Review: Alien

"It is a perfect organism whose structural perfection is matched only by its hostility. It's a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. I won't lie about your chances...but you have my sympathies." - Ash, Science Officer of the Nostromo

When I saw this book being released I was excited and skeptical at the same time. I have always been a huge fan of the franchise and seeing what appeared to be a high quality RPG coming out had me excited. Though, I also knew that the genre Alien falls under is hard science space horror and that can be difficult to pull off. After I saw the initial advertisements for it the game fell off my radar until one of my friends discovered it and turned the hype machine up to ten! This reinvigorated my interest especially when said buddy said he was going to put together and run Chariot of the Gods and if everyone liked it, he would actually run a campaign. Session 1 can be found here and session 2 can be found here.

As a disclaimer, I was sent a physical copy for review purposes. 

Presentation: This is a full sized book that definitely as the core rule book feel. The pages are full color and the book is well organized. The books page count could have been greatly reduced but due to evoking tone and setting right from the cover and on every page the count is increased to stay true to tone. The pages are set up with the core sections and side/bottom/top panels. There is also a ton of art throughout the book. I am really glad they did not use screen stills and used a type of muted almost painted art for most of the book. There are some digital art for some of the equipment and other such things. All 392 pages of the book never drops character, which is a huge plus. Another big bonus for me, is it is printed on some nice paper. 

Character Creation: Players create characters in the following steps:

1. Choose a Career (there are 9)
2. Spend 14 points on Attributes (Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. All attributes must have a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 (except the careers prime Attribute, which can be 5. So, that leaves only 6 points to spend)
3. Determine Health and Encumbrance (Health is equal to your Strength and Encumbrance is double your Strength score) 
4. Spend 10 Skill Points (Heavy Machinery, Stamina, Close Combat, Mobility, Ranged Combat, Piloting, Observation, Comtech, Survival, Command, Manipulation, and Medical Aid. Each skill is linked to an Attribute)
5. Choose a Career Talent (each Career has a choice of three)
6. Choose a Name
7. Decide on your Appearance 
8. Decide on your Personal Agenda
9. Choose a Buddy and a Rival
10. Pick your Gear and Signature Item
11. Roll for your Cash

Character creation as some great story and role play elements built in which I really enjoy. Players also have an option of playing a Synthetic and these have special rules but it is stated that these are still rare and only one should be in a crew.

Resolution: Most of Free League Publishing games use a derivative of their Year Zero Engine (YZE). At its core, Alien (and the YZE) is a dice pool system that uses d6's which translates as all actions are resolved with an Attribute + Skill +/- Modifiers vs. a success. Successes only happen if any of the dice come up a 6. Only one success is needed to accomplish a task and additional successes can be spent for stunts or additional damage. To be clear, there are stunts for combat and actions outside of combat.

What I think is amazing is that book encourages you at multiple points to only roll when dramatically necessary and the rest of the game and other problems should be role played. The book also states that actions that require a roll are only able to be attempted once and the same character cannot attempt the same thing twice without the situation changing or a new approach to the problem. Other characters can attempt that action if they so choose. The rules go on to explain that even if you fail, there should be another way to move the story along. A failure should never stop the story.

Combat is just about as simple as the core mechanic. Usually everyone gets two actions on their turn, a slow action and a fast action or two fast actions. Slow actions include things like attacking, using a skill, reloading, etc. Fast actions can be used to draw a weapon, and can be spent out of the initiative order (as an reaction) to dodge or parry an incoming attack.

1. Draw for Initiative (the system uses cards numbered 1-10. There are specialty cards you can buy or you can just use a deck of regular cards). Each PC and NPC gets one. NPC's can be grouped together if the narrative calls for it or the combat includes more the ten participants. PC's who can see each other can also trade initiative if they make it happen within the narrative (such as yelling advice, etc.)
2. When its their turn, the player rolls Strength + Close Combat +/- Mods or Agility + Ranged +/- Mods. Their choice of opponent can declare an appropriate reaction before the attack roll is made! If the opponent chooses to use their fast action as a reaction, then both players roll. The opponents successes are subtracted from the attackers successes. If the attacker has any successes left over damage is done.
3. Damage is calculated by any extra successes (above the one required) plus the base damage of the weapon or form of attack. 
4. If the opponent is wearing armor, then they can roll their armor save to see if they can avoid any damage. Each point in an armor rating grants a d6 to roll. Any successes subtract for damage.
5. Any left over damage is subtracted from the targets health.
6. Initiative moves to next in line.

