BY

Kyle Simons
COVER
George Cotronis
FIGHT AND CHASE CARD ART
Jonathan Rector & James Shields
FIGHT AND CHASE CARD LAYOUT & DESIGN
Maggie Carroll & Oli Jeffery

THANKS & ATTRIBUTION

Special thanks to Jason Cordova for all the encouragement, feedback, and
development editing; the Gauntlet podcast and community for everything
they do for the hobby. Much of the advice for running and playing games
comes from the podcast and the play culture as well as Game Masters
I listen to and play with, particularly Jason Cordova and Lowell Francis.
http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com
https://plus.google.com/communities/104672702589306017985
Thanks to Lee Torres, Tobias, and Kyle Thompson for their typo hunting.
Fred Hicks and the Fate Core team, particularly Rob Donoghue for the
system and their discussions on game design, and for the Fate Core
font. The Fate Core font is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with
permission.
The image of the HK416 on page 187 is CC BY-SA 2.0 Dybdal
The image of the HK45C on page 186 is CC BY-SA 3.0 Ckindel
The image of Metapoilt on page 153 is CC BY-SA 3.0 Pradameinhoff

© 2018 Kyle Simons

ISBN: 978-0-9958241-2-6
CONTENTS

BEFORE THE GAME.................................... 4 REFERENCE................................................80

Terms................................................................... 6 Pre-Game...........................................................82
How to Use This Book......................................... 7 Character Generation…....................................84
Introduction......................................................... 8 Core Mechanic..................................................86
The Talk................................................................ 9 Fights.................................................................88
The Director......................................................... 9 Chases...............................................................90
Pre-game Collage ............................................. 10 Teamwork..........................................................92
Core Mechanic.................................................. 10 Transitions.........................................................93
Character Generation.......................................12 Jobs & Clocks....................................................94
Details & Background.......................................13 Campaign Concepts..........................................96
Inner Turmoil.....................................................13 Backgrounds..................................................... 97
Skills...................................................................13 Backgrounds (Delta).......................................104
Character Sheet................................................ 14 Backgrounds (SEAL Team Six).......................115
Stress Track.......................................................15 Backgrounds (The Activity).............................123
Consequences...................................................15 Backgrounds (Special Activities Division)......127
Specials.............................................................15 Inner Turmoil...................................................132
Priming Specials................................................ 17 Specials...........................................................133
Personal Clocks.................................................18 Technothrillers.................................................134
Creating Villains................................................19 Asset Running ................................................135
The Plan.............................................................22 Bomb Making..................................................137
Technology......................................................... 24 Bomb Disposal................................................142
Traits..................................................................25 Communications.............................................145
Director Sheet...................................................26 Guns.................................................................149
Hacking............................................................152
PLAYING THE GAME.................................28 Interrogation....................................................161
The Conversation..............................................30 Tradecraft........................................................168
Using What You’ve Prepared............................30 Lists.................................................................. 171
The Table........................................................... 31 Assets (Lists)................................................... 171
Starting The Game............................................32 Actors (Lists)....................................................172
Directors............................................................32 Interrogation (Lists).........................................173
Building On The Core........................................33 Locations (Lists)..............................................178
Fights.................................................................34 Lockpicking (Lists)..........................................179
Chases............................................................... 37 Names (Lists)..................................................180
Jobs & Clocks.................................................... 41 Organizations (Lists).......................................183
Recovery............................................................45 Security Systems (Lists)..................................184
Framing Scenes.................................................48 Weapons (Lists)...............................................186
Villains (Lists)..................................................190
RUNNING THE GAME................................52
INDEX...........................................................193
Your Role............................................................54
Principals...........................................................55
Moves.................................................................56
Bring In the Players .......................................... 57
Moderating........................................................58
Dealing With Dice..............................................60
Risks & Complications......................................62
Dealing With Failure..........................................64
Information & Notice.........................................66
Transitions.........................................................70
Fictional Positioning.......................................... 71
Antagonists........................................................ 74
One Shots & Campaigns .................................. 76
Going Trad.......................................................... 77
Technothrillers...................................................78
BEFORE THE GAME

THE TALK COLLAGE

CHARACTERS STRESS&HARM

SPECIALS CLOCKS

VILLAINS
5
TERMS
Throughout the book I use some terms that I do not first define. They come
from other roleplaying games and are hobby jargon. On the off-chance you
are new to some of the words, I’ve listed some of the important ones below.

I use a few terms to refer to the characters played by the players at the table.
Player characters, or PCs, protagonists, and sometimes even just characters.
Hopefully you’ll be able to follow along easily enough given the context, but
they all mean the same thing — the characters being controlled by players
other than the Director.

The Director: the person running the game. They detail the world, play the
part of any non-player characters, and let the players know when things are
risky or dangerous enough that they have to roll the dice.

Non-player characters (NPCs): any character that is controlled exclusively

by the Director. Also sometimes called side characters.

Mooks: a type of non-player character that exist solely to show how

competent the player characters are.

The Fiction: I refer to the imagined game world being created and played in
by a number of different terms in the book. Sometimes, I call it “the fiction”,
other times I refer to it as a movie, or simply “the game.” Hopefully you’ll be
able to follow me, but they all largely mean the same thing and I only use
“movie” so often to drive home the idea that is most often the type of media
Operators is trying to simulate.

6
 HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
The first section of this book is meant to give an overview of the game. It
doesn’t go into certain aspects of character creation that would take up a lot
of space and get in the way of actually learning the game. Everything meant
to be read in order to understand how to play the game goes from pages 6
to 79 (Before the Game, Playing the Game, and Running the Game). These
sections use a yellow hue to visually distinguish the reading material from
the reference material, which is in a greener teal hue.

Everything after page 80 is meant to be read once, then used as a reference

once play begins. Character backgrounds, possible risks and failures in
technothrillers, names for characters, gun information and other things
that might come up in play but that are not needed to get an overall
understanding of playing the game are all in this section.

Pages with long examples are marked as such with large print on the sidebar,
pages expressly directed to either the player or the Director are also marked
similarly in the reference section (if they aren’t marked, assume that the page
is reading material for everyone).

If you are the Director, I recommend reading through the entire book before
even doing the pre-game material with your fellow players. At the very least,
read through everything in the yellow section from pages 6 to 79.

If you are a player, I also recommend reading through everything up to

the “Playing the Game” section. Use the reference section for help with
character creation starting on page 84 but don’t create your character until
you and the rest of the players have gone through the pre-game rituals.

7
INTRODUCTION
When you sit down to play a game of Operators you’re sitting down with the
other players at the table to make an action movie. It could be a gritty spy
thriller like the Bourne movies, an adrenaline-pumping action thriller like
the Mission: Impossible movies, or an ultra-realistic technothriller straight out
of the pages of a Tom Clancy novel. Operators focuses on the movie aspect
and makes the game a collaborative effort even before the players sit down
at the table to start playing.

This first chapter deals purely with what to do before you actually sit down
at the table to play a game of Operators.

„„ First, you have a talk to set expectations and get everyone on

the same page.
„„ Second, you build a collage of pictures together of the people,
locations, and ideas for scenes you want to see in the movie.
„„ Third, you learn the core mechanic the game revolves around.
„„ Fourth, you make your character if you’re a player, create a rough
outline of the villain if you’re the Director.

GETTING STARTED
The first thing you need to do is round up at least one other friend to play the
game with you. One player will be the Director, controlling the antagonists
in the movie and all characters that interact with the protagonists. All other
players are protagonists — the main characters in the movie. Once everyone
is committed to playing the game, you have a chat to make sure everyone
is on the same page.

8
 THE TALK
The whole purpose of the talk is to set out expectations and to make sure
everyone is on the same page. To do this, anyone can read and bring up the
following points in order, taking time to discuss each one so that everyone
says something about each point. The Director in particular will want to
take notes during this conversation but other players should be mindful.

„„ Do we want a game like Mission: Impossible, where equipment and

gadgets can do anything and don’t need to be explained? A game
like the Bond movies where they can do anything, but we have
to see them first on screen? Or a game like the Bourne movies
that focuses a bit more on realism and using only what you can
acquire on your own?
„„ What are our touchstones? What do we want to see?
„„ What do we not want to see?

THE DIRECTOR
It falls on you, the Director, to mediate the talk just like it falls on you to
moderate the conversation that is the game. Note down the things that the
players want to see (index cards work great), whether it be low-key in-the-
shadows action or big explosions and crazy motorcycle stunts. Also take
care and note the things that people do not want to see as this could easily
impact the kind of villain you outline before the game. A player might not
want to see any scenes of torture, even if it’s only hinted at. Another might
be tired of seeing Islamic terrorists as the antagonists and so is hoping to
switch things up. The more candid and forthcoming players are the more
invested they will become in the game and the more fun everyone will have.

9
PRE-GAME COLLAGE
Like the talk, there’s another thing everyone should do before starting to
play the game: find a place for everyone to start posting actors they want to
see in the movie — actors, people the players see themselves playing in the
game, antagonists to bring in and even the big bad villain. If you plan on using
roll20 to play your session online you can get everyone set up there and start
dropping photos in to make a big collage in the background. Otherwise, you
might use pinterest or create a google plus community just for the discussion
of the game. Don’t worry about picture quality or what the collage looks like
in particular. Just find interesting places and people so that you’ve always
got the elements you want to see on hand to be dropped into the game as
needed. Lots of pictures won’t get used and it’s not a big deal if you don’t
have a picture chosen for your player character. Do have ideas you can bring
to the table and be proactive in the conversation, though.

THE CORE MECHANIC

As a player, most of the time you react to what is going on in the fiction. You
take action in the world by overcoming obstacles using your character’s
skills, listed as verbs, on your character sheet. Skills are used when things
are dangerous and risky, and that’s also when the dice are rolled. Four Fate
dice (dice that have either a plus +, minus -, or blank 0 side on their
faces rather than numbers) are rolled when determining the outcome of an
action. Players are always looking for pluses in order to have their character

10
CORE MECHANIC CONTINUED>>

succeed. The better a character is at something, the less pluses a player

needs to roll to succeed. If a character has a 1 in the skill “Shoot”, then they
only need one plus to succeed when the dice are rolled. Any additional
successes are gravy and are used to petition the Director for extra fictional
effect or positioning.

Additional successes mean that your character is lucky or does what they
set out to do particularly well. If you’re trying to be quick, then you’re so
fast that not only do you get through the door, you end up getting the drop
on the person on the other side as well. If you’re trying to be stealthy, then
not only do you zip in and zap the cameras, but you also synchronize your
movements with the sentry on duty and slink in behind him.

As the Director, you run the world and the characters in it that aren’t
played by the other players. You tell them when they need to roll the dice
and you look for any die that comes up with a minus  on it. Minuses mean
complications, whether the player succeeds (gets the required number of
pluses) or not. For every minus that comes up, it’s your job to throw the
player for a loop and introduce a complication.

If they succeed and a minus comes up, then maybe just when they’re
about to own the lock on the door, they see a red laser get painted on their
chest — now they need to think fast and narrate how they get past that
additional hurdle. Maybe when they zap the cameras from mid-air, their
parachute catches on something as they land and they end up hurtling
toward the sentry — now they’ve got to deal with that before double-
timing it inside.

11
CORE MECHANIC CONTINUED>>

If the player fails and minuses come up, that’s when things can get ugly
for our protagonist. The character might take Stress (coming on page 15),
or they might succeed at a cost. As the Director it’s always your choice to
either use a minus to introduce a complication right away, or bank it for
later. You can bank minuses for later if more than one minus comes up and
you can’t think of anything interesting to have happen in the scene. You may
also choose to bank minuses in order to make the player characters look
competent depending on where you are in the story so far — we’ll talk more
about that later on, though.

It’s important to note that minuses never mean that the player has to roll
again to succeed. The initial die result always stands — they either succeed
or fail in their intent and action. Minuses introduce complications, which
force the player to think on their feet at the very least, but may also mean
the loss of resources taking on harm in the form of Stress.

CHARACTER CREATION
There are different sheets to fill out for players and the Director. An example
character sheet is shown on page 14, but the elements of a character sheet
are as follows: Details & Background, Inner Turmoil, Skills, Stress Tracks,
Consequences, Specials, and Personal Clock.

There is a blank Character sheet and director sheet both at the end of the
book and available as separate PDF that should have come bundled with
your digital copy of this book.

12
 DETAILS & BACKGROUND
Details & Background is where you write in your character’s name,
occupation, nationality, date of birth and place of birth. Operators assumes
that all player characters are thoroughly badass enough to have both a
sparse file, and one that is highly classified and so not easily obtained. That
said, the trappings of the character sheet can be changed or ignored as
needed for any campaign and players are absolutely free to determine for
themselves if the information in their “files” are accurate or not.

INNER TURMOIL
An Inner Turmoil is a regret that a character carries around with them
for at least the duration of the movie. All action heroes have one — a child
they never see, a marriage falling apart, a civilian they couldn’t protect, a
training accident they can’t forget. Mechanically, having inner turmoil is
important because that is how a character recovers from Stress (more on
that later on page 45).

SKILLS
Skills are how you interact with the game world and how your character gets
things done. The lower the number next to a Skill, the better a character is at
doing it. When creating your character you get to put five Skills at a rating of
1, four at a rating of 2, and the rest get a rating of 3. You’ll read more about
skills and why having a lower number in a skill is better later on, but for now
it’s enough to know that lower is better, like we talked about in the Core
Mechanic section on page 10.

13
 DETAILS & BACKGROUND CONSEQUENCES (HARM)

STRESS TRACK (HARM)

INNER TURMOIL

SKILLS

PERSONAL CLOCK
SPECIALS

14
 STRESS TRACK
Every character has two Stress Tracks consisting of two boxes. One track
is for physical, the other for mental. When a player would take harm they
can instead choose to check any available box as long as they explain how
they narrowly escape harm and how they take stress instead. Otherwise,
they take a Consequence.

CONSEQUENCES
Once there are no Stress boxes left to check, a character must instead take
a Minor Consequence. What that Consequence is should make sense for
what is going on in the fiction at the time. If a player already has a Minor
Consequence, they must write in a Moderate one; if they already have a
Moderate, they must write in a Severe Consequence. Any harm after that
means that character is out of the movie. What that means is up to the player.

All consequences are described in a few short words like, “sprained ankle”,
or “in a murderous rage”. Minor Consequences do not have to progress to
Moderate ones — sprained ankles do not have to progress to broken ones. It’s
more common to have three unconnected Consequences that are inflicted
as a result of what happened in the fiction than a single one that progresses.

SPECIALS
Every character has three Specials — one for Training, one for Discipline, and
one for their Trademark. A character’s Specials are what show us what makes
them particularly badass and what makes them unique among the elite. They
are also an opportunity to flesh out a character’s backstory.

15
SPECIALS CONTINUED>>

The first Special is called their Training. This Special is a wide-ranging skillset
learned over a long period of time — special forces in Afghanistan, BUD/S
SEAL training, learning how to grift and steal to get by, whatever. Players can
tag their Training to re-roll a single minus rolled, but they must state they
are using their Training before rolling the dice and playing out a flashback to
show how their training is relevant to the task at hand. The flashback must
be different and relevant each time.

The second Special is called their Discipline. It’s a specialized skill set that
distinguishes and adds additional flavor to the things that all operators can
do. Every operator is good at hand-to-hand and can chase someone down,
but maybe one character is really good at Krav-maga and another is a pro at
parkour. Players can tag their Discipline to re-roll any blank dice that come
up. Any minuses that come up upon re-roll are ignored. Players must first
Prime their Disciple by playing out a scene in which their skills are shown or
referenced before they can tag it to gain the mechanical benefits.

The third special is called their Trademark. It’s a flashy trick or maneuver
unique to that character — ricocheting bullets off a metallic surface, a
paralyzing nerve strike, a fancy disarm. Their Trademark must stem from
a skill they have a 1 in. This skill does not require any Priming and nets the
player an automatic success at the table as if they had rolled the dice and
turned up all pluses. A Trademark can be used only once per game.

16
 PRIMING SPECIALS
To Prime a Special is to first make reference to it. It might mean playing out a
flashback in which the character is about to pass out for holding their breath
underwater so long, just like they did during their first BUD/S underwater
training class. It could even just be the player wanting to interject a scene
at the CIA when an analyst pulls up their file and details their background
and experience to their boss.

When Priming a Discipline you need to show the table that your character
has this skill before you can “use” it (i.e. gain the mechanical benefit of re-
rolling any blank dice that come up). That means that if your character’s
Discipline is Krav-maga, then you’ll want to show them sparring in a gym in
their downtime, or even just have them do a bit of Krav-maga on their next
Fight check (you just don’t get the mechanical benefit from it until you use
Krav-maga next time, though, after it’s been Primed).

Trademarks don’t need to be Primed or referenced at all before being used,

but it’s always cool when they are; even if it’s just in passing it’s always
satisfying when a character mentions that time in Kandahar when they
ricocheted that bullet off a can on the ground to get the guy around the
corner, or framing a scene where a one guy in a team heading out to capture
the PCs comments to one of his teammates about how he once looked on
as an operator completely paralyzed a comrade with a nerve strike to the
somewhere on the neck.

17
PERSONAL CLOCKS
Operators are always up against the clock in one form or another. At the very
least, there are going to be some clocks ticking down to bad things happening
during the movie that will affect everyone — things like stopping the nuke
from blowing up New York or catching a bad guy before his plane takes off
and gets away. Sometimes, though, an operator will have even more to deal
with. You might ingest a poison while trying to figure out an opponent’s tell
in a poker match or a loved one might have a bomb put in their head that’ll
go off in 72 hours if you don’t follow the orders of the very same guy you’re
trying to bring in.

Clocks that affect everyone are placed on the table for all to see. They’re
drawn up by the Director and segments are marked off (or erased) as time
passes or conditions change. If an operator has no idea how to disarm the
bomb and fails a roll at doing so, the Director might mark more time off as
the countdown timer pauses for a second, before, of course, resuming its
countdown at much faster rate. The Director might erase some previously-
marked off segments to give the crew more time when they block all cell
phone traffic from the bad guy’s lair so they can’t remotely activate the
bomb, too — players can work to regain lost time as well.

Clocks that affect only a single operator are kept track of on the character
sheet as there is a space just for such purposes. That’s something they’ve
got to deal with in addition to everything else going on.

All clocks must have stakes attached to them. It may not be the truth when
the bad guy says that he’s going to blow the bomb on your fiancée in 72
hours, but the stakes are still there because you can’t know for sure. If stakes
are unclear, clarify them when you write them in on your character sheet.

18
 CREATING VILLAINS
When you create your villain for the upcoming movie you’ll want to have
the Director sheet in front of you when you do so. Keep it in front of you
during play as well, if only for the pacing track it has along the side. The
Director sheet has the stages of a typical action thriller listed on the left
side, numbered one to nine along with some tips for what you might have
the players do at various stages of the movie.

The right side of the sheet leaves room to detail your villain a bit. I
recommend starting with the villain’s plan and their motivation first before
filling in details like their name, network, and traits but start with whatever
inspiration you have. The backbone of a villain’s plan is their motivation
and is the core of who they are and what they’re trying to do. The player
characters will quickly force a villain to improvise and adjust their plans,
which is why it’s best for you to only plan out the first two steps.

The first step is already in motion when the game begins. You might start
the player characters in the midst of this first step, or have it running on
the periphery — it can be a way for them to learn of the villain and their
machinations or the first step can simply be happening in the background
with the player characters are off doing something else. Once finished, they
learn of what’s transpired and then get drawn in.

The second step is where the villain and the player characters will ultimately
meet and clash in some way. Just how badly they mess up the master plan
will vary, but, at the very least, they become targets and another obstacle
for the villain to overcome. After that, all bets are off. The villain is trying to
get what they want and the player characters are trying to stop him.

19
EXAMPLE
Director: Let’s jump right into the tail of a previous job to start
the game. What are you all doing and why?
Khan: I think we talked about being in the middle of ambushing
a convoy to retrieve some classified documents.
Director: Ok, what’s Elizabeth’s role in this right now?
Elizabeth: I’m going to take this opportunity to prime my IED
Discipline and my BUD/S training and say that I’m underwater
setting up some explosives on the columns of the bridge these
cars are about to drive over.
Director: Awesome, and what goes wrong about now?
Michelle: I’m thinking Khan and I are probably doing
the surveillance on the cars, making sure they’re making
their way to the bridge since we’ve both got a CIA
surveillance background.
Khan: That sound good to me, I’m probably hacking into their
comms as I’d like to prime my Task Force Orange background.
Maybe I hear that the road up ahead is blocked and they’re
detouring and that’s what when everything goes to shit?
Director: Sounds good. Jason, how do you deal with the news?
Jason: Well, I’m a bit reckless so I’m just going to go ahead and
jump into it to try and get this thing back on track. I walk up to
the car, smash the driver’s side window, wrench the driver out,
and try to take control of the vehicle to get it to the bridge and
to the rest of the team..
Director: Wow, alright. There’s any number of skills going on
there, but they’re off balance and you wouldn’t have trouble
smashing the window. The driver might be more than you
bargained for, though. I’m going to have you roll Fight to see
how much trouble he’s going to be getting out of that car.
Jason: Fair enough. Let me roll here.

+--0
Jason: Alright, looks like I got the one success I needed, but I
also got two minuses and a blank.

20
Director: Ok, well we know you end up in the driver’s seat, but
here are a couple complications for you: first, you go to wrench
the guy out the window, when you see this red dot appear on
his head. There’s a wet splat and suddenly this huge guy is dead
weight. You see the red dot just as swiftly move to your own
chest; What do you do?
Jason: I’m going to wrench the guy out and use his body as a
shield at the same time.
Director: You hear a couple more wet thumps as a few more
bullets hit your human shield. You see the tires of the vehicle
starting to spin. A bit confusing because you know for a fact
there’s no one behind the wheel. There’s a lot of confusion but
you see a highly trained killer dressed as a construction worker
switching to an Uzi to lay down suppression fire while another
beside him starts clicking away on this little tablet. As he does,
the car starts pulling away.
Jason: I fire off a shot at the Uzi guy and dive through the
window as it takes off to try and take back control of it.
Director: Awesome. Michelle, you see this go down in real time
in the span of a couple seconds here. Jason is in the target
vehicle and it’s speeding down a side alley that’s been set up
for the getaway. What do you do?
Michelle: I’m going to take out the guy that’s controlling the
car with his little tablet there first of all. Is it a pretty long shot
for a silenced pistol?
Director: Yeah, but you guys are the best. What is your
Shoot skill again?
Michelle: Yeah I’ve got a 1. Let me roll it here.

++--
Director: Nice, I’m going to go ahead and bank those minuses.
What do you want to do with that extra plus?
Michelle: I loose two shots in quick succession and drop both
the guys, not just the one with the tablet?
Director: Yeah, perfect. They both drop lifelessly to the ground
with a bullet hole in each of their foreheads.

21
THE PLAN
Typically, a villain’s plan usually centers around getting a piece of technology
that will allow them to remake the world with them at the top. The closer to
a technothriller of a game you want to get, the more this technology should
be explained and detailed. The old standby is wiping out everyone — or at
least a very large number of people — except the few of the villain’s choosing
that will get a seat at the new world order. Getting hold of nuclear weapons
is usually the first stage to this plan, but it doesn’t have to be nukes —  viruses
and other biological weapons are just as common. Whatever the medium,
getting a villain’s hands on it is usually the first order of business. Most of the
time, this isn’t something the protagonists can stop, they aren’t even aware
or brought into the picture until the stakes are high enough that they’re
focus is on stopping the villain from using the weapon.

22
 <<THE PLAN CONTINUED

Of course, a villain’s plan can be much more subtle than taking out a chunk
of the population. The new technology could be something that allows them
to influence or hold an influential person or nation ransom — interfering with
the launch of space crafts or satellites to retask or militarize, kidnapping,
brainwashing, mind control, replacing influential people, organizing the
economic collapse of companies or nations; exerting control over the media
or information and secrets.

For a first movie, stick to big events that any protagonist can get behind like
a nuclear attack or large scale sequential attacks on a populous. It gets
things moving right away and gives the players time to figure out who their
characters are and their motivations. If players want to continue on with
their characters in future movies, that’s when it gets interesting and easier
to pitch more subtle or villainous plans that tie into the protagonists on a
personal level.

23
TECHNOLOGY
Some technologies we’ve seen used at the core of a villain’s plan in action
thriller movies are:

„„ Nuclear Weapons — Mission:Impossible Ghost Protocol

„„ Massively destructive weapons — Goldeneye
„„ Biological Weapons — Mission:Impossible II, Rainbow Six
„„ Information Manipulation — Tomorrow Never Dies
„„ Hacking — Live Free or Die Hard
„„ Dopplegangers  — G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
„„ Mind Control — The Prisoner, The IPCRESS File
„„ Conditioning — The Jason Bourne books and movies
„„ Cryptography — Digital Fortress
„„ Mystery Tech — Mission Impossible III
„„ Quantum Computing — The Quantum Spy

It’s also important to note that not all thrillers need the technological
element at the center of it. A lot of great stories come out of government
conspiracies and cover-ups (Shooter, Haywire, Three Days of the Condor). Or
you may want something a bit more simple with a mission-of-the-week
structure you’d see on TV shows like The Unit, The Brave, or SEAL Team.

24
 TRAITS
A villain’s traits are left for the group to define in play, but there are three
good standbys that are almost always characteristics of the major villain in
a thriller plot:

„„ Resourceful
„„ Ruthless
„„ Relentless

Resourceful means they have the means to not only carry out their plan,
but they also have the capability of dealing with the protagonists as well.
Ruthless means that they’re self-centered — whoever isn’t integral to their
plan is expendable and, if it comes down to it, even they are when their back
is up against the wall. They always have, and always will have, solely their
own interests at heart. Relentless means that they will never stop — for the
villain’s plan to fail, the protagonists are necessary. They’re not going to give
up if phase one if their plan goes up in smoke before their very eyes — they’re
going to get even. Not only that, you can be sure they’ll be carrying out a new
phase with one hand while orchestrating the protagonists’ demise with the
other. A villain can and should have more depth to them that can be seen
through their traits, but those are the essentials that I would think carefully
on before removing,

25
EXAMPLE
DIRECTOR

The numbers on the side of the sheet are

story beats that make up the entire movie.
How long each beat lasts, and how many
scenes take place in each number, is up to
you, the Director. If you don’t know what
to do next, move on to the next story beat.

Networks are a list of factions that you can

bring into the game as needed. Players go to
the docks to get some answers? Maybe they
find dirty cops there with ties to organized
crime in Marseilles.

It’s up to you when you want the

protagonists to get drawn into the villain’s
plan or end up in the villain’s cross hairs.
The in medias res opening could already
be factoring into the larger plan, or it
could just be how we first get introduced
to the protagonists and get to see how
capable they are.

Reactions are ways you think the villain

might respond to the protagonists once
they get involved. Would they take it
personal? Who would they send to take
care of them? What steps would they take
to insure their plan continues and accounts
for the new threat?

26
A villain’s motivation and end game will help you come up with reactions you can jot
down in the reactions box. It will also help you come up with how they’ll change up their
plans as needed and how they’ll go down. Are they the type of villain that wouldn’t
consider failure an option and go down shooting when cornered or the type to have
an out and contingency planned for any occasion? How would they deal with failure?
Does their motivations have an emotion at the core of them? Do we see it on screen?

This box is where you can keep track of any minuses you’ve been banking in order to
give the protagonists are hard time later on in the movie.

27
PLAYING THE GAME

THE TABLE STARTING

FIGHTS CHASES

JOBS&CLOCKS RECOVERY

28
29
THE CONVERSATION
Much like “The Talk” you all have at the beginning of the game about the
things you both want to see and do not want to see, the game in its entirety
is also a conversation. The Director mediates, prompts, and generally makes
sure that the conversation occurring is understandable and clear. The clearer
the conversation, the clearer the fiction and the more likely everyone will be
envisioning similar things going on in the game and the less likely confusion is
to arise. Mediating the conversation also means making sure everyone gets
a turn and chance to speak — this is called spotlighting and is really the only
learned skill that won’t come as naturally as simply having a conversation
with other people. The Director section beginning on page 54 will go into
more detail on spotlighting and other guidelines that will help add to the
play experience while this section will focus mainly on players.

USING WHAT YOU’VE PREPARED

Leading up to the game, you should have had a conversation about

touchstones and, time allowing, created a collage together of cool locations
to set scenes and interesting characters or actors to fill the cast of characters
in the fiction. Each player should have their character sheet in front of
them. The Director should have their sheet in front of them with a villain
roughly laid out on it (their motivations and goals, how they are going to
accomplishing said goals). Knowing that the plan is not going to survive
any contact with the players, the Director should have only prepared the
first two steps and taken more time to get to know their villain and their
motivations to figure out how they might react to the players.

30
 THE TABLE
If your table is virtual, you should have your collage and pictures easily
accessible to everyone. Ideally, you’re using a virtual tabletop like roll20
that allows you to add in the card decks virtually. If you’re using the Operators
deck you should have both the Fight Cards and the Chase Cards loaded up
in their respective decks. If not, you can make your own cards by putting the
names of different fight moves (roundhouse kick, uppercut, etc.) on index
cards or slips of paper. To make the Chase cards you’ll need to similarly
write down things someone being chased will do to lose a tail (blend into
the crowd, create an obstacle, etc.).

In roll20 you can also create your own rollable Fate dice by creating rollable
tables if you’d like visual representations on the screen. If not, roll your Fate
dice virtually and assign dice to cards in your head or a notepad or take notes
as needed. The next section is all about Fight and Chase scenes so read that
to find out exactly how the dice and cards will work to get a good idea of
how to use them at your table, virtual or not.

Have at least four Fate dice on hand if you’re playing face-to-face,

ideally each player will have their own set so no sharing is required and
multiple characters can be doing things at the same time. Same goes for
the cards — one deck can easily be shared by players, but you may want
a couple decks for more than three players if you care about moves not
being repeated.

In the screenshot above, roll20 shows the Fight (green) and Chase (blue)
cards loaded up in the bottom right corner of the main window. The main
window has some of the collage we put together for a game. The chat
window is used to roll dice by typing /roll 4dF.

31
STARTING THE GAME

The easiest way to begin playing is for the Director to start asking the
players questions. Sometimes, the Director might have an idea prepared
beforehand — particularly if they want to start the players out in the middle
of a mission that ties into the villain’s plan. The more players contribute,
answer, and ask questions and generally take an interest in the cast of
characters and the movie being created in the fiction the more fun everyone
is going to have. If a Director asks you what mission you’re in the middle of,
think of the touchstones you talked about and riff off one of your favorite
scenes. If they ask you what your character is doing right now frame scenes
and talk about what you’re seeing as if you were describing a movie to
someone. This is your chance to introduce your character — what are they
doing that captures the feel of the movie and the concept of your character?

DIRECTORS

While the Director is the only player actually called out as such, every player
is given creative input and takes on the role of a movie director throughout
the game session. The Director is sure to ask you to frame scenes about your
character at the very least, and will ask for your input on much more as play
progresses. When I say “the role of a movie director” I mean describing as
vividly as possible to the other players what you’re picturing in your mind.
You aren’t limited to simply stating the actions of your character — we want
to see what you’re seeing! What’s the camera doing? Are you thinking of an
iconic scene we might know from another movie? What is your character
feeling or thinking about? Tell us as much with as little as you can to get the
point of the scene across. Again, this is a skill and takes some getting used
to. The only way to get better at it is to do it a lot, so take the reins whenever
they’re passed to you and ask for feedback once the game session is over.

32
 BUILDING ON THE CORE
You’ve already learned the core mechanic of the game — whenever a player
character attempts something risky or dangerous, and the situation is tense,
the Director will probably call for a roll of the dice. When you roll the dice,
you always roll four Fate dice. You want to see pluses turn up in order to
succeed. Blanks don’t help you, and minuses mean the task is going to get
complicated and a lot more tense or dangerous.

While the core mechanic is the meat and potatoes of the game, there are
some subsystems that can be used, as needed, to spice certain aspects of
the game up that really help simulate the things that make a great thriller
great. These additional subsystems are:

„„ Fights
„„ Chases
„„ Jobs
Fights and Chases use the Operators cards that can be purchased separately
or a prepared deck that you and the other players put together beforehand.
Fight Cards are strung together along with dice to narrate a deadly, kinetic
flurry of blows between (usually) two opponents. Chases use a deck of
cards and dice to narrate out a chase between a lead and pursuers. The Jobs
subsystem is for elaborate, Mission: Impossible-style missions that require
preparation and teamwork to pull off.

33
FIGHTS
There are two ways fight scenes can play out in a game of Operators.
The first way is the quick way — with a standard die roll using the
Fight skill that resolves the same way as any other die roll. This is
the way fight scenes with anyone that is less competent than the
player characters should be resolved. In every movie, though, there
are some highly trained, on-equal-footing-with-the-protagonist
characters; Fights with these characters are always dangerous and
filled with tension – that’s when you break out the Fight Deck. To play
out a fight using the Fight Cards, do the following:

„„ First: Draw four cards from the deck.

„„ Second: Roll four Fate dice.
„„ Third: Assign one die to each card.
„„ Fourth: Place an additional card below any minus.
„„ Fifth: Arrange the cards as you see fit and
narrate the fight scene as you see fit
from start to finish, including any
counter attacks
„„ Sixth: Repeat until someone is out of the
fight or flees.

Director: You’re rushing down the hallway when suddenly the

window on the left shatters. You see his shadow just before
he comes through the window so instinctively grab and try to
the throw the guy but he flips over your arm to avoid the twist.
He turns to face you.
Elizabeth: Awesome. I’m guessing I should be drawing
cards for this?
Director: Definitely!

1 Draw four cards

34
 <<FIGHTS CONTINUED

2 Roll four Fate dice.

++-0
3 Assign one die to each card.

+ + 0 -

4 Place an additional card below any minus.

4 Place an additional card below any minus.

+ + 0 -

35
FIGHTS CONTINUED>>

5 Arrange the cards and play out the fight.

+ 0 - +

Elizabeth: Alright, I think I’ve got the scene arranged here.

So, as he turns to face me I try to catch him off guard by just
running up, jumping and slamming my knee into his face. He’s
stunned for a split second, but he’s recovered in time and sees
my elbow cutting up for his jaw; he catches my arm and tries to
put me in a lock. I try to reverse it but he wrenches himself free
and jabs me in the face. I roll my leg around and use my hips
to push him through a door. The wood splinters at the handle.
Director: Awesome! So you landed two shots on him and
took one yourself?
Elizabeth: Yeah, I’ll mark down a Stress for that.
Director: Alright, what does that look like?
Elizabeth: I’m going to mark off a box on the mental track, so
I’m going to say that the jab he gets in doesn’t really do much
damage, but it catches me off guard and really pisses me off. I
am going to be seething for the next little bit here. It might be
time to get a little reckless.

36
 CHASES

Great chase scenes are at the heart of many great action movies.
Similar to Fight Scenes, these are extended scenes when the
protagonists are up against people with the skill to outrun them.
To play out an extended chase scene using the Chase Deck,
do the following:

„„ First: Note how many rounds the chase will last.

„„ Second: Determine how many chase lines there are.
„„ Third: The lead draws four chase cards.
„„ Fourth: The pursuers roll four dice and assigns
one die to each card.
„„ Fifth: Players calculate the sum of their
dice roll and say whether they’ve caught
the lead or not.
„„ Sixth: The lead narrates what they do to try
and get away using the cards as
inspiration, one at a time.
„„ Seventh: The pursuers narrate how they
either gain, don’t gain, or lose
ground to the lead based on the die
result they place next to each card
and whether or not they catch the
lead this round.
„„ Eighth: Repeat until the lead is caught or escapes.

The Skill of the character being chased dictates how many rounds the
pursuers have to catch the lead (Move if it’s a foot chase, Drive if it’s
a car chase, hacking if it’s a competitive hack, and so on). In order to
catch the lead, a pursuer needs to get a number of pluses equal to the
Skill they’re using to give chase, multiplied by 2. If there are multiple
pursuers then the pursuers need to get a total of pluses equal to the
highest skill of any of the pursuers, multiplied by 2.

The lead picks four cards from the chase deck and places them face
up on the table. The pursuers then roll their four dice and assign a
die to each of the cards.

37
CHASES CONTINUED>>

The lead narrates the first card and what they do to try to get away,
then the pursuers narrate how they either gain on them (if the die is
a plus), get tripped up by them and fall behind (if the die is a minus),
or eventually overcome the obstacle, but get hindered such that they
cannot gain on the lead (if the die is a blank).

In a chase, a running tally is kept by each pursuer. To catch the lead

the pursuers needs to net a positive total equal to the Skill they’re
using to give chase, multiplied by two, within the number of rounds
allotted. The number of rounds is determined by the Skill the lead is
using to try to get away, and a round ends with the drawing of four
cards and ends when the last card is narrated through.

When it is the player characters being chased, the four cards that are
drawn are each chosen by a player. One each if there are four players,
one each and one player narrating a second scene if there are three,
and two each if there are two. If the player characters are caught and
there are enough characters to catch all the PCs, then the players
can choose to have everyone be caught, or just the characters whose
cards got a die with a plus. If there are multiple chases going on ( if
the player characters split up) each chase should have its own set of
cards. If there aren’t enough non-player characters to catch all the
player characters, the Director will decide who is in danger of being
caught (and so which player must draw cards). The other players
must still fill in the fiction of their escape, or the Director may still
have them draw cards on a separate track with a different difficulty
of escaping. For example, if a government asset is tasked with taking
down the player characters and gives chase after spotting them at
a train station and the player characters veer off and split up, the
asset may decide to chase the closest character to them, but radio
in with descriptions to have the local police try to catch the other
characters. The asset is going to have a considerably higher chance of
catching up with a player character, but if the police still have a shot
then two separate chase card tracks can be drawn and two chase
lines can be narrated.

Of course, at any point a chase can be resolved with a simple die roll
rather than drawing cards. Make sure the table is up for an extended
chase before drawing cards.

38
 <<CHASES CONTINUED

1 The Director notes how many rounds the players

have to catch the lead and tells the players.

Director: Jason and Elizabeth, the asset dives out the window
he came through and you see him scuttling alongside the
building. It is very high up.
Elizabeth: Alright, well I go after him!
Jason: Me, too!
Director: Alright, you’ve got two rounds to catch this guy then;
he’s a little beat up from the fight, but he’s still quick.

2 Since both players are pursuing one target,

the Director only needs to draw four cards for a
single chase sequence.

3 The Director draws four cards for the lead.

4 Elizabeth notes that she has a 2 in Move so she needs

four successes to catch the lead. She rolls
+--+. Jason also notes he has a 2 so will
also need four successes. He rolls ++++.

39
CHASES CONTINUED>>

- + - +
+ + + +

5 Elizabeth ends up neither gaining nor losing ground

at the end of this round, but Jason will catch the
asset before he can escape in a single round!

6
Director: Alright, so you see him moving alongside the
building, wind whipping his clothes around. Suddenly, he
pauses for a moment. Then you realize why - he’s timed it just
right. He takes off his jacket, jumps off the building, catches
a nearby wire to help break his fall, and lands atop a passing
double-decker bus!
7
Elizabeth: Well, that throws me off apparently. I make a rookie
mistake and dive off right after him, not looking to see if there’s
anything there to break my fall. I end up careening off the bus,
which at least partially breaks my fall, but then I slam into a
poor guy riding a motorcycle behind it.
Jason: I got a plus so I’m going to say that as he was moving
along the outside of the building, I just sprint down the hall
inside where we are. When I see him jump I time it so the bus
is where I need it to be; I spring down the hall, leap out the
window at the end, and land right on the bus with a somersault
before springing into action again and resuming the chase.
8
Director: Alright, let’s move onto the second card...

40
 JOBS & CLOCKS
Depending on the type of game you and the other players want to play, Jobs
can range from quick, precision affairs to full-blown Mission: Impossible-
style elaborate stunts and heists. The Jobs subsystem uses Clocks and is
meant to only be used when players would normally spend time planning
an infiltration into a building with a goal or objective in mind. If there is no
goal or objective, the Director is encouraged to simply put down a clock
as needed to represent the time the protagonists have before they are
discovered or whatever other consequence fits the fiction.

Clocks are made by drawing a circle on an index card (or loading up a token
or graphic of one on your virtual tabletop). The Director then marks as many
segments as makes sense for what’s happening in the fiction, as necessary.
One segment on a Clock means the players only have room for one failure
during a Job or in play before things go sideways.

41
JOBS&CLOCKS CONTINUED>>

As a player you want to be keeping an eye on any Clocks because any failure
carries with it the potential to lose a segment. There is more advice for
Director’s on and roll consequences in the Director’s section on page 62.

It should be obvious when the time comes to use the Jobs subsystem. If isn’t,
you probably shouldn’t bother engaging with it. Here are a couple things you
can ask yourself if you’re not sure:

„„ Is there a clear objective? — get the Rabbit’s Foot; find and secure

the prisoner; extract the classified documents.
„„ Would the job require planning? — there’s security; there are
failsafes; it can only be done at a certain time.
The answer should be yes to both these questions, otherwise just
continue playing, rolling dice as needed. Once you know you’ve got a
Job on your hands, the Director has the players answer the following
questions as a group:

„„ What is your objective?

„„ Where is the job taking place?
Next, the Director asks each player, one at a time, if they’d like to create
an obstacle that will stand in their character’s way. For every obstacle
that is created by a player, the Director has them tell the table how they
come up with the information and adds a number of segments to the Clock,
depending on what the obstacle is — one segment for an obstacle that could
be overcome with a single test, two segments for anything that would
require multiple die rolls.

42
 <<JOBS&CLOCKS CONTINUED

Once everyone has had a chance to add an obstacle, the job proceeds with
the Director asking questions to both get the Job started, and throughout
until the end. When the Director asks you a question try to come up with
an answer with the rest of the players that will fit with the fiction, but also
try to keep the pace moving. There is more direction for the Director on
asking questions during Jobs, but here are some that you can expect to hear:

„„ How do you get in?

„„ What part of the mission are you responsible for?
„„ What do you expect to see here?
„„ What is your exit plan?
Of course, the questions the Director asks are going to be tailored to the
fiction and Job, but it’s important to know the process is collaborative and
that you should work with your Director to come up with a Job that has
features and obstacles you want to see and are interested in.

Throughout a Job, each player has one flashback scene they can use to
help them get past an obstacle or problem in their way. A flashback scene
allow a player to say that they’ve retroactively prepared for a task such
as the one they’re currently facing and to detail how they’ve managed to
bypass it. Flashback scenes do not allow players to automatically succeed
on a challenge, but they do provide fictional positioning that allows them
to approach a task in a different way, or attempt a task they may not have
been able to before. Not a hacker? No problem, maybe you were provided
with a program that let you in a back door. That uncrackable safe? Only as
good as the people with access to it — maybe you’ve bribed or threatened
one of them already.

43
JOBS&CLOCKS CONTINUED>>

A flashback scene can be used to retroactively prepare for any obstacle or

need. Weapons, an inside man, a contingency exit strategy, anything that
helps a protagonist face down a challenge. As such, flashback scenes are an
extremely powerful resource and why each player gets only one flashback
scene to use at their discretion. However, there is a way for a player to buy
themselves another flashback scene — it just costs them Stress. One Stress
if the game is less gritty and more in the vein of Mission: Impossible or Ocean’s
Eleven and two if the game is meant to be more gritty, in the vein of the
Bourne movies where the characters have access to less resources and the
feel is more deadly.

Whenever a flashback scene is used, the player must tell the table what they
did in the past that sets them up with the result they want in the present.
They still have to roll the appropriate dice if there’s any risk — bribing a
guard doesn’t mean they might not have a change of heart, turn you in at
the last second, or be beholden to a villain who’s gotten to them since you,
for example. It’s up to the Director to decide if there’s still any risk and if
the dice need to roll, as usual, but flashback scenes buy fictional positioning
only — not automatic success unless the Director says so (and buying a
flashback with Stress usually means I’m more generous with what it gets
the player and their character).

If any Stress is taken the player should work that harm being done to their
character in the fiction if possible, whether they choose to incorporate it into
their explanation of what they did in the past, or if the Stress comes about
as a result of the dice being rolled in the present.

44
 RECOVERY
With all the ways to take on Stress, there is only one way to recover
stress in Operators, and that is to frame a scene that fleshed out the Inner
Turmoil of your protagonist. All players give their character an Inner
Turmoil — something that they regret or are often wrestling with when
they have the time for introspection or a time when we learn that our
protagonists aren’t just cold-blooded killers, or, if they are, what made
them that way.

It’s entirely up to that protagonist’s player to come up with something that

fits with their character and the feel of the fiction. Some players may wait
to fill that part in until a few scenes have been framed and they get a feel for
their character’s attitude and dynamic within the group and that is perfectly
ok. That said, when the Director asks you and the rest of the table what
they want to do for downtime, it’s on you to snap that time up and use it
to recover from stress if you’ve got any. These moments are few and far
between in most movies so use them wisely.

For every scene a player frames that details or fleshes out their inner turmoil,
they may recover from one stress (unmark or check any stress boxes) in
whatever Stress Track makes sense given in the scene in the fiction.

Players are free to ask other players if they want to frame scenes together,
but it should be assumed that the player who begins framing the scene and
starts that particular conversation has narrative control over that scene. It’s
always assumed there will be scenes where protagonists bond, just make
sure that’s the kind of scene the player wants to frame. Only the player
framing the scene can recover a point of Stress for their character.

45
EXAMPLE
Director: It sounds like you all want to get the Rabbit’s Foot,
and we know that it’s in Mercier’s lair on the cliff here. Do you
guys think this should be a job? What’s in it that would put
some time restraints on getting the foot?
Michelle: Maybe it’s going to get both unveiled and auctioned
off at a masquerade ball to make all the bad guys feel safer?
Director: Ok, nice. So maybe this is the only time it’ll have a
bit less security around it. Plus, the place will be teaming with
arms dealers and terrorists and all kinds of dangerous people.
I like it, It doesn’t sound like the operation would need to be
super precise at this point, so I’ll draw up a clock of four to
start and I’ll add two segments to the clock for those obstacles.
Anyone else have an obstacle they want to put in?
Elizabeth: Maybe our boss knows we’re tracking Mercier so
is sending in a team of his own to see if we’ll be here because
he wants to know why we’ve gone dark?
Director: Excellent, so there’ll be good guys looking for you
there too! Another segment added. Anyone else?
Khan: That sound good to me but I want some tech stuff to
fiddle with, so I’m going to say that there is going to be state-
of-the-art biometrics there. The guards will take blood samples
to make sure everyone is who they say they are.
Director: Ok...and you have a way to get around this?
Khan: But of course. You’ll see.
Director: Awesome, alright another segment then. Anything
from you, Jason?
Jason: Hmmm...I like the idea of needing to do some crazy
breaking and entering. Maybe the Rabbit’s Foot is going to
be actually housed somewhere else within the mountain, and
a 3D image of it is just projected to the guests so they can
confirm it is what it is without there ever being the chance of
someone doing something nefarious?
Director: So you’d have to kind pick up and kind of track or
hone in the real location to get it once you get inside?
Jason: Yeah, I think that’s what I was thinking.
Director: That sounds fun, I’ll add another segment for that.
Does anyone want to use their flashback scenes before we get
to it to set up equipment you have or anything, or should we
just use them as needed as obstacles are encountered?

46
Michelle: Let’s just use them as needed this time around.
Jason: Yeah sounds good.
Director: Alright, so we see a series of motorcades making
their way up the cliff side to get to Mercier’s lair. A couple of
them go by and then a couple helicopters come in overhead
as the who’s-who of the underworld begin arriving. How are
you guys arriving?
Khan: I think we arrive covertly, maybe by scaling the cliff face
Should just one of us be passing off as a bad guy and the rest
be his bodyguards or what?
Elizabeth: Uhh yeah, let’s do that. You had an idea for the blood
sample, so why you don’t you be the big bad because it stands
to reason that they’d just be sampling you then?
Khan: Ok, sounds good. I think I am going to try to pass myself
off as Adnan G. El Shukri Jumah, born in 1975 isn’t too far off.
Jason: And the blood thing?
Khan: I’m thinking that as the real one shows up, we take
him out, I take a sample from him and pass myself off as him,
while you make up his entourage of bodyguards and whoever
he arrives with.
Michelle: Alright, with it being a masquerade party no one will
be paying too much attention to faces anyway, it could work.
Director: This sounds pretty ripe for complications if I don’t
say so myself. Who wants to be doing the surveillance to
pick this guy out?
Elizabeth: I can do that, my Surveille is a 1 so...nice, I got 3
pluses and one minus!
Director: Wow, nice! Alright go ahead and tell me how it goes
down, I’ll throw in a complication along the way.
Elizabeth: Alright, so we scale the cliffs and while everyone
sets up for a bit of ambush, I watch for his motorcade coming in
based on the driver in the front I give the go ahead and I hit the
motorcade with a High Power Electromagnetic Pulse gun that
I have ready. I’ll use my flashback scene for that and play out
how I got it in a minute...but yeah, I hit and then they go bust in
to take out everyone inside before they know what hit them.
Director: Awesome! You guys bust in and I’ll say you can take
them unaware and you can tell me how in a second. But then
you turn to your main man, and you realize that it isn’t him. In
fact, it isn’t a “him” at all...

47
FRAMING SCENES
As discussed in the previous section on recovery, the Director will often
prompt you and the rest of the players to come up with scenes all on your
own (like for scenes involving your protagonist’s Inner Turmoil), or to add
details or interesting ideas to a scene (like when playing through a Job). Most
often, the Director will ask players to frame scenes that transition and move
the story along to the next location or place, or that flesh out a non-player
character that has come up in the fiction. This is where the pre-game collage
and picture hunting done beforehand really pays off.

If you’ve done the pre-game right, you and the rest of the group already have
interesting locations and shots of actors or people you want to see in your
movie to draw from when the Director does ask if you’d like to transition
and how to move from this scene to the next. I recommend having every
player bring three pictures to represent countries (landmarks we see in
movies that show us we’ve moved locations like the Eiffel Tower for France,
the Colosseum for Rome), at least three interesting locations that could
take place anywhere (an interesting looking nightclub, a parking garage, a
construction site), and at least three actors or shots of people you’d like to
see in your movie  that could play your own protagonist, a CIA director, your
boss, your husband, a street thug, whatever you’d like to see as long as you
include other assets to go toe-to-toe with the protagonists.

48
 <<FRAMING SCENES CONTINUED

When you frame a scene, you can do so however you like, but here are
some guidelines:

„„ Describe the scene like you would describe a movie scene. What
do we open up on? What is the camera doing? Who’s in the shot?
Is there a particular mood you’re going for?
„„ What are the characters in the scene doing? What is the point
of the scene?
When you talk about the characters, do so without reservation. If you’re
taking wild liberties with characters already established (like, say, with the
villain) then you might want to ask the table if they’re ok with what you’re
doing and going for in the scene, but the beauty of the conversation is that
you can simply revise the scene once you’re done with it if you need to. If
you’re including another character and want to have two characters having
a dialogue or are interested to see how that character would react to your
protagonist, for example, then you should ask the other players to help out
and jump into the shoes of whoever needs playing in that scene. If you’re
framing a scene with another protagonist, then you should assume that
character will play their character in the scene or ask that player if they’re
ok with where you’re going and how you’re portraying their character.

It is always a great idea to involve other players in a scene if you can,

especially if the scene is of any great length. Ask the Director and anyone
else to help you out and tell them the general idea you’re going for.

49
FRAMING SCENES CONTINUED>>

If you’re the one framing the scene, you’re the one that ends it as well. The
Director might ask you if you got what you wanted out of that scene and
if you’re ok with moving on because they have guidelines to keep the story
progressing. In an action thriller game like this, it’s best if you have a point
you want to get across in your scene rather than letting it breathe for too
long. The Director is instructed to be fairly aggressive in cutting and pacing
given the nature of the game, so work with them on your scene if you’re
unsure, ask for help, or say you need a minute or two to think and generate
a really good idea so they can cut to someone else and come back.

Hopefully your Director does not come off as confrontational in their

aggressive scene framing and cutting. If they do, know that the rules push
them in this direction but talk to them when they ask for feedback at
the end of the game. You’re all at the table to make a story together and
sometimes, particularly when playing online with many people, a lot can
get lost in translation.

Most of the time, it’s going to be obvious when a scene should end. A really
great line has just been said, or there’s nothing else left to be said. Most good
scenes can become great with a bit of collaborative planning beforehand.

How you frame and talk about the scene is also up to you. You can play your
character and speak as them, or you can simply narrate what happens in a
scene — particularly if there’s no dialogue. You could narrate it out like a
simple sequence of events like in a stripped down play or script, or you can
assign roles and jump in for the full meal deal. Experiment and find out what
works for you and for the scene.
50
Khan: Uh guys...we have a problem. It’s actually a woman
named Ahlam Ahmad Al-Tamimi, so it isn’t going to be me!
Michelle: Haha ok, so let’s cut to me coming out of the
motorcade, flanked by these fine individuals. The camera
focuses in on the security guard with the pin-prick blood DNA
reading device, then zoomed out so we can see how huge the
mansion is. Then I think the camera zooms back in on bad guys
as they get out of the motorcade and then who they are is
printed up on the screen.
Director: I can totally see that. So it’d be saying things like,
“Ahmed bin Ackbar, suspected of selling a new, deadlier version
of white phosphorous to the Russians” and stuff like that?
Michelle: Yeah, exactly.
Director: Perfect, so what is your plan for getting Michelle the
blood and beating the DNA test, Khan?
Khan: Alright, so we see Michelle, in her disguise, coming up
to take the test. It comes up with an error right away, however.
We all look at each other and then I come up to the machine
and hit it. Then a “successful” comes up on the screen and
I say, “all made in Taiwan”. Then the camera zooms out and
scrubs backward in time to me getting the sample from our
knocked out terrorist friend. I put a little bubble of it on her
pinkie finger since they’ll probably prick the thumb and tell her
that, once pricked, to draw her hand away like it hurt, then pop
the bubble with the terrorist’s blood and let that trickle onto
the scanning pad. I just wanted those couple of tense seconds
after the error comes up because that seems pretty on-point.
Director: Totally. Elizabeth, you were the one who came up
with your boss sending in some guys to check out the place.
Want to tell us what looks like?
Elizabeth: Sure yeah. So I think the camera goes inside ahead
of us now and kind of pans around to show more people inside.
Do you guys think it’d be more interesting if we didn’t know
the people he sent, maybe? Or would he have sent people that
know us and we know them as well?
Jason: Hmm. Oh, maybe he sends that Patrick guy we rescued
last time? That way he recognizes us but maybe wouldn’t
give us away right away? Or at least might be somewhat
sympathetic to us.
Director: Alright, sure, that sounds good. I’m going to say he’d
have a couple people in place, though as redundancies. How
do you want to approach him, Elizabeth? Or do you?

