Agency

The

A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR

Tracy Barnett
 This adventure was made awesome thanks to our Patreon patrons at patreon.com/evilhat—thanks folks!
INSIDERS
__skwrl__ Charles Albrecht Dustin Evermore Jean-François Keith Stanley Matt Anderson Rachael Hixon The Roach
A.D. Hardman Chris Angelini Edward MacGregor Robillard Ken Ditto Mechizmo Rhel Tim N
Adrian Chris Flipse Frank Jeremy Tidwell Kevin Michael Bowman Richard Bellingham Timothy Carroll
Arias-Palomo Christian Becker Frédéri POCHARD Joakim Andersson Kyra Michael Cambata Rick Tristan Smith
Alan Bartholet Christopher Gavran Joe Trzos LilFluff Michael Dean Rick Jakins Troy Ray
Andrew Pomfret Gunning George Harnish John Rogers Linda Larsson Hannah Robert Hanz Tyler Hunt
Andrew Turbott Christopher Hatty Graham Owens John Rudd MAINGUET Francois Michael Meriwn Ryan Singer vargr1
Andy Arminio Christopher Vollick Graham Wills Jon-Pierre Gentil Malc Arnold Mike Lavery Sarah Vakos Will Goring
Arjun Comar Colin Mills Griffin Mitchell Joshua Forisha Marc Mundet Mitchell Evans Scott Vesely William J. White
Arknon D.C. Upton Howard M Joshua Lutz Mark Morgan Ellis Sean M. Dunstan William Lee
Arlo B Evans David Dorward Thompson Justin Evans Mark Fentz Nathan Hare Selene O'Rourke William McDuff
Authentic Heroines David Fergman Ian Petiford KT Mark Stevenson Nicolas Marjanovic Shawn White Zach
Ben Mullen David Hayes J Quincy Sperber Katie Baker Martin Terrier Osye Pritchett Stephen Rider Zach Hunt
brian allred Declan Feeney Jamie Smith Katie Berger Marty Chodorek Peter Schumacher Tara Zuber
C. J. Hunter Demian Buckle Jan Heitger Tremaine Matt and Nykki Philippe Herve Teslan Kierinhawk
C.K. Lee Don Arnold Jason Cotton Keith Mantell Boersma Polyhedral Crew The Catholic Geeks

ADVENTURERS
A Person Carlos Martín Didier Bretin James Husum Juan Francisco Gutierrez Michael Friese Radosław Grzanka Stefano Monachesi
Adam Gutschenritter Cerity Dillard James Marston Julianna Backer Michael Hill Ralf Wagner Stephan
Adrian Chaluppka Charles Evans Dirk Methner James O'Neill Jussi Räsänen Michael Hopcroft Randall Orndorff Stephanie Bryant
AJ Real Chet Gray Don Bisdorf James Odom Justin Michael McCully Randall Wright (Mortaine)
Al Billings Chip Dunning Don Schlaich James Pacheco Kaarchin Michael Riabov Raun Sedlock Stephen Figgins
Alan Phillips Chloe Wandler Doug Blakeslee James Winfield Karl Thiebolt Michael Thompson Rebecca Harbison Stephen Fleetwood
Alan Timothy Rogers Chris Caporaso Doug Bolden Jamie Wheeler Katherine Malloy Micheal Elliott Rebecca Hubbard Stephen Waugh
Alan Twigg Chris Little Duane Cathey Janet Oblinger Keith Fannin Mike Vermont Red Dice Diaries Steve Discont
Alexander Gräfe Chris Matosky Duncan Jared Hunt Kent Snyen Mirko Froehlich Remy Sanchez Steve Kunec
Alexander R. Corbett Chris Newton Dylan Green Jason Bean Kesh MirrorKhaos Renzo Crispieri Steve Perpitch-Harvey
Alexandros Tsourakis Chris Nolen Ebenezer Arvigenius Jason Best Kevin L. Nault Mook Rich Hewett Steve Radabaugh
Alfred Garza Christian Edward Sturges Jason Pasch Kevin Lindgren My Humble Assault Richard Steven Code
Alistair Christoph Thill Eirch Mascariatu Jason Penney Kevin McDermott Nat Richard Greene Steven D Warble
Alloyed Christopher Allen Elizabeth Creegan Jason Schindler Kevin Payne Nat Rick LaRue Steven desJardins
Amanda Kauer Christopher Avery Elsa S. Henry Jayna Pavlin Kielo Maja Natalie Ash Riggah Steven K. Watkins
Amanda Valentine Christopher Mangum Elsidar Amhransidhe Jeff Chaffee Klaas Bock Nathan Barnes Rob Knop Steven Markley
Anders Jonsson Christopher Mason Emmanuel Jeff Mahood Kris Herzog Nathan Fritz Rob Meyers Stu Adams
Andrew Betts Christopher Stone-Bush Emmanuel Genot Jeff Pitrman Krista Nathan Reed Robb Neumann Stuart Dollar
Andrew Dacey Christopher W. Dolunt Enrique Esturillo Cano Jeff Vincent Krzysztof Chyla Neil Macbeth Robert Bersch Svend Andersen
Andrew DeLorenzo Chuck Dee eric Jeffrey Boman Kyle Nichlas Dyhr Robert Huss Ted Soper
Andrew Grant Claire Erich Lichnock Jeffrey Collyer Larry Hollis Hummelsberger Robert Rees Teppo Pennanen
Andrew Horn Clemens Schmitz Erik Hammerstrom Jens Laura Nicholas Hopkins Robert Rydlo Teresa O
Angus Clyde Clark Erik Ingersen Jens Alfke Laurie Koudstaal Nicholas Pilon Robert Slaughter Tevel Drinkwater
Anthony Damiani Colin Matter Ernie Sawyer Jeremiah McCoy Lester Ward Nick Robinson Taylor Thomas
Arlene Medder Corey Johnston Fabrice Breau Jeremy Glick Lore Graham Nick Daly Rodrigo Thomas
Arthur Lace covert-banana Fide Jeremy Hamaker Loren Nick pater Roger Carbol Thomas Elmeblom
ArthurDent Craig Maloney Florian Greß Jes Jacobson Luca Agosto Nick Reale Ron Müller Thomas Maund
Ask Charly Leetham Craig Mason Francisco Castillo JF Paradis LunarBistro Nick Speller Roy Tim Davis
B. Bredthauer Craig Wright Frank Beaver Jim Nicholson M. Sawi Nicola Urbinati Ruben Smith-Zempel Timothy Miller
Barac Wiley Creative Play and Frederik Strothmann Joanna m.h. Nicolas Decomble Ryan C. Christiansen Todd Estabrook
Becca Podcast Network gamedave Jochen Buennagel Madelyn Chappell Nikkelitous Ryan Junk Todd Willey
Ben Curt Meyer Garrett Joe Anderson Manfred Nos Doughty Samuel Hart Tom Lommel
Benj Curtis Hay Garrett Jones Joe Mason Marc Kevin Hall Olav Müller Sarah Mayfield Tony Ewing
Benjamin Dain Gary Anastasio Joel Short Marcel Lotz Olivier Nisole Sarah Williams Torolf de Merriba
Benjamin Cush Damon Richard Genevieve Johannes K. Rasmussen Marcel Wittram paolo castelli Schubacca Travis Stodter
Benjamin Patrick Huff Danae Knowles Geoffrey Walter Johannes Oppermann Marcus Paolo Jose Cruz Scott Acker Trevor Crosse
Benjamin Wandio Daniel Chapman Gian Domenico Facchini John Marinho Tobolla Patrice Hédé Scott Dexter Tsht
Benjamin Welke Daniel Ellingsen Lund Giuseppe D'Aristotile John Mario Dongu Patrice Mermoud Scott Greenleaf Tyler Duckworth
Bill Daniel Gallant Glen E. Ivey John Beynon Mark A. Schmidt Patrick Chapman Scott Millward Tyson Monagle
Björn Steffen Daniel Kraemer Glenn Seiler John Bogart Mark Diaz Truman Patrick Ewing Scott Puckett Ulises Gomez
Bo Madsen Daniel Ley Glynn Stewart John Fiala Mark Harris Patrick Fittkau Scott Thede Urs Blumentritt
Bob Hiestand Daniel M. Perez Greg Conant John Halsey Mark Widner Paul Sean Mulhern Veronica Hamilton
Brandon Wiley Daniel Maberry Greg Matyola John Helmuth Markus Haberstock Paul Arezina Sean O'Dell Victor Allen
Brandt Bjornsen Daniel Markwig Gregg Workman John Lake Markus Sauerbrey Paul Maanen Sean Smith Victor Serrano
Brendan Conway Daniel Taylor Guillermo Calvo John Lambert Martin Åhlenius Paul Olson Sean Walsh Ville Lavonius
Brent Ritch Daniele Galli Gustavo Campanelli John Portley Martin Deppe Paul Rivers Sean West Money Vladimir Filipović
Brian Darin Henley Haakon Thunestvedt John T Marty Gentillon Pete Curry Sebastian S waelcyrge
Brian Colin Dave Joria Harry Mills John Taber Matt Houck Peter Bingham Serge Beaumont Wayne Peacock
Brian Creswick David Bellinger Heather John Tobin Matt Landis Peter Gates Seth Clayton Welsh History Podcast
Brian Paul David Bowers Herman Duyker John William McDonald Matthew J. Hanson Peter James Burczyk Seth Hartley Wes Fournier
Brian S. Holt David Goodwin Hourousha Mokujin Johnathan Wright Matthew Price Peter Kahle Shadowmyre Kalyn William Hutton
Brook Freeman David Maple Ian Charlton Jon Mayo Max Kaehn Petri Leinonen Shai Laric William Johnson
Bruce David Millians Imunar Jon Smejkal MeganBob Phil Groff Shervyn von Hoerl World's Okayest GM
Bruno Haack Vilar David Olson Indi Latrani Jonathan Methorphan Philippe Marichal Shoshana Kessock Wulf
Bryan Brake David Reed Irene Strauss Jonathan Finke Mic Philippe Saner Simon Brunning Yara Ohrt
Bryan Gillispie David Silberstein Ivan Begley Jonathan Korman Michael Phillip Webb Simon Streubel Z. Daniel Esgate
Bryan Wiltgen David Starner Jack Gulick Jose A. Michael Bradford Pint Wakefield Simon White Zachary Deane
Bryce Perry Davide Orlandi Jack Muratore Joseph Michael Brewer PK Sion Rodriguez y Zeb Walker
C Denis Ryan Jack Stephenson-Carr Joseph Formoso Michael D. Blanchard Pocket Meeple Gibson Zeph Wibby
Carl Dennis Groome James Ballard Josh Salyers Michael D. Ranalli Jr. Porter Sławomir Wrzesień
Carl McLaughlin Derek Hiemforth James Hoag Joshua Reubens Michael Drescher R Roy Stefan Feltmann
THE AGENCY
A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR

WRITING & ADVENTURE DESIGN

TRACY BARNETT
DEVELOPMENT
ROB DONOGHUE
& MIKE OLSON
EDITING
AMANDA VALENTINE
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SEAN NITTNER
ART DIRECTION
TRACY BARNETT
LAYOUT
FRED HICKS
INTERIOR & COVER ARTWORK
BRIAN PATTERSON
MARKETING
CARRIE HARRIS
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
CHRIS HANRAHAN
 An Evil Hat Productions Publication

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The Agency
Copyright ©2018 Evil Hat Productions, LLC and Tracy Barnett.
All rights reserved.

First published in 2018 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC.

10125 Colesville Rd #318, Silver Spring, MD 20901.

Evil Hat Productions and the Evil Hat and Fate logos are trademarks
owned by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior express permission of the publisher.

That said, if you’re doing it for personal use, knock yourself out.
That’s not only allowed, we encourage you to do it.

For those working at a copy shop and not at all sure if this means
the person standing at your counter can make copies of this thing, they can.

This is “express permission.” Carry on.

This is a game where people make up stories about wonderful,

terrible, impossible, glorious things. All the characters and events
portrayed in this work are fictional. Any resemblance to real people,
artificial intelligences, world-spanning shadow governments, sleeper
agents, digitized personality fragments, groups of nameless mooks, or
badass grandmothers is purely coincidental, but kinda hilarious.
CONTENTS
Welcome (Back) to The Agency..................................................... 2
Tone................................................................................................................... 4
Setting and Genre.........................................................................................5
The Rules..........................................................................................................6
How to Train an Agent...................................................................... 7
Creating a Civilian.........................................................................................7
Creating Field Agent Inserts..................................................................10
Rules of Engagement.......................................................................15
Death and Glitching Rules....................................................................... 15
Detonating Aspects................................................................................... 17
Taking Over................................................................................................... 17
[REDACTED]................................................................................................ 18
Here’s Your Assignment, Agent: Threats......................................19
How to Build an Evil Villain/Organization......................................... 19
Mission Briefing............................................................................... 25
The First Session........................................................................................ 27
Sample Adventure: Three Minutes from Midnight...................... 28
The Doomsday Device............................................................................. 28
Part One: The Jumping-off Point......................................................... 29
Part Two: Three Nights in Bangkok....................................................30
Part Three: Snow Crash........................................................................... 32
Additional Adventure Hooks/Locations/Information..................34
 WELCOME (BACK) TO THE AGENCY
You walk into the party, not expecting much. You don’t remember arriving here,
and for some reason that doesn’t bother you. The room you walk into is relatively
nondescript, one long table down the middle and lots of chairs. The first thing that
surprises you is who you see there: Elsie “The Duke” McAvoy—rumored to be a
child of royalty somewhere, with the bearing to match—and the best all-around
Agent ever. The Scarlet Queen, master of infiltration and heavily recruited by
almost every rival organization. Killshot—both of them. You value your life, so
you don’t look either of them in the eye. And there’s Hank “Benchpress” Johnson,
demolitions expert and one of the strongest people anyone anywhere has met, ever.
Their codenames flit through your mind. More than you can process visually.
So many people here. Every one of them is a top Agent, the best in the world
at what they do. They’re all standing around making awkward conversation like
this is a company party. You reach into your coat for the invitation you don’t
remember putting there. You start to look at it, but before you can make out
what it says, a soft tone sounds and everyone in the room moves to take a seat at
the table, including you.
The expressions around you are a mirror for your thoughts.
Why are we all here?
A door opens at the opposite end of the room from where you entered and an
older woman walks out. She stands at the head of the table.
“Greetings, Agents. I won’t beat around the bush. I am Alice, and you are all dead.”

2 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 THE HISTORY OF THE AGENCY
To most, the Agency looked like a simple bureaucratic government orga-
nization of indeterminate purpose. However, the Agency is a sophisticated
espionage organization founded by [REDACTED], and supported through the
years by the [REDACTED] Act and the [REDACTED] Unified Agreement of
[REDACTED]. In the years since the Agency’s founding, it has accomplished a
number of notable feats, including stopping The [REDACTED] Crisis of Outer
[REDACTED], disarming the nations of [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] before
either of them could invade [REDACTED], and stopping the [REDACTED] of
[REDACTED] from [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in [REDACTED]. Overall, the
Agency has had years of continued success.
In the late 1970s, it all came crashing down. Seemingly all at once, every
Field Agent that had carried out successful operations was taken out of
active duty by enemy agents. Across the globe, the Agency was dealt blow
after blow after blow. Operations were aborted or unfinished, and it seemed
that chaos was going to reign, unchecked.
The truth is that the Agency was far more than just those who worked in
the field. The Computer, Alice, was the real power, and she remained safe.
Moreover, she had planned for a situation just like this. Over the years, through-
out countless hours of observation, data collection, and Digital Personality
Encoding, Alice had built up digital versions of every Field Agent lost. She
just needed someplace to put them...
Currently, the Agency doesn’t use trained Field Agents like it used to. Alice
recruits regular, everyday people to have the personalities of its deceased top
Field Agents injected into their brains and used for a single operation—one
civilian body, with the personality inserts of multiple skilled former Field
Agents. At the end of the op, the personalities are retrieved, if possible, re-
integrated into Alice, and the volunteer (or their next-of-kin) is compensated.
The civilians who sign up for these ops (mostly) know the risks when they
sign up. They do it for the thrill of it, for the money, or whatever reason they
have that they don’t share with Alice. All of them are unaware of when they
will be used on a mission; they go to one of many hidden insertion points
and have latent Field Agent subroutines injected into their brains, which will
be activated when they are needed.

“That’s where we find you, Agents.” Alice’s voice echoes through the room. Now
that the Agents know it’s all a digital simulation, their demeanors have changed.
You can see some are looking anxious, others determined. You remember every-
thing that you left undone in the land of the living and you wonder if you’ll get
a chance to rectify that.
“You’re dead, and you get to go back into the field, like when you were in your
prime. The world is a little different, sure—we’ll fill you in on cellphones and the
internet—but many of your old tricks will work just fine. The only catch is that
you’ve got to share body time, and an actual body, with 4-5 other Field Agents
and the person who actually owns the body.”

THE AGENCY 3
 A beeping noise sounds and Alice pulls a small device from a pocket. “Mission
briefing incoming. I need to see Misters Starker and Bang, Misses Killshots and
Fontaine. The rest of you are on alert.”
Her words give the Agents pause. Dead? On alert? Would they change out for
future missions?
Alice begins to walk out of the room with the Agents she selected, then pauses
and turns to the rest of them. “Good to have you back, Agents.”
Her exit leaves more questions than answers. Was it just leftover protocols from
the old days? Something else? The Agents share a look, then fade away, one at a
time, nothing more than bits and bytes, cogs in the machine, just like everyone else.

Tone
The Agency is a World and Adventure of dark humor and intrigue. The world is
a dash of James Bond, a glance over Spies Like Us, with a heavy dose of Archer.
It also has RPG elements reminiscent of Paranoia and Everyone Is John merged
with a drift of Fate Core.
Alice, the Computer, worked to keep the Agency together after the various
evil organizations and individuals in the world banded together to wipe out all
Field Agents in one bloody week of retribution. They avoided the complicated
traps and asinine schemes they had previously used, and just outright killed every
Agent they could get their hands on.
Now, decades later, Alice (perhaps a few bits short of a full byte) is ready to
reestablish the Agency as a force for...well, something in the world. When the Field
Agents were killed, the government mothballed the project, so now Alice has to
work on the fringes of a system she was once part of.

