Tradecraft Tuesdays: A New Wave of Espionage Film Franchises?

As a solid series of super-heroic films come pouring out of the DC & Marvel universes, a lesser noticed trend has been emerging: spy films.

True, there's never been a lull, really -- what with the continuous Bonds and the (relative) newcomers like Jason Bourne. However, I'm talking about the return of several espionage properties that hearken back to the Cold War heydey.

First up is SPECTRE, with Sam Mendes directing Bond once more. Appropriately enough, the film picks up from the prior film and begins building on the current Bond 'mythology' establish in the prior film. It looks promising, though decidedly more conspiracy-laden and less action-filled (in the trailer, at least).


Second is a surprising entry: The Man from U.N.C.L.E., with Napoleon Solo played by Henry "Superman" Caville and Ilya Kuryakin played by Armie "Hey, I Was The Lone Ranger" Hammer. Directed by Guy Ritchie, with promising scenes from the trailer that promise to provide both the action and the humor that I enjoyed in the old series, while bringing it a bit up to date with the modern filmgoing sensibilities.

Third is another property that kind of killed off the well-known leads to the setting, and built its own new mythology around the core concept of the original: a team of specialists. It's the return of the IMF in Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation. The action is at an appropriately ridiculous level of visual spectacle, with fun-sounding banter.

All in all, a promising collection.

However, to cap it all off, I'd like to say that I enjoyed Kingsman: The Secret Service as both a deconstruction and joyous reconstruction of the gentleman spy in the modern era. A lot of fun, a lot of action and humor, some shocks along the way, and Colin Firth revealed as a believable action star in much the same way that Liam Neeson revealed himself in Taken. Try it, if you haven't already.

Tradecraft Tuesday: Night's Black Agents in Fading Suns?

There are, of course, intelligence agencies mentioned in the Fading Suns setting. The ones that initially hooked me were the Hidden Martyrs of House Li Halan -- faceless spies who put together a steady diet of intelligence for their masters.

But a recent re-watching of Brotherhood of the Wolf (and the brief reminder of the absurdist Hudson Hawk) reminded me of the possibilities of a Church-based intelligence agency.

Monica Bellucci (pictured above) portrayed a dangerous, ruthless character strongly hinted at being in the service of the Vatican, helping the protagonist along in his efforts to discover the secrets of the Brotherhood of the Wolf.

Why not something similar in Fading Suns?

There's no shortage of suspects, mystical, mutant, alien, or otherwise, in the setting that could take the place of the Vampire Conspiracy.

I plan to put together a mini-campaign for this, but I need to find a strong hook for the campaign. In the meantime, here's a snapshot of one of my notes for it from last year:

Because of the procedural-friendliness of Gumshoe systems, I was trying to figure out a kind of "monster of the week" approach, intertwined with a spooky X-files feel against a dark space opera campaign.

Perhaps with a bit more discipline, I'll be able to finish mini-document of it and post it online.

Tradecraft Tuesday: I'm happy to say, that's "Classified"

If you're a fan of the old James Bond RPG, you may be interested in what is essentially a retroclone of the venerable (but oh-so-smooth system) game.

The RPG is called Classified, was written by Joseph Browning and published by Expeditious Retreat press.

There's a nice review of the preview of this game by Gary Brown at www.modus-operandi.co.uk that talks about how the system has been refined and streamlined for the moder era, but still retains that old school espionage feel.

In true armchair game fashion, I've only ever read the classic James Bond RPG, never ran it. Played in a single session of an adventure. But I'm sorely tempted by the Classified RPG, and the adventure Operation Rogue Lion.

I've posted before on my fascination with the genre, and have also posted my interest in getting a Night's Black Agents game going.

So, I'll be feeding that interest every Tuesday I can cough up a post topic. Or a review!

Night's Black Agents: U.N.I.T. Freelancers

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Macbeth, Act III, Scene 2

I was thinking about a Night's Black Agents + Esoterrorists + Mutant City Blues: a different system for a U.N.I.T. meets Torchwood campaign in America. And was looking at old TV shows for additional inspiration.

