0. Beginnings

Greetings Agents. Welcome to your pre-mission orientation, i.e., Session 0. I'll post more details as the week progresses, but for now, take a look at the 6Q Rules and the incredibly complex(sic) character creation section, and give some thought to the kind of operative you'd like to play. This evening I'll post some general roles or tropes we might use as springboards.

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Name: Cole Scanlon
Codename, if applicable: Obsidian1. What have you always been good at?

Strategic and tactical thinking.

2. What can you do that others can’t?

Master interrogator.

3. What have you brought with you?

Keys to my own safehouse in Istanbul. Not even my Hermes colleagues know about this. One must always be prepared.

4. What motivates you to go out there?

The void within me. Without this work, I'd be adrift. I never discuss this, however...not even with the mandated Hermes Project therapists.

5. How does the rest of the world see you?

Cold and ruthless.

6. What’s the story with the PC to your left?

As a man who prides himself on being unreadable when I wish it, I find Echo's abilities unsettling. He must be watched carefully. I don't necessarily suspect him of betrayal or the like...but if he decides to play power politics within Hermes, I could find myself left out in the cold.

I also believe he's hiding something from me. Certainly, we all have our secrets; it's our stock-in-trade. But some secrets are cancerous, and will destroy people and organizations. Does this apply to Echo...or am I being too paranoid?

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Willing to tweak or add info if necessary.

I love it, that's awesome! Six questions, and I already feel like Cole/Obsidian is coming alive. Not a lot of games can do that in so little time and space, but it couldn't have done it without you breathing the spark of that life into him. Great job!

The only question I'd add to the list is who would play him in the movie?

Now you've got me extra psyched to throw our team into the fire ;)

Name: Dario "Echo" Mendez
Codename: Echo

1. What have you always been good at?
Reading people. I’ve always had a knack for spotting the lie before it’s even spoken body language, microexpressions, hesitation. It all reads like subtitles to me.

2. What can you do that others can’t?
Photographic memory. Every face, document, voice, and floor plan once I’ve seen it, it’s mine forever. Useful in the field, unsettling at parties.

3. What have you brought with you?
An old Omega Seamaster watch. It still tells time (barely). Given to me by my handler, right before he "retired" under mysterious circumstances.

4. What motivates you to go out there?
They say my best friend from childhood died years ago. But I got a voice massage last week that sounded just like him. No way I’m letting that go.

5. How does the rest of the world see you?
Depends on the lighting. Most see a clean-cut Eurotrash trust-fund baby slumming it for thrills.

6. What’s the story with the PC to your left?
We trained together in Warsaw. I owe them my life from a bad op in Prague, but they don’t know that. I cleaned up the mess, erased the footage, and never told a soul. I’d take a bullet for them.

Scott Adkins would be a good Cole Scanlon. Scanlon doesn't have the physicality that Adkins is used to portraying; he's not gonna engage in fisticuffs or a gunfight when he can deceive or trap his foes. One of his mottos: "Only a fool gives somebody a fair fight." But I like Adkins, so I'll give him a shot. 😎

Ready to subterfuge it up with Echo. Obsidian prides himself on his unreadable exterior, but it seems Echo will pierce right through that. Will there be tension, or mutual respect? Stay tuned!

Yes! I'm already loving the potential for chemistry here! I can definitely see Scott as Obsidian.

@nepets: Do you have an idea for who would play Echo in the movie? (WWPTITM?) Great job on him as well, I feel like I've already got a sense of *who* he is already, looking forward to seeing that sense get fleshed out as we go.

I've got a pretty busy rest of the day and my band is practicing for an upcoming gig tonight (the practice is tonight, not the gig - English can be so ambiguous! >.<), but I'll try to get the Mission Briefing posted either late tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

Other than Echo's WWPTITM, give some thoughts to a piece of gear you'd want to take on this run. It can be virtually anything you'd see in an MI flick, and in game terms will count as a positive trait (+1D) on related rolls.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we may have a hit on our hands! :)

Gear:

SV-9 "Cicada": A virtually silent, palm-sized drone that flattens into a wallet-like device when not in use. Range of 500 meters. Full battery gives 60 minutes of continuous flight. Extends to 120 minutes if Cicada is in a non-flying surveillance state. Fast charges to full battery in 15 minutes.

Cicada can be connected to virtually any electronic device. Cole usually operates it via whatever cell phone his mission handlers provide him with.

