[Icelander]

I want to provide a range of pre-generated characters that the players can pick among. Those who aren't picked will be NPCs, I guess.

I thought I'd start by identifying roles that need to be filled in a covert operations occult commando caper like this.

The group will need one or more social engineers that are absolutely convincing as native Germans and can preferably pass as officers of the SS stationed in Berlin. I'll have one Polish SOE operative who speaks perfect German and probably a French one too.

I'm going to offer at least German citizen, probably a college educated Jewish character who doubles as an occult expert as well. I'm thinking an assimilated one who was a professor of Germanic history, culture or something similar.

The team will need several experts in the occult, both ones with knowledge related to the McGuffin and ones with expertise in countering whatever the boffins at Maxwell Knight's section believe will be defending the McGuffin.

I think it would be cool to offer a female SOE agent who studied something usefully occult at Oxford before the war. Another idea is a British country from the commandos who happened to have a mother who was a village wise woman and who has a wealth of practical experience with an unpretentious but useful mystical tricks.

They'll need a communications expert and they'll probably need a transport specialist as well as someone with a great deal of expertise in facilitating entry into heavily defended tunnels. A mechanic or engineer who can fix most anything would be useful for the transport and a demolition expert seems like a good idea if you're not entirely sure that your local contact can provide keys to all the locked gates and portcullises of what might be an extremely secure underground tunnel system.

They'll need fighting men, as the traitor on the German side might be able to get them into a secret compound, but the odds are that the commando team must then seize the McGuffin from some fanatical SS troops or even worse opposition. I expect that most of the fighting men will be NPCs who meet up with the PCs for the last phase of the mission. Maybe a chalk of paratroopers or a section or two of British commandos.

I will offer some fighting men as PCs, as that sort of thing pleases players. Of course, most of the potential PCs will be good at commando stuff, but one or two of them might be good at nothing else, if any player wants to be entertainingly inept at the spy stuff and have to make some nail-biting rolls just to get away with a "Jawohl!" that doesn't blow their cover.

The roster might thus look something like this:

Team Leader: Educated, German-speaking English SOE officer from the upper classes. Will have experience of the secret occult aspects of the war. Skilled commando officer with a broad knowledge base in covert operations and occult secret warfare, if lacking the depth of expertise in each field possessed by dedicated specialists under his command.

Executive Officer: Jean-Marie Reynard. French SOE officer, an africain blanc or what would later come to be called pied-noir . Born in German Kamerun in 1911 and raised in French Cameroun by a French father and German mother. Ran away from home as a teenager, joined the Foreign Legion and fought in the last battles of the Moroccan War. Later became a smuggler, opium-trader and gunrunner to African tribes, complete with adventures in Abynissia in 1935. Former member of No. 10 Commando. Experience working with the Resistance and jumping with a Jedburgh team. In civilian life, an adventurer, gambler, ne'er-do-well and all-around romantic figure. Skilled social engineer, covert operative and saboteur.

Mission Specialist: German professor of something Volkisch, of Jewish extraction. Emigrated to the US or Britain around 1933. Expert on runes and occult Nordic stuff. Either works with Maxwell Knight's section of MI-5 or the R&A branch of OSS. Carries around useful items enchanted with runes, which in those rare areas where magic actually works will be powerful magical items.

Field Occultist: Female English SOE agent, educated at Oxford in something useful for occultism. Veteran of several missions behind enemy lines in France. Champion skeet shooter and equestrienne in her youth, skills which translated well to such wartime necessities as the use of the Sten gun and parachuting from low altitudes. Described by her admiring superior officer in the SOE as "a perfect English Rose, but you'll want to watch the thorns."

Radio Operator: Polish SOE agent, former member of the Cichociemni. Studied electrical engineering in Germany before the war, speaks perfect German. Intelligent, resourceful and adaptable. Extremely proficient in covert movement, infiltration and sentry removal.

Mechanic: Scottish member of No. 62 Commando. Grew up in Glasgow as a troubled and violent youth, ran away to sea at sixteen and eventually found work in the engine room of a steamer out of Hamburg, which he did from 1934-1939, ending up as second engineer. Joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and volunteered for the Royal Naval beach parties (later Royal Naval Commandos) in 1941.

Security: A Gurkha soldier with a gift for languages. Served on Cyprus when war broke out and has fought in the Middle East and Italy with the 1/2nd King Edward's Own Gurkha Rifles. Loves music, singing and statuesque women singing. Learned marvellous Italian from fading soprano running a tavern on Cyprus. Speaks some German, decent Greek and is capable of perfect English, though he prefers to speak with a thick Nepali accent.* Comes from a witch-finding family and has a marvellous facility to withstand supernatural influences. Also happens to be cheerfully murderous and utterly without fear.

*He claims that speaking English with an accent from the Indian subcontinent is clearly more correct than any British accent, based on descriptive linguistics and simple demographics.

Security: Garner Lane Hadley, a newly-minted American Marine Lieutenant (previously a Sergeant) who had never been outside of South Carolina when the war began, but because of some Top Secret prophecies is considered vital for this mission by the OSS. He's a preacher's son, evangelical Christian, nice, polite, somewhat naive in the ways of the world, but after four years of warfare in the Pacific, absolutely lethal in combat.

Does anyone have suggestions for fleshing those out? Any roles I missed?