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| Chris's art for our first game of Chariots of the Gods. |
So, a while back I bought the Alien RPG rule book.
Later on I picked up the Starter Set as it contains the adventure Chariots of the Gods as well as dice, map, cards and a rules-lite book. I think it's worth picking this up as all these things would cost more than the starter set.
Chariots of the Gods incorporates Prometheus and Covenant, which I don't mind on their own but I'm not a fan of them being part of the overall Alien universe. Engineers just aren't scary and turning Christ into an engineer whose mission is to set humanity on the right path is not interesting to me... at all. The first Alien movie left so many unanswered questions, which to me, is far scarier. Those frigid depths of endless space is also in our imaginations and getting people to tap into that is where horror waits.
Having said that, we played Chariots of the Gods, as written, and are having a good time with it. If we continue with Alien RPG, I'll have to rewrite some things to cut out what doesn't work for me.
Two fights have taken place outside on the ship's hull, which is a first for us. Lots of fear and paranoia as the crew searches the halls of the ship. The player who was the android was revealed when he got impaled through the gut by a neomorph's barbed tail and sprayed the corridor walls with white android goo.
One player got killed, horribly, and an NPC scientist's head blew up when a head-burster made an appearance.
Will the players survive and get the USCSS Cronus back to the safety of the Frontier? Or, will they turn into abominations or get their throat ripped out by a neomorph? Maybe they'll be stranded on a derelict Cronus, drifting though endless space and eventually freeze to death? Fun stuff.
If you're looking for an alternative to your gaming, Alien is solid. Rules are straight-forward, it's well-edited and written in a very utilitarian style, which I find rare in games today.
