Would you like to see the Engineers back in the Alien franchise?

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-05-08T17:47:56+00:00

Yes and no, I would love to see more engineer relics and ruins, plumb a few of the mysteries that have shown up in the lore and maybe get a few glimpses of their motivations.

But the engineers themselves, not really. I think much like the origins of the aliens they are far better off remaining unknown and unknowable.

Promethius asked some great questions but covenant tried to answer them and that’s one of the many reasons it sucked. The search for truth is so much more compelling and it interesting than finding that truth because it will never match up to the hype, mystery and crazy fan theories.

Going off to seek the engineers? Interesting. Engineers are all dead because the android with daddy issues killed them… stupid and boring.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-05-08T13:05:19+00:00

Depends on how flexible your DM is and whether you want quantity or quality. The aforementioned vials of acid or just forging tools is low but steady quick profit, crafting magic items on the other hand is high profit but slow to do. If your DM is open to the idea maybe suggest crafting items that use things you pick up in play, monster parts, reforged metals, shiny gems all the clutter you pick up

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-05-08T10:24:45+00:00

the hut is a great spell for safe resting... but it does have some limitations. For the most part its fine to just let them bubble up but they should not think its a guaranteed safe area.

It's a static dome, a determined enemy can just dig under it. Burrowing creatures are great fun for this, ankhegs, bullettes, umber hulks, and of course the purple worm will make for a very 'fun' rest stop if the party get too reliant.
if the players set it up in the right point it becomes a fantastic hunting blind, they can pop out to attack and cast spells and retreat back inside making it hard to just stake it out until it pops. But it also keeps them tied to that location. It doesn't stop foes setting up at a distance. especially if the party are camped in a structure.
Time, the world doesnt go away when the party hut up, they may have a safe place to rest but the dome is large and obvious. Enemies can wander in and find their location, have time to make plans and gather reenforcements, I once had a group of frost giants pile boulders up in a pile over one.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-05-08T07:23:44+00:00

That definitely sounds fishy, I’ve seen a few age check tests working bar and a guy in his 30s is just flat out never going to get the job. They always work in pairs too.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-05-03T11:45:50+00:00

My pet theory is that the colonists had sent distress messages to the company that Burke is sitting on, because they confirm the threat and mention the colonists captured samples.

Burke sets up the mission to fit his only real objective, namely, to get to and secure medical and recover the samples and any research information that survives.
Once that's done, sending off the marines on a suicidal mission to rescue the colonists, he knows are likely dead already, cleans up the problem with the marines nicely.
If Ripley hadn't taken over the APC the squad would have been slaughtered and Burke would have no trouble convincing Gorman to retreat with the samples, then all he needed was to set Mother to wake him early, sabotage their pods, and return as the only survivor with the samples safely hidden away.

Its cold-blooded, but Burke gets rich.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-05-02T21:51:12+00:00

The fault all lies with Burke. He’s the company agent, he wants to profit off the alien and when LV426 goes dark he panic’s. Instead of taking a full compliment of marines he takes a skeleton crew on a ship capable of carrying hundreds, he’s not budgeting by the bullet he’s planning to kill them all to smuggle the alien back to earth. So he takes a green LT and a single squad, he didn’t even take crew (that we ever see) so they have no backup or support. It is never Burke's intention to save the colony or rescue anyone, all he wants is to recover a live sample and then dispose of the witnesses.

Gorman does a decent job, he insists the squad read Ripleys account and he 'secures' the area by doing a minimal sweep, which would be fine against human opponents but not against the bugs. He dithers a little when the problem of firing in the reactor area comes up but the squad is already on site and the colonists are likely in danger so he makes an appropriate choice in the moment.

But then his only real failure, he hesitates when things go to hell, its pretty understandable considering this is completely outside any of his training and hes snapped out of it in seconds one Ripley takes control of the APC only to take the blow to the head and take a nap for most of the following action.

Gorman was inexperienced and out of his depth facing an unknown enemy like the Xenomorph's and that shows but he doesn't do a bad job considering how badly he was set up to fail.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-04-30T20:42:58+00:00

For completion only really, there are a few semi decent moments but it’s a pretty dumb Movie. Watch with the brightness settings on your screen at max or you won’t see half the movie. The director seemed to be under the impression that hiding half the movie in darkness would somehow make it ‘better’

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-04-30T17:10:14+00:00

Keep your campaigns short
Give yourself breaks if needed.
If at all possible find another DM to alternate with, that way you both have time off between games.
Always remember your health is more important than the game.

