Tommy's Take on Agents of Oblivion

Agents of Oblivion, the latest offering by Sean Preston and Reality Blurs, is a Savage Worlds Spy-Horror game written by Preston and Ed "Pinebox, Texas" Wetterman.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: First off, layout wise, don't expect anything quite on the level of Reams of Cthulhu. The layout is a bit more spartan, nothing ugly, just more "functional" than "eye catching", which isn't a bad thing.

The premise is a conspiracy-filled monster-mashing modern world, in which the PCs are, um, Agents of an organization called Oblivion. Oblivion characters gain a few perks, including some free skills and a choice between a free Edge OR a free Attribute increase!

Additionally, they can belong to one of three branches (Assault, Occult and Operations), which can grant them temporary Edges as well! The "Defining Interests" mechanic from Realms of Cthulhu makes a return appearance as well.

The Skills List is expanded, adding notable additions such as Demolitions and Forgery, valuable assets for any spy.

Reality Blurs apparently does not like Power Points (which is fine, neither do I) as all of their uses of the Powers system in this book ditch Power Points completely. Speaking of, in addition to some fairly standard powers options (Magic, Psychic and Sacred), you can essentially be a "mutant", starting off with a power that you were born with.

Of course, there are new Edges to play with, like Gun Fu (which allows guns to be fired even in close combat), Hindsight (which actually means you are immune to gang up bonuses) and Silent Kill (pretty much a must for assassin types). Powers Edges can let you tweak your powers and Professional Edges like Hacker and Cleaner help the agents specialize.

I always love to see Legendary Edges, and there are some great ones here, like Last Man Standing (allowing the Agent to ignore all wound penalties), Empty the Clip (for when you absolutely MUST unload the entire gun) and Up Close and Personal (allowing an in-close gunman to force their target to default to the generally much easier to hit Target Number 4).

The Setting Rules include some tweaks to the Powers as well as new uses for existing skills, like applying your skills to a manhunt, for instance. This section also includes the Requisiton point system, as agents rarely have to deal with money hands on.

The equipment section covers most of the bases you would expect, as well as Perks, which are awesome bits like Emergency Evacs, a Cover Identity and, yes, an Air Strike. You can even, with GM discretion, "buy" Edges in the form of enhancements that mimic the mechanics of Edges (and there are enhancements available for a good chunk of the Edges, like the Flip Chip, which makes you ambidextrous). There are even Single Use devices that mimic powers: Like an Anti-Grav device that lets you Fly.

The GM section provides background in the form of Oblivion and the Pandora Institute, essentially rival organizations, one hoping to surprise the Bad Stuff in the world and the other hoping to use it.

That said, the book does more to provide a framework for you to work off of, with a number of factors on a sliding scale of None, Low, Moderate and High: Alien Factor, Conspiracy Factor, Occult Factor, Horror Factor and Technology Factor, along with example campaign types and how to combine them (like the "settings" for an X-Files ish campaign, for instance).

A ton of agencies are detailed, divided by their regions of origin, including Pandora, the Thule Society, the Bilderbergs, Al-Qaeda, the Illuminati, and more. Each is "ranked" by their involvement with various factors, and each is purely optional, but are rather inspirational.

More importantly, we not only get a random mission generator (somewhat based off of the Realms of Cthulhu one, but definitely tweaked for the setting), but an Agency generator and a monster generator.

Seven campaign arcs are provided, one for each of the campaign types given earlier in the book, each with the major "plot points" broken down. While none of them are fully fleshed out adventures, a GM with some experience should be able to run with what's given. The X-Files style arc, for example, involves a world domination plot partially orchestrated by parasitic aliens and another shadowy agency.

While we don't get a bestiary per se, we do get a list of generic stat blocks, as well as the major players in each of the Savage Story Arcs fully detailed.

WHAT WORKS: A great alternative for people who may have liked BLACK OPS or CONSPIRACY X but decided they weren't fans of GURPS of Classic Unisystem anymore (like me!). The book is all about options, options, options, not about shoe-horning in a single way to play...(sometimes, that shoe-horning is fine, and sometimes, you just want options, options, options). And I do so love me some random tables, even more than I do Legendary Edges.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I always prefer a character sheet IN the book, and the PDF is also sans index. Now, while that's not a HUGE issue in a searchable, bookmarked PDF, it can be noticeable in a printed book. Also, I likes me a good bestiary, and this does look a true bestiary (though there is a sample alien or two to play with, to say nothing of the generator).

