The She Wolf Files

[Vondy]

The Game

I'm starting an solo-espionage game with some pulp undercurrents for my wife. It will center around the adventures of a female Mossad agent who works for the Mossad's special operations division, also known as Metzada (spelled "Masada" by Anglos). Metzada specializes in assassination, sabotage, and psychological warfare operations. It is intended to globe-trot and get pulpy from time to time (most likely with some occult or weird science issues comming into play).

The character she envisioned is one part James Bond, one part Chow Yun Fat, and one part Lara Croft. She's a fan of the TV show Alias (we don't own a TV, but she rented all of them and watched them on the computer) so it wouldn't suprise me if it sometimes goes that direction a bit. I thought I'd keep track of the game and info here in this very thread.

As for the thread title: the character's first name is Zevah, which is Hebrew (feminine tense) for "Wolf" or "She Wolf." Zev Wolff (Wolf Wolff, what a name) is a famous chassid (circa 1780) from the lubavitch chassidic movement. I meet a Zevah now and again, but its rare. Based on that we named the campaign, adventure serial, whatever, "The She Wolf Files."

Anyways, away we go!

[Vondy]

Mossad

The Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks; ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim

I. Introduction

Reference: "Inside Israel's secret organisations" JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW October 1996

Mossad [Hebrew for “institution”] has responsibility for human intelligence collection, covert action, and counterterrorism. Its focus is on Arab nations and organizations throughout the world. Mossad also is responsible for the clandestine movement of Jewish refugees out of Syria, Iran, and Ethiopia. Mossad agents are active in the former communist countries, in the West, and at the UN.

Mossad is headquartered in Tel Aviv. The staff of Mossad was estimated during the late 1980s to number between 1,500 to 2,000 personnel, with more recent estimates placing the staff at an estimated 1,200 personnel. The identity of the director of Mossad was traditionally a state secret, or at least not widely publicized, but, in March 1996, the Government announced the appointment of Major General Danny Yatom as the replacement for Shabtai Shavit, who resigned in early 1996. Danny Yatom resigned on February 24, 1998, following the release of the Ciechanover Commission report which dealt with the failed attempt to assassinate Khalid Meshaal, a top Hamas political leader, and thus found faults with his performance as head of Mossad. Yatom was replace in early March 1998 by Efraim Halevy, then Israel's representative to the European Union. Halevy, as a Mossad agent, had previously worked behind the scenes to help negotiate the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.

Formerly known as the Central Institute for Coordination and the Central Institute for Intelligence and Security, Mossad was formed on 01 April 1951. Mossad was established by then Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, who gave as Mossad's primary directive: "For our state which since its creation has been under siege by its enemies. Intelligence constitutes the first line of defence...we must learn well how to recognise what is going on around us."

Mossad has a total of eight departments, though some details of the internal organization of the agency remain obscure.

1. Collections Department is the largest, with responsibility for espionage operations, with offices abroad under both diplomatic and unofficial cover. The department consists of a number of desks which are responsible for specific geographical regions, directing case officers based at "stations" around the world, and the agents they control.
2. Political Action and Liaison Department conducts political activities and liaison with friendly foreign intelligence services and with nations with which Israel does not have normal diplomatic relations. In larger stations, such as Paris, Mossad customarily had under embassy cover two regional controllers: one to serve the Collections Department and the other the Political Action and Liaison Department.
3. Special Operations Division, also known as Metzada, conducts highly sensitive assassination, sabotage, paramilitary, and psychological warfare projects.
4. LAP (Lohamah Psichlogit)Department is responsible for psychological warfare, propaganda and deception operations.
5. Research Department is responsible for intelligence production, including daily situation reports, weekly summaries and detailed monthly reports. The Department is organized into 15 geographically specialized sections or "desks", including the USA, Canada and Western Europe, Latin America, Former Soviet Union, China, Africa, the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. A "nuclear" desk is focused on special weapons related issues.

II. History

Reference: Mossad Web Site.

