Alien Is a Better Fit for the Breathless System

Even though Mothership and Alien RPGs are fantastic games

Alien Romulus Poster

I just re-watched Alien and Aliens to get ready for Alien Romulus at the theater, and one thing I noticed is that the TTRPGs inspired by Alien take a surprisingly different approach than I expected.

When you dive into the rules of games like Mothership or the Alien RPG from Free League, it quickly becomes clear how fragile your character is. The games are straightforward about the harsh reality that your character could very well die in a session, and you should be ready to whip up a new character ASAP when that happens.

It’s true that in Alien, plenty of people meet horrible fates. The crew on the ship are vulnerable, battling both the void of space and the terrifying Xenomorphs.

Alien RPG from Free League

But Ripley doesn’t die; she endures. Her journey is extremely hard and perilous, and every time she catches her breath for even a second, there’s another danger lurking around the corner, within the vents, or literally beside her in the ship.

I think Mothership and the Alien RPG are fantastic games and a great fit for the franchise if you want to play as expendable crewmembers who aren’t the heroes of the movies.

However, I don’t know about you, but my players aren’t exactly fans of that. Each group is different, but my players love it when their character endures the dangers. These characters will most certainly change throughout the game, but will be resilient. And if their character does die, it’s going to be an epic moment. We are going to make it an epic moment.

Reflecting on all of this, I realized that Breathless is actually a better fit if you want to play a game with characters akin to Ripley, rather than those resembling the rest of the crew.

And, as far as I know, there isn’t a Breathless game out there that captures the same Alien-esque space-horror elements.

Maybe someone should do something about that…