Alien rpg

Has anyone given any thought to running an Alien PbP game? The one from Free League..

It kinda makes my chest hurt.

Haha, chest hurt.

I thought about it but have mixed feelings about the 2d20 system for PBP, from having played in a few Star Trek Adventures games and running two Conan games. From talking to those who have run it IRL, there is a tension mechanic that really stands out (I don't know how, sorry).

No worries, I know what you mean, I've read through the core book. I was just curious to see if anyone was interested.

I was tempted to run it - I put something on the Discord about it but no one expressed any interest. If people are up for it I’d be happy to run a game of it.
The Free League version is a D6 based system, it’s pretty simple and would probably work quite well for PBP I think

Is it the same or a similar system mechanically to Loop and Flood?

I think so.....you roll a number of d6’s based on your Stat or skill, get a 6 on one and you succeed at what you are doing, more 6’s mean you can add additional ‘stunts’ onto the roll. The difficulty of the check just modify the number of dice in your pool, harder difficulty means you roll less dice.

The stress mechanic is pretty simple as well - you have a stress rating which you roll a number of additional d6’s on every check you make. Any 6’s you get on these add to your successes but any 1’s on these mean you have to test for panic....which is bad.....very bad.

That pretty much sums it up I think. I’ve not read Loop or Flood so I’m not sure who it stacks up with those exactly

It's a simple system to learn. Your dice pool is basically your stat plus your skill rating. Look at any bonuses or penalties and then make your roll.

@mcneils5- if your serious about running a game, count me in.

It sounds generally similar, yes. Thanks. Should probably work well for PBP then.

Sounds similar to the Year Zero Engine from Free League, which worked fine when I used it for Vaesen, yup.

(Don't know why I got it in my head it was Modiphius 2d20 system. "You may be right, I may be crazy.")

I've had a couple great experiences with it in "Cinematic" mode, and a less great - but still good - experience with it in a campaign mode.

Requires a bit of buy-in, cuz obviously everyone knows what a xenomorph is who's gonna play the game, but it does a good job of capturing the feel of the source material.

I really enjoyed that system for Vaesen, it was very straight forward and seemed to allow for a lot of creativity.

I could definitely see how it could translate well to Alien RPG, though only if you are going "Alien" and not "Aliens" if you get what I am saying.

It's indeed a Year Zero Engine game -- same as Mutant Year Zero, Coriolis, Tales from the Loop, Things from the Floor, Forbidden Lands, Vaesen, and the upcoming Twilight 2000. Free League makes not insignificant changes across most of these games to fit the genre, and I really like the pushing mechanic they use in Alien -- the stress that mcneils5 mentions. Cinematic mode is really, really cool, though I admit for longer term play I'd probably look elsewhere... such as at Coriolis. I've heard though, that some people really dig the meat of the background in the book -- a lot of which comes from the various Dark Horse comics, from what I understand.

It's a gorgeous book, too... as all FL products are these days...

Would love to try the Alien RPG if this happens, I read the Vaesen rules and loved that system, if it's the same core engine.

Right, seems like there would be enough interest for a game of this then. I’m going to get my thoughts together about it over the weekend and I’ll probably spin a game up early next week for a short Cinematic style adventure (so would be pregenerated characters and would be for a short, self contained adventure). Will link it here when I get it set up

Sounds good!

Great!

excellent, thanks

Hi all, sory for the delay in getting a game spun up for this. I've not been 100% the last few days so I haven't had a chance to get it going yet. Will keep you all posted though

No worries