Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5178617" data-attributes="member: 54846">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 <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit" target="_blank">Xanatos Gambit</a> or <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BatmanGambit" target="_blank">Batman Gambit</a>. 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.SabotageAssassinationRescue 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).StealingResource 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).MiscResource 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.</blockquote>

Verification