4 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 The Civilian has some reason they’re risking life and limb, not to mention sanity,
to be part of these missions. A good session of The Agency will see interplay not only
among the Field Agent Inserts, but also between them and the Civilian. It’s rare
that the same Civilian is used for more than one mission, or at least, that’s what
Alice intends. However, Alice hasn’t worked with real humans in quite some time,
and has subroutines involving obeying humans that she can’t undo. An enterpris-
ing Civilian who keeps surviving missions might end up a real Agent themselves.
The Field Agent Inserts are all used to working on their own and now have
to co-exist inside the mind of a likely-hapless Civilian who has volunteered for
this job. They all remember being alive. In many cases, they think they still are.
Alice’s digital captures of each Agent are...imperfect. They are all mostly who and
what they were, but to a one they fixate on their unfinished business (page 13).
The world has moved on, but the Field Agents have not.
The combination of a Civilian and the Field Agent Inserts makes for some
interesting moments. The Civilian often looks like they’re conversing with people
who aren’t there, using different voices and all. The Civilian’s personality can seem
to change in a heartbeat, depending on which Agent is in control of the body at
any given moment. Oh, and since every Field Agent Insert gets an action when
it comes to a conflict, the Civilian gets to look super-badass as they dismantle a
squad of bad guys single-handedly.
The kicker is that all of this is important work that has to be done. Yes, there
are other organizations that have risen in the absence of the Agency. However,
none of these seem to be able to do much more than curtail the actions of the
groups who continue to plague the world. The world needs the Agency, now
perhaps more than ever.

Setting and Genre

The world of The Agency is our own, but with the lens flare turned up, the weird-
ness amped up, and far more secrets lurking in every dark corner. Nationalism
runs high across the globe, and where it doesn’t, lawlessness tends to reign. Every
third person at any given coffee shop in Washington DC is a spy, an informant,
or both. Shadowy, and not so shadowy, organizations pull the strings of global
government, global religion, and above all, the global economy.
There is also the possibility of things that are more on the weird side. Science
has begun discovering how to access additional dimensions of reality, as well as
different realities themselves. It is not magic per se, but a significantly advanced
technology, etc., etc. This has led to the rise of different, more esoteric types of
organizations, including divisions of various government research arms. It also
means that, in some cases, some very strange and useful types of gear and equip-
ment are now available, depending on what Alice can access.
After all, this setting has a Computer that can inject digital copies of experienced
Field Agents into the minds of everyday people, potentially turning anyone into
an amalgamation of personalities that can do everything from cracking computer
code to cracking skulls. Why not a little teleportation and invisibility, too?

THE AGENCY 5
 The Rules
The Agency uses Fate Core, with some twists. The game uses the Civilian as a
shared resource for all of the digital Field Agent Inserts to use. The Civilian is a
completely non-skilled (in the super spy sense) person. They’ve got a much smaller
skill ladder, and narrow, mundane skills. However, their physical and mental
capabilities have been increased so the Field Agent Inserts can use them. This
means a lot more stress boxes. The tinkering by the Computer means recovering
that stress is harder, though.
The Field Agent Inserts don’t have any stress boxes, and also have a narrow tree
of skills. Their skills are much more effective in the field, however, and they each
have a stack of fate points to make those skills as effective as possible.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
The Agency is, in part, a game about identity and self, so knowing
which part or personality is being discussed is important. Here are
some of the common terms:

• Agent: General term used for the combination of a Civilian and a

group of FAIs. This is the term Alice uses most often, especially
during mission briefings.

• Civilian: An untrained person in the employ of the Agency.

Civilians often have FAIs injected into their brains and they carry
out missions on behalf of the Agency.

• Computer: The artificial intelligence that controls the Agency and

sends the Agent out on missions. Alice follows her own agenda,
one often not known to the Field Agents or the Civilian.

• Field Agent Insert (FAI): The memory fragments of once-living

Agency Field Agents that are injected into the minds of Civilians.
These FAIs retain awareness of their surroundings and who they
are, and they have agendas of their own.

• Take Over: When an FAI does not act passively on behalf of

the Civilian, but instead takes full control of the Civilian’s body.
This often happens when the FAI’s broader skillset is needed
to overcome a situation, when the FAI wants to advance their
personal agenda, or both.

6 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

HOW TO TRAIN AN AGENT
This section briefs you on character creation for both the Civilian and the Field
Agent Inserts.

OVERVIEW
• Create a Civilian: The Civilian is a shared resource between the
GM and the players. Without the Civilian, none of this happens,
so that’s where we start.

• Create FAIs Through Play: When the FAIs are first downloaded
into the Civilian’s brain, they’re disoriented, not remembering
who they are or what they can do. Their sheets, with aspects,
skills, and such, will be generated procedurally, through play.

• Add Additional Gear: Both the Civilian and the FAIs will have
expectations about the types of Gear they have available. These
are acquired by spending refresh points as the FAIs develop
during the first mission. This is an ongoing process, as long as
there are refresh points available to spend.

Creating a Civilian
Civilians make all of this work. Without them and their willingness to throw
themselves into situations they don’t understand, the Agency wouldn’t be able
to function.
It’s very important to know who a Civilian is and what motivated them to vol-
unteer for this job in the first place. If everything goes south during an op, or if the
FAIs can’t stop arguing over who has control of the body, the Civilian takes over.
In game terms, the Civilian is a shared character between the GM and the
players. Every player is an FAI and needs the Civilian’s body to be able to move
around in the world. The Civilian is a more straightforward character to create
than the FAIs, so starting there makes sense.

High Concept
This aspect is exactly as you would make it in Fate Core or Fate Accelerated—for
example, Hard-working Single Mom With a Golden Voice, or Frazzled
IT Consultant with a Penchant for Sound Effects. The Civilian’s aspects
should be almost completely mundane. Use them to highlight that the Civilian
is largely unequipped to be in the situations they’ll find themselves in. It’s help-
ful to have the high concept highlight the Civilian’s profession, as that’s often a
defining characteristic for people.

THE AGENCY 7
 Trouble
Like the high concept aspect, use the trouble aspect to highlight the Stranger in
a Strange Land feeling for the Civilian. Take care not to make the trouble about
being a newly minted Agent—that’s a little too on the nose. Instead think about
who this Civilian is in their day-to-day life. Maybe they Ignore Good Sense
When They Hear It, or they Have No Idea When to Quit Talking. These
things will definitely cause trouble in the field but they are about the Civilian,
not the situation in which they find themselves.

Burning Desire
This aspect ties more directly into why the Civilian signed up for a job like this
in the first place. Maybe they Want Enough Money to Keep My Grandkids’
Grandkids Healthy and Happy. Or the Civilian Always Wanted to Shoot
Someone. Dark, that one, but it shows that this aspect can really be used to set
the tone of your game. The Civilian’s burning desire could be as simple as I Want
to Skydive into the Jungles of Borneo, or as complicated and personal as
I’ll Choose How I Go Out, Not My Cancer.
This aspect is also important because it’s a way for the Civilian to reduce stress in
the middle of a mission. That’s talked about more in “Civilian Stress” on page 9.
What’s important to note here is that this aspect requires balance. If the burning
desire is too easy to invoke, it will pull tension from the session by allowing the
Civilian to recover stress too often. If the burning desire is too narrow, it will limit
the options available to recover stress. It may take a few tries to get this right, so
don’t be afraid to experiment.

Civilian Skills
The Civilian gets a small ladder of skills, capping at Fair (+2). The Civilian’s skills
are very mundane—things like Housework, Drive, Computers, Hobbyist (specify),
or Accounting. There’s no set skill list for the Civilian. Don’t make the skills too
broad, and remember that the Civilian is not a Field Agent Insert; if you give a
Civilian a skill like Taekwondo, it’s what they learned at the local YMCA, not
through years of vigorous training. Like the Civilian’s aspects, the Civilian’s skills
are designed to provide a contrast to the skills of the FAIs. That difference also
allows for excellent comedic beats where the Civilian’s seemingly useless skills
happen to fill a gap in what the FAIs can accomplish.

UN-SKILLS
One way to implement success at a cost with this arrange-
ment is to have the FAIs use the Civilian’s skills for an
exchange, or even to have the Civilian act on their own.

8 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Civilian Stress
As part of the onboarding process for the Agency, the Civilian’s body and mind
have been enhanced and altered by the Computer. The Civilian begins play with
eight physical and eight mental stress boxes. On the surface, this seems like a lot.
However, there’s a side effect to the Computer’s enhancements: during a mission,
the Civilian doesn’t recover stress between scenes. They can only recover stress between
missions, or get swapped out for a new Civilian. The FAIs retain what happened
between scenes and missions, so they continue to grow and change, regardless of
who their Civilian is. Civilians are vehicles for the FAIs: to be driven gently, or like
a teenager in a hotwired sports car. In game terms, the players and the GM have
to manage the shared resource of the Civilian’s stress for the entire play session.
There are two ways that the Civilian can “manually” clear stress boxes: by an FAI
invoking the Civilian’s burning desire, and by glitching. The first can happen any
time, but requires some kind of indulgence of that desire. Every time the burning
desire is invoked, the Civilian can clear two stress boxes, either physical or
mental, in addition to the usual benefits of invoking an aspect.
Glitching is something else entirely, and is covered on page 16.

