Free League's Alien RPG - My Experience

[Retreater]

This weekend I played the Alien RPG, which was the third Year Zero Engine derived game I've played (following Forbidden Lands and Vaesen). We played a "one-shot" adventure from the Starter Box (maybe it was our style of play, but it took us the entire weekend to finish - close to 14 hours of play). The Cinematic style used for one-shots included agenda cards to pass out in secret to each player.
Overall, the dice pool mechanics were easy to grasp, a streamlined version of what you'd find in Forbidden Lands (only two die types - regular dice and stress dice). Your characters are weaker than in other Year Zero games (you have health points equal to your Strength score, but no other ability scores are tied to health - so you only take damage to your HP). You're not going to have access to weapons or armor, and you're going to be constantly outclassed by your opponents - which I guess is the point of the fiction.
The agenda cards were wholly negative, creating a constant PvP environment. Agendas included: you want to kill the rest of the party, you must do anything you can to preserve the xenomorph, etc. Every character death was because another character killed them. In this way it feels more like a board game than a typical RPG.
Just for my playstyle and preferences, maybe a single 4-hour game would be okay. I wouldn't want to get invested in a longer story, however.

 

[prabe]

That seems roughly consistent with my experience, though it's the only Year Zero game I've played. There's an almost-painful tension, IMO, between all the tools it gives you to make interesting characters and all the interesting setting toys it presents, and the failure-intensive nature of the actual system and the inevitable intended endgame of feeding PCs to the Xenomorphs.

 

[payn]

That does sound very much like a long long version of Burke's Gambit.

I certainly don't mind that once in awhile, I do like these one shots and think they are best for PvP style gaming. However, I would be disappointed if every scenario turns out to just be reenact the movie.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Interesting.

I've played Forbidden Lands, but not Alien. But I've heard a ton of great reviews for Alien and its cinematic style. But the way you're describing the agenda cards, I have a feeling it leads to very different experiences from table to table; its very tied to your table dynamic.

 

[Retreater]

That does sound very much like a long long version of Burke's Gambit.

Indeed. One might as well play that and save 3.5 hours and $30 over the cost of the Alien Starter Set.

I certainly don't mind that once in awhile, I do like these one shots and think they are best for PvP style gaming. However, I would be disappointed if every scenario turns out to just be reenact the movie.

I don't see enough adventure opportunities in the Alien universe to sustain an RPG campaign. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings - sure. But Alien seems to be you're on a confined spaceship/base/prison and there's an alien ... and you die.

I've played Forbidden Lands, but not Alien. But I've heard a ton of great reviews for Alien and its cinematic style. But the way you're describing the agenda cards, I have a feeling it leads to very different experiences from table to table; its very tied to your table dynamic.

Yeah, the rules are pretty good. But I don't know if you need them. It's not like you're going to have a chance to impact the (very railroaded) structure of the game.
You might as well just play Dread.

 

[payn]

Indeed. One might as well play that and save 3.5 hours and $30 over the cost of the Alien Starter Set.

I don't see enough adventure opportunities in the Alien universe to sustain an RPG campaign. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings - sure. But Alien seems to be you're on a confined spaceship/base/prison and there's an alien ... and you die.

Yeah, the rules are pretty good. But I don't know if you need them. It's not like you're going to have a chance to impact the (very railroaded) structure of the game.
You might as well just play Dread.

...and I think thats ok. Not every RPG needs to be a sustainable long running campaign. Sometimes a nice pulpy ruleset that is light and can be jumped right into a few times a year tops is just what the doctor ordered. Though, many folks have the idea if its a TTRPG it needs to be able to support long running campaigns so I can see why the anti-bespoke crowds have formed.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

The agenda cards were wholly negative, creating a constant PvP environment. Agendas included: you want to kill the rest of the party, you must do anything you can to preserve the xenomorph, etc. Every character death was because another character killed them. In this way it feels more like a board game than a typical RPG.
Just for my playstyle and preferences, maybe a single 4-hour game would be okay. I wouldn't want to get invested in a longer story, however.

