Let's Read James Bond 007: Role Playing in Her Majesty's Secret Service

[AsenRG]

* Remember, Fire Combat includes missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, and any projectile weapon and Hand-to-Hand Combat includes all thrown weapons.

The more I'm thinking about this rule, the more I like it.

 

[Voros]

Grognard RPG Files did an episode dedicated to the James Bond 007 RPG. Excellent as always.

 

[Skarg]

FWIW, looking a little more at the ranged combat rules in the book, I see there is a -1 DC effect on firearms fired at long range, which would push several weapons down from DC E to D, and well as the D's to C's, at long range. I actually think that's reasonable if you accept those weapons are both weak and their accuracy drops off at long range... though it still seems weird that only those guns could ever get that ST result from gunfire - seems like that should be possible for other guns too.

I'm now more concerned about noticing (assuming I'm reading it right) that the highest possible wound result for a firearm attack from most pistols seems to be IN(capacitated). i.e. it's not possible to kill people by shooting them once with such guns?

 

[Dumarest]

As Skarg alluded to, there are three ranges in Fire Combat: Close, neutral, and Long. That "neutral" may seem like an odd choice in place of "Medium," but it makes sense in context because Close and Long ranges affect the Damage Class of your weapon (+1 Close, -1 Long) and the Ease Factor of your shot (+1 Close, -1 Long) while anything in between is neither a plus nor a minus but is simply neutral. Note that they don't mention point blank range in the text, but the sidebar table shows you get +2 to your Ease Factor when you are within 10 feet of your target.

With regard to the question about being able to kill someone with one shot from a pistol, I believe the rules are meant to reflect that a pistol is less accurate and effective at longer ranges, but at Close range (20 to 40 feet for the pistols listed in the basic game) with +1 to both your Damage Class and your Ease Factor, you're more likely to get an IN or KL result* (also with Specific Shots you can add 2 Wound Levels: see below). If you want a grittier game, something more along the lines of the Sam Durell novel series, you could just shift the Damage Classes up for some weapons to make them more lethal. That might be something to test out with a few one-shot** combat scenarios. But if you really need to kill someone with one shot with your Damage Class E Walther PPK, you can already do it with the rules as written: get to Close range (or, better yet, within 10 feet) and make a Specific Shot (see below) and a Quality Rating 1 changes from HW to KL.

So, on to Fire Combat options. We have Normal Fire, which is firing as many shots at a single target as your Speed and weapon will allow. Next is Taking a Bead, which is just taking the time for good aim: you sacrifice all other actions during an Action Round in exchange for a +3 Ease Factor to fire at your declared target in the next Action Round. Similar to Taking a Bead is Specific Shot, which is attempting a difficult shot without sacrificing an Action Round for better aim: take -2 Ease Factor in exchange for increased damage (+2 Wound Levels) or accomplishing a particular effect (shooting the gun out of someone's hand or cutting a rope with a bullet, shooting out the tires of a getaway car, etc.), but remember that the more difficult the shot you're trying to make, the more negative modofiers the GM may assign to the task. Finally we have Spray Fire, which is shooting at several different targets in the same Action Round. If you are using a nonautomatic weapon, for every target after the first, you take -1 to your Ease Factor. This negative modifier is cumulative. For example, if target number 1 is Ease Factor 5, then target number 2 is Ease Factor 4, target number 3 is Ease Factor 3, and so on. Automatic weapons don't receive negative Ease Factor modifiers for Spray Fire. There is a sidebar with three recommendations for how the GM can keep things simple and reduce the number of rolls that would be necessitated by playing out every shot separately during Spray Fire. My preferred option is the second: use the range for the most distant target for the Ease Factor modifier, roll the dice only once, and increase the weapon's Damage Class by 1 for each range closer to the shooter.

* Some weapons also have Performance Modifiers which will make your Ease Factor even higher. When selecting a sidearm, I recommend taking this into consideration along with Damage Class, shots per round, and range.
** No pun intended.

This took longer than I expected but I wanted to address the "killing with one shot from a pistol" question. So next time I'll post about: Hand-to-Hand Combat!

 

[Skarg]

Thanks for taking the time to explain that, Dumarest!

 

[Dumarest]

Hand-to-Hand Combat covers any melee that employs fists, feet, hand-held weapons, and thrown weapons. You have to be within 10 feet of your opponent to engage in Hand-to-Hand Combat with the obvious exception of thrown weapons. Seems like common sense. If you bring a knife to a gun fight, you use Hand-to-Hand Combat and your foe uses Fire Combat.

Your Damage Class is based on your STR characteristic and will range from A to C, but can be improved depending on what weapon you use. There are only 2 hand-held weapons listed in the basic game: a knife gives you +1 to your Damage Class +1, a sword gives you +2. Any hand-held weapon not listed is left to the GM's discretion. If you have the Q Manual, it provides stats for a wide variety of other melee weapons including chakrams, bolas, claymores, Aboriginal war boomerangs, and bagh nakhs. Bonuses range from +1 to +4. Anything not listed should be easy to gauge simply by comparing similar weapons and making a judgment call.

Your character can make a number of attacks in an Action Round equal to his Speed. This is usually 1 to 3, but it's possible, although highly unlikely, you could have a PC with a Speed of 0, in which case he gets to attack only once every other Action Round. I don't see anyone hamstringing himself by choosing to create a character with such a low Speed and would expect it to appear infrequently among NPCs rather than PCs.