More info:

- Transmits high-quality audio and video
- Can be pre-programmed with elaborate commands, if for some reason the user is unable or unwilling to directly control it
- Anti-hacking suite prevents unwanted elements from gaining control
- Radar-absorbent polymer, adaptive camouflage coating, and ambient temperature mimicking make it difficult to detect

Offensive capabilities:

- Can attach to a target and emit a powerful shock. Depletes 75% of power, so use with caution
- Can emit noise to lure or distract. Cicada software has an extensive digital library of noises
- Can be told to self-destruct if situation untenable. Explosion is slightly smaller than a standard grenade.

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Not my intention to get crunchy with the drone, but to show off some "super cool spy-tech specs." We can change or handwave these numbers if necessary

So it'll be just two players? I'll edit Question #6 then.

Have fun shredding with your band! 🔥🔥🔥

That looks great, and while I'm not going to worry about crunch, it gives me a lot of narrative goodies to work with. :)

And yeah, looks like its going to be a party of 2 - preferably a table not too close to the explosions... er, I mean kitchen.

A guy can get hurt fighting fair .

For actor to play my character, I’m gonna go with Robert Pattinson.
I got a copy of the Freeform Universal rules and I’ll get back to you on gear and character development soon.

Hi Nepets - don't worry about Freeform Universal (unless you want to), we're going to keep it nice and 6Q simple - FU is just the system 6Q was derived from.

For the rules: let's say I asked the question, "Are there any hostiles in the area?"

I'd be using the Cicada for this, and also my "strategic and tactical thinking" should be applicable. So would I roll 3d6? Or would other traits fit the scenario? Maybe "cold and ruthless"?

Can you give an example of how you'd handle this?

For gear, I'm just gonna go with the Bond classics of Walter PPK and Austin Martin.

@nepets: The classics never go out of style! ;)

@Totes: I was writing up this long, detailed treatise on my thought process, then realized an example is probably a lot more effective >.<

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Scene: Agent Totes is in a crowded public park that intelligence says may be hit be a terrorist attack. They're looking to stop the bad guys before they can realize their nefarious plans.

Player: I'm scanning the crowd and looking for anyone who looks suspicious.

GM: Great, what specifically are you looking for and how are you going about it?

Player: I guess I'm looking for anyone who looks out of the ordinary from the regular park goers. Most people are here to relax and enjoy the scenery, hang out with friends and family, walk their dogs, exercise, stuff like that. So anyone who seems unusually vigilant or nervous, especially if they're carrying a package, bag, backpack, that kind of thing.

GM: Sounds good. Are you using any traits for this?

Player: Yeah... I'll use my gift for 'strategic and tactical thinking' to imagine where I would go to have the best view of the park but still be somewhat out of sight. And I'll use my pocket drone to help me scout out those locations.

GM: Fantastic. You cast your eyes over the scene looking for the kinds of spots that would provide cover while still allowing for decent sightlines into the heart of the park. You send your drone out in an expanding circular pattern beyond the first line of trees and note a number of different spots that meet your criteria. Most are either vacant or occupied by people who don't *seem* overly suspicious - families with children, older people, friends and couples picnicking, and so on. However, there are three locations that are occupied by individuals who cause your internal red flags to go off:
1) A group of three men, ranging from twenties to thirties, standing in a loose circle several yards off the path beneath a copse of trees. Their clothing is non-descript - jeans, cargo pants, tshirts, One has a heavy gold chain around his neck. Their attention is directed toward the center of the park and they only speak intermittently.
2) A woman and man, she is late twenties-early thirties; he appears late thirties-early forties, standing near the side of what appears to be a maintenance shed. They are dressed practically, if a bit formally for a picnic. There is a black gym bag on the ground between their feet. His attention is on the center of the park, while she smokes and seems uncomfortable.
3) A lone young man, late teens-early twenties. He sits on a low stone wall, legs on either side, 20 meters or so from the main path and about 40 meters from a busy playground. There is an old backpack leaning against the wall near his feet. His focus shifts back and forth between the main park and the playground.

