The Official Alien Role Playing Game Evolves On Kickstarter

Fans of tabletop role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons have had a lot to be excited by as well. Free League Publishing put out an official Alien Role Playing Game in December of 2019 as part of a fresh batch of space horror games. Now, the company has taken an updated version to Kickstarter.

“This was a decision that grew from working on our new cinematic adventure, Rapture Protocol,” said Tomas Härenstam, co-founder of Free League and lead designer of the project. “This adventure brings the game back to its core elements, including stealth mode which we felt wasn’t fully utilized in the previous cinematics. When writing and playtesting it, we realized that we want to revise some rules, not only stealth mode but also the stress and panic rules, as well as adding support for using miniatures. So we reached a point where we felt a revised edition of the core rulebook felt like the right move. But it's still the same game at heart and fully compatible with previous material.”

What Is The Alien Role Playing Game?

The Alien Role Playing Game casts players as humans on the edge of a hostile universe. They may be the crew of a space freighter, a band of Colonial Marines or the settlers of a corporate colony. Not only must they deal with the titular xenomorph and all the spin-offs from the other movies in the series but there are the harsh realities of frontier worlds and company policy that can be just as deadly.

The game can be played in cinematic or campaign modes. Campaign games are the classic long term games where players might fight a space war or manage a settlement. Cinematic games are meant for one or two sessions full of tense moments, human intrigue and alien slaughter.

One of the most innovate things about the game is how it handles stress and fear. Taking on stress gives a player stress dice which can make it easier to succeed as a character focuses up knowing that there’s a deadly alien about. But too many stress dice make it easier for a character to freak out and fail hard, leaving them a weepy mess when the creature finally comes calling.

"The stress mechanics, adding stress dice to represent rising tension that can actually help you by being more sharp and alert but will eventually trigger a stress or panic response, is really key to the game and part of its appeal," said Härenstam. “However, in the first edition panic could sometimes be triggered in situations where it didn't really feel appropriate, and spiral out of control a little too quickly. This could generally be worked into the story by the GM, but we still felt it could be improved, so we have reworked it a little. This was primarily done by splitting the panic table in two - one for stress responses when making skill rolls, and another for all-out panic responses when facing a terrifying Xenomorph and things like that. We think the revised system will yield a little more plausible results.”

Alien Role Playing Game Evolved Edition

Alien Evolved Edition looks to refine the award winning game play of the original while also expanding it based on feedback from players over the last five years. The Kickstarter features three main titles on an ambitious release schedule. In addition, fans are excited to pick up official miniatures to paint and portray desperate battles between humans and Xenomorphs on the table top.

“The miniatures go hand in hand with the new maps,” said Härenstam. “[They are] more detailed and immersive. The first edition also had tokens to represent characters on the maps, for use in stealth mode and combat, but they weren’t really to scale and didn’t quite work as well as we wanted them to. In the Evolved Edition, tokens or miniatures can be used to represent characters moving around on the map for an immersive and yet tactical experience. Many of us here at Free League really enjoy miniatures games as well as RPGs, and we think bringing that playstyle into the Alien RPG can be a lot of fun. But it's completely optional, for groups who prefer a fully theater of mind approach.”

The corebook offers refinements on stress, stealth rules, talents and more. It’s also including material from Alien: Romulus such as weapons, technology and locations players can use in their own campaigns. It’s also going through a refreshed look that keeps the gorgeous, brooding art while shifting to an easier to read layout.

The Starter Set provided several materials that make running the game easier such as dice, reference sheets, gear cards and even a Xenomorph miniature. The box included an expanded edition of Hope’s Last Day, the killer introduction adventure that’s been played by thousands of Alien fans. It’s a cinematic adventure that sticks players in the colony of Hadley’s Hope in the worst possible time; before the events of Aliens take place but after the Xenomorphs have started taking over.

Rapture Protocol is the first in a series of campaign boxed sets with maps, character cards and full-color maps. The players are a crew of a small freighter caught between human factions on a remote colony. Soon enough, the xenomorph appears to kick everything into a higher gear.

As a long time fan of the franchise, I am a huge fan of this role playing game. I’m looking forward to see where they go with it in the next few years. Even with uncertainty looming in the tabletop games industry, I know Free League will put out an excellent update to their most popular game soon.

“Even if you have the first edition of the game and are happy with that," said Härenstam, "the Kickstarter includes the completely new cinematic adventure Rapture Protocol and miniatures to go with it. So that’s all new. And the new core rulebook includes not only rules revisions and additions like a life path character generation system but also expanded campaign tools and other material, such as the Tartarus Sector campaign setting and gear and locations from the new film Alien: Romulus. We think there is a lot to enjoy in it even for seasoned Alien RPG players!”

Alien Evolved Edition is on Kickstarter until April 17th, 2025. Backer rewards are expected in late Q3 of this year.

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