Setting up an X-Com 2 caimpaign

[Opellulo]

Hi folks, after a lot of hiatus, the pressure from my players has raised enough to make me seriously think about starting a campaign based on X-Com 2. Problem is that I have flimsy experience with everything Ultra-Tech (I'm more for low power fantasy and contemporary investigative games) so I am a bit out of my comfort zone.

Since I don't want to overbloat this thing (I have still no idea if it will start and how much it will last) i need advice, and eventually resources, to proper design it. The idea is to play adventures from "The Resistance" side, so everyday people that distrusts the Advent Government and run undercover disruption missions that would eventually lead to a final cliffhanger when they are meet with the proper X-Com. The main reason I choose this side is that I recently played the "Through the darkest of times" videogame (an educational like game where you run an undercover resistance cell in '30 Germany) and I have became fascinated by the whole resistance/terrorist angle.

In short this is what I am planning:

• TL 8+ (Alien/Advent Superscience)

• Characters are 100 pt with at least some useful "guerrilla" skills (piloting, stealth, guns, leadership, strategy, etc) and some personal beef with Advent that make them see past the whole propaganda machine.

• Psionic exists (knowing my players i think I will have at least 2) but they must hide their powers because Advent is actively looking for them (Spoilers from the game I guess).

• Each session is meant to be a sabotage action that must be carried over with stealth, subterfuge, intrigue, cleverness and imagination. Direct action is a last resort because even the basic Advent Trooper is meant to be a formidable threat.

• While the basic antagonists are Advent troopers and surveillance State I want to throw in at least some Tall Men and Sectoid to spice up the things (more exotic aliens are kept in reserve for an eventual phase 2)

So, anybody got experience in running such type of game? Got any advice, resource, ideas you want to share?

[RyanW]

If you prefer magic to ultra tech, I once had the idea to run an X-Com 2 inspired game with the alien overlords replaced with fae overlords benevolent advisors. It would play much the same, except you would be trying to capture and duplicate magic rather than technology.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If you prefer magic to ultra tech, I once had the idea to run an X-Com 2 inspired game with the alien overlords replaced with fae overlords benevolent advisors. It would play much the same, except you would be trying to capture and duplicate magic rather than technology.

I really like that. I'm not sure I'd do exactly the same thing, but there's a great idea or fifty in that concept.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Opellulo

So, anybody got experience in running such type of game? Got any advice, resource, ideas you want to share?

No experience specific to your premise but perhaps a few comments.

100 pts is a relatively low total for 4e and the fewer pts you give me to make a character the more narrowly I set him up. You can certainly do things htis way but be prepared to see a lot of specialization and very very careful ambushing with running at the first sign of significant resistance.

Perhaps you want a "gritty" game with the low cp total emphasizing the "normalness" of the PCs. You might want to give generous amounts of xp to enable character growth.

Allowing psionics at such low pt totals means you'll likely only get the simplest psi builds. I probably wouldn't go any farther than giving a "scout" type of character Danger Sense.

Watch out for the high ACC of UT weapons. With the best ACC of a TL sniper rifle (about 6) v. the ACC 12 of a simple TL10 Laser Rifle the laser literally has 10x the effective range during aimed fire. PCs will just have to avoid exposing themselves to that sort of danger.

Then there's the DR of UT armor. A TL 10 Combat Hardsuit will ignore weapons in .50 BMG unless your PCs can get special ammo. Real powered armor can ignore that. The aliens will probably be able to escalate out of the PC's level any time they feel they need to.

You can certainly do this if it's what you realy want but you mght find it to be difficult.

[FrackingBiscuit]

I haven't run an X-COM game myself, but I've thought about it several times. I also have ~400 hours across Enemy Unknown/X-COM 2, so I'm familiar with most of the setting.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Watch out for the high ACC of UT weapons. With the best ACC of a TL sniper rifle (about 6) v. the ACC 12 of a simple TL10 Laser Rifle the laser literally has 10x the effective range during aimed fire. PCs will just have to avoid exposing themselves to that sort of danger.

Then there's the DR of UT armor. A TL 10 Combat Hardsuit will ignore weapons in .50 BMG unless your PCs can get special ammo. Real powered armor can ignore that. The aliens will probably be able to escalate out of the PC's level any time they feel they need to.

Worth pointing out that Advent uses virtually no laser weapons. Anything that isn't an alien uses projectile weapons slightly more advanced than TL8 humanity; they're described as gauss weapons, but I'd be inclined to use TL9 caseless gun stats, possibly with the ETC upgrade if you want them to be scarier. By the same token I'd outfit Advent with TL9 armor, and reserve TL10 for aliens. Some enemies like Stun Lancers might have lighter flexible armor, while Shieldbearers might be up-armored to TL10 levels.

Also, something I heard from a prominent XCOM streamer: Advent soldiers act like they know they're in a video game. They make hyper-aggressive moves that the player would never take, because the player has to worry about surviving to the next mission. Put another way, they fight like they're expendable, because they are. They're grown in vats and manufactured in bulk. A Stun Lancer will gladly make a suicide charge through gunfire into enemy lines for the chance to kill a VIP, with zero thought paid to its own survival. It simply does not care about anything but killing its target. This is what really makes Advent soldiers dangerous. Officers and the like might be a little more thoughtful, but an Advent grunt is a machine whose sole purpose is killing Resistance fighters.

If players actually have to kill an Advent soldiers, targeting armor chinks from a concealed position is absolutely vital. Also worth noting - all Advent troopers have their face exposed, as a propaganda tactic to make them seem human. Resistance fighters have likely learned that aiming for the face is the most reliable way to bring a trooper down.

Compared to Advent soldiers, many aliens have little actual protection; Faceless, Berserkers, and Sectoids fight stark naked, and Vipers have what looks like a light chestplate I'd probably represent as a tactical vest. Their defenses will likely be in the form of some natural DR and raw hit points. Faceless have might Injury Tolerance (Homogenous), given that they're shapeshifting goop monsters. Mutons are armored everywhere by their heads and hands, but the armor itself is actually fairly thin and form-fitting across most of their body.

From a lore perspective, traditional Thin Men aren't something the Resistance is likely to encounter:

Spoiler:  

They've instead been used to create the Vipers. The closest thing to a Thin Man you'll find is the Speaker that appears in Advent news broadcasts, who is implied to be one by both his facial features and the spots around his neck.

[Opellulo]

Originally Posted by FrackingBiscuit

Also, something I heard from a prominent XCOM streamer: Advent soldiers act like they know they're in a video game. They make hyper-aggressive moves that the player would never take, because the player has to worry about surviving to the next mission. Put another way, they fight like they're expendable, because they are. They're grown in vats and manufactured in bulk.

My original idea was to run a two tiered opposition: a human one that acts like a kind of police force and an Advent one: more armored, organized and violent. But another option would be to exploit the whole "tactical neural network" lore and make Advent troopers formidable when they are linked in and dumb brutes once they are in some way disconnected from the network (kind of like fantasy orcs).

I like this second option because it opens up a lot of cyberpunk moves: jacking in terminals, disconnect security, targeting antennas and so on but it could make my life a bit difficult if the Trooper sheet is not well defined (and I should probably prepare a skirmisher "racial" template beforehand to use as base in case some player want to go that route).

About the weapons: for the start I want to stick to TL8, Advent weapons are pretty much contemporary: for the assault rifle I was thinking about picking the G11 stats and call it a day, then adding in a good sidearm, a combat knife and mass produce them with auto destruction (that could be hijacked with armorer skill of course). For the Armour nothing more complex than a Full Tactical vest (DR 20 for body, 10 for limbs) so to force players to think strategically (aimed shots, sniping, disabling legs or arms, using explosives and so on) but leaving enough space to recover from botched rolls; then adjusting things over play according to feedback: making them find old X-Com laser weapons if they are struggling or introducing a Mark2 armor with more DR if more opposition is needed... This kind of things.

[FrackingBiscuit]

Originally Posted by Opellulo

My original idea was to run a two tiered opposition: a human one that acts like a kind of police force and an Advent one: more armored, organized and violent. But another option would be to exploit the whole "tactical neural network" lore and make Advent troopers formidable when they are linked in and dumb brutes once they are in some way disconnected from the network (kind of like fantasy orcs).

I like this second option because it opens up a lot of cyberpunk moves: jacking in terminals, disconnect security, targeting antennas and so on but it could make my life a bit difficult if the Trooper sheet is not well defined (and I should probably prepare a skirmisher "racial" template beforehand to use as base in case some player want to go that route).

About the weapons: for the start I want to stick to TL8, Advent weapons are pretty much contemporary: for the assault rifle I was thinking about picking the G11 stats and call it a day, then adding in a good sidearm, a combat knife and mass produce them with auto destruction (that could be hijacked with armorer skill of course). For the Armour nothing more complex than a Full Tactical vest (DR 20 for body, 10 for limbs) so to force players to think strategically (aimed shots, sniping, disabling legs or arms, using explosives and so on) but leaving enough space to recover from botched rolls; then adjusting things over play according to feedback: making them find old X-Com laser weapons if they are struggling or introducing a Mark2 armor with more DR if more opposition is needed... This kind of things.

The two-tier system is sort of how Advent does things already. The stock Advent soldiers are meant to appear human to the populace at large, and aside from their psychology and advanced tech aren't fundamentally different from human soldiers. The actual aliens are largely kept away from the public and are considered major threats on their own.

It sounds like this campaign would be early on during Advent's occupation, before they've had a chance to completely disarm Earth's population. In that case it would make sense that there's a large "volunteer" police force (who may or may not actually be brainwashed) to be keeping the peace. It would also justify an abundance of TL8 weapons and armor. Otherwise, it would make sense to start at TL9, which is probably where humanity's general tech level was before the aliens conquered Earth - even if canonically XCOM lost the war early on, they were rushing through weapons R&D and were mass-producing pretty advanced tech before their defeat. The rest of the world probably wouldn't match their cutting-edge tech, but could still be reasonably more advanced than today. The Resistance is also able to roll out Gremlin drones and man-portable rotary machineguns before the start of XC2, so there's some degree of development going on during the occupation as well.

Really it's a question of flavor: do they start at TL8 with AKs and flak jackets fighting Advent peacekeepers with tactical vests and G11s, or do they start at TL9 fighting Advent troopers with reflex armor and caseless assault carbines? The power level isn't actually all that different, but to me TL9 feels more XCOM than TL8. Or, like you said, a tiered system: Advent volunteer peacekeepers in surplus TL8 gear patrolling the streets, and Lancers with reflex armor and storm carbines when **** hits the fan. And of course, incremental upgrades is part of the XCOM experience, so it would also make sense to progress players through different tiers of enemies: TL8 volunteers and Exalt remnants, TL9 Lancers, TL10 aliens...

I also like your ideas about the neural network. It's creative and very in-keeping with both the theme of the campaign and what you actually do in XC2.

EDIT: Forgot to mention:

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Allowing psionics at such low pt totals means you'll likely only get the simplest psi builds. I probably wouldn't go any farther than giving a "scout" type of character Danger Sense.

I 100% agree. The first campaign I ran was near future (TL9/TL10), 100 points, and one character had secret psi powers. We quickly discovered that at that level, psi powers are pretty marginal, and are often more character flavor than anything else. It impacted the narrative and character development more than it did combat - which was perfectly fine, but for XCOM psi powers are usually big and flashy and used for the express purpose of killing aliens. 100 points makes sense for rookies with unrealized psi-potential, but to actually be a "Psi Operative"-style character they're going to need a higher point total with a significant chunk dedicated to at least one powerful psi ability. Off the top of my head, I would imagine a 100-150pt basic Resistance template with a set of lenses (maybe 50pts each?) for the different "classes" of operative - psionics, heavy weapons, ranger, support, sniper.

[Opellulo]

All good points... I think a better way to tackle the setting would be to consider it a as cyberpunk campaign and then gave it an X-Com Flavor and for sure the Advent Peacekeepers are a good idea that I'm going to reuse for plot and setting.

