Introduction
Combat in ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition is a short, deadly sequence of positioning and tradeoffs. Zones decide who can reach, see, shoot, or block whom. Initiative cards are redrawn each round, every turn spends a full and a quick action or two quick actions, and cover, armor, ammunition, and stress matter as much as the weapon. When damage drops a character to zero Health, they are broken, roll a critical injury, and the fight turns into a rescue.
The core book says fights rarely last more than 3 to 5 rounds. Winning one does not mean killing every opponent. Escaping, sealing a route, getting a casualty out, buying time for a repair, or talking someone down can all count as a win.
This guide covers the combat rules first, then broken characters, critical injuries, death rolls, and healing. Panic hits hardest mid-fight, and the stress and panic guide covers those rules in full. For the rest of the library, visit the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition root guide.
Hot Take
The best combat plan in ALIEN RPG usually changes the situation before the first attack roll. Close the hatch. Get to cover. Pull someone out of the corridor. Use the terminal. Make the threat choose between chasing the crew and losing what it wants.
And when you do fight, keep a quick action in reserve. Spending both quick actions to sprint across the room looks bold until a Xenomorph with two initiative cards attacks and you have no defend left. A fair fight is not the same as a survivable one. The rules can be perfectly clear while the situation stays terrible: the creature gets more turns, the corridor has no cover, and a missed shot can open the hull.
Combat Is a Situation, Not Just an Attack Roll
Combat starts when stealth mode ends: one side spots the other, an ambush lands, or a hidden character is found. Draw initiative even if the other side is not obviously hostile. Whoever acts first may have to decide whether to shoot, talk, run, take cover, or hold a door. Before the first card is drawn, make sure everyone shares the picture.
| Ask before initiative | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Where is everyone? | Zones set movement, range, line of sight, and cover. |
| What is the actual objective? | Rescue, escape, containment, a repair, or a warning may matter more than defeating an enemy. |
| Where are cover and the exits? | The answer decides whether a rescue or retreat is possible. |
| What gets worse if weapons are used? | Noise, missed shots, ammo, friendly fire, and damage to a barrier can reshape the scene. |
| Who is unaware, trapped, broken, or exposed? | Surprise and immediate danger should be clear before anyone acts. |
| What can change the environment? | A door, terminal, vehicle, alarm, machinery, or airlock may beat damage as an answer. |
The Game Mother does not need a detailed tactical map for every argument. When a fight starts, though, the group needs a picture detailed enough for movement and cover to matter.
Combat Rules Explained
Zones and Range Create Choices
A zone is usually a room, a corridor section, or an area of ground, from a few steps to about 25 meters across. Each zone is either cluttered, with things to hide behind, or open, like most corridors and crawlspaces. You can only hide or take cover in a cluttered zone, with one exception: a door or hatch gives cover against enemies in the next zone.
Range comes in five bands: Adjacent (in your face), Short (same zone), Medium (adjacent zone), Long (up to four zones away), and Extreme (farther). Everyone in the same zone has line of sight to each other unless they are hiding or in full cover. In an air shaft, even friendly characters block line of sight and cannot move past each other.
| Position | What it makes possible | What it makes dangerous |
|---|---|---|
| Adjacent to a threat | Close combat, grappling, blocking movement, or dragging someone | You can be attacked directly and may have little room to maneuver. |
| Short range in the same zone | Ranged attacks, coordination, movement to cover, or access to equipment | A miss at a target next to a crewmate can hit the crewmate. |
| In an adjacent zone | Escape, a new angle, a closed door, or help from another area | You may lose line of sight or leave someone behind. |
| In a crawlspace | A chokepoint and a single path for pursuit | Nobody can pass anybody, and there is no cover. |
A character who is not broken can block others from moving past. Getting through takes either taking them out or a special close combat attack. Zones are not grid squares. Use them to answer what the fiction needs: can the crew reach the hatch, is the target close enough to grab, is there a bulkhead between the gunfire and the reactor?
