Free League Publishing Announce Alien: The Roleplaying Game

[Local Trouble]

Does the RPG acknowledge the events from TCF?

[The Old One]

Yes, in fact Plagiarus Praepotens is now the main object of acquisition and is referred to all over the book.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Yes, in fact Plagiarus Praepotens is now the main object of acquisition and is referred to all over the book.

Is "Plagiarus praepotens" the next artificial evolutionary leap of Black Goo thanks to David?

I don't know much about the goo

I'd say that nobody knows anything about Black Goo (not even the scriptwriters) until the arrival of Alien Covenant 

but it sounds like they're throwing in everything from the pre-Covenant EU.  Why do that?

That sound awful. Like trying to follow the Fire and Stone path 

[The Old One]

No Plagiarus Praepotens is what is implanted in a host to create the titular Alien, the most fundamental form of the creature.

[Xiggz456]

Multiple strains is convenient as well as obvious based on what Prometheus showed us. I actually find the prequels  to be similar tier stories as F&S and L&D (in other words all four are just alright and none of them have satisfying conclusions). Cool about the praepotens though. 

[The Old One]

It's a garbage idea, and it's not obvious because it's completely incorrect. And I don't agree, Covenant is far superior to the rest. F&S and L&D- trash stories, full of nonsense and convenience. And Prometheus is an unfocused mess that has no idea what it is.

Spoiler

Covenant knows what it is, a Gothic Romantic Horror in space, that's an adaptation and sequel to Frankenstein.
With a final act that brings the whole thing down.

[close]

[Immortan Jonesy]

Yes, in fact Plagiarus Praepotens is now the main object of acquisition and is referred to all over the book.

It is a mutagenic substance, whence the comparison.

[The Old One]

Yes, I suppose it is. But it's programmed apparently, according to the book. Back on topic: The Pathogen is perfectly understandable as one substance:

Spoiler

We know from various sources that the Pathogen is defined as so:
David sacrifices the Engineers against their will- wiping the planet clean and bringing forth Neomorphs.
And the Neomorph has every feature the Deacon has, except it also has back spines and a tail.
Generally in appearance is closer to Carlos Huante's concept art.

Deployment of Pathogen on a planet:

Spore Pod = Egg
Notes = Facehugger
Bloodburster = Chestburster
Neomorph = Xenomorph

In a planet wide infection, Deacons do get created:
Perhaps it even bypasses the Trilobite if the reproductive system is functional, creating a Deacon immediately.
But it still requires diluted contact- drinking from a river that became infected for instance-
Then if sex occurred, we know the rest- the woman likely dies in birth and the man turns into a raving lunatic and is going to combust. If it creates a Trilobite the Trilobite needs to survive until it's fully grown and able to then infect someone else. To create a Deacon.

Unlike the Neomorph being generated though- this requires two people to have sex;
Which is far, more unlikely than someone being in the initial blast radius or looking for food in the wilderness and getting infected by spores.

This all said;
The Deacon of Prometheus is described as a one of a kind, and owes its skin colour to the fact it was
generated through two distinctly different beings, the Engineer and a pair of humans. Considering everything else that was generated solely from one species in the prequel films is pale white and partially translucent this makes sense.

The Pathogen always creates a creature slightly unique yes, but the chaos is consistent- for example;

"The original liquid atomized to particles when exposed to the air."

"The pathogen was designed to affect all non-botanical life forms. All the animals, the 'meat', if you will... either kill them outright or use them as incubators to spawn a hybrid form, highly aggressive."

David refers to it working as intended, but when it's not dispersed as intended and instead is utilised in it's liquid form it clearly also modifies the recipient, at a reduced rate until the host dies as the Pathogen intended.

"From the eggs, came these parasites... shock troops
of the genetic assault. Waiting for a host, entering the host... rewriting the DNA... and ultimately... producing,
these enviable unions." The Neomorph.

Apply deductive reasoning and you start to discover patterns in all things it creates;

The Neomorphs and LV-223 creations all have:
-Acidic blood/saliva
-Pale, translucent skin
-Elongated limbs
-Extra appendages; back spines, extra fingers and a pharyngeal jaw in the Neomorphs' case.
(The unfolding appendages around the head hiding an attack method
in the case of the Hammerpedes and Trilobite, much like the pharyngeal jaw.)

Where-as the infected personnel of those on LV-223 all shared similar qualities.
(Infected by it in a diluted liquid form.)
The infected Sean Fifield is fairly obvious, he became bloated in the cranium, with veins rising to the surface.
In behaviour became extremely aggressive and violent. It's unclear if his proportions were effected.
The infected Charlie Holloway carries many identical signs, with veins rising to the surface of his skin
and becoming aggressive when crew members of the Prometheus tried to assist him.
It's clear that he would have became what the "Fifield Monster" was if given time.
A prolonged death sentence.

Why death? No incubation?
Essentially because it's been stated by the production that Holloway and Fifield were on the same path that the decapitated Engineer was on.
They showed many of the same symptoms as the infected Engineer, so that with liquid exposure to the Pathogen;
That if infected it will; (depending upon dosage) increasingly send the victim into a violent rage,
increasing their physical attributes while returning the mental ones to that of the entirely primal;
until their cranium explodes and they finally die.

So Pathogen exposure to the skin: Abomination.
Pathogen exposure by ingestion: Allows for the longer process that requires intercourse to create a Deacon.
Default Pathogen exposure, by exposing it to the air as David does in Covenant: Neomorphs.

[close]

It's aready got a perfectly sensible outline, without the nonsense of multiple "strains" allowing a story creator to do whatever with no rules, which is, regardless of destroying all suspension of disbelief... creatively bankrupt, lazy and pathetic actually. Finally you also squander any remaining goodwill in the Alien community if you allow for do-whatever goo.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Great post. I'm glad the pathogen is not the nonsensical plot device from F&S and L&D. Also, you hit the spot with the Deacon. The aforementioned creature must be an special and unique breed of Neomorph.

[Xiggz456]

Prometheus literally has two strains. So not sure why you're mad at multiple strains. It seems pretty straightforward to me: the deacon some time after the events of Prometheus  stumbles upon the first strain of accelerant and becomes the building blocks of life for the biosphere of LV223, then the pathogen gets involved further mutating the flora & fauna into highly aggressive creatures.

[The Old One]

Because, the thing at the beginning of Prometheus is not the Pathogen. Also, the Pathogen is shown doing things during the comic series to the various people, creatures and environmental features on LV-223, it just can't do in canon. It's alright if it's wrote off as that one example of how to not use the Pathogen in a story, but I fear it's a precedent for more moronic things to come.

[Immortan Jonesy]

There is a million-year leap between the seeder virus and the weaponized virus from LV-223. Both substances (while somewhat similar in looking) look and behave differently. This one here looks like a black honeycomb.



The Black Pathogen causes its victims to explode. Look at the Engineer's helmet inside the dome (to the right of Fifield) or the revived head at Prometheus lab.





It is not very different from what we saw in Covenant in my opinion.

[Evanus]

Yeah, I don't like the multiple strains thing and what F&S and L&D did with the black goo. Makes the whole thing messy and confusing. Covenant established a clearer idea of what it can do, Fiendishly explained it perfectly IMO.

The Advent video implied that the engineers created the black goo, right? I wonder what's up with the goo at the beginning of Prometheus, did they create that as well? I think it'd be interesting if they found it instead, and tried experimenting with it.

[The Old One]

Yes, I totally agree.

[Xiggz456]

But what would happen if the two came into contact with one another? That's what I find interesting. Regardless I'm happy that it's included in the rpg.