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You Say You Want Some Evolution - Alien Evolved Edition
0 Playsin 17 hours
In this episode, we compare Evolved Edition to first edition—breaking down rules refinements, stress mechanics, campaign play tweaks, and whether the updates make it deadlier, smoother, or just different. Is this a true evolution…or just a fresh coat of Weyland-Yutani paint?
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Backgrounds
00:00:02
Speaker
with the coachman D20 Radio. at Your game is rolled.
00:00:17
Speaker
How will We Roll Gaming is dedicated to spreading enjoyment of great role-playing games. We hope to bring you insights into games you may not have played, tips to be a better game master and player, and share us stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:29
Speaker
Every game is a new story to tell. I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And here's Robert. And this is how we roll.
Previous Episode Recap
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome back to the How We Roll Gaming podcast, everyone. Hope you've been doing well. Robert, Nick, I missed the two of you last episode. Yes, but you weren't alone. You had a had a crossover. We had a crossover episode.
00:00:59
Speaker
yeah Yes, we had a crossover episode. Lauren and i had a a good time talking about expectations from adapted materials to RPGs.
00:01:12
Speaker
And that's always good to hear. Sad that Nick and I weren't there, but glad you weren't alone. And I saw you had a great discussion with Lawrence. Yep.
00:01:23
Speaker
yeahp had Had an awesome conversation. it was It was great. It was great. Great expectations were had.
Mutants and Masterminds 4th Edition Discussion
00:01:30
Speaker
I see what you did there, Mr. Dickens. okay I mentioned this a while ago, but I didn't realize it was already going. And by the time...
00:01:40
Speaker
this drops i think it'll be done but i had mentioned to our our player who runs our mutants and masterminds game that green ronin was launching the kickstarter for the fourth edition of mutants and masterminds it's it's almost done would definitely believe it A couple of days ago, um it was eight days left. So I am debating whether or not to to dive in on it. i I might at the last minute because I'm i'm enjoying it as a player. i'm I'm sitting here debating if I do dive in on it, do I want to just get the player's guide or the bundle of the player's guide and the GM screen?
00:02:30
Speaker
I don't remember what you said. You know you' you know what happens when you when you get get the ah the guide, the like the GM handbook. You you start getting everything.
00:02:42
Speaker
It's just a GM screen. And so the thing is, GM screens don't fall always fall into that same got to have everything category unless it has supplemental material with it.
00:02:54
Speaker
And I don't see myself running Mutants and Masterminds. Yeah, I mean, I don't see it either. and That's yeah definitely his baby, and I know he's going to get it. yeah so Yeah, i but I like having a copy of the player's guide, at least, of games that I play, so that in downtime...
00:03:19
Speaker
I can flip through and look at stuff if I want to. If I'm thinking of ways to advance my character or whatever, I can look at stuff in downtime. So I'm debating it. um it It's like a 30 buck difference between the two bundles. And so...
00:03:40
Speaker
Probably just go for the player's guide if I get it. Because like I say, I don't see myself running Mutants and Masterminds. If I run a superhero game, I'll probably run a Marvel Multiverse for us. Yes, you will. or Or I'll dust off my old DC heroes and run it for us.
00:04:01
Speaker
Cool. but what What have the two of you
Personal Updates from Hosts
00:04:04
Speaker
been up to? Because I've just been working. yeah I've been working, i actually though I did have some time Wednesday to go vote in the primaries down here, at least for my party. For all our viewers, if you haven't, voting is your right, so go do it.
00:04:19
Speaker
Exactly. Don't just ignore it like some people do. ah yeah man Oh, sorry, you weren't done. Sorry. Yeah, because other than that dental appointment, after that it was just work and getting stuff done.
00:04:34
Speaker
How about you, Nick? My internet was down yesterday, so I surprised. So I had do some stuff to get it back up for today. i wasn't even sure we were going to have it up today.
00:04:47
Speaker
ah and And so you were left alone with the voices in your head. No, with all the books that he has, he can drown it out with reading everything from D&D to cyberpunk to aliens to...
00:05:01
Speaker
My Little Pony to Power Rangers. That's basically what I did. I just i just read until like someone could get out here. it was like I did everything that I could. is like Well, we couldn't figure out what's wrong, so here's a new router, and we'll see if it actually works itself out.
00:05:17
Speaker
New router so there's a new password? Nope. Got it all changed over to the old, to the same stuff. Good deal. Good deal. But they're basically like, that's not the problem. There's nothing wrong. that We can see outside your house. There's nothing wrong on our end. There seems to be an outage in your area that's inconsistent that we can't figure out.
00:05:37
Speaker
But here's a new router anyways. Usually they text you if there's an outage in your area. I know, but like, that's the weird part. I got the texts about the outage this morning.
00:05:49
Speaker
Hours after after it's been resolved. And of course, i mean, Nick wasn't really alone because I'm sure that there was someone or something that could keep him company. Squirrel!
00:06:04
Speaker
Did you look away, Nick? Squirrel! There's no squirrels in this home. Well, they did leave you a Valentine's Day card with your favorite subject, math. Yes.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yes, they did. Yes, and ah that that that that's true that's true. I saw it. It said, to man from Squirrel. With all the warmth and love that math can give.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. I mean, we know that it can because Nick has the t-shirt that says, spread math love. Yes, we have pictures.
00:06:43
Speaker
Wait, we can't bully him yet. It's too early. You're right, no. can't single hit We can't single him out. We have someone else to single out right now. Yes, we do.
Podcast Recommendation: 'Me and Steve Talk RPGs'
00:06:55
Speaker
And having been declared an official Steve, it behooves me to talk about the Me and Steve Talk RPGs podcast.
00:07:04
Speaker
So if you if you love Smart RPG Talk with heart, hustle, and a little bit of we've actually run this at the table, go check out Me and Steve Talk RPGs.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yes, and congratulations on your honorary membership. Yes. It's definitely a good podcast. It's very thoughtful, practical, and full of the kind of GM and player insights you can use in your very next session. Great conversations, zero gatekeeping, just genuine love of this hobby.
00:07:34
Speaker
Whether you're a GM or a player, their insights last and real table stories make every episode a blast. We love what they and we know you will too. Yes.
