I picked the espionage supplement for Stars Without Numbers called "Darkness Visible" with the intent of using it as source material for a Bulldogs! game. I've only had a first quick read of the pdf while waiting for my print copy to arrive but I'm really impressed.

In particular the suggested procedures for building a spy adventures and the way the agency is abstracted are utterly fascinating. I feel I still have to digest it all so I still don't really know if it will work for me, but I'm impressed by the fresh and clear thinking that went into this product as well as the authors utter dedication to making really focused, usable tools for GMs.

Anyone else got this book yet, and more to the point, actually put some of these ideas into practice?

Quote from: Soylent Green;496506I picked the espionage supplement for Stars Without Numbers called "Darkness Visible" with the intent of using it as source material for a Bulldogs! game. I've only had a first quick read of the pdf while waiting for my print copy to arrive but I'm really impressed.

In particular the suggested procedures for building a spy adventures and the way the agency is abstracted are utterly fascinating. I feel I still have to digest it all so I still don't really know if it will work for me, but I'm impressed by the fresh and clear thinking that went into this product as well as the authors utter dedication to making really focused, usable tools for GMs.

Anyone else got this book yet, and more to the point, actually put some of these ideas into practice?

Seriously, this exists?

Sounds pretty fucking awesome at first mention; would you care to give some more detail about it? I'm currently reading SWN to write its upcoming review.

RPGPundit

Sounds awesome. I must get it.

There is a review of Darkness Visible at Gronardia (http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-darkness-visible.html) but personally I don't think it quite does it justice. What the reviewer dismisses as " usual abstract talk about adventure design we see so often in RPG books" seemed very studied and concrete to me.  

Basically imagine the same sort of lucid thinking and commitment to player agency that went into making SWN the ultimate space faring sandbox toolkit applied to scene-based scenario based design and you'll get the picture.  And of course, as a SWN product there are plenty of inspirational tables.

But as I said, I have not tired it out yet so I don't want to oversell it. Which is why I was kind of hoping someone here might have some hands on experience with Visible Darkness as SWN seems to have been a hit among the regulars.

Looking forward to Pundy's review of SWN - from everything I've seen from folks who have it, it's quite something. May have to break down and grab a copy myself.

Having just published the Crusader Rex review, SWN is the very next one I'll be releasing, probably sometime within the next two weeks.

RPGPundit

Okay, now that I've got print version I've had a second read so I can provide a bit more information. Frankly, I'm even more impressed now. It's a real a quality product.

While Stars Without Number was designed for sandbox style play,  the author seems to have concluded that espionage adventures lend themselves much more towards structured scenarios in which certain clues must be found and events are more less required to flow in a certain sequence. All of  which, if not handled carefully, could result a railroad style game.

How do you square the circle?  In the case of Visible Darkness, the author has chosen to split up the game so that it works on two levels. There is the strategic agency level game, which in Stars Without Numbers' tradition remains very much a sandbox, and then the is the mission level which is much more linear (though I'll qualify that more later).

The strategic level is a mini-game that puts the players in charge of the spy agency their characters work for. The agency is like a meta character and has it's own stats with different strengths and weaknesses. So to do the rival various NPC agency, the Smershes, HYDRAs and Spectres equivalents of your campaign.  

During the Agency Turn portion of the game (which should occur at the end of every session) the players get to decide which actions, taken from a standard list, they wish their agency to take that turn. The GM will decide the actions of the NPC agencies. Typically this actions will involve an attack on the resources of a rival agency or building up ones' own resources up. The players chose one of these agency actions to act as the mission for their characters which the GM will go off and prepare for the next session. The rest of these action are dealt with in an abstract way via a simple opposed roll between the relevant stats of the agencies involved, ensuring that the campaign world keeps evolving.

The missions themselves are meant to be played out like traditional roleplaying scenarios. Where Darkness Visible shines though out is in the tools it provides to help create these missions. There are tables and tables to help formulate each different type of mission from assassinations to infiltrations. There is also a lot of advice on plot structure and how to avoid investigative plots stalling while at the same ensuring player choices remain meaningful. I'm sure most people here already have their own solutions for these kind of problems, I found there was some real thought provoking stuff in there.

Funnily enough, that's how I envision a good game about high officials - sandbox strategic toolset, and some missions.

Well, it sounds very intriguing.

RPGPundit