Aliens of John C

  Flight -- running away from the threat,
   Fight -- attacking the threat,
   or Freeze -- holding still and hoping that 
the threat
   won't notice you.

[Tomb] A bit on the simplistic side, but you 
acknowledged that.

     Timidity -- Units recieve *two* 
Suppression markers
     when they 
come under fire, rather than one.

[Tomb] Might also have to up the max 
suppressions to > 3.

     Caution -- Units automatically go "In 
Position" when
     they recieve a 
Supression marker, and must come out of 
position (as per the
rules) before they can move.

[Tomb] I assume this IP is still post-fire-
resolution or else this becomes a really 
handy defense.

For Flight, which appears to be the default 
Herbivore response, you could do the 
following:
     When a unit is activated, it must 
immediately make one confidence check for 
every Suppression marker that it has. 
For each failed test, the unit must spend an 
action to make a Combat Move away from 
any and all visible attackers.	If
the tests are passed, the unit may act 
normally.  (I have this particular system in 
mind for my Grey aliens, who would
be making that confidence test at a 
considerable penalty.)

[Tomb] Book-keeping point: If I have 3 
suppressions and have to spend three 
actions moving away, a) that is more than 
one activation so I have to track this 
somehow and b) can I move with these 
suppressions in place (assume you answer 
yes here ?).

For Fight, on the other hand....  The 
problem here is that, when facing modern 
(or future!) firearms, the Fight response
is likely to get you killed.

[Tomb] Depends on the exact nature of the 
beast. 

     A unit with two or more Suppression 
markers must immediately make a 
confidence check when it is activated.	If 
this check is passed, the unit may attempt 
to remove the markers as normal (probably 
at a bonus, since we're assuming an
aagressive species).  If the check is 
*failed*, however, the unit must 
immediately charge the nearest enemy 
unit, with a movement bounus of +d8" for 
this movement only.  (With
sufficiently nasty aliens, give this charge a 
"Terror" effect and you'll give them a 
slightly better chance of surviving.)

[Tomb] You don't give fleeing forces bonus 
movements. Do you ever recall the old 
phrase "I can run faster scared than you 
can angry!" ? 

You've got the Remorseless Killing Machine 
option, which ignores Suppression entirely,

[Tomb] That's the RKM with High Armour 
and No Survival Instincts. 

 and has plenty of fictional
precedents.  More interestingly, you've got 
GDW's "Kafers", who react to stress by 
boosting their intelligence.

(Easy enough to do with SGII: Kafer units 
start as Greens, but for every Suppression 
marker they receive their quality
level improves by a step.)

[Tomb] Still, I don't think good enough. 
>From the first time they sight the enemy, I 
have them go up a confidence level every 
turn. This means if you don't take them out 
in a turn or two, you're in some trouble. If 
you haven't killed them in 4 turns..... ouch. 
Just basing it on suppressions makes no 
accounting for their ability to recognize an 
enemy/threat (which they can do). Also, 
there is the issue of officers rousing them 
faster (presented in the original game). I'd 
even suggest raising QD once per 
activation. That means that officers, by 
reactivating units, get them combat ready 
faster. Also, one could argue for a high 
initial Leadership Value which reduces too. 
Kafers are a very interesting race and the 
Kravak miniatures bear a striking (read: not 
entirely accidental....) similarity to the 
descriptions of Kafers. ;)

[Tomb] Beth mentioned some. Let me 
recall my lists:
- movement modifiers (faster/slower)
- modifiers to spotting (maybe some are 
hiders or very observant)
- Panic and Last Stand modifiers
- Upshifts to CC QD or downshifts
- Modifiers to CC initiation rolls or stand-to-
defend rolls.
- Modifiers to efficacy of ranged combat 
- Modifiers to effective motivation levels 
and even to some of the test 
types/severities
- Perhaps in extreme cases, modifiers to 
the number of available actions (giving 3 
actions per activation to units in some sort 
of hyper-adrenal state might be interesting 
though quite potent and limitiing to 1 a 
race suffering from a fear effect might also 
be quite potent)
- Modifiers to the way command transfers 
work (it might be harder to talk to fearful 
or enraged troops, some races may have 
better transfer mechanisms like telepathy 
or complex pheremones or multi-spectral 
multi-channel comms giving high info 
bandwidth)
- Limitations to abilties to operate as 
individual figures or to attach/detach units 
(or enhancements to these same 
capabilities)
- Presence of more/fewer command 
elements (with corresponding 
increase/decrease in available command 
transfers)

There are plenty of ways to make aliens 
interesting. 

Just keep in mind two simple guidelines I 
use:

1) Not all aliens must be tougher. 
Sometimes if one giveth, one should taketh 
away at the same time. Thus a particular 
alien race might have some great benefits, 
but really suck in another regard. Strive for 
something that provides nuanced tactics 
that differentiate the race from humans 
(else they're all just bump headed humans 
in some latex makeup).

2) You don't *have* to balance them WRT 
to humans 1:1. That is, my KV tend to be 
nastier than conventional humans, but 
when I ran Grey Day To Die, I gave the 
humans about a 10-15% manpower 
advantage to make up for that (it was a 
guestimate). The KV were faster, harder to 
kill, etc. Playtesting will be required to 
ascertain what "fudge factors" are 
involved. Balance should be achieved at the 
force level, rather than individual level. It 
may be achieved at the force level by 
balancing individuals against one another, 
but it is better to take a holistic look to 
force balance in SG and DS and use some 
judgement (yes, this is hard for newbies, I 
admit, but better in the long run). 

Tomb
----------------------------------------------------
Mr. Thomas Barclay
Software Developer & Systems Analyst
thomas.barclay@stargrunt.ca
----------------------------------------------------