Assets

Asset is the industry term for contacts, allies, support staff, friends, family, coworkers, and any other people in an Agent’s life. Going into the game you may have a couple of people with whom your character has a pre-existing relationship. Assets are specifically people you exploit in the field. If you keep your wife in the dark about what you do, she’s not an Asset. Only the people you use in your work are Assets. Don’t worry about creating very many, you can always make people your character meets after play begins into assets.

Assets are always written on your sheet as a Name, Relationship and Rank; Marty: Handler 3, Mr. Jones: CIA Informant 1, Mark Spenser: Con Man 4, and “Whitenoise”: Another Agent? 2 are all examples of Assets. Assets, like everything else, have Ranks that grant bonus dice for any dealings you have with that Asset or when using that Asset in some way. The ranks represent bribes, favors, blackmail, or any other means of using that person. Whenever you make a roll with an Asset trait everyone on the team that Asset is aware of has that Asset’s Rank decrease by 1. You can always buy it back up later, but don’t be surprised if there ends up being some resentment down the line.

A note of clarification, Agents can share Assets. Each Agent has a separate Rank but can be effected by other Agents. Whenever an Asset is used, its relationship with every Agent that the Asset is aware of on the same team goes down one Rank. This is loosely defined intentionally, as many Agents prefer to keep their Assets in the dark. Still, a clever Asset may piece together that you work with Jeremy and Jeremy’s been a real jerk to him.

As a general rule, Agents don’t treat Assets very well. You don’t have time to wine and dine them. Sometimes you use less than favorable means of gaining their cooperation. While there are some Agents who generally look out for their Asset’s well-being those are the exceptions to the rule. It’s expensive to keep your Assets happy. Remember that Assets are people who the Agent uses to get what they need, nothing more. Say it with me, “An asset is a tool to be use. An asset is a tool to be used. An asset is a tool to be used.”

There are a couple of situations in which an Agent might find himself using his Assets. The most common is when dealing with that Asset directly. You need them to do something for you and you push them into it. Assets, typically, don’t willingly go along with an Agent’s plans. Whenever an Agent makes a non-combat roll against an Asset he can choose to roll additional dice equal to that Asset’s Rank. Regardless of the results of the roll the Asset’s Rank decreases by one.

There is a way to use Assets indirectly as well. If you have an Asset that has a Relationship that might be useful in the current situation you may roll that Asset’s Rank. After the roll the Asset’s Rank decreases by one, like normal. What exactly merits using an Asset is for Operations to determine, but generally if the Relationship would lend itself to being useful at the time it’s a go. Maybe you know a locksmith who can walk you through picking a lock that you call or maybe you remember a vital piece of information your CIA Informant gave you. Remember, Operations has final say on if an Asset is currently useful.

Now that we know how Assets work we need to talk about creating new Assets. Assets are, in many ways, NPCs. In combat situations they may be Everyone Else or they may be treated as Other Agents. In the case of an Asset being treated as an Other Agent their Agent TN and Agent Rank are not, in any way, effected by their Asset Rank. These are completely separate statistics. Also, unless Operations says otherwise, you can not roll an Asset’s Rank against that Asset in combat situations.

All NPCs, Assets included, start with Three Things. When an Agent creates a new Asset we have a process that turns the Three Things over to the players. First, they spend an Agent Point to start the process.  Then the creating player is allowed to define the NPC’s basic information: (Name, Gender, Ethnicity, Profession, etc) and then they cite One of the Three Things. Just one. They get full reign at this point. Operations can say no, but I urge against it. Instead ask the player “Why?” Try to figure out what the player was trying to get out of it and work with them. If Operations has to say no, return the Agent Point to the creating Agent. If you have to say no, then it shouldn’t cost the Agent anything.

Once your creating Agent has decided on the basics and given the first Thing everyone else has a chance to offer suggestions. These eventually become the other two things. The creating player collects the suggestions, writing them down if he needs to, then picks his favorite two. Maybe he combines ideas from a couple of source or maybe he takes one of them verbatim from another player. It doesn’t matter because those become the other Two Things. Then the creating player decided who gets rewarded. Two players get rewarded for contributing facts that get used. Each player then gets the same amount of points that the creating player spent. Typically it is if a player’s suggestion is used but sometimes the creating player might reward someone for a good inspiring idea. Again Operations has veto power over these Things but they must pay back out if they just say no.

This last step is exceptionally important. Operations then writes down the Three Things, adding appropriate interpretation where needed. There might be questions that don’t need to be answered, but Operations is always allowed to fill in the blanks. Remember that if you change a Thing too much you might need to pay out extra.

A special note for Operations, Assets tend to make up a large amount of the NPCs in the game. We suggest keeping a reverse master list of Agent Assets for use in the game. On a sheet of paper write down Marty: Jacob’s Handler 3, Mr. Jones: Mike’s CIA Informant 1, Mark Spenser: Pauls’ Con Man 4, and “Whitenoise”: Bryan’s Enemy Agent 2. And remember to update these lists when an Agent looses a Rank in that Asset.