Initiative Changes Every Round
Each round, every combatant draws a card numbered 1 to 10, and the lowest card acts first. The order changes every round, so timing never settles. A Xenomorph draws one card per point of Speed, which is how a single creature ends up with two or three turns.
A surprise attack gives the attacker the #1 card in the first round. An ambush against an unaware target does the same, adds +2 dice to the opening attack, and denies the target any defend or dodge.
On your turn you can hold off: swap cards with any combatant whose turn comes later. They cannot refuse and must act immediately. Anything that happens "on your turn," such as a death roll, moves with the card.
| If you hold off to... | You might gain... | You might risk... |
|---|---|---|
| Let a partner act first | A repaired door, medical aid, a better target, or a coordinated escape | The enemy uses the opening first. |
| Wait for a threat to move | More information about its intent or position | Losing the safest moment to run. |
| Give someone your earlier place | A rescue or critical action before things get worse | Your own action comes later, possibly after harm. |
For groups that find the redraw distracting, the book allows drawing initiative only in the first round. Keep holding off either way, so timing stays a decision. The Game Mother can also draw one card for a whole group of NPCs.
Spend Actions With a Plan
Each round you get one full action and one quick action, or two quick actions. Taking two quick actions gives up the full action. Actions reset each round and cannot be saved for the next one.
- Full actions need your full focus and usually a roll: attacking, jumping or climbing, taking full cover, using a terminal or machinery, giving first aid, clearing a jammed weapon, persuading someone, giving orders, or driving.
- Quick actions include moving to an adjacent zone, moving between Short and Adjacent range, peeking through a door, locking a door, taking partial cover, defending, aiming, dodging, reloading, picking up an item, and rallying a broken character.
Giving orders is worth a look: a successful COMMAND roll gives the listener +1 die per success on one roll later that round, as long as the roll carries out the order.
| Action choice | What it can buy | What it can cost |
|---|---|---|
| Move and take partial cover | Staying in the fight without full exposure | The chance to attack this round. |
| Aim, then fire | +2 dice on a shot that matters | Everything else you could have done this round. |
| Save a quick action | A defend or dodge later in the round | Less movement or preparation now. |
| Give an order or use a terminal | A changed situation instead of damage | Your own attack. |
| Move twice | Distance, escape, or a rescue route | Your full action and any interrupt. |
| Give first aid or rally someone | A person back in the scene | Your own attack. |
| Fire full auto | Up to three attack rolls | Stress and ammo. |
Say what your character is doing before you roll. That makes it easy to see whether the crew is taking cover, holding a line, escaping, or just reacting.
Moving through an unlocked door costs nothing. A locked metal door typically has armor level 2 and takes 10 damage to break, attacked in close combat with +2 dice, or it can be opened with a COMTECH roll if it is electronic. You can drag a broken or immobilized person at Adjacent range when you move, but a failed STAMINA roll leaves you both in the zone.
Attacking, Defending, and Dodging
Close combat is any attack at Adjacent range, including one made with a firearm, and uses CLOSE COMBAT. Ranged combat uses RANGED COMBAT, needs line of sight and a ranged weapon, and works at Short range or farther. Both are full actions. A hit deals the weapon's base damage plus 1 for each success beyond the first. Unarmed attacks have base damage 1.
| Attack type | Defensive response | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Close combat | Defend with CLOSE COMBAT, declared before the attacker rolls | A quick action, used as an interrupt. |
| Ranged combat | Dodge with MOBILITY, declared before the attacker rolls, only if you are aware of the attacker | A quick action, used as an interrupt. |
Each success on the defending or dodging roll cancels one of the attacker's successes. With no actions left in the round, you cannot defend or dodge, which is why saving a quick action matters so much. Restrained or unaware targets cannot defend, and the attacker gets +2 dice. On the other hand, spending both quick actions on movement or cover is correct when the goal is escape.
Useful ranged modifiers: aiming gives +2 dice but must come immediately before the shot, firing below a weapon's minimum range costs -2 dice per band (except against unaware or restrained targets), a large target gives +2, and a small target such as a terminal screen or a Chestburster gives -2.
Special close combat attacks do something other than damage, and you declare them before rolling, without weapon bonus dice:
- Disarm: take an item, keep it or throw it into an adjacent zone.
- Pass: get past someone blocking you.
- Shove: push the target to Short range, including through a door.
- Grapple: pin the target so the only thing they can do is try to break free with an opposed roll, while you can only make grapple attacks, which cannot be defended.
These options are often the best answer when the crew needs an item, an exit, or a live person rather than a body.
Cover, Armor, Ammunition, and Collateral Damage
The rules make the environment part of every shot.
| Element | Rule | Practical lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Partial cover | Quick action. Ranged attacks against you get -2 dice, and you can still see, shoot, and dodge. | Good for a fight you cannot avoid. |
| Full cover | Full action. Breaks line of sight. Ranged attacks get -3 dice and must get through the barrier. You cannot dodge. | Good for survival, but it limits your options. |
| Armor | Damage from an external attack drops by the armor level. Armor-piercing attacks count armor as 1 lower, and a weak spot shot at -2 dice lowers it by another 1. You wear one suit at a time. | Armor buys time. It does not make anyone invulnerable. |
| Barriers | Furniture and bulkheads have their own armor levels, and a hit on one loses that much damage. If the barrier's armor is higher than the weapon's base damage, the shot cannot get through at all. | Know what you are hiding behind. |
| Ammunition | After each attack, make a supply roll: roll stress dice equal to the weapon's ammo rating, and each 1 lowers it. At zero, reload (usually a quick action). An extra success can be spent to skip the supply roll. | Plan for the fight after this one. |
| Friendly fire | A miss at a target Adjacent to another character rolls two base dice against the bystander. | Do not shoot past the crew without accepting the risk. |
| Collateral damage | Next to an outer bulkhead or a reactor, the GM rolls a stress die for every miss that could breach the barrier. A 1 breaches it. | On a ship or in a pressure dome, the room itself can be the deadliest target. |
Full auto lets you keep attacking after an unpushed hit, up to three attack rolls in one action. Each roll after the first adds 1 stress, each needs its own ammo supply roll, and the aiming bonus applies only to the first. It is an escalation, not a default damage button, and the second and third bursts are also on the list of things that raise stress.
A hull breach vents one zone per stretch and forces SURVIVAL rolls just to act. Vacuum adds 1 stress per round and can drop a character straight to broken without a critical injury roll, followed by a death roll each round until they escape it.
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Stress and Panic Mid-Fight
Every attack, defend, and dodge is a skill roll, so stress dice ride along. Pushing a defend roll can save a life and can also trigger a stress response, like Frantic's -2 dice on Strength rolls, that follows the character for the rest of the fight. The stress response table lists every result.
Combat is also where most Panic triggers happen: seeing a Xenomorph for the first time, one closing to Adjacent range, or seeing a crewmate become broken. Several panic results are written for combat. Hesitant takes the #10 initiative card every round, Freeze, Seek Cover, and Scream each cost your next turn and your interrupts, Flee moves you out of turn and keeps you moving, and Frenzy makes you attack the nearest person or creature, friend or foe.
Two tactical consequences follow. First, a panicking PC may have no quick action to defend with, so the crew should shield them. Second, stopping ongoing panic with a COMMAND roll takes a full action in combat, which competes with attacking or giving first aid. The Game Mother should make that tradeoff explicit.
Ending a Fight Without Winning It
You can leave a fight by moving out of your opponents' sight. If it is not obvious where you went, they must roll OBSERVATION, and if they fail, combat ends and stealth mode resumes, unless other PCs are still fighting. A locked hatch, a shove, a distraction, a repair, or a good exit plan can do more than another attack.
Ask these questions before turning a tense encounter into a fight:
- What does the crew gain if it wins this exchange?
- What happens if the crew is delayed, loud, injured, or out of ammo afterward?
- Can someone create cover, a route, a distraction, or a negotiation instead?
- Is the objective to defeat the threat, contain it, learn something, rescue someone, or escape?
- Who will be exposed if the plan goes wrong?
Critical Injuries and Survival
Starting Health equals Strength plus Agility divided by two, rounded up, and the Hardened talent raises it. While a character still has Health, damage represents bruises, fatigue, and smaller cuts. Losing the last point changes the mission at once.
| Immediate crew problem | Possible response |
|---|---|
| The injured character is exposed | Take cover, block the route, drag them, or create a distraction. |
| The character is broken but the injury is not lethal | Use first aid, rally them, or get them to safety to recover over time. |
| The injury is lethal | Stabilize with first aid before a failed death roll while someone else handles the threat. |
| The injury has a lasting effect | Plan around healing time, surgery, and lost capability. |
| A character dies | Treat it as a dramatic peak, then get the player back into the game as soon as the scenario allows. |
Zero Health Means Broken
At zero Health, a character is broken and effectively out of the action. They roll for a critical injury immediately. If they survive it, they stay in the scene with tight limits.
| While broken | What it means in play |
|---|---|
| Movement | One move action per round. |
| Other actions | None. |
| Communication | They can still speak, though only through the pain. |
| More damage | Health cannot drop below zero, but every further hit causes another critical injury. |
| Stress and Panic | No stress gained and no Panic rolls while broken. |
| Blocking | A broken character cannot block movement. |
Being broken is not a reason to stop playing. The character can still direct a rescue, warn the crew, crawl toward cover, or force the group to change its plan. NPCs break the same way, and the Game Mother can simply declare a broken minor NPC dead.
Roll the Injury, Then Read the Situation
Critical injuries are far worse than ordinary Health loss. Roll D66 on the critical injury table. If you roll an injury you already have, from result 14 upward, roll again. The table runs roughly from mild to fatal:
| D66 results | What they do |
|---|---|
| 11 to 13 | Minor effects with no healing time. One of them, Focused, clears all your stress, and another adds 1 stress. |
| 14 to 43 | Non-lethal injuries: slower movement, dice penalties on specific skills, some needing surgery. Result 43 sends the character to the mental trauma table. |
| 44 to 52 | Lethal injuries with a shift time limit. |
| 53 to 56 | Lethal injuries with a stretch time limit, including arterial bleeding and severed limbs. |
| 61 to 63 | Lethal injuries with a round time limit and a STAMINA penalty. |
| 64 to 66 | Instant death. |
Do not reduce the result to a label. Ask what it changes right now.
| Injury consequence | Useful table question |
|---|---|
| Movement becomes a full action | Can the crew carry, drag, or protect this person? |
| A skill is penalized | Who else can take over the task? |
| Surgery is required | Is there a place, time, equipment, and someone qualified to try? |
| The injury is lethal | Who can reach the character before the next death roll? |
| The result is fatal | How does the scene mark the loss and bring the player back in? |
The Game Mother should state the mechanical effect clearly, then let the fiction make it personal. The Kid's Lucky talent allows one re-roll of a critical injury or death roll, keeping the better result.
Getting a Broken Character Back Up
A living broken character can get back up in three ways, and each solves a different problem.
| Method | Who can do it | Action and result | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|---|
| First aid | A character at Adjacent range | Full action, MEDICAL AID roll modified by medical gear; 1 Health per success | Heal the critical injury. |
| Rally | A character in the same zone | Quick action, COMMAND roll; 1 Health per success | Affect critical injuries or stabilize a lethal one. |
| On your own | The broken character, if no one gives first aid | Back up automatically after one stretch with 1 Health | Heal the injury or make the location safe. |
First aid is the one that matters for a lethal injury. Rallying gets a person back into the fight faster, but it is not medical treatment. So the officer may have someone back on their feet while the medic is still trying to keep them alive. Talents sharpen these roles: Field Medic gives +2 dice to first aid, Frontline Leader gives +2 dice to rally, Second Wind gives +2 dice to anyone rallying you, and Last One Standing lets a broken character try once to rally themselves with STAMINA.
Lethal Injuries and Death Rolls
A lethal injury has a time limit of a shift, a stretch, or a round. Each time that limit passes, the character makes a death roll: a STAMINA roll that is not an action, cannot be pushed, and never uses stress dice. With a round limit, the roll comes on each of the character's turns, right after they act.
| Outcome | What happens |
|---|---|
| The death roll succeeds | The character hangs on and rolls again when the limit passes. |
| The death roll fails | The character dies. |
| Three death rolls succeed without help | The character survives and stops rolling. |
| First aid succeeds before a failed death roll | The character is stabilized and stops rolling. |
| First aid fails | The time limit drops one step, shift to stretch or stretch to round. If it was already a round, the character dies. |
Some deaths skip the roll entirely: critical injuries 64 to 66, some Xenomorph signature attacks, and any single hit that deals at least double the character's maximum Health. Take these seriously, but do not make a player sit out longer than necessary. The book treats a PC death as a dramatic peak rather than a failure, and in Cinematic Play a new character can come in as soon as the scenario supports it.
Stabilization Is Not a Cure
First aid serves two purposes: it gets a broken character up, and it stabilizes a lethal injury. It is a full action using MEDICAL AID with medical gear bonuses. A character who is no longer broken can give first aid to themselves at -2 dice.
Success stops the death rolls, and if the character was broken it also restores 1 Health per success. Every other effect of the injury stays until it heals. Stabilizing buys time. The injured PC still has the slowed movement, the dice penalty, the surgery they need, and the dangerous location.
Recovery, Healing, and Surgery
Health and critical injuries recover separately.
| Recovery track | How it works |
|---|---|
| Lost Health | Resting in a safe area restores 1 Health per stretch, even with a critical injury, unless the character is fatigued. First aid and rallying restore Health only when broken. |
| Critical injury effect | Lasts for the listed healing time, measured in days unless stated otherwise. |
| Multiple injuries | Heal at the same time. |
| Nurse care | Each day a character with the Nurse talent tends you counts as two. |
| Surgery | Some injuries need a shift of work and a MEDICAL AID roll before healing starts. The Surgeon talent adds +2 dice. |
A character can be back at full Health and still carry a serious injury, and the rules intend that. Safe rest is a valuable resource, not a montage that wipes away the cost of a desperate scene. Fatigue matters here too: a fatigued character cannot recover Health at all until the cause is fixed.
Make the Survival Scene Matter
When a character is broken, pause long enough to make the choices clear, then keep the scene moving.
- State the injury's immediate effect and whether it is lethal.
- Establish where the injured character is relative to cover, threats, exits, and helpers.
- Ask what each nearby crew member is trying to do: stabilize, rally, carry, defend, distract, seal a door, or escape.
- Advance threats and time honestly while the crew acts.
- Once the crisis ends, carry the injury into recovery, travel, and later decisions.
Avoid turning a critical injury into a routine medkit roll or a reason to take control away from a player. The strongest version lets the injured character keep making meaningful calls while everyone else decides what they will risk for them.
A Crew Survival Checklist
Before and during a dangerous scene:
- Name the objective beyond "kill the threat."
- Identify cover, exits, hazards, and the fastest route to a broken ally.
- Keep a quick action for a defend or dodge when an attack is coming.
- Treat ammo and full auto as deliberate escalation rather than habit.
- Treat misses near crew, bulkheads, and critical systems as real risk.
- When someone is broken, say whether the injury is lethal and who can reach them.
- Decide whether the group is stabilizing, rallying, defending, dragging, or leaving.
- After the scene, make safe rest, treatment, surgery, and lasting injuries part of the next decision.
The goal is not to remove danger. It is to give danger a shape the group can answer with courage, caution, ingenuity, or a hard retreat.
Where To Go From Here
For the stress dice, Panic triggers, and panic results that shape every fight, read the stress and panic guide. Return to the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition root guide for the full library map.
Source Scope
Combat procedures in this guide were checked against the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition Core Rulebook's sections on initiative, zones, actions, cover, ranged and close combat, damage, and critical injuries and their long-term effects. Full injury tables, weapon stats, and exact procedures stay in the book. Return to the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition root guide for the complete library map.
