Sprechenhaltestelle (lit. "the speaking stopping place") is an imaginary village in
Central Europe during the height of
the Cold War. Its map, and lists of its various plots, secrets, characters, stories, opportunities and dangers make up the first
module shipped for the
RPG Top Secret. Sprechenhaltestelle was included with the basic (first) edition of Top Secret; it came in a bright yellow folder with the map on the inside. It was module TS001, full name Operation:
Sprechenhaltestelle.
Although fairly rich, it was a very 'shallow' module, being intended much more as a canvas on which a new GM (called the Administrator, in TS) could build a more cohesive plot-based campaign without having to produce a locale or NPCs. As such, there were many, many little 'tricks' and nefarious bits within; I remember, for example, that in the wine cellar of a restaurant, the Amontillado cask was in fact a secret entrance to an illegal Casino called Pair-a-Dice. A mysterious boat awaited an equally shadowy assignation at the far north end of the quay, some nights...ordering food in the wrong way could get you conked on the head and dumped into a very inhospitable basement.
In a sense, my espionage characters grew up there. It was a dysfunctional childhood.
Other Top Secret modules included: