Chariot of the Gods is the introductory scenario for Free League’s Alien RPG, it comes as part of the starter set and is a relatively lengthy cinematic scenario that casts the crew in a similar situation to the crew of the Nostromo in the original Alien film. I’ve run this scenario for two different groups and have a few thoughts about what I think it does right and what I think could be improved.
The physical product is up the usual high standard of Free League products, including a very large fold out map for use with the scenario, as well as: dice, tokens, a shortened rule book and the scenario book. The shortened rule book here is actually really worth mentioning as in many ways it’s a better package for the rules than the main core book due to increased information density. I certainly found myself using it as my prep and table reference far more than the bulkier core rules.
As an introductory scenario Chariot of the Gods does a lot right from a player perspective. Every one of the pre-genned characters has an interesting personal agenda that’ll give them a stake in the outcome of the story, as well as their being plenty of opportunities for each character to put their skills to use throughout the scenario. The plot is familiar enough to scratch the Alien nostalgia itch but with enough twists to make it hard to predict.
Where Chariot of the Gods comes a little unstuck is if you’re a first time GM, or someone new to the horror genre. While it presents a huge buffet of events for the GM to throw at the players, many of these require very specific actions by the players to come into play. If you’ve got a group who thinks outside the box, or who play it very safe it can be hard to introduce these without rail roading. I think to some extent this could be mitigated if the scenario included more advice to the GM regarding playing up the unpleasantness of exploring a derelict ship in vac suits. The first time I ran this I definitely fell in to this trap and let my players feel a little too comfortable in their suits on a spooky ship with no life support.
All that being said, the actual flavour of the scenario is great. There’s an interesting cast of NPCs and an escalating thread of tension throughout the scenario that’ll push it to an interesting conclusion, one way or the other. My only major gripe is that it needs a pretty firm grasp of the sci fi survival horror genre for a GM to elevate it from just a fun scenario to an amazing scenario. For a starter set that’s quite a big flaw, especially when one of Alien RPGs main competitors, Mothership, does such an excellent job of guiding GMs on how to run sci fi horror.
I really like the set dressing for Chariot of the Gods, and after gaining a lot more experience running horror RPGs I can see ways I could run this that would really make it shine. However, as part of a starter set I think the scenario has a few too many pitfalls, and lacks the focused advice it needs to get a GM off the ground. Given it’s a fairly large undertaking (2-4 sessions), that could leave a novice GM slogging through the scenario instead of cutting their teeth on something a little more manageable. Ironically the big core rule book has a scenario that does exactly this in the form of Hope’s Last Day.
alien rpgs review
Chariot of the Gods is the introductory scenario for Free League’s Alien RPG, it comes as part of the starter set and is a relatively lengthy cinematic scenario that casts the crew in a similar situation to the crew of the Nostromo in the original Alien film. I’ve run this scenario for two different groups and have a few thoughts about what I think it does right and what I think could be improved.
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