Introduction
Cinematic Play and Campaign Play use the same ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition rules but ask the group to make different promises to one another. Cinematic Play is a focused survival story built like a film: supplied characters, act-based agendas, prepared locations, and a conclusion. Campaign Play follows a crew the players create together and then steer through jobs, travel, relationships, consequences, and changing goals.
Choose the mode before creating characters or preparing the first session. That decision tells the group whether it is stepping into a crisis designed to end tonight or starting a life that must still make sense after the crisis ends. This guide compares the two modes, then walks through running a campaign from Session Zero onward. For the library's overall map, visit the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition root guide.
Hot Take
Choose the mode based on the aftermath you want, not the body count you expect. A cinematic scenario can have survivors, and a campaign can lose a PC in the first job. The real question is whether the table wants an epilogue tonight or wants tomorrow's debts, injuries, promises, and job offers to matter. Groups that pick Campaign Play because they "want the characters to live" usually end up disappointed, because the campaign rules never promised that.
The Two Play Promises
Both modes use the same core rules and share the game's three themes: space horror, sci-fi action, and a sense of wonder. What changes is how the group enters the story and what it expects to remain when the story ends.
| Question | Cinematic Play | Campaign Play |
|---|---|---|
| What are we doing tonight? | Playing a contained, high-stakes scenario with a setup, escalation, and resolution. | Continuing the lives of the same crew through its next job, destination, problem, or decision. |
| Who are the PCs? | Scenario-provided roles with immediate pressures. | Player-created characters connected by a shared campaign frame. |
| What does survival mean? | It is uncertain and may be the scenario's central question. | It lets the crew carry consequences, advancement, obligations, and choices forward. |
| Who chooses direction? | The scenario sets up a crisis; players decide how it turns out. | Players decide which jobs, routes, goals, and risks to pursue. |
| What ends play? | A climactic resolution and possibly an epilogue. | A session ends with new consequences and another decision. |
Both modes can be tense, lethal, and emotional. Neither one licenses surprise content or conflict between players that the table did not agree to.
Cinematic vs Campaign Play Compared
ALIEN RPG offers two distinct modes rather than one mode at two lengths. Neither is more "real" ALIEN RPG. Trouble starts only when a group expects campaign ownership from a one-shot role, or expects a campaign to work like a string of disposable film scenarios.
The Essential Difference
| If your group wants... | Start with... |
|---|---|
| A complete dangerous story in one session or event | Cinematic Play |
| Prepared roles with immediate pressure and scenario-specific agendas | Cinematic Play |
| A fast introduction to the game for new players | Cinematic Play |
| A recurring crew that takes jobs, travels, and changes over time | Campaign Play |
| Player-created characters and shared decisions about where to go next | Campaign Play |
Compare the Two Modes
| Feature | Cinematic Play | Campaign Play |
|---|---|---|
| Typical scope | A complete adventure designed for a single session | At least five or six sessions, often many more |
| Characters | Pre-generated for the specific scenario | Created by players with the chapter 2 process or the optional life path method |
| Buddy and rival | Chosen for you by the scenario | Chosen by each player, and changeable after any session |
| Scenario structure | A prepared three-act arc with locations, events, and a climax | Sandbox play built around a campaign frame, jobs, travel, factions, and goals |
| Agenda rhythm | A new hidden agenda for each act | A career or player-made agenda discussed with the group at session end |
| Reward | Story points | Experience points |
| Preparation | Heavier for the Game Mother: scenario, characters, maps, and handouts | Shared Session Zero decisions, then ongoing prep that follows player choices |
| Lethality | Fast and brutal; most PCs probably will not survive | Still brutal and deadly, but PCs generally have a better chance of surviving a session |
| End state | A resolution and possible epilogue | New jobs, consequences, development, and another decision about where to go |
Treat the comparison as adaptable guidance. The core book notes that a group can create characters first and let the Game Mother design a cinematic adventure around them. What matters is that everyone agrees which mode's expectations control the session.
Cinematic Play: A Scenario With an Arc
Cinematic Play emulates the arc of an ALIEN film. The core book treats the pre-generated characters like roles in a script: they are built for the adventure, so their backgrounds and agendas fit the plot, often with tensions that surface later. Players only need to decide who plays whom, and the book suggests rolling dice if they cannot agree. Published options include the Hope's Last Day Starter Set, Rapture Protocol, and the first-edition Draconis Saga, which is compatible with the Evolved Edition.