I don't want to reinstall the game (to avoid losing another 20-40ish hours on it) but the wiki briefly mentions the aliens "frugality" and "underestimation" of the human resistance when designing the hybrids (I simply love this idea of sloppy, corner cutting alien engineers) so i think I'm going to start with a fairly simple Hybrid racial template with few things in it:
- Disadvantages: Ugly appearance, unnatural features
- Advantages: Acute Vision and ability to understand and speak the "gibberish" alien language.
No Stats modifications or combat abilities, this is a fresh "out of the vats" clone and also the basic package for any player that wants to make a skirmisher-like character.

THEN I'm going to add a package thing called "Psionic Chip" (psionic, requires weekly maintenance at a facility) that makes the basic advent trooper profile:
- Advantages: Telecommunication (Psionic Network, roughly equivalent to IR), Combat Reflexes, High Pain Threshold and other combat advantages
- Disadvantages: Reprogrammable, Fanaticism, Bloodlust and probably other stuff like On the edge and Incurious since they are meant to be aggressive and predictable.

In this way an Advent trooper within the network is a fearsome combat opponent, outside of it is just a puzzled humanoid encased in a lot of ultra tech stuff that he/she doesn't know how to use. My problem is that I'm also not that familiar with superpowers so I don't know how to convert to point the idea that all this package is active only when the trooper is within psionic communication range and with a working chip and it is lost either temporary when outside or permanently when the chip is "skulled".

Then it is just a matter of raising stats and skills for officers and equipment for shieldbearers, also I think I'm going to fuse lancer and trooper in the same profile adding a stun baton as a part of the standard ADVENT equipment.

I think this could create engaging combat encounters based on staying undetected while trying to disable officers and communications.

Will follow up on the equipment since I think I found a viable solution...

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Opellulo

My problem is that I'm also not that familiar with superpowers so I don't know how to convert to point the idea that all this package is active only when the trooper is within psionic communication range and with a working chip and it is lost either temporary when outside or permanently when the chip is "skulled".

These are the antagonists, yeah? You don't need to point cost their abilities for them.

[FrackingBiscuit]

Originally Posted by Opellulo

My problem is that I'm also not that familiar with superpowers so I don't know how to convert to point the idea that all this package is active only when the trooper is within psionic communication range and with a working chip and it is lost either temporary when outside or permanently when the chip is "skulled".

Two ways to go about it. Like The Benj says, since this is something for antagonist NPCs you probably don't actually have to worry about points.

If you decide you need/want to, there are two limitations that should go on all of these abilities: Accessibility (Only in range of Advent psionic network) and Gadget Limitation. Accessibility's modifier will depend on how much of the Earth is covered by the network - by the time of XC2 it's pretty extensive and reaches into many uninhabited areas, and might only be -10%. For an early version of the network that only covers inhabited areas I'd say -20%, or -30% if it's only major population centers.

For the Gadget Limitation, I'd imagine Breakable (DR 2 or less, -20%) and Size (SM-7 or -8, -5%) make sense. If it can't be readily repaired if damaged, it's another -15%. I wouldn't apply Can Be Stolen, since it's not an obviously powerful item (it's buried in their skulls, and most people probably don't even know it exists), and can only be used when properly implanted in a hybrid, making it virtually useless when stolen.

So I would total up the points of all the traits afforded by the chip, then apply something like these modifiers:
Accessibility (only in range of Advent psionic network, -20%), Gadget Limitation (Breakable, DR 2 or less, cannot be repaired, -35%), Size (SM-7 or -8, -5%) for a total -60% cost reduction. The chip only works in inhabited areas, it's fragile, it's small, it's not obvious, it doesn't work of stolen, and if damaged the hybrid needs extensive brain surgery to have it extracted and replaced. Advent probably just disposes of any trooper with a damaged chip, assuming that whatever broke open their skull to destroy the chip didn't also kill the trooper outright.

I would imagine a base Advent Hybrid template with this package as an Advent Trooper lens and a separate Skirmisher lens for use by players.