Tower Bridge Is Fallin' Down, Fallin' Down, Fallin' Down...

Last night's Top Secret S.I. session nearly ended in total disaster - with the possible destruction of a major London landmark. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Picking up from the end of the previous episode, which saw Nick's character, Oleg, falling into the hands of the enemy and bundled away in a car, my ex-RAF codebreaker, Bicky, rendezvoused with Hermione (Clare's character) and Bruno (played by Kevin) to follow the breadcrumb trail of clues to a riverside tower block where we believed our target (the elusive Manuel) would be and - hopefully - Oleg might be being held.

As it happened, we discovered later (by tracking him on his Orion-issue SpyPhone) that Oleg appears to be in a warehouse in Essex; which, unfortunately, meant Nick sitting out most of the session, except to help Pete at one stage by taking control of group of Orion commandos called in to pull our bacon out the fire... but again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

As I've said before, Pete is striving for a semi-realistic, Spooks-like feel to the game, but as is often the case in roleplaying games, the Gamesmaster's vision is the first thing to be shattered by contact with the players.

Despite our best intentions to behave like "real spies" - and my inner monologue constantly asking: "What would Jack Bauer do?" - our exploits once again descended into a slapstick cocktail of Get Smart and Johnny English. For those who read Knights Of The Dinner Table, recall how their games of HackNoia (the Hackmaster equivalent of Top Secret) rapidly fall apart... although we haven't resorted to shooting each other, yet!

We managed to bluff our way into the tower block, but then couldn't decide what to do next - or, more specifically, how to get into the particular apartment we needed to.

Bruno crept up to the door and heard a large guard dog of some kind snuffling around inside, but no people. So, after much discussion, it was decided that he and Hermione would barge the door, while I hung back - gun ready - to take out the dog if necessary.

The door flew open and an angry Alsatian went for Hermione. My first shot missed and the dog took a chunk out of Hermione's arm before I could put a bullet in its guts.

Scoping out the apartment, we found a locked room, which turned out to contain a massive arsenal of illegal weapons. Before we had any chance to load up with goodies, the air was thick with the sound of police sirens - clearly attracted by the sound of gunfire!

We made our exit via the fire escape, slipping back into the tower block lower down as the police stormed the building. Our attempts to bluff the officers we met that we were Jehovah's Witnesses didn't get very far, but thankfully an earlier call to HQ by Bruno paid off and we were let out as word came through that we were (supposedly) the good guys.

It was, however, obvious at this stage that something was going on at Tower Bridge, across the road from us. It seemed to be shut off and traffic diverted away.

As we drew closer, we could see workmen had closed the bridge and were setting up cones and barriers. This was clearly suspicious as it was way too early in the evening to be closing such a major thoroughfare... and Bruno spotted quite a few figures moving around on the lower walkways of the bridge.

We started to question one of the workmen, but were suddenly ambushed by our old friends from the nightclub (and airport), the two American Web agents. Bruno managed to give them the slip, put in another call to activate the Titan Teams (of commandos) we had on standby and then sneak down the stairwell to the lower gantry.

The commando teams swung into action, taking out the lighting rigs and then using the sudden darkness and their silenced sniper rifles to eliminate the 'workmen' at our end of the bridge and the two Web agents holding Hermione and me hostage.

While Hermione frisked their bodies for clues, I slipped down the stairwell on the other side of the bridge to check out that lower walkway. As Bruno had seen on his side, I could make out a large number of 'workmen' clearly attaching explosive devices to the framework of the bridge.

The one nearest me suddenly dropped his timing device and, cursing, keyed his bluetooth communicator to call for a replacement. I stepped forward, still concealed in the shadows, and demanded to know what he was doing. Confused the man went to point out that he had dropped his trigger mechanism into the river and I swiftly hoiked him over the edge and into the Thames!

The next operative along called out, asking what the noise was, and I grunted from the darkness - surprisingly convincingly - that it was nothing. However something suddenly alerted the terrorists to our presence (it turned out to be Bruno stabbing one in the gut over the other side of the bridge and him letting out an almighty scream) and they all started to scarper.

I opted not to follow, but to backtrack up to the top deck and report to the Titan Team that there were a large number of explosive devices under our feet.

Unfortunately, having been discovered, the Web operatives opted to set their bombs off early and there was series of deafening and ground-shaking explosions along the historic bridge.

Pete allowed us all to take part in determining the fate of Tower Bridge, but letting us all roll part of the damage (on countless d8s). It turned out the bridge needed 100 structural poinst of damage to bring it down and we only rolled a total of 82 points! Severely damaged, but still standing (just).

Next Tuesday Knights' session, we have to rush off and rescue Oleg; and then face the wrath of our handler for a debriefing on our terrible performance to date.

One thing that went through my mind during the evenings' game was the realisation that when it came my turn to step back behind the screen again - and take over gamesmastering duties (which could be as soon as two months' time if Pete's campaign wraps next session) - I wouldn't have the patience that Pete demonstrated to run such a regimented game that relied on the players' common sense to figure out what to do.

I'm now tossing around a few quite gonzo ideas, from Mutant Future to a Savage Worlds' spin on Alice In Wonderland, or even a light-hearted licensed system like Men In Black or Ghostbusters where there isn't such a necessity for the level of discretion that we're expected to show as we charge around London trying to thwart the nefarious schemes of the evil Web organisation.

I've been inspired by such blogs as the great Planet Algol that random wackiness is the way to go.

Having swung away initially from either Mutant Future or Gamma World, with a soupcon of 'old school' planetary romance (à la Edgar Rice Burroughs), at first I'd been toying with the idea of a straight Savage Worlds pulp game or Space 1889, but now I'm definitely leaning towards the lighter side of the spectrum... maybe even a superhero game.

Of course that could change at the drop of a hat - or one of the other Tuesday Knights could offer to run something... (although I have to admit I do like being the one in the driver's seat!)