Thinking about 1920's/30's Spy game set in Europe

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I have a hankering to run a spy game set in Europe post WW1. The usual official spies, refugees and stateless persons trying to make a buck and spying/selling secrets to anyone with cash like in Eric Ambler's novels. Mostly set around the Balkans/Eastern Europe after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The first thing I need to do is choose the rulesystem I'll use so I've come to the Pub to get some viewpoints, so fire away with suggestions (Btw anyone that says 5e or GURPS will get what they deserve). Bonus points if there is already the suggested system on FoundryVTT.
 
Are you looking at pulp or a more authentic feeling game?
 
There's a pretty well done Call of Cthulhu system on FoundryVTT, with optional Pulp elements. The Mythos is easily ignored and it'd work well for a WW1 spy game.
Since this is the Pub, I'll pre-empt the "Mythras could do that" suggestion, but unfortunately the Mythras system on Foundry is unfinished and appears abandoned.
It would take a little work, but the Foundry OSE system could be modified to run Amazing Adventures, if you like OSR-style pulp adventuring.

That's all that comes to mind for me right now.
 
Sounding like broken record but Cold City or Hot War would work well from pretty much any spy/espionage game. In different ways they both capture a lot of the uncertain grey-areaness of espionage, and the ways in which trusts and relationships work within that genre. I also think that ebfore he stopped writing games stuff, Malcolm Craig was planning a third game in that series that was going to be set in early 1920s Istanbul.
 
Neat idea. I've made several (ultimately aborted) efforts to create a grand campaign set during WWI or the napoleonic wars (sometimes thought of as WW0), including all sorts of locales and adventure types beyond the obvious battles, trenches, etc. A wildly under-represented genre in table top rpgs.
 
under_score under_score The Foundry Mythras system it's not abandoned we got a new release last week and one promised for this week to patch some glitches and start on the magic stuff.

Cold City/Hot War are both skewed towards post war material so I'd already discarded those although an Instanbul game would have been slap bang in the period and area I want. Am now thinking about CoC or GUMSHOE both of which are well supported on FVTT.

I tend to the authentic end of the spectrum so probably not too Pulpy
 
under_score under_score The Foundry Mythras system it's not abandoned we got a new release last week and one promised for this week to patch some glitches and start on the magic stuff.
Well that's good to hear. I have no idea why I was sure it was abandoned. When I got Mythic Babylon in recently my excitement was somewhat tempered by my assurance that it was abandoned (and my local group would have no interest in it). I'll have to have a look again.

Love the campaign idea though, Balkans espionage in the lull between the wars. CoC would definitely be my own preference for it, and no need for the pulp options.
 
Although his spy novels are set in pre & early WWII, Alan Furst creates the kind of seedy world where your hair and clothes smell like cigarettes after reading; wonderful inspiration for the genre regardless of being set in the sequel of the Great War.

If you're looking at the Balkans (native Sarajevan here), you'd be hard-pressed to find a better espionage tales of the era than those involving "Apis" -- Dragutin Dimitrijević, prominent member of the Black Hand -- who not only lead the May Coup (assassination/defenestration of King Alexander I & Queen Draga of Serbia), but also plotted the assassination some archduke from a notable Austrian family... :shock:
 
under_score under_score The Foundry Mythras system it's not abandoned we got a new release last week and one promised for this week to patch some glitches and start on the magic stuff.

Cold City/Hot War are both skewed towards post war material so I'd already discarded those although an Instanbul game would have been slap bang in the period and area I want. Am now thinking about CoC or GUMSHOE both of which are well supported on FVTT.

I tend to the authentic end of the spectrum so probably not too Pulpy
hit up Alex Greene on the Mythras Discord. Tell him your plan. He likely will have something for you.
 
Cold City/Hot War are both skewed towards post war material so I'd already discarded those although an Instanbul game would have been slap bang in the period and area I want. Am now thinking about CoC or GUMSHOE both of which are well supported on FVTT.

Pretty adaptable for games that rely on trust/tension no matter what the period/setting. I've played in con games for CC set in Medici era Italy, HW on a space station slowly crashing into a gas giant, etc. Strip away the period trapping from both and you have a really solid set of mechanics and advice for running that kind of game.
 
