Alien: The Roleplaying Game is a 2019 tabletop role-playing game (RPG) based on the Alien franchise published by Free League Publishing. The game includes a 392-page hardcover rulebook, written by Andrew E. C. Gaska and illustrated by Martin Grip, that details the rules and details of gameplay while also providing extensive details on the wider Alien universe in the year 2183.
The game was designed by Thomas Härenstam, Dave Semark, and Matthew Tyler-Jones. Illustration and graphic design was by Grip, Christian Granath, John R. Mullaney and Axel Torvenlus, and editing was by Cam Banks.
Publisher's Summary[]
"I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies."
Space is vast, dark, and not your friend. Gamma rays and neutrino bursts erupt from dying stars to cook you alive, black holes tear you apart, and the void itself boils your blood and seizes your brain. Try to scream an no one can hear you — hold your breath and you rupture your lungs. Space isn't as empty as you'd think, either — its frontiers are ever expanding. Rival governments wage a cold war of aggression while greedy corporations vie for valuable resources. Colonists reach for the stars and gamble with their lives — each new world tamed is either feast or famine. And there are things lurking in the shadows of every asteroid — things strange and different and deadly.
Things alien.
This is the official ALIEN tabletop roleplaying game—a universe of body horror and corporate brinkmanship, where synthetic people play god while space truckers and marines serve host to newborn ghoulish creatures. It’s a harsh and unforgiving universe and you are nothing if not expendable.
Stay alive if you can.
Overview[]
Rulebook[]
Alien: The Roleplaying Game game features two distinct play modes—Cinematic play consists of pre-made scenarios, intended to minimize the amount of required setup and allow for fast, self-contained games, while Campaign play is designed for longer, more complex play across multiple scenarios with the same set of characters. The Colonial Marines Operations Manual was released as a companion to the Core Rulebook.
- Alien RPG: Core Rulebook
Campaign Modules[]
Adventure Modules[]
Additional scenarios have been released in the form of "Adventure Modules", with additional sourcebooks containing details of each new scenario. The first of these additional Adventure Modules, Chariot of the Gods, was released simultaneously with the base game and begins the "Draconis Strain Saga" which was followed by Destroyer of Worlds and ending with Heart of Darkness.
- Draconis Strain Saga
Bonus scenarios[]
The core rulebook includes one bonus Cinematic mode scenario, titled Hope's Last Day. Additionally, three unique tie-in scenarios were included as bonus features with the release of three Alien novels. The first of these bonus scenarios, Fallout, was released as part of the 2022 novel Alien: Colony War. Two others, EVAC and Trojan Horse, were included in the novels Alien: Inferno's Fall and Alien: Enemy of My Enemy respectively.
Companion App[]
ALIEN: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME NEXUS gives you and your players tools to experience the tension and dread of dark journeys across deep space like never before. Learn the game quickly through exploration and play, speed up game prep, and keep the tension high with fast, easy content & rules lookup. Whether you’re a grizzled Colonial Marine, cunning Weyland-Yutani agent, or even "just a kid," Demiplane’s ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game NEXUS empowers your play.
- NEXUS
Trivia[]
- The core rulebook contains a multitude of references to previous Alien franchise stories and characters. Examples include the Church of Immaculate Incubation (as featured in Aliens: Outbreak), Lasalle Bionational (also featured in Aliens: Outbreak), planets such as O'Bannon's World (mentioned in Aliens: Border Lines, and named in reference to Alien writer Dan O'Bannon), Linna 349 (mentioned in Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual), Bracken's World (as seen in the Aliens: Colonial Marines comic series) and New Galveston (LV-178) (from Alien: Out of the Shadows and Alien: Sea of Sorrows), space stations Anchorpoint Station (from Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay) and Arceon (from Vincent Ward's unproduced script for Alien3), the outpost Charon Base (from Aliens: Rogue), fuel depots Sphacteria (from Aliens: Dead Orbit) and Wright-Aberra (from Aliens: Defiance), Lion Worms (from Alien: Echo), and the mutagen Plagiarus praepotens (from Alien: The Cold Forge).
- Another reference concerns the treatment of prisoners on space stations, who are said to be detained in cells maintained at zero gravity and permanent vacuum, the inmates suspended in pressure suits within. This same means of detention features in the 1981 film Outland, which has often been noted for its overt stylistic similarities to Alien.
Goofs[]
- The Conestoga class light assault starship is stated to be a direct Weyland-Yutani product; it is in fact manufactured by Weyland-Yutani's subsidiary Lunnar-Welsun Industries. The module Colonial Marines Operations Manual corrects this.
Gallery[]
See Also[]
- Aliens: This Time It's War — A tabletop boardgame published by Leading Edge Games in 1989.
- Aliens Adventure Game — A tabletop RPG published by Leading Edge Games in 1989.