SPYCRAFT: The greatest RPG ever made! The best d20 game ever!

[Mal Malenkirk]

Um... Q? (No, not the poncy godling from TNG)

FBI forensics lab? CIA? NSA?

Hum, need I remind you that this game is about playing operatives in the field, not tech support?

If you ask for support from your organisation, you are not making the skill check yourself and the point is moot.

 

[hong]

Hum, need I remind you that this game is about playing operative in the field, not the forensics guy in their lab?

Is there a reason why operatives in the field should suddenly be cut off from access to a forensics guy in the lab?

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

Read my edited post.

Unless you are suggesting that the GC starts rolling over and over again as was suggested by Watson before giving an answer to the players?

If the PCs ask for tech support and send HQ a photograph to analyze, I simply send them back the results. No skill check are involved.

This is the issue, remember? Skill check.

BTW: It requires a favor check and an action die to get tech support from HQ during a mission.

 

[hong]

Read my edited post.

Unless you are suggesting that the GC starts rolling over and over again as was suggested by Watson before giving an answer to the players?

Right. Your statement

NB: Making several copies of the data isn't going to save players from costly critical failure. Nothing can protect them. There is no single error that the GC has to apply everytime. If I decide to activate a threat, I make certain that it will be a setback for the PCs. As long as I'm willing to pay a fair amount of action dice, anything goes.

... sounds to me a lot like "play it my way, or I screw around with you". Since the whole point of having a ruleset in the first place is to minimise the need for this sort of DM fiat, I think resorting to it is a sign that the ruleset is faulty.

 

[Hammerhead]

It seems like an awesome game. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it b/c we're playing enough games right now, but it will be fun to read.

Is anyone making a PBP game on the boards. I'd volunteer.

However, this whole debate is moot, about Taking 20 and critical successes etcetera. Geoff, you're not going to play Spycraft. THe rest of us are, whether the Take 20 mechanics are flawed or not. Stop wasting everyone's time, please (to everyone).

My favorite class is the Wheelman. Driving cars, helos, and boats, having a good amount of skills, free gadget points for cars, and being the second best class at combat. Pretty cool.

My friend likes the Pointman, but he's worried about several AntiAuthority party members acting just to annoy him.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

For crying out loud, Hong, your reasoning is all over the place! Stay focused.

1-Watson complained that if the whole team was rolling repeatedly, they'd most likely get better result and faster than the expert who was taking 20.

2-I pointed out that this is irrelevant in practice because usually only one team member can do such an involved task because of training and gear requirement.

3-You asked: What about Tech support from the labs?

4-I pointed out that if you are sending your evidence to HQ for analysis, we are no longer involved in a Roll/Repeat scenario as the one that Watson was complaining about.

5-You pull out a quote that has nothing to do with what is being discussed (hence the fact that it was a NB note not directly relevant to the issue) or even with your two precedent quotes.

I'll answer to your accusation of DM fiat by pointing out that for a critical error to occur during the use of a skill two things need to happen:

A- A natural 1 must be rolled. The GC doesn't control that.

B- The GC must spend an action die or possibly more if the error he has in mind is particularly vicious. The GC has a limited amount of action dice and can't use them willy-nilly.

But yes, the GC decides what exact form the error will take should he decides to activate one. Who else will? Is it also GC fiat when he decides what the mission is going to be? Or what is the nature of the help an NPC will offer to the PC after a successful diplomacy check? It's his job to decides such things!

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

My favorite class is the Wheelman. Driving cars, helos, and boats, having a good amount of skills, free gadget points for cars, and being the second best class at combat. Pretty cool.

My friend likes the Pointman, but he's worried about several AntiAuthority party members acting just to annoy him.

Yeah, I love wheelmen too. I might get to play a wheelman if a friend get his act together as an occasional replacement GC.

I'm eager to see how the pointman work at higher level (we're still level 1) but other PCs would be silly to ignore a pointman's leadership since it often carries game benefits.

As long as the pointman isn't too authoritative it should go smoothly enough. Beside, remember that the pointman can give action dice to team members. You can use them to set up a pavlovian response in your team mates by only using them on those who behave themselves

 

[Voneth]

I personaly like the wheelman, a combat dude with a speed fix!

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Are you being purposely obtuse?

If you don't agree with me, fine. Don't like my answers, great. Just tell me so. No need to be insulting.

I'm done with this portion of the thread. On to sunnier topics!

Edit: Made friendlier. Guess I don't like people insulting me when I'm trying to be helpful.

 

[Dieter]

Yippe-ki-yay...

First off, big kudos to those in the shipping dept. at AEG. I ordered my copy of Spycraft last Sunday and received it in the mail yesterday. They didn't even send my order confirmation until late Monday, so that's less than 2 days from California to Maryland (coast-to-coast for you non-Americans). Huzzah!

You know, there's nothing in gaming quite like opening a new rulebook for the first time. Having only skimmed the rules so far I was salivating at all the new modern feats, especially the 22 (22!) new ranged combat feats.

My biggest joy was seeing that AEG broke down the combat round into full and half actions, allowing more things to be done in one turn.

DIETER