Category Archives: Setting

Necropolis Piper Omega

This was one of four necropoli I wrote for The Book of Oblivion (Wraith 20th Anniversary Edition). Sadly, all four were cut for lack of space. That may have been my final freelance work in the World of Darkness… closing the cycle, in a way, since my first work was also for Wraith. Anyway. Here ya go.

Sailors have always taken music to the sea and brought it back from their travels. Ashore, countless songs memorialize those mariners who the ocean has claimed. But no songs were written for the Piper Alpha oil production platform when it ignited the North Sea in 1988, claiming 167 lives to become the world’s deadliest offshore petroleum disaster.

Piper Alpha’s charred, twisted remains manifested in the Tempest within days. It became a familiar landmark to wraiths putting out from Aberdeen and Bergen, but an ill omen. Ghost ships sailing too close to the platform came under Spectre assault or encountered choking black clouds spitting forth burning rain. Scottish and Norwegian authorities launched several missions to cleanse the site, finally succeeding with Swedish Doomslayer aid in 1994. The Emerald Legion installed a caretaker garrison to ensure the site didn’t become re-infested, whereupon everyone promptly forgot about the problem. The Oslo necromancer incursion of 1998 forced the Legion to recall its troops, after which Piper Alpha lay vacant.

In 2000, Copenhagen Hierarchs exiled goth-rock Chanteur Ragnhild Vinter and her Circle for fomenting anti-Imperial sentiment. The Renegades responded by stealing an Anacreon’s yacht and fleeing into the North Sea, intent on establishing a pirate radio station through which they could continue screaming defiance. Unfortunately, none were sailors, and they headed straight into the teeth of a savage winter Maelstrom. Fortunately, the wind drove them into Piper Alpha before accumulated blood ice capsized their vessel. Finding the platform deserted yet still sufficiently solid to offer shelter, they claimed it as their own and put out the call for like-minded wraiths.

Today, the rechristened Piper Omega is a haven for several hundred Renegade performers and counter-culture Chanteurs and Masquers from across Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Vinter’s troupe, Gaslight Ritual, runs the makeshift citadel as a commune and performance venue. Residents earn space through Renegade cred or Guild vouchsafing, but they keep it through performance. Monthly on the night of the new moon, the platform lowers its boarding ladders for any wraith brave enough to make the journey and pay the admission fee for a live variety show unlike any other. The main stage stands exposed and flame-lit under the ever-burning gas flare, now fueled on Pathos distilled from Piper Alpha memorials. Between performances, a Rube Goldberg assembly of broadcast equipment fulfills Vinter’s dream of pirate radio broadcasts, reaching relic receivers across northwest Europe with an eclectic mix of entertainment and agitprop.

Piper Omega still stands above the North Sea where its Skinlands prototype went down. Around its legs rests a patchwork accrual of ghost vessels. The largest are semi-permanent components of the Citadel, moored by soulsteel chains. A few small, swift boats are armed for self-defense (or piracy; no one looks closely). Residents are largely self-policing under a well-armed version of Wheaton’s Law, frequent creative differences notwithstanding.

Notable residents include The Voice of the Flame (Renegade Alchemists who run the radio station and keep the platform intact), Näkki (the Finnish Underworld’s premiere shamanic punk band), the infamous ex-Legion of Fate political strategist-turned-information broker known as Icebreaker, and smuggler and arms dealer Søren Amundsen. Ragnhild Vinter herself still heads Gaslight Ritual, which makes her the commune’s de facto leader, though she eschews formal titles. Gaslight Ritual fell away from performing several years ago as the demands of administering the Necropolis grew; lately, they’ve been trying to spread the load among Voice of the Flame and other affiliated groups. Rumor has it that they may soon return to the stage alongside up-and-coming maker/dance troupe Tolerance Stack, bringing forth a new work about which little is known beyond its title: Dance of the Broken-Winged Crane.

Yo ho, yo ho…

So today, I found out about H.R. 6869 from 2022’s legislative circus. I’m certain it’s pure coincidence that it was introduced four days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began…

A BILL

To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal for the purpose of seizing the assets of certain Russian citizens, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. Issuance of letters of marque and reprisal for purpose of seizing assets of certain Russian citizens.

(a) Authority of President.—The President of the United States is authorized and requested to commission, under officially issued letters of marque and reprisal, so many of privately armed and equipped persons and entities as, in the judgment of the President, the service may require, with suitable instructions to the leaders thereof, to employ all means reasonably necessary to seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories any yacht, plane, or other asset of any Russian citizen who is on the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.

Kinda makes me want to run “you are a team of privateers in the business of stealing Russian kleptocrats’ high-value toys” as a Spycraft campaign.

What’s Russian for “heave to and prepare to be boarded?”

Necropolis U.S. Route 66

This was one of four necropoli I wrote for The Book of Oblivion (Wraith 20th Anniversary Edition). Sadly, all four were cut for lack of space. That may have been my final freelance work in the World of Darkness… closing the cycle, in a way, since my first work was also for Wraith. Anyway. Here ya go.

In its heyday, Route 66 was a peerless transportation artery, running from Chicago to Santa Monica. Threaded through Joplin, Tulsa, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles, it showed American motorists a vibrant cross-section of the Midwest and Southwest until the interstate highway system supplanted it in the 1950s and ’60s. Without federal maintenance funds, Route 66 withered, subsumed by state roads or vanishing entirely.

