Alien: The Roleplaying Game

It started in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s film Alien and “In space, no one can hear you scream” and grew into a franchise. The roleplaying game is set a few years after the events of James Cameron’s sequel Aliens that was released in 1986. This game is marketed as a space horror, but it’s actually a high-octane terror-in-space game. You don’t play a character from the films, but you do select an occupation from any of the characters in the films: company man, ship’s pilot, space marine, etc. Even cyborg is an option (but you may want to keep that a secret). They included an elegant system to track your character’s stress level and added secret personal objectives that grant your character a bonus to be used in a later chapter. These objectives often conflict with other those of other characters and create conflict within the group -- which increases player anxiety and leads to some amazing role-playing situations.

The game has two modes: Cinematic Play for dramatic short stories that emphasize fast action and brutal play, and Campaign Play for larger stories that explore the game universe and perhaps allow your character to survive until retirement.