Let's do this!
The Game: Blowback
The Publisher: Two Scooters Press
Degree of Familiarity: Ran it last night. Don't think I quite got it right, though.
Books Required: It's a one-book dealie.
Anyway, I wrote a review of this game for RPG.Net, but I just submitted it so it's not up yet. In brief: Awesome game about disavowed spies. Influenced heavily by Burn Notice, which I've never watched. Definitely has a vision for what it wants to be, but doesn't communicate how to realize that vision clearly enough. Would very much like to read a detailed AP or play the game so I know what I'm missing.
But I do like the game, I really do. Simple task resolution, and the game really values planning and initiative, which I think goes undervalued in a lot of traditional RPGs (which assume that characters will walk into the plot and have it happen to them, rather than happening to the plot). The characters come up with a plan, first to find information and set themselves up for the eventual Operation, and then for the Operation itself.
The game asks that everyone create both a Professional and a Civilian. These two characters aren't directly connected, rather, you'd be connected to other folks' characters through Relationships. I'm going to make one of each type, but I'm not going to do Relationships, because that'd be a group chargen kind of thing. It's also going to make this go a lot faster. :)
OK, so, Professional first. I have two choices: Lifer or Artists. Lifers are more general, while Artists are quite specialized. I'm going to create an Artist, which gives me one skill at 5, one at 2 and one at 1.
Here's the thing: the Skills are Pavement, Diversion, Commando and Provocateur. Each of those can be used in a variety of ways. I know I want my character to be a surveillance expert. He's a hacker, kinda, but his real love is on watching people, planting bugs, and learning the little, embarrassing things that they do when they think no one's around. As such, I'm putting my 5-dot Skill into Pavement. I'll put my 2-dot into Commando - sometimes you have to choke someone out and leave them to get away clean. I'll put my one-dot into Diversion. He can find a good stash-place for weapons and the like, and he can attract attention if need be. What he's not good at, at all, is the whole "con artist" aspect of the job. Meeting people, making friends...just makes him feel sticky. His name is Emory Winstead, by the way, but he goes by Em. Other folks have called him "Bug" or "Stick," both because he's adept at planting bugs and because he raise stick insects. He's got more than a passing interest in etymology.
OK, that's Skills. Let's do his Profile. This is meant to be written about him, not by him, and written by the Agency. So let's say: Subject will work to uncover the most personal details about a target. Subject would like to be reinstated as a field tech, but has no higher ambition. Subject is more concerned with having a job than who the job is for.
Now, under Evaluation, I write a bit from a psych eval, also by the Agency: Subject is obsessive and somewhat paranoid. Subject is always looking for meaning in tiny details. Subject refuses to let a job go unfinished.
Ordinarily, I'd fill out Hometown and Relationships, and write down what Questions I have about the botched job - but all of that requires a group, which I don't have. So let's move on to my Civilian.
My Civilian is Logan Meyer. Logan works at a local grocery store, managing the dairy case. That means he gets up early and knocks off work in the afternoon. He's in his late 20s and is starting to regret dropping out of school, but he's personable and, outside of the grocery store, he's well-spoken and clever. In the grocery store, he feels dumb because he's just lifting milk jugs and the like, and so he keeps his hat pulled low. He gets either one two-dot skill or two one-dots. I'll take one in Provocateur and one in Pavement.
For Profile, I put Subject regrets dropping out of school. Subject feels current job is beneath him. Subject wants to relieve current debt and find a better career.
For Evaluation, I write Subject is embarrassed about job, and if asked what he does claims "Management." Subject has an aversion to blood. That should be a fun way to bring me some stress.
So that's it, actually. I figure Logan might be useful to the spies he knows by providing someplace to stash a body (frozen foods), or for free food. I can see a fun scene happening at a grocery store, and Em using the office to set up his gear.
