X-Com: the Redshirtening

[Andor]

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?

Those are some very interesting thoughts. The first is one I had not thought of, but you're right. OTOH that applies to the routine X-Com battle. In an RPG there are so many more possibilities.

• Vingette scenes where you play a bunch of campers/townies/researches dealing with an alien abduction or assault. Survivors may be recruited.
• Actual interactions with the Aliens.
• Skill challenges like bomb defusing, or dealing with panicked civilians or aiding local military forces in containing a chryssalid infestation.
• Hotwireing a vehicle so you can introduce a muton to Mr Big Red Truck.

I dunno about two. I kind of like the richer character options of the newer X-Com:EU/EW games. Have you tried the Long War mod? It's amazing.

As for the third, the aliens are pretty terrifying, playing X-com for laughs would be weird. Granted Sectoids are kind of a joke in EU/EW but in the earlier games that extended night-vision they had was enough to make them terrifying, as green bolts of death just came at you out of the darkness.

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.

I think the proper way to do it it to assign each player a role as a department head. Engineering and Research are the obvious big ones, but there is also room for roles like Intelligence, Diplomacy, Public Affairs, Logistics, Training, Military/Corporate Liaisons, etc.

I think the answer to two will depend on the alien motivation and resources.

As you say the strategic game can be mostly lifted but I think you're right that the EU/EW economic model is dumb. I think a lot could be done to improve that, and in doing so give some weight to those alternate department heads like diplomacy and corporate liaison.

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.

Oh yes. In fact I'm kind of itching to write that chapter. So many juicy possibilities. I think the key thing is that the Aliens actions have to make sense, but only from the aliens perspective. I agree that the franchise has always been weak on the aliens motivations, to the point of ignoring them in the earlier games. EU/EW tried, but it didn't try very hard. I plan to write up a whole list of possible motivations with notes about how each one will effect the aliens strategy and progress.

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.

As I said, troupe style play would be the way to do it IMO. You would have a roster of troops and when the ball goes up each player chooses one or a few and you load up the skyranger and go.
A simple system would be best in some ways, but you don't want to over do it. I might try making an E6 version of 5e and then rejiggering the classes and feats for the setting. However I think I'll just leave the tactical level for last and worry about the strategic layer first.

 

[dd.stevenson]

OTOH that applies to the routine X-Com battle. In an RPG there are so many more possibilities.

• Vingette scenes where you play a bunch of campers/townies/researches dealing with an alien abduction or assault. Survivors may be recruited.
• Actual interactions with the Aliens.
• Skill challenges like bomb defusing, or dealing with panicked civilians or aiding local military forces in containing a chryssalid infestation.
• Hotwireing a vehicle so you can introduce a muton to Mr Big Red Truck.

Playstyle isn't something that I've thought a lot about, but you raise a great point--xcom games are all about tactical battlemats and counting squares; this isn't something that every rpg group will jump on. I guess the first decision would be how faithfully you want to stick to the computer games tactical layer, or whether your group is more into dirty fighting and action sequences.

I dunno about two. I kind of like the richer character options of the newer X-Com:EU/EW games. Have you tried the Long War mod? It's amazing.

Hell yes I have! Great stuff all around. However, I still wouldn't consider the character build options much more complex than choosing one of two powers each level. If you told me to roll up a squad I could generate one max-level soldier a minute, no sweat. Perhaps I'm overlooking something tho.

I'll just leave the tactical level for last and worry about the strategic layer first.

I imagine you're familiar with the ufopaedia? I honestly can't see any reason why 90% of the strategic layer can't be knocked out in a single afternoon, once you've outlined the pacing requirements.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Oh yes. In fact I'm kind of itching to write that chapter. So many juicy possibilities. I think the key thing is that the Aliens actions have to make sense, but only from the aliens perspective. I agree that the franchise has always been weak on the aliens motivations, to the point of ignoring them in the earlier games. EU/EW tried, but it didn't try very hard. I plan to write up a whole list of possible motivations with notes about how each one will effect the aliens strategy and progress.

Not necessarily related to your specific needs, but I think it would be awesome if there were some nights black agents style rules for setting up a new set of aliens and alien motivations for each individual campaign. Would up the replay-ability factor at least!

Maybe that's just the flu meds talking, tho.

 

[Andor]

I imagine you're familiar with the ufopaedia? I honestly can't see any reason why 90% of the strategic layer can't be knocked out in a single afternoon, once you've outlined the pacing requirements.

Well there are a few considerations.

Principally you want every player to have something to do at the strategic level. In the default game the only PC level characters at the department level are really Dr Vahlen and Shen. IE: Head of Science and Engineering. Bradford doesn't really do anything but supply annoying voiceovers that make you want to punch him in the throat.

So my tentative list of Strategy level jobs and their roles is:
Commander: Distributes the budget. Sets up new bases. Decides to respond to potential ground missions.
Chief Scientist: Allocates scientists to projects. Makes success rolls. Can propose new areas of research.
Head of Engineering: Allocates Engineers to projects. Makes success rolls. Can propose new weapons/tools to be developed.
Head of Training/Logistics: Runs the OCS program. Allocates dept funds to training programs. Can generate bonuses for squads or other departments. Can research new perks/feats.
Public Affairs: Budget drives a pool of points which can be allocated to fight panic, boost income, or generate bonus science or engineering points by collaborating with outside companies/agencies.
Military Liaison: Interface to the worlds military forces. Can allocate resources to generate support like extra troops or air strikes as well as boost a nations native resistance to alien influence/attacks.
Intelligence: Counter to EXALT. Another way to generate ground missions as well as to uncover the aliens goals and motivations. Importance will depend upon campaign options.
Air Force: Runs the air combat section. Not sure about this one, also not sure how to run air combat.

And of course I need to decide which tech tree forms the basis of the RPG tech tree original X-com, Apocalypse, Long War? Many choices. And the tech system should support original ideas. If a players wants to develop technology in a direction the games didn't account for there is no reason an RPG shouldn't be able to allow for it.

And of course then you need to turn it around and develop the strategy level game from the alien side. Which will vary depending on campaign options. The goals and resources of aliens who are trying to wipe out all life on earth so they can build a new theme park will vary considerably from that of aliens who are trying to force-uplift humanity in order to make them worthy allies in the fight against the much, much worse aliens who aren't far behind them.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Principally you want every player to have something to do at the strategic level.

I think I would interpret xcom a little differently: I would say that principally you want the strategic level to get every player super pumped about using their new toys and gathering/preserving resources on the tactical layer; and you want each player coming back from each mission pumped about the strategic possibilities for what they've recovered. With that in mind, I think I would go a different route than partitioning the strategic layer into narrow specialized roles, however well it might match what actual military commands look like.

My preferred idea so far has been to put each player in the role of a representative of a xcom member nation. Each player can allocate their nations funding as they see fit, and of course the players can freely negotiate with each other/cooperate as much as they like. In addition to making sure each player has a broad number of reasons to be excited/anxious about upcoming missions, this approach also opens up some interesting possibilities as far as aliens pressuring individual nations--now when the aliens threaten a research facility in Brazil, it will be a personal concern for the Brazilian representative rather than just a blip on the income/panic charts. If one wished to go further with that route there are also lots of possibilities for giving these players separate goals which may conflict with other players goals or even the mission of xcom itself.

This approach could account for most strategic questions that are really just questions of funding, but it still leaves a few elements unaccounted for, such as base design and air-air combat. However, I don't think that any of these will be too difficult to manage, at least not with any group I've played with. Base design could be done by committee ("hey everybody, where are we putting this power generator?"). Triage scenarios could be handled by a simple vote from every council representative. And I can't see any reason that the players can't simply take turns rolling the dice for the interception missions themselves.

As far as the aliens side of the strategic game, you're right I would definitely back up first and decide what the aliens in-world goals are. (Personally, I've always liked the idea of technological Cthulhu-esque beings that harvest energy from the psychic terror of humanity, leading up to some kind of fear-powered super weapon to be unleashed on xcom.)

 

[Andor]

I think I would interpret xcom a little differently: I would say that principally you want the strategic level to get every player super pumped about using their new toys and gathering/preserving resources on the tactical layer; and you want each player coming back from each mission pumped about the strategic possibilities for what they've recovered. With that in mind, I think I would go a different route than partitioning the strategic layer into narrow specialized roles, however well it might match what actual military commands look like.

My preferred idea so far has been to put each player in the role of a representative of a xcom member nation. Each player can allocate their nations funding as they see fit, and of course the players can freely negotiate with each other/cooperate as much as they like. In addition to making sure each player has a broad number of reasons to be excited/anxious about upcoming missions, this approach also opens up some interesting possibilities as far as aliens pressuring individual nations--now when the aliens threaten a research facility in Brazil, it will be a personal concern for the Brazilian representative rather than just a blip on the income/panic charts. If one wished to go further with that route there are also lots of possibilities for giving these players separate goals which may conflict with other players goals or even the mission of xcom itself.

