ALIEN - Character Sheets
The character sheet contains four tabs – MAIN, COMBAT, GEAR and LOG. Detailed explanation on the functionalities available in each tab follows.
CHARACTER CREATON
Character creation is done in the traditional way – the player is writing in the character sheet the various options following the rules in CHATPER 02 - YOUR CHARACTER following the options presented in the standard careers. TALENTS and ITEMS can be dragged and dropped from the respective libraries; the remaining sections are populated in manually.
PLAYING AS ANDROID
If player is entitled or wish to impersonate a synthetic, there is support for this mode. By typing Android in the Race field in LOG tab, the automation will disable the Stress Level counter and disallow push mechanism for all rolls.
MAIN TAB
The MAIN tab is the starting point during character creation and during normal play. It contains several frames:
CHARACTER INFORMATION – character’s name, career path, portrait and token. This frame is available across all tabs.
ATTRIBUTES – players set each attribute here. Each field can be edited by selecting it and entering the new value or adjust using CTRL + mouse wheel. Attribute rolls are performed by double-clicking or dragging the dice to the chat box.
SKILLS – as the ATTRIBUTES frame, but for the skills. Double-clicking on the skill’s name will open the relevant record from the library for detailed reference.
TALENTS – players drag & drop from TALENTS library or create manually custom talents.
HSR – this frame contains counters for the Health, Stress and Radiation levels. Boxes that are greyed out are disabled (Health is linked to the Strength attribute and Stress Level is disabled when someone plays a synthetic character). One click moves the slider one box left or right. The FACEHUGGER button performs Panic Roll with the current Stress Level as modifier. Panic Levels are tracked on the Combat Tracker automatically if the character is added to the combatant list.
Increasing the maximum health: Version 1.1 implemented +/- buttons to manually increase/decrease the maximum health for a character. Character’s HP can never go below the Strength value or above 10.
CONDITIONS – check-boxes for the four possible conditions. If there is connected player that owns the character sheet message will be displayed to the chat when condition is obtained or removed. GM and Players resolve challenges imposed by each condition the traditional way.
CONSUMABLES – current levels of Air, power, Food and Water. Players can initiate checks by double-clicking or dragging the dice to the chat box. Adjusting the values is done from the GEAR tab. Detailed explanation in the Inventory section below.
CRITICAL INJURIES – Players can track all received critical injuries here. If the critical injury is written in the FX format (more on that in the FX section), the automation will take the modifier and apply it to the relevant skill rolls. If effect from the FX library is dragged & dropped by the player, message will be displayed in the chat.
EXPERIENCE & STORY POINTS – trackers for XP and Story points.
COMBAT TAB
The COMBAT tab is used during action scenes. Automation connects with events in the Combat Tracker and allows the players to decide how to use the extra successes (if any) generated with CLOSE or RANGED COMBAT rolls in addition to regular rolls using active equipment. The frames and their purposes are as follows:
ATTRIBUTES, SKILLS, CONSUMABLES and HSR – same as in the MAIN tab with the exception that ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS are read-only.
ACTION TRACKER – check-boxes for SLOW and FAST actions during combat. Linked (S) and (F) action markers in the Combat Tracker.
AR (ARMOR RATING) – Facilitates armor rolls. One Protection item should be equipped at any given time. If the players equip more than one protection item (in the case of riot shields and other gear that supplements the body armor), the ARs will be combined for convenience.
RELOADS – visual markers for tracking reloads. Alternative approach is to use Reloads as separate equipment entries in the GEAR tab linked via the location property to the respective weapon.
ACTIVE EQUIPMENT – Items that are marked as equipped in the GEAR section will appear here. The list is managed by the automation and it contains the ability to make skill roll modified by bonus specified in the item’s properties. The icon in the table shows the text in the SPECIAL field (if any) when cursor hovers it. Clicking the ACT button triggers the roll, building the dice pool based on the weapon category, bonus and modifiers added to the SPECIAL field of the item.
If item allows to be used for more than one skill check, pop-up box will allow the player to select the preferred skill the roll.
