Work is Scary

“A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies! A chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!”—Blade Runner

Building Better Worlds is the second campaign supplement for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. It is unfortunately, the last supplement for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. It is fortunately, compatible with Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Evolved Edition, just as is every other release for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. There are several ways in which Alien: The Roleplaying Game can be played. It has three themes, two modes, and three models. The three themes are Space Horror and Sci-Fi Action, combined with a Sense of Wonder, whilst the two modes are Cinematic and Campaign. Cinematic mode is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, and so emphasises high stakes, faster, more brutal play, and will be deadlier, whilst the Campaign mode is for longer, more traditional play, still brutal, if not deadly, but more survivable. Of the two, the Cinematic mode is suited to one-shots, to convention play, and as introductions to the mechanics and setting of Alien: The Roleplaying Game. The three models are Colonial Marines, essentially military missions like Aliens; Frontier Colonists—miners, prospectors, and settlers trying to survive for a better life on an all but barren planet; and Space Truckers—starship crews hauling goods and resources, as in Alien. Of the support to date, the trilogy of scenarios—Chariot of the Gods (also available in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set), Destroyer of Worlds, and Heart of Darkness—have all been in the Cinematic mode, but for different models, focusing in turn upon Space Truckers, Colonial Marines, and Scientists. Together they form a thematically connected campaign, whereas the Colonial Marines Operations Manual not only detailed the United States Colonial Marine Corps, it also provided a full campaign for the Colonial Marines model. Building Better Worlds does the same, but for Frontier Colonists and Space Truckers.

Building Better Worlds is a book that will take you out—far out—into the Alien universe to the Outer Rim Territories as far as the frontier of the Weyland Isles Sector, and then quite literally beyond, that is, ‘Beyond the 20 Parsec Limit’ where there is little hope of help or rescue if an outpost or colony gets into trouble or needs rescuing. Building Better Worlds is a book about the future of humanity and finding new worlds, living on worlds and settlements far from Earth not always best suited to colonisation, about making the lengthy journeys between them, and surviving some of the deadliest of secrets and dangers in the galaxy. With Building Better Worlds, the Game Mother can run campaigns that focus on searching for and discovering new planets—hopefully suited to settlement or exploitation, if not both; on settling, working, and developing colonies; and on transporting goods and passengers between them. It is designed to be used by both player and Game Mother and so is book of two halves. The first half includes an explanation of the fundamentals of exploration and colonisation, the colonisation timeline, a mix of governmental non-governmental organisations, guidelines to creating suitable Player Characters as well as two new careers, numerous weapons, vehicles of all types, and other equipment, and some ideas around which campaigns could be based. This half, roughly a third of the book, is for the player, whilst the longer second half is for the Game Master. That half includes two catalogues, one of the systems and colonies of the frontier, the other of the parts of the Weyland-Yutani Extrasolar Species Catalogue that Weyland-Yutani does not want you to see, ‘The Lost Worlds’, a complete sandbox campaign beyond the frontier, and the expanded means to create new worlds and colonies, and for running a colony.

The supplement opens with the facts of colonisation and space travel. That it is heroic, that it is dirty, that it is dangerous, and that it is expensive. That explorers need to be hardy and well-trained and that the pay is invariably good, whilst colonists need to be even more hardy, prepared for life on another world, and expect to be paid little, if at all. Both are likely to need to pay back for their training, though this is easier for explorers who make more income, and both exploration and colonisation expeditions are going to be funded by wealthy corporations, governments, or institutions. The history of colonisation runs from 2029 CE and the Weyland Era to the 2190s and the Black Gold Rush following the terrorist nuclear bombings of petroleum supply colonies, the Colony Wars, and the Great Mother Mission launched to contact lost colonies. However, the explanation of events is organised by category and the timeline crammed into a two-page spread, so it is difficult to get a proper feel for the flow of events.

The organisations chapter includes descriptions of positions on Scientific Exploration Vehicular (SEV) Expeditions and the Extrasolar Colonization Administration (ECA), useful as potential roles for both Player Characters and NPCs, whilst the governmental organization and corporation descriptions are a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the Seegson Corporation, United Americas, Colonial Marine Corps, Union of Progressive Peoples, and more will be familiar, expanding upon the information in both the Alien: The Roleplaying Game corebook and the Colonial Marines Operations Manual. The less familiar includes the Central Confederation of Africa, which is a minor, but rising interstellar power, and the New Albion Protectorate, a former colony located in the Weyland Isles, which seceded from the Three World Empire (3WE) and is prompting other colonies to follow suit in an effort commonly called ‘3WExit’ (you can tell that the author is British).

In terms of character options, Building Better World offers two new Careers as well as discussing how the different Careers from Alien: The Roleplaying Game can find their way onto exploration missions and colonisations expeditions and why they might join both, along with a table of possible personal agendas, which is very good. Each is also given two new Frontier Talents and two items of Frontier Gear. For example, the Frontier Talents for the Colonial Marshal are ‘Menacing’ and ‘Tough’, whilst the items of Frontier Gear are a ‘Bounty hunter/Investigator licence’ or ‘Handcuffs’. The two new Careers are the Wildcatter and the Entertainer. The Wildcatter is a prospector or surveyor who explores new worlds looking for resources or suitable sites for colonisation. The Entertainer is suggested as being a performer, croupier, unofficial club owner, waiter, barkeep, or other profession, which is less useful for most campaigns. It would need a static set-up—a base or a colony or a space station—to be a logical character option, and when things go sideways as they should, would also be the basis for a replacement Player Character.

There is a good selection of new gear and ships which can be found all across the frontier and beyond. New weapons, armour and suits, other equipment, vehicles, and spacecraft. The other equipment ranges from items as simple as a Folding Spade and Digging Fork (which of course, can be sued as a weapon) and as complex as the ‘Omni-Tech SDDG Sonic Deterrent Defence Grid’ designed to deter indigenous wildlife and pests from getting inside a perimeter. It is effective against humans though, inducing stress. The vehicles are typically large, multi-wheeled, and rugged, the COBB-C/D ‘Grasshopper Multivector Helijet’ an exception. The spaceships include the Lockmart Model 439SL Class 7 Excavator which has a heavy mining drill in its prow; the Weyland Heliades-Class, the first FTL-capable spacecraft; and colony vessels such as the Lockmart Model TB22C Borrowdale Class Transfer Vehicle and W-Y Model CY78.3 Affiance-Class U Colony Ship.

Surprisingly, the advice and suggestions for campaigns is in the half of Building Better Worlds for the player rather than in the section for the Game Mother. There are rules for surviving new environmental conditions, but the most interesting content here is the discussion of campaign types, set-ups, and expedition types. There are some colony classifications described too, including the ‘Shake and Bake’, ‘Extra Crispy’, ‘Giffy Popped’, and ‘Armed and Hammered’, that will give certain colonies similar feels. The two types of campaign discussed are Explorer and Colony Campaigns and together with the list of potential expedition types, such as supply and cargo runs, salvage ops, prospecting, scientific field-trips, and more, gives the Game Mother a decent range of ideas around which to base campaigns and plots. These are solid prompts, but as much they give the Game Mother some good starting points, the reader is left wanting more as each is worthy of further expansion and discussion.

For the Game Master, Building Better Worlds is also broken into two halves, one more general in nature, the other specific to the campaign, ‘The Lost Worlds’. The more general half begins with details of eighteen new systems located in the Outer Rim Territories, the Frontier, and Beyond the 20 Parsec Limit. Each has a description that gives its history and current status, plus list of stats and details that includes affiliation, classification, climate and temperature, terrain, notable colonies, population, and key resources. There are no hooks given so the Game Mother will need to work hard to develop these into fuller adventure locations with reasons why anyone would visit them. At half a page, they are underwritten and perhaps point towards the need for a world guide for Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Evolved Edition.

The second section is the ‘Weyland-Yutani Extrasolar Species Catalogue’. From Abominations and Fulfremmen (Perfected) to Protomorphs and and Xenomorphs, this is an expanded bestiary of your worst nightmares that nobody wants to meet and this being for Alien: The Roleplaying Game, unfortunately will. Many of these have been taken from the film Prometheus and the cinematic scenario, Heart of Darkness. Some also appear in the campaign that follows, but this still expands the options available to the Game Mother wanting to surprise and unnerve her players and their characters.

The second half of the section for the Game Mother is ‘The Lost Worlds’, a campaign that takes up just under half of Building Better Worlds. It builds off the timeline given earlier and set in the 2190s, concerns the Great Mother Mission. This is a combined multi-national, multi-corporation humanitarian, recontact, and recolonisation expedition launched by the United Nations Interstellar Settlement Corps to discover what happened to the settlements and peoples of the Far Spinward Colonies following their isolation from the Outer Rim due to a series of massive solar ejections, gamma bursts, and waves of radiation. It has been seventy-five years since contact was lost and numerous vested interests want to know what has happened to the millions of people who settled the region. There is even hope that if successful, the Great Mother Mission will serve as an example of co-operation and goodwill in the face of increased hostilities between the United Americas and the Union of Progressive Peoples. Of course, the expedition is rife with tensions and issues, both political and corporate, and these will drive the actions of the expedition members NPCs for much of the campaign and influence those of the Player Characters too.

The Player Characters are members of the expedition assigned to the UNCSS Solovetsky Island, one of Great Mother Mission’s four Magellan-class J Science Exploration Vessels (SEV). They can take just about any role about ship, but need to be free to conduct planet-based missions too. Otherwise, the players have a lot of freedom in terms of what characters they can create and roleplay. The campaign consists of seven chapters or expeditions, the first six of which can be played in any order as a sandbox, the completion of each one reward the players and their characters with another piece of the campaign’s metapuzzle, whilst the seventh serves as the campaign’s finale. Alternatively, they can be run as one-shots, but that would negate the tension and mystery that builds as the campaign progresses. The lose structure of the campaign also means that the Game Master has room to create her own scenarios set on other worlds in the Far Spinward Colonies. She may want to do that to have her Player Characters discover what happened to the other colonies that were not necessarily affected by the campaign’s emerging threat. The campaign includes a Session Zero for set-up and guidance on how to handle downtime scenes between the expeditions, as well as list of events that can occur as necessary or because of the Player Characters’ actions.

Over the course of the campaign, the Player Characters will visit colonies riven by a family feud, divided into extreme haves and have-nots, on the edge of insurrection, and seemingly empty bar strict automation. They will also conduct a search and rescue mission for a lost expedition vessel and even help set up and run a colony. The latter makes use of the colony creation and operation rules and advice in the supplement’s appendix which also include expanded rules for creating star systems and planets. Structurally, since ‘The Lost Worlds’ can be played in any order, it does lack a sense of space or urgency as written. Rather urgency is going to build from the narrative and the discoveries that the Player Characters make as opposed to inbuilt timing mechanism. Thus, by the end of the sixth part of the campaign, the Player Characters will have uncovered, even encountered, and hopefully understood the nature of a threat to not just the Far Spinward Colonies, but all of occupied space. Again and again, the Player Characters will find signs of ‘alien’ activity and even be confronted by it, but where in a Cinematic scenario, the objectives are simply survival and escape, here they are also to learn and wonder at some the secrets that the campaign will reveal.

Building Better Worlds does feel as if it should be two books, one focusing on its themes of colonisation and exploration, the other on its campaign. Perhaps as two books, the one devoted to colonisation and exploration would have had more room for colonies of the Alien universe to be expanded upon and detailed. Plus, ‘The Lost Worlds’ is more of a re-exploratory campaign than an exploratory campaign and were it not for the expedition where the Player Characters get to set up and run a colony, that part of the supplement would have been ignored. However, this does not mean that as just the one book, Building Better Worlds is a bad book by any stretch of the imagination.

Physically, Building Better Worlds is a great looking book. It is well written and the artwork is as excellent as you would expect for the line. As with other books for Alien: The Roleplaying Game, the layout is fairly open and thus easier to read. Being for the first edition of the roleplaying game, it still uses the black background that some readers have an issue with.

Building Better Worlds expands Alien: The Roleplaying Game—and consequently Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Evolved Edition—with a wealth of options, campaign ideas and playstyles, threats and other dangers, that all together open the possibilities of the roleplaying game’s Campaign mode and the Frontier Colonist campaign model. It then showcases them with a great campaign that delivers an escalating combination of horror and hubris.

Edge of the Abyss

Heart of Darkness brings to close the trilogy of scenarios for Alien: The Roleplaying Game begun with Chariot of the Gods—also available in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, and continued with Destroyer of Worlds. Like the other two, Heart of Darkness shares the same mode of play, but differs in terms of its campaign model. Thus, it is written for the roleplaying game’s Cinematic mode, and so is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, emphasising high stakes situations, faster, more brutal play, and deadly encounters. However, where the campaign model for Chariot of the Gods is that of Space Truckers—star ship crews hauling goods and resources, as in Alien, and the campaign model for Destroyer of Worlds is that of Colonial Marines, essentially military missions like Aliens, the campaign model for Heart of Darkness is that of Scientists. This though, has no direct parallel with just the one film in the Alien franchise, but parallels in tone and setting can be made with both Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Further, as with the other scenarios, Heart of Darkness can be run as a standalone adventure, as what connects the three is their overall backstory, that of the evolution and development of the Xenomorph and in particular, the 26 Draconis Strain, and the consequences of mankind’s encounters with it and its corporations’ willingness to investigate it and desire to weaponise it in pursuit of profit. Those threads come to a head in Heart of Darkness.

Heart of Darkness—published by Free League Publishing—begins with the arrival an international scientific team at Erebos, a plasma trawling rig and platform stationed in in the Draconis 26 system in orbit above Ablassen Black Hole. Here the few science staff of the appropriately named station has discovered what could be a Xeno-extremophile, a new form of proto-plasmic organism found living in the accretion disc of the singularity. As the members of the scientific team, the Player Characters are to analyse and catalogue the new life form and return it for study, with promises of great rewards and recognition and payment upon completion of the assignment—a book deal, a corporate department head position, promise of tenure, and more. Erebos is no science station though, but a penal workstation whose prisoners have had their sentences purchased by Weyland-Yutani and been made to work operating the energy collection systems which siphon off the power of the black’s whirling, gyrating discordance of plasma and store it in giant batteries for shipment elsewhere. The conditions are hellish, not least because working so close to a black hole not only triggers, but accelerates Neurological Distortion Disorder—or NDD—the condition caused by exposure to Faster Than Light travel when not in cryosleep. This can cause paranoia and loss of memory, and underlies some of the challenges that the Player Characters will discover aboard the Erebos and the challenges that they will have to overcome in dealing with the situation aboard the station. If exposure to and analysis of the Draconis 26 Strain and its effects aboard the station underlie the physical horror of Heart of Darkness, then the effects of NDD exacerbate both its mental horror and the likely tensions between the Player Characters, who of course, have their own Agendas and the Player Characters and the NPCs who have no reason to trust each other.

However, when the Player Characters do arrive at Erebos, aboard the USCSS Cetorhina, a commercial plasma harvester/tanker, it is clear that there is something wrong. The station has been hit by meteors and is severely damaged, as evidenced by much it being dark. Worse is to come as when the ship attempts to dock, sudden gravitational shear from the black hole forces it to crash into the station. It is going to need repairs if it is going to leave the system, but before that, the Player Characters must find out what is going on aboard the heavily damaged station. Erebos is in complete disarray. There are sections which are open to space, others infested with some kind of biomechanical encrustation, and the survivors have divided into factions led by the station commander and one of the prisoners. Plus strange creatures lurk and stalk the corridors and rooms of the station, especially those encrusted by the biomechanical infestation. Not least of which is Adrien, the station’s emotional support tuxedo cat, who can even become a replacement Player Character should one of them die during the events of the scenario.

The emphasis in Heart of Darkness is on interaction and exploration. The Player Characters will need to explore much of Erebos in order to discover what has happened to it as well as find what the Xeno-extremophile file and whether it represents a threat or not. They will need to interest with the factions aboard the station too, both of which have their agendas and will want to recruit the Player Characters to their cause—or at least persuade them not to ally with the other faction. In addition there is another faction aboard the Erebos, which has its own very radical agenda and which very much wants the help of the Player Characters. There are greater consequences for helping—and indeed, not helping—this faction, than for getting involved in the other two factions and what they want. Indeed, their agendas are almost parochial by nature.

Then there is the interaction between the Player Characters. The seven include a Synthetic Psychologist who understands but cannot feel emotions, a radiobiologist with a calming manner, a very methodical biochemist, a close protection operative, a space sciences specialist on long term cultural exchange from the Union of Progressive Peoples, a biotechnologist with a prison tattoo, and the captain of the USCSS Cetorhina looking for a missing relative. Each has their own character sheet and a set of agenda cards which come into play as they arrive at the station and progress through the three acts of the scenario. As they are revealed to their respective characters and their players, they will begin to pull both apart as they attempt to fulfill competing objectives.

