What makes a good subterfuge/ spy plot?

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writing
#1

Hey everyone! there is so much going on here in the forums lately, collaborative dungeon crafting, inktober art showcases, and of course @Lon with his great Horror Gaming elements series found here Lon on Horror Gaming: The Third Crucial Element.

This got me thinking, what other genres of gaming do i feel are difficult to pull off? Immediately my mind went to Spies and Heists. I have always wanted to run my own character as one of the heroes in an Oceans 11 style romp to get some secreted away treasure. Likewise, who wouldnt want to pull some 007 level espionage shenanigans, or run around fantasy Miami as medieval Michael from Burn Notice,so my question becomes…

What makes Subterfuge/ spy content good? unravelling a mystery, getting clues, sneaking around in dangerous places, attending the swanky party to schmooze up socialites and meet up with some foreign diplomat, assembling assets for every scenario all seem like super important or fun pieces to this puzzle, but can this be done well in the Tabletop RPG format? Have any of you fantastic lumpy heads pulled this off? What did you do? How did you plan? what did your players love about it? Do you have any suggestions for materials that are out there already so im not trying to reinvent the wheel? i am super curious about trying this style of game, or making my own to run some folks through. i think it will be a really fun time.

I look forward to mining the depths of your knowledge. as always STRENGTH, HONOR, and Sneaky Spies!

#2

My first guess on the emotional payoffs for some flavors of these two genres would be:

Super Spy: hyper-confidence under fire, moving with ease or dangerously under cover among in society’s upper circles of power, and being privy to important secrets. Oh, and the novelty of experimental gear!

Jason Bourne: hyper-competence, unraveling Self-Discovery, keeping a breathless pace of action, an awareness/paranoia of surveillance and being surveilled, and correcting an organization that’s “gone rotten from the inside”

Get Smart: wry humor, silliness in game and at table

Mission Impossible and Heists I would group together because they share so much of a common skeleton, archetype-wise: caution and careful planning paying off, getting away with it, doublecrossing the double crossers, and holding up one’s responsibilities to the Team/Crew.

Those payoffs probably would be contrasted against various shades of Duty/Loyalty, Temptation, and Doing What’s Right vs Doing What’s Required. Most of these games would probably traffic in extremes of Freedoms and Controls—to keep the speedy pace and cock-sure tone going, as well as to create the feeling of being “trapped” or falling into a deepening plot with rapidly escalating peril, then extricating self from it over and over again.

That’s what I got off the top of my head using the framework I’ve been blathering on about for Horror.

#3

Wow! That is awesome. I think you nailed it on the head. I’m gonna have to revisit your horror game posts again and look at them with a little different perspective. Fitting in these new emotions to evoke in the players in the mix. Thanks a lot, your insight into this stuff is amazing and I appreciate your advice.

#4

My pleasure. I’m glad they are helpful. :grinning:

#5

@Lon covered it from the literary point of view. Getting 5 players to cover these gets difficult.

For Oceans 11 type adventure, it’s 3 stages that provide a few combat options. More important to be subtle than success.

I grant huge instructions on what and why they are after what they want. Then we go down the plan of the players to do it. I provide “contacts” to grant info and suggestions. Normally 3 or 4 minor combats, with a cool reveal as their plan performs well, but with the threat of being caught at any moment.

On occasion it goes all to hell, and forces all the characters to run for their lives or a combat that leaves half or more players making new characters.

I’ve not done this in ICRPG, but if I did, I’d let them make more than simple characters. 3 contacts each, one character point adds 3 more contacts. Or one contact that owes you and is loyal about that feeling.

#6

Great stuff in here!

I would add just a couple things:

Narrative Pacing/Revelation
Continually escalating the stakes or complicating the situation, paired with an evolving understanding of the overarching plot/mission. Agents are often left in the dark about the larger picture in those movies which can make for a powerful reveal about the real workings from the opposition’s end. If you want more on the narrative structure and the actual creative writing element of it, check out The Story Grid podcast or book.

Game Design
To make a good spy game on the tabletop is going to require a very different method of design. Because of “party composition” in those kinds of movies and stories the experience needs to be tailored. I imagine taking turns and each player being separated and still moving towards the same goal. The computer tech is off site trying to access intel, hack systems, and otherwise help the on-site operatives. Maybe an inside person with a disguise working deep cover who can go anywhere and do anything, but will gain suspicion with every move outside the norm. Etc etc: each turn is like the camera cutting to a different part of the same scene with different constraints and abilities. I think that would be super tense, and am actually thinking about putting a short arc together, haha.

Planning in Fail States
A spy game is only as fun as when it fails and you get caught. Getting caught in each discipline of the mission should have its own repercussions, and if the party gets nabbed that’s not the end of the mission, only the beginning of the most overt pushes to complete the mission. It should be fun and part of the game to get caught, not the end of the mission.

My two cents on initial thoughts. :slight_smile:

#7

I really like these ideas man, I especially like the idea of the person in a disguise gaining suspicion. I could even run it like the advanced stealth rules where you have a heart of “suspicion “ instead of stealth, maybe run it off of CHA instead of DEX, and every time you are seen doing something our of the ordinary you lose a bit of your heart, when it reaches zero your cover is blown.

Here are the advanced stealth rules. I don’t exactly know who to credit this to, I think it was from the google+ days

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Also, having the idea of failure not end the mission, just change it in some way is brilliant. Whoops, the face got caught, now we gotta go bust him out of the casinos interrogation room before he blabs lol

#8

Definitely. You can use these same mechanics for hackers against threat-finding algorithms. Hackers could work through security to access security systems (giving stealth to an on-site operative), activate security doors, reroute power/troops/ etc to clear the way. Any time the hacker needs to access another system, she/he rolls effort to against the defensive system in turn order just like everyone else. Will the door get opened so the operative can slip through before the guard’s patrol? Can the cameras get diverted in the hallway so the face can more easily access deeper parts of the compound without being compromised? So much to do.

#9

I like that a lot, I am thinking of the hacker/ tech guy like a wizard, paying cost for doing their electronic “magic”, but the cost isn’t in hp, it’s in suspicion. Mess around in the systems too long and you are bound to get noticed.

#10

I would say a good spy game comes down to three main things YMMV:

1 - Stealth action. Think Metal Gear. Badguys way outmatch you in toe to toe fights with the ability to call upon reinforcements in a blink. You need to creep around in shadows, sneak up behind them and drag them off into the dark.

2 - Betrayal Betrayal Betrayal. Try to have a bunch of different factions. Some start out as badguys and become allies. Some start as allies and become badguys. You never know who is what at any particular time or who to trust but dance from devil’s deal to devil’s deal, playing everyone off of everyone else and trying to stay one step ahead of catastrophe.

3 - Mind Boggling Stunts. If somebody isn’t dangling on a wire from the dome of a church, spider climbing down to get an item from inside a disintigration field or jumping from a giant bat onto an airship, then immediately do that because it’s awesome and a staple of the genre.

#11

I’m going to comment on a different genre that doesn’t get enough coverage. Humor!!! I love not taking things as seriously as needed.

Though I am way too tipsy to be serious on Yule, we don’t always need to be super cool! We can be something else.

On the spy side, I think things are covered. What makes a good tongue and cheek adventure while not being silly?

Competent but incomplete? Not the end all, but the center of action, while the center of competence are support characters?