Alien: Colonial Marines goes to the darkest places in the Alien universe 🤠RPG Let’s Read 

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 I’d 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!

I love that the Stinger vehicle is taken directly from the Kenner toy line - a fun nod to older Aliens media.

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:

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.

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.

Woah! I remember the berserker suit from the Dark Horse comics in the 90’s!!

"That arcturian wasnt a woman" "Dont matter, its arcturian."- Ad Libbed from the Marine banter pre-deployment to Hadleys Hope in Aliens

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.

That Evac jet looks alot like the toy they used to make for the Alien line, had a container you caught the queen in.

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. 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 it´s only good for oneshots that are about getting killed by the Xenomorph. I was wrong

Thank you for reviewing and no spoilers 👍🏾

Thank you for the high quality review.

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.

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.

Thanks for the review.

I hope it goes into detail about Arcturian poontang...😇

Love the content.

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.

Support the channel by joining my Patreon! www.patreon.com/thaumavore Newsletter sign-up: bit.ly/ThaumavoreNewsletter

Awesome!

Not sure if you’ve done Mothership yet but that seems like a good sci-fi rpg.

Late to the party, but accounting of a plays assets could be used as accountability ie Ripley’s hearing in Aliens.

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.

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?

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".

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.

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

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...

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?

Please review Plüsch, 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?

Thanks RU-vid, for linking the terrible video game haha.

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)