Smoke and Mirrors

Background

The world didn't end in 1968, or 2012, or 2020. Or at any date when it was predicted to end. But always, doomsday seemed to be creeping ever-closer. First it was the threat of nuclear Armageddon, then the threat of bioweapons, and then and most damning, the threat of economic collapse and a depression to end all depressions.

But humanity was strong, and has survived despite the rot at its core, a rot that had been festering for thousands of years. There are those who seek to end the world, and those who seek to preserve it. This shadow war has been fought for uncountable millenia between groups that have stayed hidden in the shadows. But as 2038 draws closer, this battle has finally spilled into the streets. Gangs of cultists duke it out with paramilitary commandoes. Creatures that were once human, enhanced by grafts from extradimensional beings, stalk the streets, fighting to preserve what they have willingly sacrificed, or fighting to destroy what they can no longer have.

The masquerade is wearing thin, and the war is being revealed for all to see.

Choose your side.

Conspiracies

Ever since ancient times, men and women have banded together to fight the unknown, the creatures that lurk in the darkness. Over time the knowledge has become codified, these groups have become more effective, and they have disappeared deeper into the shadows, as not to alarm the ones who are unwilling or unable to deal with the reality of the situation. And as this has gone on, they have become ever more like the foe they fight, skulking in the shadows, using unsavory tactics, hiding from a populace which would not be able to tell the difference between destroyer and savior. But protection requires sacrifice, and there are still those who are willing and able to make that sacrifice.

Origins

All of the current conspiracies have origins in a handful of major groups, splinter cells that no longer know much of their past history. However, every one of these groups had fought the enemy in their own way, and each one of these new compacts similarly has access to specific abilities based off of their parent group. The groups are united, however, in their ability to gain access to equipment that would be illegal or restricted, as well as their infiltration of .

Task Force NEMESIS

Created: 1940
Special Advantage: Advanced Armory
Origin Country: United States of America
The youngest of all the compacts, TF NEMESIS supposedly started as a department of the US military, circa WWII. Originally created as the "Department of Occult Warfare", in the 1950s and 1960s, NEMESIS disappeared as an official organ of the government, as the Department of Occult Warfare had been perverted into hunting suspected Communists and seditionists, rather than dealing with threats to the human race-or so they say. Having gone underground and lost most of its resources and funding, the Department of Occult Warfare suffered hard times for a decade, but its ex-FBI and ex-military roots allowed it to rebuild itself.

Renaming itself Task Force NEMESIS in 1980, it functioned under that name until it split into multiple subgroups due to internal bickering and disagreements.

Fundamentally, a Nemesis agent cannot match those who implant unidentifiable parts of alien beings into themselves, nor a mage or a psychic. However, Nemesis has its own tricks and the pick of the heaviest mundane hardware, plus some experimental equipment that might impress even the other compacts.

In a Nutshell

Advantages: Cheapest military hardware, front companies, legal income sources.
Disadvantages: Worst quality agents, low Occult knowledge.

Archetype Mechanics

Starting Points: 250

Infiltration-

Judicial Infiltration: 5 SP per 1, max 6
Military Infiltration: 4 SP per 1, max 10, starts with 1 free level
Media Infiltration: 12 SP per 1, max 5

Fronts-

Starts with 2, additional cost 10 SP per 1.

Infrastructure- Income (Illegal): 1 SP per 2
Production: 5 SP per 3
Personnel: 1 SP per 20
Advanced Armory: 3 SP per 1

Stealth- 1 SP per 50 SP of Infrastructure, starts w/25

Assets- Equipment: 1 SP per 25 points
Combat Agents: 5 SP per 1 (max 10)
Intelligence Agents: 8 SP per 1 (max 5)

Knowledge- 3 free points
+2 Tactics, +1 Assassination, -1 Occult
Maximum Occult of 1

Praetorian Guard

Created: ~10 BC
Special Advantage: Relic
Origin Country: Roman Empire (now Italy)
Formed in ancient times to protect the emperor from all threats, the Praetorian guard naturally also protected him against the supernatural. With weapons blessed by their own gods and prayers, they were effective against all sorts of arcane threats. When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Guard still soldiered on, their mission changing to protecting humanity against the threat-whether they liked it or not. They have long had feelers in the military, but their political savvy has shown through, and they can fight a war equally well whether it is on the battlefield of the media or the battlegrounds of the world.

Praetorians can access significant amounts of arcane tools to assist their fight-magically enchanted weapons and armor dating from the Roman era to equipment as recently blessed, by sweat and sacrifice, as the mid-20th century. These relic weapons and gear are extremely powerful but also nigh-irreplaceable. Where Nemesis and the Kiryu-Kai are "leave no man behind", for the Praetorians that takes a close second to leaving no relic behind where it might be destroyed or used against them. After all, these devices are intensely difficult to acquire.

