#spycraft

[pratchettquotes]

"Why have I come to see you, Mr. Shine?" said Vimes, sitting down. "Because you want to find out why you have come to see me," said the dark figure.

Terry Pratchett, Thud!

#sam vimes #samuel vimes #diamond king of trolls #mr. shine #thud! #discworld #terry pratchett #spycraft #first meetings #first impressions #secret #invitations #introductions #motivation #causes #find out why

[copperbadge]

Checked my mail on the way out the door this morning and took two small packages with me; opening them, I found one was my new passport and the other was the new flashdrive I bought. Taken together, it looked like I was a spy hiding out in the library while I received orders and identification for my new deep cover mission.

[ID: A photograph of a brand-new US passport stamped in gold; sitting on top of it is a tiny flashdrive with a sliding cover and a USB-C port on one end, USB-A on the other.]

#spycraft #my mission should I choose to accept it #there was a bit in Lady And The Tiger that I cut #where Michaelis put in a call to the Shivadh secret service #and asked one of the country's three spies to follow Al and Jerry to Galia

[tampire]

Stranger Things 3x03 / 4x06

#Stranger Things #stedit #strangerthingsedit #netflixedit #dailynetflix #netflixgifs #Robin Buckley #Steve Harrington #Eddie Munson #Platonic Stobin #Steddie #Maya Hawke #Joseph Quinn #Joe Keery #My Gif #Spycraft #userstream #userbbelcher #chewieblog #tvandfilm #dailytvgifs #Bisexual #LGBT #otpsource #lgbtedit #Lesbian #Gay #Queer

[gaykarstaagforever]

Iran doesn't even have to attack. US and Israeli media have been terrifying everyone with "an attack is imminent" headlines for like 4 days now.

...I mean they probably will anyway because they're pissed off. But they wouldn't have to.

Also what kind of spy intelligence is it where you know they're going to do something bad to you soon, but you have no idea what or where or when?

"Bad," is the word I'd use.

Can you get an "intelligence consultant" job just saying "I think they're pissed and will be mean soon...probably"? Because if so, I too could be making $250,000 a year in taxpayer money to NOT DO A GODDAMN THING.

#rant #israel #iran #cia #spycraft

[blueelectricroom]

What Does Become of a City? Or: I Think of George Smiley Every Time It Snows

Right at the end of Fontanestraße near the Templehof airfield there was a restaurant that pretended to be a cabaret. Food was good and, for Berlin in those days, generous. Big sausages and a wonderful bitter mustard you can’t find anymore. The owner’s wife — or maybe she was his sister — always had a platter of this dense cake made with apples and spices. Plenty to drink too, but in that last year we were usually under the table from Steinhäger and about seven different brandies.

I think we spent an entire December there, and as regulars we could get the idea, some nights, that the gals were singing directly to us. Signe was almost talking near the end of this favorite. She’d look right in your eyes and then shake her head as though you were one more fella she’d had it up to here with.

Everyone had had it up to here, really. With this "arrangement" as the service liked to call it. Tired of wondering. Tired of being afraid.

I mean, was our contact really dead? They said so the first four times he vanished. And was that little package at the post, wrapped in gold foil with holly and bells attached, really a Christmas gift from Control?

So the restaurant had no choice but to pretend to be a cabaret. Berlin was where everyone would be pretending the next year, and they didn’t have any say about it.

By Green Vincentine, with no apologies to John Le Carre but with a wink and a nod.

#spycraft #the past is a foreign country #john le carre #christmas spirit #Youtube

[quotes-by-dilanka]

Secret services are a measure of a nation's political health and the only real expression of its subconscious. —John le Carre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

#john le carre #spycraft #secret service #nsa #gchq #mossad #tinker tailor soldier spy

[sky-blue-memories]

Hey Simone and Clayton made an hour long documentary on an FMV game that came out after the cold war featuring a KGB major general and a CIA director playing themselves

It’s coming out next year, you can find more about it here

#polygon #spycraft #FMV #simone de rochefort #clayton ashley #i’m sure all the polygon freaks here already know about it but might as well spread the news

[howtofightwrite]

What would be the best TTRPG system for realistic combat (and recovery) for a modern secret agent campaign without fantasy/sci-fi elements.

Best is a very loaded term here. That will depend on the exact kind of story you're trying to tell, and the experience of your group, and how much work you're willing to do.

The best, out of the box, fit is probably Spycraft, or Spycraft 2.0. Both editions do include rules for gadgets and volcano dwelling mad scientists, but the core material is modern spy fiction, with a lot of flexibility for anything from gritty post-cold war espionage to borderline superheroes.

