Edge of the Abyss

Heart of Darkness brings to close the trilogy of scenarios for Alien: The Roleplaying Game begun with Chariot of the Gods—also available in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, and continued with Destroyer of Worlds. Like the other two, Heart of Darkness shares the same mode of play, but differs in terms of its campaign model. Thus, it is written for the roleplaying game’s Cinematic mode, and so is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, emphasising high stakes situations, faster, more brutal play, and deadly encounters. However, where the campaign model for Chariot of the Gods is that of Space Truckers—star ship crews hauling goods and resources, as in Alien, and the campaign model for Destroyer of Worlds is that of Colonial Marines, essentially military missions like Aliens, the campaign model for Heart of Darkness is that of Scientists. This though, has no direct parallel with just the one film in the Alien franchise, but parallels in tone and setting can be made with both Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Further, as with the other scenarios, Heart of Darkness can be run as a standalone adventure, as what connects the three is their overall backstory, that of the evolution and development of the Xenomorph and in particular, the 26 Draconis Strain, and the consequences of mankind’s encounters with it and its corporations’ willingness to investigate it and desire to weaponise it in pursuit of profit. Those threads come to a head in Heart of Darkness.

Heart of Darkness—published by Free League Publishing—begins with the arrival an international scientific team at Erebos, a plasma trawling rig and platform stationed in in the Draconis 26 system in orbit above Ablassen Black Hole. Here the few science staff of the appropriately named station has discovered what could be a Xeno-extremophile, a new form of proto-plasmic organism found living in the accretion disc of the singularity. As the members of the scientific team, the Player Characters are to analyse and catalogue the new life form and return it for study, with promises of great rewards and recognition and payment upon completion of the assignment—a book deal, a corporate department head position, promise of tenure, and more. Erebos is no science station though, but a penal workstation whose prisoners have had their sentences purchased by Weyland-Yutani and been made to work operating the energy collection systems which siphon off the power of the black’s whirling, gyrating discordance of plasma and store it in giant batteries for shipment elsewhere. The conditions are hellish, not least because working so close to a black hole not only triggers, but accelerates Neurological Distortion Disorder—or NDD—the condition caused by exposure to Faster Than Light travel when not in cryosleep. This can cause paranoia and loss of memory, and underlies some of the challenges that the Player Characters will discover aboard the Erebos and the challenges that they will have to overcome in dealing with the situation aboard the station. If exposure to and analysis of the Draconis 26 Strain and its effects aboard the station underlie the physical horror of Heart of Darkness, then the effects of NDD exacerbate both its mental horror and the likely tensions between the Player Characters, who of course, have their own Agendas and the Player Characters and the NPCs who have no reason to trust each other.

However, when the Player Characters do arrive at Erebos, aboard the USCSS Cetorhina, a commercial plasma harvester/tanker, it is clear that there is something wrong. The station has been hit by meteors and is severely damaged, as evidenced by much it being dark. Worse is to come as when the ship attempts to dock, sudden gravitational shear from the black hole forces it to crash into the station. It is going to need repairs if it is going to leave the system, but before that, the Player Characters must find out what is going on aboard the heavily damaged station. Erebos is in complete disarray. There are sections which are open to space, others infested with some kind of biomechanical encrustation, and the survivors have divided into factions led by the station commander and one of the prisoners. Plus strange creatures lurk and stalk the corridors and rooms of the station, especially those encrusted by the biomechanical infestation. Not least of which is Adrien, the station’s emotional support tuxedo cat, who can even become a replacement Player Character should one of them die during the events of the scenario.

The emphasis in Heart of Darkness is on interaction and exploration. The Player Characters will need to explore much of Erebos in order to discover what has happened to it as well as find what the Xeno-extremophile file and whether it represents a threat or not. They will need to interest with the factions aboard the station too, both of which have their agendas and will want to recruit the Player Characters to their cause—or at least persuade them not to ally with the other faction. In addition there is another faction aboard the Erebos, which has its own very radical agenda and which very much wants the help of the Player Characters. There are greater consequences for helping—and indeed, not helping—this faction, than for getting involved in the other two factions and what they want. Indeed, their agendas are almost parochial by nature.

