# Day 31: Alien the RPG: Evolved Edition - Jace Merrick, Corporate Scientist on the Run
tags: #articles/CharacterCreationChallenge/2026 #game/rpg/alien-the-rpg
> [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2026]]
>
> ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]]
Here we are at the end of the month, January 2026, and that brings to a close *[[Character Creation Challenge 2026|Character Creation Challenge 2026]].* It's definitely had its ups and downs. Surprises have abounded, whether it be a [[02 - The Burning Wheel|classic game that was a real pain in the ass]] for character generation or [[23 - Sweaty and Breathless|a genuine surprise of a good time]].
If you missed anything, or if you just wanted to look back on this month and luxuriate, we link straight back to this month and all of its entries, and it links back to [[Character Creation Challenges|the last several years of CCC]] right here on *Grim Tokens.*
## Game of Choice
We get to end the month doing what we love, and by that I mean getting to play in a genre and a specific setting that I adore, without question. That is *[[Alien - The Roleplaying Game|Alien: The Roleplaying Game]]*, the new edition referred to as *Evolved*.
![[Alien - The Roleplaying Game - Evolved Edition (cover).jpg|400]]
Once again, we get to go into space where no one can hear you scream, and probably scream a little bit. No one will hear it though, it's fine. I don't need to tell you anything about the setting of this game. You know what it is. You know what's going on here. You know what it's all about.
I will say that this edition opens up with an absolute Chad of a map that should probably spur ideas in you just by looking at it, because you may not have considered that the world of *Alien* was quite so expansive.
![[31 - Alien - Stars of the Middle Heavens (illo).webp]]
There are other *Traveller* geeks right now salivating at that map, and with good reason. We're not going that far today. That's a long way to drive. Instead, we're simply going to straightforward character generation. I shall let your dreams of incredible exploration and flexibility rattle around in your head and drive you to madness. I'll meet you there.
## Acts of Creation
There are two methods for creating characters in *Alien*.
The first one is pretty much straight-up classic form: choosing your career, attributes, skills, career talent, etc. However, in the back of the book, there is a life path method, and I have to be honest, I kind of want to try that.
Okay, sure, they can be a little overly mechanical and sometimes a little too random, but this is *Alien*!. Our character is built off experiences that happen before the beginning of the story. They strongly inform who he is.
Let's give it a try.
### Human or Android?
We open up with a big question. Are we an Android? And because this is a proper life path system, we can actually roll to find out.
2d6, and on an 11 or 12, we're an Android. Ironically, they could have just rolled 1d6 and, on a 6, been an Android, but you know how it is.
Nope. Human, which is just fine.
We start with a base score of two in each attribute. If we were an Android, we would add a few to that pile; don't worry about that.
Yes, that seems like the attributes are awfully low, but they're going to build up.
| Attribute | Value |
| --------- | ----: |
| Strength | 2 |
| Agility | 2 |
| Wits | 2 |
| Empathy | 2 |
Do I appreciate that there are only four attributes and they are clear and concise? You better believe it.
### Origin
First up, we figure out which supernation we are from. No, [Super Earth](https://helldivers.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Earth) is not a choice.[^1]
Roll 2d6 to find out, and then d6 twice for the sub-affiliation and home. Then we get three points in random general skills. So far, so good.
- **Origin**
- *United Americas*
- Weyland-Yutani
- Tartarus/Outer Sectors
- **General Skills**
- Survival
- Observation
- Close Combat
Well, this doesn't hurt my feelings at all. We are from the United Americas, and we work for Weyland-Yutani, but not in any of the core sectors. Out toward the edge, but not all the way out to the frontier.
One of the minor colonies. This works pretty well.
I admit that is a pretty strange selection of general skills for our origin. It kind of suggests that this frontier colony has its own ecology, and it's not a very friendly one. You grow up learning to survive, keeping a sharp eye out, and being ready to stab something right in the face.
Okay, I get it. Nice.
### Early Life
That just establishes where we're from. What about our early life? What went on there? We get to roll D66 three times on the table on page 284, one for each column, and pick up some attributes and skill points.
- **Early Life**
- Indentured worker
- +1 Agility, +1 Empathy
- … In the company of Dangerous convicts
- … and Experienced a science facility where you were a test subject, suffering painful and dangerous procedures.
- +1 Mobility, +1 Comtech, -1 to psych eval
| Attribute | Value |
| --------- | ----: |
| Strength | 2 |
| Agility | 3 |
| Wits | 2 |
| Empathy | 3 |
| Skill | Value |
| ------------ | ----: |
| Survival | 1 |
| Observation | 1 |
| Close Combat | 1 |
| Mobility | 1 |
| Comtech | 1 |
| Psych Eval | -1 |
I don't want to say that we had a rough childhood, but this is starting to turn into one of the entries in [the Riddick franchise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddick_(film)). Indentured worker, probably sold off by our parents on a prison colony, which explains why it's such a lousy place to start with. We had the great pleasure of being experimented on, probably to discover more about human compatibility with this alien ecology.
Oh yeah, it's all coming together for us. We do get a -1 to our psych eval, which will come up later, and it's not really a skill but I'm lumping it there because it's easy to track.
If you were looking for a dark backstory, I think we may have found it.
### Life Event
We have a life event that can drop into our life path at any point, but we find out what it is here. We'll probably stick it in a little bit later, depending on what we get. Or maybe we'll kick off with it. Let's hit that table.
- **Life Event**
- You scam someone of something valuable, and as far as the law is concerned have done nothing wrong. But they want it back.
- +1 Wits, +1 Empathy
| Attribute | Value |
| --------- | ----: |
| Strength | 2 |
| Agility | 3 |
| Wits | 3 |
| Empathy | 4 |
I definitely think this is happening before the next bit, which is where we start running through our career. In fact, it's probably how we get into our line of work.
I'm sure that the scientific data that we have stuck in our head will absolutely never come back to haunt us. You know, all those things that we saw that we weren't supposed to? Yeah, it'll be great.
### Career Hiring
Now we go kicking into picking what we do with our time. We need to drop two points in attributes of our choice and then apply for our first career. There are some minimums for picking some of these.
To apply, we get to make a skill roll against one of the skills listed for the career, and it cannot be pushed. Should our application be unsuccessful, we are rejected and must apply to a different career, or we can do something illegal and underhanded.
If we get just one success, we join as a standard recruit. If we get two or more successes, someone's noticed our potential, and we get a favor.
| Attribute | Value |
| --------- | ----: |
| Strength | 2 |
| Agility | 4 |
| Wits | 4 |
| Empathy | 4 |
I'm grabbing wits and agility because it makes perfect sense for us to be a little twitchy and keep our head on a swivel looking for opportunities.
We don't have a whole lot of skills, interestingly enough.
But I kind of want to turn this in an even darker direction. So we're going to apply to be a scientist after having been experimented on. I'm not saying that there may be a little bit of over-empathizing with your captors, but let's see what happens. We're going to need 4d6 for our wits, and we have a ComTech skill of 1, which ought to be just fine for us. So that's 5d6, looking for sixes.
> [1, 6, 3, 2, 5]
One success. Just a standard scientific recruit, which is fine with me. We are accepted as a scientist, probably on that same shitty colony world. It's great when you get to have the whip hand.
Now we go into basic training, get geared up, and our first paycheck. We roll D3 twice on the table of career skills, getting one skill level for each roll. We roll once on the gear table for the science career and roll for our first paycheck.
| Skill | Value |
| ------------ | ----: |
| Survival | 1 |
| Observation | 2 |
| Close Combat | 1 |
| Mobility | 1 |
| Comtech | 2 |
| Psych Eval | -1 |
We got Observation and ComTech, so those bump up to 2 each.
- **Gear:** Seegson System Diagnostic Device
- **Cash:** 750 W-Y dollars
Not bad. Looks like we have some skill with maintaining androids, or at least figuring out what is wrong with some of them and a pretty good chunk of change.
That's not bad.
### Career Term #1
We can serve between 1 and 3 career terms as a scientist.
So let's figure out where that posting was.
- **Posting**
- *Headhunted.* You’re hired for a secret project that goes well, until you’re fired.
- Comtech +1
Less awesome, but perfectly in keeping with the kind of shenanigans we've been putting up with.
| Skill | Value |
| ------------ | ----: |
| Survival | 1 |
| Observation | 2 |
| Close Combat | 1 |
| Mobility | 1 |
| Comtech | 3 |
| Psych Eval | -1 |
Okay, we need to roll to see how we did in terms of performance. Were we fired because we were shitty at our job or screwed up, or were we fired because of other corporate/political concerns?
I'm going to go with ComTech again because it's our best scientist skill.
> [5, 2, 6, 3, 5, 1, 3]
So close, but still only one success, so we weren't pulling ahead—just getting by.
But at least we didn't roll a disaster, so we weren't screwing up. We were just let go for other reasons.
Let's find out what talent we got.
I must say I'm curious myself.
- **Talent**
- *Inquisitive.* You can push a skill roll based on Wits twice. Stress level +1 for each push.
Well, that checks out. More curious than is probably good for us, and it lets us stress ourselves out that much more along the way. Oh yeah, it's all coming together.
It's been kind of a rough couple of years here.
We went from the plucky kid that was sold into indentured servitude to a bunch of lab rats on a planet, trying to find out how far humans could be pushed in this alien ecology, to picking up enough of the gig to become one of them and believing that it's best for humanity to be pushed to its limits in order to live in a broader spectrum of places.
Probably a little bit of a xenophile, pun fully intended. Made some good money and got headhunted, which probably is how we went from being a lab rat to being in the lab, but I'm betting that didn't go off so well up the corporate ladder.
### Career Term #2
You know what? If the corporate guys are going to be against us, we've already come up with a philosophy to deal with that: if you can't beat them, join them. We're going to go for a second term as a company agent. We've got the Wits, so that shouldn't be a problem.
Let's see if we can get into the career. We'll drop Strength by one to cover life beating us down.
| Attribute | Value |
| --------- | ----: |
| Strength | 1 |
| Agility | 4 |
| Wits | 4 |
| Empathy | 4 |
Observation'll do the job.
> [1, 4, 6, 2, 4, 2]
Man, we just can't catch a break. At least we got in, though—it was a squeaker. Judging by the rest of the numbers in that pile, there were a lot of people who were against the idea that we would probably make it. That's fine.
Let's figure out what the posting as a corporate agent ends up with.
- **Posting**
- *Exec Without Portfolio.* You go where you want, chasing the next big thing.
Well, damn. From being a lab rat to a scientist, straight up to being an executive.
Looks like we may have parlayed some of those things we weren't supposed to see into a cushy position, one which lets us go wherever we want to go.
That comes with a paycheck, though:
- **Pay:** 2,500 W-Yd
Though there are probably some people back in the core worlds who are thrilled that we're out getting into trouble and not back at home making trouble. I suppose having gotten in, we should probably figure out what skill got a bonus and how well we ended up doing this term.
| Skill | Value |
| ------------ | ----: |
| Survival | 1 |
| Observation | 2 |
| Close Combat | 1 |
| Mobility | 1 |
| Comtech | 3 |
| Manipulation | 1 |
| Psych Eval | -1 |
Manipulation was a good skill to pick up, especially since we have a pretty good empathy. We're going to rail against ComTech as our performance check, because as an ex-scientist, that's probably what we are doing in an executive position.
Okay, going from being a lab rat indentured servant to overseeing scientists is kind of a rags-to-riches story, and I'm here for it.
> [2, 4, 4, 1, 5, 2, 5]
Well, that checks out. Not a single success on 7d6. That means we roll on the disaster table and take an additional -1 on our psych eval. Fantastic.
- **Disaster:** Nemesis. A rival stitches you up, and you are sacked. Time to join the big bad world.
| Skill | Value |
| ------------ | ----: |
| Survival | 1 |
| Observation | 2 |
| Close Combat | 1 |
| Mobility | 1 |
| Comtech | 3 |
| Manipulation | 1 |
| Psych Eval | -2 |
Rags to riches to rags apparently!
We knew that there was some political opposition to our place in the company, and it was just going to be a matter of time before the little bit of corporate blackmail we used to get ahead started having some negative payoffs.
