Voros
Doomed Investigator
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I dimly recall my love for Top Secret and Top Secret/S.I. in my late teens. I ended up much preferring S.I. to the original Top Secret which I found clunky although there were a few kinks in S.I. as well.
I ran a number of sessions but it was hard to keep players interested in anything that wasn't D&D and gunfights tends to be very deadly which didn't enable many teenage power fantasies so the game drifted to a stop, which I regretted.
S.I. is essentially a 1987 second edition to Merle Rasmussen's original 1980 game. The 87' edition is designed by Douglas Niles and developed and edited by Warren Spector, now much better known for his video game design than his underrated RPG work.
Sadly I long sold off my TS books, except for the first Covert Operations books which I believe I have packed aways somewhere. But I thought I'd revisit the core books and see what I made of it today.
First off, I checked out the original Top Secret core rules from 1980 and they are as clunky as I remembered. I'm not going to go into details but some typical 80s issues include poor layout, way too may fiddly modifiers and tables for its own good. As an example, the surprise rules compete for 1e in terms of pointless crunch. More good ideas than good execution, in my opinion.
S.I. on the other hand, has aged much better. It looks to be heavily influenced by the James Bond RPG, BRP and even WFRP in places. It is essentially a simple percentage based attribute and skill system.
Throughout the book there are optional 'Reality Rules' that depending on the rule sometimes do increase the naturalism or deadliness, other times seem like more fiddly book-keeping and at other times seem like solid rules that help fill in a hole without overcomplicating things.
It has five standard attributes: Strength, Intelligence, Reflexes, Willpower and Constitution. It has random roll chargen but the 'optional' point distro system is obviously superior to the fiddly hoops the 'random' system has to implement to ensure you end up with a competent agent.
Your attributes range from 20 to 70 to start and you get 275 points to distribute as you wish within that range. Secondary attributes include Movement and Dex, determined by averaging your REF and STR and REF and INT respectively (rounding up, as you do throughout the game). The Administrator (GM) applies modifiers based on the situation, range, etc. Some guidelines and examples are given in the Admin's Guide but refreshingly they don't attempt to cover every possible case and encourage the Admin to make their own calls.
There's a nice little point system of Advantages/Disavantages to help flesh out and personalize your agent. Advantages include Toughness, Sensuality and Wealth; Disadvantages range from Deep-Sleeper to Cowardice (!).
There is a skill system which falls in the mid-range to me, not too long and over specialized for the time but probably more detailed than I would prefer these days.
In particular the requirement for you to have a dedicated skill for the wide range of weapons (handgun, rifle, assault rifle) to be any good with them seems too much as most players are going to want to be widely competent and end up investing a lot of their skill points into guns rather than the wider skill range an actual spy would want. I would keep the basic ideas of the skill system but simplify and broaden it considerably.
But it does have a Careers system that simplifies skill selection significantly. This is the career you had before becoming a spy. Careers include Military, Professional (eg. doctor, lawyer), Worker (blue collar) and Entertainer (artist, musician, actor, etc).
Okay, so let's discuss combat which they stick after all the chargen in the book. I personally prefer an explanation of the core mechanic earlier in the book so I understand the context of the chargen.
Intiative is determined by rolling a d10, optional modifiers include DEX and situational considerations.
You roll attribute, adjusted by skill, the weapon, cover and other modifiers as determined by the Admin. A roll of 00-04 is a Lucky Break, effect to be determined by the Admin; 95-98 is Bad Break where the Admin adds a complication (eg. gun jams), whereas a 99 is really bad news, like a tire blowing during a car chase, etc. With a weapon any roll of doubles (33, 55, etc) is a Critical Hit. A critical hit to the head or torso is instant death (told you this game was deadly!), anywhere else it destroys the limb and you pass out.
There are hit locations here but they snag an idea from WFRP and integrate it into the percentage to-hit roll.
