Hostile: Alien - Character Creation Part 7

 

Ash (Ian Holm, RIP)

Introduction

We're making the crew of the Nostromo in Hostile, the RPG from Zozer Games in order to play through the plot of Alien and see who survives. Wow, this is taking me a long time but we're almost done with character creation. That's what happens when you only have an hour of free time per day, I guess.

Ash, Science Officer

Characteristics

Strength: 14 (+2)

Dexterity: 9 (+1)

Endurance: 13 (+2)

Intelligence: 11 (+1)

Education: 9 (+1)

Social: 7

Ash, the secret android sleeper agent onboard the Nostromo is incredibly strong and tough as demonstrated in his fight with Ripley and Parker, gripping Parker and disabling him, pulling him to the floor. He doesn't stop attacking even after being partially decapitated and has to be hit with a cattle prod and short circuited.

He has a better than average Dexterity as we see when he uses a laser cutter on the facehugger, carefully cutting its limb without harming Kane. He's more than capable mentally, performing various experiments on the dead facehugger and learning about its biology. However socially he keeps himself to himself, presumably to avoid attracting attention that may lead to his android nature being discovered,. Androids in Hostile always have a Social score of 7, which suits him.

Career

We don't know anything about Ash's experience prior to replacing the Nostromo's usual science officer at the last minute. He might have only just been manufactured or he might have been serving aboard a different Weyland Yutani ship and been reprogrammed.

We'll imagine his career using the rules for androids:

He's served 1D+3 terms of service: 6.

He's quite old then! Maybe that's why he malfunctions and freaks out.

We'll say he's had the scientist career the whole time.

Rank and Position

Ash's position is science officer. We know Ripley outranks him while the captain and first officer are away from the ship, so we'll assign him the rank of third officer, though these ranks only apply to the commercial spacer career in Hostile.

Age

Unknown.

Skills

His scientist career grants him level 1 of Investigation for free, and then we need to roll a D6 for each term he's served and he'll get another skill level for every 5 or 6 we roll... That's three skill levels. I guess androids in Hostile are programmed for a specific purpose and not much else. However since we know how difficult he is to beat in a fight I'm giving him a zero level of Brawler.

Investigation-2

Computer-1

Medical-1

Brawler-0

Psych Profile

• Guarded
• Deceitful
• Quiet
• Violent under pressure
• Rule breaker

We're almost done with character creation but there is of course one last crew member to create: Jones, the ship's cat. He plays a pivotal role in several scenes so he needs to be included.

Jones (As portrayed by a different cat actor in Aliens. RIP presumably)

Jones/Jonesy, Ship's Cat

To make a cat we'll turn to the Cepheus Engine SRD. Since cats aren't listed in there we'll use the wilderness animal encounter rules to make one.

Characteristics

Strength: 5 (-1)

Dexterity: 13 (+2)

Endurance: 2 (-2)

Intelligence: 1 (-2)

Education: 1 (-2)

Social: 12 (+2)

Let's say Jones weighs 3KG, a little under the weight of an average cat. That gives him 1D6 Strength, 2D6 Dexterity, and 2 Endurance. Animals can have an Intelligence of either 0 or 1. Obviously he received no formal education, but his Social should be high since everyone onboard seems to like him.

Still following the Cepheus rules, Jones's animal subtype will be pouncer, an animal that kills by stalking and ambushing its prey. This gives him Dexterity +4.

Career

We don't know his history before joining the Nostromo.

Rank and Position

Obviously Jones considers himself to outrank Captain Dallas, but in reality he occupies the position of ship's cat.

Age

Jones looks like he's in the prime of his life so he may be around 5 or 6 years old. 

Skills

Animals have at least a zero level in Athletics, Survival and Recon, plus 1D6 levels split between those skills and Natural Weapons.

Athletics-1

Survival-1

Recon-0

Natural Weapons-0

Psych Profile

• Affectionate
• Resourceful
• Sleepy
• Brave

So that's it! Character creation is finally done. Next time I'm going to try and cobble together deck plans for the Nostromo by looking up maps and schematics on fan sites. That way we can keep track of exactly where the characters are, who is alone and vulnerable etc. After that we'll be ready to start the actual scenario.