[IW] ISWAT "NCIS" (or CSI-type) roles and characters....

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Brett

Well, you wouldn't be playing a game that was confined to Homeline, so I suppose that most investigations will take place on various otherworlds. Your investigators are not going to have any genuine enforceable police powers in most of their investigations, they aren't going to be able to get or serve warrants, they aren't going to be able to call in patrol officers or SWAT, issue BOLOs, search databases, or identify fingerprints. They'll find it very difficult to take suspects in and question tem in interview rooms. And they will only be able to conduct routine police investigations (interviewing witnesses, canvassing neighbourhoods, sealing and examining crime scenes etc.) using fraudulent credentials. Which would be risky.

I guess they might be okay on worlds that don't have their own police. And as the examples of Vidocq and Henry Fielding show, a little method goes a long way when criminals aren't prepared for it.

But in most cases, the characters are going to be private non-citizens, with no authority, without even legal residency, nosing around crime-scenes and witnesses with no reasonable account of themselves and no explanation for where they got a stack of sophisticated investigating equipment.

It'll be nothing like NCIS. More like PIs or spies.

I suspect Temporal Inertial will allow one to avoid at least part of these problems. Especially when coupled with Ally (Local Double).

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by Brett

Well, you wouldn't be playing a game that was confined to Homeline, so I suppose that most investigations will take place on various otherworlds. Your investigators are not going to have any genuine enforceable police powers in most of their investigations, they aren't going to be able to get or serve warrants, they aren't going to be able to call in patrol officers or SWAT, issue BOLOs, search databases, or identify fingerprints. They'll find it very difficult to take suspects in and question tem in interview rooms. And they will only be able to conduct routine police investigations (interviewing witnesses, canvassing neighbourhoods, sealing and examining crime scenes etc.) using fraudulent credentials. Which would be risky.

I guess they might be okay on worlds that don't have their own police. And as the examples of Vidocq and Henry Fielding show, a little method goes a long way when criminals aren't prepared for it.

But in most cases, the characters are going to be private non-citizens, with no authority, without even legal residency, nosing around crime-scenes and witnesses with no reasonable account of themselves and no explanation for where they got a stack of sophisticated investigating equipment.

It'll be nothing like NCIS. More like PIs or spies.

If they were on a world with a powerful White Star trading presence they might be set up with waterproof identities and hired out to Law Enforcement as consultants.

In answer to the OPs question, everyone could be a generalist in terms of surviving on foreign parallels (survival, combat skills, history, languages, etc...) with:
a specialist in Forensics and examining physical evidence,
a Medical Examiner type that may overlap with the forensic specialist and double as the team medic,
a Face man good at manipulating people and unobtrusively interviewing suspects,
an infiltrator who can use stealth to steal evidence from local authorities,
and a researcher who is good at getting information from computers, libraries, newspaper archives, and other public available information sources.

This is a wild example of an effective investigative team, the possible combinations are nearly limitless. I'd just sit the players down and say, let's work together on character creation, everyone should have a unique niche that will be useful in criminal investigations and everyone's niche should be different. See what they come up with and build your mysteries around their strengths. If someone has trouble coming up with something, make a suggestion from the list above.

[Xenarthral]

Originally Posted by Exxar

I'm not talking about SWAT, I'm talking about ISWAT and the only relation they have to SWAT is that they're extremely capable. Just as you say at the end of your post, those people solve stuff that's baffling for TL8 experts. Detectives and forensic technicians won't turn up squat if for example Van Zandt's lifeless body were found in his bed without any signs of violence or other physical evidence because a Cabalist snatched away his soul.

That's what you call ISWAT in for.

I was pondering which term to use, as regardless of which non-investigative
group it would likely be met by "ISWAT is not X".
And it IS short for Interworld Special Weapons and Tactics.

You don't call in ISWAT because Homeline science finds no traces, evidence
or explanations (if you did, what do you use the rest of Infinity for?) - unless
you assume that only ISWAT gets psychics, mages and outtimers with
interesting skills. (Infinite Worlds is unclear on the issue, but since it appears
to be the normal I-cops and scouts who normally handle cabalists, zombie
plagues and whatever banestorms and gates dump on worlds where Nexus
Oversight hang around it seems reasonable to assume that they have other
options than immediately calling in ISWAT when magic or psionics show up, or
when science doesn't.)
You don't call in ISWAT because some cabalist soul jar-ed someone - that's
business as usual even though it's possible that all the mages capable of
easily fixing that are in ISWAT (so you call them in at that point).
You call in ISWAT when hostage rescues means giving a Great Old One an
unasked-for astral stomach-pumping. And at that point it is no longer an
investigation.

