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Spycraft Roleplaying Game version 2.0 is the next generation of AEG’s game of modern action and espionage. The original game was noted in various gaming fora for the directions it took the d20 engine. The new edition is brought to you by the writing team that worked on so many Spycraft products in the past: Patrick Kapera, Scott Gearin, and Alex Flagg.
The book does not bear the d20 system logo and is not published under the d20 system trademark license; it merely uses the Open Game License. This has some potential implications about what the character creation rules look like
Matthew Cavotta will sleep comfortably knowing that the views expressed in this review are, in part, based on actual play experience.
This book was not a complimentary copy.
A First Look
Spycraft 2.0 is a 496 page full color hardcover book priced at $39.95. This is a very competitive price per page for black and white hardcover gaming books of this size; that it is color makes it even more attractive.
The cover is a flat gray similar to the tone used on d20 modern books, though it does not have the “brushed metal” look of those books. Green and white lettering and green backdrops complete the new trade dress of this edition. The book departs from the trade dress of the prior edition in that the dark silhouettes ubiquitous to earlier books is replaced with full color comic-style characters, a robed man in a trenchcoat with a pair of pistols and a woman in a black outfit wielding daggers.
The interior, as stated, is full color. Those familiar with the Spycraft CCG will notice at once how they were able to bring in this book at such a competitive price: much of the artwork (perhaps all, but I don’t claim to follow the CCG) is drawn from the Spycraft CCG. It’s a flashier look than the prior edition, resembling the artwork of the
Danger Girl comics in style. Art is credited to A4H Studios, Udon Studios, Abrar Ajmal, Draxhall Jump, and Sequential Studios.
There are a few editorial errors - as might be expected in any work of this size. The biggest actual problem I have run into is that one two page spread of dramatic conflict cards was repeated, omitting some of the needed cards. (AEG has since put an updated card set on their website.)
An early disclaimer in the book is that the book is more about being used than being read. This is an accurate statement. The book is light on fluff and frills and is mostly rather more practical gaming material. This makes it a bit of a slog to read cover to cover but I can’t fault them for leaving out some material that, in the long run, seems less than essential.
As has been mentioned, the book is rather sizeable. One convenient navigational aid that the publisher has provided is a “mini-table of contents” at the beginning of each chapter. The book also features a rather comprehensive index.
A Deeper Look
Spycraft 2.0 is organized into a mere seven chapters. The organizational order is somewhat typical for a one-volume d20/OGL games: character generation/options, followed by other rules, followed by GM releated material, followed by appendices.
Character basics
As the lack of d20 logo implies, there are some necessary differences between the basics of
Spycraft 2.0 chargen and standard d20 chargen. The ability scores still cling to the classic 3-18 base range with an additional +1 modifier to stat related rolls per two ability score points. However, the system does not have you dice your scores randomly but uses a gradiated point buy system. Conceptually, this is similar to the point buy system in the PHB, but uses a different point scale.
This is somewhat disappointing to me since I advocate some randomness in chargen. That said, I find this take tolerable. First, it doesn’t go off the deep end in its differences from d20 and you can put randomized attributes back in easily enough. Second, thr gear and wealth systems make it so that charisma and to a lesser extent wisdom, are not the obvious dump stats that they are for D&D for classes that don’t use those attributes specifically.
Other deviations are caused in part by the fact that they don’t reference core d20 material include a different experience progression chart and the existence of 0-level characters (such characters are considered to be “in training” and somewhat optional, though the system does qualify how to make them.)
As with the old Spycraft system, since most characters are assumed to be human, the concept of races has been replaced to a system highlighting the character’s background. This has changed significantly from the Spycraft 1.0 implementation. Instead of choosing a “department”, all characters choose a
talent and a
specialty which provide modifiers similar to the manner that races do in traditional d20 rules. The talent is a label like “clever” or “daring” or “reliable” and provides the character with their stat modifiers (if any) and 2 or 3 other benefits. The specialty, on the other hand, is a more role-oriented label like “celebrity” or “investigator” which provides a bonus feat and 2 or 3 other benefits. This not only expands the variety of character backgrounds available, it gets you started in defining the personality of your character in the early stages of generation. Before you even consider which character classes your character might have, you might know that your character is a “clever geek” or a “shrewd celebrity.”
