Aliens

using DREAD

Cthulhu Rising, for which D101 Games apparently is doing an OpenQuest version, would probably be all you need to do Alien(s).

I would definitely go the AvP route. Helps keep it fresh. I suppose I would have to mix in some tentacle point, er excuse me, Prometheus, too.

Quote from: Grymbok;631934My first gut reaction was "seems a bit limited as a premise, surely a board game is a better idea?"

My thinking is that there's two main models for an Aliens game. One is where you play the Marines, in which case it's just "a bug hunt", and probably quite boardgamey. The other is where you play everyday people in the future, in which case the players are all sitting around wondering when the Aliens are going to turn up.

At this point I thought "that's a bit like a reductive description of Call of Cthulu",  and the lightbulb went off.

So my version of Aliens the RPG would be similar to Call of Cthulu (or at least the common perception of that game) in that it would be geared more about a scenario mode of play rather than a campaign. In other words - it would be set up as a game where you shouldn't expect all the PCs (or even any of them) to live through the whole game. I'd focus on producing a lot of adventures for it to emphasise this way of thinking, and fill the adventures up with maps and handouts and stuff so people felt they were worth paying for.

System wise I'd focus on making it a fast system, so that if you die in the first attack you can either roll up a new PC and jump back in, or alternatively not have to sit around too long before the game ends. You'd also want to make sure that you're tracking things like ammunition etc. to keep the survival horror tension. You'd need rules for weapons breaking too.

yeah, gotta go with this, too.  character lethality is a bit of a must in this situation.  

"LV486-vietnam" so to speak?  instead of "fantasy fucking vietnam" (and whatever the planet was, that's the first think that leapt to mind).  big guns, big damage numbers, hope you have backup characters ready.  hint--use templates to speed up the BRP/CoC character generation for this meatgrinder.

I think I'd use OVA as a freeform style system, just so I didn't get bogged down in minutiae.  I think that;s the word I'm looking for anyway.

That way I could focus more on the story and less on trying to emulate things.

Hulks and Horrors was pretty much designed with Alien in mind, among other classics.  

Between the Soldier class, the armor, the pulse rifle, the living weapon, and the hiverbugs, running Aliens stock would be pretty trivial.

I had the Leading Edge Aliens Adventures rpg. I think we played it once, but it did make much on an impression. I also have the LEG boardgame which I've kept because it took so long to find (eventually stumbled upon when I was in Brussels of all places).

Overall I think "aliens" more of a scenario than an entire game. I'm sure most of us have, eventually, found ourselves in an Aliens-style scenario as part of an ongoing sci-fi campaign regardless of system (the same can be said for "Assault on Precint 13"). On the other hand if you wanted to run a colonial marines style campaign you'd probably want a wider range of things to do than just shot bugs week in week out, like rescuing colonist daughters from their virginity.

One of my long-standing ideas is to run a game or two in the Aliens universe using a Barbarians of Lemuria hack, or rather Dicey Tales/BotA/DOGS of War hack.

Aside from the bugs the other big theme is "The Company will screw you over." - so Dicey Tales for PI/Noir influence, Barbarians of the Apocalypse for Vehicles and androids, and DOGS for Marines/Special Ops/Mercs. PCS would be deniable hired hands basically dealing in industrial espionage to the power of 11. A bit like Shadowrun in Space without the magic, or Sam Spade being used by very shady clients indeed. "We need you to locate a secret scientific base and guide our team of recovery experts to it. Oh...it's just a frozen alien lifeform, it was ours originally, but they stole it and the planetary government is in their pocket."

The cyrogenic cylinder is damaged during the heist and guess what pops out. Hilarity ensues.

You just need to develop the colonies more, some might be quite developed, other far less so. The use and misuse of barely understood alien tech and the corporate struggle for power could provide for more than a one shot. A CoC style bughunt also sounds fun though.

3:16 Carnage among the Stars

Its a nice little game heavily inspired by Aliens.

Thanks for all the system recommendations, but really, that wasn't in any way what my opening post was about.

You'd need to build out a lot of setting before it could really be used as an RPG, to the extent that it would no longer really be about Aliens. To me it screams 'cyberpunk in space', you've got your giant soulless corporations and government departments, the little man being squeezed, outlaws playing between the lines, so that's how I'd create the setting.

Really it would do better as a drop-in for another game.

My experience with Leading Edge's Aliens game seems to be atypical.  I actually really dug the system once I wrapped my head around it.  Yes, it was ridiculously tactical for an RPG of that time - that comes with it being stripped-down Phoenix Command.  The thing was... it worked for us.  I liked the "learning roll" for experience, I liked the unified skill system.  I enjoyed the character creation where the job-specific skills you were being trained in got "Professional" if you made the learning check and "Certified" if you did not.  It felt kinda like graduating Starfleet Academy with Honors in the old FASA Trek game.

  The background was awesome.  You could actually do a lot in the world they described.  There were other types of alien to fight, like the Harvesters, but aside from xenos there were tons of hooks for human versus human conflict.  Colonists, mercenaries, the five habitable worlds that decided to seceed from the ICC and garrison some "fortress worlds" that would eventually need to be assaulted by Colonial Marines...

  The one thing I would have liked to make this work better was a way to import new equipment.  Everything was chart-based, but that did tend to make the game work the way it worked, with aim times, accuracies, penetrations, etc.  The downside to all that was that it was nigh impossible to create new starships, new APCs or ground vehicles, or even new firearms without making some guesses about how things were supposed to work...

  Anyway... I really dug it.  But then, I'm apparently a mutant.  I liked Living Steel, too...

Quote from: colwebbsfmc;632417There were other types of alien to fight, like the Harvesters, but aside from xenos there were tons of hooks for human versus human conflict.  Colonists, mercenaries, the five habitable worlds that decided to seceed from the ICC and garrison some "fortress worlds" that would eventually need to be assaulted by Colonial Marines...

I remember seeing the mini-bestiary of other ET creatures and finding that rather cool. That's what I'd need to actually want to play a game like that. But then the question becomes: "If you aren't fighting the xenomorphs, are you really playing an Aliens game?"

Quote from: Grymbok;631934My first gut reaction was "seems a bit limited as a premise, surely a board game is a better idea?"

1 Alien (1979)
2 Aliens (1986)
3 Predator (1987)
4 Predator 2 (1990)
5 Alien 3 (1992)
6 Alien Resurrection (1997)
7 Alien vs. Predator (2004)
8 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
9 Predators (2010)
10 Prometheus (2012)

And then many have argued that Blade Runner (1982) is also part of the franchise.



Then tons of novels and comics as well.

I'd say there is plenty for an RPG.

Quote from: silva;6323943:16 Carnage among the Stars

Its a nice little game heavily inspired by Aliens.

Well you sure do kill bugs by the score but the tone of 3:16 I think leans too much on the satirical/black comedy to really do Aliens right. It's more on th e lines of the Starship Troopers movie.