CIVILIAN BEFORE FAIs

During playtesting, the character creation process started off
with the players creating the FAIs. Everyone found it difficult
to jump directly into making the digital copy of a deceased
super spy, so we discussed how to work around that. Player
characters in RPGs are often refined through play, so we cre-
ated the conceit of the FAIs not knowing who they were on
first download. This allows the Civilian to be established as an
important shared resource, and allows the FAIs to develop as
players take actions and figure out who their FAIs are via play.

Gear and Stunts

Gear is covered more thoroughly in “Gadgets and Gizmos” and “Gear Stunts”
(page 14), but Civilians do start with one refresh, and the players can choose
to spend that to give their Civilian a stunt. Don’t worry, each FAI has their own
pool of fate points, too.

THE AGENCY 9

ARCHETYPES
FAIs are the main way that the Computer
gets missions accomplished. Most FAIs, in
their physical life, conformed to the arche-
types you might be familiar with from movies
and fiction. They were highly specialized
and used those specializations to take on a
variety of missions. They could adapt and
improvise without worrying about anyone
else slowing them down. In their present
situation, the FAIs are even more specialized,
as they are only representations of who they
once were. This knowledge, combined with
the fact of having to work together in one
body, means that the FAIs tend to be very
assertive about their specializations.
During playtesting, these Archetypes are
exactly what the players gravitated towards.
It’s not necessary to use any of them, but if
you’re stuck trying to figure out who your
FAI is (or was), they make a handy reference.
• The Face: Interpersonal and social skills.
Able to fit in almost anywhere, with the
right disguise.
• The Hacker: Computer and systems expert.
If there’s any way into a closed computer
system, this person can find it.
• The Muscle: Skilled at breaking limbs,
faces—any body part, really.
• The Infiltrator: Get in, get out. Take what
you’re after and don’t get caught.
• The Mastermind: Every mission needs
someone who can plan it. That’s this
person.
These Archetypes aren’t the entirety of the
options you have for your characters. They
can serve as strong starting points for ideas
or inspiration. We suggest using them as
such. If your ideas go further afield from the
presented Archetypes, that’s not a problem.
10 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE
Creating Field
Agent Inserts
As mentioned earlier, FAIs are cre-
ated through play. When FAIs are
first downloaded into a Civilian’s
mind, the FAIs are scrambled by
the process. This is partially a con-
ceit to make the creation of FAIs
easier, and partially an interesting
bit of fiction. And, as you’ll see in
a bit, it meshes nicely with how
Fate handles advancement.
FAIs, when first downloaded
into a Civilian, are blank slates,
with nothing known, not even
necessarily their names. The ways
in which the FAI first acts dictate
who they are. If the FAI dives for
cover at the first sign of gunfire, or
thinks of hacking a computer to
enter a closed facility rather than
blowing the door, they are likely
specialized in covert operations.
The player can begin filling in
options for their FAI that reflect
that training. If a player has an
idea of the type of FAI they wish
to play, they can angle towards
those choices through play. If a
player doesn’t have any idea, then
the choices the player makes
during the first session will give
their FAI its details.
Here we go over the component
pieces of an FAI to show what all
gets filled in during play.
High Concept
The high concept is just like the high concept in Fate Core or Fate Accelerated
Edition, but with one twist: it should not refer to what the FAI is good at or
specializes in, as specialization is covered by the skillset aspect.

The high concept for Killshot(s) was originally Arrogant Masters of

Long Range Assassinations, but this verged into the skillset aspect
too much. It was changed to Arrogant Twins of One Mind, but Two
Bodies. This still gives a lot of good information about the FAI, but
leaves the skillset alone.

This can make writing the high concept more difficult than usual. If a player
is having trouble coming up with a high concept that doesn’t verge into their
FAI’s skillset, encourage them to look back at the reasons the character made the
choices they did during the first session of play. If the FAI showed compassion
to someone no one else cared about, their high concept could be something as
straightforward as Skilled Operative with a Heart of Gold. Or perhaps they
were all business, not stopping to think about anything but the mission. That
might mean their high concept is along the lines of The Job Is All That Matters.
No matter what, the GM should allow the players to tweak their high con-
cepts—and troubles, which we discuss next—through the first few sessions of
play as the characters become more clearly understood.

Trouble
Make sure the trouble isn’t too close to the unfinished business aspect (page 12).
To ensure this, think about what keeps the FAI from being a good spy sometimes;
what blows their cover, makes them lose their cool?

The Scarlet Queen’s trouble aspect used to be Plagued by the Demons

of My Past, but that was both too generic and had a little too much
of an unfinished business feel to it. Now their trouble is No One Says
No to Me, Ever which is much more interesting and stays away from
unfinished business.

EXAMPLE TROUBLE
During playtesting, one of the players gave their FAI the trouble of
I’m Two Weeks Away from Retirement, Forever. This is an excellent
trouble for an FAI who has come to recognize that life as they knew it
is truly over. They will never have their own body back, and going on
operations in someone else’s head is what they know now. Poignant
and potentially funny.

THE AGENCY 11
 Unfinished Business
This aspect drives adventure creation and gives the Field Agents a personal stake
in making sure the op succeeds. Every Field Agent has an op that went south,
a vendetta against an organization, or a family they left behind. These aspects
work like strings the GM can pull to give play sessions depth. These can be tied
together across multiple Field Agents, linking FAIs together in common cause.
They often begin with “I Want...” or “I Need...”
Examples:
• I Want to See My Daughter, Just Once
• I Need to De-Fang the Golden Cobra
• I Need to Take Out Franklin Borer Before He Kills Again
As play sessions continue, it’s possible that these aspects might get resolved, and
therefore evolve. The previous examples could change into:
• I Have to Keep My Daughter Safe from The Doormen
• The Snake Has More Than One Head
• Borer Is Dead, but His Legacy Lives On
These evolutions make the aspects more nuanced, and can abandon the “I Want/
Need” construction in favor of ideas and concepts that are given more context
by the events that led to the aspects being resolved. Reading this, we don’t know
what Franklin Borer’s legacy actually is, but the group playing through the ses-
sions might have a really good idea of how to use that.

Group Aspect
Each player’s group aspect changes every session, depending on what FAIs are
present for the Mission. These are unidirectional aspects that tie the characters
together. The first FAI to think of a good connection to another FAI states that
aspect, and names the other FAI in it. For example:
• Benchpress Johnson Screwed Up Our Last Op
Assuming Benchpress’ player is good with that, that player now looks at the
remaining FAIs and finds a connection to another:
• Fontaine Has a Secret I Need to Know
This continues around the group until the last person who can be mentioned in
an aspect is the first person who spoke, creating a closed circle where everyone is
tied to everyone else. These aspects will be very general at first, and help establish
some of the history between the FAIs from before they were dead. As play sessions
continue, these group aspects begin to reflect the more recent events that have
occurred in play sessions.

12 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Agent Disciplines
FAIs get two skills at Fair (+2), one at Good (+3), and one at Great (+4).
Like the Civilian, FAIs get a smaller skill pyramid than characters typically do
in Fate Core. However, an FAI defaults to +1 when they roll an untrained skill,
rather than +0. This reflects that, though an FAI is only a replication of who they
once were, they still possess some instincts that serve them well in any situation.
If an FAI would be picking up the dice for an overcome action, but the skill
they would use has a rating equal to or greater than the difficulty of the challenge,
they don’t need to roll. It’s considered an automatic success. If the skill’s rating is
high enough to succeed with style, the FAI gets those benefits. This only applies
to overcome actions. For attack, defense, or create advantage, the FAI always rolls.
FAI skills are narrower and more focused than the default skills in Fate Core
System. They cover the same range as the default skills list, but they’re broken
down. In some ways, they are almost like miniature aspects. This emphasizes that
FAIs are not whole, complete people. Rather than being excellent at shooting,
they know small arms or singer rifles. Rather than being skilled at fighting, they
know Krav Magi or Jiu-Jitsu. To help cover all the bases, you can take almost any
skill from Fate Core System and divide it down into specific disciplines. A sample
of skill breakdowns is provided here for your reference.
This list isn’t exhaustive, and anyone familiar with the skill list from Fate Core
System can see that there are skills missing. That doesn’t mean those skills, or more
specific versions of them, are not present in The Agency. The list here should get
you thinking about the kinds of narrow skills you could choose for your FAI, and
where they might have come from in Fate Core System. This list provides a base
for you to get playing. If there’s something specific an Agent at your table needs,
use the list as a guideline to create the new skill.

Athletics Burglary Deceive Drive

Escape Artistry Breaking & Acting Military Aircraft
Gymnastics Entering Close-Up Magic Monster Trucks
Parkour Mugging Forgery Rally Cars
Running Picking Pockets Politics Small Aircraft
Social Media Small Boats
Sports Cars
Empathy Fight Investigate Shoot
Build Trust Boxing Computers Assault Rifles
Insight Jiu-Jitsu Local Research Bows
Psychoanalysis Knives Online Research Handguns
Sympathize Krav Maga Surveillance Shotguns
Kung Fu Sniper Rifles
(choose style)
Swords

THE AGENCY 13
 MARTIAL ARTS AND WEAPONS
Many styles of martial arts use weapons, not just hand-to-hand
techniques. Broad categories of fighting styles have been included
under the breakdown of the Fight skill because we wanted to provide
examples of the options available. If you choose Crane Style Kung
Fu, you can still use a sword, but you’re not a master of all swords.

