CAREER
The first choice for your character in Campaign play is your career. Your career choice determines your background and your role in the group. It influences your attributes, your skills, your starting gear and what starting talent you can have. There are nine core careers to choose from.
Career descriptions can feel stereotypical, and they are meant to. Picking a career is a quick way for you—and the other players in the group—to get an immediate feel for your character. But remember that your character is more than just a career. Your career is merely a starting point toward creating a unique player character.
AVAILABLE CAREERS
ATTRIBUTES
Your character has four attributes that indicate your basic physical and mental capabilities, each rated on a scale from 1 to 5. Your attributes are used when you roll dice to perform actions in the game, and also to determine how much damage you can withstand before you become Broken.
STRENGTH: Raw muscle power and brawn.
AGILITY: Body control, speed, and motor skills.
WITS: Sensory perception, intelligence, and sanity.
EMPATHY: Personal charisma, empathy, and ability to manipulate others.
STARTING ATTRIBUTES
When you create your player character for Campaign play, you may distribute a total of 14 points across your attributes. You may assign no less than 2 and no more than 4 points to any attribute. However, you may assign 5 points to the attribute listed as the “key attribute” for your career.
ANDROIDS: Synthetic characters get a +3 bonus to two attributes of their choice after the 14 attribute points have been assigned, and can reach a maximum score of 8 in the key attribute and 7 in another. However, androids have other drawbacks. See the Playing an Android sidebar.
SKILLS
Your skills are the knowledge and abilities you have acquired during your life. They are important as they determine, along with your attributes, how effectively you can perform certain actions in the game. There are twelve skills in the game and they are all described in detail in Chapter 3. They are measured by skill level on a scale from 0 to 5. The higher the number, the better.
NO SKILL LEVEL? You can always roll for a skill even if you have no level in that skill. In that case, you only use the associated attribute for the skill in question plus any modifiers from relevant gear. Read more about how skills work in the next chapter.
STARTING SKILL LEVELS: When you create your player character for Campaign play, you distribute a total of 10 points amongst your skills. You can assign up to three points to each of the skills listed for your career. You can assign a single point each to any other skills you choose. You can increase your skill levels during the game.
SKILLS LIST
TALENTS
Talents are tricks, moves, and minor abilities that give you a small edge. They are more specialized than skills and make your character unique.
STARTING TALENT: When creating a character for Campaign play, you get one talent at the start of the game. Your career offers you three talents to choose from. You can learn more talents during the course of the game, at which point you will have many more talents to choose from.
TALENTS LIST
PLAYING AN ANDROID
Androids are an important part of the ALIEN roleplaying game, and you can play one as your player character. Androids are rare, however, and we recommend that you talk it through with the rest of the group before creating an android PC for a Campaign game. Most androids look human. They can have any career and may be open about their nature or secretly pose as human. Rules-wise, androids work a little differently from humans:
Androids get a +3 bonus to two attributes of their choice after the 14 attribute points have been assigned.
Androids can’t push skill rolls.
Androids don’t suffer stress and thus don’t have a STRESS LEVEL. For this reason, they don’t need a signature item.
Androids never make Panic Rolls.
Androids suffer damage differently.
STRESS
Life in space is lethal. More often than you’d like, you’ll find yourself under extreme pressure. In the game, this mounting tension is represented by your STRESS LEVEL. It usually starts at zero, and can increase by pushing dice rolls and by experiencing frightening or stressful situations..
HEALTH
Even if you keep your nerves in check, chances are that sooner or later you’re going to get hurt. This is tracked using your Health score. You start the game with a number of Health points equal to your STRENGTH score. Talents can modify your maximum Health score.
SUFFERING DAMAGE: When you suffer damage, your Health score is reduced. If your Health drops to zero, you are Broken and suffer a critical injury. ■
PERSONAL STUFF
NAME
In Campaign play, you’ll need to give your character a name. Each career has a list of three male and three female names that are typical for that archetype. Choose one of these names, or make up your own if you prefer. Cinematic scenarios will include the names of the pre-generated characters.
APPEARANCE
Describe your player character’s appearance in a few words. Your career gives you a few suggestions, but you are free to choose any appearance that you think fits your character.
BUDDIES AND RIVALS
The ALIEN roleplaying game is about a small group of people facing unknown and horrifying dangers in the cold darkness of space. To survive, you need to find someone to trust, but also be careful who you turn your back to.
In game terms, your PC can have one Buddy and one Rival amongst the other PCs. You can only have one of each. Your relationships are important for the GM, as she can use them to create interesting situations in the game.
In Campaign play, you can choose one PC to be your Buddy and another to be your Rival. In Cinematic scenarios, the choice is made for you.
PERSONAL AGENDA
You might be a team, but each individual PC in your group also has an angle of their own—a Personal Agenda. How personal agendas work differs between Cinematic and Campaign play.
CINEMATIC AGENDAS: In Cinematic play, the PCs’ Agendas are predetermined by the scenario. At the beginning of each of the three Acts of the scenario, the GM gives each PC a handout with a new Agenda for the Act. The Agendas are hidden, you should not show them to other players or write them down on your character sheet.
At the end of each Act, the GM evaluates the actions of each PC. If you took any specific actions to further your Agenda during the Act, you are awarded one Story Point. Acts, Agendas, and Story Points are further explained in detail in the Game Mother Section of this book.
CAMPAIGN AGENDAS: In Campaign play, you can pick one of the suggested Personal Agendas listed with your career, or you can come up with an agenda of your own. At the end of each game session, discuss the agendas of all PCs together. If you have taken some concrete action to further your agenda during the session, despite risk or cost, you gain a bonus Experience Point.
To survive the world of ALIEN, you need the right gear. An M314 Motion Tracker, an Mk.50 Compression Suit, or an M41A Pulse Rifle can truly mean the difference between life and death for your character. You can find these items and lots of other gear described in detail in Chapter 6. You must write down all the items you are carrying on your character sheet. Write down one item per row in the Gear section on the sheet. If it’s not listed on your sheet, you don’t have it with you.
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