For the first time in thirty years, Alien is returning to the world of tabletop role-playing with Alien: The Roleplaying Game! Coming to us from Free League Publishing, Alien: The Roleplaying Game will be a “beautifully illustrated full-color hardcover book, both presenting the world of ALIEN in the year 2183 and a fast and effective ruleset designed specifically to enhance the ALIEN experience.”
What’s really interesting about Alien: The RPG is that it comes with two distinct gameplay modes. One is the traditional long-form campaign based over several sessions, the other is what they’ve dubbed “Cinematic play,” a mode that is designed to help ease in players unfamiliar with RPG.
For others who may be trying roleplaying for the first time, there’s the “Cinematic” experience, a series of pre-generated storylines that can be played in a single sitting. The first one is called Chariot of the Gods, written by sci-fi author Andrew E.C. Gaska (Death of the Planet of the Apes). Härenstam compared it to the pre-made stories made for Tales From The Loop.
“We wanted to make [Alien] an approachable game. Our most successful game to-date is Tales From The Loop. Of course it’s very different from this game, but there are some similarities to how we approach it,” Härenstam said. “In [Cinematic] mode, you play scenarios with pre-generated characters and sort of a core arc. They emulate the dramatic structure of an Alien film. It’s sort of built for one-shots and shorter play.”
Alien: The Roleplaying Game will ship with the single Cinematic storyline, Chariot of the Gods, written by Andrew Gaska (who has previously joined us on the AvP Galaxy Podcast) but according to Free League co-founder Tomas Härenstam there are plans for more.
Campaign-wise, the game is set several years after the events of Alien and Alien 3 and will explore the frontier life of the Alien universe as the characters push towards the Outer Rim.
The year is 2183—little more than three years since the destruction of the Hadley’s Hope colonyon LV-426, the disappearance of the USS Sulaco, and the closing of the prison and lead works on Fiorina 161. The loss of a Sulaco’s Colonial Marine unit along with these Weyland-Yutani sponsored outposts, and the implications of corporate foul play stemming from these incidents, have created an air of distrust between the company and the United Americas.
To add fuel to the fire, conflicts between the rival sectors of space have increased exponentially in the past five years. While unconfirmed, many believe that Hadley’s Hope was a test site for one of Weyland-Yutani’s bioweapons and that an enemy state sent a warship to nuke it from orbit. Others believe that the Company is working with a rogue nation to assume control of the colonies on the Frontier.
The 2180s are a dangerous time to be alive.
You can learn more about the game in i09’s interview with the publisher’s co-founder Tomas Härenstam or by heading over to the official Alien: The Roleplaying Game website and signing up to their mailing list!
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Looking forward to reading it!
Also I noticed that the map includes a section of space controlled by the UPP (from one of the Alien3 script drafts), that's a nice touch.
https://mailchi.mp/859b692f7762/pre-orders-for-the-official-alien-roleplaying-game-start-may-25?e=8becb4d032
Some extra details:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/05/22/free-league-gearing-up-for-alien-rpg-pre-orders-with-free-cinematic-starter/
Yeah, I figured that was the case with the newsletter too.
They're viewable online too.
https://mailchi.mp/2dcd5c3c14b9/alien-rpg-news-letter-1-building-better-worlds?mc_cid=a77d7382a6&mc_eid=8becb4d032
Figured that was you, but wasn't gonna say anything.
EDIT: the number of typos/grammatical errors in those newsletters is concerning. If you've got a line to those guys, you might want to suggest they pass 'em around the office one more time before sending them out.
I really should sign up to that newsletter in which they talk about me.
Now I know what my players will be doing
There's also a map on there. Can't zoom in well but there's a couple of factions in here.
https://i.imgur.com/8ArS4XJ.jpg
This is my concern. The "cinematic" mode is actually their greatest asset and making it a very detailed thing with defined characters is a mis-step in my opinion. It'll run out of steam without support really fast.
