Eragar's Untitled Campaign

Game Master Eragar

Mostly copy/pasting from my post over on recruitment

If you'll each choose a country to be the location of your base (real-world wealth does not matter, so there won't be any disadvantage to choosing a small country).

Please also choose two things that you want your cell to start off with. Go ahead and choose anything you want (within reason), and I'll adjust to make it balanced. These can be things like starting with more soldiers, or better trained soldiers, or more advanced interceptors, or more money. As long as it's a general idea, I should be able to work with it to find something appropriate.

All that being said, I've also started filling out the campaign info tab with basic mechanical information so you can get a slight feel for how things work. It isn't mentioned there, but dice rolls will be using a simple d10 system.

England.

I want to start with drone soldiers and psionic training.

TAR-VI.
Threat Analysis and Response - Virtual Intelligence.
Originally created by a joint venture project of German scientists, machine learning specialists and the automotive industry (supported and partially funded by the government), TAR-VI was intended to solve many problems of an every increasing, complex world.
It should steer millions of autonomous cars, predict movements and activities of terrorists, control the energy production, storage and usage of whole nations in real-time and detect and fend of grand-scale cyber attacks on vital systems.

As the new, all-threatening situation develops, TAR-VI was hastily reprogrammed and repurposed.
It will now be used as the 2nd in-command of the German XCOM force, tasked with learning everything about this new enemy as fast as possible, providing assistance on the battlefield, strategic as well as tactic analysis and best-guess responses.
After the only one month, it already has become clear that TAR-VI is more than up to his job, making it the deFacto commander and main decision maker, leaving the actual Commander in a mere observation and controlling position.

Location: ******, Germany
Advantages:
- Deep Learning (learn&detect alien tactic, strategies and subspecies' strength&weaknesses fast, maybe bonus to research?)
- Wealth: Germany has a very well developed industry and economy.

(This is Swordwhale)
How about an optional weakness of ones location unlocking another benefit, like drawback/trait system in pathfinder? Could help to differentiate the cells even more.

P.s. I hope you like my TAR-VI idea. Think of it as something akin to JARVIS from Marvel films (Starks AI)
@Meetch: You want to work together even after you left the family? ;-)

Left the family?

I guessed that the story will be set slightly in the future ...
... considering the Brexit (England leaving the EU) is well under way, and I am posting from within the EU, I'd consider you 'out of the family' for all means and purposes ;-)

Minder One (Patrick Crawley) is the head of section for Project Condign, a branch of her majesty's Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS). He's responsible for managing the United Kingdom's rapid response and defense against the extraterrestrial menace.

The UK has been especially blessed with naturally occuring paranormals, providing the British X-com with mental training and psionic abilities not seen by other countries. Psi-actives are heavily regulated and are almost all recruited into Condign. There are rumors that Minder One himself is a powerful Psi, but these rumors are never repeated in his presence.

Through a joint partnership with the Swiss and the Germans, Condign has a fleet of drone fliers and tanks that they deploy to high-risk incursions to minimize casualties.

I guessed that the story will be set slightly in the future ...

... considering the Brexit (England leaving the EU) is well under way, and I am posting from within the EU, I'd consider you 'out of the family' for all means and purposes ;-)

Ah, yes. That makes sense. I'm sure we can find a way to work together in the face of such a terrible external threat. :)

Yeah it was a (sad) joke after all, not a real problem for the game anyway.
Are you actually British, Minder1?
Given your post times, I guess you're not that far off my time zone after all and I have chosen my own location for starting location, so .... xD

Another question for the GM:
Is the alien threat really new, the XCOM very fresh, or are we already a couple of months/years into the invasion already?

No, I'm in the united states. I just start work at 7 AM.

I got the first volume of the Queen and Country omnibus so I'm thinking a lot about UK spy stuff.

Another question for the GM:

Is the alien threat really new, the XCOM very fresh, or are we already a couple of months/years into the invasion already?