In a Nutshell

Advantages: Powerful relics for use by Agents, extremely cheap illegal income.
Disadvantages: Relics are extremely expensive, expensive stealth.

Archetype Mechanics

Starting Points: 250

Infiltration-

Judicial Infiltration: 10 SP per 1, max 6
Military Infiltration: 8 SP per 1, max 8
Media Infiltration: 8 SP per 1, max 8

Fronts-

Starts with 1, additional cost 12 SP per 1.

Infrastructure- Income (Illegal): 2 SP per 5
Production: 5 SP per 2
Personnel: 1 SP per 15
Relic: 5 SP per 1

Stealth- 1 SP per 40 SP of Infrastructure, starts w/25

Assets- Equipment: 1 SP per 15 points
Combat Agents: 8 SP per 1 (max 5)
Intelligence Agents: 8 SP per 1 (max 5)

Knowledge- 2 free points
+1 Tactics, +1 Occult

Kiryu-Kai

Created: 1350
Special Advantage: Arcanotechnology
Origin Country: Japan
The Kiryu-Kai were originally a samurai order tasked with ensuring peace between the spirit world and humanity. They could often do this by negotiation and diplomacy, but also occasionally had to step in and cut heads off. Empowered by the gods to fuse spirits and souls into wondrous works of craftsmanship, they survived nearly unchanged until the 1940s, where they clashed with the Department of Occult Warfare in the Pacific. Kiryu-Kai arcanotech was superior to the equipment wielded by the DOW, but the latter had significantly more resources and each of their agents was far more expendable.

Almost completely gutted in the '50s and '60s, the new Kiryu-Kai has nearly no relation to the old except for the same penchant to fuse mundane craftsmanship with magic. Whereas the original were warriors first, philosophers second, the new one is mostly academia, resembling more of a research and development group than a hunter group. In some ways this allows it to apply what it finds in the field more easily as well as giving it significant access to manpower.

However, this also decreases its effectiveness because of the relative lack of secrecy.

In a Nutshell

Advantages: Arcanotechnology. Only group that can field non-purchasable vehicles. Excellent industrial ability
Disadvantages: Arcanotechnology requires significant industrial input, lowest stealth rating. Lowest max infiltration ratings.

Archetype Mechanics

Starting Points: 250

Infiltration-

Judicial Infiltration: 15 SP per 1, max 5
Military Infiltration: 15 SP per 1, max 5
Media Infiltration: 15 SP per 1, max 5

Fronts-

Starts with 1, additional cost 15 SP per 1.

Infrastructure- Income (Illegal): 1 SP per 1
Production: 1 SP per 1
Personnel: 1 SP per 30
Arcanotechnology: 3 SP per 1

Stealth- 1 SP per 15 SP of Infrastructure, starts w/15

Assets- Equipment: 1 SP per 20 points
Combat Agents: 12 SP per 1 (max 3)
Intelligence Agents: 12 SP per 1 (max 3)

Knowledge- 3 free points
+1 Occult

Anu Foundation

Created: <4000 BC
Special Advantage: Mana
Origin Country: Sumer
Originally the Order of Anu, the Foundation was the earliest group to step up and fight the darkness. Shrouded in mystery, even its members know little of its ancient history, save that it was originally a group of Sumerian priests which fought to drive away the horrible monstrosities in unexplored lands. Having reinvented its public face sometime in the 18th century as a business and a charity, it recruits those with magical talent-those with the blood of the original priests flowing through their veins-and uses them to fight a war. It only recruits those with magical potential, and trains them to use it.

But despite what one might think, they know that sometimes they need to use some hardware.

In a Nutshell

Advantages: Magical Aptitude, powerful spells. Extreme Occult knowledge, heavy Judicial infiltration. Lighter infrastructure means easy stealth, extremely powerful Agents.
Disadvantages: Mana is quickly expended in combat, very expensive personnel.

Archetype Mechanics

Starting Points: 250

Infiltration-

Judicial Infiltration: 10 SP per 1, max 8
Military Infiltration: 20 SP per 1, max 3
Media Infiltration: 12 SP per 1, max 6

Fronts-

Starts with 1, additional cost 12 SP per 1.

