SLASHER
This week we look at some more Homebrew material for the ALIEN RPG.
In the deepest void of space noone can hear you scream. This week we dip into the Dead Space universe and look at a fantastic homebrew we found on our adventures. This week we look at the deformed, nasty Necromorph.
What is a Necromorph?
In the Dead Space series, Necromorphs are the reanimated, mutated corpses of living creatures (humans mostly in the Dead Space series). These people are transformed by an unknown evil alien artefact called the Marker – which the Church of Unitology believes will allow us to transcend. The result of the influence of the Marker is rapid transformation to the grotesque monsters known as the Necromorphs. The necromorph is the gloriously disgusting representation of body horror, changing anyone it infects into disgusting reshaped monsters who seek to spread death and destruction across the systems. They are, in our opinion, some of the greatest sci-fi threats to grace our video games for years.
What do they actually do?
We know that they seek to spread chaos, but those who have followed the game series will know of the many trademarks they show to make them the seemingly unstoppable, world ending force of muck and blood
Necromorphs are known to be aggressive ambushers in the Dead Space game. While they may seem mindless killers at first, they act closer to cunning hunters who spring out from the dark corners of the Ishimora (the ship we first encounter them on in the Dead Space series). Often, they spring from these corners or out of vents to jump-scare players. Many times when playing the games you’ll be conditioned to be hesistant of approaching vents, and you’ll often find yourself looking out for them – very similar to what Alien did. Many times you may walk through a corrider to come back later – thinking it’s safe – only ot be ambushed by necromorphs.
As the game quickly communicates, the most effective way to stop a Necromorph is to, as DOOM puts it, rip and tear. Dismembering the necromorphs limbs and head are the only way to stop them from their onslaught – with the game often rewarding dismemberment of the legs to slow them down.
In addition to being incredibly quick, stealthy and most importantly lethal, Necromorphs have a Hive Mind which is connected via the power of the Marker (if I’m understanding it correctly!). This allows them to coordinate their attacks, band together and overwhelm their victims. In the game, this offers a lot of challenging encounters at higher difficulties but with the homebrew stats we will talk about – can offer a vicious onslaught which could eliminate all party memebers.
Necromorphs also have an iconic (if you can call it that) scream which is used to huge effect in the games – using the torn voices of their victims they let out gut wrenching screams while they charge towards their victims.
If you’re not familiar with the source material, you’ll have seen from the pictures and these descriptions that one of the staples of Necromorphs are their adaptive, brutal mutations. This makes Necromorphs adaptable to their environment (which can be seen when looking at the other games in the series), but also leads to many forms of Necromorphs which various abilities. In this post we are focusing on the standard Necromorph (which has been branded Slasher as the Homebrew is called that), but you can find other variants in the linked homebrew below, or we may cover more at a later date.
Alien RPG Homebrew materials
After we recently played some of the Dead Space remake (HIGHLY recommend by the way) – we wondered if there were any Necromorph stat blocks available for any of the TTRPG games that we’re cycling through. This fantastic work from u/big_eagle111 gave us what we were looking for – even for a very appropriate game. You can find Eagle’s stat blocks here, but we will be specifically referring to the Slasher.
The Alien RPG doesn’t have hugely complicated enemy stat blocks, so we’ll post the relevant information here, but please check out the stat block Eagle made for yourself as it’s worth your time.
So… for the Slasher variant of the Necromorph. It’s main stats are:
| Stat | Value |
| Speed Health Skills Mobility Observation Armour Rating | 2 (1 if any legs are missing) 5 4 5 5 (except the limbs, with 0; 0 vs fire) |
In Alien, enemies have a number of attacks they can do and the GM rolls to see what one they perform on their turn. Here is what the Stalker has. Using its D6 pool of actions it can:
- AWFUL YELL: The Slasher lets out a horrific wail that is just human enough to be unsettling. Add one to the next roll on this table (for a maximum of 6). All PCs within MEDIUM Range that hear the unnatural sound get +1 STRESS LEVEL.
- 2-4 BLADE SLASH: The Slasher brings down its bladed arms upon the victim. The victim is attacked using ten Base Dice, Damage 2. The attack is armor piercing.
- 5 READY TO KILL: The Slasher grabs its victim, preparing to rip their throat out. Roll for the attack with ten Base Dice. If it hits, the victim counts as grabbed (see page 93) and needs to make an opposed CLOSE COMBAT roll against ten Base Dice to break loose. The victim and all friendly characters in the same zone must make Panic Rolls. Unless the victim breaks free, the Slasher will use a THROAT RIP attack against them on its next initiative.
- 6 THROAT RIP: The Slasher bites into victim’s throat. Roll for the attack using eight Base Dice, Damage 1. If the attack causes damage, it automatically inflicts critical injury #61 (even if the victim is not Broken), triggering an immediate Panic Roll.
We particularly like the creature’s speed of 2, giving it 2 turns in initiative, but also it’s resilient armour. In the Dead Space games, these creatures are hard to put down (especially on harder difficulties), and a fast, resilient enemy with a decent HP pool of 5 is great. In addition, it has a strong mobility score of 6 to help further capture the speed of these creatures.
Lastly, tha attacks are our favourite part of the work Eagle done here. Every main staple of the Necromoprh is here between the Awful Yell terrifying PCs, the iconic mutated blades on it’s Blade Slash and the moves for 5 and 6 tell us that Eagle clearly has played through the games. In the video game, these monsters can grab Isaac, prompting a button-mashing event to break free or else they get torn apart. This is captured exactly with move 5 (being essentially the video game’s “Grab” move against Isaac) and then resulting in the Throat Rip which, like the video game, is lethal.
Eagle has also treated us to some great uses of the Panic and Stress mechanics of Alien with each move – well done!
Final thoughts
Necromorphs from the Dead Space series present a phenomenal addition to the Alien RPG – probably because of the clear inspirations. With a fantastic homebrew addition from u/big_eagle111, we have a great addition to our Alien RPG repertoire, and we hope you do too. Thanks for checking out this week’s Monster of the Week, and we hope you’re able to gather your courage, ready your weapons, and prepare to face the grossly great creature of the Necromorph in your next Alien RPG game!
For easy access, you can get access to the stat block we refer to here too.
Disclaimer: Always ensure your players are comfortable with darker and horror-themed scenarios before incorporating creatures this disgusting in the games you run. I’m sure it goes without saying that your players are OK with it if you are looking for monster stat blocks of this nature, but it’s always good to check.
-KJ