In the Underworld, derelict highways may resurface as byways or ghost roads. Not so for Route 66. Sometime in the early 1970s, its entire 2,448 miles manifested in the Shadowlands. Wraiths in Riverton, Kansas were the first to report that even as Maelstrom tornadoes ravaged the surrounding region, the highway was untouched. In mid-1976, an Anemographer/Ghostrider expedition out of California met a band of Legion of Paupers explorers from Illinois at the highway’s Adrian, Texas midpoint. The Empire’s Bureau of Trade soon proclaimed that Route 66 appeared to be a safe and stable route through the American Underworld.

What troubled early explorers remains a concern today: Route 66 defies all conventional wisdom on Shadowlands geography. Although plenty of blood soaked into its asphalt, it never approached the body count of deadlier highways like Interstate 95 or Camino a Los Yungas. The Artificers and the Harbingers would like to claim credit, but there’s no evidence that Route 66 is a cultivated byway or an unprecedented working of Inhabit. The popular and comforting theory is that its modern status is a result of its cultural iconicity, a rare example of a non-living construct accruing Memoriam. A less benevolent explanation is that popular culture has imbued Route 66 with a myth-driven form of quasi-sentience. No one wants to hear the fringe belief that the “highway” is really a charmingly useful and friendly-faced manifestation of some Labyrinthine elder horror.

Route 66 earned recognition as a Necropolis, albeit a very long and narrow one, by virtue of its permanent population. In most places, its protection from Maelstroms extends five to ten yards from the asphalt. This so-called Black Ribbon Citadel is home to perhaps a thousand wraiths, many of whom form small Circles to offer travelers’ services. Most such groups have colonized the ghost towns that crumbled along the route after the interstates diverted travel and commerce. Other citizens include the Night Mail (ghost truckers and bus drivers who serve connected conventional Necropoli), Wings for Wheels (a Chanteur troupe famous for its repertoire of travel-themed songs), and Detroit West (a large nomadic Circle immersed obsessively in the imagery and culture around classic muscle cars and drag racing).

The Hierarchy’s hand rests lightly upon Route 66. The Legion of Paupers first re-mapped the highway’s full length and was quick to lay claim to authority here, but its duties are largely ceremonial. The ghost road needs no maintenance; indeed, it rejects all attempts to patch its cracks and potholes. With the population so widely-distributed, there’s little call for bureaucracy. Under the command of Anacreon Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam, the Legion’s 7th Cavalry Squadron provides what law enforcement is needed here. The 7th, more commonly known as the Black Ribbon Patrol, spends most of its time assisting travelers and investigating the occasional mysterious disappearance or reappearance.

Necropolis Baghdad

This was one of four necropoli I wrote for The Book of Oblivion (Wraith 20th Anniversary Edition). Sadly, all four were cut for lack of space. That may have been my final freelance work in the World of Darkness… closing the cycle, in a way, since my first work was also for Wraith. Anyway. Here ya go.

Alas! Alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come.

Once, Baghdad was the mightiest Necropolis in the Mantaqat Khayal, the Middle Eastern Shadowlands. 250 leagues from Mecca, it was far enough from the source of the Keening that the perpetual sand-Maelstrom engulfing the region was sometimes passable. Here, ghosts of the Abbasid Caliphate traded relics and lore with Ottoman Restless and the British Empire’s wraiths. Beholden to no Dark Kingdom, a council of ancient merchant princes opened Baghdad’s gates to anyone who didn’t disrupt business. Even Oblivion’s saner scions were welcome as long as they behaved.

On April 2, 2003, as American troops approached, an unprecedented Maelstrom broke over Baghdad. The city had endured countless prior sieges and sacks, but none televised before the eyes of all the world’s Quick. As bombs fell on the living city, soulsteel hail and shark-toothed lightning battered the Underworld. Wraiths caught in the storm succumbed to their Shadows’ basest urges, falling upon one another in a frenzy of mutual annihilation.

Trust died in Baghdad that night. In the storm’s aftermath, remaining wraiths learned the hard way that Arcanoi no longer reliably identified Spectres or the Shadowridden. For a Necropolitan culture whose overriding ethos was the sanctity of deals and contracts, this was a deathblow.

Then the war’s dead began to arrive in the Underworld, and they showed no interest in ceasing their war. American troops and their Coalition allies spurned a millennium of traditional hospitality and coexistence in pursuit of their Iraqi adversaries while Oblivion gleefully infiltrated all sides to further the conflict. The Shadowlands shook to the renascent detonations of relic IEDs. An ambush lurked around every corner; a nihil glimmered at the bottom of every bomb crater.

In the Skinlands, scavengers followed on the soldiers’ heels. The sack of Baghdad’s wealth was nothing compared to the feeding frenzy for its knowledge. The city’s museums and libraries held countless arcane relics and keys to forbidden history. Supernatural beings from every corner of the world collided while rushing to stake claims amidst the chaos. Battles spilled into the Shadowlands as sorcerers and shapeshifters maneuvered through every accessible plane of existence. For every priceless artifact destroyed while saving it, wraiths fought to ensure it re-formed across the Shroud and in their hands.

The battle for Baghdad’s lore burned itself out within a season, giving way to a simmering asymmetrical war. Across the Shroud, the Middle East’s traditional denizens regrouped and drove out most foreign intruders in a brutal years-long campaign. Among the dead, the Grim Legion and Penitent Legion attempted to establish a peacekeeping presence as a precursor to long-denied Imperial expansion, but found themselves drawn into the conflict too.

Today, Baghdad is a city of wraiths trapped by Fetters, the resurgent perpetual Maelstrom, or their own Passions and Shadows, all amidst a war without end. The major factions, as best they can be defined, are Stygian forces seeking to claim a city long denied them; an alliance of outsider Mantaqat Khayal inhabitants with a similar agenda; newly-dead Coalition and Ba’ath Loyalist troops and politicians who can’t let go of their respective sides of the Quick’s war; and pre-war Baghdadis who want everyone else to stop destroying their homes. Beneath it all, Oblivion bargains, manipulates, and carries out false-flag attacks to stoke the conflict, and its agents still can’t be identified until they act.

