In The Libertarian Gamer: Spycraft, Part 1, I discussed the basic outline of the campaign and possible heroic organizations. But what’s a hero without a villain? The Villains Fortunately, when you’re running an espionage game, there are plenty to choose from! The traditional mad dictator, hellbent on world domination via some sort of super weapon, … Read more
Spycraft (Amazon) is Alderac’s d20-based game of modern espionage. It draws upon the classics of the genre — James Bond, Mission: Impossible, The A Team, Sneakers, Alias — to create a game that’s reminiscent of classic RPGs like James Bond: 007 and Top Secret. By default, the Spycraft source book assumes that the players are … Read more
Recently, Alderac announced they were ending the Shadowforce Archer campaign setting (Internet Archive) for their Spycraft d20 espionage game. Naturally, fans of the setting were shocked and upset by this, but personally, I was happy about the news. When Spycraft first launched, I was excited — here was a game in the spirit of James … Read more
Mortality Radio is a net-based radio station dedicated to the pen-and-paper role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and the d20 universe it spawned. Hosted by Mortality.net, and run by two of its moderators (Adlon and Smaug), the radio show is broadcast via the net every two weeks or so. Its broadcasts are accompanied by online chats … Read more
Here’s my list of the RPG products I’d like to buy this spring, including Torn Asunder (a critical hits source book for d20), the Conan: The Role-Playing Game, and Gamma World: Out of the Vaults. Torn Asunder Bastian Press 96 pages $22.95 Buy it from Amazon One of the things that occasionally bugs me about … Read more
Berin mentioned the Spycraft supplement Agency in this week’s Uncle Bear update (Internet Archive), and I’m glad he did. When I first heard of it, I’d assumed it was yet another Shadowforce Archer supplement and thus dismissed it out of hand (for my thoughts on that setting, check out this blog entry). But now I … Read more
I’ve been gaming for a hell of a long time. For the last few years ago, most of the stuff I’ve been doing is d20 based. There are a lot of reasons for it, the biggest being that we converted our Greyhawk campaign to D&D 3E in 2000. It’s worked well for us (none of … Read more
I picked up my copy of d20 Modern last week. I’ve given it a once over, and while I’m not ready to post a full-review, here are my initial impressions. d20 Modern is an adequate book that probably would have been a lot more impressive if it had preceded Spycraft. It provides the underlying structure … Read more
It’s not often that I pick up a role-playing game rule book that’s so compelling a read that I have a hard time putting it down. Fading Suns d20 is one of those games. I bought the 2nd edition hardcover rulebook for the original game at GenCon 2000, and read through the book in less … Read more