Alien RPG - Deadly Consequences, Stress and Tension... Can You Survive?

Today we are exploring the Alien RPG! 

I invite on special guests Matt and Nathan from the AARPG show to explore Alien and the intense mechanics of the Alien RPG with us! 

We break down Alien the the stress, mechanic, and consequence-driven mechanics that makes it one of the best and coolest sci-fi horror games! Matt and Nathan share their experience of playing Alien over 4 different times, their love for the gritty mechanics, the quick deaths that have occurred in their games, and what happens when someone doesn't show up for a session... 

Along with all these amazing stories we also get to explore the ease of picking this system up, the beauty of their amazing prewritten scenarios and break down the mechanics that makes Alien stand out in the TTRPG world! 

Alien Starter Set:
https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=4921547882633

Alien Core Rulebook: 
https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=3687283228720

Find The AARPGs here: https://linktr.ee/theaarpgs

Transcript

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Today, we are gonna be talking about the Alien RPG. Now if you're a huge fan of the aliens movies and the overall aliens franchise and you want to explore that world further within a tabletop game and you want to experience the dread and the stress and the panic of these movies within a game that you can play out within your own story, you are going to really love the alien RPG. I bring on Matt and Nathan from the AARPG show to talk all about Alien with me. As they've played Alien, I believe it was 4 times in total, and they keep going back and playing this game because of how good it is. One of the things that actually got this game on my radar from you was hearing about the stress and panic mechanics within Alien and how fitting it is for the sci fi horror setting that it has. So if that sounds amazing, let's get into this episode and hear all about alien RPG. Welcome everyone to the RPG Goblin. I am your host, Willow, and this is a TTRPG podcast dedicated to exploring, TTRPGs because they're really awesome, and I am your host. And I like these games way too much, and so this is why I started the podcast, intro all over the place, but it's fine. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about alien RPG, which I am really, really excited about, especially because I am a huge lover of free league games, and this is one of the coolest free league games in my opinion. And to talk about alien RPG on this episode, I have both Nathan and Matt from AARPG on to, you know, discuss and talk all about it, and if you guys would like to introduce yourselves and tell everyone what you do, where they can find you, and all of that good stuff, please go ahead. A Matt, you wanna start with, you and then I'll talk a lot. Sure. Sure. Hi. How's it going? My name is, Matt, and I am the a cohost of, AARPG, and, I've, had an opportunity so far to play in about a 4 Alien games, I think, since we started, gaming as a group. Not all of them have been, recorded for the podcast, but, a Yeah. It's definitely one of our favorite systems. Alright, Nathan? Yeah. I'm Nathan. I'm the other, cohost for the, For the AARPGs, if I if I remember the name of our own podcast. So yeah. So, we started this podcast a We started recording, our our right around 3 years ago. We didn't start publishing episodes until, April 1st, April fools day, that was on purpose. It it suits the tone of our show. If you haven't listened, you know, that's that's your warning. So and it's relevant to Alien because we had, when we're thinking about doing this podcast, Matt came up with the idea, and I have, you know, so, an audio background background from, a 1000000000 years ago. A So we started recording, you know, the first few sessions were basically throwaway. We just made a we're recording online and making a lot of mistakes. But then we had something that that, that were starting to sound okay, then they got a lot better. So our our a Our initial plan was to start with Twilight 2000 that was gonna launch. But then we we had, like, a bunch of alien episodes just sitting there a And they're really funny, and really exciting. And, you know, we had just a a great time, playing the game and recording. I was like, you know, a It would be a shame if if nobody got to hear this, because it's it's great. The the audio quality sucked for the 1st 3 episodes. A I mean, it was bad, but but but people even, you know, almost 3 years later, people are still Listening to it and and commenting about it and and whatnot. So that's kinda where we've December, we we had a little bit of, we had a lot of chemistry, that could translate in into a podcast. So, so, yeah, we got our our we cut our teeth with free leak stuff. That's great. And, you know, that's awesome because really great. And, yeah, where can people find you? Yeah. I was you know, I I almost forgot that forgot that bit. A Yeah. So, the aarpgs.com, the aarpgs on YouTube, on Twitter, the AA RPGs on threads and and, I'm under my own name, something something blue sky. You you can find me. But but all the the your favorite podcatchers too, Apple, Spotify, whatever. But Yeah. Perfect. A And we have merch. So, not that you wanna buy it, but, you know, if you you feel like it, it's cool. And links for all of that will be in the description of this episode too to make it all easy and stuff and just before we start actually getting a bit more into the alien RPG stuff, for everyone who doesn't know, what does AARPG stand for? Oh, there's a deep twister. Yeah. The advanced age Age role playing gamers. So it's a play on AARP. If you're, not from the the US, it's, AARP is a organization for, a People that are close to retirement age to help them, you provide services and and anything like that. So I I figured out, a You know, early this year, like, the we have, like, a bunch of German and Swedish and Danish and and listeners from around the world, and and a They have no idea what that joke is. They'll so the whole joke is that we we we borrowed the the our our name from from a old folks a Association. I think that's honestly really great. I I love the idea for it so much. We we take ourselves super seriously here. Oh, of course. Yeah. Of course. The most serious. And no. I think that's great, though. I a I am all on board for not taking yourself seriously in your own content. I think it's great. You know, just have a fun time with it. No. I I love that so much. And I think Alien, though, is, like, a great one to have you guys on for, especially since that's kinda where you had your roots and you've, actually, have either of you act, run Alien? I I've run it, 333 out of the 4 times we played. Yeah. A Okay. Cool. Yeah. Because I was watching a bit of the I think the most recent one, and I was seeing that Yeah. I can't remember that one. Yeah. Yeah. Tyr was running that one, and so I'm like, okay. I need I I should probably confirm that one of you as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it was hard to let him, a take that over because I've, felt it was kinda like my thing, but, but he's he did a great job with it. He's, he he's a good GM. So alien mommy. This is my yeah. Game mommy. He's like, this is my game. This this is this is the one that's close to my heart. And so I think that's really cool, though, that you guys have played it so often and so was the 1st time that you did play it on, like, for the podcast or did you play it before that? No. We we played it a In the regular gaming group. Right? So there was Yeah. There was a Tuesday the podcast kind of generated out of a, Tuesday night game. That it got started a little bit before the pandemic. Right? And, I kinda joined a little bit later. So right around the time of the pandemic. And No. No. Did we play we played Aliens after the D and D one. A Right. The the against the giants? Right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So so I was I was running because, I mean, a lot of us, you know, during a When the pandemic started, a lot of us were, you know, forced to work from home. And, Us, you know, having professional jobs is is hard to have, like, a regular game Mhmm. Because we're just, a Like, always working. So we carved out a a Tuesday night or 2 hours where we could actually get together And connect and and play and laugh and and drink and everything else. So early, that was like that kept my sanity, when when things were, like, really, really bad. So Oh, yeah. I I ran, some D and D 5e, like, module stuff, and And and we were just having fun with it. And, and then I I had, picked up, Alien, because Free League, at the beginning of the pandemic, had actually given out, free PDF copies of Forbidden Lands and some other stuff. And I started going through that, and it's like, wow. This is awesome. So when they did alien, I was like, okay. I've gotta a Gotta grab that. Yeah. I'd have to have that one. Yeah. I'd have to have that one. And so, I I said, hey. Do you guys wanna try this? And everybody was a on board because, you know, I was the one running. Like, you know, whatever you wanna run, we're cool with it. So I I ran the, was it, Hadley's Hope, just out of the back of the out of the book. Mhmm. And, a That was that was great. It was fun. We kinda got into the whole, panic and stress a spiral, which which I think is just such a great, fun, mechanic, and everybody kinda played into it, which which is good. So yeah. So, that's so when we finish that, and we and a During that is when we were talking about starting the podcast, and we said, okay, well, let's let's see what we can get done. And, yeah. And so we just tried recording remotely and and through some trial error, eventually figured it out. But, yeah, this so it started with Hadley's Hope, and then, we went into, destroyer of worlds, which is another published, adventure. That's great. I I will definitely ask some more questions on the published adventures because I think that's always especially for people, like, dipping their toes into other TTRPGs. A I think those are always great where it's like, you don't have to worry about actually having to create your own world or create your own story. You can just run something that's free written and only worry a mechanics, it's great. And so for people who are listening that may not know what the Alien RPG is, would you like to explain what it is? You wanna do that, Matt, or you wanna Well, I mean, yeah, it's it's basically 3 leagues sort of, gamification of, you know, the Alien franchise. Right? So it's one of the, you know, everybody I don't know what everybody, but pretty sure everybody is listening has watched The movies, and it's just sort of their adaptation of that world, and it's not what's kind of interesting is you can jump right in, and, yeah, it's got aliens and colonial marines and everything, but they have taken sort of all the little things from the movies that a may only get a little bit of attention and built, like, an entire game world around it, like fleshed out all of these corporations that you just kind of hear about, right, and the a Politics war going on between different fact so it's a they've made a much more complex world building sort of effort with this game a To really expand it out that if you wanna have aliens in it, you can. And if you don't, there's all kinds of other things you can experience in this universe That isn't just stuff right from the movies. So you can kind of if you want that, you can get it. And if you wanna create something completely different, you can kind of, You know, there's a lot more to do than just bug hunting. Yeah. No. That's I I love that, and it's kinda funny to think of the idea of, like, let's play alien without any of the aliens. Yeah. That that's pretty funny, Matt. Right? Yes. Yes. It is. No spoilers. No spoilers. But, so yeah. And we, a We interviewed, Andrew, Gasco, who, who wrote, the alien all these alien books. And, His specialty is really handling other people's IP with with care. Mhmm. So, basically, everything else in these Books is approved by the by the the IP holders and so you work not just from the movies but from the comic books and from, Other written fiction, about the aliens universe, so, there are a lot of sources that that he