RPGnet : The Inside Scoop on Gaming

"As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."

MetalMan's Review of Impossible Missions by Caudex

I can remember back in my early teens when I was a strapping young lad who was convinced that there really wasn't a need for life outside of television (come to think of it - I'm not sure that I've really changed my opinion). I practically lived to see the reruns of Star Trek, The Avengers, Wild Wild West, and Mission Impossible. All of these shows have been equally made into really terrible movies as a striking coincidence. Caudex has attempted to create a game that brings back some of the bygone years of the late 1960s (or the 1990s if you're obsessed with the movie (There is no "I" in "Team", Mr. Cruise)) and the exploits of the IMF.

The Premise:
The players will assume the role of the men and women of one cell (maybe the only one) of the IMF. They are assigned missions and they must carry them out to the best of their abilities. Unlike the movie, the emphasis here is on stealth and cunning NOT violence and "cajones o' steel". A sharp mind will get you home alive. A quick trigger finger will get you a shallow unmarked grave even quicker.

What Ya Get:
The game is only available in HTML format. There are two downloads currently to the game: "The IM Agent's Guide" and the "Impossible Missions: GM's Guide". The Agent Guide clocks in at 13 pages and the GM Guide at 6. A guide on campaign-running has been hinted at as well but not promised.

Cost:
Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free.

Appearance:
The apprearance of the Guides is minimal to say the least. All HTML text with enlarged text to seperate the sections of the guides. There are no graphics... which is too bad. I'm a visual kinda guy and like images but it can be excused here I'm sure to avoid any legal complications that might arise for using copyrighted pictures from the TV show or the movie. One of the drawbacks to living in a litigation-obsessed culture. *grumble* Other than that, you may notice some "typos"... they are not. It took me a few pages before I realized that the author isn't American. My guess is English. This is especially telling by the omission of the "Z" and replacing it with an "S". One of the benefits of recently reading Kenneth Clark.

The IM Agent's Guide:
The Agent Guide opens up with a nice section of inspirational material that you can read and view to get you in the frame of mind for the game and it is followed up by a very well-done section on the organization of the IMF and, even better, the way missions should be approached. This is absolutely invaluable and should be required reading for every player. Don't be tempted to skip it and rush ahead to character creation!

Now, onto the guts of Impossible Missions - the mechanics. We will start with character creation. As almost all other games, characters are composed of attributes and skills. There are five attributes: Agility, Strength, Perception, Intelligence and Charisma. Attributes range from 1 to 6. The player has 17 points to divide amongst his attributes as he or she sees fit.

One you have divided up your points in attributes, now you need to assign points into the skills your character will possess. There is no limit to how high a character can advance a skill. However, at creation, there can be no skills higher than five. This is also resticted that a character cannot have a skill level higher than the skill's related attribute. After the game starts, this is no longer true. Characters have 20 points to spend on skills. A page and a half of skill listings follows. This includes indicators of that skills appropriate related attribute. I would have liked to have more skills but that's probably just me. I like big skill lists and I couldn't find any blatant omissions as the skills tend to be wide in their scopes.

So how are actions resolved? It's pretty simple actually. You take a number of six-sided die equal to your attribute or skill level (whichever is higher) and roll them. All die that come up four or greater is counted together to get your result. If this number is greater than the difficulty number assigned by the GM, you are successful. If you don't have a skill appropriate to the action you want to do, you can default to the appropriate attribute at an increase of 1 to the difficulty number needed. You have the option of always defaulting to your attribute if your skill level is lesser than your base attribute. You can also take multiple actions at the cost of an additional 1 point added to the difficulty number for each additional action.

Time is split up into segments of five seconds. You will probably only revert to this when combat breaks out. Otherwise, game time is split into two phases: Prep Time and Mission Time. Prep Time is when you plan out the best way to accomplish your mission and to gather information that might be useful to you. Mission Time is when you're actually in the field.

