Category Archives: android

Free League Have Been Busy On The Alien RPG

Alien, android, genesys, netrunner, news, RPG

Last week Free League announced a partnership with Titan Books (an off shoot of Forbidden Planet if memory serves me correctly).

In the official announcement this partnership has been described as “a collaboration to publish a unified storyline set within the ALIEN Universe. For 2022 and into 2023, the editorial and writing teams will share assets and coordinate plotlines to form a cohesive narrative across three original novels and the multiple award-winning ALIEN RPG.”

In the next year Titan Books will be publishing three new Alien novels.

  • Alien: Colony War by David Barnett (April 2022)
  • Alien: Inferno’s Fall by Phillipa Ballantine and Clara Carija (July 2022)
  • Alien: Enemy of My Enemy by Mary SanGiovanni (February 2023)

The first two can be pre-ordered on Amazon already. Which funnily enough but hardly a surprise I have pre-ordered.

If unsure which version of the books to pre-order, as there are three versions, audible, kindle and good old physical?

You first need to be aware of the following snippet of information about these novels. “ALIEN RPG lead setting writer Andrew E.C. Gaska will develop three unique RPG scenarios which will appear as bonus features in the books, one per novel.”

I seriously doubt these scenarios will be in the audible version (which I did spend a credit on to pre-order). But I’m not sure that the kindle version will have them either. The only edition I would bet money on that definitely will have them is the physical (hence why I pre-ordered it).

However Titan Books aren’t the first to do this sort of thing.

Back in 2017/8 FFG did something similar when they released four novellas set in the Android universe that had in the physical versions exclusive content for the Genesys RPG Shadow of the Beanstalk source book. Such as “a 16-page color insert detailing the treacherous Los Scorpiones gang …”

That exclusive bit was annoying as it was very challenging to get the actual physical edition, especially here in the UK. I did manage to get them all. But I don’t think the print run was very big.

This shouldn’t be an issue with the much more popular Alien franchise.

In other Free League Alien RPG news (yes they have been very busy it seems) a new cinematic adventure called Heart of Darkness has just gone on pre-order.

Heart of Darkness is “written by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska. It is a stand-alone adventure, but also serves as a conclusion to the Draconis Strain Saga begun in the cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods and continued in Destroyer of Worlds. The scenario is designed for 3–5 players plus the Game Mother, and is a spiraling descent into soul-crushing madness.”

What does your money get you?

Basically the following:

  • The main Heart of Darkness scenario book.
  • A huge double-sided map (format 864x558mm) of the Erebos plasma trawling space station.
  • Seven pre-generated characters to choose from.
  • Custom cards for secret messages and personal agendas.
  • Player maps and handouts.

Plus when you pre-order you get early access to the PDF’s. The actual physical version will not be out until sometime in the Summer I believe.

There is a VTT bundle for this as well.

I do like that buying from Free League also gets you the PDF version. Other publishers do this as well, such as EN Publishing. It’s a nice incentive to buy direct from them. But I am a bit conflicted on this. Pre-ordering and early access I’m happy with. But for those that can wait, and want to support and buy from their FLGS, surely Free League and other publishers can come up with a way for those to get the PDF as well as part of their purchase.

Anyway I’m an impatient so and so, so come payday Heart of Darkness will be added to a virtual shopping cart.

Dragons and Androids

android, D&D, genesys, netrunner, news, RPG

From time to time instead of writing a new post about something I’ve already written about I have been known to actually update the original post instead.

My post that shares some recent videos from Arcane Library and Sly Flourish about generating ideas for adventures using random tables is one such post. So if you want to see the update just click here.

As the above image demonstrates I did in fact cave and get Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. I can’t wait to use it within my campaign. But first we need to get our sessions started again. No new date has been set yet!

In other news FFG in partnership with Dark Horse Comics are releasing a third art book in their series based on FFG intellectual property called The Art Of The Android Universe.

The Art of the Android Universe will be “showcasing the design and art from the hit table top games set within the Android Universe!”

Cool I’m a big fan of the Android universe. I have been ever since I first got into playing Android Netrunner. I just love this vision of a cyberpunk future that FFG have come up with.

This art book will be a great resource for GM’s wanting to run an adventure in the Android universe. I’m pretty sure it will compliment The Worlds of Android book very nicely as a source of inspiration.

The Art of the Android Universe is due out according to its Amazon UK page on the 16th December and will be £33.99.

A Night on the Town in New Angeles

android, RPG

Finally FFG have released the Gencon and Pax Unplugged Genesys Android adventures that they ran. Along with the pre-made characters that they used with the adventures.

Now that I’m able to read the adventures I can decide whether they fit into the planning I’ve been doing.

After an initial skim reading of the adventure I think considering how I’ve planned to start the campaign (read an early look of the player handout here) this is something I could use later in the campaign.

I really like that not only have FFG released these two adventures but that they have tweaked them so that they can be played with your own characters, and that they have advice for starting the second part if your players made different decisions.

It was worth the wait.

You can read the full FFG press release with links here.

The Start Of My Android Handout

android, genesys, netrunner, RPG


Being a wannabe noob GM as I’ve said in a previous post Matthew Colville has a lot of good advice.

One such nugget is the campaign handout. A short document for the players telling them about the world they will be adventuring in, and helping them decide what characters to create.

So I’ve made a stab at writing one for the Genesys Android campaign I want to run.

It needs a brief paragraph talking about how mega companies really run everything. Plus it also needs a brief description for each character type.

But here is what I’ve written so far (stuff in italics FFG words not mine).


It is the future. The world changed. People did not.

“In the not so-distant future, humanity has spread across the solar system, unlocked the frontiers of cyberspace, and created millions of intelligent androids in its own image. At the heart of this progress stands a ladder leading to the riches of the stars—the massive space elevator called the Beanstalk. And at its base sprawls the biggest, meanest, and most exciting city on Earth: New Angeles.”

12 hours ago your life turned upside down. 12 hours ago a tsunami hit “parts of six districts and caused massive damage to New Angeles’ coastal infrastructure.” Early estimates put the loss of life in the tens of thousands. It is thought at least a thousand androids also died rushing into the wall of water trying to save human lives.

NBN vidcasts are wall to wall floating bodies, and human suffering in the wake of the tsunami.

Somehow you survived the brutal force of nature as it lay waste to the feeble man made structures in its way. Battered and bruised, you have ended up at one of the many emergency relief centres. All you have left in the world are the possessions you managed to grab as the water crashed into your home. You are one of the lucky ones.

You are first level citizens of New Angeles. You do not know each other. But you are all in the same emergency relief centre.