drew from. A And it's stuff that I had no idea existed out there. Other groups, if you'll just search for, a l v 426 on, like, Twitter or Reddit, you'll find, like, dedicated alien groups, you know, fan people, that they're really, into, the whole mythology, which which a Might lead to another story later on that we can talk about or not. But, yeah. But but it's a pretty well developed universe. A Yeah. No. That's really impressive, and that's something you know, Free League has, like, some amazing original games, but also, like, the stuff that they've adapted from actual IPs, I've heard. I've I've never played any of them yet. And so, like, I think that's a crime. But, I've heard amazing things about alien. I know that they're doing the whole, Walking Dead universe stuff that people are pretty excited about, Blade Runner, I think as well. Like, all kinds of things that they have just done a really fantastic job with. And with Alien, do they actually use the, their, like, core year zero system with it? Yeah. Yeah. So so, so everything comes from the, a Year 0 engine, which was started out with a mutant year 0, and everything else is kind of a, a derivative, of that, with each gain, having its own, a twigs to fit the type of stories told. So Mhmm. Alien being a mostly horror game a is really built around creating the suspense and creating that tension and creating the the those potentially horrific moments, a Whereas whereas, you know, like Tales from the Loop and Twilight 2000, the they're, They're, they have different goals, different games. So they're not the the the user engine is pretty flexible that they can just with a few minor minor tweaks, a They can create a a system that works for a different genre, which I think has been, a Pretty are pretty great for for, Free League. And it's also great, I think, for our players because it was pretty easy to go from From alien to twilight 2000. So Yeah. You're already familiar enough with the base system that Yeah. Even the minor tweaks. Because I know you mentioned, And we'll get into this later, like, the panic and the stress, which I think are specific to Alien, and I have heard amazing things about. Like, every time that I I go on to, it's like the I'm begging you to play anything but D and D group. I always see people talking about alien and panic and stress mechanics, a and that just makes me really, really excited. But you know? So, with alien, you know, it's supposed to be a horror TTRPG. Yeah. Right? Yes? How do you think it come like, is it a good horror TTRPG? Do you think it does a good job at being 1? I I think it does. I I think, as you said, the a The mechanics lend well to it. Now Mhmm. We've only played up to this point, Colonial Marine a games. Mhmm. So in some ways, you know, if you watch the 1st Alien movie versus 2nd Aliens, you know, there's a very different feel between, you know, just a Scientists with wrenches, you know, and a blowtorch first, you know, people toting, like, big automatic weapons. So Yeah. In some ways, a I I would say yes. I think it does. The mechanics are there. I think that we've had a lot of a Stress. I think our most the the game that we're actually releasing now, it's probably our least funny game. Like, we don't joke around a lot, and I think it's cause everyone was really stressed out playing because it's a lot of tunnels and tight corners and, you know and so so if that's kind of if it kinda quiets down the table, that's a Probably is what's actually you could translate to really worry, and I think if you took that a To the next step to play, like, regular colonists or just regular people, I think, you know, without all these big automatic weapons a launchers, it would really be I think that would be even more stressful. Yeah. Yeah. Our our first game was actually not a Marines. The Hadley's Hope was was, a bunch of, normies, running around and chase Yeah. Yeah. It was it was a long time I just eat them. Oh, okay. It was years ago. Yeah. I don't really I thought we we stole an APC. It's the only APC that's ever survived a Anything in any of our alien stories. So Yeah. I thought I don't know why I thought we were military. No. I guess you're Steve's. You're just trying to survive because you're you're getting you're getting chased around. Yeah. By a bunch of big monsters. Yeah. No. Yeah. That's a That's really good because I I've definitely seen a lot of people go back and forth on, like, horror TTRPGs. You know? If they actually do work, there needs to be a lot of buy in and, like, the mechanics do have to That's the key. So you have to get the players buy in, the and and that's a With a lot of the mechanics in here, if if you are playing just super safe all the time and not kinda playing into some of those horror a tropes, you're probably not gonna have as much fun. Mhmm. So if you're thinking about bringing this to your group, you really gotta, a Like, because I I I I think really going from, the culture shock was going from a This 5 e D and D game to to alien, and there's a lot of different. Yeah. And and a lot of, I I wanna roll for I wanna roll for stealth. I wanna roll for perception. I want and and just you gotta kinda, like, get them out of you know, you don't have to roll all the time. If if if there's a chance a Of of meaning meaningful failure, I'll tell you to roll and only 1 of you is gonna roll. I'm not gonna have, you know, all 6, 7, 8 of you roll because then that a You get a 100% chance of success there. So there has to be a chance of failure. There has to be some risks. So you you kinda have to a Tailor that experience and and just prep them ahead of time that, you know, you know you're not gonna be rolling for all the time and you're gonna be if you're running for stealth, a Only the person with the lowest stealth is gonna roll. If you're rolling for perception, only the person with the best perception, observation is gonna roll. So I just kinda, you know, Beat those those bad habits out of them. Yeah. And and some of it too is just, you know, making sure you have that discussion with the group before you play. I mean, it's like if everyone went out to the movies, and And we're like, well, we're gonna go see a scary movie. 1 person's like, well, I don't I don't like scary movies. Well, then maybe you'll go you know, that person shouldn't or you don't go, you go see something else. Right? Because if you kick them out of the group. Yeah. If you you gotta be in the mindset to to want to enjoy it. Yeah. If you're going to go either if you think it's gonna be like a rom com and it's a horror slasher, you're not gonna have a good time. But I I think so letting letting people know and getting that kinda, hey. We're all gonna have fun. This is gonna be you know, we're going kinda horror, a You know, or or unless you're our group and as the GM, I say I'm doing a really dark and scary horror game, and they're like, no. We're gonna completely turn it into a parody of itself. A You never know what's gonna happen. Thanks, guys. You're welcome. No. I think that's so great, though. And and, yeah, that's something I've I I talked with someone on the show. I think it was in the making mistakes in TTRPG's episode with Curtis. And he had he was trying to run a game of mothership, which is, you know, sci fi, quirky, RPG, you know, all of that. And it ended up, like, failing so bad because no one was buying into the actual idea that, hey. This is supposed to be a stressful risky situation where things are dangerous and all of that and, you know, a horror game. A And so, yeah, buy in is really, really important. So thank you for going on those rants because that was great. It's so important. Like, keep it in mind, please. A And not not every game is for every table. So Oh, for sure. Yep. Yeah. So, you know, if you know, I I think we being, you know, a Jaded senior citizens, we we, we're we we kinda like going into those a Those dark places where where things are ugly and messy and and and, you know, brutal and and and laugh about it. A I mean, makes sense why you like Free League games. I mean, that's pretty much, like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Came across all of them. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. I I love that, though. So, you know, Alien is supposed to, though, be you know? Yeah. It's a horror game, but it's supposed to be dangerous and risky. A And I I'm assuming that people should expect character death and, like, really bad things to happen. Have you encountered that in any of your playthroughs so far? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. The smiles that went on your guys' faces. Yeah. And I would like, before I ran the 1st session, I was like, okay. You guys are gonna, like, die, like, all the time. I'm I'm gonna a I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you. I and I really I don't think anybody died in their 1st playthrough. Maybe some injuries, but a But, in in our on our 1st podcast version, we we had some death and some some maiming. Dismemberment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny because, you know, that was, you know, 3 years later, we still joke about it. Mhmm. Like, a lot of stuff that happened in that first a That first, you know, pre podcast podcast, are stuff that still get, just running gags that we still reference a In our later shows, because if you just start, like, listening to us now, we're we're gonna really you're you're gonna hear all the stuff about a Rhino sized aliens hiding in the ceiling, and you're gonna hear something about, oh, my leg, and and, and, you know, it's gone, a Ever since that that first recording, his he played a, gunny sergeant Mason who who met a, a tragic end. A And every character he's played since then has has been, an iteration, some some sort of Relative or something. Yeah. A So it really stuck with us. Well, I think, you know, so from games that people coming from other systems. Right? Like and so, a You know, on I think Nathan might disagree. You can die playing D and D 5th edition. Right? It can happen. Right? But it it tends to not be such a surprise. At least the the times that, you know, you kinda get someone gets worn down. Remember, I think what's interesting about aliens, the way the mechanics is it's not a Overly deadly, but it can happen very fast. Right? So, if folks aren't used to it, many of the monsters use a card system. So unlike, you know, you know and I I think Dragonbane is similar. Right? So it's not just, you know, a monster does 1 d 4 points of damage. A The monster picks a card, and that card might just be drive spike through your role and you're dead. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And then you're just dead. Right? And so a That can be a little shocking for people who have played with games where there's like, oh, I've got a Cleric, and I've got 3 death rolls. And, you know and so with a Sean's particular character in that 1st series, this wasn't this was just a firefight, and then in one role, he was gone. Yeah. So it was that that that quickness, that sudden shock on you know? And it was that same battle where we had someone who's really injured. And so there's just this, like and and this a plays through and kind of bleeding in and out of here into, like, a lot of free league games. So you take that with Dragonbane. Twilight, 2000 has that same a High consequence for violence. Mhmm. Right? So you you really wanna you know, for all your players who like to just bust down the door and fight everything, These games give you some real pause on, maybe we should run, maybe we should talk, maybe we should actually surrender and live to fight another day or a Yeah. Different style if you just try to kick the door down on everything in these games. It it you know, you can if you want, but as as Nathan likes to say, consequences. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and I think, you know, there's a lot of games where it really, it is very easy to die because you really just have, the hit points are really the only kinda consequence. Mhmm. Whereas with a lot of the free of the games, there's there's other other things like the a Like, stress and panic and and, and, you know, running out of oxygen and stuff like that. Oh, fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. And, of course, like, the injury tables too, you know, if you because I don't know how they work in aliens specifically, but in dragon vein, you know, anytime that you go down and you come back ache up, you roll on the major injury table, and it's like, oh, you know, I survived. But now, I think one of the characters ended up having, like, broken ribs a and, like, have, like, a, you know, a dissid or banes to any, like, strength or whatever checks, and it's like, oh, you know, there there is an actual consequence of Getting into that fight, going down not being ready, and now you have to deal with the next 5 days, you can't you can't make a strength roll without that Bane. A You know, coming from I I started to get I started, getting into these games by playing D and D 5 e. A and coming from that into, you know, the free league world, I you know, it it it is a much different experience, and it's not for everyone, but I think it is fun to actually have tactics and and consequences to every single thing you do and that second thought. Like, I think it a it changes the way that you approach the game, and I just think it's so cool. Well, I think about all the all the movies that we love whether they're, you know, like, if you're, like, a Star Wars person or or or Marvel, you know, Luke got his hand cut off by his dad, you know. And, Thor lost his eye, and and, you know, his favorite axe, I mean, his his hammer got destroyed. And so a So those are all things that, you know, if if you're playing D and D, there's, like, really, you have to basically, the the the DM has to takes the player aside just okay. You know, I think this there's this really cool idea for your character. What what if I take your eye? A You know, like, I'd I like my character whole, please. You know? But yeah. So, look at the critical injuries table here for Alien, and there's a lot of, you know, broken hand, can't use hand, knocked out teeth, minus 2 manipulation, which is like a kind of a, personality type role, the one that we we use was, crushed skull. Oh. And the effect is your story ends here. A So that's another thing we say a lot is, your story ends here. Yeah. No. That's so good, though. A Yeah. Movies. Good stuff. And, again, like, it is it is like you said, it is quick. It just happens. It's it's in an instant. And, you know, It is so important to know what game you're getting into, but it does open up those possibilities to where, like, you don't have to bring the player aside. You know? You all agree to play this game to where it's really dangerous, you know that there's this injury table. You know? You know that really dramatic things can happen to your character that's gonna suck. And you don't have to, like you know, it's still nice to, like, check-in sometimes. But Oh, yeah. But, you know, you don't have to worry about, like, oh, this is like a a Totally different shift, dramatic change to the entire game. No. It's built into it. You know? That's already there. You all know what you're agreeing to, and that's pretty That's that's pretty crazy. And so I pretty liberating too, because Yeah. It it can really if you have a a If you don't just let, like, outright die, if you just get like a, temporary per per, or permanent injury, you can actually make that part of your character 80 And and and take it into some places that maybe you didn't think you're gonna go, but it's it's now it's it's a lot more, A lot more interesting. A lot more flavor. Yeah. And I I can assume it also, you know, a Bringing it you know, having like, embodying those things as the character and, like, you know, actually using that to develop. You know, if you're playing longer term games that has then, you know I guess I wouldn't say reward, but payoff. You know? You do Yeah. Play off these However many days to recover from this injury, and now this is something you still have. You know, I know, in in the Dragonbane game, my character got huge scar across the face from getting cleaned by an ax That's cool. Yeah. I know. It's cool. And so, like, when we're gonna if we pick that back up again, you know, I that's now a new addition to my character. And so, like, it has that benefit in the longer term game and so do you think that it's more fun to play Alien as a longer term story, or do you think it is a better to play in, like, kinda short burst 1 shots. We well, we've done what I call like, most of what we play are are a Short, like less than 20 sessions. Mhmm. And I I I I'd say they're not they're definitely not 1 shots, and they're they're not really long campaigns. There is a story though. Yeah. Yeah. At least, like, at least a story arc. So so I I think it suits that, because there's, One thing if you'll get the alien book, you'll see that there's a, a campaign mode and a cinematic mode, and we've been just doing the, We started out doing the cinematic, and now we're doing, I guess, kind of a more of a campaign mode. But in the cinematic mode, you you have, story points, that you get, to use to affect certain outcomes, in the game and what or campaign, you you kinda level up not level up, a But you get experience points that you can use to boost your skills and buy new talents, something like that. But the cinema cinematic mode is, I think is a Probably the prime way to play alien for me. Mhmm. And that's how the all the a Published adventures are written. They're all written in a cinematic mode, mode with with a a bunch of pre gen characters and, Kind of the the motivations baked into the character that that changes the 1st act, 2nd act, 3rd act. And, a For each act, the the the game mother will will hand out, these motivation cards for each character. So a You may find out that your character is, a little bit more than you what you thought. Yeah. At the set in the 2nd or 3rd act, and it'll, change how you, a Act in there then there may be some PVP, which some people are also not really fond of. So, I I think it's it's it's cool and dramatic, and and I think it's it's a a really pretty fun time at the table for when that comes about Naturally. But, but for some people, it's it's like, tour friends. Like, James, it's, like, a deal breaker for him. He doesn't like PPP, like, at all. So Yeah. And it it it ties into some of the themes. And if you watch the movies, there there is a lot of internal strife. You know, the with the 1st movie, of course, you have the betrayal of the android. Right? Sort of they flip that around. You have the crooked businessperson. You know and so the the, you know, the the cards, these motivations are kinda cool because what you do is you get those points after each act. So it's broken down an act. You actually, you know, a Like, did you play a character? Did you did you advance your, goal? And the way when they're written, a They are often written where 1 person's goal is not in line with maybe the best outcome for everybody else Survival. And and so, you know, I think and and we have, correct me if I'm wrong, a I think we have played, pre chance every almost every time for well, I mean, a I mean, not this not the one we're doing right now. Okay. But yeah. No. Actually, you know, it's it's 5050. So a So how this, how this hope and, destroyed worlds, those were pre gems. But, when we played when we're writing that, Clone and Marine story at well, at the previous Geek Weekend, that was all you you guys all made characters for that. Yeah. And so when you use the pregens, they've got a nice the authors weave a nice tale of Yeah. A Potentially tragic tragic, cross goals, which which adds to the stress of the play. So if you're so if you're playing one of their games, that's great. That's already got it in there. Mhmm. But if you're a GM and you wanna be DM ing this, you know, it's not wrong. Go ahead. You know? Your your very goal might be to, you know, Yeah. Do something that ends up not being very good for somebody else. Yeah. No. I love that. And that's actually I've never watched the alien movies. A But what like, I I want to so bad, especially now knowing about alien and all of that. I I really want to. But I have actually played a war game called Nemesis that's based off of Alien. And what's interesting is that it had that same exact thing where you would, randomly draw these cards for motivations and you would have, like, a personal motivation, and then I think there's, like, a group like, it it was a bunch of different things, but The big one was that there was personal motivations. And it could be stuff like you kill, you have to kill player b. You know, you have to kill this person or you have to set the course to, a different planet or you have to 1 may have been, like, set fire to something, like, destroy something. Like, you know, those those really fun things. And I love how that you know, that's my big experience with aliens so far. And, you know, the alien RPG actually having that included in it too is really, really cool. And I love the opportunities for PVP, you know, because that that is kind of again it's it's a lot of personal conflict, personal stories. It's high stress situation, no one's having a good time. So so I I actually have some agenda cards here from a from one of the series. We can tell you which one, and I can tell you whose it is. But, to hell with the others. They are flawed like all of the a All of humanity, the the so and so's are truly perfect something, you've always inspired to. You deserve perfection as well make the so and so's see that. I guess it's a, That was vague, Nathan. Age Yeah. Yeah. So but the it's Well, I'll tell you well, Blake spoiler. I will tell you for for that. A One of the characters in our destroyer of worlds. So the card doesn't tell you right away. Right? So the 1st card doesn't tell you right away. Hotel, one of the characters was infected. Oh. From the beginning of the story, and it doesn't come out till much, much later, because I could tell through the progression of the cards, the original card that you get isn't oh, you're infected. Right? It's just got, like, some a Fairly innocuous, like, oh, hey. You should do this while you're role playing. Like, you know So throw in this guy's chain. Yeah. A When did you know that you're infected? Because, like, because I was, like, hinting at stuff. So a I sorry. I guess it was me. There's more spoiler. I'm sorry. There's more spoiler. That's That's revealing the original. What character it was, Matt. How did you feel when you, No. No. So I I think that by the 2nd act, I started getting suspicious. And the only reason is is because it's Nathan And Nathan likes to mess with people. And so but no. So the card was literally like, oh, yeah. Like, complain about, like, a sore shoulder and back and stuff like that. So Most of the game, I was just a lot of the people just consider my character just this whiny complainer. A because I'm always talking about how my back hurts and my shoulder and all this stuff. They're like good. And and the whole time, of course, it hurts because I've got something growing in me. So it's like so it wasn't really the the thought until you get the last card. I I, you know, I was leaning towards it, but it was definitely something that you're like, Oh my goodness. Right? You know, it's like the whole and and that, you know, is a theme that that kind of I think, so yeah. No. No. So so those, those motivation cards are good, another good piece of the mechanics of the game that you know? Because immediately, all your players are gonna be looking at the table at each a Alright. Which one of you is gonna stab me in the back? So there's another there's another mood setter, I think, that fits with the genre and that and that storyline. A Yeah. I love that. And I love it as well that it's like how how you were mentioning that it starts out as, like, here's how to kind of role play your character. You know? Like, a Just like elements that you can add to your character versus, like, you know, you are just infected. You know, that doesn't give anything. No. I I like that in a lot a lot. And I would like eight start delving into, like, how the actual character creation works. You know, what what are the elements of creating the character and, like, getting these cards and, like, you know, a getting ready to, I guess, play this game. Yeah. So if you're not doing one of the prewritten cinematic a Scenarios, character creation is really a lot like any