Next up is wounds! My favorite section of the rules as a GM! Getting wounded in Impossible Missions is a very bad thing. Wound levels are cummulative for starters and so are negative modifiers to your actions... and any damage that goes more than 12 (either from a single or multiple hits) is instantly fatal. Combat isn't pretty and will get you killed quickly. Only attack when you absolutely have no other options left open to you... and be prepared still for the consequences that you might bring on yourself and your teammates. Armor helps you resist wounds somewhat as it is considered an addition to your strength attribute for the purpose of resisting damage. It is made very clear in this section that Impossible Missions is a thinking game. Your objectives will be better accomplished by clever planning and deceit rather than firefights.

The next section gives an overview of various types of guns from 1968 and 1998. The information presented is pretty minimal because, as the author states, IM is not a combat intensive game and gunplay can be pretty deadly. Still, if you wanted to add weapons, the few statistics included for them make it extremely easy to add any type of gun you wish to the system. I would recommend R. Talsorian's "Compendium of Modern Firearms" for this purpose or run to your local library and see if they have a copy of the "Standard Catalog of Firearms".

Mission Points are the next thing we're going to cover. Characters get 10 points to distribute between three types of Mission Points at character creation. There are Insight Points, Deceit Points, and Tech Points. These points can be spent in prep or mission time to give players advantages that they might not have otherwise. Insight Points will clue to into information that might be very useful to you that you might not have otherwise or some obscure bit of information. Insight Points are usually going to be used during Prep Time. Deceit Points can be spent to deceive an NPC. A classic example of this would be to make sure that the guard doesn't search the office your team is hiding in. Tech Points can be spent to give yourself a "gadget" that your team ordinarily would not have access to. These are usually super-small or elaborate spy toys that players love to have.

The Agent Guide wraps up with sample templates of possible types of team members that an IMF cell might be composed of and a fairly large little section on various types of survailence equipment. One of the things that could have used some notation is what times the various equipment would have existed. No mention is made if, for example, shotgun microphones existed in the 1960s. As far as I can tell, most of the equipment tends to lean more towards the 1990s.

Impossible Missions: GM's Guide:
The GM Guide is essentially an outline for a potential IM GM to structure and run an adventure. Comments are made on how to introduce a mission via the infamous self destructing tape recording. From there GMs are introduced into exactly how they should approach Prep Time and structure the main hooks of the adventure that will save their butts despite the PCs endless attempts to do unpredicable things to derail the game. This also contains how the GM should implement the use of Insight, Deceit, and Tech Points within a game. It provides several templates for generic "bad guys" that you can make use of in your game. One enemy soldier is pretty much going to be the same no matter what Eastern Bloc country you're trying to overthrow. *grin* The GM Guide finishes off with the guidelines for awarding Experience Points at the end of a mission and how they can be spent on character improvement. Don't let this short paragraph fool you, there is a lot of useful information crammed in a meager six pages. If you intend on gamemastering Impossible Missions you will definately need this guide.

Overall Impression:
My personal thoughts on this game is mixed. I just love the setting... it has been a long time since I've been involved in a good espionage game and I'm still cursing the day that I decided to sell off my copy of Top Secret (laugh if you want). If nothing else, IM will bring out the best of group dynamics as your players attempt to come up with a good mission plan that doesn't get them killed... and who said that motivation was a hard thing in roleplaying?

The rules are light. I really would have liked to have seen a discussion on the use of explosives (for opening safes or barred doors) or vehicle chases and defensive driving. Still, the rules, as they stand, are quite workable and make for quick gameplay. This is especially a boon in very suspenseful moments in the game where you want to make the players get a little edgy. Is the guard going to notice the quick and shoddy soldering job that the team's technical operative had to do on the alarm box? Can the agent's forged identification papers hold up to severe scrutiny when they're trying to get out of a country after a mission has gone drastically wrong?

Final summary? Great game... I would have liked it to be a bit more rules-heavy but thats just me. Some discussion on the technology and/or techniques of espionage would have been useful. But this is really more of a personal wish list. Impossible Missions is an extremely good game and another good example of the creativity and dedication of the RPG community.

MetalMan signing off...

this review will self-destruct in five seconds.