Speed is also very important during a melee because you take a negative Ease Factor modifier equal to your target's Speed. That is, if you want to hit someone with a Speed of 1, your Ease Factor drops from 5 to 4; if your opponent has a Speed of 3, your Ease Factor drops down to 2. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, so of course you get the benefit of your Speed score as a negative Ease Factor modifier to your enemies' attempts to hit you as well.

You can attack as many opponents within 10 feet of you as you like up to your Speed score, but you need to declare what sort of attack(s) you are making during the Declarations phase of the Action Round. Another option for a character engaged in a melee is to make no attacks and instead move away, thereby getting out of Hand-to-Hand Combat range unless your opponent follows (or uses a thrown weapon). But assuming you want to make an attack, what are your Hand-to-Hand Combat Options? You can Punch, Kick, make a Specific Blow, or Throw a Weapon.

The name Punch is misleading as Punch doesn't merely cover punching someone. It's a catchall category for all attacks made with your hands or with a hand-held weapon. Punch attacks have no specific Ease Factor modifiers; the GM, of course, can apply any he sees fit based on circumstances.

Kick covers all attacks made with the legs or feet. Because of the extra strength of a Kick, you get +1 to your Damage Class; however, you get -1 to your Ease Factor for balance issues.

Specific Blow is used when you are attempting to (1) do extra damage, (2) accomplish a specific effect (knock a weapon out of someone's hand, deflect a thrown weapon, hit a pursuer in the leg to slow him down, etc.), or (3) achieve a difficult result (knock two guards' heads together, bowl over three terrorists with a flying leap, etc.). It's essentially the melee equivalent to a Specific Shot in Fire Combat. You get -2 to your Ease Factor for attempting a Specific Blow and can only perform 1 Specific Blow per Action Round*. One especially cool move is knocking a weapon out of your opponent's hand and catching it fot your own use, but you'll take an additonal -2 Ease Factor modifier and failure means you've done no damage...but success is a pretty badass move.

There are defined rules for 5 Specific Blows: Knockout, Trip, Rise, Restrain, and Release. Anything else defaults to the aforementioned rules or the GM's judgment. Knockout is an additional -2 Ease Factor with the upside being that l, if you hit, your foe has to make a WIL roll at Ease Factor = 2 x Quality Rating of your attack or else be knocked unconscious for 15 + 3d6 minutes.

A successful Trip causes your target to fall and drop anything she's holding. No damage is done. If you get a Quality Rating 1, you can flip your opponent 10 feet away in any direction. Ideally over a cliff or into a brick wall, resulting in some serious injury or death. Unless, of course, you just wanted to disarm her.

Rise is the counterpart of Trip inasmuch as it allows you to get back on your feet without incident if you've been tripped up or tossed about. A failed roll means that you still get up, only any enemies in range each receive 1 free attack in addition to any other attacks they can make or have made in that Action Round. Nothing like kicking a guy when he's down, right?

Restrain allows you to pin or otherwise Restrain someone. If you succeed, the only action your target can attempt is Release (see below). No damage is done with this attack. While you have someone pinned/restrained, your allies can tie that person up without difficulty (or do whatever else they choose). Your target also cannot take advantage of his Speed once pinned/restrained.

Release is the counterpart to Restrain. Your Ease Factor is equal to the Quality Rating of the Restrain roll that was made against you.

Throw a Weapon covers anything you can pick up and throw. A light, balanced object such as a knife can be thrown a number of feet = 10 x STR. If you're using the grid maps, that's one square per STR. Other objects are left to the GM's sound judgment and wisdom bearing this guideline in mind: the heavier and clumsier an object is, the less distance it will travel but the more damage it will do. You can throw a number of objects in an Action Round equal to your Speed.

I really like the hand-to-hand rules in James Bond 007 as they strike, for me, a nice balance of options with benefits and drawbacks without getting too detailed or requiring too much bookkeeping. I find that the 4 types of attacks encompass pretty much anything a character might try to do and allow for some nifty martial artist moves as you might see in the films. I also like how the rules take into account how important Speed can be during a fight. It's a lot harder to land a solid blow against a quick opponent.

* If your Speed is > 1, you can still combine your Specific Blow with another attack option (Punch, Kick, or Throw a Weapon) during an Action Round.

Next: Weapons, Scars, First Aid, and Hospitalization!

 

[Godfather Punk]

(Surprisingly, no grenades are provided in the basic rules; you'll need to invent your own stats or get the Q Manual if you want official rules.)

I can only encourage people to get the Q Manual. It's a great read with the snarky in-character comments about all types of equipment by Q or other members of M.I.6.

 

[Dumarest]

Fun fact: Ian Fleming never had a character called Q in his novels. The Quartermaster in the novels was always called Major Boothroyd (of Q Branch).

 

[Dumarest]

I made a reference in another thread about running Crime Fighter (Task Force Games) set in 1985 with vice cop PCs, but it occurs to me that with the chase rules and fight rules and fame rules I could actually run a pretty awesome Miami Vice game using James Bond 007 just by swapping out M.I.6 with the Miami Metro-Dade Police Vice Department. Even the Connoisseur, First Aid, and Photography abilities work for Miami Vice-style PCs.

​

 

[Dumarest]

It's only 2 1/2 pages in the rulebook, so let's see if I can cover all of Weapons, Scars, First Aid, and Hospitalization to close out Chapter 4: Combat.