Classes
Classes form the basis of almost any d20/OGL game. This edition of Spycraft sees some significant evolution. Spycraft 1.0 featured the
faceman, fixer, pointman, snoop, soldier, and
wheelman. Of these, all but the
fixer return here. However, many more classes join the gang, many of them having seen their origins in supplements. The new class lineup adds
advocate, explorer, hacker, scientist, scout, and
slueth.
This change took me aback a little at first. One of the great things that Spycraft 1.0 did was show that the archetype model of class can be totally re-arranged from the way that they existed in D&D. Had the Spycraft design team thrown a good thing away by divesting themselves of the archetype style class model for a more “building-block” or “skill cluster” style class model?
Well, maybe somewhat, but not to the extent I pictured at first (but which I didn’t understand until I was much, much further along in the book). The classes have more in the way of choice than their predecessors, with many class abilities that let them choose from a list of class abilities a la the D&D rogue. At the same time, many of the classes are a bit narrower. The fixer’s larceny schtick has been inherited by the intruder. The snoop remains a “tradecraft” character but the hacker gets most of the snoop’s former computer skills. The faceman becomes a bit more focused on disguise and infiltration, but the advocate becomes the king of networking and smooth talking. It’s definitely easy to see the classes taking a few steps in the direction of the “building block” style class.
However, they still remain functional as archetypes. The catch is, once you read the game control section later in the book, is that spycraft in intended to cover a wide variety of modern action subgenres. As I’ll discuss later, the subgenre is shaped by a number of choices of components. One of those components it the choice of which common classes make up core characters for the game. For example, a classical espionage genre yarn might use facemen, hackers, intruders, pointmen, and snoops, whereas a conspiracy yarn might see a more common setup composed of advocates, hackers, scientists, slueths, and snoops.
What would be called prestige classes or advanced classes in other d20 games get the label
expert classes here. Unlike some of those follow on classes, the expert class seems to be designed to be available at a lower level and typically have pretty straightforward entry requirements, usually on the order of a feat, and two skill requirements, one at 6 ranks and one at 4, possibly replacing one or two of those with other requirements such as BAB or Strength. Expert classes are simply more specialized skill groupings. Examples of expert classes include
inventor, field analyst, stuntman, and
triggerman.
One aspect of the classes that makes them feasible in the role of building blocks is that many of the standard class abilities are assigned a roman numeral, such as
uncanny dodge I or
intuition II. Many core classes and expert classes share the same titled abilities. To get the effective level of your class abilities, you simply sum the roman numerals. If you have two classes with uncanny dodge I, you actually have the
uncanny dodge I and II class abilities and all their benefits. This keeps the capabilities of classes progressing and, in doing so, makes multiclassing and creative character design more practical.
Other character rules
Spycraft, of course, keeps one of the innovations it has become famous for: action dice. Players can use action dice to improve their rolls and take other benefits; classes also each have a core ability that improves the use of action dice in certain situations. In addition, action dice are used to confirm threats or errors (the opposite of the threat; possible when a 1 is rolled). All kinds of d20 rolls, not just combat rolls, can suffer threats or errors. Without special class abilities, most rolls to not have a critical or a fumble without being activated by an action dice.
The size of action dice and the number you get at the beginning of a session vary by character level. The GM (or rather, GC, “game control”) can award players additional action points during play to reward them for interesting, entertaining, of clever actions. But when the GC does so, an action dice also gets added to the GC’s pool of dice, used to enhance enemies and goof up the players.
Compared to d20 Modern/Unearthed Arcana’s “action points”, action dice can have a profound impact. There are three reasons for this:
- Action dice “explode”. You roll the max, you get to roll again and add the result. Potentially several times in a row.
- You are not limited to one action dice per roll.
- A “natural 1” is not an automatic failure unless the error is confirmed by an opponent spending an action dice.
This factor really lets players pull some astonishing stunts some times. In one game I ran for TerpCon/DC GameDay, one ENWorlder turned a 1 on a d20 into an astonishing success of a 25 at a critical moment.
One of my eternal peeves in may new game design is what I refer to as “point farm disadvantages.” That is, the system compensates you with benefits in exchanges for drawbacks that are often not meaningful or can be worked around. One of the most serviceable replacements for this bent methodology is that of “per incident compensation”: systems whereby you only receive compensation when you actually have a problem stemming from one of your disadvantages. Such systems have been in games like AEG’s
Seventh Sea, in RPGObjects’
Blood & Vigilance, and the new version of the
World of Darkness system.