Make a roll to see if you detect anything that might narrow down your search. Roll 3d6, one base die and two for your traits vs 2d6 for the opposition (foes trying to avoid detection, time stress). I'm setting a countdown timer at four - each time you make an investigation roll, the countdown will progress til the event triggers.GM: After a few more minutes of surveillance, you see the men in the first group conduct what appears to be a drug deal. During that time, the man and woman in group 2 have not appreciably changed their posture or their focus. The woman has lit another cigarette from the butt of the first and the man has checked his watch a number of times. Meanwhile, the young man on the stone wall has rummaged in his backpack, withdrawing a small, cheap looking drone and a remote control. His eyes continue to dart from the park to the playground and back.

The countdown is now at 3, how do you proceed?

Hope that helps! Also, I posted the Mission briefing in its own locked thread for reference.

I believe all we have left is Question 6: What is the relationship between you two? Have you worked together before? Heard of each other? Do you have any opinions/preconceptions about the other? Etc.

If you have any questions about the rules, the setting, or how I intend to run the game (I lean pretty hard into the narrative camp), this would be a good place to post them. I do have some house rule additions to the 6Q ruleset, but they're pretty easy to pick up too.
1) You can also burn a Luck point to introduce something new to a scene - pending GM approval. If it simply adds flavor and detail to the story, I will probably refund the point immediately. If it has a minor impact on the scene or story, you'll regain all of your Luck points at the beginning of the next scene as usual. If it has a more significant impact and/or changes the arc of the story, *and* the GM approves (a good plot twist is always fun!), that Luck point will be burned and unrecoverable for the remainder of this story.
2) The GM may award a Badass Coin for particular awesome, cool, clever, or dramatic actions - especially if they play to your characters persona. We haven't introduced flaws for this session, but if you like, we can. In that case, you can earn a Badass Coin by describing how your character's flaw complicates the current situation. You can only have one Badass Coin at a time, and they can redeemed to add an additional Action Die to a future roll.

After that, we can launch whenever we like :)

Thanks for the example! I like the countdown idea. Prevents players from twiddling their thumbs.
I edited my initial character post a few days ago to add to that question. I can add more if necessary, but I'd also like to see Nepet's updates before getting granular.

For the Mission Briefing, I'd like some clarity. Point 1 says we're exchanging suitcases; classic spy-movie stuff. But Point 2 says we're then supposed to take a (different?) suitcase to a storage locker, and then escort the asset to a hotel. Is this meant to hoodwink any evil onlookers? If so, couldn't Team Evil simply split up, with one group staking out the locker, and the other group following us back to the hotel?

If the asset and his info is so vital, seems like getting him to the hotel ASAP would be the overriding concern. But this is Mission Impossible style, so I understand convoluted plans may be part of the game. Or maybe I'm not fully grasping the briefing.

@Totes: Nope you're spot on. The plan is for one agent to perform the old swtcheroo at the station with the cases, and then take that case (the original) to Bravo 2 and hand it off to an extraction team. The other agent is to essentially use the asset and the dummy case as a decoy in case the team is being followed. Ideally, the exchange goes unnoticed and any pursuers follow Agent 2. If it doesn't, it will force them to either make a choice between either the case or the asset; or, more likely, split their numbers and improve our odds of success.

Upon departing the station, Agent 2 will 'dead drop' the case in a locker at the bus station and take the asset to the designated extraction site. Again, if they are being followed, the drop will (hopefully) cause yet another distraction for the pursuers, causing them to split up and weaken their numbers, or even better, ignore Sanjar and focus on retrieving the case.

Its MI-style, everything is sleight of hand ;)

PS: Given the fourth paragraph in the briefing, it's clear that HQ deems the asset himself to be of secondary import to the contents of the case. Perhaps what he personally knows is less comprehensive or mission critical than what's in the package? Maybe poor Sanjar is just an expendable messenger - and we all know what tends to happen to messengers...

Got it. Or do I? If I confuse myself, surely my enemies will also be confused!

So it looks like Obsidian and Echo will have to split up? Or will other agent NPCs assist us, and we can assign one task to them, so we can stick together?

*Previous post updated for clarity*

Except for some backup when you reach the extraction sites, the team is on their own. That means it *should* be a milk run, right?

Unless HQ has seriously underestimated the value of the intel Sanjar is bringing with him....

Echo strolls casually into the park on his way to the train station to fulfill his mission of picking up the briefcase. He maintains his nonchalance as a drone buzzes by, curious, this is a high-end one, not one of the usual bargain basement ones I usually encounter in the park. As he wanders into the park, he takes in the three men, the couple, and the young man. Sighing inwardly, why is there always a playground full of children?