🎲🕵️♀️TOP SECRET! The World's First Espionage RPG
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- TSR's 6th roleplaying game was also the world's first Espionage RPG. Top Secret was published in 1980 and enjoyed a 100% share of the RPG spy genre until 1983, when three new spy games all debuted in the same year. I talk about Top Secret's creators, mechanics, and legacy, as well as discussing James Bond 007 RPG, Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes, and the Espionage! game.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
1:24 TSR's First 5 TTRPGs
3:24 Other RPGS: 1975 - 1979
6:05 Top Secret
7:52 The Creators
17:50 Emulating the Genre
24:13 Mechanics
50:02 Fame & Fortune Points
1:01:10 Top Secret Companion
1:16:59 James Bond 007 RPG
1:33:15 MSPE and Espionage!
1:38:50 Wrap-Up
1:43:10 Bonus Content
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FALL INTO SOUR
- 1.5 ounces bourbon
- 0.75 ounces lemon juice
- 0.75 ounces toasted cinnamon syrup (see below)
- a few dates
- 1 egg white
- A few dashes of El Guapo Holiday Pie Bitters (or use another kind of bitters of your choice)
- Lemon peel for garnish
- Glass: Rocks or Old Fashioned
- To Make: Muddle the dates in a shaker tin with with cinnamon syrup. Add the Bourbon, Lemon Juice, and Egg White, then shake vigorously without ice until the egg white is frothy. Add ice and shake again until chilled, then strain into your prepared glass over a large cube of ice. Add a few drops of bitters on top, then express the oils from the lemon peel over the top and drop into the drink.
- Toasted Cinnamon Syrup: In a saucepan, heat 1 cup of white granulated sugar and 1 cup of water on low, stirring frequently, until the sugar completely dissolves, then turn off heat. Separately, in another saucepan over medium heat, toast 5 cinnamon sticks, turning, frequently, for about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the toasted cinnamon sticks to the simple syrup, bring the syrup to a boil, then immediately remove from heat, let cool, and strain into a swing-top bottle.
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I had both Top Secret and James Bond 007 but I'm sure I spent way more time reading the manuals than actually playing because all my gaming friends were AD&D die-hards. Loved the Top Secret illustrations!
Someone did a lot of research. I learned a lot from the manuals. You had to be careful considering the source is a game but everything that I could verify turned out to be accurate in terms of national espionage organizations.
I had a GM who ran an amalgam game of Top Secret and James Bond 007. We had a ball playing that. He did all of the heavy-lifting with knowing the rules he spun together, so all we had to do was play and have fun. Good memories.
Hands up, everyone who went on Operation: RAPIDSTRIKE!
🖐️
And Lady in Distress! Good times!!
✋easly the best game
I always got some weird vibes off the Dragon magazine articles for Top Secret. It made me wonder whether this game was a covert recruiting tool for the CIA.
I played that back in the early 80s 😁
My favorite Top Secret memory doesn't actually come from a game.
My dad was in the living room watching TV, I was in the kitchen getting a snack, and the man on the television was saying something like, "Tonight! Breaking news about a super secret spy agency the government has been running, completely hidden from the American people, the N.S.A."
I said, "National Security Agency."
His jaw dropped with surprise wanting to know more but I was already gone, disappearing like a spy in the night, a teenage 007 with a can of coke and a ham sandwich.
The game itself? Ehhhhhhh.
We tried like three or four times to get it going but the thing was just too fiddly, too slow and mathy for our tastes. Strangely enough, a few years later Top Secret SI came out and it seemed far more accessible but I couldn't get anyone interested in playing it. I think it was the late 80's and we had just moved on from RPGs to board games like Battletech and Axis & Allies.
So I always wanted to play TS but it just never worked out.
I think it was one of TSR's big hits though. A ways back I went flipping through old issues of Dragon Magazine to see how they handled B/X's release and they barely made a squeak. I think it got one article of introduction from Tom Moldvay with barely any artwork, but there was a ton of stuff for Top Secret. Going from Dragon at the time you'd almost think it was the bigger game.
