Ring Side Report: RPG Review of ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition Core Rulebook

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Product– ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition Core Rulebook

System– ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition 

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $20.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com//product/520969/alien-rpg-evolved-edition-core-rulebook?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR– Good horror missing an example.  97%

Basics: In space, no one can hear you scream, 2nd Ed!  Well, more like 1.5.  Alien Evolved Edition has some minor changes to the original edition.  Honestly, it’s the same system, so I wouldn’t call this a new edition, but really an update.  The biggest changes are stress.  Stress is MUCH more forgiving in this edition.  Bad things happen, but you don’t have cycles where everyone just goes crazy from one roll feeding off others’ craziness along the way.  It’s more forgiving.  The game is much kinder to players, as characters have a better chance of surviving encounters.  There are many other small changes, like armor now being a static number rather than a roll, acid splash being nicer to players, and so on.  But honestly, if you know the original, you can play this new edition with a quick skim of the book.

Mechanics or Crunch: I liked the original, and the updates are just nicer to the players.  I like a gonzo RPG where players die every five minutes, but that also means the story can’t be very deep for that character.  The Alien movies, when they are rock-solid, have deep stories and gut punches that make you love and hate the characters and what happens to them.  By tempering the harder aspects, you get much more survival.  I LOVE that.  I also like that it’s still there; stress and rerolls go hand in hand.  Panic-driven storytelling and having characters freeze at the worst times make the story deeper and more intriguing.  It feeds well into the theme below.  Solid work on the tweaks that make this game more fun for longer campaign play.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– Do you like Aliens?  Do you like the extended Alien universe?  Honestly, this book is about 10 pages of rules, but the rest of the 300 pages is world.  You have all kinds of world-building in this book.  This is a solid book to build the world of Alien.  5/5

Execution:  This is a good book, but it’s missing some big things.  All the big things are here, like hyperlinks, good layout, and even amazing art.  But the big things it’s missing are pregens and an adventure.  Those are completely needed for any RPG.  You need a free adventure to really help get the GM and players into any RPG, but the new edition has new things like one-player rules as the soul survivor.  Good, but not the adventure I wanted. 4.5/5

Summary: I love what’s here, but I need a bit more.  The mechanics are absolutely solid. It’s more forgiving than before in just the right way.  The fluff is amazing.  You can see so much more of the universe is out there than the movies show you.  The execution is good, but missing.  I need an example to build off of.  I think most other GMs need that as well.  But, aside from what’s missing, the book is solid.  If you like horror and d6 dice pool-based RPGs, this is a must-have. 97%

Ring Side Report: RPG Review of DEVOUR

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Product– DEVOUR

System– DEVOUR

Producer– Duck and Crow Press

Price– $6.13 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com//product/567794/devour?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR– Push your luck to save everyone. 98%

Basics: Can you learn enough to stop the end? This is an RPG, but is a solo one.  You play a researcher attempting to build a group to learn enough about the coming god to end his reign before he ends us all.  Each round you roll a number of d6s equal to your group size and consult a chart to determine if you gain or lose followers, research, or if the god gains enough power. You can push your luck far enough to gain enough before the god gains power and save the world!

Mechanics or Crunch: The mechanics are pretty simple.  It’s d6s all the way, but there are additional advanced rules to add more.  It works, and it works well.  But if you expect multiple levels of interaction, then you will be sad.  But, if you want a more meditative experience, you will have a good time.  5/5

Theme or Fluff–  Solo RPGs are like meditation and the gym-you will get exactly out of them what you put in.  If you can’t build off a story prompt to build your own world and experience, then pass this one.  If, as a kid, you were given a random pile of dolls or action figures and could build a mythos greater than Game of Thrones, this will be a blast for you.  5/5

Execution:  I like what’s here, but some of the information is a bit harder for me to understand quickly.  This is a d6 game where rolls mean consult a chart and determine what happens.  Those tables are piles of letters.  The letters are explained, but it’s not my favorite way of explaining information.  I get it after a pass, but it took a roll or two to become easy.  The more advanced options also have the same issue.  Again, it’s a two-turn problem as you will understand what’s going on after that, but it started a bit rough for me.  I don’t have a better option than the one the authors did, however.  The example turns help with this problem.  But it’s all here and reads easily.  4.75/5

Summary: I do love me some solo RPGs on a free day.  It’s even more choose-your-own-adventure than the choose-your-own-adventure books.  This one has you build your own world and gods to fight, learn about, and hopefully defeat.  Small layout annoyances are the only problem I had.  But I must warn you, like all other solo RPGs, this one is a you problem-if you want spam-in-a-can adventures like Gloomhaven, then turn away.  You are building your story from dice rolls.  I love spam and Gloomhaven, but you have to be in the right mood to have a taste for either, just like this one.  If you can build the story from your dice, you will really enjoy this.  98%