When the State of Israel was declared, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, voiced his views on the establishment of intelligence agencies to operate on behalf of the nascent state. On 7 June 1948, he held his first meeting on this matter with intelligence officials.

On 13 December 1949, following detailed staff work, David Ben Gurion appointed foreign ministry special operations’ adviser and former Jewish Agency state department official Reuben Shiloah, to establish and head the ‘Institute for Collating and Co-ordinating Intelligence Operations’. This date is considered the date the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations was established.

On 2 March 1951, as a result of the experience gained in running State intelligence agencies, particularly in overseas’ operations, Ben Gurion ordered Reuben Shiloah to set up the ‘Directorate’, within the Institute for Coordination, to take all overseas intelligence operations under its wing. The foreign ministry and, to a lesser extent, other agencies had hitherto operated abroad.

The ‘Directorate’ was the initial incarnation of the main collection unit in the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations.

In 1952, Reuben Shiloah retired and General Security Agency chief Isser Harel was appointed in his stead.

He served as Mossad Director until 1963. The two founders shaped the Mossad to address the reality and the needs of the State of Israel in its early years.

Over the years the Mossad expanded into many fields (the most prominent of which were):

1. Covert intelligence gathering beyond Israel’s borders.
2. Developing and maintaining special diplomatic and other covert relations.
3. Preventing the development and procurement of non-conventional weapons by hostile countries.
4. Preventing terrorist acts against Israeli targets abroad.
5. Bringing Jews home from countries where official Aliya agencies are not allowed to operate.
6. Producing strategic, political and operational intelligence.
7. Planning and carrying out special operations beyond Israel’s borders.

Some of the Mossad’s operations include:

1. Pursuing Nazi war criminals, culminating in the capture of Adolf Eichmann and bringing him to justice in Israel.
2. Locating and returning to his family Yossele Shumacher, a small boy who was kidnapped in Israel and spirited abroad.
3. Bringing home the Ethiopian Jews.

These are only a sample of the Mossad’s operations, which include collecting information in accordance with priority intelligence requirements, covert relations with other countries and intelligence agencies – making major contributions to the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan – redeeming MIA’s, technology and research.

SECRET

To: The Foreign Ministry

From: The Prime Minister

Upon my instructions, an institute is being established to co-ordinate state intelligence agencies

(the Military Intelligence Department, the Foreign Ministry State Department, the General Security Agency, etc.)

I have charged Reuben Shiloah, Foreign Ministry adviser for special projects,

to organize and head the institute. Reuben Shiloah will report to me.

He will act upon my instructions and will submit regular working reports to me.

For administrative purposes, his office will be part of the foreign ministry.

I have instructed R. Shiloah to submit a manpower and budget proposal for 1950-51 for approximately

IL20,000, IL5,000 of which will be used for special operations, contingent on my prior authorization.

You are hereby requested to add this sum to the foreign ministry budget for 1950-51.

Signed

(-)

D. Ben Gurion

III. The Mossad Credo

"Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" --Proverbs XI/14.

IV. The Official Mossad Website (English):

http://www.mossad.gov.il/Mohr/MohrTo...h/MohrAboutUs/

[Vondy]

Zevah Bin Nun

I. Stats

STR: 13 DEX: 17 CON: 15 BODY: 13 INT: 13 EGO: 11 PRE: 20 COM: 18
PD: 6 ED: 3 SPD: 4 REC: 8 END: 30 STUN: 28
RUN: 7" SWIM: 2" LEAP: 2 ½"

II. Powers:

An Angel Must Be Watching: Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED); An Angel Must Be Watching: Luck 2d6; I Know Kung-Fu!: +17 STR, (0 END); HTH Effects Only, No Figured Characteristics; Strong Willed: Resistance (4 points)

III. Perks:

Mossad Agent: Fringe Benefit: (Concealed Weapon Permit (where appropriate), Membership, Security Clearance)

