Alien: The Roleplaying Game Evolved Edition Review
Xenomorphic
Summary: Enjoyable for both fans of the films and of tabletop RPGs, the gameplay is both accessible and deep. Richly described and deftly researched, the evolved edition forms the perfect collection for sci-fi tabletop fans.
5
Exciting & Enriching
As a diehard Alien fan and a diehard CRPG fan, I figured that the Alien tabletop game would be the best place to dip my toes into proper dicerolling dungeons & dragons style gameplay. What I’ve learned, and what I think many experts would’ve told me is that it isn’t a smooth transition from the heavily-realised world of a Disco Elysium or Baldur’s Gate to a pen and paper roleplaying game. That said, we still had fun.
Now, thankfully, Alien: The Roleplaying Game is fairly simple. You get dice based on skills, you roll at least one six and you succeed. As your character gets stressed, you get extra dice– stress dice– which give you a fighting chance as you’re forced to improvise outside of your expertise, but they also add the risk of rolling a facehugger symbol (in which something bad happens).
The game comes with two very different modes. The campaign mode (which I imagine is more inline with classic DnD), is freeform, multiple session play. While the cinematic mode usually takes only a session, and feels like playing through the plot of an Alien movie. The starter set (Hope’s Last Day), and the Rapture Protocol expansion both come with plotted cinematic stories, complete with characters, maps, cut outs, and secret motivations for each player.
We played through Rapture Protocol (because it sounded cooler), and I’d slot it in neatly between the unprepared chaos of Romulus, and the fun schlock of Aliens. If you’re a GM, I’ll give you the logline, but if you’re planning to be a player, definitely skip to the next paragraph. Basically, Rapture Protocol is a cult-resurrects-demon story, with the fun twist of it being about Xenomorphs. Members of the Cult of the Immaculate Incubation have uncovered a temple filled with Xenomorph eggs and have started a mutiny to help a Xenomorph drone escape the frozen mining planet so that it might spread its holy rapture to the stars. It’s classic stuff, but with a handful of NPCs both good and bad to play with, there’s a lot of fun ways to play it out (my favourite was the bartender, who didn’t much care for the situation, and was just happy to pour my character a drink while the station was bathed in blood).
What’s also worth mentioning is how fun it is just to read the rulebook as a fan. Doubly detailed and filled with trivia, history, and lore from every film including Romulus, it collects all the best from the comics, books, and films into one neatly digestible introduction to the world and setting. For example, I was impressed that not only did the book include details like Weyland’s Ted talk from the Prometheus promo material.
So that’s all to say that though the finer workings of the tabletop RPG may have been lost on me and my starfreighter crew during our playthrough of Rapture Protocol, it was certainly a worthwhile sojourn into the setting that enriched both our understanding of the films, and made for some serious fun and chaos too.
About the Author
Branden Zavaleta Based in Perth, Branden writes on the arts for a handful of Australian outlets. He's also a street & creative portrait photographer, who's work can be found @brandenzp on Instagram.
Related Posts
OFENBACH COLLABORATES WITH UBISOFT TO RELEASE “HUMAN” FOR THE SIX INVITATIONAL 2026 →
THE TOMODACHI LIFE: LIVING THE DREAM DIRECT WILL AIR ON FRIDAY 30th JANUARY →
Blizzard kicks off 2026 with new showcase event, featuring major updates from Diablo, Overwatch, Warcraft, and more! →