There is an undoubted fantastical scale to Heart of Darkness, its action and rivalries literally taking place under a baleful eye of destruction, but this is not an easy scenario to run. There is a lot going on, both in terms of the Player Characters’ agendas and the agendas of the other factions. The Player Characters have a lot of information to discover—and whilst it really is great that as scientists, the Player Characters will be making discoveries—a lot of that information could have been better presented, not just for the players, but also for the Game Mother to help her impart that information. A lot of the information—for example, the situation aboard the Erebos and its staff and penal-workers, some of the initially secret records which can be discovered later—could all have been presented as easy handouts to help the players and their characters more clearly understand the situation and react to it. Ideally, the Game Mother is going to have prepare these and similar handouts for her players, but they are not going to be as good as those included in the boxed set. Similarly, handouts with images of the NPCs, the aliens that the Player Characters will encounter, and even what they see when aboard the Erebos and elsewhere, all would have been useful. In fact, much of this is not illustrated in the book and exacerbates the difficulty of the Game Mother’s task in relaying what their characters can see to their players.

One aside to note is the inclusion of Adrien of the station’s cat. It adds a lightness of touch, even a comedic one, but his presence has the potential to become a distraction. Ultimately, the play of Heart of Darkness could become more about the damned cat and his survival rather than the resolution of the scenario.

Physically, Heart of Darkness comes in a well presented box. Inside is the scenario book, a large, thirty-four by twenty-two inches double-sided poster map of the Erebos plasma trawling space station, seven pre-generated Player Characters and their sheets, thirty-eight cards, deckplans of the USCSS Cetorhin and more, and four handouts. The thirty-eight cards consist of thirteen Story Cards, twenty-one Personal Agenda Cards, and four Equipment Cards. The Story cards are similar to the Personal Agenda cards, but reveal secret aspects of their particular Player Characters which again will affect their motivations and also drive the scenario’s plot further forward. The scenario book itself is organised into a set-up and explanation of the background, a description of 26 Draconis system, the various NPCs, and the Erebos station, the three acts of the scenario, and descriptions of the aliens infesting the station and pursuing their own objectives. Notably absent is the Xenomorph of Alien fame, instead the Player Characters in Heart of Darkness will be confronted with the squid-baby, the giant trilobite, and the deacon from Prometheus and an interesting evolution of the abominations from Chariot of the Gods, the first scenario in the trilogy. Of course, they are all dangerous, but with a great deal of care many of them can be skirted around. The second and third appendices of the book detail the new weapons, items of equipment, and spaceships which appear in the scenario.

Heart of Darkness is another great scenario for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Like the other scenarios in the trilogy—especially Destroyer of Worlds—it has a lot of moving parts, but fortunately it does not overwhelm the Game Mother with too many Xenomorphs. If the tone and scale of Destroyer of Worlds was an action horror film, Heart of Darkness is existential in nature, a story of scientific hubris and horror, played out against a fantastic background that literally looms over the Player Characters and threatens to send them mad. Although it requires more preparation than it really should, Heart of Darkness brings Free League Publishing’s trilogy of scenarios for Alien: The Roleplaying Game to a fantastically frightening conclusion.

Miskatonic Monday #131: Contact

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: Contact

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Cameron Tressler

Setting: Modern Day Texas

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Nine page, 1.42 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Modern Myth & Mythos collide

Plot Hook: Missing persons case reveals a terrible truth behind a belief.
Plot Support: Three NPCs and a Mythos monster

Production Values: Plain.

Pros

# Straightforward, modern day investigation. 

# Easy to adapt to other locations

# Potential modern day campaign starter

# Suitable for convention play

# Has the feel of a television series episode

# Dramatic finale

# Potential X-Files-style (Delta Green) investigation

Cons

# Underwhelming scenario hook

# Has the feel of a television series episode

# Familiar plot for experienced Investigators/players

# Needs a slight edit

Conclusion

# Straightforward, modern day investigation which will be too obvious for experienced Investigators and their players.

# Solid, introductory X-Files-style one-shot which would work as a convention scenario or even a campaign starter.

Friday Filler: ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo

ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is the meeting of two trends. One is the development of games based on the Alien Universe, best typified by the Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps and Alien: The Roleplaying Game. The other is the revisitation of older intellectual properties using modern game design and in the process create a playing experience that is true to the source material and far superior to anything which could have been done when those intellectual properties first appeared. Further, in the case of ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo has been designed to be played by both a general board gaming audience and a fan audience. This is also the same with board games such as Jaws: A Boardgame of Strategy and Suspense and Horrified, and together the three also share a publisher, Ravensburger, and a play style in that they are co-operative board games.

Another interesting aspect of ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is that it is based upon Alien, the first film in the franchise, rather than on Aliens, which is the second. Aliens has been the property of choice to base a game, whether roleplaying game or board game or computer game. This is because Aliens combines action and horror, so that whilst the Xenomorphs are bent either grabbing their victims ready for implantation of eggs by the Facehuggers or simply ripping them apart, the protagonists and thus the players are armed and can fight back. As scary as Aliens is, it is not a subtle film in comparison to Alien where the atmosphere is one of isolation and of being hunted by something unknown, something alien, and something unstoppable. This is what ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo has to capture in its play style.

ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is a co-operative game designed for one to five players, aged fourteen and up. They take the role of the crew of the USCSS Nostromo—Captain Dallas, Warrant Officer Ripley, Chief Engineer Parker, Engineering Technician Brett, and Navigation Officer Lambert—who must survive the invasion of their ship by a hostile alien long enough to perform a number of Objectives before performing one final Objective and successfully abandoning her. At all times, as they move around the Nostromo, they are stalked down its corridors and through its various areas by the creature, constantly thwarting the crewmembers’ efforts and effectively demoralising them. If the crew can complete both its assigned Objectives and the final Objective, the players will win the game, but if the morale of the crew is reduced to zero, the Alien wins and the players lose…

Open up the box for ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo and the very first thing you see is a painting of Jones the Cat, frightened and hissing at something behind you. This is on the back of the board and so adds nothing to game play, but it is a great touch and adds to the atmosphere of the game if not its game play. Open up the board itself and it depicts the decks and rooms of the Nostromo connected by corridors and ladders. One of these, at the bottom of the spaceship, is the Nest where the Alien begins play, but look closely and there are some nice touches, such as the streaks of blood leading away from the table where the Chestburster burst out of Kane in the Galley and the holes in the floor burned by the Facehugger’s blood in both the Med Bay and the Lower Deck. The playing pieces of the crew—Dallas, Ripley, Brett, Parker, and Lambert, as well as the Alien—are decent depictions of the characters, such that Brett is actually smoking and you can imagine him saying, “Right, right…” and agreeing with Parker.

The other components consist of the eight-page rule book, five Crew Boards—one for each of the crew, five Player Reference Cards, a Morale Marker, thirty-six cards (twenty-one Encounter Cards, ten Objective Cards, and five Final Mission Cards), a Self-Destruct Track, fifty-five tokens (twenty Scrap Tokens, twelve Item Tokens, six Coolant Canister Tokens, six Concealed Tokens, a Self-Destruct Token, and four Countdown Tokens), and markers for both Morale and Ash, the Nostromo’s android Science Officer. All of these are of a good quality with fully painted artwork which really captures the feel of the film, the Nostromo, the Crew, and the Alien. Those of the crew on their Crew Boards are particularly good.

ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is quick and easy to set-up—and the rulebook takes the player through this step by step. The Alien begins in the Nest, the Crew in the Galley, Scrap, Coolant Canister, and Concealed Tokens are distributed throughout the ship, several random Objective Cards are revealed—equal to the number of players plus one, and a Final Mission Card is drawn and placed face down. It is only revealed when all of the Objectives have been completed. To complete an Objective, the Crew must bring particular Items to locations around the Nostromo. For example, ‘Where is it?’ directs the Crew to bring a Flashlight to the Med Bay and ‘Crew Meeting’ directs all of the Crew to assemble in the Galley with at least one piece of Scrap each. Scrap is a vital resource throughout the game because it is used to Craft Items such as a Motion Detector, Flashlight, Grapple Gun, the Cat Carrier, and so on. Many of the items have limited use and so may need to be manufactured more than once! The Final Mission Cards typically have several objectives, for example, ‘Escape on the Narcissus’ requires the Crew to take Coolant Canisters to the Docking Bay, have the Cat Carrier and Incinerator in their inventories, and then all assemble in the Docking Bay.

Each player’s turn consists of a Crew Action Phase and an Encounter Phase. In the Crew Action Phase, the Crewmember expends Action Points to move, pick up or drop Items or Scrap, Craft or Use Items, and Trade Items and Scrap with fellow Crewmembers. The Crew possess between three and five Action Points as well as a Special Ability. Ripley has four Action Points and can spend one to move another Crewmember one space; Dallas simply has five Action Points; Brett has three and reduces the Scrap coast when crafting Items; Parker has four and can spend one to add one Scrap to his Inventory from the pile beside the board rather than from the board; and Lambert has four and can spend one to examine the top card of the Encounter Deck and place it at the bottom of the deck.

The danger of movement is that the Crewmember will come across a Concealed Token. When revealed, this might be nothing and the Crewmember will be safe, it might be Jones the Cat who hisses at them and decreases Morale, or it might be the Alien in a Surprise Attack, who immediately moves to that location. The Crewmember then flees from that location and the player’s turn ends and there is no Encounter Phase.

If a Crewmember survives long enough to end the Crew Action Phase, the Encounter Phase takes place. An Encounter Card is drawn. Each indicates how many spaces the Alien must move towards the nearest Crewmember, how much Morale damage is inflicted if it encounters a Crewmember, and where new Scrap and Concealed Tokens should be placed, if any. As with a Surprise Attack Concealed Token, when the Alien encounters the Crewmember must flee three spaces, and whether fleeing from the Alien as the result of an encounter in the Encounter Phase or a Surprise attack, if the Crewmember runs across another Concealed Token, that too must be revealed. If that is another Surprise Attack, the Alien catches up with the Crewmember, who is forced to flee again, and so on and so on as the Alien stalks them through the bowels of the ship!

Throughout the game, the Items become really important as they provide the Crewmembers with an advantage, if only temporarily. The Motion Detector is used to reveal nearby Concealed Tokens, the Incinerator to drive the Alien back to its Nest, the Flashlight to reduce Morale loss, the Grapple Gun to drive off the Alien, and the Cat Carrier to contain Jones the Cat and stop him jumping out and scaring the Crewmembers when Concealed Tokens are revealed.

In addition to the standard game ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo can be played solo and the challenge that the Crewmembers and their players face be made more difficult. Solo play is little different to the standard game except that some of the Final Missions are excluded, whilst the game is made more difficult with the ‘I can’t lie about your chances’ option, which adds the Science Officer and android Ash to the game. Ideally, solo play should be done with more than one Crewmember as this gives the player more options in terms of their Special Abilities, whilst when Ash is in play, he constantly confronts the Crewmembers, forcing them to drop Scrap or reduce Morale. He also picks up Scrap as he moves around the Nostromo. The lack of Scrap will make Crafting Items all the more difficult and thus Objectives harder to fulfil.

There is no denying the strength of the theme in ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo and how it affects play. The tension never lets up, there is the constant chance of the Alien turning up, or Jones the Cat leaping out and frightening the Crewmembers, and yet… ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is perfectly playable and an enjoyable game to play, but it has a couple of issues. One is that it never fully follows through on its theme, which is that of something stalking the Crew Members throughout the Nostromo and killing them off a la Ten Little Indians. Nobody though, in ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo the Alien does not kill anyone, instead its victims just flee and become further demoralised. Thus the ardent fan could complain that ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is not a true reflection of Alien at all, but would a true reflection actually be fun to play? Probably not, because Crewmember elimination would mean player elimination and not only make the game’s winning conditions harder to achieve, but also not fun for the players whose Crew Members have been eliminated. Then there is the audience to take into account because ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is designed for a family audience and a teenage audience, and a bloody horror game is not necessarily suitable for either.

This does not mean that the game ignores fans of the film. What it does mean is that the family can play this game without getting too horrified by the absentee blood or the missing gore, whilst the fans of the film can enjoy the still strong theme of game—especially in its look—as well as have chance to roleplay and table talk their Crew Members as much as they want and throw in as many of the quotes from Alien that fit.

As much fun as encountering and fleeing from the Alien is in ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo, the actual Objectives, all ‘pick-up and deliver’ tasks are underwhelming and feel more like the means to hold off the actions of the Crewmembers until such times as they can tackle the Final Mission. And whilst each of the Final Missions does actually feel thematic, their phrasing is not always clear in meaning. What this means is that the players do need to make more of an effort to buy into the game—not much extra effort, but some…

ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo is a solid, decently thematic lighter co-operative game. It takes a heavy horror theme and tone and builds as much of that as it can into a game that is suitable for the family. That is quite an achievement.

Frontier of Fear

If Alien: The Roleplaying Game is missing anything, it is two things. First, further details of the United States Colonial Marine Corps, what it is, what it does, what equipment it fields across space, and more, since after all, the marines feature so prominently in Aliens, the second of the two films to fundamentally inform and inspire the Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Second, it does not have an example of its Campaign mode of play. Alien: The Roleplaying Game is designed to be played in two different modes, Cinematic and Campaign. Cinematic mode is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, and so emphasises high stakes, faster, more brutal play, and will be deadlier, whilst the Campaign mode is for longer, more traditional play, still brutal, if not deadly, but more survivable. To date, the only scenarios available for Alien: The Roleplaying Game—Chariot of the Gods (also found in the Alien Starter Set) and Destroyer of Worlds, are written for the Cinematic mode. All that changes with Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Colonial Marines Operations Manual.

The Colonial Marines Operations Manual is in effect, two books in one. The first book details the history and organisation of the USCMC, its equipment, the various forces which serve alongside it and against it, and the opposing forces’ equipment, and lastly, expanded USCMC marine creation. The history runs form the Weyland era through the foundation of the USCMC as part of the United States’ response to increased rivalries for resources and territory on the frontier, through police actions to free the near human Acturans from Chinese/Asian Nations Cooperative and later Dog War against the Chinese/Asian Nations Cooperative when it is revealed that it is stockpiling and testing biological weapons, the Oil Wars which stem from the hunt for more petroleum resources, and the more recent Frontier War between the United Americas and the Union of Progressive People spurred on by colonial unrest and rebellion on both sides of the border. There is much more going on than this, much of which will be revealed in the full campaign and all over the new biological weaponry—what it is, how it can be used, and what it really means. Both timeline and history greatly expand upon that given in Alien: The Roleplaying Game, almost too much so given the wealth of detail and in places, the wealth of acronyms!

The organisation of the USCMC runs from top to bottom, from its three Marine Space Forces which together protect the Core Systems and the frontier worlds, but much like the campaign to follow, it focuses upon the organisation at the platoon, section, squad, and fireteam levels. This is at the very personal level, the level at which the players will be roleplaying, that is they will be roleplaying members of a fireteam, a squad, a section, and thus a platoon. Other allied organisations, such as United States Aerospace Force and the Latin American Colonial Navy are covered, but not described in detail, as are those of other governments and organisations, such as the Royal Marine Commandos of the Three World Empire, the Space Operating Forces of the Union of Progressive People, and the Weyland-Yutani Commandos. Combined with the extensive list of the equipment, ranging from the VP-70MA6 pistol, Norcomm RPG122 Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher, and Weyland-Yutani NSG23 Assault Rifle to the Alphatech XT-37 Stinger 4×4Fast Assault Vehicle, MI-220 Krokodil Series Armoured Dropship, and the VP-153D Kremlin Class Hunter-Destroyer, the Game Mother has a wealth of material with which to arm and equip not only the Player Character marines, much of it mundane—like jungle boots or BiMex personal shades, but also the forces opposing them too. With a little effort, an inventive Game Mother could even use this material and switch things around so that a scenario or even a campaign could be run with the Player Characters as soldiers serving the Three World Empire or the Union of Progressive People, for example.

In terms of USCMC characters, Colonial Marines Operations Manual expands the number of Military Occupational Speciality options. These include AFV (Armoured Fighting Vehicle) Marine, Assault Marine (Breacher), Automatic Rifleman (Smartgunner), Comtech Marine, CBRN (Chemical Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) Marine, Dedicated Marksman, Dropship Crew, Hospital Corpsman, Forward Observer, and Rifleman. They all have their own Talent options, and there are five new Talents included, such as Bypass for jury-rigging your past locked doors or Hug the Dirt for making the maximum use of cover during a firefight. Marine Player Character creation follows the rules as per the core rules for the Alien: The Roleplaying Game, but with the addition of the Military Occupational Speciality options and Field Events tables for Enlisted, NCO, and Pilot and Crew Chief Marines.

Name: Lance Corporal Mandip ‘Drone’ Nogueira
Career: USCMC Marine
Military Occupational Speciality: Comtech
Appearance: Short, tidy hair
Personal Agenda: The death of your buddy has spooked you—now you secretly fear combat and confrontation. You need to overcome your fear.
Event: In a protracted bug hunt, you ran out of ammo and had to go hand-to-hand with an entrenching tool.
Gear: M41A Pulse Rifle, Seegson System Diagnostic Device, Entrenching Tool

Stress Level: 0
Health: 3

Strength 3 Agility 3 Wits 5 Empathy 3

Talent: Remote

Skills
Close Combat 1, Comtech 3, Mobility 1, Observation 2, Ranged Combat 2, Stamina 1, Survival 1

Throughout both background to the USCMC and the campaign, the central idea is that the life of the average marine is tough and often dangerously exciting. Sure, a recruit gets taken off his rockball of a colony home world with its badly smelling atmosphere, trained to serve, given a big gun with lots of bullets, fed and watered whilst sending a paycheque home to mum and dad, but… That marine and his platoon is going to get sent to one hellhole after another, shot at (and worse) by insurrectionists, fanatics, and soldiers from other governments, run into environments which will kill him, go on bug hunts against creatures which will kill him (and no, that really does not mean Xenomorphs), and more. And when that is not happening, spend years in hypersleep as his family gets old and he effectively does not. All this is the ‘horror’ which the marine has to deal with on a mostly daily basis, but there is worse… Not just the Xenomorphs and their numerous variants, which are terrifying enough, but there is the horror of just what those in power (and sometimes not) will do to obtain, understand, and ultimately weaponise the Xenomorphs and their numerous variants according to their own agenda. That is the basis for ‘The Frontier War’ campaign in Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Colonial Marines Operations Manual.