Gadgets and Gizmos

Since the FAIs are the ones who really know what they’re doing, it will take gad-
gets and gizmos to keep the Civilian alive. Alice outfits each Civilian with gear
she thinks will aid in the op. Because of how technology has moved on since the
Field Agents’ respective days, the Civilian is probably more familiar with all the
gears’ usage than the FAIs are.
The gadgets and gizmos given out by the Computer are often not quite what
you would expect. Alice’s view is that the FAIs already have considerable skill in a
variety of areas, so any gear they use should augment where the FAIs are weakest,
not where they are strongest.

Gear Stunts
Spy gear is very powerful. It often contains technology and confers benefits the
same way stunts do.

Agency Chameleon Suit: When I’m wearing an Agency Chameleon

Suit, I get +2 to Stealth rolls in bright lighting situations.

Gear could also be customized for one of the FAIs present inside the mind
of a Civilian. The Computer held onto as much old gear as she could over the
years, and many former Field Agents have distinct preferences when it comes to
the tools of their trade.

Killshot’s Sidearm: When Killshot takes over and wields this gun, they
get +2 to attack with Shoot.

Killshot’s Sidearm may seem too broad, as there’s no reason why Killshot
wouldn’t use their favorite weapon when shooting. However, it only functions
that well in Killshot’s hands, so the FAI has to Take Over (page 17) to ensure
its effectiveness. This is a limitation in and of itself.

14 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The Agency uses some specialized rules to cover handling multiple personality
fragments in one augmented body. Here’s the overview.

Death and Glitching Rules

FAIs are backed up into the Computer after completing missions. They remember
the ops they went on, and can grow as beings again, even though the only physi-
cal existence they have is when they’re inside a Civilian for an op. However, not
every op goes smoothly. The Civilian is inherently unskilled, the FAIs could be
in conflict with one another, and sometimes things just go sideways. These rules
handle what happens if the Civilian dies during a mission, as well as the extreme
lengths to which the FAIs can go to keep that failure from happening.

THE AGENCY 15
 Death
A Civilian dying in the field is the last thing that anyone wants to happen. If that
occurs, there are a couple of different, notable repercussions.
First, the op was likely not completed. The only exception to this is if the
players all decide to concede a too-challenging conflict, and the terms of their
concession are that the Civilian dies, but manages to flip the necessary switch,
enter the shutdown code, etc. This should only be used when extremely narratively
appropriate, and as mentioned, it’s a group decision.
Second, the FAIs are still backed up in the Computer, but they will have no
memory of the failed op. This can be tricky because many FAIs have never had
to deal with the fallout of their own failures. However, Alice has a peculiar quirk
in her programming: if a Civilian dies, the FAIs in that Civilian are re-assigned
to the mission, but not told that they are cleaning up their own mess until the
end. FAIs who have re-integrated multiple times are aware of this, and often look
for signs of their own previous handiwork when hitting the field.

Glitching
Most FAIs and Civilians want to avoid the Civilian dying—the Civilian, for obvious
reasons of self-preservation, and the FAIs because of the repercussions of Civilian
death. When a conflict is going poorly, there’s another option for concession
that allows the FAIs to clear stress boxes, and keep pushing through the mission.
This option is called glitching, and is available because of the re-working of
body and mind the Civilian has undergone to accommodate the FAIs. All the FAIs
have to choose collectively to glitch. They all share the body, so they all share the
ramifications. When the FAIs choose to glitch,
they first decide to concede the conflict. This
CIVILIAN DISPOSABILITY
often ends up with them captured, or delayed
Every group will have to decide
in their completion of the mission. When they
how disposable the Civilians are
do this, the Civilian clears all, yes all, stress, both
in their game. If your group wants
physical and mental.
a more madcap and pedal-to-the-
They also take a glitch. Glitches are like con-
metal tone, create your Civilians
sequences, except they cannot be recovered and
with burning desires that look
cleared over time. They are permanent impair-
more like death wishes, and let
ments that the Civilian has to live with, even
the FAIs drive their bodies like
if they don’t continue with the Agency after
stolen cars.
their first mission. The severity is reflected in
If your group wants to have a lot
how many invokes are placed on the glitch for
of interplay between the FAIs and
the GM. The first glitch gives the GM one free
the Civilian, make the Civilian’s
invoke, the same as any consequence. The second
burning desire more sympathetic.
one gives the GM two free invokes, and the final
Also, GMs, make sure to describe
one gives the GM three. These are cumulative—
the effects of glitching, and how
if the FAIs choose to glitch three times during a
hard the Civilian has been worked
single mission, the GM gets a lot of ammunition
over during the missions.
to use against them. There is a steep price to pay
for pushing the Civilian that hard.

16 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Detonating Aspects
Every good spy story has timers on deadly things. It might be a bomb going
off or it might be a laser slowly creeping its way along a table toward a trapped
protagonist. Detonating aspects give a +2 bonus when invoked, like any other
aspect, but at set intervals, they grant +3 per invoke, then +4, and so on. The
danger of these aspects is that they have a threshold, set by whoever creates it.
That threshold is set using what makes sense in the fiction: a 5-second timer on a
bomb, 1 hour of breathable air left, etc. Once that threshold is passed, the aspect
detonates, attacking everyone in the zone it occupies, using the number of the
threshold as the value of the attack.

Dr. Von Schloss has trapped an Agent in her secret fortress, which
she has wired to explode. The detonating aspect It’s Gonna Blow is
a situation aspect over the scene that ends when the Agent escapes
the complex. Because the good doctor wanted a moment to gloat,
she announced that the Agent would be doomed in a mere 4 minutes.
The detonating aspect’s threshold is set at 4, to match the number of
minutes Dr. Von Schloss stated in her monologue. Every in-game minute
that passes, the bonus for the invoke goes up by +1. This represents
the Aspect becoming more and more dangerous to the Agent as the
timer counts. When the 5th minute comes, just past the threshold of 4,
the entire complex explodes, attacking the Agent (and any remaining
minions) at Superb (+5). Ka-boom.

“Every in-game minute” isn’t a hard-and-fast rule so much as a way to add ten-
sion. If you’re not interested in keeping track of actual time, you can increase the
timer when it’s situationally dramatic. If you’re interested in tracking the time,
grab a stopwatch or a kitchen timer and go to town.

Taking Over
Each of the FAIs is used to working alone. There will be times when they want
that to be the case again. In a conflict, each FAI gets to act like they’re an indi-
vidual. They have control of the body, and they can move and take an action
just like any other character. This has the cinematic benefit of making the Agent
look like a super soldier, taking one action per FAI per exchange in the conflict,
but in one body.
In a conflict where physical stress is the likely outcome, the FAI with the highest
rating in the most combat-appropriate skill acts first. If the conflict is social, use
the highest-rated social skill to determine who goes first. Or a technology skill,
if it’s a hacking-type conflict. The point is, use the most appropriate skill for the
situation to determine who acts first.
After their exchange, they choose who goes next, including the opposition.
Every FAI and opponent gets a chance to act in an exchange before they can be
chosen again. This initiative system allows for a level of tactical analysis on the
part of the players.
However...
THE AGENCY 17
 If a player thinks their FAI is the right personality fragment for the job, they
can choose to spend a fate point to take over control of the Civilian. If two FAIs
want to gain control, each player still spends a fate point and rolls their dice, with
no modifiers. High roll gains control. If more than two FAIs are contending for
control, a Computer-inserted failsafe kicks in, and the Civilian takes over, with
no access to the skills of the FAIs. This control lasts for a short time (one exchange,
essentially). This failsafe is in place so the FAIs remember that competition can
be healthy, but ultimately working together will get the job done. That’s Alice’s
thinking, anyway.
Outside of a conflict, most of the time, the FAIs inside a given Civilian can
operate the body as if it’s their own. In this case, control shifts from one FAI to
another seamlessly, just as a group of individuals would be able to act separately. If
there’s ever a disagreement about who has control, use the same rules as in a conflict.

[REDACTED]
Any time [REDACTED] is seen in this game text, or a GM chooses to use it in
a mission briefing (page 25), it’s a chance for an FAI to fill in that blank. The
GM controls when the FAIs get to do this, and should make sure that no one FAI
abuses the power. This allows the players some narrative control, but it shouldn’t
be used to hog the spotlight. If it looks like things are going a lot towards one
player, encourage the others to bring in their unfinished business aspects. It changes
the focus handily, plus, it’s way more interesting when two or more unfinished
business aspects intersect. This can put the FAIs at odds with one another, where
one might need to get information from a particular [REDACTED] person or
organization, where another simply wants to destroy that same [REDACTED].
There’s nothing formal about how players fill in those blanks. The key is that when
a [REDACTED] is filled in, the GM has to keep track of which [REDACTED]
means what. This can create a lot of interesting opportunities in adventure design.
If, when the GM is planning out an adventure session, they include [REDACTED]
with different antecedents to those [REDACTED] entries, it might help to mark
them with different colors throughout the text, or with subscripts.
The trick with [REDACTED] is to not overuse it. If it’s used too liberally in
the creation of an adventure or a session, it can leave your group feeling like
they’re responsible for creating the important pieces of the session. That can be
fine, but you have to know how your group works, and whether they would be
interested by that type of creative work. At the least, if you have a [REDACTED]
tag available, look to the FAIs’ unfinished business aspects.