Leaked reports from the Legions have brought belated Doomslayer attention. They’ve enjoyed some success recruiting here when they’ve been able to point out the real enemy. Their primary mission, however, has been intelligence-gathering, and what they’ve learned may have ramifications across the Underworld. The Shadow-Eaten have been watching and learning from mortal combatants, and now they’re versed in the skills of terrorist and special operator alike. They’re smart and patient in ways the Void hasn’t allowed until now, and they’re willing to play long games. If this spreads beyond Baghdad, the struggle against Oblivion will change forever.

Loa

Context-free handwritten notes from 2017 for a Changeling campaign that never launched:

The net is a realm of dream too. How can you tell where its Hedge begins? Is it the same Hedge? Or is it the border of another Arcadia, one whose inhabitants hold no Contracts binding them to the material world? Ancient sleepers stirring in the starless cyberspace. Under neon skies, Bobby Newmark’s loa are coming. Korea was first. Addicted gamers in cybercafes never come back, not entirely. Online, no one can tell if you’re a dog – or if you just have the head of one.

DRA IV

Back in 2002, when the OGL was young and full of promise, Alderac Entertainment Group released Spycraft, a d20 action/espionage RPG. My local gaming group immediately fell in love with it. I started a campaign, which fell apart after three (excellent) sessions due to a lack of GM focus, planning, and follow-through. My campaign setup document, however, was the writing sample that got me onto the Spycraft design team for the rest of the first edition’s run and the Stargate SG-1 license. I started this blog as a repository for my various older and unpublished pieces (among other things), so this seems as good a place as any to post it. Because of length, this is the last of a four-part series.

Operational Levels

The Agency uses the Operational Level scale to define the current operating conditions of an agent. Operational Level is a rough indicator of the current hazards the agent is under (of which the Agency is aware, anyway), as well as the degree of logistical support he has and the amount of discretion he has in interpreting his orders. Every Special Agent is always at one of the following Operational Levels, which replace the standard Mission Codes in Spycraft:

Level Zero

The agent is off active duty. No DRA resources except non-secure communications are available for his use, but he is unavailable for orders except in the event of a dire emergency. This category is a catch-all for agents who are on vacation, hospitalized or on medical leave, on suspension or mandatory leave after an incident, undergoing medical or psychiatric evaluation, or jailed or imprisoned for crimes in which DRA is disinclined to intervene.

Level One

The agent does not have a field assignment. He is on desk duty and expected to maintain normal office hours as determined by his field office’s policies and duty schedule. He has access to his standard personal equipment (personal budget and signature items), but may not requisition additional gear or resources without authorization from his Site Director.

Level Two

The agent has a field assignment that is believed to have zero to minimal threat potential. This usually includes research assignments or the preliminary stages of non-criminal investigations, as well as standard duty assignments to the Las Vegas field office, AMTReL, Xenopath, or TRC. The agent has significant leeway in his schedule and itinerary as long as he fulfils his assignments in a timely and professional manner. He has access to his standard personal equipment and an unmodified Agency vehicle (usually a mid-size or sedan), and may requisition additional gear or resources that are appropriate to his current assignment (mission bonus: 5 BP, 0 GP).

Level Three

The agent has a field assignment that is believed to have a risk level equivalent to that of standard police patrol duty. This includes criminal investigations where there is a low degree of supernatural involvement, or research assignments in high-crime or exceptionally insular areas. An agent is also placed on Operational Level Three if he has standard duty at APRF proper, a high-risk assignment at AMTReL, Xenopath, or TRC, or desk duty at the Las Vegas field office during an alert period. The agent has access to his standard personal equipment and an unmodified Agency vehicle, and may requisition additional gear or resources that are appropriate to his current assignment (mission bonus: 15 BP, 2 GP).

Level Four

The agent’s current assignment carries a significant risk of supernatural exposure, violent confrontation, or hazardous environments or substances (note that this includes standard duty at several of the DRA’s research facilities). The agent is authorized to use lethal force in self-defense without following normal procedures for escalation of force. He has access to his standard personal equipment, but may not use a “government motor pool” Agency vehicle for reasons of liability and plausible deniability. He may requisition additional gear or resources that are appropriate to his current assignment (mission bonus: 25 BP, 4 GP).

Level Five

The possibility of violent confrontation or life-threatening supernatural or environmental hazards approaches certainty at Operational Level Five. The agent is authorized to use lethal force without warning if he deems such action necessary to preserve human life or national security. He has access to his standard personal equipment, as well as significant latitude in requisitioning additional gear or resources (mission bonus: 40 BP, 6 GP).

Level Six

Operational Level Six is only used in circumstances where the fate of the nation or the planet literally depends on the agent’s actions. At Operational Level Six, the agent’s actions fall under Presidential Special Order 1952-508, which allows him to violate the Constitution in the pursuit of his duties without fear of sanction. Few agents ever operate at Level Six, and only a bare handful more than once. Records show that “going to Six” (also referred to as “going to Eleven”) has a 40% mortality rate for DRA Special Agents, rising to 98% for civilians who are directly involved in such an operation. Under Operational Level Six, the agent has access to his standard personal equipment and the full available technical reserves of the Agency (mission bonus: 60 BP, 10 GP).

