Alien: Colonial Marines goes to the darkest places in the Alien universe đ€ RPG Letâs Read
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Colonial Marines Operations Manual is an expansion for Free Leagueâs Alien RPG, published in 2021. It includes detailed setting information, Colonial Marine details and a seven-mission campaign.
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I love that the Stinger vehicle is taken directly from the Kenner toy line - a fun nod to older Aliens media.
With Marines you have something I like to call "The default is agression". Basically it goes like this, The platoon CO keeps everyone in line and keeps the chaos reigned in, doc keeps you alive. If the officer goes down, most marine platoons will resort to their default setting, agression, killing the officer is probably the worst thing an adversary can do, the CO is basically the only thing restraining the grunts.
This content actually appeals to me much more than the cinematic mode of Alien RPG. I like the expansion of the world building, and this just feels like it has more replay value than just recreating the movies. That being said, I do wonder if Iâd be better off just playing Coriolis instead. Regardless the production quality of these books is insane. Free League is so cool. Thanks for the video, Dave!
Regarding what is better to play (Coriolis vs. ALIEN)? This book does answer the question for the Colonial Marines campaign. There's something worthwhile in the non-cinematic Colonial Marine campaign that they introduce here... and I think it is equal to a non-Mercy of the Icons campaign for Coriolis. It gives you enough to go on, and enough ideas to think about, especially when you add the Frontier War campaign in the back. The Frontier War can be played out of sequence, and probably works better if you don't simply line up one Frontier War mission after another. Instead, you should mix in your own scenarios or use the mission generator as you play through the entire Frontier War story.
In the end, this is the book that kind of justifies the ALIEN RPG, I think. If Gaska & company can produce similar books for the other Campaign settings (Space Truckers, Space Colonists), then I'd put ALIEN solidly ahead of Coriolis for its more refined version of the Year Zero Engine.
Without the other, future books in the ALIEN line? Coriolis is a more interesting universe, and it has a much deeper campaign mode (the (yet unifinished) Mercy of the Icons). I think ALIEN makes more sense than Coriolis, but Coriolis is a space fantasy setting with a much broader canvas to play from.
Where I'm coming from, I am not super interested in playing a campaign in the larger Alien world. It's neat they put so much great work into it, but there are other sci-fi games that interest me more for a campaign, so I'm probably never going to use it.
But for a few one off adventures, being hunted by alien monstrosities? That sounds like a fun horror experience. Cinematic mode is what I'm here for.
Probably won't play it a ton, but I'll enjoy it when I do.
Well the cinematic mode story's are different enough than the movies.
Understanding the structure of military units is essential in functioning as a unit of grunts working together. I get your points, however the structure presented is appropriate for a military campaign:
But rank doesnât matter here!
â@@DaveThaumavore you have commanders..you need to know who is higher rank
"That arcturian wasnt a woman"
"Dont matter, its arcturian."- Ad Libbed from the Marine banter pre-deployment to Hadleys Hope in Aliens
Woah! I remember the berserker suit from the Dark Horse comics in the 90âs!!
Another excellent analysis, thank you.
I really struggle with equipment in sci-fi games when they are not illustrated...really makes it harder for players to immerse themselves when the ship/vehicle/weapon etc is only vaguely described. Also an issue in Modiphius' Star Trek and FFG Star Wars. At least with those franchises there is generally something to be found online as a fallback.
The MiG 730 illustration being just a MiG 19 from the 1950s with some components turned upside down was at least funny, if a bit lazy.
Another great review. You are right about the lack of specific art in core areas. The book really would have blossomed with more artwork. Also, the same colour scheme of text layout on every page makes it difficult to go to certain areas quickly from memory if you are trying to find something specific. Notable artwork spread throughout the book would have helped in this regard.
Thatâs a excellent good point about artwork in a book, as memory signposts for adjacent content. Even line art or just simple icons would do the trick.
@@DaveThaumavore New term = Signposting.
