2300AD:  Spy games.

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Introduction and General Notes

This is the Introduction Section to a 2300AD "Campaign Kit" that contains the following:

This Introduction.  (Naturally),

Customizing Characters, Part 1.  (Skills and Careers)

Customizing Characters, Part 2.  (Friends)

Spytactics- tips and notes for game masters and players

Gadgets for spies

In separate sections there will be an assortment of Episodes- scenarios.  These are divided into sections that players can read, and sections for game masters only.

Some years ago, I created a 2300AD campaign.  My campaign was largely an effort to defeat the bugaboos that had plagued science fiction based RPG's up to that time.  I saw in 2300AD a chance to do something with a little more flare.

A few of the Bugaboos: Part of the problem with any science fiction based RPG is scope.  It's so BIG.  There's all kinds of planets and places.  As one essential book puts it, space is really, really big.  If transport is readily available,  players will have their characters zipping all over the place, quickly outrunning the places the gamemaster has prepared for them.  The gamemaster will invariably use all kinds of gimmicks to box them into a place, and the feel is lost.  (you've um, entered the um,  the vast plain of white squares)   On the other hand, (You'll find I use that expression a lot here) if transport is not available, the players stay confined, but then it seems such a waster- why can't we ever go to all those OTHER places out there?  Such a  terrible waste, all those places the players can't go to.

Another bugaboo is knowledge.  The world as experience by the character is invariably richer than that experienced by the player.  The character will know more than the player- he grew up in this universe, the

player is just visiting.  One solution to this problem is to incorporate things the player already knows.  2300 is ideal for this.  We don't know who the Zorglons from Planet Zemu are; we know who the French are.  And the technology is not too out of whack.  Except for the stutter-thingamajiggy, if we don?t know how something works, there's some guy with a dozen pens in his shirt pocket who does.

And then there is purpose- just what are we doing here?  If the game is not built around a purpose right from the start, things can get pretty boring, or risk falling into those terrible RPG cliches- let's go into the tavern and see if anyone is talking in hushed tones about a missing treasure/weapon/scientist's daughter/alien artifact.   I am a firm believer in giving a campaign a Theme.  Let the players develop all the ?side interests? they want to, but give them a general purpose:  Make money/explore worlds/save humanity/ kill bug eyed aliens, etc.

Finally, the heart of the RPG is the story, and the heart of the story is the character, who should be something special, beyond the ordinary.    I believe players do not want to run just plain Joe space guy. A few of the RPG's based on popular sci fi movies present the familiar movie characters as the Ultimate DemiGods of Characters.  The ones that players will never create unless they play forty hours a week.  But who wants that?  Everyone wants to play a Principal Character doing Important Things right from the start.  This is what makes things interesting.

And so, a campaign was developed around the following:

The characters would be members of a "trouble shooting" agency, an ultra secret organization that tackled extremely difficult assignments for their government.  I decided to use Mission Impossible (the television show, not the abominable movies) as a model.  For those who don?t remember, Mission Impossible worked like this.  Each episode, Jim Phelps, the team leader, would be given some absurd task by a shadowy government official.  He relied on exceptionally talented agents,  exotic technology, clever schemes designed to con and mentally manipulate the opposition, and the fact that in TV land, merely copying the pseudo-eastern European accent of the bad guys meant you could sound like a native speaker.    Using this as a base gave me a number of good campaign features.  First, the characters never had to worry about finding the next mission.   None of the ludicrous "let's go into the spaceport tavern and see who's hiring adventurers".  Yecch.  All the exposition was cut and dried right from the start:  Here's what you have to do.   Second, the characters were truly Special.  They were not the average Joe-spaceguys.  They were Top Secret Agents.  Third, I could give them nifty toys to play with.  Fourth, the missions, Like Mission Impossible episodes, required that the players create detailed plans.  This could take them hours.  I could lay a mission on them, and as they spent the rest of the night discussing amongst themselves, I could get a jump on prepping the upcoming "scenes", taking my cues from their ideas and "casting" the NPC's they would run into.    (Note to game masters:  Make LOTS of detailed NPC's, but do not fix them in places until you have to.  If it becomes clear that the character plan will involve the Venezuelan Minister of Justice, (or if the one of the players asks for information on the guy) and you haven't predicted this, at this time cast one of your pre-made NPC?s  into the role.  Replace him ASAP with new pre-made, uncast NPC's.

I adjusted the background of the standard 2300AD universe to better fit what I wanted to do, and to lend greater flexibility, and because I did a lot of this before GDW released a lot of books- it was them who failed to conform to my campaign universe, I told myself.     Here are a couple of assumptions- how well they fit into what's usually regarded as "canon" is not the issue, they worked well with the campaign I wrote.  I firmly believe that game masters must tailor their worlds to the kind of stories they want.