“Level Seven”

Operational Level Seven does not officially exist – it is part of Agency folklore. The following are the most common rumors about Level Seven:

  • It is the assignment code for off-planet or extradimensional operations.
  • It allows the agent to release nuclear weapons or other WMD without Presidential authorization.
  • It is the Operational Level designation for a rogue agent whose termination the Agency is actively seeking.
  • It is the Agency-wide code for a scorched earth defense of the planet in the event of a widescale paranormal or extraterrestrial invasion.

Cold Iron, Tire Iron

Back when my then-roommate and I were watching NASCAR, he casually dropped the factoid (which I’ve never verified because I prefer to believe it’s true) that every NASCAR track has a chapel in the infield.

This means that every NASCAR track has a small piece of holy ground on it.

Ever since then, one of my campaign concept slush file entries has been a monster-hunting NASCAR pit crew. Race on Sunday, slay on Monday, be gone on Tuesday and leave the evidence for the local cops to figure out.

The only other rational option is to hit up B.J. Zanzibar for the old WoD Highlander homebrew rules…

DRA III

Back in 2002, when the OGL was young and full of promise, Alderac Entertainment Group released Spycraft, a d20 action/espionage RPG. My local gaming group immediately fell in love with it. I started a campaign, which fell apart after three (excellent) sessions due to a lack of GM focus, planning, and follow-through. My campaign setup document, however, was the writing sample that got me onto the Spycraft design team for the rest of the first edition’s run and the Stargate SG-1 license. I started this blog as a repository for my various older and unpublished pieces (among other things), so this seems as good a place as any to post it. Because of length, this is the third of a four-part series.

SDRA Offices and Facilities

DRA personnel are assigned to one field office as “home,” but may be sent anywhere in the country or abroad as needed. With less than 2,000 Special Agents, specialists are usually sent wherever they’ll be able to do the most good rather than working close to home. The following exotic locales are the places most likely for a DRA agent to call “home.”

Kansas City, MO

SDRA headquarters is located outside Kansas City. The facility’s 300-acre grounds are heavily vegetated, save for access roads and a private airstrip. They are thickly sown with electronic sensors and are rumored to be patrolled by guard animals that have been enhanced through alien genetic manipulation techniques. The outer perimeter is a triple layer of 12-foot fences topped with barbed wire, with razor grass planted over minefields between the middle and innermost fences. Signs every fifty feet warn that the installation is secure and deadly force is authorized in its defense.

The aboveground offices are functional but nonessential – the four office park-like buildings are built over a converted NORAD command facility, one of a series of backup sites scattered around the nation as insurance against the destruction of Cheyenne Mountain. The Agency’s high-security core is buried deep underground in a self-contained armored bunker that is theoretically proof against a one-megaton nuclear ground-burst.

SDRA also maintains a satellite office at its Maximum Security Containment Facility at nearby Fort Leavenworth. Operated in conjunction with the Department of Defense, the MSCF (pronounced “Missiff”) is the final destination of criminals whose capabilities preclude their incarceration in conventional prisons. It is also rumored to hold captive extraterrestrials and supernatural creatures.

Domestic Field Offices

Seattle, WA

In addition to the Agency’s oldest field office, Seattle also hosts SDRA’s primary training facilities. The SDRA Academy (known as “Hell State University” within the Agency) provides specialized training to incoming agents whose previous careers have almost certainly not prepared them for their new assignments. The Agency, through the cutout company of Sea-Tac Aerospace, is currently negotiating with Boeing to purchase the aerospace corporation’s former headquarters and assembly plant and relocate the Academy to those grounds.

Las Vegas, NV

The Las Vegas field office is the most luxurious and sought-after posting in the Agency. It is also the most hazardous, having come under attack from extraterrestrials at least a half-dozen times since its establishment in 1953. After the first public attack, the old office building in downtown Vegas was demolished and the Agency moved to less built-up surroundings on the outskirts of the city.

This office is a prime target for assaults because it serves as the administrative center for the Agency’s Advanced Physics Research Facility. APRF is located at the secretive Area 51 and is one of the world’s foremost laboratories for the analysis of captured alien technology. It is also the location at which the Agency modifies standard terrestrial aerospace technology for internal use.

Flint, MI

The Flint field office is housed in a sprawling industrial park which also boasts the Advanced Materials Technology Research Laboratory. Officially a Department of Energy facility, AMTReL produces composite alloys, superconductors, advanced plastics and ceramics, and other substances which defy conventional engineering. It has connections to several of the automotive corporations which have facilities in the state, and is the Agency’s “speed shop.” Rumors from GM state that AMTReL is about to publicly release the formula for a rubber substitute with a coefficient of friction 300% greater than that of current tire materials.

Atlanta, GA

The Atlanta field office is housed next to the Lucent Technologies (formerly Bell Labs) research facility, giving it access to some of the world’s foremost telecommunications resources. Of more critical importance, however, is the Xenopathological Research Institute which the Agency operates in conjunction with the CDC. Xenopath is the nation’s only Level 5 biocontainment facility, theoretically equipped to handle pathogens with nonphysical components such as Stoker’s Disease and the Greys’ Mimetic Alteration Virus.

Colorado Springs, CO

The Colorado Springs field office is built on top of the bunker for the Agency’s Deep Space Tracking Center. DSTC has a direct communications link to USAF Space Command, NORAD, and various NASA space tracking facilities, and can eavesdrop on transmissions from virtually any US military satellite (and, unofficially, many foreign ones as well). It also controls the Agency’s own constellation of space surveillance satellites, which are designed to detect extraterrestrial craft entering terrestrial or lunar space.

