Alien: USCSS Nostromo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Component List
• Setup
  • Get Ready!
  • Alien Player Set-Up
  • Objective / Winning Conditions
  • Secrecy
  • General Set-Up (continued)
  • Crew Players Set-Up
  • Objective / Winning Conditions (Crew Players)
• Objects and Cards
  • Playing Mission Cards
    • Mission Orders
    • Emergency Procedures
    • Weyland Protocols
  • Picking, Using and Dropping Items
    • Flame-Thrower
    • Motion Detector
• Game Turns
  • Game Turn Overview
    • 1: Hiding Phase
    • 2: Posture Phase
    • 3: Appearance Phase
    • 4: Hunting Phase
    • 5: Action Phase
    • Special: Attack Phase
• Phases of the Game Turn
  • 1 - Hiding Phase
    • 3 or More Players: Crew and Blip Tokens Placement
    • 2 Players Token Placement
  • 2 - Posture Phase
    • Aggressive
    • Instinctive
    • Focused
  • 3 - Appearance Phase
    • Jonesy
    • Breakdown
    • Alien
    • Attack Phase (Special Phase)
• Game End
• Game Options
  • Difficulty
    • Novice Crew Players
    • Experienced Crew Players
    • Hard-Core Crew Players
  • Heroic Mode
    • Set-Up
    • Crew Member Cards
  • Survival Mode
    • Shared Crew Token Pool
    • Crew Member Capture
    • Crew Member Liberation
    • Activating Emergency Procedures
• Game Summary
  • Game Turn
  • Room Details
  • Winning Conditions
• Transcription Notes

Game Overview

In "Alien - USCSS Nostromo" one player incarnate the Alien creature while all the other players team-up to save the unlucky crew of the spaceship. The players managing the crew do not incarnate a specific character from the movie, but rather cooperate to ensure the survival of the crew members.

The game is close to a double-blind hide and seek: players will use their psychological skills to bluff and deceive the opposing side while trying to guess their opponent's intentions.

From the crew players' point of view, the Alien xenomorph is undefeatable: direct confrontation is to be avoided at all costs. The crew players will have to guess where the Alien is and coordinate the crew members of the USCSS Nostromo to save their lives. They will use any resource available to activate the emergency procedures and escape the spaceship: items, character abilities, mission orders and room effects.

From the Alien player's point of view, those humans are just weak lifeforms. The Alien player will take advantage of the creature's unexpected overpowered attacks and perfect predator capacities to thwart the crew players' plans. He will try to eliminate all crew members and take control of the Nostromo before it blows in a thermonuclear explosion.

Component List

Besides the present rule booklet, the "Alien - USCSS Nostromo" game box contains:

• 1 Game Board (10 numbered rooms: 1 Mother, 2 Cockpit, 3 Sleep Vault, 4 The Kitchen, 5 Infirmary, 6 Armory, 7 The Nest, 8 Ladderway, 9 Shed, 10 Shuttle), with example panels showing "not connected rooms" and "connected rooms", and activated emergency procedure slots.
• 1 Double-sided Alien Board (Behaviour deck and Behaviour discard areas).
• 21 Tokens:
  • 6 Blip tokens: 4 Breakdown tokens, 1 Jonesy token, 1 Alien token.
  • 12 Crew tokens: 6 Passage tokens of 6 different colors, 6 Presence tokens of 6 different colors.
  • 2 Item tokens: 1 Flame-thrower token and 1 Motion detector token.
  • 1 Posture token.
• Face-down markers (dashed placeholders shown on the component list for face-down Blip and Crew tokens; they are not counted among the 21 tokens).
• 62 Cards:
  • 6 Crew Member cards.
  • 7 Reminder cards.
  • 9 Behavior cards.
  • 40 Mission cards: 15 "Weyland Protocol" cards and 25 "Emergency Procedure" cards.

Setup

Get Ready!

Before starting to play, follow these set-up instructions:

• Place the game board in the center of the playing surface within reach of all players.
• Place the Item tokens in their starting rooms: the Flame-thrower in the Armory (room 6) and the Motion detector in the Shed (room 9).

