Quote from: BalbinusWhat was cool about Ninjas and Superspies?  I don't think I've ever seen it.

I never got a chance to play it as such, but I did own it at one point and, yeah, it's a decent game.

It's sort of an ultimate '80's action/American ninja movie RPG: it has lots of guns and McGuyver-esque gadgets, pits you against vaguely menacing terrorist groups or gangster syndicates, stats out a veritable shit load of martial arts styles and comes off a whole lot more Chuck Norris than Final Fantasy.

It's crunchy, and Palladium-y (which can be a mixed bag, cf. Rifts) but it unfolds into surprisingly consistent and workable iteration of the system that cleverly takes advantage of the way Palladium runs multiple action combat and level progression martial arts.

And it was written by Erick Wujcik who knows what the fuck he's talking about when it comes to Chinese things .

Let's just start with the fact that it had Palladium-style level-by-level layout of something like 25 different real-world Martial Art styles.

Want to know what bonuses a Drunken Master, Shaolin, or Jeet Kune Do practitioner get in RIFTS or Robotech? Buy this book.

RPGPundit

A new edition of MS&PE is currently on Kickstarter:

Mercenaries Spies & Private Eyes RPG by Michael Stackpole by Richard Loomis - Kickstarter

Not often that I do the kickstarter thing, but this one makes the cut for me. Thanks for posting the link.

and interesting thread, I didn't know MSPE had enough of a following to rate a why all the love thread anywhere.

Quote from: Toadmaster;1077948Not often that I do the kickstarter thing, but this one makes the cut for me.

The fact that the Kickstarter says "The book is written, edited and laid out. All we need now is the money..." helps.

I wish it was a new edition, not just a combined rescan of the early works.

That said, MSPE is a fine game. I've played it several times over the decades and it was always fun. I agree with Silverlion about combining MSPE with T&T. I've done that for T&T Shadowrun back when and it was fun.

MSPE is a cool and simple game but it is super lethal.  It's fine for the kind of mercenary game where you grind through characters.

Could anyone tell me a little bit more about the system?

IIRC, mostly its 2D6+STAT vs. TN but doubles allow you to roll another 2D6 which is how you hit higher TNs.

It's a very bare bones game which is why our crew was more drawn to Palladium's Ninjas and Superspies.

It's a shame because MSPE could be fleshed out (just a bit) into a robust game equal to T&T.

It is a fairly simple game that manages to feel more robust than the actual mechanics suggest.

As SC says skills and attribute based effects are based on a simple 2d6+stat, + skill level vs level of difficulty (base difficulty requires a modified roll of 20, difficultly levels progress in blocks of 5, so level 2 difficulty = roll 25+, level 3 = 30 etc). Rolling double allows a re-roll, adding the second roll to the first so theoretically even impossible tasks are possible, just unlikely.

Combat works a little differently, missile weapons work as above and success does damage as specified by weapon, but melee combat is based on contested rolls, weapon (dice + modifiers) + stat and skill bonuses. Both parties roll and the loser takes damage = to the difference.


There is nothing earth shattering about the game, it is a simple and straight forward game and is better written / edited than many from the period. The writing and artwork have a very 80s vibe to it, but it is well suited to pretty much any "modernish" time period from the Wildwest to the present.

Backed the Kickstarter...why is there NOTHING anywhere about this? MSPE is probably one of the most underrated games I've ever played.

Quote from: Brad;1078076Backed the Kickstarter...why is there NOTHING anywhere about this? MSPE is probably one of the most underrated games I've ever played.

Eh, 2 days into the KS and they have already almost hit their (admitedly very modest) goal, so I guess the news is getting out there enough. Agree on it being a very underrated game, but I think a lot of that comes from being the product of a very small company that lets word of mouth do most of their marketing.

I'm struggling with the supposed deadliness of the system. It doesn't seem to fit the genre and the impression I get from the cover design.

I picked up MSPE ages ago, but have never played it. The thing that stood out to me from reading it was the GM advice on running murder mysteries, which remains pretty unique and interesting.

Quote from: 3rik;1078170I'm struggling with the supposed deadliness of the system. It doesn't seem to fit the genre and the impression I get from the cover design.

Specifically guns are rather lethal, melee and hand to hand fighting considerably less. If you were playing in a Noir detective game where most altercations are settled with fists, and pulling a knife is a fairly serious escalation, one where those carrying guns are using snub nosed revolvers and pocket automatics then it is considerably less lethal although one shot kills are still a possibility (roll high damage vs a character with low to average Con). If everybody is carrying around .44 magnums and M16s then yes it can result in lots of bodies.  

Hitting with a firearm against anything but a short range non-moving target requires a fair amount of skill. Using range and cover to advantage allows one to make themselves a rather difficult target.

There are also optional rules for using luck to avoid damage if you want to have more of an action hero running through gun fire kind of game.

Missile weapons are rather lethal because they don't have the opposed rolls damage buffer of melee, a hit delivers straight damage. This could be seen as a flaw, but when the game came out there were not a lot of games with guns available, and most that had them were fairly deadly. It would be quite easy to just 1/2, 1/4, 1/10 firearms damage or otherwise nerf missile weapons to personal taste. If the game has a flaw it is that firearm damage is too high, on the other hand a man getting shot with a .600 Nitro elephant gun probably should turn into a fine paste. The game provides the formula used to determine damage. It would be fairly easy to just change the formula to reduce the damage and since it doesn't provide a particularly extensive list of weapons it wouldn't be a major chore to do so.