Mr. Welch's Mad Musings: The Aliens Adventure Game

[@raymondgunter2945]

Somehow I have Bleeding Edge Games Living Steel rpg in my collection and to quote a friend of mine after he read it.... "Game designed by a mathematician potty trained at gun point for other mathematicians potty trained at gun point."

[@torinarg123]

Living Steel - one of my fondest GM memories was watching my players realise that they didn't get power armour but were, in fact, firemen, paramedics and communications repair staff!

[@NefariousKoel]

I've heard the horror stories about this old RPG. Fortunately the new Free League one doesn't have all these issues.

[@qazwer333]

Your right about it being phoenix command lite. This was not in the main aliens book but phoenix command includes vehicle combat. If you somehow guessed that It simulated actual armored combat down to a T, your completely right. It is basically a armored fighting vehicle combat simulator dealing with various pen's of ammo and armor thickness. It gets really complex. Thankfully, Air combat was never attempted. However, In my research something came up. I swear this is not a thing I just made up. There is a phoenix command retro clone called Open Command retroclone. I have only found pdf's of it on scribid but its a real thing. Also Good luck with those books. I hear they are obscure and rare. Even pirate's don't have a complete set of books as some have never been properly archived or scanned.

[@NefariousKoel]

"..when a literal rocket scientist designs a game.." Uh.. I own the "High Frontier" board game, and have played it. Guess it has to be on-topic when it comes to gaming rockets.

[@LezCharming]

The new Aliens rpg is so excellent that I instantly rewatched all of the films.

[@erikmartin4996]

I am not a fan of mystara at all but am a fan of Mr Welch and his reviews.

[@rosskwolfe]

Tabletop games this complicated make a great argument for computer RPGs, where all the math can be done behind the scenes.

[@thebolas000]

You mentioned Wierzbowski in this video at least 5 times as often as the movie Aliens.

Me: Looks up rules Also Me: Mother of God!

[@matthewmarek1467]

A game with math so complicated as to confuse Scott Steiner

[@RobCrowley85]

Only partway through the video, but I can tell one of the most heartbreaking things about this game for you is the lack of Winona Ryder

[@S810_Jr]

Thank you

[@Charlotte_WilliamsFYTG]

Just a friendly little reminder: Newt is dead. She died for nothing. Try not to think of that if you ever watch Aliens again. :)

[@Mr_Welch]

At least until Ripley wakes up from her hypersleep nightmare she's been stuck in after the events of LV-426.

[@NefariousKoel]

Hicks too. Aliens 3 flushed it from the start. Blah!

[@Charlotte_WilliamsFYTG]

@@Mr_Welch Then again if we go down that route we would retcon Winona Ryder out of the series. If Alien 3 doesn't happen neither does Alien Resurrection. So your choices are an Alien franchise without those films or an Alien franchise that may have a series of androids that look like Winona Ryder somewhere in it.

[@Zeithri]

Unlike so many others, I actually love Alien 3 because it was a clear and decisive finish line to Ripley's story. It was nihilistic and depressing, but great. Then if we count in all the stuff that happened around that movie, it's nothing short of a miracle. Alien Resurrection on the other hand is a popcorn flick. Great for fun, but not a very good movie, and it features a proto-Serenity crew. You can, take the crew of the Betty, and replace them entirely with the Firefly cast. Now enjoy the idea of most of them being killed by Aliens. Alien Resurrection introduced what I'd like to call the _Ripley Problem_ , or perhaps the _Ripley Anomaly_ , and that is the idea that every character who ends up fighting the Xenomorph in the past, present and future has to be related to Ripley in some way. There's a comic set in 1930's Earth or something with a great great great grandfather to Ripley, and then there's the godawful AvP2 movie where the Female Marine I've heard some say is some ancestor of Ripley as well. Then we have the fan beloved Alien Isolation, and it's Ripley's daughter. Perhaps it's more a variation of the sins of the father since it seems that Ripley's bloodline has become destined in fiction to fight the aliens and this is a problem. On brighter notes, Metroid has always copied and been inspired by Aliens, so Super Metroid introduced the loss just like Alien 3, and Metroid Fusion introduces Part-Human Part-Metroid just like Ripley's Part Human Part-Xenomorph. Unfortunately the series refused to stop after Fusion and instead of continuing the timeline forward, they inevitably started stuffing the timeline full and lost sight of how to keep it moving forward. A re-occurring problem in all fiction and until recently, was an issue in Star Trek as well. So that's my little contributions here.

[@Mr_Welch]

@@Charlotte_WilliamsFYTG she'll be the medic that's pulling Ripley out of cryosleep. Which is why she's in the dream

[@baldruminant]

1995? You must have a later printing than I do. My copy says 1991, which means it came out a little ahead of Alien 3.

[@MrRourk]

1995 was the Alien Comic Book Adventure...the rpg came out in 1991.

[@chrissheffield5468]

Still have my copy...

[@Zeithri]

I always wanted to play this ever since I first stumbled over it, since I am a huge Alien-traumatized fan. But the math is..... Well.. I think I'd do what I always do in games. I take a crowbar to it and make it fit _my needs_ even if it wasn't designed for it. Also remember, when in doubt, you may find stuff on Tabletop Simulator that people has made available through workshops and stuff.

[@Mr_Welch]

Crowbar? You're going to need the jaws of life for this one

[@velwein]

Could you review Modiphius Conan System?

[@lornbaker1083]

Fasa could not even make a proper crimson.Skies r p g because they couldn't figure out the mathematics behind propeller based aerial plane Combat This was also a game where the p c version literally had you flying match speed with another aircraft and descending on to its wing to hijack the pilots. I definitely feel as though fassa could have done some benefit of hiring some math nerves

[@tssteelx]

Thats a pity i heard it was fun because it was highly lethal.

[@riotangel914]

Best board game. My brother just got himself a copy of it and the expansion from the UK. But the RPG is pretty terrible.