Eberron: Religion and Warforged

"Just as most warforged are not inclined to align themselves with any particular moral or ethical philosophy, few show much interest in religion. Some warforged have found a kind of answer to the questions of their existence by taking up the cause of one religion or another, but these remain a small (if rather vocal) minority among their kind. A larger number gravitate to a messianic figure called the Lord of Blades. This powerful leader gathers a cultlike following of disaffected warforged by preaching a return to the Mournland and rebellion against the "weak-fleshed" races."

Chris, not sure that your warforged Cleric will work without some modification. The closest thing to the fanatical version you described would be a follower of the Lord of Blades, but that's not really player character territory. The other deities in Eberron are the Church of the Silver Flame (fanatical LG who worship a sentient flame that is part demon, part angel and part prophet merged into one), The Sovereign Host (a pantheon of 9 gods who are generally worshipped as a pantheon by clerics), The Dark Six (the evil flipside of The Sovereign Host), The Blood of Vol (a somewhat sinister cult that believes in the power of blood, and is generally considered to be potentially wicked, if not outright evil), The Cults of the Dragon Below (essentially worshipping the powers of Hell), The Path of Light (a monk-like discipline based in the psionic-heavy lands of The Inspired) and The Undying Court (the positive-energy charged undead of the elven lands, essentially elven ancestor worship).

You can also potentially draw spells simply from the spirital remnants of the Dragon Above (heaven, essentially), which means you aren't aligned with any particular god or pantheon.

On the other hand, if you wanted to pursue your master inquisitive, you might consider starting as a changeling rogue or you might consider playing a human with a dragonmark, as master inquisitives often come from the half-elven House Medani or the humans and half-orcs of House Tharashk. This would require spending a feat to be dragon-marked (and probably more feats later to make it more powerful), but would give you a built-in spell-like ability, such as Identify, Know Direction, Locate Object, Detect Magic or Detect Poison somewhere between once or twice a day.

Eberron Primer - Official Site

The Wizards of the Coast site has a variety of interesting information on Eberron on this page, including an Overview, Organizations, The World, an Across Eberron Introductory Brochure and, perhaps most useful, an Interactive Map of Eberron.

Eberron Part One - General Overview:

Here is the first in my series of "boiled down" Eberron for players' eyes. I'll hit what I think are the crucial elements of the Eberron setting.

Some movies that inspired the "Eberron mood":
Brotherhood of the Wolf, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Mummy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Raiders of the Lost Ark

The tone:
Eberron combines traditional medieval fantasy with pulp action and dark adventure. A devastating war (The Last War) took over the world for the last 100 years (it has been two years since a treaty ended it) and magic is built into the fabric of the society. Cities exist which feature buildings tall as modern skyscrapers, an aristocracy of "Dragonmarked" merchant families control much of the world's economy, elemental-bound airships and magically powered "lightning rails" (think magic trains) provide mobility across the world for a great majority of the citizenry, not just the lucky adventurers with teleport and flight spells.

Ten Things You Need to Know:
This comes straight out of the book, but I've truncated the descriptions. If you want to read the full list (and I recommend it), it's on page 8-9 of Eberron, and I'll bring the book with me to gaming from now on.

1. If it exists in D&D, it exists in Eberron - In short, beholders, +1 swords, etc. are all present
   
2. Tone and attitude - Alignments are relative, there are limited "action points" (like Spycraft, but different) to accomplish dramatic or cinematic scenes even if the dice don't always roll your way
   
3. A world of magic - There's a working class of mages, as well as the Dragonmarked houses, that provides any number of magical conveniences to everyone
   
4. A world of adventure - Magical transport means your adventures will be far-reaching and mobile, and there is a vast array of locations, from the war-blasted Mournland to the jungle continent of Xen'drik with its fallen giant civilization.
   
5. The Last War has ended - sort of - There is a two-year peace as the campaign begins, but there are still old feuds and pain from one hundred years of war affecting people from the commoner to those in power
   
6. The Five Nations - Galifar, the kingdom that shattered when the Last War began, was made up of Five Nations: Aundair, Breland, Cyre, Karrnath and Thrane. Four of them survive as independent countries; Cyre was destroyed in the closing days of the Last War, and is now known as the Mournland. The campaign will be based in the city of Sharn, which is in the nation of Breland.
   
7. A world of intrigue - Eberron has a great need for adventurers, espionage and sabotage. The dragonmarked houses, churches both pure and corrupt, crime lords, monster gangs, secret societies, dragons, etc. all jockey for power in the post-war society.
   
8. Dragonmark dynasties - There are 13 Dragonmarked Houses that represent the majority of business interests in Eberron. The family members don't all manifest Dragonmarks, but those that do gain special magic powers that help them with the chosen vocation of the houses. The houses are: House Cannith (Architects of magic and steel, original builders of the Warforged), House Deneith (Bodyguards and mercenaries), House Ghallanda (Magically enhanced halfling innkeepers and chefs), House Jorasco (Halfling healers), House Kundarak (Dwarven bankers, offering bills of exchange instead of bulky coins to carry around), House Lyrandar (Half-elf weather manipulators, helpful to farmers and sailors), House Medani (Half-elven bodyguards, inquisitives, scouts and sentries), House Orien (Couriers and transportation, responsible for the lightning rail and elemental airship routes), House Phiarlan (Elven artists and entertainers with illusion and divination magic), House Sivis (Gnomish translators, notaries and scribes), House Tharasik (Human/half-orc prospectors, inquisitives and bounty hunters), House Thuranni (A split faction from House Phiarlan, slightly more shady and aggressive in the way they provide services), House Vadalis (Producers of fine magebred animals, animal trainers and teamsters of renowkn)
   
9. Dragonshards - The creation myth divides Eberron into three parts, each tied to a dragon of legend: Siberys (The sky and stars), Khyber (The underdark and abyss) and Eberron (the world itself). Each section produces stones and crystals imbued with arcane power known as dragonshards. These dragonshards enhance dragonmarks, allow the binding of elementals and can be used in the construction of various magic items. They are rare and difficult to come by, and are often the subject of quests, especially in the lost continent of Xen'drik.
   
10. New races - In addition to the standard campaign, there are three new playable races: Changelings (half-doppleganger), Shifters (half-lyncanthrope) and warforged (sentient constructs forged during the Last War).
    

Realms: In The Beginning

In our inaugural adventure in the young Realms:

A series of brutal, gory murders terrorizes a small village in Halruaa, and our heroes investigate. Finding tracks leading from the most recent kill westward, they pursue the killer deep into the Akhkaur Swamp, and into an ambush! Native bullywugs, led by a pair of sinister and deadly yuan-ti halfbloods, surround the party. During the fight, Martin catches some of the yuan-ti speech, and learns that they have been ordered to capture the party if possible. Our heroes narrowly prevail, slaying one yuan-ti, and the other flees.

Now hot on the trail of this second yuan-ti, the party comes at length to a twisted, foul part of the swamp. The yuan-ti's trail leads directly into an underwater tunnel. Warned off by an acrid odor, the slowly decaying bodies of three bullywugs in a nearby pond, and a complete lack of other life in the area, they retreat, deciding to find the bullywug camp and glean what information they can there.

Locating the camp and capturing a guard pose little difficulty for the experienced rangers, and soon the party has a guide. Their prisoner leads them across the marshes into deeper water, and finally to a dock pointing into the River Ghalagar, which cuts across the center of the Akhkaur. There they found a yuan-ti slaver galleon, apparently deserted. Boarding, our heroes find signs of recent occupation, several slave cages, lodging for several yuan-ti (including a dread Abomination), and captain's quarters.

And in one of the cages, bound and dehydrated, they find a captured human. A mage of some kind, from the looks of him. With a certain light in his eyes, usually reserved for Player Characters...

WLD Prequel - New D&D Campaign

Greetings everyone!

Since we've had some group changes, I thought I'd launch a new D&D campaign in the Realms. It'll be a "prequel" to the World's Largest Dungeon game. I want to explore how the WLD came into being, why it exists, and who created it, and I want to run a game with a little more storytelling and a little less hack'n'slash than the WLD game itself. The play style will remain fairly casual, but with a greater emphasis on characters. While I won't guarantee character survival, the game will be much less lethal than the WLD game. It will take place primarily in Halruaa and its neighborhood in southern Faerun and will likely involve lots of extraplanar travel. Because it will take place around the time of the creation of the WLD, many details of the world will be different than what's in the source books. This is "when the world was young." It's a time of high magic and powerful gods who still take an active interest in the world. It's an age of mythology. Your characters will be among the very first adventurers the world has known; peasants will tell their grandchildren about the day they saw "the Wizard, the Thief, and the Cleric" walk past their village.

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, we'll meet on Friday at our place at 7 PM for a character and background history creation session. Characters will begin at 6th level: high enough to start most prestige classes if you like, but low enough that I don't have to start the first game by throwing a pit fiend at you.

I'll be particularly impressed by any player who creates a character who is an ancestor of their WLD character, or of the monastic order that guards the WLD in present-day Faerun.

Cheers!
Ben

A Change-Up For Me

Dig it, peeps - I'm going to be breaking from Friday night gaming for a bit.

Sort of.

Basically I'm pulling a "Charles" - stepping out of our Friday night sessions for a bit to cheat on you guys with another group. T'ain't nothin' personal, but my co-worker Dan has a campaign I've been interested to try out, especially since one of the members is an old buddy of mine that I haven't seen in years.

Don't hate me. It's just gaming as an "open relationship." ;^)

Upcoming Game

Next week should be a fairly short session to finish off the current Spycraft mission... I'm figuring an hour, maybe two. I will of course bring Burnout Revenge and Arrested Development Season Two (I bought the DVDs on Amazon, should have them by Thursday) so we can do that once we're done with gaming. No Entourage Season 2, sadly... I cannot find an easy-to-use DVD burning program. I could burn all the .avi files, but that would only work if Ben is willing to hook up his laptop to the TV and if his Mac can play .avi files.

Slightly related scheduling note: The weekend of Nov. 4th, we should probably skip gaming. Nate will be gone to Wizard World, and Chris and I will be heading out relatively early the next morning to head up on Saturday, so I figure it's a good week to take a break. I was figuring it might be a good Friday to watch TV, play videogames, etc. at my place and invite Lana, Cindy, William, etc. over as well. Or go catch a movie... I'm really wanting to see Good Night and Good Luck and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and I'm sure there are others.

