Spy Settings (Clandestine)

Spy literature is a continuum of sorts. On one end, there is the work of John Le Carre who has studied the ins and outs of intelligence work and gets right down into talking about the nitty gritty of real world spy stuff. There’s only one problem with it. For the most part, real world spy stuff is as dull as dog shit.

On the other end of the spectrum is James Bond/Matt Flint/Solo-Kuryakin/Xander Cage heavily cinematic style of spy literature. And hey, you know, that stuff is fun, but it’s VERY uncomplicated and real world physics tends to jack up the narrative some. And if you’re interested in spy stuff and done ANY reading at all, you’ll find it difficult if not impossible to suspend your disbelief.

Generally, you want to walk a path where the real world holds sway but not so much sway that you can’t have any fun. So you should consider the two extremes of thought in spy literature as the pepper and salt on your dinner table. The dinner, of course, being the story YOU want to tell.

The Various Settings of Clandestine:
Default: No magic “Unleaded”

This is the setting that Clandestine will be written in. The occult is not a thing. The real world is plenty scary enough really. Weapons of mass destruction, suicide bombers, cyber-attacks, drug cartels, paid assassins and all the rest of it. “Occult” on your usually CoD sheet will be replaced with another skill entitled “Tradecraft”

Setting two: Some magic “Unleaded Plus”

For the most part, you can certainly add supernatural elements. You can bring in half templates (Although full-blown supernatural creatures should remain terribly rare as they can probably eat an entire team of seasoned professionals for lunch.) and you can certainly drag in Second Sight Material and Reliquary. If you’re looking for inspiration in this particular vein, I can think of nothing better than “Alias”. Seriously, Americans and Soviets spent hundreds of millions on investigating the paranormal in hopes of finding some edge in the espionage game. It’s not too freakish to assume that SOME of that bore fruit. Occult goes back on the Character sheet

Setting 3: ALL THE MAGICS! “High Test”

Navigating the world of espionage is a walk through a mine field with clown shoes on. There’s a constant struggle between factions of magi, and factions of vampires, and other freakier creatures to control the levers of power both here and abroad. You’ll have to figure out to smuggle your coffin into the hot zone, and your teammate might have to figure out how to keep from going into a full-on Death-Rage because the flight’s been delayed again. If this kind of game floats your boat. I say play it and have fun, but I will tell you, that it will be nearly impossible to describe to other people. Tradecraft? Tradecraft is for plain vanilla mortals, You aren’t likely to be playing one of them.