Then there is the interaction between the Player Characters. The seven include a Synthetic Psychologist who understands but cannot feel emotions, a radiobiologist with a calming manner, a very methodical biochemist, a close protection operative, a space sciences specialist on long term cultural exchange from the Union of Progressive Peoples, a biotechnologist with a prison tattoo, and the captain of the USCSS Cetorhina looking for a missing relative. Each has their own character sheet and a set of agenda cards which come into play as they arrive at the station and progress through the three acts of the scenario. As they are revealed to their respective characters and their players, they will begin to pull both apart as they attempt to fulfill competing objectives.

There is an undoubted fantastical scale to Heart of Darkness, its action and rivalries literally taking place under a baleful eye of destruction, but this is not an easy scenario to run. There is a lot going on, both in terms of the Player Characters’ agendas and the agendas of the other factions. The Player Characters have a lot of information to discover—and whilst it really is great that as scientists, the Player Characters will be making discoveries—a lot of that information could have been better presented, not just for the players, but also for the Game Mother to help her impart that information. A lot of the information—for example, the situation aboard the Erebos and its staff and penal-workers, some of the initially secret records which can be discovered later—could all have been presented as easy handouts to help the players and their characters more clearly understand the situation and react to it. Ideally, the Game Mother is going to have prepare these and similar handouts for her players, but they are not going to be as good as those included in the boxed set. Similarly, handouts with images of the NPCs, the aliens that the Player Characters will encounter, and even what they see when aboard the Erebos and elsewhere, all would have been useful. In fact, much of this is not illustrated in the book and exacerbates the difficulty of the Game Mother’s task in relaying what their characters can see to their players.

One aside to note is the inclusion of Adrien of the station’s cat. It adds a lightness of touch, even a comedic one, but his presence has the potential to become a distraction. Ultimately, the play of Heart of Darkness could become more about the damned cat and his survival rather than the resolution of the scenario.

Physically, Heart of Darkness comes in a well presented box. Inside is the scenario book, a large, thirty-four by twenty-two inches double-sided poster map of the Erebos plasma trawling space station, seven pre-generated Player Characters and their sheets, thirty-eight cards, deckplans of the USCSS Cetorhin and more, and four handouts. The thirty-eight cards consist of thirteen Story Cards, twenty-one Personal Agenda Cards, and four Equipment Cards. The Story cards are similar to the Personal Agenda cards, but reveal secret aspects of their particular Player Characters which again will affect their motivations and also drive the scenario’s plot further forward. The scenario book itself is organised into a set-up and explanation of the background, a description of 26 Draconis system, the various NPCs, and the Erebos station, the three acts of the scenario, and descriptions of the aliens infesting the station and pursuing their own objectives. Notably absent is the Xenomorph of Alien fame, instead the Player Characters in Heart of Darkness will be confronted with the squid-baby, the giant trilobite, and the deacon from Prometheus and an interesting evolution of the abominations from Chariot of the Gods, the first scenario in the trilogy. Of course, they are all dangerous, but with a great deal of care many of them can be skirted around. The second and third appendices of the book detail the new weapons, items of equipment, and spaceships which appear in the scenario.

Heart of Darkness is another great scenario for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Like the other scenarios in the trilogy—especially Destroyer of Worlds—it has a lot of moving parts, but fortunately it does not overwhelm the Game Mother with too many Xenomorphs. If the tone and scale of Destroyer of Worlds was an action horror film, Heart of Darkness is existential in nature, a story of scientific hubris and horror, played out against a fantastic background that literally looms over the Player Characters and threatens to send them mad. Although it requires more preparation than it really should, Heart of Darkness brings Free League Publishing’s trilogy of scenarios for Alien: The Roleplaying Game to a fantastically frightening conclusion.