Singe Announcement: A Modern-Day Spy Setting

Singe Announcement: A Modern-Day Spy Setting

I was recently inspired by the television show Burn Notice where a disavowed spy becomes a modern-day Robin Hood using all he has learned to help those in need and seek revenge on those who wrong him and his family. The characters are fantastic, and after joining the Facebook Burn Notice Fan Club group, I felt inspired to write a real quick Genre Description for anyone wanting to make characters that might fit within the game and play it on the tabletop.

THE WORLD

The world of Singe Announcement is a basic, rules-light genre where players play highly competent, highly skilled characters living in the gray areas of the law in beautiful Miami, Florida. In a setting filled with spies, government agents, drug dealers, hackers, money launderers, ex-government operatives, sunny beaches filled with sexy coeds, you and your teammates fight for those the police can’t help. This is a low-heroic level setting featuring no supernatural abilities and the very real possibility of dying if you screw up.

So, don’t screw up

The game takes place in the city of Miami. Though beautiful, like every city, it has an unseemly underside. Criminals and rogue government agents are everywhere and ruining people’s lives either directly by terrorizing them or blackmailing them, or indirectly, when their operations cause collateral property damage and hurt the ones they love. It is up to you and your team with your special sets of skills to put the wrong things right and try to live normal lives.

THE HEROES

CHARACTER STATS

Characters have 6 attributes that default to the following values:

STR     0

WILL    0

RSIL    0

INTL    0

RFLX    0

PERC    0

TRAITS:

All characters are of Human Origin and have the following traits

HEIGHT= Player’s Choice (168 cm is average)

MASS= Player’s Choice (70kg is average)

STUN= (10 + RSIL) X 2

PHYS= 10 + STR

ARMV= 0 (Only increased if wearing body armor or kevlar vest)

Action Move   = 20 m/round

Action Load   = 10 + STR KG  

Action Range = 10 m + 1m/PERC

English language

Theater of Operation- This is knowledge of anything geographic-specific knowledge having to do with one area of the world. Player chooses a geographical region and the main language spoken in that region other than English.

 

SKILLS:

All characters possess the following six skills:

Civilian Stuff: Includes anything having to do with basic knowledge and education up to high school level, civilian contacts, leisure sports, vacationing, working. A specialty includes knowledge of one other specific field such as Money Laundering, Reporting, or a Specific Profession.

Military Stuff: Anything having to do with guns, armed and unarmed combat, contacts in the military, blowing stuff up, psychoactive drugs, or the military way of life. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Sniping, Strategy, Unarmed Combat, or Demolitions.

Criminal Stuff: Includes anything related to criminal contacts, breaking and entering, investigating, fencing stolen goods, illegal drugs, human trafficking and other bad things against the law. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Smuggling, Drug Doping, or Thieving.

Fieldwork: Anything having to do with noticing, interacting with, movement in, driving through, or surveilling the physical environment. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Booby traps, Camouflage, or Two forms of vehicles of the player’s choice.

Tech Stuff: Anything having to do with computers or electronics and what is the leading edge of technology. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Coding, Infiltration, or Electronic surveillance.

Streetwise: Anything having to do with knowing or being able to identify “who’s who” in the local area your character is currently in, identifying the social pecking order, and reading the social and body queues and motivations of people. A Specialty in this skill includes knowledge of two additional languages of the player’s choice common within the chosen Theater of Operation.  

CHARACTER CREATION

STEP ONE: ASSIGN Ité POINTS TO ATTRIBUTES

You have 10 Ité points to distribute between your character’s attributes. The maximum number of points you may spend on an attribute is 5.

STEP TWO: CALCULATE TRAITS

Calculate your character’s Traits using the equations and methods described in The Heroes q.v.

STEP 3: SELECT A HISTORIC THEATER OF OPERATION

Select one area of the world your character is comfortable in and one language from that region that your character is comfortable speaking in.

