This was recommended to me after I had posted about the James Bond 007 rpg and since it was on sale I picked it up thinking it was a standard 'you choose your adventure' type RPG. Well seems it's more of a 'you create your own adventure'.
On the good / small footprint side of things all you need is a deck of cards, pencil, notebook and the rules to play. Basic concept is the cards give you a start point (who, what, where, how) and from that point it's all up to you; deciding what you're going to do, flipping cards to answer questions (item checks) and dealing out cards for combat / chases; 5 to you (5 combat / chase rounds) and then flipping over a card for the NPC and you see if you can 'take the trick' to win that round.
You make notes as you go and than once the game is over, you put the notes together into a report to your superiors (story). So instead of the game providing the paragraphs / narrative, you do the bare bones and then YOU create the paragraphs / narrative afterwards.
I see that as a great concept for someone that loves to create short stories, maybe not so much for someone that enjoys being entertained by reading someone else's stories (like the James Bond solo, MSPE solo's or any of the T&T solos).
Your agent only has 2 stats Grit (all physical checks) and Wit (all mental). Base is 5 for each and you deal yourself 4 cards and count up any suit cards you have more than 1 of. So for my Grit I had 1 of each and the Joker. So that gave me 2 to add to the Grit's 5 for a 7 (Jokers wild) and for Wit I delt out 4 clubs so 4 plus Wit's 5 for a 9.
You can than either pick or random draw for 4 abilities. I flipped cards and came up with Seduction, Explosives, Stunt Driving and Skiing. You can fill out your character with features, history etc... if you wish.
OK for my set up I flipped cards and came up with Mission - Plant Evidence, Location - Scandinavia, Mission Item - Top Secret Documents, Mission Target - Diplomat and Target's Style - Ambitious.
So I turned that into:
A Finnish Diplomat is hostile to NATO and positioning himself to be the next Prime Minister of Finland. Your government has learned if elected he plans on aligning Finland with the Soviet Bloc. Your mission is to discredit him by planting Top Secret Defense documents on him while he is on a skiing holiday. The skiing holiday part I used to tie in my Skiing ability.
An example of play would be, (I'm going to his room) Do I see any guards outside his door? flip card for Red Yes or Black No. I get a Red card so Yes. Can I sneak up on him? Flip card and another Red so Yes. I do so and than deal 5 cards for combat. I win the fight.
By itself kind of boring, but in the write up it turns into:
The hotel was pretty impressive from the outside, but once inside it looks like a 3rd rate brothel. At least my plaid suit should blend in with the surroundings. I creep up the stairs and peek around the corner down the hall to check things out. Seems the mark has a Bruno outside his door, but the gumba is looking out the window at the end of the hall. I sneak up on him as I pull out my rod and cold conk him easy peasy.
I take a gander out the window to see what was so interesting and see he was watching a hot yoga class across the street. Some people have all the luck.
So I actually played out the scenario I outlined above: I go to the Hotel.
- a) Are there any guards outside - Yes
- b) Do they stop me from going in - Yes
- c) I check in the back of the hotel, Is there a way in - Yes
- d) Are there guards inside on the ground floor - Yes
- e) Do they stop me from going upstairs - No
- f) Are there guards outside his room - No
- g) Is the door locked - No
- h) Anyone inside the room - No.
So I plant the evidence, leave and call in a tip to the Police. Mission done.
Not quite as exciting as my fictional game play.
If the game has any flaws I'd say it would be that YOU have to think up the 'story' as you go, to know what questions to 'ask the cards'.
I wanted to give it another try, so I pulled out the opening paragraphs of a story I started back in 2014 and didn't know where to take it. I then put another spin on it in 2015 and still couldn't figure out what to do (to be honest I had just written a string of short stories and was kind of burned out.) I pulled the who, what, why and where out of what I had so I'm doing a missing persons search for an aircraft engineer that was doing secret glider research at a plant in LA during WWII.
This time around everything's flowing really well, questioning the plant receptionist and boss led me to a dead end, so I back tracked and questioned employee's and got a lead taking me out to a health club I'll need to investigate.
Things are looking up both for my story and the game.
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