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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 2009328" data-attributes="member: 1">It took me a while to get around to reviewing Spycraft.  It's not that I couldn't find anything to say, but more because I was waiting for my initial enthusiasm for the game to die down and allow me to construct a less "excited" review.  Unfortunately, that enthusiasm hasn't yet died down, so I resigned myself to the struggle that an objective review would present.I'll tell you immediately that I'm using this game.  I started running an "A-Team" style Spycraft game within a week of receiving the book and, so far, the game has proven to be fun, streamlined and flexible.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that Spycraft is only for "James Bond" style games; within certain constraints presented by the system (more on those later), the game can be used to play in any modern-day style or setting.Spycraft does the one thing that I really look out for in d20 products.  The sort of thing that makes me sit up and take notice, and which makes me fight back an impulse to use the material immediately in the way that a new prestige class (yawn), new feats or new spells don't.  And it does it well, with flair and elegance.You'll be asking by now - "Yeah, yeah, so what is it that Spycraft does that excites you so much?" Well, it uses and adds to the d20 System in a major and innovative way. It introduces new concepts and mechanics while remianing firnly within the d20 goalposts.  Of the various new features introduced, there are three which I find really add to the game:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Chases - you really have to see the chase mechanics to understand why they're so good.  I've used them in two car chases now, and they proved elegant and simple, yet flexible and exciting.  Each vehicle (the predator and prey) selects a maneuver, and then each driver makes a drive check to accomplish that maneuver.  For example, the pursuing driver may try and "herd" his prey, while the leading driver may attempt a stunt to lose his pursuer; or the pursuer may attempt to reduce the lead distance, while the prey attempts to "barnstorm" a mall in the hope that the predator will get left behind.  The two maneuvers are cross-indexed on a chart to arrive at check modifiers for the drivers' opposed skill checks, and the result of the winning driver's maneuver is applied.  Of course, while this is all happening, the passengers could be shooting at the other car or performing other actions.  These chase mechanics cover ground, sea and air chases.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Backgrounds - a player may buy a background; this could be anything from having a mortal enemy to a romantic interest.  This sort of thing is usually handled in inherently flawed advantage/disadvantage systems, in which players balance role-play disadvantages against mechanical advantages, with the net result being that the player ignores the disadvantage and effectively gains a mechanical advantage for free.  Well, that ploy won't work here. You buy your background at a cost, and the GM is then obliged to introduce it into the game within a certain frequency range.  This earns you experience points each time.  However, if your GM does not bring the background into the game within the required time frame (usually measured in game sessions), you gain a very large one-off XP bonus.  Thus you can be confident that your mortal enemy will show up every 4-5 sessions or so, or that your romantic interest actually forms part of the game.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Action Dice - the weakest of my "top three cool things in this game" list, Action Dice are a fun and simple way to let your players accomplish those heroic, lucky actions at the right time.  Each player gets a number of Action Dice per game session (the number and type of dice depends on character level) which can be used to add to die rolls, activate a critical threat or an opponent's critical failure or call in favours.  The GM also gets a pile of them which he can use in the same way.  Action Dice mean that dramatic actions and heroic maneuvers form a large part of the game without removing any of the uncertaintly created by a dice-driven game. Drama takes precedence over randomly generated results with the constraint that the player only has a limited capacity to affect the story in such a way.</li> </ul>Spycraft, of course, also contains lots of modern weapons and equipment along with the associated rules.  Martial arts feats and new skills add to the mix to create a system ideal for modern-day play.Now, there are things that I don't like about Spycraft.  These mainly came to light through play.  I really don't like the rules for acquiring equipment and gadgets.  Without going into too much detail, these consist of an unwieldy combination of mission budget points, personal budget points, gadget points and field expenses, all of which are acquired in different ways and all of which is very much tied into a default "Here's your mission brief from your agency, now requisition X amount of equipment for the mission" set-up.  I'd much prefer a simple cost system like that found in the D&D core rules and allow players to keep track of how much money they have; if the GM wants a set-up whereby the players can requisition equipment, he can easily give them a budget to spend at the start of each mission. This probably wouldn't have been a problem had I been running a default game.  But I'm running an A-Team game, and the characters have no agency to requisition materials from.  I found myself juggling justifications for the mechanical ways in which players can gain equipment and money, and none of it really came across quite right.  Admittedly, I could have just ignored it all, and just used the dollar cost of equipment, but gadgets don't have a dollar cost, just a cost in gadget points and, even worse, vehicles are considered gadgets.  The whole system also doesn't easily accommodate permanently owned items, as budget and gadget points only last for one mission.  It is possible to juggle all this and fit it into your game, but I feel that a simpler system would alleviate that necessity.I also have a minor problem with the layout of the book.  In general, it is very well presented.  It looks slick, it's easy to understand and is very clear.  However, I find myself having to look up the stats for various weapons etc. regularly during the game - and each time I find myself searching for the stats on various weapon charts placed throughout the equipment chapter.  One chart has simple, melee weapons, another has pistols, another for rifles or shotguns, another for machine guns etc.  It hold the game up, and this could be easily solved with a master weapons chart.  I'm guessing that the GM screen (available separately) has such a thing, but the rulebook is in dire need of one instead of the scattered equipment lists currently to be found there.Another very minor gripe that I have with the book is the way "races" are dealt with.  In Spycraft, instead of choosing a race, you choose a "department" which represents your core training.  The thing is, the distinction between "department" and class are blurred; why is "wheelman" a class but "black ops" a department/race?  I can see the mechanical thinking behind such a decision, but I don't like the result.However, I can get over these issues.  Despite them, I'm enjoying Spycraft immensely.  Not only does it introduce nifty new d20 mechanics, it also clarifies and, in some cases simplifies/streamlines certain D&D rules in a manner that should really have been in the core rules to start with.  For example, no longer do we have full actions, moves, move-equivalent actions, partial actions and so on - instead we now just have two half actions or one full action per round.  Simple.Now, I mentioned that I didn't like the gadget points and other aspects of equipment acquisition.  But I didn't actually mention the gadgets themselves.  These are just great - from simple things like gun silencers and bugs to elaborate things like x-ray contact lenses, bungee suspenders or grenade cigarettes to vehicle modifications such as bullet-proofing, souped up handling, or the ability to transform into another vehicle type.  It's all very James Bond-like and great fun!All in all, this is my favourite d20 product to date - by far.  Perhaps I'm jaded from seeing so much of the same stuff over and over again, and I've been waiting for someone to do something interesting with the d20 system, but this is a true jewel in the d20 crown.  It has its problems, sure, but they are far, far outweighed by the good.  Despite its flaws, it still gets a superb 5/5 from me because my grips are just that  - gripes. The problems that I have with the game will not be a problem at all to many, and much of it is because I'm already trying to bend the system rather than use the default set-up of Agency/Spy. Even if you're not going to play the game, it's worth getting just to see it.</blockquote>

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