When you roll to hit the second die determines the hit location, there's a nifty little diagram on the Character Sheet displaying the hit locations and hit boxes per limb. There is a optional 'Reality Rule' where your skill level with a weapon allows you to bump hit location by the skill level (generally 0-5) which is a cool if very deadly idea.
HP per limb, head, etc is CON divided by 10 (rounding up as usual).
One slash in a hit box is for bruise damage from hand-to-hand combat, blunt weapons, etc. Two slashes for guns, explosives, etc. In hand-to-hand combat the first die determines the Bruise damage (that seems a bit high to me), with knives, guns etc they have damage die listed in the equipment chapter.
On average a shot from a handgun is 1d6 and an assault rifle 1d8 so chances are good if you are shot and don't have a vest on you are in deep shit.
BUT the game does has a system of Luck Points you can use to save yourself from deadly gunshots and other dangers. You never know how many Luck Points you have, only the Admin does.
Considering how deadly gunfights are Luck Points, borrowed from the James Bond RPG I suspect, would be required for pretty much any style of play I'd say, whether it is Bondian or The Sand Baggers.
There are rules around loading, drawing and short or extended bursts that contribute to the gritty and naturalistic feel of combat without getting too complicated. The S.I. Commando supplement I'll try and discuss later has some excellent rules around suppressive fire, line of sight, etc if you really want to dig down into combat 'realism.'
A quick word on the artwork. The interior art is merely okay in both Top Secret and S.I. They tend to reuse artwork even within the same book! But I do like the covers, they give a good sense of the game and stood out from other games of the time with their use of photos instead of art. The later supplements have more conventionally 80s RPG art covers that are pretty fun too.
That's probably enough for tonight and hopefully gives you a feel of the core rules around chargen and combat.
Overall I was surprised to find the S.I. system pretty streamlined and well designed.
I also want to discuss the Admin guide and the Covert Operations books I was very fond of when I was younger.
Also discovered there was a range of supplements I never knew existed for playing the aforementioned commandos, pulpy agents in the 30s and 40s and even a low-powered supers supplement! Would like to discuss those too if I find the time.
Let me know if you remember this system, ever played it or are familiar with any of the supplements.
I ran a number of sessions but it was hard to keep players interested in anything that wasn't D&D and gunfights tends to be very deadly which didn't enable many teenage power fantasies so the game drifted to a stop, which I regretted.
S.I. is essentially a 1987 second edition to Merle Rasmussen's original 1980 game. The 87' edition is designed by Douglas Niles and developed and edited by Warren Spector, now much better known for his video game design than his underrated RPG work.
Sadly I long sold off my TS books, except for the first Covert Operations books which I believe I have packed aways somewhere. But I thought I'd revisit the core books and see what I made of it today.
First off, I checked out the original Top Secret core rules from 1980 and they are as clunky as I remembered. I'm not going to go into details but some typical 80s issues include poor layout, way too may fiddly modifiers and tables for its own good. As an example, the surprise rules compete for 1e in terms of pointless crunch. More good ideas than good execution, in my opinion.
S.I. on the other hand, has aged much better. It looks to be heavily influenced by the James Bond RPG, BRP and even WFRP in places. It is essentially a simple percentage based attribute and skill system.
Throughout the book there are optional 'Reality Rules' that depending on the rule sometimes do increase the naturalism or deadliness, other times seem like more fiddly book-keeping and at other times seem like solid rules that help fill in a hole without overcomplicating things.
It has five standard attributes: Strength, Intelligence, Reflexes, Willpower and Constitution. It has random roll chargen but the 'optional' point distro system is obviously superior to the fiddly hoops the 'random' system has to implement to ensure you end up with a competent agent.
Your attributes range from 20 to 70 to start and you get 275 points to distribute as you wish within that range. Secondary attributes include Movement and Dex, determined by averaging your REF and STR and REF and INT respectively (rounding up, as you do throughout the game). The Administrator (GM) applies modifiers based on the situation, range, etc. Some guidelines and examples are given in the Admin's Guide but refreshingly they don't attempt to cover every possible case and encourage the Admin to make their own calls.