Great video as always!
OMG, awesome story! That was like me playing AD&D hardcore, and people being surprised that I knew the terminology of all the medieval weapons and armour types lol.
And you made me LOL with the Coke and ham sandwich! 🤣🤣🤣
@@blockmasterscottMission Accomplished!
ah, Operation Sprechenhaltenstelle... the pack in module. We played that module to DEATH awaiting further module publications. For months, and months. probably about a year. I remember our DM/admin Kyle frustrately declaring in its last played session "For God sake guys, you've explored every damn inch of this module. there's NOTHING left to do!"
That's impressive! Yes, that is a super-dense module.
Uh sure yeah.....
Got tickets to play this with Merle Rasmussen GMing in less than two weeks at Gary Con. Can't wait.
That is AMAZING! I mentioned in the video that he was going to be appearing at GaryCon this year. Congrats to you. Totally not jealous! 😁Seriously - have a fantastic time, and thank you so much for watching and commenting.
@@daddyrolleda1 Oh, it's going to be wild from a living history standpoint. It's my first GC, so I'm also playing MA with James Ward, Braunstein with Dave Wesley, Blackmoor with some of the original players, and Chainmail and unpublished Castle Greyhawk material off-site in the old Gygax house on Center St. Maybe I'll see you there another time.
Wow! That sounds like such a great convention! I do hope to get there one day.
Me and my friend got really into this game right after Cloak and Dagger came out in 84. That movie was like a giant promotion for the concept of espionage role playing games. I can't remember if Top Secret is shown specifically, but the game shop the kids hang out in had loads of TSR stuff on display. My friend's first character was Jack Flack, the imaginary spy in the film.
I remember later picking up the James Bond Q Manual and adopting it for TS rules.
I've had that original box set for decades but never played it. I actually bought that Hero system Espionage game first when it came out, but also never played it - I used some of its information in my Champions game back in the day. I love the genre, but finding enough interested people to play was always difficult for me.
Champions! Now there is the game I never stopped loving! I use The Hero System for EVERYTHING, and it's easy to adapt pretty much any other source materials. =^[.]^=
@@Raycheetah I loved Champions! By far my favorite superhero RPG of the 80s and 90s. I'm not so sure the rules translated well to some other genres though, Espionage! (and a little later - Danger International) was just too hard to run in my opinion.
@@quantus5875 Later editions (really, when it became available as the Hero System) smoothed out some of those issues, especially with the genre books. =^[.]^=
Easily my favorite TSR game of all time. I have an incredible amount of nostalgia for it, playing all throughout middle school and high school in the 80s. Thanks for this retrospective.
Same here brother.... Same here.... I used Top Secret rules to build/play a bunch of modern genre rpg's modules back in those days.
@@randallnomad1235 The projectile weapons system was incredibly detailed (if not 100% real world-accurate), and the hand-to-hand combat was way ahead of its time. I remember adapting the grappling rules for an Ancient Roman gladiatorial scenario.
very true. I always found it funny when you'd roll for projectile hit location and I'd always shoot people in the foot! hand to hand was great picking your PC moves and then the DM/admin picking their moves and then comparing results.@@lilcwa
Exactly the same here.
Judges Guild put out a psychic powers system (mainly for AD&D) that had a conversion for d100 stats. We threw it in Top Secret and called it ESPionage.
My old group played the 1st edition Top Secret and loved it. But we played all the early TSR editions, D&D, GW, Boot Hill, and Gangbusters.
Same here! We played a ton of Star Frontiers. One friend and I played a a lot of Gangbusters.
@@owenbloomfield1177 Star Frontiers. Loved that game!
@@owenbloomfield1177 OMG! AD&D, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Boot Hill, and I LOVED Gangbusters! TSR was on a roll in those days. They made so much money from me those first 5 years of the 80s.
