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[Review] Alien Wars


ghost-angel

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The Upside:

 

Alien Wars is a Military Sci-Fi campaign setting for Star Hero. It's set in the twenty-fourth century, mankind has populated a small sector of the galaxy, encountered a few alien species that it has under it's economic sway, and is falling into bureaucratic decay. Then the alien attack, Xenovores. The setting covers a full century of warfare as the humans are threatened with extinction. Within this time period any number of military style campaigns can be set, not just a push back the invaders type game.

 

Chapter One - A History Of The Alien Wars. Since the book covers the entire Human-Xenovore war from just before it starts to just after it ends this chapter presents itself mostly as a historical text. This chapter covers all major events that go on in Human Space and Government from just prior to the war to it's conclusion. Human space starts this period governed by a Senate composed of representatives from Senatorial Worlds, who control Colonial Worlds. This mix allows for the futuristic classic sci-fi style planets and cities (massive cities, futuristic gadgets, et cetera) and the frontier like aspects of exploration (low tech, frontier attitudes, a futuristic wild west if you need it). The Colonial Worlds are under the control of the Senatorial Worlds, sometimes this is amicable, sometimes it's total exploitation. The set up allows for a variety of worlds, attitudes, governments (from democracies to megacorporations) to rule various parts of Human Space. Of course all this diversity leads to serious mistakes when the Xenovores attack, causing the already fractious Human Space to split. Causing the second major style of the setting, a civil war setting where some worlds split off to form their own cooperative and the Home Worlds, now under the control of a militaristic dictator. They fight each other (espionage!) and have the looming threat of the advancing Xenovore Empire on their now shrinking borders. The Xenovore incursion deep into Human Space all the way to Earth sets off the third major aspect of the setting, the unification of Humanity under a Navy Admiral and the fight of the species to push back and eventually destroy the Xenovore threat.

 

Within these three major settings any number of campaigns can form, Chapter Eleven has a bunch of solid ideas on this topic. Don't let the historical aspect of this chapter make it so the outcomes are set in stone, after all it's your game and the very broad strokes this "history" is presented with leaves plenty of holes to fill in.

 

Chapter Two - Species Of Terran Space. This short chapter details the races that live in Human Space. Starting with Humans and four sub-species of human (Heavy, Martian, Selkie, and Spacer). Five more aliens species are detailed here as well, each one started out with a lower tech level than Humans (as Humans explored space they encountered them as pre-colonization species). Denebians, Hrac'Darese, Jhinu, Rigellians, and Vayathurans. All are humanoid, and all but the Denebians fall into the "Humans with odd colored skin" variation of aliens. None of these species are detailed in Terran Empire so if you have that sourcebook this includes some more aliens to include in those campaigns.

 

Chapter Three - United Earth And Beyond. Starting with the United Earth Government is the name of the body throughout the century, though how it functions changes over time. This starts with that information and information on how major aspects work (Law Enforcement, Intelligence, Economies). It also details some of the major and important planets and systems in Human Space. Military Locations details the strategic places within Human Space. It also has details on Important Battle Sites, which are all good places to stage part of a campaign and have the PCs directly involved in important strategic battles.

 

Chapter Four - Life In A Time Of War. This covers what it was like to be a citizen of Human Space during this war torn period. Starting with Communication and Travel, which goes into how Humans got around (most don't, the majority of humanity never leaves their home planet, making invasions particularly grim) and got information from one place to another (slowly). Trade And Economy covers the important aspect of how society got stuff around. Economy during war, especially with slow travel taking months to get to some planets, is difficult at best. This goes into what goods were transported where, how much could be made (should you settle on a campaign focusing on trade), and how trade works in the setting. The Criminal Underworld covers some the extensive black market that evolves during war time, namely piracy and smuggling, as well as two major criminal gangs to contend with (or be a part of).

 

This chapter provides some good information on how the civilian side of things was affected by the civil war and invasion both. Even if the PCs are all part of the military this section will help add background to the game, as well as motivation to make things better quickly.

 

Chapter Five - The United Earth Military. This starts with an Overview of the military and it's condition from the start of the century (not very good) to the end of the century. It covers each of the major points in the century where military thought and spending changed due to either the Xenovore threat or the Civil War. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to detailing the two sides of the military in the latter part of the century when Humanity unifies and fights the Xenovore threat en masse. It's easy to adopt backwards from this point to any other period in the setting. The military is split into two halves, the Army and the Navy. Both sections cover Structure, which covers how they divided their forces, what units they utilized and how they all fit together. And A Day In The Life, which has information on training, living conditions and some medals that your PCs might earn. Other Branches covers the Exploration Service, Intelligence Command and Civil Defense Auxiliary (planetary militias).

