Espionage Scores
Our new game’s Shadows crew lairs in an abandoned rail car in Coalridge, but they’re daring and so have paid off The Hive for an Espionage Hunting Grounds near Gaddoc Rail Station at the southern end of the commercial district of Nightmarket. As long as they’re willing to share information with The Hive from time to time and don’t run into any conflicts-of-interest (ha!), they should be able to keep & grow it.
They’ll keep their eyes on the manifests and transport of goods to and from the railways into the city and keep their ears listening in the pubs and other commercial enterprises in Nightmarket. They hope to opportunistically barter their info to provide scores to other factions they want to ingratiate themselves with, as well as provide themselves with scores that are as sure a thing as possible on the streets of Doskvol. I think they said something about targeting some insurance companies at one point. Some day they’d like to have the metal to even attempt a train job themselves.
Anyway, the book has a few Shadows opportunities that could be construed as setups for “espionage” Scores, but I want more. The crew is made up of two lowborn characters – an Akorosi ex-leviathan hunter Hound & a Crow’s Foot Strathmill orphanage pickpocket Lurk, and two highborn characters – a Skov/Akorosi noble bastard Leech with Skov resistance movement connections he doesn’t want (Vice obligation) & a Tycherosi fallen house exiled noble & libertine Spider.
Targets and plots aside, I’m sort of noodling out how to distinguish Gathering Information actions against something that might be construed as an Espionage Score. They’re going to be Gathering Information to get Scores that are about gathering information. Maybe the only difference is one of scale and how many rolls / clocks there are between them and what they want? One more scale / shift beyond that they’ll also be looking at some Long Term Projects that are about finding Score information and the ideal markets for the Score information they find.
Lots to think about. Thoughts? Help?
/sub
To be a score there should be a serious obstacle:
– Eardropping on an important meeting of some highup people. Where is the meeting? How do the crew get into hearing distance? Is it really hearing or more attuning to the meeting? Maybe they meet in the ghostfield? Maybe the meet in a Shadowroom? Sounds like a Stealth or Deception plan to make that work
– Stealing important physical information. Maybe from a secure safe but where is it and how do they get in reach (a bit same as above). How is the information stored (on paper, piece of evidence, something weird like carved into bone/skull, …)
– Espionage in the politcal/James Bond sense, maybe like intercepting message send from Iruvia to consulate or from Governor to war ships or from Spirit Wardens to Emperor. When will the next delivery of ammunition will be due? Is that piece of information written down (then see above) or communicatet between people (then see above), or do you have to pull a complicated stunt like on the early seasons of Mission Impossible TV show: Kidnap/drug someone and let him/her believe that something terrible has happend, the Crew are Spirit Wardens to interrogate the NPC to get that vital piece of information.
– Extractin information from ghost/demons … forgotten gods? … via rituals?
– Something à la Jonny Mnemoic = A courier who has information but don’t know that s/he has it or knows it but is not able to access it
Main point: Make it a serious obstacle and you need a score to get the information. Gather information is only the setup for the score.
Re: I want more.
I think your scores could be generated using the table for that. Choose the things that shouldnt be random (like when you’ve established the Type of work, don’t roll for that), and roll for the rest. Connect to factions you care about as needed.
Re: gather info vs score.
The way I decide is usually based on risks and payoff. If this is something you can do without significant risk during down time, then it’s probably fine to just gather info.
If there’s risks no matter when it happens, but no payoff lined up (which tends to drastically decrease the interest level), i go with one of two things: I suggest a gather info to find that payoff and make this a score, thereby boosting the interest level – or I suggest a long term project to gather said info (probably only when the interest level/obstacles to such a score are low).
What Stefan Struck said, basically. Consider Industrial espionage as well. Sparkwright schematics coming in from another city via courier. Stealing spectrology research from a Whisper to sell to rivals. Infiltrating a guild meeting to influence or discover plans when there are labor disputes, etc.
I think there’s a useful distinction between sensitive information, and protecting sensitive information. You don’t have to know the contents of the target to know it’s worth stealing. Examples:
* A noble is moving genealogical records from an old house to a new house. Others have an interest in the primary documents, which have been interpreted to them by biased heirs.
* A whisper is routinely engaged by a successful captain of a leviathan hunting ship, she sketches out fruitful hunting grounds for him before he goes. There’s a window between when she finishes them and when the captain has them aboard where they could be misplaced or copied.
* The chief diplomat’s aid has access to a coded document that reveals which of the six handmaidens from Iruvia is the prince-in-exile’s actual bride, and which ones are body double guards. If you can get a copy of that document, then the “tell” will be known by your employer, who wants to know which one for sure.
* An aristocrat is taking great pains to conduct an affair with a mysterious veiled individual. (Normally these things are more or less open secrets–why is this one worth so much effort?)
* A city council member’s uncle had an estate in the Deathlands, but subsequently perished, and a caravan went out to strip the estate bare of peculiarities, oddities, and rare resources collected over decades of time surviving out there. This mass of great historical, scientific, and cash value is to meet up with a train at an unscheduled stop to come in to Doskvol quietly. Somebody wants to know what train that’ll be. Don’t you worry why.
The question was, how do you gather information about information? I think the answer is, you gather information about how the information is protected. Who is trusted with it. What safeguards are in place if the information is threatened.
You don’t have to know what’s in the genealogical records to know that the bluecoat in charge of security has gambling debts to your rival, but that’s interesting. You could also gather information and find out that they plan to take it by canal, to avoid ambushes on the streets, and that they plan to move it in the dead of night, and that they’ve hired a tough-as-nails adept cult to protect it from supernatural interference. That’s all useful information that has nothing to do with the content.
