• Site moved to new permanent URL, osint6.com

• Table formatting continues

• Manuscript edition continues

• Character sheet creation continues

• Mission record sheet creation continues

• The complete second draft of the manuscript has been assembled.

• It’s 368 pages before editing has been completed.

• It contains over 400 tables, all of which need formatting.

• It still needs the character sheet and the mission control sheet (game master adventure planner).

• The next step will be cuts, additions, and rewrites based on the editors’ suggestions.

Things we’ve been watching to set the mood:

• The Sandbaggers Series 1 (1978)

• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

• The Odessa File (1974)

• The Whistle Blower (1986)

• Enigma (1982)

The goal is to have the v0.9 core rulebook manuscript fully assembled by the end of the day, so that we can begin final editing to catch any remaining typographical errors, formatting artifacts, and rules inconsistencies. The goal is how have a releasable v1.0 core rulebook ready by the end of the week in PDF and RTF formats.

Character sheets and forms may not be finalized in time for the v1.0 release, but those will be updated with the main download package and listed as separate free download as soon as they are available.

When the v1.0 core rulebook is released, work will begin on the first Factbooks (US, UK, Russia, China). If rules needs are identified that can’t be incorporated into the Factbook format, a v1.1 will be created to assure smooth integration.

• Edited and formatted Characters document v0.9 (final beta).

• Compiled Equipment document v0.9 (final beta). Editing is in process.

• Compiled Operations document v0.9 (final beta). Editing is in process.

Compiled Core Rules document v0.9 (final beta). Edited, formatted, and saved as RTF file.

Compiled Characters document v0.9 (final beta). Began editing.

• Added the following to the footer:

No generative AI tools were used at any point in the creation of this document.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

• Optimized SEO titles and meta descriptions on all pages.

• Created v.01 of the OSINT-6 Style Guide. Final guide to be released with the Core Rulebook for other creators who wish to use it.

• Changed site font from Helvetica Neue to Public Sans, reflecting the font used in tOSINT-6 Style Guide v.01.

• Contact page has been installed and is operational.

• Bluesky account created.

• Operations page (gamemaster advice) page has been installed.

• Donate page has been installed and is operational.

A single feat list would make every specialization equally available at every point in an agent's career. That would weaken the distinction between prior history, broad development, combat training, technical specialization, and social capability.

Agency job titles make poor character classes. They vary by country and organization, combine training with authority, and can lock a character into one institutional role. We needed classes that could work for government officers, journalists, analysts, contractors, police personnel, military teams, and independent investigators.

Modern occupations carry more than skill training. A police officer, journalist, academic, diplomat, tradesperson, or systems administrator may have credentials, professional equipment, institutional contacts, and routine access. None of those benefits amounts to universal authority.

The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale in both book and TV series form, is written as a spy thriller. It’s got a lot of counterintelligence, double agents, a lot of espionage tropes. We again think we’ve chosen the right structure for OSINT-6, because it could easily work for this dystopian setting. All of the speculative elements are cultural and political, there’s no weird technology, and professions/backgrounds could easily be created or adapted.

An espionage game spends a great deal of time finding, examining, and interpreting information. Treating all three activities as one broad knowledge skill would make the list shorter, but it would erase useful differences in method, time, equipment, and result.

Character creation in OSINT-6 CORE RULEBOOK had to produce an agent who could enter an operation with a defined place in the world. Ability scores, Hit Points, Armor Class, and proficiencies describe capability. They don't establish identity, obligations, institutional standing, or the limits of an agent's authority.

The featured mission had to demonstrate the Factbook rather than merely occur in the United States. Operation Dead Letter therefore uses the book's fictional agency, American institutional constraints, new operational procedures, equipment mappings, principal characters, and record handouts inside one normal session.

Espionage fiction often treats the right badge, clearance, or assignment as a universal key. Real institutional access is narrower. A person can belong to an organization, hold a security clearance, and still lack access to a particular compartment, system, mission, facility, or record.

The featured agency needed to support missions involving intelligence, diplomacy, military resources, law enforcement, finance, technical surveillance, and covert action. Giving one fictional service permanent control over all of those capabilities would simplify play by creating an organization that couldn't plausibly fit inside the verified American system.

Country Factbooks and Agency Fact Sheets use some of the same research, but they don't make the same claims. The end of The World Factbook pushed us to define where the archived material belongs in each line instead of applying one source procedure indiscriminately.

A national Factbook can make the United States look more uniform than reality supports. Federal agencies are visible, national systems connect the country, and the same constitutional framework applies across it. Missions still move through states, territories, tribal jurisdictions, counties, municipalities, ports, airports, and federal property with different authorities and procedures.

Replacing The World Factbook with another single reference would recreate the same weakness. No source has equal authority over constitutional law, population estimates, transport infrastructure, military organization, communications access, election results, and current security conditions. We decided to update the archived baseline claim by claim.

The OSINT-6 United States Factbook combines three kinds of material that readers need to distinguish at a glance. It describes real places, institutions, laws, infrastructure, and equipment. It introduces a fictional intelligence organization and fictional missions. It also adds game rules. Mixing those categories without control would make the book easier to draft and harder to trust.