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by jodokast

I have run this twice! And somehow failed to leave a review. And it's a product I'm very happy with.

This is very much a 'game in a box' that Free League has done for Alien (and now doing for Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game. This box is the 'starter set' in that it contains the rules to play, as well as .... lots
There is a map of the relevant space ship. There are equipment cards. There are pregened characters. There are NPC cards. There are initiative cards. There are alien 'blips' for when those start appearing on the map. I shall try to keep this spoiler free. Its called Alien. If the Xenomorphs didn't show up you'd be disappointed.

This adventure is in three parts. I know I've heard it voiced that this can be run in a 3 hour session, but I think it needs some aggressive 'chopping' to get to that level. I think this is a 5-6 hour game, particularly as you want your players to roleplay this together and let it all breath. Each player has a set of special missions which drive some tension. One player does draw the short straw and is the 'happy protective guy' which is aimed at some de-escalation but that is probably a good way to give the players a chance to survive.

We track with the original movie closely in theme and events. The players find a ship hanging dead in space, they board and explore. There are aliens. At first there is no sign of this alien, just a clear sign of things going wrong. Then they wake up the crew, and then it gets worse.
The plot here is pretty tight, once the players board the vessel (and they will, they are players) they are going to get into difficult situations and leaving is hard. Some RPGs 'slam the gate' when players cross the threshold, which this does but is much more natural about it.

The adventure is not entirely hopeless (but it is hard to get a good outcome). The stakes are clear. It does start things slow and is thus a pretty good introduction to the system.

Honestly I wish all products were like this. I have some minor complaints. The character sheets and cards are black with green text which is a bit dark. I don't think there really are enough dice and you want another set of the yellow stress dice (at least). The plot was a bit convoluted at one point and I definitely ran it wrong the first time. The book does try to help the GM by suggesting events for each part of the ship. However the assistance for the NPCs I felt was a little bit lacking.

Those however I feel are quibbles in an adventure that will keep the players involved and produce a fantastic story that is different enough you can run it several times. For that I think this is a truly excellent product that all players should go and play.

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