Octurians were mentioned in Aliens the movie and the original RPG.
Remember this is a sourcebook, vehicle costs and other points filter up into the main rule book where (example) pirates might sell military vehicles or want to purchase them.
Great video! have u considered a separate video full of spoilers reviewing the 7 missions at the end of the book?
Thank you for reviewing and no spoilers đđŸ
Thank you. Now I am going to buy this even though I was not to keen about the idea of gming a marines campaign. I would prefer a colonist sourcebook and from my understanding it is on the way. I am really surprised how much there is in this universe to explore. My first impression of the game was that itÂŽs only good for oneshots that are about getting killed by the Xenomorph. I was wrong
Thank you for the high quality review.
Hope you can get a sneak peak of the Blade Runner RPG Free League is putting out next year!
Giving the PCs no weapons except a Bezerker Suit, then letting them find out a bunch of Xenomorphs are headed their way would make for a fun dilemma.
Love the content.
Thanks for the review.
Awesome!
I hope it goes into detail about Arcturian poontang...đ
Amazing video design as always!
Been hyping myself for an Alien game, but my table is not a big horror fan, hopefully this will help me gear a game more like the new Fireteam and not Isolation.
Been reading Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale and having a source book for soldiers in the Union of Progressive Peoples would add another layer of horror i think as you deal with less up to date gear and political scrutiny.
Late to the party, but accounting of a plays assets could be used as accountability ie Ripleyâs hearing in Aliens.
Not sure if youâve done Mothership yet but that seems like a good sci-fi rpg.
Hey man loved the video! I wanted to throw a suggestion out there for you. I'd love to see you tackle Through the Breach by Wyrd games.
Through The Breach is a very interesting one.
With the costings you could give the players a budget to kit out the ship with space travel modules and gear for space combat, planet fall and ground operations maybe?
Itâs honestly something you can include in the game if your players are into it, or take out completely and no one would notice. Which is nice!
Just coming back to this and thinking about this book again... it's THE book to get after the ALIEN RPG core book, mainly because there aren't many books in this line (LOL).
What it does well... it fleshes out what a USCMC campaign looks like, so if you don't have a clue about Campaign play in ALIEN, this is what you need to get. It's the kind of book I want replicated for the Space Truckers & the Colonists settings in the ALIEN RPG. Give us a Space Truckers manual that's the equivalent of this book, and I'll be very happy. Ditto to the Colonists setting. We already got "Chariot of the Gods" (space trucker cinematic) and "Heart of Darkness" & "Hope's Last Day" (colonist cinematics), along with "Destroyer of Worlds" (USCMC cinemtic) to go with this book... so now's the time for the campaign versions of Space Truckers + Colonists.
Adding the UPP snippets is also helpful in establishing another antagonist faction outside of the Xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani. Or, the UPP can be your protagonist faction, given the info in this book. There's enough there to build out a UPP SOF squad along similar lines as a USCMC platoon section.
What could be better... yeah, artwork. The book is slim and dense compared to the core ALIEN RPG rulebook, and the lack of artwork is a big reason for the density of the pages & the lower page count. If they had more evocative artwork (like the core rulebook), it would be that much better. More readable and more memorable as a RPG supplement. Uniforms, equipment, order of battle (org charts), tactical doctrine illustrations like an Osprey historical military book (for instance). Some working knowledge of the actual US Marine Corps or US Army is helpful here, yes, but more could have been done to flesh out the militaristic aspects.
I could say the same about Twilight:2000, but at least there's a hex map instead of zones. The game is the hex map. With zone-based combat, I think they needed to do more to make this feel fresher as a space marine game. Flanking, over-running/bayonet charges, close air support, all the things that might add more than "I shoot muh gun".