 

With this information on the how the military is structured you have the ground work for setting up a detailed Military Campaign. While it does present the military in the latter half of the century specifically it does provide information on what was different before Humanity unified.

 

Chapter Six - Pilot, Adept, Solider, Spy. This chapter is Character Creation, providing the Hero System Rules used to create the proper feel of the characters in this setting as presented. Thirty-three Package Deals are provided for both civilian and military occupations. These allow you to set up uniform expectations of just what any given job entails (especially good for the military careers). The Skills, Perks, Talents, Powers, and Disadvantages sections provide information on how each of those is treated in this settings context. Psionics covers, in brief, how they work in the setting (very low powered, and extremely rare to the point you could easily leave them out if you don't want them at all).

 

Chapter Seven - The United Earth Army. This chapter covers the technology used by the military. Starting with how the United Earth classifies technology levels. It also provides an infantryman's gear, the heart and soul of the military in the Xenovore war. Weapons covers which weapons were used both early on and later as technology advanced. Combat Drugs provides enhancements that the soldiers took on the grim battlefields of the future to keep the edge. Miscellaneous Equipment covers combat gear. Computers provides the Tactical Computer AIs that the Humans first rely on heavily, then finally almost completely ignore. Vehicles and Starships go into the militaries transports, tanks, fighters, and spaceships that they make use of throughout the war, including the variations that were developed as the war raged on. The price list as the end provides prices for three different periods of the century, important information in case you want to run a Traders style campaign.

 

Chapter Eight - The Xenovores, The Threat From Beyond. The major enemy of the century. The Xenovores come not to conquer and rule, but to vanquish and obliterate. Humanity is literally fighting off extinction at the hands of a nightmarish alien species. The Intel chapter is divided into three sections. Each section focuses on what humans know at the start of the invasion, what they learn as the Xenovores push towards Earth, and finally the insight gained as they unify and take the fight to Xenovore space. Each section is written as if more or less correct for the intel gathered at that point, making this an easy part of the book to photocopy the proper intel from and hand to the Players for their own Character's knowledge. One thing to keep in mind, the Xenovores cannot be reasoned with, there is no Human conspiracy at any level to work with them, all intel on the Xenovores is provided completely declassified, this campaign does not contain any Human-Xenovore conspiracy fodder. The Human Civil War is where any and all spy or conspiracy campaigns belong.

 

Chapter Nine - The GM's Vault. This contains answers to a very few number of the secrets and rumors from the first part of the book. While it answers some things, it leaves a lot open. This allows the GM to answer many of the questions raised as they see fit in their game, leaving the setting nice and open.

 

Chapter Ten - The Xenovores, The GM's Knowledge. This chapter provides the history of the Xenovores in detail, in case you want to use that information in the campaign. It also provides detailed information on their society, Package Deals for the various castes, and the politics of the Xenovore Empire and how it affected their side of the war with Humanity. All this is provided to the GM has a behind the scenes look at what's going on with the Alien Threat so they can adjust things as they see fit. It still leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

 

Chapter Eleven - Alien Wars Campaigns. Part One is Gamemastering Advice, some generalized advice on how to run a grim Military Style Campaign, when to keep and ditch "realism" and most importantly how to adapt the History of what happened in the setting to keep in uncertain. Campaign Ideas provides eleven complete ideas from various points in the century for full fledged Campaigns, or if you're feeling ambitious ideas for story arcs in a campaign encompassing the entire war. Each Campaign Idea comes with a summary of the campaigns main parameters and three major plot seeds to use.

 

The Downside:

 

There isn't a lot that was left out of the setting that one could ask for. If I were to want anything more it would be more extensive details on exactly how the Military Supply Chain works, both in theory and practice, at various points in the century. But the setting is open enough that too much detail like that would interfere with creating your own Campaign out of the book.

 

Maybe a few NPC write-ups to help get a GM started in creating a campaign as well.

 

The Otherside:

 

The majority of the book is presented completely without Hero System information, making it extremely easy to adapt the premise to any Game System you want to use. As a grim and dark future war setting it does an excellent job.

 

With several distinct styles of campaign presented you can use this for several different kinds of Military Sci-Fi Campaign, from front line warfare, espionage during the Human Civil War, a desperate fight for survival as the Xenovores threaten to take Earth itself, or a Space Navy campaign fighting the Xenovore fleets.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

Good review.

