All posts by Darren

New D&D Module Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Announced

D&D, news, RPG

Last night the D&D Live 2020 Roll With Advantage event kicked off. Unlike previous D&D Live events this years is a virtual event (we all know why).

These high profile events are used to announce and launch the new big module for the year. And like previous years (well last year for sure) there was a leak before hand. This time it was at the hands of WotC themselves when they mistakenly put a video live for a fraction of a second on YouTube. But that was long enough for some-one to get a screen grab and spread it around the internet.

What this all means is that the “big announcement” they make just confirms what everyone already knew.

This years big module that we will be getting from mid September is called Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden sees WotC revisiting the horror genre, but setting it in the icy wastes of Icewind Dale. When I heard this I instantly thought The Thing, 30 Days of Night. During the big reveal they mentioned there are around 40 stat blocks in this module, the most they have included in a module, They also mentioned that the module has been designed similar in approach to the Essentials Kit adventure. Which means you can dive in and out of the module and drop individual adventures into your own campaign, or run it as a normal campaign.

I’m pretty excited by this module. The horror genre is something I want to get to the table either in my campaign or running something like this or the Alien RPG.

Naturally there is the usual 3rd party tie in from Beadle and Grimm.

This box of props and handouts etc tied to the module is $499. A tad expensive for the majority of players and DMs. But still if this is something you can afford I’m pretty sure it’ll enhance the gaming experience.

There is also by now the standard and not surprising at all matching dice set.

I like these sets, but it’s getting a bit boring now. I think it’s about time WotC decided to be a bit more creative on the official accessories.

Plus there is the usual Wizkids minis support for the module. Which I find it hard to get excited about because they availability I found isn’t great, especially in the UK. Plus they are random packs, so you are not guaranteed to get what you want. A total turn off. Although the 2D standees and village paper craft stuff they briefly mentioned did sound interesting. Well the standees, I’m not sure about paper craft stuff.

Another big thing they were showing off was the footage and game play from the upcoming Baldur’s Gate 3, which was co-hosted/partnered by IGN.

WotC also announced a D&D cookbook.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the live demonstrations of a couple of the recipes. When they did the cocktail that seemed like jumping the shark for me. Cocktails in a medieval/fantasy setting doesn’t seem too authentic to me. And that was the kind of angle they were pushing. The Elven bread recipe that they demonstrated and put the page up on their website annoyed me. Well the recipe did. It measured stuff in cups. No weights. The melted butter measurement was given as half a stick of butter or half a cup. It’s obvious this is a US only type recipe book. But the recipes should have measurements in cups (for the yanks) and weight, ie 400g/2 cups (I’m not sure that’s right, it’s for illustration not use). The volume measurement is not very accurate and inconsistent. From my favourite cookbook Ratio by Michael Ruhlman, he wrote ,”A cup of flour can weigh anywhere between 4 and 6 ounces. This means that if you are making a recipe calling for 4 cups of flour, you might wind up with a pound of flour in your bowl or you might end up with 1 ½ pounds.” as an example of why he uses weight and not volume measurements. In the UK our butter is not sold as sticks and don’t equate to US equivalents. So the recipe is not very considerate towards an international audience. Bad call WotC in your new age of inclusivity not considering international customers.

Apart from the module, I found the whole online event and announcements underwhelming. A bit of a damp squib. I’m sure that many found the Baldur’s Gate 3 stuff exciting. But not something I’m not interested in as it won’t be on anything I own.

Still Alive

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After a day or two without posting I thought I better post something as proof of life. Plus by using the post title that I have, and the obvious (for a gamer) music choice at least you have some quality entertainment before getting to my drivel.

I thought in this “come back” post I’d briefly look at the two new apps I’ve been playing. Or at least discuss my experience of them so far.

About three weeks ago I got accepted onto the beta test for the Roll for the Galaxy app. It’s something I’d forgotten I had applied for. So when the email arrived in my inbox telling me I was in, was a pleasant surprise.

Basically being part of the iOS beta test means I get to play the game for free until they are ready to release it officially to the general public. That’s when I will have to delete the beta version and pay for the release version. When that moment happens I will gladly part with the money.