other, Free League game. So there's no, there's no life path like there is in 20 2,000, but you're I was wondering. You're you're you're given a a certain number of points and you Spread them between let's see. Oh, there we go. Yeah. It always depends, like, you with your career. Right? You pick a career. Right? A That's the I think that's the first step. Okay. If you say so. Alright. We can I'll give you some editing stuff because it's been a while since the we we recorded this the the the podcast we're a I'm editing and releasing now. We recorded, like, a year ago. Oh, yeah. No. That's fair. There's a little bit, Yeah. No. It's it's I so the I'm I'm cheating, Nathan. I'm looking at page, something x x, so we call page page 31. Yeah. Yeah. So picking your career, and I and I think that's, like, if you're playing a civilian game, you know, it's like scientist or engineer or stuff like that, ship's crew member. A And, when you're playing the military version, it's picking what's called an MOS Oh. Which I should know what it stands a But I don't. But it that's a term from the military. That's what job you do. Mhmm. And so, you know, it could be like a number or a game and so that's like in in aliens, it's like you're a, you know, I'm a recon specialist or I'm a sniper or something like that. So you a Pick a a career and that kind of has a series of modifiers to your character. Right? And then like Nathan said, you you you pick your, attributes. A So yeah. You have, it's like 14 points for your attributes and it's just 4 attributes. The strength, wits, empathy and agility. So it's I think this is the same as, most freely games. You get a career and that gives you access to, specific, career talents. Mhmm. And also, if you're playing an Android, they get bonuses to 2 different attributes, pretty big ones. And there's there's a couple of short ways to play an android. You can be kind of a, an out in the a Open Android Mhmm. Or you can be a secret Android. Oh. So Fun. Yeah. And that's, age Again, you know, that's something you you have to kinda get, buy in for, but, the with the secret androids is is pretty neat, because they don't get affected, by stress and they can't use stress. But But before you reveal that you're an alien, you actually you you can. So you so until your a Your status as an android, you you you play just like everybody else, so nobody else at the table knows that you're an android. A and then That's fun. Yeah. So so but once you're revealed, then then you, you don't, do stress and panic like everybody else. So interesting. I like that they have that in in that. And so is that like a is that specifically a career type thing, or is that like a variation that you can do? That's just if you wanna a Play 1? If you just wanna have fun. Well, you you still have a you still have a career just like everybody else. Mhmm. And then I think there's some other, drawbacks to them too. Yeah. They they can't so So I guess this is probably where we as far as character creation is real that's really just that picking talents and you have to get certain number of points for skills, standardization. A personal agenda, you pick out who your buddy is, who your rival is in in the group. I like that. But but the the the Android stuff kinda leads right into, the stress and panic stuff. So if we can if you wanna talk about that, we we can talk about that now, if you know, up up to you. A Or do you have any questions about character creation? Or so the personal agenda is, like, the the motivation thing where you get, like, the cards a give you Yeah. The different stuff over time. Like a one kind of overall thing, not like a my act type thing. So Oh, yeah. If you're doing character creation versus the gotcha. Gotcha. A Gotcha. And those, I imagine, are a bit more straightforward versus, you know, building up to it. It yeah. Pretty straightforward. And age I guess, depends on player too. Like, you know, some some of, the players on our group will will write you a 14 page backstory, and some people will, you know, I'm a pretty, concise when it comes to that kind of thing. So a So, you you can get pretty elaborate in that if you want to, but there's there's, the mechanics around around it really based on, just, experience for the session and stuff like that. Do they have, like, ones that you pick from in the book, or is it something that you just that they have you create? They just leave pretty wide open. Mhmm. And and there are, you know, of course, examples in the adventure in the back a They could, get some inspiration from Mhmm. Before the the Cinemax. Stuff. Yeah. Yeah. But the in the character creation section, they talk about the difference between, campaign agendas versus the cinematic type. You know, I I like that. Those are cool. I you know, because I I get that's almost like the idea that they're doing in D and D with, like, flaws, personality bonds, stuff like that. Yeah. Like, to give that kind of flavoring, but I feel like they make it too complicated. Just, like, stick it just a Just have one thing one thing to kinda, like, be a grounding point. I like I like that a lot. Yeah. And I like having the oh, I'm sorry. Right. Go go go. No. You're all good. I was just saying I I like that if it's one thing, it leaves a lot more open that you can develop whatever the character's gonna be versus kinda sticking a 2, oh, here's a flaw, but then when you actually start to play the character, hey, I don't actually like this flaw anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, of course, the agendas can change, and, buddies and rivals is just something that I've Try to bring into other games too because, you know, it's instead of, like, oh, you all meet in a tavern, which can be perfectly fun some sometimes as a There's nothing wrong with that. But if you if you have a a buddy and a rival in the group that there's something that kinda grounds you With the group and and you can kinda helps you build a a a story actually together Mhmm. Besides just being in a, marine squad. Yeah. And character relationships, you know, like, when you then get into actually playing the game and role playing. If you're like, okay. This person's my buddy and this person's my rival, you know, to whatever extent those are, you know, it's like, okay. I know this is a friend, basically. You know? I I know I can have a friendly relationship and and do all that, a Which is something I really loved when I talked to Adam about twilight 2000 was the buddy rival relationship. Does that, is there any, like, mechanical tie ins for those as well? Because I think there was in Twilight, but I can't remember what they were it's similar I think it's similar to Twilight 2000 where you get, you could get extra points or if you're doing experience a For, like, aiding a buddy or or or, you know, meeting a goal, it's not a Super hard, fast set of rules for it. Yeah. And I like that too. You know, it's it's kinda loose. You can you know, aiding a buddy could be, you know, actually, like, medical aid or could be helping them out, stuff like that. And so it makes Risking something for them. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And and for folks who are not big on PVP or early, you know, a rivalry doesn't just throwing out there is a rivalry doesn't have to be a Bad thing. Right? Not not necessarily a rivalry could just be 2 high performers who like to see who can you know, I take it from, what was it? It's, a Legolas and, they're gonna and Gimli. Yeah. During the Battle of Helm's Deep. Right? They're they are right. They're having a competition to see who can kill more. A Yeah. Right? They're still friends. They just like bragging rights. You know? It's like Exactly. You can have a rivalry, you know, that's eight that's more based around sort of, like, performance. It doesn't have to be nasty. It doesn't have to be Yeah. Competitive. Right. You don't wanna do, like, our group where everyone would pick a I think the whole the same person as their rivalry. Yeah. Like, the the sergeant of the squad. Like, everybody picked him as a rival. So, yeah, it was just That's funny. No. That's absolutely true. Thick a Skin every time we did character introductions. Oh my god. It's like I like long walks to the park shooting my smart gun and forget a The sergeant, you know, everybody's intro had to end with, you know, I hope the sergeant dies. You know what I'm saying? Comes around, you got 7 players, you get to Kuoppe. I was a Gosh, guys. That's so good. But, like, you know and and because you can have it not be, oh, I hate you, a And it can be different type types of rivalries. It still keeps it interesting. So it's like it would be so funny to be a That person who just almost, like, gets picked on. It's like, I don't He missed he missed session 0 or the pre session 0, a And we decided that he would be the sergeant for him. He did not want to play that character. It's like a Like, hey. Who's gonna be in charge? Let's make Koopa a charge. He really went into he created a very unlikable character. Oh, yeah. He he leaned into it. Yeah. Which is good. Which we knew he he would do, and and, yeah, he he lived up to it. Yeah. And I love that as well with, like, some of these, a horror TTRPGs, Ten Candles does it, and it seems like aliens does it too to where like, you don't have to play a good person. Like, you can play people that kinda suck. You know? Like, you can be for us. Yeah. That's all of our games, really. Actually, it's sort of the 2012,000. Those are actually mostly good people. Mostly. Yeah. Mostly. Mostly good people. No. I I I love that so much, man. I wanna play so bad. I I see that it's, like, on sale right now for, like, prime day. I'm like, Yeah. Yeah. 40% off or something. Yeah. It's totally worth it. A It looks man, it looks so good. Every time I see it, I I went to, like, Ohio a few months ago, and I I went to my favorite game store. And I saw it on the shelf, and I'm like I could just I could just hit it now. I didn't, but I could've, and and I regret it. Yeah. If you want to, I actually have a, a a 20% off coupon from the Free League store that you can you can have, because I I already used it. And, but, a I I well, I use a different one. And that'll give you the PDF also. Oh, yeah. No. I definitely, when I do plan on getting it and when I do, I want to get it from the actual free leak store because I want the PDF. I I play mostly online. It's it's just easier that way of like, hey. Here here's the PDF, guys. Look at that. I've got my own book. I I want my physical books. They look nice. But no. I I would yes. I would be very much down for that if you'd like to share that. But no. That's that's that's awesome. I am really excited to try this game one day. But, yeah, I think, though, a You mentioned getting into the stress and panic mechanics, which Yeah. In my mind is, like, one of the big things that makes aliens, like, standouts Mhmm. Are these mechanics. So Yeah. So stress is another stat. A hey. It is time for our midpoint break. Afterwards, we are going to be getting into the stress and panic mechanics within Alien, so make sure to stick around. A and first, I wanna say, hey. I hope that you're enjoying listening to this episode. Currently, the RPG Goblin has a goal in November to hit a a thousand listens during the entire month of November, which is absolutely insane, and that is why I need your help. So please make sure to listen to the show, share it with your friends and leave a review for it if you enjoy it. Any of that really helps push us towards this goal so that we can have an awesome TTRPG party where we will have giveaways, guests, and tons of fun. I also wanna remind everyone that the RPG Goblin does have a Discord server that is still open to the general public. In this Discord server, it is just starting. We only have a small group of people, but all the people there are obsessed with TTRPGs. And if you want to talk about these games with people who also love them, please join the Discord server and chat and also say hi, because I am more than willing to start a discussion about how cool the panic and dress mechanics are within alien or any other TTRPG mechanic because I just really wanna talk about these games. So, yes, please make sure to join the RPG Goblin Discord server. The link is in the description of this episode