TEXT:  
  InSpectres Startup Edition 
   
  By Jared A. Sorensen 
   
  What you are reading is the Start-up version of InSpectres, not the full game. This ver-
  sion is meant to give you a quick overview of the system and get you playing within 
  minutes. If you enjoy it, give the full version a shot. If not, then you can keep playing 
  the Startup version for as long as you like (or pass them onto a friend). 
   
  About the Game 
  InSpectres is a business that specializes in ghost hunting, vampire slaying and research 
  into various types of occult phenomena. Although there is public knowledge of the su-
  pernatural, normal folks aren’t prepared to deal with it themselves. That’s where your 
  characters come in. 
   
  You’ve just opened your own InSpectres franchise and you’re hungry for some new 
  business. You might be a little wet behind the ears and your equipment might be a little 
  out-dated…but you’re hoping for that one sweet score. After all, you have bills to pay. 
   
  Now, let’s get things started.  
   
  Creating an Agent 
  All InSpectres characters have the following four attributes: 
   
  Academics: researching information, remembering facts, casting spells. 
  Athletics: sweaty physical stuff requiring strength or agility (i.e.: fighting, shooting). 
  Technology: building, buying and using hi-tech gadgets (i.e.: computers, lasers). 
  Contact: persuasion, public speaking, interviewing clients, lying to people. 
   
  Start off by choosing 
  an agent from the 
  group on the right. 
   
  Each template is built 
  around a central con-
  cept (in this case, the 
  smart guy, the strong 
  guy, the techie and 
  the con artist).  
   
   
  Agents have a special ability (called a Talent) that gives them a bonus in certain areas. 
   
  To make your own template, just distribute 9 points between the four attributes 
  (minimum 1, maximum 4) and write down a Talent your agent possesses. This Talent 
  doesn’t need to correspond to any one Skill. An agent with the Talent: “Mechanic” would 
  gain a bonus die when fixing a truck, identifying  a car’s make and model, swinging a 
  monkey wrench in a fight or talking to fellow grease monkeys. 
   
  Agent Templates 
  Bookworm 
  Academics: 4 
  Athletics: 1 
  Technology: 2  
  Contact:  2 
   
  Talent: Library 
  Geek. +1 die 
  when using 
  books.  
  Hacker 
  Academics: 3 
  Athletics: 1 
  Technology:  4 
  Contact: 1 
   
  Talent: Computer 
  Geek. +1 die 
  when using com-
  puters. 
  Jock 
  Academics: 1 
  Athletics: 4 
  Technology: 2 
  Contact: 2 
   
  Talent: Strong. 
  +1 die when per-
  forming feats of 
  strength. 
  Face 
  Academics: 2 
  Athletics: 2 
  Technology: 1 
  Contact: 4 
   
  Bonus: Good-
  looking. +1 die 
  when flirting. 
  
  InSpectres: the Game System 
  Whenever you want to perform an action, you must roll a number of six-sided dice equal 
  to your skill rating. So if you need to make an Academics roll and you have an Academics 
  of 3, you’d roll three dice. If you have a Contact of 1 and you want to con someone, you 
  roll one die.  
   
  After you make this roll, find the highest number shown and check the Skill Chart: 
   
  Job Dice 
  Job Dice are a measure of how close the team is to completing their mission. The more Job 
  Dice your agents acquire, the closer they will be to the end of their mission.  
   
  When the mission is finally over (the problem has been solved and the requisite number of 
  Job Dice have been gained), the Job Dice are then given to the InSpectres team as pay-
  ment. 
   
  Stress 
  Stress occurs when your character is angered, scared, tired or injured. When this happens, 
  the Game Master will have the stressed character roll between one die (for common, low-
  key stressors) and five dice (for mind-shattering experiences and severe injuries). 
   
  After the Stress dice have been rolled, find the lowest result and look it up on the Stress 
  Roll Chart. 
  Once a skill has been reduced to 0, use of that skill automatically fails. 
   
  6 
  Amazing! 
  Describe the result and gain two Job Dice. 
  5 
  Good 
  Describe the result and gain one Job Die. 
  4 
  Okay 
  Describe the result — you must provide a negative or humorous effect but 
  the overall result should be positive. 
  3 
  Mediocre 
  Describe the result — you may include a positive aspect but the overall re-
  sult must  be negative. 
  2 
  Pretty bad 
  The GM decides your fate or you may suggest something suitably negative. 
  1 
  Terrible! 
  The GM gets to hose you or you may suggest something suitably dire for 
  yourself. 
  Skill Roll Chart 
  6 
  Too Cool 
  Restore a die to any penalized skill. 
  5 
  Blasé 
  No effects…you just don’t care. 
  4 
  Annoyed 
  Suffer a 1-die penalty to your next skill roll  
  (no matter when or where you perform it). 
  3 
  Stressed 
  Lose a die from an appropriate skill. 
  2 
  Frazzled 
  Lose two dice from an appropriate skill (or one die from two skills)  
  1 
  Mental  
  Breakdown 
  Lose a number of skill dice equal to the number of Stress dice rolled. 
  Stress Roll Chart 
  
  Confessionals 
  During any scene, you have the option of “stepping into the Confessional” and breaking up 
  the action with your character’s thoughts and feelings. It’s the only time your character 
  can “speak” to the players (and not their characters) and it gives you free rein to introduce 
  new story elements or plot complications. You can foreshadow events and then play them 
  out during the game or “jump ahead” in time and describe something that has yet to hap-
  pen in the game (but happened in the character’s past). The only hard and fast rules for 
  Confessionals are these: 
   
  •
  Players must address the other players as if on camera (i.e.: use first-person). 
  •
  Confessionals should always add; never negate or detract from the game. 
  •
  Only one player can give a Confessional per scene. 
   
