Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes
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| Designer(s) | Michael A. Stackpole |
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| Publisher(s) | 1st edition, Blade (division of Flying Buffalo); 2nd edition, Sleuth Publications |
| Publication date | 1st edition, April 1983; 2nd edition, 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Detective, Espionage |
| System(s) | custom Tunnels and Trolls derivative |
Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes (MSPE) is a tabletop role-playing game designed and written by Michael A. Stackpole and first published in April 1983 by Blade, a division of Flying Buffalo, Inc. A second edition was later published by Sleuth Publications, but Flying Buffalo continues to distribute the game. MSPE's mechanics are based on those of Tunnels and Trolls, with the addition of a skill system for characters. A few adventure modules were also released for MSPE. The ruleset of 1987 video game Wasteland, on which Michael A. Stackpole worked, is based on MSPE; as the upcoming 2013 sequel Wasteland 2 will use similar mechanics, so it too can be seen as based on MSPE.
In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes as one of The Millennium's Most Underrated Games. Editor Scott Haring described the game as "one of those 'I can't figure out why it wasn't more popular' kind of games, though publisher Flying Buffalo has had enough of those ... to make me think there may be a connection."
MSPE determines character attributes by random roll. Skills are purchased for the character by the player using Skill Points. Skills are available in multiple levels, but skill cost goes up exponentially as the level of the skill increases.
The core game mechanic of MSPE is the Saving Throw. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons' saving throws, those in MSPE are not used solely to escape danger. Instead, the MSPE saving throw is an attribute roll. The Gamemaster determines the difficulty of the saving throw, and the player then rolls two six-sided dice and adds the value of the relevant attribute of his/her character. MSPE saving throws can also be modified by skills, in which case the level of the skill being used is also added.
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