What do you think?
Rate this book
Alien The Roleplaying Game
Alien RPG Starter Set
This is a starter set for the official Alien tabletop roleplaying game - a universe of body horror and corporate brinkmanship, where synthetic people play god while space truckers and marines play host to newborn ghoulish creatures. It's a harsh and unforgiving universe and you are nothing if not expendable.
Stay alive if you can.
This boxed set contains everything you need to start playing:
- A 104-page rulebook with a fast and effective ruleset designed specifically to support the core themes of Alien: horror and action in the cold darkness of space.
- The 48-page complete scenario Chariot of the Gods by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska, taking you on a thrilling, terror-filled ride into deep space where no one can hear you scream. Chariot of the Gods is designed for 3 - 5 players plus the GM.
- Five pre-generated characters to play.
- A huge full-color, double-sided map, with one side depicting chartered space in the year 2183 and the other floor plans for the Chariot of the Gods scenario.
- 84 game markers for keeping track of characters, motion tracker pings, and more.
- 56 high quality custom cards for weapons, personal agendas, and initiative in combat.
- A set each of ten engraved Base Dice and ten Stress Dice, designed specifically for the Alien roleplaying game.
Stay alive if you can.
This boxed set contains everything you need to start playing:
- A 104-page rulebook with a fast and effective ruleset designed specifically to support the core themes of Alien: horror and action in the cold darkness of space.
- The 48-page complete scenario Chariot of the Gods by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska, taking you on a thrilling, terror-filled ride into deep space where no one can hear you scream. Chariot of the Gods is designed for 3 - 5 players plus the GM.
- Five pre-generated characters to play.
- A huge full-color, double-sided map, with one side depicting chartered space in the year 2183 and the other floor plans for the Chariot of the Gods scenario.
- 84 game markers for keeping track of characters, motion tracker pings, and more.
- 56 high quality custom cards for weapons, personal agendas, and initiative in combat.
- A set each of ten engraved Base Dice and ten Stress Dice, designed specifically for the Alien roleplaying game.
152 pages, Box Set
First published January 1, 2020
5 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 13, 2021
Excellent starter set, the rulebook on its own is fairly substantial considering its just the starter rulebook. The dice and maps are of excellent quality as well.
Read
January 29, 2022On the recommendation of the folks over at the Vintage RPG podcast, I picked up the Alien RPG -- both the starter set and the core rulebook -- by the Free League. First, much like Symbaroum, these books are really nice to hold and flip through, with plenty of space for atmosphere and art. Does the art sometimes tend towards the generic as we see yet another small spaceship in some alien landscape? Yes, eventually, most mostly it does the job of setting the tone.
Which is bleak. I initially thought that an Alien game would have a limited attraction since there's not really much mystery: the PCs will likely encounter something that shows they are small in the scope of the universe and then they will be horribly murdered. Oh, and of course, there will be some betrayal, probably related to the company, possibly related to an android pretending to be human. But that's sort of the point: this is a bleak world, where you have a very limited expectation of survival. In fact, the game has two modes -- cinematic and campaign -- but more of the effort is put into cinematic mode where your characters won't make it, by design.
The gist of this is: Everything in space hates you and wants you to die. Yes, there are aliens, but there's also failing tech, radiation, starvation, dehydration, and starvation. Yes, there is the duplicitous company Weyland-Yutani, but there's also the simmering cold war between the United Americas and the (Soviet) Union. Oh, and add to that that everyone has a personal agenda, some heroic ("protect my crew"), some seemingly innocuous ("get drunk" ), and some downright dangerous ("get the xenomorph DNA at any cost"). Damage is bad here -- you have only a few hit points, and when you get particularly hurt you roll on a critical injury table that can leave you bruised, amputated, or just dead. Everything is stressful and stress is bad -- it can help give you extra dice, but if any of those turn up 1, you may panic.
Panic is bad.