I’m really enjoying the experience of playing the app. I’ve not played against anyone else yet online. But my games against the AI have been fun.

I do own the physical game and I like playing the game. How ever I’d not really considered it a filler game. Games had typically taken around 30 – 60 mins depending on number of players and experience etc.

What I’ve found with the app and playing against the AI is that I’m playing the game as a “I have 5 minutes to fill” type game. Which surprised me a little. In fact since getting the app it’s been my go to app for those moments of “I want to play something, but not invest lots of time playing” moments.

In fact this beta version came out within a day or so of the Imperial Settlers Roll and Write app, and apart from an initial play, I’ve been playing this instead.

Nearly two weeks ago now the digital version of Viticulture was released.

Sadly for Viticulture it was after the Roll for the Galaxy app, and it has taken me just over a week before I even fired the app up and played a game.

Since then I’ve played a couple of games against the games AI. I’m liking the implementation but I’m missing the Tuscany expansion. It’d be nice to play a game or two against friends. But not likely to happen for a while.

But like the Lords of Waterdeep and Manhattan Project apps it will allow me to scratch a gaming itch. After all these are my three top favourite worker placement games. So having the option to play all three of them now digitally against AI is a god send.

I still have the Charterstone app to start playing, and I want to learn Race for the Galaxy using the app. So plenty to keep me going.

GM/DM Screens

Alien, D&D, Judge Dredd, Paranoia, RPG

To use a DM/GM screen or not to use a DM/GM screen? That is the question.

There’s not a right or wrong answer. It’s all done to your personal preferences.

Some prefer not to use them, and have everything in the open. Others like using them and keeping an element of surprise.

I fall in the later camp. I like them.

For me a GM/DM screen does the following. It firstly gives me access to handy tables that I use and refer to during a session. Secondly the side the players see with it’s art work helps set the tone etc for the campaign/session. Thirdly it allows the DM/GM organise and have things like miniatures, props, maps ready without being seen by the players and keep that element of surprise. Finally if you want to roll dice without the players seeing the result, and thus fudge the result if need be (but the discussion whether that’s a good thing or not is a whole different post all by itself.) I also like that a screen gives me somewhere to clip NPC character cards, or pictures relevant to the current encounter/location.

My personal preference is that a screen is landscape. It gives you the benefits I talked about above, without totally feeling you are cut off from the players.

It’s possible to purchase (or make) a generic DM/GM screen. These are blank screens that you can attach your own sheets of paper to that contain the exact information that you require. These are a bit more expensive than the dedicated screens you get for particular systems. I haven’t gone this route yet.

Naturally I have built up a small collection of screens for different RPGs that I own (which I may or may not have played yet). What follows is a brief look at the ones I own and my thoughts about them.

Official D&D DM Screen – This is a landscape screen that has four sections. The art the players see is cool, but generic D&D (image above ‘borrowed’ off the Internet). I really like this screen. For a noob DM like me it’s perfect. There is a lot of information on the DM side, such as status conditions, available actions, encounter distances (a very very handy table), DC levels, plus lots more. Information that you will use a lot during a session. I really do like this screen a lot.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (GoS) DM Screen – When WotC release a campaign book usually a third party like Galeforce 9 get the licence to produce a DM Screen for it. This is by said licensee for the GoS book. Like the official screen this is landscape with four sections. The information naturally contained on this screen is geared towards running a GoS campaign or one that involves a lot of sea travel. We have tables for generating random ships, encounters on open water and hazards at sea. I love the art on the player side, and think it sets the tone and atmosphere really well for a sea based adventure. In fact to date that has been my main use for the screen! I have this in front of the official screen when the characters are at sea.

In an ideal perfect world I’d have this screen up along side the official screen.

Judge Dredd and Worlds of 2000 A.D. RPG GM Screen – this is a four section portrait screen. So it stands taller than the previous two mentioned and is not as wide. The player side of the screen has some great comic book art on it that definitely sets the tone, especially if playing judges. I like that it also has a handful of tables that players would find useful having access to for sentencing, and for their standard equipment the lawgiver and lawmaster. I’m conflicted with this screen. I feel that the publisher wasted a section by focusing on character creation. For me I’d preferred if this was replaced with information on creating dice pools and combat. Something a GM would use a lot more than the character creation information. I like the table listing NPCs and the page in the rulebook they can be found. The on patrol table is handy to have for generating on the fly crimes for players to handle. But the whole character creation stuff keeps niggling me from making this a must buy for the RPG. I hope that if they release a Strontium Dog version of this that they don’t make the same mistake.

