Free League announces official Alien RPG

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Is it going to be using the same roll a six system that Mutant Year Zero uses?
 
I'm... ambivalent.

Mostly because I can "do" Aliens with a number of established systems and do it quite well. (Interlock, Savage Worlds are both systems I'd use for entirely different reasons). The only thing I'd be interested in is the fluff. But even then, most of that is readily available. So I'm wait and see at best... they'd have to do something particularly special with the system to make me buy it. I seriously doubt Fox is going to let them extemporaneously build out the world more...

But if they did... then that would *certainly* pique my curiosity.
 
I can "do" Aliens with a number of established systems and do it quite well

That's where most licensed RPGs lose me these days, really. I have the tools in my "golf bag" (Savage Worlds and MgT1/Cepheus, in my case) and can't say I look forward for a specific system for the franchise.

But if they do an impressive enough job, be it mechanics or setting, I might look into it.
 
It looks like some IP Brand Transmedia company brokered the deal, so it doesn’t seem like a standard “sell them the license and squash any attempts at creativity” IP license. If the RPG is seen as a means of growing and extending the brand, then the game may very well have some canon-defining and extending capabilities, which would be great for setting, even if you’re never going to use the system.
 
I am excited. FL are producing the best new RPGs at the moment, and the focus on scenario supported one shot play (like their upcoming Cthulhu RPG) sounds good for a horror game and will be much more likely to hit my table too. I have had a lot of success with their Year Zero system already too.

It seems like the licence is for Alien only, as there is a lack of space marines that I would expect to see if they had Aliens.
 
That’s what FL are specifically supporting in this and their upcoming Cthulhu RPG. One shot play is the primary focus and PC death is highly likely.

For Cthulhu, they talked about stringing together individual sessions into campaigns, having new PCs stumble on the investigations of previous PCs.
 
Really hope it builds out the setting. There's cool stuff implied but never quite detailed like how Earth's colonies are spread out, the fact that it's the US colonial marines implies that colonies are under jurisdiction of nation states still present on Earth. Not to mention the fact that the marines seem to have met other "bugs" before.

Also Xenomorph biology would be cool. Anybody remember the old fansite Anchorpoint Essays?
 
To me, the most interesting thing about the Leading Edge Games version of Aliens was their elaboration on the Alien life cycle.

Never played the game. Don't recall anything else about the book.

I don't have anything against licensed games. Some of the most enticing RPGs to me are licensed properties.

However, I can't say I ever wanted to adventure in the universe of Alien. I don't really think of Alien as having it's own universe as it would apply to gaming. To me Alien is more something that would be a supplement or adventure for an existing game system.

Like Alien would just be an adventure for your favorite sci-fi system.

Aliens would be represented by the hypothetical Recon: Future Combat: Space: Revised Edition.

YMMV.
 
To me, the most interesting thing about the Leading Edge Games version of Aliens was their elaboration on the Alien life cycle.

Never played the game. Don't recall anything else about the book.
I had the book way back then (it might have it in a box somewhere) and I remember being disappointed with the lack of source material. It was basically a bug hunt. We never played it, either.
 
I just did a google search and the "Aliens Adventure Game" by Leading Edge showed up on an AvP Galaxy site. I'm not sure if the site is a fan site or legit.
 
I'm mildly interested in this one. If the writers are allowed to expand the setting a bit this could be an intriguing game. I suspect the universe will feel a bit like 2300AD.
 
Really hope it builds out the setting. There's cool stuff implied but never quite detailed like how Earth's colonies are spread out, the fact that it's the US colonial marines implies that colonies are under jurisdiction of nation states still present on Earth.

From the website:

"The year is 2183—little more than 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. 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."

So, yeah, it looks like you have competing nation states (or really superstates like the United Americas and therefore presumably the Third World Empire) plus corporations not-so-cold warring it out among the stars.
 
I'm not sure about this... only going to find out after the release.

