Do you love Role Playing Games, but have trouble getting a group together and organized?
Steam Spy is Card Game based Role Playing game for two players. It combines the immersive nature of a traditional role playing game with the random unpredictability of a card game. Players create a character that they use to pair off against their fellow players using cards to randomize and manipulate the circumstances.
The game takes place in a Victorian era steam punk universe full of espionage; with all of the action and twists of your favorite spy movie, but surrounded by the clunky, clockwork machinations of steam powered technology. The industrial age creates a perfect background for the development of corporate espionage.
Players represent rival intelligence agencies. Neither is necessarily “good” or “bad”, motivation and morality is relative. But one of the agencies is up to something and it’s up to the other agency to stop them. Players take on the roles of “Antagonist” and “Protagonist”; the Antagonist is the player responsible for setting the scene and tone of the adventure and sets actions in motion that the Protagonist is responsible for reacting to.
Although there are similarities between the Antagonist and a traditional RPG Game Master, the game does not require any more set up than putting out the cards, dice, paper and pencils. Although it’s possible for the Antagonist to flesh out a more detailed environment and motivation for a given scenario, it’s just as possible to come up with the details on the fly, making Steam Spy a perfect option for a spur of the moment, one on one role playing experience.
Credits
- Creator and Artist: Mark Mekkes