Relational Maps

Zmadpoet posted a tweet talking about the relational maps/flows used by old school game devs when making adventure games.

I have gotten into the habit of using relational maps for my most recent GURPS campaign, Pine Box Consulting, and figured I could talk about why I started using them. I don't use them to map physical locations or a series of events, but the layout of influence and connections between all the actors at play in my games.

I use https://www.draw.io/ to produce my maps.

This is just the diagram for the First Mission my players went on

I like relational maps because they visually show the connections and influences between disparate factions and individuals better than a spreadsheet or word document, although a wiki might do a decent job at matching a relational map if well done.

Now, relational maps don't contain deep information on the entities contained within- I keep most of that in my head. It is possible to include more in-depth info, but the effort vs. reward isn't the best on doing so.

It can be very hard to document how every group relates to one another without significant amounts of repetition. Especially when it comes to doing writeups of groups/factions, there's a lot of times where you'll see "Group X hates Group Y" and then in the entry for Group Y you'll see "Group Y hates Group X". You can't not list it- otherwise looking at just Group Y might lead you to miss the rancor, but it's still redundant to a degree.

I don't muck around with different arrows all that much, or put much effort into showing which are friendly or adversarial connections- I can remember the nature of the relationships off the top of my head, and these diagrams aren't player facing. Player facing diagrams should have more careful attention paid to whether arrows are bidirectional or not. 

Now note, these diagrams are less "flowchart" and more "If I need to know the police are connected to". Looking 1 or 2 hops out very quickly gives a sense of who is directly and slightly less directly influenced by one another.

I don't use the diagrams to tie into mechanics, although I suppose there could be a way of rigging number of hops to a skill penalty (For instance, trying to pump Flavio for for information about Hubert, who's roughly 5 hops away, not counting the mystery informant, might not go very well because he's too distant from the info being sought.)

It's generally pretty easy to update, even mid-session. Other maps that I've done for more recent missions involve big X's placed over individuals deceased during the course of the mission.\

Now, that's not to say that they can't be used for physical Dungeons, and if I ever run the Castlevania DF game I had in mind, the castle might just look a little like the diagram below.

Penumbra Alliance: Investigating Disappearances in New Bedford (Setup)

Later tonight I'll be going through character creation for a new IRL Monster Hunters campaign. It tentatively looks like I'll have:

• A Commando who's been possessed or otherwise in contact with spirits (I'm going to push for Diabological Phantom Voices as one of their disadvantages)
• An Experiment
• A Sage/Techie
• One person is undecided.

They're all going to be operatives working for the Penumbra Alliance- a ragtag collective of supernaturally aware organizations that have decided that stopping demon incursions and such is the best course of action for everyone.

Even if these organizations don't all actually get along very well, or have matching goals.

New Beford, MA

Population: ~95,000

Notable Locations: Numerous Projects, Waterfront District (whaling predominant historical influence), Buttonwood Park Zoo, New Bedford Regional Airport, University of Mass. Dartmouth (UMD) nearby.

Three islands in the harbor:
Fish Island (Fishpacking warehouse)

Pope Island (shops, a marina)

Crow Island (Inhabited with a few houses)

Nearby Law Enforcement: 4 New Beford Police Stations, Mass. State Police has a barracks nearby in Dartmouth. Fire Department is acknowledged to be among the best in the state. One hospital- St. Luke's.

Penumbra Alliance Presence in the area:

New Bedford has a large Syndicate Presence. The Syndicate cell in the area is primarily concerned with their illegal operations, and only really pay attention when events harm the bottom line. Their local Lieutenant, Jake Schneider, recently stole a grimoire from Larry and Kenny.

The Librarians of Alexandria and Warehouse 23 both maintain a library/storehouse on the premises of UMD. They're severely lacking in resources, consisting only of a two man team, Kenny and Larry, who are primarily engaged in research.

Veilwatch has a representative in the area, Damien Pulaski, a Massachusetts State Police Sergeant. Pulaski is a good cop who believes he's descended from Casimir Pulaski. Damien is deeply concerned about the disappearances and is the one who initiated the investigation, resulting in the Players being asked to travel to New Bedford.

The Locust Order has a single Locust Priest in the area, Ba'dur "Buddy" Shawn. Shawn has an undeserved nasty reputation within the Alliance involving dark research and horrible rituals. In reality Ba'dur is just a gentle old man who happens to be made out of a sentient swarm of locusts who enjoys gardening and teaching young pupils the fundamentals of magic. 

The Church of St. Germaine has a congregation in the area. Having noticed the supernatural disappearances, they believe they stem from Ba'dur Shawn's presence in the area. Father Norton is fair about this assessment, admitting that it's largely based on Shawn being a Locust Priest, and not any proof that's beyond circumstantial.

None of the Alliance members in the area besides Pulaski or some Syndicate members are really able or willing to engage in field work that involves risk. Pulaski is invested in solving the disappearances and will likely volunteer his services if the group conducts themselves well. Convincing the Syndicate to help will likely be frustrating, as they really don't care.

Buddy might be convinced to help out, especially if it provides a chance to clear his reputation within the Alliance.

The Disappearances:

1. Transients and homeless individuals have been disappearing- about fifteen have been noted over three months. Damien believes this to be a low figure.
2. A few (2-3) children have been snatched. Normal investigation proved fruitless when forensics teams ran into spectacularly bad luck- one team had a smartphone battery catch aflame, fouling a crime scene, another was pushed off the road by a drunk driver into the harbor, and the last team's evidence was destroyed when a short circuit fried the testing device. 
3. One teenager may have escaped an attempted kidnapping- but he's currently in St. Luke's, unable to talk coherently and babbling the lyrics to Little Drummer Boy. 

Available clues:

Who:

1. Both Father Norton and Ba'dur have detected the presence of dark magic used within the city, although they don't know the caster (and Norton suspects Ba'dur). (Deduction: Rogue Witch)
2. The Syndicate recently fulfilled a special order for a magical grimoire, stolen from the Librarians of Alexandria/Warehouse 23. Good luck getting them to admit to it though. (Only local lieutenant knows the specific nature of the order, -3 at attempts to get him to talk about who bought it.) (Deduction: This gives away the Witch's identity immediately.)
3. Fish, Pope, and Crow Islands all seem to be experiencing unusual amounts of strange activity over the last few months. (Deduction: Witch is likely setup on the Islands, Witch also frequently uses boats to access Crow Island, might live there)
4. The owner of Duncan Fishpacking is adamant that nothing strange is happening, even when confronted with evidence. (Deduction: He's in on it.)
5. A few people will report that some employees of Duncan Fishpacking have been acting strangely. (Deduction: It's connected somehow, provides more avenues of investigation)

What:

1. Kenny and Larry had a Grimoire useful for opening gateways and portals stolen from them. Both aren't terribly excited to admit to it happening since it makes them look bad. (Deduction: Rogue Witch is attempting to open a portal of some kind.)
2. A man was attacked by a strange dog near the Dunkin Donuts on Pope Island and managed to fend it off with a pistol. (Players can find the corpse if they search near the Dunkin on Pope Island. Deduction: Rogue Witch has summoned a few members of the Endless Legions already.)
3. Human remains have been dumped at Fish Island, among the offal produced by the plant (See Clue #3 under where). (Deduction: They were sacrificed to provide energy for a ritual.)
4. The bad luck of the police investigations is not natural. Should be easy to indicate it stems from a supernatural origin. (Deduction: Rogue Witch)
5. Children provide more magical energy than adults. (This ties into clue #3 of What.)
6. Attacks Decrease during the full moon (Rules out Lycanthropes)

Where:

1. Most of the disappearances have happened closer to the harbor. (Deduction: Boat accessible)
2. Police have investigate numerous reports of strange activity near the Pope Island Marina. They consistently find nothing and believe a prank caller is at work. (Deduction: Pope Island Marina is a place to investigate)
3. The teenager in St. Luke's, if he's able to recall anything, remembers hearing that the 'trash' was disposed of on Fish Island. (Deduction: Witch has been dumping the dead bodies of his victims on Fish Island) 

When:

1. Attacks have no correlation with a set date (timing appears random based on days passed, etc)
2. Attacks increase during periods of bad weather and reduced visibility
3. Attacks decrease near the full moon
4. The kidnapping of the children occurred most recently, as did the police investigations. (Attempts to ramp up progress)

Deduction Penalties:

Who: -4 to area knowledge/current affairs to identify locals (Scope penalty, I doubt players will have applicable area knowledge, although Lore! of course wouldn't.)