along with it is on my Linktree in all of my social medias. For today's midpoint promo, we have the Unnatural One podcast, a 5th edition actual play podcast. Ace and I just wanna say that Unnatural one is super, super cool. Specifically, they are super sweet because they are featuring the RPG Goblin a as their ad space for the entirety of November to help us push towards the 1,000 goal, so I have to say, please, please, please go check them out, and let's listen to their promo to see what they're all about so that you can go to their show and give them all the love and support. It is I, Bertolt, the podcasting warlock. I have once again been employed by the unnatural one podcast to boost Our numbers, my infernal magics have coalesced and brought us to this moment, an ad. Join our fearful heroes as they journey through a godless, broken land to reclaim their ancestral homes and from the forces of otherworldly chaos, our 5th edition actual play podcast a Features a seasonal rotation of DMs, and those willing to consign themselves to the dark coven that is our Patreon will also be granted access to a wonderful catalog of 1 shots, a AMAs and even a Discord server, if you enjoy the dark allure of fantasy violence with a sprinkle of dramatic storytelling, Be sure to sample A Natural One wherever you enjoy podcasts. We upload every Tuesday. Even on holidays, we we don't get time off, please. You mentioned getting into the stress and panic mechanics, which Yeah. In my mind is, like, one of the big things that makes alien, like, stand out Mhmm. Are these mechanics. So Yeah. So stress is another stat. A Kinda like, that you you collect, you start with you you would usually start with 0 stress. And as things happen, the the GM would just, hand out stress points. So the first time you see, like, you know, a dead body, or if you see, an alien, or first time you're in a firefight, you you get a stress. And, in the game mechanics, That, they use different types. So the dice they're all d sixes but there's the, if you go out and buy the actual dice, if you're looking at them in Foundry role 20, there's black dice and yellow dice. The black dice are your, are your dice, so you get your base dice from your attribute and your skill, And then you get yellow dice, from stress. So so say I, say I have a point of stress, And I, I'm going to, shoot my gun at something. Mhmm. So I roll all my black dice and I roll all my stress dice. A So if I have only 1, I have I have 1 yellow dye. So, so I can't get a success from that. Mhmm. So so that stress can actually you can, not roll any successes on all your your base dice, a But get a success on your stress dice and then succeed in the role. But, there's another face on that a On that yellow dye, it's a facehugger. Oh. When you roll that facehugger, that's when you make a panic roll. Oh. So so As you're you're you're going along, as the the story's going, you're collecting these these these extra stress dice, So you're making these wild successes. Mhmm. And with Alien, the more successes, the better because you use those for a For extra damage or for or for doing stunts, like making somebody, drop their weapon or or, you know, other things. You can, a For extra extra successes more than 1. Mhmm. But, you know, as you can imagine, the the more stress size you have, the higher chance of you a Getting a face sucker. Uh-huh. And that's when you roll on the the the, the panic table, a Then you add your current stress level, to your panic roll, and then there's this little, chart that starts out pretty a Inocuous, the 1 to 6 is, you're keeping it together. You managed to keep your nerves in check, barely. That's 1 to 6. So you if you only have 1 stress, chances are you're gonna be just fine. Mhmm. And then it gets a nervous twitch. Now your stress level and the stress level of all a Friendly PCs and short range view increased by 1. Oh. So if you you get more stressed, everybody around you gets more stressed. Which is super you know, that's really realistic. Right? They talk about, like, panic spreads. Yeah. You know? You ever see the deal thing? You see someone running. You're like, I don't know what they're running from, but I'm gonna run too. A So, yeah, it is a, that's another good horror sort of tension mechanic in there, like, you know, Somebody else makes a, you know, failure. I think one of ours was someone, who dropped a weapon or something Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or something, like, in the middle of the a Quiet hallway, you know, and so everybody freaks out. Oh, yeah. Be quiet. There's this clack, you know, on the ground, you know. Oh, and that just that tension too. And I love how again, I love that, like, the mechanics support the tension and that it, you know, slowly builds. A Oh, and it and it comes to something too, like the actual strip. Yeah. And and it becomes a, like, a it becomes a a Viral. Like, basically, the more you get stressed, the more stress everybody else gets around you because you keep making these panic rolls age group everybody, collectively, more stressed, which may make you makes you super effective at at a Some of the things that you're trying to do, but but then, again, you you may succeed at something and still have to panic. A Yeah. There's other side effects too. Like, if you have a if you're firing a a full burst, you you use all your ammo and you have to reload. A And I was talking about the, the androids, when they're pretending to be human and none of the other players know that they're an android, a They're they're making stress and panic rolls just like everybody else. Mhmm. But once it's revealed, then they don't, they can't, use any any stress and they don't panic. But, one of the the the easiest ways to get stress a is something that you'll recognize from Dragonbane is, pushing your roles. Oh, it's got pushing roles in it? Okay, that's great. That's really good. Of the Freelee games have pushing roles. So, so if I if I feel something, and I don't roll any, Facehuggers, Any Panic? Mhmm. Then I can, reroll, all of my dice. Or or maybe I succeeded, but I want a More successes, I can reroll all the dice that that didn't succeed by by pushing the roll, but you have to take a a stress eye for that. Yeah. Oh, I like that. So my my strategy as a GM was, like, a like, basically, they did, like, anything. Mhmm. I was like, are you gonna push that? It's very pushy about pushy roles. But also as a pushy pushy offering it as an option. You know, I'm just letting you know that you can. Like Yeah. Then they 1st one is free. Yeah. They leaned into it. They and they followed my direction, And we had a better game for it. So Like, the mechanics are there for a reason. Why not use them? Yeah. It's building up the address and it's making it more likely you can panic and all of these things, but that's what the game is for. That's what you're playing the game for. Yeah. You know, if I wanted to play an alien game and not have to worry about being stressed or panicked, I would I would convert something else to alien. Like, I'm playing this system because it's these mechanics. Yeah. Let's push the rules. Let's get stressed out. Let's panic. Yeah. I think if you're if you're getting ready to host folks for, like, the first time, they've never played it. A I kind of my my analogy for this is like, look, if you play D and D, as you play, your character gets better and better and stronger and stronger and more experience, you do all kinds of awesome things. Aliens, your character will never be better than the moment they hand you that sheet. A It's all downhill from there. It's a whole downhill. That is that is the best version of you you're ever gonna be is in that moment before you start playing. And then after that, it's a It's, you know, and so it's it is a very different mindset. Right? I mean, you look, if any watch horror movies, usually by the end of the movies, people aren't a Doing so good. Even the people that survive. Right? You know? And so they have just gone shit. Yeah. Yeah. And and so the No no party walks out at the end of a cinematic aliens experience, like, nice show that they were going in. Right? There's pieces missing. You know? People drooling. You know, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot talking to their selves. You know, it's it's a whole, beautiful, mess. A Yeah. I had a great time. So, Matt, we should talk about how you because you can relieve stress. Do you wanna talk about that a bit? You can. So what's interesting is first so we talked about how dangerous and how stressful and all that. What is interesting about a The aliens mechanic is it actually has a very, like, you don't have a lot of hit points. Right? Mhmm. But it's very easy to get them back. A So I I kinda feel like their hit points represent that, you know, from the action movies. Oh, it's just a flesh wound kinda thing. Right? A If you take too many of those, you know, you're you're dead. Right? Yeah. So you can die fairly quickly, but you can also recover very quickly. So what they didn't want is, like, a Alright. You went through this scene. You got busted up. And you're gonna spend a week at the end resting. You know? No. There's none of that. The the pace of the game doesn't allow for that. Mhmm. So, you can rest and and heal, but you can also have certain talents and stuff that allow you to heal. So, I'll just use my character from destroyer of world had something called, like, banter, where they just, you know, and when people take downtime, they're the one who's always telling the story like, oh, back I was, like, you know, what you said. And it kinda, like, puts people at ease and it allows them to, to regain instead of 1 point of stress, they can gain a Two points of stress. So you can if you get a chance to, like, hold, take a breath, take a few seconds, you can kinda get yourself back into the fight. Right? A Yeah. It really depends on the pace of the game. If you if you gave people too much time, then they could just sit around and kind of heal back up and, you know, it's like, a Oh, we're all completely good again. And so I think part of the challenges at GM is if you want that experience, you give people a little moment to catch their breath and not teeter on a disaster, you know, but but but maybe not let them get all the way into a completely safe space. Now As role players, you can choose to ignore that. And I think I don't know if Dave was so one of our role players after an unfortunate incident with some friendly fire, his character actually gained stress whenever my character used the banter skill. Oh, really? A Yeah. I was responsible for the friendly fire, but Yeah. But so that was a role playing choice. But Yeah. The e I had nothing to do with it. So there's there's hopefully that that other player. Yep. The game also uses I think every character has, a like an item that means something to them. Maybe it's a lock, a letter from someone or something. Yeah. You can also use those items in downtime a help recover from stress as well. So Mhmm. There there are mechanics to reduce the stress, and I I think it's really the GM and the players, you kind of what kind of pace they wanna set and where they want the players to kind of stay or be at, you have a lot of flexibility. Yeah. I like that. And because, you know, there are those moments in horror movies, though, too. You know? They're the moments where they get a moment to relax, where they get to recover, Whether it be, like, before a final stand or or anything like that. And so it does make it more cinematic, and a it's it's good to have risks. You know, it's it's it's a high it's it's, you know, high stakes stress this entire time. Even from, like even if it wasn't beneficial mechanically, it's also good just for the players to, like, give them a moment to breathe. Like, okay. You you can you can take a moment. And a Having it actually be abilities that you can, you know, connect with role play too, I think is really genius because then that's a Another chance to expand on a player or not player, on a character. You you get a chance to, you know, who is this person? You know, what what kind of stories would they tell? Have that be a fun moment. I like that. Yeah. Matt Matt and Malcolm are were both pretty good at coming up with with With weird oddball stories