ALIEN: CRONUS | Chapter I of the Draconis Strain Trilogy
The crew of the Montero are on a routine cargo run in deep space when they are awakened to investigate a distress signal from a derelict vessel.
$9.00
/ Session
Details
6 players following this game
Weekly / Friday - 2:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 2–3 hours
Campaign Length / 3–6 Sessions
1 / 6 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
1/6
About the adventure
THE SETUP IS FAMILIAR – a star freighter intercepts a distress signal in the middle of deep space. The company orders the crew to investigate under penalty of total forfeiture of shares. Finding a derelict ship, they discover an alien lifeform that threatens to kill them – and a member of the crew itself has a corporate directed agenda to protect it. The particulars of this crime, however, are quite different. --- This is a great introductory scenario into the ALIEN RPG, but I have more than a few surprises for veterans who've been playing it since 2019. --- Things to expect: STRESS & PANIC: Stress can both improve your skill checks, but it can also send you spiraling in a horrified panic. Manage it well, or die. Fear of the Unknown: Leave meta knowledge at the door and get immersed into your character. Remember, they don't know they are in a horror movie. Loss of Control/Agency: Your resources will run dry, the lights will flicker, machinery will malfunction, weather will be unkind, the dice may not be in your favor. You will be playing as humanoids that the universe is trying its best to screw over and ALIENS will sometimes be an overwhelmingly terrifying force. A wayward roll on the Panic Table may cause you to lose complete control/agency of your character as fear and horror overwhelm them Agendas, Secrets, PVP: Every PCs personal agenda is secret and you are encouraged to scheme, plot and ALIEN-ate in order to accomplish that agenda. Secret channels will be made and my DMs are open for discreet communications. Memento Mori: Death comes incredibly easy in the ALIEN universe. Game Modes: ALIEN offers "Cinematic Scenarios" that are meant to emulate the intensity, pacing and deadliness of the films. This game, referred to as Chariot of the Gods (Chariot of the Angels in E2) is a Cinematic Scenario and has pre-generated maps, characters, plot and agendas.
Game style
Combat Lite
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Roleplay Heavy
Meet the Game Master
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: World Builder, Inclusive, Storytelling
About me
My name is Asher William Graves, but most of my friends call me Billy! I believe I began dungeon delving early 2017 while I was in the Air Force, playing an amnesiac archer and not being informed that the party I was joining was a very evil one. This first character of mine would meet their end trying to stop his party from massacring a church full of villages and subsequently getting mowed down by arrow fire from the village militia. This early confrontation taught me how crucial GM-Player and Player-Player discussion is for the tabletop gaming experience because no one was happy with how that PVP scenario went down. I took on GM-ing September 25, 2021, running a D&D 5/5.5e homebrew campaign for my wife and buddies from the military. That game finally reached its epic conclusion November 15, 2025 after 61 sessions, so I am happy and proud to say that I have one full campaign under my belt! Beyond that single D&D game, I have run ALIEN The Roleplaying Game and its Evolved Edition a few times and I like using the latter’s GM title for myself when I run any game now: The Game Mother! Beyond that I have enjoyed the tabletop gaming hobby now for almost ⅓ of my life and GM-ing has recently taken all of my free time the past few years, pouring hundreds of hours of effort into worldbuilding, narrative crafting, improving my improv skills, and just generally getting as acquainted with the rulebooks as I can while homebrewing things that serve the story and player enjoyment/engagement.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
This Cinematic Scenario provides Pre-Generated characters and I will provide Form Fillable PDF versions of them. There will be 7 characters to choose from (a few names may look familiar to people who've played Hope's Last Day, but their characters & agendas are different here): -> Vanessa Miller (She/Her), Captain -> Leah Davis (She/Her), Pilot -> Kayla Rye (They/Them), Roughneck -> Lyron Cham (He/Him), Roughneck -> John J. Wilson (He/Him), Company Agent -> Santino "Sonny" Siggs (He/Him), Medic -> Holroyd (Male Presenting Synthetic), Roughneck
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Download Discord & Owlbear Rodeo, have a discord account and be prepared to be friends with me :). Also, a mic and internet connection are going to be necessities. For character sheets, I will provide a form-fillable PDF, so you should be able to open, view and edit those. Let me know if there is another method of tracking your character you'd like to do, I just want to be able to regularly check on them before, during, and after sessions.
What Asher Gravemind Games brings to the table
-> NPC voices (I will do my best!) -> Music for ambience & combat -> Owlbear will provide as much as we need for rolling, Initiative, and combat tracking -> An immersive, emotionally engaging experience. I want to scare you :) -> Maps! -> I will provide form fillable character sheets. -> I use the Craig Voice Chat recorder bot for my own personal notetaking purposes. Only join if you are comfortable with this.
Homebrew rules
ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition is what we will be running, as is.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Asher Gravemind Games creates a safe table
ALIEN can get intense and player comfort is an absolute priority. I will provide the RPG Consent Checklist in the discord server I invite you to, multiple ways to privately inform me of concerns, time and space to allow for post-game debrief, etc.
Content warnings
Safety tools used