@@blockmasterscottyou and me both! I think I owned every single one of their games except Gamma World. My friend owned that one. I even had the Indiana Jones game.
Never played the original, but I started playing and running Top Secret SI in the spring of 1990. Absolutely loved it. GREAT memories.
I haven't played it in nearly 30 years, but I still consider it the purest RPG ever created. Simple rules, simple dice mechanic...you can't ask for better.
Still have my original box from when I was a kid along with an assassin character because…of course.
I love these looks at other RPG’s, very cool. Was thinking a cool video could be make by looking at the board games like Dungeon & the Awful Green Things that were available back then. Thanks for posting
Awful Green Things was reviewed by a board game you tuber about 12 years ago, just do a search for it (its actually one of several reviews since then), Dungeon has also been reviewed, best one was 6 years ago. There is almost no game that hasn't been reviewed already. You Tube is awesome in that way. For a while I could never find a review of the Xena RPG from the late 90s (which I own a copy of) but finally someone reviewed it, and DragonQuest (which I played briefly in the early 80s). I couldn't find a review of DragonQuest, but has been reviewed several times recently over the last few years. Keep the coming love different reviews of TTRPGs.😂
@@quantus5875 I’m sure a lot of people have reviewed it, but I like the way he does his videos and his research is very detailed.
Super cool! Excited to see what this one is all about. I've heard you and some others bring it up, but never seen a deep dive!
1:28:42 Kevin McClory was the screenwriter who got in the legal dispute with Ian Fleming. thanks for the overview of Top Secret and particularly the James Bond RPG. my friends and i were active during this time and started with Top Secret but really did like the James Bond series and converted several of the other Bond films into home brewed adventures once Victory Games folded.
Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes was fun too, but we ended up playing Bond the most in the genre.
Top Secret was such a fun game! Operation Sprechenstelle was good module for Top Secret!
Top Secret was definitely a game. Fun? That took some work, as the rules were cobbled together into an inconsistent, chaotic mess. They WERE well-supported, especially if you include the author's copious Dragon Magazine features with new rules and scenarios (which went far to improve things). But Sprechenhaltestelle? Nope. That was a *dungeon* with a spy-flavored theme. There was no real overarching mission; you were just wandering the alleys and sewers of a "spy town," bumping off goons and collecting things to sell for rewards. I remember playing a Confiscator (thief) and having to pass a lot of "funny money" in order to gain class XP. No real reason given, just destabilize whatever local economy and hope you don't get caught. =9[.]9=
@@Raycheetah Awesome game ! Tried Espionage but the Champion's rules (fantastic supers game) didn't work that well outside of the superhero genre. When James Bond RPG came out we moved to that.
I loved Top Secret game, next to Gamma World it is my favorite RPG. We actually turned into a military special operations game. We also adapted some other percentile games to theTop Secret system. The Top Secret Companion was put together from Dragon Magazine articles, like the Unearthed Arcana for AD&D 1e.
I ALMOST picked this at my local hobby store many many times in the 80s. Wish I would have
I regret not picking up a lot of stuff from back in those days!
Thank you for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 Don't we all!! 😂 I am lucky and did pick up all the OD&D stuff and have tons of TSR stuff all the way to 1985. Yeah, never realized all this old stuff would end up being worth so much to nostalgia collectors.
My favorite favorite favorite RPG. The rules were... rough. But man just looking at that box and the art in the box makes me so nostalgic.
Every pic I've seen of Rasmussen has him in a bowtie and coat. Love it.
HOWEVER, you gotta make the vids shorter. Maybe something lke an overview, then a vid on characte creation and equipment, one for combat, one for companion, etc.
Also worth adding that Gary et al were very influenced by the actuary/accounting world and percentage statistics which lead to the idea of percentage skills in AD&D as I understand it.
