Tempting players into spycraft?

[Pigeon]

My gaming group used to play a whole load of different RPG genres and titles about seven or eight years ago, but then the group disintegrated due to half of us going away to university and all the other kind of things that split up 18 year olds friendships.

We recently managed to pull ourselves back into a gaming group about a year ago and have been having a great time rediscovering joys of roleplaying, mixing both a little more maturity and a nice feeling of nostalgia over previous games. The credit for all this can probably be placed at the door of 3rd ed D&D as an interest in what had been done to the old classic inspired us all to start again.

Anyhow, we have been playing D&D exclusively for the past year and a bit, and I and another player are starting to feel its time to give something else a bash. I bought spycraft and am getting really enthusiastic about giving it a go. Unfortunately a couple of the players are not, preferring to keep to a fantasy theme.

Now these people are not unreasonable, and are actually willing to give it a go - but it is certainly more fun (and easier) to GM for a group who are excited about a new setting than for those who are just playing to keep you happy.

So... Can anyone think of any ways to get my group more into the prospect of playing spycraft. I'm due to start a small test campaign in about two months when our current D&D game is going to draw to a natural pausing point. I've already done a web site...

Syke Foundation

Which is going to slowly feed bits of the spycraft lite game rules as well as a bit of flavor on the campaign world in order to ease them in gently to the transition. My players are used to checking a web site each week for campaign journals and the like, so they shouldn't mind looking at it once in a while.

I'm also thinking about printing out index cards with the details and backgrounds of NPC's on them (with perhaps a photo too) and mailing them to their houses in envelopes marked "TOP SECRET".

Any other ideas?

 

[Crothian]

Money. Large, no sequencial bills.

Well, figure out what type of Spycraft game you are going to run. Mystery? Espionaghe? Action? X-Files? GI Joe? Invite the group over and play a movie that best ilistrates the game style you want. Don't mention to the group what you are doing. Have then watch the movie and enjoy the movie. When it's over, tell them you want to run a campaign like that movie. And then pull out the Spycraft book and introduce it too them.

 

[dpmcalister]

I'm also thinking about printing out index cards with the details and backgrounds of NPC's on them (with perhaps a photo too) and mailing them to their houses in envelopes marked "TOP SECRET".

Hate to rain on your parade but, as someone who works for the Armed Forces in the UK, I wouldn't send envelopes marked "TOP SECRET" to their houses. You're just asking for Special Branch investigation there...

However, as an alternative, you could use the mission codenames from the book (Yellow, Red and Black) or, to borrow an idea from Top Secret/S.I. use the Greek alphabet:

Alpha
Beta
Gamma
Delta

Aside from that, I'd ask the players want sort of campaign they wanted. For example, some of my group like espionage but the rest wanted a horror campaign. So, we're now playing a campaign based on the UK TV series "Ultraviolet" (for those not in the know, it was a 6-part series centred on a secret organisations hunt for Code Vs (aka vampires) in the modern world - very gritty and hush-hush).

I've managed to appease both sets of players and everyone's happy.

Hope that helps.

 

[Game Control]

If your character are attached to fantasy, wait for the Shadowforce Archer sourcebook.

The Spycraft line of products alone will support James Bond style adventure in the real world. But the campaign setting provided by AEG will add plenty of supernaturals elements such as telepaths, occult nazi conspiracies and such classics of the pulp genre.

 

[Pigeon]

I've been thinking of mixing genre's all along, the agency that the players will innitially work for will be in actual fact secretly controled by demonic forces (a bit like Wolfman and Hart in Angel) who are tricking the players into performing missions against the divine.

Over the first 3 sessions or so I intend the players to gradually realise this, and hopefully decide to act as double agents (a bit like Alias).

I hope none of my players are reading this!

 

[Tonguez]

if I may add

With this mention of mixing genres the idea of Harry Potters Ministry of Magic popped into my head

What if PCs are agents of the Ministry of Magic who are tasked with keeping Magic occurances hidden from the eyes of Muggles?...

PS I'm not a Harry Potter fan generally speaking

and I do like the idea of an 'Ultaviolet' campaign...

 

[dpmcalister]

and I do like the idea of an 'Ultaviolet' campaign...

I've uploaded a pdf of the beta version of my campaign rules at http://www.modus-operandi.co.uk/spycraft/downloads/index.htm (right at the bottom). The Code Vs are a little too powerful in that version and version 2 should be getting uploaded tomorrow (25 April), but it'll give you an idea of what I've been working on.