Gen Con 2024: The Alien RPG Is Getting a New Edition

Free League Publishing will release a new edition of its award-winning Alien RPG. Today, Free League Publishing announced plans to publish a new version of Alien: The Roleplaying Game, with a Kickstarter to launch later this year. The Kickstarter pre-launch page describes the game as having “expanded and updated core rules.” Additionally, Free League will also publish Rapture Protocol, a new “cinematic scenario” for the game. A full description of the new Alien RPG line can be found below: 

• Based upon feedback from thousands of players over five years of adventures, the Second Edition of the core rules delivers an updated and streamlined version of the ALIEN RPG fans know and love, along with additional new artwork, new content, and a variety of new tools for players and Game Mothers alike, all fully compatible with previous releases and game material. 
• The new 2e starter set will be redesigned as the perfect starting point for newcomers to roleplaying in the ALIEN universe, containing everything they need for game night including abridged 2e rules, character sheets, custom dice, reference cards, various handouts, and an expanded 2e edition of the fan-favorite Hope’s Last Day scenario set on Hadley’s Hope just prior to the unforgettable events of Aliens. 
• The new cinematic scenario boxed set, Rapture Protocol, written by Jonathan Hicks and Free League’s Tomas Härenstam, returns to the roots of the ALIEN franchise, featuring the crew of a small star freighter on a resupply run to the remote industrial colony, soon embroiled in a deadly conflict. 
• The miniatures set is designed to bring the events of Rapture Protocol to life, but fully complement other adventures and skirmish battles throughout the ALIEN RPG series. 

The Alien RPG is built around the Year Zero Engine, Free League’s signature game system that involves rolling a pool of 6-sided dice (determined by a particular skill/trait) in the hopes of getting at least one “six” to succeed in the check. The first edition of the Alien RPG also utilized a stress system in which players gradually gained stress dice on failures. While stress dice are added to the dice pool of every roll, any “1” on a stress die triggered a roll on a trauma table that could potentially lead to dire consequences. Combat in the game is short and generally violent, with players often suffering poor consequences when facing a Xenomorph or other alien terror in tight enclosed spaces. The game was released in 2019 and promptly won an ENnie Award for Best Game. 

The timing of the new RPG announcement lines up nicely with the upcoming release of Alien: Romulus, a new movie starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. That movie is set on a derelict space station, with a crew of space colonists inadvertently stumbling across a Xenomorph haunting the station. Alien: Romulus is set for theatrical release on August 16th.