Impossible Missions
Impossible Missions Capsule Review by MetalMan on 20/03/01 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Good Morning, Mr. Phelps... Your mission should you choose to accept it... Product: Impossible Missions Author: Caudex Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Free RPG Line: Cost: FREE Page count: 19 Year published: 2000 ISBN: SKU: Capsule Review by MetalMan on 20/03/01 Genre tags: Modern day Historical Espionage	"As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions." MetalMan's Review of Impossible Missions by Caudex I can remember back in my early teens when I was a strapping young lad who was convinced that there really wasn't a need for life outside of television (come to think of it - I'm not sure that I've really changed my opinion). I practically lived to see the reruns of Star Trek, The Avengers, Wild Wild West, and Mission Impossible. All of these shows have been equally made into really terrible movies as a striking coincidence. Caudex has attempted to create a game that brings back some of the bygone years of the late 1960s (or the 1990s if you're obsessed with the movie (There is no "I" in "Team", Mr. Cruise)) and the exploits of the IMF. The Premise: The players will assume the role of the men and women of one cell (maybe the only one) of the IMF. They are assigned missions and they must carry them out to the best of their abilities. Unlike the movie, the emphasis here is on stealth and cunning NOT violence and "cajones o' steel". A sharp mind will get you home alive. A quick trigger finger will get you a shallow unmarked grave even quicker. What Ya Get: The game is only available in HTML format. There are two downloads currently to the game: "The IM Agent's Guide" and the "Impossible Missions: GM's Guide". The Agent Guide clocks in at 13 pages and the GM Guide at 6. A guide on campaign-running has been hinted at as well but not promised. Cost: Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free. Appearance: The apprearance of the Guides is minimal to say the least. All HTML text with enlarged text to seperate the sections of the guides. There are no graphics... which is too bad. I'm a visual kinda guy and like images but it can be excused here I'm sure to avoid any legal complications that might arise for using copyrighted pictures from the TV show or the movie. One of the drawbacks to living in a litigation-obsessed culture. grumble Other than that, you may notice some "typos"... they are not. It took me a few pages before I realized that the author isn't American. My guess is English. This is especially telling by the omission of the "Z" and replacing it with an "S". One of the benefits of recently reading Kenneth Clark. The IM Agent's Guide: The Agent Guide opens up with a nice section of inspirational material that you can read and view to get you in the frame of mind for the game and it is followed up by a very well-done section on the organization of the IMF and, even better, the way missions should be approached. This is absolutely invaluable and should be required reading for every player. Don't be tempted to skip it and rush ahead to character creation! Now, onto the guts of Impossible Missions - the mechanics. We will start with character creation. As almost all other games, characters are composed of attributes and skills. There are five attributes: Agility, Strength, Perception, Intelligence and Charisma. Attributes range from 1 to 6. The player has 17 points to divide amongst his attributes as he or she sees fit. One you have divided up your points in attributes, now you need to assign points into the skills your character will possess. There is no limit to how high a character can advance a skill. However, at creation, there can be no skills higher than five. This is also resticted that a character cannot have a skill level higher than the skill's related attribute. After the game starts, this is no longer true. Characters have 20 points to spend on skills. A page and a half of skill listings follows. This includes indicators of that skills appropriate related attribute. I would have liked to have more skills but that's probably just me. I like big skill lists and I couldn't find any blatant omissions as the skills tend to be wide in their scopes. So how are actions resolved? It's pretty simple actually. You take a number of six-sided die equal to your attribute or skill level (whichever is higher) and roll them. All die that come up four or greater is counted together to get your result. If this number is greater than the difficulty number assigned by the GM, you are successful. If you don't have a skill appropriate to the action you want to do, you can default to the appropriate attribute at an increase of 1 to the difficulty number needed. You have the option of always defaulting to your attribute if your skill level is lesser than your base attribute. You can also take multiple actions at the cost of an additional 1 point added to the difficulty number for each additional action. Time is split up into segments of five seconds. You will probably only revert to this when combat breaks out. Otherwise, game time is split into two phases: Prep Time and Mission Time. Prep Time is when you plan out the best way to accomplish your mission and to gather information that might be useful to you. Mission Time is when you're actually in the field. Next up is