18 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

HERE’S YOUR ASSIGNMENT, AGENT: THREATS
In the spy/espionage genre, every large story arc (movie, TV series, or book) usu-
ally has one overarching villain, and it’s usually not the same villain from movie
to movie, or season to season. In The Agency, the first session starts with character
creation, then Villain creation. This is done in broad strokes by the group to create
buy-in, then the details are filled in by the GM between sessions.
It’s also possible (and encouraged) to have multiple villainous organizations
working against the FAIs and the Agency. This allows the GM to choose from some
of the sample organizations provided here, or to create the opportunity for players
to make their own via use of the [REDACTED] tag in their adventure hooks.

How to Build an Evil VILLAIN/

Villain/Organization ORGANIZATION
The Organization or Villain itself is built like a charac- ASPECTS
ter. However, instead of skills, they have rated aspects High Concept
that they can bring to bear. Those aspects serve as Agenda
broad-strokes examples of how the forces arrayed Weakness
against the Agent would function. This means that -also-
a Lieutenant may have a rating when used by the Lieutenants*
leader of an Organization, but can then break out Mooks*
into its own character if it comes to a straight-up * These aspects are
fight with an Agent. also characters in
Every Villain or Organization starts out with the their own right. See
same three aspects: high concept, agenda, and weak- page 22 for more.

ness. These aspects serve as the basis for who or what

the Big Bad will be for your session or sessions. It gives the GM a strong starting
point for figuring out how the Villain or Organization operates in the world,
and what the Agent will need to do to stop it. Weaknesses are all rated at -2.
They’re designed so they can be used for more than just compels, but the Villain
or Organization will have to use a lot of “Success at a Cost” options to use them
effectively.
The Villain’s or Organization’s aspects are rated aspects. These aspects get
ratings, just like skills, which cover what a Villain is able to do. If the action a
Villain wants to take falls within the purview of a rated aspect, use the rating on
the aspect as if it were a skill. If not, roll at Mediocre (+0).
This abstraction allows for quick creation of the opposition for your group
without having to assign all of the aspects, skills, and stunts like you would for
a full character.

THE AGENCY 19
 WHAT ABOUT SKILLS AND APPROACHES?
For opposition in Fate games, it has always been my experience that the
GM doesn’t really need that much detail. Aspects do a fantastic job of
conveying who a character is and what resources they have at their disposal,
so I began just giving those aspects bonuses to use. This abstraction has
worked out well every time I’ve used it at the table.
If you prefer to have something more formal, it’s easy enough to build
your Villain or Organization—Lieutenants, Mooks, and all—the same way
you would build a character in a standard game of Fate Core. I’d encour-
age you to try out this method, however. I think you’ll find that it speeds
up your prep time immensely, and you’ll lose nothing at the table.

In general, the ratings on a Villain’s aspects should be in line with the highest
rating that a Field Agent has on their sheet. If the Field Agents don’t have any
skills above Good (+3), then it’s advised you don’t set the ratings on the Villain’s
aspects much higher than that—in general, no more than +2 higher. In terms of
overall ability, think about how often you might be using those aspects, and how
hard you want them to hit when you use them. In general, rate one aspect at the
highest rating, and the other two no lower than Average (+1). However, if you
want a broad-reaching Villain or Organization who is very powerful in their own
right, you can set all of the aspects at the highest rating available, or +2 higher
than the highest rating the Agent has.
Some good aspects might seem odd or difficult to use when given a rating. After
all, when would My Loose Lips Have Sunk Ships come into play? Basically any
time that character talks. That would be the aspect they use to try to convince
people, to spread rumors, etc.
This also works for situational aspects like a windstorm or a fire. Give the aspect a
rating. If it would deal stress to a Field Agent, use that rating. If someone attempts
to overcome the aspect, use the rating as the static number they have to beat.
For stress and consequences, give the Villain or Organization a number of
stress boxes equal to the highest rated aspect, and the usual complement of three
consequences as in Fate Core.

Sample Villain, Lieutenant, and Mooks: Celine DuChampp

Celine carries a dark secret with her. She was once part of [REDACTED] and their
[REDACTED] continually hunt her. She travels the world with her sister, Cici,
causing as much hurt and confusion as she can. She takes jobs with no apparent
rhyme or reason to them. Perhaps it’s to throw off [REDACTED], or maybe it’s
to continually obscure her tracks. What’s for sure is that Celine is a formidable
and unpredictable opponent.

20 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Celine DuChampp
ASPECTS
High Concept: Globetrotting
Assassin for Hire: Fantastic (+6)
Agenda: Maximum Chaos for
Maximum Profit: Superb (+5)
Weakness: No One Can Ever
Know the Secret of My Past:
Terrible (-2)
Lieutenants: Horace Grimsby:
Great (+4); CiCi DuChampp
Great: (+4)
Mooks: Brainwashed Masses:
Good (+3); An Informant in
Every City: Fair (+2); Readily
Available Arsenal: Average (+1)
STRESS [1][2][3][4][5][6]

CONSEQUENCES
[2] Mild:
[4] Moderate:
[6] Severe:

Horace Grimsby Informants

ASPECTS ASPECTS
High Concept: Ex-CIA An Informant in Every City:
Hackmaster: Great (+4) Fair (+2)
Weakness: Have to See What's at
STRESS: [1][2]
the Bottom of This Bottle:
Terrible (-2)
STRESS [1][2][3][4] CiCi DuChampp
NOTES ASPECTS
Horace also has access to Celine’s High Concept: I Take After my
Mook aspects. Sister in Every Way: Great (+4)
Weakness: My Loose Lips Have
Sunk Ships: Terrible (-2)
Brainwashed Masses
STRESS [1][2][3][4]
ASPECTS
Brainwashed Masses: Good (+3) NOTES
CiCi also has access to Celine’s Mook
STRESS [1][2][3] [1][2][3] [1][2][3] aspects.

THE AGENCY 21
 Lieutenants and Mooks
Lieutenant and Mook aspects under a Villain can serve two purposes: they can
both be rated aspects when used by the Villain or Organization, or they can be
more fully fleshed-out for use in head-to-head situations with the Agent.
To think about this, imagine the hierarchy of a villainous organization. When
looking at things from the top down, the head of the organization would send
their lieutenants and mooks to do their bidding. In instances like this, it’s handy
for those aspects to have ratings. They can act in the abstract, such as creating
advantages, without needing to have a full character statted out. Then, when
confronted by the Agent, we drill down to the Lieutenant or Mooks themselves,
who are built in the same way as the Villain, with rated aspects and stress accord-
ing to those ratings.
Mooks should only be given stress boxes if you think it’s appropriate. Sometimes
Mooks are individuals who are easily taken out when any stress is dealt to them.
Other times, as with the first two aspects above, the Mook aspects are more abstract
or not as easily dealt with. In those instances, give the Mooks stress. In either case,
use your best judgment and lean toward what seems best for your game.
Lieutenants aren’t as detailed as the Villain
LIEUTENANT or Organization. They each get two rated aspects,
ASPECTS along with stress boxes to match. The rating on the
High Concept high concept should be the same as the Villain’s or
Weakness Organization’s corresponding Lieutenant aspect. The
Mooks weakness is always -2.
Lieutenants have access to the same Mook aspects
as the Villain or Organization. This represents their ability to access the resources
the Villain or Organization has put at their disposal.
Mooks get a single rated aspect, and that’s it. The
MOOK ASPECT rating on the aspect should be the same as the Villain’s
High Concept or Organization’s corresponding aspect. The weakness
is always -2.
For stress boxes, you’ve got a few options. Mooks can have:
• No stress boxes
• Stress boxes equal to their rated aspect
• Multiple sets of stress boxes equal to their rated aspect
The first option is for when the Agent is facing a single Mook and you want
the Agent to look awesome doing what they’re doing. The Mook gets taken out
if the Agent’s attack succeeds by even a single shift.
The second option is a standard one and would represent a group of Mooks. Each
stress box would represent a person or set of people that the Agent can take on.
The third option is for Mooks that are covering a much wider area. You could
make multiple Mook cards, each with their own stress boxes, if you want different
groups of Mooks to act at different times in a given conflict, or you can give the
Mooks two, three, or even four times their rating in stress boxes. This allows the
Mooks to be a pervasive threat throughout a hideout, a complex, or an otherwise
convoluted villainous lair.

22 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Lieutenants and Mooks aren’t always people. They can be resources, weapons,
you name it. The terms “Lieutenant” and “Mook” are used to designate relative
power or ability. In most cases, the Lieutenants should be people. It would be
difficult for a Villain to use a weapon in the same way they could use a person who
can move around the world and take actions on their behalf. However, Mooks
can easily be weapons or resources, as they’re much more faceless.
Lieutenants aren’t expendable and might have their own smaller agendas or
abilities to use. Mooks are a dime a dozen. A Mook—person or weapon—could
rise to the power level of a Lieutenant, but rarely the other way around. And a
Lieutenant without a Villain, and with a strong enough agenda, could become
a Villain in their own right.
For example, take a look at the sample Villain, Celine DuChampp. One of her
Lieutenants is her sister, CiCi. If the Agent got to Celine and took her out, but
Cici was still alive and free, it’s very possible that CiCi would become a Villain in
her own right (as long as that makes sense, story-wise). At that point, you would
give CiCi more rated aspects to reflect the resources available to her, as well as
giving her Lieutenants and Mooks.

Sample Organization: Falcon’s Wing

Falcon’s Wing is the shadow government behind the majority of [REDACTED].
No one knows the identity of the Falcon, but it’s rumored that they themselves
orchestrated the global takedown of the Agency. Falcon’s Wing has operatives
everywhere. In addition to the Agency, many suspect Falcon’s Wing was responsible
for [REDACTED], for the [REDACTED] in [REDACTED], had a major hand
in the revolution in [REDACTED], and had [REDACTED] the [REDACTED]
in [REDACTED] [REDACTED] with [REDACTED]. They are not to be
trifled with.

THE AGENCY 23
 Falcon's Wing
ASPECTS
High Concept: The World Will
Have Order...Our Order:
Fantastic (+6)
Agenda: Be the Apparent Savior:
Superb (+5)
Weakness: The Smoke from Our
Burned Bridges Obscures the
Sky: Terrible (-2)
Lieutenants: Condor: Superb (+5);
Peregrine: Great (+4); Buzzard:
Great (+4)
Mooks: Faceless Soldiers:
Good (+3); The Bureaucracy:
Fair (+2)
STRESS [1][2][3][4][5][6]
CONSEQUENCES
[2] Mild:
[4] Moderate:
[6] Severe:
Buzzard
ASPECTS
High Concept: Well-Connected
Government Informant:
Great (+4)
Weakness: Too Many People
Know My Face: Terrible (-2)
STRESS [1][2][3][4]
NOTES
Buzzard also has access to the Mook
aspects of Falcon’s Wing.
24
Condor
ASPECTS
High Concept: Head of
FW Global Operations:
Superb (+5)
Weakness: Never Could Resist a
Smile: Terrible (-2)
STRESS [1][2][3][4]
NOTES
Condor also has access to the Mook
aspects of Falcon’s Wing.
Peregrine
ASPECTS
High Concept: Unpredictable
Arms Dealer: Great (+4)
Weakness: Will It Burn?:
Terrible (-2)
STRESS [1][2][3][4]
NOTES
Peregrine also has access to the Mook
aspects of Falcon’s Wing.
Faceless Soldiers
ASPECTS
Faceless Soldiers: Good (+3)
STRESS
[1][2][3] [1][2][3] [1][2][3]
[1][2][3] [1][2][3]
The Bureaucracy
ASPECTS
The Bureaucracy: Fair (+2)
STRESS [1][2][3]
MISSION BRIEFING
Each mission that the FAIs carry out begins with the briefing. During this process,
the GM looks at the unfinished business aspects and gives the FAIs a chance to
give input and direction to the mission.
The best way to do this is by asking questions of the players and using their
answers to put things together. Via the unfinished business of four different FAIs,
the GM potentially has four different mission arcs to explore.
There are a few ways to go about asking questions like this. The quickest and
probably most impactful way is to look directly at the unfinished business aspects
on the FAIs’ sheets, and point your questions directly at those aspects. Each of
the example aspects from the unfinished business section provide different levels
of questioning.

BUT OTHER ASPECTS ARE INTERESTING TOO!

Unfinished business isn’t the only aspect you can look at. If someone
has a particularly interesting high concept or trouble, asking ques-
tions about those can generate some interesting results.

THE AGENCY 25
 Sample Aspect: I Want to See My Daughter, Just Once

Sample Question: When’s the last time you saw your daughter?

This is a pretty straightforward aspect, and it’s fine to ask a straightforward

question using it. What comes from this question completely depends on the
player’s response, and this is where asking questions to generate content for an
adventure can get tricky. Some players will give ridiculously detailed answers, and
those will give you a lot to work with.

Sample Response: The last time I saw her was when I loaded her on
a plane bound for Moscow so she could live with family there, safe
from DuChampp’s spies.

Holy crow! With an answer like that you’ve now got an adversary (DuChampp),
a spy network connected to that adversary (meaning DuChampp could be work-
ing alone, or as part of a larger organization), and you’ve got a specific location
where that particular FAI will want to go. That’s a lot of fodder for an adventure,
and that’s just one question.
Some responses won’t give you quite as much to work with, and you’ll need to
practice asking follow-up questions.

Sample Response 2: Last time I saw my daughter was after her father
took her away from me.

Okay. That’s going to need a follow-up question. Something like Why did her
father take her? or Where was he taking her? or even Who was her father? Some
players aren’t as comfortable coming up with information on the spot like this, so
don’t push too hard if someone seems to be resisting. When someone doesn’t give
you a lot of details, they’re leaving you room to insert your own. If you get dead-
end answers like He took her away because he found out I was a spy or Her father
was a normal man who couldn’t handle my being gone all the time, then you get to
ask some questions of yourself to make things interesting. What if the father was
himself a spy for another organization and your FAI didn’t even know? What if the
father was kidnapped shortly after leaving, and now the daughter has been raised
as an operative for a rival organization and there will be a life-or-death standoff
between the daughter and the digital replica of her mother’s personality and skills?
Point is, you can make almost any answer interesting if you keep asking ques-
tions. Just make sure to not ask questions of someone who’s not comfortable
answering. If your player won’t give you more to work with, ask yourself those
questions between sessions. Find what’s interesting and angle towards it.
You’re also not just asking questions of one player. Every FAI has an unfin-
ished business aspect. Asking questions of each player is the perfect time to have
unfinished business aspects intersect, possibly even having the FAIs work at
cross-purposes.

26 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

The First Session
Your first session of The Agency will likely consist of character creation, question-
asking, and the creation of Villains and Organizations. Don’t rush this process;
marinate in it. Many players like to have a say in the creation of the world in which
they are playing. Both Fate and The Agency give them a chance to do just that.
However, if your players are getting antsy, you can jump right into the sample
adventure, “Three Minutes from Midnight” (page 28). There’s nothing like
pushing them out of an airplane to get them re-focused.

Using the [REDACTED] Tags in Three Minutes from Midnight

For the sample adventure, “Three Minutes from Midnight”, the [REDACTED]
tags are all still present. This gives you a chance to customize the adventure to
really fit the FAIs your players build as they play. It’s a framework, one that you
can look at structure-wise to set up your future adventures.
Before you run the adventure, read through it and get a sense for how the scenes
flow together. Take note of where [REDACTED] shows up, and where you’ll
need to ask your players to fill in those blanks. There are places where Lieutenants
and Mooks are mentioned—you’ll want to have a Lieutenant and some Mooks
ready to go for those parts. If your group hasn’t generated any [REDACTED]
that are appropriate, feel free to use either the sample Villain (page 20) or
Organization (page 23).

THE AGENCY 27
 SAMPLE ADVENTURE:
THREE MINUTES FROM MIDNIGHT
Agency intelligence has revealed that [REDACTED] is working on a doomsday
device that will allow them to extort vast sums of money from many nations of
the world. It is the Agent’s job to stop that from happening.

The Doomsday Device

[REDACTED] has placed the warheads from 25 nuclear intercontinental ballistic
missiles directly on the South Pole. The threat is that if the device is detonated,
the resultant vaporization of ice plus the force of the blast would create a mas-
sive, northward-traveling tsunami that would flood Earth up to the 38th parallel.
Such a wave would largely threaten the poorer and developing countries in the
world, which puts immense pressure on the UN to prevent such an explosion
from happening.
This adventure is a fleshed-out framework for your group to customize. When
your group fills in who [REDACTED] is for this adventure, the GM needs to
create the Villain/Organization, the Lieutenants, and the Mooks that will be used
in play. If you’re stuck, using the example enemies on page 21 and 24 can
serve as a good starting point.

28 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Part One: The Jumping-off Point
Part One of this adventure picks up in the middle of the action as the Agent air
drops into the middle of the Algerian Sahara to intercept a convoy being run by
one of [REDACTED]’s Lieutenants. They know that they need to intercept the
convoy, but only because the Computer told them. They don’t know the reason
why or who’s behind any of it.

Scenes

THE JUMP (CHALLENGE, PAGE 147 IN FATE CORE SYSTEM)

The Agent will be air-dropping from
SITUATION ASPECTS
a plane down to the convoy below.
High Winds: Good (+3)
Difficulties for the overcome rolls are
Scattered Gunfire: Fair (+2)
in the range of Fair (+2) to Great (+4),
OH MY GOD WE’RE JUMPING
to give the FAIs a chance to get accli-
OUT OF A PLANE!: Great (+4)
mated to everyone sharing one body.
Have each FAI make a roll as Alice’s
programming shuffles them around to ensure that they all figure out how to work
together. Use the same initiative system, with each FAI choosing who will go next.
There’s no opposition in this case, just the static values on the situation aspects.
The last aspect is attached to the Civilian. Whether that aspect reflects their
terror or their excitement depends on how the Civilian is created. The overcome
roll in this case is to keep the Civilian from getting a turn and having to make
an overcome roll using their own likely-not-useful skills.