CONCLUSION: At only $10, I'm not shocked at all that this book shot to the top of the sales charts upon release. You can do straight up spies, you can do X-Files, you can do mutant super agents if you like, and it's at least 95% compatible with other Savage Worlds stuff to boot, so how can you go wrong? (Bonus points if you combine it with the Gritty options from Realms of Cthulhu for some real bone breaking action).

Tommy's Take on Agents of SWING

Okay, on one hand, I haven't found a FATE book that I could really get into. On the other hand, I have come to expect lots of good from Postmortem Studios, whether the book is written by James "Grim" Desborough (as this one is) or his protege Ian Warner (seriously, check out the Tough Justice review I posted yesterday).

Agents of S.W.I.N.G. has been quite the success for Postmortem Studios, but can it sway a guy like me, who has been less than enchanted with the FATE system?

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: No one can write a small FATE book. This is a scientifically proven fact. Agents of S.W.I.N.G. is no exception, weighing in at a hefty 344 pages and $9.99 in PDF or available in both softcover and hardcover from Lulu. There are also two supplements already, the Agent's Casefile and the Control's Casefile, each available for free if you download, or in print for under $5.

The premise is that Agents of S.W.I.N.G. is a FATE-powered Spy-Fi game set in the 60s and 70s and drawing from sources like The Avengers, The Man from UNCLE and James Bond. SWING is the "Supreme World Intelligence Network Group", a secret espionage agency that is basically holding off all the bad stuff that the Cold War powers can't be bothered with because they are too busy suspecting each other of Very Bad Things.

Each player needs three six sided dice, apparently of different colors (any colors will do, but the author recommends red, white and blue), and I would note that Pandora can be used to set up a good 60s and 70s soundtrack for you if you like background music.

The Orientation Chapter is a well-written piece that tries to set the stage for roleplaying in 1967, noting not only the differences in philosophies, but in the flow of information as well (governments and media outlets were the end-all, be-all, you know). From there we dig into the mysterious organization SWING...no one knows how long it's been around, where the money comes from, and it's structure. Section 1 is Command, 2 is Administration, 3 is Quartermaster, 4 is Finance, 5 is Crime (as in "fighting", not "committing"), 6 is Information, 7 is Deadly Force, 8 is Uncanny Affairs, 9 is Specialists, 10 is Acquisitions, 11 is Internal Affairs, 12 is Espionage and 13 is -- well, there is no 13. Stop asking. Interestingly, a prototype supercomputer named ERIC2 is "boss" of the organizations, selecting agents for missions from the pool, sometimes seemingly at random. Each section is explained in detail, what they do, both at base and in the field. This is some interesting stuff...for instance, section 7 (the assassins) also double as "Jacks of All Trades"...the Finance Department, in the field, can requisition large sums of money at a moment's notice, etc. As you may have guessed, Section 11 (Internal Affairs) works under cover...even hiding their purpose from their fellow Agents.

SWING deals with organized crime, secret societies, mad science gone amok, the supernatural and even The Cold War. In all, the Orientation chapter provides a very extensive look at how the Agency operates, but still reads well and reads quickly.

The Induction chapter is character creation. First, get a concept, and then a name. FATE characters are defined in no small part by Aspects, and you take one based off of your Section. The author provides three sample Aspects for each Section, like Deadly Force "I Never Miss, Unless It's On Purpose" or Internal Affairs "Forever Vigilant". Next, an Aspect needs to be keyed to your character's Past, and finally, their Cover (every Agent has a cover story). From there, you define five more Aspects for your character, and then there are about 30 skills (ranked +8 to -3), with 20 points to spend. Finally, you get four stunts, of which there are a crap ton from which you can choose. You get a number of FATE points equal to 10 minus your starting number of Stunts.

One thing I've never been a fan of is really abstract damage, which FATE uses. There are three "Stress" tracks, Physical Stress, Composure Stress and Social Stress. Characters can opt to take "consequences" instead of suffering Stress damage.

I do like Advancement, which awards Skill Points at the beginning of a session and encourages you to spend them in the middle of the session, presumably when a new skill would be incredibly useful.

For most actions, you roll one of your dice and subtract another from it, then add your relevant skills to it to determine your Effort. The margin of success (or failure) are called Shifts, and are sometimes just cosmetic, but other times (such as in combat) play an important role in resolution. This can range from Disaster to Significant Failure to Failure to Minimal Success, Notable Success or Amazing Success. If you get more than three Shifts, you get a Swing die, which can be rolled with your positive and negative dice, and used to replace one or the other.

