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“Space is a pitch black room—stick your hand out and you might never get it back. Of course, you also might touch god. It’s a gamble either way. To not try, however, is to wither and die—only those bold and foolish enough to take a chance will change their lives.”
—Captain J.V. Gorham, Far Spinward Colonies, Pioneer, Weyland Corp.
All the wonder and danger of the stars is yours—if you can just wipe the grime off your face and dig the dirt out from under your fingernails first. Airless moons circle swirling gas giants, eager to be transformed into tomorrow’s paradise. Dark ancient mysteries wait to be unearthed beneath a millennium of debris. Searing solar flares boil your flesh and blacken your bones as you harness their power to light a hundred worlds. Long lost mysteries lie entombed in the frozen hearts of icy comets. Unstable tectonic plates shift to drown iridium mines in scalding lava. Even the truth of humanity's origins awaits you out there, orbiting some dying star. And out there amongst it all is something truly horrifying—something that nature never intended.
Something alien.
Building Better Worlds is a complete campaign module for the award-winning official ALIEN roleplaying game, giving you all the tools you need to run a full open-world campaign as a pioneering explorer or colonist. This book includes:
- History of Colonization – the story of humanity’s reach for the stars.
- Creating Explorers & Colonists – expanded character creation rules for life on the frontier.
- Gear & Ships – an extensive chapter with new gear and spaceships, gloriously illustrated.
- Extrasolar Species Catalog – new Xenomorphic creatures to encounter.
- The Lost Worlds – the framework and backstory for a frontier campaign.
- Expeditions – six thrilling expeditions into uncharted space, playable in any order.
- The Endgame – the final showdown with everything at stake.
- The Appendix – create your own frontier and colonize it.
NOTE: The ALIEN RPG core rulebook is required to use this book.
Purchasing this digital title unlocks the content in the digital reader on Alien NEXUS, as well as in additional tools as they become available during Early Access.
Table of Contents
1Pioneers Wanted
- Exploration
- Colonization
2History of Colonization
- The Golden Age of Expansion
- Colonial Civil Conflicts
- Hyperdyne’s Legacy of Conflict
- The Arcturian Conundrum
- Biological Disasters of the Middle Heavens
- Worlds Lost and the Great Mother
- Timeline
3Organization
- Scientific Exploration Vehicular (SEV) Expeditions
- Extrasolar Colonization Administration (ECA)
- Governmental Organizations
- United Americas (UA)
- The Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP)
- The Three World Empire (3WE)
- Independent Core System Colonies (ICSC)
- New Albion Protectorate (NAPRO)
4Making Frontier Colonists
- New Talents
- Wildcatter
- Entertainer
- Ready To Depart?
5Gear and Ships
- Weapons
- Suits and Armor
- Other Equipment
- Vehicles
- Spacecraft
6Campaigns on the Frontier
- The Campaign Setting
- Campaign Styles
- Expeditions
- Challenges of Frontier Life
7Systems and Colonies
- Outer Rim Territories
- The Frontier
- The Far Spinward Colonies
8Weyland-Yutani Extrasolar Species Catalog
- Abominations
- Proto-Xenomorphs
- Xenomorphs
9The Lost Worlds
- The Far Spinward Colonies
- The Great Mother Mission
- Running The Lost Worlds Campaign
- The Player Characters
- Exploring the Far Spinward Colonies
- The Metapuzzle
- Downtime
- Session Zero
- Campaign Events
- Non-Player Characters
- Player Handouts
10Expeditions
- 1. Home Sweet Home
- 2. To Go My Own Dark Way
- 3. Leave All Else to the Gods
- 4. The Devil Lives in Still Waters
- 5. Against a Sea of Troubles
- 6. Let Sleeping Gods Lie
- 7. In the Shadow of Perfection
- Aftermath
Appendix: Building Your Own Better World
- Enhanced Systems and Planets
- Your Colony
- The Colony in Play
- Stories of Colony Life
- Colony Sheet
- Planet Sheet