Paranoia RPG – another portrait screen with four sections. This is a different screen to the others. The player side is designed to be used by the players! You actually need to keep the sheet of paper that comes with the screen as it has instructions and a table for when the players do use the screen. It’s very thematic. There are lots of tables on the GM side covering the cost of equipment, rewards, security levels, etc. Not the prettiest screen by far. Very practical with a fun player interactive element. I feel that alone is in keeping with the tone of the game. I think the only way this could be improved is to have a table of computer speak.

Alien RPG – my newest screen. This one is a landscape screen with three sections. So once again this is not as wide as the D&D screens. The player side art just oozes Alien, suspense and horror. The information on the GM side looks useful, there is the panic roll table, critical injuries, and other tables relevant to combat. There isn’t much I can say apart from this is a nice GM screen, and I’m glad I have it for the RPG.

There we have it, I hope you found this a helpful post.

Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica Extras

D&D, magic, MtG, RPG

With the digital version of Mythic Odysseys of Theros having hit D&D Beyond eight days ago, and the physical release still over a month away. I thought I’d look at the extras WotC released for the previous crossover between D&D and MtG, Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica.

First up is the themed dice set that was released.

I like the overall presentation of this dice set.

The dice set comes in a cardboard sleeve that shares it’s artwork with that of the sourcebook.

The tin is very pretty for a dice tin. I love the lid with the embossed guild symbols, and the artwork on the outside of the main tin.

Inside the tin we have the following dice: 1d4, 4d6, 1d8, 2d10, 1d12, 1d20 and a large d10 with the guild symbols on. You’d only use this to randomly select a guild, for instance during character creation, or for an NPC.

The tin itself is probably twice as deep as need be for the dice included. That extra space taken up with foam padding. Obviously you are not going to use this as a dice tray (which one or two of the later sets could be used for). However as a general dice storage box it’d be ideal.

At over £20 originally this dice set was in my opinion a tad on the expensive side. However in the last few months that price has dropped with some retailers and can be picked up for less than £15. At that price I think this becomes an affordable option that makes it worth considering if you are in the market for another dice set. But not if you only want that guild die.

The next extra is the Maps and Miscellany pack.

Once again the art used for the cover of the cardboard wallet that the contents comes in is the source book art work.

For the money you get 7 double-sided colour maps showing the precincts of the Tenth District with reference information on the back of each for that precinct.

There are also 11 double-sided maps of locations associated with the guilds themselves, and these too also have reference material on the reverse.

The contents are completed with two perforated sheets of cards (18 cards in total) that have character illustrations on one side and descriptions of guild charms on the other.

The guild location maps look like Dyson Logos maps. WotC have been using him for maps. And like many others I like his art style. I’m not sure who did the art for the district maps.

All the contents within the pack are A4 in side. Each map is card with a finish that is meant to be used with a dry eraser.

On the guild location maps the reverse information is made up with a smaller version of the opposite sides map with room labels (these are missing from the other version). A description of the location can be found along side a d10 Adventure Goal table.

On the district and precinct maps we get key location descriptions and a d12 table for people on the street of that district/precinct.

I like the summary information included on both map types. Although if using the location maps with the players if you have to keep referring to the labelled b-side I don’t think it’s very practical. I’m also not convinced about the A4 size for use during play. It seems too small.

The cards are useful for not only a campaign on Ravnica but for any D&D campaign to illustrate NPCs. And the guild charm side of the card a very handy reminder for players to have in front of them during a session.

Once again at £20 plus originally I felt a tad on the expensive side. However shopping around it can be found for a lot less. There are some nice touches. But I have doubts about the practicality of the maps during a session.

Using the DMs Guild it is possible to pick up a pdf of the two adventures that WotC did for two of the MtG Ravnica weekends. These were weekends tied in with the major Guilds of Ravnica MtG sets at the time, and used to introduce MtG players to D&D, and possibly less so D&D players to MtG.

