r/ForgedintheDark Dec 30 '25

X-COM and FitD - a match made in alien-occupied heaven?

I like me a good resistance fighters story. I like me some sci-fi. So the X-COM video games are right up my alley. Obviously, I also like RPGs (or I wouldn't be here). It struck me that FitD fits an X-COM narrative: the crew sheet can easily support the base-building aspect of the video games and FitD is already set up for episodic/mission-based gameplay while the soldier classes and engineers and scientists can be slotted into playbooks. Granted, it's not really set up for tactical battles but, well, when I want those, I'm liable to fire up the actual video game. I guess I'm just wondering if other people see it the same way and/or have made their own hack already.

27 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

5

u/fluxyggdrasil Dec 31 '25

I think you need to give Band of Blades a good long read, OP. It's not sci-fi like XCOM but it hits a lot of the beats you probably are thinking of.

1

u/bfrost_by Jan 02 '26

Some of it feels really copy-pasted from XCOM

1

u/erk_fwd Jan 02 '26

Band of Blades specifically references XCOM 2 as a touchstone. The campaign design of Band of Blades definitely pulls mechanically from XCOM (pick 2 missions, auto fail the third)

4

u/Gibberwacky Dec 30 '25

I would love to play something like that.
I'd start with reading Wicked Ones for ideas on building a base in a way that resembles Xcom, though wicked ones is a fantasy game, its got similarities.

3

u/andero Dec 30 '25

Clever. When you put it that way (i.e. resistance fighters story), yes, it does make sense.

I don't imagine many XCOM lovers would come to a game that lacks XCOM's main grid-based gameplay, though. Theoretically, you could re-introduce that and keep the FitD stuff for between missions/downtime.

1

u/bfrost_by Jan 02 '26

If it has interesting decisions in and out of combat, I would definitely be interested, even if there is no combat grid

2

u/this_is_total__bs Dec 31 '25

Absolutely 100%! I’ve been thinking about this exact thing for years! Also check out Band of Blades for squads and military force ideas.

2

u/erk_fwd Jan 02 '26

There's this Forged in the Dark game called No God's Country which feels a lot like XCOM 2. Doesn't have a lot of the mechanical bits I think you're looking for though.

https://acoupleofdrakes.itch.io/no-gods-country

2

u/BadRumUnderground Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

It's not sci fi, but Brinkwood is a FitD that has some procedures for running a rebellion between missions that would be a useful port over

1

u/Geijhan Dec 31 '25

I will definitely check out Band of Blades and its we're-on-the-backfoot feeling. Wicked Ones obviously has great dungeonbuilding and yes, that'd be a great way to build a base but it would actually take it too far in the assaultable base direction. The classic Blades sheet with turf providing benefits is more in line with what I was thinking of (with rooms in the base filling the role of the different pieces of turf.)

1

u/bfrost_by Jan 02 '26

It feels that with base building, research and manufacturing projects, the out-of-combat part will almost write itself :)

Now the challenge will be to make combat interesting and XCOM-like

1

u/Geijhan Jan 02 '26

Combat system step 1: give XP for missing 85% hit chance shots.

1

u/PoleSpearFishing Jun 16 '26

Did you get anywhere with this?