THE MAVERICK
Afghanistan
(Currently far from) Herald
California
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Commando, The Combat Adventure Game
SPI (1979, $19 boxed, $16 softpack)
Designed by Eric Goldberg
Players: 2 or more
Period: WWI through 1970's
Scale: Tactical
-- Turn: 15 seconds
-- Map: 3 meters
-- Unit: individual
Box: (Boxed edition) 9x11-1/2" bookcase box.
Components: (Boxed edition) 12 11x17" double-sided unmounted mapsheets, 47 page historical game rulebook, 23 page role-playing game rulebook, 8 page booklet of charts and tables (two copies), addenda sheet dated September 1979, description sheet from box bottom, SPI customer service card, 2 twenty-sided dice, 4 mini six-sided dice.
SPI says: "[A] bold foray into two exciting gaming fields: modern tactical combat and role-playing. Players choose from among over twenty optional rules sections in the historical game to add realism and esoterica -- anything from tanks to guard dogs to underwater operations. In the role-playing game, players assume a character who, with skill and luck, will live to fight another day."
The reviewers say: "Commando used no counters and had square grid maps and at first glance looks a bit unwieldy. With some play experience however, the game shows itself to be a lot of fun and a good simulation of commando operations." Jeff Petraska in Fire & Movement Number 65.
"It's a good game, a remarkably smooth system which has accepted the compromise of a lightweight framework in exchange for a well designed, complete tactical system." Ian Chadwick in Moves issue 57.
Comments: Commando was the first commercial RPG to use a modern military theme as its focus. Truthfully, the game is more of a boardgame with role-playing rules grafted on. However, the RPG rules gave the designer an opportunity to pay homage to the commando as depicted in fiction.
For instance, Commando characters have a hero rating which increases or decreases depending on the outcome of each mission. Higher hero ratings allow the character to have special hero abilities. Characters with very high hero ratings are given the opportunity to cheat fate by rolling on the "Miraculous Escape Matrix" once per mission. The Matrix includes priceless entries such as "Adroit use of bayonet fends off bullets" and "Meteorite strikes enemy."
Although you could probably play the RPG without the tongue-in-cheek rules, there wouldn't be much character development if you died on every mission. That possibility isn't a problem in the context of the two-player historical game which offers a more straightforward look at tactical operations. The basic rules encompass observation, hand-to-hand combat, fire combat, opportunity fire and panic/morale. The actions of the commandos are limited by an allotment of task points. All activities, including movement and combat, require the expenditure of varying amounts of task points. These fairly simple mechanics are supplemented by numerous optional rules which add a wealth of detail. The options cover just about everything you might want to simulate in a special forces vein, from electrified fences to searchlights to flamethrowers.
In short, Commando furnishes all the details, charts, and rules you'd expect from a wargame from back then, which makes it the kind of game that tends to send today's gamers running in terror!
Collector's Notes: Boone's Internet Wargames Catalog (3rd edition) lists low/high/average auction prices of $3/$24/$9.34 and low/high/average sale listings of $8/$55/$25.06.
Other military themed RPG's and their settings: Behind Enemy Lines (WWII, FASA/The Companions), Delta Force (counter-terrorist, Task Force), Merc (mercenary, Fantasy Games Unlimited), Morrow Project (post-holocaust, Timeline), Price of Freedom (Soviet occupied U.S., West End), Recon (Vietnam, RPG Inc.), Twilight: 2000 (hypothetical near-future, GDW).
(This article was originally published in issue 6 of Simulacrum, January 2000.)
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Posted Wed Jul 23, 2003 1:49 pm