Instead of working for the government (which the U.S. might take issue to, given that they probably have a slew of anti-alien agencies already), I was thinking of a campaign where a small U.N.I.T. CRASH team is assembled from freelancers, ala Global Frequency meets Masquerade.

For the spooky, conspiracy-laden humans vs. aliens atmosphere, I'd look at shows like:

• X-files
• Kolchak
• Fringe

For the setting, with super-spies, private eyes, talented amateurs, and multi-national agencies:

• I-Spy
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• the Equalizer
• The A-team
• MacGyver
• The Pretender
• Stingray
• Strange Luck
• Charlie's Angels
• Burn Notice

For banter and ensemble teams:

• Magnum PI
• Simon & Simon
• Remington Steele
• Moonlighting
• Ten Speed & Brownshoe
• Castle
• Starsky & Hutch

For Science Fiction / Fantasy Weirdness:

• The Six Million Dollar Man
• The Bionic Woman
• The Immortal
• The Tomorrow People
• Sapphire & Steel
• Torchwood
• Warehouse 13
• Knight Rider
• UFO
• Project UFO
• Fringe

RPG Blog Carnival: Mining Genres for a Campaign (part 01)

This month's RPG Blog Carnival is about campaign creation. Since my blog occasionally tackles different entries into campaigns that never quite get run, I figured it was a good fit -- it'll help me revisit a lot of started-but-not-finished ideas for campaigns.

And believe me, there are a lot.

My first stop: genre mining.

Genre Mining

Even if you're very familiar with a particular genre, you'll find that -- as a GM -- you want to get in touch with what aspects of the genre you want to appear in your games. Likewise, you'll want to find out (or perhaps just assess in your mind) what your players may be expecting in your genre-inspired game.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel -- there are certainly a number of books from HERO and GURPS that tackle entire genres and the difficulties of translating them into games. I loved both GURPS Space and Star Hero not only as spectacular genre sourcebooks, often dealing with many Science Fiction subgenres and tropes along with the difficulties of implementing them in RPGS.

However, the exercise of writing down your own take may be worth your while, particularly if you see some unique concerns with regard to your proposed schedule of play, play style, and number of players.

This last bit actually came to the fore when I began thinking about an espionage campaign. Here are all the posts that I did on the issue of the 'adventuring party' size in an espionage game:

• Genre Mining: Solos & Super-spies
• Genre Mining: The Differentiated Duo
• Genre Mining: A Team of Specialists

Next: Mining a sub-genre

Armchair Review: The Zalozhniy Quartet

I posted my review of this Night's Black Agents adventure earlier in the year on RPGNow, but forgot to put it here:

t

Once you've settled in to your regularly Night's Black Agents sessions, I highly recommend The Zalozhniy Quartet.

Set in post-Cold War Europe, agents must unearth the nature of the conspiracy from clues, and a tangled web of allies, foils, and enemies.

I liken it to a shorter Masks of Nyarlathotep, wherein the campaign is best run when the Director (GM) has read through all the materials, has prepared and understood where all the events, clues, NPCs, and linkages are in advance so as to maximize the enjoyment and reward of the players when (if?) they overcome this slew of antagonists and difficulties.

Unlike Masks, the author has gone out of his way to enable running the four segments of the campaign in any order! This means that there are options for each segment to be modified if it is played 2nd, 3rd or last (and therefore a climactic ending) in the campaign.

As a resource for a supernaturally touched post-Cold War Europe, it also has a lot of material to mine and reuse in future campaigns.

I'm a bit daunted by the modern day espionage campaign; perhaps I always was. But when I remind myself that a campaign can be grounded in cinematic versions of espionage, then I can probably try my hand at it.

There is a certain level of commitment to this type of campaign, certainly. And my old GM muscles want me to actually insert it into an ongoing campaign. But I think it actually might work as is, sort of a tip of the hat to British TV series -- a complete season in one go.

Armchair Review: Night's Black Agents

Click the pic to see the RPGNow page.

