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I'm hoping to play a variant of Aliens where the players all control portions of a Marine squad that's dropped down to an alien-infested colony or space station. This team would be just some random squad of Marines with custom characters the players name and equip.
Each player would get to make one "Hero" who has three actions and then the rest of their allotted Marines would have the standard two actions. The squad would have one SGT, up to two heavy weapons, a medic, etc.
Each Marine could be assigned two gear from: Pulse Rifle, Flame Thrower, Pistol, Shotgun (-1 to all Acid Splash rolls from killed Aliens), Motion Tracker, Sentry Gun, etc.
The campaign would be a set series of missions, where each surviving Marine carries over to the next mission (but retains their Wounded/Incapacitated status). Before the next scenario a Medic can make one Wounded Marine normal status or one Incapacitated Marine wounded. Also, an Experience track could be fairly easily employed (X exp for surviving scenario, +1 exp for every Alien killed or Stunned). What exactly xp could be spent on is something to work out.
As old and as popular as this game is, I'm sure someone has made something like this already, but I haven't found anything. If there's nothing out there, I'll work on something and share whatever I come up with.
Thanks!
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Bryce K. Nielsen
United States
Elk Ridge
Utah
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As for a random map, I've been considering retheming Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game to an Aliens theme, thinking that sort of random exploration would do well in an Aliens world. Take a look at their tiles, that might work for a game like this?
-shnar
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A. Power
United States
Silver Spring
Maryland
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Sounds like you just made the variant. Seriously, a great idea, now just start tweaking it. You've got a basic premise, now for the hurdle of XP, leveling up, and what that entitles your marines to.
I think the harder part would be to come up with the missions, as that would probably require additional maps. Plus, the existing game board for Aliens pretty much handles the game system, so the new missions would need a map that could handle enemy placement.
As for XP, you'd have to make the leveling threshold high. You can really rack up some kills, especially with grenades. As a reward, I'd probably go with some "Perks".
Sprinter - allows the Marine to run an additional 2 spaces once per scenario
Tough Hombre - once per turn Marine treats wounded/incapac.as "In Combat"
Medic! - Heals one wounded Marine during mission
Frag-en-stein - limits grenade blast to 7 spaces instead of 8
Nerves of Steel - No +5 penalty firing at alien in same square as marine
Dead Eye - no 5th range column (7+ becomes 5-6 range)
Just some thoughts.
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Mark Nutter
United Kingdom
Leeds
West Yorkshire
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You could use my star freighter maps here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/67811/star-freighter
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Wow, those are some gorgeous hex tiles, I'm sure I'll find lots of uses for them in the future, thanks.
As far as maps go, though, I think for this Aliens campaign they'd need to be wide enough to allow for more movement than single-file (which is a big problem with the otherwise gorgeous Space Hulk tiles as well). Single-file tiles work just wonderfully for lots of games, but with this one where covering one another is so important and characters move so slowly, single-file would be far too restrictive I think.
One of the biggest hurdles for this type of play is that the characters weapon stats appear on the character card and to hit varies by type of weapon, wounded/healthy status, and the character. After some light brainstorming, I think the solution will be to have "weapon cards" that have both Normal and Wounded stats and Combat and Non-Combat stats. So, for instance, a "Pulse Rifle" equipment card could be attached to a character. If the character is Combat then they would use one face of the card and if there were Non-Combat (eg a Medic, Pilot, Lt., etc) they would use the backside of the card. At the top of the card would be 'normal stats' and the 'wounded stats' for the weapon would be printed upside down near the bottom so the card could be rotated 180 degrees when the character is wounded.
This way, characters can easily swap or exchange gear while still preserving the to hit system. Additionally, it will be easy to demonstrate what weapon a character is currently holding by looking at which weapon card is on top of their stack of gear. If a character wants to switch to another weapon, it will cost one action.
I'll add some more tweaks and will post something up once I've gotten it ready.
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Just an update:
I've worked out the majority of the rules. The premise is that players control a standard Marine Team and support staff aboard a Conestoga-Class rapid response transport. Combined, the players control a Pilot, a Synthetic, and a combat squad composed of 1x Sgt, 1x Cpl, and 7x Pvt. Upon creation, players split up these characters and then customize their gear and starting skills based on several parameters and restrictions.
Each short campaign represents a "combat drop," wherein the transport arrives at a system for one of a variety of randomly determined missions. Each combat drop has anywhere from 2-6 mission scenarios that may need to played out using either the Aliens map or custom modular map tiles. Wounded and Incapacitated characters can be treated by medics or med-packs between scenarios, but otherwise injuries are retained until the entire combat drop is resolved and the team returns to the ship. No new Marines are acquired until after the entire combat drop is completed, at which point new privates refill the ranks of the Marine squad. In this sense, early losses are felt really heavily by the end and there's a very strong incentive to take risks to save or recover incapacitated Marines. Ammo and weapon failure becomes an issue about halfway through a drop's scenarios.