More closely related gaming note: Do any of you players want to write up the adventure thus far for the blog so we have a record of it? I'll offer up 200 bonus XP to whoever does it, as long as the synopsis doesn't read something like "Then I shot something, and it was the best day ever! The end."

House Rules

Chapter 1: Character Creation:

1. Core Abilities (p.30 - 52) - Version 2.0 overcomplicated the Core Abilities. I'm simplifying them again. Each class (except for Pointman and Soldier) gets double action dice when using one of their class skills. This does not include any class skills from talents, feats, origins, etc. Just the class skills of the base class. The Soldier gets double action dice when using one of his class skills as well as when he uses it for an attack roll. The Pointman gets double the action dice that any other character would get at the beginning of the adventure, which he can spend as he wishes... including to help other characters, if they are within earshot or on tac-radios or otherwise in communication where his tactical advice could help.

3. Vitality (p. 59) - An important distinction in Vitality and Wound Points is that Vitality Points, though you lose them when you get "hit," actually represent *misses* in combat. Losing a bunch of vitality to an enemy agent firing a submachine gun is the equivalent of an action movie where the hero darts across an alley and the agent fires bullets down the alley, narrowly missing and causing the hero to wince, dodge, narrowly avoid death. Only when your vitality points are gone do you actually begin taking damage. Thus the ease of recovering vitality with action points and its quick recovery outside of combat. Basically, recovering vitality is taking a breather, getting your bearings, etc.

4. Action Dice (p. 63) - Any action dice left at the end of a session grant a 25 XP bonus to the player holding them. This is cumulative and there is no upper limit.

Chapter 2: Skills

1. Untrained Skill Checks and focuses (p. 92) - The standard rules, that you may make any skill check you don't have as untrained, but your error range increases by 2, applies. However, if you have a focus in the skill, even with 0 ranks, that familiarity prevents the error range increase.

2. Missing 1.0 Skill: Cryptography (p. 111, 152, 154) - Deciphering code is a Complex Analysis/Decipher skill check (p.111). Developing a code is a Science/Mathematics check (p. 152, 154).

3. Blend (p. 118) - In addition to Stealth, Blend includes setting up a Stakeout without being noticed. Your Stakeout result is versus their Search/Perception if they are actively watching their surroundings (i.e. good security) or Notice/Awareness if not. This is a secret check, and if you fail, you do not know that you have been compromised.

4. Missing 1.0 Skill: Languages (p. 123) - The Cultures skill gives you a rough idea of the number of languages you know, but for my game, we're going to want to know more specifically. Each character knows one language fluently for each Cultures focus that they have (this language must be spoken within that culture... no taking Swahili if your focus is in Central America, for example), and an additional language for each point they have in Cultures skill. You can choose all of these languages up front, or choose them as they're needed. The Cultures skill still represents a number of smaller dialects and general communications ability if you don't have that specific language fluent.

5. Computers (p. 122) - You can do Research on a computer, ala the Investigation check, using your Computers skill. The DC is the same as the one for Investigation/Research, but you can only search using the Internet or a business or government network that you have hacked into. It takes twice as long to do a Computers/Research check as an Investigation/Research check, since you aren't as skilled in looking, which is why it's often best to crack the security and then hand the terminal off to your Sleuth teammate.

6. Investigation/Canvass Area (p. 136) - The Canvass Area skill is broken. The DCs are far too high and don't make a lot of sense. I'm reducing all the base DCs (related to the area searched) by 10, with a minimum DC of 15. Also, the cost is not a requirement, but is instead used to reduce the DC by 5 and increase the threat range by 1 each time it is spent, and the cost increase goes $100, 250, 1000, 5000, 25,000, 100,000, 500,000 instead of the insane list given in the text.

7. Investigation/Research (p. 137) - The Research skill chart is stupid, giving you a higher DC based on the more information you have available to you. The DC is instead based on the level of scarcity/secrecy you're looking for: Publicly-available/common is DC 15, publicly-available/uncommon is DC 20, secret/common or publicly-available/rare is DC 25, secret/uncommon is DC 30 and secret/rare is DC 40. The method of searching matters only for the time required to search and the level of information that can be found. The time required is in the chart on p. 137, the level of information is as follows: (Personal library - Publicly available/common, town library - publicly available/uncommon, city library - publicly available/rare, national library - secret/common, Internet - publicly available/rare, business network - Internet level plus secret/uncommon relating to that business, government network - Internet level plus secret/uncommon.

8. Manipulate (p.138) - Manipulate is too specific, and since we won't really be using the brainwashing rules, almost useless. So I'm adding another check under Manipulate, the Subterfuge Check. This is used to turn agents to your agenda, convincing them that you're someone that you're not (i.e. "No, really, I'm deep-cover KGB, go ahead and give me those codes") or convincing them that someone or something they trust is not what it seems (i.e. "You know, Dr. Evil is just planning on killing you once you've fulfilled your purpose). It can be used short-term or long-term, and has a fair amount in common with the art of the con. The skill is based on your Charisma, and is a complex check based on their Wisdom and any ranks that they have in Resolve. Each time you succeed at the complex check, you can improve the disposition of that NPC in one direction in your favor (although this is more easily done using the Impress/Influence skill), or you can decrease it in one direction towards another person or organization. This skill is cooperative (max. helpers equal to your Charisma bonus, minimum 0), synergy skills are Impress, Falsify and Sense Motive, Retry is yes, but your error range increases by 2 each time you fail, Threat is that you are exceptionally convincing, and can *both* improve their disposition towards you and decrease it towards someone else by 1 grade, Critical success is that you improve or decrease their disposition by 2 grades instead of just one (although you do have to choose in this case), Error is that their disposition towards you worsens by 1 grade and your error range using any Cha-based skill against that target is increased by 2 for the duration of the mission and critical failure is that you may not target them with another Manipulate check for the duration of the mission.

9. Networking (p. 144) - In addition to the contact rules involved in Networking, the skill includes a loose network of contacts globally. If you wish to use your network of contacts to locate information, you can do so by using the difficulty rules in the new Investigation/Research rules, and the time required to search using contacts is based on the level of information you're seeking. (Example: You want to find out some publicly available/rare information, which would usually require a city library... the time required is the same as using a city library, 1d6 hours). Regular contacts (acquaintances and so forth), in addition to providing information on these time scales, can also provide you with Gear picks (up to 1 pick per grade of contact, with a maximum Caliber equal to the grade of the contact, per mission). These gear picks can be Kits, Electronics, Resources, Security, Tradecraft, Weapons or Vehicles depending on GM judgment as to what type of gear the contact would have access to. A contact can never provide Gadget Picks.

10. Notice (p. 146) - Notice also includes the Stakeout Check. When you're on a stakeout, your DC to spot something important is 15 (+2 DC per consecutive day on stakeout). If you have been noticed (see Blend/Stakeout check, above), then your DC is either 15 (+2 DC per day) or your target's Blend/Stealth or Sleight of Hand/Conceal Action check, whichever is higher. This is a secret check, since you won't know whether you noticed it or not, or whether you've been compromised or not. A threat on a Stakeout check allows you to recognize whether or not you've been noticed and begin making regular rolls instead of secret ones. A critical success, in addition to the benefits of a Threat, allows you to disguise the stakeout again if you realize you have been compromised. You must choose whether to spend the action die on the critical success before hearing the results of the Threat.


Chapter 3: Feats

1. No changes currently - but I'm open to any suggestions.

Chapter Four: Gear

1. Spending Cash (p. 212) - Spies have considerably more money than a few hundred dollars available to them on missions. When you are on mission, your Spending Cash is equal to your normal amount ($100 x Spending Cash x Spending Cash) times 10. So, for example, Dom has a regular Spending Cash of $900... when he is on missions, it is $9000. You can liquidate Wealth points as described on p. 212, but you gain $100,000 x the current statistic when you do so. Request checks for money are equal to the result x $2000. Liquidating Reputation gains you $10,000 per point instead of $5,000.

2. Gear Picks - General Rule Changes (p. 213) - Gearing up sounded like a neat idea. It has turned out to be an enormous pain in the ass. And so... we're done with it, for the most part. I'm going to go a bit more generic in terms of guns, vehicles, etc. (at least in terms of game effect), and I'm generally going to assume that you guys, as professional spies, are geared for what you need to be geared for. Calibers are gone. Gear picks are gone. Common items are gone.

And so: Every agent has what amounts to a suitcase full of gear, related to their job. The generic package for everyone is: Three changes of identity (clothes, papers, currency, cellphones, rudimentary disguises like mustaches and wigs), two guns (assumed to be service pistols unless you say otherwise) with five clips of ammunition each, two hand weapons (assumed to be knives unless you say otherwise), two bugs, a camera, a videocamera, a digital audio recorder, a tactical vest, binoculars and a tactical headset radio with fiber-optic camera. You can have any common item on the list (and anything else you can reasonably convince me is a common item) on your person, unless I feel like spending one of my GM action dice to deny it to you.

Gear picks as described in the class levels are now meaningless. Instead, each class has one category (Their "Specialty Gear") in which they *always* have a piece of equipment with them, unless they are thoroughly searched, stripped naked, incarcerated or otherwise completely unaware. This represents a hidden weapons locker, a private garage, caches of technology, what-have-you, that any halfway decent spy will have planned for. GM discretion may require you to hit a "safe house" before you re-gear if you lose your stuff, but usually, you have this gear with you, and you have a basically unlimited "budget" for nabbing gear before missions and during downtime (within GM discretion). These categories are: Advocate (Resource or Tradecraft, chosen at character creation), Explorer (Security), Faceman (Tradecraft), Hacker (Electronics), Snoop (Electronics or Tradecraft, chosen at character creation), Intruder (Gadget), Pointman (Any one, chosen at character creation), Scientist (Electronics or Gadget, chosen at character creation), Scout (Weapon or Security, chosen at character creation), Sleuth (Resource), Soldier (Weapon), Wheelman (Vehicle).