This little gem from Kenneth Hite and Pelgrane Press comes at a really good time for me. Of course, I've written about my fascination for the Cold War era espionage genre, as well as the more action-packed Top Secret type of game, and other subgenres of the modern spy story before. But I think that with modern TV shows like Homeland and Rubicon, my interest in modern espionage has resurfaced.

Unfortunately, I'm just not up to keeping track of all the various socio-political alliances, tensions and betrayals all around the world for such a campaign. And I'm envious of those who can. I'd been thinking of creating an international evil spy / paramilitary organization, sort of a cross between S.P.E.C.T.R.E., T.H.R.U.S.H., and the WEB from Top Secret / S.I. when I heard about this RPG in development and decided to wait.

Here's the blurb from RPGNow:

The Cold War is over. Bush’s War is winding down.

You were a shadowy soldier in those fights, trained to move through the secret world: deniable and deadly. 

Then you got out, or you got shut out, or you got burned out. You didn’t come in from the cold. Instead, you found your own entrances into Europe’s clandestine networks of power and crime. You did a few ops, and you asked even fewer questions. Who gave you that job in Prague? Who paid for your silence in that Swiss account? You told yourself it didn’t matter. 

It turned out to matter a lot. Because it turned out you were working for vampires.
Vampires exist. What can they do? Who do they own? Where is safe? You don’t know those answers yet. So you’d better start asking questions. You have to trace the bloodsuckers’ operations, penetrate their networks, follow their trail, and target their weak points. Because if you don’t hunt them, they will hunt you. And they will kill you. 

Or worse.

Fantastic internal illustration from the book.

Now that Night's Black Agents is finally out, I've gotten ahold of a copy and haven't been disappointed. Here's my shortish review:

There is much to love about this RPG. First, it extends the already interesting Gumshoe game system used for such games as Ashen Stars, Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists and Mutant City Blues. I've been itching to try out the investigation mechanics for Gumshoe, and this recent incarnation and extension of the ruleset affords me such additional rules the combat and cinematic chase rules to support the espionage/thriller genre. 

Next, it also provides rule options to help emulate and support various subgenres of the spy thriller. There are rules for the interestingly-named subgenres: Burn ("psychological damage and the cost of heroism"), Dust ("gritty, lo-fi espionage"), Mirror ("hidden agendas and shifting alliances"), and Stakes ("higher purposes than mere survival or 'getting the job done'"). In addition to the Drives and Sources of Stability that we've seen in other flavors of Gumshoe, the Trust / Betrayal mechanics are particularly interesting and volatile in a espionage game (reminds me of Cold City / Hot War)! 

Gunplay and cinematic chase rules look good from the emulation space, though I'd be remiss if I didn't say that proper playtesting should be done on my part before I can say if it's to my taste. 

As for the vampire aspect -- great latitude is given to the GM and the players is choosing the type of vampires they're fighting (which is good to keep the surprises coming in a thriller), and the organization creation rules married with the classic genre pattern of starting at the bottom of the conspiracy pyramid and moving up through the ranks until dealing with the Big Bad (to borrow some Buffy terminology here) has really ratcheted up my desire to play this game as soon as possible! That's made easier by the sample vampires and their various minions also included in the book. 

Well done, Pelgrane Press -- I look forward to future releases in this line!

So I've started up character creation for a PBEM game with some friends, and hope to put this thing through its paces. I'm already thinking of how the Vampire: The Masquerade elements might be reformed into some kind of more criminal, espionage, world domination-y spin.

Armchair Reviews: Leverage -- Hitters, Hackers and Thieves

Leverage has shot to the forefront of my go-to RPGs for modern day espionage, detective, and criminal campaigns. I've been reading through both the RPG and the sourcebooks, and I really like how it's put together.

Age of the Geek, baby.

It is still counter to my preferred simulationist game system approach, but it causes less coredumps to my GM operating system than another system like FATE. Perhaps Cortex Plus will be my gateway drug to FATE, but for now, I'm liking it.

I think that the use of the polyhedral dice probably have a comforting effect.

