"There is a great threat posed by nuclear weapons, true, and we have built far too many of those monsters. But horrible though they are, they are rational monsters. They explode when they should, and no more. They do not dream, hope, love, or mourn. They do not go mad with drink or lust or grief. If they did, we would all fear for our lives; and so we should."
- Sergei Primakov, 1987
In 1987, Sergei Primakov, an undistinguished Deputy Chairman of the KGB presumed until that point to be another bland cog in that agency's bureaucracy, gave a short speech to the United Nations, directed pointedly at the intelligence communities of the United States and its allies, which caused an international uproar. The crux of Primakov's speech, alluded to above, was that whatever the threat posed to the world by nuclear weapons (a sore point following the US's withdrawal from SALT the previous year), the threat of rogue, crazed or even merely agitated parahumans was far more dire. He followed up this dictum - common sense, of course, but near-blasphemy to the thinkers of the day who saw each side's parahuman resources as an extension of Cold War brinksmanship - with a plea to the collected community to form a bipartisan intelligence agency dedicated to monitoring and countering parahuman threats on a global scale. It is a tribute to the effectiveness of Primakov's speech that the notion was entertained at all - that it was, even guardedly, accepted seems so miraculous that it is often cited as proof that Primakov was himself a latent para.
In addressing the UN, Primakov had made an end-run around the Kremlin, and the halls of power rang with calls for his head. However, Primakov had developed surprisingly strong connections and, more importantly, blackmail dossiers for such a nonentity; combined with his recent international exposure, he could not be easily removed. Fortunately for the lynch mob, it seemed that Primakov's punishment was inherent in his crime: He was made the first director of the USSR side of the Mutual Parahuman Security Initiative, which rapidly became a dumping ground for the unflushable dregs of Communist intelligence. The CIA treated it much the same, and the position of the US director was filled by a constantly revolving series of careerists whose primary interests were getting the hell out of MPSI and back into "real" parahuman intelligence, giving Primakov free reign over his kingdom of dead-enders. The MPSI seemed hopelessly stillborn; distrust cleanly divided the two sides, the primary intelligence agencies refused to share any but the most clearly useless information (though the quantity was as great as the quality was poor; "full participation" in the MPSI was a means of getting international-cooperation brownie points without giving anything away), and the initiative was constantly overshadowed by well-funded mononational organizations from both Dum and Dee. Nevertheless, MPSI managed to rack up a number of small victories, though Primakov was quick to shunt the credit for these onto others, often the revolving US directors or other functionaries seeking to get out. Interested observers, of which there were very few, noted the change from dumping to testing ground; the MPSI almost imperceptibly shifted from a punishment detail to a stop on the careerists' upward trail. However, Primakov's greatest accomplishment was still to come, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Yeah, more spy games, this time biting with ferocity on a certain agency from a certain out-of-print superhero game. I've been reading a lot of historical supers books for Wild Talents, and the desire to slap together a universe is upon me.
Showing posts with label espionage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label espionage. Show all posts
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Agents of FATE: Sideline
So we're back to Agents of FATE, which now stands for something other than Fancy Acronym; Totally Empty. The Agents will be working for the Fictive Attachment for Tactical Espionage, with credit going to IRL friend Greg and the mysterious internetty Chris1 in 3-to-1 measure.
I'm also wild about Chris' idea to have FATE be presumed fictional within the context of the setting2. A series of books seems too low-key, though, and besides, nobody reads any more. I'm running with the notion of a syndication-length TV series, made with obviously low production values and sold on the cheap to cable channels with a lot of dead air to fill. This series, "Agents of F.A.T.E." 3, follows the adventures of F.A.T.E. superoperatives Clarinda "Blackbird" Shuter and Hank "Depthcharge" Laskey, and mixes vaguely accurate, fragmentary descriptions of the real FATE agency and its modus operandi with plentiful disinformation, ridiculousness, terrible acting, yawning plot holes, and baffling breaks with the tone, setting and style of the series in general4. FATE ensures that the show is aired in slots which maximize peripheral awareness; most people have had an episode of "Agents of F.A.T.E." playing in the background at some point in their lives, but couldn't tell you the plot to save their lives. Of course, there are also the fans, collecting minutiae and merchandise and maintaining wikis, fansites and the annual AoFCon in Atlantic City. As far as the mundane world is concerned, claiming to work for F.A.T.E. is the equivalent of saying you're with the X-Files - or, considering the chintziness of the show, the Office of Scientific Investigation and Research. That F.A.T.E. uses the same fictionalizing tactics within the show's continuity just makes evidence about the real FATE all the more unbelievable5.
