Revised NPC stat blocks for ALIEN

As I found with Liminal, I am finding myself frustrated with standard stat blocks. This time, it’s Destroyer of Worlds, for Alien. 

Very minor spoilers ahead.

Ambush

So, one of the encounters in Act 1 is an ambush by a named NPC and five insurgents. However, Destroyer of Worlds, and Alien, make it hard work. Here’s how it currently works:

Page 54 lists the Ambush event—the insurgents try to take the PCs prisoners. There’s no mention of their stats or weapons or what their tactics are.

Page 17 lists the named NPC. (I'm going to ignore him for the remainder of this post, and concentrate on the faceless insurgents. Although the wider point applies.)

Page 19 lists stats for all the minor NPCs, including the insurgents. There we find this:

Page 84 lists the AK-4047 stats:

The M4A3 service pistol, meanwhile, isn’t listed in the Destroyer of Worlds book (it’s in the main rules), although you can get the information you need from the PC character sheets:

So, time for a quick quiz.

How many dice does an insurgent roll if they are attacking with their AK-4047 at medium range?

Ummmm…

I really don’t want to be flipping between pages just to find out how many dice I am rolling.

Better stat blocks

First problem is the stat block.

Even for key NPCs (as the one directly above), the stat block is hard to use.  That’s fine for everyone who knows that Command is a Wits skill (or is it Empathy)? But it would be much clearer if they laid it out like this:

Strength 4: Close Combat 1, Heavy Machinery, Stamina 1
Agility 5: Ranged Combat 5, Mobility 1, Piloting
Wits 4: Observation 4, Survival 1, Comtech
Empathy 1: Command 1, Manipulation, Medical Aid

That way I can immediately see that for Command, I’m rolling 2 dice. (10 for Ranged Combat!)

Would that be so hard? It takes up a bit more space, but it’s MUCH more usable.

Insurgents on Trello

But even that’s not quite what I’m looking for. This is a combat encounter so I need to know how many dice they are rolling. I’ve therefore rewritten the stat block to make it easier for me to use in play.

I’m using Trello to manage the game, and I’ve created a card for the insurgents that looks like this:

(The card will also include the named NPC stats as well.)

This tells me:

• The dice they’re rolling—all I need to think about are range and aiming modifiers.
• Space to track each insurgent’s health.
• Their tactics—they are trying to capture the PCs so they try to get them to drop their weapons first. I like to think about these ahead of time rather than figure out something sensible in the middle of play (when I am busy).
• Their reactions when they start losing—they will flee rather than fight to the death.

And if I need their skills, then they’re at the bottom; out of the way, but there if I need them.

Curse of knowledge

My instinct is that the designers are suffering from the curse of knowledge. They are intimately familiar with how the game works, but they’ve forgotten how to think like a newcomer. 

Unless you’re fully familiar with Alien (and I suspect most of us play Alien between other games), the current stat blocks are confusing and require endless cross-referencing and looking up of tables.

A plea

I don’t suppose that Free League will change their stat blocks, but if I ever write an adventure or encounter for Alien, I'll make it as easy to run as possible.