Heroes vs. Aliens

[Anders]

A standard 5-person party of Dungeon Fantasy murder hobos are exploring a goblin lair when they discover a heap of goblins with huge holes in their chests. As if something burst outwards. When the thief is out scouting he discovers a lot of rubbery orbs... almost as if they're eggs.

Murder hobos vs. the perfect life form. Who wins?

Edit: I placed this here because it's kind of out of DFRPG, since it involves Sci-Fi elements, and GURPS is more for builds and so on - this is more qualitative. I now realize that that might have been a mistake. Can someone movie it to GURPS?

[Mark Skarr]

It really depends on how many xenos there are and what assets are available to the hobos.

If they have a spell that can cure/prevent a xenos implantation then they'll win handily.

If they have access to resurrection magic, then it's going to get messy, and seems more likely to turn into a Genestealer cult from Warhammer 40,000, because it's only a matter of time before magic-wielding xenos appear.

Engaging xenos in melee, as is the primary method for conflict resolution for Hobos, is going to end with a lot of dead hobos as the acidic spray is going to make gooey work of them in no time.

So, short answer, it's probably going to be the xenos winning. The hobos, using metaknowledge could win, but it will be very messy.

[Anders]

If the wizard has access to Resist Acid, that would be very useful. Although the xenos probably bleed Essential Acid, so it would be expensive (6 FP/minute).

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Anders

If the wizard has access to Resist Acid, that would be very useful. Although the xenos probably bleed Essential Acid, so it would be expensive (6 FP/minute).

In my experience, I don't see very many "Acid Mages." They tend to go for the moar flashy "FIREBALL! Mage."

[Anthony]

Depends on the murder hobos, the number of aliens, and how they're statted up. Your basic alien is a melee combatant, fast, reasonably sneaky, and often numerous. DF PCs don't generally have the ranged firepower of colonial marines, but in close combat they are likely better off -- they wear a fair amount of armor and probably have a decent parry and/or block.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anders

If the wizard has access to Resist Acid, that would be very useful. Although the xenos probably bleed Essential Acid, so it would be expensive (6 FP/minute).

I have rules for superpowerful acids in GURPS Powers: The Weird . . .

[Apollonian]

Depends on the kind of game you want. Are xenomorphs that much more dangerous than some of the classic Dungeon Fantasy monster types? Sure, they'll slaughter a bunch of 5th-level delvers (to use D&D terminology), but so would a typical dragon or a swarm of, say, trolls.

If the DM's bad at judging a challenge (or if they're running the kind of sandbox where the PCs need to balance risk and if they screw up, whoops), any encounter or adventure could be a steamroll. Creating an interesting adventure with xenomorphs is totally possible, though. Heck, you could just straight up adapt the first two movies.

Also, IIRC, Aliens canon has different xenomorph types based on the various hosts for chestbursters. You could have a lot of fun with that - what would a draconic xenomorph be like?

[Varyon]

One important question to consider is how flaming weapons would interact with the acidic blood. Would the flame aerosolize the blood, making it even more deadly, or would it essentially cauterize the wound, preventing any from spraying on the fighter? How about icy weapons - might they freeze the wound, preventing bleeding? This is likely to have a large impact on how well the characters can handle the xenomorphs in direct combat. Characters using indestructible gear (made from orichalcum, dragonbone, or similar) may have a better time of things.

Of course, the xenomorphs may not opt for direct combat. Don't forget, these ones spawned from goblins, meaning they're likely to be a bit shorter (although this will depend on how short goblins are in the setting; at least in GURPS DF, they're only a couple inches shorter than humans), and will probably be more cautious. I'd expect them to be more inclined to the stealthy approach than human-spawned ones, even when they have the numbers. They'd likely stalk the delvers until they let their guard down, at which point one or more will pounce, snatching up whoever they can to take back to the nest (and those that struggle too much suffer an armor-piercing bite to the Skull, complements of the xeno's mouth-tongue). I could easily see them expanding to a nearby village (a goblin lair always needs a nearby village to raid, at least for the delvers to hear about it), and from there spreading like wildfire, if the delvers don't stop them here. Of course, magic can help them here - the xenomorphs are susceptible to fire, and various warding/detection spells may make it difficult for them to get the drop on the party.

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Engaging xenos in melee, as is the primary method for conflict resolution for Hobos, is going to end with a lot of dead hobos as the acidic spray is going to make gooey work of them in no time.

DnD have acid splashing monsters (e.g. Black Pudding) and after a certain character and gear level the acid is just a nuisance. Compared to a lot of the monster manual xenomorphs doesn't really stand out.

I think the unexpected xenomorphs scenario is only really interesting if characters other than murder hobos run in to them since murder hobos implies persons of mass destruction to me, that are used to consistently annihilate exotic and deadly monsters and steal their stuff.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Anders

Murder hobos vs. the perfect life form. Who wins?

Depends upon how you stat up those Aliens, and the point totals of your PC's, as well as how tightly optimized the builds are...

The canonical aliens have automatic acid slash when hit, armor that can handle a significant GTL 10 or so assault rifle with minimal (but consistent) penetration, move faster than humans, and natural weapons that can kill minor NPCs in one hit, and PCs in 1-3 hits.