Whatever happened to Spycraft?
- Thread starter kristov
- Start date
Nine Hands
Explorer
I love Spycraft, its a pretty solid system, a bit complex at times but that is right down my alley.
With World on Fire out, I am pleased as punch and I'm looking forward to the gritty 10,000 Bullets.
With World on Fire out, I am pleased as punch and I'm looking forward to the gritty 10,000 Bullets.
Baumi said:
It allows a GM to create properly-scaled NPCs on the fly with a minimum amount of difficulty, and has enough options that nearly any NPC, from a guard dog to a killer cyborg from the future, can be done up in a matter of moments.
That alone is worth the price of admission.
Henry
Autoexreginated
In a nutshell, an NPC is just a collection of about a dozen stat bonuses, scaled in a ten-tier model per level to give the appropriate amount of challenge. NPC health is handled via damage saves similar to Mutants and Masterminds damage saves; a mook is up and fighting, or off the table.
TheAuldGrump
First Post
The big advantage is that you can write an adventure once, then scale it with minimal work for the levels of the PCs when they get there. I had one that involved bombs, some landsmen, a MP, and a pub that I held onto for almost two years, waiting for when it would finally fit, not having to worry all that much about what the levels of the PCs were when the bombs went off. 
The Auld Grump
The Auld Grump
Master of the Game
First Post
I personally had some problems with World on Fire, but it's not a bad book. There's some really good stuff in there, but as a rules guy this bit really bugs me:
[bq]All three villainous factions in the World on Fire setting receive comprehensive treatment, while the heroic factions are intentionally being held off for specialized expansion in their own PDF releases.[/bq]
That's right, a game whose classless NPC rules have proven to be such a big hit only released rules for Master classes (which many have been waiting for since we were told in 2005 would be in the World on Fire book) for character who would likely be NPCs. In fact, unless you want your players playing villains this book isn't terribly handy for setting a game in the WoF world. You'll just have to go out and buy more if you want to know what their factions are actually like.
Oh, and that's assuming you like PDFs or that Crafty actually, you know, bothers to release them, since they have such a great track record of getting product out there. Their Spellbound series started a year ago, and though we were told 7 more releases were forthcoming, here we are without a single addition to the series.
I feel bad really, because there is really good stuff buried in there, but the company has no follow-through. I'd save my money and not bank on Crafty getting anything out until you're actually holding it in your hands. And, given what they did in World on Fire with the Master classes and Faction info they advertised, even then I'd give it a good read-through to make sure its actually all there before you buy.
[bq]All three villainous factions in the World on Fire setting receive comprehensive treatment, while the heroic factions are intentionally being held off for specialized expansion in their own PDF releases.[/bq]
That's right, a game whose classless NPC rules have proven to be such a big hit only released rules for Master classes (which many have been waiting for since we were told in 2005 would be in the World on Fire book) for character who would likely be NPCs. In fact, unless you want your players playing villains this book isn't terribly handy for setting a game in the WoF world. You'll just have to go out and buy more if you want to know what their factions are actually like.
Oh, and that's assuming you like PDFs or that Crafty actually, you know, bothers to release them, since they have such a great track record of getting product out there. Their Spellbound series started a year ago, and though we were told 7 more releases were forthcoming, here we are without a single addition to the series.
I feel bad really, because there is really good stuff buried in there, but the company has no follow-through. I'd save my money and not bank on Crafty getting anything out until you're actually holding it in your hands. And, given what they did in World on Fire with the Master classes and Faction info they advertised, even then I'd give it a good read-through to make sure its actually all there before you buy.
Armistice
First Post
I can't fault Crafty from learning from past mistakes. I own all the Shadowforce Archer books and think they were good products, but, they didn't sell well or not well enough anyway. The Crafty guys took the lessons they learned while at AEG to heart and are trying not to repeat what they feel was an error. AscentStudios, a member of the Crafty design team addressed your particular issue on another forum. I'm just cross-posting so that you can at least see what the thought process for their decision was.
AscentStudios on another forum wrote:
I'm sorry to hear that you feel WoF was short information you wanted. The move to use PDFs was not a cynical money grab. The reason heroic faction information was held back was twofold - one, because the book was going to be 400 pages if we included it all (delaying the book even longer), and two, because the "heroic" factions aren't necessarily the protagonists - something that drew flak from fans in the past.
One lesson we learned from Shadowforce Archer was that about half the fanbase resented the setting's preconceived notion of white hats and black hats, to the point where they wouldn't touch SFA stuff and stick with plain Spycraft. That effectively split the first editions audience down the middle. With that in mind, we chose to make WoF more of a "pure" espionage genre toolkit, albeit with the story and basic framework of the CCG setting. Leaving the option for GMs to decide who was good, bad, enemy or ally, or if they even existed in their World on Fire campaigns, freed groups to decide whether they wanted to join one of the heroic factions, fight them, or become the only good guys standing up to the bad.
As for follow up issues - we are fully aware, and WoF is NOT being abandoned. We released this book knowing the faction PDFs were absolutes and the project is already well underway. They are the project Patrick is working on right now, ahead of everything else. Because of the issues in the past of premature announcements, however, we are only going to say when they're ready when we can be absolutely certain of the release date. No more dashed hopes - just products, on time - that's the 2008 goal.
AscentStudios on another forum wrote:
I'm sorry to hear that you feel WoF was short information you wanted. The move to use PDFs was not a cynical money grab. The reason heroic faction information was held back was twofold - one, because the book was going to be 400 pages if we included it all (delaying the book even longer), and two, because the "heroic" factions aren't necessarily the protagonists - something that drew flak from fans in the past.
One lesson we learned from Shadowforce Archer was that about half the fanbase resented the setting's preconceived notion of white hats and black hats, to the point where they wouldn't touch SFA stuff and stick with plain Spycraft. That effectively split the first editions audience down the middle. With that in mind, we chose to make WoF more of a "pure" espionage genre toolkit, albeit with the story and basic framework of the CCG setting. Leaving the option for GMs to decide who was good, bad, enemy or ally, or if they even existed in their World on Fire campaigns, freed groups to decide whether they wanted to join one of the heroic factions, fight them, or become the only good guys standing up to the bad.
As for follow up issues - we are fully aware, and WoF is NOT being abandoned. We released this book knowing the faction PDFs were absolutes and the project is already well underway. They are the project Patrick is working on right now, ahead of everything else. Because of the issues in the past of premature announcements, however, we are only going to say when they're ready when we can be absolutely certain of the release date. No more dashed hopes - just products, on time - that's the 2008 goal.
Psion
Adventurer
Re: World on Fire containing info mainly on "villainous" factions.
Given the fiction snippet on Project PITFALL, I could totally see running the game like "24", where the players are rogue agents following Century's lead, making good in an agency overrun by militant bureaucracy.
Given the fiction snippet on Project PITFALL, I could totally see running the game like "24", where the players are rogue agents following Century's lead, making good in an agency overrun by militant bureaucracy.
Teflon Billy
Explorer
I grabbed World on Fire at the FLGS today and it looks pretty good.
TheAuldGrump
First Post
I liked it better than I expected to - if I weren't already running Delta Green with Spycraft I might well have been tempted.Teflon Billy said:
Mostly because of how it has a 'Casino Royale' feel, I will admit.(The first Bond that I have really enjoyed in decades.
) I can picture the Parkour chase scene taking place in game so very easily. ('What's the DC for jumping through the opening?' '24.' 'What's the DC for smashing through the drywall then?' 
) The Auld Grump
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