Retrospective: Top Secret

TSR's original Top Secret game was the game that started our adventures in modern-era roleplaying. This game powered our first spy adventures, started our GI JOE campaign, and kept serving us well until Aftermath took over as our preferred modern roleplaying system. Aftermath did vehicle combat and heavy weapons a lot better than Top Secret, and did not have as much of a problem with very high ability scores.

Very Fiddly and Chart Based

We ignored the melee combat system in this game for a straight "blow for blow" one because the system was just too fiddly and left or right side attack-based - almost like a boxing simulation better suited to a "king of the ring" RPG than a secret agent game. A lot of the weapons too had miniscule range modifier differences that made each one special and unique, but in practice didn't really impact your overall chance to hit - you either had an okay chance or you were hoping for a critical hit. There was lots of percentile math in this game for very little good reason other than to give our pocket calculators a workout.

High Ability Score Breakage

We have characters with strength scores of 120% and more, there wasn't a cap on how high your score could go, so beside heavy negative modifiers we had characters who were broken and could do it all in most tasks. Ranged combat though took everyone down to size quickly, recoil, situational, and range penalties were very high, from -100 to -300% just for long range alone, so no matter how good you got that 5% hit chance was all you were getting.

Strong Theming

One of the strongest points of the system were the very strong theming. You felt like you were supposed to be playing a spy when you opened the book. On any page you flipped to, you felt like this was "spy stuff" and it got you excited to be roaming around a foreign port, sneaking into an enemy factory, lockpicking, disarming sensors and traps, avoiding guards, stealing the mission target or rescuing the hostage, and speeding out in your rubber raft to the waiting submarine while your combat guy fired his Uzi SMG at perusing enemy agents in speedboats.

Few other games give me this feeling. Weapon choice mattered, from draw speed to concealability, or raw firepower. Shotguns were viable choices, just as much as SMGs or assault rifles. You could get away with bringing a pistol too. Grenades were powerful. Combat was deadly.

You needed specialists too, from your technical specialist, to your medic, to your gun person, to perhaps your martial artist. They needed other skills too, such as fine arts, piloting, bookkeeping, and other skills to decipher items found along the way or at the mission site. Gadgets mattered too, like safecracking devices, night vision, and other cool gadgets.

The enemies could employ hostile animals too, like killer guard parrots - which is why you brought the shotgun to turn Polly into a cloud of feathers. Or had the martial artist strike the parrot in the beak when it lunges and kill the parrot in one swift and silent blow.

The 007 Game

For many, the licensed 007 RPG replaced Top Secret and took over the genre until Top Secret SI came out and both games sort of faded into history. We never really switched to the 007 RPG, since Aftermath still did everything we needed it to. That game is very iconic, strongly themed, and I may talk about it here soon.

The 007 Game was heavier, with way more skills and percentages thrown around, and a task resolution system that required you to compare a roll against divided percentages. This sort of "level of success" worked its way into the color-coded charts of Gamma World and Marvel Super Heroes in a more easy-to-use, but still cumbersome form.

Sandbox Dungeon Crawls

One of the modules we loved for this game was the old Rapidstrike module, which was basically a huge dungeon crawl with spy gear, modern guns, and plenty of room to wreck havoc on a enemy island. A lot of people liked the modules that followed this that had the really in-depth plot lines and detailed NPCs, but being kids, we loved the spy gun-play and two-fisted action more than the drama and careful talkie parts. You could do a fun dungeon crawl with Top Secret more than 007, and you could play this to walk in the front door and deceive, sneak around at night with stealth, or go in blasting with guns - or any mixture of the three.

OSR B/X Spy Game?

Like the recently discussed B/X Gangbusters, I would love to find a B/X spy game that gave me the same feeling. I have a hunch it is out there waiting to be found, and me not looking for it is why I haven't discussed it yet.