Just speaking ahead and surmising that even with the prequel material, there isn't a lot in the way of scenarios you can throw your players into. Especially not without running through the motions of adding up tension to inevitably describe what could be the 5th or 4th "first encounter" of an alien in a campaign module.
EDIT: to expand on that, of course more experienced rpgers will have their own agendas and things. But in a freeform game, having a conflicting agenda can make you 'the jerk who got Bob's character killed', whereas in this cinematic idea, you're simply playing your part to the best of your ability, because you're supposed to.
Probably for people who not only wanna jump into this quick one-shot, but also doubly serves the purpose of revealing what this game has to offer without investing too much time into an experience that won't last the day. Maybe for some people who can't also dedicate a lot of time into the hobby due to work or family things.
I'm sure a more experienced DM can rework these stories into more filling feasts for his group but that's something else entirely.
I managed to get that sorted so I'm going to go and give this a go at UKGE.
I don't know if I'm supposed to know who that is, but it's still a great photo.
Still, I could see that mode being fun, in a 'How to Host a Murder' sort of way...
https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/irritated-man-with-hands-out-in-stop-gesture-picture-id183380336?k=6&m=183380336&s=612x612&w=0&h=oZeFGKdQUWmFQTcQtyDTYtF_cRzb3FFY-0R9h9aDcAg=
I understand why they did it, but I'll be skipping that part.
I'd love to see that, that would be a great (and appropriate) callback for long-time fans.
I spoke to Joe LeFavi last year and we talked about how things like continuity aren't much of a big deal with RPGs. You set up the setting, then whatever actual events transpire are up the game master and players. It's going to be different every time. We also talked about how they have access to everything from Prometheus to Resurrection in terms of licensing. So you can set a game or campaign at any point.
Their design, presentation and basic passion for the hobby makes me incredibly excited for this. It's an amazing coming together of my favourite movie, game publishers and one of my favourite gaming systems.
This is going to be amazing. I'm sure of it.
It's in our Downloads section: http://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Aliens-RPG-Core-Rulebook.pdf
From the mailing list, for those that haven't signed up -
Hmm, I might go lookin'... even if just for a walk down memory lane. I eBayed all my Leading Edge stuff back in '05 (probably to one of you lot
Further info says these two guys are involved with the writing:
Paul Elliott. Writer of campaign material such as system and mission generators, locations and adversaries. Designer of the awesome RPG Hostile.
Cam Banks. Editor. Cam is a veteran of the RPG industry, having led the development of numerous RPGs such as Smallville, Leverage, and Marvel Heroic.
Has anyone played these games to give some insight into them?
[EDIT: I like that, from the quote above, they appear to be defining 'xenomorph' properly as 'extraterrestrial life form' and not 'THE Giger Alien'.]
Cinematic scenarios for the ALIEN RPG will work in very much the same way as the films. But for Campaign mode, we need to flesh out the universe and present the ALIEN world of 2183 AD to you as a cohesive whole. The full game will have meaty chapters on governments, corporations, star systems, planets, colonies, and xenomorphs, as well as a beautiful star map of known space for you to explore.
That seems to be the case. What I'm wondering is how are varying degrees of difficulty accounted for? You'd be successful if you roll at least one six to hit that window. But would you also be successful if you roll at least one six to shoot a beetle at the other end of the hangar bay?
Of course, what I quoted is just some guy's summary of the rules. I'm sure lots has been left out...
So I want to shoot out a window on this space station I inhabit to launch my friends and I out the airlock because my character is so evil and nihilistic for absolutely no reason. In order to accomplish this I would use a maneuver to draw out my pistol, which I aim directly at window with and because I have a skill of four in my shooting I use an action to fire my pistol proccing me to roll 4D6 worth of Skill Dice. Outta the 4D6 of dice I roll only two are sixes which lands one attack with the additional point of damage from the extra die landing on a six. Now this is where it gets foggy for me; what happens to the dice that didn't land on a one or a six? Are they null and void unless I push them or do they apply to something else?
Also if surprise rounds don't exist in this system lets just say I won initiative.