The blazing action continues with Mike Stackpole’s 1983 adventure RPG, Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes (MSPE). It started life as a simple “present dayification” of the Tunnels & Trolls ruleset but by the time it was saw daylight as its own game it had become a complete & distinct entity unto itself. It remains an invaluable resource for anyone running the title genres; indeed, I’d say its advice on writing mystery adventures remains unsurpassed.

Unlike Haven & Extreme Vengeance, the action in MSPE is more of the slow building tension climaxing in an explosion of slaughter (à la The Dogs of War) rather than the “moar shoot!!!” rain of casings school. That’s largely due to how character health & gun damage works. In MSPE as in T&T, your Con score is the amount of damage you can take before dying. The average starting PC’s CON is 11. So’s the average damage dealt out by the commonest pistol. In other words, a single bullet is likely all it’ll take to put your character down for the dirt nap, or at the very least in the hospital for weeks. Think long & very hard before you pull that trigger!

To generate stats, roll 3d6. If they come up all 6s, roll 2d6 more & add that total. (Those don’t explode even if you get boxcars.)

Strength (ST) 5
Luck (LK) 15
Intelligence (IQ) 9
Dexterity (DEX) 8
Constitution (CON) 13
Charisma (CHR) 11
Speed (SP) 9

Well now.

That’s not optimal for fighting in many, many ways. The ST of 5 is our biggest hurdle. Not only is it the stat that determines damage dealt in melee & how much you can lift, but it’s what’s lost to the effect of poison or drugs. The merest whiff of a toxin is likely to lay this person out. It also has some unfortunate effects on their fighting ability.

Combat in MSPE is extremely simple. Each combatant rolls a number of dice equal to their level of training in fighting, plus their Combat Adds. High total wins & deals the difference between the rolls in damage to the loser. Here’s the unfortunate part: you get a Combat Add for every point of ST, LK & DEX above 12 – & a Combat Minus for every point below 9. In this case, that’s -4 for ST, +3 for LK, & -1 for DEX. Our hero’s Combat Adds come out to … -2. Fortunately Missile Adds depend solely on LK (since DEX is what the skill roll is based on), so at least they’re not a terrible shot: +3 Missile Adds.

Our character begins at level 1.

Now we pick skills & immediately run into another problem. PCs have one skill point to spend for every point of IQ. So far so good. The thing is, every skill has at least an IQ prerequisite – some have prerequisites in other stats as well – & the majority of skills require an IQ of at least 10. We’ve got nine points to spend, but little to spend it on!

Chic 2
Fast Driving 2
Firearms – Revolver 1
Firearms – Rifle 1
Motorcycle 1
Pugilism 1
Tracking 1

Although I didn’t see it explicitly spelled out in the rules, the character sheet in the back of the book has Cooking, Driving & Swimming at 1 pre-printed. I guess the presumption at the time was that those were common enough life skills that everyone could be assumed to have them, regardless of whether they met any prerequisites. When making a skill check, you add the level of the skill to the roll. Skills level independently of the character, so you can either spend your Adventure Points (MSPE’s XP) to raise your personal level, which nets you two more points to put into your stats, or raise the level of a skill.

There are also six psychic skills for those who want something along the lines of Millennium, Profiler, or the classic CBC mystery-comedy Seeing Things. Let’s stick to a strictly mundane setting here though.

The high LK combined with mediocre IQ & DEX strongly suggests that we’re dealing with some sort of comic detective here, one who stumbles onto the solution to the case by accident, toughing it through beatings, falls, & other miscellaneous accidents on the way thanks to their slightly above average CON. The Chic skill is a portmanteau of not just style but ability to pass for a high roller. Combine that with the rather limited repertoire of other skills available & we’ve got someone who’s starting to look like the Face in an unholy blend of Leverage & Logan Lucky.

Moore McGeehan
Age: 22
Employment: racer & grifter

ST 5, LK 15, IQ 9, DEX 8, CON 13, CHR 11, SP 9

Combat Adds: -2, Missile Adds: +3, Level 1

Physical Description & Background:
Moore’s ambition to follow virtually his entire high school graduating class into the army was thwarted by his complete inability to put on muscle. Arms & legs scrawny as bread ties, the poor boy’s so thin he’s near invisible if you come at him from the side. What he did have was guts, charm, & determination. He might not be able to haul a deer carcass out of the woods, but he could shave off one of its eyebrows with a .30-30 at two hundred yards, stay awake & alert for hours at a stretch, & trudge through the most tangled forest without tiring. From amateur dirt track he progressed to the upper echelons of the local illegal street racing circuits, displaying a knack for code shifting between social strata that smoothed his way to the more rarified heights where serious money changed hands. When other racers were wrecking or getting snatched up by the State Police, Moore was forever escaping disaster thanks to twists of fate that verged on the ludicrous. It was that combination of reliable blind luck, skill behind the wheel, & ability to mingle with a broad range of social classes that attracted the attention of … well, call him a coordinator. Someone who finds people with unusual talents & a flexible mindset, then gives them the opportunity to help out people who are hard on their luck. You know. When they need just a little, oh, let’s say equalization.

Skills
Chic 2
Fast Driving 2
Firearms – Revolver 1
Firearms – Rifle 1
Motorcycle 1
Pugilism 1
Tracking 1
Cooking 1
Driving 1
Swimming 1