[Spycraft 2.0] I've got the crazy action, I need the espionage...

[surfmonkey]

Coming up in a few weeks here, I'm going to be running a short 5 or 6 sessions Spycraft mini-series, to fill a break gap. Because it's for sure limited run, I want to crank the volume to 11 on everything. I'm starting them at 5th level, and I plan on hitting the ground running. The thing is, other than a few broad strokes, I'm having a hard time with the espionage portion of the storyline...

I plan to start off in media res, with some of the team on a commercial plane defusing a hostage situation (think the hidden ending of Call of Duty Modern Warfare), and the other part in engaged in freefall combat with an enemy (sorta like Shoot Em Up, only maybe a little less crazy). As things reach a crescendo, the "camera" will fade to black and we'll jump back 72 hours. I'll then introduce them to the Agency, and its near-futuristic setup. I'll lay out the mission, which at first will look absolutely nothing like a situation that would turn into an airborne hostage crisis (still hammering this part out, see what I mean?). We'll then go through the usual setup, gear selection, and play through everything like a normal adventure. Eventually, we'll end up back where we started (and I'm not worried about it being seen as railroading, 'cause as soon as the players realize they saw the ending first, they'll automatically be looking for it the whole time, whether I push them that way or not. They're predictable like that).

Once we're back to the present, we'll finish off the big sequence, but there's a catch. The whole plane thing was a smokescreen to cover up something much nastier, and somehow (I'll have to do some creative winging here, but I'm used to that) the team ends up getting burned. End session one.

Session two I basically want to try for a Burn Notice kind of vibe, with the "helping the downtrodden" thing. I may even just rip off a favorite episode, I dunno. In the end, it brings the team to the attention of a backer who wants to "sponsor" them to remedy the wrongs that were done that got them burned. I figure to make it more interesting he'll be some sort of a more disreputable type...

From here is where I'm kinda blank. I want the next few sessions to be really awesome espionage mission kinda stuff, all self-contained but leading towards the big season-ending plot (again, Burn Notice style). But I'm kinda blanking on good high-end espionage missions. Anyone got any suggestions, things I can read or watch, stuff I can blatantly rip off?

Sorry it took me so long to get to the point... How does what I have sound? What would you do differently? Where can I get some cool espionage setups?

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

How much 'superspy' stuff do you want? 60's James Bond or something close to Mission Impossible?

My personal preference is the James Bond kind of over-the-top antics but want to see what you were really after.

 

[surfmonkey]

Honestly, either. As long as it's awesome, we can make it work

 

[TheAuldGrump]

How much 'superspy' stuff do you want? 60's James Bond or something close to Mission Impossible?

My personal preference is the James Bond kind of over-the-top antics but want to see what you were really after.

Real Mission: Impossible, or Cruise Mission: Impossible? (Whoo! An edition war! )

The original is actually a good model for a Spycraft game - a core team, with specialists being swapped in and out.

How about a penetration mission - trying to subvert an enemy, or at least unfriendly, organization from the inside. Perhaps an organization that is part of an unwilling ally, where if things go wrong then they can go very wrong.

Or an internal affairs mission - agents are turning up dead, often in compromising ways....

The Auld Grump

 

[Kannik]

If the team's been burned, the second session can be about picking themselves up, and hiding themselves -- basically giving them the space/freedom to be able to operate again, with anonymity and resources acquired. Along the way, and at the start of the third session, they discover or deduce* some clues. From there, session 3 and 4 would be them taking on various small/medium sized operations that gain them intel, equipment, and disrupt the overall plans of the opponent organization(s). Late session 5 and session 6 is their infiltration into the HQ and locus of the villain organization, ruining their plans and stopping world domination (tm). The ringleader is not there, however (or escapes), leaving it open to future movies, er adventures...

* - note that especially in a game full of intrigue, clues and shadowy situations the players are often amazing at coming up with deductions and theories that are more amazing and crazier than what the GM could ever dream up. My recommendation: USE THEM. Maybe not verbatim, but steal some of their cooler ideas, kitbash them together and with your own ideas, and come up with something that is a) more epic and b) the players will feel smart for having figured bits of it out.

If you want some classic tropes to play off of:

* Hacking into an enemy's network (or gaining access into their server space)
* Some scenes taking place in Monte Carlo, with gambling, glitz and glamour
* A warehouse fight scene, with forklifts and crates and heavy weaponry galore, all that yield vital clues to the operation
* Surveillance on a property, house or person(s)
* Finding something, someone, or somewhere within a large city (requiring some sort of methodical plan, often using tech, to find them)
* An epic battle in an epic location: atop a tower, across a swinging bridge, atop two buses careening through mid-day traffic...
* Some sort of vehicle chase, bonus points if it's mixed media (the PCs are being chased by two helicopters armed with rockets...)
* There is a front company being used by the villain organization, and the PCs have to get inside (posing as business partners? janitors?) to get the goods or data
* Some superspy implements and gadgets sprinkled throughout, and convenient safe houses
* The evil villain's plan isn't pure domination, it's domination through a side door (economic, media, access to world leaders, stealing all the world's monuments...)
* At least one thing that isn't what it seems to be...
* Sub pens and underground lairs
* One part of the mission that has a hard time limit, and that time limit is nearly reached
* At least one martial-arts heavy fight
* Situations that "force" PC choice, even if it is "the fire is catching up to me, do I activate my portable airbag and jump, try to fight my way out with this fire extinguisher, or hook my tonfa onto this cable and zipline to safety..."
* A villain base that is hidden behind/inside something innocuous
* And I could have saved some time by linking to this: Espionage Tropes - Television Tropes & Idioms (note: visiting this site will invariably suck you in for hours on end, be warned)

I think you have a good framework to start with, and the in media res start is great. The benefit of following a smaller mission mode for the middle few sessions will be, besides ease of setup, it gives you options to prepare more and gives the players choices, it lets you develop things based on what they are doing, and lets you tailor what you prepare based on what they like/how they play. So long as they all point towards the finale none will seem disjointed or extraneous.

I do loves me some Spycraft (my first RPG was Top Secret). Let us know how it goes, and what you come up with!

codename:

Kannik

 

[Skytheen]

Real Mission: Impossible, or Cruise Mission: Impossible? (Whoo! An edition war! )

The original is actually a good model for a Spycraft game - a core team, with specialists being swapped in and out.

How about a penetration mission - trying to subvert an enemy, or at least unfriendly, organization from the inside. Perhaps an organization that is part of an unwilling ally, where if things go wrong then they can go very wrong.

Or an internal affairs mission - agents are turning up dead, often in compromising ways....

The Auld Grump

And then you have the original or the '80s series. Edition wars within edition wars!