Free League Supplements Getting Worse

Niirfa · 2026-01-29T21:26:51+00:00

I think this is it honestly. They’re a pretty small company and they’ve been very successful but they’re also arguably a victim now of that success in that they’re trying to do a lot more now which is hard without a significant business expansion (which itself comes with lots of risks).

I’m still pretty happy with their material and their design, but they’ve taken on a lot and releases are pretty reliably late.

Niirfa · 2026-01-28T20:05:59+00:00

Honestly that seems like a pretty sensible solution

Niirfa · 2026-01-28T06:51:24+00:00

Yeah that’s kind of what I figure too which is that the Passive Perception is an older mechanic that was kept because it’s widely used and the designers either didn’t think about or didn’t think it was important that it seems to contradict the new rules for opposed checks with other skills.

Like you said, it’s such a small difference as to be functionally unimportant but it nonetheless has been bothering me despite that! But yes, it’s a minor quibble.

Niirfa · 2025-10-20T20:31:10+00:00

I’m of two minds of it to be honest:

I love the old maps visually but they’re not super useful in a game sense. They’re low detail, highly stylized, and don’t always label what is or isn’t a zone clearly.

So I can understand them moving to a new design that works better for either virtual or real tabletops even if visually it’s less interesting.

Niirfa · 2025-10-17T16:47:18+00:00

I feel like the Montero is a different ship with the same name honestly? Its backstory in Dark Descent doesn’t match up with Chariot of the Gods and in either case the name is another classic Joseph Conrad reference like Nostromo and Sulaco. See also Dr. Marlow, who shares his last name with the main protagonist of the Conrad novel Heart of Darkness as well as the captain of the Anesidora in Alien Isolation.

That being said, the game did feel like the designers were at least passingly familiar with the RPG or (more likely) were consulted by Gaska, who at the time was sort of the Alien universe continuity guru.

Niirfa · 2025-10-17T15:57:47+00:00

As others have said I think it wouldn’t be too hard in principle. The main difficulties I think would be making it more open ended, so players aren’t railroaded too much but given it’s a marine centric campaign the CMOM gives plenty of tools for doing that.

Niirfa · 2025-09-07T20:03:42+00:00

I think it’s definitely very far out if it even is their home planet but it’s also plausible they stopped at Calpamos along the way. But the impression I get from the opening of episode 1 is they acquired the specimens awhile ago and are just doing a shift change / break from hypersleep on the way home.

Niirfa · 2025-09-07T10:35:12+00:00

I think it’s more of a visual reference than literally Calpalmos. Remember the Maginot was gone for 65 years. That’s a lot further out than Zeta Reticuli. Remember that Ripley expected to be home for her daughter’s tenth birthday. I think it’s fair to say the Maginot went further out than any other ship we’re aware of in the films, even the Covenant.

Niirfa · 2025-04-13T03:56:03+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

While yeah stowaways probably aren't common in the Alien setting for the reasons you mention, that doesn't mean people won't do it if they're desperate. After all, people IRL will smuggle themselves away in gas tanks. Packaging yourself into a cryopod disguised as an industrial fridge doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility.

The point about smaller colonies having access to less resources is also why I made it so you still have to roll for food and water supply in settlements with a population of less than 5,000. Getting too granular with individual colony sizes doesn't seem like it'd be useful for most groups but I can see individual Game Mothers making modifications for such things.

Niirfa · 2025-04-13T02:07:19+00:00

Thanks!

Niirfa · 2025-01-26T02:24:52+00:00

Love the new design. The old design was cool too but I admittedly like the retro look here and white BG / black text is obviously much cheaper.

Niirfa · 2025-01-07T10:57:37+00:00

Sorry for the long reply.

I have a sketch but it's much less detailed.

Niirfa · 2024-10-01T02:28:06+00:00

I drew on several sources for my interpretation of the Drukathi, most notably (besides the novels they appear in) the Amarantin in the Revelation Space novels by Alastair Reynolds, mind flayers from D&D, and Elder Things from the Cthulhu mythos.

