Cold War Spy Game

[etheruk]

Having brought the Ultimate James Bond collection I had an urge to write up a spy game set during the 1960s. I want to capture the tone of the early films, with a more realistic approach to the spy community but still include death traps and sinister masterminds.

The main thrust of the game is to gather information about your target. The mastermind behind the game has plot invulnerability until sufficient data has been gained to engage them. They need to know what the mastermind is up to in order to stop their plans and justify their actions to their superiors. If they try to kill the mastermind before they have the required information the mastermind will automatically be able to escape or have henchmen come to the rescue.

This cuts both ways and agents can convince masterminds that they have a information value. Instead of killing them the mastermind will have them captured, tortured or blackmailed. This only last so long before the mastermind decides its better to just kill them but will buy agents some time.

System wise each agent is defined by 9 qualities grouped into AGENT, EQUIPMENT and HISTORY.

Agent consists of Personality (the ability to charm, intimidate and bluff), Body (their physical strenght, speed and dexterity) and Mind (their intelligence and skills).

Equipment consists of Gadgets (disguises, laser watches, smoke releasing suitcases, etc), Weapons (the use of hand to hand and ranged weapons) and Vehicles (the use of all transport).

History consists of Contacts (people the agent knows who can help them), Experience (the agents prior knowledge with locations and situations) and Planning (covering back up plans and the preparations an agent will have in place).

Players are given a number of dice to allocate to these qualities ranging from 1d6 to 1d12. Dice are expended through the game and are only refreshed once all dice have been used and a new scene begins to encourage players to try a variety of different actions.

Task resolution is done by the gamesmaster describing the challenge (infiltrate the corporation building, smuggle files across the border, get the defecting Russian spy away from her handlers.) Rather than allocating a set target number they roll a dice equal to the difficulty (ranging from 1d4 to 1d12). I hope this will create more excitement and tension. A player might be rolling a 1d4 but they could still succeed even if the GM is rolling a 1d12. In this way, nothing is impossible and nothing is certain.

I don't imagine the game being very lethal. If they don't roll higher than the GM they fail that scene and must try another approach to gain information. The only way they can be hurt or die is if the agent was placed in a life or death situation and run out of dice. I hope this will encourage players to describe thrilling action sequences knowing that at worst they'll fail to achieve their goal and not end up dead.

The player declare which quality they are using to overcome the challenge (such as declaring they are using their Vehicle quality to speed the defecting agent away or using their Gadget quality to hide the files within a secret compartment in their suitcase). Both the GM and the player roll their dice and if the player rolls highest they win.  Most of these early victories will reward the players with the information points they need.

For extended scenes (vehicle chases, fighting henchmen, escaping death traps) and the climax of the game where the agents stop the evil plan the characters will need to achieve several victory points. How they do this isn't important as look as they succeed a number of times.  For example the agents are confronting Baron Crow upon his submarine and need 3 victory points to defeat him. As long as the players roll three successes they beat him.

As the agents advance they gain more dice to allocate (qualities can have multiple dice allocated to them). The more information the agents gathered the greater their reward.

The way I imagine most games is an information gathering phase where each piece of information gathered results in new leads and new scenes. When they have enough information their is an end game phase where they stop the masterminds plan and try to bring him to justice. I want a fast moving game where the majority of scenes can be resolved in one roll.

I'm still in the early stages and trying to decide how much more I need to add to the system (whether there needs to be specific systems for common spy activities like code breaking, information drops, following targets etc) or additional bonuses like being an expert with a specific weapon or being a ladies man. I'm trying to find a balance of having a system that is simple but engaging.

Any thoughts on what I've got so far? 

[Eero Tuovinen]

I could see this developing into something interesting, yes. How do the agents gain the information points, is that systematized somehow? Will the players know for sure when they have enough information gathered, or will they have to take the risk of being outguessed by the mastermind? You'd get some tension into the game if there were limited time to gather the information and plan the attack against the mastermind, but attacking too soon would cause complications due to incomplete information.

Another thing that stuck to me was that it'd be more interesting to me if the agents developed their different statistics in a more natural manner - History could develop simply out of the events of play, Equipment out of whatever the agency can provide to the agent... I guess Agent values could simply go slowly up with time and experience.

Anyway, a key point is that I really recommend checking out InSpectres, which is an excellent game with some very similar ideas.

[Vulpinoid]

I'm curious as to how agents would be assigned their qualities.

Example 1.
You have 72 sides worth of dice to allocate...allocate them across the nine qualities in even numbers of no less than six and no more than twelve.

Example 2.
You have nine qualities to distribute the following dice into...3 x d6, 3 x d8, 2 x d10, 1 x d12.

Example 3.
You have twenty points to buy dice for your different qualities...1 point will buy you a d6, 2 points will buy you a d8, 3 points for a d10, 4 points for a d12.

Each will produce different styles of characters.



A secondary question is how difficulties would be generated.

Do difficulties get higher as the characters get closer to the mastermind?

Does the mastermind accumulate a score that can be used to enhance difficulties as they approach their goal?

Do difficulties simply increase as the story progresses?

Is the die rolled purely a matter of GM fiat?

Again, each of these methods has an impact toward flavouring the stories that are told.



On the whole though, it sounds like an interesting basis for a system.

V

[etheruk]

The greater the risk the agents take the more information they gather. When agent succeeds in a scene the gamesmaster rolls the same dice they rolled for the difficulty to generate the number of information points they gained and describing what the agent has learnt.

I think the game will work best if the agents don't know exactly how much information they need before dealing with the mastermind. If the gamesmaster establishes there is a time line the players will know they have a deadline the players can have the agents split up to gather information quickly. I think this will give them all a more James Bond like vibe rather than a group of agents travelling around together which seems to be common in several spy games. It will also lead to situations where an agent attempts to bring down the mastermind only to be captured and need to have the other players agents come to the rescue.

With regards to the allocation of dice I imagined starting characters being given:
2 x1d6, 2x1d18,1d10 and 1d12 so they can allocate dice to 6 of their 9 qualities.

As the game progresses they can be allocated extra dice to assign to their qualities depending on their success. A poor result could be a 1d4, an average result 1d6, a excellent result 1d8 and maybe an exceptional result (such as saving the world)  could be 1d20!

I'd like to keep certain qualities such as gadgets and the History qualities relatively abstract so the character can declare them as and when they need them. For example an agent is being held at gun point. He declares he is rolling his gadget dice, releasing smoke pellets from his shoes, to allow him to escape. I think this will make it easier on the GM who otherwise would have to give the agents various gadgets and writing an adventure that will incorporate them.

Similarly if the group are sent to Prague, during play a player can declare their agent knows a taxi driver there  who might be able to help them in order to use their contact dice. Or if things go wrong and the agents need to flee the country they can use their Planning dice to represent the escape plan their agent put in place.

I think that difficult should increase as the game progresses but ultimatly be based on what the players decide to do. Persuading a contact to give up information on the mastermind should be a much lower difficulty than if the agent decides to break into the masterminds mansion to look for information.

I'm hoping that the fact that even if the GM is rolling a 1d12 the player still has a chance of succeeding even if they only roll a 1d4 encourages the agents to take risks. I find that in games like this players can be too cautious, spending more time planning than actually taking action and if their plan goes without a hitch it results in a game with no action which can be kind of dull. I hope this mechanic removes that problem. 

[Callan S.]

Hi Etheruk,

Wouldn't this

Persuading a contact to give up information on the mastermind should be a much lower difficulty than if the agent decides to break into the masterminds mansion to look for information.

Encourage this?

I find that in games like this players can be too cautious, spending more time planning than actually taking action and if their plan goes without a hitch it results in a game with no action which can be kind of dull. I hope this mechanic removes that problem. 

What if you flipped it around - breaking into the masion has a lower difficulty than persauding a contact to give up information? Or instead, it is like you said, but sometimes the GM can secretly spend a point to reverse the usual notion of difficulty on a single roll, where more daring is far easier than being mundane (after the roll, he shows he spent a point).

[etheruk]

Well the lower the difficulty the fewer information points they gather if they succeed. It's fine for the early stages of the game where they start to get leads but as the deadline approaches they'll have to take greater and greater risks to get the information points they need.

I think this will help emulate the early James Bond films like 'Dr No' and 'From Russia With Love' where the first thing Bond does is visit his contacts in the area before breaking into places and tackling goons.

[Callan S.]

I come from a programming background, so I'm pretty anal about wording (because the compilers are - missplace a single letter and the thing crashes and burns).

With that in mind, you previously said "If the gamesmaster establishes there is a time line the players will know they have a deadline...", which means it's not a certain thing it'll be there, so that only answers it for those times the GM establishes a time line. What about the other times?

Also, with emulation, are you looking to make the game give perfect emulation now, or make a system where the GM and players will perfect that emulation during gameplay itself, in how they play the system?

[etheruk]

A timeline is not essential. You could have a scenario where the agents are sent to spy on a person suspected off working for the enemy. That person might not be involved in anything so the agents can take their time gathering details (shadowing, planting bugs in his house, speaking with the persons friends). I think this is still workable to emulate certain spy stories. Maybe they get close to someone the person knows and finds that persons life is being put at risk by the enemy agent. Or the person they are watching could be assasinated and the agents must scramble to gather information as more and more agents are killed in an attempt to frame the players agency!

So a game doesn't need a deadline but most will because the characters will normally be assigned to either carry out a plan or stop an enemy from completing a plan.

I'm not sure I understand the second question.