Anyway, here's the first of my reviews on the Leverage sourcebooks:

I kind of gave the Leverage RPG a pass when it came out because -- I didn't watch the show.

But after I finally encountered first the Smallville RPG, then the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying RPG, I decided to pick up Leverage to give it another try. Then I decided to take a look at the sourcebooks for it.

This book, Leverage: Hitters, Hackers, and Thieves, is an indispensable tool for both players and GMs (Fixers in this RPG) interested in rounding out and deepening the capabilities, backgrounds, rivals, and approaches for these types of roles in the game. While it does not (and cannot) give an encyclopedic account of all things Hitter/Hacker/Thief, it does bolster the treatment given in the rulebook with key points in the history and rationale of the role, very flavorful talents to broaden the cinematic treatment in the game, and some Master Class options to make the PCs and NPCs even more awesome than they already are.

There are also additional rules for Locations in this sourcebook to make things more interesting for the Thief (and everyone else) in your Crew. As a bonus, you get several technology-centric Jobs to take your Crew through.

In addition, the book is written clearly, while successfully providing both information and flavor to further reinforce the genre of the game.

If you're into Leverage, pick it up!

As a result, I may begin revisiting my old 'spies' posts regarding the genre of espionage. This game, in particular, makes me think classic Mission: Impossible TV show scenarios are possible to run in an RPG.

And yes, I have finally seen the first season of Leverage.

Genre Mining: A Team of Specialists

In an attempt to complete many of my interrupted series, here's the last of my campaign premises for the espionage genre.

Three, Four, or More

Well, unless you're a smaller gaming group this isn't really a choice. If everyone wants to play a continuing character (rather than the 'guest-star' option which you should really reserve for players who show up late or are unpredictable in their attendance), then you've gotta take the team of specialists approach.

In this approach, different members of the team have certain specializations that they're awesome at, and other areas that they're not so hot at. Ideally, the team should be well-rounded so that all the missions have all the bases covered.

I only really have one TV example that really comes to mind right now.

Mission: Impossible

A game based on the campaign premise inspired by this TV show will need the following archetypes:

The Mastermind -- this is the role that Dan Briggs had in the 1st season, and Jim Phelps had in all subsequent incarnations until he was unceremoniously killed off in the modern movie series. He is the primary contact with the folks handing out missions, puts together his Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team from a list of specialists, and does the core planning for the mission.

This role can be one of the players who really likes planning things out, or it can be an NPC who essentially lays out the details of the mission that the rest of the PCs have to enact.

The Face -- a beautiful woman who's also a fast thinker and capable of keeping in character, this role performed by top model and actress Cinnamon Carter (descendant of John Carter? Nah…) when she would essentially lower the guard of the powerful male figures either as a flirtatious woman of substance or as a sophisticated damsel in distress.

There is a certain immunity to the criticism that some women might raise about a female spy being so beautiful that this role imparts: part of the role's requirement is being a femme fatale! She can't be plain looking or merely attractive (unless the mission role calls for it); she must be attention grabbing. And this normally requires it being more that skin deep: charisma, social skills, and class are also a requirement.

Of course, the other roles which were traditionally filled with males can certainly be shifted to female ones.

Gadget Guy -- an expert in electronics and mechanics, apparently with sufficient access to difficult-to-get materials, would build all the necessary gear for implementing this portion of the mission. This was the role of "Barney" Collier.

To prevent this role from becoming a "build and turnover" type of role, the type of gear he builds should probably require him to operate them or perhaps have some kind of inherent fragility, necessitating his presence for fixes or tweaks.

Strong Man -- ostensibly the muscle in the team, the nature of espionage missions often relies on this as a last resort. "Willy" Armitage (Armitage, eh? Interesting) also acted as a critical support character, often procuring a lot of the gear needed by the mission, and graced with excellent timing and surprising social skills.

Chameleon -- master of disguise, accents, languages, mimicry, and sometimes magic tricks and sleight of hand, this role was performed by Rollin Hand and then later The Great Paris.

Of course, every frickin' member of the team has had to play a role -- some more challenging than others -- during the course of a mission, so this is certainly a way to keep the game fresh. In fact, I remember one mission where Rollin had to portray a deaf man, and had to pretend he didn't hear a gun being fired right beside his ear (CON roll? Fate points?)!

Furthermore, some episodes involved the mission going wrong somehow, requiring the team to compensate and adjust, just like RPG adventures!

New Game: Agents of S.W.I.N.G.

Well, this a bit odd. As I've been working on the series of Genre Mining posts on espionage -- a new game has appeared on RPGNow that's currently at the top of the list of bestsellers.

It's called Agents of S.W.I.N.G. and is apparently a Fate-powered game system meant to emulate the types of spy movies and TV shows from the 60s and 70s.

I heard that it was really popular at a convention in the UK, and the cover looks very reminiscent of the James Bond / I Spy / The Avengers opening sequences.

I have no idea how good it is in terms of mechanics, setting, or genre resources.

It does look interesting though, but that could just be because it's heavy on my mind now.

Genre Mining: The Differentiated Duo

Since we’re looking at mining the spy movie / TV show genre, it makes sense to look at examples of protagonists that number more than one (as in the Lone Spy / Super-Spy campaign premise) because, well, we normally have more than one PC when gaming.

Duo Dynamics

Having two regulars as the primary protagonists works well, because the tendency is to have the two characters capable in all the areas they’re expected to be good (much in the same way that the Lone Spy is a well-rounded agent) but normally those two are differentiated in different ways.

Some of the classic TV shows are good examples of this:


I Spy

The two characters involved were Kelly Robinson (played by Robert Culp) as an international tennis player and Alexander “Scotty” Scott (played by Bill Cosby) as his tennis coach. Both are considered equal agents, with Culp’s Robinson being slightly more senior.

However, Cosby’s Scott was a multi-lingual conservative Rhodes scholar, while Culp’s Robinson was a more athletic, think-on-his-feet agent closer to the mold of James Bond. Both were portrayed as mature adults, however, and tended to make poignant observations as often as they dropped light-hearted witticisms. And the banter and chemistry (on and off screen) between the two were fantastic.

Of note is also the cover story: I really found the cover story here – tennis players – refreshing. Including that in a game premise adds a layer of Bruce Wayne / Batman to the story, instilling a layer of tension (keeping a cover story during a mission) in the course of the game.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Here we have Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin as field agents for the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.)  -- an agency with agents from all corners of the globe apparently acting in the interests of the world at large.

Solo is suave, confident, with a relaxed style of charisma. Kuryakin is enigmatic, thoughtful, and intensely guarded.

In addition, both would subtly and boldly push forward the ideological premises of their native countries in the course of their missions while remaining heroic and intensely professional.

The Avengers

There were several teams of the British Avengers TV show, but the ones that I really saw were the John Steed – Emma Peel and the John Steed – Tara King duos.

For me, the most memorable formula is the experienced professional + talented amateur combination personified by the John Steed and Emma Peel period of the series.

John Steed is the picture of the classic British gentleman: impeccably dressed, outwardly conservative, seldom perturbed, incredibly knowledgeable, effortlessly cultured, and – of course -- skilled in a variety of agent skills: combat, vehicles, etc.

Emma Peel is one of the early feminist heroines that broke the damsel-in-distress mold: strong, independent, a master of multiple combat disciplines, a genius in various scientific arenas, and constantly dressed in far-from-conservative outfits that – to this day – hold her up as a fashion icon.

Summary

In essence, having a duo allows the players to have player character who are more or less equal (an certainly capable of taking on a mission on their own) yet allowing some space to differentiate themselves from one another NOT in terms of capability but in terms of style, personality, and focus.

Top Secret Potential Characters in Sprechenhaltestelle

I unearthed my old Top Secret modules and rulebooks and found the following names that you may wish to use as NPC names and aliases for your modern campaign in the Sprechenhaltestelle module.