My experience with Free League was with Symbaroum (from the time Jarnringen was independent) and I didn't like Symbaroum rules system at all. Bought a bunch of the pdf's up til Thistle Hold / Wrath of the Wardens and after the core book I felt like the setting lore was getting worse and worse.

I ran three sessions of Symbaroum, the first one went fine, but on second and third the system problems started showing up. To sum it up, the game presents no real threats to player characters, the sense of danger is completely gone if you pick the right skills on character creation. I saw folks defend this on foruns and blogs, but I'm not about to waste my time muchking npc's so they can compete with players or house ruling an entire system because It doesn't work out of the box. Symbaroum is one of the reasons I stay alway from systems where GM's don't roll.

They always put great production values on their products, so I will hold my opinion until I play another game from them. I'm thinking about eventually giving a chance to Mutant Year Zero, Coriolis or Forbidden Lands. But honestly, I don't expect anything except great art from them.
 
To me, the most interesting thing about the Leading Edge Games version of Aliens was their elaboration on the Alien life cycle.

Never played the game. Don't recall anything else about the book.

I don't have anything against licensed games. Some of the most enticing RPGs to me are licensed properties.

However, I can't say I ever wanted to adventure in the universe of Alien. I don't really think of Alien as having it's own universe as it would apply to gaming. To me Alien is more something that would be a supplement or adventure for an existing game system.

Like Alien would just be an adventure for your favorite sci-fi system.

Aliens would be represented by the hypothetical Recon: Future Combat: Space: Revised Edition.

YMMV.

Completely unofficial, but from past discussions I know I'm not the only one who feels there is some tie between the Alien universe, and Blade Runner. Not a stretch to include other relatively low tech and grimy future fiction like Outland and Hardware.

There is also a fairly large selection of fiction set in the universe, books and comics in addition to the films.

I have the Aliens RPG. I didn't think a somewhat simplified Phoenix Command was the right fit, system wise, but it had some good stuff setting wise.


From the website:

"The year is 2183—little more than 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. 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."

So, yeah, it looks like you have competing nation states (or really superstates like the United Americas and therefore presumably the Third World Empire) plus corporations not-so-cold warring it out among the stars.


This has the potential to be very cool. I don't know the system at all, but if the fluff is good I'd be interested. A fairly easy system so that a high death rate isn't an issue isn't a terrible idea, but I do hope there is more to it than just getting killed by alien life forms.
 
However, I can't say I ever wanted to adventure in the universe of Alien. I don't really think of Alien as having it's own universe as it would apply to gaming. To me Alien is more something that would be a supplement or adventure for an existing game system.

Like Alien would just be an adventure for your favorite sci-fi system.
It already was...
pic523908.jpg
:grin:
 
FL are producing the best new RPGs at the moment, and the focus on scenario supported one shot play (like their upcoming Cthulhu RPG) sounds good for a horror game and will be much more likely to hit my table too.
Cautiously optimistic here! The IP has no special allure to me at this point. But as you say, Free League did a nice job with Forbidden Lands, and more importantly (to me), they did something a little different with it. It approaches the campaign a little differently, and it sounds like they're doing something like that here.
For Cthulhu, they talked about stringing together individual sessions into campaigns, having new PCs stumble on the investigations of previous PCs.
I am interested in this idea of serial one-shots. The latest Delta Green adventure set is sorta like that, since every adventure seems to have pre-generated PCs. But instead of being serial one-shots, it looks like each one is a potential intro-to-DG adventure.
 
If it doesn't expand the setting I really can't see the appeal. Unless you count Prometheus, most all the movies were just extended dungeon crawls with a few variations on the basic creature. What sort of game could you have if you did NOT want to go hunting xenomorphs?
Like has been mentioned, tying it in to similar films, like Outland and Bladerunner, would add value... but even those would need expansion/fleshing out... and there's already plenty of product to cover that sort of feel.
So, I'm probably not the audience for this... I would rather see an RPG built off the setting of the old Kryomek wargame... which is kindof like Aliens, but I'd imagine it's a far far cheaper license.
 
If it doesn't expand the setting I really can't see the appeal. Unless you count Prometheus, most all the movies were just extended dungeon crawls with a few variations on the basic creature. What sort of game could you have if you did NOT want to go hunting xenomorphs?
Like has been mentioned, tying it in to similar films, like Outland and Bladerunner, would add value... but even those would need expansion/fleshing out... and there's already plenty of product to cover that sort of feel.
So, I'm probably not the audience for this... I would rather see an RPG built off the setting of the old Kryomek wargame... which is kindof like Aliens, but I'd imagine it's a far far cheaper license.


I think a lot of the appeal is the visuals. Ridley Scott and Giger created a very distinctive look to the Alien universe. The movies don't provide a ton of details about the world they live in, mostly just hinted at, but what does seem to be clear is the universe is dirty, depressing and very dangerous. A little bit cyberpunk minus the chrome and hacking.

Anyway that is what appeals to me, kind of Philip Marlow and Band of Brothers IN SPACE!!!!!
 
FL have a strong record in terms of game design and I love the IP, would love to see it done right.
 
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Any word as to if they will be including the Prometheus films in the game's continuity?
 
They talk about how there are going to be two playstyles supported - a 'cinematic' serial one-shot playstyle (which sounds pretty cool) and also a sandbox campaign playstyle. It's interesting to speculate what the latter would look like - what I'm imagining is something like the classic Traveller/Firefly planet-hopping tramp freighter set up. It would need to be a group with a ship and a reason to just be wandering about in space. Might be a fun way to explore the Alien universe.
 
Any word as to if they will be including the Prometheus films in the game's continuity?

I can see a Promethean(?)-like face in the trailer but no idea beyond that. Fria Ligan's Coriolis RPG is already more interesting as a setting than something based on 'Alien', from what I can see. Although I did think Zozer Games' "Hostile" was very well done.
 
I'm not sure about this... only going to find out after the release.

My experience with Free League was with Symbaroum (from the time Jarnringen was independent) and I didn't like Symbaroum rules system at all. Bought a bunch of the pdf's up til Thistle Hold / Wrath of the Wardens and after the core book I felt like the setting lore was getting worse and worse.

I ran three sessions of Symbaroum, the first one went fine, but on second and third the system problems started showing up. To sum it up, the game presents no real threats to player characters, the sense of danger is completely gone if you pick the right skills on character creation. I saw folks defend this on foruns and blogs, but I'm not about to waste my time muchking npc's so they can compete with players or house ruling an entire system because It doesn't work out of the box. Symbaroum is one of the reasons I stay alway from systems where GM's don't roll.

They always put great production values on their products, so I will hold my opinion until I play another game from them. I'm thinking about eventually giving a chance to Mutant Year Zero, Coriolis or Forbidden Lands. But honestly, I don't expect anything except great art from them.

Mutant year zero, Coriolis, Forbidden lands and The new Aliens rpg do not use The same system as Symbaroum at all.

The system these games use are a D6 pool system where a 6 count as a success. Attributes and skills range between 1 and 5 dice each so you roll between 2 to 10 D6 for tests... Difficulty are determined by the number of successes needed...

Quite lethal and at the same time a good and simple system in my own opinion of course! :smile:
 
That's why I'm still on the fence with Fria Ligan. But people told me Symbaroum was lethal before... Anyways I will give the other games a try eventually.:thumbsup:

As Gute says, the system is completely different and separate from Symbaroum. Year Zero as a system has far more pared down core, Symbaroum is more traditional and more noodly. There is a significant (150 page) quickstart available for Forbidden Lands which gives a good idea of how it plays.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/267633/Forbidden-Lands-Quickstart
 
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