This is a very cool starter set. You get plenty of dice, cards, counters, some beautiful maps and deck plans, and a starter rulebook and adventure. You do not get the full Xenomorph as the adventure's monster, but once you consider the broader Alien-Prometheus sort of background the Xenomorphs should only be a small part of the equation here and all sorts of monsters should be able to mutate and morph from this alien DNA and the monster they do give makes sense.
"Alien DNA mutates humans and/or creates new creatures" - that is my game's tag line. This generic "alien DNA" doesn't even have to be "Xeno/Prometheus DNA" either - there could be many strains from different sources, and it honestly just a reason to infect anything and create a creepy bio-monster out of it.
You should feel free to create any monster given this background, from huge crawling brains with tentacles, a spider eyeball, anything from The Thing movies (a huge influence on my ideas as well), a snake with a human head, a mutant hellhound with tentacles, intelligent vines with human blood, monster crabs, icky triped grabbers, giant boring beetles, monster worms, or anything that creeps you out. I like "expanding the monster list" for this to the "DIY monsters" that the games like Lamentation of the Flame Princess or Dungeon Crawl Classics use.
You make your own monsters. They are unique and not like any other. They are not in a tired old bestiary. You do not know what they can do or their powers, attacks, defenses, or weaknesses. Every time you have an adventure, this is both the first time anyone encounters the beast and the last time anyone will.
If a monster is in a bestiary, it is not a monster anymore.
These have to come from your imagination, fears, and inside your mind.
This is very much an "Expanded Universe" view of the Alien universe, and I feel one that suites a role-playing horror game a lot better than just having week after week of Xenomorphs. I am not even as tied to the time or the technology, if I wanted to run a few one-shots in different times with different technology levels that would be cool as well. The system is pretty rules-light and you could create pretty easy stats for new gear and weapons quickly (or reskin the existing items).
This is one I am really excited about, and more soon!
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