Free League is Making an Official ALIEN Tabletop RPG
Free League Publishing has partnered with 20th Century Fox to develop a new tabletop roleplaying game for the beloved Alien franchise. That’s right, there will soon be an official game for you and your friends to try to survive attacks from xenomorphs. Fans will be able to craft their own characters and stories if they so desire, or there will be pre-made storylines if that’s more your speed.
Alien: The Roleplaying Game is designed to take place not too long after Alien 3 in the year 2183. This was done seemingly so that they could more or less ignore the recent prequel films. Tomas Härenstam, co-founder of Free League and the director for the game, told io9:
“We’re focusing more on certain aspects of the universe than others. I think the key thing there is we’ve set our game in the year 2183, that’s a very conscious choice. The more recent prequel movies, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, those are part of the canon, part of the story and universe. But as they take place in a much earlier era, that era is not where our focus lies.
We wanted to make [Alien] an approachable game. Our most successful game to-date is Tales From The Loop. Of course it’s very different from this game, but there are some similarities to how we approach it. In [Cinematic] mode, you play scenarios with pre-generated characters and sort of a core arc. They emulate the dramatic structure of an Alien film. It’s sort of built for one-shots and shorter play.
The [stories] can be tied together. Maybe not the same characters, because they might not survive, but they can continue the story and thread it all together.”
My one gripe is that as Härenstam says, the pre-made adventures seem to require players to use pre-made characters. It does lend itself more to being more cinematic, but I also worry that it creates too much of a railroad experience.
The first part of the cinematic story is called Chariot of the Gods with more coming in the future. You can get the latest news from the official site. If you’re interested in Alien: TRG, you’ll be happy to know that it will be available sometime this year.