wounds! My favorite section of the rules as a GM! Getting wounded in Impossible Missions is a very bad thing. Wound levels are cummulative for starters and so are negative modifiers to your actions... and any damage that goes more than 12 (either from a single or multiple hits) is instantly fatal. Combat isn't pretty and will get you killed quickly. Only attack when you absolutely have no other options left open to you... and be prepared still for the consequences that you might bring on yourself and your teammates. Armor helps you resist wounds somewhat as it is considered an addition to your strength attribute for the purpose of resisting damage. It is made very clear in this section that Impossible Missions is a thinking game. Your objectives will be better accomplished by clever planning and deceit rather than firefights. The next section gives an overview of various types of guns from 1968 and 1998. The information presented is pretty minimal because, as the author states, IM is not a combat intensive game and gunplay can be pretty deadly. Still, if you wanted to add weapons, the few statistics included for them make it extremely easy to add any type of gun you wish to the system. I would recommend R. Talsorian's "Compendium of Modern Firearms" for this purpose or run to your local library and see if they have a copy of the "Standard Catalog of Firearms". Mission Points are the next thing we're going to cover. Characters get 10 points to distribute between three types of Mission Points at character creation. There are Insight Points, Deceit Points, and Tech Points. These points can be spent in prep or mission time to give players advantages that they might not have otherwise. Insight Points will clue to into information that might be very useful to you that you might not have otherwise or some obscure bit of information. Insight Points are usually going to be used during Prep Time. Deceit Points can be spent to deceive an NPC. A classic example of this would be to make sure that the guard doesn't search the office your team is hiding in. Tech Points can be spent to give yourself a "gadget" that your team ordinarily would not have access to. These are usually super-small or elaborate spy toys that players love to have. The Agent Guide wraps up with sample templates of possible types of team members that an IMF cell might be composed of and a fairly large little section on various types of survailence equipment. One of the things that could have used some notation is what times the various equipment would have existed. No mention is made if, for example, shotgun microphones existed in the 1960s. As far as I can tell, most of the equipment tends to lean more towards the 1990s. Impossible Missions: GM's Guide: The GM Guide is essentially an outline for a potential IM GM to structure and run an adventure. Comments are made on how to introduce a mission via the infamous self destructing tape recording. From there GMs are introduced into exactly how they should approach Prep Time and structure the main hooks of the adventure that will save their butts despite the PCs endless attempts to do unpredicable things to derail the game. This also contains how the GM should implement the use of Insight, Deceit, and Tech Points within a game. It provides several templates for generic "bad guys" that you can make use of in your game. One enemy soldier is pretty much going to be the same no matter what Eastern Bloc country you're trying to overthrow. grin The GM Guide finishes off with the guidelines for awarding Experience Points at the end of a mission and how they can be spent on character improvement. Don't let this short paragraph fool you, there is a lot of useful information crammed in a meager six pages. If you intend on gamemastering Impossible Missions you will definately need this guide. Overall Impression: My personal thoughts on this game is mixed. I just love the setting... it has been a long time since I've been involved in a good espionage game and I'm still cursing the day that I decided to sell off my copy of Top Secret (laugh if you want). If nothing else, IM will bring out the best of group dynamics as your players attempt to come up with a good mission plan that doesn't get them killed... and who said that motivation was a hard thing in roleplaying? The rules are light. I really would have liked to have seen a discussion on the use of explosives (for opening safes or barred doors) or vehicle chases and defensive driving. Still, the rules, as they stand, are quite workable and make for quick gameplay. This is especially a boon in very suspenseful moments in the game where you want to make the players get a little edgy. Is the guard going to notice the quick and shoddy soldering job that the team's technical operative had to do on the alarm box? Can the agent's forged identification papers hold up to severe scrutiny when they're trying to get out of a country after a mission has gone drastically wrong? Final summary? Great game... I would have liked it to be a bit more rules-heavy but thats just me. Some discussion on the technology and/or techniques of espionage would have been useful. But this is really more of a personal wish list. Impossible Missions is an extremely good game and another good example of the creativity and dedication of the RPG community. MetalMan signing off... this review will self-destruct in five seconds.