The Alien: The Roleplaying Game has already seen a scenario which combines its Cinematic mode with its Colonial Marines model—Destroyer of Worlds, and that scenario serves two purposes as far the ‘The Frontier War’ campaign. Most obviously, the two contrast each other, Destroyer of Worlds throwing danger after threat in an unrelenting torrent that drives a desperate race for survival, whereas ‘The Frontier War’ plays outs its threats and dangers enabling the Game Mother to ratchet up the tension over months of play rather than a few sessions. It also enables the Game Mother to eke out the paranoia and the fear of the unknown, and gives room for the players and their characters to try and work just what is going on, whereas in Cinematic mode, there is an obvious immediacy. Destroyer of Worlds can also serve as a prequel to ‘The Frontier War’, foreshadowing many of the events to come during the course of the campaign. This is not necessarily as a direct prequel, that is, the Player Character survivors of Destroyer of Worlds should not be played in ‘The Frontier War’. Rather, the terrible knowledge and experiences gained by the survivors from Kruger 60 AEM can serve as a source of rumours and horrifying tales for the Player Characters of the new campaign, and so give them a sense of foreboding. That said, Destroyer of Worlds could not be played after ‘The Frontier War’ since the pair share a lot of background and secrets.

The campaign assumes that the Player Characters are assigned to Kilo Company of the 33rd Marine Assault Unit and stationed aboard the USS Tamb’ltam, a Conestoga-class troop transport/light assault starship. The ship is fully detailed, but only a few members of Kilo Company are, providing a number of NPCs that can also be used as ready-to-play pre-generated replacement Player Characters, whilst still providing scope for the players to create their replacements as necessary and the story allows. Further, the Player Characters are all assigned to the same squad, so the campaign is ideally suited for four Player Characters, perhaps five at most. Just as the film Aliens, the Player Characters are grunts—marine privates and NCOs—and whilst not technically in command, ‘The Frontier War’ is written to ensure that they have a high degree of autonomy. This is at odds with the typical chain of command you would expect of the genre, but in terms of play, it provides several benefits. It places the Player Characters at the centre of the action, even if accompanied by fellow military forces, and rather than have their overly beholden to that chain of command, the players can influence the direction in which the campaign goes and thus enjoy it more.

In addition to the advice for Game Mother on how to run the campaign, ‘The Frontier War’ includes a wealth of background on the frontier and border regions where it takes place and on the numerous factions involved in the events of the campaign and both their secrets and their motivations. At times it feels like too much, but the Game Mother will need to read and understand it as part of her preparation to run the campaign. The campaign itself consists of seven parts; six missions followed by a seventh part which provides a finale to the campaign. The six parts can be played in any order, as directed by the events and the players. In turn, they will see the Player Characters sent to rescue survivors of a crashed hospital ship, respond to a terrorist hostage situation on the only world where humanity has encountered an extra-terrestrial intelligent species, investigate a testing facility in Union of Progressive People space which might be linked to the Border Bombings first seen during the events of Destroyer of Worlds, mount a rescue mission on a world about to be invaded by Union of Progressive People forces, investigate an isolated station which could be the source of strange signals, evacuate survivors from a world following a mining accident, and… All seven of the missions are highly detailed, with detailed maps, floorplans, and deck plans, suggestions as to possible random events, and alternative uses, that is, how to use the content in the mission elsewhere (potentially meaning that the Game Mother could simply run each of the missions separately, but that would mean ignoring the scope of ‘The Frontier War’ campaign). Lastly, they all have ‘Metapuzzle Pieces’ which represent Epiphanies—or major clues to the campaign’s overarching plot—that the Player Characters can discover during the course of mission, and as they collect more and more, begin to work out what is going on…

In addition to the main campaign itself, sixteen mission types, such as combat patrol, peacekeeping, and snatch and grab, are also detailed. These are intended to be developed and run by the Game Mother herself in between the parts of the main campaign, not only to extend its play, but also to highlight how the will not necessarily be the main focus of the Player Characters and their commanding officers all the time. There is advice on how to bring elements of the actual campaign into those missions as necessary and there is a guide too for handling downtime for the Player Characters between missions.

Physically, Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Colonial Marines Operations Manual is as good as you would expect it to be for the line. The writing is excellent, often in tone that you imagine a fellow member of the USCMC might use, and as much as it develops the Alien Universe as somewhere to roleplay, there are one or two nods beyond its franchise too, such as Blade Runner and Outland, if the reader knows what to look for. The book looks fantastic with great artwork—though not as much and a lot of it different in tone to that of the core rulebook, perhaps more heroic, but definitely more militaristic—than the other books for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. As with other books, the layout is fairly open, so that it does not feel as dense a book as this normally might. It also means that it is much easier to read. However, the lack of an index is major omission, especially given that this is a campaign and the Game Mother will need to study the book carefully to fully grasp what is going on in the campaign. A lesser issue is the lack of a list of acronyms, which really would have helped with reading both through the general history and the background to the campaign.

One main issue in coming to understand both the scope of ‘The Frontier War’ and the scope of the history presented at the start of the supplement, is that it is difficult to grasp the astrography of the campaign’s setting and how the various stars and their planets relate to each other. The star charts feel just too small to be effective, so perhaps the Game Mother might want to develop some star charts that she can have out on the table ready to show where the Player Characters are going and where the frontier and political borders are.

As two books in one, the good news is that Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Colonial Marines Operations Manual does both of them very well. What is effectively the first book, widens the scope of what is possible in running a campaign or scenario based around the USCMC, not just in terms of types of marines the players can roleplay and missions they can undertake, but also the enemies they might face in doing so. And that is in addition to the material which also develops the Alien Universe, both this first part of the book and the campaign that follows it. Then with the second book, Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Colonial Marines Operations Manual delivers the three themes of Alien: The Roleplaying Game—Space Horror, Sci-Fi Action, and a Sense of Wonder, in a horrifically good, desperately deadly (but not too deadly), and epically grand military-conspiracy horror campaign. If you still think that the Alien: The Roleplaying Game is just good for one-shots in its Cinematic mode, think again; Alien: The Roleplaying Game – Colonial Marines Operations Manual is proof that the Campaign mode for Alien: The Roleplaying Game is not just workable, but will provide months’ worth of military horror gaming.

Elevator Straight From Hell

Destroyer of Worlds is a scenario for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Like Chariot of the Gods—also available in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, it shares the same mode of play, but differs in terms of its campaign model. Thus, it is written for the roleplaying game’s Cinematic mode, and so is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, emphasising high stakes situations, faster, more brutal play, and deadly encounters. However, where the campaign model for Chariot of the Gods is that of Space Truckers—star ship crews hauling goods and resources, as in Alien, the campaign model for Destroyer of Worlds is that of Colonial Marines, essentially military missions like Aliens. In Destroyer of Worlds then, the Player Characters get to face off against Xenomorphs as armed and dangerous marines, as they engage in a deadly manhunt on a near-abandoned colony world rife with intrigue and insurrection, just as war breaks out in orbit above. As the situation deteriorates around them, the Player Characters will find themselves the unfortunate victims of corporate, military, and interstellar politics, as something worse than their nightmares chases them off world…

The background for Destroyer of Worlds is the Oil Wars between the United Americas (UA), the Three World Empire, and the Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP), the race to locate fresh sources of petroleum which would keep their respective industries and militaries supplied. Thus, the strategic importance of petroleum-rich worlds has grown and grown over the years, with those close to national borders also creating severe tensions. One such world is the Ariarcus colony on Kruger 60 AEM. Located in the Outer Veil in United Americas space close to the border with the Union of Progressive Peoples, for decades the Ariarcus colony has proven its worth as a strategic source of oil, such that when the colonists were found selling oil to the UPP, the colony was seized as an asset and militarised, with units from both the United States Colonial Marine Corps and the Colonial Navy being stationed on and above the planet at Fort Nebraska. The colony has all but collapsed, with barely two thousand colonists left, most wanting to get off world, an insurrection which wants to be free of what its members see as the UA yoke and is ready to defect to the UPP, and as military forces are diverted to deal with a UPP attack on the neighbouring the Cygni 61 system and LV-038 colony, both the military and colonial administration declares an evacuation of the colony, the insurrection seizes the opportunity to reach out to the UPP. At the same time, a squad of Colonial Marines from Fort Nebraska’s Special Operations ‘Sin Eaters’ marine unit decide it is the moment to go AWOL…

