SPY vs SPY

Spy Vs Spy is a weekly task-based last-man-standing play-by-web game in which you must find out information about the other players. When players are identified, they can be eliminated. The game continues until there is only one player left.

Each player runs a secret group of spies called a "brotherhood". Each brotherhood has two top secret pieces of information:

• The location of its base.
• The name of its leader (in-game name, not player name).

Each turn you use your spies to collect this knowledge, or thwart the collection of this knowledge by other players.

When you think you know a brotherhood's leader, and its location, you Declare:
E.g. The Poignant Immaculates, Mr Rose, Beltram region
If you are right, that player is out of the game.
If you are wrong on any of the points, you are out of the game.

The game takes place in a town called Spy Town. The town is divided into nine regions, and the brotherhoods' secret bases are located somewhere in these regions. There can be more than one secret base per region.
(The list of the nine regions is below the Task List.)

Each turn, players submit one task for each of their spies. This is done through a simple point-and-click web interface. The tasks are executed in a strict order (see below)

Each week, on Wednesday night, 8pm New Zealand time, the players' turns are processed and the results are soon available on the web site.

The email addresses of all players is published, so communication between players is allowed and encouraged.

Task List

Order & Task	Detail
1. HIDE <region>	The spy hides in the region. Hiding spies are safe from HUNT, but they will not give a report of the region they are in. Leaders cannot HIDE — they are too well known (change to WORK).
2. COVERT <region>	Makes your base more secret. The skill of the spy is added to the covertness value of the brotherhood. Covertness helps your spies defend against HUNT and SEARCH.
3. TRAIN <region>	Increases spy's skill by 1 or 2 or 3; depends on the region the spy visits (see "Train" row in Region table below) Skills are used by COVERT, HUNT and WORK. Training is not free: to increase by 1 costs 2gp, 2 costs 8gp, 3 costs 18gp. If you are short on money, your spy will train as much as you can afford.
4. GUARD <region>	Protects ONE of your spies in this region against HUNT. Your lowest skilled (unguarded) spy is chosen; though not leaders, nor spies doing HIDE or FOLLOW. This means if you send an equal number of guards to a region as spies, all your spies there will be protected. Guards themselves are safe from HUNT. Leaders are safe from HUNT, hence they need not (and won't) be guarded.
5. DISGUISE <region> [ <brotherhood> ]	The spy disguises himself as a member of another brotherhood. You can optionally choose the brotherhood, or leave it to be random. You can't disguise as your own brotherhood. This directly affects the brotherhood table on the turn report. Needless to say, this is a useful task for your leader to do.
6. FOLLOW <leader>	Follow the target leader and go to the same region he goes. You will be told if this leader is disguised. Followers cannot be guarded (the guard doesn't know where to go) and because of this, they are safe from HUNT. Leaders cannot FOLLOW (mainly because of the ensuing paradoxes that occur).
7. HUNT <region> [ <brotherhood> ]	Hunt for a low-skill spy in this region to question and kill. Hunt will NOT target: your own spies leaders GUARDed spies spies doing GUARD, HIDE or FOLLOW spies with a skill the same or greater than your hunter's skill You can try to target spies of a certain brotherhood (with the optional 2nd parameter), but the above selection rules still apply. And if none are present, then it'll be another brotherhood. All eligible targets are sorted by Covertness, and the least covert one will be targetted (see COVERT). The target is questioned and forced reveal one crucial piece of information: base location *OR* leader's name. It is decided randomly, but it is the same for every HUNT on this brotherhood for this turn. The target is then killed and does not complete the turn. When several hunters work in the same region, the highest skilled ones go first. (For drawn skills, sort by covertness, brotherhood money, then random.) HUNT information is correct and does not suffer from FAKE nor DISGUISE. When a successful HUNT occurs, every player will be told the brotherhoods of the hunter and victim.
8. FAKE <region>	Plant a fake report that your base is in this region. Anyone who conducts a SEARCH here will get a report saying your base is here.
9. SEARCH <region> [ <brotherhood> ]	Search the region for a base. You can specify an optional brotherhood. This is a very complex task, so I've tried to simplify it with this table. There are four situations:   No FAKEs done here FAKEs done here No (optional) brotherhood specified Return a real base. If there is more than one base here, choose the least covert brotherhood. You won't get your own base (unless unavoidable). No real bases here will ever be spotted. If there is more than one FAKE, choose one at random (not by covertness). If you are the only one faking, treat as if no FAKEs. Brotherhood specified If the specified brotherhood is here, then return that. Otherwise, as above. If the specified brotherhood is faking here and actually has their base here too, then always return that name. Otherwise, as above. SEARCH also tells you the number of brotherhoods that are here. This is a total of the number of fakes and the number of real bases. (Your own FAKEs and base not included.)
10. RECRUIT	Get a new recruit. Recruit always happens in the Ghetto. Recruits start with a random skill from 1 to 3 (D3). The more spies you have, the more recruits cost. The cost of each recruit equals number spies you have (at the start of the turn). So if you have eleven spies, each recruit will cost 11 gp. You cannot RECRUIT if you can't afford it. Note: WORK comes after RECRUIT. Note: Spies cost no maintenance.
11. WORK <region>	Spy earns money. Money lets you RECRUIT. The amount earned is (spy's skill + region value) gp. See the "work" row in the Region table below for the region value. (i.e. the best region to WORK is Industrial.) E.g. A skill 3 spy working in Industrial region will earn 8gp (3 + 5).