00:07:45
Speaker
yep So check out Me and Steve talk RPGs wherever you get your podcast. Squirrel! Now, as for us...
Alien RPG Evolved Edition Excitement and Controversy
00:07:54
Speaker
We've been talking about getting this topic on on the show for a couple of months now.
00:08:01
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hu Yes, we have. Anyone who's been listening for a while knows that last year, Nick and I were beyond excited for delivery of the evolved edition of the Alien role-playing game.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah, so one of you got it earlier than the other, much to his degree. Yes. yeah And much to our surprise as well. Yeah, there were no shipping notifications.
00:08:31
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and theyre what And based on what I tracked on the on like the Reddit and on the Discord, is like there was no rhyme or reason. People were getting it getting it on one half of the country, then in the middle of the country, then not getting it Yes, but like an alien embryo, you never know when they're going to sprout out.
00:08:52
Speaker
angel That's right. I'm wondering if, let's see, I think the the next... So I have at least two that should be coming from Free League in the future.
00:09:06
Speaker
A Blade Runner RPG expansion that that thing has been hitting production snag after production snag. That's what it sounds like, yeah.
00:09:17
Speaker
It seems to be close to shipping at this point. And then also there will be the Invincible RPG. There's another superhero RPG that I'll be running yeah at some point.
00:09:30
Speaker
Invincible. It's one of a different atmosphere. Just a little different tone. I hope you like red. The color red. Yes. We we finally we got the Alien Evolved Edition RPG.
00:09:43
Speaker
And... We got it on the table around the holidays, finally. Yes, we did. And we finally got to experience the differences.
00:09:55
Speaker
So we know that we've got our episode on the first edition Alien RPG. Free League doesn't like to call this a second edition.
00:10:09
Speaker
And the rather behind-the-scenes fun, or however you want to call it, was a bit of a hobby drama moment when people were talking about it.
00:10:21
Speaker
I think that's because they didn't feel like they did enough to make it a second edition, just more like tweak the original. Yeah, I mean... What the fans commented on. Yeah. Meanwhile, I would say they did as much or more than Modiphius did in transitioning Star Trek Adventures from first edition to second edition.
00:10:44
Speaker
ah Yeah. All to the second edition. I'd say there's not enough to, I would argue, like there's definitely been bigger changes edition-wise in history. This one I probably would put on like a definitely a 1.5.
00:11:00
Speaker
ah one point five think Yeah, I'd say that's fair. And so we wanted to take some time and talk about the changes and our impressions of the Evolved Edition as a whole and some of the specific ah elements of it that we've played. In particular, I have...
00:11:20
Speaker
some thoughts on their transition of the hopes last day one shot from first edition to evolved edition as well. I have the same.
00:11:34
Speaker
so And also of their evolved edition ships with the new core rule book, as well as two pre-made adventures and additional miniature set.
00:11:49
Speaker
Well, that ships if you bought everything in the Kickstarter. But those are the things that you can go out and buy right now. They're all available. Yes, I've seen them all in stores.
00:12:02
Speaker
In fact, one of the stores near us ah has all of those individual pieces. He keeps forgetting that I tell told him that I backed the Kickstarter, so I have all of these.
00:12:15
Speaker
Because when I was in there a couple of weeks ago, he's like, I've got the Evolved Edition book. I've got Rapture Protocol. And I was like, yeah, I backed the Kickstarter. I've got all that. You never had to have an extra.
00:12:27
Speaker
But he he also has one full additional Kickstarter set that he is selling as a bundle. Oh. So he's pian he's got all of the individual stuff. Then he has one of everything that he... He had two or three the first time I was in there after it delivered. And he has one left that he is selling as a bundle. Again, depending on what he's selling, but that's a good price to get to can get into it.
00:12:57
Speaker
Where do we want to start? What's the first thing that we want to talk about in in the changes? I guess the the biggest one is the change to the the panic system.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yes, because it's what it ended to. It is largely the... It's one of the largest changes. and Just ah another thing in going into the design philosophy that that Freely went into this. A lot of it did come from fan feedback.
00:13:25
Speaker
when i When I first read about some of the changes, now this is also interesting for us to talk about a little bit in the whole evolution, pun partially intended, of Evolved Edition.
00:13:43
Speaker
Because ah after the Kickstarter finished, those of us who backed the Kickstarter were given near-immediate access to the alpha version of the Evolved Edition Core Rulebook.
00:13:57
Speaker
And they were actively soliciting feedback from the players. And the way that they had changed it up in alpha, people were not happy with.
00:14:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. i i Unfortunately, there was an issue with my ability to get the initial alpha. so I got the second version.
00:14:22
Speaker
But from what heard, like the first draft was a bit contagious. Yeah, I hadn't read it in detail. But I was seeing the fallout online from it.
00:14:37
Speaker
And yeah people did not like the change that they were making. And Free League actually took that feedback to heart. And when the beta...
00:14:49
Speaker
came out, then the feedback was much more positive and the beta is almost exactly what we got in the final product.
00:15:00
Speaker
As spoken of before, the panic system is is proprietary to the alien RPG and one of its main core mechanics.
00:15:10
Speaker
And that if you roll the face hugger or panic symbol on your panic die, you will get a certain result that will be a potential negative modifier. That stress that you take stays with you until you work through prescribed mechanics in the game to relieve that stress. So once you add that stress in, you always have the possibility of panicking. It gives you better chances when you're rolling for stuff, but then you more you get, the more chance you have getting that same panic or face-over. Right. It increases your odds of success, but it also adds the possibility of panicking. And the more stress you take, the higher the odds of panicking.
00:15:53
Speaker
Now, admittedly, that can be rather punishing. And we discussed that. It can be rather punishing and can result into rather anticlimactic or humorous passings.
00:16:09
Speaker
Catonic on a staircase going up upstairs. A carousel of screaming. Yes. Yes, the the endless scream loop.
00:16:20
Speaker
yeah Yes. and But what they've done is they've taken stress and panic, which in first edition were in tri were intrinsically linked.
00:16:34
Speaker
And they were a single system. And they have separated them out.
