Spycraft 3 - What Classes? [Was 'Scientist?']

[Goodlun]

Also the main character from the 1998 film RPM is a wheelman through and through.  It falls into a very narrow slot of espionage.

[Crafty_Alex]

Here's a challenge - instead of telling us you love the wheelman (noted), name me a character in popular espionage fiction who is a monoclassed wheelman and nothing else.

Looking at how characters in espionage fiction have been statted in the past, the only monoclasses have all been pointmen... Which I understand is something you're already changing/fixing.

See, I disagree here, too. For example, George Smiley IMO could easily play as the Spook, straight on through. Bond is a Troubleshooter, hands down. Sam Fischer is a perfect Commando out of the box. Now, these are a bit new (and unknown to most of you), but this is a goal of Spycraft 3 - base classes that clearly fit the espionage genre without forcing people to multiclass to build an iconic espionage character concept ("I want to be Bond" being perhaps the biggest request - and challenge - Spycraft has always faced).

Does that mean that being good at chases won't be a character option? Aboslutely not. Does that mean there won't be a class of some sort that excels at chases? Not likely. But does that mean a base class where most if not all his abilities are geared towards being good at driving is core to the espionage genre?  We have not been convinced that's the case, because the research and genre examples don't support it.

[Krensky]

Jake Grafton
Mitchel Grant
Jack Aubery
Horatio Horblower

[Crafty_Alex]

Jake Grafton

Because he's a pilot? Seems more military to me...

Mitchel Grant

Who?

Jack Aubery
Horatio Horblower

I would probably put both those guys as Captains, not Wheelmen. Also, a bit out of our target era.

[Goodlun]

Of course there is always Alex Decker the man driving the car in the Spy Hunter video game series

[Goodlun]

or maybe even the pilots for Air America 

[Mister Andersen]

I agree a class solely devoted to driving doesn't fit a espionage genre.

Certainly not as a base class; focused vehicle expertise is really the preserve of, well, an expert class.

Now, reworking the Transporter as a base class whose role isn't just working with vehicles, but being the one in charge of getting the team to places they need to get to and getting them there safely, that's something quite different and more genre appropriate.


Also, anything with hobbits in it is espionage:

The titular book starts off as a poorly planned heist, but by the end you've got interception by and escapes from foreign powers (goblins & wood elves), covert infiltration and information retrieval (Bilbo vs. Smaug), setting up of local dictators to be taken down (Bard's wildlife spynet), communication of tactical weaknesses across enemy lines (Bilbo again), uncovering of information/stirring up events that become prelude to larger matters (the Ring & the Battle of 5 Armies).

Fellowship and its sequels, while more obviously a war story, also has its fair share of espionage activities: elite commando raids into enemy territory (the nazgul), data mining for enemy weaknesses (Gandalf in the White City), carriage of vital information (the Ring), secret missions (getting the Ring to Mt Doom), moles & traitors (Saruman, Grima), psych-ops (Gollum vs the Hobbits, Saruman vs Theoden, any use of the Palantir), covert operation behind enemy lines (Sam & Frodo in Mordor)

[OverNinja]

Mitchel Grant

Who?

Firefox.

Stringfellow Hawke and Dominic Santini from Airwolf.

Al Giordino, Dirk Pitt's friend from Clive Cussler novels.

[Desertpuma]

That would be Gant not Grant ... and yes, Airwolf would definitely be a definitive Wheelman.

[Crafty_Alex]

Mitchel Grant

Who?

Firefox.

Stringfellow Hawke and Dominic Santini from Airwolf.

Ah. I'd say Firefox is more of a spy movie. But Airwolf?

Al Giordino, Dirk Pitt's friend from Clive Cussler novels.

Not familiar. I am seeing a theme that drivers tend to be support characters though...

[OverNinja]

...But Airwolf?

I have only Season 1.
- Shadow of the Hawke aka Airwolf: The Movie: steal the Airwolf back.
- Daddy's Gone a Hunt'n: undercover in the Air Force.
- Bite of the Jackal: deal with a rogue Firm agent.
- Proof Through the Night: extract a Soviet double agent from USSR.
- One Way Express: foil a robbery during while flying film stunts.
- Echoes from the Past: captured by ComBlock agents who want the Airwolf.
- Fight Like a Dove: Hunt down an ex-Nazi arms dealer.
- Mad Over Miami: Rescue Dominic.
- And They Are Us: Rescue an African president and deal with a coup and hostile neighbor.
- Mind of the Machine: Deal with a Soviet agent while developing an Airwolf simulator.
- To Snare a Wolf: Keep the Airwolf hidden from an rogue agent while shooting an Air Force film.

[mathey]

Clint Eastwood in Firefox spends more time sneaking his way through the Soviet Union than he does flying the titular vehicle. There's a big dogfight at the end but its more of a showcase of the whizbang brain controls than his skills as a pilot (insert screenshot of Clint squinting as he tries to think in Russian).

As for Airwolf, its like Blue Thunder and Knight Rider, where the technologically advanced vehicle is more of a star than the supposed protagonists. I remember nothing about the cipher Jan-Michael Vincent played, but the heroes in Blue Thunder and Knight Rider were cops who just happened to have nice rides. I don't know that any of them would fit into an espionage campaign even if said campaign was over-the-top and featured lots of '80s hairdos.

MacGyver on the other hand - he has a mullet AND makes his own props.

[Krensky]

The last half of the Firefox, the novel, is the dogfight between the two planes, and the two crieria for Gant were that he could speak Russian natively (the book plane had some voice activated fetures, but was otherwise similar to a F22) and was a great fighter pilot,

The later Grafton books are espionage tales through and through.

Aubery and Hornblower aren't Captains, they don't have Personal Lieutnants.

[Mister Andersen]

Airwolf season 1 was definitely high-tech espionage -- its roots were in the Vietnam War and the American intelligence community of that period as well as the sort of tech-race thinking involved in Star Wars, and it debuted half a decade before Perestroika. It only turn more family friendly actioner from season 2.

Aubery and Hornblower aren't Captains, they don't have Personal Lieutnants.

Stephen Maturin & William Bush would disagree

[Krensky]

Aubery and Hornblower aren't Captains, they don't have Personal Lieutnants.

Stephen Maturin & William Bush would disagree

Other players.