What this means, in practical terms, is that when you're "gearing up" for a mission, you can say, "I'm taking this, this, this and this on me." You don't need to specify what's in safehouses, that's all kept abstract. But, for example, if you're a Soldier, you can say "For this mission, I'm loading up with a heavy submachine gun, semi-auto sniper rifle, a half-dozen grenades, 2 lbs. of C-4 and detonators and a surface-to-air missile launcher" and the GM will more than likely say "OK." If you're a Wheelman, you can say "I've got my tricked-out BMW and a helicopter stored in a local warehouse." If you're a Hacker, you can say "I've got two laptops, one with Intrusion software and one with Analysis, a PDA loaded with all schematics and databases from the mission briefing, two laser mikes and a bug sweeper" and so on and so on. Unless you're asking for gear that is just way beyond mission parameters (the above weapons load-out for a surveillance mission, for example), you'll pretty much get it. And if you don't specify something in gearing up that you need later, a request check in the field or a stop by a safehouse can probably secure it for you. Gearing up is something to be done quickly, for general guidance, not a major part of the game.

Each agent gets 1 gadget pick per agent level. The GM reserves the right to fill any and all of these slots with gadgets assigned by Control for the mission. I will have a good list of gadgets to choose from, incorporating the more specific gadgets from 1.0. Building your own gadgets is time-consuming and a pain-in-the-ass, and should be done away from the game table instead of during gearing up.

3. Request Checks (p. 214) - When you're in the field, you can spend an action die to get a request check and pull gear or favors (anything from a safe place to rest to a locker full of weapons to an airstrike). The DC of a Request check is 10 + (5 x the item's Caliber), giving a range of 15-30 (instead of 10-40). All other rules regarding Request Checks remain the same, including the delivery time and the need to have communications to make one. If you fail the roll, you don't have to spend the action die, but if you choose not to, you can't make another request check for the rest of the session.

4. Electronic Gear (p. 221) - Your computer (or Bugs, or anything else in Electronics that has a Power Rating) possesses a Power Rating equal to half your class level (rounded down) if you have a class that allows you to pick Electronics as your specialty gear. In addition, rather than the specific programs provided here, each computer uses a software and hardware package that makes it tricked out for a particular use. The packages are: Security (grants gear bonus with Security checks, reduces virus power ratings, treats power rating as one higher for purposes of being hacked), Intrusion (grants gear bonus with Hacking checks, treats power rating as one higher for purposes of hacking, has a virus program), Analysis (grants gear bonus with Analysis and Science checks), Information Systems (grants gear bonus with Knowledge checks and Computers/Research rolls).

5. Resource Gear (p. 225) - I'm going to need to come up with a much broader list of resources to make this a useful category. Suggestions are very welcome. The Bag of Guns now contains two guns per character on the agent team, one pistol and one rifle or submachine gun category each.

6. Security Gear (p. 227) - More or less armor, but the ability to stock up on or gain invitations to events, safe lodging and medical gear should not be overlooked in the field.

7. Tradecraft Gear (p. 233) - The best uses of these picks are extra cover identities (with Power Ratings, as opposed to the general covers that all agents have), dossiers on enemy agents, legal help and recording devices of various stripes. I'm also going to say that you can take bugs, bug sweepers and other surveillance-related gear from the electronics gear picks as if they were tradecraft picks, but they will be equal to 1/3 your agent level rounded down, not one half (hackers and science geeks get the best tech).

8. Vehicles Gear (p. 235) - I'm doing away with all the minutia that goes into the Vehicle Upgrades on p. 240. Instead, Wheelmen can customize their vehicles by making them either fast (+1 Acceleration Rating, +20% Top Speed), tough (+4 to Damage Save bonus) or tricked out (has a number of vehicle gadgets equal to half the Wheelman's class level). I'll have a specific list of gadgets when I have time, but for now, the basics are all the James Bond options: Weapons (GPMG, Rocket Launcher or Grenade Launcher), Heads-Up-Display (lets driver add Wisdom bonus to chase rolls), Oil Slick, Smoke Screen, Remote Control, Spike Dropper, Voice Activation. Stuff that's just cool, or useful for covert purposes, like a security code ignition, revolving license plates, chameleon paint schemes are all freebies.

9. Weapon Qualities (p. 258) - Weapons can have one of the following qualities, chosen when they are geared up: Accurized (+1 to hit), Dependable (1 extra action die to activate crit failures), Superior Accuracy (+1 to crit range), Takedown (DC = damage Fort save or be sprawled)

10. Weapon Upgrades (p. 263) - Weapons can have any one of the following upgrades: Bipod (Free Brace), Clockwork Action (Even roll on 1d6 prevents crit failure activation), Custom Grip (+1 to aimed attacks, +2 Initiative), Laser Sight (+2 to hit within 50 ft.), Night Vision Sight (negates low-light penalties), Suppressor (Silenced & Flash Suppressed), Tactical Flashlight (20 ft. light), Telescopic Sight (Negates 2 range increments)

11. Holsters (p. 263) - All guns come with a holster or a sling: Shoulder, concealed, holdout, tactical, whatever you want.

12. Weapons Gear (p. 265) - This is the big one. I'm doing away with all the specific weapons, at least until you reach the explosives/tactical levels. In game terms, it hardly matters whether you have a Walther PPK or a .38. It's just special effects. Instead, all guns are chosen using the categories listed on p. 257. If you want specifics, you can look at the charts from p. 282-300, but essentially, each weapon is defined by the category it fits in. If you have a "Basics" feat with a weapon, it's damage increases by one size die. If you do not have proficiency with the type of weapon you're using, the damage decreases by one size die. If you have a focus with the weapon you're using, you gain a +1 to weapon damage. The categories and damage are as follows:

Close Range Weapons
Blunt 1d6 subdual / Exotic Blunt 1d8 subdual
Edged 1d6 / Exotic Edged 1d8
Hurled 1d6/ Exotic Hurled 1d8
Tasers (Considered to use "unarmed" proficiency) - Requires a DC 20 Fortitude save to avoid being "stunned" (see p.342) for 1d4 rounds. Also deals 1d4 stress damage.

Firearms:
Service Pistols (1d8, 12 shot clip, 20 ft. range, +2 to concealment)
Holdout Pistols (1d4, 6 shot clip, 10 ft. range, +3 to concealment)
Service Revolvers (2d4, 6 shots, 25 ft. range, +2 to concealment)
Backup Revolvers (1d4, 6 shots, 15 ft. range, +3 to concealment)
Light Submachine Guns (1d8, 20 shot clip, 25 ft. range, capable of autofire, +1 to concealment)
Heavy Submachine Guns (1d10, 30 shot clip, 30 ft. range, capable of autofire)
Bolt-Action Rifles (2d10, 5 shots, 250 ft. range)
Semi-Automatic Rifles (19-20 Crit, 1d12, 20 shot clip, 150 ft. range)
Assault Rifles (3d4, 30 shot clip, 75 ft. range, capable of autofire)
Break-Action Shotgun (4d4, 2 shots, 25 ft. range, maximum of 3 range increments)
Pump Action Shotguns (4d4, 6 shots, 15 ft. range, maximum of 3 range increments)
Semi-Automatic Shotguns (4d4, Error 1-2, 6 shot clips, 30 ft. range, maximum of 3 range increments, capable of autofire)
General Purpose Machine Guns (1d12, Error 1-2, 100 shot belt, 200 ft. range, capable of autofire, not concealable)
Heavy Machine Guns (1d12, Error 1-3, 100 shot belt, 300 ft. range, capable of autofire, not concealable)

Chapter Five: Combat:

1. Grenades (p. 261-262, p. 284 chart) - Grenades are considerably more dangerous than the standard rules indicate. Instead of the damage listed, the following is the damage for grenades in my Spycraft campaign: Fragmentation Grenade 15+2d10 explosive (17-35 instead of 4-40), Thermite Grenade 10+2d10 fire (12-30 instead of 3-30), White Phosphorous Grenade 6+2d6 fire (8-18 instead of 3-18). All other hurled weapons remain the same. In addition, the DC to hit a square instead of a target is 15 (detailed on p. 328 and nowhere else), the rules on blast attacks are on p. 343-344 and rules on explosive damage, including the Reflex roll to avoid or lessen it, are on p. 336. A critical hit with a grenade kills everyone within its blast radius or destroys whatever target it was thrown at (within reason... you ain't blowing up battleships with one grenade). The exception to this rule is for major villains and player characters, who can either make a Reflex save to be knocked to 0 Vitality, 1 Wound Point (unconscious but stable) or can spend an action point to achieve the same result if they fail the Reflex save.

2. Explosives (p. 275) - Setting a prepackaged explosive rules are on page 275 and are unchanged. Constructing a bomb can be done with a Science/Chemistry check, but the Explosives proficiency grants a +2 to this roll, and even if you don't have Science/Chemistry, you can make an explosives package out of raw materials by making an Intelligence-check if you have the proficiency as if you had the skill (i.e. no +2 error range increase). Disarming a bomb requires a Security/Disable check (this check also gets a +2 from Explosives proficiency), but someone with Explosives proficiency can disarm by using their agent level as their Security skill if they either don't have the skill or have a higher agent level than Security skill level.

3. Stress Damage (p. 339) - Stress damage seems really ineffective, so I'm changing it. Whenever someone suffers any stress damage of any amount, they must roll the Will save listed on the chart on p.339. The DC of the Save and the effects if it is failed depends on the level of Stress they have accrued, but you do not have to exceed your Stress threshold to have the effects of Stress damage. Once you have failed a check, you are considered at that level of stress until the stress damage is fully healed. The good news is that you cannot have your level of stress increased unless your stress damage goes beyond the next threshold and you fail another save at that threshold.

4. Autofire (p. 354) - Autofire grants a +1 bonus to attack per volley fired, rather than a -1 per volley. The maximum number of shots that can be put into the target is equal to the attacker's Base Attack Bonus, or the number of volleys fired, whichever is lower.

