Games: Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes

In my posting on pulp games, one I mentioned is Flying Buffalo‘s Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes (or MSPE), which is one of the more popular of the pulp-related games.

It may not have the amount of associated materials that folks would want, but it does have a good amount. The game was recently revised thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, so if you haven’t gotten this one, there is now a new edition and reprinted materials available.

The game was launched in 1983, inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the intention of creating a game that would allow for play in such a pulp-inspired, action-adventure scenario. Written by Michael Stackpole, it is based on Flying Buffalo’s Tunnels & Trolls game system. T&T is their Dungeons & Dragons-like role-playing game. With that game, some materials were created. There was even a time when materials for Hero Games‘ Espionage game was written that could be played with MSPE as well.

Due to reasons I don’t fully understand, Flying Buffalo allowed Sleuth Games, who published the excellent Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective game to publish a second edition of MSPE in 1986. This edition dropped some items from the manual and added some items. They created an add-on to the game, called Ident-a-Kit:1 Fingerprints, which gave info on fingerprints. I’m not aware of a second kit being created.

In 2019, through the aforementioned Kickstarted campaign, FB came out with with a third edition of MSPE, which they call a “combined edition.” This is because they restored the items left out in the second edition, kept the new items in that edition, and added some new materials as well. One that is a welcome edition is a two-page section on playing MSPE in a pulp-hero world.

They also brought back into print some other materials that had gone out of print. We now have a very nice game master screen. They brought back into print The Adventure of the Jade Jaguar, which is a neat solo scenario I hope to play soon.

Stormhaven is still in print, and is a scenario book as well as information on an interesting modern location for games. An island owned by Allard Technologies, run by the son and grandson of a certain pulp hero.

Mugshots was a too-short series of scenario books that came out in the 1990s. The first, The Case of the Pacific Clipper, was reprinted in a “deluxe” edition with color. The second, Taking Care of Business, is still available.

I am aware of some other scenario resources out there. Grenadier Models did Raid on Rajallapor, which I think is still available from Flying Buffalo. And Hero Games did Border Crossing, which ties to their Espionage game but can be used with MSPE. There are other materials that can be used by MSPE, such as the Daredevil‘s scenarios, and Justice, Inc. scenarios.

So have you played MSPE? How did you like it? As I note, I hope to play Jade Jaguar and see how it is as I don’t have a gaming group. It would be nice if we saw more solo scenarios and more materials after the Kickstarter. Who knows?