on the horizon. Gotta gotta come up with something. Yeah. And and, well, alien has a few unique mechanics that you don't always find in role play games. So in a lot of games, you know, you have players can charm a monster, command a monster to do something, or vice versa, you know, you have a monster can a like, a player. It's very few games have mechanics where players can actually make another player do something. And what is interesting is and that can also be kinda controversial. Mhmm. But the Aliens game actually has a talent. There's a command skill. Right? That, like so the sergeant, or if you have the command skill, a You can shake somebody. So you have your panic role. You can actually go into a panic. Right? A And and you can have someone can use their command or I can't remember the skill. I think command. Somebody yeah. Command to get out of that panic condition. And a They're still they don't lose all their stress, but they can kind of function because sometimes just, you know, people are just in a total panic, roll into a ball and they can't do anything. So the commander has a role. Yep. Commander has a role like, hey. You get in there, marine, or whatever they, you know, yell and, but there's also a talent which, a sergeant actually had, which I thought was a jig. It actually allows you to roll and be able to tell player what to do. We had a couple times where this where the sergeant wanted us to take a course of action, but somebody wanted to do something else. And it actually came up a couple times in our current one that we're releasing. Mhmm. And I thought it was interesting because it's kinda usually kind of, that's not done in games, but it does give the, if you're playing that kind of game, like, a game like the Colonial Marines, it is an interesting thing, like, you know, that that a that you can't pull out if you're the leader, kinda, hey. This I mean, business is in order. Mhmm. So, again, an interesting mechanic. Some people may like it, some people may not, but it was, it you know, for us, for, like, role playing, it was probably also the only way Koopa could keep us online. A Yeah. And there's a there's a thing with freely games too that I've noticed that, there's usually, like, a manipulation skill. A And it's it's it's manipulation not mind control. It's you know, you're trying to convince somebody of something. And I think in all the ones I've read, you can succeed in your manipulation role to kinda coerce someone, but the the that other person, whether it's an NPC or or whomever, has choice. They can either Do what you want them to do or they can attack you. Yeah. Oh. So that's, like a so if you are trying to convince, like, a You know, if a marine is trying to, convince a scientist to to do something, the scientist really doesn't wanna do it, they don't have to follow that order. They can they can, you know, a Try to punch the marine or or whatever. So so I I think it's kinda interesting. Yeah. I guess, I saw that in Twilight 2000 and maybe the, maybe the Forbidden Lands 2. Mhmm. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's listed in those 2. Yeah. I I'm not sure whether or not that's in Vason or not because that's a The one freely game or the 1, specific, like, your zero engine game that I've read fully through, and I don't know I'm if it's in the other ones, it a probably is also in that one since they are, you know, variations of the same system. And I that is a See, the thing is it is a really tricky topic because a lot of people are like, you know, I want to have the agency for my character. I want to decide if I wanna do something. Yep. And so I think that's definite that comes down to, like, hey, everyone at the table. Are you okay with this? Is this a is this a okay thing to have in play, you know, if if there's a moment where my character wants all of you to run away and I use this command to make you all run away, would that be fine? And that's like, it all comes down to communication on that front. Front, you know Yeah. Making sure everything's cool. But I think it's it's a it's definitely a really fascinating mechanic, and I would I would definitely play with it a because it is those moments. And it shows how impactful that role is too. You know? You are the you are the sergeant. You are the commander. Yeah. Like, you you are the one that people go to and listen to, and it shows. I like it. School. Yeah. I I think it's it's, I like to leave I like to lose control a little bit. A I I I to for me, that's fun. It's not fun for everybody, but but, I'm willing to, especially with, like, people I've played with for, like, 35, 40 years. I'm totally well, once you're like, okay. I'm gonna trust them in this part of the game. I'm just gonna, a I give up I'm totally fine with giving up some agency just to to see what happens, you know. Yeah. I also like to run-in straight into the chat a Traps, because traps were there. Traps are not really traps unless they go off. So, so that that's that's just my my general play style Yeah. No. I I agree with that. Because and, you know, that person want like, if that person's gonna use that ability, they have a idea, they have a plan. They have a direction they wanna take it. You know, that's just another tool basically for them to bring it in that direction. You know, let's see what happens when we all run away. You know, obviously, yeah, talk about it at the table, but I think it's actually a really cool a mechanic. I know monster of the week. I'm I'm currently playing that has, like, a manipulate someone mechanic. You know? They have rules for talking to an MPC, and they have rules for talking to an actual player. And when it comes to talking to a player and, like, their character, a They have a whole thing, along the lines of if they decide to do it, you gain XP or, you know, you get a reward. If they don't do it, then, either nothing happens or they get something for it. A So, like, still lets there be that choice, and it's not really punishing on either end, but it lets you make that have that moment of, like, here's what I want to do. Here's my plan. Here's what I want you to do. Like, it lets you have that moment. Doesn't take away the agency, but I could even still see it work of, you know, that they do do it. It's just that's a whole different conversation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. It's it's interesting when they start when TTRPG start playing in those mechanics, you know, when it comes to forcing people to do stuff because it is different when it's like a monster because that's like you know, that's the GM playing the monster. You know, a There's roles against that. But when it's like, you know, you're only playing 1 character and the other person's only playing 1 character and you have that, it's interesting. A No. That's that's cool. I wanna think about it. Yeah. I think, there's a a lot of different types of role playing games, and and sometimes this is fun just a So just doing, a dungeon crawl in just a Yep. Okay. There's a, there's an orc shaped, bag of hit points over there. I'm gonna go whack it with a stick. A Yeah. And that's a totally valid way to play and and super fun, and and you don't you don't have to really think a Oh, what about the orc's family? And, you know, like, you know, like, Bringing more morality to it and all of that. Yeah. Which is also good. And and so a So, so by having these these horror games and games where there's, you know, moral gray areas and and, is is super fun also. Okay. So I I that's, I think, part of the draw of some of these these darker games is is, like, kinda, you know, dipping my toes in the in the a Maybe not being so, you know, such a such a great guy that I am in my real life. So It's allowing him to be the person he wants to be. Murder. Without the shackles of society. A No. It's true. It's funny. I am running I'm running my 1st family game, and, I am actually sort of 5 e ing. I know this is sort of also like a The old keep on the borderlands module, and I am I am editing parts of it where this you know, because in the original, there's like, oh, you walk in, there's 5 male orcs, a Four female orcs and 8 children, and I'm like, nah. They're just not gonna have any kids. It's just gonna be a few orcs. Right? Yeah. Because I my kids will never attack. Like, there's children in there, they'll be playing with them. They won't have been right. Then I'm good. It's gonna be the end of the battle right there. Just thinking of it. So, so, yeah, I think, having it a little bit lighter is fine. But yeah. So, you know, and I think as playing in the game like, a Alien show, you can play it as I I think this particular group is a more stand up group of player of characters in our most recent one. Whereas I think our first one had had a couple real, you know, kind of we had a couple degenerate care. We but one of the characters, I think, is a drug addict. It just keeps getting worse and worse around the entire thing. Right? So you have some real flawed characters in in there. And and but I think our our most a Current, session, we're a little more stand up, stand up people. Yeah. This is this is still a pretty funny show, but but there's a It's definitely a a lot less slapstick than than most of our stuff. So it's, it it was it was different. It was it was good to mix things up every once in a while. Because we're afraid to roll the dice. I don't wanna get this out of the head, please. Thank you. No. I I think that's And that's just the thing too. You know, when it come that's what I I mean, that's the big reason why I do love that there are so many TTRPGs a of, like you can dive into any of these and get a different experience. You know? It's just depending on what you wanna play. If you wanna play something that's gonna be more comedy and fun and slap yeah. Go for it. And you can even do that with something more serious. But, you know, you're all coming into the idea of, like, hey. This is what we're gonna do. You know? And a Having the option to dungeon crawl and having the option to have political, like, fantasy stuff and having the option of, like, a 1000000 different things Let's you explore it and have a great time. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. And so, a little bit, I guess, more on topic Little bit more on topic of alien. You did mention that, you know, there there's a The whole recovering and being able to recover hit point, how does the combat system work in alien? Because I know a lot of other free league games, use, like, the card initiative and and stuff like that, does it follow that same idea? Same idea. And, really, if a You've played Vaasen. It's a or it's the same thing. It's Mhmm. If you add your attribute to your skill, you roll the all those dice, and you you count all the 6s, as, you just need 1 for a success. Tesla's saying they they do add a little more Tactical stuff, not as much as Twilight 2000, but there are, like, if you have cover, a because you you make an attack roll, and if you're getting shot at or attacked, you make a defense roll for your armor Mhmm. To, a I guess soak some of that damage. And there are things that can add to or take away from how many dice you roll. So if someone's, you know, farther away, you roll fewer dice if, if someone's, a Shooting at you and you've got cover, you add more dice to your armor roll. But surely, the things go only go up a Up and down, like, 1 or 2 dice Yeah. For for the most part, you know, until you get to the stress. And like I said, you know, a Stress rolls add to everything, and if you do roll facehugger while you're shooting, a You know, automatic, you run out of ammo. Because otherwise, you don't even count ammo. You just, you you, only time you change change ammo is when you roll roll a facehugger. Yeah. And I I like that because that's one less thing to worry about. A Like, even though that there can be that tactical, like, stressful element of I only have so much ammo and I have to be careful with it, a Making it tie into the stress and panic instead of, like, you know, that moment you run out of ammo, that's terrifying. Yeah. Right. Because it's not a yeah. Because it's it's an unplanned. Right? Mhmm. Because it's it's it's not the, oh, I'm counting my number of shots, and I got to Expedited action this round. Right? It's Yeah. It's your shooting