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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2567028" data-attributes="member: 26473">Ever play Top Secret, Mouseferatu?For those who haven't, the boxed game included an introductory adventure, Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle - it's more of a mini-setting than an adventure however, detailing a city block in a nameless European seaport. It is a hotbed of Cold War intrigue, where neither people nor places are what they seem.The adventure includes extensive notes for running adventures generally, as befits an introductory adventure aimed straight at newbs to not only the game but roleplaying generally. The player characters each receive a couple of rumors about "Sprechenhaltestelle" - usually code words or references to various personages or places - and then are literally dropped off at the curb and left to their own devices. From there on the spies explore the area - what and with whom they come into contact is entirely based on the actions they choose.Each of the buildings in the area are detailed - at street level, roof tops, and below ground. There is a secret casino, a submarine dock, a haven for spies known as "Sanctuary," and so on, each offering different sorts of intrigue and adventure.The thing about O:S that I still like after all these years is that there is no road map for the GM - no unifying story, no in-depth background, not even names for most of the NPCs (just code words occasionally, tied to the rumors received by the PCs). Reading the module compels the GM to make the connections, add flesh to the bones, and as a result it is, for me at least, an enjoyable read. Look up the butcher shop at street level and you get a description of a butcher shop - look at its basement, and the passage connecting it to a secret surgery and prison, and you learn that the sausage they serve has a pretty unsavory source, lending credence to the rumor, "The butcher shop serves the unluckiest people in town."What makes this module such a pleasure to read for me is that I have to make most the connections - for example, who is the Wizard and where is he? - without having them spelled out explicitly. It made me work to run the adventure in really interesting ways. There was no story, no plot, and yet at the same time there were a dozen stories and plots to piece together.I'm willing to bet that O:S would win an award for "Worst Adventure of the Year" (if such a thing exisited) and a sheaf of one-star reviews from gamers if it was introduced today. But it was, and is, one of my favorite adventures to read and re-read.</blockquote>

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