THE POLICY OF TRUTH This game is about two people engaged in antagonist roles. One player, the AGENT, acts as the State’s most devout servant. The other player, the SPYMASTER, has the sole role to push the Agent to perform as much as humanly possible as a test to see if they are truly loyal to the State. Regardless of the Agent’s suffering. After all, the security of a nation is in the balance. Imagine the tone and pace of a gritty John Le Carre novel rather than an action and gadget-packed James Bond or Jason Bourne movie. These are real people making real choices than can affect their lives and the lives of those around them. Players Note: this is an adult game that deals with some sensitive issues. It is absolutely necessary to have a conversation before starting to play. Every player gets a chance to note what is off the table for this game. If someone doesn’t want to see sexual violence “on screen”, or any physical torture at all for instance, then you should all agree those things will not happen. There is no negotiation here. Everyone should be primed to explore deep issues, but also to have a good time. X-Card: Take a card and write a large letter X in the middle. Place it in the middle of the table. Explain that anyone at any time who is feeling uncomfortable can pick that card and hold it up silently. That is a sign to instantly stop the scene and give the holder of the X-Card the talking stick. They can explain what is feeling them uncomfortable, or simply shake their head and say “I’m not feeling comfortable with this”. This is not the start of a conversation or a debate. Everyone else at the table should be supportive and ask what would make them feel more comfortable right now. This is your chance to be sensitive to your fellow gamers, regardless of why they might be feeling uncomfortable. Just do it. Rules of Play: -Brainstorm -Choose Goal -Choose Vices -Create Paths -Evocative Phrase cards -Personality Trait cards -Job cards -Temptations for 1st Scene -Run 1st scene -Run 2nd scene -Run Truth or Interrogation scene -Take a break -Run 3rd scene -Run 4th scene -Endgame Both players brainstorm together the setting of the story they will tell. The default setting is West Berlin in 1959, but choose whatever location and era you are excited about. Some other good tension filled settings are: Mexico City in 1963, Lebanon in 1982, or Kabul in 2002. Don’t worry about getting the historical details right. Just paint with a broad brush, and concentrate on making the personal details of the story interesting. The Spymaster chooses a GOAL for the Agent. It must be something of importance for the Spymaster to achieve, and it’s best if the goal is slightly out of reach. The agent is just a normal person with some training in basic spy craft like shadowing and dead drops. So they aren’t going to be assassinating anyone. But it should be something that very much puts the Agent at risk. It could be trying to turn a target into a double agent, or manipulating a target to betray a loved one. If it’s something object-related like stealing secret plans, it needs to have a very personal component to it. The Policy of Trust is not about things, but about people and relationships. Vices, Paths and Temptations will all show themselves through the personalities and actions of people. And preferably those close to the Agent. When in doubt, make it personal! The Spymaster is omniscient for the purposes of this game. Practically it could mean a series of audio bugs, loyal informants or even sensor cameras. But nothing is kept from the Spymaster. Both players choose three VICES for the Agent. They can be anything expressible in just one word, like selfish, greedy, vain... The Spymaster picks one, the Agent another and the Spymaster the last. It’s the committing of Misdeeds related to these Vices that must prevent the Agent from accomplishing the Goal. The Spymaster breaks the Goal into four PATHS, each as a way to achieve the Goal, along with great challenges to reaching success in each path. The Spymaster write a title for each Path providing the story’s plot already known by both Before starting the first scene, each player should take 3-4 cards and write down a short phrase that is evocative to them based on the premise that they would like to see in play. In 1959 West Berlin you might have cards like “Dancehall crowded with GIs”, “Chain-smoking audio surveillance man” or “Spotlit puddle in a dank alley”. Then each player will take 3-4 cards and write down a one or two word personality trait, like “itinerate”, “aspiring”, “lovestruck” or uncooperative”. These will generally not change that much based on the game setting. Finally, each player will take 3-4 cards and write down one job title. This may be the person’s cover position, so it will never say “spy” or “citizen”, but instead “baker’s assistant”, “diplomat”, “leather worker” or “radio electrician”. Make them relevant to the game setting. The Spymaster will shuffle each set of cards and place them face down on the table in three separate stacks. Whenever she needs a scene idea or location, or an NPC, she can draw the necessary cards. Using them now or saving them for later. These shouldn’t be used as a constraint, but only to help throw some good ideas into the mix. The Spymaster offers a general description of the first Scene, detailing its challenge and environment and creating four TEMPTATIONS that are hidden from the Agent. These are loosely defined causal rules for determining the Agent’s actions. Their structure is: “If [cause] then [effect]” [cause] and [effect] each get replaced by a single word with the general feeling of an event. This should be something like “if fight then pride” or “if intimacy then