Alien RPG Terminal Setup Guide

Why Diegetic Terminals for Alien RPG?

Alien RPG runs on tension and dread. The moment players interact with a real-looking ship terminal (one that flickers, locks, and plays distress signals on command), the fiction becomes visceral. Diegetic Terminals gives the GM a live control panel that players see in real time, with no screen-sharing lag, no PowerPoint slides, and no breaking immersion to narrate what the computer says.

The Alien RPG theme preset ships with a green-on-black CRT aesthetic, the Alien sound pack, and a door button style designed to evoke airlock hatches. It takes under ten minutes to configure a terminal that looks like it belongs on a USCSS vessel.

Step 1: Choose the Alien Theme

From Terminal Settings (the palette icon in the header), select the Alien visual preset. This applies:

• ›Amber-green phosphor color palette with scanline CRT overlay
• ›Monospace terminal font matching the film aesthetic
• ›Airlock-style door buttons with the matching sound pack
• ›Warning and critical atmosphere states for tension escalation

You can also enable the CRT intensity slider, weather effects (the Fog overlay works well for ship ambiance), and signal degradation for a worn, deep-space feel.

Step 2: Configure Your Buttons

Each column of buttons represents a category of ship systems. A typical Alien RPG terminal layout might use:

Button labels are fully customizable. Name them to match your ship's lore: USCSS Nostromo, the Sulaco, or your own homebrew vessel. Each button's icon and behavior can be set independently.

Step 3: Set Up Player Access

In Alien RPG, the GM controls what information the crew has access to. Terminal Simulator maps directly to this:

• 1. Add each player as an Operator from your dashboard. They need a free Terminal Simulator account.
• 2. Set each operator to Can Operate (they can press buttons) or Can View (read-only, useful for players who join late or are in a different location in-fiction).
• 3. Use Password Protected buttons for classified files or MU/TH/UR directives that only certain crew members should access. Each button can have its own password.
• 4. Enable Lock on Owner Disconnect so the terminal goes dark if you need to step away mid-session, adding an extra layer of dread.

Step 4: Use the Atmosphere Panel for Tension

The Atmosphere panel (globe icon in the terminal header) is your GM toolkit for escalating dread without saying a word. During an Alien RPG session:

• › Trigger Warning Mode when the xenomorph is nearby, and the terminal shifts to amber warning colors across all players' screens simultaneously.
• › Use Signal Degradation to simulate damage to the ship's computer after a hull breach.
• › Fire a Glitch effect to simulate system instability or a compromised MU/TH/UR unit.
• › Save these as Macros (e.g., "Chest Burster" triggers warning + distress audio + locks certain buttons) for one-click scene transitions.

Countdown Timer: The Self-Destruct Sequence

Alien RPG's most iconic scene is the self-destruct countdown. Diegetic Terminal Simulator has this built in. Open the countdown timer (stopwatch icon in the header), set your duration, and choose Explode or Shutdown as the expiry action. When it hits zero, the terminal plays a matching cinematic effect across every player's screen.

You can also save this as a macro: the self-destruct macro triggers a countdown with the "Explode" ending, letting you fire the entire sequence with one click during a climactic moment.

A Sample Scene: The Quarantine Override

Here's how these pieces come together at the table. The crew finds a survivor in cryo-stasis who swears the quarantine protocol is malfunctioning: MU/TH/UR won't unlock Airlock Beta no matter what code they enter. The GM fires the "Contamination Alert" macro from the Atmosphere panel: Warning Mode sweeps across every screen, the Quarantine Protocol button locks itself, and a looping decontamination klaxon starts on the Distress Signal audio button.

Now the crew has to solve it for real, maybe hacking the MU/TH/UR Uplink, maybe digging the override code out of the Mission Briefing doc. When they crack it, the GM starts the countdown timer with a 30-second Shutdown expiry: the quarantine lifts, the klaxon cuts out, and the terminal settles back to its normal green glow. Nobody had to narrate "the computer makes an alarm sound." The table just heard it happen.

Cloud Edition vs. Desktop Edition for Alien RPG

Both editions work for Alien RPG. The main difference is where the session is hosted: