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

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?