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Old 12-04-2019, 12:06 AM   #1
Joseph Paul
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Default GURPS Espionage and Covert Ops

How relevant are they to 4e?

Lots of stuff on how spy rings work or what?

Examination of the spy-thriller story?

Any plans for an update to 4e?

Applicability to TL9-12?(16 in Old Style TL lol)
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Old 12-04-2019, 04:36 AM   #2
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

The Action line is highly relevant to the genres, IME, and is good for running games which deal with espionage and modern spy thrillers. I've considered using Action with Ultra-Tech and a few Pyramid articles to run a space opera covert ops game.

The 3e books are probably a bit dated due to technological advancements in the time since, but their information on how spy rings operate should still be valid. Looking at High-Tech and the very recent High-Tech: Electronics from earlier this year should help bring the material up to date.
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Old 12-04-2019, 05:08 AM   #3
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

I'll have to peruse the ToC of the Action series better. The very title made me think more of the A-Team than spies.
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Old 12-04-2019, 08:44 AM   #4
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

I can't resist: GURPS Covet Ops? We haven't published that one yet, but we'd probably call it "GURPS Crime." :) I know you meant GURPS Covert Ops, though.

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How relevant are they to 4e?
GURPS Espionage (1992) lacks tie-ins to GURPS materials released since then – notably GURPS Cops (2001), the newest version of GURPS Special Ops (2002), GURPS Covert Ops (2003), and GURPS Mysteries (2005).

GURPS Covert Ops has a better track record for tie-ins, obviously, because it's newer.

Both fall short in the tech department, as both precede the newest version of GURPS High-Tech (2007), which is itself over a decade old – although GURPS High-Tech: Electricity and Electronics (2019) goes far to stop that gap.

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Examination of the spy-thriller story?
Both books' general campaign advice in that direction remains solid.

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Originally Posted by Joseph Paul View Post

Lots of stuff on how spy rings work or what?
Sort of, but it's dated.

The global situation has changed drastically since Espionage (released in 1992 but written before that): The EU formed, things went south in Somalia (think Black Hawk Down), Russia had its constitutional crisis (resolved by violence), China broke the world moratorium on nuclear testing, the U.S. had the WTC bombing and the Waco siege, and NAFTA was ratified. And all of that was just in 1993 – every year since has changed the world even more. Moreover, most of the information in that book on spy-tech, intelligence services, and threat organizations is now horribly obsolete, while the examples of spies and operations stop abruptly in 1992.

Covert Ops has aged slightly better, but it's still from 2003. Its tech and examples still stop the better part of two decades before today.

Neither book adequately predicted the impact of global networks on . . . well, tons of things relevant to spies. You won't find any discussion of cryptocurrencies, the deep web, the dark web, cyberwarfare, etc., which all by itself is hugely troublesome in a campaign set in 2019. Espionage doesn't even acknowledge the existence of cellular or satellite phones, while Covert Ops has cellphones but not smartphones, nor satphones.

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Any plans for an update to 4e?
Not currently, but that isn't due to a decision not to update these works . . . it's more about interest and available resources.

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Applicability to TL9-12?(16 in Old Style TL lol)
Well, both books talk briefly about futuristic science fiction, but neither really "goes there." For that I'd point you to the Transhuman Space series, specifically Cities on the Edge, Personnel Files 2 to 4, and Transhuman Mysteries.

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I'll have to peruse the ToC of the Action series better. The very title made me think more of the A-Team than spies.
"GURPS Action" is just a title. Just as GURPS Space is really GURPS Science Fiction with a bias toward science fiction in space, and GURPS Martial Arts is really GURPS Advanced Combat with a bias toward historical martial-arts styles, GURPS Action is really GURPS Modern-Day Adventures with a bias toward action. We have to call our series something, and short, catchy titles sell better.

