Operational planning gets interesting when commitments conflict.

Protect the source. Preserve cover. Follow the authorization. Finish the mission.

You probably can’t guarantee all four.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

Intelligence fiction often treats agency affiliation as permission to enter any building, read any file, carry any weapon, or direct any official. The public record describes a more constrained institution. The OSINT-6 CIA Fact Sheet makes those constraints part of play.

When I design a source, I start with motivation before statistics.

What does this person want badly enough to take a risk?

That answer usually tells me more than another half-page of mechanics.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

The first design problem for the OSINT-6 CIA Fact Sheet was deciding how to make a real intelligence agency playable when much of its work remains classified. Filling the gaps with dramatic invention would produce a recognizable spy story, but it wouldn’t produce a reliable agency reference.

A design principle I keep returning to: tell the players what their characters know.

Mystery should come from incomplete intelligence, not from the GM hiding basic briefing information.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

In trying to post an announcement about the Strait of Hormuz Fact Sheet on RPGnet, we kept getting a message that it could not be posted because the system we reading it as either spam or containing content that went against the site’s rules. We figured that “Strait of Hormuz” might be on the site’s blacklist, to keep heated political discussions out, so we rewrote the announcement so that it carried no mention of the title. It went through.

Buy the OSINT-6 Core Rulebook directly from OSINT6.com and receive the Strait of Hormuz Fact Sheet at no additional charge. The Fact Sheet is a focused, neutral reference covering the strait’s geography, maritime use, principal concerned states, countries and economies dependent on passage through it, civilian shipping, and OSINT-6 game material.

Generative AI has become another subject on which silence is treated as a position. OSINT-6 doesn't use generative AI in producing its books. That statement describes our production practice. It isn't an invitation to declare that every use of the technology is beneficial, that every use is unethical, or that everyone must adopt our position somewhere between those claims.

Espionage fiction gets interesting when legal authority, mission requirements, personal loyalty, and professional ethics stop lining up neatly.

The rules shouldn’t answer that problem for the players.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

The United States Factbook provides a simpler example of the same policy. Its government chapter identifies the President serving at the research cutoff. When an Executive Order affects a relevant authority, institution, or operational condition, the book can cite that order.

I wanted social pressure to work without adding a special minigame every time somebody lies to a border official. Sometimes the whole scene is one check made while everybody knows what failure means.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

Some Factbooks will attract political demands before readers reach the rules. An Israel Factbook is an obvious case. Names, borders, institutions, wars, attacks, military operations, armed groups, territorial claims, displaced populations, alliances, and legal disputes can become tests of allegiance even when the text is limited to chronology and attribution.

We capped OSINT-6 at 6th level partly because we want experienced agents to remain human. More capable, yes. Bulletproof, no. Endurance matters because attrition still matters.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

Avoiding political advocacy doesn't guarantee that every reader will perceive a reference as neutral. Some people treat silence as opposition. Others treat the inclusion of an unwelcome fact as support for an adversary. A refusal to adopt either side's preferred language can be read as choosing the other side.

One design goal for OSINT-6 was to make professional reputation matter without turning it into another numerical resource. Who trusts you, whose judgment you trust, and why can all change an operation.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

OSINT-6 publishes reference books about real countries, governments, institutions, weapons, and events. Political material is unavoidable whenever a book identifies who holds authority, what an institution can legally do, which order changed a policy, or what occurred during a conflict. Political advocacy is avoidable.

One thing I wanted OSINT-6 to preserve was strain.

Characters get tired. Injuries matter. Resources run down. Plans start accumulating compromises. A competent agent under pressure is more interesting to me than an action hero who resets after every scene.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

We deliberately didn’t design failure as a dead end.

An operation can cost access, trust, equipment, cover, intelligence, a source, or political support and still continue. Those losses give the next mission something to inherit.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

Espionage games need room for solving a problem without making another one.

Sometimes the technically successful move burns a source, embarrasses an ally, exposes a method, or creates a diplomatic mess. I want those consequences to matter.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6

A secret by itself isn’t an adventure.

I start asking who knows it, who needs it, who benefits from keeping it hidden, how reliable it is, and what happens if it becomes public.

That’s when intelligence becomes a mission.

#RPGaDAY2026 #OSINT6