Some questions if you will

[Skari-dono]

Greetings, dear Spycraft forumites, from the land of ice and snow. My hat is off for you.

Despite being from Iceland, there's not much ice to have these days. But I did not join the forums to tell you about the weather, but to ask few questions about the Spycraft 2.0 game.

Here is the thing: I recently got the book and there are few things that I don't quite understand. Mostly, it's in the Game Control section (chapter 7 mainly).

What on Earth is Mission Caliber? Seriously! I'm sure it is very important, but it somehow works really vague to me. Does it only decide what Gear the players can have on the mission? I know it calculates how much Reputation and Net Worth the characters get after the mission. I also know this question was asked on the forum before, but that just didn't answer a thing for me. Is it just a measure for how dangerous the mission is? More importantly, does it have any connection to how NPCs are created for the Mission? Or the objectives of the Mission? Both Objectives and Caliber range from 1/I to 5/V so I had to ask.

Speaking of NPCs, what is the point and purpose of Tier? I haven't noticed any specific examples of Tier I or Tier V NPCs. Is this the average of the NPC's stats or something? I can't find any explaination on it.

How does Threat Level calculate into creating NPCs, deciding on Objectives, deciding on Mission Caliber, or anything else?

I'm about to create my first Mission for a small group of players, and I wanted this cleared out of the way before I got started with something I have nearly no idea about.
If anyone could answer my questions, that would be very appreciated. Any additional pointers would also be great and very helpful.

P.S.: I don't want to come out as an asshole or an idiot. I really like how the game looks and I am really looking forward to running my first mission.

[Krensky]

Greetings, dear Spycraft forumites, from the land of ice and snow. My hat is off for you.

Welcome!

Despite being from Iceland, there's not much ice to have these days. But I did not join the forums to tell you about the weather, but to ask few questions about the Spycraft 2.0 game.

Iceland, you mean the green one?

Here is the thing: I recently got the book and there are few things that I don't quite understand. Mostly, it's in the Game Control section (chapter 7 mainly).

What on Earth is Mission Caliber? Seriously! I'm sure it is very important, but it somehow works really vague to me. Does it only decide what Gear the players can have on the mission? I know it calculates how much Reputation and Net Worth the characters get after the mission. I also know this question was asked on the forum before, but that just didn't answer a thing for me. Is it just a measure for how dangerous the mission is? More importantly, does it have any connection to how NPCs are created for the Mission? Or the objectives of the Mission? Both Objectives and Caliber range from 1/I to 5/V so I had to ask.

Mission Caliber is mostly how much support the players will get. It's a mix important the mission is to the agency and how dangerous they thing it will be. It's not connected with the mission objectives, per say, 1 to 5 is just a convenient scale. The objectives should all give examples of what that level of objective is, and the number is used in determining XP for that objective.

Speaking of NPCs, what is the point and purpose of Tier? I haven't noticed any specific examples of Tier I or Tier V NPCs. Is this the average of the NPC's stats or something? I can't find any explaination on it.

By default a NPC is assumed to be Tier 3. High and lower tiers of that NPC will have higher and lower stats and XP values. If I remember right, it's discussed in the beginning of the NPC section.

How does Threat Level calculate into creating NPCs, deciding on Objectives, deciding on Mission Caliber, or anything else?

Threat Level is used to determine what the actual numbers that the roman numeral grades represent are and what the XP rewards will be. It has no impact on mission design per say. Once you make a NPC, you look at the tables in the NPC section cross referencing the grade and the threat level to tell you what bonus to use in play. Once the mission is over it impacts the final XP reward.

I'm about to create my first Mission for a small group of players, and I wanted this cleared out of the way before I got started with something I have nearly no idea about.
If anyone could answer my questions, that would be very appreciated. Any additional pointers would also be great and very helpful.

Look at some of the missions in the download section to see how objectives and mission caliber fit together and get a better handle on how the mission system works.