1.        National Power is a lot more evenly distributed- Less of a "France, then second tier, then a bunch of runners up, then the poor non-space nations."  More of a small upper tier, larger lower tiers, with more powers in space, more complex competition.

2.Things given in sourcebooks are to be taken as examples, not absolutes.  Never let your stories be painted into a corner.  Just because it does not list a Canadian orbital habitat in a certain system does not mean one does not exist.  So, there tends to be more of everything, and this has three effects.  First, what I call "nooks and crannies", the little crevices of civilization where improper things can happen.  Second, the players can do serious stuff without uprooting the entire back story of the campaign.   Third, more possibilities.  In Mission Impossible, fictitious nations were created frequently, just so characters in stories could occasionally topple a government without ever really effecting the whole world.  Flaboonia had a palace coup, the Team again earned their paychecks, the world muddled on.

3.Nations tend  to pursue, whenever possible, subtle, sneaky solutions to problems.  War is too dangerous, too expensive.  Passe.  Only fools start them.  Better to quietly remove the people you don't want to see in power.  A true master sets those people up so they remove themselves.

4.Centuries of easy transport and some social upheavals have long ago smeared the ethnicity of world's nations.  Different nations find their raison d'etre more in  style, policy, and format than they do common genetic heritage.

5.        Although there are few formal alliance structures, some nations cooperate informally.  Nations which tend to cooperate with America in covert matters include Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Cantonese China, Russia, Texas, Latvia, and Palestine.  The purpose of this was twofold:  increase the realm of plot settings, and allow for some range of player nationalities.  (We had to accommodate one Latvian.)

6. Borders were not always what 2300 AD sourcebooks said they were.  They were where I needed them.

7. This is a big issue- bad guy countries.  No sharp line between good and evil, but one of the premises of my campaign was that with ethnicity becoming less of a factor, the raison d'etre of nation-hood was its guiding philosophy.   Each nation had a style and way of doing things all its own, and often these conflicted.   The Laissez-Faire Americans and the Military Government Mexicans would never see eye to eye.  Brazil had its Church, Russia had its Oligarchy of Old Families, etc, everybody offered a different approach to the world.  The purpose of this was to have a world that was ethnically diverse, but still having sharp divisions between nations.  But there has to be bad guys, serious ones.  Most 2300AD games with human bad guys seem to pick on the French.  I picked on Mexicans, various criminal and terrorists organizations, Manchurians, Venezuelans- use what bad guys to want.

You can make up whatever top secret organization you want.  It's purpose is to act in the national interest, by doing things that aren't normally admitted to.  Certainly not legal.  Sometimes, not even nice.  For

maximum flexibility here I've merely called this the Agency.   I'll repeat this a few times in different places:  For game masters, go loose.  The less you define the better.  Define in detail what you need, be vague about the rest.  If you draw up in detail the organization chart for the Agency your player characters are assigned to, it will only get in your way in the future.  Bring in pieces if you need them.  If, one day, your story requires that they have an office on the moon, poof its there.  Your characters are going to be "Action Officers'- these are people who actually go out and do things, not always nice, generally not legal, in the service of their nation and at times its allies.  They will not need to know the whole make up of their Agency, and chances are only a few in the Agency know who they are.  If you want, they can be attached to different agencies, a floating team of specialists passed between agencies, possibly between nations, as needed.  We did this a lot.

You?ll probably want to adjust your game your own way.  This is important, a good gamemaster must be completely at home in the game world and this is easiest if it's the world he wants.  Just keep in mind the keys to a spy based campaign:  Lots of options, complicated world, nuances and subtleties.

The game allows quite a range of characters.  As I'll discuss later, I don't think 2300 is fairly balanced with some characters getting far fewer initial skills than others, merely because they are in different careers.  I handed out ?bonus skills? to even things up.  I also gave another option:  Characters could opt for college before a career.  This gave them an automatic term in the Academic career and still allowed two different careers after, if they wished.  But, a broad range is a good thing.  One Troubleshooter or Field Agent is vital, and if there is only one, this should be the '"team leader".    Others can be anything, although one decent "muscle" character with law enforcement or military background is handy, as is an extralegal character with skills like disguise and forgery.   Computer, Information Gathering, and Stealth are crucial skills, make sure at least one character can cover each with strong scores.   If you have the bases covered, any other character can fit in.  We had a Merchant- who would use his skills and contacts to set up convincing, authentic covers, a Lawyer, who was good at digging up information as well as making legal trouble to harass target individuals,  and a scientist, who created various "special effects".  There should be no less than four characters, and no more than seven.  (this can include regular NPC's).

You may wish to add skills and careers to the ones in the game.  I found "Heavy Equipment Operator", "Sleight of Hand",  ''Arts" and "Electronic Warfare" to be good additions, along with skills in various oddities for character rounding "freebies".   Allow languages to be learned in lieu of skills.

