Phoenix Command

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Phoenix Command

Designers	Barry Nakazono, David McKenzie
Publishers	Leading Edge Games
Publication	1986
Genres	Military
Systems	Phoenix Command

Phoenix Command is a combat-oriented role-playing game system published by Leading Edge Games in 1986. Variations of its rules system have also been used in other military games such as Morning Star Missions, Living Steel, and Aliens Adventure Game.

Although Phoenix Command is ostensibly a role-playing game, and does have character generation and skills resolution systems,^[1] the extremely detailed rules for small arms combat are the central focus of the game.^[1] 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.

Phoenix Command was designed by Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie, and was published by Leading Edge Games in 1986 as a boxed set containing 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 were subsequently published, including 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), High Tech Weapon Data Supplement (1987), Phoenix Command Advanced Rules for Small Arms Combat (1986), Phoenix Command Damage Tables: Small Arms (1986), and Phoenix Command Small Arms Combat System (1989).

In Issue 47 of Different Worlds, Roman Andron was impressed, saying, "Never before have such high degrees of realism and playability been achieved simultaneously in the gaming world. Compared to this, all other combat systems are nothing." Despite the complexity of the combat system, Andron insisted, "The combat system is easy to use." Andron also liked the deadliness of the combat system since "combatants are incapacitated or killed quickly once hit, and do not clutter up play." Andron did think that the game should have used the metric system, and also found the use of too many acronyms slowed down the learning process. Despite this, Andron gave a positive recommendation, saying, "| heartily recommend this system to weapons buffs or anyone wanting to put realism into their role-playing or wargaming. Phoenix Command provides for a simple yet highly-realistic simulation of modern firearms combat. However, my recommendations cannot do justice to the system. It has to be used to be fully appreciated."^[2]

Writing for Gizmodo, Ed Grabianowski found the complexity took away from the enjoyment of the game, saying, "This game of modern combat closely resembles what Actuary: The RPG would look like. Its goal is insanely detailed accuracy, with table after table describing the statistical values of weapons and ammunition and what happens when said ammunition hits a human body."^[3]

In his 1990 book The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games, game critic Rick Swan called this "Less of an RPG than a meticulous combat system" and noted that it was made for "role-players who relish every smack and slash of a combat encounter." Although Swan found the combat system quite complex, he noted that it "plays quite well and produces astonishingly realistic results." Swan found the role-playing rules "merely adequate" and the scenarios "fairly routine", and suggested the game would be more useful as a supplement and reference to other military role-playing games such as Top Secret/S.I. or Twilight 2000. He concluded by giving the game a solid rating of 3 out of 4, saying, "as a combat system, Phoenix Command is top of the line, rivaling the best tactical wargames in detail and sophistication."^[1]

In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, writer Stu Horvath found the combat system very complex, noting, "It is dismaying in its detail, chronicling the many possible ways to shoot guns (and be shot by them) with excruciating precision... While the proliferation of military RPGs in the '80s is evidence that there are players who find this sort of chart consultation exhilarating, it beggars belief that these sorts of systems saw regular play without significant simplification through house rules.""^[4]

• Grabianowski, Ed (16 December 2013). "The most controversial pen-and-paper RPGs ever made". Gizmodo.