Sneak. The agents must infiltrate a secure location.
Briefly: the Bankhaus is an investment bank with a murky past and has offices in several major cities, of which the Conspiracy has control over the Paris and Zürich branches thanks to its control over Lisle Klingemann, daughter of the boss and a senior partner in her own right, and Albert Ahrens, controller of the Zürich branch and Lisle's devoted slave. The Bankhaus is mainly interested in software development companies, particularly in jurisdictions within Europe, though it has a significant sideline in mining, especially in East Asia, a holdover from its former interests.
It has swanky offices, lawyers, a ton of assets on the book and off, and when it makes calls they get answered by senior politicians and members of the financial elite. It almost doesn't matter whether this is a Supernatural, Damned, Alien or Mutant game; all factions are going to want a piece of the Bankhaus whether to get access to its bottomless bank vaults or for more esoteric reasons.
Unless your players are dead inside, this is the mission they dreamt of when they signed up.
Maybe they saw themselves as James Bond, Jimmy Ocean or Jason Bourne. Maybe they imagined using cunning disguises and trickery, or perhaps, as Bond memorably did in the Goldfinger opening sequence, they pictured themselves swimming past enemy defenses with a fake seagull on their heads.
Regardless of the icon they pick for themselves, this is the iconic spy moment. The agents’ time to shine.
Or the moment where it all goes a bit Pete Tong and the agents have to run for their lives.
Either way, it’s Thrilling.
Perhaps the best thing about a Sneak is that it involves a number of skill sets which in turn means that everyone will have a chance to shine. The Digital Intrusion specialist, the driver, the con artist, the B&E sneak machine, they all have potential spotlight moments.
Perhaps the worst thing about a Sneak is that involves more work on the Director’s end than most other operations. Think about it: you have to prep a number of different options to get in, set varying Difficulty numbers depending on how and where the agents try to infiltrate the system, and have different options available for that inevitable moment when the agents exfiltrate, under fire or cool as ice, depending. This is the one time the players will want to see, if not detailed maps and sketches, at least some imagery of the target. This is the one time the Director will need detailed OPFOR on hand for the agents to bounce off of. It’s tactical. It’s strategic. It’s sneaky.
Sneakers, sourced from Rotten Tomatoes
There aren’t many films that rely on infiltration and sneaking as the main meat of the narrative. Part of, yes. I can’t think of a single Bond film that didn’t involve a Sneak scene of some kind. However, it’s usually only a fraction of the whole story. Sneakers is the exception, and well worth seeking out if you haven't already seen it.
Going back to the Planning, Execution and Aftermath formula the Sneak scenario is unusual in that, for once, you’ll be spending most of your time in the Execution phase. The whole reason why a Sneak scenario is Thrilling is because you get to Sneak in. It’s the visceral moment when you’re standing somewhere you know you shouldn’t be, doing things you know you shouldn’t be doing. Everyone everywhere has had that moment in their lives, at least once. Yes, the Planning is important, and yes, the Aftermath probably has a Chase of some kind because really, why not? Baby Driver was almost entirely a Chase scene from the opening sequence, and it was brilliant.
But the meat here is that sensation of bliss when you have crossed the Rubicon and are ankle-deep in potential shit, and whether or not that shit remains potential or becomes as literal as Shrodinger’s Cat will depend on whether or not you raise the alarm.
Broadly speaking there are three kinds of Sneak scenarios.
- Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. You are attempting to sneak into a heavily guarded facility which will react with lethal force should you screw this up. You’ve seen that film a thousand thousand times.
- Climbing the Matterhorn. You are attempting to sneak into an area in which most of the obstacles are environmental. General Wolfe scaling the cliffs of Abraham, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn & David Niven crossing ocean and climbing cliff faces to blow up the Guns of Navarone, that sort of thing.
- Danny Ocean’s Dream Job. There may or may not be lethal force at the site; that’s not the challenge. The challenge is to get in, and out, without anybody knowing you were there. They might find out later. That’s fine. By the time later rolls around you’ll be on a beach in the Maldives. Any number of con games play out this way, and there’s often a switcharoo scene or possibly a cackle bladder. This is the version that will almost certainly call for a Preparedness test at some point.