Krenko’s Way is a reprint of the adventure you find in the Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica. Whilst A Zib For Your Thoughts is a new adventure that takes place weeks after the events of Krenko’s Way. And also comes with some pregenerated characters.

These two adventures are $4.99 on the DMs Guild with the money going to the Extra Life charity (something WotC supports each year).

Wizkids also released some painted miniatures for Guildmasters of Ravnica. But I don’t have any of them.

I think that covers everything. Hope you found the summary helpful, if not rather late. But then if like me you are only now just getting this stuff you like me saving money.

Into the Funkoverse

Funkoverse

At the moment it’s possible to get the DC Funkoverse base set for a penny short of £20. It’s a big saving at that price. Big enough to tempt me into adding it to my collection.

I admit I like skirmish style games, such as Krosmaster, skirmish mode of Imperial Assault, X-Wing etc. The problem is a very small subset of my friends are into this genre, and an even smaller subset prepared to invest in a system.

Luckily I have one friend who already had a base set for Funkoverse (the Harry Potter one) so some-one to play against once the real world gets a safer place.

My problem with games like this is I like to get everything so I have options. Which in this type of game is team building options. Team building hits that deck building itch that I get with games like MtG, Dicemasters and Star Wars: Destiny. The team/deck building is a form of expression. It reflects the person you are. And something I enjoy a lot.

I’m not a big Harry Potter fan, the movies were ok at best, the books were fine. So unless there is an item or character that becomes a must have when building a competitive team to play with. The likely hood of me buying the base set and stand alone expansion for Harry Potter is slim.

As you can see there is a gold Batman figure (above) that was only given away in give aways and going for stupid money on eBay if you can find one. I hate this sort of thing. I wish companies didn’t do this.

But with Jurassic Park sets, Rick and Morty, further DC characters, Golden Girls (another one I’m not likely to get), KOOL-AID and Aggretsuko, on top of the others already mentioned, there are a few team building options already. Plus there are three further standalone expansions due out soon (Wonder Woman, Jaws, and Back to the Future). So Pop! are doing something right and making sure that expansions are getting released to give options.

The Pop! folks have released a beta version of rules for organised play (OP) for Funkoverse. And they look fine. But for this to take off within stores as a regular thing there needs to be prize support. Which needs to be free, and easily available to an FLGS. In a dream world supporting game groups as well would be nice. But I’m a realist. I have seen with other games, and particularly FFG the prize support in OP kits isn’t amazing, and isn’t free to stores. I know for my FLGS to get a kit in that they have to pay for they need to guarantee a minimum turn out to make it worth them getting a kit. Which isn’t going to happen unless they are getting a lot of demand from regular customers. And I’m not seeing that push from the Pop! folks to generate the buzz and players.

Funkoverse should have a wide appeal. The product they are putting out is outstanding. I’ll look at game play once I get it to the table. Which I’m really looking forward to.

Strontium Dog vs the Dark Judges

Strontium Dog

I’m not a big solo gamer. Despite the fact I do look for that option when I buy a game. When it comes to playing a game solo though there seems to be a barrier that puts me off. I think it’s all the setup and tear down. It seems a lot of hassle. Especially if there is an app version of the game.

So my actions this morning were totally out of character for me. I actually played Judge Dredd Helter Skelter with the Dark Judges expansion solo.

I think the main reason was that I was curious how the game would play.

Instead of going with the classic matchup for this solo play of Team Dredd vs the Dark Judges, I went with Team Strontium Dog vs the Dark Judges.

For the record you can not play Judge Dredd Helter Skelter solo, you need the Dark Judges expansion to do so. Playing solo means you chose one of the base games four factions (and I can see no reason why you couldn’t use one of the Wildlands factions as well). This is the team you will be playing. You will always be going up against the Dark Judges. It is not an option to play them in the solo variant.

The actions of the Dark Judges during play are determined by a small deck of cards. On the Dark Judges turn you turn over the top card of the deck and it shows the actions each of them will do that turn. When you have to decide who a Dark Judge targets or direction of travel the deciding logic is always the nearest opposing character. It’s a simple rule but effective.

