Spy Craft

[mallninja0088]

If any of you play spycraft what is a good class to play with a one on one Gm vs. Player game?  I was thinking Pointman.  Sry if this is in the wrong place.  I dont think it is.

[hyphz]

I'd avoid Pointman.  Most of his class abilities depend on assisting or leading other agents.  Yes, you get versatility and cross-class abilities, but they take a while to come.

Decide with your GM what stuff you want to be doing in the game and your choice of class should be obvious.  But don't try and play James Bond, because - sadly - Spycraft doesn't support that (as a tradeoff for its focus on teams).

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Brad!

Nice to see you again. And yes, this is the perfect forum for a question like this.

The campus group I play with does a lot of Spycraft, including a session at Demon Con last weekend. What I've heard from them emphasizes the same point that was made recently about Star Wars D20: play at substantial levels. No first-level startups. Start at 5th or 6th level, minimum, 9th or 10th if you just want to barrel into plain old top-flight adventure.

I haven't played it myself yet, but that's what the folks I know who have played it say.

Best,
Ron

[mallninja0088]

thanks a million guys.  why no first level start ups?

[xiombarg]

It's a matter of the style of play you want. Fact of the matter is, in d20, first level characters suck. This is fine for some styles of play, but not so good when you want genuine, high-flying spy action.

[Valamir]

Well, you remember playing 1st level D&D characters...you pretty much got stock beating on kobolds and giant rats until you managed to get to 3-4 level and could start doing interesting things.  

Pretty much all of the D20 systems are like that.  Unless you enjoy the Spycraft equivelent of kobolds and giant rats (whatever that is), best is to simply ramp up characters to 3-4 level for a "beginning" campaign, or 6-7 level for a more "intermediate level" campaign or 9-12 level for a "high level" campaign.  Depending on the nature of the threats they'll face.  

I'd look at it this way:  0 level is the ordinary Joe.  1st level is the guy with something special that attracts the recruiters.  2nd level is like basic Training.  3rd level is like advanced specialty school.  So 4th level is then the new graduate from specialty school ready for his first field mission.

Note:  That likely doesn't conform to any official definition of levels...thats just how I view the progression in terms of relative capabilities of the levels.

[Andrew Martin]

And as another point of view, having more than 5 players seems to be wrong. We've been trying it out with 8 players, and find that players/characters are tripping over each other's classes. Our sort-of solution so far is to split PCs up into two teams.

[contracycle]

I don't know spycraft, but would just like to comment that this is probably a good choice for one-on-one play: plenty of examples and the whole "all alone in the world" sensation fits the situation perfectly.  Go for it.

Edit: oh, and for an interesting contrast of perspective, try tracking down some of the original Bond books.  They are nothing like the movies, but interesting nevertheless.  Expe. the short stories, I thought - of which Octopussy is one and bears only the most tangential resemblance to the film.