5. Strafe (p. 360-361) - Each target opponent gains a cumulative +1 bonus to Defense, instead of the cumulative +2 to Defense listed in the text. In addition, the Defense bonus caps at 20 - (Attacker's Base Attack Bonus). This also changes the Autofire Supremacy feat (p. 180), which changes to “each target opponent gets a flat +2 bonus to Defense instead of one that increases with each shot.“

Chapter Six: Dramatic Conflicts:

1. Dramatic Conflicts - General Rules(p. 363) - In this game, we will be using Dramatic Conflicts for Chases and Hacking. Brainwashing, Infiltration, Interrogation and Manhunt conflicts will be reserved for NPCs, as these are the kinds of things that are more effective when played out rather than reduced to the abstraction of Dramatic Conflicts. In the resolution stage of conflicts, there is no degree of winning or losing, aside from Critical Successes and Critical Failures, which work as described in Step 2. The winner of the opposed skill check may choose to activate one or more of the advantages of his Strategy, the loser does not get to. This should prevent the wildly unbalanced chases we've been having, where there's almost no point in rolling the dice.

2. Chases - Distance Increments (p. 365) - The distance per lead point chart on p. 365 is not used. Instead, the distance is 10 ft. per lead point for ground and water chases and 50 ft. per lead point for air chases. For mixed air/water or air/ground, the distance is 30 ft. per lead point.

3. Chases - Maneuvers (p. 366) -There will be a new maneuver matrix that makes chases more about playing your opponent than just randomly choosing maneuvers.

4. Hacking (p. 371) - Unmonitored systems are treated as if the Prey had a Computers skill equal to its Power Rating x3. The hacker gets to add the Power Rating of his computer to his Computers/Hacking skill if he's hacking in remotely. If a hacker can get to a system terminal and bypass external security, firewalls, etc. (this requires physical intrusion), the Computers skill is equal to its Power Rating x2. This generally means that a hacker with a Caliber II computer tricked out for intrusion is evenly matched with a system equal to his level, and a hacker accessing a computer directly is evenly matched with a system one higher than his level. If the Hacker wishes to pull off a hack without someone in computer security knowing that the system has been hacked, he must take a -4 to all skill rolls during the hack or make a Computers roll at the end of a successful hack against a DC of (Opposing Computer Power Rating) x5 to erase all traces of his work in the system.

Threat Assessments

Here are the dossiers for threats that your operations team has been tracking. By the way, your current operational name is Task Force One... if you guys want to give the team an actual codename, let me know. The other team is Task Force Blackbird, and the as-yet unrecruited CIA team is Task Force Three.

Rising Dragon - Threat level I

Sphere of influence: Southern Asia and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on anarchic former Soviet states like Chechneya and industrialized Asian nations like Japan and Hong Kong

Influence: Law enforcement (Interpol & police), organized crime (Yakuza, Chinese Triads & Russian Mafia), business interests and black marketeers

Assets: Japanese hacker/biker gang Neon Tigers, Asian assassins/spies Shaolin Sisters, ex-Soviet special forces Red Hand and the remaining organizational assets of the Crimson Dynasty

Membership: Unknown, suspected number in the thousands

Leadership: Unknown, suspected to be ranking former member of Crimson Dynasty

Organization: Unknown, suspected that high-ranking members of other organizations (Yakuza, Triads, Neon Tigers, Red Hand) serve as "middle management" for a single leader, whose name, identity, specialty and even gender are a mystery.

Goals: Unknown, but if they are consistent with Crimson Dynasty, include a desire for control of drug trade and weapon trafficking and general power-brokering in the region.

Threat Analysis: Sinister motivations like world conquest or genocide generally do not fit Rising Dragon profiles, and thus it is more the purview of standard CIA operations instead of Project: Scarecrow, except that the Rising Dragon seems to have a personal interest in some Scarecrow recruits, and thus could pose a threat to operational security and secrecy.

Shadow Protocol 9 (S.P. 9 or Speed 9) - Threat Level II

Sphere of Influence: Global

Influence: Vast resources inside intelligence agencies and the black market worldwide, political and business influence brought about through blackmail and bribery

Assets: Former members of Agency and Shadow, freelance assassins and mercenaries

Membership: Unknown, but suspected to number in the thousands

Leadership: The Shadowman, a mysterious figure with impressive intelligence-gathering and tactical abilities

Organization: The Shadowman seems to have an unbreakable communications system consisting of dead drops, computer viruses and live agents through which he contacts employed agents and freelance assets

Goals: Shadow Protocol 9 refers to the Shadow protocol whereby operational policy was to terminate Agency assets as soon as they were identified. So far, S.P. 9 seems dedicated to rooting out and destroying any former Agency assets and recruiting Shadow assets. Some theorize that S.P. 9 is turning what Agency assets it can as well.

Threat Analysis: The organization seems to be very much in the recruiting/setup and foundational phase of operation, but their ultimate goals once they've put together this organization are unknown. A group with this much intelligence gathering capability and veteran espionage talent is potentially very dangerous, but until their goals are known, their actual threat is relatively minimal except to those with former Agency or Shadow ties.

Dr. Dean Hammond -Threat Level III

Sphere of Influence: Primarily Africa, with some influence in the United States politically

Influence: Political influence in Africa and the United States thanks to humanitarian efforts and monetary resources

Assets: Hammond Industries, a multibillion-dollar corporation with subsidiaries in pharmaceuticals, shipping and a variety of manufacturing industries

Membership: Hammond Industries employees as of July 2005 number 38,000. The number of those actually involved with any of Hammond's more sinister activities are probably in the low thousands

Leadership: Dr. Hammond is a multi-PhD and well-respected leader in African commerce and humanitarian efforts. He is also the guiding force behind Hammond Industries' more sinister directives

Organization: Hammond Industries is controlled by a board of directors which Hammond controls through friendship, bribery, blackmail and coercion

Goals: Unknown. Scarecrow intelligence indicates that Hammond Industries has been involved in human experimentation, "natural" disasters in the area and human trafficking. His ultimate goals are unknown, but it is clear that the people of Africa are not high on Hammond's list of concerns.

Threat Analysis: Aside from the Middle East, Africa is one of the most dangerous and unstable regions in the world, and Hammond seems poised to make a rather large power grab in that region. Hammond already controls, through political influence and reputation, a good deal of the region, and past "rogue" operations by his employees suggest that he has larger plans.

The Many Hands of God - Threat Level IV

Sphere of Influence: Global

Influence: Supported by religious organizations of many stripes under different names, many of them having no idea that they are supporting a multi-theological organization

Assets: Fundamentalist groups including violent extremists from the Muslim, Christian and other faiths, Faith Inc, a non-denominational corporation with multiple subsidiaries that employs and benefits largely those with a religious faith

Membership: Duped supporters include small churches and congregations throughout the world numbering in the millions, while the actual core believers are probably closer to the tens of thousands. The Many Hands of God, if not for it's splintered, cell approach to organization, could be considered the world's largest cult.

Leadership: Heading up The Many Hands of God is a charismatic man known only as The Prophet, whose religious expertise and ability to be all things to all faiths has allowed him to communicate and sympathize equally well with Islamic extremists and Christian fundamentalists on issues where they are completely polarized.

Organization: At the lowest level, The Many Hands of God is represented by the Intra-Faith Council, a group that works on charity and public relations projects for a variety of churches, as well as facilitating communication amongst different faiths. The Many Hands of God is known by hundreds of different names, but if you follow the ladder of money and influence up, you will eventually reach past extremist terrorist groups and political access committees to The Prophet and his core group of believers, who believe that it doesn't matter which God is worshiped, as long as everyone on the planet believes in a higher power.

Goals: The Many Hands of God wishes, quite simply, for the codes of law and daily behavior to be more closely based on scripture. The immediate goal is for each country to closely follow the religion of the majority of its populace (Christianity for the United States, Islam for much of the Middle East, Hinduism in India), but it is believed that The Prophet has a favored religion blending elements of all of these religions (and including himself as its most high mortal supporter) that he would institute once phase one of his plan was complete.

Threat Analysis: With religious extremism on the rise and becoming more and more influential in geopolitics, not to mention the driving force of most terrorism and many wars, the notion of increased, even universal, religious extremism is something that would frighten even many of the religious moderates who unwittingly help to fund The Many Hands. In addition, The Many Hands is insidious, because it coexists with actual charitable and philosophical religious organizations, making operations very difficult and politically-sensitive, lest Project: Scarecrow target innocents or politically-connected religious figures. Perhaps most dangerously, it would seem that the endgame of The Many Hands of God is a worldwide theocracy ruled by one man ambitious enough to put together this massive organization and callous enough to use violence and terror as his weapons. The Many Hands of God is a powerful, diverse, well-hidden and exceptionally dangerous organization and is exactly the sort of threat that Project: Scarecrow exists to combat.

Spycraft Miniatures

In case anyone is interested, here are links to some sites where you might be able to pick up good miniatures for your Spycraft characters:

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/SV/index.asp
http://www.newwave.org./
http://www.geocities.com/gisby.geo/copplestone.htm
http://www.stanjohansenminiatures.com/merc.htm
http://www.sjgames.com/miniatures/specops/
http://www.edenstudios.net/XMinis.html
http://www.gtns.co.uk/store1/commerce.cgi?product=SL&exact_match=on&cart_id=9659597.12203
http://www.tacticalminiatures.com/
http://www.nobleknightgames.com/
http://www.rackscan.net/
http://www.ikwarmachine.com/
http://papertoys.com/
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2249&
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2362&
http://www.gisby.org/fw.htm
http://www.eurekamin.com.au/
http://www.hetzerdog.co.uk/
http://www.fourcolorfigs.com/
http://www.sjgames.com/heroes/
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/

MI6 Wants YOU!

Charles caught this story at CNN and asked me to post it here:

Brits hiring spies online

And for those with ready-to-go resumes(and Brit citizenship), click here for the direct link to your future career with the SIS.

Resume suggestion: Under "experience", list the number of times you've watched Bond marathons on USA Network and Spike TV. Lying about skipping VIEW TO A KILL is acceptable.

I'm out for Friday

Sorry, guys, but Veruca Salt is playing La Zona Rosa Friday, and I have no intention to miss it this time. Feel free to play Father Binary or kill him off or whatever.

Meet Mr. Gray 2.0

Yeah, like any of you really thought he was dead.

Codename: Mr. Gray (Name: Horace Landerstein a.k.a. The 13th Deadliest Jew in the World)
Origin: Fierce Special Ops
Class: Soldier 4/Triggerman 1
Career Level: 5
Vitality: 54 Reputation: 25
Age: 27 Height: 6'0" Weight: 200 lbs.

