Tucker's Tactics For Agents

[BoloOfEarth]

I'm open to suggestions for changes or improvements.  I'm about to start a new Champions campaign after a 5-year hiatus, so I'm sure I'll need to run groups of agents again.

[massey]

I've done that too.  I got the idea from the old DC Heroes game.  Their "Our World At War" supplement used that to represent superheroes fighting large formations of troops.

[Echo3Niner]

Also, not only can there (and I would posit should) be a range of skill-sets for Agents; the really high skilled/powered ones, cost a lot of support and to equip, and take a long time to train for the bad guys.  So, in my mind, you can still have the large number of "cannon fodder" standard agents, but that doesn't stop you from having "special ops" squads who have higher skills, training, and even some super-powered equipment ("super blaster" and better armor) than your normal agents; but, they should be few and far between, perhaps have a cool name, so the super group learns who they are, and are more a middle level threat to the heroes.

 

One would assume if the heroes caught them flat-footed, the heroes would wipe the floor with them without too much trouble; but if the Special Agent Squad (SAS) got time to plan, and knew who they were facing, they should give the heroes a run for their money.  If they have a built-in retreat plan, they can be a reoccurring thorn in their side as well; even if they lose one or two per contact.

 

By realistically varying the level of competence of the "Agents", you keep the players on their toes, and keep the encounters fresh for them; also, they can build a moderate hate for the SAS, especially if they keep getting away (I know my players hate that), so when they finally get them, it's all the more satisfying...

[BoloOfEarth]

Not a tactic, per se, but just a suggestion when agents appear in-game:  give a few of them distinct personalities.  The players will have a lot more fun with them.

 

One villain team had a pair of brothers (Phil and Tommy) working for them as agents.  One was very book smart but lazy, the other very street smart but kept mis-pronouncing words and names, including the villains (Fracture instead of Fractal, Artificial instead of Artificer, etc.).

 

The local PRIMUS base had an agent, Mac, who liked to tinker with stuff, modify his own blaster rifle or other gear for "more power!", etc.  (Think Tim Taylor from the Home Improvement TV show both for personality and effects.)  The PCs loved Mac, even when he had to toss his rifle aside because it was going into overload and was about to explode.  During a fight with the Foxbat Five, one hero had disarmed Foxbat and actually tossed the Ping Pong Ball Gun to Mac to use during the fight.

 

When the heroes are sneaking into the VIPER Nest, let them overhear a pair of male agents comparing the various... attributes of superheroines (including one of the PCs) or joking about a PC hero's possible choices in partners.  And there's no reason you can't flip that idea on its head and have some female agents rating the male heroes' "spandex factor," speculating on a PC hero's fetishes, or getting catty about a PC superheroine's costume.

 

Even something as mundane as agents discussing their criminal agency's dental plan and retirement investment options can be entertaining.  The players will bring it back up, guaranteed.  ("Why don't we find out how good VIPER's medical and dental plans really are?")

[pinecone]

I like this. Many many  Moons ago, I had a "blue booked" date from a hero, when they infiltrated the local Viper nest. He overheard a female agent entertaining her gal pals with a story of a "hot date" that sounded exactly like the blue book session. (It turned out to be a coincidence, comic book style) But it was a fun 'moment". (Yes he did have Unluck, why do you ask?)

[Christopher R Taylor]

Some day I want to run an agents game where the PCs play low level Viper agents that work their way up through the system gaining contacts, rank, and money until they start up their own nest.  I think the experience would be useful for me as a GM to come up with gear, tactics, and behavior of agents, and it would be a fun reversal of the usual situation.  How would YOU handle Captain Invincible so you can rob a bank?

[pinecone]

I might be a fun "One off" maybe as a con run...

[Christopher R Taylor]

I could see it as a campaign.  It would basically be a series of capers; to begin with, they would just get their orders and have to work with them but as time went on they'd get a mission or devise their own and have to work out the team and how it would be done.  As time goes on they get more responsibility, rank, new equipment to test out (not always reliable or safe), etc.  Basically adventures from the other side of the street.  Kidnapping and ransom, extortion, hiding fugitives, moving stolen materials, and those stupid audacious schemes your Nest Leader comes up with like "today we're going to hold the nation ransom by taking control of the nuclear power plant!  While many of you will die or be horribly burned by radiation, Viper will gain great power and wealth!"

Imagine playing out some of those James Bond schemes... from the perspective of the agents of the bad guy.  Even printed adventures you could run from the other side, like the old 3rd edition Viper module that came with the rules.

[BoloOfEarth]

Alternately, you could run the players as VIPER agents, with them probably being pretty effective.  (Players tend to be able to eke out a victory despite the odds.)  Make them an elite team, with a distinct name (like the Python Fangs).  Not a long-term campaign, but long enough to give them a good feel for the characters, maybe give you (the GM) a few insights into possible agent tactics and schemes.

 

Then run a Champions game, and early on have the heroes run up against their agent characters.  Maybe offer each player the chance to pick whether he wants to run his VIPER agent or his superhero in the fight.  Or have them run both, if you can trust your players to do a fair job of it.   

[Cantriped]

The Python Corps:

Founded in 2011 as an elite smash-and-grab team; it's members armed with the latest VIPER Gadgets, including Poison-Gas Grenades, Gas-Masks, the experimental X-66 MK II "Venom-Spitter" (A Blaster rifle which fires noxious looking bolts of green plasma/fluid) and VIC MK I "Snake's Skin" (a therm-optic camouflage cloak), and the "Skeleton Key" (A device raided from one of Dr. Destroyers labs after his death in 1991, which is capable of opening almost any lock-mechanism; surprisingly it still works most of the time, even though it's more than twenty years old now).

After a few successful capers designed to test the team's tactics and equipment they were dispatched to Los Angeles to reinforce the failing Nest there. Since the teams arrival they have robbed several jewelry stores and celebrity mansions, as well as one highly publicized heist at JPL (The Jet Propulsion Laboratory). JPL claims the thieves failed to take anything of value. Sequoia (a member of the California Patrol) claimed in an interview later that day that the VIPER team was loading crates into a Hover Craft when she arrived, and that the craft mysteriously disappeared before she could get near enough to stop them from escaping. Recently the Python Corps successfully held Paris Hilton's dog for ransom, collecting the $30,000 ransom and disappearing before the authorities arrive at the drop location.

 

X-66 Venom-Spitter MK II: 65-point Multipower Reserve (65 Active Points); all slots OAF (-1), Gestures (Both Hands; -1/2), Limited Range (100m; -1/4). 24 CP

1)   Entangle 4d6, 4 PD/4 ED, Sticky (+1/2) (60 Active Points); Time Limit (1 Minute; -2), 4 clips of 6 Charges (-1/4). 1 CP

2)   Blast 4d6, Constant (+1/2), Sticky (+1/2), 4 clips of 16 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Minute each (+1) (60 Active Points). 2 CP

3)   RKA vs. PD 1d6+1, Armor Piercing (+1/4), Autofire (10 shots; +1), 4 clips of 120 Charges (+1) (65 Active Points); . 2 CP

+4 with the X-66 Venom-Spitter MK II (as 3-point CSLs) (12 Active Points) OAF (-1). 6 CP

[Christopher R Taylor]

I am fond of at least one or two sessions of being bottom run nobodies using basic Viper gear and in a five team taking orders.  That would intro the campaign and their setting pretty well and give them a chance to stand out from the average; perhaps 50 extra points to spend on the default Viper agent so they are exceptional.  After that they can build up and become elite.