I've been following the development of the Alien RPG for quite awhile, including getting the Chariot of the Gods scenario / partial ruleset several months ago as part of a pre-order. I could gush for paragraphs about how much I like this game, but or this review I'll just hit some key points:

A love of the franchise. There's a lot of attention to detail in the rulebook and entire chapters of worldbuilding information I didn't even know as a fan of the Alien movies (namely the Earth governments and some of the corporations). The canonical universe here firmly includes the events of Prometheus through Alien 3. There's also some hints and nods to Alien novels and comics I'm less familiar with. A lot of effort has been made to make a game universe that's more interesting and engaging than 'you fight a Xenomorph for the tenth session in a row.'

More than a bug hunt. There's great support for 'Cinematic' play, the kind of Alien movie everyone-dies one-shot you can have a lot of fun with, but they haven't skimped on support for long campaigns. The three frameworks for campaign play--space truckers, colonial marines, and frontier colonists--capture the general feel of various Alien movies and books and helps guide play towards their themes. There's a buttload of tables for mission generation for each framework, as well as tables for rolling up your own new star systems, planets, colonies, etc. Ironically, one of the best things about the Alien RPG is all the ways it helps you do more than just fight Xenomorphs.

Danger, horror, tension. The stress dice mechanic and Panic rolls for player characters can create singular intense moments or continued problems as everything goes to Hell in a handbasket. The game constructs sensible combat rules and then uses them to show you just how dangerous the Xenomorphs are. Cinematic agendas and playbook (class) abilities can give you an edge or help you survive--but some of them come at a cost to your fellow humans. GM guidelines offer helpful advice for running the game, creating tension, and knowing how to alternate danger with solace to create an engaging game.

Okay, so I did end up going on for paragraphs. But I could have gone on for MORE paragraphs, in my defense. The TL;DR is that if you're at all a fan of the Alien movies, this is a worthy RPG for the franchise. If you're looking for something new in the genre of a horror or sci-fi RPG, this is a worthwhile pickup.

I already owned a few of these titles when the bundle came up, and I always have 3+ of these portfolios wishlisted. Picking up this bundle was a no-brainer for me!

Review is updated to reflect newest version as of 2/9/18

Cardistry: While replacing D20 rolls with card-draw values still has some math drawbacks, the deck manipulation features have been greatly improved by removing the need to expend bardic inspiration to use them. There's a snag wherein the player needs to keep track of X number of available uses for 4 different deck manipulation features, but it's still a much better approach than the original design.

Wild Cards: The new version has made good adjustments to clean up abuse scenarios and keep the power balance generally equal between cards.

Jackpot: As above, the reworked Jackpot is a far more consistently useful feature. It could probably be buffed to where card values 18 or higher don't expend a spell slot, as most wild cards will be held onto in the player's hand if they can help it.

I was pretty damn harsh in the first version of this review--probably too harsh, to be honest. The creator took the criticism in stride and made considerable improvements to the archetype concept. While the revised product still requires a bit more bookkeeping than most, it's been made into a bard college with interesting features and a good adherence to its theme.

Ran this for some friends as a winter one-shot adventure and they had a blast! In the interest of time, I lopped off the first part (which provides a number of hooks and helps ground the adventure in the setting more strongly).

My group got straight into the action, with an encounter with some frosty trolls and winter wolves on the route to Castle Krag. The adventure felt like a fun little dungeon crawl, with a few lower-ranking 'miniboss' fights leading up to strenuous final boss(es). A blast of burning, necrotic hellfire put the fear of all the gods into my 14th-level party!

The players all complimented the adventure, which after cutting out the first bit still took a good six hours and filled out the day nicely.

I always like an archer-monk take, they're nifty and fun.

This is a pretty well-designed archetype, which ties a lot of archery features into the base monk class features as a means of controlling its power scaling. I like these kinds of designs immensely and I believe they're used appropriately here.

There's some spellcasting options as part of the features, mainly utility-based. However, one of the options I consider 'iconic' to this archetype is casting magic missile as an archery shot, using the martial arts damage die instead of the standard damage die. This guarantees scaling for the feature and makes it remarkably fun and interesting to use.

If there's a criticism here, it's eventually unlocking stunning strike as a ranged attack. I'm slightly leery of it being made an option, and think it might be more balanced if using it at range cost additional ki. Other than this, there are just a few typos in here that could do with a once-over.

All in all, a good take on a popular monk archetype concept!

This is a good, straightforward little product that lists out what all of the adventuring gear items are for. The expanded rules for existing items add easy-to-use mechanical components. The new items are interesting, and add in a few common or uncommon items that could be used or encountered in a number of adventures.

On top of it all, the product is damn gorgeous.