There's a spy game I love called Cold Shadows, which is a very LeCarre sort of game, and one I really loved when I read it. However, the mechanical chassis is Blood and Honor, which I adore, but really isn't to everyone's taste.
 
Although his spy novels are set in pre & early WWII, Alan Furst creates the kind of seedy world where your hair and clothes smell like cigarettes after reading; wonderful inspiration for the genre regardless of being set in the sequel of the Great War.

I love the first line of Furst's Night Soldiers:
In Bulgaria, in 1934, on a muddy street in the river town of Vidin, Khristo Stoianev saw his brother kicked to death by Fascist militia.
There's a lot one could lift from that novel for Soviet spies in Eastern Europe in the late 1930s.
 
I love Ambler's novels too. If you don't mind PbtA I think The Service looks nifty even in Beta.
 
I have the Service (0.5 Beta I think).
Furst is one of my favourite authors covering the late Thirties, he's great on the period 'feel' .

I shall dig out Cold Shadows and peruse that for consideration.
I'm guessing that White Rabbit Green may be something that deals with this period from your comment Raleel Raleel.

Thanks for a load of useful suggestions. I shall disappear down the rabbit hole that is my rpg hard drive archive to do more reading.
 
I've looked through my archive drive and glanced over some options.
Spy Game Quickstart
The Service
Redacted Hack
Cold Shadows
Modus Operandi
Covert Ops
Spycraft
White Lies
MS&PE
Cold City
Classified

So far I like The Service although that could be too Smiley for what I'm thinking of. Some of that list are systems I do not enjoy/like (FATE, D&D) so they've gone on the 'no thanks' pile. I do like PbtA so currently that puts The Service in the lead but a proper read through of some of the other possibilities will be my next chore.
 
I have the Service (0.5 Beta I think).
Furst is one of my favourite authors covering the late Thirties, he's great on the period 'feel' .

I shall dig out Cold Shadows and peruse that for consideration.
I'm guessing that White Rabbit Green may be something that deals with this period from your comment Raleel Raleel.

Thanks for a load of useful suggestions. I shall disappear down the rabbit hole that is my rpg hard drive archive to do more reading.
Not Ian, Alex :smile: WRG is Ian. Alex has his REDACTED thing that is very much in this space.
 
I get confused by all the side comments by authors that think only part mentioning stuff they are working on is cool. It doesn't, for me, generate any real interest in a game to see obscure tidbits mentioned as teasers.
 
I'm curious now. What do they deserve?
gZGMHy.gif

:tongue:
 
I have a hankering to run a spy game set in Europe post WW1. The usual official spies, refugees and stateless persons trying to make a buck and spying/selling secrets to anyone with cash like in Eric Ambler's novels. Mostly set around the Balkans/Eastern Europe after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The first thing I need to do is choose the rulesystem I'll use so I've come to the Pub to get some viewpoints, so fire away with suggestions (Btw anyone that says 5e or GURPS will get what they deserve). Bonus points if there is already the suggested system on FoundryVTT.
I'd pick a d100 system for that, for sure, but that surprises nobody:tongue:. Mythras and Maelstrom: Gothic would both be options, as would be the Big Gold Book of BRP, and a host of others...

No idea whether Maelstrom is even present on the Foundry VTT, though. I'm not really a VTT guy:grin:!
 
AsenRG AsenRG Thanks for the D100 suggestion :grin: you've been looking at my signature again haven't you?
I've never played Maelstrom. I had thought it was set in the turn of the first Millenium though so finding out they did a Gothic version is a surprise.

While Foundry has like 150 systems I don't think Maelstrom is one of them. I'm not totally wedded to running on a VTT but with a lack of local players and a reluctance to mix with unmasked and unvaccinated people playing on-line in some form is the only way I'll get a game.
 
Just jumping in, but that would be a near perfect era in my mind for a spy game. Much turmoil and political and social shifts going on all over the world. So many pivotal things in my mind it would seem ripe for inclusion of time-travel/alternative reality aspects. It is also ripe for the whole weird science/super science era. have been reading some 1930s sci fi recently, much talk of rays, vibrations, harmonics and such.
 
AsenRG AsenRG Thanks for the D100 suggestion :grin: you've been looking at my signature again haven't you?
Nope, I didn't even notice it...I was posting from a phone:grin:! D100 is my primary fix these days.

I've never played Maelstrom. I had thought it was set in the turn of the first Millenium though so finding out they did a Gothic version is a surprise.
The four versions so far are Maelstrom Classic (Tudors), Maelstrom Domesday, Maelstrom Rome and Maelstrom Gothic.

While Foundry has like 150 systems I don't think Maelstrom is one of them. I'm not totally wedded to running on a VTT but with a lack of local players and a reluctance to mix with unmasked and unvaccinated people playing on-line in some form is the only way I'll get a game.
I don't judge, and I've been considering a VTT lately as well, albeit for different reasons. I just lack any experience with VTT, so had to include this fact as a honest disclaimer:thumbsup:!
 
I very much prefer spy games that are set in historical time periods and avoid modern technology. Even the 80's is more to my taste than the modern day.
Have you checked the Delta Green Anniversary edition KS, which is currently going:tongue:?
 
I'm annoyed at myself for not getting the "Things to in Denver When You're Dead" reference. Loved it when I saw it in the theater back in 1995. Also, the first post makes me sad since the un-named rpg has so many supplements that would work well for the genre in question.

Ah well, you can always use one of the BRP related mechanics systems to do this, which are good systems. For me it's always a toss up between one of the BRP related systems and the unmentionable one that starts with a G rpg. Or you could look at Savage Worlds mechanics, a system I've been looking at more and more this year.
 
I searched for Delta Green vtt and it appears that someone out there has done the works necessary to play DG on Foundry. You might check it out! DG is awesome!
 
I very much prefer spy games that are set in historical time periods and avoid modern technology. Even the 80's is more to my taste than the modern day.

Ditto but I would also like to see someone tackle the challenge of a espionage game set in current day. Even most of the great spy films of the last number of years tend to be set in the past.
 
Ostensibly, set in the 90s, which seems to be what Fenris-77 doesn't prefer.
He said he likes spies in historical periods. The 90s started two decades ago:thumbsup:!
So it's up to him whether that counts.
 
While I agree with Ronnie Sanford Ronnie Sanford that DG is awesome but not at all what I'm looking for even with the Mythos discarded. Although the mechanisms that support some degree of trust and mental support do appeal. The G one is way too crunchy for me and I play Mythras. I will freely admit that I have a few of their publications as reference material as they tend to be very well researched and work well for background and very focussed sources of information.

Possibilities that are rising to the surface are a BRP based option, although not the BRB because it has all those fiddly little adjustments. In fact more like C7's BRP/6e WWC line as I really enjoyed the volumes set in WW2. The 70's based Cold War versions less so but still very well done.

Thanks xanther xanther for your comment, but I'm not interested in applying Pulp tropes to the game. It's the very grittiness of the era that attracts me to it not any sort of super science.
 
While not historical, nor set on Earth, Kevin Crawford's "Darkness Visible" for Stars Without Number gives you a variety of tools for, "concrete, step-by-step techniques for building complex spy adventures and sinister plots, complete with detailed support material to keep your focus on the fun."

I think the Faction rules for SWN would work well in an espionage campaign, especially if you're planning for a Sandbox-style milieu. I think they could be stripped from the base game without much work and used with your choice of rules.

I would kill for a more modern/historical espionage sandbox toolkit.

edit: just read your last message...this one might be a bit pulpy but I think the adventure-building templates could still be helpful!
 
He said he likes spies in historical periods. The 90s started two decades ago:thumbsup:!
So it's up to him whether that counts.
Lots of people in the 90s didn't even have email addresses. That seems pretty historical. Id still prefer something eaier though.
 
Klibbix! Klibbix! Thanks for reminding me about Kevin's stuff. I have both those books on my shelf but never think to look there for stuff outside Fantasy or Space Opera. A blind spot I suppose as he's incredibly creative and is material is always useful. I'll take a look later today. Thanks again
 
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