Having finally had a chance to play through some Spycraft stuff, I can finally see what people have been saying — the combat system changes take it head-and-shoulders above the standard d20 combat system. Fluid, smooth, and much more intuitive to a non-tactically-thinking gamer, they literally made it possible to ‘do what the guys in the movies do’ without having to have read a book on squad tactics, or know anything about the system works with regard to cover and the like.
The skill and feat system? Ditto. I’ll lay most of my enjoyment at the feet of the GM and fellow players, but I must say this is a hugely improved d20 system varient.
[Addendum: As a GM, Dave stays in character with his NPCs much better than I do. Much much better. Much]
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Combat system: I’m inclined to agree. At least, the artificial division of “you can (a) attack and (b) move, but you can’t do either more than once” (to overgeneralize) is out of the way. It may, on the other hand, make defensive maneuvers more useful, too — some guy throwing two attacks worth of lead at you before you get to do something back is a bit daunting. (At least, it would be as a PC — as a GM running a bunch of minions, it’s far less worrisome).
By the way, thanks for your clever words in game about, “Guys, any systemic combat rules change not only benefits us, it benefits the bad guys, too.” Heh.
Skills & Feats: Not so sure the skill system is any improved, though the book is very good about providing DCs for skill use, and what successes and failures mean. The Feats system, though … I dunno. On the one hand, I think it’s great that there are so many Feats, and that they’re organized in the book by type. On the other hand, both of those thing also suck, at least as a GM.
Staying in Character: I am a ham. I enjoy doing funny accents (even if my bad French and my bad Spanish sometimes blur into bad Basque), and I enjoy doing NPC interaction. But, frankly, I’m a ham.
But thanks.