A cinematic adventure, published or homemade, has these parts:
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| What's the Story, Mother? | A read-aloud introduction that tells players enough to get started. |
| The Situation | A short Game Mother overview of what is really going on. |
| The Characters | PCs and NPCs with stats and backgrounds; each PC has an agenda for each act. |
| Locations | A map of the core area with key locations described. Cinematic adventures are usually location-based. |
| Acts and Events | Act I, The Setup, introduces characters and conflicts. Act II, The Tilt, brings a surprise, raises the danger, and reveals secrets. Act III, The Showdown, resolves the story based on what the PCs do. |
| Epilogue | A suggested sign-off message for a surviving PC to read or adapt. |
Each act has a set of possible events. A few can be mandatory, but most should be optional and stand-alone, used or skipped based on what the PCs do rather than chained into a fixed sequence. Some events hit the whole group; others target one character.
The mode suits conventions, single evenings, and groups new to roleplaying. It also asks players to accept its premise: the crisis comes first, the PCs may turn on each other, and survival is never guaranteed.
Agendas, Secrets, and Conflict
Personal agendas show most clearly why the two modes need different social agreements.
| Topic | Cinematic Play | Campaign Play |
|---|---|---|
| Agenda source | Written into the scenario; the GM hands out a new one at the start of each act | Picked from the career's suggestions or written by the player |
| Default visibility | Secret. Players should not show it or write it on the character sheet. Groups may choose open agendas instead. | Discussed by the whole group at the end of each session |
| Reward | At the end of each act, the GM awards 1 story point to a player who advanced the agenda despite personal risk or significant sacrifice, without saying why | One XP for taking concrete action on the agenda despite risk or cost |
| PC conflict | Common, but overt action against the group should wait until Act III, if it happens at all | Less common, and settled by the group without special rules, since the crew has to keep working together |
Story points. In Cinematic Play, a player can spend a story point to turn one base die into an automatic success on a skill roll, before or after pushing. A player with points left over at the end can carry one into the group's next adventure, at the GM's discretion, even with a different PC.
Calling PvP. When a cinematic PC acts in direct opposition to the group, the GM calls PvP. The involved players finish the current conflict, then the traitor PC, if still alive, becomes an NPC under the GM's control, and the player gets a new PC if one is available. That rule keeps a climax from turning into a long argument over who controls a character. The core book also advises writing Act I and II agendas so they avoid obviously suspicious behavior, and keeping any secret player-to-GM communication short, because it slows the game and tips off everyone else.
Likewise, a critical injury, a lost contract, or a new enemy can be a final beat in Cinematic Play and an ongoing problem in Campaign Play. Let the mode decide whether a consequence closes the story or creates the next decision.
No mode removes the need for consent and safety tools. The core book recommends lines and veils before play, safety cards during play, and debriefs afterward. Talk about hidden information, betrayal, and character death before they can surprise a player rather than a character.
Choose the Mode at Your Table
Before the first session, discuss these questions openly:
- Do we want a complete, dangerous story tonight, or a crew that returns after tonight?
- Do we want supplied roles with scenario pressure, or do we want to build our own crew and goals?
- How much secrecy and PC conflict does this group enjoy?
- What kinds of horror, injury, death, and betrayal are in scope, off-screen, or out of bounds?
- If we choose Campaign Play, what shared frame and crew purpose keep the PCs together?
- If we choose Cinematic Play, are we ready to let the scenario end decisively, even if not everyone survives?
If the group is new to the game, the core book's advice is simple: play a cinematic adventure first. The choice should be a group decision, not a surprise hidden in the first session's handouts.
Shared Rules, Different Preparation
Skill rolls, stress, panic, combat, damage, and recovery work the same in both modes, and a few rules are marked as belonging to only one mode. The work around those systems changes.
| Preparation focus | Cinematic Play | Campaign Play |
|---|---|---|
| Characters | Prepare or hand out the scenario's pre-generated PCs. | Create PCs together after choosing a frame. |
| Starting situation | Set up a focused crisis and the information players need to begin. | Set up crew history, current location, goals, employers, allies, enemies, and possible work. |
| Locations | Prepare the scenario's key areas and maps. | Prepare places and jobs that respond to player choices. |
| Escalation | Use the three acts, optional events, and a showdown. | Let jobs, factions, relationships, debts, discoveries, and travel create the next pressure. |
| Recovery | Supports the pace toward a conclusion. | Also creates downtime for repair, treatment, relationships, and choosing a new direction. |
In either mode, protect uncertainty rather than a prewritten result. The Game Mother sets up situations, pressures, and consequences. Players decide what their PCs do with them.