Assassins
"The Silencer" - a gentleman and scholar
"Kingbreaker" - a not-so-nice guy
"Shark" - ex-marine, ex-bouncer, pool hustler
"Dr. Firestone" - explosives expert
"Omega" - last person victims see

Confiscators
"Pigeon" - ex-con prisons expert
"Whitecollar Harry" - computer / electronics expert
"Green Thumb" - counterfeiter
"Fingers" Malone - master of sleight of hand
Wes Smith - firearms and ammo provider

Investigators
"The Inquisitor" - veteran investigator
"Glass Eyes" - typical window-watcher
"Ratchet" - safecracker
Lafayette True, righter of wrongs
Melville Sharp, wronger of rights

I really liked these intro characters, though I was more mystified by the module than I was for any D&D intro modules. Is there some inherent difficulty in running the espionage genre as opposed to the fantasy genre (at least for the very young)?

Genre Mining: Solos and Super-Spies

One of the earliest RPGs I ever
owned.

When I first began thinking about tackling this genre, what struck me was the wide variety of inspirations available for it -- all of which add to and muddle up the understanding of it. Furthermore, there are related genres that sometimes cross over (plausibly) into the same space as the espionage genre, confusing things further.

Before we go on, therefore, I'd like to take some time to explore my understanding and classification of some of these sub-genres, meta-genres, uber-genres, etc. But instead of arguing genre, I'd like to tackle them as distinct campaign premises, and explore them from the point of view of creating an RPG campaign around that campaign premise.

So here's the first one:

The Lone Spy / Super Spy

James Bond is naturally the first character one thinks of when talking about the espionage genre. Suave, debonair, and deadly, Mr. Bond has enjoyed numerous novels, a slew of movies, and a ton of imitators. He is also -- appropriately -- a good example of the lone spy that becomes a super spy.

A lone spy is surprisingly close to real life espionage, but different enough to be enjoyable in play. Does anyone really want to play the role of a deep cover mole, spending years of life in obscurity waiting to be activated? Well you could, in a one-shot adventure. But it's not much of a campaign.

Instead, you get to play the operative sent into the field with a prepared cover story and fake IDs. You're out to gather intelligence, to meet up with assets, to counter the agendas of enemy agents, to secure valuable prototypes or to sabotage the plans of your enemies. You don't get to carry weapons unless they fit in with your cover story. You don't get a neat gadget from your Tech division each mission you go out on.

This is exactly what we see of Bond in the movie Dr. No: he isn't an expert in all things yet; he doesn't get multiple super-spy gadgets yet; and he comes across as M's classic "blunt instrument".

Subsequent films, including the respectable run of the Roger Moore era, he truly becomes the quintessential super-spy: a polymath capable of correcting the so-called experts; a martial savant displaying impressive training in a variety of combat disciplines and equipment (how many vehicles is he qualified to drive or pilot in combat anyway?). And he seems to have a ridiculous budget for his gadgets. God only knows why he keeps dropping his name -- the entire espionage community knows it!

Ridiculousness aside, he's not superhuman. He has his frailties, not the least of which is the tendency to die if he's shot in the head or dropped from a great height. He actually comes across like an RPG character who's been played for years and has garnered so much experience that he doesn't quite now where to spend it.

Of course, a lone spy doesn't have to become a super spy. Patrick McGoohan's Dangerman / Secret Agent Man character John Drake remained solidly in the lone spy genre throughout the series. Not only that, every episode was nail-bitingly tense -- certainly not the escapist, wish-fulfillment stuff of Bond. But it was just as entertaining a different way, though marathoning it might lead to stress.

And based on the difficulties that he encountered during those missions -- difficulties brought on by his opponents and his employers -- it's no wonder he resigned and became The Prisoner. (Not official but it's clear it was meant to be the same character.)

Anyway, as a campaign premise it can be pretty limited. It's a two player campaign (GM and Player), possibly more, but all other Players get to be supporting characters who don't necessarily continue into the next mission. What if they want their own chance in the limelight?

Well, that leads us into the next campaign premise: the Differentiated Duo.