How do I run spies and infiltrators in an RPG?

Infiltration isolates characters by design

A spy may be the only character who can pass as a clerk, enter a guarded archive, or speak with a source without attracting attention. That can make a strong scene for the player, but a long sequence of private checks leaves everyone else watching. The problem is sharper when the infiltrator returns with information after the important choices have already passed.

Physical separation is fine. The problem is when only one player can affect what happens next. Treat the operation as one shared problem with actions happening in different places: the infiltrator takes the risk only they can take while the rest of the team changes the conditions around them. Give each action a clear effect on access, time, suspicion, or the information available, and cut between actions when the situation changes.

This page focuses on running infiltration scenes and covert operations. For spycraft that continues between missions, track cover identities, handlers, assets, dead drops, and divided loyalties as relationships that can change; a compromised identity can reshape who trusts the team and which routes remain open.

Use a shared operation loop

Keep the scene moving through this loop, using your game's own stealth, disguise, clock, heat, or flashback rules:

1. Establish cover or access Show how the infiltrator gets close to the target and what makes that access credible.
2. Reveal the immediate pressure Make the next deadline, suspicion, or security change visible to the group.
3. Let the infiltrator act Resolve the meaningful risk in front of them, with the system's procedures.
4. Cut to the support team When the situation changes, show what the others can do with the new information.
5. Choose together Decide what risk to take, which objective matters most, or whether to spend more time.
6. Escalate, adapt, or extract Carry the choice into the next beat, changing the plan or leaving with what the team has gained.

Build the operation around shared jobs

Choose the roles that fit this job; one character can take more than one:

• Access The infiltrator gets close to the target through a believable identity, a compromised credential, an invitation, or a hidden route. Decide what would make that cover credible and what might expose it. The objective should need more than simply getting through the door.
• Cover and diversion Other characters provide a reason for guards, staff, or rivals to look elsewhere. A public argument, a false maintenance request, or a staged delivery can change where attention falls. Let the distraction create an opening, not erase the security problem altogether.
• Surveillance and information A lookout tracks patrols, listens to the target, or watches for a change in routine. Share discoveries that can affect the next decision: a second guard arrives, the meeting moves rooms, or the target is about to destroy a record.
• Objective and choice Name what the team needs and what it can afford to leave behind. Copying a ledger, planting evidence, identifying a source, and keeping a witness safe may conflict once time runs short. The infiltrator can uncover that conflict, but the party should decide which cost to accept.
• Extraction and contingency Give the team at least one way out and one response if the original cover fails. An extraction need not be safe; it should give the characters a meaningful option, such as abandoning equipment, exposing an ally, or leaving by a route that costs time.

Prepare a security problem, not a correct route

Sketch what the location protects, who is watching it, and how its security responds to suspicious events. Include more than one plausible way in or out, but do not plan a complete solution for the players. A staff entrance, a forged invitation, and a service tunnel can each work while carrying different risks. The players choose which risk to take and may invent another approach.

Use the rules of the game for uncertain actions. If the system has clocks, heat, suspicion, or flashbacks, use those procedures rather than layering on a second subsystem. Otherwise, track only pressure that can change a decision: a guard moving closer, a scheduled handover, or a contact waiting outside. Failure should change access, time, trust, or exposure, not simply stop the operation at a locked door.

Keep information and consequences in play

When the operation changes, give the players enough to choose what happens next:

• Put findings in the open when possible Players can know more than their characters. Agree how the table handles secret information, then share discoveries in a way that keeps the group involved. If a character alone knows a detail, keep the private exchange brief and return with a choice the group can discuss without forcing the character to reveal what they would conceal.
• Make partial success useful The spy might get the document but leave a trace, win the source's trust but owe a favour, or learn the meeting place after the target has left. Preserve forward movement while making the cost matter to the operation or the campaign.
• Let exposure change the situation A failed cover or stealth check need not expose the spy at once. Suspicion can rise through extra questions, an escort, restricted access, a flagged credential, a guard remembering the spy's face, or a route being closed for a future visit. A compromised identity can put an ally under scrutiny or make the target feed the spy false information. Exposure should create new choices, not automatically start a combat encounter; the team can bargain, retreat, improvise, or pursue the objective another way.
• Handle betrayal with player trust Agree how secret plans and character-versus-character tension will work before play. Hidden objectives must not override another player's agency or turn the game into an out-of-game trust test.

Compress solo infiltration when it serves the session

A short solo scene can be the right choice when one character is uniquely placed to act, especially if the other players have concurrent work or are happy to watch that moment. State the immediate objective and pressure, resolve the meaningful uncertainty, then return to the group with a changed situation. If the operation requires several steps, cut away at decision points and ask what the others are doing while time passes.

Do not force every character into the building. The outside team may be more useful managing a contact, watching an exit, diverting a patrol, or deciding whether to burn a safe house. Their actions should affect what the infiltrator can risk, while the infiltrator's discoveries should give the whole party something consequential to decide.

Before you run an infiltration

Prepare enough to make the security legible, then leave the route to the players:

• What does the team need, and what can it leave behind if time runs short?
• What is the infiltrator's cover, and what specific event could put it under pressure?
• What can the other characters do that changes access, attention, information, or extraction?
• What visible pressure advances while the team acts, and how will the players notice?
• What can partial success preserve, and what cost follows from exposure or delay?
• Are there at least two plausible approaches, each with a different risk or price?
• Have the players agreed how to handle private information, disguises, and character betrayal?
• If one character acts alone, when will you cut back and what decision returns to the group?