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Here we will look at the Missions Table, in the Top Secret RPG 1st Edition. We’ll also cover gaining experience, getting paid for assignments, and how to apply experience for advancement.
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Top Secret RPG – Mission Components
There are several components to a mission in the Top Secret RPG, which are reflected in the Table of Missions. This lists the basics of the mission for the GM (called the Administrator in Top Secret 1e). Some of the information is given to the PCs in a mission briefing. Other information that’s included is for the Administrator’s eyes only. So let’s look at each detail.
Mission – the main objective (or objectives) for the mission. Notice it’s basically a list of crimes against a target. They give a full definition for each under Definition of Agent Missions in the core book.
GM Tip: Technically, most missions will have multiple objectives which need to be carried out. The PCs will have to execute secondary mission objectives in order to complete the primary mission objective in the Top Secret RPG. For example, they may have to break and enter a building (secondary) to kidnap a target (primary). In those cases, you will want to lower the secondary mission awards and bonuses (for example, by 50%), only giving a full reward for the main objective.
Base Experience Points – in the Top Secret RPG, there are a minimum amount of experience points given for the successful completion of a mission.
Bureau Bonus – This is located in two columns — one for experience, and the other for money. Under each is a letter designation. This letter corresponds to the very bottom of the table, which lists what agent would be eligible for the bonus depending on what bureau they work under.
Mission Payment – the monetary reward for completing the mission. This should, of course, be adjusted for inflation. In a couple of cases, blackmail and kidnapping, there is a percentage. This percentage is based on the money for a ransom with kidnapping, or hush money with blackmail.
Human Involved – pretty self-explanatory. This is important to know because the human element can often be the most unpredictable.
Briefing Information – this is the information that should be given to the PCs before a mission. It’s designated by a letter located at the bottom of the table under the Table of Missions Key.
Withheld Information – this is intel only the Administrator has about the mission, which should be used in setting up challenges for the PCs.
GM Tip: If you are first starting out in the Top Secret RPG, make it a simple for the PCs so they can get their feet wet. Then throw in some other information to add unexpected challenges at them after the players get acclimated to the game.
Possible Complications – this is a list of optional complications the Administrator can throw into the mix to spice things up.
GM Tip: When determining whether to add a complication, look at if a human is involved to be a guide. If there is, consider adding at least one. They can be the ultimate x-factor in any mission.
Anatomy of a Mission Briefing
Let’s break down a mission briefing from the movie Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and translate it into what it would look like in the Top Secret RPG. For this one, we’re looking at the scene when Ethan Hunt breaks out of a Russian prison and goes to a pay phone in a van with his team to receive his mission.
In this first part, we have some biometric security confirmation. It can be more direct, like a meeting in a bathroom, or less direct, lie the retrieval of certain documents from a location. You can get creative here.
This part falls under Mission Key A, which is the identification of a human target named Cobalt. However, it’s partial because they only know their codename, not their real identity. In addition, in this case, they end up being an incidental secondary target, not the primary.
Part of the job is an infiltration of the Kremlin. Looking at the Table of Missions, the closest thing we have to this is a jail or prison break-in. Prisons are more secure and the Kremlin definitely falls in line with that, which is why we get this reaction later on in the scene.
We can use prison break-in as a template and adjust the details. In this case, I may keep the base experience but eliminate the bureau bonuses altogether (both experience and money) for the assassination division.
GM Tip: The alternative is to get the Top Secret Companion, which adds to the list of mission types and their details. In this case, we see at the very top that infiltration is part of the list. This is clearly a foreign agency.
Since this infiltration is secondary, again, you may want to adjust the base experience down. It’s definitely necessary, but not the primary objective of the mission. However, if you’re feeling generous, give them the whole reward amount. You just have to balance how fast you want the PCs to advance if you do that.
The next part, which is the main mission objective, is a theft. It’s stealing the archive file, which has Cobalt’s real identity before Cobalt retrieves and destroys it. This would fall under a clean theft because of going in disguised as a general so as not to cause suspicion.
Here, the location of the target is given, which falls under Mission Key B in the core book Table of Missions.
Next, we have the team who will work together to make the mission successful. This would be the PCs, of course.
GM Tip: If you wanted to give a rationale for putting together this particular team, again, the Top Secret Companion could help you do that. In this case, you’d need at least two different bureaus specialties — infiltration (a new bureau in the Top Secret Companion), and the main one, confiscation.
If you are interested in other articles on the Top Secret RPG, click here. If you want to find out specifically the very beginnings of the game, click here. You can also meander over to the video on missions at the RPG Elite YouTube channel below.
