Mar 7, 2021
At Total Con 35, which had an espionage focus, I ran a hack of TSR's Top Secret: New World Order. My goal was to run it in the style of TV's Mission: Impossible. I wanted to include the briefing scene, a preview of the mission, and then the mission itself. This meant the characters should start the mission knowing what is going on and what they have to do. It was a bit rough but Bill and I discuss how to make it better. The episode runs at approximately 40 minutes. If you're interested, here is the mission the characters received at the start of the game (you'll have to imagine the accompanying images):
Greetings, Agent.
This man is Orest Doroshenko, a physicist with the Ukrainian National Academy of Science. Doroshenko’s wife and two children were killed in the accidental downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 by Iranian air defense forces.
We have learned that through the black market, Doroshenko has acquired a radiological thermal generator formerly used to power automated lighthouses on the northern coast of the erstwhile Soviet Union. If removed from its lead casing, the strontium 90 powering the generator poses a hazard to any exposed to its radiation. Reliable sources indicate that Doroshenko has smuggled the generator into Iran and intends to use the strontium 90 material as a component in a radiation dispersion device, or dirty bomb. In addition to immediate and long-term casualties, such an act would almost certainly lead to retaliatory acts and war in the region and beyond. We cannot let that happen. We also cannot let the radiological material fall into Iranian hands because the head of Iranian secret intelligence, General Jamshid Rostami, has strong links to known terrorist organizations acting against our interests in the region. Your mission is to prevent Doroshenko from carrying out his plan and ensuring that the radiological material does not fall into Iranian hands. As always, should you be caught or killed, the Secretariat will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck.