Tag: Spy-Fi

Day 17 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge is here. And today we are using the White Lies 2nd Edition roleplaying game. Now if this sounds familiar, I used the White Lies 1st edition back in 2022 to create a character. It was based off of the D20 based White Box RPG that used the Open Gaming License (hence the name White Lies). After Wizards of the Coast had their disastrous OGL fiasco last January, the author wisely decided to remove all OGL items from this game and release a second edition. DwD Studios wasn’t the only publisher that decided to pull up stakes and head out to the land of Creative Commons licensees. This is also the reason we got a 4th edition of Basic Fantasy RPG.

The White Lies 2nd Edition PDF is 188 pages long. The character creation process starts on page 10. The character sheet is one page in length.

The ability assessment is the first step in creating an agent. In the 1st edition, the abilities were the familiar batch as seen in most D20 fantasy games. However with this 2nd edition the abilities have been re-tooled to resemble an espionage game with Toughness, Dexterity, Intellect, Discipline (self control) and Influence (physical appeal and charisma). I rolled a D20 five times and compare it to a chart. This gives a score from -2 to +5 and you assign one per ability. Since all of the scores rolled were nigher than a +2 added together (from the chart) I didn’t need to re-roll the abilities and I assigned them to the character sheet.

The next step is your Division Training. This is basically your class. After reading them over, I elected to go with the Elimination Division. I’m instructed to note all of the division qualification (aka skills) and details.

Step three is the outfitting. There are some items that each agent has automatically, pistol, operative kit with some stuff, etc. Then the division training also provides some additional items and another equipment kit of my choice. I then roll 3d6x100 for starting money to buy additional gear. In the Elimination Division I get two ammo upgrades for my weapons, but is that just clips of ammo or picking two of the improvements listed in the outfitting chapter? The pistol already had one ammo upgrade? I did a search in the PDF and I think it’s just spare clips.

The last step is the final assessment. Rank and merit is 1 and 0. Filled in stamina, defense, movement and initiative. Selected a second language. As for a name, we are going to pull up the handy dandy name generator and this guy is named: Jack Sterling. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

With the speed that was needed to get the product out, I can understand why the author went with AI generated graphics. The product was free to those who had purchased the 1st edition and it is PWYW afterwards. But some of the AI art still freaks me out for a second. I think its the eyes and some of the skin in the images. The guy in the center looks like he is losing his right eye. The eyes on the tiger on page 142 is like a cross-eyed lion. Some of the images looks like the skin is peeling off. But I did laugh at the “Typical Person” image that was used.

There are lots of good add-ons to this game both in the book and from the publisher’s social media (Me-We or Discord). I like the enemy organization charts to make up some opponents and master villains. I also liked the references to a possible campaign ideas using references like GI Joe, The A Team, RED, and more. There are quick write ups for everything from a mall cop (I also laughed at “some of them even have real guns”) to James Bond type superagents. Also included are details on aliens and supernatural creatures (needs zombies please) if the GM is so inclined to throw them at the agents.

The system was pretty straight forward and I could see the logical changes after dropping the OGL items. I liked how the new attribute names and how they were generated. It still seemed OSR with a new coat of paint. I really want to see how this plays at the table and I could easily see myself homebrewing for this system. I might even want to borrow the system (or some elements) for a core rulebook that I’ve got in mind to write up.

Additional Notes:

It has been a very cold and snowy day. I was wondering if I was going to get this character completed in time. Because of this, I haven’t had a chance to look for other sites/message boards that have been participating in the challenge. If I’m missing any from the link list, please let me know. Did I mention that I hate snow?

Coming Up Next:

Vintage Space

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

And welcome to Day 14 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Today we will be using Ninjas & Superspies Revised that was writen by Erick Wujick and published by Palladium Books in 1990. I picked up this book at a gaming swap meet at SaltCON-End of Summer for a decent price.

I saw several friends play a lot of the different Palladium games in the 90’s. I don’t know why I never got into those games. I’m sure they would have let me join the table if I had asked. I think it was a time that they were playing when I was working the graveyard shift. So let’s pretend that I’m not being hit by the dreaded scheduling curse and I can finally make a character for a game.

The physical book has 176 pages and is softbound. The ISBN number is 0-916211-31-2 with the original cover price of $14.95. The character creation steps start on page eight. The character sheet is one page long and can be found on page 173.

So I don’t have a concept for this character yet. No, he won’t be based on Jeremy Clarkson. The first step is to generate scores for the eight attributes. These are Intelligent Quotient (I.Q.), Mental Endurance (M.E.) which helps vs hypnotism, Mental Affinity (M.A.) which is charm and charisma, Physical Strength (P.S.), Physical Prowess (P.P.) which is dexterity, Physical Endurance (P.E.), Physical Beauty (P.B.) and Speed (Spd). I roll 3d6 to determine these scores. It doesn’t say I pick which score goes with which attribute so I’ll do them in order. One item of note, if I roll a 16, 17 or 18, I get to roll one more d6 and add the number. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any rolls in that range.