-8 (reasonable precautions to thwart identification by perpetrator), +1 (status 2 Individual as prominent business owner), +2 (known bibliophile and antiques collector)= -5 to deductions

What:

-4 (takes basic measures to cover his tracks) (For learning it's a Rogue Witch)

-2 (Endless Legion Demons don't really count as sapient)

When:

-8 (Plan involves no special timing)

Where:

-8 (Intelligent foe who didn't think he needed to pick an unobvious location), +3 (small local cult of ~15 members has been assisting the Rogue Witch)

What's actually going on:

Sid Duncan, owner of Duncan Fishpacking, is a Rogue Witch. Having been raised by an aunt who was deep within the Dark Arts, Duncan was initiated into summoning demons at a relatively young age- 11. Duncan has made a pact with the Demon Lord Drumer for magical power- in return for attempting to summon Lord Drumer to Earth. Drumer is the source of the bad luck curse that affected the investigation teams- Duncan lacks the skill in the relevant paths to cast such a spell.

Duncan is aided by a few of his employees at the Fishpacking Plant. Most have had spells placed on them to force their compliance. Some early sacrifices were conducted to make these spells easier.

Drumer has instructed Duncan to fill a gem he's fashioned into a reservoir for magical energy via conducting human sacrifice. He's been unhappy with the slow progress, pushing Duncan to bolder attempts to find fresh victims- which is why the young children were targeted. 

Duncan is capable of summoning up to two Impalers at a time, or up to four demonic canines. He also has his followers, although most are little more than meat shields and distractions for him to have time to accumulate energy. One or two might have pistols.

Duncan has numerous (23) charms that he has prepared for emergencies, cast and gathered over a long period of time:

• 5 3d lightning bolt charms (He prefers lightning over firebolts because they short out cellphones)
• 1 Gift of Gab Charm (Used sparingly because he has to resort to spending FP to make it possible to cast)
• 1 Hush Charm 
• 3 Necrosis 
• 8-round pistol magazine with additional 6d of crushing damage for each bullet.
• 3 2d healing charms
• 1 100 yard emergency teleport (Quirk: Loud bang upon arrival)
• 1 charm for DR 4 (Quirks: Painfully obvious that he's covered in a shield of energy or similar, sparks super obviously when hit by an attack)

Duncan lives in a manor on Crow Island, uses his Fishpacking Factory to dispose of the bodies, uses the Pope Island Marina to move his sacrifice victims, and generally conducts his rituals at home. The gem he's filling can ONLY be used for the summoning of Lord Drumer, and currently houses a great deal of magical energy.

Inspiration Source: Nexus War

Back when I was just starting highschool, this whiskey-drinking, apollo-worshiping dude named Brandon Harris created a browser based game called Nexus War. (Spiritual Successor: Nexus Clash.)

Nexus War had some roots in Urban Dead- Jorm had played, and Nexus War at first glance had a lot of the same elements. Play entailed moving around a map of squares on a grid, heavy PVP elements, and that's about as far as the similarities went. Players had a limited number of Action Points to spend, and once they were gone, you were stuck waiting until they refreshed to do more.

But Urban Dead was always about zombies and humans duking it out in a ruined city- Nexus War was far more ambitious. The entire world was a conflict between beings of immense power, with the players ultimately deciding the fate of the entirety of that existence.

Nexus Clash had something like fifteen or so different character classes to spec into, with the option of becoming Angelic (Good), Demonic (Evil), or Transcendent (Neutral). Within the morality framework, you had combat monsters, spellcasters, and combat/spellcasting hybrids.

Angels ranged from the clockwork Seraphs who got badass ultratech innate weaponry to use, to the Divine Champion who could assume various cloaks and change their composition to do crazy shit. (Shoutout to the cloak of steel that allowed them to use ambulances and other vehicles as weapons.) The other classes didn't really grasp me as much, although the Lightspeaker had some kickass pets.

Demons had Infernal Behemoths, hulking masses of flesh and muscle with their own innate weaponry, as well as Void Walkers, these badass creatures capable of stepping through walls and turning invisible. Kudos to Dark Oppressors for having the Agony Curse + Defiler Poison Combo, one of THE most satisfying and evil things to slap on another human's virtual representation of themselves since the dawn of time. (Every time someone hit with the combo took an action that used Action Points, Defiler Poison would damage them, boosted by Agony Curse, which also gave the user of the curse XP every time the curse triggered.)

Angels never gained access to debuffs, and were generally stronger than an individual demonic character, although morality restrictions meant that certain behaviors were extremely counterproductive. Demons couldn't accept healing from others, and also had no built-in reasons to cooperate since killing one another gives just as much XP as killing an Angel or Neutral character running around.

I've been brainstorming pretty heavily about a game centered around mortals empowered and enhanced by an Angel to fight off Demonic hordes, and it's safe to say that the aesthetic of Nexus War will play a large part in the trappings of the campaign.

One Last Thing: I am scared to try Jorm's grilled cheese recipe.

Why is Ireland such a hotspot for supernatural activity, anyways?

My players have been asking this question for a while now. Ireland in 1641 doesn't appear to have any real reasons to have such an influx of demons, neutral spirits, and other supernatural creatures. Now, I actually have an explanation for this.

Angels.

Yes, you heard that right, Angels. More specifically, Metos, but it ties into all of them.

The campaign world exists in a multiverse where a predatory corruption bounces from universe to universe, attempting to transform each of them into some version of hell. Hell, for campaign purposes, is a universe that has fallen to demonic corruption and now threatens Earth. The two universes (Hell and the one the players are trying to save) are intersected somehow, allowing travel between them.

Travel from Hell to Earth and back is difficult. The majority of demons are incapable of traveling to Earth without risking a permanent demise, although especially wise/old/strong specimens have learned to project avatars of themselves to Earth to reduce the risk of their excursions. Losing an Avatar might be painful, but it doesn't cause any permanent damage at least.

Angels are also from another universe, one that managed to stave off the corruption and achieve a horribly high level of Ultra-tech. Using this technology to transform themselves into terrifyingly powerful androids- and later, pure machines- they took the fight to Hell.

Needless to say, the various religions of the world have no clue about this.

The Angels are limited in number. The vast energy required to create just one could kill stars and blacken solar systems of light. Only five are active on Earth. Metos, the strongest, is fully capable of destroying entire planets, but that only serves to temporarily stem the tides of Hell.

The Angels don't have the means to create more of themselves to the same degree of power that they already possess. Hell is always expanding, always creating more troops, many of which are truly expendable.

It's a real Zerg Vs. Protoss with humans caught in the middle situation. (Disclaimer: I'm a massive Starcraft fan).

Metos is the most powerful Angel, the one capable of crushing planets and killing stars. It's his presence in Ireland, in a state of rest over a particularly powerful ley line that is the origin of the numerous incursions into Hell. His presence has weakened the barrier between the universes, allowing more free travel between the two.

This isn't completely unique to Metos either- most of the angels are strong enough that they similarly start to strain the underpinnings of reality that make it harder for things to cross between dimensions.

NPC List for Demon Hunting in the 1640's

This is hopefully going to turn into a record of NPCs for my Monster Hunting campaign. This list has been cross-posted at Strolen.com.