Absolutely worth checking out!

The Good: This is an extremely interesting alternative means of character building. I'm one of those people who enjoys the option of randomizing through interesting and creative tables--it challenges me to think in new ways or adapt to new situations ingame. For people who share that joy, this is a supplement for you.

The Bad: Really nothing. The content is very cleanly presented, but has only a small bit of confusion. The instructions indicate you pick a race and class, and then pick ten options from the skill/tool/weapon/etc proficiencies. Do you not obey the normal rules and restrictions for skill proficiencies as listed for each class? A little brush-up of language clarity or intent would be good here and is the only meaningful fix this otherwise great item could require.

TLDR: The monsters are fun, delivering on the promise of oddball abilities and damage interactions.

The Good:

The creatures are creative, and deliver on the idea of creating interactions with various damage types.

The Vascularch is a semi-vampiric tentacle creature that plays around a lot with gaining temporary hit points, and even expending them for certain empowered attacks. It's nifty.

The Box Plant is a tough CR 5 creature that doesn't technically have vulnerabilities to certain damage, but has different defensive bonuses that are lost upon taking certain different types of damage. It's a fun and interesting way to approach a creature vulnerability without raw "extra damage" math.

The Eyelasher is fun--don't do force damage to it, or trigger a vortex that threatens to suck you in! Radiant damage refreshes its deadly eye beam!

The Bad:

Not too much to gripe about.

There's no art or fancy layout, but it's not really an issue in such a small document.

If there's one thing I think the document is really missing, it's fluff text. There are no descriptions of what the monsters really look like, where they come from, or how a DM might use them in an adventure. I think a bit of this information would be very helpful for incorporating these creatures.

Summary: Short and sweet, a trio of varied and interesting monsters that would be especially worthy additions to a dungeon or similar series of encounters.

The Good:

It's a solid bard class with focus on the Battledance, empowering extra attacks as you move around th--okay, it's basically the Dervish, I've totally converted this one too, but for Fighter. This is a good progression for the Bard class, though. The added adventure hooks and stat block for a dancer are fun and creative, a nice added bonus.

The Bad:

There's nothing explicitly bad, here. If there's anything I'm disappointed by, it's exclusive focus on combat attacks and combat statistics. I think this class could get away with a different level 6 or level 14 feature that focuses more on Charisma (Performance) or some other RP-focused aspect of a dancer.

In any case, it's a nice bard subclass!

Clench up, I'm going to hit every individual sublass here, so mobile users might get cut off.

EDITED 12/11/17 with more complete thoughts

TLDR: A very good supplement with creative and interesting subclasses that fill requested niches or forge ahead into unique and intersting ideas. Some sections have minor gripes that, based on prior Adept releases, I trust the creators to take another look at for a future update.

Courageous Heart: A bit of an odd concept, but I like seeing Barbarian approaches that turn the generic “angry warrior” on its ear. Mostly, the scaling benefits to attack rolls with improvised weapons and unarmed strikes helps this path fill in a ‘general brawler’ archetype that the Barbarian could use. Red Reaver: An interesting tracker-focused path. The devourer feature at 3rd level is damn strong for players looking for a damage-oriented (rather than ‘tanking’) barbarian, but has enough drawbacks to not be overpowered. In fact, there’s a lot of cost-effectiveness choices in this class at higher levels regarding hit dice. As a note, the sanguine clarity feature could use clarification on whether the hit dice expended are in addition to the ones spent to enter devouring rage, or if they’re part of the initial cost. I’m assuming the former, but the question will arise at the table.

Sacred Kin: Spellcasting barbarian, here we go! This is a good approach—sorcerer spells, limited to divination or conjuration, with Constitution as a spellcasting ability. It’s extremely unique and tailored to maintain a balanced path with a very consistent theme. If there’s a drawback to this path, it’s that there are a buttload of things packed in here—limited casting, ancestral origins, modified rage, a few metamagic options. I’d almost suggest dropping a few of the ribbons or features that try to ride the fence between melee attacking and ragey-spellcasting. A good archetype, but definitely for confident and experienced players. EDIT: Something I can say confidently upon further review: zero need for Metamagic options. The majority of them don't interact gracefully with the majority of available spells. The altered rage feature is actually rather overpowered--it should simply allow spellcasting while raging and resistance to ancestry type. The capstone ability should not give advantage vs spells/spell effects, but that's just my opinion of Barbarians--they have a clear avenue of weakness to mind-control or other crippling spells and I think that weakness should remain a consistent counter to the class.

College of Discord: Very fun and thematic. Smashing instruments, reappearing with a blast, gaining advantage by succeeding on saving throws. If there’s a criticism here, it’s that battaglia probably needs to have a higher ‘cost’ for how powerful it is—a repositioning tool with a chance to knock enemies prone. Perhaps an initial expenditure of a bardic inspiration?