There’s one additional wrinkle to bear in mind that I’m going to call the Money Heist twist. In that narrative, the problem isn’t Sneaking in. You get in however you like. No, the problem in this scenario is Sneaking out again, without anyone realizing what you’re doing until it’s far too late. This twist will almost always be a Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, but it’s worth bearing in mind that you, as Director, can make Sneaking out, rather than Sneaking in, the meat of the scenario.
Money Heist Bella Ciao, sourced from Ένας αγέρας
All that said, let’s go to the Bankhaus.
Let’s say this time out that the target is one of the Bankhaus’ East Asia holdings, a mining operation in South Korea close to the North Korean DMZ. The agents have reason to believe that the Conspiracy is using it for nefarious purposes, though what those purposes are remain unclear.
This means that the Preparation part of the scenario will involve a fair amount of scout work, both to see what kind of operation the Conspiracy is running and what kind of OPFOR the agents can expect.
Given that the Conspiracy’s operation is probably pretending to be something it isn’t, the first layer of this onion will involve working out what it actually is. That means the agents will be keeping tabs on who goes in and out, what appears to be going on down there, and whether there are any unusual defenses or outbuildings. Are they using a lot of electricity and therefore throwing off a lot of heat? Do high ranking government officials turn up at unusual times? Is that mysterious visitor the renowned physicist Benjamin Sun-Kee, and if it is then what is he doing here? Why are all those trucks coming and going – refrigerated trucks, not your standard cargo hauler?
Then comes the actual Sneak.
If it’s Kiss Kiss, then the operation plays out much as any one of a dozen different thrillers. The agents get in and get out under the noses of any number of heavily armed guards. Combat is possible, perhaps even likely, so as Director you need to prep some armed OPFOR. This sequence is very likely to end in a Chase of some kind, so as Director you need to be prepared for that as well.
If it’s Environmental, then the agents are trying to get in via a route that seems impossible which is why it’s not as heavily guarded as the other ways in. The cliffs at the Plains of Abraham were so steep it was thought impossible for an entire army to scale them, therefore the French didn’t pay as close attention to them, which is why Wolfe and his men took the French by surprise. So you’re looking at some kind of environmental hazard significant enough to pose a challenge. Fording a raging river, climbing a steep cliff, or walking through the DMZ all qualify as environmental challenges – some more than others.
If it’s Danny Ocean’s Dream Job then the agents are going to be relying on infiltration, disguise, bluff and meticulous timing to get in and out without anybody knowing what they’re up to. Exactly how they do this is up to them. Perhaps they do as Danny Ocean did and hide one of the team in a special delivery so that they can open the way for the rest. Perhaps they pretend to be delegates from another Node conducting a surprise inspection. They could even pretend to be vampires, to cow the gullible human guards into submission. Whatever works, but the key here is that the burden is very much on the players who will, by their actions, be deciding how difficult this becomes. Don’t worry too much about that. In this, as with all things, the players are usually their own worst enemy.
Then, of course, they have to get out again …
OK, so what about the Reversal?
Well, this is the one time I'm not sure there is a Reversal.
Technically there is: the agents can defend a location against someone else's Sneak attempt. Which ... I mean, it's doable, but it does mean that the NPCs will be doing most of the Thrilling stuff while the agents are on the sidelines playing keep-away. You could look at it as a kind of Dead By Daylight scenario where the agents are the Killer trying to keep the survivors from turning on the generators, and that kinda works, but if the NPCs get the spotlight moments while the agents get hosed, not by their own actions or even enemy actions but by the situation itself, you have to wonder whether that's a game you want to play.
Also, I can't help but think this is bound to become a very talky session as the players pore over maps and schematics arguing about the best way to defend against an attack, all the while ignoring their Preparedness pools. Or, at the other extreme, it becomes a game entirely about Preparedness pools while the Director reverses the improv principles and turns it into a 'yes, but' scenario. Lots of dice rolls, not much action. Either way, dull and frustrating for all concerned.
No, it may be better in this instance to have this as a classic Whodunnit mystery. In this situation the agents come on the scene after the Sneak attempt has already successfully taken place. The NPCs got away with the McGuffin. The question is, who were they? Followed closely by, where are they now? Do they still have the stuff and, if not, who does?
The obvious plotline here is the theft of the legendary Dracula Dossier, but really it could be any kind of McGuffin so long as the agents and NPCs all agree that it's valuable stuff.
That’s it for this week! Enjoy.
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