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Running Campaign Play
A campaign needs recurring human problems before it needs another monster. A contract that cannot pay, a rival who remembers, a crewmate's promise, a faction looking for an advantage, or a ship that needs repairs all create pressure that a Xenomorph encounter cannot replace. A campaign can be deadly. It becomes a campaign when survival leaves something behind: a new skill, a debt, a damaged relationship, an enemy, a home, or a reason to take the next job.
What Campaign Play Promises
The core book describes campaign PCs roaming the star map, taking jobs, discovering long-lost secrets, scheming with factions, and fighting to stay alive. The GM prepares situations and opportunities, but players steer the story because they decide what their PCs want and which risks they accept.
| Campaign element | What it creates |
|---|---|
| Recurring PCs | Consequences that matter after a single scenario ends. |
| Jobs and travel | A reason to choose a destination, employer, reward, and risk. |
| Shared goals | Motivation stronger than "the next encounter appears." |
| Factions and rivals | Human pressure that can return in new forms. |
| Experience and changing relationships | Evidence that the crew has lived through something together. |
| Recovery and downtime | Contrast that makes the next danger matter. |
Campaign Play means the group has enough continuity for its own decisions to create the next problem. No session has to advance one predetermined plot.
Choose a Shared Campaign Framework
Before character creation, the group decides together which kind of people it will play. The core book offers three campaign frames, each with its own job generator in chapter 11.
| Frame | Starting question | Recurring pressure |
|---|---|---|
| Space Truckers | What must the crew haul, repair, or deliver to keep flying? | Contracts, cargo, employers, routes, repairs, money, and unreliable clients. The book suggests Weyland-Yutani, Lasalle Bionational, or Seegson as employers. |
| Colonial Marines | What duty, command structure, or mission keeps the unit together? | Orders, loyalty, civilians, military objectives, politics, and the cost of survival. Orders come from Marine Corps HQ rather than an employer table. |
| Frontier Colonists | What makes this place worth building or defending? | Scarcity, local authority, family, labor, land, infrastructure, and outside interests. |
Three more decisions come with the frame:
- Employees or freelancers. Employees get a steady, if small, paycheck and better hardware. Freelancers have less security but choose their own work and might strike it big.
- A starting spaceship. The book recommends giving the crew a ship from the start so they can explore. Employees are assigned one and expected to look after it; freelancers can lease or own one and spend earnings on repairs and upgrades.
- Where to start. Chapter 11 details three starting points that can double as home bases: the Tartarus Sector, the Jackson's Star mining colony, and Novgorod station.
The frame is a shared promise about what kinds of jobs, places, NPCs, and arguments will keep coming back. A crew can travel outside its usual world, but it should know what it is leaving and why. For the governments and companies that hire and threaten these crews, see the ALIEN RPG setting and lore guide.
Run a Useful Session Zero
The core book recommends a first session where the group creates characters together and picks the campaign frame. This is where the crew gets a reason to exist before the first emergency makes cooperation expensive.
| Discuss together | Why the answer matters later |
|---|---|
| How did the PCs meet, and how long have they worked together? | Sets trust, history, and the fault lines that can be tested. |
| Who are buddies and rivals? | Gives relationships a mechanical and dramatic place in play. |
| What does the crew do, and why? | Turns a frame into a practical source of jobs. |
| Does the crew have a spaceship? What kind, and what is it called? | Gives travel, debt, repairs, and home a concrete form. |
| What are the group's goals? | Makes rewards and hard choices meaningful. |
| Does the crew share allies or enemies? | Seeds recurring human pressure. |
| Who does the crew work for? | Defines who can give orders and who can withhold pay. |
| Where is the crew now? | Provides a first location and immediate choices. |
Then give the campaign a focus: a word or sentence to build plots and antagonists around. The core book offers a D6 table of overarching themes: Killing Greed, Corporate Intrigue, Tidings of War, New Opportunities, Secret Research, and Echoes from the Past. Also discuss safety tools, secrecy, agendas, and PC conflict. Campaign tension works when players trust the table enough to let their characters disagree.
Give the Crew Goals and Choices
Characters need a reason to take risks beyond the Game Mother's next invitation. The core book's examples include truckers saving to lease their own ship, Marshals hunting the syndicate that killed their colleagues, and Marines serving a tour to afford a cheap room on Anchorpoint. Goals will change, but players should always know what their PCs are working toward.
