Army RPG

[Fez]

I honestly would like to see a military RPG set in a post-industrial environment, possibly even WWI or WWII. It might work really well as a sort of procedurally-generated roguelike, where the manner in which missions are completed or failed alters the course of a large-scale conflict. I honestly don't believe that playing the role of a single private would be all particularly boring, if you just skipped over most of the inter-battle "hurry up and wait" portions of warfare. Getting shot at every day is not most people's idea of dull. Character progression could initially begin at Private, but through valor and ingenuity one could advance to NCO ranks, with progressively more command over other troops. Not command as in direct control, but more along the lines of actually issuing orders which an AI attempts to carry out. Perma-death could actually be a fairly interesting facet of this system, where you can view various memorials for PC's who are KIA. In fact, it should be possible to advance the game even if the PC is killed, if you still manage to complete your mission.

What would be the difference between this and games like Operation Flashpoint or even Cannon Fodder type games? Even with effort I can't see it being any more "RPG" than X-COM.

 

[MetalCraze]

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. Just add stats.

That is what I feared it would come to. Not much of an RPG though. Just another "hybrid".

Jagged Alliance 2.
Not an RPG, not really soldiers in a regular army (but RPG about soldiers in a regular army would be pretty stupid - what would you do all the game time? Follow orders?) but mercs.

But that's how soldier RPG would've looked like. JA2 is a perfect platform for one.

 

[bhlaab]

RPG about soldiers in a regular army would be pretty stupid - what would you do all the game time? Follow orders?.

This is the biggest problem. That and the whole point of an army is to break down a soldier's sense of individualism, so just playing as one grunt would be a somewhat shallow experience