SpyLite

Greywulf made waves in the RPG hobby with his brilliant Microlite20. It quickly took off in all directions as it had a toe in many facets of the hobby- a bit of old school, a bit of rules-light, it was free, and a big chunk of d20. No wonder it was so successful. One of the variants that spun off was for d20 Modern-like games and an influence from Spycraft and Spycraft 2.0. That was SpyLite.

This is a game of espionage, based on Greywulf's excellent Microlite20 system. It's intended to be a quick and dirty game, inspired heavily by the also-excellent Spycraft 2.0, but easier to get into and faster playing.

Inspirations range from NOLF to Alias, with a heavy dose of Mission: Impossible. Some A-Team may or may have not crept along for the ride. ;-) I also tend to use this as a toolbox system for making other games, such as "Where No Man Has Gone Before" or "Argo".

SpyLite is perfect for one who wants to run Spycraft 2.0 for new or young players who would be completely lost in the vast rules. I'd like to try to slowly inch over to the Spycraft rules after a while and the players are ready.

SpyLite is available for free in PDF as well as in a pocke-mod format.

Gosh, Spies!

In the ongoing search for that one game to run with my teen step-daughter one appeared on the radar seemingly custom made for my needs. Postmortem Studio's Agents of S.W.I.N.G. has a supplement called Gosh, Spies! that expands the '60s spy-fi genre of it's core book into the world of younger agents and adventurers.

Like it's companion book that contains the core rules, this one features a cast of NPCs that are slightly altered from popular characters from this genre. Its fun to try to figure out who they really represent (just with the serial numbers thinly filed off). And many of them are actually not that obvious. I still can't figure some out!

We have:

• Alex = George Kirrin (Famous Five)
• Bank Tardy = Frank Hardy (Hardy Boys)
• Bee Pike = ?
• Bessie Cannon = Jessica Bannon (Jonny Quest)
• Chase Cannon = Race Bannon (Jonny Quest)
• Daisy Denton = Clover (Totally Spies!)
• Dotty = ?
• Dr. Capitol = Rusty Venture (Venture Bros)
• Dr. Mission = Dr. Benton Quest (Jonny Quest)
• Elaine Drake = ?
• Pam = Anne Kirrin (Famous Five)
• Frank and Gene Capitol = Hand and Dean Venture (Venture Bros)
• George = Alexandra (Totally Spies!)
• Harold = Gerald Lewis (Totally Spies!)
• Henry = Samantha (Totally Spies!)
• Hunk Meatloaf = Brock Samson (Venture Bros)
• Ivanna Gobbleov = Molotov Cocktease (Venture Bros)
• Jane Changeling = ?
• Jenny the Jinx = ?
• Jimmy Mission = Jonny Quest (Jonny Quest)
• Jimmy the Dog = Timmy (Famous Five)
• Lee Tardy = Joe Hardy (Hardy Boys)
• Pansy Draft = Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew)
• Prakash Petal = Hadji Quest (Jonny Quest)
• Rick = Dick Kirrin (Famous Five)
• Selma = Velma Dinkley (Scooby-Doo)
• Tarquin = Julian Kirrin (Famous Five)
• Wendy Hanse = ?

The book is a great resource for gaming with younger players. It is not intended for kids, rather, it is aimed at parents or adults who will be running games with or for kids. 

The first chapter discusses many common issues that might come up when gaming with young players who might not have any gaming experience- some examples would be: attention span; the child's frustrations at some aspects of the game being difficult or characters getting injured, killed or just failing; other kid's parents, etc.

The next chapter talks a bit about gaming with young girls in particular, which is a unique topic. Written by Filamena Young, its short, but very interesting and insightful and a very useful guide for geek dads who have considered some of the points very little.

There's more about how to slim down the FATE system more in favor of younger players and inexperienced players with the intention of adding more detailed rules back in little by little.

I find Gosh, Spies! a very worthy and positive guide for gaming with young girls using the FATE system in particular. Very nice product.

Check out the web site.