IV. Skills:

+2 with All Combat, Accurate Sprayfire, Acrobatics 12-, Acting 13-, Breakfall 12-, Bribery 13-, Bugging 12-, Camoflauge 12-, Climbing 12-, Combat Driving 12-, Computer Programming 8-, Concealment 12-, Contortionist 8-, Conversation 13-, Criminology 8-, Cryptography 8-, Deduction 12-, Defense Maneuver I-II , Demolitions 12-, Disguise 12-, Electronics 8-, High Society 13-, Jack of All Trades, PS: Cat Burglar 11-, PS: Mossad Agent 11-, PS: Sayaret Operator 11-, PS: Vamp 11-, Linguist, Language: Arabic (idiomatic), Language: English (idiomatic), Language: French (idiomatic), Language: German (idiomatic), Language: Hebrew (idiomatic), Lockpicking 12-, Mechanics 8-, Mimicry 12-, Navigation (Land) 12-, Paramedics 12-, Persuasion 13-, Rapid Attack (HTH) , Rapid Attack (Ranged) , SS: Biology 8-, SS: Botany 8-, SS: Chemistry 8-, SS: Physics 8-, Safe Cracking 12-, Scholar, KS: Arms & Munitions 11-, KS: Criminal Organizations 11-, KS: Espionage World 11-, KS: Kung Fu 11-, KS: Law Enforcement World 11-, KS: Military-Mercenary-Terrorist World 11-, KS: Mossad 11-, KS: World Criminals 11-, Security Systems 12-, Seduction 13-, Shadowing 12-, Stealth 12-, Streetwise 13-, Survival (Desert) 12-, Systems Operation (Communications Systems) 12-, TF: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Equines, Hanggliding, Jetskis, Parachuting, Advanced, Parachuting, Basic, Rafts, SCUBA, Skating (In-Line), Skiing (snow), Skiing (water), Small Motorized Boats, Small Rowed Boats, Snowboarding, Snowmobiles, Surfing, Tracked Military Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Motorized Ground Vehicles, Wheeled Military Vehicles, Windsurfing, Tactics 12-, Traveler, AK: Europe 8-, AK: Israel 11-, AK: The Orient 8-, CK: Berlin 8-, CK: Jerusalem 11-, CK: London 8-, CK: Paris 8-, CK: Tel Aviv 11-, CuK: Anglo-Culture 11-, CuK: Arab Culture 8-, CuK: French Culture 8-, CuK: German Culture 8-, CuK: Israeli Culture 11-, Two-Weapon Fighting (Ranged) , WF: Common Melee Weapons, Small Arms, Crossbows, Flamethrowers, Garrote, General Purpose/Heavy Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, Shoulder-Fired Weapons

V. Disadvantages:

Features: Alluring, Soothing Voice ; Features: Competent Manner, Bearing ;Features: Painfully Chic ; Features: Palpable Sensuality ; Features: Stunning Beauty ; Mossad Agent: Secret Identity ; Mossad Agent: Subject To Orders ; Mossad Agent: Superiors 11- ; Personality: Ardent Zionist ; Personality: Femme Fatale Complex ; Personality: Fortune Favors The Bold! ; Reputation: Father's Shadow, 14- (Mossad Only); Reputation: Lone Wolf, 11-

Total Character Points: 339

VI. Background:

Zevah Bin Nun was raised in a family of spies. Her parents didn't talk about it, in fact she was told her father was a senior member of an investment bank, but she knew. It was the way her mother withdrew from the family when her father went away on his frequent "business trips" and the way her grandfather would shoo her out of her father's study so he and her father could talk about his work, his eyes filled with an old man's longing to live vicariously through his son. And besides, everyone knew grandfather had never been a banker. He had been a member of the Irgun, had fought in the War of Independence, and had spent the next thirty-five years in the Mossad, rising to a senior position. Her mother's father had been one of his colleagues. She knew her father was a spy. She was right. And then it happened. When Zevah was fifteen years old her father was killed in the line of duty. The family wasn't given details, but her grandfather had told her what the Mossad would not - that her father had been a part of the Mossad's Special Operation Division, the Metzada, which specialized in extralegal operations ranging from assassination, to sabotage, to psychological warfare. He had been a shadow warrior - and as she would learn later - a legend as his own father had been. It was little comfort. Her father was dead. And yet she knew she would follow in the family tradition. She even told her grandfather she would. The old man did not say she was wrong. She became a dedicated sports enthusiast, a student of the martial arts, and an amateur linguist. At 18, when the time came for her to do her army service, she volunteered for the yamag, a female undercover unit in Israel's Sayaret (SF). When she left the army she entered University and studied the humanities with an emphasis on foreign language. She was just completing her masters degree when her grandfather introduced her to a man named Yigal Galili, one of her father's former colleagues from the Special Operations Division. She was exactly who they were looking for. A former commando,trained in the martial arts, educated, perceptive, fluent in several foreign languages, the daughter and granddaughter of legends. Two months after she finished her Masters degree she was training to be a spy. Two years later Metzada put her to work.

