Hey Mistwell, still out trying to 'prove' that Spycraft is doomed I see. No luck with that
'D20 Modern will have all the third party support, Spycraft will have none' angle, huh? Or have the
'Well, it's by WotC, so it's the only possible standard that can exist' fallen on deaf ears and now you're reduced to trying to crap in every thread about Spycraft you can find? (What is that in you avatar anyway?) And the the observation that
'gee, D20 modern has three whole books out now, while Spycraft has 10 (with D20M putting out one more by the end of the year, Spycraft 3)' hasn't really sunk in for you about what company is putting their money where their mouth is on supporting their creation, has it?
Sorry folks, I've had this troll wandering around the fringes of my work armed with little better than comments like his above for months now. Mostly I figure he's pissed because I told him Spycraft would be a better choice than D20 Modern for one of his favorite settings, Stargate, and now Stargate
IS a Spycraft system game. Wouldn't it be ironic if we were in negotiation for a Clancy license right now...? Nah, that would be silly for a spy game, wouldn't it
?
The reason many folk who've played Spycraft say you can use it for other things, myself included, is because while it tells you in loving detail how to use it for a spy game, once you've played a few time, you find you're looking at a better combat system (easier to use action types, doesn't treat ranged weapons like a mistake in a melee-centric game), a more interesting skill system (you can crit both good and bad), a system of heroic bonuses that let both the players and the GM really shine when they need to, a list of standard actions you can take that treat your character like he's competent rather than a total git (once you know how to shoot a rifle, you have to take another feat to fire bursts with an assualt rifle that has a three round selector switch? WTF?), a collection of versitile base classes that give you a reason to stay in them every single level from 1 to 20, and a matched set of over 70 prestige classes that let you pick mix and match specialties and gain focused, flavorful abilites to meet that specialty that no other class has, a vehicle combat system that doesn't require 18 feet of graph paper to run a chase, options to go to your employers to get help - as if you're part of a larger team rather than free roaming adventurer psychos in a fantasy wilderness that just happens to have modern building dotted on it, well over 500 feats, less than a quarter of which are combat oriented - and no endless +2 to two different skills pretending to be 90 different choices, FX systems for psionics that are feat and skill based - with nearly 60 different psion skills, each with multiple game uses, an FX system for magic that isn't identical to the psionics, another FX system for playing spooky, we-can-almost-prove-it-exists paranormal stuff like X-files. The list goes on, and best of all, most of these tools are descrete, separate systems so if in your game you don't want psions, but do want support for your friends in high places, or visa versa, you can do that without any more dificulty that telling your players "in this campaign you can make favor checks, but psionics are out".
Basically there's only one area that Spycraft is espionage-centric to the exclusion of other genres, and that's how you pick gear. Stargate has already provided another, copletely compatible model, and within 6 months we should have another major setting out that will cover stuff for the regular guy in loving detail. Without the absurdity of "now that I can by a buy one sleeping bag, I can buy an infinite number of sleeping bags and stock a camping supply store - why am I adventuing again?" or "We stole a guy's wallet - what the hell does that mean for our ability to buy stuff?".
