Roleplaying Games I Might Someday Try 1: Alien by Tomas Härenstam and others
21 Jun, 2021
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(My master list alphabetical but I reserve the right to backtrack or jump ahead as the whim takes me. Also, my intention is one of these per week for a year but my list currently has about three dozen games on it, well short of fifty-two)
One of a surprising number of Fria Ligan games I own (they had a sale! Buying RPGs was my go-stress relief in the waning days of the Trump regime), this RPG is an an official licensed product for the Alien movie franchise. Licensed products are a bit of a risk for companies; large media empires are prone to arbitrary decisions and often disappointed by the money RPGs deliver, while franchise fans can be very picky, for example as I was when I complained thirty years ago that Leading Edge’s 1991 Aliens Adventure Game could not duplicate the events of the film.
Although I have not played this game – obviously, or why would I be discussing it – casual perusal suggests that unlike its predecessor, Aliens does a very nice job of simulating the movies. Partly, this is because the Year Zero game engine Fria Ligan uses produces fragile player characters. Partly, it is thanks to a mechanic particular to this iteration of the Year Zero engine, stress dice. This reflect that many characters find being stalked by hordes of ravenous predators a bit trying. A little stress actually helps characters accomplish tasks, the catch being that stress also increases the odds of catastrophic failure. Campaigns could be tricky due to the tendency of player characters to explode like tripe-filled balloons, but it could be an amusing one-off.
Like all of the Fria Ligan books I’ve purchased, the production values on this are great, although I find white print on black background hard to read. The book looks very sturdy. As an artifact, Alien is very impressive.