 

 Galway, Ireland

Murchad Ua Brian:

Son and Regent of Earl Rory Ua Brian, Murchad is the highest ranking noble currently within the city of Galway. Murchad is a military man, commonly cited as one of the best soldiers in the entire nation. He remains a bachelor despite the consternation of the Catholic Contingent within Ireland. Aware of the supernatural, Murchad is a Dhamphir bastard who is not his father's trueborn son- a fact that he jealously hides at almost any cost.

• One of the strongest fighters in Ireland
• Capable administrator and leader
• Cold, calculating and analytical
• In Game Event: Was captured by Bishop Saul O'Hara and had his vampiric lineage revealed, causing widespread rumors and distrust in his capabilities to rule.

Rory Ua Brian:

The Earl of Galway, Rory is a strong Catholic supporter who is currently in Dublin attempting to deal with the problems presented by Protestant settlers. There's a high likelihood he may end up very high in the command structure of any army that attempts to revolt against English rule. Rory is aware of his son's supernatural nature and has raised him as his own anyways.

• Benevolent
• Failing heart
• Effective politician and orator

Lars the Undertaker:

Lars has been the undertaker of Galway for longer than anyone can remember. All estimates are that he's well over 80 years old and he shows no signs of slowing down.

• Is horribly deluded about the nature of undead
• May be unaging/immortal
• Isn't lying when he says nothing undead/spiritual has risen out of his graveyard
• Gives one of the PCs access to bodyparts and bodies upon request.

James Corwin

Local monster hunter. Corwin stands to inherit a barony in England upon the death of his father, who is currently convalescing in the countryside. Corwin is an avid hunter of the the supernatural, even spending a ridiculous amount of money on a prototype breach loading rifle. Corwin aggressively buys and sells 'Indentured Servants' (effectively slaves), having a special fondness for Lycanthropes.

• Protestant and wealthy
• Is frequently contracted by Iscariot for jobs
• Sends his Lycanthrope manservants out to hunt monsters without regard for their safety
• Jealous of other monster hunting groups, especially Magnus von Tyrsson (A player character)
• Is best friends with Asmund, a Norse Mummy.
• Tried to shoot Sir Sinclar (Another Player Character) while he was in the middle of a duel.

Father James Michaels

The local head of Iscariot for Galway, Father Michaels is known to be on the outs with the Catholic church in general- except for his strange capabilities when facing supernatural threats. Fond of drink, women and gambling, Michaels usually delegates his sermons to a deacon, and frequently misses mass.

• Ridiculously lucky
• Very good at seeing the big picture
• Good with money despite his debauchery
• Has fathered 10+ children
• Been on more than a few monster hunts that went Sideways
• Genre-savvy

Mother Rebecca

Mother Rebecca is the librarian of the Iscariot Library within Galway, a good resource for information on the supernatural.

• Never helps anyone find books in the restricted section of the library (which composes 95% of the library)
• Is most likely an Angel
• Dislikes Magnus
• On surprisingly good terms with Father Michaels.
• Unemotional and efficient

Warden Nolan

The head jailor for the Iscariot prison within Galway, The Warden has worked tirelessly for forty years to ensure that the prison remains secure and that no potential escapes succeed. Nolan wields his power with an iron fist over his domain, being fully willing to clash with Iscariot if their wishes run counter to his goal of keeping his prisoners contained.

• Was once human, and has been warped by the ceremony that created him as Warden.
• Very Single-minded and unwavering to his mission
• Not a strong believer in rehabilitation

Ultana "Twit" Mercer

A rival to Siobhan's (A PC) design on James Corwin, Twit is a local Irish/English noblewoman who has wealthy parents in both countries.

• Amoral, devious and sadistic
• Totally willing to resort to hired thugs
• Genuinely likes James Corwin
• Totally in the dark on the supernatural.

Asmund

James Corwin's best friend and confidant. Asmund is about six hundred years old, being born right at the end of the Viking Age. Asmund is a formidable warrior, helped along by the fact that he is in truth a Draugr, returned from the grave to exact revenge on the man who originally killed him almost six hundred years ago.

• Apolitical, lives on the fringes of society and remains uninvolved whenever possible
• Frequently hunts with James Corwin
• Does a good job of blending into society so as to avoid suspicion
• Not adverse to murder or other crimes, but doesn't have any particular compulsions to commit crimes
• His soul is linked to his axe, which he always carries with him.
• Numerous supernatural capabilities- increased strength, durability, weight and so on.

[Bishop Saul O'Hara]

Current religious head of Galway. Was part of a conspiracy with Barrister Selmy. See full submission for details.

Barrister Jarlath Selmy

A Barrister who moved to Galway a few years ago, Selmy is in fact a demon who has set into motion a plan to take over Ireland and eventually invade Scotland and England at the head of an undead/demonic horde.

Harvey Macfinn.

A well respected hunter originally from Scotland. Harvey is generally serious and reserved, not getting to know others easily. This is due to his curse as a Loup-garou, the most deadly extant form of lycanthropy that exists. Every full moon Harvey turns into an unstoppable killing machine- a curse that he desperately hopes to have broken at some point.

• Believes he is responsible for the death of his family during one of his transformations
• Moved to Ireland to escape people who were getting close to learning his secret
• Hunts monsters whenever he can to help attone for his actions.
• Extremely capable archer

The village of Letterfrack

 

Father Smith

The local priest. Devout, pious, and utterly unsuited to any kind of leadership or command role outside of church affairs. Cowardly.

Blacksmith John Smith

Local blacksmith, Catholic Englishman who moved to Ireland to escape debts. Husband of June, father of Henry, Hugo and George.

• Strong sense of duty to his community
• Prior military duty
• Strong but starting to decline in agility as he grows older
• All three of his sons are capable fighters, although green and a little overconfident.

Gael Oak

Herbalist and midwife. Friends with Niamh, wife of Muiread (Player Character Alchemist).

• Questionable knowledge about fairies
• Decent cures and tonics
• Local busy-body, gossip and snoop
• Has a very public affair with a married man

Monstrous

Dracula (Yes, that Dracula):

Supposedly killed by Magnus, in truth he still lives. Dracula is widely rumored to be the originator of all vampires, as well as the strongest specimen alive. Due to rumors of his death being greatly exaggerated, Dracula is currently laying low and forming plans while he's likely to be uninterrupted. In his absence a power vacuum has developed, which threatens to cause war among the ancient vampires. Those in the know fear such a war could cause a great deal of collateral damage.

Abaseth the Tailor:

A [Bone Stitcher] who has been summoned to Ireland by Barrister Selmy, Abaseth currently goes along with the Barrister's plan because it is convenient. Once working with the Barrister is no longer convenient, Abaseth intends to use his body for multiple experiments he has in mind.

Zepar the Seducer:

An incubus whose affections strike women barren. Zepar is jovial and friendly, with a bad habit of seducing Catholic Irishwomen because he finds it amusing.

• Supernatural good looks and charisma
• Subtle mind control powers
• Skilled combatant
• Most other denizens of Hell consider him childish and insignifcant
• Not actually evil, despite his nature
• Seeks a way to escape the curse of deviltry
• Son of a powerful Archdaemon
• In-Game Event: Tried to kill Siobhan, got captured, interrogated and had his corporeal shell killed by the Party.

Action Report: Just Business.

I've procrastinated heavily on posting this, for which I apologize. There's another session happening tonight, so more in on the way.

I did some planning before this session that never gelled into enough to post by itself. I'm including it here because someone might find it interesting.

The Factions:

Rand and Charles Petroleum (RCP):
Leader: Connie Nepala
Goal: Install a US-intelligence listening site under the guise of a drilling operation within the Amazon rainforest.
Motivation: $$$, continued existence of the business
Complication: Installing a 'drilling site' has raised the ire of locals and environmentalists alike. Threats of violence and sabotage have made RCP call in a few favors to keep the operation running smoothly. Agency 17 also wants them emasculated, and the US Intelligence Community has leverage that forced them to make the drilling operation go in the first place.