Kona, HI

The Pacific Territories field office (with jurisdiction over the Mariana archipelago and US-allied Pacific islands as well as Hawaii) also supports the Thaumaturgical Research Center. TRC’s location varies – it is built in a converted deep-sea oil drilling platform, and is usually kept at least 100 miles from the nearest populated territory in case of catastrophic accidents. A pair of oceangoing salvage tugs (former Coast Guard vessels) move it once every two to three months to keep magical activity from forming a permanent power nexus or diverting local ley lines.

Tampa, FL

Located in an office park adjacent to MacDill Air Force Base, the Tampa field office contains the Agency’s Military Liaison Office. Working through Special Operations Command (based at MacDill), MLO is the primary conduit between the Agency and the formidable resources of the Department of Defense. Because of its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, personnel from Tampa often participate in drug interdiction operations.

New Orleans, LA

The “Big Easy” field office has no specialized facilities, but does tend to attract a large number of Agency parapsychologists interested in studying New Orleans’ hundreds of resident ghosts. The office keeps at least two magically adept security personnel on duty at all times to counter the occasional voodoo practitioners who object to government interest in the area.

Memphis, TN

The Memphis field office is a common posting for agents who have sustained psychological trauma. It has an unusually low incidence of high-stress or violent cases, and duty here is somewhat easier than in many other locations.

Phoenix, AZ

Surveillance operations into Mexico are commonly run out of the Phoenix field office. This is also the information center for Agency investigation of potentially dangerous cults.

Salem, MA

Salem’s field office houses the DRA’s secondary magical research facility, as well as its forensic archaeology unit. Activity here is strictly limited to extremely low-power work for safety reasons.

Anchorage, AK

Due to its isolation and barren surroundings, the Anchorage field office is an ideal site for the Agency’s psychic research program. Anchorage has yet to receive a formal facility designation or additional funding for such a program, but psychically active agents tend to gravitate here.

San Francisco, CA

Located close to UC-Berkeley, the San Francisco field office often conducts field observations of popular culture trends that could introduce dangerous elements into American society. It also monitors Hollywood for potential leaks or propaganda opportunities.

Foreign Offices

Ottawa, Canada

The US embassy has a permanent DRA liaison office for coordinating DRA activities with the Canadian Department of National Defense’s Territorial Security Division and the RCMP’s “Y” Division (often referred to as “Y Me?” Division). Foreign Office Ottawa is the least hazardous of DRA’s foreign postings and is often reserved for D-1 agents who have earned postings “close to home.”

London, England

DRA’s largest liaison office is located here. The assigned office space is in the US embassy, but it’s extremely uncomfortable. Most personnel assigned to Foreign Office London prefer to work out of loaned facilities in the sub-basement of MI-5 headquarters at Thames House (much to the chagrin of MI-6, another partner agency, which MI-5 one-upped by making the first offer of local assistance).

Sydney, Australia

There is no official DRA presence in Australia, but the US consulate in Sydney hosts a small DRA contingent which performs liaison duties with ANZAC forces. It also monitors the Great Barrier Reef for paranormal activity, which Australian authorities tolerate so long as the monitoring remains covert. Previous incursions into the Outback have been strongly discouraged and a gentlemen’s agreement with the Australian Secret Intelligence Service’s Parasecurity Division keeps further such misunderstandings from occurring.

Yokohama, Japan

DRA has no official reciprocity agreement with any Japanese agency, but the port facilities in Yokohama (conveniently close to Tokyo and often frequented by the US Navy) play host to Foreign Office Yokohama, a small contingent of personnel with highly unofficial local connections.

Manila, The Philippines

A single DRA agent and four support personnel are assigned to the US embassy in Manila. Shoehorned into the back of the naval attaché’s office, Foreign Office Manila provides intelligence and consulting to the Filipino military.

Pretoria, South Africa

One of DRA’s dirty little foreign relations secrets is its constant contact with the South African government’s National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC) since 1976, even when international relations between Pretoria and Washington were at their worst. Foreign Office Pretoria is regarded as something of a punishment assignment for Foreign Service agents due to the living conditions, but the Unconventional Research personnel here have returned a wealth of data on magical practices and threats on the southern end of the continent.

Hong Kong

DRA officially pulled out of the American Consulate in Hong Kong when the island returned to Chinese rule. However, six DRA agents are still on the payroll as maintaining private apartments there, in a complex heavily inhabited by officers of the HKPD’s Special Branch.

DRA II

Back in 2002, when the OGL was young and full of promise, Alderac Entertainment Group released Spycraft, a d20 action/espionage RPG. My local gaming group immediately fell in love with it. I started a campaign, which fell apart after three (excellent) sessions due to a lack of GM focus, planning, and follow-through. My campaign setup document, however, was the writing sample that got me onto the Spycraft design team for the rest of the first edition’s run and the Stargate SG-1 license. I started this blog as a repository for my various older and unpublished pieces (among other things), so this seems as good a place as any to post it. Because of length, this is the second of a four-part series.

SDRA Special Agent Entry Qualifications

  • US or Northern Mariana Islands citizenship
  • between the ages of 23 and 37
  • ability to attain Top Secret security clearance (DRA has been known to grant such clearance on a case-by-case basis for individuals whose criminal records would normally prohibit it)
  • uncorrected vision not worse than 20/200, correctable to 20/20 in one eye and 20/40 in the other, and adequate color and night vision
  • adequate hearing at 1000 through 4000 Hertz
  • valid driver’s license
  • excellent physical condition with no defects which would interfere in firearm use or defensive tactics
  • four-year degree from a college or university accredited by one of the regional or national institutional associations recognized by the United States Secretary of Education, or equivalent professional experience (minimum rank E-6, WO-4, or O-4) in the United States armed forces, or equivalent professional experience in a non-accredited field of academic study recognized by the DRA (typically xenology, xenoethnography, parapsychology, cryptozoology, or thaumaturgy)
  • must pass a psychiatric evaluation administered by SDRA medical staff, with specific emphasis on sense of self and resilience in sudden oppositions of personal worldview and subjective reality

In game terms, character creation guidelines:

  • Only one of STR, DEX, and CON can start below 10.
  • Spot or Listen skill bonuses cannot start below +0.
  • Drive skill bonus cannot start below +1.
  • Total Will save bonus cannot start below +1, nor can Fear backgrounds be higher than 1.

Agents are subject to annual medical and psychiatric evaluations and performance testing. Interim examinations are strongly recommended after any assignment that results in violent contact with a hazardous entity, technology, or manifestation, and may be mandatory at the discretion of the agent’s supervisor.

SDRA Directorates

In the DRA campaign setting, the following Directorates replace the default Department selections from Spycraft.

D-0: Executive Directorate (“Central”)

The Executive Directorate is the central bureaucracy and field investigative arm of the DRA. It has over 60% of the Agency’s total staff, as the vast majority of clerical and administrative personnel are assigned to it. Its agents have no overriding agenda, instead being assigned as “utility infielders” to any operation that needs a generalist instead of a specialist. Agents from Central tend to be well-connected within the Agency’s bureaucracy. D-0 is also home to the Agency’s Internal Security Department, which investigates corruption of both mundane and supernatural varieties within the DRA.

  • 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 extra skill point each level thereafter.
  • +2 department bonus to all favor checks. This bonus increases by an additional +1 at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter.
  • Select any two skills. You receive a +1 department bonus to all checks with these skills. These skills are always considered class skills, even if you multi-class.
  • Bonus Feat: Any covert or basic skill feat. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

D-1: Foreign Service Directorate

Officially, the Foreign Service Directorate is responsible for coordinating activities with other nations’ governments and paranormal studies and enforcement agencies. Unofficially, it also engages in a great deal of espionage against nations that are less than fully receptive to the Agency’s diplomatic overtures. D-1 has extensive connections in the global black and gray markets, allowing its agents to procure deniable equipment with ease.

  • +2 Charisma, -2 Strength.
  • +5 budget points as part of the agent’s personal budget. +2 budget points to each mission budget, plus an additional +1 budget point bonus at 2nd level and every two levels thereafter.
  • +1 to department bonus to Cultures, Languages, and Diplomacy checks. Foreign Service agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to Cultures, Language, and Diplomacy checks at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • Bonus Feat: Any style or gear feat. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

D-2: Domestic Service Directorate

The Domestic Service Directorate works closely with the various branches of the US armed forces and their respective paranormal programs, as well as with other domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies on federal, state, and local levels. Its official primary function is facilitating the smooth transfer of information between the Agency and other domestic agencies whose jurisdictions may overlap those of the DRA. However, D-2 is also responsible for coordinating joint operations, which means its agents see action in the field on a regular basis. A high percentage of D-2 agents are drawn from police departments and from the military’s commissioned ranks.

  • +2 to any one ability of your choice, -2 to any one ability of your choice. You may apply both the bonus and the penalty to the same ability if you so desire.
  • At 1st level, choose one federal agency, one branch of the US military, or the collective agencies of one state or city as an allied organization. The agent has worked closely with this organization in the past and is familiar with its culture and bureaucracy. The agent gains a +1 allied organization bonus to all Charisma-based skill checks that directly pertain to the allied organization or its personnel. At 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, choose one additional organization, and the bonus associated with every previously selected organization goes up by +1. For example, a 12th-level D-2 operative will have four allied organizations, with bonuses of +4, +3, +2, and +1.
  • +1 department bonus to skill checks for one class skill of your choice. Domestic Service agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to skill checks for the chosen skill at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • Bonus Feat: Any basic combat or covert feat. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

D-3: Technical Directorate (“Cyberpunks”)

The Technical Directorate is in charge of primary analysis of all advanced technology that enters the Agency’s hands. It is also responsible for electronic surveillance, intelligence, and counter-intelligence. D-3 runs the Agency’s spy satellites, information centers, secure communications networks, and cryptographic analysis offices. The Biomedical Office of D-3 handles both in-house medical treatment for agents and analysis of xenobiological and cryptozoological cases. Cyberpunks (the non-computer personnel of D-3 object to the moniker, but it still sticks) tend to be younger than other DRA agents, and many are recruited straight out of college (or jail).

  • +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom.
  • Choose one Office at character creation: Information Technology, Electronic Surveillance, Biomedical, or Physical Sciences.
  • Cyberpunks in the Information Technology or Electronic Surveillance Office receive a free laptop computer with a +1 power rating. The computer is upgraded in power automatically by +1 at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter. D-3 agents in the Biomedical or Physical Sciences Office receive a bonus of +1 gadget point at the start of each mission, plus another gadget point per mission at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • +1 to department bonus to checks with two skills, determined by Office. Information Technology agents receive bonuses in Electronics and Computers. Electronic Surveillance agents learn advanced techniques in Cryptography and Surveillance. Biomedical operatives are highly trained in First Aid and Knowledge (biology). Physical Sciences personnel have exceptional aptitude with Mechanics and Knowledge (choose one: chemistry, engineering, or physics). D-3 agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to checks with the specified skills at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • Bonus Feat: Any gear or basic skill feat. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

D-4: Covert Operations Directorate

The smallest directorate, D-4, is the Agency’s “stealth” arm. Its agents specialize in going places they shouldn’t be and doing things they shouldn’t do without ever being seen, be it breaking and entering or assassination. Covert Ops missions are usually things that the Agency would need to be able to deny ever having been involved in, should they come to light. Many D-4 missions involve action against American citizens or institutions, which are technically prohibited without a federal judge’s authorization. However, few federal judges have the security clearance necessary to be informed of Agency operations, which results in D-4 agents conducting a high number (even for the Agency) of technically illegal activities. This Directorate is insular even for the Agency, and D-4 personnel tend to be somewhat antisocial.

