Creating a MOSSAD Agent in GURPS

[Bandii]

Does anyone have any advice on statting up a "typical" MOSSAD agent in GURPS 4e style?

-Mike

[Walrus]

Well, GURPS Action contains great suggestsions about nearly any High-Tech action or close genre and has explicit templates and lenses for sercet service employees.

Though, as any sercet service it consists nearly entirely of Investigators and Wire Rats, with only 3 groups of 12 people forming "black-ops" division.
So, you should decide which departement your agent goes from.

Pretty cinematic Investigator from Mossad might look like this:

Spoiler:  

Name: Joseph Rodman

Attributes [180]
ST 10
DX 13 [60]
IQ 16 [100]
HT 11 [10]

HP 10
Will 16
Per 18 [10]
FP 11

Basic Lift 20
Damage 1d-2/1d

Basic Speed 6
Basic Move 6

Ground Move 6
Water Move 1

Social Background
TL: 8 [0]
Cultural Familiarities: Western [1], Middle East [0].
Languages: Jewish (Native) [0], Arabian (Accented) [4]; English (Accented) [4].

Advantages [65]
Acute Vision (1) [2]
Intelligence Rank (1) [5]
Intuition [15]
Luck [15]

Perks [1]
Style Familiarity (Military Hand-to-Hand - Krav Maga) [1]

Disadvantages [-50]
Curious (12 or less) [-5]
Duty (12 or less (quite often); Extremely Hazardous) [-15]
Greed (12 or less) [-15]
Obsession (Solve a particular case) (12 or less) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Team) [-5]
Stubbornness [-5]

Quirks [-5]

Packages [0]
Intelligence (Action) [0]
Investigator (Action) [0]

Skills [54]
Administration IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Computer Operation/TL8 IQ/E - IQ+1 17 [2]
Criminology/TL8 IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Cryptography/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-1 15 [2]
Current Affairs/TL8 (People) IQ/E - IQ+1 17 [2]
Current Affairs/TL8 (Politics) IQ/E - IQ+1 17 [2]
Detect Lies Per/H - Per-1 17 [2]
Diplomacy IQ/H - IQ-1 15 [2]
Driving/TL8 (Automobile) DX/A - DX-1 12 [1]
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Surveillance) IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Expert Skill (Military Science) IQ/H - IQ-1 15 [2]
Forgery/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-1 15 [2]
Guns/TL8 (Pistol) DX/E - DX+1 14 [2]
Holdout IQ/A - IQ-1 15 [1]
Intelligence Analysis/TL8 IQ/H - IQ+1 17 [8]
Interrogation IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Karate DX/H - DX-1 12 [2]
Observation Per/A - Per+1 19 [2]
includes: +1 from 'Acute Vision'
Photography/TL8 IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Propaganda/TL8 IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Research/TL8 IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Search Per/A - Per+0 18 [2]
Shadowing IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Smuggling IQ/A - IQ+0 16 [2]
Wrestling DX/A - DX+0 13 [2]

Stats [180] Ads [65] Disads [-50] Quirks [0] Skills [54] = Total [250], 4 points left from quirks goes to additional languages (maybe raising English or Arabian to Native, or adding French/Italian), departement specific skills and Area Knowledge.

If you want more realistic one, decrease IQ and DX to 12 at least.
===================
Afters some accounting I see that template contains too many IQ skills, so IQ can be raised by 1 and those skills lowered. Just usual optimization which save many skills. Or replace some of IQ with some Talent, maybe Natural Copper or even Super-Spy (though the latter is more cinematic).

[sir_pudding]

Krav Maga is on Martial Arts page 183. I imagine their firearms training is fairly well modeled by Assaulter with Modern Pistol elements on Tactical Shooting page 47 and 48.

[Icelander]

In the usual nomenaclature, a Mossad 'agent' is a foreign national who provides the Mossad with intelligence or otherwise acts on their behalf. An Israeli employee the Collection Department of the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations would be an 'intelligence officer'.

I assume that you wanted assistance in statting such an individual, rather than an Arab or other foreign national who reported to a Mossad handler?

While there are former and even current commandos under the auspices of the Mossad, most intelligence officers will be unarmed or armed with a pistol for self-defence, at most. Modern Pistol, from Tactical Shooting, would be much more common than Assaulter. Many officers would merely have enough skill in Pistol, Knife/Shortsword (whichever is used for the short stick), Brawling and Wrestling (likely 1 points in each) to pass a qualification test and hope that they never have to rely on any of them.

In my campaign, I use a Professional Skill: Intelligence Officer to reflect knowledge of tradecraft, operation of standard equipment and other necessary job-skills of a spy. Analoguous to Soldier or Law Enforcement skills. There are also a lot of other necessary skills; for the 'standard' image of an intelligence officer these include Observation, Shadowing, Body Language, Detect Lie, Fast Talk, Diplomacy and Area Knowledge. Many others will also be necessary, depending on speciality and assignment.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Icelander

While there are former and even current commandos under the auspices of the Mossad,

Fair enough. The flashy ex-paratrooper commando/assassin types do tend to attract the imagination though. My apologies.

I wonder how common Krav Maga even is. I suspect that in real life they at most have a minimum training requirement that amounts to just a few hours a year. You don't actually need to be able to kill somebody with your hands while fighting naked if your actual job is analysis.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Fair enough. The flashy ex-paratrooper commando/assassin types do tend to attract the imagination though. My apologies.

