Alright! Developed the mercenary group thing a bit more, and it spun into its own thing!
Mercenary Coalition (Name Pending)
In this (sci-fi/space opera) game, 4+ players join with their own characters as part as a mercenary group. It works in a x-com style. In the "base" "phase", everyone votes on things for the group as a whole to do. Upgrade facilities, maybe do research, buy large things, etc.
At the end of each base phase, players vote on a mission from a list. After that, a squad of a certain amount of people depending on the mission is chosen, they're briefed and given time to come up with a plan, then are set out in the "tactical" "phase", which will either be completely text-oriented, or some kind of tile/map based system. Probably the former.
After completing the mission, each participating player gets some personal money that they can spend on equipment for later use, and the group as a whole gets money for overall use.
A "twist" is that you can buy and use spaceships in your missions. Anywhere from troop carriers to fighters to frigates to capital ships. However, each ship has to have a pilot/Captain. Captains are independent of the regular squadmembers, and are chosen for missions separately. They usually have their own "flagship" that only they fly, and the 'communal' ships that all captains can fly. Captains are based off of a waitlist/player signing up when needed. (as in, Captains are "recruited" as needed, and kept in roster)
Without ships, the squad won't have as many tactical options. With ships, they can receive fire support, get picked up and dropped off as needed, etc..
Players not selected for a mission can crew ships with Captains for some kind of bonus - increased abilities, most likely.
The ship/captain part seems like it looks complicating, but here's a summary: Your group has spaceships. Spaceships need a player to sign up just to fly spaceships. Spaceships help a lot in missions.
You also buy new spaceships with communal funds.
In short:
XCom-like sci-fi/space opera with 4-∞ players. In the "group phase"/whatever, people vote for things the group as a whole should do - base expansions, R&D, large item purchases (like spaceships), etc.
After group phase, people vote on a mission. A select number of people are selected, briefed, and come up with a plan, then execute the mission. After execution, the group as a whole gets money and each participating squadmember gets money.
However, spaceships bought by the group are piloted by individual players who don't otherwise participate in tactical combat.
Thouughts?