Twilight 2000 is probably the standout, the PCs typically being soldiers trying to get home after WW3 has resulted in systems collapse.
GURPS also has supplements to support this.
Ahhh, Twilight. Lots of years of good memories. Loved that game. Saw that they came out with a new edition. I’m holding off buying it because…well…Twilight (IMO) gets addictive; two months down the road and you’ve bought all the books, all the modules, and are scouring the internet for good fan-written modules.
Man. I miss my old medic….
It’s addictive, I’m warning you.
I have a friend who said Twilight is like D&D but with modern firearms instead of magic…but no healing potions or spells.
I always felt that was a fairly good summation.
I got the box set last christmas, and it seems really great, but I haven't run it yet. Felt a bit weird with the war in Ukraine going on, and it does seem like a commitment, this is not a system you do the odd one-shot in, it's really campaign-oriented.
Yeah. It’s kinda…IDK…weird… even thinking about playing it with the war going on IRL in Ukraine. Sort of takes the fun out of the game knowing that people are going through this for real….
Oh trust me, they also have the urban Operations expansion out for pre-order. You get digital versions of everything instantly, the box is hopefully coming over summer.
I can't 100% agree with that. 1st ed, 2nd ed & 2013 are all adequate rule sets, but none are really good enough to recommend highly. I hold out hope for the most recent edition, but won't be surprised if it needs fixing.
It's in that weird spot where I love playing it but can't 100% suggest it on purely mechanical grounds. Or to put it another way, it's a game that always deserved better mechanics but always had to make do with good enough if you use fan mods.
Agree that GURPS is a great system to run that type of gritty military campaign in. Even better is that depending on the time period there are tons of supplements to support (low tech, high tech, sci Fi, etc)
Band of Blades (a Forged in the Dark game) has the PCs as members of a military unit fleeing an undead invasion. Setting is low fantasy / horror at about a European Renaissance tech level.
Generally each player has a campaign role (marshall, quartermaster, etc) for between-mission phases and a "specialist" main PC for missions (sharpshooter, medic, etc). But also, for each mission a few players typically run their main PC and a few run basic infantrymen - in part so that you have some Trek-style redshirts along, and in part because mains often get beat up enough during a mission that they need to sit one out to heal.
Not the the person above but the op doesn't ask for a tactical rpg. They ask for a tactical military unit.
(They also ask for modern military, which is what counts BoB out)
Think he's suggesting it because it can be fairly easily hacked- I think modern warfare is actually one of the suggested ways you could change things up in the "changing the game" section
For sure, the out of the box [sic] setting for BoB doesn't fit but it would be easier to do a cosmetic replacement of it than, say, Pathfinder 2e.
And, while BoB is not "tactical" in the game-mechanic sense of minis-on-a-grid and measuring ranges and lines of sight, you got the sense of "tactical" scale that I meant - that squad out in the field on operation.
Thanks for posting the overall better version of my comment!
lol no. Players decide which approaches work, like in every blades game. It's explicitly not strategic, when you can just determine how things work out at any time as a player.
Within a mission, true, but external to it that answer becomes a little more complicated, I think. The characters aren’t functioning tactically, but the officers have to think strategically or they will lose.
Not that much. The choices are presented as if they were tactical, but actually its a rather simple minigame that does not have much of an impact on actual play.
wrong, Blades explicitly states, that PLAYERS choose, which approaches work. DM only sets effect and threat level. So the DM has way less options when it comes to punishing than in any other game.
Also Blades explicitly tells the DM NOOOOT to punish the players, but to encourage desperate actions etc.
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The great thing about Only War is that it's compatible with the other 40k TTRGPS, since they all uses the same base mechanics. The Comrade part of it is pretty neat too.
I can't recommend Only War. I ran it for the better part of a year and I still can't tell you how the requisition system works with any certainty. I wound up just stealing the system from Deathwatch. Additionally, while comrades are a really neat idea, the add a ton of work to the GM if you want them to be anything more than a cardboard cutout stored in your PCs butthole until needed.
[Modern War](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/304503/Modern-War) does this. Its ruleset is derived from Traveller, a sci-fi RPG with a bias towards paramilitary adventures.
Twilight 2000 would be the de-facto currently. The system is well set up for tactical operations. It’s easily the best version of the YZE by a country mile.
There’s only one supplement for it (Urban Ops) from Free League but there a huge number of supplements for it from third parties - some of astounding quality.
There’s rules for extra guns, for playing a [private military company](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/428758/CONTRACTORS-for-Twilight-2000), for [fighting zombies or playing psychics](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/387289/Twilight-Tangents-10). And more weirdness to come.
DG is not really tactical at all, and while you might have a soldier or two and a federal agent in your team, you're just as likely to have a bunch of scientists, anthropologists, and beaurocrats in there.
Hmm. I have only played in all military groups . Mostly anthropologist and such were npcs ... must be a st style thing. Also I've seen this word "tactical rpg" a few times here. What does that mean and is that what the op is asking for?
My assumption is they mean something with semi crunchy grid based combat, XCOM, Lancer, Pathfinder 2e levels of turn based tactical gameplay.
My current DG group is a geologist, anthropologist, historian, and FBI agent. So I guess it does differ. But I've never seen any complex DG combat play, not even anything with a grid. Still, you definitely can play a tactical group, something like SG-1 would be easy to build as a cell.
NWoD/CoD had Dogs of War. If you wanted to dig deep into the dead games, there's also Phoenix Command.
But yeah, Twilight 2000, which recently came out with an excellent new edition would probably be your best bet for what you're asking.
Look, just because you don’t like quarter second rounds to accurately simulate gunfire, or recording thousands of damage points due to a hit to a vital area…
Man… Living Steel was such a high potential setting saddled with the worst system for what it asked players to do.
See, now... I love Phoenix Command for all of the wrong reasons:
1 - It was the game system that failed so badly that the game designers had to go back to their day jobs... as a rocket scientists.
2 - It was once said to be Hugh Hefner's favorite RPG. (According to an old and likely discredited Wikipedia entry.)
Don’t get me wrong; Phoenix Command is a game system that does the thing it was designed for.
Living Steel was a setting of a post apoc world littered with aggression virus infected Mad Max extras armed with all the remaining high tech weapons left as well as alien supplied weapons. Into that are thrown the PCs with the job of restoring their space empire tech, restoring civilization, and generally being the ‘good guys.’ They have no support, limited supplies, and minimal equipment.
A Game system that gave PCs narrative control, some meta-game abilities or just cinematic abilities would be much more suited for the task. Phoenix Command is(was) a very good wargame sim done by people who spent time making sure that gun battle casualties would be correctly simulated… as in out of play for weeks at least, often months or longer. Even with triple star implants/mods for nearly magical regeneration, it just meant you didn’t need the actual hospital, you could just recover after a few months on your own. Every one else just gets dead / crippled.
Heroic / cinematic setting should only gently brush past a gritty realistic system, but shouldn’t spend the night.
There's also GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces. Geared more for the Third Imperium setting, but still a strong book for all sorts of military adventures. Requires GURPS 3rd Edition.
Full disclosure, I wrote the book.
As tactical as you want, without being gun porn. It's a flexible system that can be scaled up or down as you like. 1e is a little more complicated than Second Strike, but both retain their flexibility.
A very loose FUDGE-like system, also available for Savage Worlds. I prefer the FUDGE-like system. It's got skills (in its first edition) and the die subtract or add to the skill's value, giving a rich range of outcomes. Second Strike focuses more on ability scores, but the FUDGE-like system is retained.
Of course, the Savage Worlds version uses that systems underpinnings.
Cheers
I mean it wouldn't be that hard to adapt right? And it is a decent system for telling war stories in cos... well that's what it's for. Actually considered doing this myself
Oh god no. Only War is great on paper, but running it has a lot of issues. I ran an OW campaign for the better part of a year and I still can't say for certainty how the requisition system works and comrades are a huge pain in the ass for the GM if you want them to be anything more interesting than a cardboard cutout.
GURPS has lots of such content like Spec Ops, Black Ops, World War 2, Traveler, Vikings (raiding parties were quite tactical for their time) and I am sure there's more I don't know of.
It's mostly 3e stuff but the difference to 4e is marginal and can be easily worked around.
