I always marvel at seeing how professional your PCs are
Three things really help with this:
As the PCs are all high-IQ types with exceptional skill in their technical specialties – often with advantages to match – I give the players extra time to plan and to compare multiple possible courses of action. By doing this out of real time and then having the results happen quickly in-game, the players can roleplay quick-thinking professionals without going out and becoming, you know, commandos and detectives and spies.
Still thinking of skills, I'm willing to give out advice on a good skill roll. I read up on stuff that's likely to be relevant to the current assignment. That way, if somebody rolls well, I can say, "My understanding is that x is the right thing to do here. Which is to say, if you pursue some variant of x, my research tells me it should succeed more readily." This could be said to be "shared ignorance" – I'm no commando, detective, or spy, either, but I can at least ensure that players and GM alike are working from common assumptions.
Half of the Agents on the team are NPCs, although I let the players control them. This means that boring tasks can be done "off-screen" by NPCs, leaving the primary PCs in the limelight for the more interesting duties and events. It's far easier to be meticulous about hours or days or weeks of computer research, and sanguine about unglamorous tasks, if you can order somebody else to do it, so to speak. ;)
None of which is meant to steal my players' thunder. They're all smart people who come up with good plans, and who tend to approach RPG plots as puzzles to be solved.
Did the players have any chance to spot Adnan's treachery before the strike, or was it "scripted" to go down when it did?
They had a chance, but it was mostly in the vein of "their Detect Lies vs. his Acting." He had high Acting, further improved with a large bonus for a long-established cover, while only a few Agents have Detect Lies, and they had a small penalty for being tasked to keep their distance and ask few questions. So it was a little lopsided, and Adnan always won by a margin of 2+.
Actually observing Adnan taking pictures and making phone calls was much the same deal . . . he had high Stealth skill and the sense to do most of what he did behind closed doors. The pictures of the Agents were the trickiest part.
Even so, the Agents didn't trust him! They suspected either him or Zulfiqar of treachery from Day One, and posted shadows on both of them when things got tense. Adnan just lucked out that everybody hid in a dark kitchen and covered up against flash-bangs. That's why he decided to move when he did.
I'm just surprised that the players didn't decide to spy on those two from Day One, perhaps even steal a phone, bug a room, or whatever. I doubt that future backstabbers will get such an easy ride!
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Three things really help with this:
- As the PCs are all high-IQ types with exceptional skill in their technical specialties – often with advantages to match – I give the players extra time to plan and to compare multiple possible courses of action. By doing this out of real time and then having the results happen quickly in-game, the players can roleplay quick-thinking professionals without going out and becoming, you know, commandos and detectives and spies.
- Still thinking of skills, I'm willing to give out advice on a good skill roll. I read up on stuff that's likely to be relevant to the current assignment. That way, if somebody rolls well, I can say, "My understanding is that x is the right thing to do here. Which is to say, if you pursue some variant of x, my research tells me it should succeed more readily." This could be said to be "shared ignorance" – I'm no commando, detective, or spy, either, but I can at least ensure that players and GM alike are working from common assumptions.
- Half of the Agents on the team are NPCs, although I let the players control them. This means that boring tasks can be done "off-screen" by NPCs, leaving the primary PCs in the limelight for the more interesting duties and events. It's far easier to be meticulous about hours or days or weeks of computer research, and sanguine about unglamorous tasks, if you can order somebody else to do it, so to speak. ;)
None of which is meant to steal my players' thunder. They're all smart people who come up with good plans, and who tend to approach RPG plots as puzzles to be solved.Did the players have any chance to spot Adnan's treachery before the strike, or was it "scripted" to go down when it did?
They had a chance, but it was mostly in the vein of "their Detect Lies vs. his Acting." He had high Acting, further improved with a large bonus for a long-established cover, while only a few Agents have Detect Lies, and they had a small penalty for being tasked to keep their distance and ask few questions. So it was a little lopsided, and Adnan always won by a margin of 2+.
Actually observing Adnan taking pictures and making phone calls was much the same deal . . . he had high Stealth skill and the sense to do most of what he did behind closed doors. The pictures of the Agents were the trickiest part.
Even so, the Agents didn't trust him! They suspected either him or Zulfiqar of treachery from Day One, and posted shadows on both of them when things got tense. Adnan just lucked out that everybody hid in a dark kitchen and covered up against flash-bangs. That's why he decided to move when he did.
I'm just surprised that the players didn't decide to spy on those two from Day One, perhaps even steal a phone, bug a room, or whatever. I doubt that future backstabbers will get such an easy ride!