ALIEN 2nd Edition Is Coming...

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There's a new edition of Free League's ALIEN roleplaying game coming to Kickstarter soon!

Free League’s Kickstarter this Fall will debut a new wave of 2e releases, including new core rules, starter set, cinematic scenario set, and miniatures line
For five glorious years, Free League Publishing and 20th Century Studios have explored the ultimate reaches of the ALIEN universe. In celebration of the critically acclaimed ALIEN RPG’s 5th anniversary in 2024, Free League proudly announced their plans to unleash a Second Edition of the multiple award-winning game rules across an expansive new line of rulebooks, starter sets, cinematics, and accessories. The stress fest begins with bug hunts aplenty through an epic Kickstarter launching this Fall.

Free League has revealed their core line-up for the upcoming Kickstarter, with more details coming soon:
Based upon feedback from thousands of players over five years of adventures, the Second Edition of the core rules delivers an updated and streamlined version of the ALIEN RPG fans know and love, along with additional new artwork, new content, and a variety of new tools for players and Game Mothers alike, all fully compatible with previous releases and game material.

The new 2e starter set will be redesigned as the perfect starting point for newcomers to roleplaying in the ALIEN universe, containing everything they need for game night including abridged 2e rules, character sheets, custom dice, reference cards, various handouts, and an expanded 2e edition of the fan-favorite Hope’s Last Day scenario set on Hadley’s Hope just prior to the unforgettable events of Aliens.

The new cinematic scenario boxed set, Rapture Protocol, written by Jonathan Hicks and Free League's Tomas Härenstam, returns to the roots of the ALIEN franchise, featuring the crew of a small star freighter on a resupply run to the remote industrial colony, soon embroiled in a deadly conflict.

The miniatures set is designed to bring the events of Rapture Protocol to life, but fully complement other adventures and skirmish battles throughout the ALIEN RPG series.

Sign up today to follow the upcoming Kickstarter, look out for more news across Free League’s social channels, and then get ready for a whole new chapter of sprawling, stress-inducing, blood-curdling ALIEN RPG adventures for years to come. We can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have our sympathies.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Mothership is on its second version I believe?

It was officially in a long PWYW beta until the Kickstarter fulfilled. The game is now in its first edition, according to Tuesday Knight Games.

 

[Maggan]

It was officially in a long PWYW beta until the Kickstarter fulfilled. The game is now in its first edition, according to Tuesday Knight Games.

Thanks! It was confusing trying to figure out what 0e referred to, and what 1e was. To me it seems as if 0e really is 1e and the 1e is 2e, what with all the changes they made to the rules. But that's just me looking in from the outside.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Also, Mothership 0e was a $10 saddle stappled pamphlet, bit different scale as far as buy-in goes.

 

[Reynard]

Think what you want. They fulfilled the promised three pillars of play with support books. Hopefully they ran small enough print runs of those so they don't end up sitting on book stock through tax season.

At least Star Trek: Adventures took seven years and, seemingly, took a lot of feedback to heart.

So don't buy the 2nd edition? I don't understand the need to claim Free League is being somehow nefarious for making a 2nd edition.

 

[lynnfredricks]

Alien is Free League’s best selling game and it has entered ICv2’s top five list of best selling rpgs three times, which is something most rpgs never do even once.

EDIT: Mothership is on its second version I believe?

Sorta. There was a free version (and a low cost of entry POD), plus a bunch of paid for supplements / adventures. They put out a much delayed boxed version which is getting a lot of video reviews now. I got it, and it is excellent. They treat the previous version as their 0 edition. The supplements / adventures are pretty much usable 0 -> 1 edition.

The product cycle here is significantly different, and scale of businesses are different. You might find Mothership in some FLGS but I don't believe they are book channel.

Tuesday Night Games didn't do everything right with Mothership, certainly.

 

[lynnfredricks]

So don't buy the 2nd edition? I don't understand the need to claim Free League is being somehow nefarious for making a 2nd edition.

Not nefarious. Companies are amoral.

But I do notice behaviors in business and, this is an incredibly niche industry which in their own way can lead to collusive behaviors that should draw the attention of the FTC, such as a sudden decision to move MSRP all at once across some of the best sellers.

An odd life cycle (and change of configuration) calls attention to itself, and potential customers in the hobby that don't like the look and smell of those behaviors should think carefully before spending. It is quite clear that all companies in this niche are aware that their historical profits weren't optimized as one 'player' tends to assume a much larger investment (and maybe they can make more off of the others).

In the case of Star Trek Adventures, I know over time it became apparent that people were not happy with the core rule book, and even people saying you shouldn't bother with it because the Klingon book did a better job on the rules. They probably could have done an 'enhanced' version (like we are seeing with D&D 5.5 and Pathfinder 2e Enhanced), but the end result still would have required people to replace books, and well, those really are new versions anyway.

Alien RPG 2e looks like a 'because we can' type of decision to me. Much like charging more for ladies accessories (vs male targeted) or Apple "compatible" vs Windows for accessory products. Or maybe a different example, FFG splitting Star Wars into multiple games.

 

[MGibster]

So don't buy the 2nd edition? I don't understand the need to claim Free League is being somehow nefarious for making a 2nd edition.

While I have mixed feelings about a new edition, I don't feel as though Free League is being nefarious. I was excited when D&D 3.5 was announced even though it'd been only what, three years since 3.0, but my enthusiasm was quickly dampened when it was actually released. Free League puts a lot of efforts into their games and I do not believe this is simply a cash grab. (A cash grab being the release of a product to raise funds quickly with little to no concern about quality.)

Alien is a great game (that I never get to play), and I'm at least going to check out Free League's new version.

 

[ugavine]

Why a Second Edition?

Why Kickstarter? This is an established company. Are their games doing that poorly they cant fund this themselves?

 

[Reynard]

Why a Second Edition?

They think it's time.

Why Kickstarter? This is an established company. Are their games doing that poorly they cant fund this themselves?

You do know that lots of companies use KS, right?

 

[Laurefindel]

Why a Second Edition?

Why Kickstarter? This is an established company. Are their games doing that poorly they cant fund this themselves?

Free League has been using KS for most of their products in the last few years. I think it helps them gauge enthusiasm and the scope that they should aim for (with stretch goals and whatnot). And it is a way for them to make their dedicated fans feel privileged with early access and launch campaign goodies etc.

It looks like this modus operandi has been working very well for them so far. There are other ways of achieving the same, mostly likely, but that’s the route they chose it seems.