A new expansion for Free League’s Alien RPG is on the way. Heart of Darkness is a complete stand-alone adventure, written by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska, that continues the plot threads established in the expansions Chariot of the Gods and Destroyer of Worlds.
The Alien Roleplaying Game has grown into one of Free League’s most popular products since its introduction in 2019. It’s successful enough that it’s about to expand beyond its tabletop origins. Free League announced today a partnership with Titan Books, who holds the license to make Alien novels, for a crossover storyline that will affect both the novels and the game.
Is Ridley Scott still working on that third Alien prequel? We don’t know, as there hasn’t been any news on it in quite a while, but you’ll be getting another movie one way or another. Something completely unrelated was just greenlit for production…but not for theaters.
It’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything about a TV series set in the Alien universe, but director Ridley Scott says it’s still happening. He sat down for an interview with The Independent that was published yesterday. The reporter asked him how the upcoming series would measure up to the iconic 1979 original, and Scott was surprisingly candid:
Creating a movie that’s an all-time classic and forever influences the genre it belongs to is quite a feat, and usually means a few mediocre sequels. Creating a sequel that not only lives up to the original but stands as a classic in its own right is an even bigger achievement, and in capitalist terms, pretty much means you just founded an unkillable franchise. No Alien movie created since 1992 has managed to come near the first two, but as long as we have Alien and Aliens, there will always be new attempts, forever and ever.
Despite the odds against them, Free League managed to get many games out there in 2020, and found success with some. The Alien RPG (based on the 20th Century Fox series) was released precisely a year ago and grew to become one of the most successful tabletop products of 2020. An expansion set, Destroyer Of Worlds, was released along with a Starter Set in the spring. A virtual tabletop version of the Starter Set was added to the VTT platforms Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds in October, and a second expansion was announced earlier this month.
In the summer of 1991, Fox put out a rather misleading teaser announcing Alien 3. The narration suggested the third movie would be about the creatures reaching Earth…a logical progression of the story, but not what they went with. Instead, the draft described in the teaser was thrown out and a depressing yarn about Ripley being marooned in space prison was substituted instead.
Free League’s Alien RPG is one of their most successful products, reaching the top five list of highest-selling tabletop games of 2019 — and it wasn’t even available for every month that year. It’s won lots of awards including the ENNIE Award for Best Game 2020 and the People’s Choice Award for Best RPG at the UK Game Expo, and it’s received several additional campaigns to increase its longevity. This week, Free League announced another.
Alien: The Roleplaying Game, based on the iconic movie franchise, was published by Free League last December. It’s since gone on to become one of the most successful tabletop products of 2020 — no easy feat when you consider the circumstances. Imagine how popular it could get if you could play it remotely. Looks like we don’t have to imagine anymore…
Dark Horse Comics has been publishing material related to the Alien and Predator movies for nearly its entire existence. They took a chance on an Aliens book in 1988 and it took off, paving the way for countless expanded universe stories, and acquired Predator in 1989. It was Dark Horse that came up with the idea of merging the two properties, something the movie studio later adapted for itself.
Free League Publishing released Alien: The Roleplaying Game last December and it quickly took off to become one of their biggest hits. Critics loved it, tabletop enthusiasts ate it up, and it sold well enough to register in the top 5 best-selling tabletop RPGs of the fall….so that means one thing: expansion time!
Free League Publishing’s Alien Roleplaying Game has been one of their larger successes, as any tabletop RPG using the brand would be. It’s a hit in America, and now everyone else wants their own version. So, in partnership with localized partners from regions all over the world, Free League will be issuing out Alien: The Roleplaying Game internationally!