VII. Personality:

Zevah is a consummate femme fatale and woman of remarkable sensuality. She refers to herself as a "mans woman" and has a genuine affection for men, though this has never stopped her from completing a mission. She has a flair for the sensational and has been known to drive some of her superiors to distraction, though she has never compromised a mission or left a trail that could come back to haunt them. Zevah is an ardent Zionist, though that doesn't always translate into being an ardent patriot, and has a clear sense of loyalty to her people and her nation. Her family is masorti (traditional), but not religious. She believes, but doesn't practice. Aside from her grandfather(s) she hasn't told her family what she does - they think she is a travelling sales executive for an Israeli software firm. She has good relations with her handler - Yigal Galili - and is cordial with most of her colleagues, though some of the senior case officers think she is too flamboyant. She is something of a lone wolf and has garnered a reputation as such over the two years she has been in the field.

VIII. Quote:

"Fortune favors the bold!"

IX. Tactics:

Zevah is trained to conduct extralegal operations for the mossad. She is trained with a wide assortment of weapons, maintains a level of physical fitness on par with most professional athletes, and is an expert in Krav Maga and Kung Fu. She is fluent in several languages, has a knack for theater arts, and is competent with both burglary and tactical insertion. Despite her combat prowess Zevah prefers creative solutions to problems in the field and has few qualms about bribing or extorting someone for information or using her feminine wiles to obtain needed information or gain access to a target. At the same time she can be extremely bold when direct confrontation is required and has been known to pull off daring stunts in the course of her operations. She prefers to operate alone, but has worked well with agents she feels she can trust in the past.

X. Campaign Use:

Zeva is a cross between James Bond, Chow Yun Fat, and Lara Croft.

XI. Appearance:

Zevah is a statuesque beauty who keeps herself trim and toned with an intense regime of martial arts training and extreme sports. She is tall for a woman, is of pleasing form, has a well formed, fine boned face, and a substantial reserve of what her grandfather's generation would have referred to as "it." She exudes a palpable, subconscious sensuality and speaks in an alluring, soothing voice that has been likened to "hot bourbon." She has intelligent olive green eyes, a fair, fine grained complexion, and lustrous brunette hair. She is impeccably attired and has an astute sense of fashion and chic, though she tends towards the provocative. When involved in direct action she tends to be armed to the teeth. She is in her mid-late twenties.

Height: 5' 8" Weight: 138 lbs Hair: Brunette Eyes: Olive

[Vondy]

Design Notes

My wife isn't a number cruncher and is pretty self-conscious about role playing. She's basically an RPG virgin. We've come close to starting a game a few times before, but because we had two small children who weren't yet in school or daycare, and because we were in the upheaval of preparing for an international move, it always petered out. Another factor was finding a genre she liked. Both vampires and highlander peaked her interest, but not enough for her to come to me and say: "I really want to do this." This time she did - and this time she had a clear idea of what kind genre, and what kind of character she wanted to play. It started out as a "female Israeli James Bond," but as we developed the character she hinted she wanted some pulp influences, and mentioned Alias and Tomb Raider. So that's the origin of the character idea.