Naturally there is a bit of randomness involved in the setup with the positioning of the fragments you need to collect, the Dark Judges and your team. I had three characters next to the Dark Judges during setup. But that was countered by having a character near to two fragments and not even close to a Dark Judge.

The Dark Judges are a pain to take down. You basically have to do a double attack. The first taking out the Dark Judges shield, and the second to do the actual damage. The shield resets at the end of a players turn. Luckily Psi attacks get through this. The reward for taking out a Dark Judge is high, which justifies the high risk. You double the number of fragments you have captured. By the time I took out Judge Fear I had three fragments already. So his demise was enough to give me the win.

I actually liked the solo mode. It worked surprisingly well. There was very little overhead and flowed really well. I can see myself playing the game solo again.

A new arrival and trivial organising

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As promised my prize from the Osprey competition arrived this morning.

Naturally the boxes didn’t remain sealed for long. As you can see the production quality is top notch, great custom insert, the now usual washed miniatures (that look great).

I may actually play this solo! Something I rarely do.

I also decided this morning to quickly organise my other (not D&D) RPG bits.

So instead of separate deck boxes containing the decks for Thunderbirds, Genesys, Paranoia and Alien. I’ve put them into a single large deck box, separated by dividers.

The custom dice for Alien, Genesys and the Paranoia computer die, along with some d6 dice (WOIN and Judge Dredd) have been split between two boxes. One of which also has some tokens and counters. I need a better solution for this. But for now it’ll do.

This will stop that little nagging feeling that was beginning to develop that I was going to lose one of the deck boxes.

There are also another couple of organising projects I need to do. The first is D&D related and involves getting the cards such as monsters, spells etc stored better.

The second is to create a “grab bag” for game nights that contains filler games such as Love Letter, Coup, D-Day Dice Pocket, and others. It just means I won’t have to hunt around, and make being organise easier. I may write a post about what is going into this.

Strontium Dog RPG first impressions

Judge Dredd, RPG, Strontium Dog

With the pdf of the Strontium Dog RPG in the hands of those that pre-ordered the physical version from the EN Publishing for a couple of weeks. I thought it was about time I shared some early thoughts/impressions.

First up I need to stress that this is not a stand alone RPG. So don’t go buying this thinking you have all you need to start play a Strontium Dog adventure. As the cover clearly points out you also need a copy of the Judge Dredd & The worlds of 2000 AD RPG. So factor that into the costings when you are considering to purchase this or not.

I should also point out that these thoughts are based on the pdf version of the rules. Granted it’s the version that was sent off to the printers by the publishers. So there should be no difference really.

I’m a fan of Strontium Dog and have been reading his stories since he appeared in the pages of Starlord and then made the jump to 2000 AD when the sales of Starlord forced it to be swallowed up by the better selling title.

I like what EN Publishing are doing with the characters they have access to. With Judge Dredd they are releasing campaign books that follow major story arcs from the comic strip, in the order that they appeared with comics. They are also not rushing them out, and making sure they release a quality product. So it is my hope that they continue this trend with Strontium Dog.

Within the pages you get no surprises, the expected rules for creating characters, equipment, setting information, some interconnected adventures, stats for NPCs and creatures/robots.

I think like me most people that get this source book will be wanting to create and play Strontium Dogs. When it comes to creating our character this rulebook basically replaces step 2 (choosing a species), step 4 (choose one of five careers) and step 9 (equipment). For the remaining steps of the character creation process you need that Judge Dredd rulebook.

Species wise we can either be a gronk, howler, human, mutant, robot or stix. But let’s face it most people are going to want to play a mutant of some kind. And there are nice tables that that cover corporeal, metabolic/metaphysical, and cosmetic mutations.

Strontium Dog careers are either civilian, outlaw, or S/D Agent. Compared to the Judges career paths the S/D Agent is pretty simple, and we get a much smaller, more easily digested diagram showing the flow of them.

Equipment we get the iconic electronux, der happy stick, plus generic details for blasters. Naturally there is a nice selection of bombs also to chose from with the obvious dimension warp and time bombs being amongst them. These two particularly can be game changing when used.