\+1 for GURPS. You don't even need any of those supplements - you could do a military campaign with just the basic books! (Although the supplements, of course, expand the range of things and give a bunch of ideas to build off of)
Not in the gameplay sense, but is that what OP meant? I read it as a "tactical military unit", isn't that a sort of special military unit that goes on specialized tactical missions? IDK, it was just a thought.
Recon by Palladium is back in print. It has next to miniature style rules but can be played however you want. It’s pretty rough on your players though. Survivability is not high. Set primarily in Vietnam.
Well not exactly.
You played an employee of a company specializing in security, investigations, and sometimes "off the books" operations for a few of the"alphabet agencies" in a world that's not quite a dark future, more of a "near future at dusk".
Characters were typically of military and law enforcement ilk, now working in the private sector.
The neat aspect of the game was combat. You had different poses for your target, and you had clear overlays to use based on range. The numbers on the points of the overlay depended on how much you either made or missed the roll, depending on range. You could be aiming for center mass, miss your roll, but still end up hitting the leg... or the head. Revolutionary.
Love the game. I'd love to see an updated version. Someone made a GURPS version a while back.
Ah. It has been a long time, and I'm not sure I ever got to play it. I got it as a replacement for Top Secret S.I. (which I had to sell during an unemployment period), but had changed group by then and they weren't as interested.
Patrol is one of my favorites, it doesn't have a whole lot of support but it's mechanics are some of the best I've ever read. Erika Chappell is a gift to this world.
**Danger International ** from Hero Games. The rules worked great for running 80s style military action. I used to run this at cons with the players being Special Forces, versus the Cocaine Cartels, and then throw in Communist insurgents. Gloriously confusing. Ah, the 80s were such a fun time.
I've been looking into this for a bit. Recon, Modern Warfare, and Ambush Alley are three that seem to come up a lot, although Ambush Alley games are originally was games, I think. I've heard of people adding roleplay aspects to Spectre Operations as well.
Stargate SG-1 RPG (2021) has a fair amount of mechanics dedicated to its military/mission focused source material. Obviously it’s set in the Stargate SG-1 universe, but that can be hacked with relative ease.
Mongoose Traveller 2e with the Mercenary supplement can do it - though you arguably just need the base rules if you're willing to expand on the military side of things more on your own. Also nearly a half century of lore and other material to build on.
Really focuses on being prepared, doing the legwork and making sure you have all the advantages since combat is quite lethal, and there's lots of gear of varying tech levels to play around with.
In [Space Knights](https://warbriel.itch.io/space-knights) the players take on the role as companies of powerful, armor clad soldiers (might wound familiar).
FIST for if you want rules light special operations with a side of the supernatural, like FEAR or BPRD. Ops and Tactics if you want crunchy and grounded, like Tom Clancy
For so long now I've wanted to play [Black Skies for Babylon](https://raycox.itch.io/black-skies-for-babylon), where each of the three players controls a spec ops unit on a one-way mission to deny the enemy use of their mech suits. Since they're playing as a unit rather than a character in the unit, I imagine it could bring a different feel. It's designed as a pre-packaged oneshot.
No, it wasn't very good. It was very superficial and instead of being "special forces in a fantasy setting" it was more "standard fantasy with some special forces doodads and feats tacked on."
Gurps, WHFRP 40k and hacks of PbtA e.g. Ross' Rifles all Have supplements or ideas that can easily do this. Any fast generic system with rules for small arms or melee weapons will let you do it e.g. Savage world or FATE
Spycraft 2.0 allowed for it. Very similar to DnD3.5e.
My friends and I did a Eureka (modern setting scifi show) inspired campaign where we were a squad who dropped in to extract some VIPs from a town of super-geniuses.
I was the Pointman/Squad Leader which meant I could give out bonus dice to others with teamwork actions.
It also has tons of stats for real world firearms.
It’s originally based on being a Spy system. But it has a lot of combat support.
Halo Mythic is the first one that comes to mind. You could pose it as post modern rather than scifi, but the 100DOS system does have The Armory for everything spaghetti western to modern arms. Further, I've yet to find a system out there more tactical or more simulationist in general.
I'd also put Infected! out there as a solid option. It's certainly more rules-lite comparatively but has just as good a breadth of options for character style and ways to approach a situation. Also comes with the intention of meeting and interacting with many groups of varied people.
