Alien RPG author and franchise mythology guru Andrew EC Gaska has penned a definitive guide to the canon of the universe where the official Alien roleplaying game (and the movies) takes place.
You can read it in all its glory here:
https://roguereviewer.wordpress.com/2020/10/12/defining-canon-in-an-alien-world/
Before you ask: no, Predators aren't part of the official Alien canon and, yes, it's your game universe, so you can have Predators if you want to stat them up and throw them at unsuspecting colonial marines.
Of particular interest to me is the tier of "myths and legends", which is sort of what I was getting at with my Space Beast ruminations the other month.
This is a fascinating read but not completely useful to me personally. I've already established that 'In My ALIEN Universe' only the original film, Alien, and the 1986 sequel, Aliens, happened.
ReplyDeleteNothing else exists because frankly, IMHO, the quality of the best of those is still leagues below the first two movies. That said, I have incorporated elements of Alien: Isolation (Video Game), some of the 40th Anniversary Shorts, and a smattering of elements from Blade Runner, Outland, Solider, and various unused screenplays, novels, comics, and video games.
Not that after Alien: Isolation the amount of material I've borrowed decreases with each entry. That is to say, as you move away from the first two films and Isolation (which I found to be brilliant) you move away from what really matters in my ALIEN game.
I very cool bit of source material though and I'm curious to see how much or how little of it other Narrators use.
It's just nice to hear an "official" opinion on this divisive subject, even if most of us have already made up our minds for our own particular headcanon (my universe, for instance, has to include Event Horizon).
DeleteIt's also a useful article to have in your virtual back pocket, whenever the thorny issue of Predators in the Aline 'verse is brought up ;)