Benedict's Agents

[RPGPundit]

This section of the RPG book always kind of puzzled me, no other Elder has something quite like this, they have their own mechanic, etc etc.

But on top of that, Benedict didn't strike me quite as the spymaster of amber in any case.  He seemed remarkably uninformed in more than a few cases.

So does Benedict have "Agents" in your campaign? What do they do? How powerful are they?
Has anyone actually used the "Benedict's Agents" rules from the book?

RPGPundit

[Uncle Twitchy]

I use them for Julian's Rangers.

[Nihilistic Mind]

I used them for Caine in one of my campaigns. He was the head of the secret service of his majesty, King Random.

For the most part, I'd rather not have Benedict take over everything with an ubiquitous force, unless he happens to be ambitious enough to go for the throne via total domination. That has not been the case in any of my campaigns so far...

Benedict's Agents is the sort of extra stuff that I find interesting (considering the rules for ubiquitous things are covered by the artifact creation rules and is gonna be damn expensive in points too), and it's especially useful if I need something that will be 'ubiquitous' in Shadow for cheap. Also, the fact that you can quickly build customized agents for whatever reason and use is appealing.

[Trevelyan]

I don't use them for pretty much the reasons Pundit highlights - they just don't seem to have any origin in the books.

If Benedict were to have 'agents' they would be military officers responsible for various fronts where BEnedict himself was not always able to be present.

Elite squads are more of a Julian thing as others have already sugegsted, I can't honestly see any other Amberite trusting delicate tasks to a third party in that way, the rest of the family are happy to use some extra muscle (Eric's Were, Fiona's whatever-chased-Random) but they do the harder stuff themselves. Past experience shows that 'agents' aren't up to the challenge of an Amberite.

[gabriel_ss4u]

I think any & every elder should have agents - whatever you call those agents. But an Elder without a spy network is an elder waiting to be spied-on.
True, they are not up to snuff with elders, but they are trained by them I would think.
Benedict is a master general, and of-course any general knows it is advantageous to have counter-intelligence.
IMC; Felina, daughter of Deirdre, has her were-cat agents through-out Nedra, the further reaches of Arden's magically influenced forest.
Most of my elders have spies & agents of one type or another, except Gerard, Bleys - (cause he don't want or need them), and Random - (pre-king persona).
IMC everyone else who's an elder has some type of agent network.
NOW, do I use the Agent matrix from the Benedict section?
No. I haven't set into detail that amount of effort towards the elder's agents unless it were important in the story at hand.
But I would...

[Malleus Arianorum]

I don't use Benedict's agents as written, but I do like the idea that his lackies are top notch -- so much so that they can beat the last place bidders. Usualy, I go with the idea that lackies are selected for and trained in the abilities of their master. Julian's minions are a synergy of strength and equipment, Gerard's sailors are great lugs, Fiona's wacky-pack hail from an untraceably distant shadow and so forth.
 
Benedict is a natural born spymaster but it's not reflected in the books because Benedict is a crippled genius. However, an alt-Benedict with an expunged mark of doom? I can absolutely imagine him with two arms and One spy ring to rule them all, one spy ring to find them. One spy ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them....

[Nihilistic Mind]

I thought rings were Bleys' deal...

I think a Shadow of Benedict could use some agents. I think I'll try those rules soon.

[jibbajibba]

A lot of my players have spy networks

From an old game ...

Shadow Pawns         
Psychic Sensitivity (1pt)         
Ubiquitous in Shadow (x6pts)         

This being the discussion over how they work .... (Greymond is he PCs retainer)