The book recommends keeping two or three jobs generated so players can choose when an assignment ends. When you build a job, pick or roll some complications and a plot twist. Present the jobs as real decisions rather than doors that all lead to the same scene.
| Offer | What the crew should be able to weigh |
|---|---|
| A better-paying job | Money, danger, employer demands, and what it delays. |
| A job for an ally | Loyalty, obligation, reputation, and the price of saying no. |
| A job near a personal lead | Agenda progress, travel cost, and who else may be interested. |
| A safer job with limited reward | Recovery, repairs, time, and whether safety is temporary. |
Between jobs, put the star map on the table and show the destinations tied to current offers. Campaign Play is a sandbox: the players decide where to go, which work to take, and how to get there, and the book says there are no rails to follow. Use the chapter 11 system generator to detail the destination, and make every place interesting in some way.
Develop Characters Through Play
Campaign characters grow in two ways. Their skills and talents improve through experience, and their personalities change through events, relationships, losses, and discoveries.
At the end of each session, the group talks through the XP questions. Each yes is worth one XP, with a maximum of one per question:
- Did you take part in the session?
- Did you risk or sacrifice something to further your personal agenda?
- Did you risk your life for your buddy?
- Did you challenge or stand up to your rival?
- Did you make a panic roll?
- Did you overcome a dangerous event by violent or non-violent means?
- Did you make a significant discovery or revelation?
- Did you perform an extraordinary action?
- Did you earn any money?
When an answer is unclear, the group tries to reach consensus, and the GM decides if it cannot. XP is spent only between sessions. Raising a skill costs five times the new level (level 2 to 3 costs 15 XP), and a new skill at level 1 costs 5 XP but requires having used it successfully that session or trained with a teacher for at least one shift. A new talent always costs 5 XP.
| Development choice | Campaign value |
|---|---|
| Improve a skill or learn a talent between sessions | Shows what the character has practiced, survived, or been taught. |
| Change buddy or rival after a session | Keeps relationships responsive rather than frozen at Session Zero. |
| Carry a critical injury or debt forward | Makes past risk part of future plans. |
| Let a discovery alter a goal | Gives exploration and investigation a practical impact. |
| Gain or lose trust with an NPC or faction | Creates a world that reacts to the crew. |
XP is not a score for the most combat. The questions reward risk, relationships, panic, discovery, money, and non-violent solutions just as much.
Sustain Pressure Without Repeating the Same Threat
Campaign horror depends on contrast. The crew needs chances to travel, rest, repair, compare information, and choose its next move. That calm time is where obligations and human problems become visible.
| Pressure source | How it can return without becoming repetitive |
|---|---|
| Employer | Changes a contract, withholds pay, demands a favor, or offers work the crew cannot comfortably refuse. |
| Rival crew | Competes for jobs, spreads a rumor, steals a lead, or needs help at the worst time. |
| Ally or home base | Needs protection, money, a decision, or forgiveness. |
| Faction | Offers a deal, pursues an agenda, or turns a previous choice into a new cost. |
| Environment | Makes travel, supplies, illness, equipment, or a location's limits matter. |
| Xenomorph or other exceptional horror | Appears when its discovery or aftermath can change the campaign, not merely provide another fight. |
The core book is direct about this. In Cinematic Play, the Xenomorph is usually part of the compact ALIEN experience. In Campaign Play, meeting a lethal alien on every job makes no sense, so use corporate agents, enemy soldiers, assassins, rival crews, rogue androids, and other creatures, and save the Xenomorph for special occasions. It becomes more frightening when the crew knows it is not routine.
Campaign Start Checklist
Before the first job, make sure the group can answer:
- Which frame are we playing, and are we employees or freelancers?
- Why does every PC stay with this crew after a bad job?
- What does the group want enough to take risks for?
- Who can offer work, help, trouble, or pressure?
- What does the crew own, owe, protect, or need to repair?
- Which two or three next jobs can the players really choose between?
- How will relationships, agendas, injuries, discoveries, and money carry into the next session?
- What intense content, secrecy, or PC conflict has the table agreed is in scope?
Those answers give the Game Mother enough to prepare without deciding the campaign's ending in advance. The crew's choices provide the rest.
Where To Go From Here
For running either mode at the table, use the Game Mother Resources guide. Return to the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition root guide for the current library map.
Source Scope
Rules and setting details in this guide were checked against the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition Core Rulebook's chapter 2 character creation process and chapter 11 campaign frames, including the Tartarus Sector, the Jackson's Star mining colony, and Novgorod station. Full campaign frame write-ups and system generator tables stay in the book. Return to the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition root guide for the complete library map.