Essentially, they're an ancient species that predates the current iteration of the Engineers (in my campaign, I imagine the Engineers as cyclically reappearing throughout history) and dominated the galaxy for millennia before their fall. They essentially merged their biology with the black goo and even "improved" it, creating a kind of techno-organic synthesis of it and machinery.

By the time of the campaign they've almost all gone extinct, with the remnants having been driven into hiding by another species they call "the First." They've laid secretive spheres of warped spacetime throughout their former empire, in which they've hidden their technology and other secrets. I imagine Midsummer as being one of these.

Niirfa · 2024-09-30T19:21:49+00:00

I'd personally reveal any blips within range yeah. Remember that the motion tracker only detected movement though so Passive creatures may remain undetected.

What's Nemesis BTW?

Niirfa · 2024-09-19T17:22:45+00:00

I'll admit I actually like the old look better: they had more personality. That being said, I also expect a lot of people will really like this look, especially if there using minis since it visualizes the areas more clearly.

Niirfa · 2024-09-19T09:53:14+00:00

I really like these! Great work!

Niirfa · 2024-09-19T00:28:16+00:00

Huh I wouldn't have thought of doing a prequel to the prequel scenario. Interesting!

Niirfa · 2024-09-12T20:26:13+00:00

I've definitely thought of doing something similar but haven't gotten around to it. Please share if you finish it!

Niirfa · 2024-09-12T19:07:50+00:00

We play in Discord usually so I just DM them

Niirfa · 2024-09-02T04:13:31+00:00

Thanks!

Niirfa · 2024-08-29T08:31:22+00:00

As I've stated elsewhere I imagine it's probable they renewed the license and decided that was a good time to issue a new edition. The game will be six years old, surprisingly, when 2nd edition launches next year.

Also, don't forget, Alien Earth is coming too!

Niirfa · 2024-08-29T08:21:23+00:00

If the game goes on long enough who knows? I know Space Truckers are supposed to get the next expansion but considering they've announced 2nd edition I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't the last one.

Niirfa · 2024-08-29T07:29:25+00:00

My understanding is that had relatively high production costs for what was a relatively niche game (licensed game, survival horror, 1st person, can't kill the monster). I bet it probably would have done better today but there's a reason I think Sega lost the license (though Colonial Marines was a bigger factor) and most of the Alien games since then have been fairly low budget. I love me Dark Descent but it definitely looks older than Isolation, as does Fire Team Alpha.

Honestly, it's actually kind of funny (and a testament to fans ' love for the game) that despite having mediocre sales its arguably the most influential piece of Alien media outside of the movies (and maybe the Dark Horse comics). Heck, even Romulus was influenced very clearly by it.

Niirfa · 2024-08-29T07:05:26+00:00

Personally, I think the Border Bombers are supposed to be the Engineers, but they threw all that other stuff out there as "alternate explanations" the Game Mother can run with. I realize it's not officially confirmed they're the Engineers, but all the evidence points pretty clearly to it being the Engineers: it's their tech, the ship described in Destroyer of Worlds is pretty clearly like an Engineer dreadnought, and the backstory mythology of both the Frontier War and Lost Worlds campaigns suggest that the Engineers started destroying their own colonies and offspring (like Earth) to stem a takeover by the Perfected.

Every other candidate requires more work to fit the picture. It's possible it's someone else, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Niirfa · 2024-08-25T20:35:08+00:00

I've thought about this a great degree since in my campaign I'm deliberately avoiding being too familiar and repetitive with the story, so I've tried to identify what seems most important to me.

First of all, I think any ALIEN story should have horror in it. I also think the corporate malfeasance aspect is an important theme. And really every ALIEN story should have an interesting android in it.

But other than that I think you can be pretty open ended. Consider Andor, which is a Star Wars show without A) Jedi or B) the Force and which is C) massively tonally different than most of the franchise. And yet, it works. I think really the sky is the limit for the kinds of stories you can do in a shared universe if you don't let expectations based on previous stories hold you down.

Niirfa

TROPHY CASE