and suddenly click. Right? It's like you know, that that also You have to take your time to Change out the magazine, and that could be the time where you get, you know, your your, you know, your face aug door or whatever. Yeah. And it's the same mechanic for, support equipment too. So, like, one huge iconic device in the alien world is the is the little sonar, a You know, the the motion detector. Right? The little thing they pull out the screen. You know, that sounds great because, you know so a When you activate certain pieces of equipment like that, you make a power roll. Mhmm. So, again, it's not like, oh, you have 10 rounds you can use this. You every time you make a a Power activation. I think if what if you fail, you get a 1 you get a face harder. Right? Mhmm. Then you lose 1 Yeah. You lose 1 power. A Right. Yeah. So Yeah. Oh, you start out with, like, 5, and then then then yeah. So it's it gets a little, scary. Because every because again, it's it's it's the consequence. So now it's like, you know, you're like, oh, I'm just gonna leave it on all the time. Well, you got to keep making rules. Right? So Yeah. A You're only using it when you think you really wanna use it because there's always a risk of it costing. And especially when you get down to those last couple, You know, it's like, am I picking the right moment to use this? Did I choose to not use it and we got ambushed and killed? Or did I use it too many times? And because of that, I didn't have it when I needed it. So Again, stress. Right? Your equipment your your your equipment is stressful. Everything in this game, stress Yeah. All the time. No. I I like that. And that's actually when I played Dragonbane, that was something I really enjoyed, with, like, the a torches and the lanterns like that, is that, you know, over time as you use them, you know, could be randomly throughout or when you actually, like let's say you use a torch to hit something, you know, you roll and see if it's if it stays lit. And so it does add that extra level of stress and being more careful with what you're doing, like, it's all decisions. Like, that's what I feel like Free League comes down to is it's all decisions on a Whether or not it's a good idea to do something. Yeah. And, you know, so like you said earlier consequences, which is one of my favorite words. And, you you'll find out that that, you're you're really not wanting to roll all the time. A And as a player and as a GM, you don't wanna make them roll all the time because it really I think it, slows things down. You really only want to make them roll when there's a A risk of a of a negative or or or super positive consequence. So because for for most things, Like, from running, you know, like, a a generic fantasy game and there's, like, 5 players and and, there's somebody hiding. If if all 5 players are gonna make a perception check or whatever, somebody's gonna make it. Yeah. So why have them roll at all? You're just a just wasted everybody time. You say, okay. You you think you see a shadow over by the tree. So that's that's kind of the Style that they're pushing you towards is that if if it's, it's not a super consequence, then just they succeed. Let them succeed. Mhmm. It's not gonna change anything. It's only when that, a Yeah. If there's, like, a a a major ambush or something like that, and then you limit, you know, who can roll that. You don't let a Everybody roll. You you focus on the people with the best observation and let that person roll. And, one thing I like to do also is With these horror games, sometimes you wanna make them roll when there's nothing there. Yeah. I mean, there could be, though. Like, that's the thing. They don't know. No. But I I like what you said with that, you know, of, you know, just having the best people roll for it. Because in in my mind, what you know, when you're picking a a class or career or whatever that version is in the game that you're playing, you're deciding what you specialize in. A So let's say D and D. People love, you know, going to high wisdom characters, super high perception. You know, that is what they're specializing in. A So give them the opportunity to shine in those moments. Like, okay. You are the one who's gonna roll and not making it everyone. And then Because you could have the moment where the person who has only, like, a plus one gets a 20, and it's like, oh, you know, I can see everything. I'm I'm god. Yeah. Yeah. A When and and that character who even is still really good at it could still fail. You know? It's it's still, you know, the risk there, and that's why you're having them roll. A but I I like giving them those moments of, like, because you're good at this, you get the chance to roll it. You you are the one who gets the spotlight here. Yeah. And and it's the exact opposite for stealth. Mhmm. Because not everybody is stealthy. Exactly. So if if you want, if if you've got somebody that's a stealthy character, a Maybe they go out ahead and they have their stealth role, but the the rest of the party, if they're, they have some noisy people, a You make the the person with the lowest stealth, make that role for that group. Yep. Because that's because a Then then that that adds to the actual player stress level, because if they they, they only have, like, 1 or 2 dice, a You know, they're not trained in it. Mhmm. The they're gonna be and then then that may lead them to pushing the role and Mhmm. And it's just a The whole thing just cascades from there, into a whole comedy of error sometimes, which is which is I love. Which are a So fun to play out and so fun to see happen. Like, oh, you know, you keep pushing it and it doesn't succeed. A Oh, no. Like Yeah. No. I was trying so hard. And so, actually, I am curious. Is there a limit to how much you can push the roll. Like, can you only do it one time? Or is it Yep. Okay. Yeah. And and you can't push it if you rolled a, facehugger. Mhmm. I like that. You know, you panicked. You're you're not having a good time. There are some talents that I'll let you push, like, a strength role, I think, a One additional time. Mhmm. I think maybe for a couple of the other, attributes also. But so there are some special talents a allow you to push more than once. Yeah. I like that. And that's you could always attempt something depending on what the action is, it's the GM can often decide. Like, if you're trying to climb a wall and you fall, you know, after you push, you, you know, you fall. A You didn't get back up and try to climb the wall again. Then you have a new check and then you can push that role. You know, there might be certain things where if you fail miserably, a You know, it might be, like, trying to pick an electronic lock or something. The GM might say, well, that door at stealth ceased. You fried it out. Yeah. You can't try that again. So a Yeah. But in a in a in one particular try, you get 1 push. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense, and that does help with, like No. I do like that. Like, if it if it is something you can try again, obviously, you can, you know, try it again, push it. But that's gonna, again, give you more stress, though. So it is a choice. You know? Do I try again? Do is getting over this wall worth it enough to get stressed out a And potentially roll a facehugger, you know? You get higher chances of that as it goes up. So it's, again, all just these little decisions that are insanely stressful. No. This is I like that. I like it all a lot. And so I think, though, we are getting A bit close to the end here. I do want to, cover, a bit of, like do you have a Any advice for people who would like to run alien? And, you know, is there like, hey. You know, running it this way is super helpful a spoiler, here's some tips on how to run it in a way that will be fun. A Yeah. Just, you know, a lot of stuff I I mentioned earlier, like, you know, getting their buy in, just encouraging them to a Push their roles, encouraging them to take risks, faking them out with with, with scary things that aren't that are harmless, not letting them get too comfortable. Mhmm. Like, like like, Nat was saying earlier that, you know, a Let them kinda clear off, like, a a stress point or two, but but they once soon as they feel safe, it's time to kinda, like, a Introduce throw something in the mix to to get them moving again. So a And with the books themselves, if you're running like a published cinemat scenario, I would take lots of notes, because, a Like, these books are beautiful. The art's beautiful. But sometimes the the bits and pieces that you're looking for, they're in different sections. A I noticed when I was running the story of worlds, what bogged me down sometimes is was, just having to to flip through the book and okay. A Stuff is is that's in this room is referenced in in a couple of different parts of the book. So, kinda knowing where you're going and just a And just re rewriting it by hand like in in, you know, notepad or OneNote or a piece of paper or something. So you have kind of the, You you know what all your references were are or just, like, reading the the the adventure several times, which, I'm averse to doing. I'm more of a Do your homework, Nathan. Be a be a better GM is is is Take it seriously, man. But yeah. But yeah. Definitely look through it and, like, if you know they're gonna be, what area they're gonna be, just make sure you have everything laid out because there there'll be references to, like, if there's, like, radiation in the area that a They might not mention that in the actual description for the room, but it might be mentioned earlier in that in that chapter. So, you know, just, Yeah. That that kind of stuff. What what you meant? Yeah. I think also, like, here's what Nathan said earlier. I think the game a is probably best played cinematically. Mhmm. So I think that's another thing. And when you're having the conversation with the group, you know, say, hey. This is a little tougher game. This is a horror game. Death comes easy. But just say, look, we're gonna play this, you know, like, 1 story at a time. So pretend like we're hit and play on the, you know, whatever people the stream. Yeah. I really can't play on my VCR, and, get the old timey going. But, But kind of setting that stage too, because I I do know for that again, we have people in our group, you know, if you play d and d, they'll show up with a first level character that had 40 years of back story. Yeah. So go, you know, don't fall in love with your 1st alien character. Right? Just a Play it like it's a movie, and if you kinda go in there knowing that, you know, this is a horror movie, not everybody gets to the end. It's it's it probably paces itself Better because you run the risk if it's like, oh, we're gonna do a campaign, and I wanna run these characters and people are gonna get invested in them, and then they're gonna pull a card where they got a spike to their head and they're dead. A Right. You know? And that's gonna be very jarring, and I think just setting yourself up for that cinematic horror experience a is is is a way to get yourself in the right mindset. Absolutely. Yeah. And what you know, when they have these a These tragic deaths, you know, if you can if you can make it epic. Yeah. Make it epic, you know, make it make it memorable. Describe, in in all the the best Great details. You can manage. A All that is fun and is a is definitely, like, a a crowd pleaser around your table. Also, I wanna mention to, a If you're making characters instead of using, the pre gens, I'd like making them all together. Mhmm. A because that that's where you can kinda work out who the buddies are, who the rivals are, and you kinda play off each other for for agendas and and things like that. So I I definitely like a I'm making the characters together. Yeah. Collaborative character creation. One of my favorites. No. I I love that. And I love what you also said a Specifically about the prewritten, you know, scenarios and and modules. In like, even taking that approach of, like, a Writing it down, you know, taking notes and reading through the areas, like, that's just good advice for any pre written scenario that you run because I I D and D modules can be a mess of, like, where each thing are where each thing is and how it's like you flip through the entire book. You know? I I that's just