You can spend FATE points to activate Aspects, gaining bonuses to actions, or activate your own negative Aspects in order to regain FATE points. This also allows for some "creative editing"...making small changes to a scene that might benefit you.

Helpfully, we also get a list of examples of Consequences here, for each category and severity. A minor Physical consequence might be heavy bruising, while an extreme one could be crippled, for instance.

The Skills and Stunts chapter starts off by breaking down all of the skills, including any special uses of the skill (like Empathy being used to uncover Social or Mental Aspects). Similarly, all of the stunts are detailed here, like All The World's A Stage, which prevents you from making a worse impression than you started with, or Made of Steel, which lets you avoid your first point of Physical Stress.

The Quartermaster chapter is the equipment chapter, although it is handled differently than some games, as working for an agency provides you with a certain amount of equipment for each mission (three sets of ID is standard issue for SWING). It's a pretty decent list, covering melee, ranged and even explosive weapons...and weapons can even gain Advances like Accurate or Poisoned. A healthy list of spy equipment is also covered, like safecrackers, parachutes and so on, with their own list of Advancements. Of course, vehicles are also listed, with Advances like Caltrops, so your sports car can burst the tires of those following them in a high speed chase!

The GM chapter hits a lot of the old standbys, but also covers "Plot Stress", which is essentially a running tally of a minimum number of tasks that must be completed before the PCs can get on with the next scene. This also runs through a bit of pacing, such as the PCs getting hit with setbacks. A catch-all of miscellaneous rules are also present here, from falling damage to being set on fire to poisons and diseases. This chapter also discusses Villains, Henchmen (their right hand men) and Goons (the mooks). Villains are statted up just like PCs, Henchmen are slightly more abstracted and Goons are basically in a group before they can amount to a threat.

The Organisations chapter is all about building organisations, beginning with Scale (from Tiny to Enormous), which also affects the number of Skills and Aspects the organisation has. Next, you set the Scope, which can range from Local go Global. Oddly, this is one of the few chapters that doesn't really provide any examples, and it is sorely missed.

SWINGers is a bunch of sample characters/NPCs, a great many of whom are very thinly veiled take-offs on famous characters who served as inspiration for the source material...including The Professor, in case you're curious as to how to stat up The Doctor (as in Who?) in Agents of SWING.

A handful of villainous organisations (including a neo-nazi group and the giggle-inducing control freaks known as CONDOM) is laid out, serving also as examples of the Organisation rules from a couple of chapters back, plus providing examples of villains, henchmen and goons.

The Years is a timeline covering the 60s and 70s.

A whole slew of handouts follows, from character sheets to how chase scenes are handled to weapon and vehicle stats. There's even a table of contents at the back of the book, right before the index.

WHAT WORKS: I think I actually "get" FATE now, in part because of the author's writing and examples, and in part because of my experience with ICONS, which really does work as an "introduction to FATE". The author does a great job, however, especially with providing examples and with laying out the functions of SWING...the part about Sections and what they do in and out of the field is just great work. I admit I'm not up on my Spy-Fi, so I know I missed some references in the SWINGers chapter, but the ones I did catch were pretty great. The art, when used, is pretty evocative of the tone and never overwhelms the book.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I'm still not sold on FATE as being something me or my normal players would be huge fans of, but that's a personal preference and not a knock on the writing. Really, my biggest complaint is that I think it could have been organized better...especially when you have things like a two page list of Stunts...and later a list of stunts with a quick description...and then a whole chapter devoted to explaining each of the stunts...and then a handout with all those stunts on it. I like quick reference, but that felt excessive. Ultimately, it is a minor complaint as the book never feels "padded" and is certainly not overpriced, in my view. That said, I would have liked a sample treatment on Supernatural and Extranormal adversaries, since a whole section of the Agency is devoted to them.

CONCLUSION: I think it says a lot that FATE is considered "rules-lite", but the author got nearly 20 pages of handouts out of the system. Personally, I'm still not sold on FATE outside of the "beginner's version" found in ICONS, BUT this is a well written incarnation that remains focused on what it is trying to do (with the Spy-Fi genre). As mentioned above, I would have liked a few examples of using supernatural type opposition, since there is a whole Section of the Agency dedicated to it, especially for GMs who have little prior FATE experience to draw from.