Introduction
Gear in ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition is not a shopping list on the way to a fight. It is how the crew creates choices in an environment that wants to take them away. A suit opens a route. A light exposes a danger. A tool restores access. A scanner turns uncertainty into a plan. A weapon can buy enough time to leave. None of it removes the pressure of air, ammunition, power, weight, time, and a changing situation.
This guide covers how to choose gear by the problem in front of the crew, how supply ratings and encumbrance turn equipment into pacing, what weapons, armor, suits, and sensors are for, and how to build a loadout that protects the exit as well as the objective.
A gear guide should make characters less reckless, not more confident. The M41A is the most famous item in the book, but in most sessions a crew with one extra compression suit is in better shape than a crew with one extra pulse rifle.
Hot Take
Encumbrance rules are the first casualty of a fast-moving ALIEN RPG session, and that is exactly backwards. The supply-roll math on air, ammo, and power is built to bite hardest when a rating is full, then ease off as it drops toward zero, which means a GM who skips supply rolls to keep the scene moving is throwing away the one mechanic doing the most work to build dread.
Track ammo and air out loud, even when it slows the table down for a moment, because the crew doing math under pressure is the scene itself.
Choose Gear by the Problem
Before shopping or assigning starting gear, identify what can stop the crew from finishing the job. Then choose categories that create options around that obstacle. Ask, "What decision does this item make possible?" The answer should be more useful than "it gives a bonus."
| Mission problem | Equipment to prioritize | Choice it can create |
|---|---|---|
| Vacuum, low pressure, or an exterior route | Compression or pressure suit, air supply, zero-G support | Cross the route, repair the breach, or reach an isolated person. |
| Darkness, unknown movement, or long sightlines | Lights, optics, motion trackers | Investigate, avoid a route, cover a retreat, or coordinate. |
| Sealed doors, damaged systems, or heavy work | Cutting torch, maintenance jack, diagnostic tools | Open another path, restore a system, or remove an obstacle. |
| Injury, disease, exhaustion, or a trapped survivor | Medkits, surgical kits, medical drugs, protective gear | Stabilize, treat, extract, or decide who can keep moving. |
| Immediate violent threat | A weapon suited to the range and environment | Hold a route, protect an extraction, buy time, or escape. |
This is why a loadout starts with the scenario. A powerful weapon is no substitute for air during a spacewalk, a way to see in darkness, or the equipment needed to get an injured person home. In cinematic play the adventure sets starting gear. In campaign play each career offers a short list to choose or roll from, a weapon comes with two full reloads, and anything not written on the character sheet is not with the character.
Supply Ratings: Air, Ammo, and Power
The core rules call air, ammunition, and power consumables and track each as a supply rating on the character sheet. A supply roll means rolling stress dice equal to the current rating, up to six, and lowering the rating by one for each 1 rolled. Because high ratings roll more dice, supplies drain fastest when they are full and slow down near zero, which the book says is deliberate to build tension.
| Supply | When to roll | What zero means |
|---|---|---|
| Air | After every stretch, and after strenuous activity such as combat or a MOBILITY roll | The character must roll SURVIVAL every round to keep breathing. |
| Ammo | After each attack with a firearm | The weapon must be reloaded, usually a quick action. |
| Power | After each use, or as the item description says | The item stops working until recharged. |
A few rules soften or sharpen that pressure. An extra success on an attack can be spent to conserve ammo instead of adding damage, but not when firing full auto, where every attack roll needs its own supply roll. Single-shot weapons skip the supply roll and need a reload after every shot. The Game Mother usually lowers NPC supply by one step instead of rolling. During a countdown to disaster, time itself can become a supply: the book has the Game Mother roll after each combat round and remove a minute for each 1.
Treat each supply-dependent item as a question before the mission:
- What triggers a supply roll for this item?
- How will the crew know its supply is becoming a concern?
- Can the group reload, recharge, share, replace, or work around it?
- What decision becomes urgent if it reaches zero?
State the consequence early enough that players can adapt. A limited air supply turns an exterior task into a timed commitment. Limited ammunition makes holding a route different from clearing it. Power limits can force a choice between information, access, and protection. Supply pressure works best when it produces decisions rather than surprise punishment.
Weapons Create Openings, Not Guarantees
The core book lists each weapon with a modifier to the attack roll, damage, a minimum and maximum range, an ammo or power rating, weight, cost, and special traits such as armor piercing, full auto, or unreliable. A few examples show the spread:
| Weapon | Modifier | Damage | Range | Ammo | Weight | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armat M41A Pulse Rifle | +2 | 2 | Short to Long | 3 | 1 | Armor piercing, full auto, grenade launcher |
| M42A Scope Rifle | +3 | 2 | Medium to Extreme | 2 | 1 | Armor piercing |
| Armat Model 37A2 shotgun | +2 | 3 | Adjacent to Short | 1 | 1 | See the core book |
| M240 Incinerator Unit | +1 | 2 (fire) | Short | 2 | 1 | Target keeps burning at intensity 9 |
An attack closer than a weapon's minimum range loses two dice per range band, and a weapon cannot fire past its maximum. Use those traits to decide what the weapon is for in the fiction.
| Weapon role | Useful when... | Tradeoff to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Sidearm or compact weapon | A character needs a light fallback | It may not control a long route or solve an armored problem. |
| Rifle or long-range weapon | The crew can see danger before it closes | It is weaker in cramped spaces and still consumes ammunition. |
| Close-range or improvised weapon | The environment forces contact or offers a tool at hand | Range and exposure make every use costly. |
| Fire, explosive, or heavy option | The objective needs area control, breaching, or a decisive answer | Collateral danger, scarce ammunition, and the structure around you matter. |
| Powered tool used as a weapon | A job tool can solve both an obstacle and a threat | Power, handling, and the original task limit when it is worth using. |
Do not plan a fight as though it happens in an empty room. Next to an outer bulkhead or a reactor, the Game Mother rolls a stress die whenever a shot that could breach the barrier misses, and a 1 breaches it. The book warns that most military smart guns refuse to fire at a target along the outer hull of a ship with safe sensors, while civilian weapons are not so careful. Fire can set a whole zone burning. Heavy weapons can make a route safer in one moment and more dangerous in the next. The crew's goal should decide whether force is worth those risks.
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Armor and Suits Solve Different Problems
Armor subtracts its level from damage taken, and a character can wear only one suit of armor at a time. Armor-piercing attacks treat the level as one step lower, and attacks aimed at weak spots take -2 but reduce it another step on a hit. Suits address the environment instead: vacuum, limited air, and temperature. Some gear does both, and each piece has limits.
| Item | Armor Level | Air Supply | Weight | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M3 Personnel Armor | 2 | None | 1 | Marine body armor with a comm unit and Personal Data Transmitter. |
| Kevlar Riot Vest | 1 | None | 1/2 | Light security armor. |
| IRC Mk.50 Compression Suit | None | 5 | 1 | The common civilian vacuum suit, with comms, head light, and helmet cam. |
| IRC Mk.35 Pressure Suit | 1 | 4 | 2 | Bulky marine vacuum suit that needs decompression time afterward. |
| Weyland-Yutani APEsuit | 1 | 4 | 1 | Armor level 3 against acid and protection from facehugging, but no vacuum protection. |
| P-5000 Powered Work Loader | 1 | None | Not carried | Cargo and heavy repair work, and it requires skill to operate. |
Armor buffers damage; it does not guarantee safety. The M3 book text says it stops blades and blasts but not direct hits from high-powered rounds, and Xenomorph acid lowers any armor it damages. If the mission needs a different kind of protection, the crew still needs the right suit, procedure, tool, or route.
Tools and Information Change the Plan
The most important equipment is often the gear that turns a guess into information the crew can act on. The M314 Motion Tracker can be used once per stretch after a power supply roll, and it detects every NPC within four zones that moved during the previous stretch, even without line of sight. Anything that stayed still does not show up. That one rule gives a crew a known pressure instead of a surprise, and gives the Game Mother a fair way to hide something that waits.
Other tools do similar work. A flashlight makes a dark route usable. Optical scopes and binoculars extend how far the crew can see. A Seegson P-DAT, uplink terminal, or system diagnostic device connects the team to a computer, a door, or a failing machine. A hand radio keeps separated characters coordinated. Ask of every item that is not a weapon: "What decision does this help us make?" These are not flavor items when the scenario uses the constraints they address.
Pack for the Crew, Not Just the Individual
A character can carry regular items equal to double their Strength. A regular item weighs 1 and takes one row on the sheet, heavy items take several rows, light items count as 1/2 or 1/4, and tiny items that fit in a closed fist do not count. Over-encumbrance allows up to four times Strength for a while, but the character's stress level rises every time they move in a stretch of stealth mode or a round of combat. Every extra item has a cost at the moment movement matters most.
Equipment planning is collaborative. One character does not need every tool, but the group should know who can handle the likely problems and what happens if that person is separated, injured, or out of supply. Build the loadout together:
- Give each character one job-critical item.
- Cover air, light, communication, medical response, access or repair, and a way to deal with immediate danger across the group.
- Identify who carries shared supplies and who can use specialized gear.
- Note which items depend on air, power, or ammunition, and how the crew will manage that supply.
- Leave capacity for evidence, recovered equipment, or an injured person.
- Decide the fallback when a critical item fails or cannot reach the place it is needed.
For movement, zones, and escalation once the plan turns dangerous, read the Combat Rules Guide. For survival after things go wrong, use the Critical Injuries and Survival Guide. For shipboard dependencies and repair scenes, read the Ship Rules Guide.
Keep the Exit in the Plan
The crew's gear should support the mission objective and its exit. A weapon without a route out is not a complete plan. A scanner without a way to act on the reading is only information. A repair kit without spare parts, time, or access may expose the crew to a worse problem.
Before entering a dangerous area, decide what success looks like: recover someone, secure evidence, restore a system, cross a route, or get everyone home. Then name the equipment and supply that protect the retreat when success changes shape. The book's own Game Mother advice is to leave the crew short of something, such as one compression suit fewer than the number of characters, so plan for that shortage instead of assuming it away.
Where To Go From Here
Take this loadout into the situations it was built for: run the encounters it protects against with the Xenomorphs and Creatures guide, and see how supply pressure plays out mid-fight in the Combat Rules Guide. For the shipboard systems that keep gear powered and breathable, see the Ships, Space, and Colonies guide.
Source Scope
Rules and stats in this guide were checked against the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition Core Rulebook, chapter 1 (Your Gear, Encumbrance, Consumables), chapter 4 (Combat), and chapter 5 (Gear & Tech). Costs and the full equipment lists stay in the book. Return to the ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition root guide for the full library map.
