ALIEN RPG Launches New Kickstarter

Free League Publishing has launched a Kickstarter for a new edition of ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game, complete with a new starter box and a box of miniatures. Launched today, the Kickstarter raises money for an Evolved edition of the popular licensed horror RPG, which uses the Year Zero Engine. The Evolved Edition contains improved version for stealth mode, stress and panic, and a new zero gravity system. The edition also includes content from ALIEN: Romulus, the hit 2023 movie, including a setting guide for Jackson's Star, and a solo mode.

The ALIEN RPG uses a dice-pool system where rolling a 6 guarantees a success. Players can add stress for additional rolls with specially-colored dice, although rolling a 1 on these dice causes the chance of panic setting in. The game comes with a campaign mode and a cinematic mode in which players are more likely to get killed by an alien or a different terror in space.

As of the time of this writing, the Kickstarter has already raised over $650,000, putting it well on the pathway to the fabled $1 million mark.

 

[mamba]

$80 million dollar budget (you usually have to factor in the cost of the budget x2 for total production cost so about $160mil)
$350.9 million box office means about $190mil profit?

no, because the cinemas take part of the ticket price too, a not insubstantial one…

 

[ShinHakkaider]

no, because the cinemas take part of the ticket price too, a not insubstantial one…

It is fairly insubstantial for the first few weeks of release. It's the reason why the prices for concessions are so high as they keep about 40% of the ticket sales. With ALIEN now effectively being distributed by Disney the theater's cut is probably a bit lower than that. I'd guess closer to 20-30%.

Either way Post-Covid it's STILL a success for Disney/Fox and that's not counting for streaming numbers.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

It is fairly insubstantial for the first few weeks of release. It's the reason why the prices for concessions are so high as they keep about 40% of the ticket sales. With ALIEN now effectively being distributed by Disney the theater's cut is probably a bit lower than that. I'd guess closer to 20-30%.

Either way Post-Covid it's STILL a success for Disney/Fox and that's not counting for streaming numbers.

Yeah it was a bona fide hit. I thought it was mostly bad, and reviews were mixed, but that has nothing to do with the financials—so no need to debate anyone about that part.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

My only beef with this campaign is that the starter set is just expanding Hadley's Hope. Pretty boring adventure right there, that's not even interesting from a fan-service perspective. You know what happened to the colonists, ultimately, so filling in those gaps always seemed pointless to me. And unlike some other Starter Set adventures from FL there's no room to potentially use it as a launchpad for a longer campaign. You can't stitch it together with other Alien adventures, since the die is cast—you're going to fight and run around, pointlessly, then die.

I'm excited to see some of the corebook rules updates, though. And that layout does like pretty!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah it was a bona fide hit. I thought it was mostly bad, and reviews were mixed, but that has nothing to do with the financials—so no need to debate anyone about that part.

Critical hit vs commercial hit is what I was going off of. It made money, so internet points to the people for whom that's important, but I still find it funny that Free League is (contractually?) making a bit bigger deal of Romulus than I think even most fans would think is necessary.

And again, I liked Romulus better than most people seem to have. But it's a C+ movie.

A critical hit, to me, is the first two films and maaaaaaaybe the Assembly Cut if you're a very generous film buff in the early 2000s,

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My only beef with this campaign is that the starter set is just expanding Hadley's Hope. Pretty boring adventure right there, that's not even interesting from a fan-service perspective. You know what happened to the colonists, ultimately, so filling in those gaps always seemed pointless to me. And unlike some other Starter Set adventures from FL there's no room to potentially use it as a launchpad for a longer campaign. You can't stitch it together with other Alien adventures, since the die is cast—you're going to fight and run around, pointlessly, then die.

100%

And what we do see of Hadley's Hope in the director's cut of Aliens makes the colony less interesting than the theatrical cut. (Although, hooray for Weyland-Yutani having company-branded Big Wheel toys for kids, I guess.) Spending even more time there isn't appealing to me, either, especially given all of the other extended universe settings a starter set could be using, like the space station in William Gibson's original Alien 3 script.

 

[Queer Venger]

Space Marines anyone??

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Critical hit vs commercial hit is what I was going off of. It made money, so internet points to the people for whom that's important, but I still find it funny that Free League is (contractually?) making a bit bigger deal of Romulus than I think even most fans would think is necessary.

And again, I liked Romulus better than most people seem to have. But it's a C+ movie.

A critical hit, to me, is the first two films and maaaaaaaybe the Assembly Cut if you're a very generous film buff in the early 2000s,

The term "hit movie" is just an industry thing, almost solely about first-run profits. Nobody calls movies a "critical hit." Critically acclaimed, critical darling, those are things, but in a different lane. "Hit movie" just isn't something that's really in the eye of the beholder or up for debate.

And its success was a big deal in the trades when it came out, which is what drives the rest of Hollywood to peg something as a hit, underperforming, a flop, etc.

 

[jhallum]

My only beef with this campaign is that the starter set is just expanding Hadley's Hope. Pretty boring adventure right there, that's not even interesting from a fan-service perspective. You know what happened to the colonists, ultimately, so filling in those gaps always seemed pointless to me. And unlike some other Starter Set adventures from FL there's no room to potentially use it as a launchpad for a longer campaign. You can't stitch it together with other Alien adventures, since the die is cast—you're going to fight and run around, pointlessly, then die.

I'm excited to see some of the corebook rules updates, though. And that layout does like pretty!

I love running this at cons, great for people who have never played, and the callouts to the movie are excellent for people who have seen the movie but aren't up on their alien lore. (the donut, other scenes from the movie). at it's heart, it's a great sandbox mod, every time I run it it's different.

 

[MGibster]

And again, I liked Romulus better than most people seem to have. But it's a C+ movie.

I'd give it a solid B. I wasn't completely disappointed but it didn't wow me. Just a decent workhorse of movie that didn't really break any new ground but handled itself with competence.