Building Better Worlds Arrives Well Ahead of Schedule!

The eagerly-awaited new supplement for Free League's ALIEN roleplaying game, Building Better Worlds, has docked at my personal space station 11 days ahead of schedule.

The chunky 292-page, gorgeously illustrated, hardback book, which focuses on campaign play for colonists and explorers in the terrifying universe of the Alien franchise, is due to arrive in game stores on January 16.

However, I'd seen on message boards and Facebook groups that people placing pre-orders had been receiving their books well ahead of this date and so I was pleasantly surprised that mine landed today.

Start The New Year On A Better World

The next supplement for Free League's ALIEN RPG, Building Better Worlds, will launch on January 16.

Read all about the long-awaited guide to creating explorer and colonist characters and running an "open-world" style campaigns here, then get your order in here.

Now Your Player-Characters Can Explore Dark Corners of The Universe

Alien Day (April 26) seems an apt date to open pre-orders for the next supplement for Free League's wildly popular Alien roleplaying game.

All the wonder and danger of the stars is yours - if you can just wipe the grime off your face and dig the dirt out from under your fingernails first.

Building Better Worlds is the long-awaited guide to creating explorer and colonist characters and running an "open-world" style campaign.

Airless moons circle swirling gas giants, eager to be transformed into tomorrow’s paradise. Dark ancient mysteries wait to be unearthed beneath a millennium of debris. Searing solar flares boil your flesh and blacken your bones as you harness their power to light a hundred worlds. Long lost mysteries lie entombed in the frozen hearts of icy comets. Unstable tectonic plates shift to drown iridium mines in scalding lava. Even the truth of humanity's origins awaits you out there, orbiting some dying star. And out there amongst it all is something truly horrifying - something that nature never intended. Something alien.

This new book for the multi award-winning game system contains:

● History of Colonization – the story of humanity’s reach for the stars.

● Creating Explorers & Colonists – expanded character creation rules for life on the frontier.

● Gear & Ships – an extensive chapter with new gear and spaceships, gloriously illustrated.

● Extrasolar Species Catalog – new Xenomorphic creatures to encounter.

● The Lost Worlds – the framework and backstory for a frontier campaign.

● Expeditions – six thrilling expeditions into uncharted space, playable in any order.

● The Endgame – the final showdown with everything at stake.

Signing Off!

In a desperate attempt to focus my blogging activities into a single place (i.e. HeroPress), Game Over, Man! Game Over! is going into hypersleep.

However, rather than nuking it from orbit, this blog will remain here, although all the posts have now been exported over to HeroPress (my main blog), and future Alien-themed articles will simply be posted there.

Thus, for the time being, I invite anyone who has been following my occasional posts here to switch their attention to HeroPress, where they will encounter a broader range of geeky posts, but still with the elements of Alien goodness in there.

On the miniscule chance that I somehow get an Alien RPG game going - or even bust out my Aliens boardgame - then Game Over, Man! Game Over! might flicker back into life.

However, for the moment, it is, indeed, Game Over, Man! Game Over!

Author Andrew EC Gasker's Q&A On Colonial Marines Operations Manual

Osprey Hopes You Find Those Dark Places Stuffed In Your Stocking

 

Renowned military history publisher Osprey has selected Jonathan Hicks's recently published Those Dark Places: Industrial Science Fiction Roleplaying as one of its Seven Stocking Stuffers From Osprey Games this year. 

The list describes the new game as:

"... a rules-light, story-focused roleplaying game about the darker side of space exploration and the people who travel the stars in claustrophobic, dangerous conditions. Starships, stations, and outposts aren't havens of safety with clean, brightly lit corridors - they're potential deathtraps, funded by budget-conscious corporate interests and running on stale, recycled air and water. The stars may be the future of humanity, but they are also home to horrors and terror the human mind cannot comprehend."

New RPG Supplement For Pre-Order: Time To Enrol In The Colonial Marines

Armour piercing rounds sizzle through raw flesh as plasma beams sear swollen retinas. Acrid smoke chokes down your throat before you realize what’s burning is you.

