Tehran: Nest of Spies is chock full of characters, events and other details to make a MacGuffin-chase in the turbulent Tehran of the late 40's a harrowing experience for your characters.
Friend and foe NPC Wild Cards are fully fleshed out and given plenty of back-up in the form of appropriate extras (Tehrani thugs for the Gorbecki gang, soldiers and man-apes for the Soviets). Real characters like the pre-Ayatollah Khomeini mix it up with fictional characters like The Scarlet Adventuress Kara Vania, which is an element of the setting I've enjoyed from the main Day After Ragnarok book.
Another great element of this setting and its supplements is the Savage Shortlists which either add to the flavor with "Top Five Tehran Touches" which gives you some of the feeling of Tehran's personality and culture and the "Top Five Tehran Sights" which gives you some real-world places for your characters to visit.
Easy-to-use encounter tables are included to add some spice to you time in the city. An Allegiance Table creates an interesting twist as it allows you to randomize a character's overt allegiance as well as the one he/she keeps to him/herself. Then, there's always the chance that those "allies" you thought you had might betray you. This supplement provides you with the means to keep that mystery even from yourself.
The provided adventure is a search for something called the "Peacock Key". Suggestions as to how the PCs hear of this and what the key actually is are suggested but the truth is left up to you. All that's important is that everyone wants it.
Some Persian-inspired creatures are included in this supplement and the Ganj, a "jewel serpent" fits in perfectly with the snake-filled themes of the setting.
Although this is a supplement to The Day After Ragnarok, Tehran: Nest of Spies could be used for just about any mid-20th Century romp in the Middle East with minor tweaking.
This is more than just a one-shot adventure. There are too many intricacies and players involved in the provided adventure that it would take a few sessions to really flesh out and pace well, but it is a very well put together and researched product.
Recommended for post-apocalyptic, Persian, "sub-machine guns and sorcery," and Dieselpunk enthusiasts.
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