51
RUNNING THE GAME

YOUR ROLE MOVES

THE DICE RISKS

FAILURE INFORMATION

ANTAGONISTS TECHNOTHRILLERS
YOUR ROLE
As the Director, your main job is to make sure everyone is having as much
fun as possible. That means keeping track of the pacing of the story to make
sure it’s always moving as fast as possible. Ask questions to make sure every
scene is on point and cut past anything that can’t be explained in a couple
sentences. It’s a tough job, but you can keep the pacing tight in an action
game like Operators by:

„„ Giving everyone spotlight time. The easiest way to do this is to

always go in a certain order around the table. Go from left to
right on your screen if playing online, go clockwise if face-to-face.
This has the added advantage of being predictable so players can
anticipate when it will be their time to be called upon to act.
„„ Asking players questions to think about ahead of time and have
them answer it when their turn comes up — “alright, we’re going
to be cutting to the next location next Kyle, so why don’t you think
about where we’re going while I finish this other scene with Ann.”
„„ Using hard scene framing and encourage the other players to
use it as well — if you know the group is heading to Germany to
catch a drug pusher named Guy, frame a scene where the player
characters are about to bust into his apartment.
„„ Cutting often — If a player rolls a bunch of minuses, cut to other
players in between them dealing with the complications you
throw at them.

54
 PRINCIPALS
The following set of principals are a set of guidelines that you should always
have in mind when playing Operators.

„„ Think like a director. What’s the camera doing? What’s the shot
look like?
„„ Have the players put on their director hats by asking them to
frame and describe their own scenes.
„„ Ask the players provocative questions — what do you think
happens here that causes your character to fail? What makes it
so you can only enter the building between 2 and 3 am? How do
you feel when you see the man that murdered your wife?
„„ Name important side characters, but never humanize mooks or
give them names (unless you talk about that and decide to as a
group beforehand).
„„ Play to find out what happens. Never prepare past step 2.
„„ Be a fan of the characters. They’re the main characters in the
movie.
„„ Fast pacing always trumps fact checking. If you’re not playing a
technothriller (and even if you are) sometimes it’s ok to handwave
certain things. Would that bullet have really penetrated the wall?
We only care if it made for a great scene.
„„ Always talk to the players like their characters are competent. Tell
them when someone’s out of place, or looks like they can handle
themselves where they’d most likely find a weapon, etc.

55
MOVES
Throughout the game you are going to be setting the players up to react to
certain things in the fiction. Once the players react, you’ll continue on with
the consequences of their actions. Oftentimes moves will snowball naturally
and a lot of the time you won’t need to look at the this list to come up with
something interesting to have happen in the fiction. This list is for the times
you could use a prompt.

„„ Introduce a new faction or side character. Look at the pictures

you readied pre-session and bring in someone with an interesting
motivation.
„„ Threaten whatever is at risk (see page 62 for more).
„„ Telegraph upcoming danger — the guard moves his hand to the alarm
button....
„„ Separate them.
„„ Give them a chance to shine/ Put them in a spot. Hackers want to
hack, shooters want to shoot. Give them stuff that plays to both their
highest and lowest Skills on occasion.
„„ Offer an opportunity with a cost — she steps away from her computer.
You figure you’ve got a split second to hit that usb port if you want to
risk it. Want to chance being seen?
„„ Take away or use up their resources — the car pulls alongside and then
shoots out the tires on your car! The guard you thought you would be
indisposed leaves the washroom sooner than your expected.

56
 BRING IN THE PLAYERS
Because Operators is meant to be as collaborative as possible, and
hopefully the pre-game rituals of collecting photos and talking about
touchstones and what they want to see in the game drives this home to
everyone at the table, it’s never a bad idea to make the players a part of
the decision process. It means less prep for you and more fun for them.

When you jump in to the game and start with the in medias res opening,
ask the players questions to find out what they’re doing. Give them
the chance to introduce their character and to have them shine. What
mission are you in the middle of right now? What is your character
particularly good at? What would their part in the job be right now?

Once you have the initial setup down and the characters are introduced,
you can ask them questions like, “what happens that sends the mission
completely off book?”. The in medias res opening has no prep and no
planning whatsoever, so you can throw whatever you want at them and
get them used to rolling the dice and the core mechanic. Tell them what
minuses mean and throw complications at them on rolls where they
succeed, but bank any minuses in the beginning on rolls they fail. Tell
them that would normally cost them, but this isn’t that part of the movie
yet. You have a lot of leeway in the opening and ask questions like “how
do you all manage to get out after it all goes to shit?” Have fun with it.

When you introduce the villain, tell the players what traits you have
down for them. If they’re resourceful and ruthless, frame the first scene
of the villain on a yacht with one of the mercenaries that got away
previously dragged in front of the villain. What’s in the yacht that hints
at how weird this villain is? What does he do to someone that’s failed
him? Of course, have some ideas in mind, but just as you play to find
out what happens, you also play to find out who your antagonists are
beyond their motivations.
57
MODERATING
As the Director, moderating the conversation at the table is an important
skill to learn. The fiction of the game emerges from the conversation
between you and the other players at the table and so making sure that
everyone is heard, people aren’t talking over one another, disruptions are
minimized as much as possible, and that the core ideas are sussed out when
needed ultimately leads to a much better conversation, and therefore a
much better game.

Moderating the conversation is a skill that takes time to learn. Knowing

when to let a scene breathe or to jump in and make sure the players focus
in on the point of a scene is no easy task. Making sure that everyone gets a
chance to get what they want out of the fiction and being aware of spotlight
time are skills that you ultimately learn by doing. All you can do is be aware
of the conversation, ask for feedback after a session, and maybe go back
and review a game (if possible) to see where you could have managed time
better, pushed in to help with pacing or finding a scene, or other things you
might have missed.

These are hard skills to learn and it’s not even more difficult than being a
mediator in a debate because the game takes place in a social place and the
goals of a game are different from that of a debate. You are there to guide the
conversation so that the audience is getting the most out of it (the audience
being you, but also whoever isn’t talking at the time).

58
 <<MODERATING CONTINUED

Here are some things to keep in mind when Directing the conversation at
the table when playing Operators:

„„ Be aware of the conversation and listen to it intently. Preside over

and participate in it. Make sure only one person is talking at a time
and that everyone gets a say. Make sure everyone gets spotlight
time. Do not let certain players dominate the conversation.
„„ Always consider yourself the audience. If something is unclear to
you, assume it’s unclear to everyone else and ask for clarification.
If a scene is boring you, help the players involved find what the
point of the scene is. Do not be afraid to get involved —  you can
only use yourself as a gauge to tell if a scene needs guidance.
„„ Be an active participant. Ask good questions that lead to interesting
answers and a richer fiction. Asking questions is the best way to make
sure the players get invested in the fiction.
„„ Be prepared. If you can, read this book before playing and watch
the relevant touchstones you discussed with the rest of the
players in the pre-game section. Know the rules of the game and
use the resources in it.
„„ Set a time table for the game and push to stay within it. Nothing
pushes you to get the most out of your time like having a limit to
stay within. Even if you don’t meet your goal of finishing the game
within three hours, or get to Step 2 in the villain’s plan within an
hour and a half, at least you’ve got it in the back of your mind
pushing you to make the most of the time you have to play.

59
DEALING WITH DICE
The core mechanic of the game is all based around players rolling four Fate
dice when their player attempts something dangerous or risky. Positives
tell you and the player whether their character has succeeded or failed, and
perhaps if they succeeded beyond expectation (if they get more successes
than they needed). Minuses introduce complications into the situation.
Succeed or fail, complications get introduced. Complications are ways to
up the stakes in the situation and force the player to think on their feet to
deal with the situation.

Let’s say a player has a rating of 2 in Shoot and they roll the dice to turn up
+++-. Since their Skill has a rating of 2, that means they got an extra
plus so they do what they set out to do and things go better than they hoped.
Despite having already succeeded, and you and the player already know they
will succeed, that one minus means that something unexpected happens
that they have to deal with. Let’s say they rolled Shoot to snipe a target
a mile away; The dice say they succeed, so we know that, but what could
have happened to trip them up in the process? At that distance, all kinds of
factors need to be taken into account. You could introduce the complication
of the wind suddenly changing, or their view getting obstructed by a passing
person or object. Or, it could be that someone on patrol comes within a
couple feet of where the player’s character lays prone and camouflaged. A
complication should affect the task at hand but doesn’t have to be specifically
about that task.

60
 <<DEALING WITH DICE CONTINUED

When a player rolls to pick the lock on a door, for instance, the complication
can be specifically about that task (maybe the lock turns out to have serrated
pins inside, for example) or it can be random element that is introduced
(someone across the hall shouts at you, “hey, what are you doing over
there?”; A SWAT officer bursts through the window beside you get through
the door to see your partner shoot and execute CIA Director Womack!).

It may seem that, with all these options, it could be hard to choose an
appropriate complication to come up with on-the-fly, but there is a short
list of the types of complications you can use to help trigger something
interesting and appropriate to follow from the fiction. There are
complications that can be introduced anytime, regardless of whether the
player succeeded or failed on their roll, and a couple more complications to
consider if they failed their roll.

The example list of complications and the risks they are tied to is on the
next page, but first consider how to choose. Complications should always
stem from and seem a natural consequence of the fiction. They need to be
on-point for the genre and for the type of game being played. Most of the
time, you won’t even need to look at the list before possible complications
pop into your mind because they just make sense for that moment.

61
RISKS & COMPLICATIONS
When a player character sets out to do something risky or dangerous,
by definition there is risk involved. You can look at the way the player is
speaking about their character and how they are trying to achieve their
intent to see what is at risk in the scene. Are they:

„„ Trying to be sneaky or stealthy? Then they risk being uncovered.

„„ Trying to be smart? Then they risk missing something.
„„ Trying to be fast? Then they risk losing time.
„„ Trying to be careful or precise? Then they risk blow out.
„„ Trying to be forceful? Then they risk being ineffective.
If the player failed their roll, then another option become available or, more
likely, get rolled into a complication.

„„ The players can take harm.

If you’re unsure of what the player’s intent is or how they’re doing it, ask
them to clarify in the fiction and listen for the adverbs. Just how are they
going about their task? Are they trying to be quick or careful? Sneaky or
clever? In the technothriller section there is a great deal more help about
possible complications you can introduce on specific technical tasks because
that’s where technothriller literature really shines. Check it out on page 134
if you and your players want that extra challenge.

62
 <<RISKS & COMPLICATIONS CONTINUED

Playing a regular action thriller movie doesn’t require that the complications
be tied to the specific tasks involved, but if you look for those adverbs and
put them in the context of the fiction, you can usually see the player’s intent.
Complications should stand in front of intent, every time and all the time.
If their intent is to get into the room, then they have deal with the SWAT
officer coming through the window. If their intent is to get to the computer in
the room so they can plant a device and lay malware, then the complication
doesn’t need to be before they get in the door, just as long as it’s before the
malware gets successfully uploaded (the computer has additional security
they need to break through first, or a guard is their way, or a laser grid spins
up when they step in the room).

If the player’s intent is unclear, get them to clarify that, too. Put your
complications in the way of the thing that really matters to them and you’ll
get way more tension out of a scene.

Remember that, a lot of the time, complications are dealt with instantly and
without need for a die result. As long as the player succeeds on their roll,
we know they’re getting through any complication you put in front of them.
That makes it even more exciting because it doesn’t slow down the action
and keeps the player on their toes. SWAT officer breaks in? Great, I see his
shadow as he swings in and I cut his rope and then kick him back out the
window before shouldering my way into the room!

63
DEALING WITH FAILURE
When a player character doesn’t get the number of successes they need on
the dice they roll, say they have a 3 in the skill Drive and they roll --++,
for example, it’s called a failure. Failing a roll doesn’t mean necessarily mean
that the player’s character fails in task or get their intent — though it can
definitely mean that; It also doesn’t necessarily mean that the player’s
character needs to take harm, though it can certainly mean that, too! So how
do you come up with the necessary ramifications of a failure? It all depends
on the fiction.

The fiction is your baseline. Are you playing a grittier action thriller? Then
you may want to reserve doling harm out for the set piece fights when
the player busts out the Fight Cards. The Director Sheet is also a good
resource — are we in the first scene? Then maybe just let the player succeed
and bank the minuses for later when it’s more dramatically appropriate. It
may sound like I’m not giving you any hard and fast rules for this, and that’s
true, you’ll have to figure it out for yourself and the answer will be different
for each Director and each game, but when you dole out harm or take away
an important like time during a job make sure that:

„„ It feels dramatic and ups the tension.

„„ It feels right for the fiction you’ve created with the other players.
„„ It’s not going to ruin the player’s fun.

64
 <<DEALING WITH DICE CONTINUED

As a reminder, whether the player succeeds or fails on their roll determines

whether harm is on the table or if you can mark off a segment of time on
a countdown clock for a Job. Regardless of how many minuses come up,
if the player succeeds on their roll then they can simply narrate past any
complications you bring into the scene. So if a player rolls their Shoot skill of
1 and the dice come up +--- then they've succeeded and you need to
introduce three complications (or bank and save them for later).

Failure most often means that the player character does not get their
intent — if they're trying to be sneaky about getting access to a computer
in the next room behind a locked door, then maybe a complication forces
them to abandon their planned entry at the door, or someone hacks into
the computer and gets the data they wanted first. Failure does not have
to mean that they do not get what they want, however. Maybe they do get
access to the computer and the data, but the data has next-level security
that only this one guy in Beirut can break — it's got his fingerprints all over
it. Failure should also mean the complication of the situation via bringing in
new factions or characters that make the situation more volatile and tense.

Failure never means that the player's character is incompetent or inept. The
players don't play characters like that in Operators. Failure results from bad
luck, imperfect knowledge, or other highly competent characters capable of
challenging them engaging with and foiling the player characters.

65
INFORMATION & NOTICE
If you take a look at the players’ character sheets you’ll see that there are no
reactionary skills — they’re all verbs that imply immediate action. No Skills
like “research” so they can collect information or “notice” so we can see if
they pick up on the tail they’ve got on them.

There’s good reason for this — as the Director, any time the story moves
into an area where the players might have to research something or find
out information you want to move through it as quickly as possible, or turn
it into something actionable on the spot. The easiest thing to do is to simply
ask a player to choose the next location and how we get from A to B. Fill in
the blanks as needed.

For example, the player characters have just escaped with their lives from a
CIA holding facility but they aren’t really sure what to do or where to go next.
Simply ask one of the players to choose one of the prepared locations or
person on the table and go from there. If they choose France and the photo
of James Earl Jones, then ask questions and fill in the blanks. What’s his name
and who is he to you? Maybe they caught a glimpse of him at the facility so
they’re going to interrogate him, maybe it’s there mentor so they’re going
to him for safety.

Maybe the player has a good idea and doesn’t need the cards at all because
they saw a tattoo on one of the guys that he recognized as belonging to
a mafia outfit. What are they doing working for the CIA? Where did you
see that tattoo?

66
 <<INFORMATION & NOTICE CONTINUED

The lack of a skill like notice might make it feel like you're skydiving without
a parachute sometimes and it can also feel like a lot of work without knowing
the genre and doing your prep in that regard — it is now on you to tell the
players whether or not their characters notice something. That means you
need to really get your head in that movie mindset. It isn't about whether
the character would notice any given thing in that moment, (though when in
doubt always err on the side of yes, they do, because they are playing highly
competent individuals), but what would make a great scene in this movie?

Even highly competent character like Jason Bourne and Lorraine Broughton
get caught unawares on more than one occasion. On those occasions though,
if it isn't obvious in the fiction why they don't notice (they're wounded,
distracted, the person they’re up against is just as competent as them, etc)
then simply put it to the player. You can put failure to the player every time
it happens and I still don't think the players would ever mind having a say in
just how their character fails.

Aside from failure-to-notice, the main thing you need to brush up on is

feeding the world to the players as if they were hyper competent action spies
because they see the world in a different way than everyone else. They see
the risks and dangers, the opportunities and pitfalls. They see everything,
note what would be useful to them, and sweep the rest away and it isn't the
most familiar or intuitive thing to have to describe.

67
INFORMATION & NOTICE CONTINUED>>

So what does it mean to see the world the way these characters would?
The best way to get an idea of this is to catch up on some of the media
touchstones you and the other players talked about before the game.
Another thing you’ll want to do is to read their character sheets and be
familiar with their backgrounds. The background reference section on
page 104 is there to help both you and the players understand what kind
of training these characters may have been through. In the end, though, it’s
really a matter of practice. Here’s how to describe the world to the players
to really put them in the shoes of their characters:

„„ Detail potential threats, then see how they react to them to

decide if they are real or not. Most of the time, the only time I detail
a threat and have it not be real is to show a character’s frame of mind
(they’re feeling vulnerable) or when it’s another competent character
(if it’s an asset that will engage with the protagonists later on, for
example); that way, it doesn’t feel as much like a surprise when the
person really does turn out to be a threat and it’s pretty in-keeping
with spy fiction.
„„ Tell them about what is useful to them in the scene. Always give
them more information than they need and let them sort out what
they want to do with it. When they look at people they see possible
assets to getting what they want, who is out of place or likely to have
a weapon, if they can handle themselves in a fight. When they see
the world they see which cars are easily broken into or might not
be reported missing for a long time, easy marks and trouble spots.

68
 <<INFORMATION & NOTICE CONTINUED

This means that the player’s characters are always on edge — that’s how
they’ve survived this long. Paranoia is often well founded, but make them
feel how stressful and the toll it can take on a person as well.

When a player asks you what a character looks like to them, tell them what
they can deduce about them and whether they’re a threat to them and their
mission, what they might be able to get out of them — risk, asset analysis.
Treat it like the player is asking you:

„„ Is this person a threat?

„„ What can I get from this person?
„„ What is a good approach to getting what I want out of them?
Keep your descriptions and responses short, as if how their character
would think and approach the situation. “Not a threat to you, but possibly
the waitress. Probably carrying cash. Looks like a handgun tucked into the
small of their back.”

When a player asks you about the environment they’re in, treat it the same
way. What they’re really asking you is:

„„ What here is a possible threat to me?

„„ What possible assets are here?
So again, describe the environment for them through the eyes of their
character when a player asks you directly about something in the world.
“One man looks out of place — the car he’s driving, the clothes he’s wearing.
Something is not right.”

69
TRANSITIONS
During the pre-game you and your group prepared a bunch of photos for
use with the game. Use them as needed to bring in new side characters and
factions and to cut past anything that does not set up a tense, dramatic,
action-oriented situation. It’s still up to the player you choose how we get
from point A to point B and whether they want to use the photos on the
table to help with that. Some players may want a montage of hacking or
interrogating antagonists to get information. Other players may want to stop
midway through a transition (or you may want to spice things up by asking
what goes wrong on the way from point A to point B). There’s no wrong way
for a player to do it. Here’s the procedure:

„„ Identify a good time to make a transition. There’s a lull, players have

finished doing what they want to do in downtime, you aren’t sure
where to go from here.
„„ Pick a player to do the transition. Go in order and tell the table at
the beginning of the game the order you’ll go in so they know when
it’ll be their turn.
„„ Ask them questions to facilitate and encourage the rest of the
players to collaborate if the player is struggling. Make sure that if
the player you chose has an idea they find interesting that it doesn’t
get drowned out.
„„ Ask them to narrate what the transition looks like “on screen”.

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 FICTIONAL POSITIONING
In a lot of thrillers, especially technothrillers, weaponry and firearms plays
a prominent, if glossed over, role. Sometimes the weapons scene on screen
are entirely fictional (Mission: Impossible) and sometimes they go into a
great deal of detail and try to be as realistic as possible (Rainbow Six and
other Tom Clancy novels). While it is always important to consider how
gear and weapons are important in the fiction, Operators does not require
you to change anything in regard to the core mechanics. Whether the
character is using a rocket launcher or knife, they are always rolling the
same number of dice and penalties and bonuses are not something you ever
need to think about.

That said, you still need to consider the fiction and what kind of fictional
positioning the gear or weaponry affords a character. Some things a
character simply would not be able to attempt without gear. If you want
to hack into the NSA, you better have a computer. Taking out a helicopter
with a rocket launcher is going to look different than taking out the pilot
with a handgun.

The beauty of fictional positioning is it is not something you really have to

think about all that much. Gear and weapons is either enabling them to do
something they couldn’t before, or affecting the fiction. When they roll the
dice and come up with a failure then it could be because of what they’re
using. In fact, a possible consequence of failure is limiting a characters
resources so that they have fewer choices than they did before.

71
EXAMPLE
Elizabeth: Now that we’re in the party, I think maybe part of
my job will be finding and neutralizing the good guy team. I’m
going to look for anyone I know and just kind of get a lay of
the land in general.
Director: Alright, so maybe you go in first to do a bit of recon.
It would make sense for a bodyguard or two to go in and kind
of make everything was somewhat secure I imagine before
bringing in their boss.
Jason: Yeah, I’ll go in too, to look around so we can cover
more ground and we can maybe whisper what comes to our
attention into our mics to the rest of the team.
Director: Sure, that works. Alright, so, Elizabeth. You walk in
and see that the place has a fair amount of people in it already.
The men are in tuxes, the woman in various kinds of expensive
Venetian dresses. Some people are using the masks that are
attached to sticks that they hold up to their face, bodyguards
are easy to spot, though, because they’ve got really low-key
masks with bands around their faces to keep their hands free
and vision less restricted.
Director: You note that most of the bodyguards look they
know they know to handle themselves. You’re guessing
most are ex-Special Forces from various places. The typical
entourage seems to be one interpreter, and then another two
bodyguards of various nationalities; you assume they hired on
guards that didn’t speak the language to be sure they got the
least amount of information possible You pick out a couple
of Alpha Group boys that you’re pretty sure you trained
alongside with back in the day.
Elizabeth: Hmm, I wonder if they’d know our current situation
at all. I’ll stay out of their line of sight for now just in case.
Director: Alright. Passing them by, you see a familiar figure
sitting at the bar. As if feeling your eyes on him, he turns
around and you see his eyes. It’s definitely Patrick. He
squints a little, obviously trying to make you out. How do you
want to play it?
Elizabeth: I think with that squint, he’ll check it out so I’m going
to brush past and make for an area that has less people milling
about so I can confront him in relative isolation.
Director: Ok, well you can be sure he’ll come get up, take a sip
of his drink, and make his way over.
Elizabeth: Excellent.

72
Director: Jason, you’re specifically casing for the security
conditions here, so I’m going to give you a low-down. Like I
told Elizabeth, you can be sure that a lot of the bodyguards
are top-notch, ex-special forces. You also note that when a guy
slams his hand on the bar that the bartender’s eyes look down
for a second. If you had to guess, he looks like a pump-action
Remington man, but it could be a semi-auto.
Jason: Oh right, I assume everyone got at least a wand run
over them as we came in? I’m sure they wouldn’t let everyone
walk around carrying.
Director: That’s right, there’d be security and wands run
over people. Did anyone want to try sneaking in some other
form of equipment?
Khan: I’m going to try to bring in that 3D printed plastic one-
shot gun I had.
Director: Ok, I’m going to go ahead and have you roll for that.
Infiltrate probably makes the most sense. Sound good?
Khan: Yeah, sure. Infiltrate is two so...

+00-
Director: Alright, well you’re obviously trying to be stealthy
here, so you’re risking a commotion and attention being drawn
to you. To you want to give it up to avoid that, or do you want
to keep it, but have some people turn to you as the wands go
off and risk being seen?
Khan: We all know I’m reckless, and I’d like to see which eyes
it draws anyway. Might even make for nice cover for Elizabeth
for her meeting there.
Director: Alright, so the wand passes over you and it blinks
for a second over where you're keeping the bullet for
it. What do you do
Khan: I’ll press it into my palm I take the stuff out of my
pockets for him to check, then slip it into Michelle’s pocket
while he waves it over everything else. Then, once he’s done,
we walk into the room again and the camera shows her passing
the bullet back to me and me putting it back into my pocket
and then the gun’s single chamber.
Director: Perfect! Alright, Michelle you do notice some eyes
pointing at Khan, though, and they look friendly...

73
ANTAGONISTS
The bread and butter of any action movie are the obstacles in the way of
the protagonists, but nothing is more memorable than a good villain or set
piece fight scene. We already talked about villains on pages 19-26, before
the Director section largely because the villain is owned by all the players at
the table. You should come to the table knowing a bit about your villain, but
then you have to let go and allow them to be shaped by the players (directly,
when they actually narrate scenes about and with the villain in them, and
indirectly, when you change the villain in response to what the players do).

Throughout the game you will be bringing in all kinds of other side characters
to challenge the protagonists and progress the narrative. So just when do
you need to know what they’re capable of mechanically? How much can
they take before they go down?

 And as I said on the previous page, fictional positing is king in Operators.

Meaning, the antagonists have what would make sense in the fiction, and
what would challenge the player characters as well, on occasion. If the
players had a particularly easy time running a job and are on their way
home in a helicopter, maybe a mook on the ground has a rocket launcher.
Whatever keeps things dangerous and fast-paced, while remaining in the
boundaries set by the talks you’ve had at the table about the fiction.

74
 <<ANTAGONISTS CONTINUED

The only time you really need to put much thought into how much plot armor
an antagonist has in the fiction is when they are going toe-to-toe with a
player character in a fight or chase. Remember, the characters are hyper
competent individuals — they only draw the cards and get into a full blown
move-for-move fight if they are up against an antagonist that can really
handle themselves. Otherwise, treat them like any other obstacle where
a single die roll will resolve how long they last and let the dice tell you just
how much trouble they give them.

Player characters have a four Stress Boxes to mark off before they start
taking harm in the form of Consequences, of which they have three before
they’re out (at least, until they get some downtime and can recover, but it’s
possible that character isn’t seen again on screen until the end of the movie)
Most players put a skill of 1 in Fight, which means they get a free temporary
Stress Box to mark each round of a fight potentially as long as they force
a change of location during the round (more on that in the reference
section on page 88). Here’s what to remember when making antagonists
for Chases and Fights:

„„ Fights — they can take 4 hits if they’re as good as a PC. 2 if they’re a

challenge. If they’re not a challenge just roll the dice.
„„ Chases — 1 round to catch them if they’re as good as a PC. 2 if they’re
a challenge. If they’re not a challenge just roll the dice.

75
ONE SHOTS & CAMPAIGNS
Your first game of Operators should always be played with the one-shot
framework in mind. Go for a breakneck pace that hits the amount of time
you allot it (I recommend three hours) and make sure that nothing is sacred.

Because side characters won’t get a lot of screen time you only really need
to think about their motivation. Having a photo to put to a face is immensely
helpful. You can show your characters what actor they’re played by and
maybe give them a memorable mannerism or way of speaking if you want
to. Check out the list of actors on page 172 to see what actors seem to come
up often in my games if you need someone to throw into the game quick.

If everyone has a great time at the table and you all decide you’d like to turn
it into a campaign game, that’s great. There are some campaign framework
ideas in the reference section on page 96 for ideas to check out.

If you want for some general rules for advancing and changing characters as
you go along, you can try three things. First, after every session, allow players
to add something to their Training or Discipline Special. They can change
their Trademark after every game if they wish. Every two sessions they may
up a single Skill from a 3 to a 2. Every four sessions they may change a Skill
at a 2 to a 1. At any point, players are free to change, or add to, their Inner
Turmoil as it just provides more options to choose from in downtime for
when they need to recover and makes them feel more rounded and real.

