thread: 2006-07-27 : 10 Observations from my Berlin trip
On 2006-08-01, Valamir wrote:
Sett...that's because you're looking in the wrong place.
This is not a game about spies in the James Bond sense. Its a game about the guy in the copy room who got sick of his menial job and mediocre life and agreed to hand over copies of the documents that passed through his hands to an enemy agent. Its about a guy whose life is so unfullfilling and so boring that the excitment of a blind drop is the most interesting thing to happen to him, and the idea that someone benefits from the secrets he steals provides his greatest sense of accomplishment.
Against him are arrayed large organizations with government authority, vast resources, and a network of information gatherers...the principle is just one tooth on a small cog of a giant machine.
Against this...what do you actually expect to be able to do to influence the outcome? You...like the principle...are at the mercy of fate. Its an excellent "simulation" of being "in the cold".
The game actually begins when you realize that. If you never got passed the "its all luck, and I can't influence it" stage...then you never actually started playing Spione.
Its only once you realize that the card mechanics are merciless and there is nothing you can do to alter the outcome in your favor (although via covering, you can alter the outcome for someone else...which is a whole other layer to talk about)...that you start (as a player) to wonder...what should I be doing if its not manipulating the game mechanics. The answer lies in the supporting cast.
Flashpoints become those "oh shit" moments that the principle dreads because they often result in utter catastrophe...but which you as a player come to greedily anticipate because...they often result in utter catastrophe.
Remember, the principles aren't "player characters" you aren't even expected, necessarily, to sympathize with them. They aren't your avatar in the game, therefor their relative impotency (relative to PCs in RPGs) shouldn't be taken as a reflection of your ability to influence the game. Your job as a player is to figure out who the real protagonist of the story is...often one of the more sympathetic supporting cast, and if the principle (as often as not) meets a bad end...so much the better.