There's some fun to be had here. While real FATE missions are deadly serious, carry the potential for betrayal at any moment, and often involve weighty decisions that can change the course of world events, the show is a goofy bit of CG-heavy pap in which the chemistry-free will-they-or-won't-they between Shuter and Laskey is given precedence over any possible consequences of a mission6. PCs who try to invoke the agency's name will be presumed cosplayers or worse. After a particularly harrowing or betrayal-ridden mission, I could switch it up and run a game in the morally duochrome metafiction of F.A.T.E. - Perhaps as the heavily fictionalized but sole remaining record of an early FATE operation with relevance to the FATE group's next assignment.
... Then again, this kind of over-the-top doesn't really mesh with the life-or-death, trust-no-one mood I originally set out for with FATE (Well, to the extent that I set out anything - Greg Stolze, eat your heart out7). It's a neat idea, but it'll take a lot to make it work right. I think I'll try and clever up some actual mechanics first, and maybe take another stab at it afterwards.
 |
| Shuter and Laskey |
There's some fun to be had here. While real FATE missions are deadly serious, carry the potential for betrayal at any moment, and often involve weighty decisions that can change the course of world events, the show is a goofy bit of CG-heavy pap in which the chemistry-free will-they-or-won't-they between Shuter and Laskey is given precedence over any possible consequences of a mission6. PCs who try to invoke the agency's name will be presumed cosplayers or worse. After a particularly harrowing or betrayal-ridden mission, I could switch it up and run a game in the morally duochrome metafiction of F.A.T.E. - Perhaps as the heavily fictionalized but sole remaining record of an early FATE operation with relevance to the FATE group's next assignment.
... Then again, this kind of over-the-top doesn't really mesh with the life-or-death, trust-no-one mood I originally set out for with FATE (Well, to the extent that I set out anything - Greg Stolze, eat your heart out7). It's a neat idea, but it'll take a lot to make it work right. I think I'll try and clever up some actual mechanics first, and maybe take another stab at it afterwards.
- I've known a lot of Chrises in my time, so you'll forgive me if you know me IRL but I can't identify you from ten sentences. If you're a total stranger, well, thanks for reading my blog and contributing to this thing of ours. You're a rad dude.
- I have a total boner for secret agencies maintaining their secrecy by loudly declaring themselves fake, as obliquely hinted by the MALARKEY1 designation in the Changeling Cold War setting I posted back in the hoary mists of around this time last year.
- Which is, natch, more or less a lock stock and barrel steal from Charles Stross' A Colder War, in which ultimate top secret materials are marked BOOJUM. Oh Charles Stross, you were pretty okay before you started running your mouth about the singularity.
- Note the ellipses - their presence distinguishes between the fictional F.A.T.E. and the real FATE.
- The latter two are exemplified by "Operation Daggerblade"1, the episode where Laskey "retrogresses" into a literal goblin and vanishes into the New Jersey Pine Barrens as Shuter weepily bemoans his "incurable" condition. He is back to normal in the next episode and no explanation is ever provided.
- And yes, all the series episodes have titles like this.
- Annnnnd I do believe my secrecy-through-fictionalization boner just went fractal.
- The continuity is intentionally and irrevocably mangled: For example, other events of "Operation Daggerblade" are often referenced in later episodes, but never the 'goblinization', leaving its status in canon a source of constant flamewar. FATE did this intentionally, as the canon arguments keep the fanbase occupied and off the trail of the real organization.
- Stolze bemoaned how other writers for Unknown Armies had written material that contradicted certain rules he thought the setting required, while acknowledging that he never actually made those rules explicit. Here, I've managed to do the same thing to myself.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Agents of FATE: Groundwork
So I've been watching Archer1, and it has once again given me that itch to run a spy game that I tend to get after any series focusing on international cloak-n-daggerery (Cf. The Sandbaggers, Burn Notice, Queen and Country, The Prisoner), but which inevitably seems to fade once the inherent challenges of crafting a properly back-stabby scenario rear their ugly head. A ways back I picked up thirteen books worth of first-edition Spycraft, which is a pretty decent implementation of d20's better bastards (complete with ACTION POINTS!!!! and a vitality/wound system cribbed from d20 Modern and Star Wars respectively) but which nevertheless suffers from d20's general problem with specialization and situational advantages. It can be best summarized with a single feat: Rocket Launcher Mastery. Aside from niggling simulationist questions about how you get enough field experience with a highly situational weapon to be considered to have mastered it, and the pain in the ass of remembering every little bonus the feat gives you when you use it, there's the point of how to please the player who has taken this feat (and the other feats before it in the tree) and made it a part of his character. Working situations that can only be solved by rocketry into the plot is simple enough, even if bringing in a helicopter or a tank every week smacks of FPS or Metal Gear - The real trouble is when, having focused on this element of the character, the player attempts to solve all problems with high-speed explosives, turning every climactic encounter into the one from Invasion USA. Add to this the remarkably 'spergy system for creating villainous organizations, and it's clear that Spycraft's a little too close to its parent for comfort. I would, however, love to use it as inspiration - the Shadowforce Archer2 setting is pretty nifty, though I may just be saying that because it appeals to my love of Magic Nazis and goofy gadget stuff like fake money that can be chewed up and turned into an adhesive.
So instead, let's take my much-beloved FATE system and toss some tweaks in there to make it sing. A lot of what follows assumes a familiarity with 2nd and 3rd-edition FATE, available for free from Evil Hat Games, but should be simple enough to follow along - Call it FATE 2.5, or FATE Un-Stunted. Other sources include John Wick's Wilderness of Mirrors, Greg Stolze's A Dirty World and my eternally recurring inspiration, Ron Edwards' Sorcerer.
So, let's start with Aspects. These would be pretty much as in FATE 3, as the limit on uses-per-session from FATE 2 always seemed weirdly arbitrary and reminded me of the most annoying part of GUMSHOE. Fuelling Aspect invocations with Fate points makes considerably more sense. The full ten aspects seems a bit much, though - Maybe a mere seven, to have characters that are broadly capable but not as omnicapable as the standard Spirit of the Century characters. Of these, two would be required, or at least given a skill point benny: One a belief or motivation that a character considers vitally important, be it commitment to country, agency, democracy, no killing women, etc. - And the other, something for which the character would be willing to betray that belief. Hey, trust's a bitch in spy fiction.
As far as skills go, I'd want characters to be highly skilled, meaning a relatively small and expansive skill list. I'd probably port the FATE 2 skill system directly, including the pyramid, although tying the skills directly to the aspects might be overdoing it. As in FATE 2, if you're willing to take a hit on skills, you can buy plot-important objects with skill points, allowing you to have the fancy car or the favoured gun or what have you. You can also spend Fate points for these in-game, of course, but then they're set dressing - Improbably explosive set dressing, in many cases.
No stunts. I don't care for them. The idea of a cool move that you can do all the time, at will, just seems dumb and ironically uncool. You want a neat trick, invoke an aspect and justify it and we're off to the races.