(The core mechanic is very simple: roll several d6s, usually stat + skill, and try to get 6's. So Stress is a double-edged sword: adrenaline to get you more dice and the chance that you will, say, empty your gun at a shadow and then have to reload when the alien actually attacks.)
Take, for instance, the adventure in the core rulebook: it's the last days of the colony from Aliens. Well, again, by design, we know how that story ends, so part of the fun is at first pretending you don't, and then enjoying the all but certain end. Or take the adventure in the Starter Set, which involves waking up from hypersleep to discover your ship has rerouted you because of an emergency beacon from a ship lost 75 years ago. I don't want to spoil anything, but there are so many ways to die in this adventure that they include information about what NPC the player should take over when their original character died.
I can't even quite imagine what a campaign of linked adventures in this world would look like.
One interesting thing about this product is that it is using a lot of Alien IP, even from stuff that never made it into the movies, like, well, I think the whole capitalist vs. socialist cold war is from William Gibson's abandoned Alien 3 script, while the wooden planet is also from an earlier draft of the actual script for 3. They mention what happened in Prometheus and all the other movies. And it all feels sort of consistent, which is a feat.
But overall, there's something about all the resource management and secret agendas that feels more heavily indebted to current board games than to current roleplaying games. (Though I do like that you declare a buddy and a rival as part of the character creation.) Between that and the short lifespan the game offers, I do wonder how this would play: would it be a bit of impro theater or would it be more like playing a strategy game?
(That said, I am absolutely thinking about how I would play it with some computer/tablet assist so that each player could keep track of where they are on the ship, just so that people could pull more authentic double-crosses.)
Which is bleak. I initially thought that an Alien game would have a limited attraction since there's not really much mystery: the PCs will likely encounter something that shows they are small in the scope of the universe and then they will be horribly murdered. Oh, and of course, there will be some betrayal, probably related to the company, possibly related to an android pretending to be human. But that's sort of the point: this is a bleak world, where you have a very limited expectation of survival. In fact, the game has two modes -- cinematic and campaign -- but more of the effort is put into cinematic mode where your characters won't make it, by design.
The gist of this is: Everything in space hates you and wants you to die. Yes, there are aliens, but there's also failing tech, radiation, starvation, dehydration, and starvation. Yes, there is the duplicitous company Weyland-Yutani, but there's also the simmering cold war between the United Americas and the (Soviet) Union. Oh, and add to that that everyone has a personal agenda, some heroic ("protect my crew"), some seemingly innocuous ("get drunk" ), and some downright dangerous ("get the xenomorph DNA at any cost"). Damage is bad here -- you have only a few hit points, and when you get particularly hurt you roll on a critical injury table that can leave you bruised, amputated, or just dead. Everything is stressful and stress is bad -- it can help give you extra dice, but if any of those turn up 1, you may panic.
Panic is bad.
(The core mechanic is very simple: roll several d6s, usually stat + skill, and try to get 6's. So Stress is a double-edged sword: adrenaline to get you more dice and the chance that you will, say, empty your gun at a shadow and then have to reload when the alien actually attacks.)
Take, for instance, the adventure in the core rulebook: it's the last days of the colony from Aliens. Well, again, by design, we know how that story ends, so part of the fun is at first pretending you don't, and then enjoying the all but certain end. Or take the adventure in the Starter Set, which involves waking up from hypersleep to discover your ship has rerouted you because of an emergency beacon from a ship lost 75 years ago. I don't want to spoil anything, but there are so many ways to die in this adventure that they include information about what NPC the player should take over when their original character died.
I can't even quite imagine what a campaign of linked adventures in this world would look like.
One interesting thing about this product is that it is using a lot of Alien IP, even from stuff that never made it into the movies, like, well, I think the whole capitalist vs. socialist cold war is from William Gibson's abandoned Alien 3 script, while the wooden planet is also from an earlier draft of the actual script for 3. They mention what happened in Prometheus and all the other movies. And it all feels sort of consistent, which is a feat.
