User Summary
The Regiment: Colonial Marines is an Apocalypse World hack that primarily emulates the genre of futuristic squad-level military action.
The following playbooks are part of this hack:
- Trooper
- Officer
- Medic
- Sergeant
- Synthetic
The Regiment also contains special player moves to emulate military life and action.
Player Moves
Combat Moves: Assault, Attack, Hit the Deck, Push Yourself, Combat Action, Keep It Together
Support Moves: Assess, Aid.
Peripheral Moves: Critical, Will, Petition, Scrounge, Letters Home.
Engagement Move: Engage
Various factors effect combat scenarios like Volume of Fire, Cover, etc. Some weapons are familiar, but many are speculative (Rail Gun, Impact Cannon, Sentry Gun, etc.). Vehicles are also futuristic, like the UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship.
The GM toolkit contains various principles of play that are part of the familiar Apocalypse World Engine lexicon, along with some new concepts (Immerse them in the chaos of war and Give them downtime).
Another innovative feature is the use of Battle Plans. The Battle Plan allows players to pick a mission without getting bogged down in planning. The plans are: Recon Patrol, Combat Patrol, Fire & Maneuver, Ambush, Hold Ground, Pincer, Defense in Depth, Infiltration.
Colonial Marines also contains a write-up for a dangerous “Alien-style” Xenomorph along with a short scenario, Outpost Epsilon.
Changes from the The Regiment
Aside from redesigning and modifying the playbooks (and creating a new playbook), there are several differences between ‘’The Regiment’’ and the ‘’The Regiment: Colonial Marines.’’
A Changelog in the rules indicates these changes were made… the volume of fire table was rebuilt, a new Stress system was implemented, a new Wounds system was implemented, and several Moves were revised or completely new.
Also, the authors indicated that the new game had been streamlined to make it a simpler game with more difficult choices.