Spycraft 1.0 had such a system, but the basics of it were a bit wonky (skill points for XP was not exactly a comfortable exchange); some supplements improved the system.
Spycraft 2.0 sees a revamp of the system. The new system is called
subplots (a name slightly reminiscent of a mechanic that existed in the old
DC Heroes system.)
A play may choose a number of subplots based on their character level. Subplots are categorized. It’s the GM’s decision whether or not to activate a subplot. If activated, the character receives bonus XP, and the GM receives additional action dice to work with. This is an interesting take on “complication” mechanics, because it is designed to explicitly be part of the ongoing story, not just a point farm, and it recognizes that there is a limitation to how many of these things the GM can credibly try to involve in a game.
Completing subplots gives you access to more difficult subplots with steeper penalties but also, greater benefits for the character. This actively encourages players to develop their character, which is a
good thing (TM).
Gear and Wealth
The gear system was one of the most auspicious aspects of Spycraft 1.0, and it met with mixed reviews. Though it was an effective system for abstracting wealth, it had limitations in what it could represent and was a bit too time consuming.
The gear system was significantly revises for Spycraft 2.0. Mission gear picks are now split into categories like vehicle, gadgets, weapons, tradecraft, and resources. Characters receive a number and type of gear picks from their class and level, but receive bonus gear picks from their charisma. Gear picks can be saves until later, but this is limited by your wisdom. This rule helps heighten the importance of those two attributes in the game.
Though number and type of mission gear comes from class and level, the quality of your gear is controlled by
mission caliber. Caliber is chosen by the GC and is indicative of the threat that the characters face and the resources the agency is willing to expend. Caliber does give the GC a lot of control over the gear the players get, but it goes complicate the gear system a bit. Still, the system is an overall improvement; a group of mostly new players provided books were able to gear up in 15 minutes in my gameday game.
Characters also receive wealth as a function of their charisma, class, and level. A character gets a wealth total, and can split that wealth between three different sub-ratings: lifestyle, spending cash, and possessions. Possessions provide the character with personal gear picks that are not affected by the mission caliber.
The prior version of Spycraft pretty much assumed that all players were pawns of powerful intelligence agencies. Depending on the style of campaign (see play styles, below), characters might be entitled to choose whether to be
faction or
freelance characters. This affects character gear choices and the handling of things like favors and earned wealth and reputation over the course of the campaign.
Feats
Okay, here’s the section the benefits from actually having made characters and played.
As with
Spycraft 1.0, feats are arranged into categories like chase feat, chance feats, gear feats, etc. Each section has a hierarchy diagram, making it easy to visualize and assemble feat chains. This helps leverage one of the most meaningful aspects of feat mechanics. Another interesting thing about the way feats are arranged is that feat chains are all alphabetical; later feats in the chair are also alphabetically later. You never have to ponder whether
ambush mastery or
ambush supremacy is the next step along the chain; it’s in alphabetical order.
Though these are interesting organizational aspects, one problem with the way that the feats are arranged is that if you are not sure what category a feat falls into, it’s harder to flip to it, as you might have to look in 2 or 3 places until you become more familiar with the feats. That said, I imagine that once you do become familiar with it, this curse might turn into a boon, as the organizational chunks might serve as a functional organization.
Overall, the feats have very good coverage. As a character crafting tool, they cover a lot of ground, whether your flavor is
Ghost Recon or
James Bond or
Kill Bill! Unlike the D&D PHB (and many of it’s inheritors), there are good feat choices into high levels.
Skills
The skills system is another area that sees significant evolution from the first edition. Where the original did not stray far from its d20 roots with respect to skills (outside the minimal necessary changes to make them fit a modern setting), the Spycraft 2.0 makes a significant amount of changes. The most immediately observable is a re-arrangement of the skills lists. As some of the other more extreme d20 variants like Blue Rose do, the areas covered by many skills in the d20 SRD ruleset are coalesced under one skill in
Spycraft 2.0 Though some skills are essentially unchanged, like
bluff, many skills get included as specific named “skill check” sections in broader skills, like “jump” and “swim” in
athletics.
