Psion
Adventurer
Fixer/Pointman Class Guide
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is the second in a series of "classbooks" for the Spycraft espionage RPG. In this case, the book provides options and rules pertaining to the roguish fixer class and the leader and jack-of-all-trades type pointman.
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is written by Scott Gearin, with contributions by Alexander Flagg, Cameron Haigh, Patrick Kapera, and Clayton A. Oliver.
A First Look
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $24.95. This is a reasonable price for a softcover d20 System supplement of this size, and an improvement over many recent Spycraft/Shadowforce Archer titles.
The cover of the book is similar in style to other spycraft books: a silvery background with a line drawing of a character illustrated by Veronica V. Jones. In the case of the Fixer/Pointman Class Guide, the illustrated character appears to be trying to break into a security vault.
The interior of the book is black-and-white. The interior art is all by Paul H. Way and is similar in style to that of earlier Spycraft books.
The interior font is conservative and lines and paragraphs are single-spaced, delivering an overall good text density.
A Deeper Look
The first two chapters of the Fixer/Pointman Class Guide contain the obligatory crunchy bits for a book of this sort: prestige classes, feats, skills, and departments.
The first chapter is all about prestige classes. As befitting the nature of the classes of concern, some of the classes are leader archetypes (appropriate the pointman), while other classes fit underworld, criminal, or other stealth and subterfuge archetypes (primarily for the fixer.) The prestige classes are:
-Cleaner: The cleaner is a specialist at eliminating evidence, perfect for the conspiracy-style campaign.
-Courier: The courier is the classic spy-genre delivery boy.
-Forward: The forward is a specialist at operating behind enemy lines.
-Goodfella: The first of the majorly crime-themed classes, the goodfella is a functional respected member of an organized crime family.
-Grifter: Probably more appropriate for NPCs than PCs, a grifter is a low-profile pickpocket and thief.
-Inventor: I wondered if this class wouldn't be more appropriate to the upcoming snoop class guide. The fixer is an expert at cobbling together quick gimmicks. Think "A-team" or "MacGyver."
-Ninja: The archetypal master of stealth and melee combat. Great for players who want to "flip out and kill people."
-Officer: The basic "military leader" archetype.
-Provocateur: This class is a specialist in sowing confusion amongst the ranks of an enemy.
-Ranger: Another military-style occupation, the ranger is a specialist in wilderness activity.
-Saboteur: A fairly straightforward concept, the saboteur is basically a demolitions expert.
-Smuggler: Another common archetype, though perhaps a bit close to the courier in concept. The smuggler is a specialist in moving goods while bypassing scrutiny.
Generally, the mechanics of the classes are well done and are stylistically similar to other Spycraft material. However some (like forward and inventor) struck me as less than perfect subject matter fits to this book.
Chapter 2, New Rules defines the remainder of the new character options. First among these are the new departments. There are four new "general" departmens: freelancer, orphan, search & rescue, and [/I]thrill seeker[/I].
There are also two specific "families" of department: organized crime and special forces. Each of these has a set of special talents common to all departments of that type. Specific departments further refine the abilities of specific examples of that type. For example, organized crime departments include the American Mafia and the Yakuza, while examples of the special forces departments include the US Navy Seals and the British Special Air Service.
These departments expand greatly on espionage type characters that can be closely simulated by Spycraft. The only major shortcoming is that I imagine that many Spycraft games would use American special forces like the Army Rangers and Marine Force Recon, but the only American special forces unit described is the SEALS.
The chapter provides new actions in addition to new character options: threaten and trick. These options are the focus of some feats introduced later in the chapter, and add an interesting new dimension to the game. For example, the threaten action allows the character to make an opposed intimidate check. If successful, the victim suffers morale penalties for a number of rounds dependant upon the result of the check.
The rules chapter also introduces new feats in the covert, gear, and style feat categories.
The new covert feats include several abilities tempting for a character who wants to max out their stealth capabilities and a few dirty tricks. For example, black shadow allows a character to add half of their ranks in surveillance to avoid being seen by security video, while crippling strength allows the character to trade sneak attack dice for ability damage.
