This is a Home Brew set of rules for FATE to simluate the Gadget/Gear rules of an espionage game like Spycraft, for use in my In Deo Confidemus campaign, hopefully without the tedious and lengthy "gear-up" phase the former game had. Doyce Testerman did the write-up, based on the FATE Stunt rules and the feedback he got in the FATE Yahoo boards. See Op Tech Design Notes for more thoughts. This ruleset is ready for gamma testing.

Operational Technologies (Op Tech)

The Operations Technology (Op Tech) Department (known to the Brits as "Q" or Quartermaster Branch) has kept agents alive mission after mission, providing each Agency member with weapons, intel, electronics, armor and the essentials for success. As useful as the more mundane gear can be, it only hints at the amazing "toys" within the department that Agents on good terms with their technicians can access.

Operations Technology is represented in the rules by two things:

• a skill called Op Tech. The more levels you have in this skill, the more likely you will have the gear you need.
• a number of stunts. Like Aspect, these provide an opportunity (when checked off) to have a non-standard piece of gear, a gadget.

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What gear you explicitly have

You have stuff. Don't worry about what it cost; we'll agree on that. It's equipment issued by the Agency, so it's clean (though you probably also have some money to buy stuff as you go -- that stuff isn't "sanitized," though, so it could get you in trouble ...

Develop a personal equipment list, and come to an agreement with the GM on it. That's what you can be assumed to have when you go off on a mission. It should be mundane gear (except for signature items: Extras, and Aspect Items).

What would be on that equipment list? You get one (1) ...

• piece of mundane gear
• low-end gadget
• equipment bundle

... for each character Aspect. The item in question should (at least somewhat) reflect the Aspect.

E.g., based on the Aspects of a possible version of Gina:

Whenever that character starts off in a mission, that's basically what she has as standard issue.

Bear in mind that the above is the explicit equipment you have -- the stuff that's actually listed out. You also have other stuff -- , implicitly. To determine if you were foresighted enought to bring along (or be assigned) something that it turns out that you need, see the next section.

Is there other explicit stuff you have? Well, heck, let me know. I mean, you have your clothes, your ID, your watch ... If there's something mundane or conventional you want to bring along "standard" all the time, let's discuss it -- but if we agree, I'm going to assume you have it from then on out ...

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What gear you implicitly have

By using the Op Tech skill, the agent may "retroactively" add mundane gear to their mission kit. You actually had it, you just (Schrodinger's Cat]-like) don't actually confirm it until you look for it (similar to the Language Rules).

In this situation, the GM sets a difficulty for the gear in question and if the agent can make the Op Tech roll, the gear is assumed to have already been part of the agent's kit for this mission. Sample difficulties:

• Fair = hold-out pistols, knives, UV flashlights
• Good = scuba gear
• Superb = a sniper rifle

The difficulty level may be influenced by the circumstances. Going to base camp and opening up the duffels and crates with your stuff, the difficulty will probably be a few ticks lower. Having had to strip down naked to slip through the coral reef underwater on the way to the Island of Doktor Ieval will probably increase the difficulty a few ticks. Particularly clever explanations, though, are always welcome to adjust this.

This "instant gear" cannot be conjured into the middle of a conflict, unless you spend an Op Tech Stunt.

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Gadgets and Stunts

More impressive gear (i.e.: Gadgets) requires a Stunt. Performing a Stunt allows the character to produce something more dramatic with the Op Tech skill (produce a Gadget rather than mundane gear).

Characters spend skill points for stunts above and beyond the Op Tech skill. Each skill point gives you a Stunt "circle" against your Op Tech skill. These are checked off (and refreshed) like Aspect boxes. You cannot have more Stunts under Op Tech than you have levels in the skill.

E.g., an experienced Agent, with 3 gadget stunts might express it as:

  Op Tech Good +2 - OOO

This would cost 6 skill ranks total: 3 to bring the skill to Good, and one for each stunt level.

The first skill rank must be purchased in conjunction with the "Agent" Aspect.

To use an Op Tech stunt, simply describe the desired Gadget and check off a circle. The GM and player (and any other player who might have been involved or wants a piece of the action) then play through a Flashback Scene (cf. Theatrix) that goes back to the Op Tech mission briefing to explain how and why the Gadget was issued to the agent by the techs. No roll is necessary, just good role-play.

E.g., they're telling you about the door you're now standing in front of during the mission that they're giving you an electronic keypad bypass for in the flashback.)

Arguably, you could also invoke an appropriate Aspect for something similar (e.g., Dylan checking off a box of Aspect "Paranoid" to have brought along a Bug Sniffer for the scene.

Here are some guidelines on using/getting Gadgets:

• A Gadget should never last any longer than a scene (with one exception: see below).

• A Gadget generally translates into a single effect: an explosion, a barrier of some kind, some kind of single-skill one-shot bonus.
  • Gadgets which affects multiple targets lets the defenders get the Superior Numbers advantage.

  • Gadgets which simulate weapons are fine, but they are bound by the general limitations of the weapons (ammo, range, skills to use, e.g., explosive wristwatches, tracer guns).

  • The addition of a Gadget to a conflict can grant a situational advantage (i.e. a +1 bonus).

  • Generally speaking, you can probably get a (simple) Bond-quality gadget (something short of one of his cars) with no problem. (Think 4GP in Spycraft terms.) For something more than that, you need to also start rolling an Op Tech skill roll vs. a difficulty to get the Burrowing Korean Megalomaniac Hunter-Seeker Nuclear Missile.

You can also spend a Stunt to allow the Op Tech skill to be called on in the middle of a conflict.

Some speculative thought here on Gadget Duration.

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Recovering Gadget Stunts

Gadget Stunt check boxes are refreshed if and when Aspects are, unless deemed inappropriate by the GM (though the GM oughta give you a FatePoint for screwing you like that :-) ).

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What's Mundane Gear? What's a Cool Gadget?

Guideline #1: If it's something that's commercially available, it should be Gear, not a Gadget. If it's only a prototype, DARPA project, or something like that, it's a Gadget. If it's something Q would give a briefing on to 007, it's definitely a Gadget.

Guideline #2: Look in the Spycraft book.

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Skills