The section on weapons is fairly brief as it's not until Chapter 11 that the game gets into a catalogue of equipment and respective stats thereof. Here it cautions you to pick your weapons carefully and only carry what you actually need to complete your mission and refers you to Chapter 11 to get the nitty-gritty on various weapons. You'll need to keep tracks of rounds fired and reload your weapon when you exhaust your ammunition, and how long that takes is in the table in Chapter 11 as well. We'll get there eventually.

For now the most salient information with regard to combat is that every gun has a Jam range and if you roll a number in that range during Fire Combat, it means your weapon has jammed and can't be fired until you clear it out. A Jam negates any Quality Rating that would have resulted, but the again the numbers you have to roll to get a Jam are so high that there's a good chance you would have missed anyway. To clear a Jam, you need to make an Ease Factor 5 Fire Combat roll at the start of the subsequent Action Round.

Another important item to note is thag if you roll 00 on a Fire Combat task, your gun has misfired and is useless for the remainder of that fight. That could be a deadly serious problem. Good thing you have Hand-to-Hand Combat to fall back on! (The rules for repairing damaged equipment are included in Chapter 11: Equipment.)

Scars can be a problem because they make a secret agent more recognizable. There's a reason rap sheets mention known scars, tattoos, birthmarks, and other identifying markings. Your KGB dossier will have all of that and more. If you receive a MW, HW, or IN* from Fire Combat (or a pointed or edged weapon in Hand-to-Hand Combat), you may receive a permanent, recognizable scar. If you're wounded several times in the same combat, you use the final accumulated Wound Level to determine the chance of a scar. The GM rolls d100 and compares the results to your Wound Level to see if you're scarred; if you do receive a scar, the GM rolls d100 again to determine where the scar will be on your body. The chances of scarring are not so bad at MW (5%) or HW (15%), but IN makes it fairly likely (35%). You'll rack up 20 Fame Points for each distinctive visible scar you get. Only scars on your face and neck, and possibly your arms and/or legs depending on your attire, will be visible to a casual observer. Other body parts would only be visible in specific situations that expose them to observation (a massage or a day at the beach, perhaps?).

Any time your PC is wounded, remember to write down the Wound Level as well as the date (in the game) she was wounded, as wounds heal over time as well. When you have been wounded, your body will naturally heal itself at the rate of 1 Wound Level per week (i.e., HW downgrades to MW after 7 days, assuming you aren't injured again midweek). However, there are 2 types of medical treatment that will hasten your healing and recovery: First Aid and Hospitalization.

Fortunately every PC is trained in First Aid and has a Primary Chance of 20. This will come in very handy for emergencies in the field: remember, you'll frequently be on your own or working in a small team with no other assets or resources immediately available. If you succeed in a First Aid task, you can reduce an injury by 1 Wound Level (for instance, reduce MW to LW). This attempt can only be made once for any wounded character.

Hospitalization, obviously, can't be done on the fly in the field. You'll need to seek proper medical care and spend 3 days in the hospital**, but the benefit is that you'll reduce your Wound Level by 2 ranks (HW knocked down to LW, for example). When you check out of the hospital, you'll continue healing at your normal healing rate (the aforementioned 1 Wound Level per week).

Chapter 4 closes with advice stating that the best way to get yourself killed is to seek out combat and noting that characters live longer when they keep a low profile and often you can get better results by interacting with NPCs rather than resorting to violence. Additionally, the fewer people you kill, the slower your Fame will grow and the less of a target you'll have drawn on your back. Remember that dossier at KGB headquarters? Try to keep it as thin and sketchy as possible for as long as possible or you'll have SMERSH*** after you.

* If your enemies manage to score a KL result against you, scars are the least of your worries.

** Note to potential James Bond 007 GMs: if a PC is recognized and known to be badly wounded, smart villains will check the local hospitals and send in someone to disconnect an IV, administer a lethal injection, or otherwise eliminate the fly in their ointment.

*** Or СМЕРШ in Russian, derived not from vodka but rather from Смерть шпионам: "Death to Spies."

Next: Chases!

 

[Dumarest]

Chapter 5: Chases asserts that "a Bond adventure without a chase or two would not be a Bond adventure at all." I won't bother giving examples that contradict that statement, as the underlying idea is that including chase sequences makes for excitement at the game table.

There are 6 different skills you might use for a chase, depending upon your circumstances: Boating, Diving, Driving, Evasion, Piloting, and Riding. All of these we went over in the posts about different skills and their broadly-defined usages. Parties involved in a chase may not necessarily be using the same skill. To be clear, you use the skill that applies for your PC and the GM will use the skill that applies for the NPC: your secret agent uses Evasion if he is on foot and the NPC chasing him in a jeep would use Driving; you could be Piloting a helicopter to chase an arms dealer who is using Boating to try to zip his speedboat across the harbor to safety.

Chases, like combat, are played out over Action Rounds. However, they differ in the respect that before each round of the chase, the involved parties may engage in an Ease Factor bidding war. Put simply, you are raising the stakes by bidding lower and lower Ease Factors until one side can't stomach it and cries uncle. The bidding always starts at Ease Factor 7 and moves down from there unless the other side concedes. Bidding is done separately for each character involved unless they are in a vehicle together, in which case whoever is Boating, Driving or Piloting gets to make the bids for his group. There are 5 possible Maneuvers you can attempt during a chase, each with an assigned Safety Ease Factor. The
Safety Ease Factor is what you roll to determine if a Mishap occurs as a result of a failed Maneuver. The more difficult and daring the Maneuver you attempt, the lower the Safety Ease Factor. Each Maneuver has its own advantages and limitations, which I'll endeavor to explain when I get to that part.

