My players were wondering why the Sword Master has higher Intrusion than the Spy?
I'm not as familiar with the Japanese movies that inspired the Sword Master archetype so I wasn't sure.
My main theory is that James Bond always gets captured. He gets captured in almost every story, so he's not actually that good at sneaking around.
Plus, the Spy has a LOT of skills so they're not all going to be 15 or even 13.
Any other ideas?
Yeah the Spy archetype also doesn't have Drive, a skill any self-respecting James Bond absolutely should have, at a high level.
My guess is your second one; the Spy already has a whole bunch of nice skills and Robin didn't want to overbalance the archetype by giving it too many good things.
If a player wanted to start with the spy but with a beefier skill set, I would probably allow them to trade out 1 point of AV or DV for another skill (eihter a new one or one they already have) at 15. Heck I'd let them do that 2-3 times. Another option for the would-be James Bond: be a Transformed Fox or Dragon. They both have schticks that allow them to be good at pretty much any skill that's needed at the moment. Remember, not every transformed animal knows its a transformed animal. A player could quite reasonably create a Transformed Dragon/Fox with the background of "spy who doesn't know what he/she is". That would even provide them with a built-in plot hook: either they find out they're a TA and that gives them a reason to hang out with people involved in the secret war (to learn more about themselves), or the Ascended come looking for them.
Got a message from Cam Banks, that the Sword Master should have Intimidation 13 instead of Intrusion 13 after all. I think there was a typo in the final PDF.