Most player groups balk at having one of their own in charge, but one character should be so designated.  This is not to say the others have no input, of course they all should, but it is a government organization, after all, and one person should be in charge.

Existing characters can be incorporated- a character who shows the right stuff, for example, may be contacted and recruited.

I recommend my section on "customizing characters".

While the characters are in the process of being created, they should be told about the Agency for which they work.   In my campaign, it was a joint American and Allied agency, a "Special Task Group".  You can make it what you wish, but try for something that will not hem you in.  Don't be definitive in the design.  You won't need it.  The characters are like a 'cell'.  They have no need to know everything.

Start them out with a small and easy scenario.   Here they will learn there is a format to this.  This format is as follows:

First, there is an initial briefing.   They get an assignment.  M:I fans will remember the show's signature opening.  Jim Phelps would be in some location somewhere, and a contact would hand him a tape recorder (they had tape recorders back then) and an envelope with photos and additional information.  The voice on the tape would start "Hello Jim!  The man you are looking at is" ...  The assignment would be concisely summed up:  "Your mission, if you decide to accept it"... (Delete this part.  Jim Phelps ALWAYS accepted the mission, but RPG players will test the limits and drive you nuts by saying, maybe we don't want to accept.  Just tell them "Your Mission Is")  The recording would end with the well known warning that if they were caught or killed, basically tough noogies, and then: "This recording will self destruct in five seconds", although in later episodes it was 'Please dispose of this recording in the usual manner'.    In the campaign it worked a bit differently.  The whole team would be summoned together and they would all get to hear the initial briefing.

Following the Initial Briefing the Team gets the Information Package.

The information package contains the following

Further information relating to the goals of the mission.  The mission's goals will be of one or more of these types (though not all types be used on every mission):

Essential Objectives- Even if the mission is a spectacular failure, don't bother coming home without doing these.  Do these at any cost.

Critical Objectives- all of these must be achieved if the mission is to be a success, missing just one results in a mission failure.

Priority Objectives- non-completion is acceptable if all the Critical objectives are met, but these mean the difference between a marginal success and a major success.

Other objectives- while not the main thrust of the mission, these things should be performed if the opportunity exists and does not interfere with more important objectives.

As an example, supposing "Destroy the encryption chip"; and ";maintain absolute operational secrecy"; are both Critical Objectives.  If both cannot be met, the mission will be a failure, and the team should abort.   On the other hand, if "destroy the encryption chip"; is Essential, than it should be destroyed, even if the cover is blown, team members captured or killed, etc. It's that important.

After the mission goals, there will be information; this can be maps, descriptions, thumbnail biographies of key people, etc.  it represents the information already on hand from the intelligence community, as well as

common or easily obtainable knowledge.  Be thorough.  Remember, it represents information pieced together by professionals who will do what they can to give the agents the information they need.  The Agency will rarely reveal HOW this information came to be, they will use terms like "our sources indicate'', and "we have recently learned".  This is called compartmentalization.  Operations Teams typically do not Need to Know just how the information was obtained, and the Sources will not know what the Operations Team is going to do.  Everyone is safer that way.

Support:  Being important agents with important missions, the team is never really alone.  They have help.  This may include intelligence assets, for example, while the players are working on deceiving a target, the target's communications might be monitored.  If something particularly nasty must be done, military forces might be made available (generally, nations don't want to risk agents in battle, even though it happens from time to time.)  Other agencies may be helping, particularly if the operation is in friendly area.

In hostile areas, deep cover agents or sympathizers may provide information, or '"afe houses"; or assistance.  (typically, deep cover agents are exceedingly difficult to replace, and will not be used for specific

operations- that's what players do, they are the 'Operations Teams' brought in to accomplish a specific mission and allow the deep cover agent to remain unexposed.)

Toys:  At this point, the "technical department" may make available a few neat gizmos for the team to use.  In general, this should NOT be at the request of the players (Can I have a watch with a laser?) This is not a

candy store!  The techies work their ganuchkis off making these things, and making new, custom gear takes a long time.  The players will have to accept what is given.  On the other hand, if a player has an idea you really like and you think will advance the story, well what do you know, we just happen to have one.  Alternatively, or additionally, the agency might have an arsenal of specialty equipment, and the players should be encouraged to pull a few things from it for the mission.  Use great imagination in creating this arsenal.  In one Mission Impossible episode, the team made use of a trained cat.  Just remember, whatever the players are equipped with, they will be have to get in with, get out with, and keep secret.  ?operational security? and ?technical security? will always be Objectives, although importance may vary.  In serial fiction, one of the cliches is that Useful Gadgets will never show up twice, no matter how useful they were.  If you don?t want the mission to use something, declare that:  1)  another team has it.   2)  it?s being worked on.  3)  the boss took it up his country home this week, the grand kids are coming over.  4) we can?t find it.

