Can you help with espionage and intrigue inspiration?

[cmanos]

being a veteran Shadowrunner, sneakyness is inherent. Granted sometimes the homicidal maniac can ge tloose but for the most part my SR characters have a code about not killing. You never know A) who you are up against or B) who you'll be working for. If you go in, destroy the research facility, murder all the researchers and slaughter the warforged puppy dogs in their sleep, House Cannith WILL come after you. Rest assured, they probably won't use brute force against people who have shown to be resistant to brute force.

In a game of intrigue, every action has a reaction. If you kill someone, someone else will want to kill you. If you kill everything you meet, sooner or later, no one will want to deal with you, you won't be able to go anywhere without being hounded.

Take for example, the House Cannith scenario above. Perhaps House Medani are on very good terms with House Cannith and ows Cannith really really big favors. How good are you at hiding when a world spanning merchant house of assassings (most likely, now with techno-magical weapons at their disposal.) are out to get you? Usually you don't need to draw the characters into the intrigue....they'll do it themselves by killing indiscriminantly and not thinking about their actions. You just need to think about the actions of the ones close to those they kill...

 

[Errant]

Shadowrun! Now there's a game that had a rep for more adventures with a bit of intrigue. I'll have to look around for some adventures I can try to adapt or use for ideas.

 

[Rafael Ceurdepyr]

I'm currently working on an upcoming Eberron campaign set in Sharn and have wrestled with this same issue for an intrigue-centered game. Here's a method I adapted from Unknown Armies about coming up with threads for the plot.

On a piece of paper (the book example used a napkin ) write down six (minimum) names of organizations or people that you want to use. You don't even have to know how they'll be used. I skimmed through all the Eberron books to come up with the groups I thought were interesting.

Next draw arrowheaded lines between them and write in words like "Opposition", "Allied", etc.

Come up with a "McGuffin", an item (or person) that everyone's after, and put it in the middle of all this. Some groups might be wanting to destroy the item, others want it for themselves. Then I've written the name of a representative NPC of each group, either from the books or ones you'll make up.

I'm generating the NPCs now, then I plan to write a paragraph about what each of the groups is after the item for in more detail.

I already have a hook in mind that'll get the PCs involved with the item.

I don't have the paper with me, but I can post later if anyone's interested.

 

[Rafael Ceurdepyr]

The core book of Eberron has a list in it somewhere near the front of movies for inspiration, particularly film noir.

 

[Errant]

I'm currently working on an upcoming Eberron campaign set in Sharn and have wrestled with this same issue for an intrigue-centered game....

I don't have the paper with me, but I can post later if anyone's interested.

At this stage Rafael I'll gladly accept any ideas I can get.

I haven't been completely idle, though. I've been thinking about what sort of structure and elements Cloak & Dagger, intrigue type adventures would often have in common.

(If anyone can add to these lists please chime in!)

So far I think we need:
- Opposing factions (Nations, powergroups, crime gangs, noble families, etc)
- Innocent bystanders/witnesses (potentially innocent at least)
- Red herrings (misinformation being a popular espionage ploy)
- Civilized settings (as either the target location or very nearby)
- Free agents (NPCs that will deal with anyone, useful but not trustworthy)
- Double agents (need I say more?)

The mission need to be appropriate too. You don't usually need much discretion to hunt down a mad beast. Missions like:
- Capture an NPC with important information alive & convey him/her to X
- Infiltrate an influential noble's estate and see if he's dealing with Y
- Rescue an agent being held in hostile territory before his cover is blown (without starting a war)
- Deliver an item to an agent in hostile territory without it or him/her being discovered

Then there's the tools of the trade to consider. In DnD there's heaps of useful magic and psionics for the spy in the field:
- Alter/Disguse Self
- Charm
- Clairvoyance/Clairaudience
- Gaseous Form
- Invisibility
- Mind Probe
- Mind Shield
- Polymorph
- Spiderclimb
- Suggestion

The available magic means you have to think about counter-espionage tools too. Spells like:
- Dispel Magic
- See Invisibility
- True Seeing

Plus mundane things like:
- Guard dogs (for handy Scent detection)
- Gravel walkways (hard to move silently across)

I'm amazed there hasn't been a sourcebook published on this theme (has there?). Looking around lately, there seems to be a LOT of potential, but very little collected information/resources.

Is this kind of game really too hard to play? Or too far removed from 'traditional' DnD to have a market?

 

[Warrior Poet]

For some film and book inspiration, consult the following:

• The novels of John LeCarré
• Frank Herbert's Dune
• The Gap Series of novels by Stephen R. Donaldson
• Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers
• Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose
• The Spanish Prisoner starring Campbell Scott and Steve Martin
• Nightwatch by Sean Stewart
• Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson
• The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Shakespeare's Histories (Julius Ceasar, Richard III, Henry IV, etc.) and some of the Tragedies (Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth)
• Asimov's Foundation series
• Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series
• Sneakers starring . . . everybody, including Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, et al.
• Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush
• The novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte, particularly The Club Dumas, The Flanders Panel, The Nautical Chart, and the Capitán Alatriste series.
• The Secret Agent and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

There's much more, but tried to give a range of different approaches.

Warrior Poet