Since you only use Agenda cards for cinematic play—very very short campaigns, if not one-shots, to give you immediate stakes and to push toward a more dramatic and memorable conclusion—they're specifically not for getting invested in a longer story. Plus, in cinematic mode they advise you to have players ready to play NPCs if and when their characters die (or get revealed as a secret synthetic and turned over to the GM, etc.). It's more of a play-to-lose game, along the lines of Call of Cthulhu or Trophy Dark.

In campaign mode, though, you don't do Agenda cards.

Only pointing this out because people really have to meet RPGs where they are, not where they assume they should be, based on their past or usual play style. Alien's focus is on cut-to-the-chase, brutal storytelling with tons of deceit, sabotage, and competing agendas, including PvP, and everyone knowing going into it that PvP is common if not guaranteed. You can go for a more standard trad experience with campaign play, including the usual aversion to PvP, but in that case you specifically don't use those features labeled for cinematic play.

Also, it sounds like you guys might have gone a little ham on the PvP, more Paranoia than Alien. When those scenarios are run correctly it isn't until the last act or so that you have the opportunity to really do fellow PCs dirty.

 

[MGibster]

The agenda cards were wholly negative, creating a constant PvP environment. Agendas included: you want to kill the rest of the party, you must do anything you can to preserve the xenomorph, etc. Every character death was because another character killed them. In this way it feels more like a board game than a typical RPG.

I don't know what scenario you were running, but that wasn't my experience. The Agenda cards are designed to keep the story moving by giving players a motivation to do the types of things characters in a horror movie do because they're not aware they're in a horror movie. In the adventure I ran, the Act 1 agendas of some of the PCs included ensuring the exploration of a delelict space craft, another was to find some drugs, and still another was to find something of value they could abscond with. None of those put them directly at conflict with one another, but of course by Act III of the scenario some of their agendas were in direct conflict with one another.

Our biggest problem was Agendas was one of the PCs just didn't want to follow hers because she thought it made her character seem like a greedy jerk. Her Agenda was to explore the derelict ship or her and the crew forfeit all shares from the mission. He interpretation was that she would only forfeit whatever shares she might have gotten from exploring the ship, but, in reality, the fofeited shares would have come from the initial mission they were sent on. Imagine if suddenly after 6 months of work the company came and said, "Sorry, you're not getting paid because you guy screwed up." That's a pretty good motivation for exploration I think.

As far as game play went, Stress kind of stressed out the players. They felt that when their Stress levels got to a certain point they had an incentive to avoid taking any actions that might mean rolling the dice.

The Cinematic game, the one with Agenda, is good for specific scenarios that don't last more than a few sessions. I wouldn't use it for a campaign. Honestly, I wouldn't use this game for a campaign at all. I think it shines in short bite sized scenarios.

 

[Retreater]

...and I think thats ok. Not every RPG needs to be a sustainable long running campaign. Sometimes a nice pulpy ruleset that is light and can be jumped right into a few times a year tops is just what the doctor ordered. Though, many folks have the idea if its a TTRPG it needs to be able to support long running campaigns so I can see why the anti-bespoke crowds have formed.

What I suggested to my friends is that a better product might be to basically scale down the Starter Set box and produce several adventure sets - run the thing like a mystery night or escape room in a box. I also don't think the experience requires a $40, 400 page, full-color, hardcover rulebook.
For something that should be an occasional one-shot adventure, I think the production is a little overwrought.

 

[payn]

What I suggested to my friends is that a better product might be to basically scale down the Starter Set box and produce several adventure sets - run the thing like a mystery night or escape room in a box. I also don't think the experience requires a $40, 400 page, full-color, hardcover rulebook.
For something that should be an occasional one-shot adventure, I think the production is a little overwrought.

Yes and no. I dont mind a 400 page book for 40 dollars at all. I will get tons of entertainment out of it even if its just a one shot a year.