Is there XCOM-style adventures/modules/campaigns?

[Moracai]

Obviously there is not (yet) an official X-Com roleplaying game out there (2d20, coming up? Heh!), but I'm thinking what published works might have a strong X-Com style feel to them? I'm first thinking of an adventure trilogy for Aeon Trinity, but it is quite far away from the core of the feel. At the moment I personally am not very interested in what game system would be the best fit, but feel free to discuss such matters also.

 

[Gabriel]

Not an adventure/module/campaign, but Stargate SG-1 RPG is pretty X-Com-esque.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

I used GURPS for my X-Com game, as I couldn't find anything ready-made that was up to the job.

I wrote up an entire research tree, had the team manage the budget for their own field team, as well as being able to allocate research points for the X-Com organisation as a whole.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I think that Band of Blades would work if you tweaked the setting a bit. It’s dark military fantasy, but the rules of the game work very much like X-Com. With some changes, you could easily have it be a sci-fi squadron against alien hordes.

 

[Baulderstone]

Ken Hite made two interlinking campaign frames to be used with Gumshoe games.

Moon Dust Men

President Eisenhower established Project Moon Dust in 1953 to locate, contain, and coordinate everything known about the alien presence on Earth. The public-relations and open-source arm of Moon Dust was called Project Blue Book. Blue Book ended its work in 1970. It is 1978. Your work never ends. This GUMSHOE campaign frame, Moon Dust Men, can be a sci-fi, conspiracy, or horror game – it's up to you to find the truth.

Moon Dust Men includes new abilities (Ufology), new skills (Remote Viewing, Psionics), aliens (Greys, Nommo), and cryptids (chupacabr a, Mothman). This campaign frame introduces Backslash Points, a rule-variant for the "weird science" genre typified by The X-Files or Fringe.

A Moon Dust team comprises three to six personnel, usually including a linguist, a technician, and a combat ops specialist. All are airborne, or at least jump, qualified – UFOs don't always crash near roads or landing strips. The Air Force attempts to cross-train team members in the skills of the others to ensure a team functional capability despite any casualties that may be incurred in their employment.

Ken includes sprinkles of moon dust campaign frames for Ashen Stars, Esoterrorists, Fear Itself, Mutant City Blues, Night's Black Agents, and Trail of Cthulhu.

MAJESTIC Overwatch

The Moon Dust Men are the tip of the spear. MAJESTIC-12 aims it. Manage the global war against the aliens with this new GUMSHOE subsystem. Do you build retro-engineered Aurora craft, or bioroids to fight on the Moon? Do you launch satellite screens or dig in anti-saucer lasers? You decide where the black budget goes — and who it goes after.

 

[zcthu3]

Conspiracy X can pretty much do X-Com, particularly if instead of AEGIS agents you play NDD (Black Book) operatives who are more of a military force with clearance levels etc.

I am most familiar with the Unisystem version (Con-X 2.0) and NDD as a playable faction is in the Conspiracy Sourcebook. The Alien Sourcebook has more alien tech (and the Paranormal Sourcebook ex-ands on magic and psi )

 

[Baulderstone]

Conspiracy X can pretty much do X-Com, particularly if instead of AEGIS agents you play NDD (Black Book) operatives who are more of a military force with clearance levels etc.

I am most familiar with the Unisystem version (Con-X 2.0) and NDD as a playable faction is in the Conspiracy Sourcebook. The Alien Sourcebook has more alien tech (and the Paranormal Sourcebook ex-ands on magic and psi )

I don't know why I didn't mention Conspiracy X. I'm familiar with the original two editions, not Unisystem. It has a base-building mechanic for the PCs that would fit well with X-Com. The setting itself is in that prelude to invasion scenario you have at the beginning of an X-Com game. In fact, there was a planned sequel game that never happened called Invasion. From what I call of the system, it gave you the kind of competent but still killable PCs that would fit the feel of X-Com.

 

[Psychopomp]

There was a short-lived RPG called First Contact X-Corps that sought to replicate the X-COM playstyle. Unfortunately, it did so in painstaking detail, putting the computational burdens on the GM and PCs rather than a CPU. I cannot recommend it.

A good, streamlined X-COM system is one of my white whales of gaming. I'd love a skill-based die-pool system with manageable base building and research tree subsystems where the PCs are both the crack squad members but also direct what management is doing back home between sorties. I feel like Free League could do an amazing job of it, based on their Year Zero system work, but I'd love something with a bit more of an attribute and skill list to grip mechanics onto.

Alas, I continue to sail the RPG seas with my eyes scanning the horizon for this particular catch.

 

[Baulderstone]

There was a short-lived RPG called First Contact X-Corps that sought to replicate the X-COM playstyle. Unfortunately, it did so in painstaking detail, putting the computational burdens on the GM and PCs rather than a CPU. I cannot recommend it.

A good, streamlined X-COM system is one of my white whales of gaming. I'd love a skill-based die-pool system with manageable base building and research tree subsystems where the PCs are both the crack squad members but also direct what management is doing back home between sorties. I feel like Free League could do an amazing job of it, based on their Year Zero system work, but I'd love something with a bit more of an attribute and skill list to grip mechanics onto.

Alas, I continue to sail the RPG seas with my eyes scanning the horizon for this particular catch.

It's a really tough nut to crack. Like the domain management systems, it's hard to get something with solid detail that doesn't become so rulebound that it begins to feel boardgame-like.