76
 GOING TRAD
Operators takes great pains to codify a game play experience at the table
that is heavy on the collaboration. This type of play is not for everyone. You
may be one a Director that wants to give the players a more traditional
experience of the Director handling all the antagonists and their plans, and
the players focusing only on their characters. If that sounds like you and
throughout this book you’ve been shaking your head and thinking you’d
rather just prep a scenario for your players to play through, that’s cool. The
game will not break if you do this. Still, I do recommend:

„„ Having the talk at the beginning and setting expectations at the table
so that everyone is on board and knows what kind of game it’s going
to be.

„„ Not planning out the villain’s entire plan. Do the first couple steps
using the planning sheet, know their motivations and goals, what
factions are in play and they can use, but don’t plan the whole thing
out. The plan won’t survive contact with the players.

„„ Framing pertinent scenes about what’s going on away from the

protagonists as well, just like in a movie. Let the players know who
the villain is and give them glimpses of the things they’re doing to set
up their plan. A little bit of dramatic irony never hurt anyone.

77
TECHNOTHRILLERS
The technothriller in particular is a very different way to approach spy,
military, or action thriller media. It places emphasis on technical details
and being, generally, as realistic as possible in regards to describing certain
disciplines. Because of this, it makes it very difficult to sit down and play
through a technothriller at the table. That said, there is a way to do it that
will be rewarding and challenging for players that want to do so and that
way is to start with a communal pool of knowledge to draw from, detailed
in the following chapter in the reference section on page 134.

The core mechanic in Operators requires the Director and players to set up
and knock down obstacles, as the dice allows. While in the “regular” play
mode of the game the Director is able to bring in any complication they
like, be it related to the specific task at hand, the “technothriller mode” is
designed to make play more challenging for everyone involved.

The Director will have to be familiar with the material presented in the
book, and likely have the book open to the reference section during play for
some topics less familiar so that they can present complications specific and
technical in nature, related to the task at hand. The players will also need to
be familiar with the material so that they can describe how they overcome
said obstacles. The mechanics don’t change — as long as players have the
pluses on the dice they need, they can overcome any complication thrown
at them, but they still need to know enough to get by them.

78
 <<TECHNOTHRILLERS CONTINUED

If the player doesn’t know how to get past a complication, like how they’d
move laterally on a network when hacking, they have to adopt a new strategy
to get to their goal or achieve their intent.

The special sauce here is making the game play all about the challenges.
When a player decides they need to make a bomb, we need to see the
montage of getting the things they really would need and putting it
together. Of course, too much detail is tedious so an overview is often more
than enough and hitting on that sweet spot is something the next chapter
provides guidance on.

The technothriller section will present all kinds of different obstacles and
problems that are common in action, spy, and military thrillers so that
Directors have enough of a broad overview on the technical and specific
knowledge to present these problems to the player. Example problems and
unexpected complications that can arise, specific to the task, for the Director,
solutions and information about overcoming problems and complications
for the players.

Needless to say, this is not the default mode to play in for good reason.
Players may need to reference sections in play and so possibly slow play
down (unless you want to be really hardcore and not allow referencing) and
this challenge-based play will simply not be fun for some groups.

79
 RECAPS BACKGROUNDS
REFERENCE

BOMB MAKING HACKING

INTERROGATION LISTS

LOCATIONS VILLAINS
 PRE-GAME
„„ Have and take part in “The Talk” — what do you want to see in the
game? What don’t you want to see in the game? What are your
touchstones?
„„ Gather pictures and photos with the other people who are
PLAYER

going to be playing the game. Try to bring at least three

establishing shots of countries (something with a landmark if
you want, or just an aerial or shot that we’d see in a movie to
let us know we’ve moved to a new location); five shots for cool
locations that can be anywhere, but where you’d particularly
like to see a cool fight, chase, or other scene play out; and lastly
another three pictures of antagonists you’d like to see in the
game. Using recognizable actors and actresses works really
well, but anyone that could make for an asset, the head of an
organization of some kind, or that you could otherwise seeing
butt heads with your character is great.
„„ Talk through the photos and what you’d like to see in the game.
If you have an idea for a movie, the team, the character you’d
like to play, the villain and what their plan might be make sure
you tell everyone! The more enthusiasm you bring the more
excited people will be for the upcoming game.

82
 PRE-GAME
„„ Participate and listen to “The Talk” — ask people what they don’t want
to see and make sure you give everyone a chance to speak. Make
yourself available by email, chat, or a private channel as well. Then
ask everyone what they do want to see and use that positive note to
start talking about the photos you and everyone else has brought.

„„ Have pictures ready, and least three establishing shots for

countries, five locations you want to see fights, chases or other
scenes take place in, and four pictures for antagonists for the
player characters to run up against. Concentrate on the villain
in particular and what kinds of people they might surround
themselves with and use to their own ends.
„„ Set up the online space you’ll be using. If you’re using roll20
then invite all the players in, create the collage, get the Fight
and Chase cards loaded up, make rollable tables for Fate dice
that the players can roll and use when needed. Teach them the
command for rolling four Fate dice (/roll 4dF).
„„ Come to the pre-game talk with a vague idea of a villain with a
motivation, and beginnings of a plan in mind so you can pitch it
to the players. Ask for things they want to see — locales, specific
scenes, certain actors, the feel and genre. Be enthusiastic and ask a
lot of questions.

83
 CHARACTER CREATION
„„ Start wherever you like on the sheet. If you don’t have much of an
idea, assign Skills first. You get to put five Skills at a rating of 1, four
at a rating of 2, and the rest get a rating of 3. The number dictates
how many pluses you need to get on a roll of four Fate dice in order
PLAYER

to succeed — 1 in Shoot means you only need one plus to succeed; 3

means 3 of the 4 Fate dice must come up as a plus in order for you
to be assured success (the Director may still offer you success at a
cost if you fail).
„„ Otherwise, the best place to start is to read the possible backgrounds
on the next page to get inspiration and choose skills based on that
along with your Specials.
„„ You have three Specials to write in and assign — Training, Discipline,
and Trademark.
„„ Your character’s Inner Turmoil is what makes your character relatable
on-screen. We get to see them have a conscience — what have they
done they’re not proud of or lose sleep over?
„„ Fill in your character’s other details, including name, date and place
of birth.
„„ Introduce your character to the table. What they’re good at, what
they look like, what’s interesting about them to you.

84
 CHARACTER CREATION
„„ Follow along with character creation and answer any questions that
come up.
„„ Let them know that the Fight and Chase skills are special in that they
have card mini-games attached to them. Having a 1 in Fight means
that a PC has one Temporary Stress they can use to soak up damage
each round (a 2 means every 2 rounds, and 3 every 3 rounds). Having
a 1 in Chase means that if anyone were to chase them, the pursuers
would have to catch them in one round before they got away.
„„ Let them know Specials have mechanical effects — Training allows
a PC to re-roll any single minus rolled as long as they narrate a
flashback to their training; Discipline allows a PC to re-roll any dice
that come up blank and ignore any minuses that come up upon re-roll;
Trademark is used only once per session but allows for an automatic
success as if the player had rolled and turned up four pluses.
„„ Remind them Inner Turmoil is not only a chance to add another layer
to their character when they portray them, but it’s also what they
reference in scenes to recover from Stress. They can recover from 1
Stress in a scene whenever we get a scene that shows the character
in a moment of vulnerability and we learn about them and their past.
„„ Note down character names and their Specials, Skills so you can refer
to them by their character’s name and come up with challenges and
chances for them to shine (their best and worst skills).

85
 CORE MECHANIC
„„ When your character attempts something risky or dangerous, the
Director will ask you to roll four Fate dice and tell you what Skill
they think is most appropriate. If you don’t agree, clarify the fiction
and what you’re seeing in your head, then say what Skill you think
PLAYER

is most appropriate. Continue to clarify the fiction until you’re both

seeing the same thing in the fiction and choose the most appropriate
Skill. If it could still be one of many, you get to pick which one to use.
„„ In order to assure your success and achieve your intent on the roll,
you need to turn up at least a number of pluses equal to your number
in the Skill being used. 2 in Drive? You need two pluses to succeed. 3
in Move? You need three pluses to succeed.
„„ Any additional pluses rolled means you do what you set out to do
particularly well. What that means is up to you, but you can petition
the Director for additional effect.
„„ As an optional rule you and your Director may use: one additional
plus means you look good doing it and a bit of luck may go your way or
be passed on to the next task. Two or more over and you can set up a
situation in the fiction that you or another player can take advantage
of — should they do so, you may give them an additional die to roll.

86
 CORE MECHANIC
„„ When a player attempts something risky or dangerous, say what Skill
you feel is appropriate and ask them to roll four Fate dice.
„„ If they turn up a number of pluses equal to their number in the Skill,
they’ve succeeded. Ask them to tell you how they succeed at what
they do.
„„ If they turn up more pluses than they needed, they succeed with style.
„„ If they turn up enough pluses, but also turn up minuses, then have
them narrate their success, but interject unexpected complications
equal to the number of minuses they roll. Allow them to simply
narrate through the complications on their way to their ultimate
success.
„„ If they don’t turn up enough pluses, either tell them to narrate what
their character does, then tell them what goes wrong such that they
fail to do what they set out to do, or ask them to narrate everything,
including their failure — “what happens to mess up your plan?”
„„ Otherwise, tell them you are going to bank the minuses so that they
still succeed — have them narrate their success as if they’ve gotten
the pluses needed.
„„ See optional rule on the previous page about additional pluses in case
you and your players want to add a little spice to successes.

87
 FIGHTS
„„ When the Director tells you it’s going to be a Fight, draw four cards
and arrange them in whichever order you like. Replace cards with
others from the deck as needed to build the narrative you want.
„„ Roll four Fate Dice and assign one die to each card. Draw and place
PLAYER

another card below or next to any card with a die showing a minus.
„„ A plus means you get through their defenses and score a hit.
„„ A minus means your opponent both blocks or otherwise negates your
attack and counterattacks you.
„„ A blank means that your attack doesn’t get through.
„„ Use all four cards and what the die means for each of them to build a
narrative consisting of hits, negations, and counterattacks.
„„ Your skill in the Fight skill dictates how many rounds you get a single
Temporary Stress you can use to soak damage up. If you have a skill of
1 in Fight, each round (every time you draw four cards) you’ll get one
point of Temporary Stress that you mark off before you mark Stress
(or a Consequence if all your Stress boxes are full). If you have a Fight
of 3, you’ll only get a point on the third round. To get a point your
point of Temporary Stress you should narrate a change of scenery or
something happening in the environment the fight is taking place in.
Temporary Stress stacks and is added to if not used but once a fight
is over, all Temporary Stress is erased.

88
 FIGHTS
„„ When a player gets into a fight with someone that is challenging, or
of equal skill or greater than the player character, a Fight is called for
(rather than simply rolling the dice like any other obstacle).
„„ Remember that the player draws the cards, rolls the dice, and comes
up with the narrative completely on their own. Once you tell the
player there’s going to be a fight, have them start that process and
then cut away to what the other players are doing until they give you
the go ahead that they’re ready to narrate that round of the fight.
„„ Ask them what number is next to their Fight skill and remind them
when they get Temporary Stress they can use to soak up a single
Stress instead of marking one Stress box off (or taking a Consequence
if they have all their Stress boxes checked).
„„ For every minus rolled a Stress box should be marked off (or a point
of Temporary Stress erased).
„„ For every plus the player rolls, the antagonist marks off Stress.
Remember, if they’re a challenge they can take a total of two Stress
before they’re taken out. If they’re on par or greater, they should be
able to take four.
„„ Once the player scores enough hits to take them out, let them know
so that they can narrate taking the antagonist out in that round. Any
minuses rolled in that round still apply.

89
CHASES
„„ When the Director tells you there’s going to be a chase and that
you’re the lead, draw four Chase cards to help narrate what you do
to escape. If you and other PCs are being chased, the cards drawn are
divvied up between you and the rest of the players whose characters
are being chased.
„„ Roll four Fate dice and assign each one to a card. If the cards are
split between you and other players, roll a die for each card you are
responsible for.
„„ Narrate what you do to avoid pursuit and get away based on the cards
drawn one at a time.
„„ A plus means your pursuers catch up and overcome the obstacles
you narrate (the Director will tell you how).
„„ A minus means the obstacle causes them to fall behind in the chase
(The Director will tell you why).
„„ A blank means that the pursuer isn’t hindered, but does not gain on
the lead either (the Director will tell you what happens).
„„ If you’re being chased by another player the player rolls the dice and
narrates how they are hindered, overcome, or are unable to gain on
you each card.
„„ You are caught if the pursuer gets a number of pluses equal to their
highest skill in the skill being used, multiplied by two within a number
of turns equal to your Chase skill (1 round consists of four cards).

90
 CHASES
„„ If a side character is being chased, draw four Chase cards.
„„ If the players are the ones behind Chased, they draw cards to help
narrate what they do to get away and then roll dice as well to see how
effective the side characters are at catching them.
„„ A side character catches the lead if they get a number of pluses equal
to their abilities. If the side character is challenging to the PCs they
need to get 3 pluses to catch them.
„„ If the side character is on par with the PCs, they have to get 2. They
have a number of rounds (every time four cards are drawn a round
begins) equal to the lead’s skill being used to get away (Move, Drive,
etc.).
„„ A player character catches a side character when they get a number
of pluses equal to the skill they are using to give chase, multiplied by
2. If they have a 1 in Move and are in a foot chase, they need 2 pluses
to catch the side character.
„„ If a side character is challenging to the PCs, the side character will
get away in 2 rounds. If the side characters are on par with the player
characters, they will get away in 1.
„„ Whenever a Chase happens remind the players at the table that
the cards are only there for inspiration. Discard and draw them as
needed. Also, between each card lots of things can happen. Always
urge the lead to change the scenery after each card or two.

91
TEAMWORK
„„ By default, there aren’t any mechanics and rules for helping a friend
out or putting two heads together. That said, there are optional
rules on page 92 that allows a player to set up a situation that other
players can take advantage of if they roll two or more pluses above
the number required. When a player makes one of these situations,
they are creating an Advantage.
„„ An Advantage can be anything that helps one of the other players
at the table. Let’s say you know Ethan is going to be coming through
here trying to get to the air ducts and he could use an extra die to do
it. So when you get two extra pluses on your roll to sneak past the
guards, you also create an Advantage for Ethan by throwing a Pepsi
can you find around the corner to draw the guard away for awhile.
Now when Ethan wants to sneak by, when he rolls he can say the
guards distracted and you can give him an extra die to roll.
„„ Any die given must be kept separate from the four dice rolled because
it’s only on that die that any minuses can be disregarded. You can’t
hinder someone when they use your Advantage, thankfully!
„„ Teamwork and the optional Advantage mechanic does not work
during Fights and Chases. If multiple characters are engaged in
a Fight, they all draw their own cards. If multiple characters are
engaged in a Chase, the four cards are split, or they get their own four
card track depending on what makes the most sense in the fiction.

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 TRANSITIONS
„„ Most of the time, the Director will cut from place to place as needed.
Sometimes, though, starting with the person to their left usually
(they should tell you at the start of the game who’s going to be doing
the first transition and whether they’re going to move clockwise or
counterclockwise for the rest of the game) they will ask a player to
do a transition.
„„ Transitions are all about moving from place to place within the fiction
of the world. Look at where we are in the fiction right now, and either
use the photos at the table or whatever idea you already have to
choose the next place to go. If a chase just ended at a strip mall and
the Director asks you where we should go next, maybe you look at
the photos and decide to go to a club in Paris.
„„ Once where the story is moving to is established, the Director will ask
you questions that get the story there. How do we get there? Does a
person give you information that gets you there? Do you find an item
or something else that points that way?
„„ Once Points and A and B are established, the Director will ask you to
re-frame the story and what we see in the fiction. After the chase you
rip the helmet off one of the mooks on the motorcycle and find him
unconscious. You find this matchbook for a club in Paris, for example.
We cut to an aerial of Paris, then to this club just before it closes. The
story moves on from there.

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 JOBS & CLOCKS
„„ Sometimes transitions will lead into a Job. If you and the other player
characters need to get hold of something important and if there’s a
clear goal, the Director will probably ask the table if you all want to
pull a Job.
PLAYER

„„ If everyone is for it, the Director will start asking questions to set up
where the Job is and other details about it and then draw a clock to
represent how much time you’ll have to complete the mission.
„„ You will be asked if you want to add an obstacle to the Job. It can be
anything you want — the more difficult the obstacle is to get by, the
more extra time you’ll get to complete the Job. When you add the
obstacle tell the table how you cased or otherwise got info about the
place (justify knowing about the obstacle ahead of time).
„„ Throughout the job, failures can, and will, lead to time being burned
up and segments marked off the clock. Once all the segments are
marked off, the job goes sideways in some way.
„„ At any point in the Job you have one free flashback scene you can use
to justify having prepared for an obstacle or task in the job. It could
mean you stashed weapons in the washroom, threatened a guard’s
family, taken biometrics data off someone with clearance while they
slept, whatever.
„„ The Director might assign a personal clock to you if something comes
up in play. Make it a priority to deal with the clock!

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 JOBS & CLOCKS
Whenever the players want to get hold of something, and you’re playing a
kind of game where it makes sense, ask them if they want to pull a Job to
do it. Only suggest a Job if their intent and goal is clear.

Ask and encourage everyone to put a cool obstacle into the Job going in.
Have them flesh out a scene where they get information that gives them
the heads-up about the obstacle.

„„ Ask and encourage everyone to put an interesting obstacle into the

Job going in. Have them flesh out a scene where they find out about
the obstacle.
„„ Either encourage players to only come up with obstacles and to leave
out how they’ll get past them, or ask one player what the obstacle
to get in is, progress the fiction, then ask the next player what the
obstacle is at the next junction, and so on, to minimize the chance of
analysis-paralysis and to get the Ocean’s Eleven-feel of the explanation
and the execution happening at the same time on camera.
„„ If it’s an obstacle that can be surmounted easily, with a single test,
add one additional segment to the clock. If it’s a more complicated
one, add two.
„„ Assign personal clocks to players as needed — they have a spot to
write one in on their sheet. Only assign a clock if it’s urgent and
affects only them — getting poisoned, a kidnapped loved one, etc.

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CAMPAIGN CONCEPTS
„„ Mission-of-the-week — either in a special division of the military
or as a private contractor. Anything from Mission:Impossible to The
Activity, or The Unit depending on resources. Set up a hierarchy (i.e.
Reports only to the Prime Minister, CIA liaison in charge) and discuss
resources and restricted freedoms (what missions to take, when to
go or back down, deniability).
„„ Coming out of retirement — you’re the only team that can be trusted,
left alive, or have been asked for specifically. Check out Death Will
Have Your Eyes or Red.
„„ Activated — you have deep covers by day, like English teachers at a
language school, and are activated as assets when shit hits the fan.
No time for a lot of preparation, have to balance cover with missions.
Think The Division or assets in the Bourne movies.
„„ Burned — you’re radioactive and no one will touch you, or everyone is
after you. Maybe you’ve just escaped from a prison in China, or have
woken up after being brainwashed. Think Burn Notice, Die Another
Day or Bourne Legacy.
„„ Three is Company — you’ve got an additional personality, or maybe
even many, placed in your head because they come with the skills and
knowledge you need. Are you in control? Do the other personalities
want something?. Think Who is Jake Ellis or Cowboy/Ninja/Viking.

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 BACKGROUNDS
Here are some example backgrounds that you might pick-and-choose
from as a player. At the very least, they might provide inspiration for
skills, but you’ll want to think about the training your character has had to
establish your Specials.

Delta Force (Army Compartmented Element, Task Force Green, Combat

Operations Group). While there are many names for the group, and it has
since changed its name, Delta is the most recognizable so I’ll refer to the
unit as such. Because Delta is so secretive, much of this information is
surely out of date. It is not meant to be taken as current fact but should
still prove useful as a cursory overview for getting in character.

„„ You would have had to have previous experience to try out for Delta
and have had to have served for at least four years and two months
and have at least the rank of Staff Sergeant (meaning you’d have
leadership experience as squad leader) and be at least twenty-two.
„„ You would need to pass the Ranger/Special Forces PT, a psyche
evaluation via an aptitude test, and no disciplinary problems just to
try out. The PT test grades everyone at the 17-year-old level and
consists of push-ups, sit-ups, run-dodge-jumps, inverted crawls, a
two mile run and a 100 mile swim test in boots and fatigues.

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„„ Once you passed the intro PT test there would be a 10-day field test
in the form of land navigation courses while carrying various gear
(grease gun, ILBE/MOLLE, rucksack). The weight of the rucksack
and the distance of the courses increase while the time standards
for completion shorten until there is a final 40-mile march with a
45-pound rucksack over rough terrain with no time-frame for
completion given, just an “overdue” time.
„„ Psychological exams were then taken, including peer-reviews, and
then, once passed, you spoke to the unit psychologists who ran
their own gamut of tests to try to make you angry and otherwise
push your boundaries like in SERE interrogation. After that, you saw
the instructors and the Delta commander who barraged you with
questions and dissected each response you gave until you were left
totally and mentally exhausted.
„„ Once chosen for selection, the training began. The Operator Training
Course (OTC) was six months long. The training was composed of
marksmanship, demolitions & breaching, hostage and counter-
terrorist operational skills, tradecraft, executive protection, driving,
and more.
„„ Shooting started will gaining perfect accuracy on stationary targets,
then moving to moving ones. While everyone received training on
long guns (sniping), only those selected for long guns went through
additional and exhaustive training on them.

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„„ You learned the consistency of powder loads, bullet weights and

shapes, what it does in flight, how fast it takes off at and how well
it retains its energy. You started to pick up on a gun’s inherent
characteristics like its tightness or barrel accuracy quickly. For
close-in work, you were issued two pistols and taught “instinctive
fire”. First with stationary targets, in a single position. Then with
turning movements, then facing backward and turning around
quickly to shoot. After that, you were taught to shoot on-the-
run, firing at multiple targets, with good and bad targets mixed
together. Instructors were in charge of ammunition so dealing with
a malfunction or having a magazines with varying rounds, forced
transitions from pistol to submachine gun and vice versa. Headshots
with pistols were required.
„„ Whenever any mistake was made, especially when hitting a “good
guy” target, everything stopped and the shooter had to perform a
“Chinese Self-Criticism Drill” where the mistake was made clear to
their teammates and instructor.
„„ Shooting rooms and hostage rescue scenarios with live ammunition
and teammates or instructors sitting in the rooms in place of good
guys were common place. You learned how to judge a room, dedicate
sectors of it to each shooter, and work with your teammates to divide
a hostile’s attention and coordinate a simultaneous instant takedown.

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„„ You learned how to quietly break into buildings. How to scale,

descend floors and drop unharmed from height. Window latches,
door locks, how to make duplicate keys, jimmy or pick locks.
„„ Reconnaissance and intel gathering was taught along with sniping.
How to report information and log it so that those listening get it
accurately and quickly. Locations of hostages, a target’s rest schedule,
habits and other things that help you build a profile of the target. You
learned how to lie perfectly still for hours, how to rest the body while
keeping the mind active and alert with biofeedback training. How to
breathe and prevent your body from getting in the way of the shot.
How to adjust for distance, wind and other factors.
„„ You learned tradecraft from the best the CIA had to offer. Dead
drops, hand offs, pick-ups, load and unload signals, danger and safe
signals, how to tail or lose a tail, surveillance, and interrogation.
„„ Survival, evasions, resistance, escape (SERE) training prepared you
for if you were ever caught or tortured by the enemy. Survival and
evasion has to do with wilderness survival, sheltercraft, traps and
snares, finding foot and water, improvising equipment so that you
can send a distress signal or navigate yourself to safety in all kinds
of climates and terrain types. Resistance and escape focuses on how
to handle interrogation and find ways of escaping.

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„„ In addition to the military training you already received on explosives,

you learned specifically about breaching during your time with Delta.
How to cause the least amount of damage with the least amount
of material. Dynamite and TNT, ear-muff explosives to destroy
supports, You learned how to use C-4 and how to make specialized
shape charges to take down any obstacle in your way. Many missions
focused on training troops in other countries on basic tactics,
strategy, and shooting as well.
SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU, Task Force Blue).

„„ You would have been recruited out of the SEAL delivery vehicle,
explosive ordnance disposal, or from an East or West Coast SEAL
team. You would need to be at least 21 at the time, and have served
at least two tours.
„„ You probably would have already gone through BUD/S training, or
Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEAL training. BUD/S training has
three phases: Physical Conditioning (7 weeks), Combat Diving (7
weeks), and Land Warfare (7 weeks). Then you go through parachute
jump school (3 weeks). After that, SEAL qualification training lasts
6 months.
„„ Before trying out for selection, you had to pass three days of physical
and psychological tests.

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„„ The first two weeks of BUD/S prepares you for the third “Hell
Week” where instructors have you doing timed runs in the sand and
obstacle courses, swimming, calisthenics, small-boat seamanship, and
hydrographic surveys, and rock portage in rubber crafts.
„„ You learn to fire, take apart, and assemble various weapons, fire
mortars and RPGs, and learned how to blow up underwater obstacles
with TNT, C4, and dynamite. Land navigation, small unit tactics, and
patrolling techniques were taught and you learned how to rappel and
fast-rope from helicopters.
„„ You would learn combat SCUBA, basic dive medicine, and how to
tie various knots.
„„ To join a SEAL platoon, you would take advanced weapon training,
close-quarters and unarmed combat, cold weather training in Alaska,
and basic medical skills along with SERE training. Getting the SEAL
trident upon graduation would be a big moment.
„„ Upon joining a SEAL troop, you’d take specialty training, each at 6
months long, in at least one skill that was needed on the combat
team. Those specialties were: sniping, breaching, surreptitious entry
(mechanical and electrical security), medicine, advanced special
operations, ranger training, technical surveillance, advanced driving,
climbing/rope, advanced air, diving, or demolitions, high-value target
protection, instructor, languages, and drones.

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„„ After specialty training, you’d have gone for unit level training for six
months that focused on urban warfare, hostile maritime interdiction,
combat swimming, long range target interdiction, rotary and fixed
air wing options and special reconnaissance, small unit tactics, and
close quarters combat.
„„ For another six months following, you’d do task level group training
that brings in other supporting elements in the SEAL squadron like
the Special Boat Teams, intelligence, cryptology, communications,
medicine, explosives disposal, interpreters and linguistics and then
tests are conducted on the entire SEAL squadron.
„„ Having served on a SEAL team for some time, SEAL Team Six comes
to interview the cream of the crop. You were interviewed by four
founding members and your SEAL team commander. They went
through your record and asked questions to ascertain whether you’d
be a good fit on the team. It’s up to plank holders whether they take
you or not, and the commander can make a recommendation.
Both Delta and SEAL Team Six are primarily counter-terrorist units
that go after high value targets and disassemble terrorist organizations.
Team Six obviously specializes in maritime operations whereas Delta
tends to specialize in close quarters situations, like buses or airplanes
but their individual roles have blurred into one another recently with
the War on Terror.

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Depending on when you joined Delta Force you would have been part of
different operations in various countries. Here are some confirmed missions
you might have taken part in as a member of Delta, with some liberties taken
to try to put you in the head of your character:

„„ Operation Eagle Claw — one of Delta Force's first missions in 1980.

