Intruder (board game)

Intruder, designed by B. Dennis Sustare, is based on the movie Alien, in which a rapidly maturing alien roams a spaceship, ambushing and killing crew members.[1] In Intruder, a young alien life form has escaped from the labs of the space station Prometheus, and hunts members of the crew as it matures and gains new abilities. It is up to the crew to find the alien and either capture it when it is young, or kill it in its later life stages before crew losses become unacceptable. If all else fails, the crew can initiate a self-destruct sequence to destroy the Prometheus while escaping by shuttle; however, there is a chance that the alien will also escape by stowing away on one of the shuttles.

The provided map shows the various areas and corridors of the Prometheus. The sequence of play in each turn is:

• Movement of alien: Facedown counters (one of which is the alien) are moved randomly
• Interaction phase: Crew members can investigate facedown counters to try to determine the location of the alien. Combat may ensue.
• Panic phase: If a crew member is killed, all crew members retreat to the command module and the facedown counters are again moved randomly, hiding the new location of the alien.
• Metamorphosis phase: A die is rolled to see if the alien matures and gains new abilities.
• Movement phase: the crew can move to search for the alien or reach caches of weapons or technology. If they reach a facedown counter, interaction combat with the alien may result.
• Self destruct advances: If the self-destruct sequence has been initiated, the sequence advances by one step.[1]

The game components are a 16" x 20" paper map, 54 die-cut counters and a 16-page rulebook, packaged in a zip-lock bag.[1]

In the May–June 1980 edition of The Space Gamer (Issue No. 28), Jerry Epperson was not impressed by Intruder, saying, "I was somewhat disappointed. This one is for solitaire gamers, or others who are really hard up for new sci-fi games."[2]

In the July 1980 edition of Dragon, Tony Watson liked Intruder, saying, "There was a game in that movie [Alien], and Task Force has done a fine job of extracting and offering it to us in a pocket-game format." Watson enjoyed the quick turns that resulted in gameplay of only 45 minutes. His only complaints were about a couple of glitches in the rules, and the shiny finish on the counters, which sometimes revealed the location of the facedown alien due to reflection. Watson recommended the game, saying, "The game... is a lot of fun. The situation is tense and games are often close. The Intruder is truly a mean monster and the player will have to use some brains to defeat it."[1]

Roger Sandell reviewed Intruder for White Dwarf #21, giving it an overall rating of 6 out of 10, and stated that "in the end, my feeling is that this game is a good idea which needs further development. It would have been nice to have seen a game system that, like The Creature that Ate Sheboygan, allowed the Intruder to be radically different each time."[3]