I. Power Level

Zevah's point totals don't match her power level (in terms of combat effectiveness). She has a lot of skills! The main reason for this is the fact that its a solo game and as such the character will have to fly solo on a regular basis - and take on multiple opponents on a regular basis. She has three main concentrations, though, if you want to break it down: 1) combat skills, 2) burglary skills, 3) interaction skills.

She'll have access to equipment and weapons at no point cost, but I plan on using the equipment allowance guidelines from DC.

II. I Know Kung Fu!

I didn't want my wife to have to dink with skill levels and martial maneuvers and her CVs as a newbie so I tacked on strength only usuable for hand to hand effects. If she can describe it she can use the strength for it. I do this on a lot of character's these days, incidentally. I've gotten lazy and like things streamlined.

III. All Those 8- Skills! What Gives?

I follow the principle that a character only makes a skill roll if they are doing something unusual, under pressure, or difficult. As such I frequently use 8- skills to represent something a character has a casual or hobbyists knowledge of. Its just useful stuff that rounds out the character.

IV. But A Bunch of 8- Skills Could Be 11- At The Same Cost!

I know. I didn't think the character should have the skill at 11- so I didn't give it to them at that level.

[Vondy]

Eye Candy

Interestingly enough it was my wife - not I - who selected these pictures for Zevah.

[FenrisUlf]

You know, when I first saw the header I thought this was going to be some kind of 'She-Wolf of London' thing. But at least now I know what name to give to a female Jewish werewolf, should I ever make one.

And congrats on what sounds like a very good and fun idea, both for a campaign and the character design notes. Please keep us posted on how the missus takes to gaming.

[Vondy]

PRELUDE

Paris, October

Zevah picked up the antique dueling pistol and tried to concentrate. She had surprised to find it in this particular shop, a small back alley antique store in the 5th Arrondissement, Paris' fabled Latin Quarter, which lay to the south of Notre Dame and the Seine. Not that many of the district's residents were of Latin ancestry. The district took its name from the dead language common to the students of the Sabonne during the Middle Ages. She shook her head, dismissing extraneous thoughts, and tried to concentrate again. She wasn't in Paris for a tour, especially not one she could guide herself.

She had come looking for antiques as a distraction from her real purpose, knowing the shop's keeper, a mild-mannered old Jew named Sol Farber, would have something certain to catch her fancy. It always gave her a moment's pause that this tiny shop, little known and off the beaten path, managed to draw her. It was a place without order, crammed stem to stern with a bizarre collection of seemingly mismatched artifacts, the gold filigree on the windows reading "Farber et fils" all illegible from years of neglect. She sighed. Maybe it was the fact that her father used to come here when he visited Paris to by her presents - before he was killed.

But then, Old Sol did always seemed to have an uncanny knack for knowing what would pluck at the harp strings of her soul. Even when she was a customer's faceless daughter a continent away. And now that she was an adult and she came herself on her own visits to Paris he always had something set aside for her, and she suspected he frequently parted with his "special stock" for what she could afford, which on her government salary, was far less than they were worth. Some of those treasures, she suspected, were all but priceless, but Sol would never take no for an answer, insisting that it was her "father's discount."

Sol's eyes, a warm brown under bushy silver brows, twinkled as she turned sideways and extended the pistol, sighting down the barrel as though she herself was fighting a duel. She focused on an imaginary point on the opposite side of the alley and squeezed the trigger. The percussion hammer snapped down smoothly and made a click as it stuck the firing pan. As smoothly, she decided, as the day it was made. It was a superb old gun. She wondered what stories it held - if on some long forgotten day it had been used for its grim purpose.

She lowered her arm and turned back to Sol, who stood with his thumbs tucked into his trousers, between the snaps of his suspenders. He was tall, standing well past six feet, and had the rangy build of a man little more than half his age, which was something akin to eighty. He had an occidental countenance: dusky skin and pronounced semitic features, but then, Sol had come to Paris from Algeria when he was a boy, long before the land of his birth ceased to be a French Colony. Were it not for the wintry shock of his full beard and side-locks, and the black felt yarlmulke that sat atop his bald pate underneath wire-framed reading glasses, he could have passed for an Imam. So unlike herself, she considered. It was hard to fathom sometimes, how people who looked so dramatically different could share the tight-bonds of heritage. She herself could have passed for an auburn tressed shield-maiden, an avenging Valkyrie riding to do battle on a winged steed. She smirked. Only if that winged steed said El Al on the side - Tel Aviv was a long way from Asgard.