Statistics:STR 16, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 8, BAB +5, Fort +2 (+4), Ref +2 (+5), Will +5 (+5), Def +3 (13), Init +7 (+14)

Skills:Acrobatics +2, Athletics +7, Cultures +0 (Western Europe), Intimidate +8, Notice +7, Resolve +3, Sleight of Hand +2, Survival +4, Tactics +7

Class Abilities: Accurate, Fortunes of War I, Armor Use I, Trigger-Happy

Origin Abilities: +2 insight bonus to Initiative checks, +2 threat range to Intimidate, 1/session, decrease overland travel to 3/4 standard, +2 to Sneak and Tactics checks

Wealth: Lifestyle 1, Possessions 3, Spending Cash 1

Caliber III pick, 3 Caliber I picks
Magnum Research Desert Eagle

Feats: Combat Expertise, Concealed Carry, Two Weapon Basics, Two Weapon Mastery

Proficiencies: Blunt, Edged, Explosives, Handgun (Forte), Hurled (Forte), Rifle, Shotgun, Submachine Gun, Tactical, Unarmed, Vehicle Weapon
Interests: Guns, poker, crossword puzzles
Mission Gear: 1W, 1S
Bonus (CHA) Gear: None
Common Items: 10 (+2 Mission Picks)

Dossier: Director Beowulf

Formerly known as Harryhausen, real name Martin Wise:

Codename: Beowulf (Name: Martin Wise)
Origin: Disciplined Special Ops
Class: Pointman 10/Tactician 6
Career Level: 16
Vitality: 109
Age: 52 Height: 6'1" Weight: 195 lbs.

Statistics: STR 8, DEX 12, CON 12, INT 19, WIS 18, CHA 12, BAB +13, Fort +7 (+9), Ref +8 (+10), Will +8 (+18), Def +8 (18), Init +12 (+13)

Skills: Athletics +12, Blend +10, Bluff +5, Bureaucracy +5, Cultures +16 (Central America, Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, Northern America, South America, Southern Africa, Southern Asia, Western Asia, Western Europe), Drive +12 (Standard Ground Vehicles, Heavy Ground Vehicles, Mounts and Animal Drawn Vehicles, Rotary Wing Aircraft, Standard Watercraft), Falsify +12, Notice +16, Profession +8 (Soldier, Spy, Control), Resolve +13, Science +8 (Chemistry, Mathematics, Pharmacology), Search +8, Security +5, Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +5, Sneak +12 (+17), Streetwise +5, Survival +12, Tactics +19 (+24)

Class/Origin Abilities: Generous, Wily, Versatility (6 skills)*, Assistance (1/2), Lead 4/session, Orders III, 1,000 faces, human nature, improved fortune (1 die), tempo (self) +6/session, stratagem +1, art of war, blood of heroes (+6 vp), commanding presence*, 1/session, may decrease overland travel time to 3/4 standard, +5 insight to Will saves*, +5 insight bonus with Sneak and Tactics* (*= Already added in)

Wealth: Lifestyle 4, Possessions 3, Spending Cash 4

Disguise Kit III
Glock 21 (1d12/1/19-20, 13M4, 25 ft. CMP, TKD)
Forgery Kit I, Laptop (PR 1), consumer-grade still camera
Ocean-going sailboat with luxury fittings

Feats: Ambush Basics, Combat Mobility, Career Agent*, Faceless, I Can Swim, Surge of Speed, Tactical Advantage
Proficiencies: Blunt, Edged, Explosives, Handgun (forte), Hurled, Rifle (forte), Shotgun, Submachine Gun, Tactical, Unarmed
Interests: Fishing, Camping, Strategic Computer Games, Baseball, Politics, Playing Tourist
Mission Gear: 4R, 3S, 3W, 1T
Bonus (CHA) Gear: 2 of any: (G,T,V,R)

Dossier: Steel Wolf 2.1

Codename: Steel Wolf (Name: Sergei Marchenko)
Origin: Veteran Operative
Class: Sleuth 2/Snoop 3
Career Level: 5
Vitality: 28 Reputation: 25
Age: 48 Height: 6'3" Weight: 180 lbs.

Statistics: STR 10, DEX 14, CON 8, INT 14, WIS 16, CHA 13, BAB +2, Fort +2 (+3), Ref +4 (+6), Will +3 (+6), Def +4 (15), Init +3 (+5)

Skills: Analysis +8, Bluff +4, Bureaucracy +5, Computers +2, Cultures +4 (Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe (Forte - Russia), Northern America, Southern Asia, Western Asia), Drive +0 (Standard Ground Vehicles), Intimidate +3, Investigation +5, Manipulate +2, Networking +5, Notice +8, Profession +5 (Spy (Forte - Information Broker), Law Enforcement), Resolve +2, Science +4 (Chemistry, Mathematics (Forte - Codes)), Search +8, Security +4, Sense Motive +6, Sneak +5, Streetwise +4

Class Abilities: Flawless Search, Sources I, Sympathetic, Human Nature, Intuition I, Intercept Communication

Wealth: Lifestyle 3, Possessions 4, Spending Cash 2

Casull Reolver (.454)
Forensics Kit II
Tuxedo Liner, Lockpick Kit I, Gadget: Grapple Gun Belt

Feats: Private Eye, Cryptographer, Revolver Basics
Proficiencies: Unarmed, Handgun (Forte), Rifle, Submachine Gun
Interests: Chess, Ballet, Jazz
Mission Gear: 1R, 2T, 1G
Bonus (CHA) Gear: 1 of any: (G,T,V,R)
Common Items: binoculars, cellphone, ducttape, flashlight, iPod, cigarettes, telescope, zipties, attache case, crowbar, leatherman tool, rope, PDA, 3 reserve picks (+5 Mission Picks)

Dossier: Dom Perignon 2.1

Codename: Dom Perignon (Name: Ian Chadwick-Smythe V)
Origin: Privileged Playboy
Class: Faceman
Career Level: 5
Vitality: 37 Reputation: 25
Age: 35 Height: 5'11 Weight: 172 lbs.

Statistics: STR 8, DEX 13, CON 12, INT 14, WIS 13, CHA 16, BAB +3, Fort +3 (+4), Ref +1 (+2), Will +3 (+4), Def +3 (13), Init +5 (+6)

Skills: Blend +4, Bluff +8, Bureaucracy +4, Cultures +8 (Northern America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Asia, Western Asia, Eastern Asia), Drive (Standard Watercraft), Falsify +7, Impress +3, Manipulate +4, Networking +4 (2 Acquaintances), Notice +4, Profession (Lawyer), Science (Economy), Search +2, Sense Motive +8, Streetwise +1

Class Abilities: Doublespeak, 1,000 Faces, Cold Read 1/session, Quick Change 2/session, Follow My Lead, Backup I

Wealth: Lifestyle 7, Possessions 4, Spending Cash 3

Walther PPK (.32 ACP) w/custom grip & (8) 7-shot clips
Tuxedo Liner (DR 2/3, -1 Def)
Gadget: Hypnotic Lenses (+1 Skill Boost to Impress)
Charles Daly Field II Hunter 12-gauge shotgun w/40 slugs
Disguise Kit III
5-bedroom house (25 person capacity)
Racing Yacht w/luxury fittings
Twin-Engine Prop Plane w/advanced stability & luxury fittings

Feats: Personal Lieutenant, Flawless Identity, Polyglot, Silver Tongue
Proficiencies: Unarmed, Handgun (Forte), Shotgun (Forte), Hurled
Interests: Gambling, Yachting, Equestrian
Mission Gear: 1T, 1R
Bonus (CHA) Gear: 3 of any: (G,T,V,R)
Common Items: 13 (+5 Mission Picks)

Dossier: Booster 2.1

Codename: Booster (Name: Andres Francisco de Leon a.k.a. Jose Simon)
Origin: Gifted Hot Rodder
Class: Wheelman 4/Sniper 1
Career Level: 5
Vitality: 51 Reputation: 25
Age: 31 Height: 5'2" Weight: 130 lbs.

Statistics: STR 10, DEX 20, CON 12, INT 14, WIS 8, CHA 10, BAB +5 Fort +1 (+2), Ref +5 (+10), Will +1 (+0), Def +3 (18), Init +4 (+9)

Skills: Acrobatics +7, Athletics +8, Cultures (Northern America) +0, Drive +8 (Standard Ground Vehicles (forte - BMWs), Personal Ground Vehicles, Rotary Wing Aircraft, Service Aircraft, Standard Watercraft), Mechanics +7, Notice +1, Profession (Stunt Driver) +0, Resolve +1, Scientist (Fabrication) +0, Security +8, Sleight of Hand +7, Sneak +1, Streetwise +7, Tactics +8

Class Abilities: Driven, Custom Ride, Manual Adjustment (Mechanics), Crash Course x2, Vehicle Familiarity I, Eagle Eye

Wealth: Lifestyle 2, Possessions 3, Spending Cash 1

AMP DSR-1 bolt action rifle (.300 magnum) w/ advanced combat sight & 50 rounds
Sig-Sauer P239 (9mm)
Standard Vehicle Upgrade Package: Control I, Acceleration I, Fine Tuning, Runflat Tires
Lockpicking Kit I, Mechanics Kit I
Mini Cooper S with Control Increase I & Acceleration Increase I

Feats: Daredevil, Defensive Driving, Driving Instincts, Lane Dancer, Offensive Driving, Speed Demon
Proficiencies: Unarmed, Handgun, Rifle (Forte), Submachine Gun, Vehicle Weapons (Forte)
Interests: Street Racing, Racing World, Fine Food
Mission Gear: 1V, 2W
Bonus (CHA) Gear: None
Common Items: 8 (+3 Mission Picks)

Dossier: Project Scarecrow

The agency that the player characters work for is a sensitive compartmentalized information (SCI) clearance operation, meaning that is known to the Director of the C.I.A., the National Security Director and Secretary of Homeland Security. The operation is headed up by former CIA operative Marta Allison, who holds the official rank of Assistant Director within the CIA but who is technically outranked only by those listed above who have knowledge of the Agency.

