Marvel Universe is just bunged up that way.  Are they still doing the Annuals that show one event crossing over all the heroes?  I actually liked the IDEA that when something happens that threatens the world, every hero, regardless of power level, had to do their part in defeating it. 

My favorite, though, was DC's 'World Without Heroes', where the VILLAINS got ticked off at the alien invaders.  And, of course, when the aliens attacked Russia and got defeated by all the special programs that are the real reason why the Russian economy sucks...

But back to SpyCraft:
The EASIEST way to have an undefeatable mastermind?  They use their MIND, not their EGO.  'Oh, THOSE agents again.  Very well.  Set the self destruct, I'll be in my escape vehicle if anyone needs me.'  In other words, be where the heroes aren't, working their villainous wiles in ways that leave the PCs to pick up the pieces.

As pointed out earlier, brute force never makes for a truly invulnerable mastermind.  Teamwork and tactics.  Honestly, I have better things to do when I'm in GC mode than to worry about optimizing everyone's actions.  I have to plan these things out before the game session.  If it HAS stats, your players will find a way to overcome it.

But why have an unstoppable mastermind?  Present the players with a man vs environment.
1)  Some dope starts shooting in the base's hangar or motor pool.  The agents start taking more damage from fire than from the enemy mooks (who are fashionably dressed in flame retardant overalls).
2)  Alien invasion?  What happens when War of the Worlds is reversed?  The aliens arrive, possibly even a harmless survey mission, but bring with them a virulent airborn plague.
3)  The mastermind is in YOUR safehouse, do you really want to blow it up to get to him?

Honestly, I think the worst villain we had was in a Stargate campaign, where our superior was clearly the donor for General Hammond's extra smarts.  We got sent to desert worlds with empty canteens, we began to check every bullet for dings or other defects to prevent gun jams.  And once, when we HAD to come back under enemy fire it was no fun getting shot by the NPCs we had trained for that duty.  Half our missions (maybe more) had limitations that made only 'paper sense'.  We had a 'dream sequence' where we went rogue and purged the ranks, and things became marginally better.  Marginally.

But when you want a foe that can't be defeated by force, I keep remembering the infamous scene from a Lethal Weapon movie - "Diplomatic Immunity".

We didn't know he was a cop.  Badge?  That was a BADGE?  I mistook it for a [insert weapon here].

1)  Stress damage is easy.  There is an Unnerving NPC quality, and I think another that makes them scary when they appear.  A creepy haunted house can inflict stress damage, AND prevents the 'I go to the bathroom for five minutes and emerge without stress damage' syndrome.  But you're right - unless you TRY to inflict stress damage, it just doesn't often happen.

2)  If there is a compulsion or sub-plot that you CAN'T work into your campaign, I recommend the Champions -0 solution.  If it doesn't hinder you, it isn't worth points - pick a new subplot that does.

3)  I'll be honest, it's only Spycraft 2.0 that's made me look at Spycraft again, and I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into it.  If I didn't care about the character I was playing, I would have just left the game.  But to answer your question, I again steal from Champions:

3A)  The Viper Five Team (okay, eight in your case).  One squad of MINIONS, with a sergeant leader (forget the name of the NPC quality.  The key is:  only about 1/3 are shooting in any given melee round, 1/3 are taking actions to suppress the PCs or alter the environment (ie suppressive fire while another agent lobs a grenade behind the cover), and 1/3 are taking DEFENSIVE actions like gaining focus so they can act twice next round.  I'm thinking this requires extra XP for amount of gear, especially if you give them bulletproof vests.  But in a nutshell:
1) know which actions you want to use
2) have the minions use them
3) point out how much harder the scene was because the enemy did things OTHER than standard attacks.

4)  Mer?  Dude, I don't know how your players select their contacts, but every game I've played encourages a contact who is themselves a contact man.  If you find yourself limited between face and fixer (people and things), look for what else contacts can provide.  Start at the end, the consultants and specialists.  Then work back to see what sorts of people OTHER than your two standards might know those.

Failing that, try 'spices':
Faceman)  Corporate Headhunter, Bartender, Therapist for the Agency, Criminal Lawyer, Overweight Auto Mechanic (Yeah, I know a guy like that.  I installed a sound system for him...)
Fixer)  Owner of a chain of pawn shops, Black Marketeer, collector of (whatever), Ebay guru, Stock Market Day Trader

Hope some of that helps, I've been awake too long.

Shadowrun - I had a mage with 1/3 of his skills in useless knowledges (we rarely made knowledge checks in that campaign), whose highest spell was those non-combat heal spells.

D&D - A character with 5 level 1 classes to qualify for the Chameleon prestige class.  In general, if you multi-class for roleplaying reasons, you've gimped your character.

Champions/Hero system - Once spent 27 points protecting myself from damage types that never entered the game.

Mutants and Masterminds - It's really hard to build a bad character without spreading yourself so thin that your PL10 character doesn't have a single power over 7.    Not that I actually managed this, but having nothing over an 8 and those being your defensive abilities?  Not fun.