All chases are abstract* and resolved by following the same 8 steps, in order, with each step resolved individually. That may sound like a lot of steps, but really it's only because the game has broken them down to make the rules as clear as possible. Here are the steps:

1. In the first Action Round only, the GM determines the range at which the chase begins: Close, Medium, Long, or Distant.** (In subsequent Action Rounds the range will be the result of what transpired in the prior round.)
2. Resolve Maneuver bidding war.
3. Whichever side won the bidding war (that is, bid the lowest Ease Factor) declares which side goes first.
4. The side going first declares its Maneuver.
5. Resolve the first side's Maneuver and apply the results immediately. If the roll was a failure, check to see if a Mishap occurred.
6. The first side can fire any weapons it might have. (Aside from Extreme, chase ranges are the same as combat ranges: chase Close = combat Close, Medium = neutral, Long and Distant = Long.)
7. Same as steps 4 and 5, only this time for the side going second.
8. Same as step 6, only this time for the side going second.

And then, if necessary, you loop back to step 1 and follow the sequence until the chase ends.

* The rules leave it to the GM to apply any modifiers due to terrain, environment, crowds, traffic, etc., if he wants to introduce additional color and complication to a chase.

** If the GM wants to determine the starting range randomly, there is a sidebar table for rolling a d6: 1 Close, 2-3 Medium, 4-5 Long, 6 Distant. You can't start a chase at Extreme range as that means one side has pretty well already escaped.

Next: Maneuvers and Mishaps!

 

[Dumarest]

You don't need to know all the Maneuvers by name; just tell the GM what you're attempting to do and his job is to determine which Maneuver it is. However, there are but 5 Maneuvers, so after a few chases you'll probably be familiar enough with them to announce them by name: Pursue/Flee, Force, Quick Turn, Double Back, and Trick.

Pursue/Flee is Safety Ease Factor 6. Pursue is what you use to try to close the distance between yourself and whoever you're chasing and Flee is what you use to try to escape your pursuer. The Quality Rating of your roll determines how many ranges you've decreased or increased the distance separating you from your opponent. If you go last in the Action Round and manage to increase the range beyond Extreme, you've escaped; however, if your pursuer gets to go after you, he'll get a chance to decrease the range and continue the chase if he can manage to do it in the same Action Round in which you would have escaped him. Note that if your maximum speed is slower than the speed of your pursuer, you cannot Flee. Additionally, if you're on foot and the person you're chasing is in a vehicle, you cannot Pursue. One hopes that would be obvious.

Force is Safety Ease Factor 4. This is what you use to physically intimidate the other party. An example would be slamming the side of your commandeered utility truck into the side of your enemy's jeep to force him off the road. Each vehicle in Chapter 11 has a Force Rating based on its size; the Force Rating is an Ease Factor modifier to your attempts when using that vehicle. Force succeeds on Quality Rating 3 or better. If you succeed, your adversary has to make a Safety roll with an Ease Factor equal to your Quality Rating to avoid a Mishap. However, if you fail your Force attempt, you're the one who has to make a Safety roll to avoid a Mishap. If you're not trying to cause a Mishap, you can tell the GM the specific result you're trying to achieve, like using your plane to make another plane make a forced landing but no to make it crash, and your GM will assess the feasibility of your plan; if he allows it, you take -2 to your Ease Factor to pull it off. It's more or less the Chase equivalent of the Specific Shot or Specific Blow in Fire Combat and Hand-to-Hand Combat, respectively. A Force can only be attempted at Close range, once again for obvious reasons.

Quick Turn is Safety Ease Factor 4. This is trying to lose someone by ducking down an alleyway in East Berlin, diving behind some bushes in Hyde Park, jumping into a wicker basket in a bustling bazaar in Istanbul, and so on. You need to be at Long (or greater) range to try this. If the Quick Turn succeeds, your pursuer can attempt a PER roll at Ease Factor = 2 x your Quick Turn Quality Rating. If she succeeds, it means she outguessed you and has closed the range to Close, so this is not a Maneuver without some risk. However, if the pursuer fails, the chase is over as you have lost your tail, so there is a great reward associated with that risk.

Double Back is Safety Ease Factor 4. This is the classic 180° turn back the way you came. It can only be attempted by the one being chased* and only at Close or Medium range**. If you succeed, it means the parties pass each other going in different directions. You've seen this in lots of movie car chases. If you succeed at your Double Back, the range immediately becomes Close and your pursuer has 2 options: (1) immediately perform his own successful Double Back (his Ease Factor = Quality Rating of your Double Back) or else the range immediately changes to Extreme, or (2) try a Force Maneuver instead; if his Force Maneuver fails, the range also immediately changes to Extreme.

Trick is Safety Ease Factor 3. This is the catchall Maneuver for virtually anything else you might attempt: driving your car on 2 wheels to squeeze down a narrow alley, jumping from one rooftop to the next, sliding under a closing portal just before it drops, etc. You tell the GM what it is you're trying to do and she assesses whether it's possible based on the complexity of the task, the environment, how badly wounded you are, how badly damaged your vehicle is, and so on. If your Trick is allowed and succeeds, your opponent must perform the same Trick at the same Ease Factor to maintain the same range. A failed attempt means a Safety roll to avoid a Mishap (for either party). Quality Rating 3 means you've pulled off your stunt just as planned; Quality Rating 4 means you still succeeded but the impact (or strain or whatever is appropriate to the situation) causes your character to be Stunned just as in combat (the character gets the same WIL check at Ease Factor 8 each Action Round to recover and begin taking actions again).

