Xenoform - a board game.

Like many gaming nerds, I had a big 'OOOOH!' moment when I saw that an Alien vs Predator game was being launched on Kickstarter (which you can find here). Being of a certain age, I can recall a time when fans of both franchises anxiously clamoured for them to be merged. Dark Horse Comics first series in that vein was fun, and the two official AvP films were... well, they were what they were, let's leave it at that.

I thought of the attempts I'd made over the years at building a game that was similar, and how those attempts petered out to nothing.

So I started a new iteration. This time, however, something else occurred to me. I'm older now, and with films, games and comics all having explored the AvP idea in years past, I wanted to do something a bit different.

This new project I'm calling 'Xenoform'. It is based on a premise of merging the creatures, tech and general setting conceits of a particular vein of sci-fi/horror/action films.

I have a guilty fondness for crossovers. They're generally pretty rubbish, but at the heart of them is an enthusiasm I share - 'hey! Let's throw all these things randomly together and see what happens!'

Xenoform is being done in Phases. Phase: 1 features the basics of Aliens, Predators and the Colonial Marines, but future Phases will start adding other settings into the mix.

I had seen a pile of gamers across teh interwebz playing with Space Hulk or Doom as starting points for an AvP conversion, and ended up with a heavily mangled and adapted Doom engine for my game.

So here's the cover of my rulebook. Using stark silhouettes is a continuing design motif.

An early page introducing the start of the backstory and the Factions involved.

Generally the premise is this: In Phase: 1, all of Weyland-Yutani's dirty laundry has been discovered. Concerned about the intentional breeding of uncontrollable xenomorphs, the Company is decalred criminal. The Marines are sent to take down the company's outer facilities, one by one. However, most of their bases seem abandoned, well, apart from the occasional hive of aliens.

The Predators have noticed humans entering the outer fringes of their space more and more, as well as a sharp increase in numbers of the aliens (or 'hard shells' as they call them). Far from taking umbrage, they view this event as a good opportunity to hunt and blood the young ones.

The board is modular and depicts abandoned Weyland-Yutani facilities.

Some sample tiles that make up the board. Constructed from magpied textures, images etc from RPG Mapshare and Dundjinni and so on.

So hope you enjoyed this. More as I do it, or can be bothered. ;) To finish off, here's a teaser for the project;