From Introduction: FORCE 9 is a science-fiction roleplaying game set in a galaxy at war with a bug-like alien menace. The Player Characters are part of a special Space Marine unit assigned to combat the bug Hive Mind before it comsumes all of mankind. FORCE 9 takes much of its inspiration from the Alien films (especially the second), and more recently, Starship Troopers. FORCE 9 has been designed as a "pamphlet game" - in other words, only the essentials required for play are included here (spiced up a tad with cool graphics, of course). The hardcopy, plain text version of the game should take up no more than nine letter size pages. Future expansions will be provided, detailing other parts of the setting, more Space Marine missions, new equipment and enemies, etc. FORCE 9 may have grown a little beyond its origins, but it was initially designed as a "beer and pretzels" game - something simple and fun to play as a break from your regular roleplaying. We think it still works great in this respect. Character creation is fast, the setting and tone are familiar to any sci-fi fan, and missions seem to write themselves. If your gaming group finds itself with a free afternoon, don’t pick up those Magic decks, generate some Space Marines and kick alien ass!