The way I see it, the basic problem is the same as the one with military organisation games in general. In a halfway credible setting, a soldier has very little freedom of meaningful choice on any scale larger than a single battlefield. He goes to war when he's told, he goes where he's told, he fights in the battle others pick for him, with the equipmentm support, goals and strategy others decide on.

One possible solution is the troop campaign, where every player has several characters: one in the command staff, another a footsoldiers, etc.. Another, perhaps more instinctive solution is to keep the basic premise of the game but move the focus to an area which allows greater freedom. Instead of X-com commandos, the game could be about technology smugglers, a small mercenary outfit working for a single city or 3rd world country or a civilian resistance group. Explore the sidelines of the central conflict, where things keep more fluid even on smaller scales.

Quote from: Premier;596018The way I see it, the basic problem is the same as the one with military organisation games in general. In a halfway credible setting, a soldier has very little freedom of meaningful choice on any scale larger than a single battlefield. He goes to war when he's told, he goes where he's told, he fights in the battle others pick for him, with the equipmentm support, goals and strategy others decide on.

One possible solution is the troop campaign, where every player has several characters: one in the command staff, another a footsoldiers, etc.. Another, perhaps more instinctive solution is to keep the basic premise of the game but move the focus to an area which allows greater freedom. Instead of X-com commandos, the game could be about technology smugglers, a small mercenary outfit working for a single city or 3rd world country or a civilian resistance group. Explore the sidelines of the central conflict, where things keep more fluid even on smaller scales.

This.

The way most RPG settings handle it is to have something come up and the players have to decide how to react to it without orders from above.

A friend of mine, The Gentleman Gamer, on YouTube ran an X-Comm game at a convention. You might want to ask him.

http://www.youtube.com/user/clackclickbang

Use the Scifi version of Rolemaster.  (Spacemaster?)


X-com rpg


Squaddie: "You rookies advance on that building, enter it, flush out the sectoids."

Rookie1: "Right away!"

Rookie2: "Shit"

Rookie3: "That building? right there?"



Squaddie: "Get moving!"


*Rookies advance cautiously on the building and enter*



* screams....hideous screams*


Squaddie: "Flees to the Skyranger"

Quote from: Piestrio;594675So say you want to run some sort of Alien invasion game.

I can see a few interesting seanerios...

1) first contact

2) the invasion and war (ala Xcom)

3) the resistance (like War against the chtorr)

How would you set up the campaign, what preparations would you make?

Lastly what system would you use?

XCOM is a good match for Shadowrun's d6 system, actually.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;595860The Tactical UFO Game...with catgirls.

Never met a catgirl I did not like.