  • +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma.
  • +1 to department bonus to Initiative checks. Covert Operations agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to Initiative at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • -2 department penalty to all rolls made for the purposes of identifying, tracking, or researching the character through any means except direct interviews. This penalty decreases by an additional -1 at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter. For example, all attempts to run the fingerprints of a 12th-level D-4 operative would have a -6 penalty. DRA personnel ignore this penalty unless the agent has the Altermate Identify feat.
  • +1 to department bonus to Hide checks. Covert Operations agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to Hide checks at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • Bonus Feat: Any covert or basic skill feat. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

D-5: Tactical Operations Directorate (“X-Com”)

D-5 is the Agency’s dedicated paramilitary aspect. Most D-5 personnel are recruited from the enlisted ranks of the military. While D-2 often works with the Department of Defense for information sharing and joint operations, D-5 is the Agency’s private army for use in situations where regular armed forces deployment would have prohibitive legal or diplomatic repercussions (for example, if use of military personnel would violate the Posse Comitatus Act). Other directorates have a tendency to see D-5 agents as thugs and cannon fodder, an impression which is not wholly without basis – D-5 has the highest rates of agent mortality and retirement on physical disability of any directorate. However, D-5 agents are also notoriously hard to kill, and tend to do a lot of damage before they go down.

  • +2 Strength, -2 Intelligence.
  • 4 extra vitality points at 1st level and 1 extra vitality point each level thereafter.
  • 1 extra wound point. Tactical Operations agents receive 1 additional wound point at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • Whenever he calculates his personal budget, a Tactical Operations agent may choose as a personal weapon any one melee weapon or non-tactical firearm with which he is proficient. After adding the budget point costs of the weapon and all of its ammunition and accessories, he receives a 25% discount on the total budget point cost of the package. This does not apply to mission budget or gadget points.
    Example: Dirk chooses an H&K G3A3 (7.62x51mm assault rifle, 32 BP) as his personal weapon. His standard load-out for it includes 60 rounds of FMJ ammo (3 BP), 60 rounds of AP ammo (9 BP), a bipod (1 BP), and a telescopic sight (2 BP). The total cost of this package is 47 PB. A 25% discount reduces the cost of the package to (47 x 0.75 = 35.25, rounded up) 36 BPs.
  • Bonus Feat: Any ranged combat, melee combat, or unarmed combat feat. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

D-6: Survey Directorate

Roughly 95% of the US population lives in 5% of the nation’s square mileage. D-6 is responsible for patrolling the other 95% of the United States, from the Intracoastal Waterway to Death Valley, and reporting or personally handling any signs of paranormal hazards. This directorate also handles the Agency’s in-house paranormal mapping programs, working closely with the USGS, DMA, and NRO. D-6’s closest ties to other agencies are with the EPA and the Department of the Interior, and state conservation and environmental agencies. Survey Directorate personnel are accustomed to long periods of independent operation, and tend to be rugged individualists.

  • +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity.
  • +1 department bonus to Fortitude saving throws. Survey agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to Fortitude saves at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • +1 to department bonus to Knowledge (Nature) and Survival checks. Survey agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to Knowledge (Nature) and Survival checks at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • Climb, Jump, Knowledge (Nature), Survival, and Swim are always in-class skills for Survey agents.
  • Bonus Feat: Any basic combat or chase feat, or Track. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

D-7: Unconventional Research Directorate (“The Basement”)

The DRA’s core reason for existence is most strongly seen in Basement offices. D-7’s research involves magic, psychic phenomena, and less quantifiable individual manifestations of the paranormal. 60-hour weeks are considered the norm in the Basement, and the stress, pace, and hazards of working in D-7 take their toll on its personnel. However, D-7 agents are more psychologically resilient than other Agency personnel due to their constant exposure to things that would drive lesser men mad. They also tend to be preternaturally lucky, even moreso than the average Agency operative.

  • +2 Wisdom, -2 Constitution.
  • +1 department bonus to any action die rolls you make. If an ability lets you roll multiple action dice, this bonus applies individually to each one. Do not count this bonus when checking to see if an action die explodes. This bonus increases by +1 at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • +1 department bonus to Will saving throws. Research agents receive an additional +1 department bonus to Will saves at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
  • Bonus Feat: Any basic or advanced skill feat. You must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

DRA I

Back in 2002, when the OGL was young and full of promise, Alderac Entertainment Group released Spycraft, a d20 action/espionage RPG. My local gaming group immediately fell in love with it. I started a campaign, which fell apart after three (excellent) sessions due to a lack of GM focus, planning, and follow-through. My campaign setup document, however, was the writing sample that got me onto the Spycraft design team for the rest of the first edition’s run and the Stargate SG-1 license. I started this blog as a repository for my various older and unpublished pieces (among other things), so this seems as good a place as any to post it. Because of length, this is the first of a four-part series.

This material is 21 years old and not representative of my current writing or design skills, but I’m not sufficiently motivated to clean it up. There’s plenty of my newer material out there if someone wants to assess my capabilities as they stand today.