Blue Leaf Company (BLC):
Leader: 'General' Sherman
Goal: Protect RCP interests from angry natives and outside interests trying to stop the drilling operation
Motivation: Getting paid to shoot people, preferably in violation of the Geneva Conventions whenever possible.
Complication: RCP is hoping to cut their monetary losses and cover up what will be installed at the drill site by screwing over the BLC and killing their on-site members.

Niraj Hamid Rashad:
Goal: Poison the BLC barracks
Motivation: Hired by RCP. Also has issues with how BLC violates human rights.
Complication: Is frequently hired by Agency 17 due to his skills with poison.

Pro-drilling Locals:
Leader: Father Kline
Goal: Help RCP construct and run the drilling operation
Motivation: $$$
Complication: Forced conscription of local workforce to clear the road to the drill site has raised the ire of multiple prominent landowners...

Anti-drilling Locals:
Leader: Ernesto, formerly Murchad
Goal: Stop RCP
Motivation: Stopping the encroachment of industrialized society, prevent environmental damage
Complication: A particularly vocal opponent to the drilling, Murchad, has been murdered. This has many questioning if they shouldn't just give up.

US Intelligence:
Goal: Get a listening site in the Amazon
Motivation: Increase surveillance capacity in the area, have the capacity to deny that they knew about RCP's actions.

Agency 17:
Goal: Fuck with RCP and the BLC
Motivation: Revenge for previous slights.

The Agents

Tobias Stöhner: Gray hat hacker and electronics whiz, Tobias makes computer security experts at the Pentagon break out into a cold sweat when he infiltrates their systems.
Virgil Cooke: A former CIA agent, Virgil is a master of acting a part and working the social aspects of covert ops. You probably should avoid windows if he wants you dead.
Jack Herman: Former SAS, Jack is the group's heavy muscle and military man. If the group needs his talents, it's inevitably because something went FUBAR and they need saving.
Nima Caspi: A former IDF combat medic, Nima is perfectly at home driving like a complete maniac and patching up complete maniacs who have taken a bullet or two.
Johnny Trang: Johnny Trang was too cool for LAPD officer school, so they put him into undercover work. Johnny Trang is perfectly at home infiltrating illegal racing rings or snooping on bad guys.

Things started with Johnny (Alias for this mission: Bob Robertson.) preparing to get shown RCP's presence around the town of Varzedos. Virgil and Jack were doing recon during this time while Tobias did some snooping for Murchad's remains.

Earlier that night, Johnny had broken into the town hall and discovered that another government inspector was scheduled to pay the site a visit. Tentative plans between my players were made involving delaying or kidnapping this inspector to prevent their interference.

Plans that promptly ended when he arrived.

Introducing himself as Mr. Rashad to Johnny and Sherman, he claimed to be from Brazil's office of Health Management, there to inspect their facilities, focusing primarily on their food storage and preparation areas.

Rashad and Johnny tear through the entire camp with a fine tooth comb. Johnny fakes his way through the inspection, while Rashad goes through all of the food diligently. Rashad's thoroughness buys Johnny enough time to do some snooping. Sherman is annoyed greatly by this.

Rashad is polite, calm, collected and above all, professional. When pressed by Johnny how he got into his line of work, Rashad tells him simply, "I am the best at what I do, Mr. Robertson."

The search encompasses the local restaurant, the barracks, the supply depot, and the drilling supplies.

Connie makes an appearance, fondly greeting Mr. Rashad and giving Johnny the cold shoulder. Connie, Rashad and Johnny head back to Varzedos- Rashad needs to check the water supply and Johnny claims to need to see permits for the site. She shuts down any attempts by Johnny for smalltalk, making it clear that she does not like his presence on her job site.

About this time, Virgil who has followed Rashad and observed him from the jungle, spots Rashad covertly putting something into the well in the middle of town.

Tobias find's Murchad's body and his laptop inside his house. Murchad had a bunch of friends in various cutthroat groups of ill repute. He was attempting to get one of them involved in the situation surrounding RCP as a way of pressuring them to leave the area.

Johnny meets back up with Sherman to examine the future drilling site. Sherman leads him into the woods, claims that he needs to confess to something, and then draws a gun on Johnny.

The struggle for the gun goes poorly for Johnny when Jack, who had been covering him from the woods, misses his shot on Sherman. Sherman utterly fails his Fright Check (16!), throwing himself to the ground and accidentally hitting his head off a rock, knocking himself out cold.

The decision is made by Johnny and Jack to take Sherman prisoner. A search by BLC forces for their commander goes poorly, as the camouflage used by the Agents allow them to remain entirely hidden.

All of the Agents sans Tobias make their way back to the camp where Gregori and Nima have been staying. Tobias hits up the local bar.

Halfway through his glass of Everclear, the locals and BLC troops start falling sick. En masse. Tobias makes his way to the town hall where Rashad is telling Connie that the health inspection was going fine until the mass sickness hit. He storms off, and Connie politely tells Tobias to fuck off.

Tobias makes his way back to the base camp. The agents talk for a while, and Tobias decides to try and sneak into the town hall to take a peek through Connie's computer. He gets to Connie's office and gets to work.

He hears footsteps as he works. Tobias sends out an SOS over their communications before two goons kick in the door. Tonfas in hand, Tobias disarms one of the goons, only to be promptly shot in the leg.

Connie draws a gun and aims it at the wounded Tobias.

Outside, Johnny, Virgil and Jack approach the town hall. Outside, three guards are standing around, M14s in hand. The agents take time to aim before executing a simultaneous headshot, each agent taking out a goon.

The agents storm the building as Connie and her men are trying to exit. There's a brief exchange of gunfire that leads to Virgil getting a critshot to one goon's head for well over 80 damage, the other goon falling dead as Jack hits him in the unarmored groin and leg.

It's tense as the Agents prepare to try to disarm Connie when Rashad appears behind her and injects her with a syringe. She drops to the floor, out cold.

Rashad and the Agents uneasily come to the understanding that they're not working against one another. (Johnny's player gets a lesson in etiquette- when the guy who poisoned an entire mercenary company warns you that he's got sharps on him, you do NOT want to try and frisk him.)

Connie is out cold, not dead, as she owes Rashad money. Connie was attempting to cut costs by hiring Rashad, having him poison the Blue Leaf Company members, and then blaming the mass deaths on the now dead BLC members, thereby releasing RCP from responsibility for paying them.

Johnny and Tobias toss Connie's office and in the process Johnny manages to blow a fuse AND damage Connie's computer (crit fail on the search check).

The Agents and Rashad make an agreement that they won't seriously harm or kill Connie, while Rashad will allow them to question her. They use Murchad's farmhouse as the dead guy won't complain. Rashad offers to make everyone tea. Everyone refuses.

Connie promptly spills the beans. The Agents learn about RCP's corporate structure, and then step outside to leave. Rashad steps out himself, asking the Agents that they be discrete about his presence, and giving them a message to pass along to their handler. The message simply asks, "Have your bunny hops and rocket jumps improved?"

 (We had a break and the summary resumes from the next session of play.)

The Agents then interrogate Sherman, which drags out a while (real-life time). Most of his information is relatively useless, as BLC's command structure is fairly well documented online, and BLC is not the target organization the Agents are after, at all. The only useful tidbit is that BLC was pressured by an outside influence to take the contractor work without some kind of prepayment.

Nima patches up Tobias' leg, swearing the entire time.

Virgil eventually shoots him to protect the Agents' agreement with Rashad, figuring that Rashad's wrath isn't worth Sherman's possible gratitude.

Tobias and Jack make a trip out to do the demolitions work on RCP's drilling supplies. Tobias discovers a lot of listening equipment- the kind you'd normally find in a van, but souped up and disguised as components of the drilling equipment. Obviously RCP is not purely installing a drilling site here.

After a series of loud explosions, the demolitions work is done.

Virgil and Nima track down the Padre. They find him trying to run from a lynch mob and conclude that their services won't be needed.