Infrastructure- Income (Illegal): 1 SP per 1
Production: 5 SP per 1
Personnel: 1 SP per 5
Mana: 2 SP per 1

Stealth- 1 SP per 60 SP of Infrastructure, starts w/40

Assets- Equipment: 1 SP per 10 points
Combat Agents: 15 SP per 1 (max 2)
Intelligence Agents: 15 SP per 1 (max 2)

Knowledge- 2 free points
+2 Occult
+1 Negotiation

Mechanics

Infiltration

Although people know that something might not be completely right with the world, you're still illegal and working in the shadows. Therefore to get anything done, you must infiltrate organs of government or corporations to ensure that you are not exposed and killed off, whether by the people you wish to save or by your enemies when you are made vulnerable. Infiltration allows you to manipulate the organs of government in your favor. Beware, other groups can do the same. Each infiltration score goes from 0 to 10, where 0 means you have no contacts in that group and 10 means you have a significant presence inside that allows you to basically do what you want as long as you don't do anything too crazy.

Judicial Infiltration

Judicial Infiltration represents how well you can bend the law to your will. When discovered committing a crime (and you will be committing crimes, lots of them), Judicial Infiltration can get an agent out of jail, or keep them from ever seeing trial. Furthermore, having access to police assets makes information-gathering much, much easier, and makes it easier to siphon off promising detectives and human intelligence sources.

Military Infiltration

Military Infiltration allows superior access to replacement combat agents, as well as access to heavier weapons and equipment. Furthermore military infiltration also assists in botched operations because if you have feelers and moles inside their command chain the chances are that special ops commando team they dispatched to hunt you down is busy kicking down doors on the other side of the world, chasing red herrings.

Media Infiltration

Media infiltration lets you cover up your actions by having someone "debunk" them, printing them in tabloids so outrageous people reject the truth, or just plain releasing an official-looking press release that gives a plausible explanation for everything happening. People fundamentally want to believe everything is all right, and media manipulation allows you to keep that veil.

Fronts

Similarly, front companies can be very useful in many ways. Front companies are run by your compact, and generally do not know what their upper management really does. However, they are an excellent source of resources, especially legal income. Each front company you purchase generates 30 income for your cause, which can be used as you see fit. However, this being legal income, it has a significant paper trail and can only be safely used in legal outlets (defense fees, medical care, some types of hardware purchases and maintenance, etc). It can be used for illegal purchases but that always comes with a risk.

Infrastructure

Even hidden compacts need to have their own facilities to build what they cannot easily acquire. The three basic types of infrastructure are Illegal Income, Production, and Personnel. Furthermore all organizations have a organization-specific type of Infrastructure that allows them to build certain items that are exclusive to them.

Illegal Income

Sometimes you need money that does not leave a paper or electronic trail. This is necessary for purchasing black market material, paying people who shouldn't exist, funding local terrorist groups, and other acts that would leave a red flag in your bank accounts normally. Illegal income is safe to use in any situation, insofar as buying illegal weapons or funding terrorism or putting out hits can be "safe".

Production

Production is used to build things you need built that you really, really don't want to buy openly, like IEDs, anti-tank satchel charges, silver bullets, assault cannons, and things that generally would arouse at least some suspicion. Most compacts will not have sufficient production to construct anything particularly large very often, but it'll likely be enough to arm a few groups.

Producing illegal items is often safer than buying them on the black market, and having very little of it makes it difficult to acquire the gear necessary to hunt down the menaces that lurk in the dark without bringing up flags. For the enemy, too, can use many of the tactics you do.

Personnel

Personnel are men and women who know about the compact and are capable of assisting it. Your personnel pool is where you recruit spies, saboteurs, and soldiers from to fight in this invisible war. A compact may have access to much more manpower than just the personnel pool, but the pool represents people who know at least something of what waits in the night and their enemies.

Special

All archetypes have a differing special infrastructure type that represents their ability to make use of their exclusive equipment or capabilities. Although expensive, without this equipment you will generally be outclassed by foes who do use occult rituals and foul arcanotechnologies to enhance their agents. Be aware that at least for some groups, they require production capacity alongside their special infrastructure to make use of it.

Stealth

Large conspiracies are harder to hide. The stealth rating maxes out at 100, in which case you are completely invisible, nobody knows you exist. At 0, you have gone public, and that means bad, bad, bad things are going to happen. The higher your stealth rating the easier time you will have furthering your infiltration, weaseling out of negative consequences, and spending time fighting the enemy instead of the judicial system.

Knowledge

Not all groups have similar aptitudes. In Smoke and Mirrors, there are five basic group aptitudes, rated from 0 (base) to 5 (incredible). Aptitudes are relatively versatile but only provide moderate boosts to abilities in their areas.