STEP 4: ASSIGN ITé POINTS TO SKILLS

You may assign Ité points to your character’s Skills. Start with what your character is the best at and assign it 5 points, then the next best thing, assign it 4 points and continue with 3 points to the next skill, 2 points to the next skill, and 1 point to the next skill.

 

STEP 5: SELECT TWO SPECIALTIES

For the skills you have assigned 4 point and 5 points you may choose a specialty listed in the skill’s description. Your character gets Advantage when making task roll using these Specialties

STEP 6: DETERMINE YOUR CHARACTER DETAILS

• Height, in cm
• Weight, in kg
• Appearance

STEP 7: DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER'S HOME AND VEHICLE

You must be able to rationalize these with your character's background

STEP 8: DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER'S RELATIONSHIPS

The following relationships must be defined so the Director can create a story;

• Relationship to the team members at the table
• Relationship to any living family members

MECHANICS

THE ITÉ GAMING ENGINE/MATHLESS HIBRIDTM:

To resolve actions that have a chance of failure or to resist an attack or condition, roll a twenty-sided die (hereafter referred to as  a d20). There are four possible outcome steps:

• Critical Failure: If the roll is a 1 in addition to failing, the Director decides a bad thing that happens to your character or team.
• Failure: A roll of 2-9 is a failure
• Success: A roll of 10-19 is a success

i.  The number of the ones digit determines the amount of damage if an opponent is attacked with a non-firearm weapon or object.

 

ii. Explosions or firearms deal damage by the weapon type.

 

iii. Body armor subtracts number of points of damage from wounds equal to the ARMV. For example, if your character is attacked for 5 points of damage and it is wearing armor with an ARMV of 2, only 3 points are subtracted from the victim's STUN.

• Critical Success: if the roll is a 20, in addition to succeeding, you may choose an additional benefit or effect that occurs

2.      You may spend one point of Ite’ from either a related skill or attribute to push the die roll one step in one direction, from a critical failure to a failure, a failure to a success, or a success to a critical success. When you spend a point of Ite’, it is gone until the beginning of the next game session, when it is replenished

ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE:

If a task is especially hard, your Director will say your character is Disadvantaged on the task roll, and if your character has a specialty in a task or something is helping your character to perform the task, your character will say your character is Advantaged. In either case, you will roll 2d20 instead of 1d20.

• For a Disadvantaged roll, you will accept the lower of the two rolls
• For an Advantaged, you will take the higher of the two rolls
• A critical success or critical failure will always override a non-critical result between 2 and 19.
• A Critical Failure will cancel a Critical Success. This means that the rolls will be treated as a 1 and a 20, indicating the roll is a success.  

ACTION SEQUENCES:

When an action sequence begins, the Director will announce it and conduct the sequence as a series of action rounds, each of which represents roughly 10 seconds of game time. 

The order of actions is determined by all the players and the Director rolling a d20 for initiative. Characters with rolls higher than the Director’s go before the bad guys, then the bad guys go, then characters with rolls lower than the Director go after.

Every character gets 1 action per round and can move up to 20 meters with no penalty. Additional actions beyond this are treated with disadvantage on any task rolls.

An Example: Michael wants to run across the street 40 meters through busy traffic and chuck a grenade at a drug dealer’s car. Because he is moving more than 20 meters, this will be 2 actions and the grenade will count as a third action. He will be disadvantaged on his task roll to avoid the traffic and on the task roll to accurately chuck the grenade.

OPPOSING ACTIONS

Any opponent may oppose an action taken against them with a task roll unless surprised. the winner of the opposed actin is the one with the higher die roll

Ties go to attacker/initiator of an action with the higher attribute or skill being used.

DAMAGE AND HEALING

Damage from attacks is subtracted from STUN. When STUN=0 or less, creature is unconscious and begins to bleed to death, losing 1 point of PHYS/round until dead or first aid is applied.

If an unconscious character receives makeshift medical care, he loses 1 point of PHYS per day until dead or under hospital care.

PHYS only heals in a hospital or under a trained physician at 1/point per day.