Phoenix Command
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| Phoenix Command | |
| Designer | Barry Nakazono, David McKenzie |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Leading Edge Games |
| Publication date | 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Military |
| System | Phoenix Command |
Phoenix Command is a role-playing game system published by the now inactive Leading Edge Games, and copyrighted by Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie. Various versions of the system featured in the out of print games Morning Star Missions, Living Steel, and Aliens Adventure Game among others.
Phoenix Command is notable for its extremely-detailed and realistic combat system. The game utilizes lookup tables which resolve injuries to specific digits, organs, and bones, and simulates the physics of different attacks, such as bullets with different velocities. A simplified rules system was used for most of the movie tie-ins as well as Living Steel.
The manuals have a lot of quotes and extra information in the margins, many of which are darkly humorous. Additional supplements were published to support the original game which contained a 56 page spiral bound rule book, 32 page modern military weapon data supplement, reference tables, blank character sheets and one ten sided die. Additional supplements included the Hand to Hand Combat System (1988), World War 2 Weapon Data Supplement (1988), Wild West Weapon Data Supplement (1989), Civilian Weapon Data Supplement (1987), Living Steel Power Armour Sourcebook (1991), Advanced Damage Tables (1987) and High Tech Weapon Data Supplement (1987) amongst others.
[edit] Design philosophy
In the designers' own words, Phoenix Command is "...designed to be truly realistic; not complex, or deadly, but simply a representation of what really happens to people."[citation needed] While the construction and research behind the system makes it exceedingly realistic, it is also immensely complex, to the point where Phoenix Command is regularly held up as an example of the extreme end of RPG complexity.
While general attitudes toward the game are mixed, there is some hostile reaction to its use in the RPG adaptations of Aliens and Bram Stoker's Dracula, where the system is seen as unsuited to the films they adapt.[citation needed]
