Alien: Fate of the Nostromo Board Game Announced

After someone at BGG pointed it out, one thing that really worries me about this game is that there is no character elimination.

How can you have an Alien game where characters can't be killed and instead suffer damage to a group morale?

That just seems completely wrong.

charlest wrote: After someone at BGG pointed it out, one thing that really worries me about this game is that there is no character elimination.

How can you have an Alien game where characters can't be killed and instead suffer damage to a group morale?

That just seems completely wrong.

What worried me was the guy who said he didn't want player elimination in an Alien game.

A board game with a horror theme should almost always have player elimination. Or at least character elimination.

The part that jumped out at me in the description was the emphasis on gathering scrap. It sounds like a crucial mechanic to the game, but is definitely not an element from the movies. This makes me suspect that this game was designed euro-style, mechanics first with theme applied as somewhat of an afterthought.

I can see the thematic element to it. Parker had to jerry-rig the "flame units" together so they could hunt the creature, so presumably they're approaching it from that angle, as the players cobble together whatever they can to fight this thing in their midst. But, yeah, I'm not really feeling the "live as a team, die as a team" thing... which is part of my normal aversion to co-ops in the first place.

Shellhead wrote: The part that jumped out at me in the description was the emphasis on gathering scrap. It sounds like a crucial mechanic to the game, but is definitely not an element from the movies. This makes me suspect that this game was designed euro-style, mechanics first with theme applied as somewhat of an afterthought.

It's a major part of Isolation.

While it may come at a more affordable price point, I'll just keep playing NEMESIS if I want my ALIEN fix.

Yeah, I can't imagine this coming close to providing the satisfaction of Lifeform or Nemesis.

The scrap thing makes sense. They were jury-rigging equipment, they were scrambling for stuff to outfit the escape pod, they were chasing after Jones.

A lot of the movie was separating them and putting them in places they could be stalked and eliminated.

The player elimination is disappointing, there is real tension in getting killed and losing people. I guess morale isn’t the worst thing, but it isn’t great either.

As I said in the Gargoyles thread, there are plenty of games that riff on ALIENS. Ones that go for ALIEN are pretty rare. That difference matters to me, as does the license. I hope this is good.

Nemesis is great, but it's still ALIENS. Lifeform is my ALIEN game. Both have more rulebook checking than what I want to deal with.

My ideal scenario is that the license is given to the CAMP GRIZZLY folks and ALIEN is basically that game but rethemed. Vastly powerful foe, PCs are isolated and can die, culminates in a powerful showdown. ALIEN is a slasher movie in space, go with the best slasher game.

I mentioned in the other thread, this design does sound roughly like Camp Grizzly - move about the board gathering supplies while the Alien pursues. It sounds like the Alien is on the board and moved towards the nearest crew member, but can kind of teleport and immediately appear under certain circumstances.

Of course, Camp Grizzly is elevated quite a bit by the deck and all of the compelling events, counselors, and equipment. As well as those excellent finale cards. I'm not seeing anything which may similarly boost this design but the details are not all present.

I'll admit that the word "scrap" in the ad copy was jarring. I think "parts" would make more sense here without a single change to how the game plays.

And for the record, Sucking Vacuum is my space-panic game of choice. My will specifies that it goes to the child that cries the most at my funeral.