Alien: Nightshift

Lovecraft Gets It

Alien: Containment

Alien: Alone

Featuring James Paxton, son of Bill 'Hudson' Paxton, who talks about his experiences on this short, his father, and other projects on the AvP Galaxy Podcast.

Alien Invades UK Games Expo...

As you are hopefully aware, Free League opened pre-orders for the Alien RPG this past weekend... and those of us who got our orders in then have already received their 168-page PDF previews.

However, if you want to find out more - direct from the xenomorph's mouth, as it were - Free League will be demonstrating the game at the UK Games Expo this coming weekend.

In their latest newsletter, Free League says:

"Curious about Alien? Why not test it out this weekend! Sign up for an exclusive demo game in our booth, hosted by Matt and Dave from the Coriolis Effect podcast. Visit our booth 1-598 to sign up!"

As pre-release publicity builds for the Alien RPG, the game is already receiving coverage from sources as diverse as Variety and io9.

• And don't forget the official forum, where you can chat with fellow gamers.

Alien: Harvest

Alien: Specimen

And as a little bonus:

PRE-ORDERS ARE NOW LIVE!!!

The window for pre-orders of the new Alien RPG is now open, and will remain available until August 4.

Go to Alien-RPG.com to place your order.

The game is due to ship in December, but if you pre-order direct from publisher Free League you will be entitled to a complimentary 168-page Cinematic Starter Kit PDF.

This booklet, which includes the full-length Cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods written by Alien RPG setting writer and sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska, will be available to you - via DrivethruRPG - within days of your purchase and you can start playing immediately.

By taking part in the pre-order you can also provide feedback on the game before the core rulebook goes to print, and thereby help Free League make the game even more awesome – and be credited as an official playtester.

• The first wave of Cinematic Starter Kit PDFs are due to be sent out before the weekend is over.

In addition to the core rulebook, Free League is offering a deluxe GM Screen, custom dice, a large starmap, and custom cards for weapons, NPCs and combat initiative.

If you want to go all-in, they are offering discount bundles, and if you have your heart set on a unique artefact celebrating both Alien and the game, hardcore fans can pick up the the 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Core Rulebook, with a special commemorative embossed cover.

Free League has also explained why it's running a pre-order for this exciting game:

"In the past, we have done many Kickstarters to fund the development of our roleplaying games. This a pre-order, meaning that the game will be published no matter how many people take part in it. However, there are three good reasons to take part in this-preorder:

1. You get the 168-page Cinematic Starter Kit PDF within days after purchase and can start playing immediately!
2. By taking part in the pre-order you can provide feedback on the game before the core rulebook goes to print, and thereby help us making the game even more awesome.
3. A big support for the pre-order will help us kick off development of modules and supplements for the game even sooner."

40 YEARS OF ALIEN

ALIEN RPG PRE-ORDERS START TOMORROW

A major incentive in pre-ordering the Alien RPG - from Free League - is early access to the complimentary 168-page Cinematic Starter Kit PDF including the full-length Cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods written by Alien RPG setting writer and sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska.

The Cinematic Starter Kit will be available for download via DrivethruRPG as soon as the pre-order purchase is confirmed.

In addition, anyone who pre-orders the core rulebook will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the game before it goes to print and earn a play-tester credit in the final publication.

The centrepiece of the pre-order is, of course, the Alien RPG Core Rulebook containing 300+ pages of mythology, original artwork, and custom mechanics for open-world campaigns as well as cinematic gameplay, based on Free League's award-winning Year Zero game engine.

You can read about the two different styles of adventure the game supports here:

• Cinematic

• Campaign

In addition to the core rulebook, they will be offering a deluxe GM Screen, custom dice, a large starmap, and custom cards for weapons, NPCs and combat initiative.

If you want to go all-in (and who wouldn't?), Free League will offer bundle deals.

If you want a unique artefact, they are offering the 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Core Rulebook (pictured below), with a special commemorative embossed book cover. Exclusive to this pre-order campaign, the 40th Anniversary Limited-Edition will never be printed again.