Synergy bonuses operate differently than in core d20. The level of the bonus varies by the level in the skill providing the synergy. Every five ranks (round down) provides a +1 bonus. Unlike synergy bonus in the standard d20 rules, these bonuses do not stack, and they are more frequently applied only to certain check types versus all skill rolls with a skill (and leave a lot of room for GM interpretation on which synergies apply.) On the surface, this seems more complex, but the fact that you only have to track the best bonus to a given situation vice all of them are a bit simpler to keep straight and a bit more difficult to boost.
As with the first edition of spycraft, skills have
threats and
errors. If a player’s unmodified skill checks are unusually high or low (usually natural 20 and 1 respectively, though some feats and other abilities will modify this), these are considered threats and errors, respectively. The player may spend an action dice to confirm a threat as a critical and gain special benefits, or the GM may spend an action dice to confirm an error as a critical failure, with special penalties resulting.
Skills in Spycraft have
result caps, maximums according to your rank that limit the total roll. The practical effect of this is that it keeps the action dice from making you super good at something you are not so good at. This really helps to keep the emphasis on your character’s forte.
Some skills (profession, cultures, drive, and science) feature
focuses. These describe which area the skill most applies to, such as specific cultural regions (for the purposes of languages), specific vehicle categories (automobiles, airplanes, etc.). A character typically receives one focus for each skill, plus an additional one for each four ranks they have in the skill, though some class ability and background choices grant more.
Alas, the fact that languages are split up by world regions does not sit well with me. Many aspects of Spycraft go to great lengths to represent things. This one sort of falls flat: English and Spanish speakers under this system have difficulty speaking with those who speak the same language on different continents. I think spending a page to create a set of categories similar to the one used by
Hero 4th edition
Combat
Combat in
Spycraft 2.0 carries forward many of the innovations seen in the original. Among the most basic of these is the restructuring of the actions: there are no iterative attacks and there is no distinction between standard and move actions. There are two half-round actions permitted per round, either of which can be attacks, movement, or any of a variety of other action. Another basic difference from core d20 is that it borrows (with permission) the vitality point / wound point mechanic from the
Star Wars RPG. Also as in the prior edition, there are no attacks of opportunity (though exposing yourself in combat will make you flat-footed until the next attack.)
Spycraft 2.0 falls further from the tree yet, though combat is probably one of the areas in which it varies the least. The most drastic new change is perhaps the handling of NPC damage. Standard NPCs don’t track vitality or wound point damage. Instead, any damage done to them has a chance of rendering them
hors d’ combat. This seems a major improvement over the first edition of the game; I always felt that “mooks” were too durable in
Spycraft 1.0.
One change that had me a little concerned was the integration of the
fluid initiative rules into the core ruleset. Originally introduced in the
Modern Arms Guide for the original game, these rules cause a character’s initiative to shift during combat if they take certain actions or suffer certain conditions. Since I have really gotten on board with the notion of rolling once and then forgetting about the initiative total, this seemed sort of a cramp to my style. That said, in actual play, I found that they situations came up rarely enough that it was not an impediment to play.
One last variation I should mention:
Spycraft 2.0 expands on the damage types that characters can suffer. Subdual damage is no longer piggybacked on to normal wound/vitality damage. Instead, a character suffering subdual damage must make a saving throw if their current subdual damage exceeds their
subdual damage threshold (equal to constitution); the DC and consequences of failure are determined by the multiple of your threshold your character exceeds. There is a parallel mechanic in place for
stress damage, based on the character’s wisdom instead of constitution.
Dramatic Conflicts
Many in the d20 gaming community may have heard about
Spycraft’s chase mechanics. Indeed, these rules are popular candidates for repackaging as Open Game Content.
The authors decided to take the concept of chases and develop it further. The basic set of mechanics used in chases has been simmered down and used for the basis for a variety of different situations called
dramatic conflicts. In addition to chases, the dramatic conflict rules cover brainwashing, hacking, infiltration, interrogation, manhunts, and seduction. (The seduction rules are not just limited to romantic seduction; the scene with the Emperor and Luke Skywalker at the end of
Return of the Jedi might be modeled as a non-romantic seduction.)
Three basic terminologies are retained from the chase mechanic:
predator,
prey, and
lead. The aggressive character is designated the
predator and the passive one the
prey. The lead is a score from 0 to 10. If the predator reduces the lead to 0, she achieves her goal. If the lead is raised to 10, the prey “escapes” (resists the seduction, interrogation, etc.)