As for actual resolution, this is where the Sorcerer bit comes in, kinda. Under normal circumstances, without description, characters only roll 3 dice instead of the FATE-standard 4, making for a slightly smaller range of possible results. But, if they describe the action well, they get an extra die. If the description is really good, they get two. If it's absolutely amazing, they get three, but that should only happen once per session, if that. Now, clever readers familiar with FATE will note that, unlike Sorcerer or Exalted or Wushu or other systems that give bonus dice for description, this doesn't make you more likely to succeed - It just makes the range of possible outcomes wider. This is intentional. Playing Wushu, I was frustrated by loquacious players filibustering absolutely every move they made regardless of actual narrative importance, just to get the dice. Describing a scene under this system doesn't make you better at it, it makes the scene more important and more pivotal, for good or bad. Since players are going to have a lot of Fate points, they can probably turn a failure into a success (with, yes, even more description), and a regular success into an overwhelming, suitably awesome victory (a +5 result is pretty badass, and +6 is worthy of Bond at his best) - but mere description isn't going to guarantee it, and a really well-described action could result a failure so massive that even Fate points couldn't fix it. If that did happen (say a player tosses a -4 or worse on a five-dice roll), I'd definitely consider giving the poor schlub a a Fate point or two just so his grand description didn't go to waste. And then, of course, I'd work out the worst possible way for such a big, important action to go wrong. The GM is also well within his rights to simply declare an action climactic even if the player is trying to play it safe by not describing it, so the player might as well go all out and get the benny if he fails.
Okay, now for the other two gaming sources. From Wilderness of Mirrors, there's the notions of planning, timing and betrayal. In WoM, the GM just details the basic goal of the mission and players fill in details like security arrangements, opposition, locations etc, getting points from the GM for every detail they provide and extra ones for particularly diabolical scene-setups. This seems directly portable to FATE - The opening loadout of Fate points is dependent on the scenario the players set up, and allows them to more or less describe the mission they want. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy, etc. and so we move on to timing. For every, let's say, ten minutes of real time that pass, the GM gets a point to mess with the players, change some element of their planned arrangement, etc. I'm not sure yet if these would be additions to the NPC Fate point pool or separate - Certainly it seems most logical, since it keeps down the number of variables.
Finally, there's betrayal, and here's where WoM crosses over with A Dirty World. PCs in ADW can get points both for being cruel to each other and having cruelty done to them. A similar arrangement here would mean that a character who screws over another in-character (Remember that inspiration-for-betrayal Aspect? Yeah, that came back) gets Fate points both for himself and the player they're dumping in the soup - Probably two or more, just to make it extra appealing. Along those lines, perhaps I should add the option to leave an Aspect undefined, so that the player can just reveal his perfidy at the moment rather than having DOUBLE AGENT on his character sheet the whole game.
There's the start of it - If any of you six people who check my blog have suggestions as to how to make it even more convoluted, or of obvious flaws I should patch, feel free to weigh in. And if anyone's got a suggestion for a good spy-agency backronym from FATE, so much the better.
So instead, let's take my much-beloved FATE system and toss some tweaks in there to make it sing. A lot of what follows assumes a familiarity with 2nd and 3rd-edition FATE, available for free from Evil Hat Games, but should be simple enough to follow along - Call it FATE 2.5, or FATE Un-Stunted. Other sources include John Wick's Wilderness of Mirrors, Greg Stolze's A Dirty World and my eternally recurring inspiration, Ron Edwards' Sorcerer.
So, let's start with Aspects. These would be pretty much as in FATE 3, as the limit on uses-per-session from FATE 2 always seemed weirdly arbitrary and reminded me of the most annoying part of GUMSHOE. Fuelling Aspect invocations with Fate points makes considerably more sense. The full ten aspects seems a bit much, though - Maybe a mere seven, to have characters that are broadly capable but not as omnicapable as the standard Spirit of the Century characters. Of these, two would be required, or at least given a skill point benny: One a belief or motivation that a character considers vitally important, be it commitment to country, agency, democracy, no killing women, etc. - And the other, something for which the character would be willing to betray that belief. Hey, trust's a bitch in spy fiction.
As far as skills go, I'd want characters to be highly skilled, meaning a relatively small and expansive skill list. I'd probably port the FATE 2 skill system directly, including the pyramid, although tying the skills directly to the aspects might be overdoing it. As in FATE 2, if you're willing to take a hit on skills, you can buy plot-important objects with skill points, allowing you to have the fancy car or the favoured gun or what have you. You can also spend Fate points for these in-game, of course, but then they're set dressing - Improbably explosive set dressing, in many cases.