 

While I was properly impressed with the Alien Wars setting, I did have a major complaint. It seemed to me that the book was too broad in scope and dealt too much with the political maneuvering of the Senate Worlds. A nice touch would have been an adventure scenario like the Rescue at Kardonna included in the Alien Wars book. It would have helped tighten the focus from the overview to the application. Heck, if a full-fledged adventure scenario writeup was not doable, a couple of pages of scenario ideas would have been nice.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

Scenario Ideas: p176-180

 

(and reading my mind a bit... when I went to see what I would add to the book or find any real negatives the first thing I thought of was "Hey, this book could use a fully generated adventure in it....")

 

Oddly the Star Hero Settings are the only setting books not to include actual NPCs in them (though at least AW has Xenovore Packages); and it's the only supported Genre without an NPC/Adversary Book. It's about the only thing I could seriously wish for here.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

I really enjoyed this book, the detail they get into for the history of the war is pretty great.

 

One of my biggest complaints was the miniscule GM's Vault section. Didn't add more than a few random facts to the history, which is one thing I love reading in the setting books. Also, I would have liked an expanded technology section (slightly, this isn't a big complaint, but as usual it focuses on military, I'd like to see a broader scope, though I do understand it's a military focused book), especially with the Xenovores. They've got some interesting stuff, but I'd like to see even more specifics, especially in vehicles/weapons. From this, it sounds like they have 1 fighter (or 2?), a capital ship, and a "tank".

 

Also, I am not a fan of the Xenovore's origin, but I believe that was discussed in detail in another thread.

 

Otherwise, really awesome stuff. And I'm loving the idea of having a campaign start out at the break-out with fresh recruit PC's, and following them in their military careers the full length of the war to its conclusion. Terrifying to plan, but damn cool if it worked.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

I think my biggest "complaint" is that there's no cool "tech" toy as a hook for the setting. For example -- Aliens has M-41A pulse rifles and smart guns, Starship Troopers has Mobile Infantry, and Hammer's Slammers has power guns and hover tanks. Alien Wars doesn't have anything like that for the humans (to offset the rather cool Xenovores).

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

I got the distinct feeling that this was supposed to simulate WWI In Space.

 

Humans are on a new battlefield that don't understand; facing an enemy that doesn't play by the old rules; and that they can't even get to.

 

The first thing the illustration on p102 made me think of were Doughboys.

 

Instead of trench warfare become the new battlefield it's planet-to-planet/system-to-system warfare. Moving from "choosing the field" to "Taking all civilian populations" the Xenovores confuse humans by taking each system in turn and not "going for the strategic strike of Earth" - even in the Human Civil War the bombing of Earth hit military and political targets "fighting by the rules of war" that the Xenovores completely ignore by Human standards.

 

it's a very low tech setting, just set in space.

 

The Cool New Stuff comes in the form of faster space ships and gravity plates - i.e. Airplanes.

It does add Laser Weapons at the end of the war, which if taken in context is the cool new personal toy of the war.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

I got the distinct feeling that this was supposed to simulate WWI In Space.

 

Humans are on a new battlefield that don't understand; facing an enemy that doesn't play by the old rules; and that they can't even get to.

 

The first thing the illustration on p102 made me think of were Doughboys.

 

Instead of trench warfare become the new battlefield it's planet-to-planet/system-to-system warfare. Moving from "choosing the field" to "Taking all civilian populations" the Xenovores confuse humans by taking each system in turn and not "going for the strategic strike of Earth" - even in the Human Civil War the bombing of Earth hit military and political targets "fighting by the rules of war" that the Xenovores completely ignore by Human standards.

 

it's a very low tech setting, just set in space.

 

The Cool New Stuff comes in the form of faster space ships and gravity plates - i.e. Airplanes.

It does add Laser Weapons at the end of the war, which if taken in context is the cool new personal toy of the war.

 

Which doesn't do it for me. I mean, much of it seems to be no better than we have now, so it doesn't seem very "far future" to me -- even if there are anti-grav vehicles and basic laser weapons. Much like Darren and his "I want to play Herculoids..." line, I want something that says "far future military SF," not WWI/Vietnam/Iraq in space.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

Which doesn't do it for me. I mean' date=' much of it seems to be no better than we have now, so it doesn't seem very "far future" to me -- even if there are anti-grav vehicles and basic laser weapons. Much like Darren and his "I want to play Herculoids..." line, I want something that says "far future military SF," not WWI/Vietnam/Iraq in space.[/quote']

 

I can see that. Even upgrading all the stuff in AW as suggested under the GMs area... you still gotta come up with the "nifty gadget" on your own...