New Mechanics in Alien RPG Evolved Edition
00:16:40
Speaker
You still take stress. And that does incur a result, but you also have a brand new thing called resolve.
00:16:48
Speaker
Right. Yes. And Nick, you're the one who's run it. So you're in the best position to explain how resolve is going to work. Resolve basically is a brand new, new, new element to your character seat.
00:17:03
Speaker
It's a brand new sort of, sort of a attributed state, basically you have your stress level and you roll your D six. If you include a stress on a stress die, but you subtract it by your resolve, which is a combination of your, which is a mental attitude is your, is connected to your wits.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yes. So you, you can potentially power through that, that you can power, power through that, um, incident and not incur a negative effect because you can potentially go negative off of the result chart.
00:17:49
Speaker
And again, these stress responses as they're now called a separate table to do what they, what was once the panic roll table have effects, but they are generally a little let less intense.
00:18:06
Speaker
Yes. And then Dominic for resolve. Can resolve be depleted or go below? ah Resolve, just like before, you can get to a negative zero response, which will get you keeping cool.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just asking, can resolve like lower? Like, say, have a resolve at three. Can something happen to make you resolve at two? There are effects on when we get to panic response. There are ones that will reduce your resolve.
00:18:38
Speaker
Yes. that That's a good point to make out. You said it's split into two, so we have stress, and then you just mentioned panic. How does that work? Panic is now, instead of rolling on a stress site, panic is now a tool used by the GM and sort of given their fiat to introduce it would still be the same thing. Your stress level, which will likely increase in response to a panic response, will be still subtracted by your resolve, but the effects are, and many of them are, from your the previous panic table, and some are a bit more in intense.
00:19:13
Speaker
So now, instead of having to to roll, correct me if I'm wrong, instead of having to roll a panic just because you roll a facehugger, on a stress die.
00:19:24
Speaker
You vote out for a stress response. Right. And panicking is entirely up to the GM. The GM says, okay, now you panic.
00:19:36
Speaker
Yes. Yes. I, it is a GM tool now. And with panics, some of those effects last, not just for one turn, but last for like an entire counter or you can resolve it or even longer in the story. until you find some way to resolve it.
00:19:54
Speaker
So it it took, when we sat down and actually played for the first time, it took a little bit of getting used to differences. Once... we actually went through it a few times. It made a lot more sense to us and was was easier for us to wrap our heads around the chain. And astute listeners who have heard Nick and I tell our origin story with playing the first edition, same thing kind of happened. Reading it,
00:20:27
Speaker
was like and initially when I first heard it was like oh that sounds interesting then I read it again and was like oh ah I'm not sure how that would work in actual play and then we actually played it and it worked well everything made sense yes though we did find when we played we did find one issue that they never fixed because I remember one of the panics had some mention of it and we wait what is that and Nick's like I don't have a card for that i think that's not there anymore yeah I forget what it was, but we were like, wait, it says if we have this, but we don't have a card for that. Is that is that a thing? they include
00:21:06
Speaker
ah They included in the bundle cards with the panic and stress effects, multiples of each, so that a player who's suffering from that effect, you can hand them the card, and so it's an easy reference.
00:21:20
Speaker
um I want to say that I might have gone and dug and found reference to that one effect. yeah And i want I want to say that the effect of it is something that doesn't that doesn't linger.
00:21:41
Speaker
And that might be why there wasn't a card for it. and Okay. Well, that makes more sense because it really threw us... I remember that through our grouper loop, we're like, Wait, Because yeah in terms of the material, those cards are very useful, incredibly useful, worth the purchasing of this are the other of the starter game to have those.
00:22:06
Speaker
And it also comes with brand new refer rule reference sheets that really helped also with getting not just me as the GM, but also getting the players on board with the new mechanics.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah. yep Yeah, that was definitely helpful. I like, i'm I'm seeing more and more game publishers are including that kind of thing in their starter sets and their GM kits. And I really like when they when they include that because it It definitely, it helps, especially for new people getting into the games to, so it it helps on both the GM side and the player side into getting into with the meat of an action, especially in a starter box.
00:23:00
Speaker
Right. Yes. And then of course, since this is just 1.5, some other things have stayed the same, like initiative is still, you take a card, you don't roll for anything. You just take a card and that's what you do.
00:23:13
Speaker
ah There are still character agendas, like the cinematic ones, they have agendas, of course,
Enhanced Gameplay Features in Evolved Edition
00:23:20
Speaker
and the campaign ones, you make one for yourself. You're you're still very squishy in terms of your player characters.
00:23:28
Speaker
Yes. You still have your signature item, like what does your character hold dear? There's money. There's talents. talents. I don't think they've increased the talents, though. There are more talents now. There are more general talents in general.
00:23:48
Speaker
Yes. And some of the other ones have been sort of either the made more concise or more specific. Yes. But one thing that has changed, which I'll let Nick sponge on, is that stealth has changed.
00:24:02
Speaker
How stealth works. And this is this is probably the biggest selling point of, and probably the thing that they really prompted them into doing Evolved Edition from lot of the talks that the developers did.
00:24:16
Speaker
In the original base Alien RPG, you had... what was called stealth mode and your combat mode. It's basically two sets of modes, your standard storytelling, environmental stuff where you walk around, interact with the environment, and then your combat.
00:24:37
Speaker
Now, there is always a bit of a disconnect between those two because in the Alien movies, There is a moment where you have like everything's fine and everyone can walk around and do stuff. And then there's the tense scenes where the alien is nearby or skulking around.
00:24:57
Speaker
And you have no idea where it is. So you're just looking everywhere like you can pop out there. And then you have like the combat or the attack scene. And there was, in the original, there was no real sort of delineation for that and a difficulty in conveying that level of tension.
00:25:15
Speaker
Now there is a stories moment and a dedicated stealth type of movement and mechanics and combat, which it it sounds a little bit, and why do they need to do that? But it's like, it makes more sense once you actually see the gameplay loop that they're doing, especially in Rapture Protocol. was a great experience for that.
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah, it was good to know that because it was like, okay, this is how it works. And it did increase the tension. Because you would just be like, okay, you think something may have moved over here or you saw a shadow there. And it's like, okay, was that real or did I imagine that?