Crunch: I think Alien has the most nuances to its iteration of the YZE then any of the games form Free League Publishing that I have experience with (some of these are found in their other games).  So, outside of the core resolution system I find it very important to mention these nuances;

• Difficulty is rated from a +3 to a -3. These plus or minuses does not effect the number of successes you need but it directly modifies the total dice pool. It is stated in the book that the GM usually does not change the difficulty but sometimes circumstances make things more interesting.
• Stress Dice: When something stressful happens (pushing a roll, burst on full auto fire, suffer one or more points of damage, go without sleep, food, or water, preform a coup de grace, a Scientist falls an Analysis talent use, a member of your own crew attacks you, a person is revealed to be an android, you encounter certain creatures or locations as determined by the GM). Stress Dice is added to the dice pool a player rolls. If any of the stress dice come up a 6 in counts as a success but if any of the Stress dice come up a 1, the player must make an immediate Panic check before their original action is resolved (even if they had successes).
• Panic! If a one comes up on the Stress Dice, the players makes a panic roll that is 1d6 + the number of panic dice and consult the panic table. The results can be a mild as some shakes that make subsequent rolls harder to a full blown panic attack and worse. 
• Pushing Actions: Characters are able to focus and push an action once. The player can re-roll all dice that doe not show a 6. The characters Stress is increased by 1 before the dice are rolled. Actions can only be pushed once without a Talent. 
• Critical Injury Table: When a character reaches zero health, they are considered broken and get to roll on the d66 critical injury table. This table ranges from flesh wounds to very fatal wounds. Each injury has a mount of time the character can be alive without getting medical attention and how long it takes to recover.
• Help from Others: Other characters who have the ability to help you can. Each character helping you adds a +1 to the roll to a maximum of a +3. 
• Story Points: In cinematic scenarios, story points can be used to add a single success to a roll. This can be used before or after the results of a roll. Story points are gained from acting in accordance to one's agenda. 
• Opposed Rolls: Both characters roll and whoever has the most successes wins. 
• Stealth Mode: For people or creatures wanting to sneak around they can be considered passive or active. Active enemies know of your presence are are stalking you. Passive enemies do not know of your existence but will discover you if it makes narrative sense (like walking into the room they are in, etc). 
• Usage/Charges: There are items in the game that have batteries and space suits that have oxygen. The mechanic for this is when something as a charge or a resource that could run out, ir has a rating from 1-5. When the GM calls for it, roll that number of dice and if any come up 1's, then that items charge rating is reduced by 1. 
• Ammo: The setting states that due to the capacity of magazines, usually characters do not have to worry about ammo. Though, if they panic when using a firearm, they empty their magazine and must take a slow action on their next turn to reload. Ammo can be limited by the amount of reloads available.

Final Thoughts: Another reviewer called this game,

"A hauntingly powerful experience."

I could not agree more or have said it better myself. The book really captures the spirit of the franchise and the idea of space horror. It stays true to the source material and there is actually a lot of things that are included from some of the expanded universe (like the comics and the books). Alien also has two modes of play - cinematic play and campaign play. Cinematic play is designed to emulate the Alien movies and the game should be completed in two or three sessions. The cinematic mode of play is meant to hard, dark, and deadly just like the movies. Only a few characters if any are expected to survive. For those of us who have played through who know Chariot of the Gods, the adventure in the core book, and Destroyer of Worlds are all exampled of cinematic play. It is important to note that for both styles of play but especially for cinematic play it is important to have player buy in and keep metagaming to a minimum. I am actually more excited for campaign play as the universe is much bigger then the xenomorphs and it has long been rumored that Blade Runner and Alien are apart of the same universe...Ya, let that sink in.

I am a huge fan of the charge mechanic for batteries, oxygen, etc. I think it works really well, helps build that tension, and can be used in all kinds of different games.

Also, the stress mechanic is pure genius. It really helps ramp up the fear and panic in really screwed up situations. Though, with that being said it is important to note that Stress can quickly reach unmanageable proportions without pacing and the characters making a point to stop and catch their breath, use their signature items, talents, and keep in mind that the Command skill can bring someone out of panic. Here is a breakdown how certain levels of stress affect the characters:

• At low levels (1-3) Stress makes the character sharper. Effects of Panic, if any, are relatively mild: a case of the shakes which impairs subsequent rolls, maybe dropping an object. But the extra dice make the character more effective. 
• At higher levels (4-8) the risk of Panic steadily rises. The chance of a Panic Action rises sharply and the effects get much more severe. Stress makes the character a little sharper, although less than before, but far more likely to have a full-blown freak out. Total effectiveness dips. 
• When Stress hits 9 and above, the character is a basket case. Every Panic causes a Panic Action. Sure, they’re rolling 9 extra dice for every action, but they also have a roughly 4 in 5 chance of completely losing it: freezing, running away, running amok, or full catatonia.

The YZE system sings in play on its own but it really hammers home the soul Alien universe. It is like the beautiful classy cousin to West End Games d6 system.

I can I talk about an Alien RPG without mentioning the Aliens? Well, I can't! Aliens fight dirty and they will eat you. They have lots of dice, are very fast, have multiple actions per combat turn, have high armor ratings, and each one attacks in a special way. What I mean by this is that each Alien has a d6 table the GM rolls on to determine what attack the alien does (this determines the amount of dice used, etc) and on this table, there is a result that causes instant death or worse if any damage gets through to its opponent. This does not even include the 121's acid blood - that really cranks things up, especially in close combat. It is a good idea to avoid combat with these but if you must, keep them st range. Going to toe to toe with one you are going to need luck and a whole lot of friends but if all else fails...

You can find Alien here:

• Alien Core Website
• Free League
• Modiphius
• Amazon
• Drivethrurpg

Here is a final interesting fact, in the 2020 Ennies this game took Gold in Best Game.