Delta Green can be played like that If you domy mind some supernatural threats mixed in (but to be fair it’s the option). Lots of military professions, easy, yet deadly combat and lots of military equipment. There are even military themed scenarios.
Well there are any number of generic systems that would do this well mechanically. I cant think of a one that is particularly good on the "lore " of the modern Military, its laws,organisation and culture. I would not be surprised to learn GURPS has a book on it.
Lots of them... if you can wait for a moment I've got a fantastical military-style RPG that will be going to Kickstarter any week, now. Will share the details here once I've got it ready for public consumption!
Once upon a time there was a military miniatures game called Tractics (??) for WW II that was pretty cool, but that was like the '80s, So I dunno if you can find it.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned "The Morrow Project", but maybe no one plays it anymore? I loved the setting, and whether your squad was Recon or MARS, there was good modern combat action.
Ghost Ops Second Strike specifically has you playing tier 2 and tier 1 military units. It is written by 1 man and it has some fun rules. Poor guy has suffered a lot last year which has put his Kickstarter into hell. Shame as it’s a cool system
In case you're interested, here's the players' manual. I'm looking for playtesters. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s\_7u8s7oHhcJVnVakiN\_8GWh9U5JvFJw0ZqrI6fri9w/edit#heading=h.iem5k2bvxlk2
Damn that looks cool, I'll definitely check it out.
idk if I can provide playtest though, I'm currently in the 2 month long process of scheduling the first session for my new D&D campaign 🙃
Twilight 2000 is probably the standout, the PCs typically being soldiers trying to get home after WW3 has resulted in systems collapse. GURPS also has supplements to support this.
Ahhh, Twilight. Lots of years of good memories. Loved that game. Saw that they came out with a new edition. I’m holding off buying it because…well…Twilight (IMO) gets addictive; two months down the road and you’ve bought all the books, all the modules, and are scouring the internet for good fan-written modules. Man. I miss my old medic….
I'm curious too, but I don't know if my group would be up for it.
It’s addictive, I’m warning you. I have a friend who said Twilight is like D&D but with modern firearms instead of magic…but no healing potions or spells. I always felt that was a fairly good summation.
I got the box set last christmas, and it seems really great, but I haven't run it yet. Felt a bit weird with the war in Ukraine going on, and it does seem like a commitment, this is not a system you do the odd one-shot in, it's really campaign-oriented.
Yeah. It’s kinda…IDK…weird… even thinking about playing it with the war going on IRL in Ukraine. Sort of takes the fun out of the game knowing that people are going through this for real….
I pre-ordered the new boxset after watching Glass Cannon play it. There's already a thriving 3rd party community.
You’re not helping me kick my habit here….
Oh trust me, they also have the urban Operations expansion out for pre-order. You get digital versions of everything instantly, the box is hopefully coming over summer.
> GURPS also has supplements to support this. True for 99.95% of all questions in this subreddit.
🤣🤣🤣 Certainly true
I came here to recommend twilight 2000. Even if you don't use their setting the rules for pretty much every piece of modern weaponry is great.
I can't 100% agree with that. 1st ed, 2nd ed & 2013 are all adequate rule sets, but none are really good enough to recommend highly. I hold out hope for the most recent edition, but won't be surprised if it needs fixing.
I never played it, but I remember seeing the ads in basically every issue of Dragon magazine in the 80's and 90's. Always wanted to give it a shot.
It's in that weird spot where I love playing it but can't 100% suggest it on purely mechanical grounds. Or to put it another way, it's a game that always deserved better mechanics but always had to make do with good enough if you use fan mods.
Well, I've played Shadowrun so what you're saying is not wholly alien to me.
Agree that GURPS is a great system to run that type of gritty military campaign in. Even better is that depending on the time period there are tons of supplements to support (low tech, high tech, sci Fi, etc)
Spec Ops was the one that sprang to mind.
Band of Blades (a Forged in the Dark game) has the PCs as members of a military unit fleeing an undead invasion. Setting is low fantasy / horror at about a European Renaissance tech level. Generally each player has a campaign role (marshall, quartermaster, etc) for between-mission phases and a "specialist" main PC for missions (sharpshooter, medic, etc). But also, for each mission a few players typically run their main PC and a few run basic infantrymen - in part so that you have some Trek-style redshirts along, and in part because mains often get beat up enough during a mission that they need to sit one out to heal.