Chemical attacks melt your armour, simmer your eyeballs, and fuse your helmet to your skull, while bioweapons turn your insides out and pulp you into a quivering mound of black jelly.

Welcome to war on the razor edge of space, marine—where nukes are yesterday’s news, pulse rounds are cheap and a human life is only worth its weight in stock options.

It’s a living hell—but none of that’s as bad as the flashes of gnashing metal teeth that terrorize you every time you try to close your eyes—like some monster just split your head open and crawled inside your dreams. Sometimes you’ve gotta wonder what the hell it’s all for.

But no one pays you to ask why, only to follow orders. You’re just a grunt—no offense. So lock and load your pulse rifle, marine—you’ve got a job to do. Protect and serve the citizens and colonies of the Outer Rim colonies—no matter what the cost.

The next highly-anticipated supplement for the Aliens RPG is now available to pre-order from Free League: The Colonial Marines Operations Manual.

As the pre-order page explains:

"The book will be shipped to you in March, 2021. You will get a complete PDF of the book prior to shipping. As a further pre-order bonus, you get at PDF art book collecting stunning high-res art pieces made by Martin Grip, Gustaf Ekelund and Jarek Kubicki. Perfect to have on a device at the gaming table, to set the mood of the gaming session!"

The Colonial Marines Operations Manual gives you all the tools you need to run a full open-world campaign as the iconic Colonial Marines.

The book's contents include:

• History & Organization – the inside story of the illustrious Colonial Marine Corps. 
• Creating Marines – expanded character creation rules for grunts of all kinds. 
• Weapons & Vehicles – an extensive chapter with new gear, gloriously illustrated. 
• The Frontier War – the framework and backstory for a Colonial Marines campaign. 
• Factions on the Frontier – the powers that be and their dark agendas. 
• Marine Missions – six thrilling missions for your Marines, playable in any order. 
• The Endgame – the showdown against a deadly enemy, finally revealed. 

The book will set you back approximately $39.99, with the exact price dependant on currency rates.

Interesting Speculative Documentary Could Generate Gaming Ideas

Applying the laws of life on Earth to the rest of the galaxy, this series blends science fact and fiction to imagine alien life on other planets.

Watch Alien Worlds, only on Netflix December 2

Jonathan Hicks Takes A Look At His Forthcoming RPG: Those Dark Places

GM Ideas: Hell Planet

It may sound like Mustafar, from the Star Wars Universe, but the very real 'hell planet' of K2-141b could give WASP-76b a run for its money as one of the most extreme yet discovered by astronomers.

According to an article on CBS News, this tidally-locked planet boasts rock-vaporising temperatures of over 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit (almost 3,000 degrees Centigrade) on its "day side" while its permanently dark "night side" is a balmy negative 328 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 200 degrees Centigrade).

As well as a thin, inhospitable atmosphere, the larger-than-Earth-sized planet - which is 202 light years away - rains rocks into 60-mile deep oceans of lava.

The article explains:

"The sodium, silicon monoxide, and silicon dioxide on K2-141b evaporate into mineral vapor, which is carried to the dark side of the planet by supersonic winds that rage over 3,100 miles per hour. From there, rocks "rain" back down into the 60-mile-deep magma ocean, which flows to the bright side to restart the cycle."

Rehomed Predators To Return Late 2021

Cover art by Iban Coello

The first Predator omnibus from Marvel Comics is scheduled to hit stores in August next year, according to the AVP Galaxy website.

Reprinting old Dark Horse comics, Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Vol. 1 will include:

PREDATOR (1989) #1-4, PREDATOR 2 #1-2, PREDATOR: Big Game #1-4, PREDATOR: COLD WAR #1-4, PREDATOR: THE BLOODY SANDS OF TIME #1-2, PREDATOR: RACE WAR #1-4, PREDATOR: BAD BLOOD #1-4, PREDATOR: INVADERS FROM THE FOURTH DIMENSION, PREDATOR: DARK RIVER #1-4, PREDATOR: STRANGE ROUX, and PREDATOR: KINDRED #1-4 – Plus material from DARK HORSE PRESENTS (1986) #46, #67-69, and #119: DARK HORSE COMICS #1-2, #4-7, #10-14, #16-18 and #20-21; and A DECADE OF DARK HORSE #1

As well as the standard cover, featuring cover art by Iban Coello (pictured above), there is to be a direct market variant with a cover from original Predator comic artist Chris Warner.