Into this set-up are thrown a team of marines drawn from the forces left after the strike force has left for Cygni 61 system and LV-038 colony, including members of an assault team, a Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defence Specialist, a Combat Technician/Hospital Corpsman Android, and two riflemen and drivers, led by a ‘Sin Eater’ commander. Their task is to locate the squad of Colonial Marines who have gone AWOL and prevent both them and any intelligence they possess from falling into the hands of the UPP. Each has his or her agenda—some have their own secrets too—that will come into play as their mission progresses, and over the course of a single few hours, they will track down the missing Colonial Marines, confront the Insurrectionists, get caught up in the outbreak of war, come under horrifying chemical attack, deal with rival factions desperate to make alliances, and as the order to evacuate is issued, face monster after monster the like of which they will have never encountered before, and ultimately, literally climb up out of Kruger 60 AEM’s gravity well. All of which takes place in the Antarctic environment of Ariarcus, a moon of the gas giant, Oblivion, under the never more than twilight gaze of the ever-watchful and oppressive Eye of Oblivion—an 11,000-kilometer-wide blue storm raging in the gas giant’s atmosphere.

Destroyer of Worlds is designed for three to five players, but includes a total of seven pre-generated Player Characters to form tthe ramshackle unit drawn together and assigned what will turn out to be a brutally nasty disaster of a mission. Essentially, those Colonial Marines initially appearing in the unit as NPCs are intended as replacement Player Characters, for make no mistake, this is a deadly scenario in which a ‘Total Party Kill’ is a distinct possibility. In fact, it might actually be worth the Game Mother preparing some of the other NPCs as replacement Player Characters, so deadly is the scenario in places. Potentially though, this would lead to a shift in the ‘party dynamics’ as NPCs from other factions become Player Characters and have their own agendas. Ultimately though, everyone’s agenda is to get off world, whatever the consequences.

Destroyer of Worlds is structured over three acts. In Act I, the Player Characters get their assignment and begin their investigation, tracking the missing Colonial Marines down across the Ariarcus colony, dealing with the last remnants of the colony infrastructure and administration, confronting the Insurrectionists, potentially encountering both corporate and UPP operatives with their own agendas, Xenomorphs, and more. As the Player Characters begin putting things together, Act II begins with a bang. Open conflict begins in orbit above between the UA and the UPP, the colony is hit with EMP attacks, bringing spacecraft and attack ships crashing down on the colony, and worse, an unknown ship showers the colony with the transformative Black Goo seen in Prometheus. The latter leads to some horrifying scenes as the remaining colonists are radically mutated or ripped apart. Combined with an order to evacuate the colony, this will drive the Player Characters to get off world, but the effect of the EMP attacks mean that the colony’s space elevator is not working. In Act III, this will force the Player Characters to delve into Fort Nebraska’s sublevels to get the power working again, and in the process, discover some of the darker secrets about just what has been going on at the base…

Destroyer of Worlds is big, bold, and brassy, an epic adventure from start to finish, and yet… As much as it captures the cinematic feel of Aliens and the later films, it is not an easy adventure to run and it is guilty of over-egging the pudding. The problems with the adventure are fourfold. First, there is a lot going on in the adventure, with multiple factions and multiple agendas, not including those of the Player Characters. Combined with events there is a lot for the Game Mother to keep to track off throughout the adventure, and this can be compounded later on in the second and third acts if the Player Characters are joined by NPCs—both innocent bystanders and members of other factions, who are equally as desperate to get off world. Second, the adventure does not just throw one Xenomorph element at the Player Characters, but all of them. So not just the Black Goo and the Anathema it creates, but also species Xenomorph XX121 from Alien and Aliens—from Egg to Queen, and subspecies. There is often little to no subtlety to this, and it is compounded by the third problem—the sheer number of Xenomorphs that the Player Characters will encounter throughout the adventure, especially in Act III. Consequently, their exploration of Fort Nebraska’s sublevels do take on a dungeon-like aspect, but with guns and grenades and Xenomorphs, instead of swords, spells, and Orcs, such that it feels as if everyone should be playing an Aliens boardgame rather than Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Fourth, because it is an adventure for Cinematic mode, Destroyer of Worlds is heavily plotted, in some cases for the Player Characters as much as the story itself, including one of the Player Characters beginning infected, their drive eventually being to locate a cure, which as the scenario plays out, they will hopefully discover exists. So it feels heavy-handed in places, but given that Destroyer of Worlds is a Cinematic one-shot, this is not as much of an issue as it could have been. Fifth, there is quite a lot going on off-camera in terms of the story that is never really explained, such as who exactly drops the Black Goo on the colony (it is intimated that this this is Engineers from Prometheus, just to further over-egg the pudding), why the Player Characters are selected, and so on. Yet, in the face of the unrelenting pace at which Destroyer of Worlds is telling its story, it almost does not matter. Certainly not for the Player Characters, but perhaps for the Game Mother?

Physically, Destroyer of Worlds comes as a boxed set, much like the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set—and almost as richly appointed. Open up the box and the purchaser is confronted with decks of cards, poster maps, character sheets, and the scenario book itself. The two decks of cards consist of twenty-one Personal Agendas, six Vehicle cards, two Weapon cards, nine NPC cards, and six Story cards. The Personal Agenda cards are given to the appropriate Player Characters at the beginning of each act and define their aims for that act, their being rewarded with Story Points based on how well their players roleplayed them. The Story cards are similar to the Personal Agenda cards, but reveal secret aspects of their particular Player Characters which again will affect their motivations. The other cards are a mix of the old and the new, some having appeared in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set. These include a United States Colonial Marine Corps heavy tank (which the Player Characters can potentially commandeer), a pair of UUP vehicles, and the AK-4047, the UPP equivalent of the Pulse Rifle.

The main map is a thirty-four by twenty-two inches poster which depicts Ariaricus colony on one side and the interior of Fort Nebraska on the other. This is in addition to the two A3-sized maps which show individual locations. Of the three, the smaller maps are a lot easier to handle and sue at the table, but like all of the maps, they are done in the green-on-green blueprint style seen in the Alien universe. The seven Player Character sheets are easy to read, as is the scenario booklet, which is cleanly laid out in the style seen in Alien: The Roleplaying Game, the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, and Chariot of the Gods. It is lightly illustrated with pieces taken from Alien: The Roleplaying Game, but the light layout makes up for that. Notably, the scenario book includes four appendices, one for all of the types of the Xenomorphs which appear in Destroyer of Worlds, one for the Talents which appear in the scenario, one for all of the stats for the gear and vehicles, and one for vehicle combat. The appendices of Talents and Xenomorphs do reprint material from Alien: The Roleplaying Game, but they are included for anyone running Destroyer of Worlds using just the  rather than Alien: The Roleplaying Game.

Destroyer of Worlds is a fantastic scenario, but not a perfect one. It has too many moving parts and too many Xenomorphs and too much going on that it needs careful handling and preparation upon the part of the Game Mother to run well. Yet it is big, it is bruising, it is over-the-top, and it delivers the pulsating combat action of Aliens and an eighties action movie. It has some great set pieces just like an eighties action movie and an Aliens horror movie should—the rain of Black Goo, assaulting the Insurrectionists’ compounds, getting back into Fort Nebraska, sneaking about in the sublevels of the base and the final confrontation on the space elevator… Ultimately, Destroyer of Worlds is a popcorn munching, shoot ‘em up horror movie of a scenario. Essentially, put on the Aliens soundtrack and expect the Player Characters to blast their way through it, get the bejuzus scared of them, get infected, confront Xenomorph after Xenomorph, probably die, and maybe, just maybe, survive.