Additionally, during each drop there will be a random condition (No Power / Lights, Heavy Moisture, Young Hive, Electrical Interference, etc.) that has a variety of effects. In addition, during each drop a Secondary Objective will be revealed, which the player controlling the team's leader (Sgt.) can opt to pursue or ignore. If pursued and completed, all surviving Marines who participated gain a Combat Medal (with varying bonuses).
So, for instance here's a rough outline of one Combat Drop: Rescue Fortified Civilians. A small outpost has been overrun by a xenomorph infestation and a distress call has revealed that the survivors have fortified themselves in a portion of the facility. They even have access to a light shuttle and hangar, but the hangar doors have been sealed via automatic security override and no one is qualified to get them open. Not that it matters, as none of the survivors left can fly the thing. The team's mission is to land outside the colony and quickly move their way through the complex until they reach the survivor's fortified position. Once there, the team's computer specialists can bypass the security lock-out on the hangar door and the team's Synthetic or Pilot (if they came along with the team) can pilot the shuttle and up to 12 other passengers safely to the Conestoga-class ship in orbit. However, there's 2D10 survivors left when you arrive, so there probably won't be room for all the civvies and Marines. Those left behind can either try to hold out for a set number of turns in the fortified position, waiting for the return of the shuttle or they can travel back the way they came to get to the landing pad where the much larger Marine dropship awaits. If no Synthetic or Pilot arrives with the Marines at the fortified location, then all the civvies have to be escorted out the hard way...
Scenarios in this Drop:
1) Garage Entry - the team most move into and through the facilities garage, entering the main access corridors on the other side (uses Aliens map)
2) Down the Corridors - the team most move quickly down the corridors to arrive at the civvies' fortified spot (uses a modular corridor system)
3) Left Behind* - any Marines and survivors not in the first shuttle must now choose to either make a run back to the drop ship waiting outside the Colony or must try to hold up in the recently cut-open fortified position for a set number of turns:
3a) Backtrack - the remainders must move through the corridor and garage map and exit the map
3b) Hold Out - the remainders must wait in the fortified area for 30 Turns. Of course, staying still will allow the alien scouts to return to the Hive and bring with them the full force of the drones upon your position (increased Alien spawns).
* Secondary Objective: There's a few more - It's revealed to the team that a few more civilians are holed up and presumably still alive further into the heart of the station which is accessible through the air ducts. The Leader may decide to commit any number of Marines to this risky side quest, but if any of them survive and successfully extract at least one of these civilians, the participants gain a Medal of Valor).
Each drop would have a set, simple series of missions like this that, taken together, form a mini-campaign. Characters would retain XP and skills / stat increases between drops, and dead characters could be replaced with new recruits at that time as well.
There's about 20 skills available to the Marines and new gear includes: Miniguns, Sentry Guns, Motion Scanners, Med Kits, Extra Ammo, and Grenade Bandoliers. Deciding how to outfit your starting squad will depend on your anticipated missions and other considerations. Bringing the full compliment of two medics is always nice, but medics use non-combat stats when firing weapons are are much less effective than combat-focused marines on the battlefield. Similarly, Computer experts who can bypass locked doors, establish power, and deploy sentry guns will save you time and open up new options, but again at the cost of some firepower.
Once I've compiled everything into a PDF and it's posted under the files, I'll post more here about it. If anyone else has any ideas for scenarios, additional gear, skills, etc., please feel free to share them! Any initial constructive feedback would also be appreciated.
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A. Power
United States
Silver Spring
Maryland
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Looking forward to that PDF!
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Mark Nutter
United Kingdom
Leeds
West Yorkshire
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Looks good. Will see if I can make some modular rooms for this...
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Just a quick update on this: it's coming along nicely but slowly. I've made all the gear cards for the weaponry and equipment options, the condition cards, and the marine character card templates. I'm about halfway through writing up the rules PDF and will probably be able to finish it in a week or two. I'd like to get some feedback on it before I polish it up and submit the file to the Geek, so if anyone would be interested in getting a draft copy emailed to them in a week or two, let me know as I'd love any feedback.
The first files submission will include the rules, the cards to print off (character templates, gear, and conditions) but only one campaign (Rescue Mission). Later on, I'll add more campaigns (and hopefully so will other creative minds from the BGG). Ideally, it will be at a point where you'll randomly determine what the campaign will be each time (eg Rescue Mission, Kill the Queen, Collect Samples, Stop Meltdown, etc.).
Mark: That's great, I'm sure we'll find a use for anything you create! Well, at least as long as it's got a 1x1 square grid on it.
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this sounds awesome! I'd be interested in checking it out
I'll send a PM
I still have this game and the expansion from years ago!
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kent Anderson
United States
South Dakota
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Rogue thirteen,
Did you ever complete the Alien Rules?
If you don't mind sharing, I would love them.
The movie was on last night. Got to thinking about the board game.
Thanks.
Hunterlope
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