00:25:54
Speaker
It really helped build up the tension through the great mean amount of like care that they put into In Raptor Protocol, there's a large-scale map for the players to use and a small-scale map for the GM to use.
00:26:07
Speaker
The small-scale map is where the GM can move the alien without alerting the players. ye And it was used to good effect, especially in the end scene. Yes.
00:26:21
Speaker
hi I just looked, jumping back just a second, and I think the panic response that... we didn't have a card for was Hesitant.
00:26:33
Speaker
Yes! I was thinking either Hesitant or Hastened. And the effect of Hesitant is you automatically get the number 10 initiative card in combat until your panic stops.
00:26:46
Speaker
If several PCs are Hesitant, draw the highest value cards randomly. So that's why there's no Hesitant card because it just applies to initiative. Yeah.
00:26:56
Speaker
But that can be devastating, especially if you're a heavy hitter and you go last. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's a it's a tough one. I knew it was something like that. I knew if I looked at the panic table that I would remember what it was.
00:27:10
Speaker
and as soon as I was hesitant, that's what it was. Speaking of initiative, Nick, I actually forgot. Were aliens like Alien Warriors in the original one able to go twice, or was that an Evolved Edition thing?
00:27:24
Speaker
that That was always in the original version, but since the maps were a lot more abstract and that's sort of a thing that's also changed, maps are a lot more defined in this edition, especially for the Avengers and more intentionally.
00:27:40
Speaker
But it made more sense to allow to them to factor in the movement like that. Okay. and then I remember it being a part of first edition because I remember having multiple and it just like in first edition the number of actions that an alien or an adversary like that takes is tied to its speed.
00:28:08
Speaker
It has a speed rating and so like the xenomorph warriors have a speed of 2. So they get to go twice. So the face outers, I believe, only have a speed of one. they get one.
00:28:21
Speaker
Right. And so that that is carried over, but it's a little more prominent. And Nick just kind of gave us an opening. So unless there's an element that he's dying to talk about next, let's do mention the the maps.
00:28:40
Speaker
Oh, the the maps does it the maps deserve talking about. They went above and beyond for maps. Well, in first edition, the maps were literally maps.
00:28:54
Speaker
they They weren't, they they were to a smaller scale and they were diagrams of the location. Like if you go into a building and they showed you each level and what was on there.
00:29:06
Speaker
yeah going holy Right, a blueprint. Yeah, blueprint or schematic. And fit in universe. Yeah, like if you were going into a military fort, you would see the military fort diagram. Yeah.
00:29:19
Speaker
Now, for Evolved Edition, they have got gone more towards what, within the genre of role-playing games within that, are more colloquially known as battle maps.
00:29:34
Speaker
they They're gridded. They're a larger scale. They're specifically designed to accommodate miniatures. Yeah. So you can move around and be like, okay, I'm going into the stalls here.
00:29:48
Speaker
Or you can see like a vent and the actually shows you how the vent moves around. it was like, this is the vent and this is where you would come out. And part of that is cross products synergy in that.
00:30:01
Speaker
Free League is producing miniatures, which they didn't before. But also connects to the to the change, to the addition of the stealth mode.
00:30:15
Speaker
Right. Because having those larger, more detailed maps does make it so that so that the rooms feel more distinct. And just as you mentioned, said Robert, the vent systems are like clearly delineated.
00:30:30
Speaker
And it's meant for you to have your own smaller version of the map where you can move the alien so that you can have that moment like in the original alien where Dallas is in the vents and then you hear the motion tracker and it's right right on.
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah. And it's for the maps. It's not just miniatures because I also remember, Nick, you had tokens that you could put down. It's like, OK, you try to go to through this door, but oop it's locked.
00:30:59
Speaker
Yes. And you actually and it would you'd give a token that actually shows it's locked. Unless you can fix it, you cannot go through there. Sadly, there's no longer an opportunity for cross-company synergy because Galeforce 9 Games had the license for an Aliens tabletop miniatures game called Aliens Another Glorious Day in the Core.
00:31:28
Speaker
that had some wonderful minis of Marines and aliens. And right before Rapture Protocol hit shell, or Rapture Protocol, right before Evolved Edition hit shelves, Galeforce 9 announced that they lost the license.
00:31:46
Speaker
and another glorious day in the core was going out of print. And i very hurt I very hurriedly jumped on Amazon and bought the one remaining expansion for that game that I didn't have.
00:31:57
Speaker
Do look for those. it They are of similar size, but they are of a different type of miniature quality. You have to your traditional building miniatures.
00:32:07
Speaker
ah This is also a good way to segue into the fact that yes, Free League is now producing miniatures for the Alien RPG. And the first set is is the Rapture Protocol set.
00:32:21
Speaker
Everything you need to run the Rapture Protocol call scenario. Yeah, from the ship to the actual base. Yeah. And they are good quality miniatures.
00:32:32
Speaker
They're form printed. So there's no, there's no gluing, no bits, no fiddly things. You could paint them right out of the box. They're already just a, I mean, indeed usually use a primer, but like they they're good quality. So I've seen even people paint them out of the box.
00:32:50
Speaker
I'm looking forward to seeing what else they put out in the miniatures line. In the meantime, I need to get my three d printer churning some more. Mm-hmm.
00:33:02
Speaker
There are some great third-party miniature file makers out there. The one that I know most that does a lot of wonderful alien-related ones. Shout out to Papsicles. I subscribe to his Patreon, and so I get a ton of minis from him every month. We know so much.
00:33:28
Speaker
Fair as I could. I am so far behind on sorting all of my mini files from all of the Patreons that I support that it's not even funny. But as someone i can believe that who does like the minutes who does like miniatures an abnormal amount.
00:33:46
Speaker
You know. It's not like you have entire boxes of them. Just of alien miniatures. Just of alien. lot of Star Wars too, but yeah, a good decent number aliens.
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say it's between those two. It's like definitely more Star Wars, but definitely like aliens have a significant part. That's just Star Wars had a head start. This is true.
00:34:11
Speaker
But I will say that as if you if your table is very visual inclined, they'll very much like seeing seeing the miniatures on there, moving them around, their scale to the maps. And again, the maps are of high quality.
