Spycraft 2.0: World on Fire

When the Cold War ended, numerous intelligence agencies started disbanding operatives and cutting back as a result of the new political climate (or as a result of a simple lack of money, in the case of Russia). The threat was over; the world was in a state of peace. Spies were no longer needed in such great quantities as they were before, there were other projects that needed attention.

Some disagreed, on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Colonel General Yerik Kolesnikov and Sir Richard Poole, both enemies and close friends were equally horrified by the new global trends towards espionage. The Cold War hadn't been the only threat facing the world. There were numerous criminal and terrorist organizations that threatened all people, regardless of whether they were capitalist and communist.

War in Bosnia, IRA bombings in Ireland, half a dozen civil wars raging in Africa and former Soviet Republic. Russian nuclear weapons were being sold like candy on the international black market, with American bioweapons tossed in to sweeten the pot. Madmen like Dr Kholera and Zhang Khan established Byzantine plots to rule or destroy world.

This wasn't an aftershock of the end of the cold war; it was a grim sign of things to come. Worse, in addition to slashing the world's invisible armies to the bare bones, the world governments were even cutting deals with groups like the Bloodvine Syndicate and the Nine Tiger Dynasty. Yerik and Poole were in agreement, if the world governments were going to close their eyes on the dangers of the new era and abandon those who had fought for freedom, then they would have to take up the torch to fight these enemies.

Gathering up the abandoned and forgotten agents and operatives, they set about to save the world from itself. Unburdened by red tape and oversight committees and abandoned by the governments, many of the operatives from the old orders happily signed on, for an opportunity to truly right the wrongs and fight injustice, without the backroom political quibbling that used to dominate espionage.

Yerik took his old Soviet espionage agency, the Krypt, underground in Russia to confront the new age, while Sir Richard Poole formed the Shadow Patriots, the group you belong to. Together, these two groups (and later joined by Banshee Net), have been protecting the world for the last decade and a half. Vilified by the government and the press, branded terrorists by the legal and intelligence agencies of the world and hated by those they protect, it's a thankless, dirty job, but without them, the modern world wouldn't exist.

The current agents serving the Shadow Patriots are odd combination of veteran, old school, hands on operatives, coupled with the new, young, techno-warrior spies of the modern era.

But the world is in a far more precarious state today then it has ever been in the past. With the Mouthwash Confession rearranging the world's leadership overnight, the Nightfall Virus ravaging the population, and Project: Pitfall imposing their own brand of justice on the world without restraint or restriction, world peace has never been more fragile. New threats arise every day, with the Franchise and the Alliance of Evil Geniuses sponsoring new madmen every week. And worst of all, the two men who might have been able to sort it out, are no longer available. Sir Richard Poole has gone missing, and Yerik is seven years dead.

The world is balanced on razor's edge between order and chaos. Those in power cannot see the threat. Those who are aware of the danger have been neatly and almost entirely neutralized.

It would take a miracle to save the world. Fortunately, that's your stock in trade. You are operatives working for the Shadow Patriots, and the fate of nations will rest in your hands in upcoming months.


I'm recruiting two or three players for a Spycraft 2.0 game, set in the World on Fire campaign setting. I have two confirmed players already, an intruder and a martial artist, both new recruits to the Shadow Patriots.

We'll be meeting on Monday or Tuesday evenings, with the exact date and location to be determined. Knowledge of the system is not mandatory, I'll be happy to teach anybody interested in playing. Contact me at bnettleship @ gmail.com or by PM.