Fair enough. These things happen.
We still get to figure out one random career talent that we picked up, as well as another piece of gear before we head out the door.
- **Talent**
- *Cunning.* You can roll for MANIPULATION using Wits instead of Empathy.
- **Gear**
- Leather briefcase
Okay, not necessarily the most useful talent for us, nor the best bit of gear, but you know, I'm sure we'll come up with a use for both of those along the way. I mean, paired with Inquisitive, it means that we could push a manipulation skill roll twice, which could be brutal.
### Psych Eval
No one gets out of the company or a life path without a psych evaluation.
We get to roll on the table on 288 with 2d6 and apply any modifiers we gained during our life path, which are all negative.
Congratulations. This is going to go wonderfully.
> 2d6
> [5, 6]
That's an 11 modified to a 9, which could have been a whole lot worse.
- **Psych Eval:** Positive and compliant. Follows orders for an easy life.
You know, I'm not going to lie. I think we may have used a little bit of that blackmail material to boost up our evaluation because clearly that's not the case at all.
In fact, it's pretty clearly a complete lie, which again does fit perfectly into the history of this character. I like it.
### Final Touches
That's it. That's the entirety of character generation using the Lifepath system in the back of *Alien*. It went a lot faster and easier than I thought it would.
Though, there are a few more things that we can scribble down, like a name, what we look like, how old we are, what our personal agenda is, our signature item, and our buddies and rivals. But we know enough about our history to make some reasonably good decisions on those things.
- **Name:** Jace Merrick
- **Age:** 37
- **Appearance:** Unkempt, untidy appearance, Monogrammed silk tie
- **Personal Agenda:** You find it hard to delegate to others, even if it means taking on extra work
- **Signature Item:** Rolex watch
I did a little mix and match from the scientist and the company agent track, and the results are perfectly sensible.
Jace Merrick has the air of a man who is continuously thinking about the problem. Even if you don't know what the problem is and you haven't seen a problem yet, he's probably thinking about problems. His hair is a bit askew, and his jacket is probably a little rumpled, but he's always working on something.
That silk tie is immaculate though. The watch, perhaps a little less so, but it's also ridiculously top-end, not because it's jewel-encrusted, but because it is a wonder of modern technology.
There aren't any other characters, so we can't exactly set ourselves up for buddies and rivals, but you can definitely imagine that this man has got some enemies that he probably doesn't know about, and they're just waiting for the right opportunity to screw him over. Of course, also, he has that leather briefcase, which may or may not contain a lot of documentation on things that never should have happened. So I guess we'll see what shakes out. That's the sort of thing that could really buddy you up to someone.
## Exunt
There, we've done it. An interesting character created for *Alien: The RPG* with built-in story hooks and an actual history, ready to rock and roll out among the stars, get himself in trouble, and probably die horribly.
![[31 - Alien - Jace Merrick, Corporate Scientist on the Run.webp]]
That was a lot faster and easier than I expected it to be, and the results were pleasantly straightforward.
It doesn't hurt that there's only 12 skills, and allocation of everything just goes really quickly, even if you go with the standard character creation method.
Things are not piled on you too fast, and allocation is in small enough numbers not to be a pain.
Resolution is equally fast and easy—just rolling stat plus skill in d6s, looking for 6s.
You can explain the system to a new player in 15 minutes, do character generation in a half hour if you're being slow about it, and it's off to the races.
This is a good game, and if you can afford to pick it up, you absolutely should. If you have interest in the alien setting at all for roleplaying, you probably ought to have a copy of this game. If, for whatever reason, you can't afford it or the space it takes up, go grab *[[Those Dark Places]]* and/or *[[Those Dark Places|Pressure]]*, and you'll have a game with similar mechanics and a similar setting for a little bit less out-of-pocket money because it's not a licensed product.
This is it for *Character Creation Challenge 2026*.
I'm done. I'm free! I'm going to take a couple of weeks, probably writing very little, just to let my brain stop cramping as a result. But keep an eye out. There will probably be a thing here and there. You can never tell.
Until next time, stay frosty.
[^1]: But if any system was primed for doing the RPG version of *Helldivers*, this might not be a bad place to start.