Alien Player Set-Up

• The Alien player takes the "Alien" Reminder card, as well as the Alien board green side up, and places them in front of him.
• The Alien player shuffles the 9 Behavior cards to form the Behavior deck and place it face-down on the Alien board.
• The Alien player places 1 Breakdown token, the Jonesy token, the Alien token and the Posture token next to the Alien board. Set aside the remaining 3 Breakdown tokens for later use.

Objective / Winning Conditions

The Alien player will try to capture each crew member before all 5 emergency procedures are activated. Alternatively, the Alien player can also impose fear and play patiently until the crew members are left with no option.

The alien player wins if:

• All 6 crew member cards are owned by the alien player.
• The Mission deck is depleted.

Secrecy

During the entire game, Crew players are encouraged to talk to each other, to make plans, but they are NOT allowed to talk secretly: everything they say must be clearly heard by the Alien player.

Crew players can show other players their Mission cards anytime. They are free to tell what cards they have in their hand (or lie about it), thus letting the Alien player be aware of such cards (or be deceived).

But UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES players can exchange or give away cards or tokens.

General Set-Up (continued)

• Shuffle the 40 Mission cards to form the Mission deck and place it face-down next to the board (save some space for the discard pile).
• Place the 6 crew member cards face-up next to the board within reach of all players.

The player whose date of birth is closest to 1979, April 26th designates a player as the Alien player (he can choose himself); the other players are Crew players.

Crew Players Set-Up

• Deal the remaining 6 Reminder cards to the Crew players as evenly as possible. Each Crew player then takes the 2 Crew tokens (1 Passage and 1 Presence) corresponding to each color of the Reminder card he/she received.
• In a 2 players game, the Crew player takes all 6 Reminder cards and all 12 Crew tokens.
• In a 3 players game, each Crew player takes 3 Reminder cards and 6 Crew tokens.
• In a 4 players game, each Crew player takes 2 Reminder cards and 4 Crew tokens.
• In a 5 players game, each Crew player takes 1 Reminder card and 2 Crew tokens; the Alien player then chooses 2 Crew players to take an extra Reminder card and the corresponding 2 Crew tokens.
• In a 6 players game, each Crew player takes 1 Reminder card and 2 Crew tokens; the Alien player then chooses 1 Crew player to take an extra Reminder card and the corresponding 2 Crew tokens.
• In a 7 players game, each Crew player gets 1 Reminder card and its corresponding 2 Crew tokens.
• Each Crew player then draws 1 Mission card from the Mission deck.

Objective / Winning Conditions (Crew Players)

The Crew players try to activate all 5 different emergency procedures: the surviving crew members then escape the Nostromo which will self-destruct along with the Alien.

The crew players win together if:

• All 5 different Emergency procedures are activated.

Objects and Cards

Playing Mission Cards

Mission Orders

Only Crew players can play the "mission order" part of a Mission card. A Crew player can play a mission order anytime during the game, with the following 3 exceptions:

• Crew players can NEVER play mission orders during the posture phase (phase 2) NOR during the appearance phase (phase 3).
• If the Alien player chose the Aggressive posture during the posture phase (phase 2), Crew players CAN NOT play any mission order until the action phase (phase 5).
• Mission orders can NEVER affect any token in the Nest room (room 7).

As mission orders can be played in many occasions during the game, before handling any game component on the board or moving to the next game phase, the Alien player MUST ask the Crew players if they want to play mission orders.

Emergency Procedures

Only Crew players can use the "emergency procedure" part of a Mission card, activated only when resolving Mother (room 1) or the Shuttle (room 10), usually during the action phase (phase 5). An activated emergency procedure is placed partially under the game board in an activation slot as a reminder. Activating an emergency procedure does NOT trigger the mission order part of the card.

Weyland Protocols

Only the Alien player uses the "Weyland protocol" part of a Mission card, when a card is discarded from the Mission deck. When a Weyland protocol is discarded this way, the Alien player reads the green text and applies it. This does NOT trigger the mission order part of the card.

Picking, Using and Dropping Items

An Item token can only be picked by a Crew player during the action phase (phase 5). A picked Item token stays in front of the Crew player who picked it: it can NOT be given to another Crew player.

