Spies & Betrayal

[Lord Zash]

Hi all,

have you dealt with spies and betrayal in your campaigns?


My campaign has an overarching theme of returning home from exile and regain control of what was once lost.

It's been very stablished that both of their characters are some of the highest paid bounties in the sector and definitely in their planet which has a strong blockade by the Empire.


In our last adventure both characters started being prisoners. I introduced a native character from the planet both my characters come from. She is like a smuggler with some dodgy contacts in the underworld. After some dealings she ended up captive to a local mafia boss. She helped them escape and obviously she's clearly recognised who both of my main protagonists are. She is sassy, slightly rude, hands on whatever job needs to be done... although like all my NPCs tends to become a bit of a shadow when tagging alone my 2 main protagonists because the campaign is all about my players!

Anyway, I want her to be like a double agent. Probably working (maybe against her will?) for the enemy house that currently controls the planet. This is kind of like in Dune (Harkonnen vs Atreides).

Obviously there will be some point in the future in which she will have to betray my characters.


I want it to feel dramatic but not like I am punishing them.

I plan it to be a long con. She is not going to give any signs of working for the enemy for a long time and this campaign is going to last a while too. Maybe at some point they notice the enemy seems to know they are coming? or someone notices a secret transmission?


Anyway, have you done this in any of your campaigns? How did you handle it? How the players took it? Did they take it as punishment or they thought it was dramatic and a good story?

Obvs I don't want her to kill them out right. Maybe lure them into a trap or get them to the final boss and when they expect her to help she goes and closes a door crying because she has actually become good mates with them. Something like that....

[Raven Redstar]

I think if executed well, a betrayal at the right moment can build some really great drama in a game.

As for whether or not they get an inkling of whether or not it's coming, that should be up to your players, if they're openly suspicious, then give them chances to detect the betrayal at random times. If not, then just continue on as normal. I would have your double agent roll skill checks to avoid detection in between sessions, if she rolls really poorly, then perhaps have a clue left behind.

If you do have this NPC betray them, then don't be surprised if your players begin to distrust every single NPC you introduce from now until end of days, and not just in this campaign.

I like the idea of your double agent beginning to care for the characters, perhaps she rescues them after the big reveal, or at least helps them escape from their rival's dungeon or their execution or whatnot.

I've had double agents in my games, but never had it become known, the games never got that far.
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RR
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[Bren]

I've had double agents and have had them played on me. Handled well it works OK.

[Solo4114]

I'm working on a series of adventures that include one based on Where Eagles Dare, which itself involves....uh....a LOT of double agents. That's all I'll say so as not to spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it.

[Dredwulf60]

You can do a reverse-betrayal.

In my Sons of Anarchy inspired mandalorians game, one of the players met a woman who was working for the port authority of a planet. She seemed very interested in the player and they started up a relationship.

The bonus, from the player group's point of view is that they could use her as an asset in smuggling things through the space port.

Another player character had joined the group and he was an ex law enforcement officer who had fallen to the criminal lifestyle and joined the mandalorians.

When things seemed to be going badly for some of the groups criminal plans, they started suspecting a rat in the house. Naturally it made for drama because some of the NPCs in the clan began thinking that the new guy never really left the Sector Rangers and was working against them undercover.

Then when they left their ship to get some work done, the spaceship chop shop guys found a tracking beacon hidden in the superstructure.

The players believed that the new player wasn't a traitor, but had to defend him against the NPCs in their own clan...it came to a very dramatic head...

And then the woman from the port authority admitted that she was pressured into getting close to the clan in order to keep having access to her child. Even though the romance started as fiction...over time she admitted she genuinely fell in love with the player's character.

So there was some more drama after they figured out how to proceed. They then used her as a double-agent to execute a reverse-sting on the investigators that were setting up to arrest them at their next meeting with Black Sun.

It was pretty epic.

So...in summary, the players got spied on and betrayed...but it was a springboard for excellent roleplay and it was found out in time to turn things around for a big finale.

[Mamatried]

Seeing nothing but the title I would say I have both played in and ran several games of the type.

Most if not all game where you are imperial defectors of any kind is a betrayal story.

As to spies, well getting intel for a faction is espionage, no?

and yes I have played in a campaign where one of the players was an imperial double agent, he was able to betray the group, it was fun, one survived, formed a new group with this guy as now an npc antagonist an eventually got his revenge