On step two we select the character’s O.C.C. aka Occupational Character Class. They are not listed here nor is there a referenced page number. Flipping through the book I found them on page 47. I like how these are broken down into five categories with several sub-categories each. Martial Artist, Espionage Agent, Free Agent, Gizmoteer and Mercenary. Of course I want to make an Espionage Agent, with Gadgeteer Agent being the final decision.

Step three, what martial arts forms and skills do I want to select for the character. According to the RAW the Gagetter Agent can choose any except for exclusive forms. I’m not a big martial arts aficionado so I stuck with Basic Hand-to-Hand. The O.C.C. gives a list of basic minimum skills. Then it lists the number of skills from different categories to choose from. There was quite a bit to write down, and I don’t know if I understand how the skill scores are generated. I had to do a lot of page hopping and I may have missed something.

Step four is listed as optional, but I’m going to use it because it involves dice rolling. It is the character’s background. I already know he’s going to be American (make it easy for me), but the rest I’m going to roll. So he’s 6’2″ and weighs 172 lbs. He is straight. No not the sexual orientation, straight as in he’s a “true believer” of his side. He was the third of five kids in his family. Apparently the GM rolls to see if the family is still alive or not. So I’ll skip that for now.

On step five we calculate the Hit Points, SDC (aka Structural Damage Capacity) and Chi. Wow, could they have made this any more complicated. You don’t just get a basic HP, you have to calculate your PE with your martial arts form with additional skills. He only has basic hand-to-hand. Nothing is listed in the Martial Arts Forms on page 83. Come on guys, this should be a simple step and not needing a masters degree. I really would have been leaning on an experienced GM here to help explain what this mess is. I think it’s the character’s P.E. score plus a D6 since he’s 1st level. Screw it, I’m going with that. SDC wasn’t any better. It’s the physical toughness of the body. Huh? Why separate these two? At least the score was determined by your OCC and not some unexplained mathematical formula. This character has a 10 SDC. And now the Chi, or living energy. (suddenly I’m hearing Yoda in my head) Perhaps this is something more on the martial arts side of the game that I have little interest in. It appears that since I didn’t take anything more than a basic hand-to-hand, the Chi score is the character’s Physical Endurance (PE) score.

Mercifully we are now to step six. Attribute bonuses (why this couldn’t have been next to the generate attributes step, I don’t know). Since this character had no attributes 16 or higher, he had no bonuses. That was quick.

Step seven is Buy Equipment. There is a starting cash listed in your OCC. Looking over at the equipment and weapons section, when I finally found it, was heavy on the martial arts side, not so heavy on the other equipment. I decided to skip it. Had this been an actual game I would have written something down, but I’m annoyed right now so this guy is going to have a weapon and some electronic doodads to help him do his job.

Step eight and we are selecting the alignment (good) and discipline (used if you are not using the basic alignments. Nope, not diving into that one, he’s just a good guy.

I think we are done because there are no more step listed (after going through pages 8 through 20 for the character creation process, not counting all of the page flipping to look up different items). I made another attempt to confirm what my skill scores would be (I was only provided with additions that was given to me in my skill programs) and there wasn’t even enough slots to write down all of these skills from my notes. So he’s good with electronics and gadgets but not much of a martial arts guy. Go figure.

Yea I guess I should pick a name. Quickly pulls up a random name generator. Luke Ward. Spy-guy. Here’s the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I had to chuckle at the disclaimers at the start of the book. Don’t think because your character knows Kung-Fu that you do. Yea, I’ve seen plenty of Mall Ninjas in my day.

So the character creation process started out good, then quickly descended into a quagmire of crunchiness. And not even the good kind. I wonder if I had seen the same thing when I first encountered the game and made a dodge roll then? When I was getting into what should have been basic calculations (like hit points), I was getting ready to throw the book away. While I may try to create a specific type of character in this game for an upcoming project, I doubt I’ll use this system or try to homebrew for it. I’m glad that I didn’t pay too much for the book.

Additional Notes:

There is one reader/participant out there who has been making Character Creation threads on various message boards out on the internet. I found another in my visitor’s history that I can see. If I can confirm it’s for the challenge, I add it to the links section on the Character Creation Challenge page. This latest one has been added. Thank you for attempting to get other RPGers involved. I see your efforts.

Coming Up Next:

Conan: Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

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

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Day 5 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge and I will be creating a character for the Top Secret S.I. system. So I’ve been waiting a long time for this entry. There is a little bit of a tragic backstory with me and this game. In the early days of my involvement in the role playing hobby I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. While a friend would have a copy of the original Top Secret espionage role playing game, we never had the chance to play.

When TSR released Top Secret S.I. in 1987, I picked up the original boxed set. Then I picked up the High Stakes Gamble expansion (I walked a long way through Tucson, Arizona to get that box). I lost count but eventually I had the majority of books for this system. But, I never had the chance to play it. I kept this collection when I (foolishly) sold off my D&D collection in the mid 90’s. As I move, and I moved a lot, I kept that collection with me. After one move, I couldn’t find the box. There is a saying that after 3-4 moves it’s the equivalent of a house fire. So somewhere along the line I lost the contents of that box. I kept hoping that I’d open up one of my many storage boxes (something I’ve been planning to get rid of) and I’d suddenly find the collection again, but I had my doubts of seeing it again.