...you have a psychic link to the Pawns. Greymond does not so for him to organize them and filter their reports to you is very difficult. So I guess I am suggesting you 'buy' Greymond as a demon with limited shapeshift(1) and psychic link(1)(as a demon he will be tougher than a mortal especially in his demon form). An alternate is to make Greymond the first of the shadow pawns you purchased. This gives you the psychic link already but he will just be a shadow dweller that you picked up when you first decided to set the Pawns up, he would remain free though. In this scenario we are assume that all shadow pawns have a psychic link to all other shadow pawns. You can see that that does open your network up a bit which might be both good and bad. As it stands at the moment, and for the purposes of this intro it's moot, Greymond will be able to filter the reports you receive as the pawns will report to him first unless the matter is URGENT which is a list of stuff you will need to define and give to me.]
'Sir I have prepared a brandy.'
'Many thanks Greymond. What think you of the likeness?'
'It's very good Sir but I always thought I had a slightly smaller nose.
I have some reports from the Golden Circle. You asked the Pawns to keep an eye on all your brothers. It is Cailin he is in the port of Thassa where one of his ships has been damaged. Do you want to receive the details?'
[Note – can't think of another way to do this except to allow Greymond to either 'store' the details and send to you or get you to open up a 'channel' to the pawn in question. Let me know which. And also I need to set the limits of what information the pawns can gather. They are ubiquitous through shadow so every place you go there will be a cell of pawns so 5 or so. Now every place doesn't mean 'EVERY PLACE' in an Arab city shadow there will be a cell but they will be citizens you won't have a pawn in the palace guard. To do this you need to give details of the shadow and do a bit of work to get them set up. In Amber terms you have a cell in each of the army units and one in the Northern and Southern fleets. You don't have them in the small compact units, the Messengers, the Pattern Guard, the Queen's guard etc. If you want to infiltrate these groups you have to put specific plans in motion.]

And another

Trista's spy network: Not sure how much I should spend for these guys.  There should be about a hundred of them, scattered across Amber city but they don't have any mystical skills, they're just sneaky.  4 points? [I made these cost 3 and gave then a range of spy skills - I use a skill system and Horde quantity]
The subcommanders of the network: Named and Numbered (*2) - Amber Stamina (2), Combat Training (1), Shadow Trail (1), Power Word (1)


Then the crown has its own spy network The King's Messangers who are run by the Keeper of the Seals who reports directly to the King.

A lot of player fun is had when these networks intervene ... from a game log.

"Mort, you are not a fool and you must have come here expecting to receive the full vent of my rage. To allow one of our spies to be exposed to the Messengers is beyond reproach."
"It is not as bad as you may believe, my Lady," this comment causes you arch your eyebrows. "Kell was new he only knew his own cell so we can limit the damage. If we can reassign..."
"Kill them."
"But Peters in particular has ..."
"Kill them all I want them dead by nightfall, two accidents and a knife fight or duel or some such. I leave the details to you."
"So be it, my Lady," Queasy knows better than to argue with you when it comes to protecting the secrecy of your organisation.

And the other side of the coin ...

2) This new spy network in the city. I must look into it immediately.
Whatever info my network has, I need it. Once I have it, I shall go into
the city in disguise and see what contact I can make with this network. I
may try to put one of my people into it as an infiltrator, but I may also
do that myself.

The Messengers have managed to capture a man they think is a link to the
network. He claims to be nothing more than a minor merchant but they spotted
him watching Watching Cornelius's apartments in the City on three separate
nights and so pulled him in. His name is aparently Kell and he has basically
admitted that he was collecting information for someone but the Messengers
have just held him until you were ready to interview him yourself.
Annoyingly they left a mark at teh place. This is an old habit they got into
but you have never managed to totally break them of. when they want to scare
a group off for some reason they leave a sign which looks like an M with 2
horizontal lines through it. You think it was Oberon's idea from way back as
it spreads a little fear itne h ranks of the criminals and those of such ilk
telling them 'do not seach for you man and do not repeat this action or the
Messengers will get you'. In this case of course it might have warned his
masters.

I have to question this many myself, preferably in a place that is sound-insulated. Can't have his cries drawing attention. I will give orders for some messengers to keep him awake for the next 24 hours. Sleep deprivation and some pointless water torture - things like that. Hopefully, he'll be lucid by the time I'm ready to talk to him. This may save me some time. Oh, and the messengers are not to leave that mark around anymore. People know they exist. Let them wonder as to the rest.

God I love spies .....