New gear feats primarily deal with working with gear rules introduced in the book and elsewhere (such as drones, poison, and explosives) and decking out the safe house of a character with the feat of the same name.
New style feats take advantage of the new rules in this book. For example bloodthirsty allows you to use the new threaten combat action as a free action after you take out an opponent, and chip away lets you reduce your targets resistance to an interrogation.
The rules are generally solid and useful, providing some interesting new options for Spycraft characters.
Finally, the new rules chapter introduces a number of new gadgets, including drones (remote controlled vehicles), vehicle modifications, vehicular gadgets, infiltration gear, and personal gear.
The third chapter is entitled Tradecraft, and introduces new rules as well as ready made NPCs.
The new rules are all mechanical treatments for a variety of common espionage activities, including ambushes, brainwashing, harassment, and interrogation. The rules are detailed and provide (or invite) some GM interpretation, but are otherwise fairly mechanical in nature. Some of these subsystems rely on a new complex skill check mechanic.
The complex skill check mechanics basically allow the character to achieve a complex and uncertain task like interrogation over time. These tasks have a fairly high DC, but the character makes multiple checks, each taking a fixed period of time and adding to a running total.
However, eventual success is not assured. The way the complex skill checks are implemented, certain events may complicate the effort. For example, in the case of harassment, if the character scores an error, the character tips off his victim. In the case of an interrogation, the interrogator and the target both make complex skill checks against different targets. If the target reaches his DC before the interrogator, he convinces the interrogator that he cannot get the target to divulge anything.
Overall, the brainwashing, interrogation, and harassment rules are very innovative. A common complaint about d20 system games is that too much of the books are dedicated to combat; these rules convincingly lay the groundwork for a different sort of conflict.
Other rules handle police action, contacts, and hirelings. The hirelings section include 30 stock NPCs for use as hired specialists, though presumably the GM could use them as minions as well. Many of the NPCs use NPC classes introduced in the Shadowforce Archer books, though all of the relevant details to run them are included here.
The final chapter is the Mission Guide. A little out of place in a book like this, this is obviously a GM oriented chapter. The mission guide is essentially an extension to the mastermind system. Some of the material is idea oriented, such as the description of the ten classic villain organizations. However, most of it is mechanical in nature.
The basic assumption behind the mastermind system as it exists in the Spycraft core book is that the players will face the threat as designed in sequence. This creates a problem if you want a recurring organization, as the PC agents will gain more experience while on alternate mission, invalidating the designed challenge level of the organization.
The agenda system is designed to counter this. The GM merely selects an agenda. For each level that the PCs spend with the organization spends "off screen", the threat organization gains an agenda level. Agendas are arranged like class advancement charts, but each "agenda" level results in an improvement in the resources of the organization, which differs according to the agenda. A greed agenda, for example, advances the organizations wealth more than other agendas.
Other embellishments to the mastermind system include resources and action sites. Resources are essentially "feats for threat organizations", defining special resources the organization might have, from moles to fanatics to weapons of mass destruction.
Action sites are a way of extending site based encounter areas to the mastermind system. The system provides details for sites associated with a threat such as size, details of contents, personnel, and security.
Conclusion
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is a well written, heavily mechanical expansion for the Spycraft game. The new character options are solid additions to the game. However, the real gem of this book is probably the tradecraft chapter. The new rules for brainwashing, interrogations, and other espionage activities dives in headfirst to a rather deep topic, and does an admirable job in simulating these complex tasks. These rules and the complex skill checks system would be good additions to other d20 System games, though in some cases, it would take some effort to work around aspects that are unique to the Spycraft game.
The mission guide is also a compelling inclusion for GMs who like the mastermind system, though will be of little use to the many fixer and pointman players who are likely to pick this book up.
Edit: In play I have found the Mission guide a little tedious to use, and find the less teetotaling variant in Mastermind to be a bit easier to sue. I am revising the score down to reflect that.
Overall Grade: B+
-Alan D. Kohler
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is the second in a series of "classbooks" for the Spycraft espionage RPG. In this case, the book provides options and rules pertaining to the roguish fixer class and the leader and jack-of-all-trades type pointman.
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is written by Scott Gearin, with contributions by Alexander Flagg, Cameron Haigh, Patrick Kapera, and Clayton A. Oliver.
A First Look
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $24.95. This is a reasonable price for a softcover d20 System supplement of this size, and an improvement over many recent Spycraft/Shadowforce Archer titles.
The cover of the book is similar in style to other spycraft books: a silvery background with a line drawing of a character illustrated by Veronica V. Jones. In the case of the Fixer/Pointman Class Guide, the illustrated character appears to be trying to break into a security vault.
The interior of the book is black-and-white. The interior art is all by Paul H. Way and is similar in style to that of earlier Spycraft books.
The interior font is conservative and lines and paragraphs are single-spaced, delivering an overall good text density.
A Deeper Look
The first two chapters of the Fixer/Pointman Class Guide contain the obligatory crunchy bits for a book of this sort: prestige classes, feats, skills, and departments.
The first chapter is all about prestige classes. As befitting the nature of the classes of concern, some of the classes are leader archetypes (appropriate the pointman), while other classes fit underworld, criminal, or other stealth and subterfuge archetypes (primarily for the fixer.) The prestige classes are:
-Cleaner: The cleaner is a specialist at eliminating evidence, perfect for the conspiracy-style campaign.
-Courier: The courier is the classic spy-genre delivery boy.
-Forward: The forward is a specialist at operating behind enemy lines.
-Goodfella: The first of the majorly crime-themed classes, the goodfella is a functional respected member of an organized crime family.
-Grifter: Probably more appropriate for NPCs than PCs, a grifter is a low-profile pickpocket and thief.
-Inventor: I wondered if this class wouldn't be more appropriate to the upcoming snoop class guide. The fixer is an expert at cobbling together quick gimmicks. Think "A-team" or "MacGyver."
-Ninja: The archetypal master of stealth and melee combat. Great for players who want to "flip out and kill people."
-Officer: The basic "military leader" archetype.
-Provocateur: This class is a specialist in sowing confusion amongst the ranks of an enemy.
-Ranger: Another military-style occupation, the ranger is a specialist in wilderness activity.
-Saboteur: A fairly straightforward concept, the saboteur is basically a demolitions expert.
-Smuggler: Another common archetype, though perhaps a bit close to the courier in concept. The smuggler is a specialist in moving goods while bypassing scrutiny.
Generally, the mechanics of the classes are well done and are stylistically similar to other Spycraft material. However some (like forward and inventor) struck me as less than perfect subject matter fits to this book.
Chapter 2, New Rules defines the remainder of the new character options. First among these are the new departments. There are four new "general" departmens: freelancer, orphan, search & rescue, and [/I]thrill seeker[/I].
There are also two specific "families" of department: organized crime and special forces. Each of these has a set of special talents common to all departments of that type. Specific departments further refine the abilities of specific examples of that type. For example, organized crime departments include the American Mafia and the Yakuza, while examples of the special forces departments include the US Navy Seals and the British Special Air Service.
These departments expand greatly on espionage type characters that can be closely simulated by Spycraft. The only major shortcoming is that I imagine that many Spycraft games would use American special forces like the Army Rangers and Marine Force Recon, but the only American special forces unit described is the SEALS.
The chapter provides new actions in addition to new character options: threaten and trick. These options are the focus of some feats introduced later in the chapter, and add an interesting new dimension to the game. For example, the threaten action allows the character to make an opposed intimidate check. If successful, the victim suffers morale penalties for a number of rounds dependant upon the result of the check.
The rules chapter also introduces new feats in the covert, gear, and style feat categories.
The new covert feats include several abilities tempting for a character who wants to max out their stealth capabilities and a few dirty tricks. For example, black shadow allows a character to add half of their ranks in surveillance to avoid being seen by security video, while crippling strength allows the character to trade sneak attack dice for ability damage.
New gear feats primarily deal with working with gear rules introduced in the book and elsewhere (such as drones, poison, and explosives) and decking out the safe house of a character with the feat of the same name.
New style feats take advantage of the new rules in this book. For example bloodthirsty allows you to use the new threaten combat action as a free action after you take out an opponent, and chip away lets you reduce your targets resistance to an interrogation.
The rules are generally solid and useful, providing some interesting new options for Spycraft characters.
Finally, the new rules chapter introduces a number of new gadgets, including drones (remote controlled vehicles), vehicle modifications, vehicular gadgets, infiltration gear, and personal gear.
The third chapter is entitled Tradecraft, and introduces new rules as well as ready made NPCs.
The new rules are all mechanical treatments for a variety of common espionage activities, including ambushes, brainwashing, harassment, and interrogation. The rules are detailed and provide (or invite) some GM interpretation, but are otherwise fairly mechanical in nature. Some of these subsystems rely on a new complex skill check mechanic.
The complex skill check mechanics basically allow the character to achieve a complex and uncertain task like interrogation over time. These tasks have a fairly high DC, but the character makes multiple checks, each taking a fixed period of time and adding to a running total.
However, eventual success is not assured. The way the complex skill checks are implemented, certain events may complicate the effort. For example, in the case of harassment, if the character scores an error, the character tips off his victim. In the case of an interrogation, the interrogator and the target both make complex skill checks against different targets. If the target reaches his DC before the interrogator, he convinces the interrogator that he cannot get the target to divulge anything.
Overall, the brainwashing, interrogation, and harassment rules are very innovative. A common complaint about d20 system games is that too much of the books are dedicated to combat; these rules convincingly lay the groundwork for a different sort of conflict.
Other rules handle police action, contacts, and hirelings. The hirelings section include 30 stock NPCs for use as hired specialists, though presumably the GM could use them as minions as well. Many of the NPCs use NPC classes introduced in the Shadowforce Archer books, though all of the relevant details to run them are included here.
The final chapter is the Mission Guide. A little out of place in a book like this, this is obviously a GM oriented chapter. The mission guide is essentially an extension to the mastermind system. Some of the material is idea oriented, such as the description of the ten classic villain organizations. However, most of it is mechanical in nature.
The basic assumption behind the mastermind system as it exists in the Spycraft core book is that the players will face the threat as designed in sequence. This creates a problem if you want a recurring organization, as the PC agents will gain more experience while on alternate mission, invalidating the designed challenge level of the organization.
The agenda system is designed to counter this. The GM merely selects an agenda. For each level that the PCs spend with the organization spends "off screen", the threat organization gains an agenda level. Agendas are arranged like class advancement charts, but each "agenda" level results in an improvement in the resources of the organization, which differs according to the agenda. A greed agenda, for example, advances the organizations wealth more than other agendas.
Other embellishments to the mastermind system include resources and action sites. Resources are essentially "feats for threat organizations", defining special resources the organization might have, from moles to fanatics to weapons of mass destruction.
Action sites are a way of extending site based encounter areas to the mastermind system. The system provides details for sites associated with a threat such as size, details of contents, personnel, and security.
Conclusion
The Fixer/Pointman Class Guide is a well written, heavily mechanical expansion for the Spycraft game. The new character options are solid additions to the game. However, the real gem of this book is probably the tradecraft chapter. The new rules for brainwashing, interrogations, and other espionage activities dives in headfirst to a rather deep topic, and does an admirable job in simulating these complex tasks. These rules and the complex skill checks system would be good additions to other d20 System games, though in some cases, it would take some effort to work around aspects that are unique to the Spycraft game.
The mission guide is also a compelling inclusion for GMs who like the mastermind system, though will be of little use to the many fixer and pointman players who are likely to pick this book up.
Edit: In play I have found the Mission guide a little tedious to use, and find the less teetotaling variant in Mastermind to be a bit easier to sue. I am revising the score down to reflect that.
Overall Grade: B+
-Alan D. Kohler