* I suppose, if he really wanted to, I'd let the pursuer do this Maneuver without any need to chuck dice, but it would mean he has effectively given up the chase.

** This is because if you're any further ahead, your pursuer can see what you're attempting and have time to react.

I'm running out of time tonight, so Mishaps will have to wait until tomorrow!

 

[Dumarest]

Whenever you roll a failure during a Chase, a Mishap may ensue. To avoid a Mishap, you'll need to make a Safety roll. Each Maneuver, as mentioned in the last post, has a Safety Ease Factor, which you multiply by your secret agent's Primary Chance with the appropriate and applicable skill (the same skill you used for the Maneuver: Boating, Diving, Driving, Evasion, Piloting, or Riding).

Just for example, let's say you're playing Anya Amasova riding a commandeered Kawasaki GPz-70 and she's being chased by a trio of bad guys riding similar motorbikes through a crowded marketplace in Phnom Penh and Anya attempts to use her Driving skill (Primary Chance 24) to use an incline as a makeshift ramp and jump over an obstacle and hopefully lose her pursuers if they can't manage the same Trick. We'll assume there are no modifiers and the Safety Ease Factor is the standard 3 for a Trick. Let's say Anya is really desperate to get away with some microfilm so her player bids Ease Factor 3 (pretty low but not terrible as her Driving skill is excellent), knowing her pursuers will have a hard time matching her Maneuever. Primary Chance 24 × Ease Factor 3 = Success Chance 72. Any roll under 41 will be a Quality Rating 1, 2, or 3, all of which mean the Trick went as planned and Anya's pursuers have to perform the same Trick at the same Ease Factor to maintain range. A roll of 42 to SC (SC = Success Chance, in this case 72) is Quality Rating 4 and means the Trick succeeded but Anya is Stunned as a result. Failure means her Trick didn't work and a Mishap may occur; her player then needs to make a Safety roll (also Primary Chance 24 × Ease Factor 3 = Success Chance 72) to avoid the Mishap.

Anya Amasova​

For illustration we'll play out all 4 scenarios:

1. Anya's player rolls a 35, which is Quality Rating 3, so her Trick comes off without a hitch and the bad guys need to do the same or better to keep up.
2. Anya's player rolls a 44, which is Quality Rating 4, so her Trick succeeds but the GM rules that she had a rough landing and will be Stunned unless she can make a successful WIL roll at Ease Factor 8 to continue taking actions. (Anya's WIL* is 13 so her Success Chance is 124 and she only needs to roll anything but 00 to succeed, so her player not too worried about her.)
   
3. Anya's player rolls a 78, which is a failure. She then makes a Safety roll to avoid a Mishap and gets a 65, which is Quality Rating 4 and a success: no Mishap.
   
4. Anya's player rolls a 78, which is a failure. She then makes a Safety roll to avoid a Mishap and gets a 94: a Mishap occurs. So not only did Anya fail her jump, but the GM checks the handy Mishap Damage Chart to see how badly hurt she is. One very slick thing about this chart is that your odds of being badly hurt are directly related to the Ease Factor you bid for your Maneuver: the more daring and reckless you are, the more you risk yourself. In this instance, Anya's player bid Ease Factor 3 for a Trick Maneuver. Uh oh...Anya has been Incapacitated** and will be unconscious for d6 hours and will also have a HW**. The Kawasaki is also out of commission. Good thing it wasn't hers. I'm sure she'll come to in the clutches of the megalomaniacal supervillain whose microfilm she was trying to get away with.

Damage caused to characters by Mishaps is applied the same as damage from combat, so nothing new to learn there. However, if an injured character is operating a vehicle and fails a Pain Resistance roll or otherwise cannot keep control of the vehicle (like poor Anya), you'll have to roll at Ease Factor 7 to see of that causes another Mishap. Also note that damaged vehicles have their speeds reduced and give negative Ease Factors to future Maneuvers. There are special rules foe aircraft crashing due to injured/unconscious pilots, which I won't get into here, but I do want to note that damage from Mishaps is reduced by one level when a character is on foot; and if a Mishap results in injury, it's assumed the character fell or tripped during the Maneuver.

Note: I didn't use them in my examples because I didn't want to introduce too much complexity, but all vehicles have Performance Modifiers (PM), and a Redline (RED). PM = bonus to your Ease Factor when attempting Maneuvers and making Safety rolls; RED = the lowest Ease Factor you can bid while operating a vehicle without automatically incurring a Mishap roll due to abusing your equipment--this is regardless of whether you succeed at your Maneuver and in addition to any other Mishap roll you incur as a result of failure. These are additional things to consider when choosing your gear and deciding how much risk you want to take with daring Maneuvers. Or you could treat them as optional rules if you want to simplify your game, possibly introducing them later when you have a better handle on it.

One last thing to mention while we're on the topic of vehicles and chases is Tailing. You can discreetly tail someone rather than engage in a Chase. Your Ease Factor is 5 (using whichever skill is appropriate***); whoever you're tailing gets either a Sixth Sense roll or PER roll at an Ease Factor = 2 x your Quality Rating result. Tailing can be useful when you don't need to apprehend or interfere with someone but want to find out where he is going or what their his routine is, as in a stakeout or when making plans for how you'll carry out a mission. The GM, of course, is under no obligation to tell you if you've been made, but the reaction of the NPC may be a tipoff if he runs and begins the Chase routine...or he may just continue to mosey along nonchalantly and lead you into a trap.

* WIL is a very important characteristic that novice players sometimes overlook. There are only 5 characteristics in James Bond 007 and none of them are "dump stats."

