Xcom Roleplaying game

[TrueMikeBrown]

Hey Folks.

I am looking for a role-playing system.

My last campaign ended successfully with the players defeating the evil lady. It was a great ending and I am now taking a few months off to build a new campaign.

I would like to make something in a world similar to the X-Com universe (also, 'Fine Structure' at Things of Interest). I want Cyborgs, Psychics, Robots, Aliens, dimension shifting, and near future technology (A lazer hand gun might exist, but a normal person couldn't easily purchase one). It is likely that the humans will be out classed (in terms of technology) by the aliens.

I would like to ask: what system would you use for a world like this?

I have looked at shadowrun, GURPS, and Mutants and Masterminds to see if I wanted to play using those systems. The group is used to playing D&D3.5, so I would give bonuses to anything in the d20 realm.

So far gurps seems to be the best bet (as it provides a fairly open method to give racial bonuses and penalties (such as being able to give psychics frail bodies, and innate psychic powers, and making robots not able to learn psychic powers at all)), but it seems pretty complicated (I don't want to scare the players).

Are there any systems I have overlooked? Anything that I might want to know about any of the systems that I listed?

[Tyndmyr]

Mmmm, Xcom. It's been a long time since I played that, but damn, did I play it a lot. Still searching for a pvp, team based version of that game(same engine), that I can't recall the name of. It was awesome, though.

Gurps is probably relatively appropriate for this. D20 modern could probably be hacked to fit with relative ease. Just stat up the weapons and such if you want the same names from the game. CoC would work if you want the aliens to play up the horror side of things. Would need adaptations of the setting though. Laser cannons aren't in it's usual arsenal.

Honestly, I'd probably be terribly tempted to write a new system from scratch for it.

[TrueMikeBrown]

I will have to look into d20 modern - I have never played it, but I just found the SRD.

[Zen Monkey]

Paranoia seems to fit the first X-Com game. You don't really know what's going on, you're under-equipped and under-prepared, and encounters with the beings that do know will likely result in you praying while shooting or dropping your gun and running around screaming. After the alien encounter has ended, you are then replaced by a clone who will try to pick up where you left off.

Of course, maybe I was just a little hard on my poor X-Com squad. Armor had to be earned through past mission performance, and new guys were typically armed with a medkit and laser pistol (hey, alien tech is expensive, people are not).

X-Com combat usually looks like the first ten minutes of Jacob's Ladder. All strategy falls apart (usually at the sight of chryssalids) and people are either killing each other by accident or seizing and foaming at the mouth.

I love X-Com so much.

[Psyx]

Conspiracy-X?

The game that's all about X-files style investigations, aliens building bases on earth and infiltrating everywhere, and building a big secret base of your own.

Seriously. Con-X is X-Com: the RPG.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Paranoia seems to fit the first X-Com game. You don't really know what's going on, you're under-equipped and under-prepared, and encounters with the beings that do know will likely result in you praying while shooting or dropping your gun and running around screaming. After the alien encounter has ended, you are then replaced by a clone who will try to pick up where you left off.

That's brilliant. Seriously, it is.

Alternatively, you could take things up a level in scope. People aren't X-Com soldiers, but rather X-Com commanders in leadership positions. Though that would be a very different game. Hmm...FactionRPG (http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/FactionRPG) senses tingling...

[valadil]

Played an Xcom game using GURPS a while back. I'm not familiar with Xcom, but those that were seemed to like GURPS well enough.

[Coplantor]

From the description you give, I would recomend Alternity.

[Balain]

Cyberpunk could work. If you can find a copy Traveller might work. Another one that could work if you can find it is the old Doctor Who. It had various levels of Technology from banging rocks together to galaxy destroying weapons.

[Mikeavelli]

I'd have to downvote D20 Modern, It gets points for being a D20 system, but it's not a very good one in my Opinion.

The Delta Green CoC Rulebook might be a good choice, it's D20 and a fantastic setting. You can easily refluff Lovecraftian horrors into X-com aliens. Hell, the ToTD Aliens ARE Just refluffed Lovecraftian horrors in the first place!

[Matthew]

I would probably try to run it using Savage Worlds or something similarly light, though I agree that D20 Modern might fit the bill as well.



Mmmm, Xcom. It's been a long time since I played that, but damn, did I play it a lot. Still searching for a pvp, team based version of that game(same engine), that I can't recall the name of. It was awesome, though.

UFO2000 (http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/)?

[Tyndmyr]

Paranoia seems to fit the first X-Com game. You don't really know what's going on, you're under-equipped and under-prepared, and encounters with the beings that do know will likely result in you praying while shooting or dropping your gun and running around screaming. After the alien encounter has ended, you are then replaced by a clone who will try to pick up where you left off.


I considered this, but then, the whole computer thing is central to the Paranoia fluff and game. Without that, paranoia requires a lot of refluffing. Plus, the mechanics really aren't anything special by themselves. So, while the atmosphere of a typical Paranoia game is a bit similar to that of playing X-com, it is for different reasons, and thus, doesn't fit that well.

No experience with Con-X, but that does sound like an interesting system. Likewise, the idea of each player running a squad sounds interesting as well. Adds an entirely new level of strategy and planning.