College of Keys: This college might falter in campaigns without opportunities to interact with traps, locks, warding spells, etc on a consistent basis. When they do, though, this class is absolutely going to shine. This is the dream class of players who want to run a burglar-bard and who aren’t interesting in just being a ‘party face’ character.

College of Mourning: I’ve done two death/dying bards myself and I get a kick out of seeing the myriad ways this topic can be tweaked for different bard approaches. This one has a bit of a necromancy approach, but with a kind of ‘Day of the Dead’ carnival feel.

Entropy Domain: A slightly anti-dying domain that mostly focuses on disrupting spellcasting. Some really kickass CD features to mess with casters are the best features of the class.

Survival: Rather than being tracking-flavored, this is more about a determination to survive oncoming death. Makes sense, as this was part of another Adept product for Tomb of Annihilation. A decent domain with a strong once-per-day capstone. Circle of Seasons: I really like this druid subclass, which expends wild shape uses for its own interesting choice of mechanics. The ‘child of change’ feature needs clarification on whether you can choose to place your shroud of seasons in a ten foot area OR still on a single creature, or if you can move the area on your turn. As the current language reads, it permanently changes to an area-of-effect that can’t be moved.

Circle of the Spiritlords: An interesting mask druid option that grows in power over time. It’s a good concept that gives a lot of cantrip access, but it might feel a bit weak compared to other circles until later levels, where it picks up much more power.

Fighter Dragoon: Interesting to see a mounted-focused fighter, given the hubbub around the first iteration of the idea that made it to Xanathar’s. Like the Cavalier, this class does a good job of providing interesting features that aren’t reliant on being mounted, but gives additional useful features when a player happens to be on a mount as well. It has a few combat tricks that don’t rely on a superiority die. The final capstone is unusual for a fighter class, but certainly useful if the group doesn’t have a ranger or a magical means of improving their travel. EDIT: The level 7 charge feature while still getting attacks is a little too strong as-is. I believe it would be more balanced if it was required to be connected to a Dash action, sacrificing attacks or forcing the use of an Action Surge in exchange for knocking enemies about.

Runeguard: This fighter was hyped on-stream, and it’s pretty damn nifty. It suffers a tiny bit from ‘cool name syndrome,’ where you’ll have to learn the fantasy-ish names for the runes and augmentations as you go. Overall, the class is incredibly flavorful and is going to offer huge variability in style from one player to the next. There’s a lot to dig down into here and you could play the class multiple times with different approaches. Like the barbarian/sorcerer mashup, a class for confident players (and DMs).

Way of Atonement: Definitely a strange one. Based on the description, you're always down some hit points when you use the class features, even after resting. It also semi-penalizes you for having permanent magic items. It's not a bad class and has some real strengths, but I think it needs another pass to make it feel rewarding for sustained play.

Way of Empathy: A really interesting class where you're constantly taking damage to heal or protect other creatures, but regain extra hit points while resting to help make up for it. It's definitely an alternative approach to healing/protecting.

Oath of Predation: Woah, don't poop on my Knights of Takhisis. Anyway...Kind of an odd oath. Definitely domineering/evil, a mix of trickster-ish and dominating. Not bad at all, but doesn't shine thematically the way many of the other class options do. EDIT: Pre-adjustments, the level 20 feature has a bit too much power stacked onto it. Overall, the class features seem more like 'Dominator' or 'Manipulator' than ' Predation--I know the title means Predator in a manipulative sense, but a change in title/flavor wording might improve how people perceive the class.

Oath of Providence: Woo, it's DAMN STRONG. All about changing luck for yourself, allies, or enemies. Nothing in particular is too strong, but the 20th level feature might (over the course of an adventuring day) be the strongest 20th level paladin feature there is.

Burghal Explorer: An interesting urban fighter option for ranger. Getting its grazing strike option with every single attack is what really gives the class its power, but might have a few too many free, constant strengths/options.

Wasteland Wanderer: Some really interesting stuff here surrounding how you interact with initiative, suprise, hidden enemies, noticing threats. A really cool ranger option for making sure you aren't caught unawares by an enemy or trap--or reacting effectively even if your group is.

Divine Herald Rogue: A nice spellcasting rogue that isn't an arcane trickster. A semi-smitey rogue with a dabbling of cleric features. Neat.

Fey Magic Sorcerer: Lets a sorcerer swap out for druid spells as they progress, which opens up a lot of play options. The other features allow for some tricky damage-swapping or teleporting features.

Chaos Patron: A kooky class where your features all have benefits and drawbacks. The ideas are all really cool, but I could see the randomness throwing a real wrench in party or player plans. People looking at the class should know what they're getting into.

