The reason why I'm so hung up on Leverage right now is that in addition to finishing the series on Netflix, I'm also working on a Leverage RPG Campaign for my RPG club. To better practice understand the system better (Cortex Plus), I'll be building the Warehouse 13's version of Leverage.
Roles
- Mastermind: D10
- Grifter: D6
- Hacker: D4
- Hitter: D8
- Thief: D4
Attributes
- Agility: D6
- Alertness: D8
- Intelligence: D10
- Strength: D8
- Vitality: D8
- Willpower: D8
Talents
- Archangel: You keep tabs on the activity of the Crew, and like an unseen guardian angel you make sure people who need a hand get one.
- Johnny On-The-Spot: You have a knack for being where you need to be and bringing you A-game when you get there.
Distinctions
- Smart-alack
- God-Tier
- Cool Under Pressure
Signature Assets
- Pokeball D8:
Roles
- Mastermind: D6
- Grifter: D10
- Hacker: D4
- Hitter: D4
- Thief: D8
Attributes
- Agility: D8
- Alertness: D10
- Intelligence: D8
- Strength: D8
- Vitality: D8
- Willpower: D6
Talents
- How YOU Doin': You're really good at seduction, just be careful--you never know how someone will react. Flirting can backfire.
- Social Center: In social situations, things always seem to revolve around you. You know how to play that to your advantage.
Distinctions
- Flirty
- Diplomatic
- Dramatic
Key Assets
- Tesla D8: The Warehouse's custom firearm capable of firing a jolt of electricity capable of stunning a man and wiping his short-term memory.
Roles
- Mastermind: D4
- Grifter: D6
- Hacker: D10
- Hitter: D4
- Thief: D8
Attributes
- Agility: D8
- Alertness: D10
- Intelligence: D10
- Strength: D6
- Vitality: D8
- Willpower: D8
Talents
- Are You Gonna Log In Or Whistle Dixie?: You're a 104-slingin' cowboy, and it's high noon. Draw.
- Do You Have That Thing I Gave You?: You're a gadgeteer, and you share the wealth.
Distinctions
- Geeky
- Stubborn
- Cocky
Signature Assets
- Tesla Grenade D8: Able to zap multiple enemies at once, the grapefruit-sized grenade isn't exactly stealthy
Roles
- Mastermind: D4
- Grifter: D8
- Hacker: D4
- Hitter: D10
- Thief: D6
Attributes
- Agility: D8
- Alertness: D8
- Intelligence: D6
- Strength: D10
- Vitality: D10
- Willpower: D6
Talents
- Badass: No help? No problem--you know how to fight when you're outnumbered
- Tactical Eye: You're a good one to have around in a fight, even if you're not the one doing the fighting.
Distinctions
- Energetic
- Overconfident
- Caring
Signature Assets
- Leroy Brown's Jacket D8: Matt tends to wear this fancy sports coat to either special events or to a fight. Increases his normal strength, but he refuses to use the firearm in the pocket, save for when grifting.
Roles
- Mastermind: D6
- Grifter: D4
- Hacker: D4
- Hitter: D8
- Thief: D10
Attributes
- Agility: D10
- Alertness: D10
- Intelligence: D8
- Strength: D6
- Vitality: D8
- Willpower: D6
Talents
- Silent Entry: Whether it's because you're a controtionist, or you're little, or both, you have a knack for squeezing into tiny spaces in complete silence and without leaving a trace.
- Aerialist: You can work several stories above anything you can easily stand on without breaking a sweat.
Distinctions
- Withdrawn
- Animal Lover
- Loyal
Signature Assets
- Throwing Blades D8: One of the few weapons that Felix is good with, he never leaves for a mission without them.
Note, for the Attribute stats, you can either be 'Focused' (two D10, D8, and D6) or 'Versatile' (one D10, four D8, one D6).
If you want more info, I can add the effects to the talent information.
Episode Ideas[]
- Leverage Crew is hired to retrieve an artifact from the Warehouse, and the Regents place the aforementioned team to stop them. Five-on-Five fight between the two teams.
- Turns out Client was the bad guy wanting a powerful artifact all along. Both teams then join forces to take them down.
