Quote from: Mistwell;6325001 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)

The questions was about Aliens, not Predator. Sure, there's definitely a sci-fi game to be made in the joint Alien/Predator universe, but I think that anyone selling "Traveller with stats for Xenomorphs in the bestiary" as an Aliens game would not meed a good reception.

The main canonical Alien movies (with the possible exception of Resurrection, which I haven't seen) all follow the same plot - a bunch of people in an isolated location get eaten by the titular Aliens. Whilst a big universe you can do lots in is certainly implied, the core experience that people familiar with the franchise is that their PCs are going to be threatened with being eaten by Aliens.

Also - although I didn't explain this as well as I could in my first post - what I meant was that a Colonial Marines based Aliens game seemed rather limited to me. It was when I then hit on the idea that an "ordinary people" game might be a better idea that the rest of the thoughts flowed through.

Quote from: One Horse Town;631933In the Firefly thread Spinachcat said that he was surprised there hadn't been an Aliens RPG.

So then, luminaries of the RPGsite - how would you go about designing an Aliens game?

I have the original one, but that was in ancient times. I am really surprised there has not been another Aliens game since then considering how popular the franchise is among gamers.

I personally would go the boardgame route.

I am shocked there has not been several Aliens boardgames over the years as the movies have come and gone. And I don't mean crapass Milton Bradley shit games, but something kickass from FFG.

If I were to design an Aliens RPG, I would just get Mongoose to buy the license and put it out using their Traveller sytem. Why? Because that's how I always ran Aliens and it worked rock solid. Fast / Easy / Brutal

Quote from: Catelf;631990So, it may result in a Corporate people vs corporate people, even while most people are scrambling to not get killed by the aliens..

I run Aliens games at conventions at least once every year or two. I've definitely done the Corporate vs. Corporate teams and that's great fun. It gets nuts because unlike Colonial Marines, there is little in the way of stopping PvP as corporate goons are trying to be The Big Guy when they get back to earth.

The blood spilled is just glorious.

And there are a LOT of one-shot stories in the Aliens-verse. I don't know how much of a campaign there would be in the sense that PCs may not last too many sessions and such a campaign would see lots of new faces.

Quote from: One Horse Town;632396Thanks for all the system recommendations, but really, that wasn't in any way what my opening post was about.

It's kinda what mine was about though.  H&H may be about more than just Alien, but Alien was definitely on the top of the list for what I wanted it to be.

One of the 5 detailed scenarios presented in Gnomemurdered is "Aliens vs. Gnomes".

RPGPundit

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

Its a nice little game heavily inspired by Aliens.

3:16's great, but the TEF massacre planets, not individuals. The system's just wrong for a tense, survival horror atmosphere.

"You hear the ceiling panel drop behind you, and the hideous clicking of xenomorph against grating... okay, switch to combat time. One token on the board... Hutton, roll your FA, you hit, kills? Right, so you kill the xenomorph 15 times, note that down, probably worth a medal. Short planet tonight..."

I'd be tempted to go for reasonably heavy crunch for an Alien game. Though the science in the films isn't exactly perfect, there's more than enough verisimilitude to justify using a heavy-realism modelling system. I'm thinking of something closer to Transhuman Space style crunch, though, than anything else.

Combat should be lethal, quick, and prone to unexpected outcomes. Setting should be broader than just LV-426 or related planets from the films, though, since the Alien universe is rather broad. I'd be tempted to have the xenomorphs as a stand-by adversary, and arrange most of the monsters as variants or outgrowths from the xenomorph species, but have a few other adversaries (of whatever kind) to explore in campaigns.

I'd actually not put the character focus on the colonial marines, either. I think the game would benefit from having a focus on more "regular people doing their regular jobs thrown into an unpredicted and horrific situation" type groups of PCs.

Quote from: Ladybird;6329163:16's great, but the TEF massacre planets, not individuals. The system's just wrong for a tense, survival horror atmosphere.

"You hear the ceiling panel drop behind you, and the hideous clicking of xenomorph against grating... okay, switch to combat time. One token on the board... Hutton, roll your FA, you hit, kills? Right, so you kill the xenomorph 15 times, note that down, probably worth a medal. Short planet tonight..."

3:16 works best in an Aliens game if you assume that the roles are reversed, and to the various civilizations you are destroying...you are the Xenomorphs.

Quote from: Warboss Squee;6329863:16 works best in an Aliens game if you assume that the roles are reversed, and to the various civilizations you are destroying...you are the Xenomorphs.

Okay that's a pretty awesome premise right there. I'd play that.

Quote from: Brad J. Murray;632987Okay that's a pretty awesome premise right there. I'd play that.

Heh, if I can ever find my copy, I'd run it.

Quote from: Warboss Squee;6329863:16 works best in an Aliens game if you assume that the roles are reversed, and to the various civilizations you are destroying...you are the Xenomorphs.

Ooooh. Now that is the good stuff. I like it.

I had a notion to use Dark Heresy once upon a time.

I've had a plan for a scenario, wherein my most trusted player would have been an android instructed to aid and abet the xenomorph, ala Ash.

Quote from: LibraryLass;633098I had a notion to use Dark Heresy once upon a time.

Makes sense given that the original Space Hulk was a blatant rip off.

@ the OP:

Agree with Grymbok.

Additionally if I were designing an Aliens game, I'd have these elements:
- fast system, weapons that break, etc. That's fairly easy.
- characters are all military, so there's no reason to differentiate on combat skills too much. Instead, differentiate on allegiances, ability to handle stress, and ability to influence others.
- tactics will be all about the "level design" rather than skill sets--you need to account for closed in spaces, environmental hazards as a result of weapons discharge, etc.
- equipment resource management.
- a stress mechanic.

As others said a system where characters die and are replaced is good, although the assumption that "I will die and just roll another character" cheapens the characters in the same way as in CoC and doesn't provide the isolation that Aliens provides.

Aliens has 3 distinct phases:
1. The marines are predators, assuming they can sweep the location and defeat anything. They are on the offensive, and feel optimistic about their situation. Their prey is unknown.
2. The marines are prey. They are now cut off and need to manage resources. Their  enemy is still largely unknown.
3. Marines are still prey but they have built a defensive position, and know about their enemy. The situation is still horrible, but now they've built a plan and at least some of them may survive.

If you want to capture the horror of Aliens you need to string out the second phase pretty effectively, and use this bit to amp up stress levels (maybe a Sanity mechanic) with some sort of consequence of stress. When you get into phase 3, the effects of stress remain and can still upset the carefully crafted plan.

Last comment--and this is true for marines or colonists--the horror comes from characters being ordinary humans, so they need to be 3-dimensional with ties back to family, earth, etc. Otherwise it's just two sets of pawns armed to the teeth going around fighting each other.