Alien Romance Disaster

PREMISE
Three Players.
Themes of strangeness, xenophobia, familiarity, betrayal.
The game plays out in a single session.

NEEDMENTS

Take a pack of regular playing cards that you don’t mind getting … soiled.
Also take a pen - preferably a permanent marker - that you can soil the cards.
Split the pack into the distinct suits:
1.	Player One:  Human (Diamonds)
2.	Player Two: First Contact Alien (Spades)
3.	Player Three: Rival Alien (Clubs)
4.	Each player gets all the cards of their suit.  Hearts, with the jokers shuffled in, make up a face-down deck.  

SETUP - ESTABLISHING THE STAGE AND THE PLAYERS

As a group, decide on the setting for the game.  Choose one:  
●	SPADES - farming colony
●	HEARTS - medical outpost
●	CLUBS - diplomatic convoy
●	DIAMONDS - mining settlement
This is a game about strange morphologies and unfamiliar locations. Emphasise the difference - “We know this could never be Earth because …”

The first player should take two cards from the Diamonds deck & write the names of two opposing factions on a card each. Each faction should somehow describe how humanity is dealing with this alien location & the endemic population. “The Wardens look to isolate humanity from the harsh environment.”

The second player takes a card from the Diamonds deck for each faction & writes the faction’s strengths. This may be technological, it may be interpersonal, it may be tactical. “The Wardens are led by Earl Gupta & her charisma.”

The third player takes a card from the Diamonds deck for each faction & writes the faction’s  weaknesses. The best weaknesses are strengths pushed too far. “The Wardens overlook the importance of extra-terrestrial knowledge.”

Write them on cards.  

OKAY WHAT NOW ABOUT THE PLAYERS

There are four statistics which all actions of the game will fall into:
●	FINESSE - precision in word & deed
●	RESILIENCE - hardiness is plan & performance
●	DOMINANCE - power in conflict & conscience
●	ASTONISHMENT - amazement at places & people

Each player sets aside the ace of their suit and writes the four statistics on it.
Next, take up the face cards. 
Starting with FINESSE & the first player, bid on each stat. Bidding proceeds clockwise. The second player starts the RESILIENCE bid; the third player starts the DOMINANCE bid; the ASTONISHMENT bid is again led by the first player.
To bid, play one of the face cards from your suit or pass. This bid will be visible to the other players. Once you have placed a bid, that card remains out of action for the rest of the auction.
Write the results of each statistic auction on your ace: if you bid highest, write DRAW 4 beside the stat; if you bid second highest, write DRAW THREE beside the stat; if you bid lowest, write DRAW TWO; if you did not vote, write BOOST FOE beside the stat.
If two player’s bid the same value, the highest result is void & both players share second place. For example, player one bids Q on DOMINANCE, player two votes J and player three votes Q; players one and three write DRAW THREE and player two writes DRAW TWO.
Any face cards not used in this section may be used in the alien trait auction.

ALIEN TRAIT AUCTION

As a group, discuss the kinds of alien you are interested in exploring. As part of this, discuss physical features and social traits. You might be interested primarily in biology, primarily in technology.

Here are some ideas if you’re stuck:   telepathy, EMP grenades, shapeshifting, prophetic third eye, reactive scales, laser rifles, infrared/ultraviolet vision, solar regeneration, robotic prosthetics, hereditary memories, poison secretion, high-tech spaceship. 

Some interesting dichotomies:
●	One gender vs. Three genders
●	Human-looking/Monstrous behaviors vs. Monstrous-looking/Human behaviors
●	Honor and rigidity and safety vs. Ethics and individualism and uncertainty
●	Monogamy vs. Polyamory
●	Militarized vs. Pacifist

There will be seven lots in this auction - only the alien players may bid on these. The final lot will be the biggest - PREDATOR.

For each lot, the human player suggests a physical or social trait. In turn, the alien players bid any card from their suit (including any face cards they did not use in the statistics auction). Players may increase their bids as they see fit - however, all cards played are lost (ie. you cannot take the 2 back into your hand after you’ve increased your bid to 5; both cards are lost).
	The winner of the auction writes the trait on the winning card. The loser of the auction inverts the concept and writes that on a losing card.
	At the end, you will have twelve traits total divided between the aliens and an understanding of who preys on the other.
	You should emphasise the inhumanity here - it is simultaneously abhorrent and compelling.

THAT’S CHARACTER CREATION, BUB

Once these auctions have been completed, each player recaps to the other players a summary of their side. Humanity will explain their settlement, their nature and what interest they have in the planet. Each alien will describe their morphology, psychology and what interest they have in the planet.
	At this point, players should decide if they would rather play at individual level or at societal level.

WHAT ABOUT THE HEARTS? AND WHY IS THIS CALLED ALIEN ROMANCE DISASTER?