A failed attempt at rescuing 52 embassy staff in the Iranian Embassy
ended up being a non-mission for Delta that led to huge debacle for
the US. Your experience was seeing how poor planning and weather
conditions could lead to non-starters on operations, and this would
not be the only time. You saw the helicopters crash and the fires that
broke out took the lives of eight servicemen.
„„ Operation Urgent Fury — in 1983, the US invaded Grenada after
the execution of Maurice Bishop, the second Prime Minister of
Grenada. You raided Fort Rupert and Richmond Hill Prison along
with the rangers. A lack of intelligence meant being taken by surprise
when it was found out the prison had anti-aircraft guns the hard way.
There was no place for your helicopter to insert you and your team.
The heli took on fire and crash-landed. Your pilot was killed and you
had to hold off enemy forces before you were relieved by a separate
rangers force.

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„„ Operation Just Cause — you took part in the 1989 military invasion of

Panama. You were most likely tasked with raiding the Carcel Modelo
prison to retrieve Kurt Muse, a US citizen convicted of espionage in
Operation Acid Gambit. While your mission was successful, Noriega
got away and was at large for several days before taking refuge at
the Vatican diplomatic mission and finally turning himself in a couple
weeks later.
„„ Aeropostal Flight 252 — In 1984 a flight departing from Caracas,
Venezuela was hijacked and forced to land on the small island
Curaçao. You were flown in the next day to offer advice along with
your Delta unit. The next day 12 Venezuelan commandos stormed
the plane, killed the two hijackers, and rescued all 79 passengers.
„„ Operation Desert Storm — in 1990-1991, you and Delta force were
tasked with protecting General Normal Schwarzkopf, who planned
and led the operation, in Saudi Arabia. Along with the British SAS and
other coalition fights, you hunted for SCUD missiles. If you were a
Delta sniper, you found 26 of them pointed at Israel, punctured their
fuel tanks and killed their crews to prevent Saddam Hussein from
bringing Israel into the war.

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„„ Operation Gothic Serpent— in 1993, as part of the Battle for

Mogadishu, Delta force, you and the Rangers were tasked with
securing several of Mohammed Farah Aidid’s top lieutenants and
other high value targets; the operation was supposed to last no
longer than an hour. After two Blackhawk helicopters were shot
down with RPGs the mission was compromised and turned into an
ongoing overnight standoff before relief came the next morning . Two
from the unit, sacrificed their lives to help protect the crew of one
of the downed helicopters and died holding off Somali militiamen
before they were overrun. Five Delta operators, six rangers, five army
aviation crew, and two of the 10th Mountain Division lost their lives
in the firefight. Before the battle you would have already been in
Mogadishu for almost a month hunting HVTs.
„„ Operation Uphold Democracy — in 1994-1995, you were deployed
in Haiti to serve as bodyguards for visiting UN officials and diplomats
alongside the Polish counter-terrorist unit GROM as they tried to
persuade the leaders of Haiti to step down and allow elected officials
to return to power. The military regime had taken power in a coup.
If you were a SEAL you may have also participated on gunboats that
secured the harbor.
„„ Japanese Embassy Crisis — in 1996, you were dispatched to Lima,
Peru in a small team along with six SAS members to provide security
for diplomats and for the USA Olympic team.

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„„ Operation Enduring Freedom — Following the September 11 attacks,

you were deployed to Afghanistan in operations against the Taliban.
Early 2001, you and Delta Force were part of Task Force Sword, a
hunter-killer black SOF unit tasked with capturing or killing senior
leadership and high value targets within the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Men from both SEAL Team Six and Delta, along with operators in
the Intelligence Support Activity were chosen to make Advanced
Force Operation in Task Force Bowie, working closely with the CIA
to gather intelligence and conduct covert reconnaissance in 2-3 man
units in the most dangerous areas near the border with Pakistan.
„„ At Objective Gecko you were sent in to get Mullah Omar, the
supreme commander and spiritual head of the Taliban at that
time. Upon arrival, there was no sign of him, but while extracting
intelligence from the location your unit was pinned down by a sizable
Taliban force that moved in quickly. After a heavy firefight in which
12 Delta operators were wounded, you were finally able to withdraw.
„„ During the Battle of Tora Bora both Delta Force and Seal Team Six
had operators on the ground to support the bombing campaign and to
eventually take tactical command from the CIA. Your unit commander
wanted to deploy blocking positions to prevent retreats but General
Tommy Franks denied the request and Osama Bin Laden was able to
flee while a rear guard reengaged with Coalition forces.

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„„ Operation Iraqi Freedom — if you were a “Wolverine”, or a member

of Delta’s B squadron, you were first into Iraq, conducting search and
site exploitation on suspected chemical weapons facilities, seizing
control of the H-3 Air Base, and conducting deception exercises
to confuse the Iraqis as to where Coalition forces were dispersed
and what they consisted of. If you were a member of Recce Troop,
composed of the most experienced operators that are expected to be
able to infiltrate any location, in any weather, to conduct covert recon
and surveillance for extended periods of time, you were responsible
for marking targets for airstrikes behind enemy lines before seizing
the Haditha Dam complex. You held the dam for five long days of
continuous counterattacks before handing it control of it over to the
rangers to push north and conduct ambushes along the highway in
order to capture HVTs fleeing to Syria and to tie up Iraqi forces.
„„ Ahead of coalition forces entering Baghdad, Delta and ISA operators
went in undercover to build a network of informants, mark targets for
air strikes, and eavesdrop on or sabotage Iraqi communication lines.
„„ In Tikrit, you participated in a joint helicopter-ground assault to
capture to capture Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's
personal secretary.

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„„ Flying from Mosul, you chased a convey suspected of having Saddam

Hussein in tow. The convoy fled into Syria but Donald Rumsfield
gave the go ahead to go in and the team was engaged in a firefight
with border guards but the convoy was destroyed and a safehouse
assaulted. Several of Hussein's cousins were part of the convoy, but
he was not.
„„ In July, an informer passed information about the whereabouts of
Uday and Qusay Hussein. A Delta assault team and interpretor set
up the assault, breached and entered the building in Mosul. Heavy
weapons fire and barricades on the stairs forced you to withdraw as
one of your team was wounded and you and the team took shrapnel
as grenades exploded all around you. While the 101st fired TOW
missiles and machine guns, you and the team were finally able to gain
entry and move up to the second floor where you found Qusay and
his bodyguard dead. His son, a 14-year-old boy, opened fire and your
unit was forced to return fire. He was killed. Uday was found, was
shot and wounded but continued to fire until he was gunned down.
„„ A Sudanese Jihadist was traced to one of four compounds outside
Ramadi. You and another unit took down two of the buildings, while
the SAS took the other two. Three of the buildings went down
without issue, but the final building gave the SAS trouble but was
taken after an assault after regrouping with your squad. First proof
of an international jihadist movement was uncovered.

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„„ Operation Red Dawn — interrogation and signals intelligence

obtained by the ISA pinpointed the location of Saddam Hussein at
a remote farmhouse south of Tikrit. If you were part of C squadron,
you searched the two locations in the area but found nothing. As
you were leaving, you or a teammate kicked aside a piece of flooring,
revealing a spider hole. About to throw a frag grenade inside, Hussein
suddenly appeared. Instincts kicked in and the gun’s stock was used
to strike him down. A Glock 18C was taken off his person.
„„ During the Battle of Fallujah, you were embedded with a marine
platoon to provide communications, assault, and sniping expertise.
In the middle of showing the marines how to use a new antistructural
rocket, a large number of insurgents assaulted the platoon with
sniper and RPG fire. Three hundred insurgents surged to take the
platoon's position and as the number of wounded grew, you were
forced to run from pocket to pocket of soldiers to treat the wounded.
To allow the wounded to be evacuated by helicopter you and another
marine kept the insurgents at bay while another ran from position to
position firing his M4 carbine and rocket launcher, throwing grenades
to suppress and eventually destroy a PKM gunner. He was award
the Silver Star, you and the other marine received the Distinguished
Service Cross.

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„„ The first hostage rescue in Iraq took place in June, 2004. Four Italian
security contractors were seized in April and one was murdered. In
June, a Polish contractor was also captured and the captors made it
known they would executed unless Italy withdrew from the Coalition.
You and A squadron assaulted Objective Medford as four Blackhawks
and four Little Birds carried aerial snipers, you, and the rest in when
the tail of the bird you were in struck the compound’s wall. The
bird was slightly damaged, but you joined in on the assault to help
successfully rescue all four hostages and capture several kidnappers.
„„ Operation Snake Eyes — along with SEAL Team Six and the regular
Army and Marine forces, Delta Force operators deployed into the
city of Al Qaim and were immediately engaged by Sunni militants
who had knowledge of SOF tactics and techniques. When two very
experienced breachers in Delta blew the safehouse, they found it
fortified with sandbags in a makeshift bunker within the building.
They were both fatally wounded in the ensuing exchange. They
were extracted the house was flattened with a Joint Direct Attack
Munition. Al Quaim and the battles in Fallujah saw Jihadists wearing
bomb vests and wiring houses with massive IEDs led by Zarqawi.

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„„ Operation Dahir — in a joint raid to takedown the top leadership of

al-Qaeda in Iraq, you were tasked with one of the many assaults on
buildings near Yusufiyah. As soon as you got out from the helicopter,
however, you began taking fire from a nearby house. The situation
quickly became an extended firefight as al-Qaeda fighters kept
arriving to join the battle and mortars soon began to drop. One AH-6
light helicopter was shot down and its crew killed. Despite this, you
and your unit were able to eventually reach your target, capture
four insurgents, and treat three injured women. A CASEVAC was
brought in to remove locals from the scene, and when it came under
fire, airstrikes on several targets around the landing zone were hit.
Five more soldiers were wounded and your commander was relieved
of his command, reportedly because the daylight raid was deemed
unnecessary. At this time, you and Delta were conducting more than
300 raids a month. Casualties soared to 20% and by 2009, more than
50% of Delta Force Operators had been awarded a Purple Heart.
„„ Operation Larchwood-4 — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was tracked to a
farmhouse in the village of Hibhib so you geared up for an attack on
his safehouse. One of the helicopters would not start so an airstrike
was called in. By the time you arrived there, Iraqi police were already
on the scene, attempting to put Zarqawi in an ambulance and claiming
to not know who he was. You ended up having to disarm them but by
the time the Delta medic was able to assist him, he was dead.

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„„ During the second Battle of Ramadi, Delta and SEAL Team Six
mounted simultaneous takedown operations of al-Qaeda targets.
On the way to raid, one of the Little Bird helicopters escorting you
was downed by an RPG that hit its tail rotor. You landed and cordoned
off the area and the injured crewmen was taken by one of the other
aircrafts. While waiting for a Downed Aircraft Recovery Team, six
vehicles with anti-aircraft guns mounted on top were spotted and
started closing in on your location. A Little Bird was brought in to
assist but twenty insurgents in nearby houses began firing RPGs and
small arms it so it was forced to deal with the insurgents first. With
the Little Bird providing suppressing fire, you and the team were able
to hold them back until a Quick Response Team arrived with two
more Little Birds, at which point the insurgents broke and retreated.
„„ In 2012, the US Consulate in Benghazi was overrun by militants and
the US Ambassador, along with members of his security team and
an Information Officer, were murdered. With no rescue force in the
area, and running advanced network ops in Lubra at the time, you
and the rest of your seven-man CIA team, including one other Delta
operator, realized you were the closest. You had to commandeer a
small jet in Tripoli by paying them $30,000. By the time you arrived,
the rest of the former-SEAL detail had been killed in mortar fire. You
evacuated the wounded, maintained the defense and organized a
convoy to extract those remaining.

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„„ In 2013, you were tasked with capturing Abu Anas al-Libi in Tripoli.
You and your team, along with units from the CIA’s Special Activities
Division, the FBI, and the ISA were able to track him down and
prepare a simple snatch and grab mission. While he was driving
home from prayer in the morning, wearing civilian clothes you tailed
him before driving a van alongside his car while another cut him off.
Rushing in, you disarmed him, while another from the unit cuffed and
hooded him before he was dropped off at a nearby military base. This
scenario is common for lots of HVTs that the FBI want in custody.
„„ Beginning in 2016, after weeks of covert preparation of safe houses
and establishing information networks, you were one of about two
hundred in an Expeditionary Targeting Force designed to gather
intel from raids and then use that intel to perform more raids on new
targets based on that intel as fast as possible.
„„ Operation Black Swan — Delta provided assistance and advice on
a raid to capture or kill an important Sinaloa Cartel sicario in Los
Mochis. An intense firefight erupted as soon as the team entered the
building. During the confusion, a marine discovered the leader of the
Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, but he disappeared into a series
of tunnels under the house. However, he was soon spotted by federal
agents at a motel a short distance away along with a stolen car.

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Depending on when you joined SEAL Team Six you would have been part of
different operations in various countries. Here are some missions you may
have taken part in, with some liberties taken to try to put you in the head
of your character:

„„ Operation Urgent Fury — in 1983, the US invaded Grenada after

the execution of Maurice Bishop, the second Prime Minister of
Grenada. You were in SEAL Team Six, you conducted static line
drops with boats and were airdropped into the sea, in the dead
of night and straight into a storm. Four from your unit drowned
and were never recovered. After finally getting mobile your boat
flooded while evading a patrol and the mission was aborted when
the engines could not be restarted. Little intelligence was gathered
for the incursion. The next mission was to get take control of a radio
station. The helicopter took fire as you fast-roped down, but you
and the team quickly secured the compound. Communication to the
SEAL base down, a defensive perimeter was set up and when some
Grenadian soldiers disguised as station workers approached, refused
to drop their guns, and opened fire, you took them down. Soldiers
kept coming and the team was running low on ammo, outnumbered
and outgunned, taking RPG and cannon fire, you destroyed the
radio transmitter and moved to the water for extract. The meadow
leading there was exposed and you had to leap-frog through it before
swimming out to sea and hiding in the cliff ledges.

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„„ Achille Lauro Hijacking — in 1985 an Italian cruise ship was hijacked

by Palestinian terrorists in the Mediterranean and forced to head
to Southern Syria. When Syria refused to allow them to dock, they
killed a hostage and made for Egypt. The next day you took off with
your team and by the time you got there, the terrorists had boarded
an airliner that was heading to Tunisia. F-14s forced the plane down
in Sicily and you quickly surrounded the airplane, only to be yourself
surrounded by Italian Carabinieri since they landed on Italian soil. As
you prepared to assault, negotiations proceeded and they offered no
resistance when you came in and took them off the plane.
„„ Operation Just Cause — you took part in the 1989 military invasion
of Panama. Your team headed up Operation Nifty Package to prevent
Noriega’s escape. Your mission was to sink his boat and destroy his
jet. While successful, an ambush took the lives of four fellow SEALs
and wounded nine others. Noriega got away and was at large for
several days before taking refuge at the Vatican diplomatic mission
before finally turning himself in a couple weeks later.
„„ Operation Gothic Serpent — in 1993, you were part of Task Force
Ranger, the massive manhunt for Aidid. You would have been part of
the Battle of Mogadishu and were one of five DEVGRU operators that
fought the battle and ended up capturing two of Aidid’s lieutenants.

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„„ Bosnia — in 1993-1999, SEAL Team Six and other elite unites were
tasked with finding and capturing people indicted for war crimes
when the genocide of 8,000 Bosnian prisoners of war and civilians
were killed in the Srebrenica massacre so they could stand trial.
„„ Operation Enduring Freedom — Following the September 11 attacks,
you were deployed to Afghanistan in operations against the Taliban.
Early 2001, you were part of Task Force Sword, a hunter-killer black
SOF unit tasked with capturing or killing senior leadership and high
value targets within the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Men from both SEAL
Team Six and Delta, along with operators in the Intelligence Support
Activity were chosen to make Advanced Force Operation in Task
Force Bowie, working closely with the CIA to gather intelligence
and conduct covert reconnaissance in 2-3 man units in the most
dangerous areas near the border with Pakistan. During the Battle of
Takur Ghar, your unit, codenamed MAKO 30, circumstances forced
a hasty insertion at the peak of the mountain. After seeing signs of
recent activity below, the team was talking about an abort when
an RPG slammed into the side of the helicopter and arms fire cut
through hydraulic and oil lines. After taking a bullet, a fellow SEAL
slipped on some oil and fell into the snow below. The pilot tried to
reinsert the team, but the fallen SEAL had been killed and a bunker
was found with enemies inside. A firefight broke out that wounded
another and forced the team to break off and call for evac.

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„„ Vigilant Harvest — you crossed into Pakistani territory to perform

deniable ops. In one such mission, you flew in with your unit and a
ranger element to take down an al-Qaeda training camp. Because of
the nature of such missions, they were often frustratingly canceled
even after a green light and with a bird in the air. Intelligence put
al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s spiritual leader, was attending a meeting
near the border — the plan was to jump out of MC-130s in Afghan
airspace and use directional chutes to steer across the border, locate,
capture or kill the target, then exfiltrate on MH-53s that would fly in
low and fast to stay off the radar. Just before reading the Pakistani
border the mission was called off. Another time, a British security
contractor was kidnapped and a hostage rescue mission mounted.
You hiked into mountainous Bala Boluk region in the early morning
only to find the Taliban had withdrawn and had left the hostage
to bleed out after cutting his throat. Your MH-47 descends to the
target compound in Helmand province, touches ground, and you
start piling out with the rest of the crew when you hear the sound of
bullets hitting the fuselage and see enemy insurgents laying in wait.
The other helicopter banks in, protecting you from fire but an RPG
forces it down. You pull back into and organize an all-around defense
while the heli you came in on keeps the insurgents back until its mini-
guns run dry. Finally, a 130 Spectre shows up to help and destroy the
downed MH-47. Thanks to the Night Stalker pilot, no one was injured.

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„„ Bowe Bergdah l— in 2009, US Army Private First Class Bowe

Bergdahl left his post and was capture by the Taliban. You and the
SEAL Team Six went on many missions with thin intel to try and
recover him, but nothing turned up. One mission with bad intel even
lead to a SEAL getting wounded and a Combat Assault Dog killed.
Finally, his return was negotiated where he was traded for five Taliban
leaders being held at Guantanamo Bay. Delta oversaw the transfer.
„„ Linda Norgrove — in 2010, a British aid worker and three Afghan
colleagues were kidnapped by the Taliban. Fast-roping to the ground
out of one Chinook while the team snipers took out the guards from
the other one. Insurgents came pouring out of the compound. The
orbiting AC-130U laid down suppression while you and the team
went to work. An insurgent appeared at another doorway and fired
off a shot before he was taken out and a frag was thrown in that
direction to make sure it was clear of hostiles. Clearing the buildings,
all the insurgents were confirmed killed. Near where the grenade
went off, Norgrove was found with a bullet wound in her leg and
shrapnel from a frag grenade. The insurgent who had appeared
must have been dragging her out when she took friendly fire and
the frag killed her. The SEAL who threw the grenade didn’t admit to
it until camera footage was reviewed because squad leader believed
a suicide vest had gone off and killed Norgrove. Two other guys who
backed up his story were also dismissed from the unit.

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„„ Gold Squadron Down — in 2011, as part of an immediate reaction

force flying in to head off the escape of Taliban following a Rangers
operation was shot down by a Taliban RPG. 38 were killed, among
them fifteen of the “Golden Knights” as well as soldiers from B
Company, the 7th Battalion and the 158th Aviation Regiment. It was
the largest single loss ever suffered by the SEALs and largest loss of
US life since the start of the 2001 Afghan War.
„„ Operation Jubilee — in 2012, a rescue operation for Helen Johnston,
a British aid worker, her female colleague, and two Afghan guides who
were kidnapped by bandits who wanted a ransom and the release of
a notorious drug dealer from prison was put in motion. With signals
intelligence picking up that the bandits might turn the hostages over
to the Taliban, SIGINT crews got to work establishing patterns of
life on the bandits. Once it was established that the hostages had
been split up and placed in different buildings, it was decided your
team would take one cave complex, and the British SAS would take
the other. You dropped in 2km away from the target to maintain
surprise and advanced on foot through forest and waited for the SAS
to do similarly. Once you got the signal, you burst in with your team
in tandem with the SAS, hurling flashbangs and stun grenades. You
team cleared the complex of all seven gunmen but found no hostages.
Thankfully, the SAS found all the hostages holed up in their complex.

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„„ Operation Iraqi Freedom — in 2003, you were part of the assault to

take Objective Beaver, al Qadisiyah Research Centre, to perform
sensitive site exploitation and gather intelligence about chemical
and biological weapon stocks. An MH-60K swept in with rangers in
blocking position while two others covered and suppressed small
arms fire. Warthogs took out nearby electricity transformers to
black out the area but also starting fires and setting off explosions
that made the orbiting helicopters targets. You flew in on a Chinook,
taking heavy fire along the way before disembarking. A pair of Little
Birds with T6 snipers helped to take out gunmen. Once inside, you
found the complex incredibly intricate and maze-like, but you were
able to take out guards and collect the required samples. The samples
later showed no evidence of chemical or biological weapons.
„„ Private Lynch — in 2003, 19-year-old Jessica Lynch was captured
after her support convoy got lost and ambushed. The marines
launched a diversionary mission to take nearby bridges in the valley
while you road up with the ground assault team to race inside and
secure Jessica Lynch. Meanwhile, snipers were inserted onto the roof,
rangers were placed in blocking positions, and a helicopter stood by
for rescue along with medics for the prisoner of war. The hospital was
left largely unguarded with only a few gunmen. Jessica was secured
and you helped carry out the remains of the rest of her unit.

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„„ Operation Celestial Balance — in 2009, intel gathered from ISA

agents placed an important member of the African al-Qaeda cell
responsible for the 1998 US embassy bombings, the bombing of
Kenyan hotel resort, and who acted as an intermediary between
al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab in Somalia. Four Little Birds and four
Blackhawks flew in to take the target down. The Little Birds strafed
the two-vehicle convoy and disabled them while you fast-roped down
to clear the vehicles and recover the bodies.
„„ Captain Phillips— in 2009, a 508-foot long cargo ship carrying
humanitarian aid supplies was hijacked by Somali pirates. After a
brief confrontation with the crew, four hijackers fled, taking Captain
Phillips hostage. US Navy Warships closed in for a stand-off while
you and your team flew straight in from Virginia, parachuting into
the water and swimming to one of the US ships. Part of the team
infiltrated the boat while you and two other snipers set up positions
and each took a target. The leader of the pirates was taken and
disarmed by the SEALs aboard, but when Captain Phillips life was in
danger you and the other two snipers synchronized your shots and
took out the remaining three pirates simultaneously.

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„„ Operation Neptune Spear — in 2011, you and Red Squadron flew in

to Abbottabad in Pakistan after practicing the mission tirelessly in
the states. You flew in on one of two Blackhawk helicopters modified
for stealth. The Blackhawk hovered above the compound for a few
seconds before the helicopter suddenly pitched and its tail rotor
grazed the wall. The pilot pitched the nose in for a soft crash and
you were able to scramble out with everyone else to proceed with
breaching the compound while the other team landed outside and
scaled the walls. Knowing that there were children in the complex,
each floor was carefully cleared and any women and children were
zip-tied. Power was cut to the complex and it was pitch black inside,
perfect conditions for your nightvision goggles. Abu Ahmed al-
Kuwaiti flung open a door, firing an AK-47, drawing the unit into
a brief firefight before he was shot. You hear shots being fired
downstairs. Bin Laden’s son, Khalid was shot as he came out onto the
staircase. Upon reach the third floor, shots were fired as bin Laden
cracked a door open before retreating inside. One of the guys rolled
through and shot him dead.
Aside from Delta and SEAL Team Six, there are a couple other suggestions
for possible backgrounds. The Intelligence Support Activity (Task Force
Orange, The Activity, The Army of Northern Virginia) also operates under
the US Army and is tasked with providing intelligence for operations.

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Depending on when you joined the ISA you would have been part of
different operations in various countries and would probably be part of the
Operations branch. In the ISA, you are tasked more with the gathering of
actionable intelligence rather than direct action (though that has changed
since the War on Terror). That means dropping into any location in order
to gather signals and human intelligence (HUMINT), building up spy and
information networks that can be exploited, and being able to parachute
and handle yourself alone for extended periods of time are a must.

Prior to Afghanistan, the ISA was primarily an intelligence gathering unit,

casting wide nets for signals intelligence (SIGINT) in places like Columbia,
Beirut, the Balkans, Somalia, and Haiti before Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen.

You would have fought alongside Delta and Team Six Operators in
Afghanistan, and it was during this time that the unit became about more
than the collection of intelligence, but also playing heavy combat, or direct
action, and spy roles.

In Afghanistan, you were part of a joint JSOC-CIA task force that consisted
of a mix of Delta, Team 6, and ISA soldiers living apart from the Coalition
in safehouses. You would have dressed as an Iraqi on missions, wearing
darkening skin makeup if necessary. The missions you went on were of far
higher risk than typical missions that had the luxury of support and backup.

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Most missions were kill missions because there were no resources for
captures. Only about forty-five people knew of these clandestine missions
that were the most secretive ever conducted. Targets that couldn’t be gotten
with SIGINT were brought in with HUMINT.

You would know how to configure, make, and use devices created by Task
Force Orange and the NSA, like the “electronic divining rod” that can be
programmed to detect a specific phone and make an increasingly larger
beeping noise or vibration the closer it got to it, even if the phone was
turned off. You’d know how to turn on a phone’s microphone to listen in,
clone a phone without even touching the original, and used SIM card readers
to quickly copy a phone and then return it without the owner knowing so
that intelligence could be gathered and a nodal network drawn up—much
of this back in the 1990s. Infecting internet cafes and building intelligence
sources eventually mapped out most urban networks. Keystroke software
built up intel on a source over time, then you would be sent out to tail them
or ambush them when they were far from the cafe to avoid compromising it.

The Activity can be thought of as the tactical side of the NSA, which is the
reason why operators would be well versed in surveillance and exploits,
services developed by the NSA. At the same time, the Activity enjoys a good
relationship with Virginia, being based very close to the CIA. Operators
are sent through the agency’s “Farm” to learn asset handling, tradecraft,
surveillance and countersurveillance, linguistics, and other skills.

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Expected to be masters of traffic analysis, human and signals intelligence,

urban and outdoor survival, agent running and linguistics, your training
course consisted of being dumped in the middle of the desert with no food
or water, no means of communication and with a list of nearly impossible
intelligence tasks. You had to gather as much intelligence as possible and find
a secure means of passing the information to your command base.

The next step was to be dropped off in an urban environment under the
effects of sleep deprivation to make sure you went in knowing nothing.
You were tasked with a series of complicated intelligence operations like
running surveillance on and following a target while being pursued yourself,
for example. Mental ability was tested and valued above physical, but
parachuting, land navigation, agent running, and weapons were necessary
even for selection.

You would have extensive training and testing on tapping into fiber optics,
creating and concealing bugs, cryptography, owning cell phone networks,
and the exploitation of intranets and equipment like routers and computers.

Most likely, you would be of mixed birth, or able to pass for other ethnicities
and have multiple citizenships so that you could perform undercover work in
Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, or Asia. The Activity recruits from all over,
taking candidates from all walks of life, not just the army.

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If your background was being in the Special Activities Division, or now

the Special Activities Center, of the CIA, then you would most likely be
with the Special Operations Group (SOG). SOG handles all the high-
threat military and covert operations that the CIA and US government do
not want to be associated with.

