What is, in your opinion, the best espionage RPG out there?

[Fenris-77]

It’s one option among others that was not suggested yet.

No, that's completely fair. the 5E chassis does lots of things well, this just isn't one of them IMO, but that doesn't mean it won't work for some folks.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Speaking of a good chassis for this, Outgunned would be a great fit, depending on what kind of espionage game you're looking for.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

For a short espionage campaign, my top contender would be the old Flying Buffalo "Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes." But I might end up going with something else, depending on the sub-genre of espionage I decided on.

In particular, what's the setting? Cold War era? Modern era? Pre-cold-war 20th century? 19th century? Earlier? Fantasy setting with low (or high) magic? A science-fictional future setting?

 

[payn]

I've been looking so long for a good espionage RPG. They usually end up in the James Bond action hero variety when Id like a more John LeCarre cloak and dagger experience. I think the ideal system would need something like Bladerunner where you are pulled between the job and your humanity. Also, good interrogation system that allows both the breaking of agents and the confusing of interrogators.

Not sure if this is what the OP is looking for, in which case, I dont think it exists yet. Though, if you want James Bond any old 5E reskin should work.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think it's available via normal retail channels yet, is it?

Nope. I got to play it at a house con.

 

[jdrakeh]

In particular, what's the setting? Cold War era? Modern era? Pre-cold-war 20th century? 19th century? Earlier? Fantasy setting with low (or high) magic? A science-fictional future setting?

Probably late 70s Cold War Europe. That's such a rich setting for espionage fiction.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

I would say Infinity 2d20 .

It is the only game I know that has psychological warfare and the ability to social engineer and social hack and even do so with degrees of social separation, connection circles. It has social compels.... and more!

And its all very slick and easy to use!

Just such a great system for intrigue, spy games, social confrontation....!!

 

[Barner Cobblewood]

I would say Infinity 2d20 .

It is the only game I know that has psychological warfare and the ability to social engineer and social hack and even do so with degrees of social separation, connection circles. It has social compels.... and more!

And its all very slick and easy to use!

Just such a great system for intrigue, spy games, social confrontation....!!

I'd like to hear more about this from someone who has played it.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

I'd like to hear more about this from someone who has played it.

You bet!


Infinity is set up for players to each take on a roll with in an organization that essentially is like MI6. In Infinity is called the 012, and it's at more of a United Nations level instead of a particular nation.

Each of the player characters is assumed a competent "agent" of the 012. And they got that way because they have lived multiple lives-quite literally.

Characters in this game have a way to upload their full consciousness and persona into the cloud and then download it into a new body. This is based almost entirely on the novels and TV show "altered carbon". Perhaps there are things that had that concept ahead of time but Infinity pretty much just copy paste follows the alt of carbon setup.

This means that we have a reason why your characters could infiltrate as a company chef or private bodyguard or personal erotic escort.

Because humanity is now spread out across several different colonies and they didn't give up a lot of their cultural and political factions-The 012 essentially is there to maintain balance. But not exactly to uphold peace in order, lol.

Kind of like Cold War espionage.

Along with that your character will likely have ties to one of the factions (governments, corporations, or societies) and possibly a different faction than the other players do. This is called the "wilderness of mirrors".

Basically you're all united for what you know needs to happen for the 012 and general balance of humanity overall. But each of you do have ties to your own personal factions, or even just cultural heritage that you are still tied to. And that will influence your character.

This is meant to complicate lives and to make the drama feel more real because some people genuinely care quite a bit about the home country or the personal culture that they have. It's one thing that Infinity does lean into - culture, heritage, religion, political ideology.

This is why they built rules around PsyWar and intrigue espionage.

So let's talk about those rules....

Like all 2d20 games, You're going to have some stats and skills and you're going to roll a number of d20 dice and you're going to generate Momentum points.

Momentum points are the lifeblood of the game.

Because they describe more than just bonuses you get to rolls, They actually are narrative descriptions on how your character is using their prior rolls, to work towards and build up towards a goal activity.

This means that every time you make a dice roll to interact at a party, drill a person for information, seduce somebody- You're building up momentum towards the heist or the assassination or the planting of evidence... Etc etc. Any espionage plot you can think of.

Infinity has a specific mechanic for "degrees of separation". This is absolutely spectacular and I can't brag about it enough.

This means that you don't ever have to actually meet your target face to face!, such as "the president of Pan Oceana" in order to influence them or persuade them to do something. You could find out who their wife is, then find out who their wife's hairdresser is and then you could go to that hairdresser plant false information or tell them clearly political interesting intrigue... And let that filter its way up from the hairdresser, to the wife, thus to the president and influencing the president.

This is all done via a single dice roll, with a increased difficulty for just how many degrees of separation there are and how protected some of those contacts are.

It also might increase the difficulty if the president is currently arguing with his wife, or if he has some political assistant who's more important to him than his wife's opinions. In which case before you even make that roll for the hairdresser you may have to do some research, talk to some other people, go to some fancy parties-simply to find out who actually is influencing the president.

And that's where momentum comes in.

Because each of those actions you're doing adds to your momentum points, which you can then spend to make your role to influence the president easier even though you're still multiple degrees of separation away and have never even met the man.

...

So now let's talk about what that influence is.

In Infinity they call it "metanoia".

Basically metanoia is just a social compulsion that drives a character to behave or think a certain way. If they behave and think the way that their metanoia describes, then they have to act accordance with those. If they choose to not act in accordance to a metanoia that they are suffering, then they get a penalty to their dice rolls making it harder to do anything because narratively they have been influenced. Narratively they have been compelled to behave or think a certain way.
But they totally can 'fight the compulsion!'. so its not utter dominate.

The same rule works for NPCs as it does for player characters.

It ends up functioning similar to a gunshot wound, in that until the person suffering a metanoia does something to "clear" it, then it continues to hinder them or influence them.

And the way you clear metanoia is through social roleplay, plus a few other gameplay options.

Perhaps you go to a particular group of people to reinforce your ideology, perhaps you do research to prove some of these things false, perhaps someone slaps the naughty word out of you and tells you that you're being manipulated you fool! Lol

Characters can have multiple metanoia affecting them at the same time and some of them can even be conflicting which shows how some people do have conflicting agendas that are being pushed upon them by others.

Overall each character has a "resolve" stat.

Which indicates how susceptible they are to getting metanoia applied to them.

And you can have equipment and people who help you protect your Resolve. In the same way that armor helps protect someone against a gunshot wound.

 

[jdrakeh]

That sounds amazing!