The third adventure presented for this years awards comes from Free League and a scenario for the Alien RPG called Chariot of the Gods.
Unlike the previous two entries, Chariot of the Gods is a single scenario, encompassing a situation very much like the first Alien Film, in which the characters are sent to investigate a derelict ship, under possible penalty of forfeiture of all shares for the trip out unless they carry out the companies will.
The judges felt that Chariot of the Gods was not designed to work at all levels of GMing. There are full stats for all characters and NPCs, full deck plans in exquisite details, and for the first two parts of the scenario, a number of mandatory encounters to get the game going. For a GM who's got a few games under their belt or an experienced GM, this is more than enough to get the game going and run things well, but the judges felt that for a beginning GM, particularly for something as lethal as the Alien RPG, the scenario could very quickly spiral out of control if not kept in careful check.
The claustrophobia presented in the scenario works well, and it's presented very much as something straight from one of the films, there's creatures, treachery, mysteries to solve, and invariably a betrayal from a direction that will not surprise anyone familiar with the Alien Universe, although it is handled very well. There was a concern from the play through that the scenario doesn't account for some of the things that players might do, and that several of the mandatory encounters do require some GM alacrity to get around if the players have thought ahead (or are considering that they're playing Alien and are paranoid), all of which reinforced the feeling that it was written more for GM's who have some experience.
Free League once again have superb production values, the colour scheme reminiscent of the computer screens in the first film, which for those of us who love the franchise (and that's most of us), is a great nod towards the feel of things. The internal artwork beyond the NPC's and Deck Plans is sparing, with just two images for the creatures encountered. The actual scenarios take up 10 pages of the 44 pages in the booklet with the rest devoted to characters, deck plans, and useful charts.
Overall the judges felt that it was a excellent scenario for a GM with the experience to run it, but it could have benefited from more direction for the beginning GM.