The Agents break camp and call Logan:

"This is Logan, your handler. I'm busy making sure that the vast government conspiracies at play don't hit you with a predator drone. Please leave a message after the beep.

BEEEEEP"

Three days later once they've reached civilization, Logan contacts them. They exchange information and Logan instructs them to infiltrate RCP's branch office in Brazil and then fly back to the States- they're going to have a complicated assassination mission to complete.

Surveillance of the branch office by Johnny and Virgil is interrupted when a black ops team breaks inside, shooting the guards. They wait for Jack and Nima to arrive with the rifles and vests. Johnny takes care of the guard outside, ramming him with his SUV a few times and eventually shooting him when he succeeds on two death checks at -26 HP.

Inside, Nima, Virgil and Jack hit the branch office, catching the intruders unaware as the lookout is busy getting vehicular homicided. After a short firefight that again sees Virgil scoring hits to the head, the Agents ransack the office of the materials gathered by the intruders and leave.

Notes:

• Tobias is stuck with Chronic Pain (Severe, 2 Hours, 12 or Less) [-20] from getting shot in the leg twice. He has the option to buy down the severity and the rate of appearance, which will require fifteen points total. (Ten for the first step, five for the second.)
  I honestly fudged this result- going off the dice rolls Tobias should be living with Missing Legs for [-20]. a move that would effectively end that character's career. Suffering with a 5 point disadvantage, a 15 point tax, and the effects of a 20 point disadvantage seem fair in comparison.
• Rashad has previously worked with Logan before, and Agency 17 himself.
• Next mission is going to involve a lot of party splitting- by design.

Agency 17: Just business

The next mission will be taking place in the Amazon Rainforest- most likely in Brazil. Their goal is to stop a environmentally horrible company, Rand & Charles Petroleum (RCP) from opening up a new drilling operation within the rainforest.

Of course, Agency 17 has cloudy motives beyond environmental protection, most of them amounting to trying to curtail the RCP's presence in the area.

The band will be sent out with Gregori, Agency 17's premier survival expert. He should be extremely capable help when it comes to guiding them through the Amazon- a task none of the PCs are very prepared for.

To complicate things, RCP has been hiring private military contractor types to provide security and suppress local anti-drilling activities. These mercenaries are obviously not very nice people and will likely be trigger happy.

I'm thinking a drill site about five miles out from a town located by the only non-contaminated water supply for a large area, in deep jungle. That makes the town a population hub and constrains the area the PCs will have to worry about. It gives a locus for the events of the mission, providing angry locals, boisterous PMCs, and a place for evil corporate types to try and push or stop the drilling from beginning.

Maybe to spice things up an agent from Section 17 might make an appearance.

I'm running tomorrow's session more or less by the seat of my pants.

Gaming is a volatile environment for intrigue gaming

I've become pretty good at coming up with various stuff on the fly. Pocket contents, phone contact lists, how people fit into a company, weapon vault contents, I've placed it all without prior planning while at the table.

And boy will that sometimes back you into a corner. Sometimes you will have a character say that somebody is working for a specific company and later that turns out to be wrong or inconvenient. Maybe you slipped up and got the name of his organization switched with another. The goals for an NPC's growth or use could be restricted due to their attachment to the company the players now want to destroy from the ground.

Mistakes happen. It's also really easy to give out more information than intended. You're supposed to give the players enough rope to tie the noose you later hang them with, not reveal the incoming twists.

The volatility of tabletop gaming competes with the need for logical consistency and continuity that an intrigue game demands.

Three suggestions:

• Keep notes. Update them frequently. Write things down. If running an online campaign, having logs to go back to are extremely useful- for you and players alike. This does weaken Eidetic Memory, so beware.
• Don't be afraid to retcon things that you screwed up. Players appreciate having current and correct information more than making sure you said the right thing at 3AM in the morning while tired and still GMing because gaming is just that fun.
• Information should be murky in an intrigue game, and it's important to remember that NPCs are not all-knowing. Having NPCs capable of making mistakes makes the world more real and leads to very interesting plot possibilities- such as Logan not knowing that Egeman Atalar was Mr. X in Agency 17.

Preparing the CIA Squad

No session last week due to work schedules not cooperating. Tonight's session might also not go.

My players have been tasked with eliminating a CIA team who is out to assassinate/kill their principal, Mr. X, in an attempt to hide CIA aid going to the PKK within Turkey.

The team has five members:

• 1 Communications expert
• 3 Wet works men
• 1 Intelligence/Leader

P.42 of Tactical Shooting has a nice infobox listing out Guns Skill Levels to help GMs realistically stat out shooters. Of note, special-ops soldiers are listed as having Guns up to 15, with professional soldiers/federal agents allowed up to 13.

For attributes, I'm giving each one 11 ST, 12 DX, 12 IQ and 11 HT, a spread very similar to the base agent template used for all PCs, except with 1 less IQ and DX. This is a team explicitly meant to hunt down people and kill them, it makes sense that they'd be above average (Agents of Section and Agency 17 are exceptional). 8 points in any Guns specialty (DX/E) will give a final skill of 15. The non-hitter members of the team will have 2 Points in Guns for a skill level of 13.

Other skills will be at around the same levels. Since I expect a firefight, Guns will be front and center. Throwing and striking/grappling skills will probably also be explicitly specified.

...Still deciding on grenades. Might be too lethal. Then again:

Jamie like big boom. -Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters

For body armor, I've selected Assault Vests, Ballistic Leggings, and Boots. That's DR 12 vs piercing and cut damage, DR 5 against everything else. Trauma plates are complete overkill and really heavy. Pistols flat out won't cut it against the torso or legs, although the neck, skull, arms and feet are all unarmored. 7d weapons can expect to do at least 12-13 damage to the torso per hit (roughly 50% of the time), which would cause immediate HT checks for stun/knockback and unconsciousness.

Hand to hand combat isn't really advisable since 5 DR would be tough for the Agents to punch through.

Of course, if the CIA team isn't prepared for a fight because the Agents ambush them at their hideout, they likely won't be locked and loaded to rumble, making things much easier on my players.

Things will likely start with Tobias tracking the communications expert somehow. After a few contests of skill to see if Tobias can locate the guy without alerting him, then the fight should break out. I'm probably going to have to enforce one or two equipment penalties to lower Tobias from skill levels around 17-18 to 15 or 16ish to close the gap enough to make it a little more competitive.

For weapons, I'm likely going to go with an eclectic mix of assault rifles, SMGs and maybe a shotgun with slugs. And sidearms, of course. I'll probably stick with vanilla ammo. Because simplicity.

Planning: Fallout from the Extraction of Mr. X

Last time we met, the Agents managed to get a lot done, mostly by grabbing firmly upon a bunch of hooks I can build upon for new missions and the continuation of the current one. I'm going to use a method from Orbs and Balrogs which has served me well in the past. Orbs and Balrogs is an awesome, detailed and nuanced blog that I highly suggest reading.

These hooks are:

• Francois' Laptop
• His USB Thumb Drive
• A safety deposit key for a place in London
• A gun runner's vault
• Francois' cellphone

The vault is by far the easiest one to decide on- it's teeming with all sorts of great weapons to shoot people with. Instead of explicitly listing out everything inside, I'm likely going to give it a merchant skill between 10 and 12. For each specific weapon they hope to find, roll vs. the effective merchant skill to determine if it's there or not. Modify based on LC and how much I don't want them toting around hugely powerful explosives or .50 cal rifles (Virgil's Player: Now see, those aren't quite the same situation. Virgil can turn a .50 cal rifle into a game breaker, but we'd just blow ourselves up with decent explosives.)

The next big decision is which data storage device has Francois' local business information on it. This would be the information dealing his work with Lorin's organization, as well as information that was pertinent on Mr. X. I'm thinking that the USB stick acts as an encryption key that allows access to a partition on the hard drive that is storing a virtual machine with the credentials to log onto a secure private VPN routed through some random country (Romania comes to mind for no real reason) that will give access to the information. Francois likely had a tech savvy individual set this up for him and teach him how to go through the steps without breaking proxies left and right.

