For Day 12 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge I am using The Spy Game RPG. I had seen this book at my local gaming store. It is an espionage game using 5th edition ruleset from the world’s most famous roleplaying game rules. I just hadn’t been able to pull the trigger on the price for the book (perhaps I would have if there was a game that I could have joined at the time). It sat on my wishlist waiting to see if the price would drop, and it did. In 2023 DriveThruRPG had a series of themed sales in September with one of them being espionage games. So now I have a PDF of the game that I wanted to use for the challenge.
The PDF is 271 pages long with the character creation process starting on page 10. The character sheet is two pages long.
After using the name “Sir Richard Hammond” for my Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme entry I received a lot of humorous feedback. While The Spy Game can be a serious RPG, I was inspired to name this character Agent James May (Code Named: Captain Slow) a special transport driver for UNITY. After creating a concept we get into the steps of creating the character.
Step one is to choose your class. I had seen a Transporter/Driver type class in other espionage roleplaying games, but I couldn’t find it as a class in The Spy Game. It turns out the Transporter is a Technician Archetype that I can select when Mr. May reaches second level. So I selected the Technician class. It still fits since the real-world James May would over-explain the technical details on the show. I wrote down the class details on the character sheet.
Step two is picking a background, or what Mr. May was doing before he became an espionage agent. Academic was tempting until I saw Motorist. I wrote down the character features that this background provided. This also included the four background traits which appear to be quotes that would describe your character.
Now we are finally to rolling the ability scores. These are the standard found in 5E. They can be generated by rolling or purchase. I’ve never been a fond of purchasing ability scores, so let’s see what the dice give us. It gives several rolling options, but I’m going to go with Heroic. Roll 2d6+6 and assign to the abilities that I want it to go to. When you select your background, it adds to the ability scores.
Step four was the finishing details. Starting hit points (max for class plus CON bonus), armor class, etc. I searched for all of these and added them to the sheet. The RAW states that each agent has their own standard equipment which includes weapons, armor and tools. Then if anything extra is needed, there is a mission budget. Apparently I get two gadgets, but I don’t see which ones to pick from. If I could, I’d add the gadgets to my vehicle. So I think I’m done, here is the character sheet.
Afterthoughts:
I’ve only played Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition a few times at conventions. I’ve never really been in a campaign, so there were a few times I had to look things up which slowed down the creation process. It would have been good to have a GM to answer questions. I even pulled out the D&D 5e Players Handbook out just to make sure I was understanding a few things. But I think I got it.
I liked the use of quotes to define the different background traits. I need to track down other characters to see if they have the same thing.
Overall things made sense. I’d like to see how a gaming session is run. I could see myself playing and homebrewing for this game.
Additional Notes:
This is the second character sheet where the logo for the game is on the second sheet. I’m not certain about the logic behind this decision. Not enough room on the first page? Were they figuring that the second sheet would be looked at more? It made me scratch my head.
On my entry for Basic Fantasy 4th Edition I had noted that a participant had placed my username in the Dungeon Master entry. I was reminded that this same entry also appeared on the RPGGeek message board as well. Several participants have posted on multiple message boards and social media sites.
Another blog was found and added to the links section of the Character Creation Challenge site. I was able to find this one as well from the history of sites that linked to mine. There was also one for Palladium, but I couldn’t find anything on their message board so I don’t know if it was a generic reference or a reference to the challenge.
Coming Up Next:
Star Ace
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