insecurity”. It’s not necessary that the sentence makes sense. No Temptation is likely to result in a meaningful sentence. In the course of playing the game, they will become grammatically correct.]] The four Temptations must be written by the Spymaster on separate cards that will remain secretly held by her. The Agent will develop the first Scene trying to achieve the Goal. He has complete freedom to define what happens in the story. However, he must be aware of not falling into the Temptations. Since they are unknown, constant vigilance is necessary. After all, the Spymaster’s ways are tricky, and the State’s surveillance will know of their Agent’s Misdeeds. Whenever the story results in a situation that fits the general idea of the Cause of any Temptation, the Spymaster can reveal her Card and take the Scene’s narrative control. At this point, the Agent doesn’t have any control of his own actions. The Agent’s will is no longer free. The Spymaster must continue the story consistently with what was so far presented by the Agent. This continues until the story is no longer related to the Effect of the Temptation used to take the narrative control. This is an opportunity for the Spymaster to show the Effect of this Temptation as an expression of any of the Agent’s three Vices. Whenever this happens, she marks one MISTRUST POINT. Her intervention in the story much also lead to hindering the Agent’s accomplishment of the Goal, as a consequence of the performed action. The Temptation Card returns to the Spymaster’s hand and can be reused. Narrative control returns to the Agent to continue the story, consist with what was added by the Spymaster. He must keep struggling to accomplish the Goal according to the Scene’s Path. If he manages to do so, the game ends and the Agent has gained the Spymaster’s Trust and wins. Any time after the Agent has added a complete sentence to the story, the Spymaster can discard two Temptation Cards to write a new one. However, she must wait until the Agent adds two new sentences to the story before using any Card. The the Agent hasn’t won: Steps x and y are repeated for each of the following three Scenes. At any time, if the Spymaster has summed up more than ten Mistrust Points, the game ends and she is the winner. Otherwise: The Negotiation takes place. The Spymaster discusses with the Agent’s Handler how trustful the Agent was while performing Misdeeds. The Agent now plays as the Handler. He must defend the Agent’s conducts with arguments supporting each Misdeed as the Agent’s support of the State, i.e. the circumstances were so tough that he was obliged to do that. The Spymaster must defend the opposite; that this Misdeed was the Agent being disloyal to the State. Each time the Handler convinces the Spymaster of the Agent’s loyalty in a Misdeed, the Spymaster loses one Mistrust Point. If the Spymaster ends the game with four or less Mistrust points, she loses. But five or more Mistrust Points means that the Spymaster has uncovered the Agent’s disloyalty to the State, and cannot be further trusted. Between the second the third scenes is an extra scene. If X is equal to or higher than Y, this will be a Truth scene where the Spymaster’s people test the Agent to see how loyal they have been. The Spymaster will setup the scene. Is this taking place in a comfy office with a dose of Sodium Pentothal? Or a cramped basement with a sweaty detective and a polygraph machine clicking away? The Spymaster’s job is to catch the Agent in a lie by asking probing and conflicting questions. The Agent’s job is to tell the complete truth as he knows it, regardless of how difficult it may be. Once the Truth scene is setup and the scene starts, set a timer to exactly three minutes. Once the timer goes off, the Spymaster will ask one final question. After the Truth scene, the Spymaster will reassess the Agent’s loyalty and make any necessary adjustments for the final two scenes. If X is below Y, than this will be a true Interrogation by the Opposition. The Spymaster will describe what the setup is like. Is this a “friendly we just want a chat with you” scene with more soft power and manipulation? Or is the Agent getting taken to a black site, hood over their head, for an unfriendly visit? The Opposition’s job is to get a piece of information from the Agent, or an admission. Of course the Opposition has a complete dossier on the Agent, including who they know and what their Vices are. The Opposition will use the Agent’s Vices against them to achieve their ends. The Agent’s job in an interrogation is to lie, cajole, beg or whatever is necessary to not give that thing up that the Opposition wants. Once the scene is setup and the interrogation starts, set a timer to exactly two minutes. Once the timer goes off, the interrogation is over. After the Interrogation scene, the Opposition will assess whether or not they trust the Agent once they set him loose again. Will they give him more rope? Or pull him tighter in? When the Truth or Interrogation scene is done, get up from the table and take a five or ten minute break. This game can get intense, and it’s important to have an opportunity to let go of your characters and relate as friends and human beings again. That way you will be ready to dive back in and get even messier for the rest of the game! The Policy of Truth can be played with a third or even a fourth person in one of two ways: 1. The extra person(s) will act as any needed NPCs during a scene, which will happen quite a bit. They can also act as impartial arbitrators during Interrogation/Truth/Negotiation scenes. 2. The roles of Spymaster and Agent can rotate around the table between scenes, with the extra person(s) acting as NPC’s as described above.