Trying to hammer out a solid setting/headcanon for a unified Alien/Predator universe. Here's my take on what to keep , what to shitcan and what to add:>Things to KEEP: The Queen and the hive from Aliens. Gives the bugs a purpose beyond just being murder-insects. Diverse Alein lifeforms (e.g., the T. Ocellus from the Alein Earth). Gritty corporate dystopia. Weyland-Yutani is the real villain. "Truckers in space" aesthetic is mandatory. The Engineer/Forerunner concept, but ONLY as a way to explain panspermia. It elegantly explains why so many species are biologically compatible (e.g., Facehuggers working on humans and Yautja). It also supports my favorite fan theory: the Yautja didn't invent their advanced technology; they inherited or reverse-engineered it. This explains how a tribal, honor-based society can also have plasma casters and FTL ships.>Things to discard:The AvP movie lore. Predators did not build pyramids on Earth. The Human/Xenomorph Hybrid (looking at you, Newborn): This completely demystifies the Xenomorph for me. The horror of the Alien is its otherness. It's already the ultimate killer because it takes traits from its host—it's already optimized to hunt us. Making it more human just makes it less scary. The "Magic" Black Goo: As it stands in the prequel films, the goo is a narrative crutch. It can create, it can destroy, it can mutate... it can do whatever the plot needs. I'd either discard it entirely or give it hard, consistent rules.>Things to ADD: More alien life in general. The galaxy feels way too empty with just humans, Xenos, and Preds.Riddick from Pitch Black. Discard all the following Riddick lore. It is shit.Please write which parts of the franchises you would keep and which discard. And we will see if we can come to an agreement and build consistent setting. Or point me to people that already did this.
The new alien life forms is the best things that happaned to the franchsie since AVP movie came out. And discussing settings to be used for TTRPG is /tg/ I would have posted stolen ideas from MotherShip but the few books i have read had nothing as evocative as the xenomorph.
Square pigs from Space Truckers.I laughed super hard at their presence in that movie. They improve any space dystopia setting they are added to.
>>96417281Just use the Alien and Predator Dark Horse Comics for expanded lore.
>>96417337Yep. That's really all there is to it. Stick with the lore from the Dark Horse comic lines and you can't go wrong.
>>96417337which volume/comic do I start with? Genuine question. Wiki has tons of them. Is the Aliens vs. Predator Omnibus: Volume 1 2007 a good place to start?
AvP has so much potential for sexy girls in super sexy outfits.And we never saw it on the big screen. Biggest tragedy.
>>96417281You just described Hostile. https://www.zozergames.com/hostile.htmlThis is the game I am running now actually. I put in my own details and tweaked a few other to make it my own setting. Here's what I did and what you can do.Keep the first four Alien movies (for the lore, not for the quality of the movies), the first two Predator movies, and the 90s comics for both franchises and the AvP. Also know that canonically that the two Bladerunner movies happen in the same setting as well and both are good for lore IMO.This does 99% of your world building for you. I added these movies as well; Moon 44, Outland, and Soldier (1998). I have no issue with Pitch Black though I hadn't considered it .
>>96417396There's so much of them... one of my personal favourites was Music of the Spears where composer guy wants to compose music from alien sounds, gets hooked on alien slime drug and eventually alien gets loose. Shit art but i like the story itself.Actually majority of those have shit art but some of the stories are good. Great, even. Many predator comics have "old" predators who try to find their last battle and die in a blaze of glory. Ie. Predator vs. Judge Dredd. Or "bad" predators doing things against their "law". Like Homeworld and Bad Blood. Best if you can torrent (i don't know if you torrent anything in 2025, maybe there is better alternatives nowadays) whole heap.
>>96417396The omnibus editions are all hella cheap on Amazon. I have them. They're a short read. Just read them in the order they're collected. You'll hit a few, especially in the Aliens line, that you won't care about so skip. But I think it's only like 7 or 8 books total. And they're comics so honestly you could plow through the whole thing in like 2 days easy.
>>96418808>Best if you can torrent (i don't know if you torrent anything in 2025, maybe there is better alternatives nowadays) whole heap.Just read them online here: https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Aliens-Omnibushttps://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Predator-Omnibus
>>96419425Oh and when you get to it: yes that looks a lot like Ripley, Hicks and Newt. It was. It got retconned after Alien 3.
>>96418808It was a time when a ton of creativity was allowed on IP comics. Hellraiser had an anthology magazine with some solid stories and a slow burn overarching plot that wasn't great but it was super interesting for what the franchise became. They had to help cure aids because it was an element of chaos or something absurd like that.
>>96417281I consider the Serena Dawn RPG website the definitive Alien/Predator canon.
We talk about Xenomorph and no one Mentions Quasimorph.Best derivative IP out of this. Actually good gammeplay ideas comapred to any of the Alien Games.
>>96418808>Many predator comics have "old" predators who try to find their last battle and die in a blaze of glory. Chained to Life and Death is my favorite take on that.
>>96417396The alien omnibuses then the predator omnibuses and then the AVP omnibus.They are cheap, readily available and go from serious to fucking whacky. Alien expanded lore has literal ninjas using Xenodrugs and shit, massive alien frycooks making fried facehuggers for greasy spoons, and the president of USA suicide bombing a space jockey with a chest burster.It's a wild ride. There is good stuff mixed in that isn't as batshit too. The predator comics establishing them as matriarchal in nature is good too.
