Last week I ran our first game session of Spycraft v2.0, or second if you count our character creation night the week before. It is the first game my group has played in a while that isn’t D&D 4e or Star Wars Saga Edition. I can honestly say Spycraft v2.0 plays a lot differently than any other d20 system I’ve ever played.

Skills Matter

Whenever I played D&D, Star Wars, or any other d20 game, skills always seemed like an afterthought. In D&D, the combat powers I received from leveling were always more important. In Star Wars, feats and powers always seemed to be more important.

In Spycraft, your skills are the lifeblood of your character. The skills are extremely well thought out and designed. There are really no ‘must have’ skills. There is a more level playing field with the skills and each one seems to have good overall value. It isn’t like every other d20 game where everyone in the group has to get Perception and Stealth because everything else is worthless.

I will say this though, skills matter in this game because they are more of a game focus. Due to this, there are more rules involved in each skill. It will take time for a game master and group to learn how to properly use skills, as they are more complex than other games.

Unique Gear System

The gear system is different than any other game I’ve ever played. Some of the gear pieces simply augment the statistics of the character. Some of them allow you to temporarily gain a skill for that particular mission, if you anticipate needing it.

In almost every game I’ve played, you make sure to get your primary weapon and some armor. Then you might round out your character with some ‘adventurer’s gear’ or random trinkets that are used in the world. It pretty much is the same throughout every game… except Spycraft.

One example that happened during our first session of play was that the player characters needed to get into a sold out championship hockey game to search for their target. They started designing several different ways to get in when one of them realized he could use one of his gear picks to get the group tickets for the game.

Another piece of gear was a cane that one of the players had that could inject one dose of a tranquilizing toxin. This was something he specifically designed to use against their mark because they knew they would need to capture the mark, but most likely it would be in front of thousands of people. This piece of gear wasn’t listed in the gear section. It was something he made according to the gear system rules that fit the mission perfectly.

You Can Have Fun Without Combat

Spycraft is perfectly capable of running fast and furious combat, but you don’t need it to have fun. In fact, our first game session didn’t even have one fight in it. The players were able to weasel their way through everything using skill, creative ideas, and good roleplaying.

One particular instance that could have ended up being a fight was when they ran into two armed foreigners inside the hockey arena. As only one or two of the players even had a weapon, this could have turned out poorly for them. But they were able to use their skills to convince some of the arena security and law enforcement personnel that these two men were armed and dangerous. So the security and law enforcement officers took care of the bad guys for them.

Overall, I am fairly impressed with our first taste of Spycraft v2.0. I was a little concerned that there would be too many rules for me to deal with, but the game is very well thought out and put together. The more I read the book, the more I realize they really designed the system to fit a modern spy setting. I believe it does this exceptionally well, and I’m looking forward into delving deeper into the game.