An Item token can only be used during an attack phase (special phase). To use an item, a Crew player must own a face-up Presence token in the room where it is used. After use, the Item token is placed in that room on the game board.

When a crew member is captured, the owner of the Presence token must drop 1 Item token in his possession (if any) in the room where the capture occurred.

Flame-Thrower

A Crew player who uses the Flame-thrower token saves ALL Presence tokens in the room. Each Crew player also draws 1 random Mission card from the discard pile for each of his/her Presence token saved this way.

Motion Detector

A Crew player who uses the Motion detector allows ALL face-up Presence tokens in the room to be moved by their owners to any connected room of their choice.

Game Turns

Game Turn Overview

The game is played in a series of turns. Each turn is played in 5 phases, one after another in this order:

1: Hiding Phase

The psychological hide and seek game begins: players place the Crew tokens and the Blip tokens face-down in the rooms, trying to bluff or trick their opponents about the real position of the protagonists.

2: Posture Phase

The Alien player chooses a posture for this turn (Aggressive, Instinctive or Focused): this choice will affect the other phases in a decisive way.

3: Appearance Phase

The Alien player flips face-up his Blip tokens (Jonesy, Breakdown [printed "Beakdown" in the source] and Alien) and applies their effect, ending with the Alien token: the creature's real position is thus revealed.

4: Hunting Phase

The Alien creature can now move in the spaceship to hunt down the crew. The Alien player moves the Alien token, usually twice, trying to find the crew members and attack them.

5: Action Phase

Now is the time for the crew players to take action: grab some useful Mission cards and Items, use the crew member powers and, of course, activate the necessary emergency procedures.

Special: Attack Phase

An attack phase can occur multiple times per game turn. It is a special phase that takes place anytime a face-up Presence token is in the same room as the face-up Alien token.

During an attack phase, the Alien creature will often capture crew members if they are not saved by the Crew players with Mission cards or Items.

Phases of the Game Turn

1 - Hiding Phase

Flip face-down all Crew tokens and Blip tokens. Until the end of the hiding phase, Crew players can look anytime at any Crew token, even those already on the game board. Same goes for the Alien player with his Blip tokens. Crew players can ALWAYS play mission orders during this phase.

3 or More Players: Crew and Blip Tokens Placement

• Step 1: one by one, each Crew player MUST place 1 Crew token he owns in any room on the game board. When placing that token, the Crew player MAY decide to place other Crew tokens he owns to try to confuse the Alien player. Each Crew token must be placed face-down, with no restriction on, the number of tokens in a specific room (i.e. from 0 to 13).
• Step 2: the Alien player MUST place 1 of his Blip tokens in any room on the game board; he MAY also decide to place more than 1 Blip token to disconcert the Crew players. Each Blip token is placed face-down in an empty room or in a room with one or more Crew tokens, but:
  • NEVER in the Shuttle (room 10).
  • NEVER in a room already containing another Blip token.

Repeat these 2 steps until players have placed all their available tokens in the rooms on the game board (12 Crew tokens and 3 Blip tokens during the first turn). If a side has no more tokens to place, the opposing side places all of their remaining tokens.

2 Players Token Placement

In a 2 player game, the Alien player places ALL his Blip tokens FIRST, then the Crew player ALL his Crew tokens.

Once all Crew tokens and Blip tokens are placed, the hiding phase is over. Players can NOT look at the Crew tokens or the Blip tokens anymore.

2 - Posture Phase

The Alien player chooses a posture for the Alien creature: Aggressive, Instinctive or Focused. Then he places the Posture token accordingly on the Alien board and immediately applies its effect.

Crew players can NEVER play Mission orders during this phase.

Aggressive

During the next hunting phase (phase 4) or during ANY attack phase (special phase) this turn, Crew players can NOT play mission orders NOR use any Item token. The Alien player will only have 1 hunting action during his next hunting phase.

Instinctive

The Alien player draws 2 cards from his Behavior deck, plays 1, and put the other at the bottom of the deck; the effect of each Behavior card is detailed on the card itself. The played Behavior card is then placed in the Behavior discard pile on the Alien board.