RIFTS/Paladium - Not mine, but the most wasteful build I saw was a demigod who was a pacifist.  I can't hit them, I might hurt them.  No, no, no - magic might hurt them.  My build was terribly abusive, a prerequisite for survival in our RIFTS campaigns.

Rolemaster - Making first level characters to represent the 'new guy'?  Can't pin it down to one character, but lost four in one night doing this.

James Bond 007 - I must be the only one who can take a 00 build and make a character who can't do anything.  It takes TALENT to be in a speedboat chase in San Francisco and hit a piece of driftwood just so that it flies over the bow of the boat and knocks you out.  (If I remember correctly, this agent died in a foot chase through the zoo, when he fell into the alligator exhibit...)

Top Secret - I will never again design an agent without spot.  I will never again design an agent without spot.  I will never again design an agent without spot.  Nuff Said.

Feng Shui - It's really hard to do, but I played the failed genetic experiment from the future, complete with inability to pronounce words that the rest of the party could understand.  I role-played so well that they abandoned me in ancient China.

Spycraft - I can't really say I've done anything from Spycraft that has crippled my character.  I could point to the feat Clean and Polished, established when it was a DnD game instead.  Or to the fact that I have enough magic to be useful as a utility but not combat useful.  But the sheer point of the matter is the character is so abusive in the social arena (especially Seduction DC) that I can honestly look at the character and say that while he isn't the God of War and Death, he's to be feared in his own element.

[Slow-Mo Camera (25 XP):]

Slow-Mo Camera (25 XP):  If the character ever does anything that succeeds by five or more, or is a threat, they must spend at least a number of seconds equal to the roll describing in detail how their character looks while doing it (the folding of their clothing while doing a snap kick, which way the wind is blowing their hair, etc). or the action automatically fails.  If they do so, they gain a +2 boredom bonus on their result roll or the next time they attempt a similar action.  Each time they describe themselves, they must emphasize other irrelevant details.

GC BS(-100 XP):  Any agent may drop an action die at any time to cut into the GC's description or role-playing efforts and force an immediate die roll of appropriate type to resolve the situation.  Also known as "Just the Facts, Maam".

Dramatic Western (25 XP):  Any time a PC and a special NPC are involved in combat, they may spend a round 'eyeballing each other'.  Both of them gain a +1 aim bonus to hit and damage.  This bonus is cumulative, but never more than doubles the result.  Can also be applied to samurai swordfights.  (Actually, this one blows, just use Standoff.  I've actually read the rules and it's hideously useful.)

Dance to the Music (50 XP):  The GC puts a bunch of random CDs in the music player, and sets it to randomly select tracks.  Any time an action happens that is thematically appropriate to the background music, they gain a +2 unnamed bonus to the roll.

Tagline (-100 XP):  Each of the characters has a set, unchanging phrase.  Once per game session, they may say the phrase and gain the effect of an action die.  They must repeat the phrase a number of times per session equal to the mission's calibur or the positive effects are lost next game session.  XP penalty is doubled if the GC needs therapy to recover from usage of the tagline.

Yeah, we take the towels, too (-50 XP):  Unless the GC expends an action die, the players ignore encumbrance, and may pick up and carry any item whose weight is less than their carry total.  They do not need to worry about containers or other means of conveyance.  When the GC expends the action die, players must decide which items to keep, and drop the others.  PCs may not pick up items they drop, but may acquire more items of exactly the same type later in the mission.

My appologies if any of these are actually already in the rules.

Was thinking about waterproofing and numerous things we'd cobbled together to fit Spycraft to a Fantasy environment.

What's the trickiest thing you've had to prybar into the rules?  For me, it has to be a haunted house, Amityville Horror style.  I had a revelation (epiphany) when I realized it WASN'T a creature.  It was a set of environmental circumsatances and mental traps. 

I'd still like Dramatic Conflict rules for exorcism (which could possibly be expanded into Mystic Ritual), but every time I look at this it keeps falling back into a complex skill check with the spirit having time to do its own actions.  The power of Dice compels you!

Waterproofing sounds like an upgrade.  The bag idea is a common item.  If you WANT to modify it so the laptop can be physically damaged and STILL work underwater, I'd accept that as (in order of preference) electronics, security, or gadget pick.

Which brings up an idea I'll post in another thread.

Shadowrun uses a rule of five for minions:  If you've downed more than 5 of this minion type, and you hit them by 5 more than you need to, they automaticially go down.

But if I understand correctly, you're looking for suggestions like have two notecards:  one with the basic stats, and another with the mook numbers and current damage save (maybe with a hash mark for that extra point of damage.  For example, with your NPCs having a +4 damage save, you'd start with 6 in all their saves (what they need on the dice).  So if one of these minions took 5 points of damage, they'd have an 8' now.  If you roll an 8 or above on the dice, they're still in the fight.