CAMPAIGN MODE

From the Official Newsletter for the Upcoming Alien Tabletop RPG

While Cinematic mode lets you relive the intense drama och thrill of an Alien movie, Campaign play lets you go deeper, exploring the darkness of space over the course of a long campaign, spanning dozens of sessions. There is a lot more to do in the Alien universe than fighting xenomorphs!

The key tool for Campaign play is the starmap of known space in 2183 AD.

The map is based on the work of Scott Middlebrook, with additional work by our main setting writer and Alien franchise consultant Andrew E. C. Gaska, and graphic design by our Art Director Christian Granath.

The star map is divided into broad sections such as the Core Systems, the Outer Veil and the Frontier.

It also indicates which areas are under the general control of the main factions of human civilization, such as the United Americas and the Three World Empire, and includes many stars, planets and colonies from the Alien films as well as from video games, books and comics.

The locations and factions on the map are further described in the Governments & Corporations and Systems & Planets chapters in the core game book, both written by Drew Gaska.

TOOLS FOR CAMPAIGN PLAY

Beyond the pure setting texts describing the world of 2183 AD, the Alien RPG core rulebook will also contain a powerful array of tools for the Gamemaster to use in Campaign play.

These tools include extensive random tables to quickly create systems, planets, missions and encounters with a few dice rolls, turning the Alien RPG into an open-world, sandbox game.

These tools are created by Free League co-founder Nils Karlén in cooperation with RPG designer Paul Elliott (Hostile, Zenobia).

Campaign play and the tools for it are built around three distinct campaign concepts, determined by the types of characters you will be playing in your campaign. The three concepts are described below.

SPACE TRUCKERS

While not as lucrative a field as it was some fifty years ago, hauling refineries and cargo between Earth and the colonies is still big business.

The advent of newer and faster FTL drives has significantly shortened the travel time between worlds, ensuring that starship crews don’t have to spend nearly as much time in stasis.

Most companies compensate their crews not only for their work but for time lost in hypersleep as well.

While most space truckers work for one corporation or another, there are also independent trader captains, smugglers, salvage crews, and privateers.

Space is big, and legally or off the books, people and things always need to get from one side of it to the other.

COLONIAL MARINES

The United States Colonial Marine Corps represents the finest fighting force ever assembled.

Technologically advanced and sporting all the latest in military hardware — a large amount of which is designed by Weyland-Yutani — the Colonial Marines are able to operate independently in nearly any environment.

Combat teams are cross-trained and can be deployed at a moment’s notice to nearly any world without extensive briefing.

Military occupations include vehicle operators and pilots, combat technicians, heavy weapons specialists, medics, engineers, and career officers.

Naval occupations are found in the USCM support service of warship and starfighter teams of the United Americas Outer Rim Defense Fleet, and there are special military R&D programs across the spectrum that require volunteers.

On the Frontier, there is always something that needs defending and some planet that needs pacifying.

FRONTIER COLONISTS

To most, becoming a colonist means you accept a hard life with little reward other than the satisfaction of a job well done.

A colonist’s hands are always dirty and their feet are always tired. Living on the edge of civilization can have its benefits, however.

Depending on your profession, the chance to strike it big could be right around the corner.

Frontier Colonists are scouts and homesteaders, farmers and scientists, miners and doctors.

Colonial Marshals keep the peace and Frontier journalists keep the colonies in the know.

Colonists are the lifeblood of humanity.

Stay tuned – and tell all of your friends to also sign up to this newsletter at Alien-RPG.com!

GM IDEAS: What Might Hyper-Advanced Aliens Look Like?

What would hyper-advanced aliens even look like if we could find them. Director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center at Columbia University, New York, and author of The Copernicus Complex, Caleb Scharf explains how, using advanced technology, aliens could have progressed beyond physical matter.

CINEMATIC GAMEPLAY

From the Official Newsletter for the Upcoming Alien Tabletop RPG

A Cinematic scenario emulates the dramatic arc of an Alien film.

Designed to be played in one or a a few sessions, this game mode emphasizes high stakes and fast and brutal play.