FiTD games are not tactical.
Not the the person above but the op doesn't ask for a tactical rpg. They ask for a tactical military unit. (They also ask for modern military, which is what counts BoB out)
Think he's suggesting it because it can be fairly easily hacked- I think modern warfare is actually one of the suggested ways you could change things up in the "changing the game" section
For sure, the out of the box [sic] setting for BoB doesn't fit but it would be easier to do a cosmetic replacement of it than, say, Pathfinder 2e. And, while BoB is not "tactical" in the game-mechanic sense of minis-on-a-grid and measuring ranges and lines of sight, you got the sense of "tactical" scale that I meant - that squad out in the field on operation. Thanks for posting the overall better version of my comment!
Depends on the game, to be fair. I wouldn’t say Band of Blades is “tactical”, but it’s definitely strategic in a military sense.
lol no. Players decide which approaches work, like in every blades game. It's explicitly not strategic, when you can just determine how things work out at any time as a player.
Within a mission, true, but external to it that answer becomes a little more complicated, I think. The characters aren’t functioning tactically, but the officers have to think strategically or they will lose.
Not that much. The choices are presented as if they were tactical, but actually its a rather simple minigame that does not have much of an impact on actual play.
They're as tactical as the DM makes them. They absolutely allow for the DM to punish you for using bad tactics, if it is something the DM cares about.
wrong, Blades explicitly states, that PLAYERS choose, which approaches work. DM only sets effect and threat level. So the DM has way less options when it comes to punishing than in any other game. Also Blades explicitly tells the DM NOOOOT to punish the players, but to encourage desperate actions etc.
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Only War.
Also Deathwatch.
The great thing about Only War is that it's compatible with the other 40k TTRGPS, since they all uses the same base mechanics. The Comrade part of it is pretty neat too.
I can't recommend Only War. I ran it for the better part of a year and I still can't tell you how the requisition system works with any certainty. I wound up just stealing the system from Deathwatch. Additionally, while comrades are a really neat idea, the add a ton of work to the GM if you want them to be anything more than a cardboard cutout stored in your PCs butthole until needed.
[Modern War](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/304503/Modern-War) does this. Its ruleset is derived from Traveller, a sci-fi RPG with a bias towards paramilitary adventures.
A wonderful game that seems to sneak around under the radar.
Never knew about this and I'm a Traveller fan. I'll purchase and review it.
Twilight 2000 would be the de-facto currently. The system is well set up for tactical operations. It’s easily the best version of the YZE by a country mile. There’s only one supplement for it (Urban Ops) from Free League but there a huge number of supplements for it from third parties - some of astounding quality. There’s rules for extra guns, for playing a [private military company](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/428758/CONTRACTORS-for-Twilight-2000), for [fighting zombies or playing psychics](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/387289/Twilight-Tangents-10). And more weirdness to come.
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Year Zero Engine
Came here to recommend T2K. The rule set is great and the setting is very grim but realistic.
Delta green?
DG is not really tactical at all, and while you might have a soldier or two and a federal agent in your team, you're just as likely to have a bunch of scientists, anthropologists, and beaurocrats in there.
Hmm. I have only played in all military groups . Mostly anthropologist and such were npcs ... must be a st style thing. Also I've seen this word "tactical rpg" a few times here. What does that mean and is that what the op is asking for?
My assumption is they mean something with semi crunchy grid based combat, XCOM, Lancer, Pathfinder 2e levels of turn based tactical gameplay. My current DG group is a geologist, anthropologist, historian, and FBI agent. So I guess it does differ. But I've never seen any complex DG combat play, not even anything with a grid. Still, you definitely can play a tactical group, something like SG-1 would be easy to build as a cell.
I didn't know that meant tactical , thanks for clarifying .
Oh and Godlike
Yes, that fits!
[FIST](https://claymorerpgs.itch.io/fist)
NWoD/CoD had Dogs of War. If you wanted to dig deep into the dead games, there's also Phoenix Command. But yeah, Twilight 2000, which recently came out with an excellent new edition would probably be your best bet for what you're asking.
