This holiday season, I’m going to review a different module, game or supplement every day. I haven’t sought any of them out, they’ve been sent to me, so it’s all surprises, all the way. I haven’t planned or allocated time for this, so while I’m endeavouring to bring the same attention to these reviews, it might provide a challenge, but at least, I’ll be bringing attention to some cool stuff!

Xeno is a trifold pamphlet game (so, 1 page) by Caligaes where the players play aliens dispatched to achieve missions on earth, and the referee plays their human enemies.

Xeno has a traditional resolution structure, tweaked with a little alien weirdness (3d4 is your basic dice roll!). The real flavour is that there are four types of alien, and four different objectives, with four different human nemeses. It’s some neat, serviceable rules, but the big problem with pamphlet games is that you have to compromise on something, as I spoke about in depth in my most recent reviews of What Child is This? and Trouble in Paradisa. You have to make compromises for the sake of space, and my overwhelming sense as time goes on is that the compromises made to make this pamphlet as opposed to a short zine are rarely to the benefit of the game itself. In the case of Xeno, the compromise comes in the form of lack of support for actual missions, and for me, a forever referee, that’s nigh unforgivable. A lot of games rely on genre familiarity to get you over the jump of lack of support. But the truth is, I have only one reference for the genre that Xeno occupies, and that’s the (excellent) video game Carrion. And what I do not have any memory of in Carrion is the level design. I don’t think I could satisfyingly run Xeno, sadly, based on this pamphlet. A game with such a fun, unique premise needs more support in terms of missions than four paragraphs of general ideas.

Xeno attempts to overcome this barrier m in two ways. The first is the Victimary, a second trifold pamphlet that details the anti-alien military unit, Z-Com, and brings a bunch of new nemesis and victims to the table, as well as vulnerabilities for the Xenos. The Victimary is good. I don’t have much else to say. It deserves to be a part of the core. The second is Hens & Chicks, an introductory module. This one is thirty six a5 pages. Look at this map!

Caligaes, you should be writing modules. And Hens & Chicks is a hell of a module. In it, you’re breaking into a Z-Com facility, where humans are experimenting with Xeno genetics. It’s Carrion: The Module! It’s full of good refereeing advice, the art is stellar, and there is a lot going on. Not only is a lot going on, but the layout is wild, bringing strong Mork Börg vibes, and diverging wildly from the aesthetics of the two pamphlets. That layout isn’t immensely navigable, however, and given the weirdness and unfamiliarity of the perspective of the module, that’s a fairly significant problem for me. But irregardless, it’s wild to me that this is bonus content: This should be core.

That’s the problem with these two expansions to me, especially when packaged with the core, is that…well, they’re the game, really. Hens and Chicks should’ve been the headline, front ended with both sets of rules, and supported with an appendix or final chapter that talked about how to turn it into a campaign if you choose. As is, the core pamphlet is incomplete, and if you’re anything like me, you might just disregard the other “additional” content not realising it’s really essential content to the experience.

The other thought to me is one of missed opportunity: In Hull Breach, which is 2 years old now, Mothership got a set of alien-forward rules: Manhunt. I think Xeno’s aliens are more interesting and unique than the ones in Manhunt, but it raises the question of why, when then best part of Xeno is the bonus module hidden in the downloads list, why it wasn’t just developed for Manhunt. I feel like it would get so much more mileage and far more eyeballs on. It’s sad that something this interesting can get lost, simply because of a missed pitch.

Because, while Xeno is incomplete on its own, and a cursory glance will likely make you look straight past it, in combination with the Victimary and Hens & Chicks, it’s a strong contender for a novelty multi shot. If it was reformatted, it would be a hell of a lot stronger, but really, I think it would benefit from a a re-release and adaptation to Mothership, so some cool, alien ideas can reach a wider audience.

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