There's a nice little point system of Advantages/Disavantages to help flesh out and personalize your agent. Advantages include Toughness, Sensuality and Wealth; Disadvantages range from Deep-Sleeper to Cowardice (!).
There is a skill system which falls in the mid-range to me, not too long and over specialized for the time but probably more detailed than I would prefer these days.
In particular the requirement for you to have a dedicated skill for the wide range of weapons (handgun, rifle, assault rifle) to be any good with them seems too much as most players are going to want to be widely competent and end up investing a lot of their skill points into guns rather than the wider skill range an actual spy would want. I would keep the basic ideas of the skill system but simplify and broaden it considerably.
But it does have a Careers system that simplifies skill selection significantly. This is the career you had before becoming a spy. Careers include Military, Professional (eg. doctor, lawyer), Worker (blue collar) and Entertainer (artist, musician, actor, etc).
Okay, so let's discuss combat which they stick after all the chargen in the book. I personally prefer an explanation of the core mechanic earlier in the book so I understand the context of the chargen.
Intiative is determined by rolling a d10, optional modifiers include DEX and situational considerations.
You roll attribute, adjusted by skill, the weapon, cover and other modifiers as determined by the Admin. A roll of 00-04 is a Lucky Break, effect to be determined by the Admin; 95-98 is Bad Break where the Admin adds a complication (eg. gun jams), whereas a 99 is really bad news, like a tire blowing during a car chase, etc. With a weapon any roll of doubles (33, 55, etc) is a Critical Hit. A critical hit to the head or torso is instant death (told you this game was deadly!), anywhere else it destroys the limb and you pass out.
There are hit locations here but they snag an idea from WFRP and integrate it into the percentage to-hit roll.
When you roll to hit the second die determines the hit location, there's a nifty little diagram on the Character Sheet displaying the hit locations and hit boxes per limb. There is a optional 'Reality Rule' where your skill level with a weapon allows you to bump hit location by the skill level (generally 0-5) which is a cool if very deadly idea.
HP per limb, head, etc is CON divided by 10 (rounding up as usual).
One slash in a hit box is for bruise damage from hand-to-hand combat, blunt weapons, etc. Two slashes for guns, explosives, etc. In hand-to-hand combat the first die determines the Bruise damage (that seems a bit high to me), with knives, guns etc they have damage die listed in the equipment chapter.
On average a shot from a handgun is 1d6 and an assault rifle 1d8 so chances are good if you are shot and don't have a vest on you are in deep shit.
BUT the game does has a system of Luck Points you can use to save yourself from deadly gunshots and other dangers. You never know how many Luck Points you have, only the Admin does.
Considering how deadly gunfights are Luck Points, borrowed from the James Bond RPG I suspect, would be required for pretty much any style of play I'd say, whether it is Bondian or The Sand Baggers.
There are rules around loading, drawing and short or extended bursts that contribute to the gritty and naturalistic feel of combat without getting too complicated. The S.I. Commando supplement I'll try and discuss later has some excellent rules around suppressive fire, line of sight, etc if you really want to dig down into combat 'realism.'
A quick word on the artwork. The interior art is merely okay in both Top Secret and S.I. They tend to reuse artwork even within the same book! But I do like the covers, they give a good sense of the game and stood out from other games of the time with their use of photos instead of art. The later supplements have more conventionally 80s RPG art covers that are pretty fun too.
That's probably enough for tonight and hopefully gives you a feel of the core rules around chargen and combat.
Overall I was surprised to find the S.I. system pretty streamlined and well designed.
I also want to discuss the Admin guide and the Covert Operations books I was very fond of when I was younger.
Also discovered there was a range of supplements I never knew existed for playing the aforementioned commandos, pulpy agents in the 30s and 40s and even a low-powered supers supplement! Would like to discuss those too if I find the time.
Let me know if you remember this system, ever played it or are familiar with any of the supplements.
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