  Jobs 
  All InSpectres games (“jobs”) break down into a series of events, much like the formula 
  that many television shows use. They are: 
   
  Client Interview 
  This will usually consist of some (or all) of the characters asking a prospective client about 
  their particular problem. Such an interview is usually meant to "kick off" the story. In most 
  cases, the client will contact the InSpectres and set up a meeting with them. Most often 
  this is at the InSpectres' headquarters but a client who wishes to avoid public scrutiny 
  (because of their position or fame) may decide to hold the interview in their home, in a 
  restaurant or in an abandoned graveyard at the stroke of midnight. 
   
  It’s important to note that when the client explains his problem to the team, it isn’t neces-
  sarily accurate information. The client could be confused by the problem (after all, he’s not 
  a professional and wouldn’t know the difference between a vampire and a dhampyr, 
  right?). The client might be not telling the whole story – or he might even be hiding some-
  thing. This is just a kind of jumping-off point, and what happens in the Investigation phase 
  is usually what pins down the source of the problem. 
   
  The GM should come up with a maximum number of Job Dice needed for the mission. 
  When the players acquire this number, the mission is successfully completed. For an easy 
  mission, ten Job Dice are all that’s needed. A tougher job warrants around twenty Job Dice 
  and a truly difficult mission requires thirty or more Job Dice. 
   
  Investigation 
  This is a very important phase and a great time to start hitting those books and using your 
  Academics skill. Talk to the client, interview witnesses, search public records, investigate 
  the site of the problem and for god's sake -- take notes! 
   
  This is also where InSpectres gets a little kooky. 
   
  You see, the person running the game (the GM) doesn't necessarily know what's causing 
  all the problems. Through a combination of GM-player interaction, roleplaying, problem 
  solving and quick wits, YOU (the players) can try and "figure out" what the problem is that 
  you're all facing. The GM will then secretly roll the appropriate dice (usually Academics or 
  Contacts, sometimes Technology if you're using your expensive toys to do the work for 
  you) and that will determine whether you're "right" or not.  
   
  Which brings us to... 
  
  Jobs (cont.) 
   
  Action! 
  Time for those death-defying stunts and by-seat-of-the-pants thrills and chills! Your #1 
  skill roll is going to be Athletics, with lots of Technology and Stress rolls to liven things up. 
  This is the part of the job where you go in and kick butt. 
   
  Cleaning Up 
  To finish the mission, the players need to acquire a certain number of Job Dice. Once this 
  number is reached, they may finish the job and get paid. If the characters continue to 
  make skill rolls, they only stand to lose Job Dice if they roll poorly – they cannot gain more 
  job dice than the number set by the GM at the start of the mission.  
   
  If the players want, they can end a mission prematurely -- but doing so will net the team 
  half the Job Dice they’ve gained up to that point, regardless whether the mission was com-
  pleted successfully. These dice can then be used to restore lost skill points or saved to 
  spend during the next mission. 
   
  Playing InSpectres 
  Playing this game requires only a few things. Some paper and pencils, a handful of six-
  sided dice, some friends and most important of all, your imagination and a willingness to 
  use it. This isn’t the kind of game where the GM’s job is to write the plot and the players’ 
  job is simply to portray their character. What is integral to InSpectres is the concept of 
  “shared power.” That while the GM can do a lot, it’s the players who determine where the 
  story goes and what happens to them. If you roll well but you think it would be funnier to 
  trip over a fellow agent and “accidentally” blast that demon, then go for it. And if you 
  really screw up a Skill roll, don’t be afraid of narrating the outcome to its spectacularly 
  painful outcome! 
   
  For the GM: remember that your major responsibility is to kick the game into gear and 
  then keep the pace if the game starts to drag. If things get dull, jump ahead to a new 
  scene, inject some action or ask the players, “So, guys...what do you want to happen 
  now?” It’s also your responsibility to make the players roll Stress rolls when you think 
  they’re called for — not to hose them, but to prod their characters into realizing, “Hey! This 
  is dangerous, freaky stuff we’re doing!” And no matter how grim things get, they’ll always 
  have their bonus Talent die to help them out. 
   
  The full version of InSpectres has much more material that GM’s and players alike will find 
  useful. Rules for teamwork and automatic successes, a cool new attribute (called Cool), a 
  more in-depth look at how a team’s financial situation affects its performance, how to play 
  supernatural agents and much more. Look for it, as well as other tricks and treats, at: 
   
  Http://www.inspectres.com/inspectres 
   
  Credits 
  InSpectres: Startup Edition was written and designed by Jared A. Sorensen 
   
  Special thanks to: The Forge (www.indie-rpgs.com) for valuable advice and feedback. 
   
   
  All contents © 2002 Jared A. Sorensen / Memento Mori / Remember…you will die. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/InSpectres/InSpectres - Startup Edition.pdf