If you didn't understand that, don't worry, Tobias' skill levels for computer related tasks are outright ridiculous and he's also skilled in cryptography. I could probably write an entire post on how game-breaking a character such as Tobias is in skilled hands. Don't fuck with the communications expert. Ever.

So information is worthless without knowing what that information actually is. Again, I'm going to assign the data a skill level and do multiple checks to decide what's actually contained there. It's more organic than cherry picking everything. These are the stats on Francois' laptop:

Property	Notes
Base Research Time	1 Hour
Research Modifier	-2 (Messy), all data is written in french
Knowledge Base	Lorin's Business- 14 (+1 Research), PKK Information- 9 (-4 Research)
Specific Content	Name of Lorin's Suppliers, Past Client Info (+2 to research if cross-referencing with Francois' cellphone contact list), Details of a deal between the PKK and the CIA, Armament of the CIA squad the players have been tasked with eliminating, List of people disappeared on the orders of Egemen Atalar (-1 to Research)

For the specific content, I've already rolled checks for various things I felt the players might try to discern while going through the data. I rolled well on almost every check I made, meaning Francois must have taken comprehensive notes- albeit in french.

The Safety Deposit Key will be a hook for another mission, potentially something another team of agents goes to collect and then deliver to the players.

The CIA team is likely going to be 4-5 people, all of them spooks who are attempting to kidnap Egeman so that he can be investigated.

So I slept with the first half of this post completed last night and finally decided what it was that got everyone as angry with Egemen as they are- Project Olympus.

Project Olympus is an experimental training programing modeled after NATO training procedures- but started at a much earlier age. Egemen's implementation of the project involved children as young as five. Natalia is a product of the program, having been selected for it at age six and taken from her family.

Training under Project Olympus involves severe SERE-style exercises, physical conditioning, drug regimens,  and the completion of multiple black ops missions up to and including assassination. A lot of the people disappeared by Egemen either found themselves in the program- or dying at the hands of those going through it.

Details of that will obviously come out at the beginning of next session, prompting Logan to call the players to check the news and discuss things.

Now obviously, a lot of people are very alarmed at the rogue head of an intelligence agency disappearing- hence Agency 17 stepping in.

• The CIA was cooperating with the PKK elements within the Turkish governments with the hope of securing research data from Project Olympus. Capturing Egeman would allow them to interrogate him to learn what he knows.
• Anti-government forces want Egeman to answer for his crimes against humanity.
• The Turkish government wants to make a show of taking down Egeman to appease the anti-government protests.
• The US Government is denying any part in Project Olympus, as is the rest of the NATO community who are all in agreement that it was purely Turkish Intelligence who decided to step over the line.
• The PKK is hoping to take advantage of the chaos to improve their foothold in Turkey, but Egeman does not fit into their plans
• Egeman (Mr. X) wants to flee the country after ensuring that the CIA squad sent to retrieve him is eliminated.

Now, for the next mission, I'm thinking it's time to do something involving parachuting, the wilderness and roughing it away from society.

Other Campaign Happenings 1

This post will be a small roundup of in game events that I want to keep track of for later. Most of these happen between sessions, and won't likely involve the players.

Known to the Players:

• George Hardings is declared persona non grata by the United States for his part in stealing from the CIA. He returns to London and is killed a few weeks later by the Belarus KGB, an incident that the UK chooses to ignore given Hardings' recent misdeeds.
• Hernando's capture, torture and subsequent death by the Los Zetas cartel is captured by Tobias' bugs within a few days of the successful hijacking of the shipment.
• Miguel decides that Ciudad Madera is too hot, and moves to a less violent area of Mexico.

Unknown to the Players:

• Hardings' CIA contact where he originally got the list goes missing, presumably forced to disappear.
• Xavier leaves the employ of the United Kingdom government, discontent with how he was treated by Hardings and the British Government.
• Arthur Bingham is fired by the NSA. He has come to Section 17's attention and this is their first move towards hiring him.
• The Los Zetas cartel murders Robert Sampson's family. Agency 17 falsely informed Logan that they had been retrieved by another team of Agents.
• The stolen drugs are moved to an Agency 17 warehouse and put into storage.

A Glimpse Under the Hood: Mission Planning

Continuing on the topic of mission planning that Douglas Cole got me talking about, I'm going to talk further as I go through planning a mission.

I frequently browse Reddit. It's a frequent trove of interesting material, such as this Wikipedia article on the Archives of Terror they found in Paraguay.

I read about recent riots during my stay home over the holidays, which got me to thinking about a mission involving getting some kind of shady person out of a country currently embroiled by riots- preferably riots where most of those throwing bricks and firebombs want the team's principal dead.

While browsing the internet at work, I stumbled upon the wikipedia article on the Beltway Sniper Attacks that took place in 2002, which I think will provide more flesh to the riots + shady person idea above.

So let's lay it out as I piece it together:

• The players are being sent to a country, likely Turkey or Argentina. (I'm going with Turkey)
• This shows that Turkey can be a rough and tumble country much like Zeta controlled Mexico
• Their mission is to locate two individuals and facilitate their extraction to the United States (or another Agency 17 controlled location) so they can be brought into the fold for the organization (The Agents will be told that this is so they can be questioned/interrogated)
• The first individual will likely be a government official, featuring into the overall clash between pro and anti-government forces. I'll call him Mr. (e)X(ample). Mr. X is skilled enough to be an Agency 17 agent in his own right.
• The second principal is an accomplished wetworks man (woman?) for the other individual the players are hoping to extract. This person is just as skilled as Mr. X
• The riots started when some hactivists uncovered proof that Mr. X has been causing a great deal of those aforementioned human rights abuses- disappearances, torture, murder, blackmail, the whole shebang.
• Mr. X's cover involves copious plastic surgery which has changed his appearance. His head is swaddled in bandages- which he attributes to getting caught in the flames from a thrown molotov cocktail during the riots.
• Anti-government forces want to capture Mr. X. They'd like a public hanging.
• The Turkish government hope that Mr. X's downfall will relieve the pressure on their organization from anti-government forces.
• Mr. X's wetwork person's moderus operandi is very close to that used by the Beltway snipers- use a modified vehicle to serve as a sniper's nest to conceal mussle flash and help with suppression.
• The wetwork person is likely related to Mr. X to help explain why they're willing to help them escape both sides eager for his blood.
• Mr. X is probably a minister of some intelligence organization, possibly with ties to the PKK (What is the Intelligence Service of Turkey?)
• None of my character speak Turkish and only Virgil is likely going to have cultural familiarity there. This will isolate them and make them stand out to a great degree.
• Discussing the above bullet point with Virgil's character lead me to look up Newspeak.
• Attention span completely ruined, let me point you to this episode of Red Dwarf where JFK ends up shooting himself from the grassy knoll

I'll wrap this up in another post once when I can focus on it again.

Holiday Break and Some Planning

It's been almost two weeks home for the holidays. The advantages include time spent with family, home cooked food, and the very welcome escape from public transit and city life in general.

Of course, the downsides involve not being able to run GURPS for my players and an almost total lack of computer access.

I caught the second Hobbit film. I couldn't help but think about how the various fights could be translated into various GURPS concepts- and Legolas' point total is likely ridiculous given some of the antics he gets up to (Obligatory mention of Heroic Archer here). Good media helps stimulate the formation of new ideas, and gives me a desire to run games set in the setting/genre in question.

There's a chance I'll be running some DF-style GURPS for some teens aged 12-14 tomorrow, which should be a nice departure from modern combat involving guns. I don't get to game with this group frequently, meaning that it's really hard to convey the various combat options available to them, but it's a good challenge moving forward on how to get them to at least state what they want to do- even if I have to handle the mechanics of a deceptive attack or similar.