Back when this came out, we wondered why it didn't use the D&D rules. This was the first game that solidified "percentile is modern gaming" in our heads, and that continued on to this day. It would have been cool to have this compatible, as around this time Dragon Magazine released a "modern guns" article for D&D that was fascinating and horribly unbalanced.

The TSR Percentile System

This game was also one of the first that used the TSR d100 percentile system, which was similar to games like Gangbusters (which simplified the system greatly, and added a fun Luck score), and finally Star Frontiers. We kept using Star Frontiers for quite a while and liked the d100 system, despite its flaws and difficulty to play at higher ability score levels. The d100 system played better at lower "levels" and eventually broke itself as you got experience and raised scores.

Style Matters

For us, Aftermath did a lot more. These days, there are better options for modern role playing, but back then we didn't know much (we were kids), and having a system that did melee combat to vehicle combat was a very cool thing, and that game replaced Top Secret for us as our home system.

That said, Top Secret always had style. When you opened the book, you felt like a secret agent. Your imagination was fired up in ways a generic game could not even touch. I can't see being as excited to play secret agents with GURPS or even Savage Worlds as I would be with the Top Secret book and a pair of crayoned-in percentile dice.

More on this game soon, and it is fun reminiscing about one of our old friends.

Let's Play Shows

I just have this feeling that the slickly-produced "Youtube way" of roleplaying, like shows like Critical Role, is going to end with D&D missing out, or some sort of merger or buyout with a big tech company. I watch these recorded play shows and have nothing against them, other than people coming into the hobby should temper their expectations that the professional acting and slick presentation isn't what they will get at the average pen-and-paper session.

Until, that is, a tech company with huge plans and a Fortnite style dream of recreating that "shared storytelling" with "enhanced multimedia presentation" experience comes in and takes the entire audience of these shows and gives them what they want.

Wizards has never been a technology or services company, and I just have this feeling we are on the edge of a technological shift in how people "expect to" play pen-and-paper games, much like the change between AD&D 2nd Edition and when Magic the Gathering came in and took over the narrative. People watch shows like Critical Role and expect their game to be just like that. They get to the average table and it is not.

Old-time role-players like myself say, "Adjust your expectations and have fun!"

A big tech company sees this same situation and says, "Clear opportunity to deliver services."

And I get this feeling that big tech always wins, and tell myself, oh it is coming all right. Everything we wanted as dungeon masters, 3d models, soundtracks, tools to create multimedia presentations, a Twitch-like paying audience brought in, subscription models, and everything we ever wanted to recreate that rich and enhanced "let's play" experience is coming.

They will build it. Like the cell phone becoming a desktop PC, it will happen.

D&D? At first it will be optional, big tech is just providing a better way to play! And then big tech will realize the rules don't matter and there is more profit in making your own and selling expansions, so the new, better, feature-rich game system better suited for "let's play" will be rolled out to much fanfare. Fans of the "let's play" system and content delivery steam will switch to it, and Wizards will go the way TSR did when Magic the Gathering took over the hobby store. Either that, or the billion dollar tech company will just buy D&D and Wizards and fundamentally change the game to be a live service.

As much as I hate it, everything these days seems to become a live service.

That said, I like these shows - and also the ones where they aren't slickly produced. But I see stories of people getting into pen and paper because of these shows and walking away because the experience "wasn't like their favorite show" and I can hear the wheels turning in some tech company's mind somewhere.

What if we could deliver that experience?

If this fictional company could do it well, heck yes I would be on board. I love bringing people together. If they were pro-player and generous with their content and services, even better. If they could make that dream a reality, yes, I would be 100% on board.

As much as I love the old way of doing things, I am not so stuck in them I don't see a better way. I am skeptical today's tech companies could pull this off, because, you know, raw greed always wins.

I guess this is why "who is in charge" of these efforts matters. You get your typical "AAA game" company and console game management team in there and it is a guaranteed disaster. You get someone with a dream and a vision, who is a player and DM advocate, and it could happen.

Traveller: Specialty Skills

A negative point I feel to the new edition of Traveller for me is the specialty skills. In Cepheus Engine they call them Cascading Skills. In Cepheus Light they do not exist. How specialty skills work is like this:

You get a level of Engineer, and it starts at +0. Great! You can do every engineering task without the unskilled penalty. Now, you go through your career path and get a further +1 to your Engineer skill. Great, you have Engineer + 1, right?

No. Engineer has a number of specialty skills, and you have to take that level and assign it to one specialized field of study under the Engineer skill, such as Engineer (jump drives) + 1 or Engineer (maneuver drives) + 1. The rest of your engineer skills stay at +0, and from here forward you can only raise specialty skills in Engineering. Engineer skill itself will never go to Engineer +1.

Character Sheet Needed

The problem is, on the career charts, there is no indication of what results are specialty skills. I would have at least put an asterisk by the entries that required specialty skill picks, just to let you know. So, having a printed character sheet with a skill list with the specialty skills noted is a must. If you create a character sheet yourself, you are going to be checking a real character sheet or flipping through the book to check each skill. As a new player, this tripped me up, and I expected the original non-specialty skills in the original Traveller.

Some Professions = Specialty Heavy

Another part of me feels that the system hurts certain types of professions, or allows min-maxing within specialty skills. An engineer or scientist? They need to know everything, so spreading points around to cover specialties is a must. A pilot? Why fly anything else other than the main ship? I don't need biplane piloting. A soldier? Focus on my main weapon and a few alternatives (because you know referees love to take favored weapons away). Medics? One skill, plenty rolls left to use elsewhere. Electronics or sensor operators? Specialties, spread them out. Admin and diplomats? Single skills, more rolls for fun elsewhere.

I know these are generated randomly, but where this hurts is character improvement - either through study (basic rules), or the experience system presented in the companion. I suppose it is more realistic to have your engineer off for long periods of time in college learning new things, but some players may feel the reward just isn't there for these skills. Others will say, leave engineering to NPCs.

A couple sci-fi games have this problem, by increasing depth in non-action or "fun play" areas, some character types really don't have much to do or add during the typical adventure. I need to dig out my d20 version of Star Wars because I seem to recall this issue coming up. Pilots, medics, and engineers? Character types dependent on a vehicle or a situation (something getting damaged or someone getting hurt), and outside of that not useful or very fun in normal pulp sci-fi adventures with lots of action.

An argument could be made for the medic due to the frequency of combat, but as character increase in power and their defenses increase, the medic becomes less and less needed. It is better than playing a pilot and being weak at almost everything until the pre-determined "ship combat" part of the adventure comes up, if it comes up.

Also, this assumes you are doing a more traditional "dungeon style" combat heavy type of roleplaying with sci-fi, and not something like Star Trek (TV series) where professions matter to resolving larger problems. But the combat-heavy dungeon style sci-fi is popular and a lot of what we played.

Skills as Ability Scores?

I don't need multiple specializes of Athletics skill, like Athletics skill covering the subskills of Strength (weight lifting), Endurance (running and swimming), and Dexterity (climbing and jumping). Some of these feel like "skills for ability scores" - because if my character is strong, um, the character can lift weights. If my character has a high endurance, he or she can run long distances. High dexterity? You can jump around!

So, Space Marine Brutus Strongus, make an ability roll to lift that heave piece of machinery pinning the ship's doctor? Oh wait, you don't have weightlifting skill, unskilled roll please.

Climbing and swimming? Clearly skills, and important for underwater operations or climbing mountains. Those need to be skills, but they are hidden in a framework that really does not feel like it should exist. The need for running and weightlifting skills does not feel justified in the skill bloat or complexity this adds. Some games, like Star Frontiers, don't even have skills for climbing and swimming, and just use ability scores to cover these actions, and the game works fine.