Focused

The Alien player discards 1 card from the Mission deck. Also, he gains 1 extra Breakdown token from the stock for the remainder of the game: on all subsequent turns, the Alien player will place it on the board during the hiding phase (phase 1).

(Do not forget that the Alien player applies the green text of each Weyland protocol discarded from the Mission deck.)

After the Alien player has chosen the posture and applied its effect, the posture phase is over.

3 - Appearance Phase

The Alien player flips face-up all his Blip tokens. He then applies their effect one by one, ending with the Alien token. Crew players can NEVER play Mission orders during this phase.

Jonesy

Nothing happens when the Jonesy token is revealed: the Alien token can not be moved in this room during the next hunting phase (phase 4).

Do NOT flip face-up any Crew token in the room where Jonesy is revealed.

Breakdown

Depending on the number of face-down Crew tokens in the room:

• If 2 or more Crew tokens are present, nothing happens.
• If there is 1 Crew token, discard 1 card from the Mission deck.
• If no Crew token is in the room, discard 2 cards from the Mission deck, one by one.

Then remove the Breakdown token from the board.

Do NOT flip face-up any Crew token in the room where a Breakdown token is revealed.

Alien

Flip face-up all Crew tokens in the room: remove from the board any Passage token revealed this way. If at least 1 Presence token is revealed, the appearance phase is over and an Attack phase starts immediately. Once the attack phase is over, proceed to the hunting phase (phase 4).

Later on during the game, anytime the Alien token (now face-up) is in the same room as any number of face-down Crew token, flip them face-up and remove from the board all Passage token revealed this way.

Attack Phase (Special Phase)

An attack phase is triggered as soon as the Alien token and at least 1 Presence token are both face-up in the same room. Crew players CAN play mission orders or use Item tokens during an attack phase, UNLESS the Alien player had chosen the Aggressive posture in the posture phase (phase 2).

Save a Crew Member

When a Crew player uses a mission order or an item to "save" one or more crew members, remove that many Presence tokens from the room where the attack takes place. For example, the flame-thrower can save all crew members.

Capture a Crew Member

After the Crew players have played all the mission orders they wanted (they can decide to not play any) and have used any Item tokens, or if they simply can not defend themselves, some crew members may be captured by the Alien creature.

Each crew player who still has a face-up Presence token in the room removes it from the board. He then chooses an crew member card for each of his Presence token removed from the room and give them to the Alien player. The Alien player keeps the crew member cards face-down: their crew member power can not be used anymore by the Crew players. The attack phase is now over.

After the Alien player has flipped face-up and applied the effect of all his Blip tokens (and eventually completed an attack phase), the appearance phase is over.

4 - Hunting Phase

The Alien player has 2 hunting actions available during this phase, but only 1 if he chose the Aggressive posture during the posture phase (phase 2), and in that case, the Crew players can NOT play mission orders.

By spending 1 hunting action, the Alien player moves the Alien token to ANY other room on the board, connected or not, except the room where the Jonesy token is. It is now possible to move the Alien token to the Shuttle (room 10).

After the Alien token is moved, flip face-up all Crew tokens in the room: remove from the board all Passage token, and if there is at least on[e] Presence token the hunting phase is put on hold and an attack phase starts immediately. After the attack phase is over, the hunting phase will continue normally.

Crew players can play mission orders at any time during this phase, including AFTER the Alien token has been moved but BEFORE revealing the Crew tokens in the room. Hence, the Alien player must ask the Crew players if they want to play any mission order before flipping face-up the Crew tokens.

When the Alien player has used all his hunting actions (and eventually completed 1 or more attack phases), remove the Jonesy and Alien tokens from the board; the hunting phase is over.

5 - Action Phase

The Crew players resolve one by one the rooms that contain at least 1 Crew token, abiding by the following particularities:

• Mother (room 1) must be resolved first.
• Shuttle (room 10) must be resolved last.
• The other rooms (2 to 9) can be resolved in-between in any order decided by the Crew players.
• A room can be resolved multiple times if for example, because of a mission order, a Crew token would be moved in a room AFTER it had already been resolved this turn.

Crew players can ALWAYS play Mission orders during this phase.

