‘We Believe A Xenomorph May Be Involved…’
Rules for Ripley’s Nightmares in Stargrunt II.
Written by Brian Burger, June 2001
The aliens of the ‘Alien’ movie series are many people’s favourite nasty bugs; this is an attempt to portray them in Ground Zero Games’ Stargrunt II.
General: The aliens are best played by a referee, with players taking the roles of terrorized colonists and/or hapless Marines. To get the right feel, the playing area should be very tight, either the corridors and ducts of a base or building, or a heavily urbanized zone; any playing area should have lots of hiding places, nooks and crannies for slavering alien beasties to hide in.
The Xenomorphs: These seem to come in a variety of forms, probably representing different maturity levels of the organism.
- Small Hunters: Probably immature forms of the Hunter xenomorph. Movement 8″ or d8x2/Armour d6/Close Assault d8.
- Hunters: Larger, faster, more dangerous mature forms of xenomorph. Move 10″ or d10x2/Armour d8/Close Assault d10.
- Queens: Very large, incredibly dangerous breeding form, rarely seen (thankfully). Move 10″ or d10x2/Armour d12/CA d12x2.
- ‘Facehuggers’: The larval, active breeding form of the xenomorph, given their unofficial name for their habit of attaching to victim’s faces before inserting an egg down the victim’s throat. Facehuggers die after inserting this egg, and gestation time is unknown at this time. If the facehugger’s ‘CA’ roll succeeds, one member of the target squad is hugged, and is counted as untreated wounded. Move Special/Armour n/a/CA d12.
Special Morale: Aliens always count as Elite 1 for all leadership checks; note that the CA die is usually different, which is not usual SG2 practice. Further, aliens count as High Mission Motivation at all times, and when an alien squad is activated they get one free Clear Suppression roll, in addition to the usual two actions.
In Close Assault, zenomorphs count as 3x their own numbers for determining Confidence Checks. Queens always cause checks at +2, regardless of the numbers involved.
If zenomorphs loose 50% or more of their unit in one attack, they will fall back as soon as they are able.
Extra Morale Rules for Humans:
Panic: Zenomorphs cause Panic checks when first seen by Untrained, Green and Regular troops; if Panic is caused it is treated a bit differently from regular Panic, as follows: if a unit Panics when confronted or attacked by xenomorphs, it will flee, not instantly freeze. The unit will make one Combat Move back along the route it has been following, or directly away from the oncoming xenomorph unit. After this panicked movement, the squad will freeze in place, and be subject to all the usual Panic rules as laid out in the SG2 rules. Note that this check will take place during a CA run by xenomorphs, if that is the first sighting; this may make it impossible for the squad to make it’s usual rolls to stand and receive the assault.
New/Adapted Morale & Reaction Tests:
- squad attacked unsuccessfully by facehugger: Threat +1
- squad attacked successfully by facehugger: Threat +2
- first sighting/attack by xenomorphs, including facehuggers: Panic Check for Untrained, Green & Reg squads.
- All other checks in SG2 apply.
Have fun, and remember… “It’s a bug hunt.”
Copyright Brian Burger, 2001.
If you want more information on the movies, thank the IMDB: Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997). There are persistant rumours about “Alien 5”, but nothing concrete yet, as far as I know.