Blue Collar Sci-Fi Horror Zero

It has been almost thirty years since there has been a roleplaying game set in the universe of the films Alien and Aliens, but that roleplaying game—the Aliens Adventure Game from Leading Edge Games in 1991—is primarily remembered for its complexity and emphasis upon combat over horror. That said, the publisher did produce Aliens, a highly effective treatment of the film which was also one of the earliest co-operative board games. However, Free League Publishing, best known as the publisher of Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days and Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the ’80s That Never Was, obtained the licence and published Alien: The Roleplaying Game in 2019. Drawing from the films Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Prometheus, this explores the future of mankind in the late twenty-second century, where out on the frontiers of space, colonists scratch a living on barely terraformed worlds, starships towing mammoth refineries processing resources leave for the inner worlds with their crew in hibernation, corporations own and run worlds, rivalries between corporations escalate in cold wars and hot wars, and the United States Colonial Marine Corps attempts to keep the peace. Out on the frontier, in the coldness of space there are secrets too, some corporate, others unimaginably ancient, many of which will get you killed or kill you. There are rumours of old ruins, of impossible aliens, of lost colonies, and coverups—and maybe they are more than rumours, perhaps they will get a person killed too. This is the set-up for Alien: The Roleplaying Game, its future one of body horror, survival horror, corporate malfeasance, dark secrets, and worse…

Alien: The Roleplaying Game has three themes and is designed to be played in two different modes, suggests three different campaign models, and uses the Year Zero engine. The three themes are Space Horror and Sci-Fi Action, combined with a Sense of Wonder, whilst the two modes are Cinematic and Campaign. Cinematic mode is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, and so emphasises high stakes, faster, more brutal play, and will be deadlier, whilst the Campaign mode is for longer, more traditional play, still brutal, if not deadly, but more survivable. Of the two, the Cinematic mode is suited to one-shots, to convention play, and as introductions to the mechanics and setting of Alien: The Roleplaying Game. To date, the only scenarios available for Alien: The Roleplaying Game—Chariot of the Gods (also found in the Alien Starter Set) and Destroyer of Worlds, are written for the Cinematic mode. The three campaign models are Colonial Marines, essentially military missions like Aliens; Frontier Colonists—miners, prospectors, and settlers trying to survive for a better life on an all but barren planet; and Space Truckers—starship crews hauling goods and resources, as in Alien. The Year Zero engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days and Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the ’80s That Never Was, employ pools of six-sided dice for fast and easy play. Like other roleplaying games, the publisher has released a set of dice for use with Alien: The Roleplaying Game, which add thematically to the game, but are not absolutely necessary to play.

The setting for Alien: The Roleplaying Game is the Frontier, a region of space which begins on the edge of the Outer Veil, runs through the Outer Rim, and out into deep space. Whilst the Outer Rim is extensively colonised, the Outer Veil is not, but is abundantly rich in mineral resources. Governments, corporations, miners, and colonists have all swarmed into the lawless, often harsh region. Colonies are rough places, many established on worlds where atmospheric processors transform the atmosphere into something breathable—for the most part, and their inhabitants do not always get along with their neighbouring colonies. Armed conflicts and rebellions are not unknown, and if corporate security forces cannot deal with an issue, then the United States Colonial Marine Corps are sent to deal with it. The Frontier is dominated by three polities. The most influential is the United Americas, a merger of North, Central, and South America into one nation, which also operates the Colonial Marines and the Colonial Navy. The other two are the Three World Empire, an alliance of the United Kingdom, Japan, and India, said to be in the pocket of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, whilst the Union of Progressive Peoples is a socialist state formed by China and Russia and other states. The Union of Progressive Peoples is resource poor and currently in a cold war with the United Americas. In addition, the Independent Core System Colonies is a loose conglomerate of privately-owned worlds, many of them by corporations, all with their own governments. None of the worlds of the Independent Core System Colonies are trusted by the other powers.

The default year for Alien: The Roleplaying Game is 2183—three years since the destruction of the Hadley’s Hope colony on LV-426, the disappearance of the USS Sulaco, and the closing of the prison and lead works on Fiorina 161. These unexplained events have led to a loss of trust between the United Americas and Weyland-Yutani, with many Frontier colonies caught in the middle. Rumours abound of strange discoveries and things going as result of these events, fuelled by Space Beast, an underground book written by a former convict on Fiorina 161. Meanwhile tensions are rising between the major powers and the corporations, leading to a redeployment of military and security forces which results in colonies being left to defend themselves the possibilities of pirates, hostile lifeforms, or invasion. Meanwhile, resources need to be hauled from the Frontier to the Core Worlds—or at least the Outer Veil, colonists and prospectors need to eke out a living, and United States Colonial Marine Corps needs to protect the peoples of the Frontier…

A Player Character in Alien: The Roleplaying Game is defined by four attributes—Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy, each of which has three associated skills, for a total of twelve skills. For example, Heavy Machinery, Stamina, and Close Combat are associated with Strength, whilst Observation, Comtech, and Survival are associated with Wits. All skills also have stunts which come into play when a player rolls two or more successes in an action. For example, Stunts for the Manipulation skill include persuading an opponent to do what you want without them expecting a favour in return, the opponent doing something more than was asked for, such as lending a piece of equipment or extra supplies, or simply impressing an opponent enough that they will help later. Both attributes and skills are rated between zero and five. A Player Character also has one or more Talents, essentially advantages that give him a benefit in addition to his skills, either associated with the Player Character’s career or a general Talent. For example, the Kid Talent of ‘Beneath Notice’ means that the Player Character can often escape horrible situations unscathed, his player being allowed to reroll critical injuries, whilst the general Talent of Nerves of Steel, means that the Player Character can keep a cool head and receives a bonus to Panic Rolls.

In addition, a Player Character has a buddy and rival from amongst his fellow Player Characters—intended to create tensions and roleplaying opportunities; Personal Agendas—again to create tensions and roleplaying opportunities, but also to earn a player Story Points—which can be spent to gain automatic successes, for his Player Character; and both equipment and consumables. The latter consist primarily of air, food, and water, for whilst there are monsters—inhuman and human, out there on the frontier which will kill you, so will a lack of the right consumables.

Character creation first involves selecting a Career. They include Colonial Marine, Colonial Marshal, Company Agent, Kid, Medic, Officer, Pilot, Roughneck, and Scientist, and each defines a Player Character’s key attributes and skills, and options for Personal Agenda, Appearance, Signature Item, and Gear. It is also possible to play an Android as a Player Character, and whilst they are generally stronger or more intelligent, in game terms they cannot push rolls, do not suffer Stress, and never make Panic Rolls. Damage done to them is more critical and needs to be repaired rather than healed. Fourteen points are divided between the four attributes and ten points amongst the skills. Then the player selects the character’s buddy, rival, Personal Agenda, Appearance, Signature Item, and Gear. The process is relatively easy and quick.

Name: Wilhemina Lazarus

Career: Medic
Appearance: Short, tidy hair
Personal Agenda: You are addicted to a strong painkiller. Protect your stash—and your secret.
Signature Item: Last psych evaluation: “All clear at last.”
Gear: Surgical Kit, D6 doses Naproleve

Stress Level: 0
Health: 2

Strength 2
Agility 3
Wits 4
Empathy 5

Talent: Compassion

Skills
Manipulation 1, Medical Aid 3, Mobility 2, Observation 2, Survival 1

Mechanically, Alien: The Roleplaying Game uses the Year Zero engine first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. The rules are light and fairly quick, with dice rolls primarily intended for dramatic or difficult situations such as combat, hiding from a strange creature bent on doing unspeakable things to you, making repairs in a hurry, and so on. To have a Player Character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of Base dice equal to a combination of attribute and skill (or just attribute if the Player Character lacks the skill), aiming to roll one or more sixes. One result is enough to succeed, whilst extra successes can be used to purchase Stunts, like halving a task’s time or doing extra damage in combat. Although one Player Character can help another, Alien: The Roleplaying Game—just like the films it is based upon—will involve often conflicts between Player Characters as well as NPCs, especially when Personal Agendas clash, and where opposed rolls come into play from such situations, successes rolled by either side cancel each other out. This is particularly the case in the Cinematic mode. If a Player Character fails, or wants to generate more successes, then his player can push the roll. Although this can only be done just the once for each roll, it can generate successes, but it also leads to the core mechanic in Alien: The Roleplaying Game—Stress (and panic)!

Stress in Alien: The Roleplaying Game is designed to build and build over the course of a scenario, particularly in Cinematic mode. It is not gained just for pushing a roll, but also for firing a firearm in fully automatic mode, suffering damage, being attacked by a fellow crewman, when someone is revealed as an android, and so forth. For each level of Stress suffered by a Player Character, whenever that Player Character takes another action that requires dice to be rolled, his player not only rolls the Base dice as usual, he also rolls a Stress die. So, the more levels of Stress suffered by a Player Character, the more dice—Base dice and Stress dice—his player has to roll. This has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, it increases the chances of rolling successes, but on the downside, any ones rolled have negative effects. First, they prevent the roll from being pushed; second, they trigger a Panic Roll. This requires the roll of a six-sided die plus the Player Character’s current Stress level. Results of six and below have no effect, but results of seven and above include a nervous twitch which increases everyone’s Stress level, dropping an item, immediately seeking cover, screaming, fleeing, going berserk, and more. Although rest and recuperation can reduce Stress, for the most part, over the course of a scenario, a Player Character’s Stress is going to grow and grow...