Regions

Information Gathering

• The number of spies from each brotherhood visited this region. Note that these numbers are affected by DISGUISE.
• The number of spies who did each task here.
• All leaders that have been spotted about town.
• To avoid "analysis clutter", all your own spies are not included.

Secret Information

1. The HUNT task will let you question spies from other groups. The information gleaned this way is 100% correct, but it has a few problems: Your hunter needs to have high skill, the targets cannot be GUARDed, and when you do get to question someone, it is luck whether you get exactly the information you need (e.g. you might need Location and instead get Leader).
2. The SEARCH task will get you base location, but it is subject to the FAKE task. You can check the region information to see how many FAKEs were done.
3. Leader's brotherhood can be done deductively by matching the brotherhoods with spotted leaders. FOLLOW will get your spies into the same region as a leader, or you can simply ensure that all regions are covered. Your only problem here is handling DISGUISE. FOLLOW will tell you who the leader is disguised as.

Declarations

If you get any right, the target player will be out of the game.

If you get any wrong, you will be out of the game. Unless you have a Life (see below).

All declarations are processed before the turn is run: the incorrect ones first, then the correct declarations. Thus any brotherhoods eliminated will not take part in the turn; all their spies vanish from the system. It is possible for two players to wipe each other out simultaneously.

Successful declarers get a reward:

• The money that the brotherhood had (if two or more wipe the same brotherhood, this is split).
• A Life point. One Life point allows you to make one incorrect declaration (they don't help you if someone else fingers you).
  • Only one Life point can be carried over between turns. So if you make five successful declares, you only carry forward one Life point.
  • You do not accumulate Life points during the declaration phase, so you can't use a Life the same turn you get it.
  • If two or more players wipe the same brotherhood, each gets a Life point.

Starting

You may choose a region for your base. If you don't, one will be selected at random.

Your leader's secret name will be assigned. It will be something like "Mister Pink", "Mister Mauve", etc.

Your top secret leader's name and secret base location is not actually required during play, so it will not appear on your weekly turn report. It will be emailed to you. Keep this secret!

You will start with 20gp and nine spies. Your leader will get skill=4. The others will get skills: 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1

Cheating

The only rule here is no hacking of my webserver!

No shows

Players who don't submit turns will have all the spies sent to random regions to WORK.

Game Over

The game is over when there is one or no players left. (It is theoretically possible for the last two players to kill each other simultaneously.)

FAQ

What is the aim of the game?
To be the last brotherhood left at the end.

How do I do that?
By eliminating all the other brotherhoods. You do this by working out where their base is and what their leader's (character's) name is.

How do I find this information out?
Base location can be discovered by the SEARCH task.
Leader name can be discovered deductively (FOLLOW helps see through DISGUISE).
Or you can use the HUNT task to beat the information out of spies from other brotherhoods.

Can I stop other players getting this information?
You can confound SEARCH with FAKE, and DISGUISE on your leader will help. To stop HUNT, you can use the GUARD task, or have spies with high skill.

How do I get money?
WORK

How do I get more spies?
RECRUIT.

But if I have a large brotherhood, it'll cost tons to recruit more
Well, yes. You'll need lots of workers to earn money.

Can I hurt other players?

• HUNT will kill other players' spies.
• Declaring correctly will wipe other players out.

What is the point of TRAIN?
TRAIN increases your brigand's skill. Skill is used by COVERT, HUNT and WORK.

Why would I bother sending my spies WORK in any region but Industry (or TRAIN anywhere but Academy)?
Well, other players know this too, so they will send their spies to HUNT in these popular regions.

Why DISGUISE non leaders?
Yes. You might think this is pointless, but sending a disguised spy to the same region your leader goes will achieve the same result as disguising the leader. Sending disguised spies to other regions just increases the general confusion.

