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Teenagers from Outer Space An R. Talsorian Game By Mike Pondsmith
Book by Mike Pondsmith
91 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 20, 2025
A very silly game concept with a lot of charm that oozes 1980s fun. I'm already cooking up some campaign (movie) ideas. I love all the campaign ideas that are provided at the end of the book, it really helps paint a picture of what kind of hijinks to promote to players. That's even more helpful than in the case of most other TTRPGs because TFOS is so different than any other mainstream game nowadays. This was a gem of a random find for me, quite happy with it.
August 12, 2012
I have never played an actual game of Teenagers from Outer Space (TFOS), not even a single session. What I have done is rolled up dozens of characters, imagined scenarios, and read this book a couple of dozen times. It fit in with the kinds of games that were becoming popular at the time - "Toon" and "Paranoia," for example, were beginning to remind us that these games could be fun and dynamic, rather than deadly serious and rules-heavy. This one even had the advantage of being about High School, which is after all where a lot of the target demographic (myself included) were incarcerated at the time.
The basic premise of TFOS was intentionally silly: after First Contact with a vast, inter-galactic Federation of enlightened Alien Species, the aliens “enroll their kids in our schools; shop in our shopping malls; hang out in our fast food joints.” The players are human and non-human kids in a suburban setting where all kinds of craziness goes on. Maybe the rival High School is using zap guns on the football field, maybe an alien princess shows up looking for a consort and all the male players start competing for her, maybe your math teacher is an evil genius planning to take over the world by Boring Everyone to Death. You get the idea.
The rules are written in a fast-and-loose style that admits that players of RPGs will usually make their own rules anyway. Two tiny six-sided dice came with the game (I lost them years ago), and that was all you needed to roll up a character, simulate combat, or fly a space ship. Character creation can be done in minutes, and a lot (like the specific appearance of the alien species you pretend to be) is left to the imagination of the players. There are a lot of funny asides and imagination-stimulating pictures and vignettes. It’s not High Art, but it is a lot of fun.
The basic premise of TFOS was intentionally silly: after First Contact with a vast, inter-galactic Federation of enlightened Alien Species, the aliens “enroll their kids in our schools; shop in our shopping malls; hang out in our fast food joints.” The players are human and non-human kids in a suburban setting where all kinds of craziness goes on. Maybe the rival High School is using zap guns on the football field, maybe an alien princess shows up looking for a consort and all the male players start competing for her, maybe your math teacher is an evil genius planning to take over the world by Boring Everyone to Death. You get the idea.
The rules are written in a fast-and-loose style that admits that players of RPGs will usually make their own rules anyway. Two tiny six-sided dice came with the game (I lost them years ago), and that was all you needed to roll up a character, simulate combat, or fly a space ship. Character creation can be done in minutes, and a lot (like the specific appearance of the alien species you pretend to be) is left to the imagination of the players. There are a lot of funny asides and imagination-stimulating pictures and vignettes. It’s not High Art, but it is a lot of fun.
April 24, 2022
4/24/2022: A decade or so after the first review (below), I have a couple of thoughts. One is that I’m pretty sure I over-estimated the amount of times I’ve re-read the rules and rolled up characters. Where I said "dozens," I think it was more like four or five times now. The second thought is that I didn’t mention the fact (now widely recognized) that the artistic style and general tone of TFOS is based on Japanese manga comics – something I was totally unfamiliar with in 1987 when it came out, but might have recognized by 2012. The third thing is that I didn’t mention the movie “Teenagers from Outer Space,” which this game ripped off for a title but nothing else (I’m sure it was already in the public domain by 1987 anyway). The plot of that movie – a group of alien teenagers plot to colonize Earth as a breeding ground for the giant lobsters that are their sole source of food, but one sympathetic teen runs away and tries to join Earth society and save us from being eaten by lobsters – would actually make a pretty good plot for an “episode” of this game.
8/12/2012: I have never played an actual game of Teenagers from Outer Space (TFOS), not even a single session. What I have done is rolled up dozens of characters, imagined scenarios, and read this book a couple of dozen times. It fit in with the kinds of games that were becoming popular at the time - "Toon" and "Paranoia," for example, were beginning to remind us that these games could be fun and dynamic, rather than deadly serious and rules-heavy. This one even had the advantage of being about High School, which is after all where a lot of the target demographic (myself included) were incarcerated at the time.
The basic premise of TFOS was intentionally silly: after First Contact with a vast, inter-galactic Federation of enlightened Alien Species, the aliens “enroll their kids in our schools; shop in our shopping malls; hang out in our fast food joints.” The players are human and non-human kids in a suburban setting where all kinds of craziness goes on. Maybe the rival High School is using zap guns on the football field, maybe an alien princess shows up looking for a consort and all the male players start competing for her, maybe your math teacher is an evil genius planning to take over the world by Boring Everyone to Death. You get the idea.
The rules are written in a fast-and-loose style that admits that players of RPGs will usually make their own rules anyway. Two tiny six-sided dice came with the game (I lost them years ago), and that was all you needed to roll up a character, simulate combat, or fly a space ship. Character creation can be done in minutes, and a lot (like the specific appearance of the alien species you pretend to be) is left to the imagination of the players. There are a lot of funny asides and imagination-stimulating pictures and vignettes. It’s not High Art, but it is a lot of fun.
8/12/2012: I have never played an actual game of Teenagers from Outer Space (TFOS), not even a single session. What I have done is rolled up dozens of characters, imagined scenarios, and read this book a couple of dozen times. It fit in with the kinds of games that were becoming popular at the time - "Toon" and "Paranoia," for example, were beginning to remind us that these games could be fun and dynamic, rather than deadly serious and rules-heavy. This one even had the advantage of being about High School, which is after all where a lot of the target demographic (myself included) were incarcerated at the time.
The basic premise of TFOS was intentionally silly: after First Contact with a vast, inter-galactic Federation of enlightened Alien Species, the aliens “enroll their kids in our schools; shop in our shopping malls; hang out in our fast food joints.” The players are human and non-human kids in a suburban setting where all kinds of craziness goes on. Maybe the rival High School is using zap guns on the football field, maybe an alien princess shows up looking for a consort and all the male players start competing for her, maybe your math teacher is an evil genius planning to take over the world by Boring Everyone to Death. You get the idea.
The rules are written in a fast-and-loose style that admits that players of RPGs will usually make their own rules anyway. Two tiny six-sided dice came with the game (I lost them years ago), and that was all you needed to roll up a character, simulate combat, or fly a space ship. Character creation can be done in minutes, and a lot (like the specific appearance of the alien species you pretend to be) is left to the imagination of the players. There are a lot of funny asides and imagination-stimulating pictures and vignettes. It’s not High Art, but it is a lot of fun.
November 3, 2012
the funnest sounding gaming system. I own the third edition, sure some games give you the sense and acomplishment of achieving big things...but this one gives you a ray gun and no deaths... so there :p
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews