Show HN: Smiley vs. Karla, a Pen and Paper Game of Espionage

In the early months of quarantine, I sat down and created a new Pen and Paper RPG I had in mind. Months have passed and life has moved on, but I wanted to release it to the public so it didn't just on my harddrive, lost to eternity.

Smiley vs. Karla is an espionage role-playing game for 3 to 5 players set in the world of John Le Carré's cold war spy novels.

Unlike most pen and paper role playing games, Smiley vs. Karla is not a strictly collaborative game. Each player has a private objective which may conflict with the objectives of other players.

The game is played by 3-4 player characters, who play as spies employed by the British intelligence services ("The Circus"), and one Spy Master, who controls the context of the adventure and plays as the non-player characters, some of whom will be assets of the Russian intelligence services ("Moscow Centre").

Collectively, players are trying to achieve the assignments ordered by Smiley, the British spymaster and to foil the objectives of Karla, the Russian spymaster.

However, each player also has a private goal that only they know about. These goals may conflict with and supersede the collective goal, particularly if their role is as a double-agent for Karla.

The group wins if they successfully complete Smiley's mission and an individual wins if they complete their own.

Prelude in London, a complete one-shot campaign, based in the 1960's criminal underworld of London, is available here:

https://github.com/Miserlou/Karla/blob/master/Prelude_in_Lon...

My group ran it as a one shot-campaign and had a lot of fun, especially with accents and moments where we got to try to betray and undermine each other.

Anyway, I know it's not super hackery, but I thought there might be some community overlap, so I wanted to share.

Cheers!