Spycraft

Spycraft is a game that started out in the d20 craze, and is still pretty cool. Unlike a lot of d20 games, Spycraft abandoned the whole fantasy background, and decided to go with another area entirely - the spy game. It's for everyone who ever watched a James Bond movie, or a movie like the Bourne films, Sneakers, Spy Games, or any number of other movies based on the espionage industry. Like d20, the game uses the six primary attributes - Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma, but after that it swerves away from the D&D character. you get to pick your character's Origin - which consists of two parts, picking a Talent and then pickign a Specialty - which replace the normal race selection of a D&D game, and then you get to pick a class. These classes aren't the typical D&D classes; they are created specially for Spycraft. They consist of the Advocate, the Explorer, the Faceman, the Hacker, the Intruder, the Pointman, the Scientist, the Scout, the Sleuth, the Snoop, the Soldier, and the Wheelman. Most of those are somewhat self-explanatory; they cover most of the general archetypes you see used in spy movies and similar media. So, let's create a character based on this stuff.

First, we'll use point-buy to buy our stats; this is the old 3rd Edition point-buy system, so we have 36 points. I'll spend 6 points to get Strength 12, 11 points to get Dexterity 15, 3 points for Constitution 11, 8 points for Intelligence 14, and 8 points for Charisma 14. since my highest attributes are Dexterity and Charisma, I'll aim for the Wheelman class. For Origin, I'll take the Daring Talent, which gives me +2 Dex, -2 Int, +1 to initiative checks, and +1 to action die results. For Specialty, I'll take Hot Rodder; it grants the Lane Dancer bonus feat, the Drive (Standard Ground Vehicles) skill focus, 1 forte relating to that focus, and a +1 bonus to Drive and Streetwise checks. So, the character will start to look like this:

Johnny Rocket
Origin: Daring Hot-Rodder
Class: Wheelman
Stats
Str: 12, Dex: 17, Con: 11, Int: 12, Wis: 8, Cha: 14

Skills: Drive 8, Electronics 5, Impress 6, Mechanics 5, Notice 4, Security 5, Streetwise 6

Saves
Fort: +0, Reflex: +5, Will: +0, Def: +1

Initiative: +5

Base Attack bonus: +1

Vitality: 8 (1d10 + Con bonus)

Wealth: 1

Gear: 1V

Core Ability
Driven: Each time you spend 1 action point to boost a Maneuver or Mechanics/Repair check, roll and add the results of 2 dice; also, when you suffer an error with a Maneuver or Mechanics/Repair check, the GC must spend 1 additional action point to make it a critical failure.

Class Abilities
Daredevil: At level 1, gain the Daredevil feat as a bonus feat
Custom Ride: Choose Vehicle gear picks as if the current mission Caliber were 1 higher

Feats: Daredevil, Lane Dancer, Defensive Driving

Johnny started out as a street racer, but because of his natural Charisma and skill, he got recruited by the Agency. Now he is the go-to guy for getaways, because he is a wizard with cars, bikes, and anything else that goes on land.

There are other options for characters, and other bits I haven't covered, like equipment, but that's all a little much for an entry like this. I'll likely be doing another entry tonight, as well, to make up for missing yesterday.