The SOG often recruits out of other special operations units like Delta, Team
6, the Activity, or the 24th Special Tactics Squadron (the Air Force’s Tier 1
team) and from within the agency and requires at least a BA. There are much
fewer operators than on any other special ops team and you often work deep
under cover to develop assets and intelligence networks. In Afghanistan, the
Philippines, and Iraq in particular, you would be responsible for overseeing
and participating in the extraordinary renditions of terrorist suspects.

You would have been the first in and last out, well before Army SOF teams
arrive to provide backup and support— up to a year in advance or more in
many cases, recruiting assets among locals and indigenous troops, operating
in remote locations behind enemy lines to carry out raids, sabotage,
unconventional warfare, counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism, hostage
rescue missions, and espionage.

Upon entering the unit you would have gone to several off-site specialist
schools for additional training in lockpicking, high-speed-driving,
surveillance, HALO parachuting, foreign weapons, explosives, and more.

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Depending on when you joined up, you could have been part of missions
as far back as the Korean War, training indigenous forces as surrogates in
unconventional warfare, or later in Bolivia to train and oversee the capture
of Che Guevara. The blueprint for capture kill missions began in Vietnam for
disappearing suspects and Viet Cong members. Operation Ivy Bells would
have had you tapping into underwater communication cables to eavesdrop
on the Soviets or developing enhanced interrogation techniques in El
Salvador. In 1992, you would have conducted reconnaissance and started
tracking high value targets ahead of the US intervention in Somalia.

Later, it would be your job to once again to build up a network in Somalia

among warlords to get intelligence on al-Qaeda operating and training in
Somalia as well as conducting direct action on al-Shabaab elements and
providing targets for drone strikes or hostage rescue missions.

Nine days after 9/11, you were first in on the mission to prepare for the US
invasion of Afghanistan. Meeting with locals and developing networks, as
well as supplying resources to the Northern Alliance. Later on, you would
have integrated with special force units as needed to provide intel, do
site exploitation on raids, interrogate targets, and otherwise participate
in endeavors to take apart terrorist networks. As of 2018, the war in
Afghanistan has largely been turned over to SAD, working alongside Afghan
teams and networks and supporting JSOC Omega Teams.

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In Yemen, SAD’s mission has mainly been tracking members of al-Qaeda,

leading Yemenese special forces, and gathering intelligence for drone strikes.
As with Afghanistan, you were first to go into Iraq and develop assets prior
to the invasion. To prepare the way, you and a joint team, in Operation Viking
Hammer, to take the North of Iraq from Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist terrorist
group rooted there since 2001.

You forward scouted the mountains to provide target information for cruise
mission strikes on camps on mountaintops, which was initially successful
but once the remaining troops pulled back into the town of Sargat, you and
the troops were pinned down for three hours under heavy machine gun
fire and mortar blasts. The town was situated in a deep valley that cut off
all communications. Unable to call in any support or even contact friendly
forces, you used a sniper rifle to take out machine gunners one-by-one
while the Kurds brought in artillery. Eventually, they were forced from the
town when artillery arrived, and you chased them into the hills where they
had more machine guns waiting. The fight lasted all night until four AC-130
gunships came in to pressure and drive them back toward the Iranian border.
Some were turned away at the border, some were arrested, and some, you
are sure, were taken in and harbored by Iran.

You might also have gained intel and leverage over key Iraqi army officers
in order to persuade them to surrender their units once the invasion began.

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While these backgrounds are by no means exhaustive, they are only meant
to provide fodder for flashbacks, help you choose some skills you might have
and might put down under your Specials, and give a brief overview on the
kinds of things your character would have learned and been doing.

Due to the War on Terror, you can see a lot of the special operations
teams blending together, training together, and gaining skill sets normally
reserved for one another. Delta operatives are taking on setting up their
own intelligence networks and going undercover and likewise Task Force
Orange, always before focused on the gathering of actionable intelligence,
is now placing greater emphasis on direct action so that Delta or Team Six is
not required to come in for the finish. That is to say, your character, as long
as the movie is taking place more recently, can really come from many, or
any, branch of the military and certainly the CIA. In general, I would provide
this framework for simplicity:

„„ For characters that are more spy-like, that you want to be more about
face-to-face asset and agent running, go with CIA or SAD/SOG.
„„ For characters that are more about being smart, traffic analysis,
bugging, and hacking, go with The Activity.
„„ For characters focused on being deadly, go with Delta or SEAL Team
Six.

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I have chosen to focus on special operations in the United States because

they are the ones with the most information available and almost everyone
will recognize a lot of these organizations from popular media, whether it
be video games, movies, or literature. I do encourage you and the rest of
the table to come up with characters that come from all walks of life from
all types of backgrounds in ethnicity and nationality. I think it is fairly safe
to parallel the missions, training and experiences discussed in this section
with those organizations in other countries as well. In Afghanistan and Iraq
in particular, it is well known an documented that special forces from all
countries in the Coalition were present on the War on Terror. Here are
Special Forces from a few other countries that can parallel the Delta or
Team Six backgrounds.

„„ Australia — SASR
„„ Brazil — COPESP
„„ Canada — JTF2
„„ France — GIGN
„„ Germany — GSG9
„„ Italy — GIS
„„ Russia — SSO
„„ United Kingdom — SAS

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 INNER TURMOIL
Your character’s Inner Turmoil is what you use to recover from a marked
Stress. More than that, it’s your opportunity to flesh out and show your
character as someone sympathetic to the audience. There are lots of reasons
for having a regret that weighs down on your conscience. Here are some
PLAYER

ideas that your character may not have been ok with:

„„ Unit Culture — starting after the death of one of your own at Takur

Ghar some SEAL T6 members starting mutilating corpses with
custom hatchets given out by a commander. Even before that, kill
tracking with tattoos was evident. Seeing the unit covering up
misdeeds in the field (the Jessica Lynch rescue, for example) or not
believing in or allowing oversight and discipline from outside the unit.
„„ Disillusionment — after time spent in the Middle East, realizing
how much civilian casualties were occurring. Having to kill women
and children when they took up arms or explosives..Not seeing any
change happening as a result of your cumulative actions.
„„ Friends and family — not being able to be there for a loved one. Not
being able to see your child grow up or watching a spouse struggle
with being alone. Having to put the job and the mission first.
„„ Hands Tied — having to follow orders and see the consequences of
poor planning by those in command. Having to stand down because
of diplomatic or bureaucratic reasons or having you and your squad
used as front line forces instead of what they were trained for.

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 SPECIALS
„„ Your Training allows you to re-roll any one minus. You must narrate a
flashback that has to do with the task you are re-rolling either before
or after the roll. Training does not need to be Primed.
„„ Your Discipline is the skill you are best at. It must further define a
skill you have a 1 in. You must narrate a scene in which this special
enhanced skill is brought up in the movie first. Once Primed, you can
use it to re-roll any blanks on a roll that relates to your Discipline.
„„ Your Trademark is a talent or skill that you are known for. It does
not need to be Primed, but can only be used once per session. When
used, you can treat a task as if you had rolled four pluses. It should be
obvious when you’ve performed your Trademark, and if there were an
agency keeping tracking of you, they just might list your Trademark
in their file as something that identifies you.

„„ Directors should be aware of their player’s Specials so that they can

both encourage and prompt their use. If any of them are specialized,
you might want to come up with a scenario or two to throw in at
any time that would require or benefit from their use, giving them a
chance to shine.
„„ Be a fan of the players — if they fail on a roll or a lot is on the line,
prompt them to use a Special to give them better chances of success.

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TECHNOTHRILLERS
The following section is to provide a common vocabulary and pool of
information for everyone to draw from. This matters more in a game where
semi-realism is more interesting and where the table wants something more
akin to challenge-based play where the Director will present a problem, and
it is up to the player to figure out a solution.

At the same time, it is very important to remember that we are playing a

game designed to simulate the media we enjoy, rather than a simulationist
exercise to model the real world as closely as possible. That is why I have
left out a lot of the nitty gritty to leave what I hope is the perfect amount of
information such that all the players at the table can see in their head what
is going on, but we can keep up a fast-paced game and not examine every
keystroke made when a hacking attempt is made.

It is more than fine for groups not to bother with this chapter, or to read it
for pleasure and incorporate whatever details stay with them when playing.
There are a lot of movies that use technology or film vocabulary (standard
shots we are accustomed to as the audience) to skip over most of the tasks
that I go into much more detail in this chapter. If you and your group want to
use that short-hand, like seeing the classic scrolling terminal and progress
bar for hacking, for example, I think you will find the system supports that
type of play as much as it supports this mode of play, too. The complications
your Director introduces will be based on the movie you are all making
together at the table.

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This section will provide some cursory information about tasks that
are normally glossed over or that are not shown accurately in movies.
Suggestions as possibilities for complications are examples for Directors
to draw on as needed and possible solutions to those complications are also
provided when possible to give players an idea on how they might response
to certain challenges and complications. I think you will find out pretty quick
if this section is for by glancing over the next section couple sections.

ASSET RUNNING
Gathering human intelligence is one of the ways that find out information
about a network, and to continue gleaning information about all those
involved with it. Characters that worked for the CIA or with The Activity
would be most familiar with this, but Delta operators during the War on
Terror started taking to building up their own networks as well, though most
likely in a less comprehensive capacity (without a lot of resources at their
disposal, backup or allies that could serve as cut-outs, or go-betweens would
not be a possibility, for example).

First, an asset much be spotted. Since there is always risk involved, the
handler such first make sure that their potential asset is worth that risk.
Namely, do they have access to the information that is needed, are they
suited to the tasks they are needed for, and so on.

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ASSET RUNNING CONTINUED>>

Once spotted, an asset has to be recruited, and in order to do that, the

handler has to ascertain what approach they would susceptible or vulnerable
to — money, love or personal relations, sex, patriotism or ideology, their own
ego, grudges, coercion, or even just the thrill of it. For long-term assets,
consider the more in-depth RASCLS: Reciprocation, Authority, Scarcity,
Commitment and Consistency, Liking, and Social Proof.

Reciprocation means always providing amenities. Make them feel they are
getting something back in return even before they’ve committed to you.
Show them that you have resources to provide. Find out some small needs
that the target has and fill them during the early stages so that an unstated
feeling of obligation to do something in return occurs.

Authority means that it is important to create the impression that you have
the resources and power of a well-organized body behind you. You want to
be the one defining the relationship and setting the objectives and goals.

Scarcity means presenting an opportunity, but a fleeting one. Offering

something and then withdrawing it can help create a desire for it and
creating a sense of urgency can help with that.

Commitment and Consistency means doing what you say and never going
back on a promise to do something. Retain credibility and establish and elicit
small commitments, spoken or written, to help an asset gain confidence in
their decision to commit to you as an asset.

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Liking means try to make them like you. The easiest way to do this is to
find commonalities and shared interests, to flatter, and to get them to
think of you as a friend. Social Proof means creating the impression that it
is acceptable to do what they are doing. Relate their problems and anxiety
to other assets, imply their situation is normal and common.

Complications when recruiting an asset are usually about having to change

tact once learning about the target — maybe they seemed greedy, but they
don’t respond to money so the player is forced to try another angle, or
another angle needs to be mixed in, like patriotism.

BOMB MAKING
Explosives consist of three separate components — a primary charge (which
is sensitive and extremely combustive), a main charge or fuel (which is
semi-sensitive and a bit more stable), and the launching charge (which is
insensitive and normally very stable without an initializing agent).

A primary charge is usually called a detonator and are often cylindrical caps
that contain about 2 grams of activating explosive or fuel. Mechanical ones
are set off when a pin is depressed and so are often victim-operated (like land
mines). Electrical detonators use electrodes that are connected to a battery
or charge to set them off. Chemical ones use a compound, like an acid.

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Fuels are what carries the ignition from the primary charge to the launching
charge, and the launching charge is what creates the devastating effect.

To make a mechanical detonator, you’d use something like a pin that would
be depressed to trigger. To make an electric one, you’d use a battery and
some electrodes, like those in a Christmas tree light. A chemical one would
probably be something like a bit of acid in a medicine capsule so that once
it eats through the capsule, the bomb goes off. These ideas can be mixed,
and we see detonators in movies all the time in the form of a timed spark
or flame being set — a lit cigarette, a magazine stuffed in a toaster, metal
placed in the microwave.

A key component of the bomb making montage would be getting the

ingredients from their source, so a montage might contain trips to the
supermarket and garden store, followed by mixing chemicals together,
extracting a residue, and letting it dry.

The primary charge is the most sensitive and unstable. Mercury (old
thermometers, dental clinics) can be added to nitric acid, then ethyl alcohol
(drinking alcohol) to make an explosive crystal called mercury fulminate.
Hydrogen peroxide (common sterilizer) can be added to acetone (nail
polish remover) and hydrochloric acid, then sodium carbonate (washing
soda) to create acetone peroxide in crystal form. Hexamine (can be boiled
off and extracted from white coal) can be added to hydrogen peroxide, then
citric acid (flavoring acid in supermarkets), then sodium carbonate to make
hexamine peroxide.
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The primary charge is connected to a cylinder of fuel usually, to make sure

the charge goes off and to increase the effect. The cylinder could contain
powder in the head of matches, white explosive (potassium chlorate ground
and sifted into sugar, grey fuel (potassium chlorate mixed with charcoal
and sulfur), black powder (potassium nitrate mixed with charcoal and
sulfur), or others.

The main charge usually requires adding liquid materials together and
extracting the residue, which is probably why we don’t see it in movies
as much unless it’s a bad guy with a lab or there’s enough time for the
protagonists to cook something up. A nitrate (ammonia, potassium, urea,
lead, sodium, barium) is often used, or nitro glycerin or nitrocellulose.

Nitric Acid is commercially available and is used to produce fertilizer, can

also be found in some drain cleaners or rust removers.

Nitric acid can then be added to potassium chlorate (white salt used in
matches, fireworks, or as a disinfectant or bleaching agent) to produce
potassium nitrate; to urea (found in garden centers) to produce urea nitrate;
lead for lead nitrate; sodium nitrate (sold as a weed killer or antiseptic)
for sodium nitrate with hydrochloric acid as a byproduct. The resulting
mixture produces a residue which is then dried and that is what is used as
the main charge.

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BOMB MAKING CONTINUED>>

Here are some things I have had players try to make up on the fly:

„„ Thermite Bomb — rust, aluminum powder, engine oil as the main

charge, put in a container and potassium permanganate used for fuse.
„„ Molotov Cocktail — gas, engine oil, and bit of sulphuric acid for a
detonator with a taped top over a Christmas tree bulb.
„„ Napalm — gas mixed with sugar and liquid soap, piece of fabric for
a fuse.
„„ Improvised flashbang — potassium chlorate, sugar, aluminum powder
placed in a pipe with a medicine capsule with sulphuric acid inside to
ignite (and another time, they just used a match).
So what does that look like at the table? When the players said they wanted
a thermite bomb to get into the safe during a Job, I asked them to roll and tell
me how they have a thermite bomb on hand. One player used his flashback
scene on a Job to say he prepped it beforehand for just such an occasion. I
asked him how he made it and he said he said something like this:

“I go out and get some aluminum foil a milk jug from the
supermarket and some engine oil and potassium permanganate
from Canadian Tire. I blend the foil to get my powder, lifting the
lid on the blender every 10 minutes or so to be safe. I go
out and shave some rust off that beater in that parking lot by
our house and voila.”

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There are a lot of possible complications when doing tasks associated

with explosives. Making them, placing them, using them. A lot can go
wrong at any point.

„„ Making them — you could introduce a complication that has

them mess up the recipe to big, or small, effect. Too much acid in
a detonation cap means less time to get it in place; being off when
mixing could produce a weaker or more powerful residue (and so
explosion); not stabilizing a solution with sodium carbonate could
see it going off. I only do this if the operator has a lower Skill.
„„ Placing them — pretty simple, maybe they can’t place it where they
want to, or the explosive gets moved, jostled, or otherwise put in a
location that will affect the blast; something could be put next to a
bomb to make it worse or otherwise change how it explodes.
„„ Using them — this is when a complication from the making stage
could take effect, whether it was known or not to the player at the
time (if the complication was a result of a roll when making or a roll
when using) or a target might be unpredictable and suddenly change
their trajectory. The blast might produce shrapnel or change the
environment (structure beams, windows being blown out, etc.).
„„ Other — buying certain things that are flagged (or that are just
noticeable and strange) as being used to make explosives could draw
unwanted attention.

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BOMB DISPOSAL
This section could be used in conjunction with bomb making to get an idea of
how to hook up and wire an improvised explosive device (IED) to set a booby
trap or to take out an objective. Most likely though, it will be the players that
run into them and have to deal with them (at least, in my games).

There are three types of improvised explosive devices — timed, command-

initiated, and victim-operated.

The hard part is spotting one. It’s all about looking for the absence of the
normal or the presence of the abnormal. Spies are really good at this,
but in urban environments and unexpected situations it would have to
be really difficult to detect a well hidden trap. Victim-operated are the
easiest for bomb makers to employ because they do not have to be in the
area or have to know when to have the bomb go off. That said, in an urban
environment the risk factor of someone other than the target setting it off
would increase exponentially. You would look for trip wires or fishing line,
pressure plates, look for disturbed earth or something recently buried or
anything out of place.

Complications would most likely be what the Director uses to place

an explosive in their path. A complication would bring it to the players’
attention and then they would be tasked with disarming or otherwise
defeating the device.

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Generally speaking, the steps to defuse a bomb would be:

„„ Identify the bomb and any victim-operated components (trip wire,

pressure plate)
„„ Locate the TPU (timing and power unit, like a 14-V motorcycle
battery with a mechanical timer on top, for example).
„„ Locate the explosives (maybe there’s four rockets connected to the
TPU connected with four red and white wires, for example).
„„ Make sure there aren’t any secondary pressure plates or booby-traps
that could trigger when the device is disrupted or the explosives
moved (bundle the explosives up and use a cord or something to
disturb them to make sure there is no secondary).
„„ Cut the circuit (cutting the wire to the power supply for simple
bombs, but this is what triggers a collapsing circuit and relay that
will set off the bomb in complex ones. Safest way is to do a controlled
detonation by running a wire to the battery yourself).
„„ Recover as much as possible of the explosives and components to
establish a bomb signature that could be traced to the maker.
Depending on the campaign you are running, forensics and finding a bomb
signature might be an important part of the campaign. Anything to do with
information gathering should just be offered up. Provide information that
leads to multiple paths and courses of action.

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In such cases, you might provide information about the bomb that could tell
the players what they used in the bomb (swabs to determine what kind of
explosives were used, if there were secondary bombs or booby traps set up,
if they cared about collateral damage and what their objective was, what
they used to house the bomb, and so on).

There are all sorts of command-initiated IEDs — radio controlled (radio

controlled transmitters like in model boats and planes, personal radio
devices in direct mode, pagers, GSM phones), or a simple button or switch
on the other end says a lot about the bomber. Whether they had to be there
not, what they had access to, and so on.

If you wanted to run some complications when disarming and clearing

a bomb to up the tension, you could throw complications like the
follow at them:

„„ Multiple command wires or multiple detonators that can set off the
bomb.
„„ Twin-flex wires that require precise cutting to make sure copper
strands never touch.
„„ Secondary booby-traps, like pressure plates under or around the
explosives, or chemical weapons like mustard gas packets inside to
prevent tampering or opening the TPU to see the wiring and circuitry
inside.

144
 COMMUNICATIONS
Information is what makes or breaks an operation, so being setup to be able
to talk to other team members securely, and being able to hear or gather
intelligence on the enemy is crucial. First, getting hold of the information.
Depending on the amount of resources available, hacking into a system to
compromise it is a good way to go (see page 152 for hacking), but a lot of
the time you need to set up eyes and ears, get to an air-gapped computer,
or compromise a system by infecting it in person.

Setting up bugs or wires can mean compromising a target’s cell phone (to
clone it or turn on its microphone to listen remotely) or hiding either bought
or handmade bugs either on a person or at a place they are likely to divulge
the information you want.

Much like a bomb has component parts that allow it to function, so do bugs.
Every bug has important parts that allow it to work:

„„ Power — how is it turning on and staying active?

„„ Transmitter or storage — how is going to transmit or store the
information it acquires?
„„ Receiver — how is it picking up the information? Microphone?
So, if a player wants to construct a bug, simply ask them what they’re
using for those parts. Depending on what they use, you can introduce
complications later on based on those. If they use a small battery, it might
not last all that long. If it is always on, it is susceptible to a bug sweep.

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In this day and age it is dead simple to get components needed to make a
bug, even for ones that need to be small enough to fit in tight spaces. You
can buy a cheap computer microphone, take it apart, and connect it to a
voice-activated recorder to get yourself a cheap ad-hoc one right there,
but many bugs are now built into things that plug into power (they replace
an outlet altogether, a power bar or smoke detector, for example) so they
can run indefinitely and in standby so they only transmit back, or call home,
every set period of time in order to make it harder to detect. Photo-sensors
or other tampers can detect if they are discovered and let the listener know,
and many can filter through or pick up any cell phone conversation in a given
area. Tapping into a phone is all too easy, even today, but detecting a tap is
also very easy.

There are also countersurveillance devices that can pick up high-end GSM
devices, voice records or dictaphones, pulse devices that use WiFi, or UHF/
VHF devices as well as simply anything that is powered by a battery on a
circuit at all. So there certainly exists the means to thwart any passive or
active audio, video, or GPS-based bugs.

When creating a bug, almost everything can be handled with a simple

montage of either ordering a product or making one from scratch by getting
the parts from RadioShack and soldering one. The best kinds of challenges
and complications to do with these devices are getting them placed, and
keeping them from being detected.

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Other ways to listen in on conversations without being detected (assuming

the targets do not do active sweeps and are on the lookout) is by being there
in person with a shotgun mic, pointed in the direction of the conversation,
or laser listener, pointed at something reflective, like a window or mirror..

Just like radio signals and radars, GPS is also vulnerable to white noise, CW,
AM, and FM jamming sweeps and can even be made to transmit inaccurate
data by playing with the time synchronization part of the signal only.

In a military setting, where there is the resources to have massive fixed-wing

aircrafts hover over a target and collect virtually all cell phone traffic, then
trade off with another such aircraft once fuel is depleted, really the only
security those being hunted have would be from using other methods of
communication altogether. Otherwise the best they can hope for is making
it difficult for someone to build any kind of profile around the caller and
those they call by using a code or meeting in person only. In any case, the
problem becomes sifting through and using traffic analysis to sort the good
leads from the bad in cases of mass intel collection.

To a much lesser degree, a similar thing can be done in a localized area with
a Stingray or KingFish device that spoofs a wireless cell tower and forces
devices to connect to it. Once connected, it monitors calls made and gathers
information about the devices that connect to it. It can then be used to track
a device as well.

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The Activity has access to NSA programs developed for spying, gathering,
and disseminating information, and would have wrote some of their own
programs specific for the purposes of organizing and tracking networks.
For example, a program named TRADEWIND is able to search for any travel
plans a target might have.

In terms of complications, I always prefer to dole out more information and

a bunch of different ways to go rather than too little information and a single
direction to go in. Whichever direction the players choose to go in, make sure
it’s a somehow-fruitful one but if you wanted to dish out some complications
specific to picking up signals you could have a target that uses:

„„ Frequency-hopping — fast or slow, a signal that jumps to a randomly

selected transmission frequency.
„„ Chirp signals — a signal that transmits quicker than a hostile receiver
can hold on to it for.
„„ White noise — ambient noise to try to mask conversation. Other noise
generators, like those that generate speech-like noise on the same
spectrum as voice, or that use distortion and reverberation or noise
generators that are specifically designed to render microphones
useless are also used.

148
 GUNS
Oftentimes, guns do not really come up in movies as something important
to linger on. The protagonist usually does not have a gun until they need to
have a gun, at which point they do. Usually, they never has a gun until they
take one from someone trying to kill them with it.

That said, there are definitely times when we want to play a game that is all
about having to amass the resources to take on a mission. Where you don’t
have an agency or resources behind you that can provide you with the tools
to get the job done. When it comes to guns, there’s a couple ways of going
about doing this. Either make your own gun, find a gun, or buy one.

Making your gun means most likely making something simple, like a pipe gun
or a 3D printed gun, but it could also consist of using a parts kit. It is certainly
possible to go the way of machining a lower-third (the part containing the
firing mechanism and the only part that needs to be registered in the US),
but it would not make much sense for a spy to do so. Action thrillers are time
sensitive affairs, so it makes a lot more sense to find or buy a gun.

Finding a gun can consist of stealing one from a likely location, like a security-
conscious individual or a gun shop. Alternatively, a gun can be bought from
a store legitimately (in the US you just need a name, address, and driver’s
license, unless you want a semi-automatic, in which case you’d have to show
a certificate from a firearms safety course, a mental disorder and violent
behavior check, a list current and past employers and have 3 references).

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Generally, buying a gun means having to wait at least a day, to a maximum

of seven to lay hands on the weapon. Of course, you can always just find
someone willing to sell you their gun in a personal transaction to be on your
way with no transaction records or paperwork and getting the weapon right
away. Of course, there are plenty of legally licensed, but corrupt, at-home
and commercial gun dealers to draw on as well, who simply report guns lost,
stolen, or missing. Most often in movies we see black market arms deals done
through a criminal network or a well-known individual in a warehouse, out
of the back of a trunk or in a back room.

I recommend dealing with complications revolving around guns in the

following ways:

„„ Make it about the quality available — in certain countries, and

especially if the characters don’t have contacts, getting a gun is
hard. Whenever we play games in South Korea, for instance, I take
a page out of the action movies over there and have the guns on the
streets be pretty old, pretty unreliable, or both. Guns that have been
smuggled in by boat from Russia and are old models. That means that
future complications can compromise the gun pretty easily, which is
a great use of a complication in my book.
„„ Make it so the currency is favors rather than money — “your money
is no good here, but we sure could use a safe-cracker!”

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„„ Make it so they have to do something dangerous or risky  to get

one —  “a gun? The only place you’d find one is the local precinct!”
Complications having to do with guns themselves are numerous:

„„ Jamming — dirty chamber, lack of lubrication, bullet gets stuck

feeding when being fed (damaged or faulty magazine lip), the shell
doesn’t eject (not holding the pistol tight enough or a damaged
ejector).
„„ Misfire, hang fire, squib—faulty trigger assembly, faulty primer on
bullet (could still go off if a hang fire), primer detonates but doesn’t
leave the chamber and the gun chambers another bullet (squib).
A lot of the other issues with guns, like faulty springs, extractors, ejectors
and such require time and replacement parts so don’t work well for
complications in a gun fight (unless you want to deprive them of the use
of the gun, which is a totally fine consequence for failure on a roll, but not
as good complication otherwise unless there are other guns immediately
available). Jamming and misfires, bullet or cartridge issues are go-tos
because they can be easily dealt with and can up the tension levels, especially
if the protagonist is being chased and being closed in on while they’re trying
to get their gun to work.

151
HACKING
This section is going to mainly deal with networks and web attacks as there
is a ton to talk about just limiting it to that, but there will be some said on
physical access attacks as well. One thing to remember is that, where
hacking is concerned, to those not in the know in particular, information
and techniques are always outdated. Hopefully this provides enough detail
to simulate a montage or fun scenario in a game session without being taken
as an up-to-date look on hackers operate. Otherwise, set your game in or
before 2012 to be safe! Here are the steps to go through once a target
is established:

„„ Scanning — external scanning and passive discovery using open

source intelligence using something like Spiderfoot or Recon-ng,
comprised lists to find emails and credentials (Wordhound , Gitrob).
„„ External Active Discovery — start to try and identify systems,
services, and potential vulnerabilities by looking for network
vulnerabilities. Scanning with Masscan and WMAP to do initial
discovery including nmap banner grabbing and viewing web pages.
Burp Proxy Pro can spider around the host application, taking down
all the different files, forms, and HTTP methods on a site to identify
the overall layout of how the app functions. Once identified you start
going loud by attacking parameters, requests, and start looking for
vulnerabilities. Parse the data using a discovery toolset.

