I've always wanted to be in an XCOM roleplay, or heck, go out of my way to even run one. I've been in one before, long before the fall of the old guild, but it never worked out right from the beginning.
I have some very good ideas as to how it might work out, and how it might not. For one thing, the reason why the first XCOM roleplay I joined failed was because of overcomplication - basically, it has huge systems dedicated to numerous functions, and it's a nation roleplay with one player taking charge of one base. That way, it's also impersonal, with no connection between player and character.
A second XCOM roleplay I was in failed simply because people started quitting during the first mission. 'Nuff said. I guess something must be done so that only the most dedicated player will get in, or at least, the RP needs to be able to lose even half its players without dying.
One thing that seems to work though would be to build on what is given to us by the games. We shouldn't simply copy everything from the game, but improve on it. In my second RP of XCOM, what happened was that the scale of XCOM was raised realistically, with two to three dropships going in at once and not a squad going into battle, but up to 3 or 4. Furthermore, the stakes and difficulty in relation to the games were raised, and the overall atmosphere made quite realistic (aka What would happen if aliens really invaded a few years later from now). Therefore, expect things to be extremely different from the games. Any of them.
Like in the first RP though, the second RP suffered from having huge systems that pretty much killed the GM on the inside, so that's a big no-no.
Moving on... With the proliferation of XCOM spiritual successors, there's plenty of general settings we could choose from, say:
- 60s (As in The Bureau. Not recommended)
- '79 Cold War (As in Xenonauts. Could be interesting)
- Contemporary (To an extent, like in the originals, though everything should be modernised and made realistic. But I much prefer...)
- Near Future (As in the famous Firaxis XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Around 2020, with slight advances in technology and political changes going on)
- Apocalyptic Near Future (As in UFO: Aftermath. Not recommended)
- Far Future (As in UFO: Apocalypse and UFO: Afterlight. Not my cup of tea)
Then of course, there's how the RP ought to be RP'ed. As playing as commanders running entire bases didn't seem to work out, here's the other alternatives...
- Combat heavy (Focusing mostly on the battles. If this is it then I'm not getting into that RP)
- Character-driven (This seems to work best for me. Also, character-driven RPs tend to be the most interesting and longest lasting. Equal amounts of time will be spent on characters interacting with each other, NPCs and the world.)
- 'Nation' (A little too cold, clinical, impersonal and hard to pull off in my opinion. A flat NO)
And lastly, how the RP should start. We could consider...
- Starting immediately in XCOM HQ, be it in times of relative peace or just before the first battle.
- Starting together in some multi-national training exercise before being attacked (though this part is not necessary) then swiftly recruited by XCOM.
- Starting before being recruited and before any action happened.
- Or heck, starting in the middle of it all, with things already developing and all RPers coming in at the bottom rung of the soldier ladder and having the need to work their way up.
What do you guys think? Anyone willing to start an XCOM RP? Or should I give GMing a go?
I have some very good ideas as to how it might work out, and how it might not. For one thing, the reason why the first XCOM roleplay I joined failed was because of overcomplication - basically, it has huge systems dedicated to numerous functions, and it's a nation roleplay with one player taking charge of one base. That way, it's also impersonal, with no connection between player and character.
A second XCOM roleplay I was in failed simply because people started quitting during the first mission. 'Nuff said. I guess something must be done so that only the most dedicated player will get in, or at least, the RP needs to be able to lose even half its players without dying.
One thing that seems to work though would be to build on what is given to us by the games. We shouldn't simply copy everything from the game, but improve on it. In my second RP of XCOM, what happened was that the scale of XCOM was raised realistically, with two to three dropships going in at once and not a squad going into battle, but up to 3 or 4. Furthermore, the stakes and difficulty in relation to the games were raised, and the overall atmosphere made quite realistic (aka What would happen if aliens really invaded a few years later from now). Therefore, expect things to be extremely different from the games. Any of them.
Like in the first RP though, the second RP suffered from having huge systems that pretty much killed the GM on the inside, so that's a big no-no.
Moving on... With the proliferation of XCOM spiritual successors, there's plenty of general settings we could choose from, say:
- 60s (As in The Bureau. Not recommended)
- '79 Cold War (As in Xenonauts. Could be interesting)
- Contemporary (To an extent, like in the originals, though everything should be modernised and made realistic. But I much prefer...)
- Near Future (As in the famous Firaxis XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Around 2020, with slight advances in technology and political changes going on)
- Apocalyptic Near Future (As in UFO: Aftermath. Not recommended)
- Far Future (As in UFO: Apocalypse and UFO: Afterlight. Not my cup of tea)
Then of course, there's how the RP ought to be RP'ed. As playing as commanders running entire bases didn't seem to work out, here's the other alternatives...
- Combat heavy (Focusing mostly on the battles. If this is it then I'm not getting into that RP)
- Character-driven (This seems to work best for me. Also, character-driven RPs tend to be the most interesting and longest lasting. Equal amounts of time will be spent on characters interacting with each other, NPCs and the world.)
- 'Nation' (A little too cold, clinical, impersonal and hard to pull off in my opinion. A flat NO)
And lastly, how the RP should start. We could consider...
- Starting immediately in XCOM HQ, be it in times of relative peace or just before the first battle.
- Starting together in some multi-national training exercise before being attacked (though this part is not necessary) then swiftly recruited by XCOM.
- Starting before being recruited and before any action happened.
- Or heck, starting in the middle of it all, with things already developing and all RPers coming in at the bottom rung of the soldier ladder and having the need to work their way up.
What do you guys think? Anyone willing to start an XCOM RP? Or should I give GMing a go?