For Agency 17, I believe I want the next mission to involve protecting some kind of terrorist or dethroned government type- inspired partly by some of the recent riots and revolts in Latin and Southern America. The group has a lot of familiarity South of the border, so setting missions in Mexico, Latin America or even further South allows them to avoid nasty cultural faux pas (if I ever want to bring those to the forefront, almost nobody has significant experience operating in Africa or parts of Asia).

Chances are the principal they'll be protecting will be dirty, providing the twist. The expectation is that they'll be escorting some wounded rebel or asset out of a hot spot when in reality their man underwent extensive cosmetic surgery to change his appearance so that he could escape not only the guns of local rebels but possibly the long arms of international war tribunals or something similar.

There's likely going to be an emphasis on stealth, possibly with a few choices to be made if their contact desires that they retrieve choice items for him before they leave. I still have to run the conclusion of the hijack mission first however.

About that- the new guys will likely be trying to sabotage one or both of the helicopters that will attempt to intercept the players once they've taken the truck. It will give them something productive to do that ties in with what the others have been doing without dropping them in without reason.

How I Plot

Douglas Cole commented on an earlier post, asking how I went about planning complex spy stories, so I might as well discuss it a little. My thanks to Doug for handing me a topic to write about, and I hope the verbosity displayed here doesn't irk anyone.

 It starts with my background when it comes to consuming media related to the portrayal of Covert Ops, particularly television. I prefer serialized television shows with plenty of intrigue with strong mythological arcs. Episodic television doesn't really do much for me.

• Burn Notice: I was a big Burn Notice fan when the series first began (and quickly lost interest after a few seasons as I found the intrigue surrounding the entire premise of the series lacking)
• 24: I caught the middle of 24, which was always about high-octane action at almost every possible moment. The pacing was arguably the best aspect of the show.
• The Unit: One of the few television shows out there trying to show how such operations might be carried out by a purely military group.
• Covert Affairs: Big focus on HUMINT and the use of Assets
• Person of Interest: Possibly the best show for intrigue that I've seen in a very long time. The mythology of that show is large and treacherous (and completely awesome).
• Alias: Without Alias I probably wouldn't be so set on deceiving my players like a manipulative bastard. That said, the science fiction/prophetic elements sucked.
• Chuck: My guilty pleasure show.
• It's hard to understate just how much Sean Punch's The Company campaign has helped push me to run my own Covert Operations game. His templates and specialties have been invaluable character creation aids.

The premise of the entire campaign is the starting point of everything. Some playing groups delve dungeons, some attempt to defy Cthulhu, yet others Shadowrun.

My players are playing secret agents working for an elite organization of bad guys. The players don't know that their organization is evil.

What work do these organizations have their agents do? What methods do they use? What goals do they hope to accomplish? How do they pay the bills? What kind of people pay them to do things? What kind of people end up working for such an organization?

Setting up Agency 17 is still a work in progress, a luxury that I have that many authors don't. I can create as I go, just as long as I pay attention to continuity very carefully. In fact, planning and on the fly improvisation go hand in hand running a game like this.

More often than not, some of my best executed twists have been the thought that came to mind when I had nothing planned and needed something awesome to happen.

Planning sessions and plots involves looking at things on various levels. A building floor plan exists on a separate level from how the man living in said building reacts to violence, creepy dudes in cars peering at him through his windows or blackmail. I spend a lot of time deep in the GURPS sourcebooks, reading Wikipedia, checking google maps, researching specific topics and attempting to learn about the stuff that's relevant to what I want to run.

A17 is a largely mission based game. My players will generally have an objective, a goal. Above all else, there is one thing that must be completed or done, even if all else fails. Thankfully most entertainment media revolving around this genre makes it painfully clear that without good reason, ignoring such objectives and duffing off is a bad idea. It helps players buy into the rigid aspects of this campaign. While they have great freedom with how they wish to accomplish missions, finishing missions is still the driving motivation for the campaign.

Motivation established by the campaign setting and genre, it turns to the specific goal or objective set by their employers. This will almost always entail deceiving the players- Agency 17 isn't very likely to tell them exactly what it is that is going on, or what the Agency really wants to accomplish.

Being set in the real world, finding a location to set missions is easy- pull up Wikipedia and Google Maps, and get to work. Artistic license is very helpful here, especially when players point out inconvenient real world facts that you got wrong, like that time that Virgil's player let me know that where I staged the Los Zetas convoy's starting location was actually Sinaloa Cartel territory.

Having these real-world resources allows for a little less crappy geography, something that always causes me issues when working with homebrew settings.

There are other advantages to a modern setting- no magic, no aliens, no time travel. Quibbles of whether technology exists or actually work that way are mostly trivial, and are always subject to GM fiat for the good of the game and plot.

The overall narrative is important. It's initially one of betrayal, then the hunt for revenge. And that hunt for revenge will likely span until the end of the campaign. During this time, hopefully a history of game events can be built on as a base for future ideas and plots.

The complexity in this campaign is built into hiding information from my players, and in making sure that this works to enhance the sense of betrayal upon the final reveal. Planning for it takes a lot of thought, reading, and dutifully recording good ideas so that they aren't forgotten later. It also helps that I have a close friend to bounce ideas off of.

Coming up with plots is a deep topic that covers a range of various elements, elements that I've only really been able to briefly touch upon here. I might go more in-depth with some future facets of plotting and planning, as I encounter them attempting to run this game.

Two New Players

We started the campaign with four players, but due to a medical issue, one of my players had to bow out. Sadly, Alex will be relegated to another team within Agency 17 and won't be going out with the Agents I am most concerned with.

Three people was leaving the group pretty thin. There were already a few skill gaps that painfully obvious with four people, and losing their main breaking and entering savant was going to hurt.

So I could either fill the ranks with GMPCs, give the existing players more points, recruit new players, or let it lie and have them work around their skill gaps.

My new philosophy in this campaign has been to be more hands off when it comes to the use of NPCs and GMPCs. Nima was a stop-gap, provided largely for a mission that involves barreling down a highway at 70 MPH trying to shoot at a convoy of mexican drug dealers. It begged to have a competent driver along with skill somewhere in the 15-18 range who can reliably navigate traffic jams at unreasonable speeds.

So besides situations where I don't want to leave the PCs entirely high and dry lacking a mission critical skill, I'd prefer to avoid GMPCs.

More points is a tricky beast, especially if they end up spent on Attributes or non-talent advantages. That would do nothing to help the gap in everyman skills that is evident.

Letting it lie would probably have been my second choice overall. Natural growth would allow the PCs to begin fleshing out their skill sets, given enough time to do so. But at the same time, I originally hoped to run for at least four or five people, and three gets really thin if someone is sick, can't make it, or something.

Five people gives us wiggle room. It's something I should probably check with the others on how they want to handle absences.

Besides, bringing in new blood is going to be an opportunity to teach GURPS to two new players. They're going to come to the table with ideas and opinions, which will hopefully continue to push the game forward. I'm optimistic considering both almost completed character creation within a few hours of getting in touch, with assistance. Both of their characters are looking pretty solid, although the group has a huge amount of overlap concerning surveillance, and both new characters are relatively similar given their skillsets.

But hey, that's what points earned during play are for.

Decieving Your Players

My players have been lied to pretty much from the start of the campaign.

Dastardly, I know.

See, I told them that their characters were joining some shadowy government agency (Agency 17) that's so deep under wraps that barely anyone knows it exists. In reality, the player characters are all part of a shadowy criminal counterintelligence organization that has been raising all kinds of hell, all while convincing their operatives that they are legitimate.

Now, just to be clear, Agency 17 is the criminal counterintelligence agency.

Section 17 is the legitimate government organization that Agency 17 is mimicking.


Every mission the players go on will have a twist somewhere that turns what they're doing from doing good to doing bad. It's about making sure that they perceive in game events one way, while something else entirely is going on.

The first mission involved someone who was actually a legitimate NSA agent, who the players were mislead into believing was simply a journalist. They never did figure out he was NSA, instead believing that he had a source within the NSA who he used to feed info to his uncle.