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„„ Examine Scanner Findings — something like Metasploit can be used

along with scripts or exploiting repositories. On an older XP servers
you might find an MS08-067 vulnerability that allows for remote
coding, or find vulnerabilities in an FTP application, a printer, a
heartbeat vulnerability in SSL, or you might find a developer with a
publicly available repo that can be downloaded, cloned and combed
through for exploits.
„„ Manual Web App Findings & Penetration — SQL injections via
sqlmap or sqlninja to upload shells and evade network intrusion
detection systems against MSSQL databases, or NoSQL to try to
force manual code injection. XSS (cross-site scripts) vulnerabilities
allow the attacker to write script into a user’s browser. Can use BeFF
to steal contents of copy memory, redirect them to links, turn on their
camera, and more by creating a common URL, and with a bit of social
engineering, (spoofing a google or facebook page, for instance). Once
the user is hooked, there are all kinds of different modules that can
be used to steal credentials, get host IP information, scan hosts, etc.
CSRF (Cross Site Request Forgery) can be used to force unwanted
actions, like sending a link when a target is logged into their bank that,
when clicked, automatically transfers money out of their account
to one specified by you. Burp can be used to determine of session
cookies are secure and gain credentials and web history.

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HACKING CONTINUED>>

„„ Moving Through the Network — Usually, you’re looking for admin

access on a host (unless you’re just looking to pull hashes, install
software, change firewall rules, modify the registry, etc.). When
moving from no credentials to admin access, you can start with Group
Policy Preferences (sys admins will often deploy these settings within
the whole environment and so it creates accounts on all machines
to do so, you just need to access those files and decrypt the hash to
get the credentials) or by pulling clear text credentials. If you can
find any misconfigured privileges then you can replace an executable
that runs in the background (like an update app such as Adobe) with
your own to add a local admin account. Look to compromise the first
host by enabling remote access, displaying users and computers,
enabling or adding firewall rules, finding open shares, looking at
active directories, and finding local and domain admins. Responder
can be used once you’re on the same network to force the user to
authenticate against your own SMB server rather than theirs and
request their NTLM challenge/response hashes without alerting
them. If you know the target has a password that would be hard to
crack or there aren’t enough users to get multiple hashes, you can use
Metasploit SMB replay module to send any SMB requests to a server
of your choice and hope that you nab an IT admin.

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„„ When going from admin to owning a network, you can use a

Metasploit shell. The problem is that a lot of them will set off Anti-
Virus software so they have to be used with Veil to first make a
suitable payload. You can pull hashes from Windows Management
Instruments (WMI) to move to a machine with elevated privileges.
Common vulnerabilities can be found on certain network
authentication protocols like Kerberos, or PostgreSQL. Otherwise,
there is the brute-force method of pulling the last 10 users’ successful
login credentials on Windows (stored by default) or copying the
Domain Controller hashes to crack passwords (it could take awhile!)
„„ Maintaining Persistence & Backdoors — you can use scheduled tasks
to download your modified Veil Powershell script and execute it
every day under an unassuming name like “Adobe” or using a forged
ticket if using Kerberos (Golden Ticket) to authenticate any server.
Skeleton Key can backdoor a Domain Administrative account.
„„ Post Exploit — you can use Cain and Abel or Ettercap to perform
Address Resolution Protocol spoofing to allow for Backdoor Factory
Proxy so that, as long as you can redirect the target’s traffic through
your own host, you can manipulate an executable before the target
receives it on Windows, OSX, or Linux. Can also use man-in-the-
middle attacks that use ARP to manipulate traffic or sniff passwords.

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„„ Post Exploit — sidejacking (sniffing traffic to look for session tokens,

then using the tokens to authenticate as a user) can be used to
essentially become the target on their browser with Hamster or
Firesheep. Can use DNS redirection with sslstrip to clone local
intranet pages and get credentials from the user by setting up an
authentication gateway screen like Google or Facebook. Can also
setup doppleganger domains so that any user forgetting to type
in a period between the domain name and subdomain name get
intercepted and properly forwarded so the user is unaware of the
SMTP server in between. Can also do this with DNS record pointing
to your own domains to log any credentials but have to sometimes
wait a long time for a developer or IT user to mistype the domains to
SSH. Social Engineering Toolkit or Metasploit Pro can be used to set
up a fake or cloned page, followed by an email to provide urgency to
get there, or to run a JAVA or excel file attack.
Complications can go into effect at any one of the levels, from start to finish
of course. When doing external active discovery, if a hacker is trying to be
quick, they might use a “loud” program like Nexpose, Nessus, or OpenVAS
to scan for common systems, applications and their corresponding
vulnerabilities. These programs are said to be loud because they can trigger
intrusion detection systems (IDS) and can even take down services.

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Complications at the moving through the network stage are usually the most
interesting for me because it’s a bit of a softball in that it can be overcome
pretty easily. Let them get into a low level system and work their way up from
there. You can also have players go through and pick an exploit to work, see
how the dice roll, and introduce complications as needed depending on the
approach. Some other possible complications:

„„ AV software — maybe AV picks up certain batches and forces the

player to break up executables or hide them with Python or Veil or
forces them to compromise the AV software first.
„„ Time — if they have to brute force a database using word lists and
programs like John the Ripper or hashcat then the process can take
a lot of time (up to 20 days type time) so forces them to get creative
and use or invent a new program or use a less common one with
aggregated exploits (like Cobalt Strike, CANVAS, or Core Impact)
or one that uses AI or has them looking for more processing power
that the PC developed themselves..
Another great way to complicate things is to bring in the need for physical
access attacks. That way, the danger of the hacking mini-game (too much
spotlight time spent on one character) can be avoided by having other
members of the team doing other things at the same time, or breaking up
the tests with other challenges and changes in the fiction.

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HACKING CONTINUED>>

There are many types of attacks that require the attacker to be on-
site. Here are some:

„„ Wireless exploitation — can use a program like Kismet to identify

and do recon and even color codes things for you (yellow for
unencrypted, red for factory defaults, green for secured, and blue for
SSID cloaking). Fern Wifi Cracker can identify and crack WEP, force
a user to de-authenticate and then re-authenticate to pick up the
handshake, Aircrack-ng to pull a file to you can crack for a password.
Can use a fake radius attack for WPA Enterprise and then use Asleap
to get the challenge/response authentication. WifiPhisher automates
phishing attacks quickly on WiFi networks to get credentials and
passphrases and is good for getting around third party login pages
and captive portals.
„„ Card and Badge Cloning — HID badge cloning machines can be pricey
but easily obtained. Something like the Proxmark uses low-frequency
antenna to pick up proximity cards, high-frequency to snoop UIDs,
and comes with RFID tags to be cloned. You can walk into an elevator
or other close-in space and pick up everyone’s badges using a tablet.
„„ Bootable USB drives — Kon-Boot allows you to pop in the key, reboot
the system, and log right in to your system’s host. Once you reboot
again it will revert to the original password. The Rubber Ducky can
get by systems that have autorun disabled.

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„„ Drop boxes — can make modify a Raspberry Pi 2 by adding a power

adapter, USB WiFi adapter, an SD card for storage, and HDMI to view
and configure. Can be used to connect to corporate infrastructure,
then connect back via a remote shell to the attacker’s SSH, Wi-Fi, or
cell every set-amount-of-time.
Of course, no matter how secure a target is, it is always only as secure as the
people guarding it. Consider the following physical social engineering tips:

„„ Most people want to be polite, especially to strangers.

„„ Professionals want to appear well informed and intelligent.
„„ People who are praised tend to talk and divulge more.
„„ Most people do not lie for no reason.
„„ Most people respond favorably to someone helping them.
You should try:

„„ Appealing to someone’s ego.

„„ Expressing mutual interest to build rapport.
„„ Eliciting information by saying something incorrect that they will
want to correct (with the information you want).
„„ Offer information first in the vein of information you want to try and
get them to feel obligated and divulge information.

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„„ Put the target in the position of assuming you already know the
information you are trying to get from them.
„„ Use alcohol to help loosen the tongue.
You can also build a scenario around a target to get the information you want
out of them. Like pretending you’re the wife of a target with a crying baby
in the background to get a target’s passwords from a help desk person, or
pretending to be a journalist to ask a pilot about their badge, the lingo they
use, and what proper credentials look like.

„„ Establish trust by using authority — either talking the talk, or looking

the part.
„„ Cause a problem for the target, then help them resolve it.
„„ Cause a problem for yourself, then ask them to help you with it.
„„ Try angling with sympathy, guilt, or intimidation.

160
 INTERROGATION
Whether the word conjures up Liam Neeson sticking steel bars in a guy’s
legs and running electricity into him to get information or the age-old good
cop bad cop routine, it should be said up front that enhanced interrogation
techniques (torture) have pretty much been proven to not be effective.
The problem with turning Mission: Black List #1 into a game session or the
techniques that generally do get information from a subject is that it requires
time to build rapport and at least the semblance of being able to reward or
use resources to give the target what they want. Depending on the stakes
at work, it may be enough to threaten harm or death to get information
from a target, and even if the information is false or misleading, the player
characters are still on their way somewhere to do something, and that’s a win
because the Director can still move the story forward in a meaningful way.

That said, whenever possible, I try to stick with more realistic approaches
that have been proven to work to get actionable intelligence via rapport
building. Essentially, the interrogator probes and builds a profile on the
subject just by asking questions and finding out as much as they can about
them. What their interests are, who they look up to, what they value, what
they dislike, what they want, and so on.

There are many different approaches that can be used to try and establish
a rapport, but the first approach is always the direct one; Ask pertinent
questions until the questions are not answered truthfully. Then, try
another approach.

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„„ Incentive — a real or emotional reward is given to reinforce positive

behavior by satisfying a need they have. Privileges are withheld when
they are uncooperative. The incentive should be logical, possible, and
start small. Best practice is to infer a promise rather than make one
in order to not get caught and break trust if you can’t deliver.
„„ Emotional — hate and fear are usually the emotions governing a
target when captured, so they are used against them. This is further
broken down into:
„„ Emotional love — this approach requires the interrogator to show
sincerity and conviction and is designed to persuade and show the
target that it is within their power to alter and improve the situation
of their a loved one like family, homeland, friends, and so on. The goal
is to place a burden on them that only they can relieve (help with a
family that won’t know what to do without them, being able to end
the war quicker, and so on).
„„ Emotional hate — is all about convincing the target that their
cooperation with harm someone they hate. Usually most effective
on someone that wants revenge, is part of a minority group, or has
felt wronged or persecuted before. Only berate a facet of the target’s
life if it’s made obvious that they feel negatively toward it first.

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„„ Fear up  (harsh) — is when the interrogator behaves in an overbearing,

overpowering way. Loud and threatening, getting in a target’s face
and shouting or throwing things and generally trying to provoke an
emotional response and to make them feel like they have no option
but to cooperate and that they do, indeed, have something to fear.
This is usually a last resort since it’s hard to convince a target that
everything will be all right via an incentive or other approach after
trying to evoke as powerful a fear reaction as possible.
„„ Fear up (mild) — instead of generating a fear response with table-
slapping and yelling, point out to them that they do have something to
fear. Ideally, it is a credible, mild distortion of the truth that is coupled
with an incentive. This can draw on a noticed emotional hate as well
(you were caught with a weapon, you must be a terrorist because
you were in the Middle East recently, but if you help us we can forget
about that).
„„ Fear down — an already-fearful target can be made to calm down,
verbally and with physical reassurance if appropriate, along with
incentives so that they come to view the interrogator as their
protector. It’s important to build this by avoiding the topics of their
fear in the beginning, but it also can’t be taken too far or they may
feel secure enough to stop answering pertinent questions.

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„„ Emotional-pride and ego-up — usually effective on those feeling

inferior and low on the food chain or degraded often. The target is
flattered into providing information to gain credit. The interrogator
speaks highly of the target and uses a tone that shows they are
somewhat in awe of them. The interrogator should blow anything
they can out of proportion about anything noteworthy in their
background.
„„ Emotional-pride and ego-down — this approach is about attacking
the target’s sense of self-worth and anything they might see as
noteworthy in their background — loyalty, intelligence, abilities,
leadership qualities, appearance. All are attacked in an effort to goad
the target into revealing information and put them on the defensive.
Sarcasm, distaste and disgust are the weapons of choice here. This is
also a last-ditch effort in that it’s very hard to regain trust and rapport
if this approach fails.
„„ Emotional love — this approach requires the interrogator to show
sincerity and conviction and is designed to persuade and show the
target that it is within their power to alter and improve the situation
of a loved one, family, homeland, friends, and so on. The goal is to
place a burden on them that only they can relieve (help with a family
that won’t know what to do without them, being able to end the war
quicker, and so on).

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„„ Emotional-futility — when the interrogator has a lot of information

and facts about a target, they can use that information to try and
convince the target that resistance is futile by playing on doubts.
Their personal situation (everyone talks sooner or later) or by
downplaying the information they are giving and equating it with
information already long known is one way to do this. Making the
situation appear hopeless is important and that they don’t have much
to bargain with is the name of the game.
„„ We know all — is an approach where the interrogator convinces the
target that giving up information isn’t a big deal because it’s already
all known. We already know about this, but I’m giving you the chance
to corroborate in an effort to help you. This approach is best when
there’s some information, but gaps need filling so leading and open-
ended questions can be asked or by bombarding them with all the
information that is known about the target and their life, including
secrets or things that many people would not know. This approach
can be helped by preparing a large amount of documents in a dossier
to have at the table with tabs marking all aspects of their life.
„„ Establish your identity — is designed to convince the target that
they are understood to be someone high up in the food chain or an
infamous criminal. If they want to clear themselves of the allegations
they’ll have to provide information and proof about themselves.

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„„ Repetition — the interrogator listens intently and them repeats the

question and answer several times until the target is annoyed or
bored enough to answer questions and gain relief from the monotony
of the repetition. Can work better with a tape recorder instead of
multiple repeating interrogators.
„„ Rapid fire — a question is asked and then another is asked before the
target can answer the first fully in an effort to confuse, frustrate, and
ultimately force them to answer without thinking (and so truthfully
or in a contradictory manner).
„„ Silent— no questions are asked and nothing is said. The interrogator
only looks the target in the eyes until they break eye contact, and with
a slight smile on their face in an effort to make them uncomfortable
to the point of fidgeting, shifting in their chair, or trying to break the
silence by asking questions, but the interrogator does not answer
until they are ready to break the silence. Once they are, they begin
only by asking a question and going from there. Extended silences
should follow anything perceived as less than truthful.
„„ Good cop, bad cop — requires two interrogators. The “bad” cop
always starts by trying to elicit fear and leads with the consequences
of not cooperating. The “good” cop gives them a way out, provides
incentives, and establishes a rapport. Whenever the target isn’t
truthful, the bad cop comes in to shake them and provide the stick.

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„„ False-flag — an approach where the interrogator presents themselves

as someone they are not. It could be as someone from another
country that is going to seek extradition or as a former-comrade to
elicit anger or to give an example of an already-turned informant.
„„ Separation — is when a target is put in isolation of some kind where
they can’t communicate with anyone in an effort to get them to want
contact and communication.
A big part of interrogation is knowing how to read a person and tell
when they are lying or being less than truthful in their answers. To read
someone, you must:

„„ Establish a baseline — note how the target looks normally, how they

typically sit and position their hands and feet, their posture and
common facial expressions. Ideally, you want to observe them to
get the baseline before engaging them. Deviation from the norm is
always important and can show you changes in thoughts, emotions,
interests, or intentions.
„„ Look for clusters — clusters are multiple signals that together tell
you that they are lying. If the target displays discomfort followed by
pacifying behaviors, they are probably lying or at least feel like they
are not in a position of power.
„„ Learn to distinguish between discomfort and comfort, authentic and
misleading cues see page 173 for more on reading people.

167
TRADECRAFT
Tradecraft is catch-all term that refers to the techniques and methods that
spies use to both get and pass information secretly from one source to
another. This section will give a brief overview of some common techniques
along with some terminology found in many spy thrillers:

„„ Brush pass — when two agents briefly make contact and quickly pass
or exchange something in hand.
„„ Cover — the role an agent plays to establish themselves as someone
else they are pretending to be.
„„ Cryptography — how information is made secure in the presence
of third parties. One-time pads allow messages to be passed and
are difficult to break. Two people have identical pads, are randomly
encoded and can be used to either write or decode a message, that
uses the same page. Two people set up a procedure for reading or
writing a message (use the next page, use page 23, and so on).
„„ Cut-outs — an intermediary between a spy and their source to
provide cover for both a spy and their asset should either one of them
be captured or interrogated. In such cases they cannot divulge much
actionable intelligence because they don’t know the real players
involved.

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„„ Dead drop — a secret location where a spy or asset dumps

information or objects of interest to be picked up by someone else.
Digital dead drops allow a person to simply walk by an object (like a
false rock) and transmit data rather than physically placing an object
somewhere (like under a bench).
„„ Drycleaning — a series of maneuvers undertaken to draw out anyone
following you to shake any tails loose.
„„ Forgery — is used to create false, reliable documents that can be used
to take on another identity or for other purposes (getting information
or access, for example). Professional forgers are sometimes called
Shoemakers.
„„ Legend — a cover identity that a spy can use to infiltrate a group
(go undercover) that is well established and that will hold up under
scrutiny.
„„ Microdots — are very small discs, usually about the size of a period on
a page, that have information, like writing or pictures, embedded on
them. These dots can be easily hidden (underneath a postage stamp)
and can be encrypted in case they are accidentally found.
„„ Safehouse — a prepared location that can be stayed in for extended
periods of time that has been vetted and that can be safely hidden in.

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„„ Signals — are used to prompt a handler or asset to do something.

Putting a flower pot out onto the terrace might mean “meet at the
park at noon tomorrow”. Chalk, a thumb tack, or sticker on a lamp
post or tree can mean that a dead drop is loaded for pick-up.
„„ Steganography — another example of cryptography, steganography
is the art of hiding a message or data within other data, like a picture,
video, or audio file. Like one-time pads, two users must know how to
use a program or otherwise embed and find the data that is trying
to be passed on.
„„ Surveillance — is observing a target to gather information about
them. Electronic surveillance, in the form of bugs and wires is one
way to monitor a subject, the government has access to other ways,
like aerial surveillance via drone or satellite. In spy fiction, this often
means someone on the ground following , or tailing, a person to keep
track of their movements, behavior, listening to their conversations,
and so on.

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 LISTS
The following section is meant to be used as inspiration or fodder for
coming up with information you might need to know at the table, during
game night, on-the-fly. Everything from names for characters and sample
antagonists with possible motivations, to weapons on the black market
and game-changing technology that might force nation states into action
and play pivotal roles in your fiction, to randomly-chosen personalities and
motivations for assets player characters might approach or interrogate.

ASSETS
Choose a reason for an asset to turn and build their backstory from there,
as needed as the narrative progresses. With complications, have more than
one thing at work (maybe they want more than money, they want to feel the
thrill of it, or to screw over their boss, for example).

„„ Money  — this could also be something specific instead, like a green

card, or their family moved to the states.
„„ Ideology  — patriotism, politics or morality.
„„ Coercion/Corruption  — blackmail.
„„ Ego/Excitement  — want to feel more important, want the rush or to
feel like Jason Bourne.

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ACTORS
Here are some actors for the pre-game stage, or for after a session where
you want to put a face to name. These are obviously just my ideas based on
actors I’ve seen and used in games before so your mileage may vary.

„„ Villains — Crispin Glover, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Peter

Lorre, Harrison Ford, Tim Robbins, Vincent D’Onofrio, Chris Cooper,
Meryl Streep, Russel Crowe, Billy Bob Thornton, Forest Whitaker,
Nicholas Cage, Ben Kingsley, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad
Pitt, Viggo Mortenson, Edie Falco, Joaquin Phoenix, Christian Bale,
Michael Fassbender, Mads Mikkelsen, Tatiana Maslany.
„„ Government — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Judi Dench, Brian Cox, Bob
Gunton, Scott Glen, Gary Oldman, James Earl Jones, Sean Penn,
George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Jude Law,
Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor.
„„ Agents and spies — Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez,
Zoe Saldana, Samuel L. Jackson, Daniel Craig, Donnie Yen, Matt
Damon, Clive Owen, Emily Blunt, Jamie Foxx, Bradley Cooper, Gina
Carono.

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 INTERROGATION
When the player characters are interrogating someone, they should be
looking for signs of lying. This usually means clusters of stressors (signs of
discomfort) followed by pacifiers (things the body does unconsciously to
try and dissipate stress). They’re looking for clusters because anyone being
questioned is probably going to show signs of discomfort, but you need more
than that to be sure that someone is lying. Even when they are lying, they
might be lying for any number of reasons.

„„ Touching or stroking the neck (or necklace).

„„ Touching or stroking the face.
„„ Playing with, stroking hair or beard.
„„ Rubbing the forehead.
„„ Blowing out through puffed cheeks.
„„ Turning the body or feet away from something disliked (or indicating
they want to leave).
„„ Eye-blocking (squinting or closing the eyes) when feeling threatened
or disliking what is being seen.
„„ Eye movement may indicate lying (not having to think to access
memories if true).

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„„ Yawning.
„„ Chewing gum, smoking cigarettes, licking lips, eating food, rubbing
chin, playing with an object (watch, pencil, lipstick).
„„ Sliding hands down thighs toward the knees (as if to clean sweaty
palms).
„„ Ventilating the neck (loosening neck tie, unbuttoning shirt).
„„ Moving feet and legs, jiggling (usually means impatient or antsy, if
the foot starts kicking, it signifies discomfort, if it stops, they may
feel threatened or be experiencing a change of emotion or stress).
„„ Turning toes inward or locking feet behind a chair (anxious, insecure)
„„ Lack of movement can signify lying, but can also signify caution and
self-restraint.
„„ Withdrawing the feet beneath their chair signifies high-stress and
wishing to distance oneself from an implication.
„„ Unconscious torso movement is big because it is hard to fake, like
leaning away or blading (turning torso slightly) when something is
disliked.
„„ Putting up barriers between themselves and something they dislike
or want to distance themselves from (clothing, nearby objects)

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„„ Women in particular tend to cover their torso when they feel

insecure, nervous, or cautious.
„„ Splaying out on a chair or bench is meant to show indifference to
authority.
„„ Half-shrugs in response to questions show a lack of commitment
or confidence (both shoulders raising sharply and equally suggest
honesty).
„„ Turtling (raising shoulders toward the ears) shows weakness,
insecurity, and negative emotions.
„„ Crossing arms behind back is meant to show they think they are
better than the interrogator, and also that they do not want to be
approached or touched.
„„ Arms akimbo (hands on hips in a V) is a territorial display to establish
dominance or to communicate disagreement.
„„ Arm spreading shows they are indignant and confident.
„„ Interlaced hands behind the head or hand steepling signify
confidence and dominance.
„„ Self-preening shows dismissiveness.
„„ Hand-wringing shows concern.
„„ Shaking hands can mean either stress or joy.

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„„ Thumbs out of pocket shows confidence. If they disappear back in it

means low-confidence or low-status.
„„ Interlaced stroking or rubbing of hands shows stress and low-
confidence. Intensity will increase along with stress.
„„ If the hands stop illustrating or emphasizing it means there is a
change in brain activity and is a good sign of deception.
„„ Negative emotions can tighten jaw muscles, cause the nose to flare,
the eyes to squint, the mouth to quiver, or the lips to occlude. If eye
focus is fixed, neck is stiff, and there is no head tilt they are upset.
„„ Tilting the head or mimicking body language means they are
comfortable, receptive, and friendly.
„„ Lowering the eyebrows is a sign of feeling threatened. If they go
extremely low, it’s a sign of defeat and weakness.
„„ Raising the eyebrows indicates they know the answer to the question
being asked.
„„ If the eyebrows suddenly begin raising less and less when telling a
story, it signifies they are becoming less and less committed to what
they are saying. Lack of raising indicates they are not emotionally
attached to what is being said.
„„ Real smiles force the corners of the mouth up towards the eyes.

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„„ Increased eye-blinking can mean arousal, concern, or nervousness.

An eye flutter often signifies having trouble expressing oneself.
„„ If the lips disappear during a declarative statement, it means the
statement bothered them and that the line of questioning is worth
pursuing.
„„ Lip-pursing means they are considering saying something, or that
they agree with what was just said.
„„ Touching or licking lips while pondering options shows insecurity.
„„ Tongue-jutting usually means they feel as if they’ve gotten away with
something or feel like they have been caught.
„„ Furrowing the forehead and brow signifies a person is anxious, sad,
concerned, bewildered, concentrating, or sad.
„„ Blushing usually means embarrassment.
„„ Blanching usually means shock.
„„ Nose up shows high confidence, nose down low confidence.
„„ Crossed legs shows comfort, uncrossed caution.
„„ With practice, it’s possible to pick up micro-expressions (sudden
disgust or disdain), or micro-gestures (flipping the bird, flattening
hand to stay stop, self-hushing).

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LOCATIONS
Just to get the juices flowing, here are some ideas and things to type into
Google when looking for images for use in your game. Establishing shots are
really the only ones you need to care about in terms of where they are. Once
we’ve established we’re in Paris, we don’t need to feel limited to the actual
streets and places that exist in Paris (not that it’s a bad idea or anything,
just don’t feel the need to spend a ton of time doing it and examining a map).

„„ Establishing shots  — Toronto, London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Napoli,

Athens, Belgrade, Moscow, Stockholm, Dubai, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai,
Caracas, Rio De Janeiro, Juarez, Cairo, Sydney, Afghanistan, Beirut
„„ Places to have chases — markets, bazaars, fish markets, construction
sites, subway stations, narrow alleys, freeways, through little shops,
across rooftops, along and through packed apartments,
„„ Places to have showdowns and fights — in elevators, cool buildings,
on staircases, offices with stuff to grab for improvised weapons, a
building that’s falling apart, clubs, a church, a resort, in or on a vehicle
„„ Places to have meetings — a park, wharf, a hotel lobby or bar, shopping
mall, libraries or book stores, alleyways or places people don’t go.

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 LOCKPICKING
There are a number of tools that can be used to pick locks, but at its most
basic, you only need two things —a torque wrench, used to apply sheer force,
and a pick, used to push the pin up. The sheer force keeps the pins from
coming back down again and, once all the pins are pushed up, the lock can
be turned and the door opened. With one hand, you constantly apply that
force while the other hand moves independently to work the pins.

There are a couple methods that can be used to pick a lock:

„„ Picking — this is going through, identifying which pins are binding

most, applying pressure, and bring each one up carefully. This makes
it harder to tell that a lock was manipulated if done well.
„„ Raking/Scrubbing — is when you run the pick over all the pins with
a pressure great enough to overcome the spring. Since only one or
two pins will usually set, the process has to be repeated several times.
Lockpick guns mechanizes this process.
There are a number of possible complications that can make picking a
lock tricky. The use of security pins, like the mushroom, spool, or serrated
driver pin makes it a lot more difficult to push the pin up over the lip
because of the way they are shaped. There are also hybrid designs that
combine the features of multiple security pins (a pool pin with serrated
edges, for example).