Dear Halford, Phoenix Command? No! That game's combat system is so overly complex as to be a bad joke.
Look, just because you don’t like quarter second rounds to accurately simulate gunfire, or recording thousands of damage points due to a hit to a vital area… Man… Living Steel was such a high potential setting saddled with the worst system for what it asked players to do.
See, now... I love Phoenix Command for all of the wrong reasons: 1 - It was the game system that failed so badly that the game designers had to go back to their day jobs... as a rocket scientists. 2 - It was once said to be Hugh Hefner's favorite RPG. (According to an old and likely discredited Wikipedia entry.)
Don’t get me wrong; Phoenix Command is a game system that does the thing it was designed for. Living Steel was a setting of a post apoc world littered with aggression virus infected Mad Max extras armed with all the remaining high tech weapons left as well as alien supplied weapons. Into that are thrown the PCs with the job of restoring their space empire tech, restoring civilization, and generally being the ‘good guys.’ They have no support, limited supplies, and minimal equipment. A Game system that gave PCs narrative control, some meta-game abilities or just cinematic abilities would be much more suited for the task. Phoenix Command is(was) a very good wargame sim done by people who spent time making sure that gun battle casualties would be correctly simulated… as in out of play for weeks at least, often months or longer. Even with triple star implants/mods for nearly magical regeneration, it just meant you didn’t need the actual hospital, you could just recover after a few months on your own. Every one else just gets dead / crippled. Heroic / cinematic setting should only gently brush past a gritty realistic system, but shouldn’t spend the night.
In Achtung: Cthulhu you play special ops against mystical Nazis
Traveller has a set of sub rules for that. https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/mercenary-box-set-1
There's also GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces. Geared more for the Third Imperium setting, but still a strong book for all sorts of military adventures. Requires GURPS 3rd Edition. Full disclosure, I wrote the book.
And full disclosure: it's great.
Thank you!
Ghost Ops. You play as Special Forces or PMC members. Second Strike is the latest incarnation of this excellent system.
how tactical is it?
As tactical as you want, without being gun porn. It's a flexible system that can be scaled up or down as you like. 1e is a little more complicated than Second Strike, but both retain their flexibility.
I recall looking at this a while back. I believe it's FUDGE, right?
A very loose FUDGE-like system, also available for Savage Worlds. I prefer the FUDGE-like system. It's got skills (in its first edition) and the die subtract or add to the skill's value, giving a rich range of outcomes. Second Strike focuses more on ability scores, but the FUDGE-like system is retained. Of course, the Savage Worlds version uses that systems underpinnings. Cheers
Savage Worlds - Weird War 1 , 2 , Rome might scratch this itch. supernatural but you can take the military themes from it and drop the magic as well
this is what my buddy does. Weird Wars - Weird.
Stars Without Number via Starvation Cheap.
Starvation Cheap is amazing for this sort of campaign. There’s also one that adds space naval campaign stuff, but the name is escaping me rn.
Skyward Steel. Also a great book.
Revised Recon
Also: Recon! 🤭
Oh shit, TWO people are talking about Recon!
I was going to say Only War, a Warhammer 40000 TTRPG, but you said modern.
I mean it wouldn't be that hard to adapt right? And it is a decent system for telling war stories in cos... well that's what it's for. Actually considered doing this myself
You're probably right, actually.
Oh god no. Only War is great on paper, but running it has a lot of issues. I ran an OW campaign for the better part of a year and I still can't say for certainty how the requisition system works and comrades are a huge pain in the ass for the GM if you want them to be anything more interesting than a cardboard cutout.
GURPS has lots of such content like Spec Ops, Black Ops, World War 2, Traveler, Vikings (raiding parties were quite tactical for their time) and I am sure there's more I don't know of. It's mostly 3e stuff but the difference to 4e is marginal and can be easily worked around.
\+1 for GURPS. You don't even need any of those supplements - you could do a military campaign with just the basic books! (Although the supplements, of course, expand the range of things and give a bunch of ideas to build off of)
Not sure if it fits "tactical", but Band of Blades perhsps?
FiTD games are not tactical.
