[Game a Day 17] Aliens RPG

[armac]

Remind me once again where and when boardgame night is.

Every second Tuesday at Broadway Bar & Grill Central (at Prince of Wales and Fisher). It usually starts sometime around 6:30, although people wander in at different times.

The next one is June 6. I should be there, and am hoping to finally play the new version of Fury of Dracula that I bought recently.

 

[HellHound]

Ah-ha. I knew there was a reason. Tuesdays all three ladies in the house have Irish Dance classes (and then guides for one) most of the evening (well, from 4:00 until 8:30).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Heh, I have thought about running a Aliens game using Spycraft 2.0 - not bothering to put in space travel rules beyond the GM telling the players that it takes X amount of time to get there. (I have the Near Star Guide from 2300 AD, so I would make up an arbitrary speed and pull out a combination of Pythagoros and a calculator. )

Currently I am running an XCom Spycraft game, so I guess that I have aliens on the brain.

The Auld Grump, I wonder how the PCs will take meeting Chrysalids in a few weeks...

 

[nerfherder]

LEG's Aliens boardgame was actually pretty good. Each character had 2 or 3 actions and could spend an action to move or aim (and then fire). Taking multiple aim actions improved your chance to hit. Shotgun was best for "close encounters", flamers also good close in, and pulse rifles and machineguns good for longer range. Pistols sucked!

Each character had a card that had a matrix with the number of aim actions vs range - this gave the target number that needed to be rolled equal to or under on a d10 to kill an alien.

e.g. Hicks, who has 3 actions:

     ----Target Range-----
[b]AIM[/b]  1    2   3-4  5-6  7+
[b]1[/b]    8    6    2    1    0
[b]2[/b]   13    9    8    6    4
[b]3[/b]   14   10    9    7    5

If Hicks moves 2 squares (1 action per square) and takes 1 action to fire at an Ailen 4 squares away he needs to roll a 0,1 or 2 (30%). If he only moves 1 square and spends 2 actions aiming, then fires, he needs to roll 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 or 8 (90%) chance. Alternatively, he could move 1 square and aim and fire twice (with a 30% chance to hit each time). As you can see, taking two actions to aim makes a big difference, but for characters with only two actions it means they end up standing still (while everyone else is pegging it to safety!).

The best thing about this game is that it was well balanced and a genuinely tense affair to see whether you were going to make crucial rolls.

Cheers,
Liam