Scene/Mission Ideas

[klofft]

One of my players is fairly inexperienced with the espionage genre.  He's a fan of the Craig Bond and the Bourne movies, but isn't the consumer of espionage TV and novels like the rest of the group is.

As such, he counted on us to make a character for him that he would like and would be fun to play.  For reference, the other three agents are a Faceman, a Martial Artist Intruder, and a Wheelman Hacker (played by the GC so he can sit in the van and not be bored. )  For better or worse, though, this covers a lot of the typical, easy to play action espionage roles.

So we made him a gambler.  He is presently a Pointman/Fixer, fasttracking to High Roller, because it's a fun spy class.  He has the requisite feats already, and will probably pick up Card Shark too.  This all gives him lots of typical "spy skills," and abilities to manipulate and share Action Dice.  He came up with a background of an Israeli who entered the world of professional poker and was recruited by the agency.

As GC, I approved the concept, so I brought my question to you all on myself: any cool ideas of how to specifically include his gambling expertise into mission objectives? I've come up with winning a game to get the attention of a mark, and the Casino Royale idea of making a bad guy lose resources.  Any other ideas? I also was hoping for some creativity so I didn't need to build the conceit of a poker game into every mission in order to allow the agent to really shine.

I beg you all for clever ideas!  Thanks in advance.

[Desertpuma]

Well if he is a professional card player then he should be excellent at being able to tell when someone is lying so make sure his Sense Motive jacked extremely high and he has class like abilities to allow him to do so. His Bluff should also be good as well.

Considering you have him as a Fixer means he is the Contact monkey on the team so he can call on lots of Contacts. It is important to make sure he has a high Networking skill and some of the Contact style feats. Cultures will be important as well as there are casinos in every corner of the globe not just Vegas, Atlantic City, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Macau or Montenegro.

Mission-wise: he is the Contact and Sense Motive guy on the team which means he should be helping the Faceman get into places, read people, and provide resources either in money or Contacts to get things done. This can be any social situation where they can distract people enough to allow the Martial Artist/Intruder to get and the Wheelman/Hacker the chance to do some computer related espionage along the way.

[doneatrawhagis]

In way of an actual mission involving someone of a high roller skill set, hes a highroller famous poker player so lets see what I can do:

*Setup the character as the face of a fake evil organization, from Austin Powers and James Bond all poker players are evil or spies. This allows the HighRoller to setup legitimate business deals when really he is scouting out an enemy's defenses or being a distraction.

*In DnD terms he would be classified as a leader, meant to give out buffs to other players. So if he wants he could be moral officer. Give him rewards for stick in the back and dealing out helpful stuff.

*The Playboy - Have him setup as a rich playboy who is just out for having fun. He is able to seduce/trick anyone he wants and then ambush them. Setting up for a nice interrogation.

*Sticking to a card theme, have a tournament on an old Mississippi  riverboat. While he is clearing the table and showboating, have the other players systematically take out the opposition or steal valuable information.

*Seems like he must have some streetwise. He should be able to deal with some crime bosses. Every time I think of a high roller now I think back to Castle. He has all his fellow writers play poker every night. He gets one mission where he even plays poker to find out something.

*Remind him that is a risk taker, so he should be doing crazy stuff. If his wealth is high, which it should, he should be able to rub elbows with some very high up people. Getting invitations to a nice party would be a great honor, even if he invited a stranger it could have been just his secretary finding the rich and socialites of the city. If poor he should be able to swindle information out of any greasy corner.

[Sletchman]

Give him some Sleight of Hand ranks and he can do card tricks [and depending on the GC, perhaps some other minor magic tricks].  Sure super spies and evil dictators won't be impressed with card tricks, but many of evil dictators have kids, and kids like magic tricks - and often know more then they really should.

[Trigger]

I designed a specific mini mission for all those gamblers out there.  The link and details are as follows.  This and others are still available at TheAgencyStar. 


High Roller

Gamble, bluff or cheat your way to the top in a Las Vegas Casino poker tournament in hopes of winning the grand prize of a Ferrari Enzo, which has the hidden secret microfilm inside, put there by a murdered Agent.

[Seuss]

*Seems like he must have some streetwise. He should be able to deal with some crime bosses. Every time I think of a high roller now I think back to Castle. He has all his fellow writers play poker every night. He gets one mission where he even plays poker to find out something.

*Remind him that is a risk taker, so he should be doing crazy stuff. If his wealth is high, which it should, he should be able to rub elbows with some very high up people. Getting invitations to a nice party would be a great honor, even if he invited a stranger it could have been just his secretary finding the rich and socialites of the city. If poor he should be able to swindle information out of any greasy corner.

I think he hit the nail on the head with Castle.  Street smarts AND high society contacts.  Ever since Castle came out I thought he'd make a pretty interesting type PC to play

Seuss

[TheAuldGrump]

A contact/information broker who plays poker, perhaps increasing/decreasing hi rates based on how well or poorly the PC did. (Amusing would be the better the Broker did in cards the lower the price, that letting the scnook win is the better choice.)

In the Scooby Punk game the professional wizard was good enough at cards to catch a false mystic stacking the Tarot deck before a reading. Likewise, in the original Bond books, the Control first realized that Goldfinger was a rotten egg by seeing him cheat. Catching a supposedly straight arrow, above board, good guy with an ace up his sleeve might be the first clue that he is a right Captain Sharp.

The Auld Grump