Thoughts spawned by Sid Meier's Covert Action Options

[Wounded Ronin]

A long time ago I already made one post about Sid Meier's Covert Action. Covert action is a challenging and fun game set in the 80s where you play the role of a mercenary working for the CIA who must engage in various black ops to arrest terrorists and defeat terrorist plots. The game is noteworthy because all the missions are generated using a very solid random generation engine. The random generation results in missions that are by necessity simple in some ways but complicated enough in others that even when I understand how the game works it is very challenging and fun each time I play. I find myself playing for hours, getting sucked in, and stopping when I'm so mentally exhausted I realize that I'm doing terribly at the logic puzzles.

Here is a deeper review: http://www.mobygames.com/game/sid-meiers-covert-action

Anyway, yesterday I was thinking about writing a pen and paper campaign set in the 1980s in honor of this very fun game. Obviously, the random generation algorithms would have to go right out the window because even though they're not too complicated as far as computer programming goes they are way too complicated for a human GM to manage. Instead a GM-powered game would probably have to just be a typical James Bond style romp set in the 80s. If I were to write something like that I'd probably use SR3 rules for things like Electronics tests and Stealth tests just because that's what I'm most familiar with and it would certainly work better for a strategic game than level-based D20.

On the bright side, it would be possible for a human GM to add things which could not possibly be implemented through algorithmic random mission generation. This could include the accumulation of contacts in specific cities, more weapons and more complex tactics, and of course a better storyline.

So far, this is what I've brainstormed as the possible structure for such a campaign using SR3 rules:

I. Premise

The premise of the game is that the PC or the PCs are mercenaries hired by the CIA in the 1980s to eliminate various terrorists around the world. The PCs are highly skilled mercenaries who are entrusted with delicate operations. As unofficial operatives the PCs have nearly unlimited freedom of action so long as they don't create an international incident; they can dare to do anything, for example raiding private citizens' homes in the US, just as long as they don't get caught and nothing gets back to implicate the CIA.

The goal that the PCs have been hired to achieve is to 1.) stop a given terrorist plot from happening successfully by whatever means possible and 2.) eliminate as many terrorists as possible. In order to make the game more challenging and force the PCs to investigate issues instead of just shooting every NPC to be on the safe side the PC must present evidence to the CIA that each person they target and execute was in fact a terrorist. This is because the CIA wants to know for sure that actual threats have been eliminated. They aren't paying all this money to have a whole bunch of random suspicious characters killed while the actual culprit who is planning something gets away.

Accordingly, the campaign may be failed or "lost" not only if the PCs are all killed but also if the CIA fires them for incompetence or for noncompliance with the evidence-gathering directive.

As an aside the original Covert Action had some weird disclaimer buried in a paragraph of the manual that you were firing "experimental non-lethal rounds" or something to that effect and that your grenades had some magical non-lethal fragments. I guess this could have been an attempt to blunt parental criticism in the context of the time. Of course, this trick of logic falls apart in the situations where you pick grenades off of defeated enemies and use them; I don't suppose that the enemies are all loading experimental non-lethal fragmentation grenades as well?


II. Execution

Taking a nod from the original CA, the PC(s) would be given several clues from the CIA office in Washington, DC. These clues would be relating to a terrorist plot which is about to get underway although the CIA does not know exactly what the plot is going to entail or who is involved. The PCs are expected to gather information through raids, wiretapping, and interrogation of relevant suspects or locations as hinted at through the clues until they can piece together enough information to figure out what is going on and systematically go after everyone involved. Typically this would require international travel and black ops activities in foreign countries and cities. Of course, there is no random generation of these plots and storylines; a maximum of three complete with NPCs would be written by myself if I were to go ahead with this project. (Because writing 1 detailed campaign takes so much time and energy I doubt I could maintain interest to do more than 3 on the best of days.)

There is a CIA office in each city. The PCs can be given certain weapons by each CIA office for the purpose of raiding and assassination in each city. Because of airport security PCs cannot bring their own weapons with them when they travel from city to city.

This introduces the importance of local contacts. Each city has a number of arms dealers who provide locale-appropriate weapons. For example, most arms dealers would provide Warsaw pact weapons like AK47s, although some arms dealers in places such as Europe or the US could provide NATO weapons. PCs may choose to spend money to get heavier firepower than what the CIA offices are providing but in the interests of confientiality they must discard the weapons at the end of a given investigation and they also cannot take said weapons through airport security. So, the airport security weapon carrying restriction enhances this aspect of gameplay and resource management.

Local contacts could also include doctors who provide painkillers like vicodin and morphine (these would reduce injury mods; each investigation would not take more than three days or so in terms of pacing so there'd be no time to actually heal boxes of damage on the job) and also bartenders who could provide clues if the PCs are really stuck.

The contacts would be assassinated by the terrorists if the PCs use them too much so there's a tension between overutilizing and underutilizing the contacts you've spent time and money acquiring.

Lastly, in between missions the PCs would get to go home to the United States where they keep all their personally owed weapons. In between missions one time the terrorists would attempt to assassinate the PCs in their homes by assaulting them so each PC would have to successfully complete 1 battle in that context. This is also the chance to scare Europeans by pointing out that as a US citizen a player character totally could have a M60 machinegun in his home and legally, too.


III. Research

To really have fun with this I'd probably have to do some research on 1980s information technology and have some shenanigans with archaic telephone systems and Apple IICs and such for the information gathering activities.

In the context of the 80s maybe the CIA would only be supplying the PCs with 9x19mm weapons that have very poor stopping power, which would be something of a historical joke. That would also make the aforementioned arms dealers more important.

[Shadow]

I think it is a pretty cool idea. Is this something you are planning on running here on the boards?

[PBTHHHHT]

Reminds me of the graphic novel series, Queen and Country. :-)

[Wounded Ronin]