Inspiration Needed for D&D 4E Secret Agents Campaign

[ButcherMagnus]

After a survey of my players to see what kind of campaign they were interested in, I was surprised to see a clear, far and away winner (there were 7 options which the players ranked from most interesting to least interesting!). The campaign will be D&D 4E.

Here is the brief description I gave them of the campaign:

This campaign will be focused on political intrigue, starting in the paragon tier, set in the Kingdom of Six, 5-10 years after the Second Battle for Kingsford (this is campaign specific stuff, not useful for you, only included for the sake of completeness). The Kingdom must work hard to gain allies and be one step ahead of its many enemies during this turbulent time. The heroes will be members of the Queen’s Eyes (pretty sure I ripped that from Eberron), Queen Threll’s secret service of diplomats, spies, and assassins travelling throughout the Kingdom and in foreign lands as agents of the Queen.

So without a doubt, I want to give the people what they want. I have already delved into some Eberron books which include the Queen's Eyes and Black Lantern's, as well as some ideas for "secret agent" type adventures, but I would love to have more inspiration and source material, and I'm sure you fine people have some useful advice.

I want the campaign to be somewhat dark and gritty, and I'm not going to shirk away from some brutal elements in the PCs. I want them to be a scalpel used by the Queen, and I am interested in the moral gray areas of their jobs as secret agents, as well as the paranoia that comes with them.

So, are there any adventures or source books you can think of which might provide some inspiration or help with the campaign? What about movies or tv shows? I've thought of Bond movies and 24, of course. And more come to me by the day. Any suggestions?

Thank you very much in advance for any words of advice.

 

[weem]

I'm sure you will get plenty of links to various RPG related material, so I will leave that to others.

Instead, here are two things for you to check out that come immediately to mind as far as inspiration goes...

1) Check out the NSA. Not just the general stuff, but look into specific things they have done over the years. This isn't a judgment on whether all of their actions are ethical or not - just simply some of the things they are responsible for and things they have been involved in are very interesting.

If you want an interesting read on that subject, check out "Puzzle Palace" by James Bamford (and/or "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" also by James Bamford).

2) Check out Blackwater (now known as Xe Services LLC).

These two aren't heavily "spy" based, but they can give you some cool ideas and inspiration.

<edit> Oh yea, welcome to EN World </edit>

 

[ButcherMagnus]

Thank you much for your response. While I want my PCs to be more subtle in their endeavors and presence than Blackwater, the wikipedia article inspired me to use them as kind of a foil to the Queen's Eyes--the brute hammers at the Queen's disposal. I foresee some jurisdictional arguments and competing interests between the two organizations. Thanks for the link! I'll check out the NSA later.

It occurred to me that just going to those websites puts me on some sort of NSA red flag list. Paranoia! : )

 

[Rechan]

My biggest suggestion to you? Eat, drink and breathe the show Burn Notice. It follows the adventures of an outed spy trying to get back into the organization. It consists of a spy and his friends using spy tactics to overcome criminal elements, deal with kidnappings, gangs, con artists, etc. There's a lot of tricks and tools and ideas you can garner from it. The 3rd season DVD should be coming out soon-ish. As a bonus, it has Bruce Campbell in the main cast! Unfortunately the DETAILS of the tricks that are used are typically technology based, but the main ideas are the important thing.

The movie Taken, and possibly the Bourne series is another source of inspiration. As well as 24. The show Leverage is more of a caper/con game, but some of the principles certainly apply. Season 2 DVDs of this should be out soonish too. I also highly suggest Duplicity; it focuses on Corporate espionage, but the entire movie is one big example of Counter Intel.

Wrath Recon is a Special Ops campaign setting, a 4e book from Mongoose. I mention this because Mongoose also released some adventures for Wraith Recon. There's also Spycraft, which has had 2 editions thusfar. It's a modern game, but I imagine there's DM info in the books and such.

Another source is basically looking at the history of warfare and peacetime, from WWII through the Cold War.

But a run down of things that spies, diplomats and assassins would likely do:

Intelligence. This involves mainly actions you take to gain information or resources.

Creating and Maintaining cover IDs (this includes providing legitimacy to fake backgrounds).
Surveillance (either bugging a site, following and observing a target, or casing a site to determine security strengths).
Infiltration (using a cover ID to be hired into an organization or breaking in to steal information)
Recruiting an Asset*.
Maintaining an Asset (providing limited aid, continuing to string the asset along, etc).

Counter Intelligence. Counter intel is designed to negate someone else's information, resources, or plans of attack. For instance instead of breaking into an institution to copy the enemy's troop coordinates on their map, you break in to write fake coordinates on their map so they send their troops into a trap.

Obfuscation (causing the enemy to doubt/distrust their allies, employees, or resources)
Misinformation (feeding false information to the enemy)
Distraction (both on the battlefield and off - drawing attention to A so that the enemy ignores B. Think of this as a type of misinformation in non-combat areas)

One of the motivations for Counter Intel is not just to remove an advantage of the enemy. It's also about the suckerpunch. Counter Intel is basically setting a Xanatos Gambit or Batman Gambit. You do X so that the enemy thinks Y, and therefore does Z. Z being to your advantage, because you have planned for Z.

Wetwork. Intel and Counter Intel are very much Information based. Some things under Wetwork are traditionally Counter Intel, but let's just put them here because they're aggressive.

Sabotage
Assassination
Rescue or Assassinate a kidnapped ally/agent before they give away anything.
Kidnapping and/or interrogating an enemy's ally/agent.
Neutralizing enemy assets. (This can be violent, or it can be as simple as removing the leverage the enemy has over an asset. For instance if the target is blackmailed, steal the material the enemy is using for blackmail).
Stealing
Resource Removal (Similar to assets, but more broadly. Diverting or stopping the influx of X that the enemy needs to do Y. X could be any thing from money to alchemical supplies for drug production, to customers. Essentially starving the enemy of something necessary, causing them to retreat or be weak to this).

Misc

Resource acquisition and maintenance. This consists simply of getting money/weapons/safe houses/etc, or building it, and then doing upkeep. A cache of weapons or a secure place to flee to is great when being hunted by enemies.


*Asset. An asset is a lot like a Contact. The difference is that a Contact is likely an equal whom you have a business relationship with, whereas an Asset is a person who has resources, skills, or access that the agent needs, and the agent exploits the asset to use them. An asset could be blackmailed, duped/conned, bribed, or strong armed into doing what the agent needs. Forcing someone to be a double agent for instance is a good example of an asset, as well as making friends with the county clerk who has access to sealed records.

One important aspect of an Asset is that you must be able to cut them loose with ease. If they become compromised, you must sever ties and don't look back. Assets are useful, but you must not owe them anything. This is why an agent must never get attached to an asset.