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
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