>>96419951>QuasimorphYeah, but the main antagonist of that setting is basically beings from another dimension brought to ours by mass suffering of clones. Unless you want to engage in Slavic pseudo-scientific occultism you can't really use that. I think you can use lore of the companies, terrorists, and cults, but they're not as neat/unique compared to the supernatural apocalypse happening. >>96417281One difficulty integrating Alien and Predator is that Aliens are now officially in an alternate timeline where 80s tech advanced in their old form. Predator on the otherhand kinda moved away from that.
Not all Pred Clans build pyramids. Not all Clans use Xenos for hunting tests stock.Yes, if one survives what they believe is the worst thing in the universe, then everything else is a push-over, what's the point?There's a reason why there are different skulls in those trophy cases. Different opponents make better challenges.There's an old deer-hunter's saying: The smartest thing in the woods during deer season IS THE DEER.I point out as examples: Predator, Predator 2, Prey.
>>96417793+1 to everything this anon said.I would throw The Thing on top of the list of movies to add to the canon, personally.And Avatar, maybe.
Alien Earth SUCKS
The doctor is in the house.https://youtu.be/-latIFZ6xyA?t=1355We should set up a document detailing map layouts, quests, events and xenomorph qualities and abilities like a Pokedex.The AVP1 Alien in the ending cinematic has a very interesting accidental texture that makes it look much more symbolic than it actually is.
>>96417281>black gooHard rules are better than getting rid of it, it IS a useful narrative and lore device but really shouldn't be used a Star Trek technobabble magic cure all. >Engineers There should be a further explanation of their actions and why they want to destroy their creations.>Engineers lore They roll around and create life, all is good. Unfortunately they hyper evolve themselves into a dead end, and now can't reproduce anymore. They slowly start going extinct. They find out that they can reverse this by using the black goo to "unmake" the life that they made, as each form of life was made during different stages of their evolution. Two factions form, The Preservers, who believe that their time is done and they should ensure that their creations will find their legacy and learn from it. And then there are The Destroyers. The Destroyers created the Xenomorphs as weapons, but lost the war. >HumansEVERYONE IS A BASTARD. WY, the UPP, there should be no group who is a magical good guy, EVERYONE SUCKS. >United American StatesFreedom.... for a Price. You can have a standard of life that is pure luxury, but the rest struggle paycheck to paycheck. Corruption, Crime, and the only ways out are the USCMC or Indenturement to a MegaCorp.>Union of Progressive Planets Oh boy. Crank Marxism and ALL the warcrimes up to 11, if it weren't for Wayland-Yutani being so retarded these guys would get wiped out as nobody would want to follow them. >what NOT TO DOThe UPP isn't the TikTok/Reddit gay space luxury communism fantasy, it's the Cultural Revolution/Five Year Plan/Red Terror with legions of subversive retards in the UAS and 3WE who would get purged the nanosecond the UPP took power. >3WEBritish/Japanese society on crack. Workers working themselves to death while paying outrageous taxes and crumbling social services while a strict social hierarchy means mobility is nearly impossible. The 3WE military is extremely competent, but poorly led.
Black Goo is expanded upon greatly in the Alien RPG, and isn't a terrible addition to Alien. It makes monsters, turns people into monsters, or makes people incubate monsters. It's a goldmine for writers to play around with. On that note, what does Predator add to the Alien setting? I personally like the crossover, but how do you address the common complain of "Alien adds a lot to Predator, but Predator adds nothing to Alien"?How far do we lean into Alien/Predator lore. Are we going to see the Amengi, or Fulfremmen in your setting?
>>96417555Imagine.
>>96435880The Amengi are bretty gud, and they use a unused asset (the OG/Jean Claude Predator) into a possible plot/BBEG and perfectly explain why the Predators are so fucked up. >the Marysuemenn NO. FULL STOP.
>>96436745You've peaked my interest. I'm writing a Predator campaign for the Alien RPG and I'm not sure how to go about referencing the Amengi. I'm trying to keep the tone of Alien. How did you do it?
>>96436834Simple, keep them as Easter Eggs, like Predator 2 or a encounter that the party only gets glimpses of. >weapons The Alien RPG ABSOLUTELY SUCKS and the video games aren't much better. Aliens:Fireteam Elite is a absolute dumpster fire in art direction, it somehow transcends 343Halo in bad ideas. Everything looks like generic sci-fi slop, and unfortunately the writers tried their best to make them fit but couldn't.>reddït Good ideas are good ideas.
>>96430579Labyrinth is so good, if I just want dumb fun though have to go with Stronghold.
>>96435880Black Goo comes from the William Gibson Alien 3 script and was used quite well there, Prometheus/Covenant took his ideas and implemented them in less competent ways.
>>96417281Won't the new Alien edition from free league do that?
Btw of those alien comics, i really recommend "stalker". Can be found from aliens omnibus 6: >>96419425
>>96430579A XenoDex? Include the data from the various wikis.
So what you're saying is that when it comes to Romulus and the AVP continuity, you gotta keep 'em sep-err-8-ed?
>>96417281Earth Angel is one of my favorite Aliens comics.
For a janky console RTS game AvP Extinction has a fun story, the company makes both a tame alien subspecies you fight in the Alien campaign and a predalien queen to fight in the Predator one. Inventing new aliens to fill a unit roster makes the lifecycle even more complicated unfortunately.
The genetically altered xenomorphs were wiped out, guess natural is best.
How should Praetorians fit into the lifecycle? Potential queens from Royal facehuggers? Normal aliens fed Royal Jelly? Every game has its own version.
>>96417281Are you going to link Blade Runner to the Alien canon?