I hope that’s helpful.
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Thanks for the responses so far. More to chew on.
I’m wondering how I should characterize these few blocks in the south end of Nightmarket in the fiction? Like a particular bar owned by a guild Hiver where the crew has the best booth and has the waitstaff on their side to slip them information maybe? Multiple businesses? Places laborers & railjacks hang out? A wide cross range of clientele for some reason? That might fit with Vreen’s Hound Races. A racetrack seems like the kind of place where you might hear a lot of things and where the upper crust and the lower classes might mix. Rolan Volaris’ The Veil seems like something they might work towards adding to their “hunting grounds” someday if they wanted. They also want access to train records/goods manifests. What kinds of businesses / enterprises might include these & why might such documents be away from the nearby rail station I wonder?
A few things I’m still tense about.
I think about espionage as mostly being about one or two people being undercover for long amounts of time under very boring circumstances where they’re getting lots of information but it’s rarely clear until later filtering which bits of information were valuable (and to whom) and what intelligence was merely mundane. But I’m running a game where I want to “get to the action” and help maintain a high level of interest for all players.
I can create scores where I’m substituting a sheaf of important papers or code books for what might have been silver ingots, (and I most certainly will be doing some of that), but then how is that reflecting the interests of the players in choosing an espionage hunting grounds & how is that really different from a more typical gang of greedy Shadows in it for the coin, if I’m just re-skinning the McGuffin? How can I make it feel distinctive? (some of the advice above is already a bit relevant to this)
The Score/Payoff mechanics require me to pay them what they’ve earned each time during the following downtime phase. In the “real world” a lot of gathered intelligence doesn’t have an immediate buyer. I can get around this on the scale of the campaign, but maybe it’ll feel a bit odd? We’ll see.
I’ve run a lot of low prep, keep everything transparent, smash-and-grab heist and/or looting games over the decades. And Blades, like most of the games I’ve played over the last ten years, wants to keep most things transparent and make the game about, “how much do you want the thing & what are you willing to give up go get it?” But being asked to run an espionage game suddenly feels like I’ve got to create all these mysteries and interweaving intrigues – do a lot more prep than usual. I’ve less recent experience with that kind of game so that’s got me a bit tense.
The Mission: Impossible team gets assignments from those who have done the boring parts, and identified the target and the need.
You could help the crew be a Mission: Impossible team where friendly factions (and sometimes others) come to them to acquire things that they know about, but cannot reach with their resources (or don’t want to be connected to.) That means they can get actionable intelligence, and get paid to take advantage of it by a third party.
So, people can pay them Coin to act and steal information. Also, information is often wealth-adjacent, so picking up extras is fair game.
If they steal information they want to use themselves, the easy solution is to make a clock for them to fill with study, survey, command, etc. and when it’s full pay a Coin per segment as they turn the information to wealth.
I also wouldn’t worry about making espionage just as lucrative as theft. Espionage can grant power, favors, and influence with some wealth. But really, if they want to get rich, then either they need buyers with deep pockets, or to go steal some shiny stuff.
If they complain, remind them they could be stealing diamonds and artwork, but no, they want to get wrapped up in the politics. IF they want that to pay better, then ask them how they’re going to cultivate more generous buyers, and steal more valuable information. =)
I like the “we could do this, but don’t want to be connected to it” angle, Andrew Shields, especially if the info is just a nice-to-have but not critical. Send the Tier 0 crew, sure.
Yeah, I’m picturing Garrett of Thief: The Dark Project grabbing coins and silver candlesticks while he’s on a job that is otherwise focused on other business.
Have you used that Coin per segment thing as delayed payment via Downtime actions in your game? The math sounds reasonable. I have this thing I’ve done with other Blades games where I’m generous with Coin relative to the book but there are all these clocks where other gangs are trying to steal part of the crew’s stash. Helps you feel less of a heel when the opposition is mostly making off with Coin that was sort of “extra” to begin with. And boy does it go a long way towards making the crew hate the thieves-without-honor.
I”m not sure how interested the crew is in politics. I need to sound that out when we’re at the table next. There’s certainly a lot of potential grist there. Robbery always has the potential to become political whether it’s meant that way or not. A bit like life generally.
Thanks for all your thoughts.
I haven’t used the Coin per segment process in games I’ve run yet, but I have been involved as a player in Donogh McCarthy’s game. (And I like it and plan to use it.)
We stole some material on a blackmailer, and figured out how it applied enough to support one of our crew who went to confront the blackmailer and flip the pressure to extort her for coin.
And in general I like how it lets the information stay abstract if that’s helpful, or turn into a heist if that’s helpful, but regardless there’s some coin in it if that can work in the fiction at all. (Like scalping permits or original documents to forgers etc.)
Could someone please post a link (or explain) the “Coin per segment” idea? I’ve searched the forum and Donogh’s website but can’t seem to pin it down.
Dave Turner Nothing complicated. Basically, make a clock for “Figure out how to monetize blackmail” or whatever, and give it 4 or 6 (or whatever) segments.(It is a long-term project clock.)
Once it is filled, then the crew is ready to make money on the information, and they earn 1 Coin for every segment of the clock.
So if you had a 4 segment clock, when you fill it, you turn that information into 4 Coin.
Neat. So it’s another option for gaining Coin for the Crew. I’d assumed it was something a little different. Thanks for explaining it. 🙂