The agency has four assistant directors, who are not officially in the employ of the CIA, nor is anyone below them. Technically, they are all operating illegally within the United States, although in theory, Allison might be able to arrange a Presidential pardon or a deniable covert extraction if they were caught while on a mission. These four assistant directors are Director of Technology Ernie Greaves, Director of Operations Martin Wise (formerly known as Harryhausen at The Agency), Director of Intelligence Karen Haight and Director of Security Colin Yost.

This unit focuses on the more colorful and dangerous bad guys in the world. Homeland Security, the FBI and CIA take on terrorists and such things, but the black ops unit focuses in on major, connected untouchable criminals, colorful madmen with technology or smarts beyond the average terrorist and things with a slight supernatural or unexplainable bent.

Project Director - Codename Raven:
Marta Allison is a 32-year-old blond, blue-eyed knockout who has been doing field work for the C.I.A. for just under 10 years. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in Psychology and intensive course work on parapsychology, she was recruited and began doing a lot of undercover work around the world, usually posing as a young American tourist and graduate student. She earned her Masters in Psychology while doing this, and earned her PhD at the age of 27.

Raven doesn't have an assistant like most of the directors. She has an enforcer, driver and bodyguard, an imposing black man code-named Raptor, who doesn't speak at all (most wonder if he's even able to) but who has a great deal of presence to go with his physical power.

Director of Technology - Codename Wizard:
Imagine the biggest gamer/science geek you can, then place him into the body of a hard-bodied surfer from Venice Beach, and you've got Ernie Greaves. Ernie is the youngest member of Scarecrow's directorate, at 26, but he has earned two PhDs and has an incredible knack for building, repairing and inventing equipment. Along with a small project team that includes Apprentice (his super-hot hacker girlfriend Callie Thorne) and several specialist scientists, Wizard is responsible for all the technical needs of Project: Scarecrow. He also runs a biweekly gaming group for anyone who wants to attend... which as of now includes Callie and half of Greaves's science team.

Director of Operations - Codename Beowulf:
Beowulf is only the latest codename that veteran spy Martin Wise, 52, has gone by. He began working at The Agency in 1962, starting out in military operations but moving within a year into the more sophisticated realm of infiltration. In 1974, he became one of the most sought after team leaders in The Agency, traveling the globe either with his familiar team or as a freelance pointman brought in to shape up a new unit. He was promoted to Control in 1994, and was located in New York City. He is divorced with three children, two of whom think he is dead after the Agency was destroyed, and one of whom knows the truth because she was recruited into The Agency to serve as an operative and went on the run with her father.

Beowulf is responsible for prepping all field missions using the information provided by Oracle, as well as being responsible for day-to-day operations and planning for Project: Scarecrow. While Raven is the top-down organizer and director of Scarecrow's missions, Beowulf does most of the heavy lifting, organizing teams and recruiting agents and freelance help. He is the one director most likely to be seen in the field, although if he does show up in the field, it means the shit has hit the fan.

Beowulf's assistant is Artemis, also known as his 24-year-old daughter Shane Wise. In addition to mission planning, she does a lot of scouting and preparation work for mission, and is often in charge of making tech or information drops. She is seen in the field a great deal more than her father, although she is never actually assigned to any agent teams.

Director of Intelligence - Codename Oracle:
Oracle is the font of information for Project: Scarecrow. An information sponge of the highest order, with plenty of interest in conspiracy theory, Karen Haight is probably the best (if not only) person to run the intelligence side of Project: Scarecrow. Karen embraces the punk ethos, as evidenced by her constantly changing hair color (never anything so dull as blond or brown), wardrobe and many piercings and tattoos. At age 37, she's a little older than most of the hacker crowd, but she has earned herself a reputation in that group as having a youthful, open mindset. That extends to her willingness to listen to outrageous theories about monsters, secret societies, aliens and other outrageous theories which makes her indispensable to Raven. Haight can sniff out the truth, but she won't hesitate to open her mind to every possibility when she's on the hunt for it.

Haight enjoyed a profitable life as an outlaw information broker before being recruited into Project: Scarecrow. Her new job is perfect for her, as it involves tracking down and analyzing as much information as possible to find new missions for Scarecrow as well as providing intelligence for agents before and during the missions. Oracle has the most assistants of any director, since her resources need to be fairly vast. She is also the only director whose chosen codenames are references to punk rockers. Those assistants are Sid (Harry Stewart, a former NYPD detective in his 50s who is as traditional as Oracle is renegade), Nancy (Kammi Sato, a beautiful Japanese woman with a penchant for disguise), Ness (forensics expert Frank Corrazon, who prefers to think of his codename as coming from Eliot, not Social Distortion's Michael) and Strummer (Australian ex-pat Gordon Willoughby, who scours the jungles both literal and urban looking for information, and whose name is derived from The Clash's Joe.)

Director of Security - Codename Spartan:
Colin Yost, the man codenamed Spartan, is a 58-year-old man who looks like he's been subject to some hard living. He has weather-beaten features and a perpetual scowl that make him look older than he is, although he is in peak physical condition that makes him look younger. His job is to maintain the physical security of Scarecrow's primary and secondary facilities as well as to make sure that all information about Scarecrow is compartmentalized and released only when absolutely necessary. This means he's in charge of the security forces in all Scarecrow facilities, a job mostly delegated to Goliath (Bart Evans, a career soldier), as well as keeping tabs on information flowing into and out of Scarecrow and its agents, a job he doesn't trust anyone else to do. Spartan is also responsible for regular psychological evaluations (and sometimes mental conditioning) of agents, a job he leaves to Siren (Jeanette Lee, a psychiatrist). Siren is one of the more feared assistant directors amongst agents, because they know that if they don't get clean marks, they could wind up scrubbed from active duty or, if they are believed to be involved in disloyalty of some kind, marked for "cleaning" by Spartan and his crew.

There is definite tension between Spartan and Raven, owing somewhat to Yost's belief that he should have been put in charge of this project, given his long years of experience.

Operation Osiris: Scenes Three and Four

The information on The Black Book indicated that Harryhausen and his daughter were living under the assumed names of Jackson and Shelby Harris in Tahiti. Photos of their most recent (disguised) appearance were also included, but the information was still somewhat sketchy.

After using some old contacts to get hold of a prop plane (with luxury fittings, of course!), the team flew down to Tahiti. They picked up a tail at the airport, and lured him to a hotel, where they checked into a couple of rooms. Booster and Father Binary watched in the bar as the man stood in the hotel waiting area, reading a paper and clearly waiting for the rest of the team to come down from their hotel room. Instead, Booster and Binary approached him, put a gun in his ribs and forced him onto the elevator.

Steel Wolf and Dom interrogated the man, and although at first they worried they might have grabbed a tourist under the wrong impression, they soon realized that the man was an African mercenary. He told them that he was part of a team working under Captain Malcolm Ubisi, a former Nigerian army officer, but refused to give up their base of operations. He also indicated that he had been following the team because he believed that they would know where Harryhausen was, which let the agents know that the hit team wasn't that close to finding the target.

Binary and Booster jury-rigged the mercenary's cellphone with fake C-4 and told him they were leaving a bomb in the room that would go off when it rang, and they left him tied to a chair. The rest of the team departed so that Booster could steal a car for them to use, while Dom remained behind, disguised, in the lobby to see if he could follow the mercenary back to his home base. Instead, he saw the concierge receive a frantic call and send a bellboy into the elevator. Dom followed at a discreet distance.

When he got upstairs, he saw the bellboy go into the room they had been occupying. He heard loud surprised discussion, then the sound of scissors being used on the plastic cuffs holding the mercenary to the chair, then the unmistakable sound of someone's neck being broken. Dom rushed back into the elevator ahead of the now-freed mercenary and once again reached the lobby. He watched the mercenary get into a cab, and thought that the mercenary looked back at him, but since he was in disguise, didn't think he'd been made.

Booster pulled up in his stolen car and got Dom and they began following the cab. It took them around the island for a while, driving them in circles and then into the bad part of town. The team realized that they had indeed been made, although they didn't believe that the mercenary knew he was currently being followed. They watched him stop into the bad part of town, get out of the cab, walk up to an obvious drug dealer, break his neck and steal his gun, which he then used to kill the cabbie and take the cab.

Steel Wolf used his abilities to tap into the next phone communication that the mercenary had, which was with someone at Ubisi's basecamp. He was told to meet late at night on the beach of one of the resorts for a pickup.

While Binary and Steel Wolf made plans to watch this pickup and see what happened, Booster and Dom began searching in ernest for Harryhausen. Dom tried to bribe his way through some of the local resort employees, but flashed a little too much cash and instead got fleeced for his troubles. Booster talked to the black market, but it took several days to establish a level of trust. The team also placed a coded message in the local paper, hoping that Harryhausen would see it and decipher it.

Binary and Steel Wolf watched as a man in an inflatable assault raft rowed up to the beach to pick up the straggling mercenary. Combining this information with the dossier gained on Ubisi by Steel Wolf, they realized that the mercenaries' base of operations was probably a charter fishing boat that Ubisi owned, parked somewhere deeper in the waters.

After several days of following less than fruitful leads, the team finally had their meeting with Booster's black market contact. They had worked up a plan to insert clues from their Agency days into the serial numbers and information of the weapons they claimed to be selling, hoping that this would tip Harryhausen off to contact them. Though the meeting didn't go well, the information did get back to Harryhausen, and Dom soon received a call. The team went to his hotel room, where they met his daughter for the first time (as she held two guns on them) and informed him of The Black Book, the hit, Ubisi and everything else that was going on.

Using Father Binary's keyhole access to The Black Book and Harryhausen's higher Agency security code, the team discovered a GPS location for The Black Book hardware in Tokyo. They also realized that the earlier location they had gotten had been spoofed by the Neon Tigers, so that it led them to the Neon Tigers' heavily secured facility instead of The Black Book.

Harryhausen asserted that in order to be safe, they needed to recover or destroy The Black Book and destroy the Neon Tigers' access to it. Father Binary received a message from his employers at Project: Scarecrow that they would like to speak privately with Harryhausen, and so Harryhausen went out onto the balcony to speak with them. When he came back, he told the team that he believed they should steal rather than destroy The Black Book, and that it could benefit them all, as well as former Agency members, if they could do so.