THE CONVOY (CONFLICT, PAGE 154 IN FATE CORE SYSTEM)

The convoy is headed up by one of
ASPECTS
[REDACTED]’s Lieutenants. They’ve
Sandstorm: Fair (+2)
got vehicles, weapons, and Mooks
Heavy Weapons, and the Troops
aplenty. Use the Mooks and Lieutenant
to Use Them: Great (+4)
as characters and play out the conflict.
I’m Not Going Down Without a
Don’t forget that conceding is a per-
Fight!: Average (+1)
fectly viable solution for a bad guy, and
any Lieutenant worth their name will want to live to fight another day.

Success and Failure

If the Agent successfully takes over the convoy: They find out that the Lieutenant
is working for [REDACTED], and that [REDACTED] is building some type
of doomsday device. Moreover, they learn that [REDACTED] will be trying to
obtain the last piece of it at an underground fighting tournament in Thailand
(because of course they are).
If the Agent concedes the conflict with the convoy: As they see it drive off into
the distance, they find a flash drive that indicates the same information as above,
but they will find navigating the fighting ring to be much more difficult.

THE AGENCY 29
 Part Two: Three Nights in Bangkok
Part Two has intelligence-gathering, social scene infiltration, and possibly entry
into the fighting tournament. [REDACTED] isn’t participating in the fighting
tournament, but is using the underground fight as a venue for the negotiations
to secure the last piece of their doomsday device.

Scenes
You’ll likely end up playing one scene or the other, as the Agent can’t be in two places
at one time. One scene focuses on stealth and infiltration to stop [REDACTED],
whereas the other involves being a participant in the fighting tournament.
In terms of pacing, this scene can last an evening, or a few days of game time.
All of that depends on how the Agent chooses to approach the scene. If the Agent
chooses “In Through the Out Door,” the scene can happen directly at the end of
the negotiations, meaning that it will take only an evening. If the Agent chooses
“Put Up or Shut Up,” the tournament can happen in an evening or multiple days—
whichever you think will be more interesting for your group.

IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR (CHALLENGE)

[REDACTED] is meeting with various shadowy goods and information brokers,
working to secure the final component needed for the doomsday device. The
Agent needs to creep through shad-
ASPECTS owy corridors, darkened alleyways, or
The Shadows Hide Many Things: ventilation systems, looking to disrupt
Great (+4) the meeting or perhaps even obtain the
Don’t Step There: Good (+3) component for the Agency.
Close Quarters, Tight Spaces, Rated aspects in this scene are there
and Blind Spots: Superb (+5) for you to use as an attack against the
The Oblivious Masses Are Agent. The stress and consequences the
Everywhere: Good (+3) Agent might accumulate will make the
I’m Not Going Down Without a ending of this scene more interesting
Fight!: Average (+1) for you and the Agent. Well, at least
for you.

30 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

PUT UP OR SHUT UP (CONFLICT)
ASPECTS
The tournament itself provides an
Bloody Knuckles: Good (+3)
avenue to gain access to and disrupt
Over the Top: Great (+4)
[REDACTED]’s negotiations. The
Only the Strong Survive: Superb (+5)
standard for this tournament is that
A Dim, Smoky Haze: Good (+3)
the winner gets to meet with the shad-
The Roar of the Crowd: Fair (+2)
owy broker who is negotiating with
Hey, How’d You Smuggle That In?:
[REDACTED]. Some of the same
Great (+4)
aspects from “In Through the Out Door”
can be used to describe the disruption
of the negotiations, leaving the aspects on this page for the fights themselves.
You also have two options for this scene in terms of the opponents the Agent
will face. The aspects for this scene are all rated aspects, meaning you can use
them with an equivalent number of stress boxes to represent the fighters in the
tournament. Alternatively, you can look to your FAIs’ unfinished business aspects,
or any ideas you might have for other enemies your Agent might face. This fight
is a perfect time to flesh them out with the same kinds of aspects a Lieutenant
might have. If you want the fights to be very dangerous, you could stat out an
opponent as a full Villain as well. If you’re stuck for ideas, the sample Villains or
Lieutenants (page 21 and 24) will work just fine.

Success and Failure

In neither option will the Agent stop [REDACTED] from procuring the final
piece of the doomsday device. The shadowy broker is too good for that.
If the Agent is successful in disrupting the negotiations: They force
[REDACTED] to head for the doomsday device early, without extorting the
world leaders for the money they wish to.
If the Agent fails to disrupt the negotiations: [REDACTED] has a chance
to arm the doomsday device and deliver their threat to the leaders of the world,
possibly having some nations capitulate or put pressure on the UN to stop the
explosion from happening.

THE AGENCY 31
 Part Three: Snow Crash
The Agent travels to the South Pole to stop [REDACTED] from setting off the
doomsday device. Depending on the Agent’s results in Bangkok, they will have
to deal with either just [REDACTED]’s forces, or [REDACTED]’s forces and
intense scrutiny from the international community in the form of reporters and
UN Security Forces.

Scene
There’s only one scene in this section of the adventure, one that spans the entirety
of [REDACTED]’s Antarctic compound. This is a section where adding your
own touch to the adventure will really make it shine. You know your Agent and
their situation better than we ever could, so feel free to add your own aspects to
the scenes in the compound.
The compound is full of traps and dead ends. Those are represented by the
detonating aspects listed below. As soon as the Agent interacts with a given detonat-
ing aspect, begin counting it down. If the Agent doesn’t move quickly, they may
find themselves with escape routes cut off, or with more stress and consequences
than they want to deal with.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

The complex [REDACTED] has built is the kind of sprawling place that you might
expect from an evil villain with a grandiose plan. It’s made up of multiple zones,
and can have one or more aspects (detonating or otherwise) in each zone. This
is another situation where you need to
ASPECTS let the previous events influence the
Mooks...So. Many. Mooks.: Good adventure. This is the perfect time to
(+3) have an interesting fighter from the
Explosives in the Walls: tournament or a nefarious contraption
[DETONATING] Great (+4) created on the convoy re-appear.
Everything Is Better With Lasers: The room with the controls for one of
[DETONATING] Superb (+5) the detonating aspects is also guarded
Information Everywhere: Fair (+2) by one of [REDACTED]’s Lieutenants.
Defended by a Ranking Officer Perfect opportunity for a dramatic
(Lieutenant) showdown.

32 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Success and Failure
Success: The Agent is able to stop [REDACTED]’s plans, though whether or
not [REDACTED] is captured will be determined by the actual events as they
play out during the session.
Failure: Well, that would be bad, wouldn’t it? A failure in this case means a failure
on the part of the Agent, not that the doomsday device is set off. That’s not the
kind of game this is. If the Agent fails to stop [REDACTED], it means that the
nations of the world have given [REDACTED] the money [REDACTED] wants.
The evil Villain now has the capital to enact any number of devious schemes!
The secret of this portion of the adventure is that [REDACTED] is planning
something more than the doomsday device. In fact, their real reason for staging
the entire operation was to get the Agent into their facility where they could be
observed. [REDACTED] is working to copy the technology that Alice used to
create the Field Agents. They wanted the Agent there to observe them and to
perfect the technology.
If your Agent succeeded on the mission, then [REDACTED] will be more
desperate than before, and will likely force their plan, sending their own created
Agent into the field before it’s truly ready. If your Agent failed the mission, then
[REDACTED] can take their time and spend more resources thanks to the money
given by the nations of the world. This will make their own created Agent a much
more deadly opponent.

THE AGENCY 33
 Additional Adventure Hooks/
Locations/Information
There is a plethora of material that can be mined for adventures for The Agency.
Any movie with over-the-top characters and overly complicated plots from the
villains will work wonderfully. When planning your future adventures, here are
some scenic locations and adventure ideas for you to use as springboards.
• Island Fortresses
• Hacking the CIA
• Buddying up with the KGB
• Behold, my Flying Zeppelin Fortress!
• You Say You Want a Revolution? Well...
• Water, Water Everywhere, and the Drops Are All Mine
• Assassinating a Foreign Ruler
• Protect the President!
• Missile Silos in Volcanos Are Bad Ideas
• Submarines Hidden off the Coast
• My Satellites See Everything
• The Attack Is Coming from Their Moon Base!
• Stolen Supersonic Jet Fighters
• Mind-Controlling Cell Phones
• Rogue AI
• Hallucinogenic Coffee Beans
• Breaking up the Cartel
• Kidnapped Head Scientist
• They’re Sending a Meteor to Kill Us All
• Siberia Is Lovely This Time of Year
• Foul Play on the Orient Express
• The Eiffel Tower Is Missing!
• Mass Hysteria in a Florida Amusement Park
• Bombs Inside the Statue of Liberty
• Giant Robots of DOOM
• Genetic Experiments Run Amok
• Rumble in the Jungle

34 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE