Ever since George Smiley, the espionage genre and its fans have been interested in moles and double agents. These operatives were a cornerstone of Cold War espionage. The question is, how do you do this with your Agents of SWING games?
With NPCs, this is easy enough to do...in fact the upcoming Nefarious supplement will no doubt have some villainous double agents and defectors to plague your SWINGers. So, how do you add the drama of double agents to your play group?
Ever Agent of SWING character has a cover. This is even more important for a double agent that it is for a "straight" operative. Your character, the double agent, is walking a tightrop of truth and deception every day of their personal and professional lives. The Deceit skill is a job requirement, a survival skill, for your character. Important stunts from the core rules for a mole could be: Disguise of the Mind, Eye For Detail, Five Minute Friends, Hide In Plain Sight, and Honest Lie. Aspects that you might use to create a character who is a mole: More Than Meets The Eyes, Deceptive, Keeping It Bottled Up, and Strangely Sympathetic. You should have a double meaning to aspects that directly deal with your character's nature as a double agent, after all they shouldn't give things away to easily and you want to be able to activate them during play without getting your character into trouble.
The important thing to remember, particularly if you are planning on keeping your character's status as a mole secret from the other players, is to not lay it on too thick with methods of deception, or overly obvious hints about your character's true nature. For example, the "Keeping It Bottled Up" aspect mentioned above could have to do with the pressures your character faces in hiding their double life, or it could be that they close up and bottle all of their stresses in their life. On the surface, both of these choices could be justified by the same behavior.Keep in mind that your character will still have to do their day to day cover job within SWING and the group, so the bulk of their aspects, skills and stunts will need to reflect that. Their secret bosses won't like it if your character's cover is blow too easily, after all.
You also need to inform Control of your desire to create a character that is a mole. They may wish to approve any character concepts like this, to make sure that it fits in with the concept of the game and the campaign they wish to run for you and the other players. Remember that role-playing is a group activity and your idea for a fun character shouldn't ruin the fun for the other players.
There is a consequence to being a mole. Yes, that was intentional. Whenever you take any Mental or Social Consequences for your double agent character, it is a good idea to take consequences that flirt with or jeopardize your character's standing within SWING and/or the group of characters. This is particularly true of when you take a Severe or Extreme consequence for your character. You do not have to reveal you are a mole, even with an Extreme consequence, that would be too easy, but you can give broad hints. Being a double agent means straddling a razor's edge, and sooner or later your character will slip up.
With NPCs, this is easy enough to do...in fact the upcoming Nefarious supplement will no doubt have some villainous double agents and defectors to plague your SWINGers. So, how do you add the drama of double agents to your play group?
Ever Agent of SWING character has a cover. This is even more important for a double agent that it is for a "straight" operative. Your character, the double agent, is walking a tightrop of truth and deception every day of their personal and professional lives. The Deceit skill is a job requirement, a survival skill, for your character. Important stunts from the core rules for a mole could be: Disguise of the Mind, Eye For Detail, Five Minute Friends, Hide In Plain Sight, and Honest Lie. Aspects that you might use to create a character who is a mole: More Than Meets The Eyes, Deceptive, Keeping It Bottled Up, and Strangely Sympathetic. You should have a double meaning to aspects that directly deal with your character's nature as a double agent, after all they shouldn't give things away to easily and you want to be able to activate them during play without getting your character into trouble.
The important thing to remember, particularly if you are planning on keeping your character's status as a mole secret from the other players, is to not lay it on too thick with methods of deception, or overly obvious hints about your character's true nature. For example, the "Keeping It Bottled Up" aspect mentioned above could have to do with the pressures your character faces in hiding their double life, or it could be that they close up and bottle all of their stresses in their life. On the surface, both of these choices could be justified by the same behavior.Keep in mind that your character will still have to do their day to day cover job within SWING and the group, so the bulk of their aspects, skills and stunts will need to reflect that. Their secret bosses won't like it if your character's cover is blow too easily, after all.
You also need to inform Control of your desire to create a character that is a mole. They may wish to approve any character concepts like this, to make sure that it fits in with the concept of the game and the campaign they wish to run for you and the other players. Remember that role-playing is a group activity and your idea for a fun character shouldn't ruin the fun for the other players.
There is a consequence to being a mole. Yes, that was intentional. Whenever you take any Mental or Social Consequences for your double agent character, it is a good idea to take consequences that flirt with or jeopardize your character's standing within SWING and/or the group of characters. This is particularly true of when you take a Severe or Extreme consequence for your character. You do not have to reveal you are a mole, even with an Extreme consequence, that would be too easy, but you can give broad hints. Being a double agent means straddling a razor's edge, and sooner or later your character will slip up.