Per my original post, the XCOM project was activated two days after the first alien sighting. At the start of gameplay, it will have been less than a week. So you guys are getting in right from the get-go. :)

EDIT: I almost forgot--I'm not going to do drawbacks here. Just a little bit too much work for not very much game benefit. Keep those suggestions coming though. :) (and thanks for the tip on the other game. Gonna start looking at that).

A note for everyone: I hadn't expected to deal with psionics quite this early, so I hadn't made rules for them yet. I'll post a new soldier attribute to the campaign tab in just a moment.
I'm also going to keep adding things to the campaign tab while I'm at work, so there should be a bunch more info (and better organization for it) by the end of the day.

Ah yeah, somehow missed that timeline.

Other game: Since they are playing a single XCOM squad ... wouldn't it be awesome if we could arrange some kind of cross-over with them? Were events from one game will influence the other and vice versa?

Anyway, more questions!
- How do you imagine soldier progression? Will this be on an individual basis like in the games, or rather a more generalized progress as the game progresses?

Soldier experience will be individual. I haven't yet decided exactly what will make a soldier gain experience or how much will be required to rank up, but it will be individual.

I picked the two things most useful in the early game. The most frustrating part of X-com is losing a squad to mind control.

I'm thinking a combo of the small unmanned tanks and small aerial drones (helicopter style, with cameras no weapons).

For the psionics, I'm thinking for sure that we have soldiers but don't know where they come from or how to train more. We have a decent amount (a dozen, maybe) but because we recruit from childhood they're not easy to replace.

They don't really have POWERS of any note, save for stronger mental defense and maybe a little TK.

GM: Could you open gameplay so we can dot it?
It will show up in our collective campaign tab, making it easier to notice new posts. Which will save me from the usual flurry-of-f5 ^^

Damn. I'll blame forgetting that on my lack of sleep, which I'll blame on my daughter waking up screaming in the middle of the night.

Gameplay thread is up now.

I've added a google doc link to the campaign info tab that leads to record sheets for all players, which list everything you have.

Go ahead and take a look at those. I haven't had time yet to run 110 iterations through a name generator, so if you want to name some or all of your soldiers you may.

You can also spend money now to buy new things. This will be counted as before the game starts, so you won't have to wait several turns to actually get them.
You will need to purchase at least 1 Skyranger and 1 Interceptor (I would recommend 2 or 3), and let me know what modules you want on them. Beyond that it's up to you how you want to spend/save your money.

For this and for all future turns, please PM me your purchases so as to not clog the thread.

----

If the others don't claim their spots by tonight, I'll open up recruitment to anyone who wants it.

Questions after a quick sift-through:
- squad size is averaged to be 4 for missions or would you recommend taking two troop modules to go with 8?
- How about medical facilities, field medics and healing in general?
- Flashbang personal equipment?

Edit:
- Retraining: Can it. Be used to raise rank or only partial attributes? What about talents? How long does it take? Training as part of pre-game purchases?

And here's more!
- Equipment Stockpile: Can this be used to resupply spent one-use items, e.g. restock used grenades, medikits, or similar?
- If recruiting a higher-tier soldier ... I'd like to have a bit less random for them. I'd imagine as a Recruiter I'd have access to their personal files, thus have a saying in what kind of person I recruit. This obviously does not hold for "fresh" recruits, so thats all right, but recruiting a sergeant (or above) ... How about letting us choose half of their rnd stats and/or his talent?

1st draft Pre-Game Purchases (not yet settled, so no PM yet):

I presume we can share research results, no?

