constantly underestimate the xenomorphs.

>>96071133
Correct. The Xenos' lethality is a combination of human arrogance, institutional incompetence, and the fact that the xenos themselves are competent enough to play to their strengths as well as seize / create opportunities.
A swarm of alien attacking in waves over an open field with kill zones is easy to body but frankly so is anything else.

>>96066768
I think it seems fun, just remember 3WE should have some form of Japanese influence as well.

I personally think Synths are the scariest thing in the aliens franchise, since they tend to treat humans as alien incubators for their corporate overlords. There was another alien thread a few months back, where some anon made the synth the villain/slasher, with them killing everyone on the ship.

>>96072664
Thank you! That's a great call, I was thinking a bit in that direction too with the synths.
>Remember to incorporate the Japanese
Yes! I literally have a post it note reminding me of this at my hobby desk.
I'm trying to lean into simultaneously the cool stuff and the heinous stuff from both cultures:
>Devastatingly strict Anglo class divide, but simultaneously super punishing 'salaryman' culture for those not in the gentry
>Excellent military pedigree but an expectation to die for the Empire at a moment's notice and put up with constant bureaucratic incompetence and sub-par equipment
>"Don't be the tallest poppy" culture, with harmony valued over effectiveness or ingenuity
>Intense rivalry between different authorities - Home Office (sol) vs Core Worlds vs Expeditionary Command /Navy vs basically everyone else
>Prone to underestimating other human societies
>Highest suicide rate among human cultures - everything is hyper-competitive but nepotism is rampant
>Don't much believe real inherent value to human life - you are what you do and how you can be useful.
I want to make use of this culture at the table as well, with 3WE personnel tending to have more patriotism than self-preservation, but with more seasoned and cynical people having a better grasp of the fact that there's more to life than serving and dying for the Empire.

Can I help with lore/weapons?

>>96079234
Please! That would be awesome.
I'm extremely autistic about fleshing out scenarios and settings even if the players don't encounter half of it so the more the merrier.

>>96062550
>>96059410

Just make them invulnerable to civilian-grade weaponry. Have you forgotten the sort of firepower that something like the M-41 has? They use explosive-tipped rounds. You could easily make an alien variant, like the Praetorian, that is resistent to even those and requires armour-piercing ammunition.

>>96056995 (OP)
Don't know if it's been mentioned, but I'm pretty sure the Three World Empire is also made up of parts of the Commonwealth and India So you could also have characters come from there. Wayland-Yutani it's also stated to have a least a seat on the parliament so I imagine that goes to show how much influence they have in the nation.

>>96079701
Wholly agree.
Hate to say it, but when I look at an enemy that isn't threatening, I generally see a lot of missed opportunities on the part of the DM. It isn't rocket surgery.

>>96079795
This is 100% true. India is a confirmed member as is Australia, given the latter was the site of a huge insurgency that only got put down thanks to a nuke donated by the United Americas. Classic AUS.

>>96083699
Man. If we're drawing parallels from the Vietnam era USMC, it'd be fucking incredible to see the contrast between US marine types and Australian Infantry. Given that both groups fought wildly differently in Vietnam, the contrast would be amazing in the sci-fi aliens setting.

>>96084204
The 3WE Royal Marine Commandos are more Navy SEAL's than US Marines. I actually crafted USCN SSEAL'S SpaceSEAandLand operatives who are ODST's mixed with COD:AW exo suits who use gauss, plasma, and laser weapons and can solo hives and give Predators murder boners.

I've been running a colonial marines game using the Alien RPG and it generally works fine.
The vehicle rules are a bit shit. Hopefully the 'evolved edition' (i.e. second edition) will fix some of the issues.
Stress dice are literally the only novelty dice mechanic I've encountered in decades of roleplaying which makes the game better.
The rules on how much equipment you should allow are completely fucking retarded. Like, you can have one of a knife, entrenching tool, signal flares, PDT, sunglasses, or wristwatch, when every single marine should have all of those things. Every rifleman has a motion tracker and only riflemen can have them, even though in Aliens it's the combat technicians (Hicks and Hudson) who have them (at least during deployment). In fact, I don't think any of the characters in Aliens save for Apone, Drake, and Vasquez can reproduce their loadout using the rules as written. Playing Royal Marines bypasses this a bit, since you aren't tied to either the book or the film.

In terms of classic British military stories...
The Falklands campaign in general and Goose Green specifically
The Boer War and Zulu War
WW1, especially Passendale and Gallipoli
Napoleonic Wars (via Sharpe)
Boxer Rebellion
Capture of Gibraltar in 1704

>>96087692
>>96084204
I think I'll incorporate what I can from the Ozzie SASR in Vietnam. Hoping that strikes the right chord.
>>96090367
This is very helpful, both for the recommendations and the insight. Even if I perhaps go with Mothership or Delta Green I'll see if I can't salvage stress dice.
I'll make sure to rewatch Sharpe and see if anything from the Falklands strike me, I think that could be a fun bit of space politics.
For frame of reference I've definitely been looking to the Raj and Boer Wars to see if anything jumps out.

>>96059824
Wouldn’t this always be spinning in circles with those wings?

>>96091918
>Even if I perhaps go with Mothership or Delta Green I'll see if I can't salvage stress dice.
Worth noting that evolved edition makes stress dice even better by having them actually make your character slightly more capable the more stressed you are, but also adding a lot of risk. Original stress dice were cool, but often fairly boring because the main result of panic was just failing your action, and that was so likely to happen that everyone wanted to be on minimum stress at all times for optimal performance. Now stress is actually tempting and players will actively do things to stress their characters out.

>>96098444
Oooooooh that sounds like certified cash. I love it when a metacurrency actually improves gameplay.