This current mission, the drug hijacking, has the twist further down the line. There may be legitimate reasons for attempting to steal twenty tons of cocaine from the Los Zetas cartel, but Agency 17's motives are definitely not pure. The players really have no way of knowing this except for the effects of Agency 17's use of the drugs. Possibilities include selling it for profit, planting it on individuals to frame them, and possibly even increasing Zeta/Sinaloa violence in Mexico.

Other times, I hope to hide what the players are actually doing. An example would be having them retrieve black boxes from a downed Agency 17 craft to prevent legitimate investigative crews from being able to access them. Another could be planting devices that don't do what the Agency tells them they do- a 'keylogger' could really be something more insidious (stuxnet comes to mind), while "medical supplies" could be crates full of guns and 'oxygen tanks' hold deadly sarin gas.

Now, there are some important things to consider when a major facet of your campaign involves lying to your players consistently:

1. Especially in a system like GURPS where characters made for one campaign will suck if dropped into another campaign/genre, it's important to ensure that people's characters will be useful throughout even after the reveal. For Agency 17, learning that their employers are evil won't serve to change the fundamental understanding of the universe (no magic, no time travel, no aliens), it's just a large betrayal of trust.
2. If your players begin to see the cracks, let them! How they decide to handle the small inconsistencies will help force how and when the reveal happens. There's also the fringe benefit that things that don't make sense to players due to fridge logic can later be explained as a consequence of their characters constantly being mislead.
3. Controlling information becomes hugely important. Giving out too much information will blow the surprise early. Giving too little means that the players will be entirely clueless. I've tried to make them work for the really juicy bits, and I've accepted that they won't always learn everything.
4. A lot of this rides on the players accepting things at face value and not digging. If their handler says that those crates are medical supplies, hopefully they believe him and don't try to smuggle in a few pistols on the top themselves.
5. It helps that Delusions exist in GURPS which can help explain why their handler never caught on that their employers were scum.

 Future Ideas:

• Recovering the black box of a downed Agency 17 plane to prevent other organizations from using it
• Moving something (Food, Medical Supplies, Building Schematics) that is really something else (Drugs, Sarin, Weapon Schematics)
• Protecting wanted terrorists, fugitives, assassins, etc
• 'Enemy agents' are really legitimate CIA/SAS/DEA/Mossad
• Framing CEO/Dignitary for Child Porn Possession

Mission Two: The Hijack

After a mission 'success' that will have consequences the players won't learn about for some time, Logan allowed the PCs a single week of downtime before sending them to Mexico.

See, Agency 17 had learned that the Los Zetas Cartel was moving an extremely large shipment of cocaine into the United States in the next week or so, and tasked the players with hijacking the shipment.

The players haven't learned Agency 17's intended destination for the shipment, but I've decided that their drop off point is the Roswell Diner in Roswell New Mexico. 

The Setup:

•  The shipment is leaving from Ciudad Madera, a city of population roughly 15,000. Although not controlled by the Los Zetas cartel in real life (as pointed out by one of my players), I've taken artistic license and just stated that the Los Zetas cartel has expanded rapidly in the last few years
• The shipment is being loaded on a semi truck with trailer. The shipment is going to be well over 20 tons of cocaine- easily one of the largest drug shipments to be moving across the Mexico-United States border in history. The Los Zetas cartel wouldn't be doing this without a very good damn reason, something that I've admittedly not come up with- yet.
• The trip to Kermit Texas (the final destination for the shipment) is likely going to take at least 12 hours. 
• There are three possible routes the shipment can take. The first major branch point is whether the truck crosses from Juarez into El Paso Texas, or goes west to Ojinaga. From there, two of the potential paths cross again just an hour away from Kermit Texas. The third route goes through Juarez but does not meet up with the path the truck would take if it crossed into the US at Ojinaga.
• The player's intended destination complicates things. Roswell is about 3 hours from Kermit Texas. I'm sure they're hoping that the drop off point for the drugs will be further East, away from the Zetas areas of control, not North through them.

Los Zetas Preparation:

• The semi and the two dedicated escort SUVs have been outfitted with auxiliary fuel tanks to extend their operational range.
• Additionally, the semi has been outfitted with ramming bars across the front grill, providing an additional DR 4 from collisions from the front.
• Border Patrol agents have been given a sizable bribe to allow the shipment through the border. This is how Agency 17 initially learned of the shipment.
• The Zetas will have multiple response teams available along the route the shipment will be taken. These teams will be composed of multiple cars, SUVs, motorcycles, as well as a single civilian helicopter. They will reinforce the escort vehicles and respond if something happens to the convoy.
• The convoy will communicate with one another using CB radios, using cell phones for longer range communication.
• The cartel has blackmailed an extremely skilled (Driving, Heavy Wheeled-18) trucker to drive the shipment for them. His family will be at risk if he does not cooperate with them.
• The dedicated escort team will be armed with old AK-47s loaded with armor piercing ammunition. (Originally 5d6+1 pi damage, becomes 4d-1(2) pi- damage due to the change in ammunition)
• The response teams will be armed with more varied armaments. Those on motorcycle will be limited to sawn-off shotguns, pistols and other small arms. Those on four wheels will have a greater selection available to them.
• The helicopter will have a light machine gun of some sort. It's likely whoever is shooting it will be hanging from the side of the aircraft and not shooting it from a weapon mount. 

PC's Preparedness:

• Thanks to a local asset and some legwork, the PCs know the location of the facility where the cocaine is being loaded onto the semi.
• They also know where the dedicated escort vehicles are being outfitted and checked over by Zeta mechanics.
• Their local asset helped them bug the communications of the local cartel leader.
• The PC armament currently consists of a .50 BMG sniper rifle with APHC ammunition, multiple carbines and assault rifles, as well as two bricks of C4 explosives.
• The party's communications expert should have no problems knocking out the Los Zetas cell and radio communications. Doing so should help mitigate the cartel's capability to respond with force.
• The players have ample opportunity to sabotage the escort vehicles.
• Done right, the players could possibly divert the shipment to their preferred route- bypassing a lot of the response teams and other preparations. Doing so might mitigate the helicopter if it is forced to scout for their position.

Chaos and Insanity:

This is mostly a list of ideas I've had for complicating things to make the ride to their location a little more... wild.

• Heavy traffic
• Legitimate cops
• Rival gang attempting to hijack the shipment for themselves.
• DEA agents
• Bad weather
• Support from Agency 17 itself

Things to Consider:

•  The Zetas driver will be vastly superior to anyone the players have. The players' combat driver would be looking at a -2 default from her driving (automobile) skill of 16, meaning a 12 if familiarity penalties are also assessed. Tobias is looking at a modified 7-9 driving skill behind the wheels of the truck.
• The handling penalty with the trailer is -3, meaning that they are going to want the dedicated driver behind the wheel.
• Majority of the Los Zetas enemies are going to be praying and spraying, likely with skill 10. Figuring in speed and distance penalties, and the players are actually unlikely to get completely wiped out.
• In fact, crashing, falls to the pavement and other hazards associated with high speed chases are much more likely to get them killed.
• Total aim bonus while aiming from the semi or SUVs cannot exceed 4. -2 attack penalty if attacking after a vehicle a character is riding in dodges.
• -1 to attack rolls through vehicle windows to strike occupants unless occupants are hanging out of the windows.
• Occupants and vehicle damage on page 555 might come up. SUV is SM +3 and a Semi is SM +4 (Since nobody will be in the trailer on the Semi, it is not SM +5)

Non-Hijacking Related Information:

• I've decided that Agency 17 (the group that the players are working for) is the corrupt organization. Section 17 (the legitimate government agency the players believe they are a part of) will be how I refer to the real deal.
• Agency 17 wants the drugs for a few reasons. It's a huge opportunity for financial gain selling the cocaine. It bloodies the reputation of the Zeta cartel, and will likely lead to a bloody surge in violence. Cocaine could also be planted on certain government officials to buy their silence... or to end their careers.