Is it better to spend the first few turns training and earning money and then going on a big recruiting drive to get a huge brotherhood, or should I spend all my time with my starting spies to gather information right from the start?
This decision is the crux of the game.
It may depend on what other players do.
Or not.
I have no idea what the correct answer is (nor would I tell you if I did!)

What stops two players sharing information to get me?
Nothing. But this is actually harder than you'd think.

• They can't guarantee that they will HUNT or SEARCH in a region where you have spies or your base.
• Using the HUNT task, sharing can only work off several turns' of data; two players doing a HUNT on the same brotherhood the same turn, will get exactly the same information.
• Using SEARCH or FOLLOW, they have no guaranteed way to actually target you.
• They have to trust each other implicitly that they are telling the truth (because if one lies and the other uses this information to make an incorrect declaration; well, he's dead!)

Can I just sit back on my fat spotty behind, picking blackheads, and not actually do anything, and yet still come second in the game; just by blind luck of not being discovered by the active players?
Well, maybe. But chances are, if you do no active obfuscation or confusion with the info hiding tasks (DISGUISE or FAKE), or protect your spies' lives with GUARD, then you'll be targetted (albeit accidentally). And wiped.

Okay then, I'll just spend the whole game sending my guys to do only DISGUISE, GUARD and FAKE. Then I could get to be second and still a lazy bum, yes?
Again, maybe.
But while you're doing this, other players are increasing their brotherhood sizes, improving their spies' skills, and actively info gathering, hunting and what not; and, because of this, still doing the same amount of DISGUISE and FAKE that you are.

Okay then, I'll do some RECRUITing and TRAINing too. And some GUARDing.
Well, now you are actively playing the game! So much for picking blackheads (or not caring tinkers' cusses about struggling architects).

When there are only two players left, won't they just eliminate each other automatically?
Not necessarily. Base location can not be discovered simply by "what is left". But in the case that this does happen, then they'd be declared joint winners.

If I have information, I can trade it with other players?
Go ahead. But they will have to decide if they can trust you. Because if you lie to them and they make a Declare based on a lie, then they are dead! And cut-and-pastes can easily be faked.

Does the turn report [ table ] include my crew?
No. All your spies and leader are not included. This is to help with analyzing your turn.

Spies who were "killed" [ from HUNT ] squealed first, right?
If by "squeal", you mean "reveal their base location or leader", then yes, they squeal long and loud to their killers.
But if you mean "give a turn report to their boss", then no.

If COVERT makes your base more hidden, why does it take a region for an argument? Is that just the region the spy winds up in?
Yep. Spies have to end up somewhere.

What benefit is gained from following a leader?
The *main* benefit of FOLLOW is that it tells if the leader is disguised, and if so, who he is disguised as. (There is an example of this in the sample turn.)
The secondary benefit is that it ensures you get a spy into the same region as the target leader. (If you can cover all the nine regions with other spies, then this point is moot, but when your spy numbers are limited, it might be useful.)

In this case, doesn't NOT disguising your leader provide less information to opponents?
This is almost true, but it is a double-edged sword, because having a leader disguised will confound the non-followers.

Since new recruits don't seem to be in any region, and since HUNT goes before WORK, does that mean that any recruit sent to WORK is safe from a HUNT?
No.
The "At" column on the turn report us where the spy was *last* turn. It has nothing to do with where things happen this turn.
So all spies are sent to their regions right at the start of a turn. Then each task is executed in order.
Workers will be hunted in the region they are working. (Even though they haven't started working yet!)

Since the leader cannot be hunted, and since his whereabouts has no bearing on either his identity or the location of the base, what is gained by disguising him?
Let me give an example:
Pretend you did not use disguise.
You send your leader, Mr Egg, to Academy region.
I also have a spy there.
No one else does.

Now my turn will say Mr Egg was seen in Academy.
It will also say that Toady's Mob(you) sent 1 spy to Academy.
Thus, this tells me that Mr Egg must be Toady's Mob's boss.
If you had disguised Mr Egg, it would not tell me this - it'd give a different brotherhood.

The number of spies seen in each region: does that include leaders?
Yes.

If a SEARCH tells you there are 7 bases in a region, I assume this includes any FAKEs?
Yep. That total is fakes and reals added together.

E.g. I found 7 bases in PigSty, but I know there was 1 FAKE there. So there are only 6 bases actually there, right?
Correct.

And I know that the base is not The Hounds of Sigmar because the FAKE was automatically found first, yes?
Not quite. There is nothing to stop the Hounds doing a FAKE in their own region.

If there were two FAKEs in the same region, I assume the SEARCH will disclose the least COVERT FAKE first as per the real bases?
No. Real bases are ordered by covertness, fakes are ordered randomly (if there is more than one FAKE).