The Noble Genie: Super-strange but not in a bad way. Your little genie sidekick can go find spell knowledge for you, which opens up a lot of options in combat--if they come back in a timely manner.

Beguiler Wizard: A wizard who gets kinda-roguey features, including a not-quite-sneak-attack. Pretty neat, difficult to compare to PhB schools. EDIT: Agree with some criticism I'm seeing that the Int bonus to spell damage doesn't need to follow sneak attack rules, and safely feels like a small boost that can be just awarded to the class.

Mage Hunter: From another Adept supplement. A good subclass. Think of a bladesinger, but with aggressive features rather than defensive. Reconstruction: An interesting approach to a healing-oriented wizard. Turning single-target Evocation spells into healing spells is a creative way to approach this. Like the Beguiler, hard to know if this is balanced in all scenarios. EDIT: Afraid of it outshining clerics with a free choice between damaging targets/healing targets with the same spell, AND having slot recovery as a base class.

The rest of it: It's pretty good, yo. But you were really looking at this for the class options. The rest of the stuff in here is just gravy.

Overall, the classes are creative and interesting. Nothing feels like a reskinned XYZ class from an existing WOTC product, though a couple of them are "what if X class had Y-style features," which is something Wizards themselves have been doing lately.

It's pretty damn cool product, kids.

The Good:

Decent little adventure with straightforward encounters/premise/etc. Something easy to run on the fly.

The Bad:

A few minor spelling errors or odd layout spacing areas, no real issue.

The big criticism here is a choice of intro/setting. The party travels to Waterdeep to meet the person hiring them for this job, then takes what amounts to a magical rocket ship (in terms of speed) to turn the month+ trip to Chult by boat into a 2-3 hour journey. The ship is presented as a mapped encounter zone with treasure to boot--but I'm not sure why. This is the ship that your patron hired to carry you to a job location...and it's being treated as an encounter zone? It's very odd.

The ship reaches Chult, but apart from being a jungle setting, there's nothing lore-wise or description-wise that ties to it Chult in any way.

Really, the adventure didn't NEED to travel halfway across the world for a simple retrieval adventure (how and why did these bandits go halfway around the world for this heirloom and retreat to a camp in the middle of a deadly jungle anyway?). The adventure would be much stronger and make more sense if Chult was dropped entirely, and the party just had some opportunity to hunt the bandits down in a lair on the Sword Coast (with potential encounters along the way).

A bit of a mixed bag--some of the feats will be hard to balance across games (straight-up giving magical items away out of nowhere is pretty powerful). Others give away multiple spells and class features in a single feat and scale throughout entire class progressions, which almost certainly overdoes their power compared to standard feats.

There are some very specific prerequisites for some of these feats, which I don't consider bad; they're pointedly meant to be for certain Forgotten Realms characters. But the wild swing in power between various feats makes some of the better and more reasonable entries difficult to discover.

Page after page of (scaled) random encounters for Chult. A brilliant supplement for someone like me, who has begun to cringe a little when I roll a Tomb of Annihilation encounter I've gotten before.

TLDR: A supplement with numerous ideas to flesh out everything about Executioner's Run, but could use some tidying up.

The Good: The supplement provides a number of ideas or mechanics surrounding executioner's run, including the court proceedings leading up to the run, pleading your case, different run setups, suggested encounters, the severity of various crimes, and so on.

The ideas presented, as discrete units, are all interesting and could save a DM some prep time or provide valuable ideas to make the Run a more dynamic location in Port Nyanzaru.

The Bad: In general, the document could use some cleanup. A few spelling mistakes, some wording cleanup, and an effort to format things like ability checks in the standard 'Ability (Skill) check' format are examples here. Similarly, the document has oddly narrow columns and a slighly larger-than-average font size, which spreads out each section and the tables a bit too much. Some of the larger sections (like how various factors can impact the merchant prince's verdict) could use some reorganizing and clarity so that the DM can easily reference the material.

There's no real art or backgrounds to speak of, just some (dry erase?) map images that give example layouts for various Run setups. It's relatively printer-friendly.

Summary: There are really good bits in here that provide a lot of toys for DMs to play with. I believe fixing some of the formatting and language issues will allow more content (and clearer content) to fit on each page and make the entire supplement easier to use.

I've been meaning to review one of these for a while. Pros:

An interesting and straightforward little quest/adventure, with numerous opportunities to provide additional challenges, options, and complications.

Cons:

Few. The layout that makes it unique might also take a bit of getting used to. A printer-friendly option might be considered for this or future entries for DMs who like paper copies--the product is filled with colors and dark backgrounds, the bane of printing.