This is an idea I've had for ages, which keeps resurfacing every time I read or otherwise enjoy spy fiction or anything espionage-related, or even just play a shooter like MW3 (well, you play as elites with nifty callsigns a lot of the time, it isn't that far removed).
Roll to be the AgencyOn the surface, the world of today seems to have left the age of global war. Though conflict and destruction is an eternal part of human life and genocides and civil wars often erupt without warning especially in the poorer parts of the world, a world-wide conflict seems unthinkable. But beneath this illusion of peace, secret wars are being fought, every moment and every day. Shadowy, nameless governmental organizations clash with their foreign counterparts, hired specialists and even rogue cells pursuing their own agendas. They vary in size, from tens of thousands to a few dozen desperate men and women, but their means and ways are the same.
You are a young agency, ignorant of the true scale of the shadow wars they are about to enter. You may be a new government iniatitive, given generous funds to begin your task, a group of specialized freelancer mercs looking to start their own organization. Then there are rogue cells, fragments of an existing agency hunted mercilessly by their former comrades. It matters little. In the world of espionage, the careless will quickly be eaten alive.
As hinted at above, there are three types of Agency types to choose from.
Government Organizations have been founded to combat the enemies and enforce the will of the nation. They have an enormous budget, but they are forced to work towards the goals their handlers in the administration assign them, often with tight deadlines. They lack the freedom of a freelancer agency or a rogue cell, and are regulated and kept in check by other governmental agencies and officials.
Merc Groups are agencies with no national master. They work for whoever pays the most and are dependent on these fickle employers. They lack the protection of government institutions from a backing nation and have a somewhat limited budget. Merc Groups tend to favor Hammers, as they do not have the time for subtle methods and long-term operations. They often work with larger PMCs and various hired guns, and have reduced costs for hiring and buying supplies from them.
Rogue Cells are simply put parts of another Agency that have gone rogue, splitting off to pursue their own goals instead. They have vast reserves of information and a large pool of starting resources, but they have no real backers and need to use every chance they can to gain more funds, by any means necessary. They are being hunted by their mother institutions, and must be careful not to attract too much attention to themselves. Rogue Cells have a harder time hiring new recruits and agents than the other types and are often short on manpower.
The head of the Agency is the Director, who organizes its missions and deploys its assets, choosing where, when and how to strike. Directors rarely take to the field, handling the everyday tasks of running intelligence networks, finding backers, choosing which missions and events to investigate and act in and controlling the overall scheme of things. When they do, the mission is usually too important to be left to remote control. Most Directors are Daggers rather than Hammers and thus stay in a support role in combat. He also allocates funds for his employees to use and controls the shape of the budget.
Under the Director are the Head of Research and the Quartermaster. The Head of Research uses the resources available to him to improve the technology and training programs of the Agency, whether by actual research or for organizations low on funds, locating the labs and depots of their rivals to assault and loot. They usually accompany their agents in these missions to make sure nothing important is missed. The Daggers of Research are often embarking on missions of long-term infiltration, sabotage and other more subtle tasks, though nobody quite knows how they manage this and still be able to do their normal jobs.
The Quartermaster is in charge of all gear assigned to his agents, buying new equipment and supplies with his share of the budget, as well as training new recruits into real Agents. They often take a more direct role in the field, leading teams of agents like a normal Operative. The Quartermaster chooses which agents and Operatives to deploy in each mission, though the Director always has the final say. Angering the Quartermaster is close to a death sentence in most Agencies - those who do quickly find themselves without ammunition or a working weapon and dropped into the middle of a firefight.
When an agent is considered experienced enough to be allowed a fair bit of freedom he becomes an Operative. Operatives are basically walking miniature versions of Agencies, often accompanied by a vast retinue of trusted henchmen, armed to the teeth in the latest gear and possessing fortunes larger than the budget of some Agencies. They can disappear for years at a time, pursuing their own goals or working towards the Agency's goal in their own way, though most organizations prefer to keep somekind of leash on them to avoid them going rogue. Most Operatives return to their HQ from time to time, though, if only because they hate to pay for their own supplies and gear.
The men and women of the shadow wars tend to fall into two general categories. While their goals may vary, their methods are usually the same.
Hammers are one-man armies, elite combatants armed to the teeth and with years of experience behind them. While the usual image of a Hammer is a soldier in combat armor, calmly walking away from an explosion, Hammers are not necessarily cold-blooded professionals. A Hammer can be quite the charmer and lack any kind of formal military background. They are more characterized by their incapability of long-term planning and subtlety, making them extremely unsuitable to tasks like infiltration or investigation. A Hammer is probable to choose the quickest and most pragmatic method of achieving his goal, no matter the consequences. Hammers are known for surviving even the most unlikely odds and going through any lenghts to see their mission through.
Daggers are their exact opposites, masters of planning and subterfuge who have no trouble with spending years or even decades on a plan. They cultivate networks of informants and allies that they can draw upon if their schemes fall apart. Daggers can pass unnoticed in even the most high-security bases and infiltrate even the highest echelons of a secret society. They lack the combat skills and experience of Hammers and dislike carrying the arsenals of weapons they do, though they have the basic combat training needed to survive. Daggers often have access to high-tech gadgets and devices that allow them to completely bypass any obstacle a Hammer would solve with brute force, and the social and acting skills (and often the looks) to deal with their opponents. Some Daggers never take to the field, controlling trusted teams of henchmen from afar.
Unspecialized Operatives have not focused on either path, which is both a curse and a blessing. They are the 'jacks of all trades, masters of none' of the espionage business, not trained enough to be trusted with high-level missions but not completely screwed when, say, dropped into a firefight in an infiltration mission or forced to participate in a masked ball on an assassination.
I'm not likely to start this in a while (I'd have to let Hammer of the Emperor die if I did, yelp), but comments, criticism and any ideas or suggestions are more than welcome!
Author
Topic: Roller's Block (RTD Brainstorming Thread) (HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY) (Derm is 5k) (Read 702463 times)