Monsters vs Aliens?

[Marcus Bone]

Hi All,

This post isn't about the movie of the same name, rather what focus do you prefer in your DC (or any conspiracy horror) game?

I personally favour the alien side in DC, but think this is probably done better in Conspiracy X (the back story and setting rather than rules mechanics). That being said, upon reflection, most of my DC games have actually be more 'monster of the week' style things, especially back in my first campaign...

So where do you sit?

Marcus

[Morthrai]

Now there's one of the eternal questions Marcus!

I think one of the reasons why I always liked DC was having that choice, as I have no real objections to using monsters or ETs. In fact, if you think about it ETs are at least from our universe! Mainly for me, either playing or refereeing, it has been more about monsters. I did an "ET/earth mysteries" mini-campaign once that was well received by the players which had no actual darklings in it but that was a one-off.

However, I do like to use the idea that the dark forces, whether ETs or darklings, are trying to change our world to suit themselves better. For darklings it's demongrounds that start the process, whereas ETs might need higher radiation levels or a thicker atmosphere. Most gamers though will think in SF terms in my experience.

Sorry, tangent! In short: mostly monsters.

[Linden]

In my last campaign I used the insect and grey ETs as the primary antagonists but had a fair few monster of the week one offs where the PCs found themselves mixing it with the likes of Super Rats, Dark Elves, Skinless Ones, Sidhe and Bloodkin. The aliens were good to hang a big story arc off, while the monsters were great for self contained adventures. So...I like them equally, but for different reasons.

[ReHerakhte]

I'm pretty much the same as Linden, I like both but I've also run about an equal number of sessions where the only bad guys were all human - typically they were thugs, criminals or corporate bullies and only sometimes Igors.

[Pennanngalan]

I'll agree, I like having the option of one or the other. Of course, if I get the chance to play again, the aliens and darklings would be intertwined (sensibly, there won't be a Bhuta working for the greys, for example). Different alien races would naturally gravitate toward darklings of appropriate temperment (greys and MIBs would work, and I could see tentacular Ets and Ravagers getting along well, and the insectoid aliens and morlocks would actually compete for resources/terrotory, in my head at least).

That got a little rambly... guess that I'm saying that I like the idea of mixing-and-matching at will. Keeps the players guessing.

[Linden]

Different alien races would naturally gravitate toward darklings of appropriate temperment (greys and MIBs would work, and I could see tentacular Ets and Ravagers getting along well, and the insectoid aliens and morlocks would actually compete for resources/terrotory, in my head at least).

Ploughing through the monsters in Dark Races there's a few that are associated with the Greys - Super Rats, Ravagers and the Mesmer (the latter being a sort of specialised "super grey" - never used that one as couldn't really see the point of it). In my campaign I decided the MIB's were biologically engineered constructs used by the greys to do their clean up jobs etc.

[Pennanngalan]

Cool! I never got to use anything from Dark Races so the associations didn't stick well

[Morthrai]

I tried once, years ago, to compile a list of which ETs and Dark Races might be working together. I couldn't get the idea to work beyond the associations that you guys have already mentioned however. It may have been useful to a few people but it's not really necessary

[Linden]

My last campaign, I took a certain amount of inspiration from the old UFO/XCOM PC game where you had a kind of hierarchy in place. At the top of the tree was the Great Dark One from Hellsgate followed by the insectoids who in turn had enslaved the greys whom they controlled with brain bugs. Below that you had all sorts of specialised servitors like The MIBs, Rovers and Ravagers.

Treated the tentacular aliens as a separate faction, a warlike race, naturally inimical to other aliens and humans. They tended to specialise in mechanical devices rather than biotech hence their use of terminator style changelings and mechaniacals (the latter of course went a bit wrong for them).

Didn't bother with the energy ETs.

Naturally I'm not saying you have to do it like I did, just giving an example of what worked for me.

[Phulish]

I tried to plan out the organization and composition of the minions troubling my campaign area. One side has more ET's than it's competition.

[Linden]

As we've noted before one of the beauties DC is that it's flexible enough for you to do whatever best suits you.

[ReHerakhte]

As we've noted before one of the beauties DC is that it's flexible enough for you to do whatever best suits you.

Exactly so.
For me, I've also found it means I could use everything that people have mentioned here without worrying about "breaking" the rules, game setting or feel of the game world.

For a game that's been derided by some as not being as good as other horror/conspiracy games, it's that flexibility that keeps me returning to it time and time again.

[Zvezda]

Monsters, always monsters. Mythical and totally different from those described in the rules. Old School vampires, werewolves and stuff like that. All with their own agenda and culture. I don’t like to put limits on my monsters. I try to play them as ruthless and evil as the average politician but I don’t normally succeed. If it helps their agenda, they will form an alliance with everybody. Always trying to get the most out of it. There are no dwarf and elf animosities between them. If they are able to negotiate, werewolves and vampires for example could very well work together. Though I think even monsters feel most comfortable within their own culture. I like rats of any size and intellect. I have used them for quite some time now. I also occasionally use Zombies which I like a lot too. Generally as a result of the use of bio-weapons. Yeah and old Nazis of cause. What would be a conspiracy game without old Nazis? I have never used any ETs because I don’t really like them in a horror game. We also spend endless hours fighting human opponents in DC or just trying to get on with your daily life in a dark world. But, as stated before, this is probably the thing I like best about the game. The GM and the players decide what kind of game they like to run.