But overall, there's something about all the resource management and secret agendas that feels more heavily indebted to current board games than to current roleplaying games. (Though I do like that you declare a buddy and a rival as part of the character creation.) Between that and the short lifespan the game offers, I do wonder how this would play: would it be a bit of impro theater or would it be more like playing a strategy game?
(That said, I am absolutely thinking about how I would play it with some computer/tablet assist so that each player could keep track of where they are on the ship, just so that people could pull more authentic double-crosses.)
November 20, 2020
I got a review copy of this from Free League, thank y'all for mailing me it! Although I haven't gotten a chance to play this, this is a fairly comprehensive starter guide/masterbook to the Alien game with some great gear, mechanics of lore and mechanics of gameplay, such as having such emphasis on stress and panic altering character states/actions. I did wish there was more time devoted to worldbuilding, as I'm unsure if I can improv a ton with the few pages of setting exposition, and I was hoping to see more aliens dealt with in the rules (what if humans encounter Engineers, or ruin artifacts, etc.?) but overall found this to be deserving of the Gold it got at this years' ENnies and generally a really fun rulebook to flip through. Let's see how this translate to Role20 play soon, I hope!
June 25, 2021
Packed with rules, pregen character sheets, initiative cards, gear cards, agenda cards, custom dice, maps, tokens, and a great cinematic adventure, this box set is fantastic value! Even if you already own the core rules book, this box set is totally worth the purchase! You get so much great stuff in this box.
The Alien rules are the best new rules set that i have read in years. The game mechanics fit the genre perfectly. If you're an Alien fan just buy this box set now.
The Alien rules are the best new rules set that i have read in years. The game mechanics fit the genre perfectly. If you're an Alien fan just buy this box set now.
March 10, 2021
actually got the core book. The system looks ace and the two gaming styles cinematic and campaign look amazing. Nice artwork and great background to the universe. Can't wait to play on roll20.
December 2, 2021
Es un manual interesante, con un sistema dinámico, para este juego de rol.
June 19, 2025
I was not aware of this RPG until a friend sent me this as a gift in 2022. I love the Alien universe (mostly) so I was pretty excited to receive this, and dove in right away.
This game uses a very basic d6 system: you have a pool of d6s and, when called upon to make a check, use a number of them determined by a particular skill, stat or weapon. All you need is one of them to roll a 6 and you pass the check. However, there are negative dice that can be added to the pool and that can negate successful rolls on the regular dice. The system is fairly simple and tight in light of the game's emphasis on roleplaying, and that's where I run into a bit of wall with this game.
See, roleplaying is a great thing. It's in the name of this hobby, so it's obviously a very important thing. What I don't like is that this game encourages player conflict. Anyone who's consumed fiction from the Alien universe knows that betrayal is a common element in that universe's stories so it makes sense that it would be included in a roleplaying game based on it. I don't particularly care for that. It's difficult enough to keep any RPG group together, so the idea of encouraging player conflict just seems like a recipe for disbanding groups to me. Still, like several others I've reviewed, I want to try this before making any final judgment.
This game uses a very basic d6 system: you have a pool of d6s and, when called upon to make a check, use a number of them determined by a particular skill, stat or weapon. All you need is one of them to roll a 6 and you pass the check. However, there are negative dice that can be added to the pool and that can negate successful rolls on the regular dice. The system is fairly simple and tight in light of the game's emphasis on roleplaying, and that's where I run into a bit of wall with this game.
See, roleplaying is a great thing. It's in the name of this hobby, so it's obviously a very important thing. What I don't like is that this game encourages player conflict. Anyone who's consumed fiction from the Alien universe knows that betrayal is a common element in that universe's stories so it makes sense that it would be included in a roleplaying game based on it. I don't particularly care for that. It's difficult enough to keep any RPG group together, so the idea of encouraging player conflict just seems like a recipe for disbanding groups to me. Still, like several others I've reviewed, I want to try this before making any final judgment.
July 20, 2024
I read the a large majority of the rule book and loved it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews