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Occupation	Skills	Equipment	Weapons	Vehicles	Standard Issue

Basic Character Profile

This is the basic layout and information required for a character. You will note it is very simple, since it is merely a tool for describing a character concept. It serves to limit and define the character quickly so game play can begin. It needs to be a fast process since character mortality tends to be high and replacement characters need to be produced.

Blank sheet - Step-by-step character construction - Statistics explanation - Example characters.

Name:
Gender:
Occupation: Skills:

Skill	Level	Rating

Other Skills:

Skill	Level	Rating

Practiced Tasks: Present Health:

0	1	2	3	4	5
Dead	Unconscious	Incapacitated	Wounded	Fatigued	Hale

Present Courage :

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

File ID number:
Company position :
Nationality :
Date of Birth :
Place of Birth :
Home :
Family : Associates : Noteworthy History :

Equipment :

Making a character using the blank sheet above is simple. Follow these twelve steps and ask the DM for assistance or clarification if necessary.
Decide on the Occupation that best describes your character idea.
List the Skills associated with the occupation and assign Level 1 to each.
Choose any Other Skills that would be reasonable for your character idea.
Assign 5 levels amongst all the skills you have picked.
Health and Courage are set at maximum (5 and 10 respectively).
Choose a level of affiliation with Wayland Yutani that best fits your character idea.
Choose a national allegiance that is appropriate to your character idea.
Choose an age and DOB that best fits your character idea.
Choose a Place of birth.
Describe your Home and close Family relations.
Describe your close Associates and the relationship you have to them.
Describe your noteworthy History .
Decide what Equipment you think reasonable for your character.
Give yourself a Name and an ID code.
Mail the finished sheet to the DM for a final adjustment and allocation of Special items.

The statistics explained

Name:

Quick method of identification amongst peers. Maybe almost anything the player chooses. A Synthetic's name will include it's make and designation number [Bishop 341-B, Alien³]. An Officer will often have a rank designation as a prefix [Lt Elaine Ripley, Alien³].

Gender:

Male or Female. Even Synthetics have gender. (Note they need not be born this gender).

Occupation:

Defines a person's professional function. This is a descriptive category and not prescriptive. The player chooses a category that best fits the job they have in mind. It does not then provide additional abilities [although Dallas, Alien, had experience with organisation and weaponry, this did not make him a Marine].

Skills:

These skills are directly related to the character's occupation. As a person spends longer in a profession their skills may increase [Ripley in Alien never got to even fire the flame thrower, but by the end of Aliens she was using a military flame thrower with ease].

Other Skills:

These are not directly connected to a characters occupation, but may be a separate interest or experience gained elsewhere [Dylan, Alien³, was a trained Convict Labourer , who "found Religion", and Core's ability to patch into the computer was not used as part of her Pirate career, Alien4]. To learn a new skill a person needs time (determined by the DM), motivation (determined by the character), and a tutor with the required skill [Hicks taught Ripley to use the M41-A, Aliens].

Practiced Tasks:

A simple single procedure, that has been observed closely with the intention of being repeated [Dallas asked Ash to demonstrate the use of the makeshift motion detector a couple of times, Alien]. Some tasks will be too complicated, and others may be so intricate that the chance of repetition is extremely low. Once a skill is learned a character can only reasonably assume success if the performed task is extremely similar.

Present Health.

The scale of 0 to 5 addresses only the most salient injury. A person who is bleeding from a head wound is not likely to worry about a bruised thumb. It is important to know that in this game casualties are extremely high [of the crew of the Nostromo only one crew and the cat survived. Alien, one child of the 247 families on LV-426, Aliens, one of the twenty Marine s, Aliens, only one of the inhabitants on Fiorina "Fury" 131 survived, Aliens3, none of the soldiers, scientists, or kidnapped labourers, and only three of the Pirates escaped in Alien4]. Only three or four people at most have survived any given encounter. The same can be expected for characters. They must expect to die easily, and take the threats seriously.

Level	Description	Recovery	Example
0	Dead. Zero Function	None after 3 minutes. A Synthetic may be hooked up to prolong it's activity, but it will seek termination	Bishop in junk pile, Alien3
1	Unconscious. Unaware of surroundings	Recovery to Level 2-5 requires time to elapse	Gorman after being hit by crates on APC, Aliens
2	Incapacitated. Aware of surroundings, but unable to take significant action	Recovery to Level 3-5, if possible, requires medical treatment, and possibly time	Hicks after being sprayed with acid, Aliens
3	Wounded. Activity severely impaired in some way	Recovery to Level 4-5, if possible, requires medical treatment, and possibly time	Hudson with arm in a sling after initial encounter, Aliens
4	Fatigued. Slowed reaction and impaired judgement and stamina	Recovery to Level 5 requires rest or sleep	Ripley sleeps beside Newt, Aliens
5	Hale. Fully functional	NA	NA

Present Courage:

Rated from 1-10, and determined before the game by the DM. When a situation requires a character to face a particularly frightening situation they must declare their action, then roll 2D6 to determine if they are able to perform said activity. A roll equal or less than the characters present courage means the character can act [Vasquez continued to seal the door despite the Aliens trying to hammer it down at the time, Aliens]. If the roll is greater than the current courage score then the character either fails [Lambert freezing in the face of the Alien, Alien], or they spend a courage point to force themselves to succeed [Ripley singing Lucky Star while she programmed the emergency door release in the Alien's presence, Alien]. Of course this will lower the score and make it more difficult to succeed on the next occasion. Courage is recovered by spending time in a safe and relaxed environment, away from any threat or stress. The use of some drugs, religious persuasion and Family commitments can push a person to do things that they would not otherwise. For specific details refer to the Appendix.

File ID number:

This was the same for the whole crew of the Nostromo, but different for each member of the Sulaco. It may be designated by the DM as a way to keep track of characters, players, and games, or the DM may allow a player to pick their own.

Company position:

As Wayland Yutani are the major force in business (and probably politics) the way a character relates to them will affect life drastically. The higher your involvement in the company the greater support from them you can expect, but the greater the control they will exert over your activities.

Level	Description	Example
0	Renegade- In direct competition with Wayland Yutani, either in business or politics. If you are a significant threat the company may be taking militant action against you	Elgan (if the company had still existed), Alien4
1	Contract Worker- employed for a specific period. The longer the Contract the more job security and pay a character can expect, but the less freedom of action. Little or no support or intervention expected from the company	Crew of the Nostromo, Alien
2	Employee- Life time occupation under Company directive. Usually set and forget at a remote position, so if you don't ask the company for anything they will leave you be	Colonists on LV 426, Aliens
3	Flunkey- Low level executive and general company dogs body, enmeshed in some minor aspect of Wayland Yutani's activities. They may be very good at what they do but not yet managed to wrangle their way up the corporate ladder. May be called upon by the company at any time for a minor activity	Carter Burke, Aliens
4	Executive- Involved in some major decision making body within the company. They are rare as characters since they are unlikely to be spared for even a week to do their own thing	Bishop's designer, Alien3
5	Director- These are the company. They are the Board of Directors in charge of all Wayland Yutani activities. Almost never a character since they are almost incapable of free action	Van Leuwen, Aliens

Nationality

Similar to Home, but defines legal ties and which Earth governments you can call on.

Date of Birth

The current year is 2216. Subtract the characters age from this date.

Place of Birth

No real restrictions here. Is often the place a character views as Home, but not always.

Home:

Any specified location that the character identifies as their place. It can be a planet, starship, house, or whatever. A player will always wish to protect their home, and has major psychological disadvantages if it is ever lost. If a character is away from their home they will try and find opportunities to return to visit, even if this is very rare [Ripley wanted to stop the Aliens getting to Earth, Aliens, but her clone felt a stranger to the place, Alien4].

Family:

More or less up to the player to define. Like their Home , a character will feel a need to protect their family, even if they are estranged. They will also try and find excuses to drop in and check up on them [86 would rather sacrifice the whole of Fiorina "Fury" 131 than give up the chance to see his family again, Alien³]. If a family member is under direct and obvious threat this may give a character advantages to their Courage rating.

Associates:

These are people a character knows well enough to call on for a favour or feel some commitment to. While they can be a support for the character, they can also make heavy demands on occasion [Newt provided Hicks with valuable information about colony and Aliens but required him to risk his life to save her, Aliens].

Noteworthy history:

It is not worth noting what a character received for their third birthday unless it is likely to directly affect game play [we know almost nothing about Brett's past, Alien, but the fact Carter Burke ordered the exploration of the Derelict on LV-426 is crucial to the plot, Aliens]. If it is not noted in the history a character may not be able to claim background knowledge. Suddenly claiming to have been part of the original team who constructed a facility and that you know all sorts of access codes is not likely to get DM approval. By the same token, history will not gain you extra skills. Having served in the Marine s will not automatically give you skills with weaponry if you have not chosen the skill in the appropriate place. It is just assumed you either forgot all you were taught, the technology has changed drastically since you learnt, or that you were not there long enough to learn that particular skill.

Equipment:

This should be considered as two categories: equipment carried [Hicks carried a welding torch but not a motion tracker, Aliens], and equipment stored [Hicks knew where the spare ammo was kept if he could get to it, Aliens]. The basic rule is that if you want to be sure that you have it, write it down. Don't assume your character will even have a spare hanky unless you have made a note of it. Otherwise you will find you don't have it at the least helpful moment.

Since anyone who has seen the movies knows that the best chance of survival is to run away, each player is given on artefact, or piece of information that may or may not turn the tide. It may be a newly developed weapon, or some information that will be invaluable in capturing one. This gives the players a chance against the Aliens that the Nostromo crew didn't have. [Ripley's information about the Aliens allowed the Marine s who listened to form effective counter measures, Aliens]

This is an example of the character sheet that elain Ripley may have had at the begining of the first movie.

NAME: Lt Elaine J. Ripley SEX: Female (Natural) OCCUPATION: Warrant Officer, USCSS Nostromo (Pilot/Communications)

SKILLS: Drive [Level 3] Interstellar Sleeper Ship Plot [Level 1]

OTHER SKILLS: Language [Level 4] ETI

PRACTICED TASKS: NA

PRESENT HEALTH: 5 PRESENT COURAGE: 10

I.D.#: 759/L2-01N COMPANY POSITION: Contract worker [Level 1] NAT: United Americas D.O.B.: 07 Jan 2092 P.O.B.: Olympia/Luna-UA HOME: Earth FAMILY: Daughter- Amanda Ripley-McClaren [Deceased- AGE:62] ASOCIATES: Crew of the Nostromo NOTEWORTHY HISTORY: 3rd officer of the Nostromo

EQUIPMENT: No personal equipment other than clothing