No stunts. I don't care for them. The idea of a cool move that you can do all the time, at will, just seems dumb and ironically uncool. You want a neat trick, invoke an aspect and justify it and we're off to the races.
As for actual resolution, this is where the Sorcerer bit comes in, kinda. Under normal circumstances, without description, characters only roll 3 dice instead of the FATE-standard 4, making for a slightly smaller range of possible results. But, if they describe the action well, they get an extra die. If the description is really good, they get two. If it's absolutely amazing, they get three, but that should only happen once per session, if that. Now, clever readers familiar with FATE will note that, unlike Sorcerer or Exalted or Wushu or other systems that give bonus dice for description, this doesn't make you more likely to succeed - It just makes the range of possible outcomes wider. This is intentional. Playing Wushu, I was frustrated by loquacious players filibustering absolutely every move they made regardless of actual narrative importance, just to get the dice. Describing a scene under this system doesn't make you better at it, it makes the scene more important and more pivotal, for good or bad. Since players are going to have a lot of Fate points, they can probably turn a failure into a success (with, yes, even more description), and a regular success into an overwhelming, suitably awesome victory (a +5 result is pretty badass, and +6 is worthy of Bond at his best) - but mere description isn't going to guarantee it, and a really well-described action could result a failure so massive that even Fate points couldn't fix it. If that did happen (say a player tosses a -4 or worse on a five-dice roll), I'd definitely consider giving the poor schlub a a Fate point or two just so his grand description didn't go to waste. And then, of course, I'd work out the worst possible way for such a big, important action to go wrong. The GM is also well within his rights to simply declare an action climactic even if the player is trying to play it safe by not describing it, so the player might as well go all out and get the benny if he fails.
Okay, now for the other two gaming sources. From Wilderness of Mirrors, there's the notions of planning, timing and betrayal. In WoM, the GM just details the basic goal of the mission and players fill in details like security arrangements, opposition, locations etc, getting points from the GM for every detail they provide and extra ones for particularly diabolical scene-setups. This seems directly portable to FATE - The opening loadout of Fate points is dependent on the scenario the players set up, and allows them to more or less describe the mission they want. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy, etc. and so we move on to timing. For every, let's say, ten minutes of real time that pass, the GM gets a point to mess with the players, change some element of their planned arrangement, etc. I'm not sure yet if these would be additions to the NPC Fate point pool or separate - Certainly it seems most logical, since it keeps down the number of variables.
Finally, there's betrayal, and here's where WoM crosses over with A Dirty World. PCs in ADW can get points both for being cruel to each other and having cruelty done to them. A similar arrangement here would mean that a character who screws over another in-character (Remember that inspiration-for-betrayal Aspect? Yeah, that came back) gets Fate points both for himself and the player they're dumping in the soup - Probably two or more, just to make it extra appealing. Along those lines, perhaps I should add the option to leave an Aspect undefined, so that the player can just reveal his perfidy at the moment rather than having DOUBLE AGENT on his character sheet the whole game.
There's the start of it - If any of you six people who check my blog have suggestions as to how to make it even more convoluted, or of obvious flaws I should patch, feel free to weigh in. And if anyone's got a suggestion for a good spy-agency backronym from FATE, so much the better.
- Seriously, I could sit and listen to H. Jon Benjamin yell all day.
- What is it with the name Archer and spy fiction? The eponymous jackass agent in the aforementioned Archer, this setting, Cate Archer from No One Lives Forever; is it a reference I don't get, or just a coincidence?
Monday, June 7, 2010
Cold Iron War
The following is classified SECRET BRONZE MALARKEY SEVEN. If you are not cleared for SECRET BRONZE MALARKEY SEVEN, please disregard this material and report to unit security for debriefing. Failure to do so is an imprisonable offense.
