Whats your favorite contempory action, espionage, adventure (spy game in short) game? My favorties are a toss up. I like Ninjas ands Super Spies, and Top Secret. But Feng Sui and James Bond 007 both have some interesting ideas. I think I would have to pick N&SS if for no other reason than I've played it more. Hell I'm running a vietnam campaign using N&SS right now.

I'm younger than a lot of folk here, and have never had a chance to play Top Secret and many other games listed.

While I do like Spycraft quite a bit, I'm a fan of Conspiracy X 2.0.  It's not that there's something super amazing about Unisystem, but the rules for Cell creation are pretty kick ass.  Building secret bases and alloting black market funds for off the books guns and support is all way cool for me and really plays up some aspects of being a spy.

Classic Top Secret, complete with Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle.

Top Secret, though I prefer SI due to the Agent 13 supplement (one of the coolest espionage supplements for a roleplaying game ever).

Top Secret...but Delta Green also has some cool stuff. I'm currently prepping a Spycraft adventure and I have to say, that it's working well in capturing the Robert Ludlum -ly (novels) feel I'm aiming for.

Regards,
David R

Wilderness of Mirrors (Wicked Dead Brewery Games).  I've used it to run games that ran in the old Mission Impossible style, and in the Delta Green style, and it was a blast.  I'm planning on a Shadowrun-style mission soon.

Top Secret and Ninjas and Superspies hold a special place for me, since we picked those up and played them.

My current favorite is my Shadowrun game that I'm running right now.

Funnily enough, Cold Space is my favourite spy game (as is my own game). Technically, Cold Space is a sci-fi, but I focus more on the Cold War aspect of the game.

Back in the day, I loved Top Secret.

Spycraft is my current steady... and it's looking like it will be for some time.

I dig the way that I can craft a variety of feels in the campaign... or ever specific adventures... by selecting campaign qualities. Flip a few levers and I have a high tension thriller like 24, a superspy romp like Bond, a low key exploration into the unknown like X-files, a military action film, a gritty cop show, a pulp adventure, etc.

I dig the way the class abilities represent things BEYOND the PCs immediate reach and let them break with normal narrative game flow. For example, the transporter ability "The Switcheroo" lets the character reveal, after the fact, that they substituted a fake for the thing they were transporting. This lets PCs be smarter than their players.

I dig action dice and the way that they form a sort of "allowance" for fortune/misfortune. So now when you screw up repeatedly, you don't just blame the dice... you can blame the GM.

I dig streamlined NPCs. Removes the burden of D20 chargen from the GM without denying players all the fun toys they love.

I dig the dramatic conflict system. Especially chases, but interrogations, seductions, and hacking have featured in my games, too. In essence, its a general system for handling non-combat conflicts.

I dig the way that the authors went through dozens of action and espionage movies and books and where there were cool things that happened in books and movies but never in games, they put them in. For example, a mexican stand-off. Never see it in a normal game. But it could happen in Spycraft.

I dig that subplots only really reward you when they affect you. Incident style disads are showing up in more and more games, but it's nice the spycraft picked up on it.

There are other little things I appreciate, like origins, feat categories, stress damage, and so forth. But those are the biggies.

Quote from: AnemoneWilderness of Mirrors (Wicked Dead Brewery Games).  I've used it to run games that ran in the old Mission Impossible style, and in the Delta Green style, and it was a blast.  I'm planning on a Shadowrun-style mission soon.

I heard about that. It seems like you'd be able to rip off the mechanism for other games. Do you think so?

Well. I often cite MSPE as my favorite game ever, but I like a lot of the espionage/action games. I love pulp games, as well, and there's a certain amout of overlap.

I loved the old Top Secret. I didn't like SI so much, but I agree that Agent 13 is an outstanding supplement. I loved both Espionage! (Danger International) and Justice Inc, from Hero games. I love the Dark Champions products for the current edition of Hero.

I thought James Bond was cool. I think a bunch of the generic games suit themselves to espionage.

SpyCraft is interesting. I'm not a huge D20 fan. Nor do I especially like hyper-detailed systems with little room for simplification. So--SpyCraft ought to make my eyes bleed. But it doesn't. I love it. Reading the book, considering all the picky little rules, each of which has ramifications to other picky little rules, I'm frozen, hypnotized by the infinitely cascading detail, like staring at the Mandelbrot set, until my body is dessicated and my eye sockets are two empty, smoking holes. Like Lifeforce. SpyCraft is the hot, naked outer-space energy-vampire of roleplaying games.

I guess we all have a deep and twisted desire for the things that may destroy us. I think I would play SpyCraft to the exclusion of everything else, if I had the time to do the GM homework to support the kind of campaign the game deserves. As it is, I do frequent one-or-two shots and have run it a couple times at cons. Really--I can't explain it, but it's true. SpyCraft is my dark, secret game mistress.

MSPE loves me so much more and is much less high-maintennance. I'm so . . . ashamed.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadI heard about that. It seems like you'd be able to rip off the mechanism for other games. Do you think so?

Yes, I think so.  A lot of the detail is in the original post by John Wick.  You could port a lot of it to other games, or just use it as-is in other settings.  I will report when I have tinkered and playtested a bit!

Millenium's End!

Quote from: AnemoneYes, I think so.  A lot of the detail is in the original post by John Wick.  You could port a lot of it to other games, or just use it as-is in other settings.  I will report when I have tinkered and playtested a bit!

Cool, do that. I like the planning/complication thing, but much of the rest isn't exactly blowing my skirt up. It'll be interesting to see if the planning bit actually works out in play.

I liked a lot about Con X 2.0, but D20 modern is the system I'm most familiar with and so that gets my vote.