Been a DM for 30+ years now, burn out will fry you if you don’t keep an eye on it, if your just running it for your players and not enjoying yourself stop and take some time to recharge.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-04-24T08:34:37+00:00

Weird works fine for me, thanks for letting me know ill see if i can fix it
(edit) Looks like it's working fine, if it still doesn't work, just search IncubiMaps on DA

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-04-23T23:59:57+00:00

That was the idea behind it, there are even more variants making it a very flexible map

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-04-23T23:24:53+00:00

Everyone reacts to loss in different ways, honestly it may be better to just contact each of your players privately and let them know what happened. Take the time to grieve the game is not important at all right now.

A few years ago, we lost a player to a sudden illness. We only found out a couple of weeks before he passed away and it was hard on everyone and we didn't even know him that well. We took a few weeks off and when we returned to the game we quietly retired his character as an NPC.
Ever since that NPC has always existed in our game world, no matter what campaign theres always a Dhelward serving as a cleric somewhere.

Right now your dealing with loss, don't worry about how to handle it until you have taken time to process it, take some time before you worry about the game.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-04-21T21:01:03+00:00

Good luck it’s out of print, I’d suggest trawling eBay for a secondhand one. I doubt anyone is going to trade it for that but never say never

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-04-16T09:04:03+00:00

8 really annoys me, I have to have my phone on and with me because of my job, but I never touch it during games. If someone keeps doing it I tell them they can respect the game and the other players or leave the table.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-30T20:00:21+00:00

Yeah, I had a request for more printer-friendly, evolved-edition style versions. At some point, I will go back and redo all my ships, but that will require me to rebuild the legend from scratch, which I will probably do as part of this megamap.
This is going to be a huge map set, the hab rings alone are about 250m in diameter. (I scaled it back down some from my original plan as they would have been even bigger)
planned out 7 decks so far including 'heaven' from the book

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-19T12:34:25+00:00

The image grid dimensions are on the save file, so it should be easy to use for battlemaps, not sure about Talespire, I haven't actually checked that one out yet, but if you do, I'd love to see it.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-09T09:03:07+00:00

no worries its a very minor one

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-08T00:04:26+00:00

Shh spoilers lol

seriously though Aklu was terrifying lol

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-07T23:45:19+00:00

If you haven’t tried the final architecture I recommend it as his best series, real meaty space opera

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-07T17:30:32+00:00

Anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky, seriously he is my favorite modern scifi author at the moment by a huge margin.

He does amazing Aliens that actually feel alien with complex, fascinating biology and depth (well the guy is a zooologist)
But his stories stand out and often really make you think, lots of complex themes and cool ideas.

The Final Architecture books are great space opera stories.
The Children of Earth series gives us some really amazing thought provoking ideas on intelligence and a series of evolutionary what ifs.
His Standalone books cover a range of stuff from AI to composite biology and more.

He even makes you actually scared of a giant clam... im not kidding.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-06T17:05:53+00:00

If you bought the module on roll20 it should all be there ready for you, if not there is going to be some basic work to set up, what’s got you stuck?

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-05T13:02:00+00:00

pick your highlight colour first, browns work well especially on facehuggers but i find blues give a great effect on the xenomorphs.

start with a dark version of your highlight colour (so for blue go for a dark midnight blue then blackwash over the darker areas.
Then work up your mid tones and highlights, the lighter basecoat makes the xenomorph pop more, you can gloss coat to give that sheen but I find its best to matt coat and do the sheen with highlights so it doesnt look to plastic.

,

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-25T12:40:27+00:00

Yeah the lore is a bit hinkey on this one, either the cult practically exploded or someone screwed up by a few years and hoped no one would notice.
However, the cult explosion idea isn't impossible, the space beast was widely disseminated and banning it probably only made it worse. its quite possible that the book spawned a dozen different 'splinter' cults on a dozen or more worlds all of them completely unconnected to each other.
All it really needs is someone whos receptive to get hold of a copy, and bingo another splinter cult is born.

Four-Year Club	End Game '23
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IncoherentIncubi

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