Once the players have received the initial briefing, and the information package, let them devise a plan.  Make it an important point that they cannot proceed on the mission without a plan.  Especially in the early adventures, while they are getting the hang of it, make it a bureaucratic thing- they must submit their operations plan to the Director for approval.  In many games, the characters blunder through the plot, but that is too dangerous here.  A well thought  out plan, even if the actual operation departs from it, is essential.  While creating the plan, the players will most likely have additional questions.  If they ask something quick and obvious, give it to them.  If they ask something their characters could be reasonably expected to obtain quickly, (What is the Maglev schedule between Houston and Dallas?)  tell them the information is readily available, and their characters will be able to get it.  If it is something that may be buried in agency archives or in some database somewhere- and remember, the curse of intelligence operations in a high tech society is that information collection always exceeds analysis- make the location of the information a task, and remind them the clock is ticking on their mission.  Do the same with requests for assistance, support, and material:  from the moment they are handed their mission, time is counting, and they don't have a year and a day to prepare.  That's why they are paid.  To do the difficult stuff.  If it was easy anybody could do it.  If they are really desperate for more information, they could always leave an agent behind to do research while others begin the operation, it's a perfectly legitimate tactic.  Mission briefing and planning, ideally, should take a game session.  That way, at the end of the game session, they will have a plan, and you can get right into the operation next game session.  Also, between game sessions, you can prepare things based on their plan, and they will get ideas.  At a minimum, the plan should consider these:

Getting In.  This is fairly easy in friendly territory.  In other nations, especially hostile areas, much more difficult.  Outside of friendly territory Teams will have to be under cover from even before the time of entry, or hidden.  That is, you can arrive with false documentation, or do something daring like swim ashore from a submarine, or get smuggled in with some cargo.  It helps a team to split up, as it eliminates the 'hey, I saw those guys together before' clue that can tip off the opponent.

Cover.  You can't just walk around fully armed and blast away the bad guys, although, in certain situations, agents may operate openly as agents.  They may work as diplomats, with diplomatic immunity (very safe, very obvious, for beginners)  More often, they will either be in cover, masquerading as something else, or concealed, keeping their very existence a secret.  You can also operate in secrecy- your presence isn't disguised, it is totally hidden.  This is more dangerous, and is usually done when you have to get a person or piece of equipment to a place where it just has no right to be, cover or not.   A team may be split:  One member might work in cover, lets say as a smuggler, and make contact with the target, while another member is hidden, waiting as a sniper,  in case things go wrong.

The Agency will help create a cover, and they will make false documentation available.  They will even back it up, so if your business card says you work for Acme Imports and someone calls the number, they will reach the Acme Imports switchboard, a front set up somewhere by the Agency, possibly even a real corporation set up for this role- like Air America in the Vietnam War era.   However, it is up to the Team to plan their own cover, and request what they need in the form of documentation, clothing, equipment to support it.   The Team should plan the cover around the mission, and the skills it can bring to bear.  Don't set a Team member up in a cover story he can't make convincing.   A few random skills can be of value here.

Further information needs:  The Team may need to know things not in the Information Package, information that is obtainable one way or the other, and is important to the plan.  The Plan should identify what  specific needs exist, and whose responsibility it is to find these things out.

Action:  Specifically, what will the agents due to accomplish the objectives?

Getting Out:  The flip side of getting in- it can be just as hard, especially if the action caused attention.  Best not to cause attention.

Abort Plan.   What should the agents do if things go bad?  Really bad?  What kind of signal will let them know, if normal communications have been cut off?

The Plan should consider the nature of the environment they are operating in.  Scenarios might be set in nations that are friendly, neutral, hostile, or openly at war- even the agency's home nation will be operating territory.  (Why would a super secret team work in their own nation?  Possible reason:  The case cannot be given to regular law enforcement, because they are suspect themselves, or it is believed their security has been compromised or may have been, or it is believed that the mission requires means and methods beyond the capability, or even beyond the knowledge, of regular security forces.)

Look over the scenarios, and customize them to your campaign, use what you want, change/disregard what you don't.  There is no order they must be played in, and they are not in increasing difficulty.  In fact, it's very easy to tweak the difficulty up or down.  Adding a few vicious guard dogs always makes it harder.

Paying characters:  Agents are not in it for the money.  They get paid as if they were military officers, but on the other hand, they tend to have good benefits.  They also get assigned stuff on a regular basis that they cannot buy.  They might be assigned an expense account for certain missions.  Often, this account will be part of their cover.  If the credit transaction is traced, for example, it may lead to Acme Imports.  Start new characters with some money in the bank and an apartment somewhere.  And maybe a fish tank.  Potted plants.  Socks and underwear.  Stuff.