00:34:27
Speaker
Same with the characters. You can tell which one's your character. Mine had a tricker hat. We will come back to to the maps when we start talking about Hope's Last Day, though.
00:34:39
Speaker
And Raps of Protocol, which we can go in either order.
Rapture Protocol Adventure in Alien RPG
00:34:45
Speaker
ah Go ahead with Rapture Protocol because my my overall impression of Rapture Protocol was more positive than my overall impression of the update to Hope's last day. Spoiler alert.
00:35:00
Speaker
Rapture Protocol is their first brand new full cinematic adventure and part one ah of their Jeremiah Saga. And it was fun. And I believe, Nick, that you said it can be played A myriad of different ways.
00:35:16
Speaker
Oh, yes. Just like all the other previously done cinematics, there are myriads of ways to finish and complete the adventure. And there's plenty of ways where you could just lose and die all of you.
00:35:29
Speaker
All but one in our case. Yeah. We had our last final girl moment. Mm-hmm. yeahp we like there But it's like, just like all of them, it's your you everyone has their own agendas.
00:35:43
Speaker
It's working against each other. Everyone's working on a similar task. There's some surprises through characters, and there's a whole lot of things going on.
00:35:54
Speaker
And I don't know how, but in our playing Rapture Protocol, my drunk character made it almost to the end. He was the second to last person.
00:36:05
Speaker
I was the captain and to I wanted everybody else to do all the work. My character's first two agendas was get alcohol.
00:36:18
Speaker
Just find alcohol. And again, the fun of the of that is like playing into those agendas as well as dealing with the active situation on board. And again, no spoilers we're going to be giving here, but it's a fun ride.
00:36:32
Speaker
We did it in two days, but but that's because we wanted to really get in-depth into the characters and into the into it. It can probably be accomplished in maybe a good solid six hours if you wanted if you wanted this to be quick. and Yeah, if you just want to boom, boom, boom it.
00:36:48
Speaker
And like we said, we didn't even actually explore the entire map in our playthrough. We just wanted to really dive into the new mechanics and the new character these characters. And we had a great fun sort of just vamping and playing with that.
00:37:02
Speaker
Yes. And we also had, of course, with every Evolved Edition or New Edition, there's, of course, always expansions on equipment, gear, vehicles, weapons, all that stuff.
00:37:15
Speaker
I remember that as as soon as it was announced, Nick and I were incredibly excited that a Evolved Edition was going to include gear from Alien Romulus.
00:37:30
Speaker
Yep. You guys wanted your smart gun. Yeah. Yep. And interestingly... the stats The stats that a lot of people were coming up with stats in the like immediate aftermath of Romulus...
00:37:45
Speaker
in In the Discord and and the and Reddit. And even you came up with her with one as well yourself, Daryl. No, I pulled from the Discord, I think.
00:37:57
Speaker
Either way, startlingly close. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They did the whole thing. They're like weapons, the alien pod thing, warriors, the offspring even.
00:38:09
Speaker
I have plenty of ideas for creating some tools, pulling the information from the books just to make my life easier as a GM when I'm running.
00:38:21
Speaker
And that's, again, another great thing about it is like since so much of it was like community driven and all of that, it does help with like You can see where the developers came with the ideas, which does give you some ideas on how to introduce future or new and content in there.
00:38:41
Speaker
Yep. And Nick, you and I need to sit down and figure out when we want to work on our Alien Earth homebrew book.
Cyborgs, Campaigns, and GM Tools in Evolved Edition
00:38:50
Speaker
Yep. Yep. heard this Yes, because a certain someone really wants to set out and use the eyeball.
00:38:57
Speaker
Everyone wants to use the eyeball. I was watching a Patrick Responds, Patrick Willems video last night. And in answering one of the viewer questions, he got to talking about Alien Earth. And even Patrick Willems, who thought Alien Earth was fine, said the eyeball is the star of the show.
00:39:21
Speaker
I mean, it really was. like Whenever it shows up, it's like, that thing's going to do something. It's going to really fucked up.
00:39:35
Speaker
but By the way, just an aside here, when we started talking about my miniature 3D print files. I right clicked on the folder that all of those files are in to see how large that folder is.
00:39:53
Speaker
It's still calculating the size. It's at 648 gig and it's still counting the size. yeah Oh, speaking of in Earth, that is, i believe, one difference in Evolved Edition is you can now not just be a human or an android, but I believe you can also be a cyborg.
00:40:16
Speaker
They've mentioned the cyborgs, but they have not come up with the stats. But they have talked about that that might be something they'll be adding. They have streamlined and made it easier for you to find where the information to be an android is, which is more just a formatting thing in the book. The initial book, while very gorgeous, was had some formatting in trickiness.
00:40:42
Speaker
You can only find the Android stuff in the combat section, and not in the character building section. Oh yeah, that is a weird place to put it, but as long as it's in there. It's in there. I've done versions that are like, oh, that I forgot to put it at the end there. Things are in a lot better locations that make it easier for both players and ZN. They're like, okay, it should be in this zone.
00:41:09
Speaker
i I think we talked about in our adapting new media to your game episode, we talked about ideas for making a cyborg.
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Okay, and stop counting, 684 Size on some RAM, but...
00:41:31
Speaker
intervention i'd say i get some ram but ah yeah you just need to get one of the You just need to get one of those terabytes. oh it It's on a two terabyte network drive.
00:41:46
Speaker
Oh, okay. Okay, that's good. At least. Yeah, that that was my entire network drive. I was running out of space, so I got a new main network drive, and the two terabyte network drive is now reserved for my miniature files.
00:42:02
Speaker
Fun fun a little aside, I have you know a whole Star Wars naming convention for all of you know the computers and drives and everything on our home network.
00:42:14
Speaker
And now that it's all for 3D printing, that one's called Kamino.
00:42:22
Speaker
That's nice. Bravo. Just don't get blown up like the real one. The main network drive is Holocron. Our network is the Holonet, and this is Kamino.
