Top Secret (game)
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Top Secret was an espionage role-playing game first published in 1980 by TSR, the company best known for making the Dungeons & Dragons game. A note written on TSR stationery about a fictitious assassination plot (part of a playtest for Top Secret) brought the FBI to the offices of TSR Hobbies.
Designed by Merle M. Rasmussen, the original Top Secret game aimed to capture the spirit of such fictional series as James Bond, Modesty Blaise, Mission Impossible and The Avengers while allowing players and game masters to build their own espionage story setting. The original boxed set of the game included a 64-page rule book and a sample adventure, Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle.
Following in the "character class" format of D&D, Top Secret characters came from specific bureaus - Assassination, Confiscation, or Investigation - all in the employ of master spy organization simply referred to as The Agency. (An appendix in the rule book listed dozens of historical and fictional espionage organizations which could serve as employers or adversaries for missions.)
In 1987, TSR published Top Secret S/I, a revised edition designed by Douglas Niles. (S/I is short for "Special Intelligence".) This version centered around a more defined game universe pitting players' ORION agents against the schemes of the villainous WEB organization. Later source books in the product line introduced supernatural (Agent 13) and futuristic (F.R.E.E.Lancers) adventure settings.
The Top Secret brand ceased production when TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. in 1997. (In 1999, Wizards of the Coast was purchased by Hasbro, Inc.)