I started looking at re-acquiring the books. However they are not available anywhere except for Ebay. And since these books were popular, they are usually expensive. I lucked out in 2023 when the first boxed set came up for auction at a reasonable price. Sure the box was hammered, but the books and other contents were in good condition. It even had the original dice still sealed in it’s bag. While I’ve kept the box in the shipping package, the books I’ve been able to use to create a character.

In the boxed set there is a Players Guide, an Administrators Guide, an Equipment Inventory, a GMs screen, some cardboard character standees and a foldout map of several generic locations. The Character Dossier (character sheet) is four pages long. There is a character creation summary on the font of the GMs screen with the process listed on page 5 of the Players Guide.

There are seven attributes for a character. STRength, REFlex, INTelligence, WILlpower, CONstitution, MOVement and DEXterity. These are generated by rolling a d6 (for the tens digit) and a d10 (for the ones digit) and adding 10 for the first five attribute in order. After I rolled these, I added them all together. If they didn’t reach 275, I could take the difference and spread them through the different attributes as I saw fit. Luckily my total all together was 290. For MOV and DEX (the secondary attributes) I was instructed to add STR and REF and divide by 2 (for MOV) and REF and INT divided by 2 (for DEX). Whee I love extra math steps in character creation. (not)

OK for step four I’m instructed to determine my character’s sex, nationality, hair color, eye color, general appearance, name, handiness, native language and age. Whew. These are all items that I choose (other than Extremely Ugly, Extremely Attractive or Ambidextrous as they are advantages that I’d have to buy). Nick Tanner was born in Arizona, USA and speaks English as his native language. He is 6’1″ with black hair and blue eyes with no extra-ordinary features. He is right-handed and is 24 years of age. On to step five.

The reality rule? If you want to really round out your character, determine his psychological profile? Loyalty, sanity, cruelty, etc. Let’s see what the book says. Ah, the reality rules make the game more realistic, but may slow down game play. Looking at the section for the psychological profile, it has suggestions, but no tables to roll against. Since the reality rules appear to be optional, I’m going to skip them in favor of getting the basic characteristics down. If this was for a campaign (and not under a time crunch) then perhaps I’d dive deeper into these.

Advantages and disadvantages are step six. The standard is to select one of each (there is a point based reality rule option). There is quite a list, or I can make up my own as long as they make sense (and both items don’t cancel each other out). From the list I selected Toughness and Phobia (spiders).

Next we choose the background for the character. This is basically what the character has done for a living besides being an espionage agent. There are several packages available to choose from (or I could make my own). They only had four career packages listed which were pretty generic. So I picked Entertainer. The original idea was that this character was going to be an athlete (wrestler) and that seemed to be the closest one. From the background we get the number of skills known in each category (Mechanical, combat, etc.), starting money and level of career.

And as you probably guessed, the skills are next. There are a set that I can choose from and they are pretty basic as well. If I understood the background information, I have a set of skill points to spend in different categories. I selected the skills I through the character would need. But I’d also be working with the GM to make sure that the background of the character would be viable in the campaign they were setting up. Knowing the Spanish language isn’t going to help if most of our missions are going to be in the Orient, etc. While getting my skills, I noticed a major issue (see Afterthoughts below) so I tried to make the skills match what I thought they should be. It was confusing, but I think I got the basic gist of it right.

The last step is purchasing equipment. But the next chapter is “Playing the game” with basic rules. The index shows no equipment in the players guide, so now I have to pull out the equipment book that came in the boxed set. And that states it’s for administrators (aka the GM) only. I looked through it and just decided that this guy has a pistol and a few spy trinkets that wouldn’t normally be cared by an every-day individual. I really would have been pressing on the GM for guidance on this part. But I’m thinking that the character is mostly done. I didn’t scan the last page since it was cover identities.

Afterthoughts:

Considering how many times we see the typical, “criminal is recruited to be a spy” trope in shows, they didn’t have any criminal options within the character creation. I wonder if this came up in any of the expansions. It had been so long that I had read them that I don’t recall.

The skill costs probably needed some work as well. As an “Entertainer” I had to spend two skill points in the mechanical category. The first (which was a per-requisite for other skills) cost 1 point. All of the other skills costs more just to get to level 0 (basic knowledge of the skill). So I’d have to dip into the extra skill points just to spend my mandatory two. Yea, that would have been homebrewed out if I was GMing this.

The character sheet could also be improved slightly. I don’t know if I’d ever get a chance to play/run this game in a campaign, but if I did, I would consider re-making the character sheet. I’ll have to see if anyone made any videos showing this game in play just so I could see how the system works. It’s a percentage based system (roll under to succeed) so it sounds like it should be simplistic.

Additional Notes:

I’ve really been enjoying reading the various entries on social media and the different message boards. I’m also happy that several of you are posting on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. I’ve seen several veterans returning and quite a few new participants as well. These have included some very interesting ideas. There is one person who appears to be re-creating the Scooby Doo gang in different RPG systems.

Coming Up Next:

Tiny Wastelands

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.