Target:Earth, the game
I started work on this game back in about 2002 after getting a bit fed up with the limitations of Warhammer 40K. I was also getting back into some retro PC games at the time, including the excellent XCom / UFO:Enemy Unknown. I really liked the idea of having more detailed troops, each with their own unique abilities and equipment, rather than the rows of bland, identical troops that seemed to be the norm. So I set out to write my own system.
Sample images of the game content:
Game Overview
The game has been designed from the ground up with flexibility in mind.
There are no major restrictions placed on force construction, the customisation
of your troops is extremely detailed and the options open to a player during
his or her turn is light years beyond the simple Move, Shoot, Assault static
phases that I grew tired of.
As with XCom, all actions in the game are measured by their cost in Time
Units, and the player is free to perform whatever actions they desire, as
long as the amount of Time Units expended by a squad or unit does not exceed
their alloted amount. They can move, run, shoot, go prone, change weapons,
reload alternative ammunition, open doors, plant explosives, use objects
or even paint targets for Fire Support.
Combat is detailed and includes effects such as cover, ambushes, shock,
panic, knockdowns, bleeding, gradual loss of fighting effectiveness and
of course lots and lots of different weapons - all with different accuracies,
ammunition types and capacities, damage ratings, range limitations and quirks. This definitely
isn't one of those games one side shoots and then the other side simply removes anyone that was hit!
Although Target:Earth is highly detailed, many of the features are included
as optional rules which players can add or remove as they require
Setting and Gameplay
The setting of Target:Earth is in the near future, within the next 75 years or so.
It draws on things that are happening today, so we can imagine the logical conclusion
of things that we starting to see around us now - environmental, power and fuel problems,
The rise of global corporations with ever more political weight, nation states fracturing etc..
The game focuses on various forces that are active within this near future - the militarised arm
of what was once the United Nations, Rebels, amoral Security Corporations and others, along
with a new alien threat.
Battles are fought with squads of highly trained forces, rather than the massed ranks of other
games, along with anime inspired powered armour, mecha and light armour such as armoured
personel carriers, hummvees, jeeps and other all terrain vehicles.
Availability
The game has been in development on and off since 2002 - lately it hasn't
had the attention it deserves, but it has been extensively tested
over the last few years.
The game is still in development though I hope to release it in some form
soon. The original plan was to self publish through an on-demand printing
service, though this is now probably outside the scope of what I can afford
to do - I no longer have time to devote exclusively to this project, so
it may either be a relatively cheap PDF download, or maybe even a freebie
to download from here... There's a lot of time and energy invested in the
game and I'm not yet sure which way to go!
This page updated: 26/Aug/2007