For example, Wilhemina Lazarus is the doctor on a colony world whose colonists have been attacked individually and bloodily murdered. The colony leader has also been attacked, but survived and revealed himself to be an android. Doctor Lazarus’ Stress Level is currently two. When another victim is brought in alive, but unconscious, she gets to work attempting to render medial attention. Her player will roll a total of nine Base dice—five for her Empathy, three for her Medical Aid skill, and one for Surgical Kit, and two Stress dice. Unfortunately, Doctor Lazarus’ roll does not generate any successes, but neither do any of the Stress dice generate any ones. Her player decides to push the roll. This automatically increases her Stress Level to three and adds another Stress die. The situation is proving difficult and again, Doctor Lazarus’ roll does not generate any successes, but neither do any of the Stress dice generate any ones. Normally, a player can only push a roll once, but the Compassion Talent allows a second Push for skills based on Empathy. Again, this automatically increases her Stress Level to four and adds another Stress die. Her player is rolling nine Base dice and four Stress dice. This time, he rolls five successes on the dice, but a one on a single Stress die. This means that Doctor Lazarus saves the colonist’s life, but her player needs to a make a Panic roll. Her player rolls a single six-sided die, and adds her current Stress Level, which is four. The result is seven, and Doctor Lazarus develops a Nervous Twitch, increasing her Stress Level as well as the Stress Level every Player Character nearby.

Stress in Alien: The Roleplaying Game represents an ‘adrenalin clock’, one which winds up and up to the point where a Player Character’s ‘flight or fight’ response is triggered. Once that is triggered, the Player Character may driven to take the right course of action and survive, reflected by good rolls, but conversely, bad rolls him being overcome with his own fear and suffering a panic response. The Stress mechanics very nicely model and support the rising sense of tension seen in the films that Alien: The Roleplaying Game is based on, and it is easy enough to take these Stress and Fear rules and map back onto the members of the cast in those films.

Combat in Alien: The Roleplaying Game is designed to be straightforward, but with one or two tweaks to fit the setting. One of these is Stealth Mode, the initial state for any combat situation. This is designed to cover hidden movement by NPCs and other unknown threats, attempts to detect hidden movement and threats, and the like before actual combat occurs. The rules also cover Initiative—handled by draw of a card, rated between one and ten; actions—a Player Character receives a Fast Action and a Slow Action or two Fast Actions per turn; ranged and close combat; damage and critical injuries—the latter suffered when a Player Character’s Health is reduced to zero, some of them deadly; and Overwatch, the ability for trained soldiers to monitor a particular area and be ready to shoot when something happens within it. Other hazards covered in Alien: The Roleplaying Game include starvation and dehydration, the cold vacuum of space, fire, explosions, disease, and more. Not necessarily in a huge amount of detail, but enough to cover most situations.

In terms of background, Alien: The Roleplaying Game presents a range of gear, polities, colonies, and more. The gear covers weapons, including the classic Armat M41A Pulse Rifle; equipment, like the Caterpillar P-5000 Powered Work Loader and M316 Motion Tracker; food and drink—the latter stressing the importance of free coffee on star ships and space stations; and vehicles, including the USCMC UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship. Various spaceships and stations are described, as is life and travel in space, and there are rules for space combat too, these being designed to be short and brutal. They are also supported by a solid example of play. What is emphasised throughout is the Alien universe and so that of Alien: The Roleplaying Game is one of retrofuturism, with the rough and ready nature of living and working in space and on the Frontier, and that technology is built to be rugged and work, rather than all gleaming white and flashing lights. However, technology is constantly breaking down and is becoming difficult to repair, so is regressing on the Frontier. Throughout, there is a wealth of information and small details, which can be used to flavour the setting, such as bottles of purified water being a luxury and that Paul van Leuwen, the Interstellar Commerce Commission representative who revoked Ellen Ripley’s flight status is now investigating alleged alien encounters. Throughout Alien: The Roleplaying Game there are sections entitled ‘Rumour Control’, which examine some of the stories and hearsay, from encounters with aliens to corporate shenanigans, which spread across the Frontier, and which can be used as potential scenario hooks.

For the Game Mother—as the Game Master in Alien: The Roleplaying Game is known—there is further discussion of the roleplaying game’s themes and some advice on running the game, although this is relatively light. In general, despite the relatively light nature of the mechanics,Alien: The Roleplaying Game is not necessarily best suited to be run by an inexperienced Game Mother. The advice on running in Campaign play, although supported by various tables for generating jobs, star systems, colonies, encounters, and scenario hooks, is also fairly light. Novgorod Station, a transfer station located in a mining system is detailed and mapped out as a starting point for a campaign.

And then of course, the alien species of the Alien universe receive their own chapter. These include the Engineers of Prometheus, the Neomorph of Covenant, and the classic Xenomorph of Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3, which receives the most attention of any of the species detailed in the chapter. Of these, the Engineers, whilst discussed, do not receive any game stats, but all of the others do, along with lengthy discussions of their life cycles and capabilities, from egg to face hugger to chestburster to scout to soldier to queen, and more. Every alien species has its own table of attacks, which the Game Mother can select from or roll on, and what they highlight is just how nasty these creatures are, as well preventing any encounter with them from getting stale. Even Colonial Marines, fully equipped with modern weaponry, are going to have a hard time facing many of these aliens, and just like the film, Aliens, that is how it should be. In addition, a number of other species are also detailed, native to other worlds. Overall, this section should fuel numerous scenarios in Cinematic mode and encounters in Campaign mode, although encountering such creatures in Campaign mode should be rare.

Rounding out Alien: The Roleplaying Game is the Cinematic scenario, ‘Hope’s Last Day’. This casts the Player Characters as colonists on the moon LV-426, infamous from Alien and Aliens. Returning back to the colony base after dealing with a maintenance issue, they summoned to an assembly of all the colonists, but the call is interrupted by a scream and a gunshot. What is going on? The Player Characters—five pre-generated ones are provided, each with their own Personal Agendas—are already aware of the one of the colonist being infected with a parasite, so could it be to do with that? As written, it is a sandbox built around the colony, with the Player Characters often being driven to explore it further, or run away from whatever they find. Ultimately, either the Player Characters will all die or some of them will manage to escape via the corporate shuttle which arrived the day before. The scenario is quite short, providing two sessions of play at most, and more likely a single evening’s worth. As an example, Cinematic scenario, it plays well enough and the Personal Agendas do provide the Player Characters with strong motivations, but it is a bit short and does not support the players creating their own characters.

Physically, Alien: The Roleplaying Game is a visually stunning looking book. The layout is clean and open, the text organised into boxes that makes it easy to read and view it on the page. Although it needs an edit in places, the book is well written and there are some enjoyable nods to other sources in keeping with the Alien universe such as the William Gibson script for Alien 3, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and even the film, Outland. However, it is the artwork which truly captures the reader’s attention. It is truly impressive, in turns creepy, scary, majestic, awe inspiring, even mundane, whether it is depicting colonies or core worlds, the men and women of the Frontier, the cold blackness of space, the xenomorphs, or encounters with the strange and the mysterious. Much like Free League Publishing’s Symbaroum, which has its own art book with The Art of Symbaroum, the artwork in Alien: The Roleplaying Game deserves its own artbook. Which is no surprise since they share the same artist.

It is difficult to really find fault with Alien: The Roleplaying Game. One issue may be that its layout involves a lot of blank space—in this case, the blackness of space rather than white space—but the use of space in Alien: The Roleplaying Game gives the content room to breath and standout, actually making it easier to read. Another might be that it does not feel tactical enough when playing Colonial Marines and other military forces, but Alien: The Roleplaying Game is not skirmish roleplaying game and it is not about fighting the Xenomorphs, but surviving an encounter with them. More of an issue is that the layout with its washed-out colour palette may not be easy to read for everyone. Perhaps the main issue is that it is difficult to know what a game of Alien: The Roleplaying Game played in the Campaign mode is like. There are tools for providing story hooks and plenty of setting material on the rulebook, but with just its single scenario of ‘Hope’s Last Day’ and both Chariot of the Gods and Destroyer of Worlds being the only scenarios available, and all three written for the Cinematic mode, we are yet to see what the Campaign mode is really like.

Alien: The Roleplaying Game is not just a roleplaying based on the Alien universe. It is also an excellent introduction and overview of the setting, which when combined with the superb artwork, should please any fan of the Alien universe. As a roleplaying game, Alien: The Roleplaying Game provides everything that a Game Mother needs to run a game in the Alien universe, bringing together the straightforward, fast-playing mechanics of the Year Zero engine, a very well done treatment of the background, and an entertainingly fearsome Stress and Panic mechanic which captures the feel of the source material, all beautifully packaged, to present a nasty, brutal, and often forgiving space horror roleplaying game. Roleplayers have long wanted a good treatment of the Alien universe, and in Alien: The Roleplaying Game Free League Publishing has not only given them that, but given us a scarily playable retrofuture, a great Blue Collar Sci-Fi Horror roleplaying game, and an outstanding adaptation of the source material.