179
NAMES
It is always convenient to have a list of names that can be called on as needed
during a game session. Sometimes, you do it simply to put a name to a face,
to signify that this character is more important and is a named part in the
movie. Other times, it can be a lot more important, like with Arabic names
that can tell you a lot about the character. Arabic names are composed
of several parts:

„„ Ism — the given name, first name, or personal name. Adults are not
referred to by their ism.
„„ Laqab — the surname, or family name.
„„ Nasab — a name showing you are the son (ibn/bin) or daughter (bint)
of someone. A name can have several nasab to trace back ancestry.
„„ Nisbah — a surname indicating occupation, tribe of descent, city, or
country.
„„ Kunya — an honorific given to the father (Abu) or mother (Umm) of
someone. The Kunya is said first, father by the child’s name, then the
ism, then the laqab.
A laqab and nisbah are similar in use so a name usually contains one or the
other (both are surnames). Not all pieces need be in a person’s name. Last
names can start with al- (or Al-) meaning family or clan (Al Saud).

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Example male given names: Abdullah, Ali, Marwan, Khalid, Ibrahim, Shakir

Example female given names: Azizah, Fatima, Hiba, Naweed, Sakina, Zaynab

Example surnames: al-Basri,al-Farabi, al-Kabir, al-Sufi, Al-Awwal, Al-Rahim

Example names: Muhammed ibn Ameen al-Farsi, Umm Naweed Fatima

bint Ibrahma, Abu Khalid Marwan Al-Awwal, Ibn Ali al-Sufi, Abdul Rahman
bin Omaral-Ahmad, Saleh ibn Tariq Khalid al-Basri, Hiba bin Saleh ibn
Tariq al-Fulan.

Cambodian names consist of a surname, which are usually taken from the
father’s given or surname, and a given name, which usually relate to beauty
(women) or a virtue (men). Names are written family name first.

Example surnames: Chey, Keo, Chap, Duong, Tep, Ny, Phy, Lim, Sang, Sin, Ong

Example male given names: Arun, Bona, Charya, Davuth, Khemera, Mao,
Narin, Oudom, Rith, Rothanuk, Saley, Sothy, Sovann, Thom, Vannak

Example female given names: Achariya, Bopha, Chantou, Da, Kesor, Nimol,
Pich, Rachany, Sok, Sonith, Taevy, Toch, Vaesny, Vaeta, Vimean

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NAMES CONTINUED>>

Russian names consist of a given name, a patronymic (the name of the

person’s father), and a family name. Using all three names is formal, using the
first and the patronymic indicates good relations, using only the given name
is familiar. Surnames are gendered (names ending in -sky change to -skaya).

Example (masculine form) surnames: Ivanov, Kaminski, Krupin, Markovic

Example male given names: Anatoly, Boris, Viktor, Dmitry, Yegor, Mikhail

Example female given names: Dominika, Elena, Irina, Klara, Maya, Natalya

Vietnamese names consist of a surname, middle, and given name and are
both spoken and written in that order. Given and surname names can be
composites. Middle names may denote generation (a brother and sister
might have the same one), separate branches in a family, or birth order.
Women keep their maiden name after marriage.

Example surnames: Nguyen, Tran, Le, Pham, Huynh, Vu, Hoang, Ngo, Dang

Example middle names: Van, Hu, Sinh, Lam

Example male given names: Binh, Chinh, Danh, Long, Quyen, Tuan, Vien, Hau

Example female given names: Vinh, Tien, Bian, Hanh, Hoa, Nguyet, Tam, Quy

182
 ORGANIZATIONS
Here is a list of common government, criminal, and private organizations that
can be used to brainstorm or drop into a game as needed. For individuals,
you might want to check out the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists.

„„ U.S. Domestic Terrorist Organizations  — Phineas Priesthood,

Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, Sovereign Citizen
Movement, the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations
„„ International Terrorist Organizations — ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab,
Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
„„ Organized Crime — Solntsevskaya Bratva (Russian mafia), Yamaguchi
Gumi (Yakuza), Camorra (Italia-American mafia), ‘Ndrangheta (Italian
mafia), Sinaloa Cartel (Mexico)
„„ Private Military Organizations — Triple Canopy (formerly Blackwater,
US based), G4S (UK based), DynCorp, GardaWorld, Olive Security
(United Arab Emirates)
„„ Intelligence Agencies — Ministry of Defense (France), Federal
Security Services (FSB, Russia), Mossad (Israel), Security Intelligence
Service/MI6 (UK), Federal Intelligence Service (BND, Germany),
Ministry of State Security (MSS, China)

183
SECURITY SYSTEMS
Most security systems consist of several different types of monitoring
devices. Door and window sensors often use magnetic sensors to detect
opening and closing, while motion detectors use infrared to detect
movement and significant changes in a room’s temperature. Keypads are
used to dial out to emergency services.

„„ Magnetic sensors on doors and windows can be made to trip or get

fooled into thinking they are still in contact by hitting them with a
high enough magnetic field. Thin strips of magnetic material placed
next to the sensor can fool it into thinking the magnet is still present
or thin strips of tin foil passed between the magnetic connection
can do the same as long as the connection between the sensor and
magnet is not broken.
„„ Motion detectors can be bypassed by something as simple as
sytrofoam covering the body. They can be made to reset or be blinded
by pointing certain wavelengths at them. Thermal sensors can be
made to trip and reset from the inside with a blast of compressed air
„„ Keypads often use cell technology that can be fooled by setting up
a rogue base station for it to connect to and so send any alerts to
an alternate number. Land lines can be cut as long as the monitored
voltage is still tapped and supplied. Additionally, connecting to a
keypad’s modem provides full access to the system.

184
 <<SECURITY SYSTEMS CONTINUED

All biometrics are susceptible to brute force or hill-climbing attacks that

send templates, analyze results to make improved templates, and then
continue to do so until the account is cracked. Here are some other common
vulnerabilities for certain biometrics:

„„ Fingerprints can be lifted from legit users with even a photograph

of a print on a glass surface or even just several photographs. The
fingerprint is printed out onto a thin film using latex milk or white
wood glue and then used with a real finger to unlock the device.
„„ A safe can be cracked by manipulation (sight, touch, and sound only)
to get the correct combination; auto-dialers can be mounted onto
the safe itself and then brute-force the code; penetrating radiation
(X, beta, gamma, etc.) is used to view the internals and assess the
combination; drilling, explosives, can be used to force entry.
„„ Some iris scanners can be fooled by high definition pictures (1200
dpi, 75% percent of the iris visible in the photo).
„„ Facial Recognition can be tricked by taking a photo, mapping it
out in 3D with a bit of correcting for gaze or expressions, and then
producing it for the reader with a VR system on a phone or device. To
fool the software you need to obscure points on the face, including
the distance between the eyes, width of the nose, depth of eye
sockets, shape of cheekbones, and length of jawline.

185
WEAPONS
When playing a game where the players are special forces (or if they go up
against them) it’s useful to know what kinds of weapons they use and the
typical loadout. Since Special Forces, and Team Six in particular, have access
to various types of weapons and gunsmiths that can modify their weapons
for them, let’s take a look at the trends rather than trying to say for sure
what any given spec ops team will be carrying.

„„ Red dot sights on tactical pistols are common, like the Aimpoint Micro
that attaches to the frame of the pistol. Infrared lights are common
so that only those wearing nightvision goggles can see the beam, like
the X400V IRC.
„„ Two pistols are often carried for situations where it’s hard to reload
(carrying a ballistic shield, for instance), or three depending on the
situation. The HK45C for suppressed work, the Glock 19 for assaults
and covert entry.
„„ Extended magazines, low light sites, rail mounted weapon lights, and
9 x 19mm caliber is common.
„„ Hollowpoint ammo is only legally allowed for close protection tasks
and counter terrorist ops.

186
 <<WEAPONS CONTINUED

Submachine guns are used mainly for hostage rescue, in which case
the MP7A1 with 4.6 x 30mm rounds for when operators need to worry
about size and weight are used with Aimpoint Micros and SureFire Scout
weapon lights. Sometimes, they will also be outfitted with precision GPS
receivers on the stock.

As far as assault rifles and carbines, the 5.56 x 45mm short barrel carbine is
favored. They are light weight and can engage targets up to 200 meters away
or more, at the cost of more recoil and can heat up that can cause stoppages
after extended periods of shooting. Range and accuracy are reduced and
the muzzle blast is much worse (and why suppressors are often attached).
Despite the disadvantages, it still has more stopping power than a 9 x 19mm
submachine gun. The HK416 with AAC suppressors, SureFire weapon
lights, Magpul vertical forward grips, EO Tech optics, flip-away three-power
magnifiers, and AN/PEQ-15 Advanced Target Pointer Illuminator Laser
infrared and visible laser illuminator with a Magpul forty-round extended
magazine is used by Team Six, whereas Delta uses a 10.4-inch barrel HK416
equipped with SureFire suppressor and optics.

187
WEAPONS CONTINUED>>

For marksmanship rifles at longer distances, Delta operatives use a 16-

inch barrel SR-25 that is made to spec or a 14.5-inch Heckler and Koch
416 with Nightforce optics, which is what Team Six also use along with the
Mk16 or Mk17 SCAR.

Shortened pump-action shotguns are often brought to raids, in particular

with special breaching rounds to take down doors (either by shooting the
hinges, favored by SEALs, or the lock mechanism, favored by Delta). Two
rounds in the locking mechanism, followed by another two if the lock still
won’t open. If that doesn’t work, a manual breaching tool, like a Hooligan Bar
or handheld ram, is used. Something like a shortened pistol-grip Remington
M870 is used for breaching purposes.

Depending on operational circumstances, a sniper might use a suppressed

SR-25, MK11, or HK417 before a semi-automatic or bolt action sniper rifle.
The MK13 Mod0, a 26.5-inch barrel Remington 700 action embedded in
a custom McMillan stock, sound suppressor, and Picatinny rails, usually
equipped with Nightforce Mil-Dot scopes and Harris bi-pod are popular
because they come in much lighter than the SR-25 or MK11. The SEALs,
MARSOC, and Army Special Forces are using the MK13 Mod 7 in .300
Winchester Magnum.

188
 <<WEAPONS CONTINUED

For submachine guns, Delta favors the Mk48, a modified Mk46 that uses
the 7.62 x 51mm platform and is lighter and is used for suppression as an
overwatch element. Along with the M240L Mod1, the two weapon systems
are most common.

Grenade launchers are usually 40mm single shot, breech loading design that
are mounted underneath the barrel, usually of a HK416, like the AG26 that
Delta and Team Six use.

While that covers the special forces, what spies, private military contractors,
or soldiers operating outside of designated missions might use is most likely
different. In the army, interchangeable rounds for pistols and rifles are
important, not to mention contracts mean using a platform for an extended
periods of time.

While there is a small market online via the Dark Web that makes it possible
to buy guns online, there is not a lot of demand because sending weapons
through the mail is a risky prospect and it’s hard to find a trustworthy dealer
and it requires more work than picking a weapon up at a gun show with
barely a background check. Of course, that’s the US, so it may be more of
an option to buy a weapon and get it via a GPS located dead drop or have
it sent to you in multiple parts. More easily concealed weapons like pistols
(Desert Eagle, Glocks, Ruger P89, machine pistols) seem to be the most
common, but M4s and AK47s, Remington 870 shotguns and body armor
are all easily procurable.

189
VILLAINS
Here is a table you can use to come up with a villain with some personality
traits or quirks, their motivations, and what piece of technology they, and
probably everyone else, is after in order to get their motivation.

„„ Traits & Quirks — carries an artifact with them always that reminds

them of their past (a coin that is passed along the knuckles, a watch
that doesn’t tell time anymore, wears glasses that they don’t need);
hates it when people touch their hair or messes up their image
(constantly self-preening); identifies with, and takes in, strays;
constantly sweating, even when at rest; drags one foot; always rubs
temples when stressed and prone to headaches; quotes from their
favorite book frequently (Art of War, Moby Dick, the Bible); always
takes a bet; hates to drink anything without ice; obsessed with skin
tone; always chews gum; constantly exercising and eating healthy;
germophobe; can’t eat in front of others; is prone to hallucinations
and so thinks himself chosen; photographic memory; petrified of fire;
has to do things in threes; can never sleep for long; captures peoples’
souls in their camera, hates technology; believes themselves haunted;
resents having to speak to anyone; unable to have children; collects
something unique; has something on their body they cover or hide.

190
 <<VILLAINS CONTINUED

„„ Motivation — revenge against a government that came in, screwed

up their country and then left it like that; feelings for a loved one,
trying to get the technology to keep them alive; ego in that they
want to prove themselves or to finally be viewed as an equal; greed
in that they have an unnatural need that needs to be fulfilled, or does
it to offer it to someone else; fear for their own life or that of their
family, those they care about; for the common good or wanting to
see society reorganized in a way that benefit everyone; ownership
or curiosity about something they are interested in or have created;
power as its own end, to be able to exert influence and see their will
be done in the world.
„„ Technology everyone is after — nuclear weapons; reading minds; mind
control (programming) device; cold fusion; gene-targeting weapons;
super soldier serum; list of legends; pre-cognition; space laser or
laser technology allowing for a space defense grid or control over
territory; anti-aging medicine; mind maps for extracting and putting
information into people; exoskeletons; brainwashing techniques;
strong AI; nanotechnology (nano solar cells, anti-aging, artificial white
blood cells, destroying organs from the inside after inhaling dust, and
so on); cybernetic enhancements; quantum computer and quantum
protected systems, networks, and satellites; DNA computing; alien
technology.

191
VILLAINS CONTINUED>>

Of course, organizations and governments don’t need technological reasons

to go to covert, or overt, war. The usual things like proof of a government
cover-up, regime change and control over territory are all too common a
reason for intervention if you don’t want to venture as far out.

Sadism and greed are common motivations that can become pretty one-
dimensional if not mixed in with some other stuff, but that’s not necessarily
a bad thing, either. Plenty of action movies pull off one-dimensional villains
just fine because we’re just along for the ride. As long as everyone at the
table has an idea of what’s going on and what kind of movie they’re directing
together, go for it. In fact, when going with those kinds of motivations, I say
own it and dial it up to 11 Goldfinger style. It doesn’t have to make sense,
and it doesn’t have to stem from a mental disorder — it might just not make
sense and that’s ok for some games!

192
 INDEX
A
Abbottabad 123
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 112
acetone 138
acetone peroxide 138
Achille Lauro Hijacking 116
actors 10, 30, 48, 82, 83, 172
Actors 172
admin 154, 155
Advantage 92
Aeropostal Flight 252 105
Afghanistan 16, 107, 117, 124, 126, 127, 128, 129, 131, 178
AG26 189
agent running 126, 130
Agents 172
Aidid 106, 116
Aircrack-ng 158
al-Qaeda 107, 112, 113, 117, 118, 122, 128, 129
Al Qaim 111
al-Shabaab 122, 128
aluminum powder 140
al-Zawahiri 118
Ansar al-Islam 129
Arabic names 180
Army Compartmented Element 97
ARP 155
Asleap 158
assault rifles 187
asset 38, 39, 40, 68, 69, 82, 125, 130, 135, 136, 137, 168, 169, 170, 171
Authority 136

B
backgrounds 7, 68, 84, 97, 123, 130, 131
Baghdad 108
Bala Boluk 118
baseline 64, 167
BeFF 153
Before the Game 7
Benghazi 113
Blackhawk 106, 123
Blackhawks 111, 122
black powder 139
Bolivia 128
Bosnia 117
Bowie Bergdahl 119

193
breaching 98, 101, 102, 123, 188
Brush pass 168
BUD/S 16, 17, 20, 101, 102
Burp 152, 153

C
C4 102
Cain and Abel 155
Cambodian names 181
CANVAS 157
Captain Phillips 122
Caracas 105, 178
carbines 187
character sheets 66, 68
Chase Cards 31
Chases 28, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 75, 90, 91, 92
Che Guevara 128
CIA 17, 20, 48, 61, 66, 96, 100, 107, 113, 114, 117, 124, 125, 127, 130,
135
citric acid 138
Clocks 4, 18, 41, 94
Cloning 158
clusters 167, 173
Coalition 107, 111, 124, 131
Cobalt Strike 157
collage 8, 10, 30, 31, 48, 83
Combat Operations Group 97
communications 103, 110, 129
complication 11, 12, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 78, 141, 142, 150, 151
complications 11, 12, 21, 54, 57, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 78, 79, 87, 134, 135,
141, 144, 145, 146, 148, 150, 151, 157, 171
Consequences 12, 15, 75
Core Impact 157
core mechanic 8, 33, 57, 60, 78
counter-terrorist 98, 103, 106
Cover 2, 168
Cryptography 24, 168
cryptology 103
CSRF 153
Cut-outs 168

D
Dark Web 189
Dead drops 100
Delta Force 97, 104, 107, 111, 112

194
demolitions 98, 102
detonator 137, 138, 140
DEVGRU 101, 116
Director Sheet 64
Discipline 15, 16, 17, 20, 84, 85, 133
DNS 156
downtime 17, 45, 70, 75
driving 69, 98, 102, 114, 127
Drop boxes 159
Drycleaning 169
dynamite 102

E
Egypt 116
El Salvador 128
Emotional-futility 165
Emotional hate 162
Emotional love 162, 164
Emotional-pride and ego-down 164
Emotional-pride and ego-up 164
Establish your identity 165
ethyl alcohol 138
Ettercap 155
explosive 101, 137, 138, 139, 141, 142
External Active Discovery 152

F
failure 27, 41, 42, 64, 67, 71, 87, 151
Fallujah 110, 111
False-flag 167
Fate dice 10, 31, 33, 34, 35, 60, 83, 84, 86, 87, 90
FBI 114, 183
Fear down 163
Fear up 163
Fern Wifi Cracker 158
fictional positioning 43, 44, 71
Fight Cards 31, 33, 34, 64
Fights 28, 33, 34, 35, 36, 75, 88, 89, 92
Firesheep 156
flashback 16, 17, 43, 44, 85, 94, 133, 140
flashbacks 130
flashbang 140
Forgery 153, 169
Fort Rupert 104
frame a scene 45, 49, 54

195
fuel 105, 137, 139, 147

G
Gitrob 152
Glock 110, 186
Golden Knights 120
Gold Squadron 120
Good cop, bad cop 166
Grenada 104, 115
grey fuel 139
Group Policy Preferences 154
Guantanamo Bay 119

H
Haiti 106, 124
HALO 127
Hamster 156
handler 135, 136, 170
harm 4, 12, 15, 44, 62, 64, 65, 75, 161, 162
hashcat 157
hashes 154, 155
Helen Johnston 120
Helmand 118
Hexamine 138
hexamine peroxide 138
high-value target 102
HK45C 2, 186
HK416 2, 187, 189
HK417 188
human intelligence 124, 135
HUMINT 124, 125
hydrochloric acid 138, 139
Hydrogen peroxide 138

I
IED 20, 142
improvised explosive device 142
Incentive 162
Inner Turmoil 12, 13, 84, 85, 132
intelligence 103, 104, 107, 110, 115, 117, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126,
127, 128, 129, 130, 135, 145, 152, 161, 164, 168
Intelligence Agencies 183
Intelligence Support Activity 107, 117, 123
International Terrorist Organizations 183

196
interrogation 98, 100, 110, 128, 161, 167
Interrogation 80, 161, 173
interrogator 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 175
Iran 129
Iranian Embassy 104
Iraq 108, 111, 112, 127, 129, 131
Iraqi 108, 112, 121, 124, 129
ISA 108, 110, 114, 122, 124
Israel 105, 183

J
Japanese Embassy Crisis 106
Jason Bourne 24, 67, 171
Jessica Lynch 121, 132
Jobs 28, 33, 41, 42, 43, 44, 94, 95
John the Ripper 157
JSOC 124, 128

K
KingFish 147
Kismet 158
Kon-Boot 158
Korean War 128
Kurt Muse 105

L
land navigation 98, 126
launching charge 137, 138
lead 33, 37, 38, 39, 59, 90, 91, 94, 104, 119, 139
lead nitrate 139
Legend 169
Liking 136, 137
Linda Norgrove 119
Lists 80, 171

M
M240L 189
M870 188
main charge 137, 139, 140
Maintaining Persistence & Backdoors 155
MAKO 30 117
man-in-the-middle 155
Manual Web App Findings & Penetration 153
Marine 111

197
marksmanship rifles 188
MARSOC 188
Masscan 152
Maurice Bishop 104, 115
medicine 102, 138, 140, 191
Mercury 138
mercury fulminate 138
Metasploit 153, 154, 155, 156
Microdots 169
Minor Consequence 15
Mission: Impossible 8, 9, 33, 41, 71
MK11 188
MK13 188
Mk16 188
Mk17 188
Mk48 189
Mogadishu 106, 116
Molotov Cocktail 140
Mooks 6
Mosul 109
motivations 23, 27, 30, 57, 77, 171, 190, 192
moves 31, 56, 66, 93
movie 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19, 23, 26, 27, 32, 34, 48, 49, 55, 57, 63, 67, 74,
75, 77, 82, 130, 133, 134, 180, 192
Moving Through the Network 154
MP7A1 187
MSSQL 153
Mullah Omar 107

N
Names 180, 181
Napalm 140
Nessus 156
Nexpose 156
nightvision goggles 123, 186
nitrate 139
Nitric Acid 139
Noriega 105, 116
Northern Alliance 128
NoSQL 153
NSA 71, 125, 148
NTLM 154
nuclear weapons 22, 191

198
O
Objective Beaver 121
Objective Gecko 107
Objective Medford 111
obstacle 19, 31, 38, 42, 43, 44, 75, 89, 90, 94, 95, 101, 102
OpenVAS 156
Operation Acid Gambit 105
Operation Black Swan 114
Operation Celestial Balance 122
Operation Dahir 112
Operation Desert Storm 105
Operation Eagle Claw 104
Operation Enduring Freedom 107, 117
Operation Gothic Serpent 106, 116
Operation Iraqi Freedom 108, 121
Operation Ivy Bells 128
Operation Jubilee 120
Operation Just Cause 105, 116
Operation Larchwood-4 112
Operation Neptune Spear 123
Operation Nifty Package 116
Operation Red Dawn 110
Operation Snake Eyes 111
Operation Uphold Democracy 106
Operation Urgent Fury 104, 115
Operation Viking Hammer 129
Organized Crime 183
Osama Bin Laden 107

P
Pakistan 107, 117, 123, 183
Panama 105, 116
parachuting 122, 126, 127
Peru 106
Philippines 127
pirates 122
pistols 99, 186, 189
plan 10, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32, 43, 59, 77, 83, 87, 118
Playing the Game 7
Post Exploit 155, 156
potassium chlorate 139, 140
potassium nitrate 139
potassium permanganate 140
Powershell 155
pre-game 7, 48, 57, 59, 70, 83, 172

199
primary charge 137, 138, 139
Prime 16, 17, 96, 104, 115
Prime a Special 17
Primed 17, 133
Private Lynch 121
Private Military Organizations 183
Proxmark 158
pursuers 33, 37, 38, 85, 90
Python 157

Q
Quirks 190
Qusay Hussein 109

R
Ramadi 109, 113
ranger 102, 118
rangers 104, 106, 108, 121
Rapid fire 166
RASCLS 136
Recce Troop 108
Reciprocation 136
reconnaissance 103, 107, 117, 128
Recon-ng 152
recover 45, 75, 85, 119, 122, 132
Red dot sights 184, 186
Red Squadron 123
remote access 154
Repetition 166
re-roll 16, 85, 133
revenge 162, 191
RFID 158
Richmond Hill Prison 104
risks 7, 61, 67
roll20 10, 31, 83
Rubber Ducky 158
Running the Game 7
Russian names 182

S
SAD 128, 129, 130
Saddam Hussein 105, 108, 109, 110
safehouse 109, 111, 112
Safehouse 169

200
Sargat 129
SAS 105, 106, 109, 120, 131
Scanning 152
Scarcity 136
SCUBA 102
SCUD missiles 105
SEAL 16, 24, 101, 102, 103, 106, 107, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 123, 130,
132
SEAL Team Six 101, 103, 107, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 123, 130
segment 41, 42, 65, 95
segments 18, 41, 42, 94
Separation 167
SERE 98, 100, 102
Severe Consequence 15
shotguns 188, 189
Sicily 116
sidejacking 156
SIGINT 120, 125
signals intelligence 110, 120, 124, 126
Silent 166
Skills 10, 12, 13, 85
small unit tactics 102, 103
SMB server 154
sniper 105, 110, 129, 188
sniping 98, 100, 102, 110
social engineering 153, 159
Social Engineering Toolkit 156
Social Proof 136, 137
sodium carbonate 138, 141
sodium nitrate 139
SOF 107, 111, 117, 127
SOG 127
Somalia 122, 124, 128
Special Activities Center 127
Special Activities Division 114, 127
Special Boat Teams 103
Special Forces 97, 188
Special Operations Group (SOG) 127
Specials 4, 12, 15, 16, 84, 85, 97, 130, 133
Spiderfoot 152
spies 67, 168, 172, 189
SQL injections 153
sqlmap 153
sqlninja 153
SR-25 188
SSL 153

201
sslstrip 156
Stingray 147
Stress 4, 12, 13, 14, 15, 36, 44, 45, 75, 85, 88, 89, 132
Stress Boxes 75
Stress track 15
Stress Track 45
submachine guns 189
Submachine guns 187
sulphuric acid 140
surreptitious entry 102
surveillance 20, 100, 102, 108, 125, 126, 127, 170
Syria 108, 109, 116, 124

T
T6 121, 132
tail 20, 31, 66, 100, 111, 113, 123, 125
Takur Ghar 117, 132
Taliban 107, 117, 118, 119, 120, 183
Task Force Blue 101
Task Force Bowie 107, 117
Task Force Green 97
Task Force Orange 20, 123, 125, 130
Task Force Ranger 116
Task Force Sword 107, 117
Team Six 101, 103, 107, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 123, 124, 130, 131, 186,
187, 188, 189
technology 22, 23, 134, 171, 190, 191
technothrillers 7, 71
The Activity 96, 123, 125, 126, 130, 135, 148
The Army of Northern Virginia 123
The Fiction 6
Thermite 140
The Unit 24, 96
thriller 8, 19, 24, 25, 33, 50, 63, 64, 78
Tikrit 108, 110
TNT 101, 102
Tom Clancy 8, 71
Tora Bora 107
TPU 143, 144
Trademark 15, 16, 84, 85, 133
TRADEWIND 148
traffic analysis 126, 130, 147
Training 15, 16, 84, 85, 98, 133
traits 19, 25, 57, 190
Traits 25, 190

202
transition 48, 70, 93
Tripoli 113, 114

U
Uday 109
urea 139
urea nitrate 139
U.S. Domestic Terrorist Organizations 183

V
Veil 155, 157
Viet Cong 128
Vietnam 128
Vietnamese names 182
Vigilant Harvest 118
villain 8, 9, 10, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 32, 44, 49, 57, 59, 74, 77, 82,
83, 190
Villains 4, 80, 172, 190
villain’s plan 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 59
Virginia 122, 123, 125
vulnerabilities 152, 153, 155, 156

W
War on Terror 130
We know all 165
WifiPhisher 158
Windows Management Instruments 155
Wireless exploitation 158
WMAP 152
Wordhound 152

X
XSS 153

Y
Yemen 124, 129
Yusufiyah 112

Z
Zarqawi 111, 112

203
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 NOTES

205