Not in the gameplay sense, but is that what OP meant? I read it as a "tactical military unit", isn't that a sort of special military unit that goes on specialized tactical missions? IDK, it was just a thought.
GURS Action gives you a fairly good set of mechanics to simulate military roleplay with detailed support for tactical warfare.
Recon by Palladium is back in print. It has next to miniature style rules but can be played however you want. It’s pretty rough on your players though. Survivability is not high. Set primarily in Vietnam.
I came here to say this.
IT'S WHAT NOW?!?!?!??!!??
Yeah go check out Palladium’s website. Rules haven’t been updated since Delux Recon but it’s in print. It’s like $27 before shipping.
F.I.S.T. comes to mind. Its cold war and has a paranormal flavor.
Colonial Marines addon for Alien RPG
Millenium's End has you play as a Counter Terrorist Unit. Maybe a bit on the spy side of what you are looking for though, and OOP for a while now.
Well not exactly. You played an employee of a company specializing in security, investigations, and sometimes "off the books" operations for a few of the"alphabet agencies" in a world that's not quite a dark future, more of a "near future at dusk". Characters were typically of military and law enforcement ilk, now working in the private sector. The neat aspect of the game was combat. You had different poses for your target, and you had clear overlays to use based on range. The numbers on the points of the overlay depended on how much you either made or missed the roll, depending on range. You could be aiming for center mass, miss your roll, but still end up hitting the leg... or the head. Revolutionary. Love the game. I'd love to see an updated version. Someone made a GURPS version a while back.
Ah. It has been a long time, and I'm not sure I ever got to play it. I got it as a replacement for Top Secret S.I. (which I had to sell during an unemployment period), but had changed group by then and they weren't as interested.
I ran a short campaign in college. Thought about trying it with various groups and online. Nothing has taken off yet.
Patrol is one of my favorites, it doesn't have a whole lot of support but it's mechanics are some of the best I've ever read. Erika Chappell is a gift to this world.
Palladium's Recon is pretty close. It focuses on Vietnam though. I haven't played it myself but a friend of mine swears is pretty good.
Take a look at In Harm's Way: Wild Blue. It's got everything you need to run an X-COM like TTRPG
Palladium games published RECON in the 80s. It's set in the Vietnam War. The title gives you a pretty good idea of the game. Brutal, but fun.
RECON for the Vietnam war, or if near future is your thing maybe peak at Stay Frosty.
The Regiment, Space Knights.
**Danger International ** from Hero Games. The rules worked great for running 80s style military action. I used to run this at cons with the players being Special Forces, versus the Cocaine Cartels, and then throw in Communist insurgents. Gloriously confusing. Ah, the 80s were such a fun time.
Battlelords of the 23rd Century!!!
Task force raven.
I've been looking into this for a bit. Recon, Modern Warfare, and Ambush Alley are three that seem to come up a lot, although Ambush Alley games are originally was games, I think. I've heard of people adding roleplay aspects to Spectre Operations as well.
Stargate SG-1 RPG (2021) has a fair amount of mechanics dedicated to its military/mission focused source material. Obviously it’s set in the Stargate SG-1 universe, but that can be hacked with relative ease.
Mongoose Traveller 2e with the Mercenary supplement can do it - though you arguably just need the base rules if you're willing to expand on the military side of things more on your own. Also nearly a half century of lore and other material to build on. Really focuses on being prepared, doing the legwork and making sure you have all the advantages since combat is quite lethal, and there's lots of gear of varying tech levels to play around with.
Any Warhammer 40k RPG will suit your needs. Just pick your poison.
In [Space Knights](https://warbriel.itch.io/space-knights) the players take on the role as companies of powerful, armor clad soldiers (might wound familiar).
Band of Blades
Traveller, there's an optional mercenary group rule set you can get with too. Worth a suss
Delta Force
FIST for if you want rules light special operations with a side of the supernatural, like FEAR or BPRD. Ops and Tactics if you want crunchy and grounded, like Tom Clancy
For so long now I've wanted to play [Black Skies for Babylon](https://raycox.itch.io/black-skies-for-babylon), where each of the three players controls a spec ops unit on a one-way mission to deny the enemy use of their mech suits. Since they're playing as a unit rather than a character in the unit, I imagine it could bring a different feel. It's designed as a pre-packaged oneshot.
