Where are all the great spy RPGs?

Calithorne · Apr 29, 2017

Back in the 1980's, TSR put out a great game called Top Secret. It had everything you needed to run great spy adventures. What happened to Top Secret, and why is it no longer sold in stores? And where are the other great spy RPGs? I know there are "modern" RPGs, but nothing I know of is dedicated to spy adventures, with all the specialized information that would require: like information about spy equipment, spy terminology, spy methods, spy organizations, etc.

Is there any interest in running a spy campaign?

corwyn77 · Apr 29, 2017

I'm about to start a late-cold war era espionage game using GURPS Covert Ops. GURPS genre books tend to be fairly low on crunch so, aside from adapting gear, it would be pretty useful in general.

While class/level based games are not my preference, I thought Spycraft, the D20 spy game, was pretty good.

Dannyalcatraz · Apr 29, 2017

Well, back when 3.5Ed was the 800lb gorilla, there was Spycraft.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycraft

And GURPS, HERO, and other toolbox systems can do spies just fine...mechanically.

But I'd bet part of the problem is that- because of most spy-centric fiction (and certain historical events) most people think of spying as a solitary thing. Spies rarely work as a team in the same way as D&D party, a superhero team, a gang or police/military squad.

When spies work as teams, there's agents doing surveillance, lookouts, gear building specialists, demolitions, hacking, wheelmen/pilots and other transport specialists, and usually just one "action" guy. IOW, one PC may get to shine repeatedly, but most of the other roles are less...cinematic.

Calithorne · Apr 29, 2017

Dannyalcatraz said:
Well, back when 3.5Ed was the 800lb gorilla, there was Spycraft.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycraft

And GURPS, HERO, and other toolbox systems can do spies just fine...mechanically.

But I'd bet part of the problem is that- because of most spy-centric fiction (and certain historical events) most people think of spying as a solitary thing. Spies rarely work as a team in the same way as D&D party, a superhero team, a gang or police/military squad.

When spies work as teams, there's agents doing surveillance, lookouts, gear building specialists, demolitions, hacking, wheelmen/pilots and other transport specialists, and usually just one "action" guy. IOW, one PC may get to shine repeatedly, but most of the other roles are less...cinematic.

That's true. Almost always my Top Secret adventures were run solo.

corwyn77 · Apr 29, 2017

Dannyalcatraz said:
Well, back when 3.5Ed was the 800lb gorilla, there was Spycraft.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycraft

And GURPS, HERO, and other toolbox systems can do spies just fine...mechanically.

But I'd bet part of the problem is that- because of most spy-centric fiction (and certain historical events) most people think of spying as a solitary thing. Spies rarely work as a team in the same way as D&D party, a superhero team, a gang or police/military squad.

When spies work as teams, there's agents doing surveillance, lookouts, gear building specialists, demolitions, hacking, wheelmen/pilots and other transport specialists, and usually just one "action" guy. IOW, one PC may get to shine repeatedly, but most of the other roles are less...cinematic.

Spies can work with a party if you take the spy part loosely and run something in the style of Leverage or Mission Impossible but, yeah, you need to work to get everyone involved more or less equally.

Nagol · Apr 29, 2017

Calithorne said:
Back in the 1980's, TSR put out a great game called Top Secret. It had everything you needed to run great spy adventures. What happened to Top Secret, and why is it no longer sold in stores? And where are the other great spy RPGs? I know there are "modern" RPGs, but nothing I know of is dedicated to spy adventures, with all the specialized information that would require: like information about spy equipment, spy terminology, spy methods, spy organizations, etc.

Is there any interest in running a spy campaign?

My favourite systems for espionage are Espionage! and Danger International both of which are ancient parts of the Hero Games line.

More modern spy games include:

Dedicated espionage games
Spycraft 2.0
Dark Champions (2004 version)
Black 7

Generic Games with supplements
GURPS
Apocalypse World
FATE
Hero systems

Systems that would work with slight tweaks
Leverage

Supernatural horror wedded to covert ops is popular as well. Here are some of the more commonly noted:
Night's Black Agents (vampire bad guys)
Agents of Oblivion
The Laundry (Cthulu-ish)

raleel · Apr 29, 2017

Leverage actually has a spy supplement called KRYPTOS. It has a mission generator and advice for running one. Leverage also has a one on one supplement for running solo games, and KRYPTOS specifically mentions that the genre is good for that

I'm a giant fan of Black Seven, not only because it's the genre, but because the mechanics are nicely portable to other systems. It's cheap, and a quick read, and quite good.

amerigoV · Apr 29, 2017

Reality Blurs made Agents of Oblivion for Savage Worlds. It has a number of dials built in such that you can run anything from classic cold war spy to X-Files to investigating stuff man was not meant to know (which then naturally combos with the same company's Realms of Cthulhu).

trancejeremy · Apr 30, 2017

There's also Classified, which is a clone of the old James Bond RPG

I have to think that part of the trouble is that spying is hard, mentally challenging and takes a good deal roleplaying ability - not only are you playing a character, you're now playing a character playing another character. Especially team spying a la Mission Impossible (the show).

As opposed to shooting your way into the enemies secret fortress, or the James Bond style of getting captured and shooting your way out.

Dannyalcatraz · Apr 30, 2017

trancejeremy said:
There's also Classified, which is a clone of the old James Bond RPG

I have to think that part of the trouble is that spying is hard, mentally challenging and takes a good deal roleplaying ability - not only are you playing a character, you're now playing a character playing another character. Especially team spying a la Mission Impossible (the show).

As opposed to shooting your way into the enemies secret fortress, or the James Bond style of getting captured and shooting your way out.

Wait, he does that on purpose?

All this time, I thought he merely sucked at spying and got lucky as hell.*

* in every sense of that.

Where are all the great spy RPGs?

Calithorne

Explorer

corwyn77

Adventurer

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Calithorne

Explorer

corwyn77

Adventurer

Nagol

Unimportant

raleel

Explorer

amerigoV

Guest

trancejeremy

Adventurer

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Similar Threads