Which brings me to time travel and travelling to other dimensions. The rules do advise not to over use these within a campaign. I was hooping for more on the time travel front. What we basically have are some guidelines that amount to ‘keep it light and fun’ and a couple of paragraphs detailing a couple of options for handling time travel.

I like the tables for creating bounty contracts for an S/D Agent to go after.

The timeline with reference to the actual comic strips covered is a great touch.

We get a chapter of six interconnected contracts for S/D Agents to undertake. So these are basically adventures. I always look at this section pretty early on as this is the blue print for how the publisher sees an adventure to be planned. There was an absence of any maps here. I’d liked to have seen some pre-gen characters here as well, along with a generic floor plan or two of a starship.

Overall this lives up to the usual high standards that I’ve come to associate with EN Publishing. If you already have the core Judge Dredd rules, I think this is a no brainer if you are a Strontium Dog fan, or want a change of setting. However if you are coming into this as a Strontium Dog fan wanting to play as an S/D Agent in an RPG with your friends, and don’t already have the Judge Dredd rules, at roughly £70 to pick up both. I think you’d have to be a pretty dedicated fan, desperate to play an S/D Agent, with deep pockets. I just don’t think it’s worth in that scenario. Oh and I’m going to predict now that’s going to be my thoughts for when the Rogue Trooper rules come out.

Great start to the week

Judge Dredd

Over the weekend there was a “virtual con” on a boardgaming Facebook group that I belong to to to replace the void left by no UKGE this year (for the obvious reasons).

As part of that “virtual con” various publishers and stores ran competitions or promotions for the duration. Osprey Games publisher of Wildlands (and it’s expansions) plus the Judge Dredd themed version ran a competition to celebrate the release of the Dark Judges expansion for the Judge Dredd version. To enter all you had to do was leave a comment (which I did) and then a winner would be chosen at random.

This morning in the spare five minutes I had between finishing the weekly shop at our local Morrison’s and going into the B&M next door that opened its doors at 9am, I checked my email.

Strange a person I had never heard off wanted to connect on Messenger. I looked in the Facebook app and it was showing that the person had responded to a comment I had made. Curious. What had I said that the person would want to message me directly?

I looked at the Facebook post and my comment. Oh! I had won!

So you can guess I was quickly onto Messenger and replying to the guy with my address and thanking them.

Pretty excited about winning this. It’s something I would have eventually bought.

I own the original Wildlands and Undead expansion (which I did enjoy playing). I’d decided to hold out on getting the map pack and the adventurers expansion because I didn’t want to invest in the original knowing that the Judge Dredd one was being released. And at the time it was unclear if the two would be compatible. And if I had to choose I’m team JD every time.

After Judge Dredd Helter Skelter was released it wasn’t long before a pdf was released that allowed you to combine the two versions (You can pick up the official rules that allow you to use the original Wildlands with Helter Skelter HERE.)

Now with the new expansion the Dark Judges are added to the game along with solo rules.

As you can imagine I’m pretty excited about winning the game and expansion. Which may be here before the weekend. So keep an eye out for pictures of a happy me at the end of the week.

Impressions of the Alien RPG

Alien, RPG

Back in I think 1979 when the original Alien movie came out it became this infamous scary movie. A couple of years later when I finally got to see the film for the first time it didn’t disappoint. The hype was real. Then Aliens came out. And wow! I was in love with this franchise, the whole universe.

So this Alien RPG is something that ticks a lot of boxes for me.

For fans of the movies, books, comics, and video games the good news is the RPG is set before Alien 4. However Prometheus and Covenant are canon. which may or may not be good news depending on your view of the two movies. It should also be noted that the Alien v Predator movies are not canon in this setting.

As an aside as to what constitutes the Alien timeline, I did read on the internet somewhere, but never dug any further, that Bladerunner and Soldier (the Kurt Russel movie) were part of the Alien timeline! One day when I have nothing better to do I will dig into this a bit more.

I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone that based on the setting the Alien RPG that the designers say it has three themes, space horror, sci-fi action and sense of wonder. The Year Zero Engine that the game uses has been adapted to support those themes.

