Tag: Alien RPG

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 ALIEN RPG Colonial Marines Operations Manual

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Product– ALIEN RPG Colonial Marines Operations Manual

System- Alien RPG

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $11.99 here  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/356935/alien-rpg-colonial-marines-operations-manual?affiliate_id=658618   

TL; DR-A few issues don’t keep this from being a fun book.  93% 

Basics– Game over man, GAME OVER!  Colonial Marines Operation Manual expands on the world of Aliens, focusing on the military men and women who will defend the frontier from both men and monsters.  This book features a few new careers, talents, and items for the players and for the GM it has a TON of story and a whole campaign.

Mechanics or Crunch– This is a classic example of what’s here is good, but there needs to be more.  There are a TON of ships and tanks, so if you wanted to have more of that in the game, you are going to love this.  But there is not much new for characters to directly build themselves.  What’s here is good however.  The new military careers are fantastic and will make your character feel more like they are more than just generic soldiers.  I would just like more player specific options.  For the GM, there is an impressive amount here to throw around with a guide on how to make a military campaign and a full military campaign in the book!  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff– Want to learn over 200 years of history and culture in a book?  This is that book!  This book goes deep into the lore of the universe, and it’s well done.  You get small glimpses into individual soldiers’ lives and an overview of nearly two centuries of corporate intrigue and international and planetary politics.  This doesn’t even cover all the multitude of new aliens added to the lore or added to this game.  This is a solid story hit.     5/5

Execution– I like what’s here, but don’t completely love it.  The layout is ok, but it’s lots of green boxes with a black background.  There are pictures, but not many when it comes to the aliens.  Humans and weapons yes, which I like, but not many to show the new xenomorphs.  The book does read easily and has hypertext, so I love that.  The campaign is good, but I don’t like the layout as I feel some of the style hides the lead and makes it a bit hard to run on the fly.  But, I do appreciate it.  I’d like the pregens to be separate, but they do exist in the book.  Not as character sheets, but as blocks that you can print out.  It’s good, but I would like a few improvements.    4.5/5

Summary–  If you want to run a military campaign for the Alien RPG, this is the book you need.  Heck, it comes with a military campaign so you don’t event need to do hard work as a GM for the first 8 sessions!  It’s not perfect; I want more player options and some changes to layout and writing.  But these are small complaints compared to the parts of the book that are well done.  93%