While the Predators are most definitely not part of the official Alien canon, there's still an enormous overlap in the fandoms and there's nothing to stop Game Mothers from including the Yautja in their campaigns.

These reprints may provide crucial inspiration fuel for those who missed the numerous Dark Horse comics on their first publication.

The Marines Are Coming

Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen, the Colonial Marines supplement for the Alien RPG is expected by the end of the year, at least in PDF form.

According to the latest Free League newsletter, the massive campaign book is planned to land "before the holidays".

Hopefully, the print iteration won't be too far behind.

What's Canon And What's Not

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.

Author Jonathan Hicks Runs An Online Game of Those Dark Places

As the release of Osprey's latest roleplaying game, Those Dark Places, draws ever closer, creator Jonathan Hicks runs an online one-shot for members of Garblag Games.

Alien RPG Writer Andrew E.C. Gaska Answers Fan Questions

New Alien Box Sets From Free League Have Docked At GAME OVER Station!

My glorious new box sets for the Free League's Alien RPG docked at GAME OVER Station today... and I couldn't be happier.

I can highly recommend both the Starter Set (although check the original post for the contents list as it does duplicate a lot of what has already been released) and Destroyer of World, the next Cinematic scenario.

ALIEN STARTER SET AND DESTROYER OF WORLDS RELEASED BY FREE LEAGUE TODAY!

Free League has released two new box sets in support of its award-winning Alien RPG today: the Starter Set and the Destroyer Of Worlds adventure.

Pre-orders are being packed and will be dispatched shortly, and you can now order the box sets from the Free League store or, if you prefer PDFs and just want it all in digital format, via DriveThruRPG.

The Starter Set is designed to be the perfect entry point into the game and the Alien universe.

It contains everything needed to start playing:

• A 104-page condensed rulebook
• The 48-page complete Cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods by Andrew E.C. Gaska
• Five pre-generated characters to play
• A huge full-colour, 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 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.

Destroyer of Worlds is a complete Cinematic scenario, written by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska just like the previous Chariot of the Gods.

In Destroyer of Worlds, players take the roles of Colonial Marines.

The scenario is designed for three to five players plus the Game Mother, and it’s a gauntlet of one hell after another.

Expect it to take three sessions to complete.

This boxed set contains:

• The main Destroyer of Worlds scenario book
• A huge double-sided map of the Ariaricus moon colony on one side and the Fort Nebraska space elevator ground base on the other
• Seven pre-generated characters to play
• Custom cards for weapons, vehicles, and personal agendas
• Player maps and handouts

GM IDEAS: Wormholes & Space Travel

GM IDEAS: Asteroid Mining

After you've watched the short clip above from Ancient Aliens about the wealth of resources in our asteroid belt, check out the infographic below (you'll have to click on it to make it more legible) from space mining start-up Planetary Resources explaining the trillion-dollar potential of industrialised asteroid mining.

click to embiggen

GM IDEAS: Underwater Space Station

Fabien Cousteau, grandson of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, is proposing the construction of The Proteus, an underwater 4,000-square-foot modular lab off the coast of the Caribbean island of Curaçao.

CNN reports:

"Designed as a two-story circular structure grounded to the ocean floor on stilts, Proteus' protruding pods contain laboratories, personal quarters, medical bays and a moon pool where divers can access the ocean floor. Powered by wind and solar energy, and ocean thermal energy conversion, the structure will also feature the first underwater greenhouse for growing food, as well as a video production facility.

"The Proteus is intended to be the underwater version of the International Space Station (ISS), where government agencies, scientists, and the private sector can collaborate in the spirit of collective knowledge, irrespective of borders."

Not only do you have the potential for Underwater-style Earth-based adventures, but this idea of a submerged 'space station' could easily be transposed to any alien planet with a large body of water.