Worth knowing that basically of the premade campaign settings for Spycraft will fail your conditions. World on Fire might be compatible with what you're looking for, but that feels like complying with the specific text of your request while ignoring its spirit. Shadowforce: Archer is more solidly in the range of a James Bond remix. It is an interesting setting, but not what you're looking for.

Part of the reason I think it's a strong choice is because it uses a modified version of the D20 system. Which is to say, 3rd Edition D&D. If you know how to play D&D, Spycraft is going to be very familiar. The 2.0 Edition does mix things up a little bit, but it should still be in pretty comfortable territory. (If 2.0 is still too “uncomfortable,” there is a splat to adapt the D20 Modern classes into Spycraft, so that it will play even more like D&D than it already does.)

For the most part, Spycraft is careful to provide the player with non-fantastic elements first and then dropping in fantastic elements as options for the players or GM. Remember, if you are running a campaign, you have final authority to say, “no, that doesn't fit.” Just because there's rules for a laser watch in the book, if you say it doesn't exist in the setting, then the player can't take it. (This is also an important lesson when it comes to player munchkining. If you see them breaking the game and conspiring to create the floating paragon badger of doom, you can say no.)

GURPS had a spy focused splatbook, GURPS Espionage, released in the early 90s. The downside here is it is third edition GURPS, and a lot has changed since it originally released. Finally, GURPS is not the most inviting system for new players. I know a lot of people swear by it, and I'm usually the first to recommend digging through their splats for ideas and insight, but actually creating characters is a bit more daunting.

Now, like I said, Best is a bit of a loaded term, so I'm going to give you mine, and then explain why I'm wrong.

I think the best baseline to start from for a modern spy setting is Project: Twilight. Ironically, it's not a full RPG, it was a splatbook for Werewolf: The Apocalypse. What it did provide was rules for rolling government agents in White Wolf's Storyteller system.

Now, I am a fan of White Wolf's Storyteller system, even if it does require mountains of D10s. It's fairly simple. Combat is abstract, letting the players and GM assemble a story out of whatever chaos ensues. It's functional, and flexible system. It's also simple enough that you can usually fake things on your feet and come close to how the rules were supposed to work.

A big part of why I still list it as one of the best roleplaying systems is because it really leaves the table open for roleplay and improvisation. It's probably not going to be a night moving minis around, and that can either be a benefit or a weakness.

So, I said it's the best, here's why I'm wrong: First, there is no universal rule system for the game. Every World of Darkness core book had minor rule tweaks unique to the monsters within. The easiest one to find and use as baseline rules for Project: Twilight, would probably be Hunter: The Reckoning (the deviations from normal rules don't, actually, matter for Project: Twilight characters.) (Incidentally, it is really hard for players to hide their intent to munchkin in this rule system. Because of how simple the action resolution system is, and because munchkin involves boosting dice pools, you can see that on their character sheet.)

The lack of a unified rules document is a bigger issue than I'm making it sound like. The reason I'm calling this the best, and then saying I'm wrong, is because I have internalized understanding of the rules that's advanced enough that I can start heavily tweaking it to get what I want, (incidentally, that tweaking is a large part of why I pointed to Project: Twilight as the starting point. I already know what I'm going to do to it, I mostly want that splat for a couple of Backgrounds (a kind of stat in this system)  unique to that book (or, nearly unique, most of them show up again in Strike Force Zero, but that's less applicable to your goals.)

Second This clearly fails the no fantasy element. It's a splat book about government funded monster hunters. Except, it's really easy to strip out fantasy elements from (most) RPGs. (I can think of a few like Suzerain or Fireborn that simply don't make sense if you try to remove the fantastic elements, but in the vast majority of cases, you can easily remove elements from a game's world.)

It's a splatbook for a setting you're not using, so you're going to need to create a new setting almost from scratch. This isn't as big of an issue as it sounds originally, but it does mean more work for you.

So, is Project: Twilight the best for you? Probably not. It would be my first choice, but that choice is based on having over 20 years of experience with the system. I do think it's a very good, and very flexible system, but it would require you to learn, and teach, the system.

I think Spycraft gives you everything you need out of the box. I find D20 to be a far more restrictive roleplaying experience, but that doesn't mean it's wrong for you. Also, because it's D20, there is a lot of material out there if you have difficulty figuring something out.

You may also want to at least take a look at Blades in the Dark. At first glance, it's a fantasy setting, so not what you're looking for in your world, it's also about thieves, not spies. However, the game has a few interesting ideas, including flashbacks and a general play structure that might be a very good fit for the kind of stories you're trying to tell.

The best game will be the one that fits your story and group. Ultimately, that might not be a single game, but rather an amalgamation of ideas from multiple sources mixed together with whatever rule system you're all comfortable with.

-Starke

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#writing advice #writing reference #writing tips #roleplaying games #RPGs #Spycraft #Starke answers

[miscellaneous-geekery]

The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool (and other stories of knitting in wartime)

An American Red Cross knitting class during World War One. NATIONAL ARCHIVES/20802186

#knitting #wwii history #wwi history #soldiers knitting #spycraft

[dukeofriven]

Movie idea: old-school spy has to team-up with an up-and-coming young guy in order to get an important job done but the twist is that the old guy is all about the newest, shiniest tech, (because at least in movies ‘old-school’ spycraft has been all about prioritizing fancy tech for decades), whereas the young guy’s just out of his teen years where he watched tech bros sell snake oil and he trusts nothing more advanced than chewing gum and bits of string. “Kid, in my day all we would have needed to crack this safe is a comline to Jeremy in Int-Ops, a Thelmolos-3000 UltraCracker with KeySpoof Extension, and a wristwatch with a wifi connection to a super computer in Albany.” “Whatever, old man, I’m not turning-on so much as a pocket calculator in a house this full of smart devices—hand me another paperclip and be prepared to pull.” “But if I just hook my burner phone up to the Alexa here using the 5G network—” “Don’t say her name, you want to get us both killed?”

#spies #movie ideas #spycraft #alexa #tech bros

[porterdavis]

"TFR" = temporary flight restriction.

Looks like backyard balloonists are getting into the game.

#balloons #spycraft

[biglisbonnews]

"Spy Superb" is a fun new comic about the best and worst spy in the world Spy thrillers are funny things. As a life-long fan of genre fiction, I've always had a soft spot for a good espionage thriller. But as an adult and a journalist who has much greater understanding of the real-life intelligence community, I find myself becoming increasingly aware of where and how I have to suspend my disbelief with these stories. — Read the rest https://boingboing.net/2023/01/18/spy-superb-is-a-fun-new-comic-about-the-best-and-worst-spy-in-the-world.html

#Post #Video #Comic Books #dark horse comics #espionage #matt kindt #spies among us #Spies Like This #spy #Spy Games #spy superb #spy vs spy #spycraft #trickle down espionage #Thom Dunn #Boing Boing

[vizrecon]

#charles knight #art #spycraft

[ddgvsggl]

searching for a character from a book - ddg does not even have the slightest clue where to begin, google images actually does a great job identifying that the character is a Jinn, and is from the book Declare. (although there's some weird anime mixed in too)

#tim powers #declare #genie #jinn #djinn #cold war #alternate history #spycraft

[alchemisland]

Profile

Brutal rectangular fortress

Windowed metal

Of case resolution

Searching online for social profiles of deranged persons

Thousand word post replies lacking punctuation, detailing government harassment

Fire damaged photographs shared as evidence of nefarious plots

Beside her scrapbook, the heat-sagging fireguard of a Djeep lighter she bought in Texaco

Pity first but the contagion of mistrust; the off chance lends doubt’s benefits

Consider that her words may be true

Photographs damaged in a house fire started by government spooks.

What we all ask of our spouses: what is he or she up to?

A cauled monk but his hood loosely worn. See, eye, eh?

Honeybees labelled A-Z. 2 on a wilting pansy and an observer. F, B and I

Networks, spies and elaborate location masks

Peer to peer to peer to peer to peer into a troubled life.

The summary of facts is the case

Badgeless sheriffs from the captchalands collate their data

String linked notes and photographs pinned to a triptych of corkboards

Without facts, they begin speculating and salacious narratives flood in

Deep cover agents and agitators

Panasonic voyeurism, the pervert uncle wink of an aperture snap.

This woman is a spy

This woman doesn’t exist, her profile is a subtle rendezvous for spies who decode her cryptic missives to gain their orders

The woman is telling the truth, maintaining knowledge for which she is persecuted

The woman is a created character, part of an elaborate ARG

These bizarre comments, the odd but consistently erroneous formatting, must relate to recruiting campaigns run by three letter agencies 

Whosoever solves this will find the truth about Cicada

I hate opening a closed door.

#poem #poetry #poet #expression #writeblr #writing #words #writer #alchemisland #future #dystopia #schizophrenia #spycraft #mystery #mystery church #babylon the great

[boredtechnologist]

Atari "Code Breakers" for the Atari VCS 2600 console.

#Encryption #Substitution #cryptography #spycraft #AES #FIPS #NIST #CX2643 #CX 2643 #Atari VCS #Atari VCS 2600 #Atari 2600 #2600 #Retro #Game #Retro game #Retro gaming #STIGS #Secret Squirl #Pixel Crisis