The other Top Secret and James Bond 007 role-playing game we played back in the day was the T&T compatible Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes boxed set from back in the day. The rules are the same at (as I recall) the 5th Edition of T&T, and it worked well for what we used it for. This always felt like a game that did "movies other than James Bond" and we got a kick out of all of the realistic toned characters and adventures in this game, compared to T&T.
You can still pick a PDF of this up over at RPGNow for less than ten dollars, and for that it gives you a complete gear and item list mostly compatible with any version of T&T out there, including today's Deluxe T&T edition.
Realism Strikes!
But a part of me wishes this said "to heck with realism" and used the straight T&T ability score range. The game was limited to 20 levels, and you got two attribute points per level, and that all but made the higher level saving throws for most checks out of reach for most characters. We were lucky to have characters make level one or two SRs for anything, and as a result, the fun of high level saving rolls never really happened for us and the game, even at higher levels 6-12, felt like a low level game.
It was both a good thing and a bad thing for us. Yes, it was more realistic. The high-level weapons still were incredibly powerful and characters could never really 'toughen up' to face such firepower. Thinking back with hindsight, I like how T&T Deluxe handles missile weapons these days, even though I didn't see the wisdom in that adds-on-miss ruling when I first read it and wrote about it.
It was both a good thing and a bad thing for us. Yes, it was more realistic. The high-level weapons still were incredibly powerful and characters could never really 'toughen up' to face such firepower. Thinking back with hindsight, I like how T&T Deluxe handles missile weapons these days, even though I didn't see the wisdom in that adds-on-miss ruling when I first read it and wrote about it.
Today? Deluxe Plus Guns!
If I were to play this today I would just spin up T&T Deluxe Edition characters and give them guns. Warriors are soldiers and rogues are spies and leave it at that. I would use the normal T&T attribute raising rules and have characters with ability scores of 50, 100, or more. Ever see Sin City, Sucker Punch, or any of those Zack Snyder movies where normal humans turn into muscle-bound freaks or lithe angels of death who can wade through bursts of auto-fire untouched?
That. I want that.
So your brute enforcer literally has enough hits to take a shotgun to the face and it only leaves a couple scratches as he bends the barrel into a pretzel and proceeds to pummel the bar full of enemies through pulp, throwing some through solid walls, and flipping a car on its side as easy as a professional wrestler would with one hand (and a hidden cable winch). With "normal" T&T stat-flation and super-characters, I get that.
Yes, eventually guns cease to become as effective, but who cares? This is fun, and pretty soon it all breaks down into some testosterone-filled fist or sword fight with grunting brutes and endless vast broken fields of CGI rubble, just like the Zack Snyder movie feeling I want.
I would still use this book as a resource though. There are some skills easily usable as talents, and plenty of gear to ogle over and blast each other with. I know some would flip out over this, because a big part of the appeal was this game's more normal power curve and streamlined feel (and part of me agrees with that), but another part of me loves T&T's zany power level and I just need to try this "mod" and learn my lesson. Or have a lot of silly fun. Or both.
With how powerful the MS&PE weapons are rated, you are going to need every one of those points of super-powered ability scores just to survive. It makes me think the ability scores in the 50''s and 60's for a game like this aren't so overpowered as one would think. First level characters? Like extras in a movie. Eighth through tenth-level characters? The stars of that movie. So what they are high-powered and a bit super? Give them enemies that can roll just as many combat dice and T&T will balance that out, just as it does in fantasy.
I think I will coin the term 'modern fantasy' for these sorts of every-person super-hero type movies and games, where yeah, that looks like a normal person, but ones the slow motion hits and the rock music starts playing like something out of a John Wick movie, you are in the realm of fantasy power levels.
MS&PE using T&T Deluxe's rules? Yeah, Phillip Marlowe meets John Wu. Not so subtle, but it sure sounds fun. More on this later, but this is a fun find and a great resource for my upcoming T&T fueled mayhem. Or mistake. Or both.
With how powerful the MS&PE weapons are rated, you are going to need every one of those points of super-powered ability scores just to survive. It makes me think the ability scores in the 50''s and 60's for a game like this aren't so overpowered as one would think. First level characters? Like extras in a movie. Eighth through tenth-level characters? The stars of that movie. So what they are high-powered and a bit super? Give them enemies that can roll just as many combat dice and T&T will balance that out, just as it does in fantasy.
I think I will coin the term 'modern fantasy' for these sorts of every-person super-hero type movies and games, where yeah, that looks like a normal person, but ones the slow motion hits and the rock music starts playing like something out of a John Wick movie, you are in the realm of fantasy power levels.
Compared to the Games of the Day
We mostly played TSR's Top Secret, but we did have the James Bond 007 game as well - but we didn't play that as much. We did play a lot of T&T and we liked the modern gear and guns, but we never really ran a dedicated MS&PE campaign - which I wish we would have. I would have loved these rules for a Gangbusters Noir-style PI and gangsters campaign, just because of the flavor here and focus more on mysteries and story than combat.MS&PE using T&T Deluxe's rules? Yeah, Phillip Marlowe meets John Wu. Not so subtle, but it sure sounds fun. More on this later, but this is a fun find and a great resource for my upcoming T&T fueled mayhem. Or mistake. Or both.
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