ALIEN RPG vs Impulse Drive
Compare ALIEN RPG and Impulse Drive side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| ALIEN RPG | Impulse Drive | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi, Horror | Scifi |
| Tags | Fear & Stress Mechanics, Survival, Deadly, Atmospheric, One-Shot Friendly, Gritty, Licensed IP | Space Opera, Ship-Based, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Mission-Based, Strong GM Support, Improvisation, Hackable, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a d6 dice pool (attribute + skill). Each 6 is a success. Stress adds extra dice: better odds, but stress dice that roll 1 trigger panic. Push rolls to reroll failures but gain stress. Cinematic mode for one-shots, Campaign mode for long-form play. | When a Move tells you to roll, roll 2d6 and add the modifier it names, usually one of five Approaches (Volatile, Calculating, Slick, Stalwart, Alien) rated from -3 to +3. A 10+ is a full success, a 7–9 is usually a success with a cost or fewer choices, and a 6 or lower marks XP while the Space Master makes a Call. Advantage means rolling 3d6 and keeping the two highest dice, and Disadvantage keeps the two lowest. The two cancel each other out and never stack. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Very High |
| Runnability | High | Low |
| License | All Rights Reserved (20th Century Studios license) | Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | Free |
| Publisher | Free League Publishing | Adrian Thoen |
| Year | 2025 | 2019 |
| Languages | English, Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese | English |
| Best For | Sci-fi horror campaigns and one-shots in the Alien universe, with a stress/panic system that mechanically drives tension. Supports both deadly cinematic one-shots and long-form campaign play. | Groups who want an episodic, TV-style space opera about a broke crew taking contracts aboard a ship they build together, where each character's flaws drive both trouble and advancement. |
| Highlights | Stress and panic system mechanically reinforces horror tension, two distinct play modes (Cinematic and Campaign), Evolved Edition streamlines rules and improves layout, well-supported licensed setting | Applying a Hook when it complicates a scene gives Disadvantage, so playing to a character's flaws drives advancement. Money is never tracked literally: completing a Contract triggers the ship's Payment Move, and a standard result lets the crew pick only two spends such as maintenance or an upgrade. Harm can always be converted into Stress, and a full Stress track forces a permanent Calamity that changes the character for good. |
| Considerations | Tightly bound to the Alien IP with limited genre flexibility, stress mechanics can feel punishing at high levels, Evolved Edition changes are modest over 1st edition | There is no setting chapter, so the galaxy and its factions are invented by the group during character creation, ship creation and the first session. Money is abstracted and the crew is deliberately kept broke, so groups who enjoy tracking prices and trade margins get tiered gear lists and cargo categories instead. There is no separate ship-combat resolution engine: crews apply the personal Universal Moves through the ship at ship-scale ranges, dealing Damage instead of Harm. |