Elevator Pitch: This is a story about soldiers and spies gradually discovering an extraterrestrial invasion occurring parallel to the Global War on Terror.

This game's biggest inspiration is a bit of implied or missing backstory in the X-COM/XCOM series of turn-based tactical PC games.  Before the game's initial missions of intercepting UFOs, shooting them down, and putting down operatives to neutralize the surviving crews, how did humanity become aware of the alien invasion's first stirrings?  My answer is that covert infiltration missions were occurring well before the games' start-points, as the adversaries established small power bases and gathered intelligence by suborning fringe elements of human society.  If this were occurring in the modern day, those fringe elements might include terrorists, failed states' warlords, and organized criminals.

Accordingly, the setup and first planned story arc for this campaign will involve a small group of NATO military and intelligence personnel pursuing terrorist cells and stumbling onto a much greater existential threat.  Subsequent arcs, should we keep this ball in the air long enough, will focus on counter-intelligence and direct action to learn more about the alien threat.  Past that... we'll see who survives.

I'm going for a high-octane technothriller look and feel for this game.  Okay, you can't actually have "look and feel" in a text-based medium, but you probably understand the intent.  My mental camera work and special effects start with agents in casual dress, concealed pistols, improbably-expensive designer sunglasses, and low-profile radio earpieces stalking the streets of Third World cities in search of intelligence, then gearing up in hidden waterfront warehouse ops centers to kick in doors, neutralize enemies, and retrieve information.  Watch any two-episode arc of Strike Back for a good idea of what I'm going for.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
( Minus Scott's freaky international sexpionage operations.  I'd rather not GM those scenes.)

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As far as operations and orders, I'm aiming for a level of verisimilitude slightly higher than Hollywood normally provides, but lower than strict adherence to military or intelligence service protocols.  The PCs are the stars of this particular show, possibly the only people in position to save the world.  As such, they frequently will be placed in positions of peril with unrealistically low levels of support and backup.  This is not to get them killed (though character death will be a constant threat, and I will not pull my dice rolls) but to ensure they're the ones starring.

These things weigh on my mind when I think about this game.

PC Games

• X-COM: Enemy Unknown
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within
• Jagged Alliance

Roleplaying Games

• Spycraft
• Conspiracy X
• GURPS Black Ops
• The Twilight Nightmares supplement for Twilight: 2000
• Delta Green
• Night's Black Agents
• Eclipse Phase

Television

• Strike Back
• The X-Files
• Stargate SG-1
• Fringe
• The Blacklist

Film

• The Objective
• Aliens
• Stargate

Novels

• The Laundry series (Charles Stross)
• The Southern Reach trilogy (Jeff VanderMeer)

Comics

• The Activity
• Global Frequency

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:24, Sun 10 Jan 2016.

These are my general guidelines for play-by-post, swiped from Raellus, who in turn swiped them from Chalkline.  The street finds its own uses for things and so do I.

Post Rate

Because I'm in 1d3 other PbPs, I can't guarantee that I'll be the world's most hair-trigger GM.  I'd like to shoot for two turns a week, possibly three if everyone is engaged and doing things that amuse me.  Proactive play is good.  Adding details to the world is good, too.

Missed Posts

Missing a turn or two here or there isn't a big deal.  I'll NPC your character based on stats and established tactics (though you may want to drop me a PM early on so I have tactics on file).  If you know you're going to be out for a while, please let me know.  If you're silent for more than a couple of weeks, your character may become "lost at sea in a training accident."  This game system can be sufficiently deadly that I probably won't even have to fiddle the dice to do it.

Posting Style

I prefer third person and present tense posts, but I won't whack you for using a different format, so long as you're consistent and your grammar doesn't make my eyes bleed.

Whenever possible, please provide more than the bare minimum of dialogue or action description.  Detailed writing entertains me (see below).  It also provides more opportunities for other players to engage with your actions.

Please use blue or dark blue for all PC dialogue and purple or dark green for all NPC dialogue.  For OOC content in an IC post (e.g., combat tags, action declarations, brief questions or comments), use orange.  Otherwise, leave all text the default color.  Experience has shown that these conventions make an amazing difference in readability.

Likewise, use monotype for radio communications.  This makes it easier to see what your character is transmitting as opposed to what he's saying off the air.

Please trim your quotes to include only the relevant material.  We already read the previous post once.

If you post a long and descriptive turn, you may want to follow it with an explicit OOC action declaration.  Don't skimp on your descriptions - they're the meat of the game - but you may want to clarify what you're doing.  At minimum, close each combat turn post with an OOC combat tag that indicates (1) character name, (2) location, (3) action or intent, (4) readied weapon, ammo, and selector state, and (5) any other special equipment that may affect your action.  For example:



On the Internet, we judge you on your spelling and grammar.  Drive your keyboard accordingly.

IC Posting Etiquette

Always answer other players, even if it's to only post, "I ignore John."  This keeps the game from bogging down while everyone waits for a response or consensus.

Don't "thought attack" other PCs (e.g. "Felipe thinks John is a waste of oxygen.").  It deprives the other character of a chance to respond unless he's playing a telepath.  If your character has IC differences with another PC, do the other player the courtesy of posting appropriate actions/emotes/sotto vocce remarks so he can respond in kind.  It also wouldn't hurt to throw out an aside in the OOC thread or a PM so he knows you're not taking a swipe at him as a player.

Avoid metagaming!  It's likely that we'll have multiple simultaneous threads or scenes going in this game.  Try hard to separate player/reader knowledge from character knowledge.

GMing Philosophy

I run games to be entertained by my players.

Here are some things that entertain me:

• Extrapolations on the world that add depth and detail
• Clever dialogue and intra-team banter
• Multi-dimensional yet consistent characterization
• PC rivalries that don't extend to OOC drama
• Creative solutions
• PCs with weaknesses, even if we see those only through internal dialogue
• PC backgrounds that give me hooks

Here are some things that do not entertain me:

• OOC drama
• Passivity
• Invulnerable black-clad moody lone wolves in black trench coats wielding twin titanium monokatanas and smartlinked Desert Eagles firing incendiary moonsilver depleted uranium cold iron explosive tracer bullets while a bloodthirsty yet mournful heavy metal soundtrack wails distantly over the incessant rain that falls like the tears of a thousand fallen angels crying over the heart's mournful lament for a lost paradise *

* Been there, done that, got the wall of World of Darkness books to prove it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:19, Fri 10 Apr 2015.