latest_gator
| How much experience do I have? | Ran it |
| How great is my desire to play it (0-10)? | 9 |
| How much GM prep is needed? | Days |
| Where do I find it? | Here |
This is a cinematic horror game about doom spiraling in a derelict space ship and it fucking rocks.
Free League Press publishes highly polished scenarios that you can knock out in 2-3 games. It’s just so easy to pick this up.
Roll a fistful of D6s, if any are a 6 you succeed. I love it because it’s so low friction. I’m the type of person that hates doing a bunch of counting, there’s a moment of anticipation that leads up to a roll that’s lost when you need to stop and check modifiers and perform addition. You’ve transitioned out of the storytelling for a brief moment to do math homework, it costs momentum and it sucks.
This dice pool system requires one number lookup that’s clearly visible on your character sheet (some skill that tells you how many d6s to roll). That lookup is prior to the roll, so there’s still the same tension when the dice drop out of your hands. The tension resolves when, after a moment of desperate scanning across your dice pool, you find (or don’t find) a 6. It’s that easy and the pace never suffers. It’s even easier if you take a blank 6 sided die and color one side green.
this is a hidden roll game. Every player at the table has a hidden motivation. It naturally drives conflict and mystery at the table, and I love it so much.
It creates constant paranoia. Is that player working for a rival mega-corp? Is that other player an android? Probably!
Fuck I love Alien
As much as it pains me to admit it, tying this game to the Alien IP probably limited its success. You can compare this game directly to Mothership, both games handle the same sort of scenarios.
Mothership has a wealth of creators crafting scenarios with really interesting ideas. The best this game can do is roll out the same 3-4 monsters from the Alien universe. I really want to play more of this game, but after one or two more scenarios I bet I’ll have had my fill.