So, the hearts deck represents a divergence from the initial scientific mission. Whenever you add a romantic element to a scene, you are able to draw a card from the hearts deck to add it to your hand. This could be entirely within your own culture - two kerryns walking the human fenceline as a date, a xardun skull ceremony to attract a mate - or it could be between cultures.
	Remember this is a game; you’re playing to explore and to find out, but if your version of play makes everyone else feel uncomfortable, you’re not being a good player. At the start of the game, you’ll want to ensure everyone is on the same page regarding this & work out where the general lines are. Some groups will be comfortable with fairly overt description. Others might bristle at over-long eye contact.
	Consent is everything. I can explain my intention, but I can’t describe your reaction.

The hearts deck serves a secondary purpose, in that if players are not directly interacting with each other, the hearts deck provides the non-player resolution. For the purposes of this, the hearts deck always has DRAW TWO.

HOW DO WE SET UP THE PLAY SPACE THEN

Once characters have been created, all players leave their ace on the table before them and shuffle together the rest of their suit. They place this pile (called THE STOCK) to their left. On their right is a currently empty pile (of DISCARDS).
	The hearts deck is shuffled together and placed in the middle of the table. The discard for the hearts deck should be immediately beside it. Remember that the jokers should be shuffled into the hearts deck.

WHAT THE HELL ARE THE JOKERS

Jokers indicate the advent of great change.  It interrupts the conflict so that it doesn’t get resolved.  Whoever plays it should identify what they were thinking of, and the result is described by the arbitrator.  

Things to consider as wild cards:
●	Major government discovery and investigation
●	The arrival of more aliens from one side or the other
●	Natural disaster
●	A festival
●	Loss of contact

WHAT WAS THAT ARBITRATOR THING

Scenes are played out between only ever two players at once. Whoever is not involved in the scene becomes the arbitrator. Much of this role is to ensure the smooth running of narrative auctions, to make sure that players are drawing the correct number of cards, to determine exactly what statistic is relevant for the player’s actions.
	In the event of a tied auction, the arbitrator describes the outcome of the scene.
	If a player’s scene does not place them at odds with another culture, that player can determine which of the other players arbitrates for the scene. That arbitrator will draw cards from the hearts deck to determine the outcome.

ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAME

The game plays out in a series of scenes. In each scene, the involved players declare what their intentions are and then bid on controlling the narrative outcome. These scenes will have narrative repercussions, most of which will be written on the cards as they are played out. Likewise, things that happen in earlier scenes should influence the outcome of future scenes - despite the rigid turn structure, the story continues across the entire game.
	As this stands, the game is set to run over a single session. As such, each player should determine their overall goals and intentions from the outset & state what they have to lose. The narrative will likely continue until these elements are resolved. 
	Alternatively, it is possible to play space-opera style across a series of play sessions. This will lead to a very detailed deck of cards at the very end, which frankly will be a beautiful thing to look at. Because narrative repercussions & influential traits are written on the cards, looking at the final pack will serve as reminders for the many things that have happened. Likewise, things that haven’t come up in a while will invariably surface later.

The game begins in control of the human player.
	On each player’s turn, they have the chance to describe two scenes. At least one of them should involve another culture, though they cannot both involve the same culture. So, humanity can spend her first scene exploring the environment near the fungal caves (her player decides on another to act as arbitrator), and must spend her second scene interacting with another of the cultures - she decides to opt for a territorial stand-off with the kerryn (the player of the xardun becomes the arbitrator).
	The active player describes a little bit about the scene - its scope, its time of day, how it links with what has come before - and explains what their culture intends to achieve with this scene. If another culture is involved, they should describe why they too are here & similarly what they hope to achieve. Humanity needs a solid source of food, since the spoiling of their stocks in transit; she aims to control the entirety of this sector. The kerryn have used this cave as a nursery for generations, its soft light perfect for juveniles to play in; she is happy to concede some of the space but mostly aim to remain here.
	The arbitrator will determine which statistic is relevant for each player’s interaction before the players draw from the stock. In this example, humanity is being aggressive - the only solution is DOMINANCE. For the kerryn however, it could be a case of diplomatic FINESSE or out & out RESILIENCE to hold fast; talking with the arbitrator, the kerryn player decides she would prefer to use FINESSE here.
	The players now draw cards from their stock according to their statistic value. They will choose one of these cards to bid. Humanity has DRAW THREE for DOMINANCE & the kerryn have DRAW TWO for FINESSE, however the arbitrator decides that the nursery makes this sufficiently a romantic aspect - both players draw three cards, though the kerryn draw one from the top of the hearts deck.
	Starting with the active player, each player bids a card from their hand. Players may choose to increase a bid after seeing how their foe responds: the highest total value wins the narrative auction and players may bid as many cards as their hands allow. As players make bids, they should describe what their culture is attempting to do - this should be influenced by whatever is written on the card being played and it is through this conceit that the faction goals and alien traits directly influence the story.
The winning player now describes the outcome of the scene. In event of a tie, the arbitrator describes the outcome - which will inevitable be one of an impasse.
The winning player writes the outcome on the winning card; all other bids are discarded to their relevant pile (hearts back to the discard pile). Any cards in players’ hands that were not bid (including hearts) are placed on the bottom of that player’s stock.
If a player’s stock is depleted, shuffle the discard pile and replace it in the stock.

Once a player has played their two scenes, turns progress clockwise.