Sorry, what is this AoR Spy Book you guys speak of?!

2 hours ago, Jeffrywith1e said:

Sorry, what is this AoR Spy Book you guys speak of?!

The Star Wars Age of Rebellion spy supplement Cyphers and Masks .

2 hours ago, Endersai said:

@mouthymerc

I stole shamelessly from the gunpowder weapons that @KingNova3000 put in his sci-fi armoury. Saves the wheel being re-invented.

I also did up some vehicles that you might be able to use.

Thanks. Most of the basic weapons are already there in the core book. I'll check out the vehicles when I get the chance. I will probably keep things fairly generic there too.

4 hours ago, mouthymerc said:

Thanks. Most of the basic weapons are already there in the core book. I'll check out the vehicles when I get the chance. I will probably keep things fairly generic there too.

I deliberately went generic on supercars, muscle cars, sports cars etc. The only specifics I did were Bond vehicles. Oh, and Archer's Dodge.

I have never played Spycraft or any of the other 007/Mission Impossible genre games. I've always been curious what an adventure or scenario would be like... how the GM would be expected to run it, NPCs, encounters, etc. Are there any websites out there that have free adventures I could look at? I'm really curious if it's a genre I would like to run or even could run. Does my brain work that way? LOL!

On 2/19/2018 at 12:22 PM, Foghorn said:

I think it was in Spycraft 2.0 where they introduced the "Common Item" check where you made a Wisdom check to see if you had actually brought some (mostly) inconsequential piece of gear with you even if it wasn't explicitly written on your sheet. I absolutely love those kinds of 'your characters are BA and would know to do that' kind of mechanical safeguards.

Also, nice to see you from the Crafty forums! I'm excited to see what you come up with for GeneSpyCraftSys 2.5 (you can use that, I don't mind)

On 2/19/2018 at 2:10 PM, Jeffrywith1e said:

I've pretty much given up on 3rd Edition.

yeah nice to see some of the other people here from the Crafty forums. And curse the SC 3rd ed that will never come!!! So often I've looked at a game and thought ..."will this scratch my Spycraft itch?"

On 2/23/2018 at 2:12 PM, GrumpyBatman said:

I have never played Spycraft or any of the other 007/Mission Impossible genre games. I've always been curious what an adventure or scenario would be like... how the GM would be expected to run it, NPCs, encounters, etc. Are there any websites out there that have free adventures I could look at? I'm really curious if it's a genre I would like to run or even could run. Does my brain work that way? LOL!

I was introduced to superspy RPG with Spycraft, so I never got a chance to see the 007/MI games, but one of the parts that I always loved about Spycraft was how the Briefing/Planning stage of the mission was built into the mechanics.

In Spycraft 2.0, each mission was assigned a 1-5 "Difficulty" rating that, paired with your class, dictated how much and how cool your gear was. At one point, there was a color scheme for the 5 tiers of difficulty and I went and got folders for each difficulty and used to make little briefing 'dossiers' for the group to choose from at the beginning of the night, kind of letting them set the scale for the night's mission.

www.crafty-games.com doesn't have any sample missions listed anywhere that I could find, but I'm sure there's a few in the SC2.0 forum if you go looking around, and the community there is always happy to help people snooping around.

Thanks Foghorn! That intro to the missions bit really sounds cool.

The briefing/planning phase was nice, but I was also a really big fan of the gear system and am curious if @mouthymerc is looking at translating what I always referred to as "standardized gear" for Genesys. One of the important things that I found that having gear being an acquisition at the beginning (and each character having a few staple pieces as well) instead of a reward at the end was that it wholly took away the need to "loot the bodies" at the end of combat.

That didn't stop a few of my players from still trying to do that for the first few sessions, but the lootcentric murder hobo mindset eventually eroded to being more mission-centric superspies and not being so worried about get an ogre slaying knife that's a +9 against ogres.

Still thinking on how I want to do gear. Trying to keep it as simple as possible. I do like the characters having their own personal gear and choosing their mission gear. Just deciding how I want to do it.

Put this in the languages thread but thought I would leave it here too.

I am creating a new social skill for my Spy game. In Spycraft they had a Cultures skill so I am adapting it to Genesys.

New Skill: Cultures (Intellect)

Focuses
Central America, Eastern Asia (including China), Eastern Europe (including Russia), Northern Africa, Northern America (including Greenland), Oceania (including Australia), South America, Southern Africa, Southern Asia (including Southeast Asia), Western Asia (including the Middle East), Western Europe.

Everyone in the game will start with their home culture. By purchasing the Cultures skill you will learn how to blend into those specific cultures, including the languages. You would gain one culture per rank taken. Still trying to decide if I want to allow a one time gain of number of cultures equal to Intellect when you first take the skill. Instead of singular languages you learn a broader skill that covers languages and culture.

Can I just have a guy named Q hand out gadgets? I imagine this genre playing well with only one or two PCs. It seems things would be crowded if you had a whole slew of top secret agents milling about. I think I am just too spoiled by Bond and his solo actions.

8 hours ago, GrumpyBatman said:

Can I just have a guy named Q hand out gadgets?

Did you ever notice that 007 tends to use a gadget once and once only? If someone wanted to emulate the movies, I think most spy equipment would have to provide one roll and be discarded. Gamers tend to reuse helpful things to the point of absurdity - that's not a complaint, just an observation! I would use a laser watch on every opponent until the battery died.

4 hours ago, player966703 said:

Did you ever notice that 007 tends to use a gadget once and once only? If someone wanted to emulate the movies, I think most spy equipment would have to provide one roll and be discarded. Gamers tend to reuse helpful things to the point of absurdity - that's not a complaint, just an observation! I would use a laser watch on every opponent until the battery died.