 

[Psychopomp]

It's a really tough nut to crack. Like the domain management systems, it's hard to get something with solid detail that doesn't become so rulebound that it begins to feel boardgame-like.

It really, really is. I live in hope that someday, someone will figure it out for me.

I should probably stress my warning - First Contact X-Corps does NOT crack this nut. It's systems are so rulebound as to force you to run a computer game with dice and your meat brain, much less being boardgame-like.

 

[zcthu3]

I don't know why I didn't mention Conspiracy X. I'm familiar with the original two editions, not Unisystem. It has a base-building mechanic for the PCs that would fit well with X-Com. The setting itself is in that prelude to invasion scenario you have at the beginning of an X-Com game. In fact, there was a planned sequel game that never happened called Invasion. From what I call of the system, it gave you the kind of competent but still killable PCs that would fit the feel of X-Com.

The sequel to Con-X 2.0 was going to be called Extinction - it was going to be to Con-X 2.0 what Armageddon: The End Times is to CJ Carella’s Witchcraft, a possible future. While Extinction is in;Ike;u to ever eventuate, the Conspiracies Sourcebook has a Chapter on possible futures (set up to be played by Con-X agents as computer simulations) including some advanced human tech you’d get in a future alien invasion scenario.

 

[Baulderstone]

The sequel to Con-X 2.0 was going to be called Extinction - it was going to be to Con-X 2.0 what Armageddon: The End Times is to CJ Carella’s Witchcraft, a possible future. While Extinction is in;Ike;u to ever eventuate, the Conspiracies Sourcebook has a Chapter on possible futures (set up to be played by Con-X agents as computer simulations) including some advanced human tech you’d get in a future alien invasion scenario.

Yes, thanks for correcting the name of the game.

 

[zcthu3]

Yes, thanks for correcting the name of the game.

TBF it might have been Invasion for the previous editions of Con-X, I only got into Con-X 2.0 so have limited stuff for the previous editions.

 

[Baulderstone]

TBF it might have been Invasion for the previous editions of Con-X, I only got into Con-X 2.0 so have limited stuff for the previous editions.

No, it was Extinction. I had a vague feeling I was wrong when I made my post, but I didn't want to bother looking up the name of a game that doesn't exist. When I saw your reply I knew that was the right name.

I'll just add, I loved the background to Conspiracy X. It's the best thought out background of that type I have seen, from the way it intertwines the alien and supernatural elements into a coherent whole, and the way all the aliens have interesting motivations that are pulling them towards inevitable conflict on Earth. I got rid of all my Con-X books during pre-move purge, and I deeply regret it. Those books have so many interesting ideas.

 

[thebigh]

I used GURPS for my X-Com game, as I couldn't find anything ready-made that was up to the job.

Nice! How did that work? I'm kinda fascinated by X-com but found myself seriously turned off by the Firaxis version because I found the combat way too swingy, it wasn't character-driven enough for me, and I really really don't go in for doom spirals. All of which seems to be fixable by transplanting it into GURPS.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Nice! How did that work? I'm kinda fascinated by X-com but found myself seriously turned off by the Firaxis version because I found the combat way too swingy, it wasn't character-driven enough for me, and I really really don't go in for doom spirals. All of which seems to be fixable by transplanting it into GURPS.

It worked really well. Managing the research and budget got my players really involved and invested. One player developed a web-based load-out calculator. I went to great lengths to give them detailed mission orders. The campaign basically alternated between downed ufo/terror mission/alien base assault and more investigative sessions.

For the combat-oriented missions, it was basically just a full session of GURPS tactical combat, sometimes with some introductory roleplaying. I used maptools, as it was the only way I could manage huge outdoor combat areas.

One of the conceits of the campaign was that X-Com troopers were selected for their resistance to psionic effects, which meant they would also be deployed to investigate alien activity and liaise with local forces, where conventional police and military forces couldn't necessarily be trusted. They engaged in criminal investigations, corporate espionage, battlefield recon and more.

X-Com started with access to conventional firearms with ETC ammunition and fairly basic armour. I tweaked the laser stats a little to make them a bit more effective, although the players stuck mostly to gauss weaponry (once they unlocked it). The weapon/armour progression as they worked their way up the tech tree worked out pretty well. I had to go a little easy on alien use of shaped charge ammunition, as it could rip through most armours.

The players never had visibility on the full tech tree, they discovered it as we went, and I had research reports written up for every project. I think the table below gives pre-requisites, then projects, pre-reqs for the next level, etc. The advanced weapons and armour are all pretty much pulled straight out of Ultra Tech.

I did a fairly poor job integrating the psionics, and none of the PCs ever developed any offensive psionics, there just wasn't enough value in it. If I was to go back and do it again, I would improve on this.

Recovery from non-lethal injury was primarily just a money-sink, with medical costs eating in the team budget. I set each mission with enough down-time for recovery, but PCs in good health were able to make use of the spare time to train. Advances in medical tech sped up recovery time and reduced costs. In addition to regular training during down-time, team resources could be spent to send team members off for intensive training courses.

The game was the first time I'd ever done anything with GURPS (I had been a player in two or three sessions in the distant past), and I found it pretty straightforward. The main supplements I made use of were:

• Ultra Tech
• High Tech
• Psionics
• Biotech
• Tactical Shooting

 

[Billy Bones]

Not an adventure/module/campaign, but Stargate SG-1 RPG is pretty X-Com-esque.

Amazing, I didn't know that was a thing!

Running round a park shoot first ask questions later would suit my group!