Sol nodded, clearly aware of her appreciation for the weapon she held, and tapped the velvet-lined wooden case the pistol's twin rested in with a bony finger. His smile was boyish, infectious. He was a man pleased with his choice. A man pleased with having pleased her. "Volonté vous prenez une conjecture, ma fleur?"

It was a game they played whenever she came. Sol complimented her, flattering her for the beauty of her youth - and tested her knowledge of his wares - while she tried not to disappoint a sweet old man. A sweet, lonely old man closing on his eightieth year, she reminded herself. Sol's wife, a Parisian-born Jewess, had died almost fifty years ago and the "fils" - the son - from the fading filigree on the window had been killed in the Yom Kippur War. A volunteer who had run to fight for the Jewish State and fallen on the field of battle. Sol had never remarried and Zevah had never asked him why - it never seemed like an appropriate question. She knew Sol had a daughter in Marseilles, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren from her, but he never spoke of them. She wondered if they ever came to visit him, and found herself annoyed at the thought that they might not.

Sol cleared his throat and stroked his beard, his expression dubious, challenging. "Vous êtes très silencieux, Zevah. Est-ce que je dois vous dire?"

She bristled for the briefest of instants. He was teasing her like a schoolboy who showed his affection for his paramour by dipping her pig tails into an ink pot. She set the pistol gingerly on the counter next to its case and tucked her brief annoyance away, giving Sol her most winning smile. When she did speak her voice flowed out smooth and heady like hot bourbon poured slowly into a class; it carried both soothing reassurance and feminine allure. It captured men's attention, even men who had walked the Earth as long as Sol had, and the knowledge of it allowed her to relax. Men wanted to hear her speak.

"First the obvious," she said in perfect French, a trace of the Marseillaise accent her instructor had imparted evident. "Its a muzzle loaded percussion dueling pistol, one of a matched set. Both are in all-original condition. The barrels are Belgian made; laminated steel showing the proof marks of the Liège de la Belgique. Its sixty caliber and has octagon smooth bore barrels eight inches in length - Damascus barrels. The ramrods are hinged, German silver furniture. The hinge patch boxes are fully functional. The scroll engraving is finely done. The locks bear the makers name, engraved in gold, as well as the location of manufacture. Lamport Irmaos of Rio De Janeiro. I would guess the set was made in eighteen thirty-four or five. It should be graded a very good antique."

Zevah folded her arms across her chest, cocked her head to one side, and arched an eyebrow, pleased with her performance. She should already tell she had done better than Sol had expected. "How did I do?"

"It is graded a very good antique," Sol answered quietly, picking the pistol up from the glass of the counter and placing it back in its case with something akin to reverence. He shook his head and tucked away a wisp of sadness as he looked up at her. "It was made in 1837, but the rest was perfect. He closed the case and pushed it the case to her edge of the counter. "Its a shame no one values old things anymore, especially the young. Old things are just cast aside in this day and age."

"I value you them," she said quietly. Was the old man speaking of himself?

"I know you do," Sol said. "I can see it in your eyes - your desire them. They mean something to you. The past means something to you. Its unusual for one so young. You should have them."

"I can't afford them," she said. It was true. The pistols were worth close to four thousand US dollars. She wasn't sure about the case, which was an antique in its own right.

"I haven't named a price yet."

"I know what they're worth."

"You do?" Sol asked, his voice filled with an enigmatic undertone. "I've had these for a decade or so now. Its time they were sold. 800 Euros."

"They're worth five times that."

"But you will find far more value in them than someone who would pay five times your price - much more," Sol countered. "Call me a silly old fool if you will. I've done very well for myself selling old things these many years." He swept a bony hand over the cluttered room. "Now its time to find them good homes - their proper homes. No," he said, his voice becoming surprisingly firm as he rapped his knuckle on the polished hardwood case. "My mind is made up - 800 Euros!"

