ALIEN RPG vs See You, Space Cowboy...

Compare ALIEN RPG and See You, Space Cowboy... side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	ALIEN RPG	See You, Space Cowboy...
Genre	Scifi, Horror	Scifi
Play Style	Horror, Survival, Deadly, Atmospheric, One-Shot Friendly, Gritty, Licensed IP	Rules-Light, Player-Only Rolls, Anime, Noir, Cinematic, Theater of the Mind, One-Shot Friendly, Fast-Paced, Fiction-First, Narrative, Collaborative, Mission-Based, Random Tables, Character-Driven, Beginner-Friendly
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 attempting a Break (a discrete action like a fistfight, hack, persuasion, or repair), the player rolls a single Trait die — a d6, d8, d10, or d12 assigned to that Trait at character creation — against fixed thresholds: 4 or below fails, 5–9 partially succeeds, 10 or above fully succeeds. If the player has a relevant Talent (an open-ended specialty written by the player, like 'Picking Pockets' or 'Plays Drums'), they add a d4 to the roll. Failing a Break grants Juice, a token that can be spent to reroll all dice on a future Break (partial successes become failures on rerolls); rolling the maximum on the unmodified Trait die also grants Juice. The Bandleader (GM) never rolls dice — they choose the stat and thresholds, then narrate outcomes.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d4–d12
Complexity	Medium	Very Low
Accessibility	High	High
Community	Medium	Low
License	All Rights Reserved (20th Century Studios license)	Proprietary
Cost	$$	$
Publisher	Free League Publishing	Tidal Wave Games
Year	2025	2022
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 a fast, cinematic bounty-hunter game in the vein of Cowboy Bebop or Outlaw Star, tuned for one-shots and short 'season-length' campaigns. Best for tables that enjoy improvising scenes and sharing director-style narrative authority with the GM.
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	The Bandleader (GM) never rolls dice — players' Trait rolls resolve every contested moment while the GM chooses the stat, sets thresholds, and narrates outcomes. Talents are open-ended specialties players invent at character creation (e.g., 'Yeet', 'Picking Pockets', 'Plays Drums'), each adding a d4 to relevant Breaks for one of the four Traits. Required Bonds, Debts, and Regrets at character creation give every Outlaw a personal arc — clearing a Debt permanently upgrades the Talent die from d4 to d6, and resolving a Regret grants a once-per-session auto-success on a chosen Break. Procedural bounty generation pulls from tables for Threat Level, Charges, Demeanour, Modus Operandi, Specialized Gear, Appearance, Hideout, and Complications, supporting pickup play and improvised scenarios.
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	Mechanically minimal — no character classes, no skill list, no advancement track beyond clearing a Debt or resolving a Regret. Pacing assumes one-shots or short season-length campaigns; long-term progression is not structured by the rules. The Bandleader-rolls-nothing approach puts improvisational load on the GM to interpret narrative outcomes for every Break, since opposed-roll resolution does not apply. Setting is anchored to a specific 23rd-century solar system with 1990s-era consumer technology and no alien species; using a different backdrop requires reskinning the planet writeups, bounty charges table, and name tables.