So we did a playtest of this online, using MSN chat.
It was a pretty quick session, since Jamie had to go to bed, so ended up with 2 players+ an NPC

Mission was fairly straight forward "starship troopers". The squad was part of an assault on a ridge, to secure the area for further troop landings, then got assigned to a recon mission. They fell into an ambush, and then had to fight off the second wave.. as the squad was worn down, the corporal saved the day and revealed a bit of his past.. sticking up for the little guy, no matter the cost.

General observations:
Character creation took propably half an hour, largely due to the online format. Face to face, 10 minutes, max

We didnt have a lot of chatter between the encounters, but we went through 3 battles, online, in a bit over 2 hours. Thats including explaining the rules.

Perfect for pickup games AND campaign play

An indie game thats not only about fighting but about killing scores of bug-eyed aliens!

The game really manages to both be a satire AND a homage to the military scifi genre.

Also.. a military game thats about character development. Very nice.


Definately a game I will run again, both online and in a tabletop format

How do you think this stacks up against things like FAD? Did you take anything else away from this design wise? I've thought about checking out but I'm not sure it's exactly up my alley.

well, its an RPG with an abstract tactical element.

Ive since played it again, and it is excellent as a very narrative freeform game with a tactical underpinning.
Excellent for pick-up games too. If you have basic skills at narrating and particularly making combat interesting, there's virtually zero prep time. In fact, Im not sure what you'd actually spend prep time on.

I think the game becomes more fun if you put some military stuff into it, but you dont really need it.

The PDF is pretty cheap, so I'd give it a shot.

Hmm, I might have to check it out for sure, but I'm not quite sure who I'd run it for. In this economy I'm trying to limit my purchases to things I'd actually run or play.

Phrase it like this:

"do you think blowing up space bugs would be awesome?"


Tell you what, when we get back from Vermont, or after new years, I'll run a session for you and whoever I can rustle up an evening, and you can see how you dig it.