The Alien RPG uses d6 dice. It helps to have two different colours for your dice. You can buy the official dice. There are two sets, a base set (black) and a stress set (yellow). They have a face hugger on the one face, and a cube on the six face (as shown in the photo below). But these are not required. Regular d6 can be used instead. And I like that. It winds me up when a system requires custom dice (FFG I’m looking at you). That’s just an excuse to fleece gamers. Even with these official dice I’m boarder line in recommending them because of the cost. Each pack gets you ten 16mm dice. But cheapest I’ve found is £15. In my opinion these shouldn’t be more than a tenner.

As an aid to playing the game it’s possible to get a deck of 55 cards that contains 22 weapon cards, 20 character cards, 3 vehicle cards and 10 initiative cards. I particularly like the initiative cards I find them useful in my D&D sessions. However the Alien RPG uses them with a twist. Instead of rolling a die to establish the initiative order, players and the GM on behalf of any NPCs draw a card at random to determine the order. Naturally this way of doing initiative can be replicated using regular playing cards with the ace acting as a one. The character cards match up with the characters in the rule book. So can be handed to players to reference if using them. These cards are nice and handy but not essential.

I actually like the official GM screen. Despite it just being three landscape panels. My preference would have been four like the official D&D screen. The side the players see has a piece of lovely atmospheric art. I thought the tables on the GM side were ones I would use during a game, particularly the panic roll table.

Let’s look at the rule book.

Basically the heart of the Alien RPG is a d6 dice pool made up from a combination of an attribute and skill, plus stress level. Roll at least one six and you succeed, roll a one on a stress dice and you are making a roll on the panic table. The more stress you have the more likely something bad happens.

There is an element of push your luck here on the attribute check, because you can decide to push your luck and reroll any none six dice results. You can do this once per check, although some talents may allow this to be done more than once. However there is a catch. You increase your stress level and have to add another stress die to the roll. So if you hit a one on those stress dice with the increased stress level you are more likely as I said above to have something bad happen to you.

The Alien RPG has two modes of play Cinematic and Campaign.

Cinematic is the Alien RPG version of a one shot. It uses pre-written scenarios and characters. The scenarios follow the dramatic arc of the Alien movies, high stakes, ramping up the pressure, and brutal. The chances of surviving are low. The rules contain an introductory Cinematic scenario, Hope’s Last Day. Plus there is an additional Cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods that can be bought separately (although in August you can buy it as part of starter box set that includes maps, tokens, dice and cards). A brand new Cinematic scenario is also being published in August.

The other mode of play, Campaign sees players creating their own characters and exploring the Alien universe over several sessions.

The characters players create can be one of four careers, frontier colonist, space trucker, colonial marine or company rep. Naturally these are all humans. However with the agreement of the GM it is possible to be an Android within the game.

Characters have personal agendas that act slightly differently in the two modes. They can also have a buddy and rival.

I’m not familiar with the core system that Alien is based upon. But it does seem less complicated than some other systems like I have used or seen. Which is good in this case. Keeping things simple means they are less likely to get in the way and take players out of the game.

Having just four attributes and twelve skills for a character plus a talent contributes to this. It speeds up character creation and keeps the character sheets a lot simpler and easier to reference.

When playing a Campaign you need to chose one of the frameworks based around the three main careers of space trucker, colonial marine and frontier colonist. Within the refuel book there are tables that allow you to generate missions within those frameworks.

What I like about the rules is that it also caters for space travel and combat. So it is possible to have a planet/space exploration campaign that involves fighting it out with space pirates, rival corporations etc. And that really appeals to me that you have rules here that can switch between that close quarter horror to almost space opera!

With the majority of my RPG experience being D&D or similar where a grid based system on maps is used. Within the Alien RPG they use zones. Which should make it easier to do theatre of the mind, and also speed up combat. I’ve seen a similar system proposed for the Genesys RPG by fans.

But there is a tonne of information in this rule book along with some great art work. I love the guidance they give on running this style of game, the suggest further reading, the structure of a Cinematic scenario.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of this rulebook and what is covered. At 392 pages this is not a small rule book. And this would be a much bigger post if I went into real detail. I’ve just highlighted bits that have stood out to me so far.

If you are a fan of the movies then this is a must I think. The supporting accessories are pretty good and useful. I like this a lot. I just hope I can find some players locally to play a Cinematic scenario or two.