Alien 1999

I played a couple of sessions of the Alien role-playing game over the past couple of weeks.

Well, not exactly.

I played a couple of sessions of the Space: 1999 role-playing game.

Well, not exactly.

What in fact happened was Stuart ran a Space: 1999 adventure using the Alien system, and it was good fun. I've always enjoyed the late-period Gerry Anderson series -- although I think UFO is better -- so it was fun to play around in that setting, just before the Moonbase Alpha accident that kicks the series off. The Alien ruleset -- derived from one of my favourites, Mutant Year Zero -- is quite good too, and worked well for the relatively low-tech world of 70s UK science fiction TV. It does tend towards horror and stress -- as you'd expect -- so it created a bit of a different tone for Space: 1999, perhaps the sort of thing you'd get if the series had been made in 1985 rather than 1975.

I'm not sure I have any interest in Alien itself as a game setting, but the system seems flexible and applicable for all sorts of things. I wonder how it would handle the Cthulhu Mythos?

Hmm...

Stuart's summary of the first session is here, and the second here.