[Savage Worlds] X-Com: rattling the characters

[johnzo]

Just out of curiosity, how much of the canonical stuff are you using, and from which games?

Hi Nev--

I'm working off hazy 8-year-old memories of UFO Defense, so I'm sure that there are many details that are extremely wrong.   I didn't even remember that the cyberdiscs blow up when they're knocked out.

Can UFO Defense be played on Windows at all, do you know?  The version I had back in the day was DOS-only.

zo.

[Nev the Deranged]

Well, the original is available on DOS or Playstation (which is the one I currently play). The sequels were probably Windows but I didn't like them so I only played them marginally.

There have been oodles and oodles of fan-based X-Com sites, for anything from fanfics to game tweaks to art to anything you can name. There is currently an online version in the works that is basically working from scratch to recreate the experience of UFO Defense, although they are altering all the names and artwork, of course. It looks spiffy.. If I can find the link I will post it...

http://www.projectxenocide.com/index.html

There ya go.

Anything you want to know about the original game, I can probably tell you. If I don't know it, finding it online is easy. X-Com fansites don't last long but there are always a lot of them coming and going.

Yeah, cyberdisks are a bitch.. they're really fast, they can fire three or four times a turn, they can hover at any elevation, and their armor is really tough everywhere but underneath. The only plusses are that they are big, so they make easy targets, and the aforementioned explosive tendency. Of course in a Terror Site, that explosion could as easily wipe out some civilians as enemy combatants. *shrug*

I'd love to play an X-Com rpg... I could dust off Kelsie Chambers, my dropship captain stationed in the Arctic (until she was sent off to Witch Mountain Psionic Training Facility in Colorado for Psi evaluation)... ahh.. good memories...

[contracycle]

UFO: Aftermath is the current 'conceptual heir' of X-com.

http://www.ufo-aftermath.com/pages/headquarters.html

You know, I thought a guy with a rocket spitter and a backpack full of HE and incendiary rockets would be overkill, but I was wrong.

[JamesSterrett]

I realize this is drifting off-topic, but in my opinion, Aftermath isn't a patch on the originals.

The X-Com Collector's Edition (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00002SFNO/qid%3D1083852171/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-1992184-5988939 - sadly, it isn't exactly cheap) is supposed to have executables reworked to run in Windows.

For tactical combat, the guys who made X-Coms 1 and 3 (the brothers Gollop) are now putting out Laser Squad Nemesis, a PBEM tactical combat game that's slowly undergoing incremental development back into being another X-Com style tactics-and-strategy fest.  It's *very* well done.  Website:  http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com  

Strangely enough, the site tends to be a base for X-Com fans, too.  :)


Zendog- the link to the PDF doesn't work, but it looks like it's a Yahoogroups files area - can you tell me the name of the group, and I'll work it out from there?

[ZenDog]

Zendog- the link to the PDF doesn't work, but it looks like it's a Yahoogroups files area - can you tell me the name of the group, and I'll work it out from there?

I think it just takes a verylong time to load up, however the X-Com PDF is available at Savage Heroes or the Savage World Yahoos

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Savage_Worlds/

http://www.savageheroes.com/

but the second one Savge Heroes seems to be down at the moment. There are a number of fan sites like Savage Heroes (savage Lythia is another good one) that have lots of really good stuff to downoad.

[Nev the Deranged]

(off topickish)

thanks for the kewl X-Com links, I didn't have those...

(/off topic)

I'm done now. But still waiting the next installment of Actual Play..

[contracycle]

I guess its time for my ritual mention of Conspiracy X.  The reason I bring it up is due to the chorus for support for X-com-style RPG.  I suspect, but do not know, that Con-X was at least partially inspired by X-com becuase of its base-building and resource management components.  For those interested in the type of Sit/Set of these scenarios, I think Con-X's take on how to structure base-oriented play and deal with characters with substantial institutional powers may be very enlightening.

[DannyK]

Cool thread, cool idea.  My question: my favorite part of X-Com were the "sweep and clear" missions where the team would have to explore a downed UFO or a building, coming face to face with hostiles at every turn.  That was great tactical combat, meaty enough to be interesting, but still lots of fun.  

How do you handle that in your game?  Have you even tried?  I imagine drawing out a series of UFO floorplans on paper, laying them out on the table when the players get that far, and dropping the alien minis on the plans when the door is opened or someone gets around the corner.  It would be fun, but a lot of work, yeah?

[John Harper]

That's pretty much what Johnzo did for our first session, Danny. Except that he actually made a silver-spraypainted UFO set, complete with a lighted reactor core, mutilated livestock minis, and an articulated probe-arm. It was, in a word, awesome.

[DannyK]

That's pretty much what Johnzo did for our first session, Danny. Except that he actually made a silver-spraypainted UFO set, complete with a lighted reactor core, mutilated livestock minis, and an articulated probe-arm. It was, in a word, awesome.

I need a GM like that.  I would bake things for him and mow his lawn.