That's certainly in interesting approach, but it feels more like playing the council of nations than playing x-com. And it may not have been clear from how I described it but the idea is that at the strategy level the players are all interacting with each other, both in competition for a limited pool of resources and in cooperation to try to get synergy. I think a lot of the local concerns that you would get from playing individual nations I would instead accomplish through player agency. So for example the Chief Scientist needs some more researchers to decode an alien starchart the ground team recovered from a crashed UFO. He asks the head of logistics but he's tapped out. He goes to the public affairs officer who has the resources to do it. So they generate a new project which defines the help as coming from a technology company in Brazil who signs a co-operative agreement with X-com. The intelligence player asks to join into the project, and adds some of his resources to the project in order to lure out an EXALT cell. The Public Affairs officer himself decides to use this to publicize the good things X-com is doing to reduce panic in South America. However the publicity draws too much attention to the company and now they have to deal with a full blown raid, instead of the cyberattack Intel was expecting.

The idea is that you let the players put as many eggs as they want into a single basket, and they'd better hope they are capable of protecting that basket. Or they can spread the resources around into smaller baskets which are less valuable, but cost you less when they are destroyed in a bombing run.

You also get rp opportunities and buy-in from it ideally. For example during the raid on our Brazillian tech firm if a local guard gets a bunch of lucky shots in the team can recruit him and bring in a new soldier who comes pre-supplied with back story and team history.

 

[dd.stevenson]

So for example the Chief Scientist needs some more researchers to decode an alien starchart the ground team recovered from a crashed UFO. He asks the head of logistics but he's tapped out. He goes to the public affairs officer who has the resources to do it. So they generate a new project which defines the help as coming from a technology company in Brazil who signs a co-operative agreement with X-com. The intelligence player asks to join into the project, and adds some of his resources to the project in order to lure out an EXALT cell. The Public Affairs officer himself decides to use this to publicize the good things X-com is doing to reduce panic in South America. However the publicity draws too much attention to the company and now they have to deal with a full blown raid, instead of the cyberattack Intel was expecting.

That sounds like a fair bit of work! If you do wind up making the time investment, I'd be interested to see what you finally come up with.

 

[Andor]

That sounds like a fair bit of work! If you do wind up making the time investment, I'd be interested to see what you finally come up with.

Here's what I've got for a skeleton. It doesn't include the resolution system although it refers to it. It also doesn't include the synergies that are the point of joint projects but it think it shows the direction I'm thinking. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

Projects: At the strategy level work is done by projects. A Project uses resources, takes time, and generates a benefit. It may involves a success check. It may be subject to interference or attack by the enemies of X-com.
Project: Sample Project Department Joint Project: (Y/N)
Resource Scientists/$/Etc. Benefit Text
Cost Hours/$/Etc. Stake Text

Project: Alien Weaponry Science Dept. Joint Project: N
Resource Scientists Benefit Unlocks Future Research
Cost 150 Man-Hours Stake No Risk

Project: Workshop Training/Logistics Joint Project: Y Engineering
Resource $/Engineering Benefit Space for up to 25 engineers to work
Cost $100/400 Man-Hours Stake No Risk

Project: Cell Hunt Intelligence Joint Project: N
Resource Agents Benefit Discovers Enemy
Cost 150 Agent-Hours Stake Loss of Agents

Each action at the strategic level is a distinct project, with the exception of budget disbursement and upkeep. Each project should have a name, a resource, a cost, and a benefit. A Project may also have a stake, which is a potential downside to the project, if a project has a stake then it will either depend on a mission or an outcome roll. For example a combat mission stakes the lives of the soldiers sent out to fight. Likewise a PR project may stake the good reputation of X-com leading to a loss of influence points if it fails.

Generally each project will cost the normal resources of the department, such as scientist or engineer man-hours. There may be additional resource costs such as $, alien alloys or influence points. Engineering projects in particular often need additional resources.

There are two basic categories of Project, Standard and Unique. Standard projects are those defined by the game such as researching the normal tech-tree, building normal base-structures, and developing standard training protocols. Unique Projects are defined by the players in cooperation with the GM and provide whatever benefits they agree to as modified by the project outcome roll. All unique projects should define a stake which can be lost, at a minimum the resources pledged to the project will not be recovered if it fails.

Unique Project example: 6 months into the alien war losses are starting to mount, particularly due to mind-control incidents from Sectoid Commanders and Ethereals. After the Buenos Aries Incident Gary wonders if it’s possible modify their weapons so that they can’t be used against X-Com by a mind-controlled soldier. The GM thinks about it between games and at the next session says there are two ways they can try to modify their weapons, one is by adding an IFF system so the guns can’t be fired at X-com operatives, the other is by adding a safety system which monitors the user and locks down the weapon if it detects mind-control. The players ask what the upsides and downsides of the two systems are and the GM says more information will cost them a 40-man hour research program to investigate the possibilities. Gary is strapped for scientists so Susan asks if her engineers can work on the project as well. The GM says sure as long as there is at least one scientist on the team. Gary peels two scientists off the Firestorm research team and Susan puts in 3 engineers and they run a 1 day crash research program as a joint project.