If I do two SEARCHs in the same region, will they both find the same FAKE, or is the FAKE cancelled by one SEARCH and the other is then clear to collect real info?
No. If there is only one FAKE in a region, every SEARCH that region turn will find only that FAKE.

What happens when you send a guard to a region where there is noone to guard?
He just hangs around forlornly doing nothing (but is still protected from HUNT).

Spy 2 Rule Change Suggestions

• Can only find bases with a SEARCH if (spy's skill * turn number) is > covertness. No FAKE in this case.
• Declares cost money. First is 10gp, second 15gp, add 5gp each time. This price is game-wide (not player-wide). A correct declare halves the price. No penalty for incorrect declares.
• Leader ticks will only appear if the sum of the skills of your spies (searching for leaders) in that region is greater than the skill of the leader(s) there.
• GUARDs not as effective. Each guard doubles the skill of the guardee (for hunt protection, not for other skill uses). HUNT works otherwise the same. GUARDs themselves are still utterly safe.
• Remove HIDE, FAKE, FOLLOW and DISGUISE.

Example of Turn Sheet

Email all players: spy@scabport.com

Region quick ref

Your brotherhood

Nspies = 17

Covertness = 4

GP = 19

Brotherhood Report

Brotherhood & Task	Region Spy Report									Player	Email	Spies	Covertness	gp
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
Buttmans Brigade	0	?	?	1	3	2	3	?	0	Richard Greenaway	Rich.Mich@Bigpond.Com.au	11	1	17
Cannibal Island Republican Army	0	?	?	3	2	1	0	?	0	Dr Tim Robinson	timrobinson@paradise.net.nz	10	1	52
Da Magoo's	0	?	?	1	0	1	3	?	0	Darryl Sherwood	darryl@sherwood.co.nz	10	1	34
Damascene Techniques	0	?	?	0	0	1	1	?	0	David Best	Davebest@xtra.co.nz	6	1	27
Greedy Gimps	0	?	?	0	1	1	1	?	0	Andrew Robins	boric@paradise.net.nz	7	1	48
Hoodless Wonders	0	?	?	1	1	0	2	?	0	Joffre Horlor	joff@joffrehorlor.com	7	1	30
Houdini's Hoodlums	0	?	?	1	1	3	3	?	0	Steven Krijnen	krijnens@cpit.ac.nz	11	1	10
I.R.D.	0	?	?	0	3	1	0	?	0	Shane Barr	shanebarr@xtra.co.nz	8	1	35
Mad Bobs	0	?	?	0	5	0	1	?	0	Chris Whelan	c.whelan@xtra.co.nz	9	1	38
Midsummer Knights Scream	0	?	?	2	1	4	1	?	0	Jeff Clendon	JeffC@holmesgroup.com	12	1	17
Red Gold Holdings	0	?	?	1	1	1	0	?	0	Stephen Robinson	redgold@xtra.co.nz	7	1	63
Stormreaver	0	?	?	1	1	2	1	?	0	Zane Prior	toujoursnz@hotmail.com	10	1	18
Temple of Gapp	1	?	?	2	0	1	1	?	0	Kent Prior	volen_de_sade@hotmail.com	11	1	27
The Cheerful Reapers	1	?	?	0	1	1	3	?	1	Kevin Fee	kevin.fee@xtra.co.nz	10	1	12
The Silk Slippers	0	?	?	2	1	0	0	?	0	Arnold Krijnen	krijnen@xtra.co.nz	4	1	69
Disguised as you	0	?	?	0	0	0	0	?	0
COVERT	0	?	?	0	0	0	0	?	0
DISGUISE	0	?	?	1	4	2	4	?	0
FAKE	0	?	?	3	3	4	0	?	0
FOLLOW	0	?	?	0	0	0	0	?	0
GUARD	1	?	?	2	2	1	0	?	0
HUNT	0	?	?	4	3	3	2	?	0
RECRUIT	0	?	?	0	0	0	9	?	0
SEARCH	0	?	?	5	8	6	4	?	1
TRAIN	1	?	?	0	0	0	0	?	0
WORK	0	?	?	0	1	3	1	?	0
Mr Pink		?	?					?
Mr Orange		?	?					?
Mr Vermillion		?	?					?
Mr Mango		?	?					?
Mr Lemon		?	?					?
Mr Torp		?	?					?
Mr Fuscia		?	?					?
Mr Purple		?	?					?
Mr Green		?	?					?
Mr Grey		?	?					?
Mr Navy		?	?					?
Mr Ochre		?	?					?
Mr Aqua		?	?					?
Mr Yellow		?	?					?
Mr Black		?	?					?

Acknowledgements