Alien RPG
from Free League Publishing
Pick it up pdf from
DrivethruRPG
Pick it up in print
from Amazon
My review is based
off of my experiences as a player through a six session long campaign
that I was a part of recently. Now that it’s come to it’s end I’m
ready to give my thoughts on the game and it’s mechanics.
Overall the book
itself is rather well done. Like the descriptions of the various
careers and what they had to offer. A nice little slice of gear for
the 80’s/90’s gamer in me. Everything was pretty easy to
reference and find. With plenty of visuals to go along with it. Gives
you a feel of what the game is about and the mood they are trying to
put forward.
Character creation
is pretty straight forward. Four core attributes with skill under
each one that cover pretty much what you’ll need in a game like
this. The usual descriptive sections and spots for gear, weapons,
etc. They straight up give you a step by step guide on what to do
that is probably one of the best I’ve ever seen. Knocked my
Roughneck out in maybe fifteen minutes and part of that time was
reading the options since I was new to the game.
You may seem like
you’re going in light on gear but it makes sense. You’re not the
walking pile of gear like so many other games start you off as.
Mainly just what you would carry around on your character on their
day to day lives. I had a tool belt, bolt gun and things like that.
Talents I didn’t
really dig into to much since I only got one at the beginning but
later on I saw the importance of them. I’ll get into that just a
little bit on down.
The mechanics of the
system are surprisingly simple. Add your Attribute and the Skill
amounts together. Roll that many six sided dice and count all the 6’s
as a success. Every success over one allows you improve the success,
increase damage or do stunts. The fun part comes from the Stress
Dice. These are extra dice that get added to your dice pool
throughout the game. When things start going bad, shit hits the fan
and the screaming starts your character starts to freak out a little
bit. Whenever you make a roll you add your accumulated Stress dice in
as well. Now the six’s still count as a success on them. But the
one’s start to become problematic and can lead you to panicking,
blowing your success and even running away screaming (something my PC
did a few times in the last game).
Some equipment and
weapons give you a bonus which slides the necessary number for a
success down the slide a bit. So a +2 weapon now means that not only
a six is a success but also a five and a four. Damage, armor ratings,
all that are kept to relatively small numbers to keep the crunching
down. Various ways to relieve stress so you lose those pesky dice.
Various modifiers based off of character condition, all the little
touches that you would need in a horror space game.
Now one thing I will
point out is party balance. This game really benefits from having a
good variety of career types mixed together. Especially as the game
goes on and you start spending experience points. Some of us noticed
that if all the bases are covered there isn’t a lot of good
reasoning to spend on building more skills up and go for the talents
instead. I mean letting me ignore all one’s rolled on panic dice
can be crucial when you have racked up some Panic dice. Even if it’s
only once per session. That and shrugging off damage was nice as
well. The talents really help give your PC’s more of an edge to
survive in the end. Much more than just one point more in a skill.
All in all we had a
blast playing the game. So I give it two thumbs up and recommend that
folks give it a shot. For those who can’t shell out a lot I would
recommend instead of buying the fancy but pricey Standard and Panic
dice that you instead just buy some Black and Yellow sets from
Chessex. You’ll save quite a bit of money and it’s just as easy
to read successes on.
Until next time.