I guess that's quite defiantly a: 'probably'
;-)

But yeah, if allowed, I am all in for sharing it.
I am quite interested in your recon-drones.... Guess we can find a good compromise there ^^

Questions after a quick sift-through:

- squad size is averaged to be 4 for missions or would you recommend taking two troop modules to go with 8?
- How about medical facilities, field medics and healing in general?
- Flashbang personal equipment?
- Training: Can it. Be used to raise rank or only partial attributes? What about talents? How long does it take? Training as part of pre-game purchases?
- Equipment Stockpile: Can this be used to resupply spent one-use items, e.g. restock used grenades, medikits, or similar?
- If recruiting a higher-tier soldier ... I'd like to have a bit less random for them. I'd imagine as a Recruiter I'd have access to their personal files, thus have a saying in what kind of person I recruit. This obviously does not hold for "fresh" recruits, so thats all right, but recruiting a sergeant (or above) ... How about letting us choose half of their rnd stats and/or his talent?

1) I would recommend taking at least 8 soldiers on each mission. You could even skip out on the extra equipment and take 12. Eventually, you might even want to bring multiple Skyrangers to the same mission.

2) It's assumed that you have medical facilities and staff back at your base (just like it's assumed you have cooks and barracks), I'll need to add how recovering from wounds works, but I'll get that up soon. Same with medkits.

3) I will add this. Thanks for helping me remember all of the things I'm forgetting.

4) Ranks represent actual combat experience, so training will only increase the various attributes. Each 'training session' will take one turn--but just like most things, it isn't guaranteed to produce results.
You cannot do extra training as part of pre-game purchases.

5) I had thought about doing this, but hadn't thought of a good way to implement it. I think you're way will work. (now I guess I'd better write out a list of soldier talents)

I guess that's quite defiantly a: 'probably'

;-)

But yeah, if allowed, I am all in for sharing it.
I am quite interested in your recon-drones.... Guess we can find a good compromise there ^^

I should hope so. Their threat recognition software is based on a German design. Your engineers are making interesting headway into real-time threat analysis software. I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do, but maybe X-com Germany might consider implementing it. Not that you don’t do a fantastic job already!

Reading between the lines, Skyrangers will not need Afterburners? I figured it a semi-requirement unless you want to loose multiple squads due to sudden ufo attack on the transports ...?

Some more ideas for personal equipment typical for modern-days Spec-Ops teams? Not as "essential" as the ubiquitous flashbang but neat for corner-case missions. Maybe some of those may be good for research results or something instead?

Not being picky, just note that you missed by 5th question, answering the sixth instead, so there's one more.

Hope this helps in the endeavor you're making, just give me the word to shut up if you feel pressed or anything :-)

This is a big lift. I’m going to have to wait until I WFH tomorrow to tackle my initial order.

Not being picky, just note that you missed by 5th question, answering the sixth instead, so there's one more.

Hope this helps in the endeavor you're making, just give me the word to shut up if you feel pressed or anything :-)

I noticed this and just came back to fix it, but you ninja'd me. :)

And to answer Minder's question--yes, you can share research. Usually. Sometimes.
When those nasty politicians don't get in the way.

EDIT: And yes, afterburners on your skyranger are not necessarily necessary, but might be a good idea.

Cool, you added some of my suggestions already to the item list.
Aaargh, hope we'll find players soon.
<<- This VI has caught fire ;-)

Are you okay with me posting a heads-up to the guys in the other XCOM game? I figure some of them might be quite intrigued by the prospect of taking a 'promotion' ^^

Cool, you added some of my suggestions already to the item list.

Aaargh, hope we'll find players soon.
<<- This VI has caught fire ;-)

Are you okay with me posting a heads-up to the guys in the other XCOM game? I figure some of them might be quite intrigued by the prospect of taking a 'promotion' ^^

I sent a PM to the guy running the game, since I didn't want to invade his thread without his permission.

No, I applied to it once upon a time though, but it has quite a lot of cool applications and I was unlucky at the time ^^

3 days after first contact Commander Anderson has been assigned a control of XCom cell after evaluation from high ranking officials of BIS, VZ, AČR and NATO representatives. His experience of [REDACTED] far outweighed any risks due to his history with [REDACTED].

4th day he arrived in top secret facility in Czech Republic along with personally chosen squad of soldiers who were under his command before [REDACTED].