Of course, I tend to start with the assumptions that "Infinity personnel as a
whole is extremely capable" and that ISWAT, being even more capable, deal
with toppling Dark Lords, stopping full-scale parachronic invasions, putting
Elder Gods back to sleep and similar Crises.

[Nymdok]

For Charachterization, I love this link

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CastCalculus

Im not too familiar with infinite worlds, but What you'll need could largely be filled by the Archetypes laid out in ACTION 1.

I would suggest

Wire Rat/Hacker (digs in and pulls out data)
Faceman/Investigator (Talks to people and gets data)
Shooter (Or melee Heavy)/Demolitions (Kills people and blows stuff up)

For a 3 person group.

from there you could divide the duties or add

Wheelman/Medic
Assasin/Cleaner

Doing a direct mapping from the show is different as they often display whatever skills and knowledge the writers need for that episode.

Nymdok

[Qoltar]

Nymdok,

My player group will be 4 to 5 players.
Three women and one guy.


- Ed

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Nymdok,

My player group will be 4 to 5 players.
Three women and one guy.


- Ed

There are plenty of female and male examples of these in tv/movies as they stand.

Females
Hacker/Wire Rat - The blond lady from criminal Minds
Faceman/Investigator - The blond from CSI Miami
Medic/Investigator - Khandi Alexander from CSI Miami (Cant remember her characters name) or that Red HEad from the X-Files.

I must admit that I only catch the shows peripherally while Wyfdok watches them so Im sure Im missing alot.

Nymdok

[Exxar]

Originally Posted by Xenarthral

I was pondering which term to use, as regardless of which non-investigative
group it would likely be met by "ISWAT is not X".
And it IS short for Interworld Special Weapons and Tactics.

You don't call in ISWAT because Homeline science finds no traces, evidence
or explanations (if you did, what do you use the rest of Infinity for?) - unless
you assume that only ISWAT gets psychics, mages and outtimers with
interesting skills. (Infinite Worlds is unclear on the issue, but since it appears
to be the normal I-cops and scouts who normally handle cabalists, zombie
plagues and whatever banestorms and gates dump on worlds where Nexus
Oversight hang around it seems reasonable to assume that they have other
options than immediately calling in ISWAT when magic or psionics show up, or
when science doesn't.)
You don't call in ISWAT because some cabalist soul jar-ed someone - that's
business as usual even though it's possible that all the mages capable of
easily fixing that are in ISWAT (so you call them in at that point).
You call in ISWAT when hostage rescues means giving a Great Old One an
unasked-for astral stomach-pumping. And at that point it is no longer an
investigation.

Of course, I tend to start with the assumptions that "Infinity personnel as a
whole is extremely capable" and that ISWAT, being even more capable, deal
with toppling Dark Lords, stopping full-scale parachronic invasions, putting
Elder Gods back to sleep and similar Crises.

You have a point there. I had a bit too mundane image of standard Infinity agents while thinking about this.


Qoltar, here's another possibility:

investigator/cleaner
faceman/infiltrator
fighter/wheelman
techie/scientist
occultist/medic

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Exxar

I'm not talking about SWAT, I'm talking about ISWAT and the only relation they have to SWAT is that they're extremely capable. Just as you say at the end of your post, those people solve stuff that's baffling for TL8 experts. Detectives and forensic technicians won't turn up squat if for example Van Zandt's lifeless body were found in his bed without any signs of violence or other physical evidence because a Cabalist snatched away his soul.

That's what you call ISWAT in for.

Even then you'd have the investigation team operative and largely in the lead except for assaults on the Cabal cell responsible.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Molokh

I suspect Temporal Inertial will allow one to avoid at least part of these problems. Especially when coupled with Ally (Local Double).

That gets them the ability to function as police detectives on maybe one alternate. Which is hardly playing Infinite Worlds, is it?

[Captain-Captain]

Be afraid: Iswat Homicide is led by Inspector John (Hanibal) Smith...