Espionage RPGs

In general, I love the espionage genre (in all its forms, currently two of my favorite shows are Burn Notice and Chuck, I watch James Bond whenever its on, I used to watch MI-5/Spooks before A&E screwed with me, etc.) and the recent discussion of Star Frontiers got me thinking of all the late 80s TSR games that I used to own, Top Secret/SI among them.

I haven't looked at my Top Secret box sets for almost 20 years and given what my mom told me tonight, there's a good chance that my folks threw it away while I was away at college (and away from RPGs in general). Assuming that its gone, what other RPG systems would be good for playing an espionage theme game, something cinematic, but a bit grittier than the norm. I've thought about looking at Spycraft 2.0 and read some reviews, but I was wondering if there were any other systems to check out. I'm a big 4e fan with gamist tendencies, so I guess I would be looking for a moderately rules intensive game (not too light or too heavy) with a lot of available PC customization. It doesn't have to be a d20 or OGL based game.

Also, if my Top Secret box sets are gone, would it be a good idea to try to track some others down. I have to admit that its been so long, I barely remember the system.

My two favorite espionage systems are Top Secret S/I (especially for the Agent 13 supplement) and Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes (a Tunnels & Trolls variant). The former is long OOP, but the latter can be had new from both the Flying Buffalo site (though the site itself is a nightmare to navigate) and Noble Knight Games. Also, the MSPE supplement Stormhaven is possibly the best espionage RPG supplement ever published. You should snag it, even if you end up using a system other than MSPE.

jdrakeh said:

Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes (a Tunnels & Trolls variant). The former is long OOP, but the latter can be had new from both the Flying Buffalo site (though the site itself is a nightmare to navigate) and Noble Knight Games. Also, the MSPE supplement Stormhaven is possibly the best espionage RPG supplement ever published. You should snag it, even if you end up using a system other than MSPE.

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+1000. MSPE is a great light modern system, has some excellent modern GM advice packed into a few pages, and StormHaven is a VERY good adventure (allowing you to tailor it to strictly espionage, a mercenary raid, or a horror/supernatural element). Stormhave won an Origins award way back when, IIRC. MSPE is one of my all time fave games-highly recco'ed.

I'd also reccomend picking up a copy (kinda hard to find) of HERO game's Espionage- it's a much smaller subset of the HERO rules (circa 2nd edition Champions, i.e. 1982). And the accompanying adventure "Border Crossing". At this time, Hero games, Blade (Flying Buff), and Chaosium were all providing stats for each others game designs, so the MSPE and Espionage adventures were statted for either system.

Espionage was replaced by Danger International- which was a bit heavier on system. But they are compatible.

Another out of print espionage well worth checking out if you can find it is Victory Games' James Bond 007. It's not perfect, but it's random encounter table is. You could probably generate the entire adventure randomly on it. Plus the chase rules are delicious.

Gurps Black Ops might be something to look into if it's still in print.

I've played it once and totally stoled the show as my agent had 4 covers, one in the LA PD, One in the FBI, another in the CIA, and the last one DEA. I put the PD on stake out, the FBI running wire taps and interference, and had the CIA coming in doing clean up while the rest of the agents and I were off tackling the main villian. It was a blast.

I know you asked about others, but from what you've said Spycraft 2.0 is what you're looking for. Lots of crunch when you want it, almost all of which can be ignored when you don't. Quick prep time and reusable bad guys (Foe Factory is based on it's NPC system), good support from the developers, toolkits with extra gear, Cthulhuesk horror, magic, alternate gear systems, advance combat options, fantasy (elves, orcs, dwarves, halflings, fauns, centaurs, gorgons, mermaids; all playable from level 0) races. Balanced character options that will still make your players drool over the prospect, tons of feats, 1,120 Origin (equalvalent to race in D&D or occupation in d20 Modern) combinations in the main book, for selectable character abilities for every class, a toolkit that replaces the base clases with d20 Modern style ones (which are actually worth taking 20 levels in). It's chase system is a refinement of the SC1 one (which Hot Pursuit is based on) and has been expanded to cover a number of other head to head interactions (Hacking, Manhunts, Seductions, Interrogations). That last bit may sound odd, but it works amazingly well. The books also include a number of qualities that you can add to the base rules that hange the tone or play of the game, things like faster or slower level advancment, more or less dangerous combat, great or lesser emphasis on ranged combat, etc.

As for grittiness, with the appropriate qualities the game mechanically handles anything from the Avengers to Bond to Bourne to le Carré (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spyand The Constant Gardner) to Sneakers.

I love Spycraft. Man, what a good game.

On a separate note, you may want to watch Leverage on TNT this December. It's a caper/espionage show written by our very own JonRog. Looks fantastic.

Spycraft 2.0 is my beau. It's a great game with lots of possibilities.

Fair warning... if you are used to d20 spinoffs that just knock the magic system off of D&D/D20 modern and install their own gear and classes... SC 2.0 is a bit more than that. It adds details to skill use (and banks on skills as challenges more heavily), and it deviates from the bog standard d20 feat set; feats are much more balanced against each other and more consistent in approach than core d20.

I do love it for the skill details, dramatic conflict system (system for chases, hacking, etc.) and the easy scaling of NPCs. And it works! I had a game I put together for 5-7 8th level characters that I ran at GenCon. When only 2 players signed up for the game I ran at DC ENWorld gameday, I just plugged in the numbers, and 2 characters were able to play the same adventure. (Some challenges that didn't feature NPCs needed some adjustment, but the NPC encounters worked well.)

I took a look at Spycraft 2.0 at a LGS and man, that's a big book. At $40, I may have to delay my purchase or try to find it at a used book store, especially given my monthly 4e habit and desire to buy Mutants & Masterminds. But it sounds cool and I'll definitely have to check it out based on what everyone has said about it, though I will probably have to wait until after Christmas.

You could most likely run an espionage game with Mutants and Masterminds, too. Though, the system is a bit kludgey at the lower power levels.