Hello Commanders,
Two days ago a number of large flying objects entered the region just beyond our upper atmosphere. Within hours, these UFO's were making bombing runs on major cities and industrial centers.
The United Nations held an emergency council and activated Extraterrestrial Combat Unit--an international paramilitary organization created with the intent of fighting any non-human incursion of the planet Earth.
As Commanders of individual XCOM cells, it will be your job to work together to fight this alien menace. You are our last hope.
Good luck, Commanders.
A few months ago I tried running a kingdom building game. Between accepting too many players and suddenly going through a divorce, I unfortunately had to drop it.
All of my IRL stuff is (hopefully) resolved, and I'm itching to get back into something--so here we are.
If this takes off, each player would be leading a single cell of XCOM (think something similar to running a single base in the original 1995 game, with other players running the other bases).
This would mostly be a management game--making sure you have the right soldiers for the right jobs, the right equipment for them; scientists to try to reverse-engineer alien tech; upgrading your base; trying to find a permanent solution to the alien threat--and trying to find a way to pay for it all.
There will also be a fair bit of roleplaying. XCOM is theoreticaly an international organization, working as a coherent whole. But as cell leader you ultimately answer to the people who give you money--primarily the government of the country your particular base resides in. And as we all know, world governments don't always put aside their differences for the common good.
This will not be a combat game. While you will be able to give your soldiers general orders in the field, you will not control them like puppets.
With all that out of the way, I'm looking to gauge interest. Let me know if you'd like to be part of this, and I am more than welcome to any suggestions about things you would like to see implemented.
Potential players will be recruited directly from this thread, so make sure you post if you want in.
Happy gaming.
EDIT: This would be a a little fast-and-loose on rules, since I don't know of any good systems that could easily be converted to something like this. More specifically, there will be rules, but they will mostly be behind the scenes--that will add a little bit of the uncertainty that exists in real warfare, and will also allow me to tweak things if needed.
Your actual character will be statless, and will merely be a guide for roleplaying.
Sorry if I missed it, but what rule set would this be using? Irregardless, it does sound interesting.
"The Lucky Halfling" wrote: Sorry if I missed it, but what rule set would this be using? Irregardless, it does sound interesting. Whoops. Edited main post.
Well, I'm intrigued if nothing else.
Mhhh, I think I remember the original kingdom building discussion, but somehow missed the outcome.
Now XCOM ... hell yeah!
***
Interest: check.
***
Loading question array ...
- What pace do you have in mind for the game?
- Will the player cooperate or rather playing somewhat versus? I generally dislike versus games, but a little bit of comrade-rivalry is certainly ok, but I really don't like backstabbing between players.
- Could you elaborate a bit more how the game will look like? See below for some thoughts from my side. Is this far off, or similar to what you imagine?
***
Thoughts on gameplay:
You will start a 'round' by giving an overview of the current situation, present dangers, any progress/setbacks of projects etc.
Then the players will post their activities for the current 'round', e.g. base building, research projects, troop activity, ...
If a fight occurs, it will be handled in a quick back-and-forth between player(s) and GM.
Finally the GM will present an end-of-round post, summing up the outcome of the current round, leading over to the new round.
So everyone misses even though they have 90% chance to ht? ;)
Swordwhale wrote:
Loading question array ...
- What pace do you have in mind for the game?
- Will the player cooperate or rather playing somewhat versus? I generally dislike versus games, but a little bit of comrade-rivalry is certainly ok, but I really don't like backstabbing between players.
Pacing I haven't decided on for sure yet, but it would probably be expected that everyone post at least every 24 hours or so (maybe less on weekends).
Gameplay would definitely be mostly cooperative. You wouldn't be engaging in combat against each other at all. But maybe you (or the NPC's who run your government) decide to charge the other players an exorbitant amount for that new tech you just got...
Swordwhale wrote:
- Could you elaborate a bit more how the game will look like? See below for some thoughts from my side. Is this far off, or similar to what you imagine?
***
Thoughts on gameplay:
You will start a 'round' by giving an overview of the current situation, present dangers, any progress/setbacks of projects etc.
Then the players will post their activities for the current 'round', e.g. base building, research projects, troop activity, ...
If a fight occurs, it will be handled in a quick back-and-forth between player(s) and GM.
Finally the GM will present an end-of-round post, summing up the outcome of the current round, leading over to the new round.
This is pretty close to how I'm imagining it. To go a little bit more in-depth with combat:
Dice rolls (for everything, not just combat) will be behind the scenes, with the results given in a more narrative style. Combat will consist of several 'snapshot'-like phases where I present the situation and then players give general orders to their soldiers ("fall back into cover and focus on those Sectoids!" "Get those civilians to safety at all costs!"). I'll then take actions for both sides over several traditional combat rounds and post the updated situation, where the player can then give more orders.
Sounds very cool! Guess I'm in for a try!
Could you elaborate how the players will cooperate?
Will player characters have some kind of stats/skills/whatever or be fully abstract?
What the players do to cooperate will be pretty open to whatever. You found an alien base, but don't have enough troops to perform an assault? Ask your neighbor to send a squad with the one you're sending in. Asia is struggling with riots, and you've found a way to synthesize the knockout gas the aliens use to abduct people? Trade it to them in exchange for their ace pilot coming and training your guys.
As for PC's, they'll be pretty much completely abstract. I'm planning on letting each player choose a starting bonus of some sort (highly trained soldiers, better equipment, more political sway, etc.), but that's more of an organizational bonus than a player stat.
Alright, we've got enough interest that I'm going to go ahead and make this official. I haven't yet worked out all the specifics for stats and costs and such, but I wanted to get things started.
I'll be taking up to five players, so everyone who has commented in this thread gets first dibs.
Any of you who wants to join can head on over to the discussion thread where you can 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.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. :) I'll see you all soon.
In case anyone is still watching this, recruitment is now open to everyone. We need three more players.
Consider me officially signed up, I'm curious to see where this goes, and want to be part of it.
BoggBear wrote: Consider me officially signed up, I'm curious to see where this goes, and want to be part of it. Welcome. Go ahead on over to the discussion thread. :)
Just found this link on XCom subreddit so if you still have space I would like to join.
If you accept me I would like a cell in Czech Republic with experienced soldiers with previous experience and strong leadership capable of better negoitions with goverements and such.
AndrewAnderson wrote: Just found this link on XCom subreddit so if you still have space I would like to join.
If you accept me I would like a cell in Czech Republic with experienced soldiers with previous experience and strong leadership capable of better negoitions with goverements and such.
You're good to go too. Head on over to the discussion thread and mention again the country and bonuses you want.
We've got room for one more now, and then we're all filled up
I'd like to grab that last spot. Checking in from Reddit and NYC.
If there's any space I'd be more than down to play. Huge XCOM fan and this seems super cool.
Skeleton--go ahead and head on in.
Convections--I'm afraid you've missed the last open slot, but I will keep you in mind if a player drops or I otherwise need a new person.
Dot for interest,
I love X-com, I own the older games and even enemy within/unknown.
I'd love to get X-com 2 but my computer sucks...
But anyways, I'd love to possibly join, playing the proud Russians or possibly Japan.
Sign me up for the waitlist
I'd love a chance to run my own little band of X-Ray murderers. Count me in.
My friend ran an X-com game in savage worlds. PM me and I'll send you the houserules.
Recent threads in Recruitment
|