It is critical to be able to track the NPCs by number or some other method.  My favorite in DND was I never had enough of the right kind of miniatures, so I'd write down the miniatures I was using.  I later replaced this with a bunch of numbered cardboard counters (tracing the edges of a quarter gives you bases of approximately the right size).

Was this the sort of advice you were asking about?

Snerg?  So your question is:

Do orderly characters get no save against their unique effect, or does the same save negate both conditions?

Did I understand correctly?  I can't answer, but I want to minimize cross-traffic with people discussing oranges if you meant to ask only about raspberries.

Second on the originality.  It's just STUPID the number of systems where you can look and find your Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, etc.  cultures.  Part of a role playing game (for me, at least), is to ESCAPE from the real world for a little bit.  I didn't like History in school, why would I consider it relaxing now?

Okay, I'm stretching reality.  I like seeing how history evolves, I don't romanticise the crap world the one we live in came from.  Frankly, I find roleplaying in 'historical' environs to be tooth-grinding.

Take a look at the systems most often 'ported' to other game systems to avoid mechanics.  For example, RIFTS.  Great game world, but unless you like games like Star Fleet Battles...  (No comment, I grew out of that phase.)  Anyway, the point I'm TRYING to make is people play game systems with great rules.  They play in game worlds that capture their imagination and make for great stories.  It would be cool if Fantasy Craft provided both of these.

I am tempted to slap the stupid out of this question.  Okay, Mr. Wheelchair isn't going to be winning any kickboxing tournaments.  And the whole 'original Daleks - we can burn planets to ashes, but cannot chase those sneaky humans up a flight of stairs' limitation can get annoying if seriously overworked.

However:
Sniper
Sleuth/Investigator
Faceman
Fixer

I may be dating myself, but does anyone remember a TV series called Ironsides?  The entire premise is that the main character is a cop who is immobilized by a bullet wound.  And yet, he pulled off several heroic stunts (before the series was inevitably cancelled).  This is WITHOUT any kind of spy gear.

WITH spy gear?  [smack the stupid question]  Two words - Spy Kids.

Another thing to consider is the tone of your game.  Are the characters supposed to help the innocent, even if their organization DOESN'T approve?  I know I awarded an action point to each agent who participated in saving civilians.  Did their Freelance employer care?  Nah, he'd have ground the civilians up and sold them as taco meat.  But as GC, I realized that was EXACTLY the sort of heroic behavior that I wanted to reward.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is it's okay if your roles as The Agency and Game Control butt heads.  There is NOTHING wrong with both rewarding and punishing the characters for the same action.  Just be aware of what is going on and why, and feel free to clue your PCs in also.

Oh, and I totally agree with a point made earlier - if the PCs don't have their attention drawn to something, it may very well not occur to them (no matter how obvious it is to common sense).

Yes, VICTORY is a nice one, if hard to get to. 

I've noticed (having time to look at it) that each Dramatic Conflict has its own unique feel.  The 'enabler' for the advanced maneuvers is different for each one, which means that different characters will excel at different conflict types.  It also gives reasons for characters with the same wealth rating reasons to specialize in each of the three different sectors, depending upon the effect they're hoping to achieve.

So before anyone yells at me for not knowing what I'm talking about, the system SEEMS balanced.  It would (on the surface) look difficult to master all forms of Dramatic Conflict.  From experience, NekoMouser and I can vouch that if you don't mind others being shinier on the field of combat, the right choice of feats can make you shine in one particular, even if you lack the resources to properly select advanced moves (which is slightly annoying, but again something I should have looked ahead to notice).

Standoff rules bite.  If I lose a standoff and take ANY action, I'm automatically reduced to -9 hit points?  I can see automatic hit or auto-crit, but auto-KO and dying?  I'll re-read them to make sure I'm recalling the rules correctly.

I can see Lightsaber Duel being a more elaborate version of Fencing Duel, with elements of Force Duel.

Mur.  I've just convinced myself that with all the interaction, the combat system is really the only way to handle such things, considering the number of combinations (like the 'duel' between the women in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).  

Yes, everyone feels the rules constrain their character creation.  Feat purchase is one way around that.  We tried it once in D20 Dungeons and Dragons.  An amazing thing happened.

All the characters began to blend together and look like each other.  The 'Power Feats' became part of a character package.  Because we were allowing purchase of extra skill points and attributes, we found that our characters almost never actually leveled up.  We held ourselves back, always trying to find that 'comfort point' where we felt our characters were what they were supposed to be.

The GM called the game after about two months; without external (or player provided) controls, allowing the purchase of nearly anything with XP leads to these problems.

Just putting this out there, don't bite my head off, I've only got the one, please go for tasty ankles or bloody wrists instead.

Does anyone else feel that the combat system isn't set up properly for 'dramatic solo combat', like a fencing match, or two martial artists facing off?  If I'm missing stuff in the combat rules, please point it out to me (with page reference, please) rather than just calling me stupid/ignorant/noob/etc.