[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Security Clearance

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by thrash

Note that the examples below pretty much all contradict this. It's hard to see how one could be an effective submarine officer or design engineer, or an intelligence agency desk officer, without knowing those secrets.

I'm inclined to agree. As distinct from that cipher clerk, who could do the job of decrypting/encrypting and relaying even if they didn't speak English; they gain access to the knowledge as a consequence of the job, but having the knowledge is not necessary for them to do the job.

Originally Posted by thrash

If you are denied a Security Clearance based on the contents of a Secret, it's arguably not secret any more. Losing an existing Clearance might be a consequence of having a Secret exposed, however -- or not, if the potential for blackmail is gone, too. Having an intact Secret might also be a reason to avoid undergoing a background investigation in the first place.

While I agree with your general point, I can picture a clearance being denied on the basis that "there's something dodgy about him, we don't know what, but we have plenty of people to choose from for this job". In effect, we think there's a Secret but we don't know what it is.

Originally Posted by thrash

What are the (game mechanical) consequences of not having the same level of Security Clearance as the rest of your party? Being (say) the Russian intelligence liaison in a NATO team tracking a world-threatening supervillain, or the civilian specialist called in to assist a group of special operators for this one mission. It's effectively a disadvantage.

In every group I've played in, the information would be shared among the party anyway, unless the game were about secrets - e.g. something like Cold City or Paranoia.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by thrash

On the other hand, this is not magic: you have to get caught by someone who will inform the proper authorities, and they have to act on that information.

I like the idea of a variant that is supernatural; You could take Cosmic +50% for information a literal god shared with you for your job for the church. You have access to information mortals can't get without divine intervention. And if you try to share it, you might immediately lose Security Clearance and get muted temporarily (adding Divine -10%).

Originally Posted by johndallman

I think the fair way to play it is to charge for it when some PCs have access to secret information, and others don't.

I feel like expanding it slightly to this seems like the easiest way to look at it. You're basically paying points for information that is normally hard and intended to be impossible to get.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by thrash

If they don't have the job, they shouldn't have the clearance -- that's what "need to know" means. .

Thomas Magnum used to work for Naval Intelligence. He leaves ONI but he actually still has his security clearance. What he doesn't keep is his need to know. What he doesn't lose is all that classified information from back in the day that he can still remember. Stuff he could go to prison for revealing. It will grow increasingly stale of course but in fact there were several occasions where his history mattered because for example he knew what a certain foreign agent looked like. And conceivably at any moment the Navy could reactivate him or some other covert agency might decide he was somehow useful to a current situation and read him in temporarily. Of course that's a mixed blessing.

[Refplace]

This post was inspired by this thread and some stuff in a current game I am in.
My latest entry is a new advantage "Privilege" that merges several current advantages into one. It is part of my Alt GURPS or GURPS 5e series.
https://refplace.blogspot.com/2023/0...advantage.html

[thrash]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Thomas Magnum used to work for Naval Intelligence. He leaves ONI but he actually still has his security clearance.

Technically, no, he wouldn't. It would normally be inactivated as a matter of course when he left the service. It would be relatively trivial to reactivate it, if necessary and until the renewal period for the special background investigation comes up, but that would again depend on "need to know" -- intelligence analyst at a DOD-contracted consulting firm, yes; private investigator, not so much. (Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the fiction ignores such niceties...)

What he doesn't lose is all that classified information from back in the day that he can still remember. Stuff he could go to prison for revealing.

This is what I mean about a "Formerly Cleared" advantage, possibly modeled on Courtesy Rank.

[dcarson]

It also can make for a nice plot hook. You had clearance recently enough that it is easy to reactivate and this event looks like it involves something you dealt with. So here is a consulting job to get your input on it. Like most presidents retain clearance because there is stuff they dealt with that you might want to ask their opinion on. Which means telling them the current situation.

[The Colonel]

The famous example, now public domain, being BIGOT level clearance in WW2*, which was fairly widespread but tightly controlled despite that - to the extent, in fact that George VI was prevented from entering a comms room on a Battleship that he was visiting because he lacked BIGOT clearance.

There were also things like ULTRA - essentially clearance to know that the allies had decryption access to the German ENIGMA codes.

Arguably neither clearance would be likely to be that close to the front (with the possibly exception of some senior naval officers), but looking for BIGOT-ed general shot down in transit between the Med and Europe might well be a think. Come to think of it, anyone ULTRA aware might be in the same category.

*For those keeping score BIGOT controlled access to the planning for OVERLORD.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by dcarson

It also can make for a nice plot hook. You had clearance recently enough that it is easy to reactivate and this event looks like it involves something you dealt with. So here is a consulting job to get your input on it.

Or not so recently, if the required expertise is specialized enough. My father-in-law was reactivated for Desert Shield almost twenty years after he retired* because he was literally the cartographer who drew all the maps for that part of Saudi Arabia and Iraq -- you could find his initials if you knew where to look.

I could imagine a similar situation with classified knowledge -- the only person associated with Project Blue Book (the real one, not the cover story) that is still alive, say. Reactivating someone quickly after so many years gets into the realm of interim clearances (which I don't think the mechanics address) and executive grants.


* He was essentially dying from emphysema at the time, and so not fit for duty. Much to my surprise, the Army didn't say, "Oh, never mind," and simply cancel his orders. They medically retired him with 100% disability twenty-four hours after calling him up. It restored my faith in the system, at least a little bit, which is why I tell the full story when it comes up.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Arguably neither clearance would be likely to be that close to the front (with the possibly exception of some senior naval officers), but looking for BIGOT-ed general shot down in transit between the Med and Europe might well be a think. Come to think of it, anyone ULTRA aware might be in the same category.

One of the reasons the players in my WWII game resisted their characters finding out about Bletchley Park was the knowledge that, with ULTRA clearance, they would not be allowed out of the UK (and missions into Germany and other places were a substantial part of their job).

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Refplace

That Need to Know requirement means if you don't need it to do your job you should not have the information. I had a Top Secret upgrade for one meeting for example. No new investigation or anything (as far as I know), a senior NCO just called me in for a meeting where certain things were discussed.

Consider that this might have been a function of a small Reputation on your part (+1, "Reliable," Immediate superiors (Small Group), All the Time). Effectively, the senior NCO was betting his career that you were actually worthy of Top Secret clearance.