 

Still. I like it personally.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

I can see that. Even upgrading all the stuff in AW as suggested under the GMs area... you still gotta come up with the "nifty gadget" on your own...

 

Still. I like it personally.

 

No problems there. And the Xenovores are well designed and written.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

The WWI feel (absolutely love the military doughboy uniforms) and the low tech SF setting are the selling points for me, personally. The tech is all far advanced from us, but still incredibly familiar. Kind of like the Civil War of Firefly. Sure, they had fancy guns and flying grenades, but essentially warfare hadn't changed so it was unrecognizable. Same here. You've still got the grunts toughing it out in the crap just trying to survive.

 

And I think the gun (I forget what it is at the moment) that the soldier is holding in the "doughboy" picture is awesome just because they made a futuristic Thompson. Coolness.

 

But to address the need for a more futuristic military sf setting, wouldn't Terran Empire address that for you? I know the setting itself at the time they recommend isn't actually at war, but they present many periods where it is happening, and easy reasons for it to happen. Complete with powered Heinlein armor!

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

The WWI feel (absolutely love the military doughboy uniforms) and the low tech SF setting are the selling points for me, personally. The tech is all far advanced from us, but still incredibly familiar. Kind of like the Civil War of Firefly. Sure, they had fancy guns and flying grenades, but essentially warfare hadn't changed so it was unrecognizable. Same here. You've still got the grunts toughing it out in the crap just trying to survive.

 

And I think the gun (I forget what it is at the moment) that the soldier is holding in the "doughboy" picture is awesome just because they made a futuristic Thompson. Coolness.

 

But to address the need for a more futuristic military sf setting, wouldn't Terran Empire address that for you? I know the setting itself at the time they recommend isn't actually at war, but they present many periods where it is happening, and easy reasons for it to happen. Complete with powered Heinlein armor!

 

Dunno. Part of the issue there's no real "gee whiz, that's awesome" techy toy in the setting. Heck, Traveller's the same way. Most of the weapons are really "enh" unless you can play with a gauss rifle or a PGMP/FGMP.

 

Of course, the big question becomes "what cool techy toy would fit and not destroy game balance?"

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

Dunno. Part of the issue there's no real "gee whiz' date=' that's awesome" techy toy in the setting. Heck, [i']Traveller[/i]'s the same way. Most of the weapons are really "enh" unless you can play with a gauss rifle or a PGMP/FGMP.

 

Of course, the big question becomes "what cool techy toy would fit and not destroy game balance?"

 

I see what you mean, most of the vehicles/weapons/equipment they list is rather par for the course. Some kind of large gauss rifle would be rather cool though.

 

I'm somewhat the same way, the stats in the book that are given are the weakest point. Very little equipment/vehicles for the Xenovores, and almost as little for the humans. Just not a whole lot of variety.

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Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

Hey, when you're right as often as I am, it's hard to keep your ego in check. :P But I do what I can with my limited humility resource, however, as I've run dry for the day, you're just going to have to suffer. Where was I?

 

Oh yes. I think I always envisioned HERO: Combat Evolved as my entry into "beyond WW2" combat gaming. While we do suffer (for no apparent reason) with humans still struggling with projectile based weaponry, the design premise was always to keep things 'analagous.' To blend and balance the different weapon styles so that the player could choose how to best proceed, rather than the setting dictating it for them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re: [Review] Alien Wars

 

Good review.

 

While I was properly impressed with the Alien Wars setting, I did have a major complaint. It seemed to me that the book was too broad in scope and dealt too much with the political maneuvering of the Senate Worlds. A nice touch would have been an adventure scenario like the Rescue at Kardonna included in the Alien Wars book. It would have helped tighten the focus from the overview to the application. Heck, if a full-fledged adventure scenario writeup was not doable, a couple of pages of scenario ideas would have been nice.

This was pretty much my feelings too. I would have rather it have a general overview of the whole war, and then focus in on a specific time period in much the same way Terran Empire did. The first part of TE was a general overview of the time line and the rest concentrated on Marissa III's reign.

 

As far as the Tech, meh Aliens (the movie) was pretty low tech in look and feel. I like that part of space marines. I would've been cool to have a hand held gattling gun, but I'm okay without it.

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