“Try Before You Buy” is an occasional segment of Astral Projections. It spotlights free (or nearly free) supplements, quick-start rules, and modules for various RPGs. Bonus! Today’s featured game has a Kickstarter, so you can buy right away if you tried it and liked it.
In a few months, Gamer Nation Con 007 will probably commence its Kickstarter, and my inbox includes a Drive Thru RPG newsletter alerting me to an espionage freebie–The Spy Game Quickstart from Black Cats Gaming. And, speaking of Kickstarter, there’s a Kickstarter for The Spy Game! It ends August 18, and has already funded. So, plenty of time to get in and open a few more stretch goals. (New World readers, note that this funds in the middle of the business day, 4PM CDT, for us.)
The Spy Game uses the D&D 5e system, which is a bonus since it’s one less system you have to learn and/or teach. Even better, the mechanics presented in the quickstart stay fairly close to the OGL/Open Gaming License, so you have less rules changes to remember. There are some new abilities, like Espionage and Infotech skills. Familiar 5e skills have real world/near future example uses, such as, “Spread disinformation over a radio” for Deception and “Crawl unseen into a firing position” for Stealth. Of course, there are new mechanics to handle such non-D&D encounter activities as Hacking, but these are simple. Classes are all modern, rather than trying to shoehorn the traditional ones into modern versions.
The equipment sections have the most differences, since they are heavy on modern vehicles, armor (vehicle and body), gear, and ranged weaponry. The included traditional melee weapons are comparable to their D&D counterparts. As for modern gear and weapons, they seem similar to what I’ve come across in other modern(-ish) and space opera d20 games like Star Wars OCR/RCR/Saga and Mutants & Masterminds 3e. These assessments are from skimming, not an item by item comparison, by the way.
A little over half the quickstart is taken up by the intro module, “Tectonic Shift,” and pregens. The module is a fairly standard spy caper, with enough twists to keep it interesting. The PCs provided appear to be one each of the new classes, rather than a selection of 4-5 that are good fits for the scenario. In my opinion, the more martial PCs might not have as much to do as their players might like, although the writers did a decent job of offering a variety of encounters. There are plenty of player handouts plus grid maps, both of which are handy and clear.
The quickstart looks good, except for one thing. I wish they had formatted the PDF so that the maps, handouts, and character sheets were vertical like the rest of the PDF. Having them horizontal makes them difficult to read on any screen that isn’t easily rotated. (Like my laptop, which is too big for me to be comfortable using in tablet mode.) Clearly, they were intended to be printed out, but they still should have been placed vertically. That way, a GM doing prep could easily read through them–and reference during play–on their computer, without straining her neck or constantly rotating a tablet.
This looks like a fun addition to the 5e family. I am hoping to see this at GNC 007.
Linda Whitson
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