00:42:34
Speaker
Which Kamino's is going to be? I don't know. Still with droid factories. but yeah so Another good experience of the book is that As someone who likes lore, they've definitely expanded more on the lore of the alien universe, like the factions, even that cult, I forget the name of, but they expanded on that, just the universe in general, how it's all spread out and everything.
00:42:59
Speaker
And just like the previous edition, it says if you're looking for inspiration, it it lists out the old Dark Horse comic books, the new Marvel-based comic books, the novel the myriad of novels that are coming out, and other other supplemental materials it that all sort of helped make inspire a great deal of what they're working with.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yes. And then I haven't run it, nor will I think to run it. I'm not. i don't think I could run an Aliens game good, but I'll ask both you and Daryl, Nick, has there been any big change on the GM side on actually running an Alien campaign that they've put on?
00:43:37
Speaker
Actually, no, not at all. Like, I'd say that but one of the few things that it didn't touch on any further is entirely just... That it didn't touch really is the GM side. There is a new element to character creation.
00:43:54
Speaker
Do you feel that them not touching on the how a GM would run it was a good thing or a bad thing? not do I feel it was a good thing. ah Campaign is still is still very ambiguous, but that's fine because there's the campaign supplements really dive into those different flavors.
00:44:14
Speaker
They're to be releasing those as well later on, of which there were only two in the first edition, but there's one supposed to one for every career. The long-announced but never released Space Truckers campaign guide will almost certainly, well, undoubtedly, will be in Evolved Edition.
00:44:35
Speaker
And they've already confirmed. And then, as part of the Kickstarter, but one of the earliest, like, stretch goals was... was PDFs for those who backed it for the inevitable re-evolved distance of of the two books, that The co Colonial Marines Guide and Building Better Worlds.
00:44:56
Speaker
Good, because I want my statted-out trucker hat. ah Do you hear that, Free League? we We need stats for a trucker hat in the Space Truckers.
00:45:06
Speaker
Yes. if you're going to make a supplemental called Space Truckers, you better have a statted-out trucker hat. and The only other addition I think to to GMing is that they've added a couple more tables to assist in job creation or missing creation. I as a GM, when players come up against an alien or whatever,
00:45:31
Speaker
I'm still going to steal that trick from our friend Brev, who first ran it for us. That's what do we still use. And I will never touch a die.
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah, you'll just be like, hey, Nick, roll for the alien. yeah What's it going to do? Not even that. It's just, Nick, roll me a d6. Yes. Yes. Honestly, it's way more fun than that. And then it's like, okay, now roll me 10 more of those.
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah. And for someone who rolls high on dice rolls... No one, even myself, never likes to be rolling an attack for an alien. Because I'm like, i'm just going to get a six, which is an immediate kill if it hits. yeah And it' and like that's another thing that wasn't changed. the The alien signature attacks are still... Yep, you're gonna you're going to wish that you could... That that a that they you're going to be praying for low for the rolls. And that makes sense. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. so I don't know that they necessarily intended...
00:46:34
Speaker
for GMs to have the players roll for that. But that is... It's just kind of fun. It works. sort of it's It's a fun and elegant trick that Brev did, given how the enemies work in the game.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah. You don't have to strategize for them. They're animals, so what they do is based on just a six-option table. Yeah, and it's also, it's so overbalanced in the alien's favor, depending on what you're running, either Marines or just normal people, that it'd be like, I don't really have to plan out, because like you say they're animals, so they'll just do what they do.
00:47:19
Speaker
But it's like, almost like, that just makes it even more disconcerting when it's, you just roll for like, it hisses at you and leaves. Yeah, that's the fun one. It's like, you're on the ground completely defensive, it just goes...
00:47:33
Speaker
And you're like... so so it's like a cat. yeah yeah I mean, you're not wrong. there There's a lot of Alien Earth kind of showed that, so... Yeah. yep There's a lot of good. There's a lot of great parts to this.
00:47:53
Speaker
Yes, but I think it's now time that Daryl needs to talk about Hope's Last Day.
Critique of Hope's Last Day Expansion
00:47:58
Speaker
and i i I know that you have more to say than I do, but I think it's mainly because we probably would be just stepping over each other's words. I'll let you take the lead.
00:48:08
Speaker
All right. but So Hope's Last Day began as a one shot in the first edition core rule book. And it was a lean, efficient introduction game.
00:48:22
Speaker
And it is probably one of the most fun one shots that I have ever played in my life. In first edition, it has a nice mix of...
00:48:34
Speaker
structure and free form. Because there are a few places where there are specific events that happen. But the rest of it, you have an entire map of the colony.
00:48:49
Speaker
It's the colony that they visit in Aliens that they've lost contact with. And this adventure, this one shot, takes place between the time that Newt's father comes back to the colony with the face hugger on his face and when the Marines arrive in Aliens.
00:49:12
Speaker
so like very but Have you ever seen the audio drama on Audible? It's basically that. Yeah. it's ah It's a great introductory game. It's generally, you can generally play it in about four hours.
00:49:24
Speaker
It could be longer. It depends on how, you like so sort of like how we said that like, if you if you really have a group of role players that really want to get into the nitty gritty and really explore Hadley's Hope, you can just explore Hadley's Hope for about a good six hours.
00:49:42
Speaker
And for good reasons. It was very popular among the player base as a great one shot and a great introductory game. And we were all excited with kickst on Kickstarter.
00:49:55
Speaker
And what did they do? Not only not only but not only did did they say that the Hope's Last Day is coming back. It's a full box set cinematic adventure.
00:50:06
Speaker
It is going to be the new starter box. It's the new starter game. And we're going to expand it to be a full starter box.
00:50:17
Speaker
And that all that's like, yes, great, awesome. Grabby hands. Gimme, gimme, gimme. Honestly, I think that was like how we were like, i honestly, was like when I was like, oh, I need to get the bundle because obviously I want...
00:50:33
Speaker
All of that. A lot of the elements that made Hope's Last Day good were indeed carried over. It's the same pre-gen characters that you play.
00:50:46
Speaker
In the first edition core rulebook version, each of the pre-gen characters only had a single agenda.
00:50:56
Speaker
For Evolved Edition, since they expanded it out to a full box set, it's given a full three-act structure. So they expanded those agendas out into three agendas, one for each act. So that's that's fine.
