First Impressions - Covert Wars RPG (ZineQuest 2)

 

Cold War Espionage Roleplaying

I completely missed Covert Wars' Kickstarter campaign during ZineQuest 2, and only became aware of it when I was buying a copy of the Ultraviolet Grasslands hardcover from Exalted Funeral. Now, I'm a sucker for this genre so I impulse bought a copy when I saw it.

TL;DR: There's a lot packed into this short zine, presented well and with enough detail that you could get started very quickly and easily. It's an effective, focussed and functional framework for playing games in the Cold War. However, it doesn't give me the excitement that - say - Cold Shadows did, perhaps because it doesn't have the space to develop the meta-plot side of the warring agencies as well. That said, I could imagine playing using Covert Wars as an engine, as it is clean and simple.

Physically, Covert Wars is presented as a staple-bound 'zine with a striking colour cover and 34-page black-and-white interior using Courier (or at least a typewriter-style face) as the font. The character sheet is printed on the inside of the cover. 

The game is set in the Cold War period before personal computers (1955 to 1970) and includes a top-level timeline, background and guidance on playing CIA, KGB or neutral agents. Your characters are operators that make things happen.

The game uses the traditional six abilities, with Will swapping out Wisdom, but fulfilling much the same role. Each ability starts at 10, and you get 20 extra points to distribute. No ability can be above a rating of 20. You have health points equal to your CON x10. 

Starting characters begin with 10 skills; these start from a base of the related ability and you can spend a maximum of 50 points on each out of a starting pool of 250. The end rating is used as a percentile rating. There are 31 base skills, so it is a narrow skill system rather than a broader skill system (for example, the Fria Ligan games typically have 4 attributes and 12 skills, 3 for each attribute).

Each character has a speciality, which gives advantage on related skill rolls. They also have a personality trait (roleplaying hook rather than mechanic), a positive trait (which provides a mechanical advantage) and a negative trait (which provides a mechanical disadvantage).

You improve with a levelling mechanic, based on XP obtained from your mission. The game recommends that you level up after each mission on average; however, the exact XP awarded is based on a set of questions. Once you level, you can add 10 points to a skill or purchase another skill. You can hold these skill points instead and when you have enough, use them to buy off negative traits or add positive traits.

Attribute rolls are made with a d20 less than or equal to the attribute in use. Critical success or failure happens on rolls of 1 or 20s. Skill rolls are made with percentile dice, with cherries creating critical successes or failures depending on whether the roll is a success or a failure. 

You can make a straight roll or an opposed roll. In the latter, the highest successful roll wins, although a critical will always prevail against a normal success. 

There are modifiers for difficulty; mechanically, the effect of difficulty is half as much on an attribute as it is on a skill test. As attributes will always have a starting 50% chance of success minimum, this is a curious design decision.

Melee combat is opposed, ranged combat is a standard skill test. If you're in ranged combat, the cover is critical, as that's the only way that you can reduce the likelihood of being hit. Critical successes will double damage, critical failures cause complications. The initiative is rolled on an unmodified d20, and ambushes are likely brutal, as they allow a free round of attacks with automatic hits.

Healing takes time but can be helped with first aid. If you reach zero health points, you make a CON ability test or die. If you pass, you're unconscious.

You have a Stress score; if it reaches a certain level, your character is struggling and will find all tests more difficult. If you hit the limit, you will have a form of breakdown that will take you out of play. You can recover stress by resting, substance abuse, sex and other forms of relaxation.

You start with a Conviction score of 100; this represents how much you believe in the cause. This will fall over time; once it hits zero your character will likely be out of the game. If it falls below 50, you are at risk of being tempted to be a double agent.

There's a Connections score, which starts with a 3d6 roll. This represents resources, assets, informants that you can draw on. You can lose points from this if you lose connections. It can be used as an abstract check like an ability to see if you can get information or something else from your network.

There's a useful guide to mission types, example NPCs and details about the available gear that your agents can use on their operations.

There's a lot packed into this short zine, presented well and with enough detail that you could get started very quickly and easily. I like the Connections score, as it reminds me of the flexibilities in Night's Black Agents. It's an effective, focussed and functional framework for playing games in the Cold War. However, it doesn't give me the excitement that - say - Cold Shadows did, perhaps because it doesn't have the space to develop the meta-plot side of the warring agencies as well. That said, I could imagine playing using the Covert Wars engine, as it is clean and simple.

16 May 2021