awesome advice. I haven't run an actual module, so I I haven't experienced having to jumble everything together, but I I will remember that though if I ever do it. Yeah. They've really changed. So you they've gone from these little, you know, 20 page booklets to these 200 page a Books. It's, not yeah. I I I kinda miss the old ones that were short short and sweet. A Yeah. Because, I mean, I well, there's there's a whole conversation that could happen about that. I think that has probably Next time on a How not to be a GM with Nathan. No. No. I love that. But, no, this has been a great. Thank you guys for coming on and talking about Alien with me because this has been fantastic. And, of course, now I wanna play it so bad. A and it's just yeah. Yeah. It's taking me deeper into the DTRPG. I'm sure they appreciate it. A no. This this is great. They they've been really good to work with. The a lot of support and access to a To Thomas and and Andrew and and a lot of the people that design their games, Probably gonna hopefully talk to some more of them later this this month and and next month. So, we really appreciate the support they they've given us. We've, a Appreciate being able to come on your show and and talk to you about our our favorite stuff with you. This is, this is really cool, and I'm I'm glad, I, blocked my calendar for a little while today to do this. Yeah. No. I'm so glad as well because I was as as soon as, like, I did see that you guys were in the alien stuff. I'm like, I know. Like, I need to. Like, this needs to happen. We need to get into this because, like, again, it's just a I love all the Freelee games, but, like, that one does stick out as, like, feels just it it just stands out. I don't know. There's something about it. It's Watch alien and watch aliens. Watch the the first 2. I will. I it is on the list. I am writing it down. Very, very different movies, a But but it's one of the few times where a sequel is holds its own. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're they're completely different. A They'd be if you could run 1 or the other and they're completely different games. But, yeah, but, yeah, remember, it is the seventies and the eighties, so it's a little a Little bit dated. Yeah. Of course. No. I and I love just very quick. I love that they have those different styles of play baked into the system too. You know, that you can follow something that's closer to the 1st alien. This is one that you can follow closer to the 2nd alien. Be more cinematic. Be more campaign style, you know, progression over time, like, it's so interesting. And that's another thing that I think makes it stand out is that it has all of these options a it still fits within the same idea and franchise and IP and all of this, and it works. Or at least from what you guys say, it works. No. Sorry. What were you gonna say? Oh, no. Yeah. No. It's been I think it's the the number it's the most game, it's it's the game we've played the most in the last 3 years. Mhmm. That says something too. Yeah. And we've played a lot of games. It's just this one. We keep coming back to it. Mhmm. It's that cool. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, you know, if you're listening to this episode and aliens sounds awesome, just go check out free league store and look at all their games. But, you know, seriously consider checking out alien and getting it for yourself. You know? Getting it from the actual store, you get the physical book, they also have the PDFs, just the plain PDFs, available there too. But if you get the physical book there, you get the PDF as well, which makes it easier for everyone who plays online, because it's just like, hey. Here here's the PDF, guys. It's like, I don't have to worry about trying to screen share or anything like that. It's great. But no. Seriously, check out alien and, consider playing it yourself, especially if you wanna play something sci fi horror or you just, like, love the alien franchise and you want to play in that world, do it because it's cool as hell. And I think a As, like, kind of the final I have, like, 1 final question for both of you guys, and then we'll wrap up And then we'll wrap up into you guys saying where people can find you again, and we'll be done. But the final question is for I would like to hear both of your responses here. Why do you love alien RPG specifically? Are you pointing to me? Okay. So I I think I think this is so I got 2 2 answers. 1 is, I think Freely Has masterfully positioned itself by grabbing up these stories that have been deep parts of people's lives. Right? So we all watch like, we were alien and aliens. Like, that's a Super ingrained. Right? And the thing they're doing with, like, Blade Runner. Right? Twilight 2000. All these different IPs they're grabbing, a These are all cultural icons. Right? There's, you know, lots of so one, I like to just be able to, you know, same reason I like to play D and D. I love, you know, Tolkien, Middle Earth. Now I get to be there. Right? So I get to be in, like, a really super cool setting. Right? And that's fun as a role player, right, to go, what would I do? And then, I I would have to say, that, it it is the stress mechanic. And and, again, it's not the only freely game that has stress. So Twilight 2,000 has stress, but it is not it's a much a Simpler version. They really put a lot of time to flush out the stress mechanic in Alien, and and I I think it's probably It is definitely makes it the most it's definitely the kind of the jewel of the mechanics for me in that system. So Yeah. I love that. Amazing. Nathan? I just wanna punish my friends. It's an an alien is a is a perfect, That's a valid reason. Yeah. You know, all the times they made fun of me growing up, I I just wanna Killer characters. It's just a payback. Yeah. This is payback. Cover them with acid. It's just, like, brings me so much joy. See, for him for us, it's entertainment. For him, it's therapy. Yeah. A But, but but really is it's it's just the, I I kinda play the, the the the evil, Edgelord GM pre roll pretty well, but but I I I like, putting players in situations where, they feel if they make it to the end, they feel like they've earned it. Mhmm. If they survive a The the the they've gone through the gauntlet, they've they've succeeded, they're and there's, like, this, like, you know, deep breath at the end, it's like, oh, a What just happened to me and, in a game where I I can make them kinda go through that and and have, like, a little bit of real life safe stress, I I think it is is is good for me because, a Yeah. There's just, you know, a lot of the games out there and they're fun, where where there's just, you know, you a Well, you're always a hero and you there's no question that you're gonna, succeed or win or or do whatever you you're set out to do. A But, if I can make you kinda just, like, not sure for for for hours and hours and hours on end of a What's gonna happen to you, by the end, you should feel pretty pretty awesome. Mhmm. Or, you know, maybe your your 2nd or 3rd player will feel pretty awesome. But Whoever you get out of it with. Yeah. But the the but that's the the whole journey and and just to kind of the a It's really, I I, you know, I think I'm really jaded and and it did things need to be a little bit more extreme for me to, like, a feel anything. So so this really kinda brings it to me. It makes it good. There's so many levels to this explanation. That's so fair, though. Like, I I get it. You know? It's it's it's its own release, it's its own, like, I I can get you know, something about putting your players and friends through terrible situations. You know? I'm always like, I want my my players to succeed, but that doesn't mean that I'm gonna pull back my punches. A Like Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah, I I I like your character, but, like, you're still gonna die if you decide to be dumb. Like, we're these these are the rules that we're playing by. Yeah. You ever watched Die Hard? I have. It's been a while. Yeah. But, you know, like, a John McClane at the end, he was, like, crawled through broken glass, and he's got like, he was limping, and he was bleeding. Like, I want a Everybody to feel that way at the end of 1 of my, games. They're they're all John McClane, and they've all, been through the been through something. So Yeah. Been through That's why they don't let me run anymore. But You've been banished. Yeah. It's it's that and don't miss a session. No. Yeah. Things happen to your character while you're a It's never good. Oh, good to know. Good to know. No. This has been, though, seriously awesome. Thank you guys so much, age, and, of course, we'll have, like, this final thing at the end of where people can find you. Of course, all the links will be in the description of this episode. A but where can people find you? What, where can people watch your shows and all of that cool stuff? A Yep. So the the AARPG is pretty much everywhere, YouTube, search for us on your favorite podcatcher, a the a a r p g's .com, if you wanna look at our bios or look at our merch, and, you know, all the all the social medias, which which will a We'll be in the be in the show notes. That's a good place for those. Too many of them to list. Yeah. But so on our YouTube, YouTube has probably the most stuff on it. We have a Nice interview with Andrew Gaska, who who wrote, the alien RPG. Mhmm. We have, on our podcast version, we have our original alien shows and we're starting to add them to, you know, with no video, to our YouTube. We're currently on episode, about to release episode 9 of our of our alien archery apocalypse, game on YouTube and podcast, And that's gonna be 14 episodes total. Whoo. And we've also got 2,000 on there. We've got, Battle Lords, we've got some D and D. We've got, a Death in Space. We've got Mothership. Oh, Death in Space. And we're gonna have a Dragonbane probably Late December, early January, we're we're starting that, and that's gonna be a a much longer run. Yeah. That's really cool. We're how many episodes in are we? A Well, we've got 12 episodes recorded Yeah. Already. So Oh, man. That's, like, 6 days worth of content from us. A Yeah. And and and and just a foot stomp too, we talked a lot about aliens, but we also mentioned Free League a lot. So if you check out our interviews, we have interviews on Blade Runner, on Twilight 2000, I think, and just a bunch of other yeah. Forbidden Lands. So we have a lot of and and not just really too. So we've got a lot of good Both. I have a lot of indie, creators out there. So if you're interested in different games and kinda wanna peel back the curtain and see what the writers and the creators are are talking about it, a We got a good list. Hopefully growing. Hopefully. Yeah. No. That that is awesome. I definitely recommend checking those out because I those are always really fun interviews of, like, actually talking to the creators where it's like, okay. Let's what's the what's the thought process behind this? You know? Let's let's get into it. But no. That's a Amazing. But I love doing these as well with people who just love the game so much where it's like, yeah, they it speaks for itself. It's great. Yeah. A But, yeah, you everyone, you can find AARPG. Woo. I said it. On all of those socials and all of those places, again, the links will be in the description below along with, I will have the link for Nathan's, specific Twitter, and I don't know, Matt, if you are all if you also have a separate Twitter that you would like link I'll let him run the a a over g account. Yeah. Yeah. Let me let him do that. Yeah. A Yeah. Yeah. Keep them on a short leash. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. So all of that will be in the description so you guys can find so that you guys can find them and you can watch all of the awesome content and the awesome interviews because I will definitely be checking out more of those interviews soon because I a I I just like knowing about games. But yeah. Awesome. So I think absolutely. Thank you for coming on. This was an absolute blast. And, yeah, I think we are at the end. So thank you everyone for listening, and thank you, Nathan and Matt, for coming on. A video. I know. Yeah. It's really good for the audio part right here. Right? Yeah. It's silence. We're all waving. That's it.