CMDR Anderson already briefed en route to base, didn't waste any time and went to his office in order to join already ongoing meeting of other commanders.

________________________________________

So my starting location is somewhere in Czech Republic
Advantages being:
Better soldiers with more experience
Better negotiations with goverment officials and other people of power thanks to my [REDACTED] history, array of contacts and specialization in geopolitics.

EDIT: Looking at your player sheet could I get color green? Just a small color preference for me.

____________________________________
US DOD
EYES ONLY
____________________________________

SERVICE JACKET 81221314

NAME: WESTON PARKER RANK: COLONEL BRANCH: US ARMY SOCOM
DOB: 07/13/1952 POB: Malta, NY SPOUSE: ELLEN PARKER nee CHEN
EDUCATION: BACHELORS OF MILITARY HISTORY UV
MASTERS OF ENGINEERING USMA WEST POINT
CLEARANCE LEVEL: ABOVE TOP SECRET

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT: OIC SOC TASKFORCE "PACIFIC SENTINEL" PEARL HARBOR,
HONOLULU, HI

SERVICE HISTORY:

1970-UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA ROTC
1974-OCS-INDUCTED AS 2ND LT.
1974-AIRBORNE SCHOOL, TRANSFERRED 82ND AIRBORNE
1975-1977 GARRISON DUTY, WEST GERMAN PROMOTED 1ST LT.
1978-RANGER SCHOOL TRANSFERRED 75TH RANGERS
1979-1982 USMA WEST POINT, PROMOTED CAPTAIN
1983 US INVASION OF GRENADA, AWARDED 2 SILVER STARS
1984 OCCUPATION OF GRENADA, MERITORIOUS UNIT CITATION
1985 GREEN BERET SCHOOL, TRANSFERRED JSOTF
1986 LIBYA [REDACTED] PROMOTED TO MAJOR
1987 [REDACTED]
1988 TRANSFERRED TO [REDACTED]
1989 OPERATION NIFTY PACKAGE
1990 OPERATION DESERT STORM
1991 [REDACTED] PROMOTED TO LT. COLONEL
1992 TRANSFERRED TO DARPA GROOM LAKE AS ADVISOR
1993 [REDACTED]
1994 [REDACTED]
1995 PLACED IN COMMAND OF X-COM PACIFIC SENTINEL PROMOTED TO COLONEL

__________________________________________________

Bonuses

OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED: Recruits are free, interceptors have halved maintenance.

HARD TARGET: Any base defense/counter intel checks are done at a high advantage, as the facility is beneath a US Military Facility

Apparently my timeline is off by like... 30 years. So pretend that my background is just as well researched but like... later! THAYKS.

So you served in desert storm when you were 13? Got it!

I apologize to everyone for being mostly absent today. Actually had to do stuff at work.

I'll get a list of Talents up hopefully by tomorrow afternoon.

@Parker: Why not just keep it, being the old battle tank of the group? Considering you were 20 at the start of your 'career' you'd be now at the end of your 60's approaching 70.
I don't have a problem imagining that in such a situation, HQ would draw upon one of his most accomplished commanders, even if that means to interrupt his retirement. It's nit like you'll join the actual fight, rather being chief commander, offering tactical advice to the troops in the field. The more 'hot' and FUBAR experience you can bring to boot, the better, isn't it? Also you could attach yourself a star to the shoulders after such a long career ;-)
I can smell cool RP flavor coming that way!
R.E.D. anyone?

@Newcomers: Hello there, nice to have you. If you're new to this board and/or board games ('play-by-post', pbp) I recommend a look at the 'How to format your text' right below the text field. There are the tags that allow you to add all kind of formatting. Check out this awesome post about tips and some conventions how to use them.

@TAR Thanks for the link, even though I'm not completely new to PbP there are some usefull tips.

BTW do we know what year it is? It could be usefull to know what pre invasion situation was and what normal tech we have.

Not really.
I've worked under the assumption of 'the near future', so 1-5 years or something.

