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Alien The Roleplaying Game
Alien RPG: Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is a complete Cinematic Scenario for the ALIEN roleplaying game, written by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska. It is a stand-alone adventure, but also serves as a conclusion to the Draconis Strain Saga begun in the cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods and continued in Destroyer of Worlds. The scenario is designed for 3–5 players plus the Game Mother, and is a spiraling descent into soul-crushing madness.
* A huge double-sided map (format 864x558mm).
* Seven pre-generated characters to choose from.
* Custom cards for secret messages and personal agendas.
* Player maps and handouts.
The ALIEN RPG core rulebook OR the ALIEN RPG Starter Set is required to play.
* A huge double-sided map (format 864x558mm).
* Seven pre-generated characters to choose from.
* Custom cards for secret messages and personal agendas.
* Player maps and handouts.
The ALIEN RPG core rulebook OR the ALIEN RPG Starter Set is required to play.
80 pages, Box set
Published January 1, 2022
1 person is currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Andrew E.C. Gaska
29 books60 followersWith two decades of experience in the comics and video game industries, author Andrew E.C. Gaska is the Senior Development Editor at Lion Forge LLC. Having previously freelanced for Lion Forge’s Labs division as a script, pitch, and proposal writer, he now generates original IP for the brand, developing both comics and animation projects while working closely with creative teams to guide their vision to fruition.
He is founder/creative director of the guerrilla integrated-media studio BLAM! Ventures, and for the past three years has worked as a freelance franchise consultant to 20TH CENTURY FOX, writing series reference bibles, maintaining continuity, streamlining in-universe canon, and creating detailed timelines for the legacy franchises of ALIEN®, Predator®, and Planet of the Apes®. He was also a sequential storytelling instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York and for seventeen years served as a visual consultant to Rockstar Games on the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Revolver, and all other releases.
Known as ‘Drew’ to his friends, his online sci-fi and sociopolitical essays on social media and at rogue-reviewer.com draw controversial debate and discussion from all sides. His graphic novels and prose works include Critical Millennium™, Space:1999™, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century®: The Draconian Fire Saga, Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes®, Tales from the Forbidden Zone: The Unknown Ape™, and the upcoming novel, Death of the Planet of the Apes®.
Drew resides in Gulf Breeze, Florida with his affectionately glutinous feline, Adrien. Find out more about his upcoming projects at www.blamventures.com
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 29, 2024
Definitely more interesting characters and personal agendas than previous campaigns, as they are all (more or less) in direct opposition with one another.
An interesting premise with great difficulty. I would say my only issue is that the acts don’t really have definitive endings.
Not for new players, but great for seasoned Alien RPG fans.
An interesting premise with great difficulty. I would say my only issue is that the acts don’t really have definitive endings.
Not for new players, but great for seasoned Alien RPG fans.
October 19, 2022
Another outstanding Campaign Module put out by Free League Publishing. Cannot wait to run this campaign.
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May 15, 2023How? Another entry in Free League's Alien RPG -- and a sealed box set I left alone until I needed something new and exciting.
What? The third part in the Draconis-26 linked adventures, which are in the cinematic mode, which means that your PCs aren't likely to make it. In the first adventure, I think you were space truckers who got rerouted for a distress signal that, of course, leads to deadly monsters; in the second, you're on a moonbase as rebellion stirs, invasion is imminent, and also military testing of the goo from the first adventure leads to, of course, deadly monsters.
In the third, you are sent to a prison/mining space station to catalog some unexpected flora, which...
Yeah, so? In my review for Destroyer of Worlds (adv. 2), I noted that the scenario seemed deadly, with one particular danger -- the rain of black goo -- feeling so unnecessary and deadly that it seemed, well, dumb. I also noted that, after reading 3+ Alien books, the muddy/dark art was starting to blend together.
Now, on one hand, that's just Alien being Alien: things are deadly; things are dark.
Heart of Darkness continues the trend: the PCs are sent to do some scientific work -- kinda fun that the pregenerated characters tend to be older -- only to discover that the station has been hit by space junk which is really a monster and also the station is riven between the warden faction and the prisoner faction, the leaders of which have historical beef. Also, the station is outside a black hole which slowly (or not) drives people insane. Also there's a potential invasion from the Soviets. Also: monsters.
Now, unfortunately, there's not many pictures of these monsters, most of whom are somewhat new looking because the Draconis-26 strain is... sort of orthogonal to the Xenomorph/Engineers strain.
(Actually, much research later: we don't get pictures in this book, but a lot of these are shown in Prometheus and/or Covenant. The Engineers created a virus that either kills the host, mutates the host into a monster, or infects the host with an alien life form. But some of the stuff that the PCs encounter here has been mutated so that it affects life or electrical systems. Anyway, whatever, there's a bunch of monsters running around, including some people who have been changed into a particular type of monster capable of negotiation.)
Well, OK, anyway: I wasn't excited by this adventure. I found the idea of negotiating with aliens interesting but sort of odd, and the hopelessness of the situation really feels out of control.
What? The third part in the Draconis-26 linked adventures, which are in the cinematic mode, which means that your PCs aren't likely to make it. In the first adventure, I think you were space truckers who got rerouted for a distress signal that, of course, leads to deadly monsters; in the second, you're on a moonbase as rebellion stirs, invasion is imminent, and also military testing of the goo from the first adventure leads to, of course, deadly monsters.
In the third, you are sent to a prison/mining space station to catalog some unexpected flora, which...
Yeah, so? In my review for Destroyer of Worlds (adv. 2), I noted that the scenario seemed deadly, with one particular danger -- the rain of black goo -- feeling so unnecessary and deadly that it seemed, well, dumb. I also noted that, after reading 3+ Alien books, the muddy/dark art was starting to blend together.
Now, on one hand, that's just Alien being Alien: things are deadly; things are dark.
Heart of Darkness continues the trend: the PCs are sent to do some scientific work -- kinda fun that the pregenerated characters tend to be older -- only to discover that the station has been hit by space junk which is really a monster and also the station is riven between the warden faction and the prisoner faction, the leaders of which have historical beef. Also, the station is outside a black hole which slowly (or not) drives people insane. Also there's a potential invasion from the Soviets. Also: monsters.
Now, unfortunately, there's not many pictures of these monsters, most of whom are somewhat new looking because the Draconis-26 strain is... sort of orthogonal to the Xenomorph/Engineers strain.
(Actually, much research later: we don't get pictures in this book, but a lot of these are shown in Prometheus and/or Covenant. The Engineers created a virus that either kills the host, mutates the host into a monster, or infects the host with an alien life form. But some of the stuff that the PCs encounter here has been mutated so that it affects life or electrical systems. Anyway, whatever, there's a bunch of monsters running around, including some people who have been changed into a particular type of monster capable of negotiation.)
Well, OK, anyway: I wasn't excited by this adventure. I found the idea of negotiating with aliens interesting but sort of odd, and the hopelessness of the situation really feels out of control.
October 6, 2025
By far the most interesting of the published cinematic scenarios. The setting, the atmosphere is very good. The playable characters are all very interesting and their personal agendas are unique and fun. The thing that brings this scenario down is that it isn't finished. It is very raw. There are spelling errors, errors in the maps. But most of all it is not as stream lined as the other two scenarios (chariot of the gods and the destroyer of worlds), which required very little prep work. There are information all over the place. As the GM I had to rewrite a bunch of stuff, to make it playable and not super confusing for my players. Honestly the scenario seems very rushed, which is a shame as the scenario it self is very good.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews