Opinions on Spycraft?

[WSmith]

How far back does Spycraft go in time? The reason I ask is because I think playing Allied Forces operatives during WWII deep within enemy lines in Europe would be mucho exciting. Just thinking of a few movies like "The Big Red One" or "Where Eagles Dare" seem more military oriented than the superspy, but most of the principals of adventure gaming are interchangable. I guess all you would really have to do is come up with stats for the Thompson, the M-1, .30 cal air and water colled machine guns, etc. (Note: I don't have the book so I don't know it these are already in there.)

 

[Mordax]

I've played two sessions of Spycraft, and it's a great game. (I like D&D better, and I like CoC better than either one, but I'm addicted to monsters. Looking forward to Shadowforce Archer a great deal.)

Action Dice: A nice idea. I wonder how it feels during actual gameplay.

They feel like Karma in Marvel, or Star Points in HK Action Theatre. Or using The Force in SW. Basically, it adds a larger than life feel to characters - encourages you to try over the top stunts and stuff.

 

[Tonguez]

How far back does Spycraft go in time? The reason I ask is because I think playing Allied Forces operatives during WWII deep within enemy lines in Europe would be mucho exciting.

seem more military oriented than the superspy, but most of the principals of adventure gaming are interchangable.

Spycraft is very much a 'modern set' more aligned to the Clancy/Archer/Bond type spy genre.

However as indicated the principals are the same but you would need to create new departments (races) and Classes more suitable to your setting

OR

cast everyone as the same few classes (Soldier) and use feats and skills to diffenrentiate them

 

[Luddite]

Spycraft is very much a 'modern set' more aligned to the Clancy/Archer/Bond type spy genre.

However as indicated the principals are the same but you would need to create new departments (races) and Classes more suitable to your setting

OR

cast everyone as the same few classes (Soldier) and use feats and skills to diffenrentiate them

For the most part I dont see much that needs to change. Casting the game in to WWII Era would only mean a some limititations on the Gadgets and no assult rifles. Even Computers and Electronics would still have a place in the game. Though a little limited.

Watch Hogan's Heros and see a most of the classes there :

Hogan : Pointman
Newkerk : Faceman (Con Man)
Knichloe : Snoop (Radio man and intellegence gathering)
Carter : Fixer (with specialization in Demolitions)
LeBeau : --- Okay he is slightly harder to place in one class. He was sort of the Fill in the pieces and Cook.

-Lud

 

[MythandLore]

and no assult rifles.

The history of the concept of the assault rifle started in the early 1910's, when the famous Russian armorer, col. Fedorov designed a small-bore selective-fire rifle with detachable box magazine. Initially, Fedorow designed a brand new small-caliber 6.5mm cartridge for his rifle, but, due to WW1, switched to the Japanese 6.5mm Arisaka load, which was less powerful than the Russian 7.62x54R and available in quantity. This rifle was aquired by the Russian army in small numbers in 1916 and served (in very limited quantities though) with the Russian and Soviet (Red) Army up to 1925. While the design of the selective-fire rifle was not unique for that time, the concept of the "lightened" cartridge, more suitable for full-auto fire, was new. Also, col.Fedorov invented the idea of infantry weapons families (assault rifle, light machinegun, medium machinegun, vehicle and/or aircraft mounted MGs) based on the same actions and receivers.

The next step in this history was made by Germany - in the 1930's, theybegan research to develop a medium-power cartridge, which would be much lighter than 7.92mm German and easier to fire accurately in full-auto mode. This development led to the 7.92x33mm cartridge (Pistolenpatrone 7.92mm). The Germans developed some weapons designs for this load, including the MP43 and Stg.44, but this was too late for Germany... Further development of such designs was made by German engineers in Spain, and later in West Germany, and led to the HK G3/G41 family of battle&assault rifles.

The United States also put in some effort to this idea, and before WW2 developed a special less-than-medium powered cartridge .30Carbine and a rifle for this cartridge - a so-called "baby-Garand" in semi-auto M1 and selective-fire M2.

But the largest stride forward was made by the USSR, when, in 1943, the Soviet Army adopted a new cartridge - the 7.62x39mm medium-power load. In 1945 , the Soviet Army adopted the semi-auto SKS rifle in this chambering, and, in 1947 - the AK (known for the West as AK-47).

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

How far back does Spycraft go in time? The reason I ask is because I think playing Allied Forces operatives during WWII deep within enemy lines in Europe would be mucho exciting. Just thinking of a few movies like "The Big Red One" or "Where Eagles Dare" seem more military oriented than the superspy, but most of the principals of adventure gaming are interchangable. I guess all you would really have to do is come up with stats for the Thompson, the M-1, .30 cal air and water colled machine guns, etc. (Note: I don't have the book so I don't know it these are already in there.)

You may want to try Pinnacle's Wierd Wars for this, just remove all the supernatural references. Or maybe you could do some quick conversions and combine the two systems.

 

[Tonguez]

Watch Hogan's Heros and see a most of the classes there :

Hogan : Pointman
Newkerk : Faceman (Con Man)
Knichloe : Snoop (Radio man and intellegence gathering)
Carter : Fixer (with specialization in Demolitions)
LeBeau : --- Okay he is slightly harder to place in one class. He was sort of the Fill in the pieces and Cook.

Yes I'd have to concede your point re Hogans Heroes
but what departments fit? - are they all Military Ops?

 

[Luddite]

Not all of them.

Hogan could be Home Office, or Power Broker. For his diversity of skills
Kinchloe would be Computer Espionage, since he is a trained raido man.
You could also go with Ubran Assult or Black Ops.

As for the Aussult Rifle, I stand corrected. Though if I were to do a WWII era game, I might make assult rifles Gadgets since they are rare-ish

-Lud

 

[Doc_Souark]

Will I'd use the weapons etc. from wierd Wars for a OSS/SOE game useing Spycraft. Unless anyone is doing a d20 version of Behind Enemy Lines.

 

[Game Control]

Yes I'd have to concede your point re Hogans Heroes
but what departments fit? - are they all Military Ops?

Everyone from the same department? That's boring.

People tend to get attached to names and not enough to the mechanics behind them.

Most of the heroes in a WW2 are likely to be from the army with a few resistance fighter thrown in, that's obvious. So you should create ''Departments'' such as Infantry, Military intelligence, the Navy, Resistance etc.

For simplicity's sake you could simply rename the current Departments and modify those that have too much of a modern slant (Computer Espionnage, mostly).

An even simpler approach is to simply ask the PC to pick a Department granting bonuses that he wants and design a background around it.

In my P&P Spycraft game, I have a Faceman who picked the wetwork background. In her background she wrote that she learned her craft from the Russian Mafia. And here she goes; D-6 stands for the russian mafia as far as this character is concerned.