- Each team has their own set of skills and advantages:
| Warehouse Agents | Leverage Crew |
|---|---|
| Home Field Advantage: The Warehouse Agents know the Warehouse well and have access to all of the different routes and means of transportation right off the bat. | Beating Security: The Leverage Crew has bypassed and out-smarted some of the most advanced security systems in the world. (See: The Queen's Gambit Job, The First David Job, The Inside Job, The Long Goodbye Job) |
| Artifacts: When defending their home, Warehouse itself is a weapon. Knowing for the most part how to work artifacts, the agents are able use whatever is on the shelf to improvise. | Deep Pockets: It's clear that the Leverage Crew has quite a bit of cash stored away for rainy days. |
|
Not The First Break-In: This isn't the first time the Warehouse has been broken into, physically or digitally. |
Years of Experience: Even before becoming a team, each member had years of training. Sophie has been fake royalty several times over, Elliot has the scars to prove it, Harison has been attending the Oscars since he was 15, Nate's dad was a con man and he worked for a Insurance Company, specializing in fruad |
- Artie recognizes Hardison's software from the three years he spent undercover as Victor Dubenich. After filling in the Regants, he leaves to avoid being seen by the Leverage Crew.
- (Still need a reason for Artie to have tried to attempt murder on the Leveage Crew...one option could be that Artie never actually was going to pay them, and the explosion was an artifact. This though requires a connection between airplane production and explosions.)
- (Also, Victor is assumed dead in the Leverage-verse. He went over the edge of a cliff with a CEO while they were wrestling for a gun. A single shot was heard, but nothing more. The question here is, how did he escape?)
- Getting into the Warehouse, the only way in would be through the Bed & Breakfast. Sophie and Nate can go in as tourist with a broken down car who stay at the B&B while it's getting repaired. Unless a Ping occurs in the middle of the night, chances are that Sophie and Nate could get the others into the B&B that way.
- It's clear that people who have the time and effort can find out about the Warehouse. Claudia found the Warehouse as Mr. Knock Knock, Fargo thought it was an enigma on the internet, the head of secret service was able to trace it to a Black Ops fund...who says that Hardison, the "23 year old with a cellphone and a problem with authority" couldn't find it as well?
Team Matchups[]
Mastermind[]
I’ll lay it bare for you, here. The plan is the blueprint for the whole Job—if it succeeds, the Job does. Everything the Mastermind does is directed toward making sure the plan works. Everything. Masterminds coordinate research. Usually with the Hacker’s help, he identifies the Mark’s weaknesses and the best way to attack them. He consults the Thief and Hitter about physical security and the Grifter about personal vulnerabilities and “soft” avenues of attack. Masterminds plan ahead. Once the research is complete, the Mastermind devises the plan—again, with input from the rest of the Crew. Will the Crew use the template of a classic con? Will the team need material support, like fake IDs or specialized tools? Who is making initial contact with the Mark, and how will they do it?
Masterminds coordinate the Crew once the Job is underway. Most Crews have reliable communication devices so that the members can talk to one another; this is especially important for the Mastermind. He has to keep track of where everyone is and what they’re doing. If someone needs a hand, he needs to direct backup to them. If someone gets distracted or runs into a roadblock, he needs to get them back on task.
Pros: Cons:
X-Factor:
Son of famed conman Jimmy Ford, Nate grew up learning his father game and taking what he learned into his adult life when he worked for the insurance company IYS. Things took a tragic turn when his son fell ill and passed away. IYS refused to pay for his medical bills, claiming that the proceedure on his son was 'experimental'. This drove him out of the business and to the bottle. Things turned around when he was hired to lead a team of thieves, which lead to him pulling cons that were loosely tied to IYS.
- Pros: Been in the business and both sides for several years. Is willing to go big on the con, willing to take a gamble even if they've been caught.
- Con 1: Bit of a drunkard. While claiming to be a functioning alcoholic, this lead him to getting in over his head, forcing the others to try and salvage the con ("I tried being a drunk honest man, a sober thief. So I am going to try being a drunk thief"). He cleans up by season 5.
- Con 2: Due to what happened to his son, Nate can go overboard on cons that deal with children. Even having the Crew run a con in an airport when he found out that a heart transplant for a child was instead being taken to a wealthy old man.
Grifter[]
Wielding the trust she inspires like a surgeon wields a scalpel, a Grifter aids the Crew by gaining information and access for herself or other Crewmembers. Unlike the Hacker, she does this on a purely personal level. Sometimes she manipulates the Mark into acting against his own interest, usually by convincing him that his true interest is her own...or that of her alter ego. Grifters manipulate people. Everyone has a button (most more than one), some aspect of their personality that can be pushed on to achieve any desired outcome. It’s the Grifter’s job to find and push that button. So very much of this is reading people—research can only tell you so much about a Mark, and sometimes you just need to talk to him. Once you do, a Grifter figures out how the Mark’s going to respond to get the reaction she’s looking for—will flattery get her somewhere? Flirtatious chit-chat? Hints of business opportunities and profit? She needs to be ready for all of them.
Grifters pretend to be people they’re not. This means they are good at a lot of skills often found among people with careers in theater and acting: disguise and costuming, languages and accents, consistently affecting the mannerisms, gait, and dynamic physical traits of the identity they’re taking on. Good Grifters are careful not to overdo it; chewing the scenery in a community theater performance will get her bad reviews, but doing it in a con could get her killed.
- Pro:
- Con:
"She is the best actress you'll ever see...as long as she's breaking the law." -Nate Ford
As the team's Grifter, Sophie has not only created false identities on the fly, but she also has a long list of past ones that still work. Prior to joining the Crew, she and Nate had encounters in Damascus, Prague, Tuscany, and Paris, thus when Nate needed a new face to take down a client who double crossed him, he turned to her.
- Pro 1: Highly seasoned Grifter. Very few people have seen through her grift and those were either people who knew her face or had the resources to ruin the false identity set up for her.
- Pro 2: As second-in-command of the Leverage Crew, Sophie occasionally takes point. There have been times when the plan needed to change and while Nate was struggling on an idea, Sophie was already had a plan to salvage the con and took over.
- Con 1:
Hacker[]
You can’t pull cons or heists without info, and there’s a lot of ways Hackers can get and use that information to the Crew’s advantage. See, Hackers are research people. When the Crew identifies a potential Mark, it’s often the Hacker’s job to find out everything he can about that Mark—not just where he lives and where he works, but what his personality’s like, who all his business and personal contacts are, and where he keeps his money. The Hacker needs to find out if the Mark’s got vulnerable investments, owns shady shell companies, or makes illegal deposits into offshore accounts. Hackers identify the security—physical and electronic—at any building or installation that’s gotta be infiltrated, and how to disable it. Hackers sometimes need to intercept or eavesdrop on phone calls, break through network firewalls, or spoof security cameras. The Hacker might have to call or send emails that the Mark thinks are coming from someone and somewhere else. Hackers provide their Crew’s internal comms, and protect the secrecy of that communication from the bad guys.
Some Hackers have other skills you might not consider. Like, you’ve got your experienced engineers who can build or modify useful devices for the rest of the Crew like vehicles, sensors, or electronic code breakers. Then there are artists who use their skills to forge convincing identity cards, documents, or even counterfeit artwork or currency. Other Hackers are savvy accountants and financial experts who can sort out the most convoluted electronic money trail. And of course there’s experts in photography, videography, and visual effects equipment and software, pulling off these illusions both onscreen and off. You name it, there’s a guy who can hack it.
- Pro 1: Extensive Computer Skills -- Claudia's tech skills are renown in the Warehouse. Not only was she able to find the Warehouse as Mr. Knock Knock, but while not in the field, she is able to dig up information for the others. In addition, she was able to dig deep into the Warehouse's files to find out what exactly happened to H.G. Wells.
- Pro 2: Gadget Girl -- Beyond computers, Claudia has tinkered around with a lot of artifacts and the gear that the Warehouse has to offer. Self-charging Teslas, Telsa Derringer, Tesla Rifle, Tesla Grenade, and the Rocket Propelled Goonade just to name a few.
- Pro 3: Future Warehouse Caretaker -- Even though Mrs. F is still in power, Claudia's connection to the Warehouse is still present.
- Con 1:
The Hacker of the Leverage Crew, Hardison's job not only is research all the data he can on their Mark, but also is in charge of making sure that the security systems and all things electronic don't stand in their way. While not as skilled as Sophie, Hardison has grifted for the team, ranging from a diamond thief to a skilled violinist. The problem is though that he tends to oversell the role and gets in trouble.
- Pro 1: Skilled Hacker -- Known in the hacker world, Hardison has pulled through for the crew, able to not only look up information on people on the fly, but also create CIA level false IDs that even can get picked for Jury Duty.
- Pro 2: Tech Savy -- Not only did he create and upgrade their comms, but Hardison has also made a few toys for the crew, such as an EMP gun, modifying their cellphones, and a safe-cracker he calls the Parker200.
- Con 1: Overconfident -- When Nate lets him run a con, Hardison strays from the classics and attempts to create a new con using Game Theory. When things start moving too fast though, the con falls through.