00:51:13
Speaker
which again it funny As we said, like in the initial, it you could have scott it could you could have taken it as long as you did with the original one so expanding it out the three acts that makes sense now here's where and don't get me wrong it is still a good game it is but sorry everyone sorry free league i find the evolved edition version of hope's last day inferior to the first edition version In part because part of the big problem stems from the overall positive change in the maps.
00:51:51
Speaker
yeah By going to maps that are of a scale to work with miniatures rather than the blueprint style, we don't get the whole colony.
00:52:03
Speaker
And so a lot of the locations that... where potential story point ideas in the first one don't exist.
00:52:15
Speaker
It in fact basically cut the actual play experience nearly in half. Which I guess for a good reason, because if they had made an entire map of the colony, it would be probably huge. Oh, it would have been it would have been massive if they did it to the scale that they wanted to make.
00:52:34
Speaker
It would have been about four of the maps that come in the box. And these are full-colored maps. Full-colored gridded maps, yeah. Yeah. and the book itself walls off those lost areas of the colony by saying that they're cut off.
00:52:57
Speaker
You can't get to them. And so, yes, it expands. I'm trying to figure out the best way to put it. It expands the scope of the one shot by expanding it to three acts and emphasizing more of the things that the system can do.
00:53:21
Speaker
but it severely cuts back the scale of it. And there are fewer places for you to go, so you're you're more confined.
00:53:34
Speaker
And so with that larger scope, As the GM, you have less to do with it. Which is which like what I was noticing when I was running it. Like, I didn't initially intend to run it the day we ran it.
00:53:51
Speaker
But I was assuming it's Hope's last day. It's like, I know this thing. And it's like, then just quickly realized, wait, where's the rest of it?
00:54:02
Speaker
Yeah, like, for instance, I remember specifically one of the locations that is eliminated is the one that led to one of our glory stories.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah. Which is the the garage isn't there. you yeah You can't get to it. You can't get to the garage, so you can't get an a APC to try to get to the landing pad.
00:54:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And there's like it's just that's that the yeah like, I understand why they did what they did. I understand it.
00:54:39
Speaker
And I can see if I had read, fruit again, I'll also put slightly on me because I did not read ahead. And we did that as an ad hoc. We didn't have enough people to do what we wanted to do that day.
00:54:53
Speaker
But I will also agree that the other one, despite despite didn't need, didn't The Evolve Edition rules are presented well.
00:55:05
Speaker
I'll also say there's also probably a bit of nostalgia blinders is kind of on us because it was our first experience with the game. We had a great time with it. But also it's like there's a lot less freedom.
00:55:17
Speaker
The characters have more depth, but the environment, which is itself a character, especially in a lot of these cinematic adventures, especially Hadley's Hope, it's iconic.
00:55:29
Speaker
to the franchise, not getting to explore that kind of hurts the whole overall experience. So what what I am wondering, and the fan community for this game is incredible.
00:55:44
Speaker
Oh, it is, yeah. I wonder if anyone out there has done homebrew maps for the rest of the colony.
00:55:58
Speaker
And it wouldn't be that difficult. There's tons of supplemental material that are maps of like, of Hadley's home. There's plenty of them out there. There's a physical blueprints been released several in several books.
00:56:14
Speaker
Yeah. Everyone knows someone could mock up in a similar style, the scaled scalable maps of those locations. I would drop the money to go to Office Depot and print those maps if someone did it.
00:56:30
Speaker
Because I'm sure if someone can, it's it honestly wouldn't be that difficult. And now, after we're done, I'm going to have to go prowling the fan community to see if anyone has done so.
Fan Contributions and Homebrew Expansions
00:56:42
Speaker
Probably the like i know that I know some map makers out there that have done some stuff for Aliens. I could at least see if they've posted anything about that. That's my personal take on it. I was excited that they were going to expand it out to be a full-fledged three-act adventure.
00:57:03
Speaker
And i like i like the I like the additions. The characters have a bit more depth to them. Yep, but the the way that they went about it, I was i was disappointed.
00:57:16
Speaker
Even though it it didn't meet our expectations, definitely get the starter box. It has incredibly useful useful tools like the initiative cards, cards for weapons and equipment, and the panic responses. The maps are still incredibly good and can be used...
00:57:36
Speaker
as placeholders for other for locations. I still, yeah when when we did our Alien game at Gamer Nation Con last year, and I made the expanded initiative cards to go up to 24 or 25 to double, or 20 to 25, somewhere in there. I at least doubled because we had two tables worth of characters that we brought together.
00:58:04
Speaker
i I still wish that they had gone beyond 10. Yeah, especially if aliens can get times two. Yeah. Two initiative slots kind of limits the scope of what you can do.
00:58:17
Speaker
But again, as i can I can see where that makes sense. Combat's meant to be quick, not long. Yeah, but yeah it can still be quick and involve needing more than 10 initiative slots. If you have a party... of They average five pregens when they create pregens for a box set or an adventure.
00:58:42
Speaker
So there's there's half of your initiative slots right there. And if you have an extra PC in there, there's six out of ten.
00:58:53
Speaker
Granted, if you have more than two aliens, they might be in trouble anyway. But if you have more than two aliens, you don't have enough initiative cards. Yeah. And the the only solution there is to split the party, but, well, then one party has to handle all of its things before the other one. So that's that's where it can be handy if the party splits, if you have another GM in the group and they happen to think to bring their cards every time. Yeah.
00:59:24
Speaker
Then you have two sets of initiative cards. It's pretty easy with you. You bring your own dice as well because you just won't touch Nick's curse ones. it's It's part of not touching dice that have been tainted with Nick's curse and part of I'm lazy and I don't want to have to lean forward. If I can stay in my spot where I'm at with my feet up and roll my dice, I'm gonna.
00:59:51
Speaker
Except there are days that you're just like, on.
00:59:56
Speaker
You're going jail. You're in jail. You're in jail. You're in jail. And it's really bad when you know you're playing a game with D20s and all of your D20s are in jail.
01:00:10
Speaker
I've punished all of my D20s before. Overall, what are your thoughts on the X-Evolved Edition, Nick? In my opinion, it's it's just what the system needed, I feel.
