New Edition Of ALIEN RPG Includes Romulus Material--But Kickstarter Delayed To 2025

Jackson's Star by Col Price​

Free League's 2nd Edition of its 2019 Alien roleplaying game is coming to Kickstarter--and with over 10,000 followers waiting for it, it looks to be another blockbuster crowdfunded from the Swedish company.

Included in the new core rulebook will be content based on the recent Alien: Romulus movie, with information about the mining colony Jackson's Star, along with weapons like the F44AA Pulse Rifle and the USCSS Corbelan IV mining hauler.

The Kickstarter has been delayed from this Fall until Spring 2025. Free League says that since Gen Con in August, fans gave offered ideas and feedback, and the publisher wishes to bring those ideas to the table.

ALIEN 2nd Edition Is Coming...

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...

www.enworld.org

Alien RPG 2nd Edition Maps Revealed

Free League revealed two of the battlemaps that will be part of the Alien RPG Second Edition coming to Kickstarter this fall. The full-color maps will be 34x22 inches scaled to the RPG miniature set that will also be part of the upcoming Kickstarter. The first map features the mining ship USCSS...

www.enworld.org

F44AA pulse rifle by John Mullaney
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The Kickstarter will include the new core rulebook, along with a new starter set, a boxed set adventure called Rapture Protocol, and a range of miniatures. Free League's original Alien RPG won multiple ENnies and other awards.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I was surprised, and initially unhappy, but it's been five years, there are issues with the game that need to be resolved, and I can't hold Free League responsible because I've barely been able to play the game. I do not believe this is a cash grab on the part of FL.

Despite my love for Free League and their games, I was originally concerned that the new edition of Alien was a cash grab, but after hearing about many of the changes that they intend to make with the game, the new edition sounds needed and I intend to back the kickstarter.

That's good to hear. I love Free League and own many of their games!

 

[Afroconan]

I like the idea of Stress as presented in the game but I think it needs to be tweaked. If players are hesitant to take action that makes for a boring game. Stress has some other problems to. When you roll a little alien on your stress die it's an automatic failure and you have to roll on the panic table and you have to roll on the Panic table.

That's a common misconception, your action is only cancelled when rolling 10 or more in the panic table. Those rolls force you to take a "Panic Action" instead of the action you rolled for. A 9 or less would allow you to succeed.

Even if you roll a 9 on the panic table while shooting and succeed, your GM may call for you to drop the weapon but that would be after the successful shot and not before.

Alien does encourage you to avoid having the players roll dice too often, but there are going to be a few low stake situations where dice rolls are necessary, and the panic table really isn't appropriate to the situation.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Stress can be improved upon. I'm also looking forward to better stealth rules.

In a recent interview they commented that the new game will have two tables, a "stress table" mainly intended for skill rolls and a "panic table" for when you encounter the horrors of space. They didn't offer more detail beyond that or even if there's any interaction between the tables (like rolling badly on the stress table could trigger a roll in the panic table).

All in all, I was in the "this is a cashgrab" camp, but from the previews they've teased I've relaxed my position to "they want to grab my cash with a better product". I also thought they made a mistake in calling it "2nd edition" and Tomas admits as much in the interview. As always "editions" are more a marketing term first before any representation of the rules changes.

I'm curious on their claims of backwards compatibility and I wonder If you'll be able to run the new adventures with the old rules.

 

[timbannock]

I'm curious on their claims of backwards compatibility and I wonder If you'll be able to run the new adventures with the old rules.

Given the nature of the skill, combat, and stress rules (generally speaking), I don't foresee scenarios needing much tweaking. As is, they mostly just tell you what to roll, which should remain the same, even if the "how to roll it" in the rules changes in some way. Stress, by its nature, is an unpredictable element, and so scenarios don't live or die on how stress plays out (nor presumably the new panic rules), only that it accumulates at a rate that is...largely up to the GM and the actions of the players anyway.

That said, if the monster AI (and possibly stats) is radically different, and/or if the stealth rules are extremely different, there could be a few areas where scenario assumptions may benefit from a change slightly, but even there I doubt anything will be so big that those assumptions will be way off. Like, maybe some maps would be better served with more crawlspaces or clearer icons for different interactive bits (terminals and such), but I doubt even that.

Of course, I'm just going off feels at this point, so we'll see.

 

[MGibster]

That's a common misconception, your action is only cancelled when rolling 10 or more in the panic table. Those rolls force you to take a "Panic Action" instead of the action you rolled for. A 9 or less would allow you to succeed.

I just checked, and you’re right. But this is the internet, and I am torn between acknowledging my error or sublimating my embarrassment into anger directed at you. I’m not sure what to do, so I will thank you for pointing that out.

 

[timbannock]

Any effort to make the internet a nicer place is worth it IMHO

 

[H. Bukowski]

Could it be that Prometheus and Covenant are being thankfully dropped from the official Alien canon and thus a rewrite of the background is required for a new edition?

 

[Morrus]

Could it be that Prometheus and Covenant are being thankfully dropped from the official Alien canon and thus a rewrite of the background is required for a new edition?

This seems like an odd way for a movie studio to announce such a momentous decision!

(Ridley Scott on the other hand doesn’t even count Aliens as canon—the alien queen doesn’t exist!)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Could it be that Prometheus and Covenant are being thankfully dropped from the official Alien canon and thus a rewrite of the background is required for a new edition?

Prometheus is referenced in Romulus, so probably not.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This seems like an odd way for a movie studio to announce such a momentous decision!

(Ridley Scott on the other hand doesn’t even count Aliens as canon—the alien queen doesn’t exist!)

I honestly don't think Scott has actually seen Prometheus, if he's still walking around saying this.

 

[Morrus]

I honestly don't think Scott has actually seen Prometheus, if he's still walking around saying this.

He made Prometheus.

He didn’t make Aliens.