The team discussed this, including sending Harryhausen out on the balcony again so they could decide that they wanted more of a say in what missions they were sent on and what information they got. The deal was made, after Harryhausen talked to Project: Scarecrow again, and the team had a new mission, and were once again working with Harryhausen.

They took the prop plane back to Japan and settled back into using Dom's houseboat off the coast as a base of operations. Simply using civilian information-gathering tools informed them that the GPS location was a heavily fortified compound, the home of Yakuza boss Masahiro Ryuchi, and that it was clear in about a half-mile in each direction, making a covert approach exceptionally difficult.

Further research into Masahiro revealed that he owned a front company, Masahiro Shipping, and revealed the security company that had provided cameras and noise sensors to the compound.

The team also learned that Masahiro had a daughter named Mya who was virtually a prisoner in the house, and that she was arranged to marry Hondo Kenuichi, another Yakuza boss, in about a month. Dom and Binary infiltrated message boards and IM chat programs that Mya used to discover her interests in fashion and gaming and pose as a young girl in a similar situation. Dom gained her trust and tried to indicate that "the girl" and her "boyfriend" were going to make a run for it, and that Mya (and her boyfriend, who they learned about in chat) could join them. She was too afraid of her father killing them, and broke off communication.

Some of the rest of the team surveilled the Masahiro compound. Dom and Steel Wolf infiltrated an office building about a mile away disguised as "retarded janitors" and watched the compound from the roof with binoculars. They saw that the guards numbered around 30 and that there was a helicopter on the helipad with the "Masahiro Shipping" corporate logo on it, which led them to believe that Masahiro was home.

Father Binary hacked into the shipping company's systems and got Masahiro's schedule for the next few days. With all of this information in place, the team tried formulating a number of plans for how they would get in, steal a 500 lb. Black Book terminal and leave. Finally, an uneasy truce was reached that they would steal Masahiro's corporate helicopter while he was at work, take it to the compound, load up The Black Book and take off.

Dom used his disguise abilities to disguise himself as Masahiro and Booster as his pilot while Father Binary and Steel Wolf waited some distance away at a secure location. When Binary's downloaded schedules indicated that Masahiro had left the building for a metting, Dom and Booster moved in. They bluffed their way to the helipad and met up with a half-dozen of Masahiro's yakuza security guards. Dom managed to bluff four of them into going downstairs to get "files," and so Dom and Booster were joined in the helicopter by only two yakuza members.

When the helicopter landed, these yakuza were suspicious, but Dom convinced them that they were picking these men up for something important. Since the yakuza members didn't want to question their boss, and knew that he had dealings with foreigners, they didn't think too much of it. Which is what got them killed, because when they stepped out of the helicopter, Booster put a bullet into the back of the head of one of them and Steel Wolf and Binary pulled guns and finished the other one before he could react.

Booster flew the helicopter into the compound, while Dom called ahead and told them to "bring up the package and my daughter, and have her pack a small bag," indicating that they were somehow compromised. When they arrived at the compound, they were greeted by the remaining security detail (about eight guards) as the other four brought The Black Box up from its basement location and loaded it onto the helicopter, right in front of Father Binary and Steel Wolf, concealed in the back of the copter. Security informed Dom that Takeshi had gone to get his daughter.

While Dom told the other security men to scatter, and go to the "secret place" or something along those lines, Takeshi brought Mya up to the helicopter. He loaded her in and then prepared to get in himself. Dom tried to convince Takeshi that he should go with the others, but Takeshi reached into his jacket and pulled a gun, putting it in Dom's face. Steel Wolf responded from behind the Black Box by putting a gun to Takeshi's head.

During the standoff, Dom realized that Takeshi was the boyfriend, and that he was taking his chance to try and stay with Mya, even if it meant having to kill his former boss. Dom pulled off the mask of his disguise, confusing Takeshi enough that he lowered his guard, which allowed Steel Wolf to fire (and barely miss) and Booster to fire and hit him in the shoulder. Dom convinced everyone to stop shooting and got Takeshi into the helicopter under armed guard.

The team landed at the airport near the prop plane, where they found Harryhausen's daughter waiting for them, holding the remains of the Neon Tigers' hard drive with information on The Black Book. They boarded the prop plane and headed to Hawaii. Once in Hawaii, they dropped off Takeshi and Mya, with Harryhausen promising to contact them later and set them up there. From there, the team got a commercial flight to Washington D.C. and Harryhausen set up courier drops to get their equipment (and The Black Box) to D.C. as well.

Back in D.C., the team boarded a truck and drove into a warehouse district, where they entered Customs Warehouse #73. The truck's drivers unloaded The Black Box into the dilapidated warehouse, while Harryhausen took the team back to a well-hidden keypad and entered numbers, revealing an underground tunnel into a high-tech operations center. Among the faces waiting to greet the agents was Marta Allison, their former contact (and occasional ally) at the C.I.A. "Gentlemen," she said, "Welcome to Project: Scarecrow."

Next Gaming Idea

Osiris Scene Three write-up should come sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, Dave and I were talking at the shop today and I think I came up with another campaign I'd like to try in the future. The current Spycraft adventure should finish up this week, and then I'll need a little time to get the next one ready... basically my goal is for the next Spycraft session after this Friday to be the one where Charles makes his triumphant return.

Between that time, we could play World's Largest Dungeon (if Ben is still up for it), do a week of just hanging out (Burnout Revenge for PS/2 should be in my hands by Monday, so that's a thought for next Friday... and of course I've got all of season two of Arrested Development on my Tivo as well), finish Spycraft (if it doesn't finish up this Friday, which is possible but I doubt it) or whatever. We're definitely not playing two weeks from Friday, as that's Serenity release day. Anyone who wants to see it with us opening night is welcome.

Anyway... the campaign idea is a Champions/HERO system idea. Ideally, I think this would be a rotating GM game, and one that we could play in short, self-contained arcs of somewhere between 3-4 sessions. The concept is that we play a campaign through time. Start off in the fantasy genre and end up in the Legion of Superheroes style far future, hitting various points in between. The characters would be "legacies" essentially, either using the same name, being related by blood, using the same gadget or something along those lines. And in each era, they would come together as a superhero team. Dave and I mapped out these possibilities for eras: Fantasy, Wild West, Pulp ('20s or '30s), Golden Age, Silver Age, Modern Age, Near Future/Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic and Far Future.

Just putting it out there for discussion.

Focuses & Fortes

OK, so I made a minor goof. It turns out that fortes are not just "double picks" for skills. They are for weapon proficiencies, so we've done fortes correctly there, but when you take a forte in one of the focus skills, you've got to actually pick the forte. So, for example, if you have a forte with Standard Ground Vehicles, that forte applies to one category, such as "sportscars" or "limos" or something like that. If you've got a forte in Science (Programming), it might be in "viruses" or "security programs" or "databases" and in Cultures, if you've got a forte in "Eastern Europe" it might be "Russia" or "Hungary" or something along those lines.

So everyone will need to specify fortes as soon as possible. Oh, and remind me at some point (maybe if we run short tomorrow, since I'm not sure how much adventure I've got ready, it might be up until midnight or it might only take us to 10 pm) to bring up subplots for everyone.

Dossier: Father Binary 2.1

Codename: Father Binary (Name: David Timms)
Origin: Disciplined Clergyman
Class: Hacker
Career Level: 5
Vitality: 37 Reputation: 25
Age: 32 Height: 5'8" Weight: 150 lbs.

Statistics:STR 8, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 16, WIS 14, CHA 13
Fort +4 (+5), Ref +3 (+5), Will +4 (+8), Def +4 (13), Init +3 (+5)

Skills:Analysis +3, Bureaucracy +4, Computers +8, Cultures +8 (Central America, Northern America, South America, Southern Asia, Western Europe), Drive +4 (Personal Ground Vehicles, Standard Ground Vehicles, Personal Watercraft), Electronics +8, Falsify +4, Mechanics +4, Notice +5, Profession (Clergy) +3, Resolve +5, Science +5 (Mathematics (forte: ), Programming (forte: )), Security +4, Sleight of Hand +3, Sneak +8, Streetwise +4, Survival +2

Class Abilities: Custom 'Warez, 'L337, Trap Door 1/mission, Master Key I, Master Cracker 1/mission

Wealth: Lifestyle 2, Possessions 2, Spending Cash 3

Sig-Sauer P220 (.45)
Electronics Kit I
Probe Software II, Virus Software I, Laptop (PR 3)
Honda Civic

Feats: Iron Will, Favored Gear, Techie

Proficiencies: Unarmed, Edged, Handgun (Forte)
Interests: Religion, Computers, Literature
Mission Gear: 2E, 1R
Bonus (CHA) Gear: 1 of any: (G,T,V,R)
Common Items: 14 (+5 Mission Picks)

Operation Osiris: Scenes One and a Half & Two

As the team sped off into the night, with Booster at the wheel of Dom's rented BMW, a dozen motorcycles gave chase. The cars and motorcycles weaved throughout the crowded Ginza district, driving down alleys and side streets and around drunken businessmen and other cars. The vehicles were too far apart for gunfire, so the riders hung tight, with Ms. Chesterfield patching up Steel Wolf's katana wound in the cramped backseat.

Booster, displaying his usual level of vehicle skill, managed to lose the pursuers without much difficulty, and then pulled off into a parking garage so the team could plan their next move. Ms. Chesterfield offered up that she really needed a first aid kit to do Steel Wolf any good, and the team decided to "gear up" when they got the chance.

But first, Father Binary had to explain to them what was going on. He told them that he had found the information on them to be part of a legendary database called "The Black Book" which had all the information on their defunct Agency. He had discovered an access code, which he had broken up into three parts and included in their emails as a failsafe in case he was caught or killed before he could contact them. This access code, combined with old Agency codes that the agents possessed and software on Binary's laptop, would give them keyhole access into "The Black Book" to try and find out who had put a hit on them and who had the information. He had also discovered that the hits ordered on them were from something called The Rising Dragon, a terrorist group based in Japan and Chechneya.

The team arranged a tense but uneventful raid of Binary's apartment for his laptop and other equipment, and then went to old contacts and storehouses to gear up themselves. They eventually set up base camp in a houseboat that Dom owned in the area, calling in an old doctor friend of Steel Wolf's to patch him up and using the wireless access point near the boat's location for Binary to get online. He used the codes and discovered some important information about "The Black Book."