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One thing I do find odd about the core game is the absence of MU/TH/UR as being part of the crew acting in the background shadows. Technically, it should be an NPC with motivations aligned to the corporate owners of the ship. This would add a compelling and unknown factor in day-to-day operations and gameplay. You could assign skills and even use Stress dice. When stress occurs, MU/TH/UR becomes paranoid and behaves in odd ways, perhaps sabotaging the ship in small and subtle ways to manipulate the crew to make certain decisions. If the crew catch on to whats happening, they in turn would become paranoid and nervous. This was part of the essence in the first movie. It wasn't just about the xenomorph.
Thoughts appreciated on this...
You're correct that "mother" was a bigger player in the first movie but since then "mother" hasn't been part of the world in any significant way. For example "mother" isn't mentioned in any of the other movies, I'm not sure if any of the books reference it.
Thatâs an amazing idea.
@@matthewskillings1720 Well it was for mainly what we saw, W/Y vessels. which is probably why theyâre not in any of the other movie. Isnt there one in covenant? And the RPG makes the point of calling the DM âmother,â soâŠ
I'm kinda spit by this review. On one hand, really glad that Free League finally turn their head to flesh out the campaign play style, but on the other hand it sounds like big chunks of the book are only interesting to obsessive grognards. Would've preferred a leaner book with less details on army ranks etc.
What's the name of the song used in the background of the video?
My guess is for the price tags at least what i would use em for would be private military, like a ex corpo runs a PM and usually pays their people a wage for jobs done or there tour. However key thing to note is in PM is that you have to gear yourself up with what you need. Gun, ammo, protective gear and vehicles if your team needs such things. That is my guess anyway
Would be nice if there was a free app or website to quickly pick and calculate a loadout in those cases.
@@DaveThaumavore true it would be super helpful, especially considering how quickly it can add up.
I like the Aliens movie with the colonial marines. If I would play this rpg with Colonial marines, what do I need to start with? The starter set sounds logical, but is it really needed? Do I need the core book to start and is this reviewed book an add on or can you use this as a core book to start with?
You would need either the starter set or core book *plus* this supplement. Iâd recommend the core book rather than the starter set because it contains all of the rules.
@DaveThaumavore but if you don't buy the starterset (âŹ60,-) and only the corebook (âŹ42,-) instead, then you have to buy miniatures (I don't know the price of mini's) and dicesets (âŹ20,- per dice set times two is âŹ40,-. Isn't that more expensive? Or do the expansions also contain dice and miniatures?
Please review PlĂŒsch, Power & Plunder
Is there enough detail there that a GM could cludge together a UPP campaign, or do you basically just get what's on the tin?
I don't see why not. While the focus is on the Colonial Marines, the book gives you the basic armaments and different philosophical differences between the UPP's military and the United Americas. So, if you wanted to outfit a squad of UPP SOF (Space Operating Forces, the USCMC equivalent), you can do that out of the Colonial Marines book with some imagination. You might not have the Smartgun, but a Rifleman is a Rifleman regardless of national origin.
The Campaign section also describes what is going on with the UPP, including UPP black projects. (Let's just say that there are a lot of problems out there in space.) Now, the campaign is focused on the Colonial Marines (with the UPP as potential antagonists), so you can't use the Frontier War very easily. However, what is useful is combat doctrine and character motivations for the UPP NPCs, which then help you define what a UPP military campaign might look like.
Thanks CZcams, for linking the terrible video game haha.
What video game?
â@@brandonkelbepresumably Gearbox's 'Colonial Marines', which was a big disaster.
This kinda sucks... im ex military and you have to learn all that rank shit which looks straight from the classes in basic training. like identical. aint no civi wanna learn all that shit. I didn't, lol. Also, I was a crew chief. damn it sucked. I think the whole Alien saga needs a change. I dug the Prometheus shit. It just needed a better director. I don't need to see ANOTHER xeno kill a group of spacers for the 20th time. (im speaking more media tho)
Ridley either needs people on his crew that will tell him âNO,â or a new director. With the tech and some good ideas it could be amazing. As beautiful as Prometheus and covenant are, they werenât quite like Alien, or Aliens. I just hope Disney doesnt mess this up for us.