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When d20 invaded, I resisted the initial pull. I played a few games here and there, but it didn’t really interest me. In fact, the only things that made me buy the Holy Trilogy (PHB, DMG, MM) was a deal on eBay and the fact that AEG’s Spycraft was d20 compliant, so I needed the PHB to play. When I cracked open Spycraft, I saw a rare beauty; the crunchy game that I could love. I ran a short series before moving home, and Spycraft never caught fire in my new living situation. When I heard they were coming out with a new edition, I was excited. If the second edition was as big of a step away from d20 as the first, I couldn’t wait to see it.
The introduction talks about the major differences between the first and second editions. The new edition is five dollars more, includes full-color art, and doesn’t require the d20 books to play. The art is cribbed from the now-defunct CCG. It’s very much in the style of Danger Girl and somewhat comic-book-esque. Some people have issues with the art but it didn’t strike me as better as or worse than the art of the original.
Chapter 1 goes into character creation. There are twice as many base classes as the original game and the classes are a bit more specialized. I felt one of the weaknesses of d20 Modern was the base classes were too generic. Each class could have basically been called “High Stat: X”. Spycraft’s classes are a bit more specialized, but they also work well together. There’s never been a penalty for multiclassing in Spycraft, but the classes are also standardized to see what abilities complement and stack. After the base classes come expert classes, which are Spycraft’s prestige classes. The prerequisites aren’t as strict as they once were. I appreciate this, as one of my pet peeves about d20 is that trying to get a character into a prestige class is like trying to get into a college course. Most prestige classes require a character to be aiming for it from day one, yet many PCs don’t come into focus as characters until a few levels have passed.
Chapter 2 breaks down the skills. While Spycraft has compressed the skill list, it has also added a couple of ideas. Each skill comes with a detailed description of what happens with a critical success, a threat, an error, and a critical failure. Complex skills are added, which allow for a series of rolls to heighten the tension (like defusing a bomb, or piecing together a crime scene) and also increase the risk of a failure. Another new skill trick are the focus skills, which breathe life into the often overlooked profession and science skills. Rather than taking separate skill levels in something like Chemistry and Engineering, every four levels nets the character a focus. The most interesting use of this is the Networking skill, which gives the character a chance to get a new NPC contact every four ranks or increase the relationship between the PC and the NPC. Do you want your gun runner in Uganda to become more reliable, or do you want a gun runner in Uganda and a forger in Paris. That’s one of the strengths of Spycraft; there are a lot of rules, but they make sense.
Feats make up Chapter 3. The feats have also changed their prerequisites, though some are harder to get while some have gotten easier. There are also new categories of feats as well. Feats are one of the best ways to customize a character in d20, and Spycraft doesn’t scrimp. Rather than pigeonholing specific combat styles to specific feats, a player can mix and match fighting feats to come up with a good approximating of a real-world fighting art. My personal favorites are the chance and style feats, which confer less tangible benefits than the usual “+2 to Sneaking” type.
The fourth chapter is Gear, and this is one of the trickier chapters to handle. Picking gear under the old rules boiled down to using points to buy mundane equipment and a smaller pool of points to buy the fancy Gadgets of the spy genre. The gear rules have been completely redesigned here. Each character gets a number of Gear picks depending on their class (and Charisma) from a few different categories. Depending on how severe the mission is, the lists change and generally get bigger. You’re more likely to get the attack helicopter when you’re off to stop the evil genius with the warhead than when you’re breaking up gun runners in Chile. The Gear system takes some getting used to, and the huge charts in the middle of the book do run together and make the first couple of gearing ups tough to handle. I’ve found that it’s best to have the players define what gear they want in general terms and then worry about creating and looking up stats when they become relevant. I would have definitely liked a bit more help in this section, and this seems to be the biggest stumbling block in getting Spycraft.