Tactics: Tactics is how well you do when you're kicking down doors and hitting things in the face, whether they be a bunch of cultists armed with AKs and RPGs, or the spawn of an Elder God. Although this is useful, one caveat is that kicking down a door is going to draw a lot of negative attention, and any type of attention is bad attention. Assassination: An entirely different aptitude, assassination improves your ability to eliminate single targets in covert operations. Because why take on that Elder God with small arms when you can shoot the guy who plans to summon it before it happens? Negotiation: Negotiation makes buying things less costly and also is vital for convincing people that you don't exist. This can represent charisma, or just a hell of a lot of blackmail material available on everyone. Streetwise: The mundane equivalent of Occult, Streetwise is a knowledge of who to talk to, which black market dealer sells what and how to get them to sell you what you need, who has the juiciest rumors, who's reliable and who's not... Occult: Occult is critical for outplanning and outguessing the enemy.

Assets

TBC?

Equipment

Equipment is used to give your mooks something to fight with. Bare hands versus horrible extradimensional claws is generally not a winning prospect.

Personal Equipment

Legal

Civilian Pistols (100 units per 1 wealth): Good civilian pistols are cheap and reliable-excellent tools for people who only need minimal self-defense capacity that can be easily concealed. However when I say minimal, I mean minimal.
Civilian Longarms (100 units per 1 wealth): Although not capable of using high-velocity armor piercing ammunition, nor equipping many of the accessories military-grade firearms are, civilian firearms are reasonably useful against weaker enemies like unarmored humans.
Marksman Rifles (10 units per 1 wealth): Highly accurate rifles, these can be used for hunting animals or hunting cultists just fine.
Concealable Body Armor (10 units per 1 wealth): High-grade concealable armor can stop most civilian pistol rounds, edged weapons, and a handful of military AP pistol rounds without being easily visible.
Heavy Body Armor (5 units per 1 wealth): Heavy Body Armor is much more effective at stopping bullets and blades but is not concealable.

Illegal

NOTE: Illegal weapons may often be marked up depending on your relation with the black market.
Machine Pistols (50 units per 1 wealth): Machine pistols are like standard pistols but with full automatic fire. Only truly effective against weak foes, their high rate of fire lets you at least pretend to defend yourself against eldritch horrors.
Machine Guns (10 units per 1 wealth): Excellent antipersonnel weapons, machine guns are useful for mowing down hordes or pumping larger creatures full of lead. Either way, they are fairly effective weapons against all sorts of foes.
Grenade Launchers (1 unit per 1 wealth): Advanced grenade launchers can fire a variety of payloads against enemies. Useful against groups, armored enemies, buildings, and the occasional vehicle.
Anti-Tank Weapons (1 unit per 1 wealth, single-use): Ranging from advanced rocket-propelled grenades to smart missiles, sometimes you really want to throw subtlety out the window. Usable against tanks and things that take as much punishment as tanks, unless you want to face off some horrible demon spawn with just rifles, you might want to invest in a handful.
Powered Armor (10 wealth per 1 unit): Highly expensive, power armor only sees use in the militaries of first world countries. Acquiring one on the black market would be extremely difficult to attempt without good connections. However, its combination of mobility, protection, and ability to wield heavy firepower makes it a very desired device for any hunter.

Special Traits

Advanced Armory

Task Force NEMESIS has the ability to requisition highly experimental weapons and equipment to use against its foes. Although nowhere near as powerful as the gear others can use, NEMESIS has some of the most highly trained and motivated field agents in the business. Furthermore, its experimental weapons are often specifically targeted at supernatural threats, although their use of science as we know it weakens their combat usefulness.

Etheric Rounds
Cost: 1 Advanced Armory, 1 production for 100
Type: Single Use
Radiation-treated, Etheric Rounds emit dangerous levels of hard radiation shifted into a spectra that allows them to affect ethereal targets. Although they are still solid rounds, the soft silver-polonium alloy they use is not nearly as effective as dedicated military-grade ammunition against most non-ethereal foes.

Smart Gun
Cost: 5 Advanced Armory, 10 production for 1
Type: Multiple Use
Most modern military arms come with aim-assistance programs and devices. However, the Smartgun, designed to deal with enemies which are supernaturally fast and dextrous, takes that to an extreme by almost entirely cutting the human out of the loop. Instead of a trigger the Smartgun has a toggle, which if removed will allow it to automatically track and fire on any target that does not match a preprogrammed database of exceptions. It uses a variety of sensors-infrared, motion scanning, radar, and geiger, to ensure that it will fire when it's supposed to and not when it doesn't. However, against foes which may disguise themselves as humans with reasonable accuracy it will often refuse to fire, causing the death of its wielder.

Field agents have found a modification that removes the safety overrides, but in this case the Smartgun is literally a loose cannon, and will target and fire on just about anything in the frontal arc of the user. Field agents who are found using this modification are, at best, immediately transfered to noncombat duty. More often harsher consequences are inflicted.