Near future is right. Late February 2020 to be exact.

Soldier and Pilot Talents are up. If you have any suggestions for more, please voice them.

Nice list. All the basic options one would expect to see.
Here are some more ... unusual ones.

Ideas:
- Sixth Sense: Have a chance to detect ambushes, invisible enemies, ...
- Snap-Shot: Attack enemies crossing line-of sight with an out-of-order attack (with penalties) ["Overwatch" in the games]
- Die-Hard: medium chance to survive killing-attack with 1hp

Are we supposed to assign each of our soldiers a talent? If so wouldn't it be to use a spreadsheet as it is easier to modify and read?

Here are some of my ideas for talents:
Holo targeting/ Tracer ammo - when soldiers attacks alien other soldiers attacking him will recieve an accuracy bonus. Could be an item
Aggresive - can attack twice, but both attacks suffer an accuracy penalty
Low profile - have chance for spotting enemies before they notice him giving opportunities for ambushes
Grenadier - throws grenades farther
Repairmen - can repair robotic units/ heals them for more
Small frame - bonus evasion

The soldiers and pilots you already have either don't start with a talent or start with a random one (respectively); when anyone levels up they'll receive a semi-random talent. So mass-talent-choosing isn't really a concern.

I thought about giving editing access to the doc to make things easier, but I'm hesitant about people trying to change their (or other player's!) resources). I know it's not a big concern, but I'd rather not let it even be an option. I might change my mind on that though.

For now, if you recruit Sergeants or Lieutenants, just add to the PM what Talent and stat increases you want them to have.

---

Added a couple more Talents.
Added a Repairkit item

Interesting idea:
- Can we cross train? So send one veteran over to another cell to train some rookies?
- Can talents be trained?

Interesting idea:

- Can we cross train? So send one veteran over to another cell to train some rookies?
- Can talents be trained?

Yes. Although you would need available aircraft to fly them over, or have to wait longer for them to fly on aircraft you don't have direct control over (and risk them getting shot down). Theoretically, you could even permanently trade soldiers.

Specific talents can be trained, although it would take longer than just training a base attribute

@Spreadsheet: Comments-only usually works well. Or create one sheet per person and send the respective link per pm. You could then copy&paste updates from one doc to the full doc.

Currently working on soldiers.
I an going with named equipment packs and just note down which soldier takes which package. Special equipment will be decided on a mission per mission basis but general layout usually stay's the same in my experience.

I guess I'm the old man then.

Hey Eragar, can Interceptors get the troop transport module?

I guess I'm the old man then.

Hey Eragar, can Interceptors get the troop transport module?

No. At least not with your current technology. They're too small.

To clarify on that point, and vehicle weapon or module that has a keyword can only be attached to a vehicle with that same keyword. So a Minigun (tank) cannot be attached to a Sparrow Interceptor (aircraft), but could be attached to a Sparrow Interceptor (aircraft, tank). That specific combination will never happen, but you get the idea.

I still need shopping lists from everyone except Minder, and I still need BoggBear to claim a country and starting bonuses.

If it is not a too big problem porting the doc file into spreadsheet and keeping it read only. Each of us would then have his own and after we are done with let`s say soldier equipment we would tell you to update the main one. It would be easier to compare and update spreadsheets than docs.

Hi all.
Hmm, two things I'd like to have...
Tough, since four alternatives came to my mind at once.

1: Satellite coverage, because really, you want to know what's going on in your territory.
2: Extra resources, so you can build your base quicker and get an early boost.
3: Better armour, that way your troops have a better chance to live long enough to become truly useful and all.
4: Additional transport, for me, having only one Skyranger was always very much a source of irritation in the game. The fact that another crisis couldn't happen when you were already on a mission was nice, but who say's it will be like that here hmm?

Decisions, decisions...

Hey Boggs,

I'm pretty sure you can buy as many Skyrangers as you can support. I hope so anyway, because otherwise my early game strat is borked.