COMBAT ACTIONS– this frame is used during combat. INITIATIVE, BLOCK, DODGE and PANIG rolls can be executed outside of combat sequence at any given time. INITIATIVE roll will update the character’s initiative in the combat tracker if the actor is present there. BLOCK and DODGE will initiate CLOSE COMBAT and MOBILITY skill rolls. If Combat Tracker is used, the generated STUNTS will enable use of the reaction maneuvers. Stunt-related rolls are enabled when CLOSE or RANGED COMBAT roll generates more than one success. The player can freely pick any combination as far as there are stunts to spend. Used stunts are written in the chat log and also tracked in the combat tracker (visible to the GM only).
GEAR TAB
The GEAR tab is used to manage characters inventory (gear, signature item, supplies and currencies). Another important functionality is assigning items for use in the ACTIVE EQUIPMENT frame in the COMBAT tab and handling supply-granting items in the proper way. The frames and their usage is as follows:
INVENTOROY – same usage as in the other rulesets, with the following update: moving an item to equipped state will list it in the ACTIVE EQUIPMENT frame on the COMBAT tab. Items in carried and equipped states are taken into account for the ENCUMBRANCE calculation.
SIGNATURE ITEM – text field, single line.
ENCUMBRANCE – automatic calculation based on the quantity and weight of the items in the inventory. The maximum encumbrance is calculated automatically. When character goes over the limit, a message is displayed in the chat.
CURRENCY & TINY ITEMS – six major currencies and text-box for tiny items or alternate currencies.
CONSUMABLES – this frame is used to manage consumables and perform supply rolls. More on that in the section below
MANAGING CONSUMABLES
The ruleset implements supply rolls and automatically decreases the supply rating value of the respective consumable for each FACEHUGGER rolled on the stress dice. Consumables can be managed in two ways:
Manually adjusting the supply rating value for each consumable
Carrying or equipping item that adds to one or more supply ratings (such as the “Bug Juice” Protein Drink”). Note: For the supply rating to take effect, the item’s state must be cycled through after it is added to the inventory (default state is carried) - change state to Not Carried and back to Carried or Equipped. This will trigger the automation and add the respective values in the Consumables frame.
This is by design to prevent unintentional updates to consumable fields.
Because the supply rating has impact on the encumbrance, the ruleset considers if the supply rating has been increased by item or manually and adjusts the encumbrance accordingly. Tracking of the source of the supply rating has the following impacts:
Supply ratings granted by items are not calculated against the overall encumbrance, because the item already has certain weight. This is valid if they are in the inventory in Carried or Qquipped state.
Decreasing and increasing the supply rating within the item’s supply rating will not impact the encumbrance – this is used in situations where the item can be recharged or still usable in the narrative even without charges.
Removing the item from the inventory before the supply ratings it grants have been consumed will increase the encumbrance as if the rating has been manually increased. The recommended flow is to delete consumable item from the inventory after the rating it grants is completely consumed and the item no longer required.
SHIP TAB
The SHIP tab implements spaceship combat from the perspective of the player. When the Game Mother drags a character to a specific position on the spaceship’s sheet (more details on the SHIP SHEET chapter), the CREW POSITION and SHIP ASSIGNMENT fields will be updated automatically.
List with pre-populated actions based on the assigned position will appear. Each action is linked to the appropriate skill as specified in the description.
When action is initiated, the automation will construct a dice pool using the normal routine, adding or removing dice from the pool based on the ship’s specific modifiers that impact the roll. For example, all PILOT checks are modified by the THRUSTERS.
If character is assigned as GUNNER, firing a ship armament will present a list with available ship weapons to chose from. If there are not ship armaments installed, no FIRE WEAPON roll is possible. LAUNCH COUNTERMEASE behaves normally.
Spaceship sheets must be shared with the players for the ship assignment and actions on the character sheets to work correctly. Otherwise error message will be displayed on the client side.
LOG TAB
The log tab contains text frames for additional information about the character such as physical description, personal agenda and relationship with the other characters using the Buddy/Rival mechanic.
The Personal Agenda can be used to track the goals during Cinematic or Campaign play.
Personal log is note-taking space. In official conversions here will be the backstory of the character.
SCENARIO AGENDA - Game Mothers can drag & drop pre-defined in the scenario agendas from the Agenda library.
RACE field is the only one on the tab that triggers automation. Typing Android here will trigger rules for playing as android