Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes

This is an account of my first attempt at the solo adventure The Case of the Pacific Clipper by Dave Arneson written for use with Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes™ by Michael Stackpole. I need to tell you right off the bat that, while this is an older game, it is still being sold by Flying Buffalo, as is this adventure book. Read no further if you have any intentions of playing this adventure yourself. However, if you are curious about just how bad a player I can be, read on and you’ll not be disappointed! But before I start in on recounting the play itself, let me give you a little background on my personal history with this particular game.

A few years ago I became interested in role playing games (no, not those kind, the kind you play with paper, pencil and a few oddly shaped dice!). As I started playing, first GURPS™, then Dungeons & Dragons™ I got interested in older games and games that weren’t fantasy based. One of the genres in which I am always interested is spy stories. I’m also interested in pulp fiction. I guess early exposure to Bill Barnes and his airmen hooked me on that. So I started collecting old games more as a collecting hobby than as a player. MSPE was only one of many games that I acquired over a short period of time. I looked through it and put it on the shelf with dozens and dozens of other games.

Fast forward to the present. In my never-ending quest for reading material while traveling on business, I chance to pick up Tunnels & Trolls 7th Edition™. When I read through the rules I was quite taken with the simplicity and presentation. The tone was light and fun which hit me like a breath of fresh air after laboring to learn lots of detailed rules in the two afore mentioned fantasy games. As I did my usual web search for additional material and as I collected several out of print solo and guided adventures, I discovered that T&T has a modern variant—you guessed it: Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes™!

I quickly sought out and acquired almost everything that was printed for MSPE which includes the solo adventure: Mugshots #1: The Case of the Pacific Clipper, Mugshots #2: Taking Care of Business, The Adventure of the Jade Jaguar, and the guided adventure Stormhaven. The only thing I’m missing is the Raid on Rajallapour solo adventure. These sat on my bookshelf until this weekend. I’m preparing for yet another business trip and with a convention to go to in a couple of months, I don’t want to spend too much money while I’m gone. I’ve decided to take MSPE with me and try out this solo adventuring. People with whom I’ve spoken, have praised Tunnels & Trolls™ solos, after all. Since I also had some appointments to keep this weekend that were going to keep me from painting the figures I need for the convention, I thought I’d take a few minutes to collect the materials that I’ll need and take a moment to look through them.


That quick look, turned into playing a couple of turns which turned into a short game (I told you I’m not very good at this yet!). So here is the game that I played—as short as it was. The basic structure of these solo adventures is based on “paragraphs”. A passage in the story has a number, tells a bit of the story (including combat and skill tests), and presents options which will lead to other paragraphs. Success or failure determines which options, if any, you may select.


The prologue to the adventure describes the Eureka detective agency in San Francisco where I work. The phone rings; it’s Mr. Grooch of Pan Global Airways seeking to employ an investigator for the airline. I elected to meet with Mr. Grooch to find out more about the job he wanted done. After taking the ferry to Oakland an then a trolley to Alameda, I arrived at the Pan Global offices.


Ushered into Mr. Grooch’s office, he explained how several mysterious incidents had occurred involving Pan Global Airways flying boats in the Pacific over the past year. The latest incident was the disappearance of one of the airline’s employees on Midway island. Mr. Grooch asked me to find out everything that I could and then get on the next flight to Midway. His secretary provided me with dossiers on the passengers and crew which I read and digested in short order.
I then decided to nose around the sea plane base for awhile. I was admitted to the base by the guard and tool up a position where I was able to observe the clipper. After a couple of hours, I saw two men slip past the guard and disappear into the plane.


Following them, I climbed the ladder (a level 1 Luck roll) to the flight deck where I saw the two men tinkering with navigation console. Unfortunately they see me too. I try to get the jump on them but fail (level 2 Speed roll) to get the free attack. They both jump me. One of the brutes is pretty good with his fists (Pugilism skill 1 add) and has brass knuckles (2D6 + 3 adds) while the other has a rather large wrench (aka, club 3D6 plus 1 add). This means that these mooks will be rolling 5D6 + 5 adds. I’m defending myself with only my fists (1D6) plus my personal Hand to Hand adds of +7. This one-sided fight goes very badly and the bad guys end up scoring a total of 27 to my paltry 11. The difference is taken from my CON (which was 16) leaving 0.
The game ends with the case unsolved and my body being discovered floating in San Francisco bay.


This whole experience occurred in eleven paragraphs and it only took about 15-20 minutes to actually play. Of course, there was the time needed to look up the rules on combat to make sure I got it right and the time to generate the character. All together, though, the time spent was about an hour.

I guess the most surprising thing about the game is how I was drawn into the story from the beginning. Even though I failed miserably, at my first attempt, I can’t wait to get to my hotel room tomorrow night and have another crack at it. I’m also impressed with the combat. In truth, it was so quick and simple that it doesn’t get in the way of the story and there’s virtually no pause to figure out who did what to whom. That’s my first impression, anyhow. I only had one skill test and one combat. After I play again, I will have a much better idea about how the game mechanics play.


As for the adventure, I can say that the writing and presentation are top notch! Besides the solo adventure, it also contains a GM section including stats for the NPCs, maps, and GM guidance. Solo players are warned not to read that section if they intend to play the game, so I haven’t. After I have a couple of cracks at this solo, I’ll read that section as this adventure plot has all the makings for a great GM guided game.