I Understand Why

The skill system is usable and I can get by with it, but it isn't my first choice on how I like Traveller style skills to work. It isn't a deal-breaker, but it does feel clunky and slightly over complex for what should be a simple system that gets out of the way of the action instead of defining and limiting the action.

I get a feeling the basic Traveller skills were too few and too powerful, you get a +4 in your primary specialty and you are well on the way to being the best at what you do. Part of this is the 2d6 dice mechanic. You also need ways to slow down character advancement and progression, and make things to improve on during the course of a campaign.

But I have seen sci-fi games with about dozen skills get it right and not need any more than that, and not need to use specialization to increase depth. Star Frontiers does a wonderful job keeping its skill list tight and adventure focused. And if I want long lists of skills with much more detailed and nuanced character design, there is always GURPS.

As it is, the skill system feels usable, but it isn't really my favorite part of the system.

Mail Room: Gamma World (3rd Edition)

1986.

Chernobyl. The space shuttle Challenger. Iran-Contra.

Top Gun. Aliens. The second year of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

We were still crayoning the dice.

Gamma World 3rd Edition.

I got this one in the mail recently, and my preference for the pre-Wizards editions is 2nd, 1st, 3rd, then 4th. That said, this is a very complete version of the game (with errata) and recommended, and it keeps a good balance between mutations and gear. The artwork is often stunning.

A big addition is the action table - used for every roll in the game and a precursor to the simpler one used in Marvel Superheroes. A lot of the game feels shoehorned into using this table, and the rules bloat as a result - the damage section goes nearly six pages and gets into all sorts of detailed Aftermath style conditions and effects - burns, infections, radiation, system shock, stuns, sunburn, steam, frostbite, electrical damage, rotting, and all sorts of other effects where my mind shuts down and begs for a simple hit point damage system.

In the PDF there is a rules and errata supplement we never got, and this features the cryptic alliances missing from the book (years later I get these I know) - and some major clarifications for the action table's results. Plant mutations are given. We get a price list. A large vehicle and equipment list. Complete is an understatement here.

I like this version of the game, we played it, but this is where it started to decline for us. Again, our group was still big on Aftermath, and even that game felt more streamlined than this one with its d20 roll-under mechanic. Having to go to the d100 chart for every roll in the game felt cumbersome for us, it worked for a while but we grew tired of it quickly. The chart did provide for a lot of special results and levels of success, but Marvel Superheroes (MSH) did this soon after with a much more simplified table and mechanics. This (along with the Indiana Jones game) felt like the beta-test for the more unified and simpler tables later on.

That said, I wish the mutations could have been handled like MSH powers - they would have been much more powerful and usable, and honestly, mutations should be the superpowers that equalize the balance between the old age and the new. I like the fantasy elements, but the beginning of worshipping on the altar of the ancients begins here, and our losing interest because the conflict becomes a scavenging arms race.

All that said, this is probably the best reference guide on classic Gamma World out there, if you can forgive the bloat in the rules and the errata adding critical parts of the game that were left out. It does feel like some of the 4th Edition's "gear worship" is sneaking in here, as you look at what is highlighted in the art and theme of the game. Gear are the game's magic items, and those are your primary route to power and influence.

I wish they would have kept this to the D&D rules, which again is why Mutant Future is so appealing to me these days. I don't want to learn (or re-learn) a new set of rules to play this, and honestly, Gamma World is better off the similar it is to the current version of D&D on the shelf - just because this is a niche genre, and having rules that match what everyone plays makes it easier to find players. This is why OGR versions appeal to me so much these days, I am not asking five or six people to spend money, read hundreds of pages, and learn an entirely new game for a night of fun. There is the retro kitsch factor to this game, but for my tastes being able to play with a larger pool of potential players (and compatible material) is a huge plus.

Even back in the day I feel this would have been a better plan for the game. Make it an alternative experience, one rooted in and supported by the current version of the game, but keep the rules people know. I feel recently, Starfinder made a mistake like this in changing things too much, and you were forced to learn a new set of rules to play. Alternate games, especially from companies with hit games, should pull from standardized or current shipping sets of rules. More potential players is a good thing.

More on this one soon, and it is fun to have a printed copy in my hands again.

Game Shopping: They Came from Beneath the Sea

This? This looks fun! I am a huge fan of B-movies, horror films, retro kitsch, and 1950's sci-fi, so this looks like something I would really enjoy. Ordered and cannot wait for this one to come!

Mail Room: Gamma World (1st Edition)

When we first got the original Boxed set of Gamma World, it felt like a strange, new game. This version lacked the fantasy elements of the 2nd Edition and beyond, there were no elf, fairy, gnoll, or dragon equivalents, but it remained this strange offshoot of AD&D for us that felt like an entirely new experience and world.

Admittedly, the game did not really take off for us until 2nd Edition Gamma World, as the fantasy elements were familiar enough to create some interesting differences between "new world" and "old world" ways. This version felt strangely like the box cover, strange explorers in some strange technicolor land of danger and sinister mutants. There was this feeling of human descendants coning out of vaults and exploring the world, much like a precursor to Fallout by many years for us, and that pitted the new world versus the old and began that conflict in our Gamma World games.

The fantasy elements in 2nd Edition did solidify that conflict, and give the "new world" a familiar fantasy-style face. The fae-like lils were troublemakers, there were elf-like grens, talking animals, and many more of the fantasy tropes present creating a rich and interesting contrast between new worlds and old. The new world was a messed up fantasy world pulled into the ruins of the old civilization. The old world were thinking computers, humans, robots, and the way of living in the past.

Also worth mentioning is the first module Legion of Gold, which includes rules for conventional firearms, has some cool pieces of interior art, and features a campaign setting and a collection of adventures and locations. Including "normal" guns dials back the settings futuristic feeling just a tad, and I prefer the more sci-fi version where you can't find M-16 rifles and M1911A1 pistols lying around. By the time we get to Gamma World 4th Edition, we have nearly every Call of Duty style weapon represented, and I feel that game loses the feeling of "wrecked future society" once you put in Uzi SMGs and all sorts of other weapons. I mean seriously Gamma World 4th, why do they still have tasers when stun ray pistol and rifles are on the same list?

Wrecked future society! Please give up the modern weapons and simplify the gear lists! It is way too easy to fall into an Aftermath or Mad Max style feeling and play with these 1970-2020 weapons lying around.

Back to 1st Edition, and I hope Wizards puts out a 2nd Edition reprint soon, since that version is close to GW 1st while introducing the fantasy elements. No idea what is holding this up, but I am keeping my hopes up. As it is, I have the Fantasy elements in 3rd and 4th well enough, but I like 2nd Edition and that was the version that took off for us and captured our imagination. 3rd Edition is where it went downhill for us, and that felt replaced by Marvel Superheroes.

All that said, I would probably just play Mutant Future with the Gamma World creatures and special gear items pulled in. Nothing beats the basic, OSR feel and simplicity of that basic rules set. It works like most everything I know, and I am not sitting here trying to read and comprehend a set of rules that changed with every version of the game.

In my feeling, Gamma World should have kept close in rules to the current version of D&D - always. It felt like they chased unique mechanics to make the game fun, instead of putting that work into making the game fun. The setting as well, you cannot have a great game without a setting with a clear conflict, characters, and an overarching metaplot to drive interest.

If I were to pull in fantasy elements, I would probably use the Labyrinth Lord collection of creatures as my base, strip the magic off them, add mutations, and make the mutations and origin a random type with the start of every campaign. The fairies? Based off plants in one game, mutants in another, robots in another, cyborgs, psi-creatures, or any other origin I roll for the origin chart with powers rolled and tweaked to match. The psi-fairies would have a lot of standard mental powers, probably be incorporeal glowing purple things, and fly around at night.