01:00:24
Speaker
It's not, I think that the I'd rather them have done this than go through the entirety of the careers before making this change. They heard the community talking about like the stealth system. They they brought in the like the mental phobias and stuff for campaign play.
01:00:44
Speaker
The new equipment is good good. The change up in the layout of the book, the change up to stress and panic are great. All of these were like, they needed to put those together now rather than later and then redo the whole thing. wait Quick question here. Speaking of the layout of the books, Nick, both first edition and evolved edition are gorgeous.
01:01:09
Speaker
Oh yeah. Beautiful. first First edition was white text on black. Evolved edition is black text on white. How much of that do you think, because we've mentioned that there's a strong fan community that makes fan created content.
01:01:29
Speaker
How much do you think was making it easier for fan content to look good and not necessarily identical to official product, but to, you know, for the fans that wanted to make their homebrew look a little more seamless.
01:01:53
Speaker
How much do you think that change was to make stuff more printer friendly? i have... We may never know, but I have a strong feeling that was that was at least a deciding factor.
01:02:09
Speaker
Yes, and based on myself, I think that's why it shows that Evolved Edition is a good improvement, but it's also a good reflection that the publisher is listening to the fans trying to make the game more fun for fans in general.
01:02:25
Speaker
They're receptive to criticism and changing it to what we say would make it better, so I like I think of it as a good response to the fans as well. like If Alien... and Again, like love the franchise, love the original edition, and it will always have like a place in my heart as like a great RPG, this is just now an extra tier on top of that. It's like... yeah Yes, because we've we've known publishers that will be like, okay, I see what you're saying, but no.
01:03:01
Speaker
This is a good example of how she'd be like, okay, see what you're saying? Okay, well, We do it like this. Again, that's why I would, I, it's definitely not a second edition in it. Like the only way I call it a second edition is like, there's a major change like how certain mechanics are implemented or like an entire revamp of like certain core things.
01:03:25
Speaker
More was added, but everything that worked still works. And what wasn't working ideally was tweaked, not removed or changed.
01:03:35
Speaker
So, Robert, what you're saying is Free League does not operate the way a sorcerer on the shoreline operates.
01:03:47
Speaker
No, because I feel they have less of the bro of has in them. Yes. i we We can agree on that. This is definitely...
01:03:58
Speaker
If the first book was definitely a love letter to the franchise, this is a thank you letter to us who love the they at least have a They at least have a better naming convention. It's not just Alien 2025 edition.
01:04:16
Speaker
True. Who would do that? someone who just says want to Someone who just doesn't want to say this is the edition incremented by one a A sorcerer on the shoreline. And again, like, it it even worked in the, like, evolution is a big part of it, so it's an evolved edition.
01:04:37
Speaker
Yes. It has creativity going for it. Yep, it it it very well does. But you know what could make it better? We all know that in Alien Edition, you can play a cat.
01:04:49
Speaker
I want to play a squirrel. Squirrel! I'm pretty sure that those are probably extinct in this universe. Hey, with all the stuff you know what did on Alien Earth, I have a feeling they would bring back a squirrel.
01:05:02
Speaker
Or maybe there's an alien squirrel. Oh, I need. So speaking of all of those minis, Papsicles occasionally does fun little like goofy Xenos. Like he did a Gremlin Xenomorph a couple of months ago.
01:05:22
Speaker
I need to look and see if he's done done one that's a Xeno. the test Yeah. And and if it's not if he hasn't, I need to suggest it to him.
01:05:37
Speaker
I'm sorry. He's got a busy schedule. When I explain why I would like him to do it, he would probably do it and make it one of his cyber elite reward bonus models for the month. And I would print it out and I would run a session and, uh,
01:05:55
Speaker
Squirrel! Yeah. nick Hey, Nick. Has that big squirrel on your big loud squirrel on your roof left any more dead bodies for you lately? Or is that the one that is that the one that left you the valentine?
01:06:09
Speaker
Yes. For those of you who don't who don't know, one session we were playing, we just kept hearing chittering, and Nick was scared that it was in his house. It was just a really big squirrel outside just talking. Yeah.
01:06:24
Speaker
Like, it was... give We we all Even even you thought it was like like... Yeah. Like, Robert was trying to play a prank on me. but it was even worse when we were playing, and then we... It sounded like it was being choked to death. Well, we we heard it fighting with something, and then we heard a... Screaming bloody murder. And I did we find another squirrel, like, at the bottom of the of where it was. I think it killed that one.
01:06:53
Speaker
it I'm not sure why they were fighting, but apparently that one one Don't you get it, Nick? It's a yandere squirrel. It wants to be your one and only.
01:07:04
Speaker
No, no, no, no. It could stay outside. And now Nick will be awake all night. So I think that's good. That's some good terrorizing right there.
01:07:17
Speaker
Yep, we have we have terrorized Nick, we have bullied him, and he will be sitting up late at night ah wondering if every sound that he hears is a...
Community Engagement and Farewell
01:07:26
Speaker
Squirrel!
01:07:30
Speaker
I have i have have the the goose of bumps on the back of my neck now. So we have reached the point of the show where I say, check out our website at howwerollgaming.com. And there on the site, you'll find information about our current campaigns, podcast archive, and links to our merch store and all of our social media. Squirrel.
01:07:54
Speaker
Yes. And you can also directly support the show through Patreon. Just go to patreon.com slash howwerollgaming. And you'll see our different membership tiers starting at just $2 a month. With special recognition on our Discord server and higher tiers giving you on-air credit and discounts on our merch store.
01:08:10
Speaker
Finally, if you have any questions you'd like us to answer, top us you'd like us to cover, or even submit to your own RPG Glory story. See us an email at podcast at howweyrollgaming.com.
01:08:21
Speaker
Squirrel! We want to thank everybody for listening, and we hope that you will join us next time. Until then, as always, I'm Daryl. I'm Nick.
01:08:32
Speaker
And I'm Robert. Squirrel! And this is How We Roll.
01:08:39
Speaker
This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2026, How We Roll Gaming, LLC. All games and associated intellectual properties are copyright their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.