Room Resolution

Reveal all Crew tokens in the chosen room, and remove from the board any Passage token revealed this way. For each Presence token he owns in that room, each Crew player MUST do 1 of the following 4 actions (Crew players must agree on the order if multiple Crew players are involved):

• A - Draw 1 card from the Mission deck.
• B - Pick an item: place the Item token in front of the player.
• C - Use a crew member power: the player chooses a face-up crew member card; places his Presence token on it and applies the effect described on that card. (There can be only 1 Presence token per crew member card).
• D - Use the room effect, if it has one. Depending on the room, the Crew player can:
  • Mother (room 1): discard 2 cards from the Mission deck (remember to apply the green text of any Weyland protocol discarded this way), then activate 1 emergency procedure from his hand.
  • Kitchen (room 4): draw 3 cards from the Mission deck.
  • Infirmary (room 5): take a Mission card of his choice from the discard pile.
  • Shuttle (room 10): activate 1 emergency procedure from his hand.

The Cockpit (2), the Sleep Vault (3), the Armory (6), the Nest (7), the Ladderway (8) and the Shed (9) are rooms with no room effect to be used by the Crew players.

When Activating Emergency Procedure

When a Crew player uses the room effect of Mother (1) or the Shuttle (10), he activates an emergency procedure. That player takes 1 emergency procedure Mission card from his hand and places it partially under the board of any empty slot. This emergency procedure is now activated.

Emergency procedures can be activated in any order, but each emergency procedure can only be activated once. Crew players can NOT activate more than 2 emergency procedures per game turn.

After a room has been resolved, remove from the board all Crew tokens in that room.

When no Crew token is left on the board, the action phase is over.

End of Turn

All Crew players ensure they have in front of them all the Crew tokens corresponding to their Reminder cards (2 tokens per card). The Alien player ensures he has in front of him all his Blip tokens (3 tokens, or more if he chose the Focused posture).

In a 5 players game (4 Crew + 1 Alien), before starting a new turn, each of the 2 Crew players who owned 2 Reminder cards (and the corresponding Crew tokens) gives 1 complete set (1 Reminder card + 2 corresponding Crew tokens) to each player who owned only 1 Reminder card.

In a 6 players game (5 Crew + 1 Alien), the Crew player who owned 2 sets passes 1 set to the Crew player at his left.

The current turn is now over. Start a new turn with a hiding phase.

Game End

The game is over as soon as one of the following conditions is true:

• All 5 different emergency procedures are activated: the Crew players win.
• All 6 crew member cards belong to the Alien player: the Alien player wins.
• The Mission deck is depleted: the Alien player wins.

Game Options

Before starting the set-up, players must agree on the difficulty level (considered from the Crew players' point of vue [sic]) and which options they want to use during this game.

Difficulty

Novice Crew Players

All the rules previously presented in this booklet correspond to the "Beginner" difficulty. It is most suitable for the very first games of "Alien - USCSS Nostromo".

Experienced Crew Players

After a few games, the Alien player should use the blue side of the Alien board. This difficulty level can also be considered as the "Standard" difficulty. The Alien player can now:

• Use 2 hunting actions (instead of 1) even if he chose the Aggressive posture.
• Draw 3 Behavior cards instead of 2 if the Instinctive posture was chosen; but he can play only one, the 2 others are put at the bottom of the Behaviour deck.
• Discard 2 Mission cards instead of 1 if the Focused posture was chosen, and still gain the extra Breakdown token for subsequent turns.

These changes are indicated on the blue side of the Alien board itself.

Hard-Core Crew Players

If the Crew players are looking for an even more challenging and stimulating game experience, play with the "Veteran" difficulty rules. Use the blue side of the Alien board as well as the following 2 penalties:

• When a Crew player has to discard a card from his hand, if he discards a Weyland protocol, the Alien player gets to play it as if it was discarded from the Mission deck.
• When a crew member is captured, the involved player (whose Presence token was not saved) discards 1 card from the Mission deck AND 1 at random from his hand (if it's a Weyland protocol, the green text is, of course, applied by the Alien player).

Heroic Mode

The Heroic mode offers more immersion to the Crew players. Depending on the number of players, each of them will incarnate 1 or more crew members.

Set-Up

During the set-up, randomly assign all crew member cards to the Crew players, 1 per Reminder card they own.

Crew Member Cards

During the action phase (phase 5), a Crew player can only use the crew member power of the crew member cards he owns that are free of any Presence token.

In a 5 or 6 players game, when some Crew player must pass a Reminder card and the corresponding Crew tokens at the end of the turn, they also have to pass a crew member card of their choice.

Survival Mode

Survival mode tends to make the game a little longer, giving the Crew players more time and more options to defeat the Alien creature, but also depriving them of some advantages. This game mode is especially recommended for 2, 3 or 4 players.

Shared Crew Token Pool

During the hiding phase (phase 1), all Crew tokens are gathered face-down and form a token pool. When a Crew player has to place 1 of his Crew tokens, he can place any token of that pool instead, even a token that belongs to another player.

Crew Member Capture

When a crew member is captured:

• Each involved player (whose Presence token was not saved) discards 1 card from the Mission deck and 1 Mission card of his choice from his hand. [Printed as "invlolved" in the source.]
• In addition to the crew member cards, the Alien player also keeps all Presence tokens that were in the room; thereafter, some Crew players will play with less Presence token.

A Crew player whose ALL Presence tokens are captured by the Alien player can still play normally: place tokens from the pool, play mission orders, participate in the decision making...

Crew Member Liberation

A Crew player with a face-up Presence token in the Nest (room 7) now has access to a new room effect and can:

• Nest: liberate 1 captured crew member. The Crew player chooses a Presence token owned by the Alien player and put it back in the pool. He also chooses an crew member card owned by the Alien player, flips it face-up, and places it back with the other crew member cards (its crew member power is available again).

Activating Emergency Procedures

Crew players are NOT limited to a maximum of 2 emergency procedure activation per turn.

End Game and Winning Condition

The game does NOT end when the Mission deck is depleted and so the Alien player can NOT win this way. Instead, shuffle the discard pile to form a new Mission deck and continue the game normally.

Combining Game Options

It is possible to combine the Heroic or Survival mode with any difficulty level. It's even possible to combine them with each other.

Special case: in Survival mode with Veteran difficulty, a captured crew member only triggers 1 discard from the Mission deck and 1 random Mission card from the Crew player's hand.

Game Summary

Game Turn

Phase	Mission Orders?	Play Items?
1 – Hiding Phase	YES	NO
2 – Posture Phase	NO	NO
3 – Appearance Phase	NO	NO
4 – Hunting Phase	YES / NO if Aggressive	NO
5 – Action Phase	YES	NO
(Special – Attack Phase)	YES / NO if Aggressive	YES / NO if Aggressive

Room Details

• 1 Mother: (Phase 5) Discard 2 cards from the Mission deck and activate 1 emergency procedure from your hand.
• 2 Cockpit: no room effect.
• 3 Sleep Vault: no room effect.
• 4 The Kitchen: (Phase 5) Draw 3 cards from the Mission deck.
• 5 Infirmary: (Phase 5) Take 1 Mission card of your choice from the discard pile.
• 6 Armory: Flame-thrower starting room.
• 7 Nest: (Phase 5 - optional) Liberate 1 crew member: take back 1 Presence token and 1 crew member card from the Alien player. (Always) Mission orders can NEVER affect tokens in the Nest.
• 8 Ladderway: no room effect.
• 9 Shed: Motion detector starting room.
• 10 Shuttle: (Phase 5) Activate 1 Emergency procedure from your hand.

Winning Conditions

• Alien player: All 6 crew member cards belong to the Alien player OR the Mission deck is depleted (except for Survival mode).
• Crew players: All 5 different emergency procedures are activated.

Transcription Notes

This transcription follows the printed booklet. The following source typos were kept as printed or noted in place rather than silently corrected: "Beakdown" (Appearance phase, printed for Breakdown), "at least on" (Hunting phase, printed for "one"), "invlolved" (Survival mode), "point of vue" (Game Options), "an crew member card" (Attack phase and Survival mode). The Behavior cards' individual effects, the Mission card texts and the crew member card powers are printed on the cards themselves and are not reproduced in this booklet. Credits, contact information, and the AR promotional page were omitted.