Traveller Spy Campaigns?

[gloriousbattle]

Seems like a natural fit for this system, though I have never seen it done. It would also have the advantage of allowing extensive use of such books as SORAG and Scouts and Assassins, as well as the IBIS article from Dragon magazine, all of which churned out very powerful espionage oriented characters.

It would be a lot of fun for characters who enjoy high level rpgs, but would also require very clever players and GM, and it would be deadly. I, for one, as GM, was always fond of putting a double-agent in the group, and if the group didn't figure it out, hard luck for them.

 

[ssgbryan]

I have run many espionage campaigns. It is great because it discourages gunplay. The players spend more time role playing and less time roll playing.

 

[Gray Lensman]

What?

You qouted SORAG yourself, Duh........

 

[Enoff]

I have been thinking the same things but more from looking at TSR's "Top Secret" and VG's "James Bond 007"

The first edition of "Top Secret" had a nice campaign section that listed the most important elements to develop for running one.

I'll try to post a summary.

 

[gloriousbattle]

You qouted SORAG yourself, Duh........

I did?

 

[Spinward Scout]

I think he meant that you mentioned SORAG.

 

[Icosahedron]

So, GB, you gonna run one?

 

[gloriousbattle]

So, GB, you gonna run one?

Sort of... I am still very much into my Vampires in Space campaign, but as this involves conspiracies within conspiracies, very similar stuff is certainly possible. I don't know that it is exactly a "spy" campaign, though it involves amny of those elements, as well as sf horror.

 

[Bob Weaver]

There were a couple of articles published in Dragon magazine back in the 80's about espionage, thief and police careers. I'll try to find titles and issue #s for those. If you can find them, they could be helpful. I've considered doing something like that IMTU, as well. I agree that original Top Secret can be a helpful resource.

Cheers,
Bob W.

 

[magnusfalkirk]

There were a couple of articles published in Dragon magazine back in the 80's about espionage, thief and police careers. I'll try to find titles and issue #s for those. If you can find them, they could be helpful. I've considered doing something like that IMTU, as well. I agree that original Top Secret can be a helpful resource.

Cheers,
Bob W.

Issue 35 of Dragon Magazine had an article on IBIS (Interstellar Bureau of Internal Security), 97 had an article on Rogues in Traveller, 113 Star Cops and 120 Espionage.

I've got a PDF collection Dragon Magazine so it was quick and easy to look up.

Something else I just looked up is there is a Bounty Hunter Career in White Dwarf Magazine #70.

Magnus

 

[Bob Weaver]

Issue 35 of Dragon Magazine had an article on IBIS (Interstellar Bureau of Internal Security), 97 had an article on Rogues in Traveller, 113 Star Cops and 120 Espionage.

I've got a PDF collection Dragon Magazine so it was quick and easy to look up.

Something else I just looked up is there is a Bounty Hunter Career in White Dwarf Magazine #70.

Magnus

Yep, those are the ones I was thinking of. Thanks Magnus!

Cheers,

Bob W

 

[Enoff]

I guess the campaign guide I was thinking about was actually a Dragon article

Administrator's advice
How to make and maintain a TOP SECRET campaign
by John J. Terra

----

May 1986

 

[Washington]

I always felt Murder on Arcturus Station was a better espionage set-up than investigation adventure, especially if one of the player characters is the murderer. It’s a way to start players in an espionage direction.

Definitely, Traveller is well suited to spy campaigns. It’s more about how characters set their goals and the resources that they have available. If contacts are brought as the main way to accomplish goals, the game will begin to take on an espionage feel. Another fundamental way to set-up an espionage campaign is having the player-characters work consistently with a very small cell organization, one or two npcs outside of the player characters.

For whatever reason, when violence does occur in game, the espionage games I have ran seemed the most violent games to everyone, including me. Perhaps it has to do with the focus of the campaign.

There are a number of cool generic espionage role-play game resources that would be easy to bring over to any setting using Traveller rules here:

http://www.modus-operandi.co.uk/?cat=4

 

[RandyB]

I'm in favor of any style of campaign that gets away from "scraping for cash".

 

[Washington]

I'm in favor of any style of campaign that gets away from "scraping for cash".

I agree completely.

Traveller may be used as is for most espionage campaigns. The initial career experience acts as a cover. However, it would likely promote the style of an espionage campaign to take characters' last term in a non-military career to make the player characters cover more believable. The one thing I would add to the character creation process is the acquisition of two to four contacts in various fields. Especially if the players don’t know the campaign is going to an espionage campaign, it’s interesting to let the players write-up their own contacts.

As to the campaign, there are a couple starting assumptions that should be determined. First, limiting player knowledge of the multi-layered sources of power surrounding the player characters is central to creating the perception of an extra-reality in the characters’ lives. So, the referee needs to develop up-front a bit more background than other campaign types. Examples of this can be seen in conspiracy centered worlds like The World of Darkness. Second, establish the player-characters perception of the world. Do they have strong trusting loyalties to their contacts? Do they mistrust everyone around them? For example, James Bond usually can trust his superiors in Special Branch. They might try to manipulate him, but probably not to his harm. However, No. 6 in The Prisoner trusts absolutely nothing, not even his perceptions.

With the mention of Bond, there is the distinction in the type of campaign between the swashbuckling Bond style and the quiet somewhat realistic style. I have read a number of games that say the referee should choose which approach the campaign will take. I would let the players decide the style of the campaign. The referee already is constructing a lot of background unknown to the players. How the players interact with the background should be up to them. They may even take up more of a parody style like In Like Flint or Austin Powers. The more clichés the referee introduces the more of a parody the campaign will tend toward, guaranteed.

Something I don’t often see mentioned in games that where designed specifically for espionage is that it is a genre that has in my experience appealed to women. There are many strong women in espionage films and literature, which is a plus for this type of game.

 

[Enoff]

(Been reading Bob Woodward's "Obama's War" wow what an eye opening for current espionage ideas.)

A part of the article I mention earlier about developing a Spy campaign mentions the development of NPCs (Non-player Characters, players played by the Referee).

"Every good story has an antagonist"

Something I don't usually see is the development of NPCs and "The Villain." (I have also been reading Fu Manchu books.)

"Personalities: A good adventure can combine an exotic setting with a tough challenge. You can weave plots and sub-plots, with clues strewn about for your agents to find and piece together. But if you don't have good, realistic non-player characters, you are wasting your time as well as that of your players."

I think its hard to have some coherent campaign without an antagonist.

"Concentrate only on the NPCs that you think the agents will most likely get involved with in one way or another."

The article gives a nice brief on what background information helps flesh-out a NPC besides the stats.

 

[Washington]

Very true Enof pointing out the importance of non-player characters in espionage campaigns. It certainly is important to develop a solid number of strong non-player characters for espionage campaigns. One of the problems that may arise in this type of campaign setting occurs when things are going rather well for the player characters the play may become a bit dull. So, it is more important than ever to develop strong non-player characters to encourage the spread of intrigue.

The write-up of contacts at character creation I mentioned previously directs the player focus on non-players from the onset. When I state write-up, I don’t mean roll up a couple of extra characters. Instead the players should write a short paragraph describing the contact and the player character’s relationship with the contact. These contacts will then be taken up by the referee to use as non-player characters, with the actual statistic developed later, if the statistics become needed.

One thing about antagonist that is good to keep in mind is to use them in layers, as I mentioned the layers of power in the espionage campaign. Also, how blurred the line between antagonist and contact resources is one of the ways to distinguish between the two main styles of espionage campaigns.

 

[Enoff]

Yes a little background information on these NPCs

"Remember, these NPCs have origins, goals, motivations, and a few ingenious ideas of their own. They, too, have been trained and outfitted by their respective organizations."

Actually a classic module of this is the old D&D "Homlet" module, even having your layers command/antagonist Washington.

Change the moat house into an abandoned asteroid where bandits under the command of evil psionic extremists are conducting pirating, kidnapping and terrorism against local systems. The group is actually sponsored by a fringe independent multi-system governmental intelligence agency, the ISI, Inter-Services Intelligence. I forgot the cleric's name that was in the command of the moat house. They had a spy network which had infiltrated the village but they were ultimately controlled by a greater power. Seems now a classic spy setting.

 

[Washington]

Actually a classic module of this is the old D&D "Homlet" module, even having your layers command/antagonist Washington.

You are right about Hommlet. Gary even refers to “…the NPCs who are given as agents of various powers...” in the introduction notes, now that I look at it. haha Pretty cool.

Even though I have been involved in a lot of thief/rogue focused D&D over time, I have converted some D&D things to Traveller too. These are some of the NPCs from Village of Homllet in its original fantasy setting using Traveller:

Jaroo Ashstaff
76A7CA Magic [Psi] A
Cudgel 2, Medical 3 (TL 1), Leader 1, Administration 1
Telepathy, Teleportation, Awareness, Awareness Others

Burne
A7AB78 Magic [Psi] A
Dagger 2, Leader 3, Streetwise 1, Tactics 1, Administration 1
Awareness, Pyrokinesis, Teleportation

Rufus
A88779
Halberd 3, Tactics 2, Leader 1

When I originally wrote these, I used the content Marc and Mary Beth wrote in Chaosium's Thieves World as guiding templates. It's pretty fun, and it works.

 

[Enoff]

Fun you have that information Washington Yes I think the developed NPCs are what made that module so interesting.

There is a lot of old rpg stuff that could be recycled into a Traveller adventure. The whole Scarlet Brotherhood is another example.