Espionage! (1983) is the second RPG developed by Hero Games, the makers of Champions. It essentially shares the same system as the superhero game, which makes this really Hero Games’ first step toward building their universal ruleset, the unsurprisingly named Hero System.

Weirdly, though, I think the rules are a mess. You’d think after having worked out a superhero game (what I would think was a more complicated genre to simulate) that a spy game would be feather-light in comparison. But it isn’t at all. I think Top Secret is easier to grok? The whole thing is ponderous and weirdly un-fun. That extends to some of the greater philosophies of the game, which are deeply rooted in real-world spycraft (characters here work for the CIA) and thus the pulpier aspects of James Bond, like gadgets, death traps and weirdo villains, are missing from the game — that shark on the cover is totally false advertising.

When you finally figure out how things are supposed to work, I think the results are pretty satisfyingly realistic, but I don’t want to work that hard. I want to shoot a shark while driving a Ferrari, you know? This feels more in line with some of the military simulation games coming out around the same time. Someone at Hero must have gotten the message, though, because the game was retooled as Danger International in 1985, and is a lighter, less serious spy game, more in line with my expectations from the genre. It’s cool to see how quickly Hero Games is upping their production values, though. The interiors feel much cleaner than Champions. Neat catalog, too.