It's the 70s, the Cold War is going strong as ever, and both sides are using changelings as operatives. They have no identities, their powers make them ideal agents in a variety of situations and the threat of being shopped to the Gentry keeps them well in line. For their part, changelings receive protection and prosperity for their services, and may be able to define themselves by service to their country - but is it really their country any more? In the murky depths of the great game, clarity is as rare as trust.
Primary inspirations are Ian Mackintosh's television series The Sandbaggers (and Greg Rucka's "spiritual sequel" comic series, Queen and Country), Tim Powers' novel Declare, Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and Charles Stross' novelette A Colder War[1].
Agencies
The intelligence services of the Western countries each have their own means of dealing with changeling operations. These agencies often work together, even moreso than their mundane counterparts, but each nevertheless holds back its own secrets.
* The Office of Unspecified Activities is a division within the English Special Intelligence Service, which receives black funding syphoned from other divisions. The Office is perpetually under-funded, giving it a reputation for lateral thinking and risk-taking. While this engenders a grudging respect from other agencies, it also means that the O.U.A. is never fully trusted, even by its own superiors.
* The Irish changeling operations agency, Niamh, boasts the highest changeling-to-mortal ratio in the west, and is a storehouse of powerful magic and fae knowledge. However, the significant changeling influence, on top of existing tensions with England, means that Niamh's priorities are often not in line with its allies - the Irish changelings are often more interested in fighting the True Fae than the Soviet Union, and they require that vows be made before committing to joint actions.
* The exact specifications of MK-WIZARD are not known - that it's a CIA project is generally accepted, but assumptions regarding its size and capabilities vary wildly. MK-WIZARD's relation with European agencies is similar to the CIA's relationship with mundane Europe: They're considered to be over-funded cowboys who can blow in, cause havoc, and leave the locals holding the bag.
* On the other side, Soviet changelings are marshaled by the monolithic MOROZKO, a division of the KGB. The agency is exceptionally adept at exploiting the divisions between Western agencies, but its own unity is a flaw in itself; operational clutter and red tape accompany MOROZKO's vast scope.
Current wiki
It's the 70s, the Cold War is going strong as ever, and both sides are using changelings as operatives. They have no identities, their powers make them ideal agents in a variety of situations and the threat of being shopped to the Gentry keeps them well in line. For their part, changelings receive protection and prosperity for their services, and may be able to define themselves by service to their country - but is it really their country any more? In the murky depths of the great game, clarity is as rare as trust.
Primary inspirations are Ian Mackintosh's television series The Sandbaggers (and Greg Rucka's "spiritual sequel" comic series, Queen and Country), Tim Powers' novel Declare, Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and Charles Stross' novelette A Colder War[1].
Agencies
The intelligence services of the Western countries each have their own means of dealing with changeling operations. These agencies often work together, even moreso than their mundane counterparts, but each nevertheless holds back its own secrets.
* The Office of Unspecified Activities is a division within the English Special Intelligence Service, which receives black funding syphoned from other divisions. The Office is perpetually under-funded, giving it a reputation for lateral thinking and risk-taking. While this engenders a grudging respect from other agencies, it also means that the O.U.A. is never fully trusted, even by its own superiors.
* The Irish changeling operations agency, Niamh, boasts the highest changeling-to-mortal ratio in the west, and is a storehouse of powerful magic and fae knowledge. However, the significant changeling influence, on top of existing tensions with England, means that Niamh's priorities are often not in line with its allies - the Irish changelings are often more interested in fighting the True Fae than the Soviet Union, and they require that vows be made before committing to joint actions.
* The exact specifications of MK-WIZARD are not known - that it's a CIA project is generally accepted, but assumptions regarding its size and capabilities vary wildly. MK-WIZARD's relation with European agencies is similar to the CIA's relationship with mundane Europe: They're considered to be over-funded cowboys who can blow in, cause havoc, and leave the locals holding the bag.
* On the other side, Soviet changelings are marshaled by the monolithic MOROZKO, a division of the KGB. The agency is exceptionally adept at exploiting the divisions between Western agencies, but its own unity is a flaw in itself; operational clutter and red tape accompany MOROZKO's vast scope.
Current wiki
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