It may well be what he is looking for, mind you. On the other hand, in real life, it is much more likely that Mossad officers provide intelligence support for Sayret Mat'kal or other commandos during their operations, rather than actually doing the fighting themselves. Exceptions have existed in the past; but mainly involved operations which were secret enough so that not even the IDF was supposed to have any idea they were happening.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I wonder how common Krav Maga even is. I suspect that in real life they at most have a minimum training requirement that amounts to just a few hours a year. You don't actually need to be able to kill somebody with your hands while fighting naked if your actual job is analysis.

Analysts would have gone to a course during their military service and possibly a refresher course. On the other hand, a rather large proportion of the Collection Department people, even the ones with official cover, are stationed in places where they are at high risk of being attacked, more likely by what amounts to street thugs with political and ethnic views than actual representatives of hostile governments and the most organised terrorist groups. They'll have considerably more use for self-defence than most Western intelligence officers covered as diplomats.

If you want Israelis with both extensive training and practical experience of having to fight for their life with bare hands, though, I'd look at Shin Bet and YAMAM, which both operated among hostile crowds of Palestinians in order to locate and capture or kill terrorist leaders. While they carried a pistol, it was far from unknown for a confrontation to turn into a large riot where a mob of locals tried to kill the Israeli officer once he was identified as what he was. His backup would then wade in to rescue him with bludgeons or guns, depending the level of danger.

[vicky_molokh]

If even the skill set of a spy-ish character is abstracted into a Professional skill of sorts, something's wrong.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

If even the skill set of a spy-ish character is abstracted into a Professional skill of sorts, something's wrong.

I'm not abstracting the whole skill set; just those parts of it that have to do with basic tradecraft, as well as knowing the basics of how to use encrypted sat-phones, tactical radios, etc. Also, how to write contact reports, intelligence estimates and surveillance reports, as well as all other paperwork. The skill would also work for knowing how to service routine dead drops, set up a communication network involving cut-outs, do brush passes and arrange for mundane-seeming things which served as signals. It's also a convenient skill to roll against when trying to decide if a spy made some mistake in his day-to-day work or if he falls victim to a danger of which his player is unaware; just like you can roll against Soldier when seeing if you develop trench foot or step on a mine.

More exciting stuff would still use their respective skills. Experienced and talented officers would still scrutinise their targets with Observation and Body Language, handle their agents with Detect Lie and Diplomacy, perform their brush passes with Pickpocket, service dead drops with Filch, take surveillance photographs with Photography and use Cryptography to encrypt or decrypt anything out of the ordinary. Shadowing still would be the skill to use when following someone and Stealth, Judo and Knife the skills to kill someone in comparative silence.

Just because the Soldier skill exist doesn't mean that military men don't need any other skill.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

If even the skill set of a spy-ish character is abstracted into a Professional skill of sorts, something's wrong.

Originally Posted by Icelander

I'm not abstracting the whole skill set; just those parts of it that have to do with basic tradecraft, as well as knowing the basics of how to use encrypted sat-phones, tactical radios, etc. Also, how to write contact reports, intelligence estimates and surveillance reports, as well as all other paperwork. The skill would also work for knowing how to service routine dead drops, set up a communication network involving cut-outs, do brush passes and arrange for mundane-seeming things which served as signals. It's also a convenient skill to roll against when trying to decide if a spy made some mistake in his day-to-day work or if he falls victim to a danger of which his player is unaware; just like you can roll against Soldier when seeing if you develop trench foot or step on a mine.

More exciting stuff would still use their respective skills. Experienced and talented officers would still scrutinise their targets with Observation and Body Language, handle their agents with Detect Lie and Diplomacy, perform their brush passes with Pickpocket, service dead drops with Filch, take surveillance photographs with Photography and use Cryptography to encrypt or decrypt anything out of the ordinary. Shadowing still would be the skill to use when following someone and Stealth, Judo and Knife the skills to kill someone in comparative silence.

Just because the Soldier skill exist doesn't mean that military men don't need any other skill.

I managed to get this into my Magical Tradecraft article. I too felt there needed to be a Tradecraft skill. I ended up making it a Expert Skill.

Ghostdancer

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I'm not abstracting the whole skill set; just those parts of it that have to do with basic tradecraft, as well as knowing the basics of how to use encrypted sat-phones, tactical radios, etc. Also, how to write contact reports, intelligence estimates and surveillance reports, as well as all other paperwork. The skill would also work for knowing how to service routine dead drops, set up a communication network involving cut-outs, do brush passes and arrange for mundane-seeming things which served as signals. It's also a convenient skill to roll against when trying to decide if a spy made some mistake in his day-to-day work or if he falls victim to a danger of which his player is unaware; just like you can roll against Soldier when seeing if you develop trench foot or step on a mine.

[ . . . ]

Just because the Soldier skill exist doesn't mean that military men don't need any other skill.

I didn't even mean abstracting all of it. But it's the sort of adventury profession where the whole skill set should be found in the 200 or so Basic Set skills.
Paperwork would fall under Administration, estimates under Intelligence Analysis, Smuggling for dead drops etc. It's just like having ElOps (Comms) means you can handle Morse Code without spending extra points on Morse.