Tag Archives: UFO: Enemy Unknown

X-Com RPG – Mayhem and Madness: Injury and Morale

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Adam

After focusing on creating and cultivating your precious troopers last time, this post is about making their lives miserable through terror, panic, and the effects of devastatingly and unfairly lethal firepower from beyond. Much of this material is inspired by … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Cortex Plus, Role-playing game, Smallville, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | Leave a comment

X-Com RPG – Character Generation: Making the Grunts Matter

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Adam

Now that more of the big picture of the game is semi-nailed down, we can re-visit soldiers and their missions with much more clarity. Since they use their commanders’ Role stats, each soldier doesn’t need a lot of additional detail, … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Cortex Plus, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 5 Comments

X-Com RPG – Research: Embracing an Infinite Tech Tree

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Adam

NOTE: I’ve added some links and images of a new X-Com remake to the X-Com article Index. Take a look if you’re interested in playing video game versions of what’s happening here. Last time, I ended by encouraging X-Com GMs … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Cortex Plus, Research, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 7 Comments

X-Com RPG – Game Structure: Campaign Considerations

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Adam

Prepping an X-Com Game Some preparations are required from GMs both for new X-Com RPG sessions as well as entire campaigns, but not as much as one may think, and often just the fun parts. Generating Unique Threats GM Jack … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Cortex Plus, GM tips, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 2 Comments

X-Com RPG – Game Structure: Play Progression

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Adam

Play Progression Having established that players will make all game decisions from the perspective of their Commanders, how will the game actually play out? Summary of X-Com’s ‘Zoom Levels’ Here again are the game’s three zoom levels, where we left … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Cortex Plus, game design, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 1 Comment

X-Com RPG – Game Structure: So How Does this Work?

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Adam

I’ve given a smattering of mechanics covering various parts of X-Com RPG, but I’ve left a lot of holes. So, as far as an overview, how would this game actually play out? This game is very, very far from being … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Command Level, Cortex Plus, game design, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 4 Comments

X-Com RPG – Beyond Combat: Running the Organization

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Adam

Today we’re diving deep into the workings of this extensive organization. I hope you enjoy the ride. I’m quickly getting to the point where I need to compile all this info into a single well-organized resource for easy consumption. We’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Command Level, Cortex Plus, game design, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 4 Comments

X-Com RPG – Design Decisions: Building Tension with Time

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Adam

Collaboration: Strength in Numbers In X-Com, soldiers die a lot. Those that don’t die get better, but then when they die it’s just all the more loss for you. All that to say, there’s strength in numbers and soldiers only … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged Cortex Plus, game design, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 2 Comments

X-Com RPG – Drop-Team Gameplay (with Video)

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Adam

Exploring X-Com Gameplay Today’s post continues the Exploration from yesterday of trying to capture that the particularly moving ambiance and ooh-ooh special feeling of perhaps the best video game ever made, X-Com: UFO: Enemy Unknown by possibly taking cues from CortexPlus … Continue reading →

Posted in CortexPlus, Gaming, Mechanics, X-Com RPG | Tagged ambiance, game design, Role-playing game, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-Com RPG | 4 Comments

Stories that Shape Us: Vulnerable Heroes – X-Com RPG

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Adam

X-COM – UFO: Enemy Unknown and its sequels from the early 90’s are often hailed as one of the best video games ever made. I only played the original, just a few years ago and loved it. I never got … Continue reading →