Table-Tested Review of Evolved Alien RPG’s “Hope’s Last Day: Starter Set”
With the new and shiny “Evolved Edition” of the Alien RPG, Free League also released a “new” starter set. The story was previously printed in the first edition core book and was moved to a separate publication. I’ve run both versions of the adventure twice (and once using the Mothership ruleset) and I’m here to report on my experiences!
If you're interested in a comparison between the old and the new edition in general, see my review here:
Review of the Changes in the Alien RPG's Evolved Edition
Some quick facts about the game first.
- Game Designers: Dave Semark, Matthew Tyler-Jones, Tomas Härenstam
- Publication Year: 2025 (first released in 2019)
- Page Count: 20 (adventure), 24 (rules)
Running the Adventure
There are five premade characters, but it really shines with three to four players. The issue with five players is not spotlight, but that PCs will die and you'll be left with no more premades to hand out. I ended up making Komiskey a PC on the spot, but that wasn't without its hassles. In my three-person game they went through all five premades over the course of the session.
The pacing of the game often varies per playthrough and play time usually lies somewhere between two and four hours. Some player decisions drastically shorten the adventure and the PCs’ secret agendas each push them in certain directions that encourage exploring the base and driving the story forward.
It's balanced fairly well, while still remaining tough to survive. In the two sessions I ran, they always barely made it to the shuttle with only one surviving PC, which feels optimal, even if the PCs err on the more powerful side occasionally.
Running it is at times stressful with many things going on at once and I often found myself flipping through pages frantically. Most of the information is easily available though, so I usually was able to actually find what I was looking for. Only the events were sometimes easy to forget - but that often is also a sign that the table is already otherwise engaged with the story anyways.
I was missing some guidance when to attack as the alien and relied on my experience as GM when to raise tension and when to hold back on showing it too early. Mechanically, I could have brought it up a lot earlier than would have served the story. As a result, the one thing I ran “off-script” was to disregard the suggestion to start stealth mode from the very beginning and instead tracked the aliens without players being aware of stealth mechanics until they were needed (when they saw the first alien). I think it could have worked either way, but I'm personally not a fan of resolving something with mechanics that can easily be done without.
What’s in the Box?
The box comes with a lot of stuff, which was a huge quality of life improvement over running it straight from the book in the last edition, which made you do a lot of legwork yourself. Now you can jump right into the action after reading the booklets. You will find:
- A rules booklet and an adventure booklet
- So many nice maps!
- A 55.5 x 86 cm double-sided map with the star map (also found in the core book) and the main chunk of (explorable) Hadley’s Hope Station (major props to the designer)
- A 43 x 56 cm double-sided map with two more locations from the adventure
- A 28 x 43 cm double-sided GM map to track Xenomorph movement
- A 21.5 x 28 cm one-sided map of the whole colony
- 20 six-sided dice (10 normal, 10 stress)
- A Xenomorph 3D miniature (unpainted grey, ~4 cm base to head)
- Some 2D tokens for ping markers, more Xenos and the (N)PCs - which are all a bit samey sadly
- One consumable tracker, which didn’t feel particularly useful since you usually track more than one consumable
- A pack of (playing-card-sized) cards including the secret agendas for each premade, gun reference cards, initiative cards and stress/panic response and condition rules reference cards. The tuck box is somewhat hard to open and thus easily damaged while opening it (might be fixed in future print runs?).
- 5 premade character sheets
- 5 rules reference sheets
The one bigger criticism I have, is one I have high hopes will be fixed in the future: there is an error in the panic table in the rules reference sheets. It’s different to what’s printed in the rules booklet and the core book, so the error lies with the reference cards. Considering that Free League does multiple print runs of their games, this will most likely be fixed in the future.
Comparison to 1e
As is the case for the Evolved Edition in general, the core is still the same, but a lot of the details have changed in the adventure.
The map has been completely reworked and the adventure now solely happens in one of the building blocks - all other areas are blocked off and beyond the scope of the adventure to streamline play. The new map is infinitely more readable and is designed well. There are few enough ways to go for players to feel trapped (or forced to take the vents!) but still enough ways for meaningful decisions to happen.
Room descriptions are less detailed now. It didn’t feel too sparse when running it, but some nice tidbits have been lost.
The structure is done really well in the new edition, although I still found myself flipping through the pages a lot while running it.
Instead of a single personal agenda each PC now has a secret agenda in each of the three acts. This means they will be able to use their Story points within the same session, which is great news for one-shots.
Thoughts about Evolved Edition
Overall, the new rules are pleasant to run with. By separating stress and panic there are no unexpected panic spirals and the GM can regulate better when panic is triggered at all.
The ammo rules feel fun, because they occur before shooting and can be a dramatic moment of your gun possibly being empty in a crucial moment. It actually didn’t occur in my game, but there were many moments where we rolled with much anticipation if this was going to be an empty mag.
Fights feel surprisingly balanced, to the point where I think it could even be a tad bit deadlier. The way the adventure is set up, chances are high the android will be duking it out with the alien while the others escape, and that android just will. not. die. Humans still very much do, so all is well. Will they manage to kill an Alien along the way? Chances are good if they find a decent gun, or even just another pistol or two.
The rules are simpler, but still not simple. The mechanics are smoother than in 1e, but still not enough to allow a truly narrative experience - combat rounds and mechanics can be felt and aren't as punchy as some more narrative systems (knowing the previous system, this was to be expected, though). As the GM you'll need to know the rules and tell your players how to apply them correctly (for example how androids and combat work). Overall the game performs well at what it tries to do.
Running “Hope’s Last Day” in Mothership
Converting the adventure was easy, as Mothership is pretty close to Alien in genre. I recreated the premade characters, but also gave them the choice to make their own character. Having their characters less tied to premade agendas made the game only a little less directed, but it also made it more personalized to the player’s preferences. It also meant I had a considerably easier time when more than five PCs were needed.
Mothership also has extremely simplified rules for contractors. Tagalong NPCs in Alien were often forgotten about, but contractors made bringing some NPCs as character backup a lot more immersive, as they were already player-controlled and often-used, even before being promoted to a PC.
I only let them have pistols from the start as it made more sense in-lore, but it also made the game a lot tougher (and getting to the armoury a lot more important). My Xeno stats are linked below and you might want to tone the difficulty down, if you want a similar experience to the Alien RPG, because Mothership is one tough game.
Other than that, I only added the motion tracker as an item to one of the characters (if nobody picked MacWhirr) and let them use it once per in-game 10 minutes.
Running the adventure in Mothership went well, but I wouldn’t prefer one version over the other. Mothership had smoother fights and gameplay, as the rules are less fine-granular and more narrative than they are in the Alien RPG. In Alien the overall play experience was a bit smoother and more balanced, though, without feeling too easy either. I would recommend running it in Mothership for those who enjoy the narrative but unforgiving playstyle of it, and to stay with Alien for those looking for a more cinematic experience.
You can find the premades and alien stats I made here.
Conclusion
The new starter set is a worthy upgrade to what has been there before. After reading through the adventure booklet (and rules, if necessary) it’s easy to run straight from the box, which hasn't really been the case before. It’s a truly cinematic experience and a great intro or peek into the system, especially for fans of the Alien franchise.
