X-Com: the Redshirtening

[Andor]

I've been enjoying the x-com franchise in it's various guises for almost 20 years now and while trying out the long war mod it's been preying on my mind what a great rpg it could make.

I don't have any particular system in mind. D20 Modern wouldn't be bad, but it wouldn't really be good either. E6 modern might be a closer fit. Only War has a lot of promise as well. I've seen conspiracy X suggested but I don't know the system.

Reguardless of the system it seems to me you would want to use a non-standard campaign style structure. In fact I can't think of a better venue for troupe style play. Each player could take the role of a department head back at base (chief of research, engineering, training, commander, etc) as well as drawing from the pool of available troopers when the field missions go out.

You could also do one shots highlighting normal people coping with the invasion. Abductees trying to escape. People on the street trying to survive a terror mission. A hunting party stumbling across a downed ufo before the skyranger arrives.

So the game would need a multilayered system. In fact the strategic layer would probably be developed in a system agnostic fashion and just layered over the top of the tactical level game.

And then there is all the fun to be had screwing with player expectations about who the aliens are and what they want. There is no need, or even advantage in slavishly following the plot lines, such as they are, of the video games.

Thoughts? And does anyone know if FFG got the RPG rights when they were greenlighted to develop a boardgame?

 

[Morrus]

I think the overall premise and campaign structure can be mimicked by most any game, though modern/sci-fi themed ones obviously already include the modular elements (weapons, mainly) than you need. The tactical combat system was one of my influences when writing N.E.W., although it (the X-Com combat system) has roots elsewhere. I think the main obstacle would be research subsystem, if you wanted to model that aspect of the game exactly.

 

[Andor]

Huh, I missed the news about your system, that does look interesting.

But yes, that's why I say the strategic layer could be system agnostic. I might write up a strategic layer game that covers base construction, research, equipment construction, troop recruitment, and the council of nations. Possibly the interception minigame. Then that could be bolted on top of any RPG you like to portray the tactical level. Add in a chapter on mission types, campaign themes, and alien motivations and goals and it might even be worth publishing.

 

[nomotog]

For some reason, I thought maid RPG... (I think because I have pondered using that system to run a dungeon keeper like game where the players manage different departments and that is kind of like what you want to do here.) Anyway I am pondering that you could do kind of a pseudo D&D 5ed thing. The way that game handles skills and proficiency makes it very double for a game type like this. Like you could have your players basically be a collection of exotic proficiencies. Like the head researcher could take proficiency in Gene manipulation, Cyphers and codes, and medicine.

 

[Bluenose]

There's a rather obscure game Operation: Perfect Blue. I haven't played it but the setup looks ideal.

More mainstream, Savage Worlds could handle the tactical combat and character sections of it with just it's core rules. You'd probably have to pick up at least the SF Companion and one of the sets which has rules for larger scale combats. If you're willing to work with older games, Twilight:2000/T:2013 and the GDW version of 2300AD combined would provide tactical combat, generation systems for modern-day military characters, and SF weaponry.

 

[Andor]

Perfect Blue certainly does look like someone wanted to make X-com and then flipped the scenario to avoid legal hassles. It might be worth mining for ideas, but the level of writing in the preview does not fill me with great hope. Still, it's pretty cheap.

 

[MarkB]

I've been considering doing something based on the more current XCOM: Enemy Unknown PC game. That game's turn structure and simple class system could be easily translated to any reasonably flexible rules system.

I've been toying with using FATE for it, though I'd need to change up the combat system - cover and tactical positioning is so central to the game that it'd be doing it an injustice to use FATE's more abstract default combat system. But FATE's separate mental and physical damage tracks would work well for a game featuring psionics.

 

[Lindeloef]

Regarding the Combat Layer, from what I have seen, you may want to take a look at the Infinity Tabletop Game. It felt kinda like the newest Xcom game from a tactical point.
But Infinity is a 1vs1 wargame, not sure how easy it would be to translate it into a group game as I haven't read the rules that carefully (nor have I played it).

But maybe it gives you some ideas.

 

[dd.stevenson]

This is something I've mulled over many a train ride, as I'm another old-timey xcom fan. Alas, all I really have are a collection of thoughts.

COMBAT:
--I think an ideal system would let you run 2-3 missions over a three hour session. Less than that and you would need to take a serious look at the implied pacing.
--Character build options should be sparse across the board, and death should be fairly common, especially early in the game.
--Tone would require some serious thought: will the aliens and technology be horrifying or amusing?

STRATEGIC VIEW:
--Which player/s would make the difficult strategic decisions? How will responsibility be handled?
--Are the players racing against the clock, or will the enemy strength scale to match what Xcom can currently handle?
--As far as I can tell, nothing prevents us from just lifting the strategic game from an xcom installment whole cloth, with only a bit of eyeballing necessary to get the pace right. But which one? Early xcom games were likely to be false starts; whereas EU suffered from a dumb, game-able economic model.

PLOT:
--The xcom franchise always suffered from a weak storyline; this is one area we could really learn from other franchises like warcraft.
--The final mission needs to be a real payoff, with a solid reveal or two at the end. Again, something to improve on.

 

[Neonchameleon]

The big thing for X-Com is that you need very fast character generation. Five minutes at most. Because that way you can have your PC killed by aliens and be back into the session fast. Or you have an entire stable of characters who can be picked up in a minute each. Or both.

Which means that my instinct is for a PBTA style game with a fixed collection of basic moves and a fairly short wound track all of which is meaningful (I certainly wouldn't go for d20 Modern or Only War) and semi-pregen characters with mostly binary options to fill out.