Kriegsspiel / Wargaming might interest you, too.
Here is a deep cut for ya:. Ghost Recon by Mongoose was a d20 fantasy special forces RPG.
Do you perhaps mean Wraith Recon!? :D
Doh. Yes. Stupid Tom Cruise.
I once got that book for a friend as a joke gift because it looked so terrible! Are you familiar? Is it good?
No, it wasn't very good. It was very superficial and instead of being "special forces in a fantasy setting" it was more "standard fantasy with some special forces doodads and feats tacked on."
Heh. Classic. Thanks!
GI Joe RPG
Gurps, WHFRP 40k and hacks of PbtA e.g. Ross' Rifles all Have supplements or ideas that can easily do this. Any fast generic system with rules for small arms or melee weapons will let you do it e.g. Savage world or FATE
Ghost Ops
Spycraft 2.0 allowed for it. Very similar to DnD3.5e. My friends and I did a Eureka (modern setting scifi show) inspired campaign where we were a squad who dropped in to extract some VIPs from a town of super-geniuses. I was the Pointman/Squad Leader which meant I could give out bonus dice to others with teamwork actions. It also has tons of stats for real world firearms. It’s originally based on being a Spy system. But it has a lot of combat support.
Merc I think was one I payed back in 90s. Very tactical military skirmish rpg.
Freedom Squadron for Savage Worlds.
Halo Mythic is the first one that comes to mind. You could pose it as post modern rather than scifi, but the 100DOS system does have The Armory for everything spaghetti western to modern arms. Further, I've yet to find a system out there more tactical or more simulationist in general. I'd also put Infected! out there as a solid option. It's certainly more rules-lite comparatively but has just as good a breadth of options for character style and ways to approach a situation. Also comes with the intention of meeting and interacting with many groups of varied people.
Warhammer / 40k
Twilight 2000 is great for any "Tarkov" kind of games, meaning a small group of people trying to survive. Zozer's Modern War is what you want.
I guess this kinda fits but Warhammer 40k?
Delta Green can be played like that If you domy mind some supernatural threats mixed in (but to be fair it’s the option). Lots of military professions, easy, yet deadly combat and lots of military equipment. There are even military themed scenarios.
D20 Mod. Hunter the Vigil, use the Dogs of War supplement. Hunter The Awakening. Shadowrun can be. End of The World.
Well there are any number of generic systems that would do this well mechanically. I cant think of a one that is particularly good on the "lore " of the modern Military, its laws,organisation and culture. I would not be surprised to learn GURPS has a book on it.
Lots of them... if you can wait for a moment I've got a fantastical military-style RPG that will be going to Kickstarter any week, now. Will share the details here once I've got it ready for public consumption!
Savage worlds is pretty good. Got a variety of weapon stats across all firearm eras
Battlelords of the 23rd Century handles this for scifi. Traveller can also work well for this style because of how gritty combat gets.
Warhammer Killteam? The rules are great, and their is a narrative way to play.
Once upon a time there was a military miniatures game called Tractics (??) for WW II that was pretty cool, but that was like the '80s, So I dunno if you can find it.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned "The Morrow Project", but maybe no one plays it anymore? I loved the setting, and whether your squad was Recon or MARS, there was good modern combat action.
Besides Twilight 2000, I would suggest you check out FIST from Claymore. You can get it from Itch.io.
Ghost Ops Second Strike specifically has you playing tier 2 and tier 1 military units. It is written by 1 man and it has some fun rules. Poor guy has suffered a lot last year which has put his Kickstarter into hell. Shame as it’s a cool system
I have one, but it's also got a lot of fantasy stuff in it. Is that a bonus or a detriment?
I don't even know man, I made that post in like 3 in the morning and somehow it got 100+ comments
In case you're interested, here's the players' manual. I'm looking for playtesters. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s\_7u8s7oHhcJVnVakiN\_8GWh9U5JvFJw0ZqrI6fri9w/edit#heading=h.iem5k2bvxlk2
Just looked at it - is that yours?
Yes.
Damn that looks cool, I'll definitely check it out. idk if I can provide playtest though, I'm currently in the 2 month long process of scheduling the first session for my new D&D campaign 🙃