Dramatic conflicts are resolved in a series of
conflict rounds. Each round, predator and prey each select a
strategy. Strategies can change the lead as well as provide other benefits. The selection of strategies may be limited to the predator or prey, and may also be limited by skill ranks or class abilities. Most strategies are resolved with an opposed skill check; the particular strategy governs which skills may be used and possibly provide modifiers.
In play, dramatic conflicts provide formalized methods for conflicts other than combat, but still providing a feeling of evolving tension. Additionally, they can be used abstract away some action that might take a long time to resolve “on screen”, that might otherwise provide an excessive focus on the activities of a single character. This is probably the biggest boon to the espionage genre, as it facilitates more individual action without bogging down the game.
Campaign Qualities/Play Styles
There’s a few juicy tidbits in the
Game Control section (
Game Control or
GC is Spycraft-ese for GM), but I thought I would focus on two sections I consider to be of particular note: play styles and NPCs.
The play styles section outlines a number of
campaign qualities. These are, in essence, a list of modular “house” rules or choices that, when incorporated, add a certain feel or emphasis to the game. Some choices like faction, freelance, or hybrid (dictates which of the two basic character allegiance choices are available) are fairly neutral to the difficulty of the game. However, some of these choices make the campaign easier (
fast feats, speeds up default feat acquisition to 1 per 2 levels) or harder (bloodbath, makes critical confirmations automatic unless the attacker spends an action dice). These choices might provide bonuses or penalties to the session XP award or to the GC action dice allotment.
The play styles section lays out a number of campaign models, such as apocalyptic, chop sockey, conspiracy, espionage, etc. In addition to an enumeration of likely campaign qualities, each one of these models has a basic description of the campaign style, common classes for the campaign, and media inspirations for games using the campaign models.
The campaign qualities is a very useful tool in the GC’s toolbelt and probably one of the most attractive qualities of Spycraft. They are instrumental in broadening the capabilities of the game in handling a variety of modern action subgenres.
NPCs
Finally, NPCs. This was one aspect of the prior edition that I really did not like. Conjuring up a new handful of NPC classes in each new supplement was a bit too much work and tracking for my tastes.
Spycraft 2.0 has an all new approach to NPCs. Though you can, for some special characters, use the PC design rules, most NPCs are created using a the new NPC design rules herein. Under these rules, an NPC need not have classes, levels, skills, ability scores/attributesor most other trappings normal to
d20 System characters.
Under this system, each NPC is simply assigned a roman numeral for initiative, attack, defense, resilience, damage save bonus or vitality and wounds (standard have the former, special have the latter), and competance, and may optionally have special qualities, skills, exceptional attributes, or wealth. These roman numerals are not used directly in the game.
Instead, the GC decides how much of a challenge the NPCs are supposed to be and assign them a
threat level (approximately equivalent to CR or EL in meaning). The roman numeral is combined with a threat level to get a raw modifier in each category. The categories are very general and net in most rolls you would need to have to run an NPC. The GC is free to give NPCs whatever roman numerals and special qualities desired; better NPCs will translate into a higher reward for the PCs.
That other stuff in the back
Spycraft 2.0 has an extensive and well stocked index, dramatic conflict maneuver cards to copy, and character and GC NPC and mission design sheets. The dramatic conflict cards repeat two pages at the expensive of two pages gone missing, but an updated version of these are on the AEG website.
Conclusions
The original
Spycraft game was impressive for showing how far you can push the
d20 System.
Spycraft 2.0 moves the game further still. The result is that
Spycraft 2.0 is an expansive and robust game for modern action. Though the game adds a lot of detail to the already detailed d20, aspects of the game like the new NPC design rules reallocate the detail (and attendant effort) where it is needed most. Though I was fearful that many of the additions would be a burden, actual play revealed few problems, even with a relatively green group.
The major contributions of
Spycraft 2.0 to the game design arena include campaign qualities, quick NPC rules, and dramatic conflict rules. The robustness and flexibility that these add take
Spycraft from being my espionage game of choice to being my default modern action game of choice.
Drawbacks? Well, first off, if you are not in the market for a rules-robust game like this, perhaps you should tarry on elsewhere. The book is also very densely packed and light on frills. It's a lot to digest. Finally, as mentioned, I could see brushing up a few points like the cultures focuses. But overall, it's a high-utility volume that is likely to serve up game after game for years to come.
Overall Grade: A
-Alan D. Kohler
