Spycraft is what "Top Secret S.I." wanted to be. Since that attempt at espionage based RPG, there really hasn't been another attempt. Military based games came out soon after, like the WONDERFUL "Twilight 2000", and cyberpunk games like "Shadowrun" and "Cyberpunk" grew in popularity and took over the modern-genre niche. Spying seemed to take a back seat on a long ride.
But then last year came AEG's "Spycraft". A very comprehensive, through treatment of the spycraft world. It's based on the d20 open-source ruleset, but unlike many other games that base itself on d20, instead of just presenting material that's different from the D&D Player's Handbook (like "Deadlands" does,) "Spycraft's" core rules is complete. You need not even own a D&D Player's Guide to play "Spycraft".
The completeness of presenting the genre goes from cover to cover. Weapons are given a respectful entry with descriptions of many modern arms as well as a plethora of spy gadgets. The separate arms supplement goes into much greater detail, but the core book has more than enough to present a diverse collection of armament. The presentation of classes and backgrounds address most any idea of individual ideas of covert operations without cow towing to the d20 standard class set. You can make soldiers, fixers, jack-of-all-trades pointmen, snoops who can focus on codework or surveillance or computer espionage, charming facemen, and others. Any spy archetype from books or movies you can easily create using what "Spycraft" provides. It also does a good job presenting background information for the world of espionage. They took great care in giving the GameMaster, or "Control," the tools needed to make a believable world of underground intelligence and black-ops. You can easily have a game that's more militaristic in nature focusing on weapons and tactics, or all charisma and mystery.
They have supplements, oh yes. But you don't get a sense that they intentionally left material out of the core book in order to sell more supplements. The core book feels complete, and the supplements, like the ones that expand class information, feels like new bonus material worth the cost. The campaign world supplement, "Shadowforce Archer" (to "Spycraft" what "Forgotten Realms" is to "D&D",) is the only supplement that I feel is only half worth it. It spends a lot of time presenting an alternate history that leads up to the current situation of war between the two principle spy-organizations. The primary added material it gives focuses on psionics and mysticism. Fortunately, a GC can selectively use what they want, just a little to give the campaign the feel of "The Prisoner" or some other 60's spy movie with a little camp, or more to give their game the feel of...well, to be honest I have no idea. I personally hate the idea of melding mysticism into espionage. But I acknowledge that the spy genre has instances in entertainment of mentalism and psionics, so I'm glad they included it for others.
"Spycraft" gives you enough to help you make adventures for 6 or more characters, or even 1 hero-like character. It doesn't tie you to any method of play. And it's usage of "minion" type generic baddies is perfect for movie-like scenes of the hero going through a lot of generic baddies, or even if you just like to have the early or lesser important combats move quicker. It uses the vitality/wound system presented (as far as I know) in the d20 "Star Wars" game system, action dice much like "7th Seas" action dice (which uses a different name in that system that I can't think of). And also gives characters the great tool of "Inspiration Checks," allowing a player who's completely stuck to spend action dice to get a clue-by-four from the GC. Some great additions to the rules that makes the game come more alive. Like the chase system. All spy adventures have to have an exciting chase, and "Spycraft" creates a method to run them. A slightly high learning curve initially to figure out how to use the chase rules, and you certainly need to run a few chases before you really "get it," but once you do, you're going to want to use this system in any game! When used properly, it allows chases whether in cars, boats, or air, to move fast and interesting. No two chases likely to be the same.
Anyway, "Spycraft" has my full recommendation, and unlike "Top Secret S.I." (the sad descendant of TSR's "Top Secret" with unfulfilled hopes and dreams,) "Spycraft" is here to stay as a benchmark for modern-genre RPG's.
Category: Non-Computer Game
Genre: Drama
Date Reviewed: 2003-04-22
Pros: Excellent amount of content, thorough, complete treatment. Lot of options and possibilities.
Cons: The core and suppliments are a bit pricey, but worth it.
Rating: 9