IC: [YZE] Playtest Espionage?

Tuxedos and Trenchcoats
"Espionage is a game. A deadly game to be sure, but it is a game, nonetheless. And all games have rules." - from Crimson Tide, written by Michael Schiffer and Richard P. Henrick
Names such as James Bond, Jason Bourne, Napoleon Solo, Ethan Hunt, Loraine Broughton, or even a title such as The 355, bring to mind a genre of storytelling known as the Spy Thriller. Such characters have for generations made us wish to either be them or be charmed by them.

With its roots running back two hundred years, to the publication in 1821 of James Fenimore Cooper’s Spy. Thanks to numerous movie and television adaptations and series, the spy thriller genre covers a large range of settings or themes. They run the gamut from a gritty, "more realistic" approach, used in the John Le Carre novels which feature George Smiley, to a glamorous and more exciting cinematic approach involving gadgets, high-speed chases, and parties with well-dressed, attractive protagonist as exemplified by nearly any of the James Bond films or in the recent Kingsmen feature films.

Howdy!

I am looking to (re-)gauge interest in a modern-day espionage game (in the vein of Top Secret, Spycraft, or James Bond) using the playtest version of a Year Zero Engine ruleset being developed. Access to the ruleset would be provided to any who participate.

Participants would be credited and given many thanks for any feedback. :)

I might be. How crunchy is YZE?

it’s not very IMO. The SRD is here.

Fairly straightforward with 4 attributes and 12 skills at its most basic. In this situation, we’ll be using the Die Pool version. It’s easier for a lot of folks to work with instead of the Die Step version like is used in the Twilight 2000 4th Edition. (An excellent adaptation I feel too. )

Look over the SRD, and you should have a good idea of it might be in your ballpark. :)

Can you talk about expectations for post rate and duration.

How 'complete' is the ruleset, how much change should we expect between the start and finish of this (I am not sure I have space for a dozen, slightly different, rules in this head that is already too full of different games.:)

This does sound interesting, but as vagueGM pointed out some more information would be appreciated. Also if you say playtest, am I correct in assuming you are developing or associated with the development of said ruleset? Not that that would be a bad thing, just asking for some clarification.

I'm currently running a Terminator game with the YZE rules from Alien RPG, but would love to try it as a player!!! I love the YZE, I think its perfect for PbP!

I was down for your first attempt, and I'm here for the second.

Count me in! I've been working on a piecemeal ruleset and resources for running espionage themed solo game lately. This sounds like it'll scratch my itch.

I'm looking for 2-3 "meaty" posts a week that will move the game along. I also intend to keep it going at least until we complete the module I'll be using. It's an existing module made for the Top Secret: New World Order system, but appears easy enough to ignore the game-specific details and substitute the YZE details. :)

The ruleset itself is 85-ish percent complete I would say? Most of it is based off of the dice pool version of the SRD, with expansions here and there. For example, there are 16 skills in the ruleset, in the SRD there are 12. There are more Talents in the ruleset than the SRD I'm hoping to get feedback on what works and what doesn't, especially when it comes to the included Archetypes and packages.
Hopefully that above will help. :) And yes, this is actually a conversion of a supplement I did for Savage Worlds. I just now am looking to bring the idea to YZE as it doesn't seem there is much out there for this genre and I think options are a good thing.
Agreed. That's one of the big draws for me to YZE since I don't really have time/bodies to do face-to-face gaming lately. I look forward to hearing your feedback from an experienced GM point of view. :)
Thank you for be willing to dive back in. I know my first attempt seemed to fail miserably, but it did inspire me to get things abit more complete this time.

I need to make sure the latest version of the game are available through the game forum (likely later today. :) ), then I'll send out invites to those interested.

I have Tuxedos and Trenchcoats drafts 3 & 4 from the last attempts to do it. What version would you be using and how to get it?

Oh I don't think it failed miserably. It was an early playtest to help figure things out, get a feel for the rules you were using, possibly tighten up your design.

If you were able to take all of our questions and discussion, and revise and improve your base, then I'd argue it worked amazingly well.

I'm with you there MaJunior. Not a failure per say. Just something started too soon before.

Cool. Too slow for my blood. But lots of luck with this.
Agreed. I have had a hard time finding good spy RPGs. I will give this a look when it is done.

Awesome! Can't wait to collaborate with you! Spy RPG are very fun! You will see that creating Archetypes for YZE is very easy. I can recommend you to have a look at the Alien RPG core rulebook. It will hlep you i'm sure. If you need it, just DM me and ill provide it ;)

Admittedly, that's a minimum post rate. I wouldn't mind at all if it moved quicker. :) So, I completely understand. :) I'd still love to get some feedback, would you mind if I messaged you with a link?

Invites sent. :)
For sure! I'm afraid I may have come up with too many archetypes. I know most of the YZE games have six-ish I think?

Hopefully I can get some good feedback on which ones are somewhat "essential" to the feel of the game and which ones could be cut without hurting anything. :)

I sent an invite. :) The link is in the game details and the thread itself. Although, I could share the link here if folks jsut want to see where things stand for the rules. :)

You could. Though I doubt I would have much feedback to offer. I am not really familiar with YZE —having only dabbled in the system a little— and can't promise I will get round to reading what you have (time and brain space taken up with games I am actually playing at the moment:).

Still looking for one or two more folks to take on the bad guys. :)

OK, sign me up as a (possibly grudging) spy. :)

Sounds good, invite sent. :)

Can you say more about the story/setting? Is it modern, or set in the recent past, like the Cold War Era? Is it fairly gritty and realistic? Or James Bond like with incredible gadgets?

Sure. :)

By default it's current day with more of a Misison Impossible, Atomic Blonde, or more the recent Daniel Craig version of Bond. There are (under a dozen) gadgets included, but the focus is more on the characters. I'm taking a lot into account from players as to the " we need more of this or less of this" comments. :)

One of the big inspirations is the original Top Secret rpg and it's /S.I. version with the Orion agency.

If you've got room and can be patient with me through character creation I'd like to play.

Invite sent. :) Glad to have you.

Never received that.

Weird. :( I just sent another invite. Let me know if you get it. :)

I have two games that failed to send me invites due to the system. I went to the game site to join. System has a bug.