And every game would be different, yet share the same fantasy-style elements with an unpredictable factor. The new world? A fantasy world come to life through the "new power" brought to the world. There are some things in Gamma World that feel like classics, but to tell you the truth, I could probably clone them, improve them, and make better versions inside of Mutant Future. Again, you want to be careful to not overshadow the new versus old fight, and balance those additions with that power struggle.

Part of the problem with turning Gamma World into a fantasy "paint by numbers" game is you lose the unpredictability that is a core attraction of the game. What is that fish and why is it swimming above the water? It can talk? Uhhh...I know the game and every monster in the book but I don't know this! And then, the inevitable "run back into the cave" statement with the fantasy Gamma World always comes up, "Why aren't we just playing fantasy?"

This is what randomizing the fantasy monsters powers, origins, intelligence levels, and other aspects brings to the game. The game is not supposed to be predictable. Players are supposed to poke, prod, observe, and try things. They are supposed to figure things out. Is that monster a possible friend or is it trying to eat us? Even the technology to a degree should be mazing and unpredictable. Why does this laser turn things different colors based on a color wheel on top and do no damage? What is that good for? That type of device? In my players' hands? Probably cause more damage than a Mk VII blaster. Players love this stuff.

Perhaps I need to create a book for my ideas and publish it. That is the beauty of OSR, to take what came before, and make it your own. And you are not forced to learn rules that kept changing, getting bigger and more complicated, and took away the focus from story to mechanics.

Mail Room: Gamma World (4th Edition)

So my printed copy of Gamma World 4th Edition came (with the Judge Dredd looking cover), and I can see the seeds of the "Wild and Wahoo" mood of the next (D&D 4th) version of the game. This version still gives you a serious play option, which is nice.

I also see a lot of gear, and so much when you toss in the Treasures of the Ancients book the gear almost feels like it takes over the game. We have page after page of gear in perfect working order, and while needed, it makes me feel that the pre-ruin world is more important than the one which came after. I feel this is a huge problem, I get this feeling that the player who creates a cool "dandelion person" mutant plant is going to see the power and usefulness of their mutations pale in comparison to having the best power armor, a Mk VII blaster, and a legion of death-bots following them around.

In my feeling, there has to be a conflict between the old world and the new one. The old world is civilization, technology, and ancient artifacts and weapons. The new world are mutations, new lifeforms, psionics, and powers that can meet or exceed the devices the ancients came up with. Here? It feels very old-world biased, like the only way to get better is to grab better loot, and thus - the ancients were right and your new world - mutations, intelligent plants and animals, and psionics alike - kind of suck.

I need mutations that can be developed and equal the power of those Mk VII blasters and micro-missile launchers. I need cyborgs trying to mix old and new worlds to disasters results. I need psionics that eliminate the need for old-tech, or beat it at its own game.

The game has artwork from previous editions, like the 3rd and missing 2nd, so it does have value if you wanted to convert these to Mutant Future or use it as a sourcebook. If I were using it as a sourcebook I would be very careful not to let "all this cool gear" overshadow how the new world is now, and take over the game by making it a loot collection game.

You risk solving the inherent conflict of these future-apocalypse worlds by saying, "everyone had it good before all this, scavenge junk until you rebuild that."

Also, the book is very, very dense. We have long two column solid text blocks for page after page, with some repetitive header art on the top of every page that is nice - but it gets old and it feels lazy to have the same image, page after page, when I would have loved this header mixed up. Maybe a robot-themed one, a mutation themed one, and some different headers to help visually separate the sections of the book. As it is, there is an eyeball with weeds on the top of every page, and it feels like 90's desktop publishing.

It is nice to have this book, it is nice to have this information preserved and collected, but I feel there are some problems here that need further discussion in regards to previous editions, and also the retro-clones of today - especially in direction and theme. More soon.