Treasure Tables is on hiatus as of December 13th, 2007 -- after two years of daily posts, I needed a break. If you're looking for GMing material, I have two recommendations: the hundreds of posts in TT's archives, and my new project, the multi-author GMing blog Gnome Stew. Happy GMing! -- Martin

Flowchart for Espionage Games

Tue. October 31, 2006 

Courtesy of Jeff’s Gameblog, a flowchart for espionage missions from Top Secret designer Merle Rasmussen.

This chart originally appeared in Dragon #40, and while (as Jeff points out) it does lack Bond girls, it more than makes up for that omission in cleverness. (Via RPG Blog.)

More posts about: Genre Advice

Comments

3 Responses to “Flowchart for Espionage Games”

  1. VV_GM on October 31st, 2006 12:11 pm

    I remember this! It was great for on the fly adventures when you are asked to GM and had nothing prepared.

    In the later version Top Secret /S.I. they had a chase flowchart that was great for GMs to use as well. You didn’t need to map out an entire city to have a car chase, and various parts noted that there might be a chance for a crash/accident.

    Why they didn’t include this flowchart with Top Secret /S.I. seems to be a mistake to me.

  2. Admo on October 31st, 2006 6:03 pm

    Ah, Top Secret. Had the opportunity to bust out the old books over the summer and run some missions…it was lots of fun. The game’s endless tables and clunky mechanics don’t hold up well at all, however. The modules are where the game shines nowadays…no better source for Mission:Impossible (the TV show) inspired Cold War sneaking. Sam Fisher has nothing on my agents!

  3. Martin on November 1st, 2006 7:25 am

    That chase flowchart sounds neat. Maybe someone will post that, too. ;)

    From everything I’ve heard about Top Secret, I need to give it a try sometime.