Matthew, that's not it(I can recognize all the old maps instantly)...but it looks similar. I'll have to give it a try.

[TrueMikeBrown]

Ok, I have looked at d20 modern and (briefly) at the following:
Conspiracy-X
Paranoia
Alternity
Cyberpunk (I assume you mean 2020?)
Traveller
CoC

I didn't see anything inherently wrong with d20 modern - I would have to change it so there are races and make telepath a base class (but that isn't so bad)

Conspiracy X sounds good - I will have to read more

I don't like the feel of paranoia (yes, the game was like that with rookies, but I like my players to get attached to their characters, and all the subplots seems like too much)

Traveller seemed a bit dated (I worry about book aquisition)

I really liked the way that cyberpunk tried to make realistic combat, but it looked like it would take a lot of work to convert it (it was very dated too)

Alternity seemed to be very similar to d20 modern (except with an unusual dice rolling mechanic). is there a way to fix the dice rolling in that game?

Coc seems to have the right feel for sure, and the mechanics did not seem to be a problem either

This leaves me with the following options:
Gurps
D20 modern
Conspiracy X
CoC
Rolling my own

no matter what I choose, I will probably have to fiddle a lot with the system anyway.

Another thing that I want (which I didn't point out before) is the players to have the option of researching alien tech themselves (so, if someone wanted to play a scientist, they could (They would just be less useful in a fight)). Do any of these systems lend themselves toward that?

[Tyndmyr]

Another thing that I want (which I didn't point out before) is the players to have the option of researching alien tech themselves (so, if someone wanted to play a scientist, they could (They would just be less useful in a fight)). Do any of these systems lend themselves toward that?

I don't believe that any of those systems are particularily excellent at that...but I don't know them all exaustively. I coulda missed one. Now, most of them do have non-combat abilities and skillsets that one could compare against for balance reasons, though.

[Coplantor]

Alternity die rolling is not that complicated, you add or substract extra dice to your control die (d20) depending on the difficulty of the task. You roll against your related skill, so add = bad, substract = good.

Yes, it is a lot like d20, d20 modern takes a lot of inspiration from alternity. Wounds are handled n a more realistic way, it's semi classless and it's level based point buy.

[Autolykos]

no matter what I choose, I will probably have to fiddle a lot with the system anyway.
If you're going to fiddle a lot with it anyway, you should use GURPS. After all, it's designed for GMs who like to mix their own setting. (For Books, you should try to get your hands on "Black Ops". It's exactly about alien encounters set five minutes in the future. And "High-Tech" is really nice to have for any setting in renaissance and beyond. "Ultra-Tech" and "Cyberpunk" might also be worth a look).

[Tyndmyr]

Hell, if you decide to mix up a custom system for this game, I'd happily get involved. I'd reccomend something D10 based, as the stat +skill roll and keep system is really easy to pick up, and results in comparatively simple character sheets. After all, if you decide on doing the squad based option at any point, you probably don't want each soldier's sheet to be of D&D-like complexity.

[chiasaur11]

Let's see.

Not good at choosing a system, but I might be able to nail down some of what's wanted.

Okay, early game, you need lethality. End game?

Tiny bit less lethality. Tiny bit.

The big gain area is gear. A rook in power armor with B-Bombs and a laser pistol could take any number of vets in coveralls with rifles with no risk. Tech matters.

So, yeah. Just thinking.

[Zen Monkey]

I guess it depends on how you see XCom. I can see how the game could be a serious tactical sci-fi game. You probably would want something that had a good crit/wound system, or maybe open-ended dice so that there is always a chance of a stray headshot causing a surprise death.

Personally, I always found XCom to be comic. Sure, you're playing to win, but a lot of the casualties are pretty funny. You kill a cyberdisk, which explodes and sets off the nearby gas station. This carnage then panics the new squad member who drops his equipment (including live grenades) and runs around in fear while the veterans (who already used their turns) just stare in horror at the explosives placed before them. Little alien men hiding behind doors to shoot you in the back, and the Aliens-inspired chryssalids that go past horror and right back into hysterically funny as they cause chain-reaction conversion/deaths. You can't help but laugh as the silver football of death ticks its way across the field toward your squad. Good times.

[Tyndmyr]

The big gain area is gear. A rook in power armor with B-Bombs and a laser pistol could take any number of vets in coveralls with rifles with no risk. Tech matters.

Definitely...though IIRC, mental effects were the big area where skill mattered a lot. Noobs broke and ran...all the time. Vets weren't immune, but the odds were a lot better.

[TrueMikeBrown]

Definitely...though IIRC, mental effects were the big area where skill mattered a lot. Noobs broke and ran...all the time. Vets weren't immune, but the odds were a lot better.

This is one reason why CoC seems so right for the feel of the game (to me) - you might just end up a maniac after seeing something that "man was not meant to see"™

Whatever system I use should definitely have mechanics in place to determine if someone is likely to freak out or not

[jebob]

There are many editions of Traveller, (including two GURPS versions,) but the current one, Mongoose Traveller, is similar to the original and is in print.