[Skari-dono]

Despite being from Iceland, there's not much ice to have these days. But I did not join the forums to tell you about the weather, but to ask few questions about the Spycraft 2.0 game.

Iceland, you mean the green one?

Yes, that would be the green one

Speaking of NPCs, what is the point and purpose of Tier? I haven't noticed any specific examples of Tier I or Tier V NPCs. Is this the average of the NPC's stats or something? I can't find any explaination on it.

By default a NPC is assumed to be Tier 3. High and lower tiers of that NPC will have higher and lower stats and XP values. If I remember right, it's discussed in the beginning of the NPC section.

Unfortunately, that tells me as much as nothing. On page 452, under "Using NPCs in Play", it says that Tiers are linked to the Mission's TL. Tier III = TL, Tier I = TL -4, Tier V = +4, and so on. Again, this tells me nothing. So I have to link Tiers to TL and TL to the stats of the NPC? How on earth does Tier translate into NPC stats? That's what I'd like to know, but I don't see it in the book.

[Crafty_Pat]

Unfortunately, that tells me as much as nothing. On page 452, under "Using NPCs in Play", it says that Tiers are linked to the Mission's TL. Tier III = TL, Tier I = TL -4, Tier V = +4, and so on. Again, this tells me nothing. So I have to link Tiers to TL and TL to the stats of the NPC? How on earth does Tier translate into NPC stats? That's what I'd like to know, but I don't see it in the book.

Sadly, the Tiers section fails to contain one very important note — that you shouldn't use the rule! I know, sounds weird. Let me explain. In Chapter 1 (Character Creation), a bunch of abilities produce NPCs that help the team. We didn't want these NPCs to be full bonus characters so we had to scale them down accordingly. We created a mechanic (Tiers) that adjust the Threat Level used to generate that particular NPC's stats. While other NPCs use the regular TL, these helper NPCs use one 4 or 8 lower (i.e. 1 or 2 Tiers).

The problem, unfortunately, is that we included the Tier rules in Chapter 7 without greater explanation, so GCs think they should be able to use them. They shouldn't. In fact, if they do, it's possible the rule could break (say, if a GC and a rule both apply Tiers to the same NPC at the same time).

In retrospect we should have just adjusted the NPC's Threat Level directly but at the time we were trying to set NPCs up to share the one universal mission TL. Also, the Tier rule was conceived before Chapter 7 was fully developed and with the extremely short development cycle 2.0 had (only 8 months from concept to completion!), we didn't have much time for polish.

We're handling this in a much, much simpler and more intuitive fashion in Mastercraft. It's the benefit of doing things on a reasonable schedule and in the right order.

Were your other questions sufficiently answered?

[Sletchman]

Sadly, the Tiers section fails to contain one very important note — that you shouldn't use the rule!

This is very interesting.  I frequently use Tiers with NPC's in games I run.  More dangerous NPC's might be Tier 4 [or in extreme cases 5], or people the players are supposed to walk over might be as low as Tier 1.  Haven't come across any problems, except when my players try to be Rambo against a group that they know vastly out classes them.

[Agent 333]

In case it wasn't made clear to you: Threat Level = Average party level. Theoretically you should do total party level/5 instead of the actual median, but I've found that it works out just fine if you use the median and adjust the number of NPCs to the group instead. Also, you need to work a good balance of how tough the NPCs are with the number based on the specifics of your group. I've found that you can send hordes and hordes of relatively weak NPCs against a Triggerman and have little effect, but a couple of well statted goons can be a serious bother. Another thing: if they're smart, your PCs will wear armor. This is for their own protection. The NPCs should also wear armor, and probably use some armor piercing rounds. For their protection.

I guess this post started out just flat out informative, but turned into general NPC advice...

[Skari-dono]

Thanks a lot for the assistance. It was much appreciated

I guess I have all I need to start planning my first mission. I hope it won't be my last and I hope I can come here for any help I might need.

Thanks again

[Crafty_Pat]

I guess I have all I need to start planning my first mission. I hope it won't be my last and I hope I can come here for any help I might need.

We're here when you need us. Have fun!

[Krensky]

The problem, unfortunately, is that we included the Tier rules in Chapter 7 without greater explanation, so GCs think they should be able to use them. They shouldn't. In fact, if they do, it's possible the rule could break (say, if a GC and a rule both apply Tiers to the same NPC at the same time).

interesting, I've been using them as a way of getting even more out of my prep time by tiering NPCs to fine tune their power in relation to the PCs. Same Waffen-SS squad, but if I want them to be easy or speed bumps use the numbers from Tier 2 or Tier 1. If I want them to be harder, Tier 4 or 5. I think I've only stated four or five adversary NPCs out total for the the whole game.

[MugMug]

I've used them too, on occasion, though find Tiers to be unneccessary most of the time. I viewed NPC Tiers as an advanced rule option. Conflicts with other Tier-setting rules never really came up, but should be easily resolved.

Walter

[Krensky]

I resolved the tiered tier thing just by not giving non-full NPCs those abilities. I don't need a rules justification to throw more adversaries at my players, but the players need an ability or feat to summon up a horde of NPCs that do what they are told.

[Skari-dono]

Another question since I have this nice thread already open

Named bonuses don't stack, according to the Skills Chapter. Am I right in thinking that a named bonus overrides a penalty with the same name? Either that or the bigger of the two overrides the other (-5 penalty trumps +3 bonus, or +4 bonus trumps -1 penalty)?

The book says that only the best of the bonuses with same name applies and only the worst of the penalties with same name applies, but I don't seem to find anything about a bonus and a penalty.

Do bonuses and penalties perhaps work independantly, so a +4 bonus and a -1 penalty becomes a +3 bonus?

The reason I ask is because I believe synergy bonus/penalty will frequently be at odds. Any pointers? Page reference I missed, perhaps?

[Bill Whitmore]

Another question since I have this nice thread already open

Named bonuses don't stack, according to the Skills Chapter. Am I right in thinking that a named bonus overrides a penalty with the same name? Either that or the bigger of the two overrides the other (-5 penalty trumps +3 bonus, or +4 bonus trumps -1 penalty)?

The book says that only the best of the bonuses with same name applies and only the worst of the penalties with same name applies, but I don't seem to find anything about a bonus and a penalty.

Do bonuses and penalties perhaps work independantly, so a +4 bonus and a -1 penalty becomes a +3 bonus?

The reason I ask is because I believe synergy bonus/penalty will frequently be at odds. Any pointers? Page reference I missed, perhaps?

For simplicity, you can just use the highest bonus and the highest penalty to modify the roll.  If you want a more detailed and complicated system, refer to http://www.crafty-games.com/forum/index.php?topic=68.0 (read all 3 pages).

[Skari-dono]

Another question since I have this nice thread already open

Named bonuses don't stack, according to the Skills Chapter. Am I right in thinking that a named bonus overrides a penalty with the same name? Either that or the bigger of the two overrides the other (-5 penalty trumps +3 bonus, or +4 bonus trumps -1 penalty)?

The book says that only the best of the bonuses with same name applies and only the worst of the penalties with same name applies, but I don't seem to find anything about a bonus and a penalty.

Do bonuses and penalties perhaps work independantly, so a +4 bonus and a -1 penalty becomes a +3 bonus?

The reason I ask is because I believe synergy bonus/penalty will frequently be at odds. Any pointers? Page reference I missed, perhaps?

For simplicity, you can just use the highest bonus and the highest penalty to modify the roll.  If you want a more detailed and complicated system, refer to http://www.crafty-games.com/forum/index.php?topic=68.0 (read all 3 pages).

Read the whole thing. Clarifies a lot. Thanks a bunch