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Monday Mashup #38: The Sandbaggers

For our thirty-eighth mashup we’ll go with an absolute classic of British television, The Sandbaggers. If you like espionage at all, I strongly recommend it. It was all kinds of tense and thoughtful; lots of each episode takes place in the offices of British Intelligence, where people are arguing about the ethics and practicality and safety of missions. And plenty of each episode takes place out in the field, where intelligence agents are not supermen.

I’m going to mash it with HeroQuest, in keeping with the Glorantha kick I’ve been on lately. The Instrumentalities of Mandate of the Lunar Empire are a perfect setting. The PCs are the Minders of the setting, working for a cynical and embittered Darjiini espionage master, HarukiKut. He has taken on the trappings of the Dara Happans, who he vastly dislikes, because it is the best way for him to be of service to the Red Goddess, who he adores with all his being. His Instrumentality is known as the Marsh Ferret Fellowship. HarukiKut denies that it is named after him.

His rivals are a Dara Happan Instrumentality called the Six-Finger Hand Invisible League. They are the elite of Lunar society, and very clever to boot, but HarukiKut knows that there are those things that a ferret can see and no hand can touch, so he fights on to maintain his group — possibly a hero band, of course — even in the face of Dara Happan indifference.

Occupation: Agent of the Instrumentality

Abilities: Analyze Information, Disguise, Elicit Gossip, Stealth
Typical Personality: Loner, Risk-Taker, Secretive
Typical Relationships: Enemy of Another Instrumentality or Outside Forces, Loyal to Boss, Member of Instrumentality
Followers: None
Magic: Almost any.
Standard of Living: Common

HarukiKut teaches his agents Sleep Unseen, Squeeze Through, and Sniff Out Interesting Things as ferret charms.

6 Comments

  1. Of course the ferrets are the good guys. That’s the way it always works. 🙂

  2. For the thirty-eighth Monday Mashup, Bryant challenged us to mash Sandbaggers. I’ve never seen Sandbaggers, but I’m told its a lot like MI5/Spooks, so I’m working from there and mashing it with Champions. The PCs are members of the D.M.O….

  3. Mines up, a week and a half later….

    Bryant- I sent a suggestion for a topic in an email. How about doing “Planet of the Apes?”

  4. Planet of the Apes next week it is.

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