I have fond memories of a Top Secret game we played back then that the DM based on the horror story children of the corn, it started off as a secret agent mission that pivoted unexpectedly into the occult. This was before X-Files so the concept of our police and intelligence agents battling supernatural entities was utterly brilliant for that time!
Original TOP SECRET was my very first RPG experience… and I still own my game from 1980 🤙
Thank you for sharing that, and for watching and commenting! I don't hear of too many people who entered the hobby with Top Secret. Cheers!
Wow, I'd totally forgotten about Top Secret. I had to dig out my box. I found Traveler, Aftermath, and some other great classes when I was in the chest.
Glad the video inspired you to dig out your collection. I hope it gave you some great memories. Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I truly appreciate it.
There is a James Bond minus James Bond rpg called Classified. It's almost a word for word remake, but with all the Bond taken out. The James Bond rpg has one of the most interesting chase mechanics in an rpg I've ever seen.
Thank you! I was always wondering why that hadn't been done given how popular the system was. I should've known it had been! Thanks so much for the heads-up. Cheers!
OMG! so many great memories from my youth.... I still remember walking into my FLGS when i was 14yo in 1985 and buying Top Secret, after reading about this 'strange hobby' in a book called 'What Is Dungeons & Dragons'
We played Top Secret during covid over Zoom for about a year. We decided to use all the rules in place and had to create excel sheets to handle to combat because of the draw speed of various guns and to figure out the chance to hit. It was a good time to go back and run missions for my gaming group.
I’m an old school Roll player- D&D, Boothill, Gangbusters, Twilight 2000, Marvel Super Hero’s RPG, Star Wars RPG, Aftermath, Travler 2300 , BattleTech and now Fantasy Age. These Games are Imagination fundamentals - Luv them ALL !!
The table-heavy approach in top secret reminded me of some modern solo RPGs. It even had the standard oracle in there.
Just now finding your feed. I still have the rule book and several other items= modules for Top Secret, Gamma World, Twilight 2000, etc.
SUBSCRIBED!!
Thank you so much for your support! I'm so glad you found the channel and look forward to chatting with you in the comments. I have a video about Gamma World (in which I very briefly mention Twilight 2000) and one on Boot Hill and a few others RPGs from 1975. There will be more videos on other TSR games in the future. Tomorrow's video (Tuesday March 12th 2024) will cover issues #2 and #3 of Dragon Magazine (paying particular attention to an article about "Women in Gaming"). Cheers!
I started TTRPG's with Top Secret. Loved the percentile D100 dice of Top Secret. much simpler system for me than all the different dice in D&D.
Great game! We played this a bit back in the 80s. We also played FGU’s “Gangster”; that was a blast!!
Oh, cool! I never played either Gangster! or Gangbusters, but I was intrigued by the idea of both.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting.
I didn't like the Gangbusters rules but loved the genre so I used/adopted Top Secret rules with the Gangbuster modules.
@@randallnomad1235 Cool idea!
I played this game (and Boot Hill, too!) so much when I was a kid. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
This game RULED! I loved Top Secret! That game was so fun! 💪
I had the rule book for this, once upon a time
LOVED TS!
Never played Top Secret, but the articles in Dragon were interesting. Listening to the Dune Toto soundtrack now - probably the best part of that film :)
Wow i played this in the 80s.
Top secret S.I. was a marvelous system. My favorite system and has influenced my own rules design. THansk for the video as always
Martin, I never got into the Spy genre games as a kid, but I found this video very interesting, if not inspirational. Thank you for putting these out there!
Had Top secret. Thanks to you I just ordered the companion. Thanks
Oh, that's great to hear! I never played with the Companion back in the day but I've heard quite a few folks say they really liked what it added to the game. Are you planning to run a Top Secret game soon? I'd love to hear about it.
Thank you very much for watching and commenting.
David Paich is the vocalist for Toto, so still Toto. Also Pi day is March 14th seeing as pi = 3.14 to two decimal places.
Yes, I knew David Paich was part of Toto, but the song credits on the album (track by track) are mostly credited to him alone or sometimes with one other person (sometimes David Lynch, sometimes his dad Marty) or sometimes with other members of Toto like Jeff Pocaro and Steve Lukather. But it really appears to have been driven more by David Paich than the band as a whole.
And yep, I totally screwed up Pi Day. Guess I got too excited for it! My dad mentioned he got a piece of pie last night and I immediately thought that today was Pi Day. I should have showcased the cocktail I created called the "Greyhawk," a riff on the "Blackhawk" cocktail, in honor of the passing of Gary Gygax back in 2008.
Anyway, thanks for watching and commenting, and I appreciate you watching all the way through to the end despite my Pi Day mix-up.
I have the box set. I never found or created a group that would play it... Gosh I wish I could! 🙂
your videos are perfection thank you love them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so glad to hear that! Thank you so much for watching, and for letting me know, and also for your support of the channel. I really appreciate it. Cheers!
When Toto was organized, David Paich was the hot property that labels were interested in, based on his work with Boz Scaggs.
Cool video. Thanks for making it and all the others. I don't recall even hearing about any of the other ones you mention at the start (which my inner kid thinks stinks because I'd have loved an official superhero one) but remember Top Secret clearly around '80 so must've been the 1st edition, though I woukdn't see inside finally for another few years (that bookstore owner was a you open it you buy it type). Until a little into the 80s rpgs didnt seem to have any specific home in my neck of the woods; it was just luck of being in the right place at the right time. DnD and the WW1 biplane one (Aces High?) popped up in a train hobby store, this popped up in pulp novel store (shelved along with all the Mystery or Crime books) Star Frontiers was in Hallmark-like gift cards and stationary store. I wonder how many would've made a bigger splash with a proper home. I liked some of what I saw, but by then I was thoroughly a Marvel Superheroes gamer and so already had a great setting for spies and a lot of matrial to already choose from. Though I think it did give me ideas about Shield weapons before the Weapons Locker fell into my mitts, if I recall right?
To this day I still use an example from top-secret for making a fast talk type roll … need to distract people in a kitchen and rather than just making a roll gave the example of the player saying something like “What are you doing? You cannot chop the lettuce! You must tear the leaves. What are we? French?” 😂
Very much enjoy your work. Brings back a lot of good memories. I played D&D, Top Secret, Gamma World, and Twilight:2000 to name a few. Keep up the great work. I also like the bonus content!
It's still my favourite RPG.
Top Secret was awesome! -- but I liked James Bond RPG more.
You’re Mom is/was awesome. ❤
I really appreciate that. Thank you! I know I've mentioned her a few times on the channel but she was so instrumental in helping support me indulging in geek-adjacent hobbies like this when I was a kid even though it was against the norm at the time.
Thank you very much for watching and commenting.
@@daddyrolleda1 Yeah awesome Mom! I started playing in 1977 and never owned anything until 78 when I got a paper route so I could buy stuff myself. My Dad said these games were a waste of time -- so yeah had to buy everything with my own money. Starting in 78 remembering trucking down to this hobby shop - Centurion Hobbies in Pleasant Hill, CA once or twice a month and always buying something, usually a module or some lead figures, etc.
Played Top Secret SI when I was in the army. Still have the box set.
The animals table seems to be "pets that the villain will try to feed you to".
The spy genre in TTRPGs totally passed me by, which is odd because I was really into Ian Fleming, Alastair MacLean and such at the same time. I remember seeing the James Bond game, but for some reason I never bought anything. I was very into Call of Cthulhu and I didn’t have a lot of money to buy everything so I believe my thinking was I could use CoC rules if we wanted to do a spy game.
The old David Lynch Dune film is great. It has that somewhat campy over the top style that I think is perfect for sci-fi. I love the Flash Gordon movie for the same reason (and the soundtrack of course).
Loved Top Secret. REALLY loved Top Secret SI (do that one, please!).
This game rocked!
I got a copy of the 1st ed not long after it was released. I wasn't familiar with the Top Secret Companion, but the specific rules mentioned sounded very familiar. Rasmussen had a regular feature in Dragon magazine, and I believe the rules for salaries, new bureaus, and more detailed firearm and injury types appeared there first. The article on how much agents could expect to make at their day job was actually my introduction to how adult money really worked and how much salaries varied even among college graduates, depending on what field they went into.
I don't think Rasmussen was trying to be different for the sake of being different in regard to calling skills areas of knowledge instead. Hardly any RPG's had skill systems at that time. The only 70's game that I know of that had a full skill system was Traveler, and I don't think Rasmussen had even seen a copy. One of the things that I think is fascinating about the rules is that they were made with almost no preconceived notion of how RPG rules should work. Most of the ideas were really clumsy and pointlessly complicated, like the secondary and tertiary characteristics, or the matrices for melee combat. But A for originality.
I think the reason percentile systems were so popular in the early days was that it seemed like the most straightforward way to manage probabilities. It takes a fair amount of mathematical intuition to understand how often you could expect to roll a 9 or higher (for example) on 2d6, and then to work out the ramifications of all the different modifiers you might want to apply. It's easier, and feels more rational and "scientific" to just do everything with percentages. All with icosahedrons, of course. I remember when the d10 came out and I strongly objected, on the grounds it wasn't a proper platonic solid.
Led to early programming for me thanks to a Dragon article on a BASIC program to generate characters. I added features until I lost most everything because I exceeded the storage capacity of my tape drive…and I stupidly had recorded over the previous version rather than another tape.
I loved the original Dune movie. I unfortunately have never played a single spy or espionage type RPG. This video, which is great btw, makes me wish I had done so though...
Nice to meet another David Lynch "Dune" fan! We are few and far between.
Spy games can be a lot of fun and I have found that a lot of folks who seem hesitant at the idea of trying a fantasy tabletop RPG like D&D are much more receptive to the idea of a spy game.
I did run a RIFTs game once using Palladium's "Ninja's & Superspies", but I do not count that as it is RIFTs. I am not sure what genre that short lived campaign would fall into, but I am hesitant to call it espionage when one of the characters was a "Glitter Boy" that has a weapon that created a sonic boom every time it is fired.
My wife often teases me on my devotion to the original Dune movie, but I think she is jealous...
So I have to tell you a story about my wife who is a geek but insists that she is not.
Firstly, she and I met in a dial-up AOL chat-room way back in 1995. I was brand new to chatting online (only my third time being online - I know this because I had to split the phone bill for a long-distance call with my roommate and I still have the post-it note on which I wrote the date, time I logged in, and with whom I chatted, so I could split the bill with him).
My wife ended up sending me a direct message asking if I really did for a job what my screen-name was (which was related to my advertising work). I answered "yes" and she began asking me advertising questions, as she was a college student looking for an internship. Later she asked me some personal questions and I decided to stop pretending to be someone I wasn't, so I answered, "I'm a geek. I read comic books. I play board games. I watch Star Trek..."
She interrupted me and asked, "Which one?"
I asked, "What?"
She said, "Which Star Trek? Original? Next Gen? DS9?" (those were the only 3 options back then, other than Animated Series).
So... we agreed to meet in person.
Anyway, 6 years later, and we're married, and driving up north to visit her family for Christmas. I have a Christmas playlist on the iPod. "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" comes on.
She says, "This song always reminds me of Dune."
"What are you on about?" I asked.
"You know. Dune. With House Harkonen. They're Harkonen. They're Harkening."
* Remember this is in the old days, so our pronunciation of the family names was based on the Lynch movie.*
***
I thought you might appreciate that.
I recognize Paul Reiche III from some early (Commodore 64 era) Electronic Arts games. I don't remember which, but I know he was in there somewhere.
Hi box had the wizard TSR logo so it sounds like it was first edition… I don’t remember the name of the module that came with it… But I still remember the rumor that “the Paradise Café is where some of the unluckiest people in town are served.”
We had Top Secret S.I. back in the day.
I did buy Top Secrect and play with a friend who was not allowed to play D&D because of the satanic scare.
I had the 2e box.
Top Secret was fun, but I think more difficult to keep going? You know- trying to create intricate and/or blockbuster movie style scenarios (rather than the endless tedium of actual spywork). Plus I remember the damage system was about as rough as Boot Hill's. Dead from a critical hit to the foot, etc. I had MS&PE, too. Never got a game going, but always thought it would have been fun to base a campaign on Herge's Tintin comics.
Ooh, a game based on the TinTin comics could be so fun! Out of curiosity, what was it about MS&PE that made you think of using that system for a TinTin style game? (I ask because I never played MS&PE so I wasn't sure if there were specific mechanics that you felt were relevant for emulating that genre).
Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I really appreciate it!
@@daddyrolleda1no problem. I seem to remember MS&PE had a more retro/film noir friendly feel? (I may be wrong, it's been ages, lol) so you could set it in the roaring 20s or WW2, which made me think of Tintin. Plus, they're just a good source of fun plotlines. :)
My friends ate up the TS Companion rules.
You gotta cover RECON next
or Merc.
Top Secret!!!!
WotC wouldn't have the rights to the James Bond RPG through their purchase of James Bond RPG, because Avalon Hill never had the license renewed, i.e. they lost the James Bond license. If a James Bond RPG game were ever to be made again someone would have to acquire the license from the current owners of the IP. Sadly no one has done that, someday hopefully. btw: There is a game that has the James Bond RPG mechanics but with the James Bond IP stripped out and that game is called Classified from Expeditious Retreat Press available from DriveThru as PDFs and POD. I own almost all of the James Bond RPG products (I am a big James Bond fan) but nice that there is that option available as physical copies are expensive these days.
I had original Top Secret. Then S.I. I have Espionage and I have M.I.S.S.I.O.N.
March 4th isn't Pi day, it's March 14th. 3.14. Otherwise, great video!
Yeah, I totally messed that up! I've "celebrated" it for years with my family and don't know why I got it stuck in my head that it was today!
I should have instead featured a drink I made a few years ago called the "Greyhawk" which is a riff on an old cocktail called a "Blackhawk." I made it on the anniversary of Gary Gygax passing away on March 4th, 2008.
But, I thank you for watching all that way through to the end of the video. Thanks for watching and commenting!
56:43 Emma Peel swipe
❤️🥳👍🏿
Danger, International was a gorgeous book and I loved, loved, loved the HERO System, but all of my attempts to do anything with it failed because... how do you spy campaign? XD If I'd known about the Top Secret randomized scenarios I probably would have tried to get ahold of a copy.
Am I the only one who sees the prices for things and wants to cry? lol.
You're not the only one. 😂 One thing I recommend is to buy PDF on some things - you don't need physical stuff for nostalgia for everything -- and you will save a ton of shelf space. Only get physical copies on a few things if you want them.
Sprechenhaltestelle, I guess, is supposed to be German. I am German and have no idea what it means, though. "Sprechen" means speak and "haltestelle" means bus stop or station. Make of that what you will.
I always thought that Areas of knowledge were less a skill table, but more of a college major/minor. Your skills would come from your training as a spy.
I wish it was available at least as PDF anywhere.
We played MSPE and loved it mind you we had played TnT too so it was a fit. The one call out Id make about MSPE is the GM section is EXCELENT one of the best especially back in the day Highly recommended. The game explanations of the mechanics is better in many ways to TnT core and the combat is a lot of fun much of the established 'tone' and info is what propels the game. Unfortunately its a little too generic and needs a little more "spy" content imho.
Never tried MSPE, although I do own a copy of it recently that I bought as a PDF. Looks like a pretty cool game. Really wish someone would license James Bond again and do a 2nd Ed of the James Bond RPG.
@@quantus5875 There is a couple of OSR James Bonds - Classified and Double 00Zero Of the two Double 00 is a bit better as it has a fair amount of supplemental material. Id highly recommend White Lies as a Nu-SR effort its mechanics are really good and streamlined and the play is solid. Also Covert Ops by DWD is great. Mind you the James Bond modules where really special. I dont know if we will ever see the like again.
You are missing Star Probe an d Star Empire. These were actually RPG's
Mutant was suppose to be part of it.
I have briefly mentioned both games before on the channel but was going to do a bit more detail on them when I do a video about Star Frontiers as I felt that a video about science-fiction RPGs would be a more appropriate place to do so.
I knew they were planned to be a trilogy originally, but didn't realize Mutant (which later was called Gamma World, right? Or are you speaking of something different?) was supposed to be the third part. I thought the third part was a completely separate thing.
I've not played either game but from my reading of them, I felt like of the two, Star Empires was definitely more of an RPG than Star Probe, which seemed much closer to a wargame with its set number of turns, time limit, and "winning condition." But again that's based on reading and not playing, so maybe it played like an RPG in practice. I can see Star Empires playing like an RPG. Too bad they didn't continue the series as planned. It could've "beat" Traveler as the most popular Science-Fiction RPG perhaps.
I would hold off talking about that was games until you get to DaveCON you’ll find some of the original players of that game there. TSR passed it off as a strategic game rather than the role-playing game it was. Plus there’s a lot of history about its connection to Blackmoor
Dune Pt 2: it's good - just not as good as part one.
I never read the books and never saw the 1984 version until last month (it's probably the only fantasy film of that period I missed). I really think it has a ton of issues. But then I don't have the scentimental ties to it.
Do you WANT the Feds to investigate your game company? Because THIS is how you get Feds!
I wish I could find a good espionage game. I have the old ones but I don't really like any of them mechanically
For newer espionage games I'd recommend either Modern Age from Green Ronin (very current mechanics), or an older (d20 style) but excellent, although super crunchy game is SpyCraft from AEG. Let me know what your play style is? and I can probably recommend something newer that you might like.
@@quantus5875 I played Traveller weekly for three years and I like skilled based games where you solve problems with technological innovation and science. Lately I really like FFG star wars.
@@quantus5875 is spycraft 2e based on the gumshoe system?
@@quantus5875 Modern AGE looks like a kind of cyberpunk alternative modern.
@@martinbowman1993 Modern Age lets you play any modern kind of game -- to include espionage. The core book is not cyberpunk. The companion book does start adding urban fantasy and cyberpunk elements, but Modern Age core plays as a straight modern game (it is a super modular system), without those elements. I have other recommendations -- is the play style you like D&D 5E? Pathfinder? OSR? Story style TTRPGS like Blades in the Dark?
Wouldn't double zeros be 10? There's already 9 & 0
If you're generating a number from 1-100 with two 10-sided dice (or even two D20s numbered 0-9 twice), it works like this:
Tens Die = "0", Ones Die = "1" then the result is "1"
Tens Die = "1", Ones Die = "0" then the result is "10"
Tens Die = "0", Ones Die = "0" then the result is "100"
@@daddyrolleda1 Yes and some games interpret 00 as zero and some games 00 is 100. So 0 to 99 or 1 to 100 depending on the game.
um, I love you, but, Pi day is 3.14
Ugh! I know! So embarrassing! A few other folks pointed that out. My dad had texted me that he had a piece of pie the night before and got whatever reason I got it in my head it was the next day. I know better because I go to a "famous" restaurant that's near Cal Tech every year to celebrate.
BUT... thank you so much for watching through to the very end. I really appreciate it. Cheers!