Project: Research MC Safety Science Joint Project: Y Engineering
Resource Scientists Benefit Information
Cost 16 hours Stake 16 hours

Project: Research MC Safety Engineering Joint Project: Y Science
Resource Engineers Benefit Information
Cost 32 hours Stake 24 hours

Since it’s a joint project both Gary and Susan have to roll for Project Outcome. The GM decides that since an IFF system is existing technology he’ll apply Susan’s engineering success to that half of the information and have Gary’s roll apply to the more cutting edge mind-control detection system. Susan rolls a normal success but Gary rolls a complication. He informs the team that an IFF system would be easy to build but could potentially be manipulated by the aliens, but that they don’t know enough about Mind Control to even guess what telemetry could pick it up. He says that idea is stalled until an X-Com trooper develops the Mind Control ability. Gary puts his two scientists back to work in the Firestorm project and Susan and the GM and Susan discuss a new project to develop the IFF system. She suggests it shouldn’t be that difficult a project since both IFF systems and electronic gun locks are off-the-shelf technology. The GM counters that they haven’t been combined into a single system yet, and that the quicker the project is the easier it will be to hack. Susan doesn’t want to build guns that refuse to shoot aliens so she bids 400 man-hours for the project. The GM says that will be fine, but adds that the stakes should include the potential death of a soldier during live-fire testing unless they want to try it out in the field untested (IE with a hidden success roll.) Susan winces, and proposes that it be resolved as a standard damaging attack rather than an auto-kill. The GM agrees and adds a $50 cost for testing and supplies. The Commander okays the expenditure and deducts it from the base funds.

Project: Firearm IFF Engineering Joint Project: N
Resource Engineers Benefit IFF Safety Systems
Cost 400 hours Stake 400 man hours, $50, one possible attack on a volunteer.

Susan assigns 10 engineers to the project and 10 days later rolls for the project outcome and gets a brilliant success. The GM tells her that an IFF system can now be added to any X-Com weapon at the cost of $1 per weapon, and that the IFF signal can be added into their existing comm gear without cost or weight, and because of the brilliant success also allows half the man-hours invested to apply to any future smart-gun project. He also secretly notes that if the aliens manage to capture an x-com weapon in the field or succeed in suborning an engineer or scientist that they will then be able to spoof the IFF signal for a single mission.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Here's what I've got for a skeleton. It doesn't include the resolution system although it refers to it. It also doesn't include the synergies that are the point of joint projects but it think it shows the direction I'm thinking. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

What you describe sounds to me like a resource management euro boardgame supplemented with on-the-fly, GM-guided card creation. (As opposed to an RPG domain management system such as the colonization rules in Stars Without Number, which is something that the GM will probably track with a spreadsheet.)

With that in mind, I think you could probably do worse than hacking an existing euro game, since these come pre-tested for pacing and balance and have shiny game pieces ready to use. I know there are a few good cooperative games that put players in the shoes of different characters with different skills and abilities.

Does that sound like a good match for what you have in mind? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

 

[Andor]

What you describe sounds to me like a resource management euro boardgame supplemented with on-the-fly, GM-guided card creation. (As opposed to an RPG domain management system such as the colonization rules in Stars Without Number, which is something that the GM will probably track with a spreadsheet.)

With that in mind, I think you could probably do worse than hacking an existing euro game, since these come pre-tested for pacing and balance and have shiny game pieces ready to use. I know there are a few good cooperative games that put players in the shoes of different characters with different skills and abilities.

Does that sound like a good match for what you have in mind? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

It's certainly not how I was thinking of it, but you're not wrong. That having been said I cannot think of a cooperative board game which also has a tech tree mechanic. All the tech tree games I can think of like Age of Renaisannce or Civ are competative and therefore a poor model.

OTOH I was actually thinking that a spreadsheet would be a handy tool for tracking a lot of stuff. The goal of the project as a core mechanic at the strategy layer is to give myself a single simple mechanic with which to handle stuff as disparate as developing new aerospace craft, running an intelligence op, and designing a new training program.

But that's a good insight and model in the boardgame similarity. The difference of course is that as an RPG the players and GM can depart from the fixed play mechanics of board and computer games.