Character Creation: Alien

Ugh, corporate greed leading to death and misery, while the people doing the actual work are left to fend for themselves. And then there's this RPG.

The Game: Alien
The Publisher: Free League
Degree of Familiarity: I've seen...most of the movies? Never played the game, though
Books Required: Just the one

I'd seen this game get talked up, particularly the stress mechanic, bought a copy, and finally got around to reading it. Free League evidently doesn't provide a PDF with hard copies, boo, but whatever. 

The game is actually really well done (on a read, but of course I'd need to play it to know). It would be really easy to cheap out on the mechanics and just make D&D in horror-space, but Alien really pays attention to the themes of the IP. And it has to include the Prometheus stuff, which, godspeed little toaster (I wasn't impressed by Prometheus, but it's been a while). 

Also, the game draws a bright line between Cinematic Play (one-shots where you're probably all or mostly all gonna die and there are fucking xenomorphs) and Campaign Play (longer-term games where you might die but it'll take a while, and there are fucking xenomorphs, but they're a sometimes food. Or more accurately, you're the sometimes food). I like a game that knows it wants to have high lethality and walks the walk, unlike, say, most incarnations of WoD, which tried to be a horror game but in practice it was really hard to kill PCs under RAW. (I know because I ran scenarios that were meant to be high-lethality, and it was hard to arrange without falling back on Storyteller fiat. But I digress.)

So anyway, since the world is descending into corporate horror as we watch, let's make a character! Without a PDF, like it's fucking 2008.

The game assumes if you're creating a character, it's for Campaign Play

Step One, we choose a Career. I think I want to be a Colonial Marshal. Yeah, ACAB, but I'll lean into that and go more towards the Lenny Nero/Robert Thorn type of guy, someone who is corrupt but that's largely because he's not an idiot. He's not going to frame an innocent person (though he might frame a guilty one), he's not going to commit cold-blooded murder, but he's absolutely going to line his pockets because it sucks out here. His name is Parker Love. 

Attributes! My Key Attribute is Wits. What does that mean? Oh, it means I can put that one up to 5, instead of the usual max of 4. Cool. Well, I have 14 points to split between 4 Attributes, minimum 2, max 4 (except Wits). Let's see here.

Well, for the concept I have in mind, Strength doesn't need to be high but Wits and Empathy should be. Let's say I want to put both of those at max, that would eat 9 points, leaving me with 5. I could then put Agility to 3 and leave Strength at 2. I can live with that.

Moving briskly along to Skills. I get 10 points, and I can assign 3 to my Key Skills (which are Observation, Ranged Combat, and Manipulation). Everything else, max of 1. Well, I definitely want the max in Manipulation and Observation, so that's 6 of my 10 points right there. I'll pop 1 into Ranged Combat, Mobility, and Command, and that leaves me 1 more point. Hmm. Parker probably knows how to fight, but I think he's not great at it. I think I'll be weird and put it into Heavy Machinery, and say that Parker was doing roughneck kind of work and got out of it to be a Marshal somehow.

Now we choose a Career Talent. This is easy enough, I have three to choose from and I just get one. I can pick between Authority, Investigator, and Subdue. Let's see what these do in game terms.

Well, Authority lets me use Command instead of Manipulation, which, um, no thanks...

Now wait a damn minute. Why the hell is this a Colonial Marshal Talent? Command can't be higher than Manipulation for Marshals, since Manipulation is one of their Key Skills. UGGGHHHH. I mean, narratively it kinda makes sense, but mechanically it really doesn't. OK, well, skipping that one.

Subdue isn't bad (it gives me an attack bonus if I'm just putting someone in a grapple), but it's not Parker. That leaves me with Investigator, which lets me check an area and ask questions, much like an investigative move in a PbtA game, and that's fine with me.

Next step is choosing a name, which I did. Appearance! There's actually a list of distinctive features and habits for each career. Do I like any of them? I do kinda like "chewing a toothpick." Let's say Parker is a white dude, dark wavy hair, brown eyes, on the skinny side (it's not like there's a lot of fattening food out here), constantly chewing a toothpick. 

And now we get a Personal Agenda! There are three listed for the career, but I could make one up, which I think I will because the ones listed don't quite get to the concept I want. I think Parker's Agenda is mostly to get to a respectable world. Doesn't have to be luxury, doesn't have to be rich, just stable. Someplace that he doesn't have to worry about the fucking reactors imploding because Weyland-Yutani decided to cut funding because someone didn't dot a T right. 

I'd get a Buddy and a Rival, but of course those would require other players, so I'm gonna skip those. I get gear from a list (best way to shop). I'll take a .357 revolver, a hi-beam flashlight, a stun baton, and 3 doses of Neversleep. I also get...this is weird. It says "$D6x100 in cash." What the hell does that mean? Some of the careers say "$2D6x100", so does that mean I get 1D6x100? Maybe there's errata.

There is, but I don't see this addressed and I don't care enough to dig through it. Let's assume I get 1d6x100 spacebucks. 6! I'm rich! Ish! 

And that's it, folks. I suspect Parker either sells out and dies Carter Burke style, or has an Adam Brody in Ready or Not moment where he sacrifices himself to save the people worth saving. Though of course in Campaign play he might have a longer and more interesting arc.