Fictional operational systems

Access is built.
Cover is maintained.

Tradecraft in IARPG is a set of role-playing systems for managing identity, access, sources, communications, evidence, exposure, and counterintelligence. It creates decisions and consequences without becoming a real-world operational manual.

Choose an operative role Open the dossier model

Cover and legend

A costume is not
a functioning identity.

A cover survives because behavior, knowledge, relationships, records, finances, competence, and reason for presence remain coherent.

Players prepare a legend before access, then maintain it during conversations, movement, technical interactions, purchases, source meetings, and debrief. Contradictions do not trigger a universal fail state; they create suspicion, follow-up questions, reduced access, or counterintelligence interest.

Read cover identity research

Operational disciplines

Tradecraft protects
the work around the collection.

Collection is only one part of the operation. The cell must decide who knows the requirement, how a source is handled, what can be authenticated, what exposure is acceptable, and what must survive after extraction.

ACCESS

Presence with a reason

Create a legitimate social, professional, technical, or liaison position that explains why the operative is present.

SOURCE

Motivation and reliability

Track why a source cooperates, what the source can actually access, how reporting has performed, and what protection is owed.

COMPARTMENT

Need-to-know boundaries

Separate the customer, requirement, source, method, operation, and assessment so one compromise does not expose everything.

COMMS

Availability versus exposure

Choose channels by authentication, latency, reliability, compromise risk, and the consequences of losing contact.

EXPOSURE

Patterns create attention

Movement, contact, timing, transactions, and repeated access create an exposure picture that authorities can investigate.

Assume the picture can be manipulated

Test whether a source is controlled, evidence was planted, the requirement leaked, or a coherent narrative was designed for the cell.

Operational decision loop

Preserve the access
or spend it now?

The most valuable result may be continued position rather than immediate collection.

A field operative may observe an unexpected target but decline to act because the move would burn the cover. A case officer may suspend a meeting to protect a source. An analyst may withhold a confident-sounding judgment because provenance is weak. These are professional choices, not passive failure.

HIGH VALUE / LOW EXPOSURECollect and preserve accessPreferred when provenance and exit remain controlled.

HIGH VALUE / HIGH EXPOSUREEscalate or abort deliberatelyCustomer need must justify burning position.

LOW VALUE / LOW EXPOSURERecord and continueDo not create unnecessary signature.

LOW VALUE / HIGH EXPOSUREWithdrawNo objective justifies meaningless compromise.

Design guardrail

Fictional systems.
Not real-world instructions.

IARPG explains the role fantasy, information structure, and consequences of intelligence work at a high level. It does not publish step-by-step methods for unlawful surveillance, intrusion, targeting, weapons, coercion, evasion, or clandestine acquisition in the real world.

Read the complete project boundary

Deep research links

Tradecraft research and design references.

These archived reports provide background for cover, operative roles, behavioral modeling, and counterintelligence abstractions.

FULL REPORT Intelligence Operative Archetypes and Tradecraft Role families, operational competencies, and cross-role structure. FULL REPORT Cover Identities and Tradecraft in Espionage A design framework for coherent legends, access, and persistent identity. FULL REPORT Analog Tradecraft in Dense Virtual Cities High-level urban game systems for exposure, movement, and counter-observation.