X-COM to DnD

[Crow Lee]

I'd be willing to try your idea.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

I would suggest looking at the Downtime and Kingdom Builder from Pathfinder's "Ultimate Campaign". They might not be exactly what you're looking for, but they just might point you in the direction you wanna go. Or check them on the srd;

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/kingdom-building

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/downtime

For your class problem, you don't need a building for each different class/Prc. For example, the paladin, might need a barracks and a church before you can start making them. Continuing along that path, you might have to train a paladin before you can acquire a favored soul. Your swordsage, might need a barracks, temple (or whatever you use for monks), and to recover the "lost scrolls of ____".
I'd suggest you make a list of all the classes/Prcs your going to allow. Next, I would consider the general roles a PC can take [Defender, Striker (melee), Striker (ranged), Arcane, Divine, Healer, Face, Sneaky-Staby... etc]. Then, I'd make sure there is a building(s) that would apply well to each [Barrack, Tower, Church, Theater, Bar... etc] while trying create as few as possible. Obviously some classes will fill multiple roles, some simultaneously like the druid (built right a powerful divine defender/striker) while others have to be built towards a specific role. Last but not least I'd make a tech tree to show what building(s) are need to build each class/Prc, with a few notations for extra oddball things like my swordsage example.

Well, I hope you the best of luck and that both you and your players enjoy.

 

[Akillion]

Great idea. Really enjoy both games. I toyed with the idea of a Deep Space 9 type of D&D game, but I think I prefer your suggestion. I would run the first session in your head and ask yourself if you were a player what kind of options would you like to face, where would the dramatic tension be? Do this for three sessions and some of the rules will start to write themselves. Then you can start for real - you will always be 3 weeks ahead of your players.

 

[Croesus]

It doesn't have to be just one "resource" like money. Money certainly will be needed to pay wages for everyone and obtain supplies and expand operations but clerics can be "bought" by collecting religious relics or questioning shamans and witch doctors. Wizards can be only be deployed if they can use captured "magicum" (elerium). In addition to building churches and libraries of course. Personally I don't know from swordsages or beguilers but it sure sounds like the equivalent of the Psi-lab to me - only after training/testing will recruits have access to "X" class, or especially to "Y" prestige class.

Fantasy X-Com - neat idea. I may have to steal this.

I was thinking that another resource could be "Fame". The more successful the operation, the more likely it is to attract special troops. As mentioned above, you still need money to pay for things, but recruiting anything beyond your basic grunts could be made dependent on Fame, as opposed to specific buildings. Likewise, specific missions might attract specific troops or vice versa. "You're going after the fortress of the Bloody Claw Orcs? Count us in - we owe them payback." or "Hey, we've got info on a secret cabal that's supporting your opponents. We can't take them out ourselves, how about we join up?"