Hello everyone!
I have been Gming on Paizo boards for a long time and I was wondering if there were any interest in playing in a Top Secret Spy game as PbP.
I have always loved playing in and running games dealing with spycraft and the like, so I was thinking about some different ideas of historical periods in which to have as the game's setting.
My ideas are:
WW1 either at the beginning or in the middle.
1970s or 1980s Cold War
Liberation Period South America 1810s-1830s
The Hussite Wars or 30 Years War era.
What system you might ask? Either Top Secret or Something else. I have been working on some Home Brew to make historical periods more fun.
I would like to have between 5 and 6 players.
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I'm absolutely interested. I love this sort of game.
Of the settings you list I think my favorite is Liberation Period South America 1810s-1830s. It's not one that ever comes up. My second choice would be WW1.
I'd like to pitch the interwar period of the 1920's - 1930's as a setting though if I may. It's extremely obvious, but there are reasons it's a classic.
1. It has a truly global reach that isn't close to matched even by WW1. 2. There's no "great war", but during that period Asia enters the mix in big ways with China and Japan, and most of the rest of Asia by way of anti-colonial movements. There's also the Russian Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, and the list goes on.
2. It's better known historically, which makes it easier to digest as a setting without lots of prep on everyone's part.
3. It has a good balance of technology. Lots of cool things are in the picture by then, but nothing that's too crazy that needs to be curbed in some way. This applies well across the board for weapons, transportation, information access (no computers), media...
4. Interwar Berlin! Interwar Shanghai!
I've played with the old (not sure how many times new versions may have come out) Top Secret rules. I don't remember them well after so long, but I don't recall them not getting the job done just fine.
But, since I'm already taking the liberty of making suggestions, I have a weird one. Pulp Call of Cthulhu with the Lovecraftian elements stripped out could work well. It's fairly rules light and intuitive. It has a good character building system that is very flexible and handles skills really well. The pulp version also has rules for weird science if that sounds interesting.
I like the idea of picking a rich espionage setting but I like the idea of players picking different faction without feeling they are the "bad guys" where in the interwar period people might feel that way.
I just see all the interesting ideas. Liberation South America is the favorite of mine. So much intrigue, are you a Bogotano trying to have the Spaniards leave? Are you Fillipino officer serving in the Spanish military working for the viceroy in Lima? Who do you support? So many choices.
I am not familiar with SWADE or NOW, I have played Spycraft for a few years on Paizo. It was fun. I do not know if I am up for that level of crunch. I want to focus on the Le Carre, Graham Greene kind of intrigue. If you can send me some materials I can look at that.
So no werewolves stalking the jungles, or vampires conspiring in the shadows? :)
Was going more about espionage.
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Liberation South America is the favorite of mine. So much intrigue, are you a Bogotano trying to have the Spaniards leave? Are you Fillipino officer serving in the Spanish military working for the viceroy in Lima? Who do you support? So many choices.
This sounds like the characters wouldn't necessarily be acting as a party? Would characters be doing their own things in different places on different sides?
BTW there's a podcast that coverers the Latin American revolution(s) that's quite good, Revolutions Season 5. Its focal point is Bolivar and the Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada, but it doesn't ignore other areas. It's fairly thorough, but doesn't get bogged down in small details that could make it slow and dry. Even then it's still 25 episodes that average about 40 - 45 minutes.
I think everyone would at least start off working together and they could have their own agendas or they could be a team. It depends on what the players want. Do they have an episode about the meeting between Bolivar and San Martin?
Backstories should be loads of fun. People can make characters they would like to play.
It seems a couple of people are interested. I am still not sure which ruleset to use.
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I've played a tiny bit with Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) and it will probably do what you want it to do. It's designed to be setting neutral.
I found SWADE to be a little hard to pick up, but like I mentioned I didn't play with the system very long at all. Those who know it better seem to consider it easy to use.
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I am running a game using the Delta Green system. It seems pretty good so far....but SWADE is a good choice as well (Have played and run a few small games) I think GURPs might give you the best versatility for such a game...as you can make everything from a samuri or cowbow, to a mad scientist or mystic. But whatever you decide, I would still be interested in playing :-)
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Delta Green is a variant of the Call of Cthulhu system, which I really love. I suggested Pulp CoC earlier. The differences as I understand it are CoC 7th ed. = characters that are average people, Delta Green = characters that are elite, more skilled, but still fundamentally average, Pulp CoC = heroic characters, both more skilled and harder to kill.
So Delta Green makes characters more durable and more skilled. But let's face it, with 7th ed. if you're making a character you might as well make two because you'll need the backup soon enough. Pulp doubles HP and makes healing somewhat easier and adds more to skills. Characters are more larger than life individuals who can expect to survive combat even if it is still quite risky. Pulp CoC can also be adjusted up to almost superheroic by adding some options, or down to about Delta Green by going very basic.
All the versions run most everything that happens in the game through skills and d100 though. There are no classes or class levels, and advancement is through improving skills by using them. Roll modifiers are rare and usually just comprise roll twice and take the better or worse if there's a bonus or penalty. This, along with the simplicity of everything else in the system is what I like most about the system.
Since sanity rules won't matter (probably) in this particular case, those could be dropped and the system is even simpler.
EDIT: So, having never actually played Delta Green I started to wonder if I'd gotten what I said about it correct enough or not. So, I went looking for comments by people to do know them both.
What I found boiled down to Delta Green is CoC x The X-Files. Pulp CoC is CoC x Indiana Jones. Since I know the Pulp side I can say that's a pretty good one sentence summary. Indiana Jones is a Pulp CoC character living in a world of CoC 7th ed. people. Hopefully the Delta Green characterization is equally right on.
And at this point I've tangented rather far off and away from the subject of what to use for this game. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I would like to run the game as a spy thriller less Mission Impossible and more gritty and dangerous. Getting informants, dead drops, invisible ink.
Has any of you heard of Cold Shadows and is it good?
So the options I have here are:
Top Secret
Delta Green
SWADE
NOW
Cold Shadows
SpyCraft
I figure I can learn a new system, so let's have an old fashioned vote to see which system we can play and then we can start recruitment:
I'm interested in this. I didn't finish the show "Turn" but I think this game would be very similar in terms of technology level and what espionage consisted of about two hundred years ago.
I don't have a preference for the game system.
The liberation period of South America sounds interesting. I don't know much about it, but I'm willing to peruse some websites to gain knowledge.