Players

The Cold War rages on. The intelligence agencies of the great powers play an endless game of spy and counter-spy, trying to learn one another’s deepest secrets, trying to sabotage one another’s plans. Among Britain’s most powerful weapons in the intelligence war is the Office of Unusual Concerns -- or, as it’s often called by those in the know, “MI666.”

OUC, a tiny department attached to MI6, is where Her Majesty’s government keeps its spirit mediums. These rare and gifted individuals have the power to conjure, and communicate with, the ghosts of those who have recently died. It is an invaluable tool for espionage purposes, and in the hands of loyal and capable men, it has helped to keep Britain strong since the days of the first World War.

Robert Alderidge -- a polyglot polymath, an icon of the London social scene, and one of MI6’s star intelligence operatives -- has just been found dead in West Berlin, with a bullet in his chest, under strange and troubling circumstances. His friend and brother-in-law, OUC spirit medium George Russell, has been called out to collect the body and to investigate the situation.

No investigation is needed to make one thing very clear: Alderidge was a double agent, and he died trying to pass crucial state secrets to the Soviet Union. The papers that he was carrying make that conclusion undeniable...however much Russell might want to deny it.

Everything else that can be learned about the situation, through mundane means, has been learned. It isn’t much.

Now the time has come for a spirit medium to summon up the shade of his oldest and most beloved companion -- the traitor -- for one final debriefing.

Debrief is a one-hour game for two players. It is centered on themes of loyalty, ideology, memory, obligation, and the difficulty of interpersonal knowledge.

The game is designed to be played remotely, with one of the players sitting in a darkened room.

Both player characters are male, within a setting of Cold War espionage and mid-twentieth-century British social norms. If this prospect holds no appeal for you, you will probably not enjoy playing this game.