Combat is Chapter 5, and it’s surprising tiny compared to the rest of the book. Most of the combat chapter deals with the special conditions of combat and specific rules for things like fire, shock, and so on. Initiative is fluid and there are some new tricks and maneuvers that are neat. My favorite is the set of rules that simulate the classic “Meixcan standoff” of action cinema. There are a few changes to non-traditional damage types as well that I like. Subdual and stress damage are linked to specific stats and when a character takes damage equal to the specific stat, they have to make a roll or suffer some bad news. This makes things like “hitting to KO” a lot easier to do in d20 and makes kung-fu a bit more viable.
The next chapter is my favorite chapter in the book. Chapter 6 talks about Dramatic Conflicts. My favorite part about the original Spycraft was the chase rules. They were abstract but still allowed for a bit of strategy. It allowed characters that specialized in cars and driving a time to shine without turning the game into Car Wars d20. Spycraft 2.0 takes the basis method behind the chases and expands it to a variety of other situations. In a Dramatic Conflict, each side picks a strategy and applies the strategy’s modifier to a contested roll. Whoever wins the roll gets to choose advantages to apply to their situation. The advantages depend on the strategies chosen. In the example of a car chase, the winner can do things like cause a crisis to befall their opponent (a Driving check to avoid that baby carriage in the middle of the street), add some stress Damage (as the chase moves into tighter ground), or make the next roll with a different skill (the driver pulls a bootleg and starts playing chicken, allowing them to use Intimidate instead of drive for the next round). Some of the other systems include interrogation, seduction, manhunts, and hacking. Dramatic Conflicts allow other non-combat characters to shine while allowing them to strategize a bit like their fighting friends. I almost want to have someone do a Dramatic Conflict set for swordfighting to make d20 melee combat less repetitive.
Chapter 7 is the Game Control (GM) chapter and comes with a bevy of GM advice as well as rules for NPC creation and experience rewards for both combat as well as non-combat objectives. Fans of Mutants and Masterminds will see a few familiar things here. Game Controls make NPCs not as fully statted characters but as a loose collection of die bonus that automatically adjusts depending on how powerful the PCs are. This includes the idea of damage saves so that the GC doesn’t have to track the vitality points of various mooks. You can stat up NPCs fully, but in play I felt the loose NPCs rules sped up combat as well as adventure prep. I know I don’t have enough time in my day to stat up unique thugs, and even putting together d20 characters week in and week out can be a bit of a chore.
Pros:
Super-Size Spies: I’m not one to usually rate games by the pound, but there is a lot of info in this book and you’d be hard-pressed to find a similar product at the same price. Where as most books try to spread it out over two or three core books, everything you need to play is here for $40 along with full-color art and 500 pages.
Gravy on the Icing: The chase system was one of the favorite things from 1.0 and the way they’ve expanded it to other arenas is astounding. Dramatic Conflicts and Action Dice could easily be ported to other systems.
In and Out Shopping: Gearing up is a breeze once you get used to the new system. The new system also allows for those moments where players pull out the trusty gadget they had ‘all along’ to save their butts.
Cons:
This Ain’t No Sippin’ Tea: This is a big book that would should read through before trying to play. Having multiple books at the table will speed the game up a bit. I’ve read through it three times now, and I’m still finding bits and pieces I missed on other readings.
Unlearn What You Have Learned: Just because it’s OGL doesn’t mean if you’ve played d20 before you can walk right in and start playing. So much has changed that it’s almost entirely different. The concepts are similar but the execution can be completely different.
Shotgun Vs. Pistol: By broadening its focus to compete with d20 Modern, Spycraft isn’t just about spies anymore, which makes me a little sad. The original Spycraft line put out a lot of good books with good espionage info, and with a larger target, it feels like spies are going to have a smaller chunk of the supplemental pie.
The Bottom Line: This game isn’t for everybody, but if you take the time to learn it, you’ll find one of the best OGL games on the market.
Great for: People that hated d20 Modern, fans of Tom Clancy, people that own more than four glasses from the Safe House in Milwaukee
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