** Ordinarily the occupant of a vehicle takes damage at one level less than the vehicle she is inside, but as GM I rule that a motorcycle offers no such protection. Had Anya been driving a car, she would still suffer a HW but she would not have been Incapacitated.

*** Usually this is Driving or Evasion, but I will also allow the Local Customs skill to come into play if it is a matter of blending in and the PC is dressed appropriately.

Next: Chapter 6: How to Interact with Non-Player Characters!

 

[Dumarest]

Chapter 6: How to Interact with Non-Player Characters

Whenever your character meets an NPC for the first time, your GM must determine how that NPC reacts to you. This reaction may change over time as a result of interactions, and if you meet the same NPC later her reaction will continue as it was previously, barring, of course, something having happened during your absence to color her perceptions of you. If the GM already knows that an NPC's reaction will be, he doesn't need to make a roll; he simply plays out the reaction with that kind of feeling. Other times, however, the GM may be uncertain about the NPC's reaction, in which case he will make a Charisma skill roll, also known as the Reaction roll. It's up to you as the player to discover what that Reaction result was by roleplaying the encounter with the GM. Sometimes it will be immediately obvious, but in the world of secret agents and mercenaries not everyone will reveal his true feelings so easily.

There are 5 possible attitudes an NPC may hold towards your PC: Opposed, Antagonistic, Neutral, Friendly, and Enamored. These are the respective results for Reaction results of failure, Quality Rating 4, Quality Rating 3, Quality Rating 2, and Quality Rating 1. And here is what they mean in context of the game world:

• An Opposed NPC will not willingly help you in anyway and, if connected to an enemy, may take hostile action against you.
• An Antagonistic NPC will not aid you willingly but will only take action against you if you arouse her suspicions.
• A Neutral NPC is reserving judgment and may lend assistance if Persuaded, so long as the assistance does not encumber or endanger the NPC.
• A Friendly NPC will offer help as long as it does not endanger him.
• An Enamored NPC is so loyal to you that he is willing to place his life in jeopardy to assist you.

It's recommended that the GM should already know the attitudes of villains and their cronies, as well as your allies; rolling for Reaction is mainly meant for use with the various unconnected people you might meet in the course of a mission, some of whom might be useful to you if you can enlist their cooperation. When you encounter a group of associated NPCs, you can roll individually for Reaction if you really want to, but it saves time to gauge their attitude as a whole; also, if you have more than 1 PC in your group, you can use the highest Charisma skill for the NPC group's Reaction to your PC group.

Of course, you can try to change the attitudes of NPCs...which I will add to this post as soon as I have a moment (on a break at work, will edit this later on).

 

[Dumarest]

Well, yesterday became a near-panicky child care crisis so I did not get a chance to follow up here as intended. These posts take time, folks! Anyway...

How do you change an NPC's attitude towards your PC? Method number one is roleplaying. You can act out your encounters and convince the GM to agree with whatever it is that is being discussed. The GM will gauge the NPC's response to what your secret agent does and says. This next bit will upset the frail "no social skills" roleplaying crowd, but I have little time or patience for them: "However, like most of us who do not have a professional screenwriter* on hand, you will want to emulate Bond's charm but will not have the wit to do so. There are three methods through which your character can accomplish these feats -- Persuasion, Seduction, and Interrogation."

Persuasion is an attempt to convince, bully, cajole, or otherwise influence an NPC to believe something, change his mind, give your character information, do a favor, or otherwise be helpful to you. Persuasion uses your Charisma skill. The initial Reaction of the NPC acts as an Ease Factor modifier to your attempt at Persuasion, from -4 for an Opposed NPC to +3 to an Enamored NPC. The handy Persuasion Chart in the sidebar shows you three possible results (Y, N, and ?)depending on the Quality Rating of your Charisma roll cross-referenced with the NPC's WIL. Y means the NPC willingly goes along with your request, N means a flat refusal, and ? means vacillation--the NPC may change his mind when circumstances change. As you might expect, the greater the NPC's WIL, the more obstinate he will be and the more difficult to gain his cooperation. Another option you can use to gain a positive Ease Factor modifier is to use bribes; however, be forewarned that you could inadvertently net a negative Ease Factor modifier if you happen to come up against the rare bureaucrat with integrity.

Next: Seduction!

* You probably wouldn't know it from some of the entries in the James Bond film series, but they all had professional screenwriters!

 

[Godfather Punk]

You probably wouldn't know it from some of the entries in the James Bond film series, but they all had professional screenwriters!

Except "Quantum of Solace"
(which had only a draft version of the plot ready, when the screen writers' strike started.)

 

[Dumarest]

Except "Quantum of Solace"
(which had only a draft version of the plot ready, when the screen writers' strike started.)

That makes sense...I tried watching it on TV and couldn't make it through the whole thing. But that's been true of almost all the Daniel Craig movies. The last one, Spectre, was really bad.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

That makes sense...I tried watching it on TV and couldn't make it through the whole thing. But that's been true of almost all the Daniel Craig movies. The last one, Spectre, was really bad.

Not like I'm a Craig fanboy*, but I think Casino Royale and Skyfall deserve a high ranking in the franchise, especially from people who were once willing to forgive the excesses of the Moore era or the wobbly bits of Thunderball / You Only Live Twice. I would argue they easily rank above the likes of Diamonds Are Forever, View to a Kill, and Die Another Day, and I personally place them above Live and Let Die, Man With the Golden Gun, and Moonraker. They can certainly hold their own compared to the Mission: Impossible and Bourne franchises.

I'll even go to bat for Quantum of Solace, somewhat. It's certainly not the best, but it's more coherent than Octopussy, and better paced than Thunderball. I need more time to think about Spectre, but even there when some people talk about it I think a lot of baby is getting thrown out with the bathwater.

* Personal Bond actor ranking: Timothy Dalton > Sean Connery = Pierce Brosnan > Daniel Craig = Roger Moore > George Lazenby.

 

[Voros]

I think Casino Royale is excellent and captures the grittier and grim tone of that novel. I feel like the films the later novels are more cartoonish, CS remains my favourite of Fleming’s novels.

 

[Endless Flight]

I really liked Skyfall a lot. It’s in my top five Bond films, right up there with Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice and I’ll even throw For Your Eyes Only in there.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

... and I’ll even throw For Your Eyes Only in there.

Not a shocking choice, For Your Eyes Only is either Moore's best or second best outing.

 

[James Gillen]

I assume we're talking the Craig Casino Royale and not the David Niven-Woody Allen Casino Royale.

 

[Hornblower]

Now, will any of you bloody chaps run the retro clone, Classified, online as a campaign???? I am itching to play it again. It really is amazing. I am a lifelong 007 fan. My top 3 Bonds in no particular order are: Connery, Dalton, Brosnan.

 

[James Gillen]

Now, will any of you bloody chaps run the retro clone, Classified, online as a campaign???? I am itching to play it again. It really is amazing. I am a lifelong 007 fan. My top 3 Bonds in no particular order are: Connery, Dalton, Brosnan.

Ooh, is that a pirate game or someone's actual product?

JG

 

[Endless Flight]

Ooh, is that a pirate game or someone's actual product?

JG

Available on DTRPG.

 

[Dumarest]

Now, will any of you bloody chaps run the retro clone, Classified, online as a campaign???? I am itching to play it again. It really is amazing. I am a lifelong 007 fan. My top 3 Bonds in no particular order are: Connery, Dalton, Brosnan.

If I had a proper Internet connection, headphones, camera, etc., at home I would try to run it.

 

[Hornblower]

Ooh, is that a pirate game or someone's actual product?

JG

Someone's actual product. I loved it so much I bought 2 copies and have the PDF also. The dev gave me pre-release versions as well, while it was being developed because I was salivating so much.

It is glorious!

 

[Hornblower]

If I had a proper Internet connection, headphones, camera, etc., at home I would try to run it.

How can we help you get to where you can play/host games?

 

[Dumarest]

How can we help you get to where you can play/host games?

Not much...I need to find an ISP that I don't think is a ripoff and then get headphones and what not and sign up for whatever game hosting site seems good.

 

[James Gillen]

Obviously there's interest.

 

[Dumarest]

The Seduction skill is used to "establish a close, romantic relationship with an NPC of the opposite sex with the intent of changing the NPC's reaction towards the character." Obviously you could use it for homosexual encounters as well--this game was published in 1983 so don't get too worked up about it. Seduction proceeds through several stages over no fixed period of time, and each stage is progressively more challenging to the PC. The GM will keep track of the stages and reactions of the NPC in question in order to reevaluate as needed. The stages could happen in quick succession in one encounter or they could occur over a span of weeks, but there are always 5 stages of a Seduction:

1. The Look (Ease Factor 10)
2. The Opening Line (Ease Factor 9)
3. Witty Conversation (Ease Factor 8)
4. Beginning Intimacies (Ease Factor 5)
5. When and Where? (Ease Factor 4) Regardless of your PC's roll results, an NPC can try to resist by making a WIL roll at an Ease Factor = Quality Rating of your success. If the NPC is successful, she can break off your Seduction attempt; if you want to proceed you will have to start all over again at The Look. If an NPC uses Seduction against a PC, there is no need for a WIL roll as the player decides how far he wants to let it go and can end it at any stage. These interactions should be roleplayed by the GM and the player as there is no reason to chuck any dice. The PC, of course, can always stop his own Seduction attempts at any stage for any reason. (However, this can create a great opportunity to turn an NPC against the PC as "Heav'n has no rage, like love to hatred turn'd, Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn'd."*)

There are various positive and negative Ease Factor modifiers that may affect each stage of the Seduction:

• -2 if attempting Seduction on an NPC who has already successfully resisted you
• +2 if the NPC has the Weakness Attraction to Members of the Opposite Sex (or Same Sex, of course)
• +2 if the NPC is male and the PC is female (because men are sluts, I guess)
• -3 if your PC has a Plain appearance
• -1 if your PC has a Normal appearance
• +1 if your PC has an Attractive appearance
• +2 if your PC has a Striking appearance
• +4 if your PC has a Sensational appearance

(Note that all of these modifiers are cumulative, so you could get up to +8 to your Ease Factor is your PC is a woman of Sensational beauty seducing a man with a Weakness for women.)

Once you have successfully completed a Seduction through When and Where?, the GM will reroll the NPC's reaction with a +5 modifier. But what happens if my PC attempts and fails his Seduction attempt? If your PC rolls a failure, the GM still makes a secret WIL roll for the NPC, only now it is at Ease Factor 10. If the WIL roll succeeds but the GM thinks the NPC may want to mislead your secret agent, he will play it as though you succeeded. Beware, as the object of your attentions may be faking interest in order to lead you into a trap! These adventures can write themselves sometimes just as the result of the dice going one way or another.

Next: Interrogation!

* The Mourning Bride by William Congreve, 1697

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Obviously there's interest.

No kidding, I wish I weren't already so over-committed. I think some of this 007 thread has started to seep into my V:TM games.

 

[AsenRG]

• +2 if the NPC is male and the PC is female (because men are sluts, I guess)

It's a not-entirely-insubstantiated prejudice, IME.

 

[Godfather Punk]

It's a not-entirely-insubstantiated prejudice, IME.

To illustrate with an in-universe example:

 

[Dumarest]

Interrogation and Torture

Sometimes your secret agent needs information from an NPC and is unable to obtain it by Persuasion or Seduction. The Interrogation skill is used to question an NPC in an attempt to extract the information against the NPC's will. Interrogation does not involve physical abuse, only mental abuse to break down resistance: hot lights, no water, lack of sleep, continual loud noises, etc. There may also be Ease Factor modifiers depending upon the state of your victim (and your PC) and how many attempts you have made; it gets easier each time you do it. The GM compares your Quality Rating against the NPC's WIL characteristic on the handy Interrogation/Torture Chart to determine how much information, if any, you are able to extract.

The somewhat related Torture skill does involve physical abuse, but is off-limits to PCs in the rules as written. It's meant to be used by the bad guys against the PCs. Your secret agent has been trained to will himself into unconsciousness to resist succumbing to the pain of extreme physical abuse and keep from revealing secrets. Any time an enemy attempts to use Torture against your PC, you can attempt to fall unconscious before any Torture effects are applied. The GM will chuck some dice to resolve the Torture attempt, but keeps the results hidden from the player of the character undergoing Torture. That player can then attempt to become unconscious; success means the GM's Torture results are ignored. The PC makes an Ease Factor 4 WIL roll and needs a Quality Rating 3, 2, or 1 to succeed in willing himself out cold. The enemy can't make another attempt at Torture until the appropriate time* has elapsed and the PC can be revived for a fresh try. The PC can keep trying to will himself unconscious a number of times = WIL/3 (fractions rounded up) without any negative results. Just as examples, James Bond has a WIL characteristic of 13, so he could try this 5 times (13/3 = 4.333, rounded up to 5); Mary Goodnight (WIL 7) can only try it 3 times (7/3 = 2.333, rounded up to 3). If the PC fails his WIL roll, the GM then applies the Quality Rating of the Torture roll to determine how much information you reveal to the enemy against your will.

Okay, so James Bond gets 5 freebies, assuming he succeeds each time. What happens if James Bond undergoes Torture a sixth time? He can still attempt to fall unconscious, but every time he does so he will sustain a Medium Wound from the physical abuse. This is in addition to any damage normally caused by the Torture. A bad Torture attempt inadvertently injures the victim, and bad wounds make it harder to extract information. Here are the Ease Factor modifiers for torturing an injured person:

• +1 Light Wound
• -1 Medium Wound
• -3 Heavy Wound

So you don't want to hurt someone too much when trying to get him to reveal his secrets to you as it only makes it harder for you. As an exampled, let's say James Bond is making his sixth attempt to resist Torture. This means he automatically suffers a Medium Wound whether or not he succeeds in falling unconscious, as he is now attempting to go beyond his WIL characteristic. If Bond succeeds, no information is revealed as he is now unconscious. If Bond fails, the GM then applies the Torture Quality Rating to determine how much information Bond reveals. But if the Quality Rating was a failure, Bond still reveals no information. Also, on a Quality Rating of failure or 4, Bond suffers another Medium Wound. And remember, MW + MW = Incapacitated. This is bad for the torturer because you can't extract information from someone who is unconscious.

Also note that any time an NPC attempts Torture on a PC, the PC will suffer a scar if the torturer so wishes. The NPC also gets to choose where the scar will be on the PC's body. Personally I think it's best for the GM to refrain from doing this except rarely and then for dramatic effect, like a vile sadistic henchman of the chief bad guy who likes to "leave his mark" on his victim, which then will go into the KGB's dossier on the PC, making him easier to identify thanks to that cigarette lighter-shaped burn on the back of his left hand.

* Base time for Torture is 10 hours per Chapter 3: Skills, modified depending on the Quality Rating of the Torture attempt.

 

[James Gillen]

You could always be like Xenia Onotopp and combine Torture AND Seduction...

 

[Dumarest]

​

 

[Dumarest]

Placeholder for next entry on gambling and casinos...left my rulebook at home on the kitchen counter!

​

 

[Godfather Punk]

I wonder which rules, abilities or skills would apply to this scene?
Gambling? Electronics (computers)? Perception? Field of Experience (Geek)?

 

[Dumarest]

I wonder which rules, abilities or skills would apply to this scene?
Gambling? Electronics (computers)? Perception? Field of Experience (Geek)?

I don't recall that scene, but I'd probably go with (PER+DEX)/2 with the standard base Ease Factor of 5 since he seems to be playing a game using a joystick, which is rather like Driving or Piloting and that is the formula for both of those skills. He's clearly not Gambling and is relying more on eye-hand coordination than any social skills or knowledge of games of chance. Electronics allows you to operate and maintain all electronic equipment, as well as to identify the use of an unfamiliar item, sweep a room for bugs, plant a bug yourself, hack into a computer system, create a piece of equipment from component parts, sabotage electronic equipment, and so on. None of that sounds like playing a video game to me. Fields of Experience determine whether a character would know something (even if the player doesn't) or can perform something (even if the player can't) in that field: there are no dice rolls and the GM will either rule that you do or don't know something and can or can't perform something.