She hadn't been able to say no and now, as she made her way through the press of students and business people on the Rue Mouffetard, one of the primary arteries that wound through the Latin Quarter's shops and bars and cafes, she wondered at Sol's final words as he let her out of the shop into the dying light of an crisp fall day. She had asked him if he knew the story behind the pistols. The old man had nodded sagely and said the riddles of the past could only be solved if we asked new questions in old ways. It was, she surmised, a part of his adopted Gallic temperament. A temperament that, despite her mastery of the French language, she had never completely grasped.

She shuddered in the chill of the descending evening and stopped as she came upon the Seine, standing on the quay in the shadow of Notre Dame. She pulled the high collar of her charcoal grey woolen overcoat up to protect her from the wind despite the thick knit turtleneck she wore. Two days ago a Mossad agent operating under non-official cover had been found floating face down in the famous river. He had been shot in the back of the head. His ankles and wrists had been tied together. He had been pulled out by the Gendarmerie not a hundred yards from where she stood. She had come to Paris to do a job, not to root around in the past. It was time to go to work.

/edited for copyediting purposes

[Vondy]

GM Notes: Prelude

The prelude is intended to set up one of the principle themes for the game and the character - that the past matters to people who are alive today and that the things that happened in the past remain relevent. Another aspect we wanted to set up is that our protagonist keeps revisiting the past despite the fact that her here and now is very intense (life and death, actually).

The reason for this is that the character's past will prove very important to her present. The prelude is a little moody and slow, but my wife's decision to put off her briefing and "go antique shopping" blossomed into an opportunity. One thing I didn't mention in the narrative, which I did mention in-game, was that she originally went to Sol's shop because her father used to shop there. It will become an important point later.

I've also found its better to game for shorter periods (a few hours) more often with my wife than to shoot for the normative six-eight hour weekly gaming session. We have periods of free time, but they exist in smaller, broken up chunks. A few hours here, a few hours there.

If the French is off - blame Babelfish! I tried to feed it as little slang and colloquial terminology as possible, but I have my doubts.

Next up: "The Briefing."

[Vondy]

I edited the prelude. It was the middle of the night when I whipped it up and I confess that on a second look I found it a touch sloppy. I loathe sloppy writing, especially my own. I tightened the prose and included both a reference to her father's death and her connection to Sol's store. I plan to write up the other two scenes we've done tonight and will hopefully proof and post them on the morrow.

[The Vanguard]

Well the Mossad also has a bad history so Spy agency like the CIA aren't sqeeky clean, the Mossad has protected the Jewish State illegal activies such as there Nuclear program at the poor man that they kidnapped off safe forgian soil by force he spend along had time in prison.

[lemming]

Of course I was thinking of those bad "Illsa, She Wolf of the SS" films...

[Vondy]

Well the Mossad also has a bad history so Spy agency like the CIA aren't sqeeky clean, the Mossad has protected the Jewish State illegal activies such as there Nuclear program at the poor man that they kidnapped off safe forgian soil by force he spend along had time in prison.

This is a gaming thread. This isn't the apropriate forum. If you want to slam the Mossad or debate the legality of Israel's nuclear program you should do so on the NGD forum. Thanks in advance for doing so. I don't want this thread to devolve into a political flame war. Its a game log.

[zornwil]

Wow, thanks for the info/ideas/resource, VDM! Rep for you!

[Barton]

I hope you have fun with this concept and will keep all of us informed of the progress.

[altamaros]

If the French is off - blame Babelfish! I tried to feed it as little slang and colloquial terminology as possible, but I have my doubts.

just Pm me, David; i will be glad to help you . I just love your thread (can i take some of your ideas for my own purpose ?)

"Volonté vous prenez une conjecture, ma fleur?"

"Will you take ..." => "prendrez-vous ..." but i don't understand the other part

To Vanguard : do you know any secret service with a clean record ?