That would make the decision of when to use a special item very important and dramatic. I think that would make the game more suspenseful and tense at times. Almost like having Fate points from WFRP or maybe even the equivalent of flipping a story point.

11 hours ago, player966703 said:

Did you ever notice that 007 tends to use a gadget once and once only? If someone wanted to emulate the movies, I think most spy equipment would have to provide one roll and be discarded. Gamers tend to reuse helpful things to the point of absurdity - that's not a complaint, just an observation! I would use a laser watch on every opponent until the battery died.

That certainly became the trope but there are good examples of sustained use, i.e.:

From Russia, With Love - the attache case was used during the train fight and to set up the sniper rifle that Kerim Bay used.

Goldfinger - the DB5 is used to track Goldfinger's Rolls Royce across Switzerland, and then the smaller tracking device was used to help the CIA locate Bond in Kentucky.

Thunderball - the rebreather was used a few times, as was the geiger counter Breitling.

Quantum of Solace - the "smart" phone was used a few times to act as a PDA for Bond.

Sticking with the original classes for my careers.

Careers (with their skills)

Faceman
• Charm, Cool, Cultures, Deception, Knowledge, Negotiation, Perception, Ranged (light)

Fixer
• Charm, Cool, Coordination, Deception, Ranged (light), Skullduggery, Stealth, Streetwise

Pointman
• Charm, Coercion, Cool, Discipline, Leadership, Negotiation, Perception, Ranged (light)

Snoop
• Computers, Cultures, Discipline, Knowledge, Mechanics, Perception, Ranged (light), Streetwise

Soldier
• Athletics, Brawl, Coercion, Gunnery, Melee, Perception, Ranged (heavy), Vigilance

Wheelman
• Cool, Driving, Gunnery, Mechanics, Perception, Piloting, Ranged (light), Vigilance

On 3/1/2018 at 7:31 PM, mouthymerc said:

Sticking with the original classes for my careers.

Careers (with their skills)

Faceman
• Charm, Cool, Cultures, Deception, Knowledge, Negotiation, Perception, Ranged (light)

Fixer
• Charm, Cool, Coordination, Deception, Ranged (light), Skullduggery, Stealth, Streetwise

Pointman
• Charm, Coercion, Cool, Discipline, Leadership, Negotiation, Perception, Ranged (light)

Snoop
• Computers, Cultures, Discipline, Knowledge, Mechanics, Perception, Ranged (light), Streetwise

Soldier
• Athletics, Brawl, Coercion, Gunnery, Melee, Perception, Ranged (heavy), Vigilance

Wheelman
• Cool, Driving, Gunnery, Mechanics, Perception, Piloting, Ranged (light), Vigilance

Soldier should be able to also use pistols...

I would then set the Departments up as Archetypes for the Character to choose from.

1 hour ago, gilbur said:

I would then set the Departments up as Archetypes for the Character to choose from.

The departments are my archetypes. I am still fiddling with them.

Just don't carry over the languages rules from Spycraft 1.0.

Daft, they were. Utterly daft.

1 hour ago, Endersai said:

Just don't carry over the languages rules from Spycraft 1.0.

Daft, they were. Utterly daft.

No I am using the Cultures skill I posted above in the thread.

Here's the link to the beginnings of my Top Secret/S.I. conversion (borrowing some of the ideas from this thread. )

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-L5t_XvsGWzyRiLEYARI

I'd love to hear comments, suggestions, etc...

1 hour ago, TCArknight said:

Here's the link to the beginnings of my Top Secret/S.I. conversion (borrowing some of the ideas from this thread. )

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-L5t_XvsGWzyRiLEYARI

I'd love to hear comments, suggestions, etc...

Nice. I was thinking something similar to your archetypes for my departments. I may just borrow yours instead.

3 hours ago, mouthymerc said:

Nice. I was thinking something similar to your archetypes for my departments. I may just borrow yours instead.

Wonder twins powers activate!

On 3/1/2018 at 7:31 PM, mouthymerc said:

Sticking with the original classes for my careers.

Careers (with their skills)

Faceman
• Charm, Cool, Cultures, Deception, Knowledge, Negotiation, Perception, Ranged (light)

Fixer
• Charm, Cool, Coordination, Deception, Ranged (light), Skullduggery, Stealth, Streetwise

Pointman
• Charm, Coercion, Cool, Discipline, Leadership, Negotiation, Perception, Ranged (light)

Snoop
• Computers, Cultures, Discipline, Knowledge, Mechanics, Perception, Ranged (light), Streetwise

Soldier
• Athletics, Brawl, Coercion, Gunnery, Melee, Perception, Ranged (heavy), Vigilance

Wheelman
• Cool, Driving, Gunnery, Mechanics, Perception, Piloting, Ranged (light), Vigilance

On 3/3/2018 at 10:11 PM, Daeglan said:

Soldier should be able to also use pistols...

I agree with Daeglan, but looking at the list, I'm hesitant to take anything away. Looking at the whole list, it also raises the question, "Should everyone have a Ranged skill?" I know the pistol wielding superspy is pretty deeply entrenched in the genre, but I could see an argument for removing Ranged (Light) from Fixer and Snoop, and possibly replace Ranged (Light) with Melee for Faceman (the femme fatale with knives or the disguise master who injects poisons vibe). Going back to the "what do you lose?" question for Soldier, I also wonder if it's too much to keep Ranged as a singular skill. That opens characters back up to the massively competent superspy, and by removing Ranged from a couple of the Careers, but still makes it harder for your hacker to walk around with a giant machine gun laying waste to everything.