Conflict between player characters is likely, and you are not all expected to survive.

Cinematic scenarios come with pre-generated characters, specifically tailored for the story.
A Cinematic scenario is divided into three Acts.

For each Act, each player character is given a Personal Agenda, that is kept secret from the other players.

A Personal Agenda can go against the interests of other characters or the group as a whole, but that's not always the case – the point is that you can never be sure about the motivations of the other characters.

Personal Agendas for Act 1 and Act 2 are generally carefully phrased, to avoid overt confrontations between player characters to early in the story.

Act 3 Agendas tend to push characters to a climactic endgame, sometimes pitting player characters in direct confrontation against each other – just like Ripley against Ash in Alien and Burke in Aliens.

CHARIOT OF THE GODS

One Cinematic scenario, Chariot of the Gods, is included in core rulebook. This pre-generated scenario provides all the tools necessary to run your first Alien roleplaying game, and it’s a fun and easy way to learn how to play and tell your own stories on the Frontier.

In Chariot of the Gods, the players take the roles of the crew of the USCSS Montero starfreighter.

It’s designed to introduce the game to the players while at the same time take them for a thrilling, terrifying ride into space where no one can hear them scream.

The scenario is designed for 3–5 players plus GM, and takes at least 4-5 hours to complete.

Chariot of the Gods is written by author Andrew E. C. Gaska, lead setting writer for the Alien RPG and franchise consultant on Alien for 20th Century Fox, with editing and added gameplay aspects by game director Tomas Härenstam.

More Cinematic scenarios will be published by Free League Publishing in the years to come. Some will be linked into longer narratives, where the outcome of one Cinematic scenario can impact the setup of the next – even if all player characters are replaced.

Stay tuned – and tell all of your friends to also sign up to this newsletter at Alien-RPG.com!

GM IDEAS: Doom Worlds

Apokolips from the DC Comics Universe

This infographic from Futurism is a handy source of inspiration for scientifically-based weird worlds: Planets of Doom - The Strange Worlds of Dead and Dying Stars.

There's some wonderfully wild science there, including a planet which is a giant diamond!

BUILDING BETTER WORLDS

From the Official Newsletter for the Upcoming Alien Tabletop RPG

Most Alien films tell a horryfing and thrilling story with a tight focus.

They generally don't reveal that much detail about the greater universe, instead leaving the viewer with largely unexplained names of locations and organizations to spark the imagination.

Cinematic scenarios for the Alien RPG will work in very much the same way as the films.

But for Campaign mode, we need to flesh out the universe and present the Alien world of 2183 AD to you as a cohesive whole.

The full game will have meaty chapters on governments, corporations, star systems, planets, colonies, and xenomorphs, as well as a beautiful star map of known space for you to explore.

The lead writer of the setting chapters is Andrew E. C. Gaska – author, senior development editor at Lion Forge Comics, and franchise consultant on Alien, Predator and Planet of the Apes for 20th Century Fox.

With total attention to the minute details of the Alien lore from decades of movies, games, books, and comics, Drew's work is to preserve the essence of the expanded material and bring it in line with hardcore canon, filling in gaps where needed. In addition to his setting design, Drew is the lead writer of the introductory scenario Chariot of the Gods.

To compliment Drew's work, RPG designer Paul Elliott (Hostile, Zenobia) is writing systems and missions generators for the Gamemaster to use, as well as modular locations and adversaries, to make the Alien RPG in Campaign Mode a truly sandbox, open-world game.

The end result is a rich game universe in the deadly cold of outer space for you to explore.

More details on the Alien RPG universe of 2183 AD will follow in later newsletters.

Stay tuned – and tell all of your friends to also sign up to this newsletter at Alien-RPG.com!

PRE-ORDERS BEGIN THIS SATURDAY!

Forty years to the day after the Alien franchise first inspired and shocked the world, Free League launches the official Alien roleplaying game.

This gorgeous-looking game will be available for exclusive pre-order at alien-rpg.com, from 6am PST / 9am EST / 3pm CEST on Saturday (May 25).

• Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool takes an advanced look at the eagerly anticipated new game.

GM IDEAS: Black Holes Suck!

Doctor Who: World Enough And Time

Doctor Who, Star Trek, Stargate - pretty much every sci-fi franchise has dabbled with run-ins with black holes at some point.

Which means they deserve the tabletop treatment at least once in your on-going sci-fi roleplaying game campaign.

If you're looking to throw one in the path of your players - and their starship - but aren't fully au fait with the scientific technicalities of these cosmological phenomena, then Futurism has you covered.

The science blog recently ran an article entitled Here’s How You Could Survive Being Sucked Into a Black Hole which has gaming potential written all over it.

GM IDEAS: Ground Control To Major Tim

When Tim Peake was on the International Space Station, the BBC published a couple of articles that could be useful fodder for games set in space that take a 'realistic' approach to that environment:

• What Could Possibly Go Wrong On A Spacewalk?
• How To Deal With A Medical Emergency On The Space Station

Peter Weyland's 2023 TED Talk

GM IDEAS: Alien Oceans

Our ideas of planetary explorations tend to be a blend of sci-fi movie science and the moon landing (ie. explorers/adventurers traversing solid ground), but NASA is working on ideas for exploring alien oceans and water worlds.

Futurism has one of its great infographics spelling out current thinking on the topic, that can surely serve as inspiration for an off-world watery adventure for your player-characters.

And while we're thinking about space travel, here's Futurism's guide to the world's top space agencies.

Stars Of The Middle Heavens (2183)

click to embiggen

Star map of 2183, from Free League's forthcoming Alien roleplaying game.

We're In The Pipe, Five By Five

I was already excited for the prospect of an official Alien roleplaying game, but then I read Adam Dickstein's similarly excited - and informative - post on his Barking Alien blog, and now it's all I can think about!

Sure, I'd pretty much, mentally, committed myself to run some form of old school Dungeons & Dragons variant for the Tuesday Knights, had designed my new gamesroom around that concept, and spent a bucket-load of cash on 28mm fantasy miniatures to do combat on my ever-growing collection of battle mats...

And, sure, this new game, from Sweden's Free League Publishing, will use a variant of the Year Zero Engine, as seen in games such as Tales from the Loop and Mutant: Year Zero, which will mean dice pool mechanics and only using d6s, two prospects that would usually stick in my craw.

But this is the world of Aliens, and somehow, as the Free League describe it, it just makes my geek squee.

 And, speaking as someone who actually liked Covenant, it would give me a chance to truly feed my inner Ancient Aliens hunger (beyond shoehorning them into both superhero and fantasy settings).

And, after Monty Python, it's probably the most referenced franchise at the games' table. Strewth, I'm so fickle.

I'm sure if I could have just stuck with one system, or even one genre, from day one, I could be a mega-famous gaming blogger or a writer or a publisher, but I'm always being distracted by the next new shiny thing (or, in this case, grimdark).

I'd also be a lot better off financially, because I wouldn't have pissed so much money away on things I was really into at that moment, then moved on from before I got to properly use them.

Part of the problem is only gaming once a month gives me too much time between sessions to look around the Internets at all the other amazing work being produced, that then lures me in with its seductive siren song.

But, I can't deny the fact that I've always had a short attention span - and my stroke hasn't helped - and so from the moment I discovered RPGs I've been reaching for that elusive Holy Grail, that's always just round the corner, of the "perfect system" and "perfect setting".

Perhaps, Alien will be it.

But then again, just the other day, I was wondering if it would be Dune?

Perhaps it will be neither.

Perhaps it was old school Dungeons & Dragons after all.

Or maybe, Villains & Vigilantes...

Or Red Dwarf... Oy vey!

To quote Michael Corleone:

And to misquote Giorgio Tsoukalos:

Now hand me that bucket of six-siders that I keep handy for close encounters, we're on an express elevator to Hell, going down!

A sampling of the orgasmically-good, atmospheric, artwork from the forthcoming Alien RPG.