At the time, this stuff was posted on an older web page of mine that’s long since lost to the bitbucket. Hilariously, though, about a year after I started freelancing for AEG, some toolbag out there decided to apply as an AEG freelancer… and plagiarized this piece to use as “his” “writing sample.” You can guess how that went…

Special Defense Research Agency

“Tuatamen Lego Eruditio (Defense through Knowledge)” (official motto)

“Alone, Unknown, and Unloved” (highly unofficial motto)

Design Notes

The SDRA setting is an attempt to tweak the Spycraft rules for a game with a higher level of supernatural involvement than the default setting allows. PCs are agents of the Special Defense Research Agency, a black organization within the United States government dedicated to maintaining national security against paranormal threats. History and current events are much the same in the world of the SDRA as they are in our world, with one key exception: the supernatural is publicly acknowledged as existing. It is, however, extremely rare, about on the level of bank robberies: events get news coverage on the local level, but rarely make the national reports unless they’re particularly spectacular. Very few people are involved in them, but everyone seems to have a friend of a friend who once saw something happen. The government maintains a high level of denial in an effort to protect the public from Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.

The SDRA operates under a thick veil of secrecy. It’s about as well-known as the NSA in the early 1980s, or perhaps the NRO in the present day. The average man on the street has not heard of it, though those who indulge in espionage and supernatural genre entertainment have heard of it and may know a little bit about what it does. Most SDRA operations are never acknowledged as having been performed by the Agency – other, more public, organizations take the credit. Most SDRA agents are forbidden to reveal their actual employer, instead maintaining a set of cover identities in the military or other federal agencies.

Primary inspirations for this setting include Pagan Publishing’s Delta Green, Eden Studios’ Conspiracy X, the Men in Black comic/film/RPG property, and Microprose’s X-Com game series, as well as the friendly government Web sites of the CIA, NSA, FBI, DEA, and State Department.

The setting is intended to be significantly grittier than four-color James Bond-style espionage. Death, dismemberment, and madness are constant risks for SDRA agents in the field. The SDRA and its sibling organizations in other nations are a very thin shield between mankind and the Things Out There. Minimum film rating for this game would be PG-13, with frequent slips into R for graphic violence. OTOH, this is a highly heroic game – the PCs are the best there is at what they do, even if what they do isn’t very pretty.

Agency Background

The Special Defense Research Agency was founded in 1951 to manage federal law enforcement and national security issues as they were affected by paranormal activity. SDRA (more commonly referred to as “DRA,” with the “Special” dropped for casual conversation) was formed by a merger of four existing agencies: the Treasury Department’s Special Enforcement Service, the CIA’s Directorate of Unconventional Studies, the State Department’s Special Research Office, and the Pentagon’s Joint Services Global Meteorological Survey Office.

DRA’s existence has always been public, but its exact mission specifications are classified. Its existence appears in no official government documents outside of its formation in the First Amendment of the National Security Act (itself classified until 1982). DRA derives its budget from various “black project” appropriations and covert licensing of advanced technology through “cutout” corporations.

The government was forced to acknowledge DRA’s existence and mission after the Medicine Bow Incident. In the spring of 1958, DRA agents operating out of the Colorado Springs Field Office became aware of a high level of extraterrestrial activity on the Colorado-Wyoming border. The investigation uncovered a large-scale “harvesting” operation being conducted by Greys. The aliens’ advance base, located in Medicine Bow National Forest, was pinpointed after the entire population of Casper was abducted in a single night. Two civilians escaped and contacted military authorities, who in turn alerted the DRA. On the night of August 18, DRA agents led local law enforcement authorities and an infantry company of the Wyoming National Guard in an assault on the base. During the engagement, an antimatter power source’s containment catastrophically failed, resulting in an estimated 3.5-megaton explosion.

A cover-up was impossible, given the magnitude of the blast and its secondary EMP effects. On August 20, President Eisenhower revealed to the world the history of American conflict with extraterrestrials since the 1947 shoot-down of a Grey reconnaissance craft at Roswell. Eisenhower’s speech marked the beginning of the world’s mass admission of supernatural activity: within a week, over half the nations on the planet had at least tentatively addressed the issues of magic, psychic powers, nonhuman intelligence, or alien visitors in a public forum. Contrary to the expectations of many sociologists, upheaval was surprisingly mild: these revelations merely legitimized beliefs that millions of people had previously been ashamed to hold.

Today, DRA is one of the world’s foremost government organizations dedicated to protecting humanity from paranormal threats. The Agency is headquartered in Kansas City, MO, with 10 additional field offices and several hidden facilities in the United States. The State Department also hosts DRA liaison offices in over 20 nations. DRA employs an estimated 1,800 Special Agents, plus over 11,000 other personnel in various clerical, maintenance, scientific, medical, investigative, logistical, and security roles. Exact details of the Agency’s personnel roster are classified for the protection of its agents.

DRA is officially limited to operations within the United States. However, the Agency has reciprocity agreements with the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and South Africa, which allow DRA agents to operate in those nations with the supervision of local counterpart agencies. Hong Kong was a partner until the end of local British rule, but its status is currently under negotiation with the Chinese government. DRA personnel have also been seconded to the United Nations and NATO for various operations.

Although the DRA’s existence is known to the world at large, it does not maintain a public face (with the exception of a handful of public affairs agents from the Administrative Directorate). DRA agents and employees are usually drawn from other federal or state agencies, and officially maintain their previous positions. If such a cover would compromise an employee’s identity, or if he has no previous government service from which to draw a cover, he is issued a government ID for another agency with facilities in his cities of residence. DRA facilities are not marked as such and are guarded by personnel in private security uniforms. An entire subset of conspiracy theory has sprung up around identifying DRA personnel and offices, despite the fact that knowingly breaching a DRA agent’s cover carries a federal charge of obstruction of justice.