The Action series is most cinematic in its power level, meaning that much of its advice can be applied to campaigns that feature highly trained but not over-the-top heroes. It spans genres that marketers might pigeonhole as "action," "crime thriller," "heist," "military fiction," "spy fiction," and "techno-thriller," among others. It explicitly supports stories about commandos, cops, covert operators, crooks, first responders, mercenaries, private eyes, spies, terrorist hunters, and vigilantes. It cites examples from all over, including The A-Team, Charlie's Angels, Die Hard, First Blood, Heat, Léon, Machete, Mission: Impossible, Ocean's Eleven, Pulp Fiction, RED, Ronin, Shoot 'Em Up, Snatch, Sneakers, Taken, The Transporter, Under Siege, the Bond movies, the Dirty Harry movies, Tom Clancy novels, and even the old Emergency TV series (GURPS Action 4: Specialists covers firemen and paramedics, and GURPS Action 5: Dictionary of Danger offers disasters to respond to).
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Old 12-04-2019, 09:36 AM   #5
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

To give you some idea of what's missing in GURPS Covert Ops and Espionage: From mid 2009 to late 2014, I ran a campaign about secret agents operating in the real world. It blurred the lines between crime/police (both sides), espionage, special operations, terrorism/counterterrorism (again, both sides), and at times even outright military violence. To run that, I had to spend many nights a week reading either global news (to keep abreast of real-world politics and crises) or tech news (to stay up to date on weapons, vehicles, drones, drugs, forensic science, networks, how fast modern cargo ships steam . . . everything). Nothing in any GURPS book was remotely useful to me. To be honest, the campaign ended mostly because the constant research grew too fatiguing to be fun.

To give you some idea of why GURPS Action is relevant: That series, launched in 2008, was derived from my prep for the above campaign, which I started in 2006 (yes, three years before the campaign kicked off). It continued afterward based largely on my campaign notes. There's very little of the above research in there – mostly because that kind of stuff is obsolete a few days after you look it up, and thus better suited to a regularly updated blog than to a static game supplement – but it does confirm that you can do more than just emulate Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis movies with the series.
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Old 12-04-2019, 11:02 AM   #6
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

I'm planning on my next campaign being a spy campaign but since I'm setting it in the 60s all the books are useful. I figure that is the era of Bond, Man from UNCLE etc.
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Old 12-04-2019, 11:14 AM   #7
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

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I'm planning on my next campaign being a spy campaign but since I'm setting it in the 60s all the books are useful. I figure that is the era of Bond, Man from UNCLE etc.
Arguably the best choice, and almost what I went with for my campaign.

The 1960s have spy-tech that's cool enough, and you could introduce '70s, '80s, and '90s tech from Espionage and Covert Ops and have it be advanced and futuristic. And arguably, global politics in the '60s were more amenable to adventure design, as that was the middle period of the Cold War, which got pretty hot at times (exciting), and which had two main sides and pretty much dragged everything else into its wake (focused). Plus it's when the extravagant cinematic spy story because synonymous with "spy fiction," so there's tons of genre material to reference. Oh, and no Internet or cellphones to completely screw up plots that depend on ignorance, isolation, and actually having to steal physical files.
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Old 12-04-2019, 11:18 AM   #8
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joseph Paul View Post
I'll have to peruse the ToC of the Action series better. The very title made me think more of the A-Team than spies.
https://gamingballistic.com/2016/04/...-review-index/

I review in some detail Action 1-4. I'm an unabashed booster of the Action series, and think the Action 2 book is "the GURPS gift that keeps on giving."
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Old 12-04-2019, 01:08 PM   #9
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

Quote:
Originally Posted by DouglasCole View Post

https://gamingballistic.com/2016/04/...-review-index/

I review in some detail Action 1-4. I'm an unabashed booster of the Action series, and think the Action 2 book is "the GURPS gift that keeps on giving."
Thank you! And please let me know if there's ever a review of GURPS Action 5. :)
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Old 12-04-2019, 01:25 PM   #10
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Default Re: GURPS Espionage and Covet Ops

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Originally Posted by DouglasCole View Post
https://gamingballistic.com/2016/04/...-review-index/

I review in some detail Action 1-4. I'm an unabashed booster of the Action series, and think the Action 2 book is "the GURPS gift that keeps on giving."
Added to the main Wiki Entry.
I've been trying to add all the various blog reviews to the Wiki. But its harder than one might expect to find them all. So if you made or know of a review please add it, or message me and I'll add it. I think I got all Malinkas and umm the food guy? plus a smattering of others.
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