First of all, he found out that the "Black Book" was in the possession of the Rising Dragon, and was made up of three components: One was the software, floating about in millions of bytes across the Internet. Two was the hardware, a specialized terminal that could be used to download the information from the Internet. Three was the "firmware," a physical codebook that could be used to decrypt the downloaded information. There was a street address locating the hardware terminal in Tokyo.

A little research by Steel Wolf found that the address was attached to a secure government building, and that the terminal was on the 35th floor. The team did some reconnaisance and discovered some important facts. First was that the security was tight, including motion detectors, cameras and a password-protected vault door. Second was that the guards were police, and apparently legitimate, not foes that they wanted to use lethal force against if it could be avoided. They decided that the best way in was a bluff and disguise intrusion to get Father Binary access to the terminal.

The first part of the plan involved Binary hacking into a cult website to deliver a threat against the building. Binary also hacked into the phone systems to recieve the call for help from security, which went first through Ms. Chesterfield and then to Dom. Dom informed the security that they would send a haz-mat team over right away.

The team then loaded into a disguised van wearing fake haz-mat suits and carrying identification forged by Dom. They passed the security check at the gate with eased, but they were informed that the entire building had not been evacuated. Some of the levels couldn't be evacuated without an order from higher up in the government.

When the team reached level 36, they found two guards and made a show of looking around for a chemical weapon or a bomb. They then snuck down the stairwell and onto level 35. There they found two guards waiting at a security desk, decked out in tactical armor and carrying silenced MP5s. Dom attempted to bluff them into moving away from the vault door that sat in front of the secure area with the computer terminal, but he was unable to do so, and a botched attempt to fake falling ill resulted in a firefight touching off.

Booster managed to get off the first shot, pulling his own MP5 from underneath his clothes and shooting at one of the guards. The guard returned fire, and Steel Wolf attempted to bull rush the other guard, but was pushed back. Dom and Binary attempted to pummel one of the guards, and succeeded in distracting him long enough for Booster to kill both of them. None of the agents were happy about having to kill two policemen, but they were sort of stuck with the situation.

Booster attempted to disarm the security keypad, but found that it was going to be tricky, so he attempted to shut down the klaxon instead. That was even trickier, but his affinity for mechanical devices let him stop it from going off when his disarm attempt failed. He then went back and spent time trying to disarm the keypad. He got the vault door opened, but there was an alarm working its way through the system, so the team had to hurry with the rest of the security. Booster rushed to disarm the motion sensors and cameras so that Binary could access the terminal.

Binary discovered that the terminal in the room was not in fact "The Black Book" terminal, but it accessed the Neon Tigers computers, and had information on "The Black Book." The hardware and firmware were both in possession of The Rising Dragon, and they had used the information to send a hit team after another former Agency asset, the agents' former Control Harryhausen and his daughter.

Armed with this information, the team rushed out of the building just seconds before the alarm went off. Harryhausen had been the one who came and warned them of the Agency's downfall and removed their tracking chips so they could attempt to disappear, so the agents felt that they had no choice: It was time to arrange a rescue for Harryhausen.

Tonight?

I can't tell if this blog has been updated because it says the next game is at 6:30 as opposed to Friday 9/2 at 6:30. We're on for Spycraft tonight at our place, yes? Who's in?

By the way... anyone else wondering what the "seemingly random string of numbers" was/is? We didn't look in to that, did we?

Ben

The Book

I ordered The Book last night and should get it by mid-September. I might be able to start before October, it depends on work.

Operation: Osiris - Scene One:

It all began when the scattered former members of an Agency team received mysterious messages on their personal PDAs, tagged with an old code from an Agency that had been defunct for two years. "You are desperately needed in Tokyo. Need to sort out a problem. Your new identity could be at risk" was the message, followed by a seemingly random string of numbers.

Steel Wolf, undercover as the Red Ghost, was meeting with a mobster he had been dealing with when he got the message. He completed the deal quickly, after being badgered into delivering free security on his next job, and made arrangements to fly out of Moscow and into Tokyo. He also placed a newspaper ad in code in a French newspaper (the last place he'd heard of Dom Perignon surfacing, several months ago) along the lines of "Lead singer called, wants to get the band back together, call me."

Dom Perignon got the message as he was climbing out the window of the married heiress he had recently bedded. He returned home to find his old college friend pissing against the wall of his Monaco home, and soon learned that his friend was so high and drunk and generally bewildered that he didn't realize where he was. The friend did, coincidentally, have some news for Dom; he had heard rumors that Dom's old friend had died in a firefight protecting the prime minister of Israel from an assassination attempt.

After the friend crashed on Dom's couch, Dom's personal assistant Ms. Chesterfield came down to check in. She had some bank papers to sign in the morning, but Dom went ahead and signed them right then and told her to arrange the earliest possible flight to Tokyo, dealing with problems from his "former life."

Booster's reaction, when he received it in his East L.A. home, was perhaps the most simple of the group. "It's About Time." He arranged to pilot a jet to Tokyo for a private concern.

Ms. Chesterfield found the personal ad in the French paper and Dom got in contact with Steel Wolf. The two reminisced a little, shared the information they had and arranged to meet in the Tokyo airport. They did this, and shared a drink while Ms. Chesterfield procured a rental BMW for them. Another message on the former agents' PDAs came in that said "Ching Lau's. Ginza District. 10:45 PM."

Booster, after trying to locate the Neon Tigers and then stealing a motorcycle in an attempt to rile them up and draw them to him, went to the restaurant several hours early. His inability to speak Japanese prompted some problems, but he did get a table, and plenty of free soup when his boorish manner and inability to speak the language lead to him yelling at an American at the bar that Booster thought had been staring at him.

The man at the bar was Father Binary, the hacker who had sent the messages to the team in the first place. He quickly left, wanting to contact the whole team on his own terms rather than in such a public place. Booster, meanwhile, learned that yelling in English got him free food, so when the other two agents arrived at about 9:30, he was surrounded by several bowls of sharkfin soup.

The agents reminisced, talking their way into a private room that was being cleaned. They discussed the possibility that it was a trap, as well as their feelings on the matter of Mr. Gray's demise, something none of them really believed.

At 10:45, Father Binary re-entered the restaurant and went to the private room the agents had procured. He asked them to come with him to the private room he had arranged (since he knew that it was bug-free and otherwise safe), and sat down with them to talk. Father Binary explained that he had been working freelance for the Japanese government, trying to prevent attacks from the hacker gang known as the Neon Tigers, and he'd come across some bits of code that indicated the agents' identities and that a hit had been ordered on them. He made contact so that he could warn them, but wanted to do it in person to avoid security risks of online or phone conversation.

At this point, the waiters entered the room to provide appetizers and a large covered metal dish that took two waiters to lift. All of the waiters exited except for one, who removed the metal covering. To his horror, the cover was attached to a cord that pulled the pin from a grenade, which sat in the mouth of Akune Uchida, the former head of the Neon Tigers and former ally of the agents. The grenade exploded, but the agents dove for cover and protected themselves with metal dishes, chairs and bits of the table so that the damage was minimal. They quickly sprung into defensive positions, and were not surprised when a half-dozen of the former geishas and waiters rushed into the room, dropping into martial arts stances and wearing katanas on their hips.

A quick battle ensued, with the agents gunning down most of the assassins without much trouble, although Steel Wolf took a particularly nasty katana wound that was bleeding, and Father Binary had the most good luck, providing the kill shots on five of the six assassins. Early in the fight, Dom contacted Ms. Chesterfield to tell her to bring the car around the back. Booster emerged from the room to find that there were five more waiters holding MP5s, and they opened fire as Booster rushed down the hall to the emergency exit he had spotted earlier. Booster fired on the gun-wielding assassins, but they had a good position at the door, waiting for the agents to emerge. Dom grabbed a metal caster from one of the destroyed chairs and, rushing out the door, mimed pulling a pin and threw it at the assassins, causing them to dive for cover. This distraction allowed the rest of the team to rush past Booster and down the exit hallway.

The agents leaped into the car, and Ms. Chesterfield began patching up Steel Wolf's wound as Booster took over driving. About a dozen headlights from pursuit motorcycles loomed in the rearview mirror, and they were getting closer...

Kickass

Just a quick note to say I really had a blast at the Spycraft session. Boost this!

Ben

Notes on Friday's session

I wasn't planning on printing out character sheets, since I linked to the PDF of the character sheets on the site. Is that cool, or is anyone lacking a functional printer?

Charles may stop by just to check out the new rulebook and say hi. I figure we might spend the first hour or so of the session finishing up details on characters, so it'll probably be a relatively short session.

Meet Mary Anne Chesterfield

I know what you're saying... "Who?" Dom Perignon's new personal assistant, that's who!



Name: Mary Anne Chesterfield
Origin: Reliable Suit
Class: Advocate
Career Level: 2
Vitality: 19
Age: 25 Height: 5'8" Weight: 109 lbs.

Statistics: STR 8, DEX 11, CON 12, INT 16, WIS 12, CHA 15, BAB +1, Fort +2 (+3), Ref +0 (+0), Will +3 (+4), Def +1 (11), Init +2 (+2)

Skills: Bluff +4, Bureaucracy +5, Cultures +5 (North America, South America, Western Europe, Northern Africa, Southern Asia), Drive +1 (Standard Ground Vehicles), Impress +4, Intimidate +1, Manipulate +2, Medicine +1, Networking +5 (Acquaintance), Notice +4, Profession +3 (Personal Assistant, Stock Trader, Gambler), Resolve +4, Sense Motive +4, Science +1 (Economy)

Class Abilities: Persistent, Absolute Certainty, Behind the Scenes I (city)
Origin Abilities: 1/session, may make a Bribe check at minimum value without paying bribe cost, +1 insight bonus with Bureaucracy and Profession checks

Wealth: Lifestyle 3, Possessions 2, Spending Cash 1

First Aid Kit I, Stun Gun (Melee), Commercial Bug Sweeper, Laptop Computer (PR 2)

Feats: Gorgeous, Photographic Memory
Proficiencies: Unarmed (Forte), Blunt, Handgun
Common Items: Cell phone, attache case, PDA, Altoids, 8 reserve picks