X-Com: the Redshirtening

[dd.stevenson]

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.

I don't think that's going to matter much, as the tech tree is at its core nothing more than an arbitrary ordering of projects. Since most euro games already arbitrarily order their projects (via luck of the draw) I don't think it'll be terribly problematic for you to choose the order ahead of time.

Note I'm only suggesting ripping out the resource allocation sub-game and re-writing the cards using the same basic math. By doing this, you make it pretty likely that your pacing and inter-player balance is going to work out of the box without additional playtesting--which is a pretty darn nice advantage if you're designing a homebrew system for a single campaign.

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.

I'm really into spreadsheets as gm aids, but do you want a spreadsheet on a computer screen to replace the gameboard for the strategic layer? Or are you thinking that the players ask you whenever they need to know anything about the strategic game situation? (Honest question.)

 

[Andor]

I don't think that's going to matter much, as the tech tree is at its core nothing more than an arbitrary ordering of projects. Since most euro games already arbitrarily order their projects (via luck of the draw) I don't think it'll be terribly problematic for you to choose the order ahead of time.

Well I'm really not familiar with any game that works as you seem to suggest. Can you name an example?

That aside the order of the tech tree is certainly important in an X-com game because you're using it to gate access to improved equipment and new abilities including complete game changers like Psi. I just want the ability to add to the tree, not to reorder it. (Obviously the GM can reorder it, but the players cannot.)

[Note I'm only suggesting ripping out the resource allocation sub-game and re-writing the cards using the same basic math. By doing this, you make it pretty likely that your pacing and inter-player balance is going to work out of the box without additional playtesting--which is a pretty darn nice advantage if you're designing a homebrew system for a single campaign.

I'm not sure how well it would apply honestly. The pacing requirements of 3-8 hour board game have little in common with those of a 20-50 session RPG campaign. Honestly I think the only really important part of the pacing problem from a balance point of view lies in the alien advances, and those already lie entirely under GM control anyway so it's not really a major concern. If the players are doing really well and I spring Muton elites on them 3 weeks ahead of schedule they're not going to know I'm tweaking things.

I'm really into spreadsheets as gm aids, but do you want a spreadsheet on a computer screen to replace the gameboard for the strategic layer? Or are you thinking that the players ask you whenever they need to know anything about the strategic game situation? (Honest question.)

Well I certainly wasn't planning to have a gameboard as such. The strategy layer in X-com is represented by a whole series of screens from the global map to inventory lists and soldier rosters. They players would need access to, at the very least, the Soldier roster, equipment inventory, and resource lists used at the strategy level. If you plan to run any base assault or captured alien escape scenarios then you'll need to have the base layout. A geoscape is needed if you're using the old multiple base model, it's less important if you're using the newer single base model. And the GM will certainly need (and the players should probably have access to) a Gant chart showing the on-going projects. And of course the GM will need additional tools to track the aliens progress. And a UFOpedia would be fun. But really the only time you need to break out a board as it were is for the tactical game. That having been said I do plan to take a hard look at the X-com board game to see if there is anything worth stealing.

 

[SRR13]

Replying to everything at once in no particular order:

>Character creation
This seems pretty simple honestly. You have 4 main classes (or however many LW adds) with static bonuses to modify a base human and skill trees a la XCOM EU/EW which the dudes get as they either gain experience either through Officer Training or in the field. Slapping together a base unit should take no time at all, since rookie's weren't even given a class til they got past the first mission or two anyway. Then you roll a dice on a table, slap on the template, and you've got yourself a brand spankin' new unit. Of course, this ends up with the situation where you could end up ranking up a batch of new recruits and they all be one class (a situation which was handled by the game code) but this can be fixed with a simple GM sanity check.

>EXALT
I would make this an optional rule. Sorta like a tabletop version of DLC, I think the player have enough on their hands with just learning the new system without adding EXALT to the equation as well. Some groups will adapt like a fish to water, and then the GM can add it back in. Some groups will not feel confident until they have done maybe even as much as a whole campaign before they feel ready to add the EXALT layer to the mess.

>Small town people just surviving
This sounds like a precon adventure honestly. You have a scenario and a map, hand each player a precon character sheet ( or let them choose), and then run with it. Could be a good way to introduce the system to new players too. Something that could be run at conventions or the like.

 

[Andor]

>EXALT
I would make this an optional rule. Sorta like a tabletop version of DLC, I think the player have enough on their hands with just learning the new system without adding EXALT to the equation as well. Some groups will adapt like a fish to water, and then the GM can add it back in. Some groups will not feel confident until they have done maybe even as much as a whole campaign before they feel ready to add the EXALT layer to the mess.

Oh sure, in fact there are lots of options for how you run the campaign, and some of them will need to be player directed or at least influenced. There is no point in setting up a complex, layered, multi-factional web of intrigue and deceit if your players just want to shoot things in the face. An X-com game at the political level can be as simple as the original game where even defection to the alien side can be cured by enough explosives if you drop them in an alien base, or as complex as X-com apocalypse where you have multiple factions with differing goals and you can fight or align with all of them as the game progresses and your needs demand. ... Suddenly I have this dark desire to make the X-com commander secretly be Fox Mulder. ... And now I'm doubting it's a coincidence that Dr. Vahlen looks like Scully. Do you think the CSM is sitting in the corner of the room when the council guy contacts you?

In fact one of the first choices the players will have to make is to decide if X-Com is a public or clandestine organization. The game hints at both, but it will be a major driver of play style in a campaign and the choice is really in the hands of the players.

 

[SRR13]

Oh sure, in fact there are lots of options for how you run the campaign, and some of them will need to be player directed or at least influenced. There is no point in setting up a complex, layered, multi-factional web of intrigue and deceit if your players just want to shoot things in the face. An X-com game at the political level can be as simple as the original game where even defection to the alien side can be cured by enough explosives if you drop them in an alien base, or as complex as X-com apocalypse where you have multiple factions with differing goals and you can fight or align with all of them as the game progresses and your needs demand. ... Suddenly I have this dark desire to make the X-com commander secretly be Fox Mulder. ... And now I'm doubting it's a coincidence that Dr. Vahlen looks like Scully. Do you think the CSM is sitting in the corner of the room when the council guy contacts you?

In fact one of the first choices the players will have to make is to decide if X-Com is a public or clandestine organization. The game hints at both, but it will be a major driver of play style in a campaign and the choice is really in the hands of the players.

Public or Private: I can see this changing the difficulty in various areas for the PR department. For example, it might change how easy/difficult it is to...say, crowd source things or cover something up just as two examples. In game terms, it would simply change the target number for their rolls.

I could see it affecting other roles as well. If they are super public about it, maybe they could run a recruitment campaign (posters and recruiting stations and stuff) for their military forces.

If you want, you could even add in things like congressional hearings and so forth where the department heads are called in to testify when a mission goes bad (only if they are super public).

 

[Andor]

Well this is the reason for a single general resolution system at the strategic level. A public vs clandestine PR campaign can be a simple modifier. Of course somethings will or won't be possible while maintaining secrecy.

A public X-Com could reasonably run a public awareness campaign to make the public more responsive to X-Com directives during terror missions, but a secret one could not. Likewise a secret X-Com might be able to deflect blame for a screw-up onto someone else, but a public one couldn't.

There will be a lot of GM adjudication called for, as any flexible system must.

 

[SRR13]

Well this is the reason for a single general resolution system at the strategic level. A public vs clandestine PR campaign can be a simple modifier. Of course somethings will or won't be possible while maintaining secrecy.

A public X-Com could reasonably run a public awareness campaign to make the public more responsive to X-Com directives during terror missions, but a secret one could not. Likewise a secret X-Com might be able to deflect blame for a screw-up onto someone else, but a public one couldn't.

There will be a lot of GM adjudication called for, as any flexible system must.

"More responsive to X-Com directives during terror missions"
Like actually running away once chrysalids show up?

 

[MarkB]

Well this is the reason for a single general resolution system at the strategic level. A public vs clandestine PR campaign can be a simple modifier. Of course somethings will or won't be possible while maintaining secrecy.

A public X-Com could reasonably run a public awareness campaign to make the public more responsive to X-Com directives during terror missions, but a secret one could not. Likewise a secret X-Com might be able to deflect blame for a screw-up onto someone else, but a public one couldn't.

There will be a lot of GM adjudication called for, as any flexible system must.

A public X-COM might also result in higher panic levels during the early game, as the public are more heavily exposed to information on the alien incursion, but lower panic levels later on, as they know there's someone out there fighting back.

 

[Andor]

"More responsive to X-Com directives during terror missions"
Like actually running away once chrysalids show up?

Why would you run? They just want to hug you.

And hey in the original x-com civilians were so stupid they would literally walk through fire and die. Not gunfire, wall of napalm fire.

A public X-COM might also result in higher panic levels during the early game, as the public are more heavily exposed to information on the alien incursion, but lower panic levels later on, as they know there's someone out there fighting back.

Well, I don't think there would be any successful concealment of the Alien invasion in the modern world. It would be all over social media within seconds. X-com being public vs clandestine would certainly effect to what degree the success or failure of X-com operations alter the panic scale however. With a public X-Com there would be a greater panic hit from a mission gone south, but it would be distributed wider, moving individual countries less. If X-com was clandestine the total panic hit would be less, but also more localized as people lose faith in the ability of their country to resist the aliens.

Control of public information and misinformation will be affected by the scenario as well. A public X-com will be able to put the truth out there, but would be vulnerable to taking a big credit hit if they fell prey to an alien deception and had to own up to it.

Of course the players may not be interested in that aspect of play.

 

[MarkB]

Well, I don't think there would be any successful concealment of the Alien invasion in the modern world. It would be all over social media within seconds.

True, but the early weeks aren't really a full-scale invasion - they're occasional urban incursions by Thin Men and Sectoids, combined with scouting missions in remote rural areas. Even widely reported, they could be dismissed as hoaxes or Hollywood publicity-stunts or the works of crazed conspiracy theorists. It's only really when the Terror missions start hitting that it turns into a full-scale, publicly-recognised invasion.