Ideas for a New long-term Campaign

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Varyon

. . . does this whole "campaign premise revolving around a strong female GMPC" thing remind anyone else of some previous threads?

I noticed, but there are some differences in the behaviour.

[Cheeseball]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Just, uh, throwing this out there, but does this whole "campaign premise revolving around a strong female GMPC" thing remind anyone else of some previous threads?

This character could be a man, but after playing Rainbow Six it seemed to me that a woman would have more advantages when it comes to espionage, precisely because of her Appearance (Beautiful) and her Sex Appeal. The campaign doesn't revolve around this character, but I need a "Boss" for each team. Linked threads are Sci-Fi. I would prefer a more down to earth character.

Originally Posted by newton

oh no, i’m suggesting she’d still have an “enemy” and that would be whoever is spearheading the operation. hell she might not even be in charge of either group of pc’s and instead have an senior counterintelligence agent be the one who gives missions.

Hey, that's a good idea. And what characteristics could that character have?

Originally Posted by newton

on the prominence front, I think whilst she’d be a lot more important, having her loyalty put into question makes her less of a little less of a deus ex machina and more a piece in a larger game. plus the pcs could mess up the operation for either side forcing a change in tactics or target.

And how would that be managed if there are several teams facing each other? What I mean is that right now she's working for the FBI, which basically investigates criminals. There are various teams of criminals, and others made up of detectives, patrol officers, forensic technicians, etc. I can't think of how to collaborate with both at the same time (with this character as it is right now).

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

You're right, I can add the Secret disadvantage to her. She has been deployed during her career to Chechnya, Colombia, Iraq, Japan, Niger, and Taiwan. The FBI assigned her to Los Angeles.

Just a suggestion, look into Code of Honor (Soldier).

[Cheeseball]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Just a suggestion, look into Code of Honor (Soldier).

I have a problem with that disadvantage, because it openly states "follow orders". I don't want her to always follow orders. Do you know if the Body Language skill existed in 3rd edition or was added in 4th?

I find it weird that SWAT officers have this Skill, but Spec Ops don't. It seems quite useful to assess the degree of threat posed by an adversary, and thus take down the most dangerous first.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Varyon

... does this whole "campaign premise revolving around a strong female GMPC" thing remind anyone else of some previous threads?

Yes. Majorly.

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

Do you know if the Body Language skill existed in 3rd edition or was added in 4th?

I find it weird that SWAT officers have this Skill, but Spec Ops don't. It seems quite useful to assess the degree of threat posed by an adversary, and thus take down the most dangerous first.

Nothing says they can't have it. The maker of the template simply didn't assume it was inherent.

[Cheeseball]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Yes. Majorly.



Nothing says they can't have it. The maker of the template simply didn't assume it was inherent.

I think you're right. Also I just documented myself about it, and it seems that at least the Navy SEALs do learn body language. I think I'll add it to the templates with the same score as Observation.

[Purple Snit]

I'm in the camp of "why are we spending so much time discussing the minutiae of one overly-special Action Movie GMPC that shouldn't be the entire focus of a campaign anyway?"
You tell us there will be multiple players in this "long-term campaign", who can apparently play whatever they want, and the thread originally asked us to come up with an antagonist for the GMPC (only), not for the campaign as a whole.
Perhaps we all need some clarification as to the goal here? If you want an antagonist for the campaign, just flip your GMPC stats and add a different name, and you have instant "bad guy"; the players never see the GM's stats and sheets, and will never know 90% of the details of any NPC the GM creates anyway. And now you have an enemy for your GMPC. But how does that involve the all of the players, who should be the focus of the game? And what's the plan for storylines that can involve everything from ex-terrorists to cops to gang members?

[newton]

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

This character could be a man, but after playing Rainbow Six it seemed to me that a woman would have more advantages when it comes to espionage, precisely because of her Appearance (Beautiful) and her Sex Appeal. The campaign doesn't revolve around this character, but I need a "Boss" for each team. Linked threads are Sci-Fi. I would prefer a more down to earth character.



Hey, that's a good idea. And what characteristics could that character have?



And how would that be managed if there are several teams facing each other? What I mean is that right now she's working for the FBI, which basically investigates criminals. There are various teams of criminals, and others made up of detectives, patrol officers, forensic technicians, etc. I can't think of how to collaborate with both at the same time (with this character as it is right now).

So here's what i'm thinking: It's not the cold war anymore, the advent of the internet has drastically changed the way that espionage is performed and motivated. Think of cases like edward snowden, stuxnet or all the talk about russian hackers over the years.

For the counterintelligence agent on the side of the united states, likely a CIA agent, you'd probably want a few things. I'd imagine that an ideal character here would be someone whose not too hot with field work but pretty good at using the intelligence the players gather. You'd want to mix in knowledge skills here with a sampling of social skills. Maybe look at the practice of Sociometry for inspiration. Honestly I'd throw in some pretty distinguishing disadvantages like for instance Appearance(Unattractive), Sense of Duty(The United States), and Bad Temper. A particularly good choice would be making them significantly older than the pc's.

Intelligence on the other hand probably works best with someone whose very good at hiding behind the anonymity afforded by the internet. They should be able to manage a web of contacts through this and whenever possible utilize middlemen to avoid being caught. Hell the pc's on their side might not even know what they look like. They'd of course need a strong skillset here mixing both technical skills with social skills. With the right training they could also double as a realistic hacker, It's much easier to fool the authorized users of a system than the system itself.

Major Kennedy doesn't need to really collaborate with both at the same time. She could perform her duty in fighting against criminal organizations during work hours but outside those hours meet up with foreign agents under the pretense of doing something else.

If this is intriguing to you maybe check out social engineering, it's a pretty good read if you're not very social in real life.

Edit: also I'd like to point out that sex appeal works for men it just primarily applies to women(and on gay/bi men but you'd have to know beforehand y'know) hell James Bond uses that strategy all the time.

[newton]

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

I have a problem with that disadvantage, because it openly states "follow orders". I don't want her to always follow orders. Do you know if the Body Language skill existed in 3rd edition or was added in 4th?

I find it weird that SWAT officers have this Skill, but Spec Ops don't. It seems quite useful to assess the degree of threat posed by an adversary, and thus take down the most dangerous first.

Spec Ops usually have the ability to "shoot first ask questions later" because they're soldiers not cops. The time it would take to make that judgement is time that could likely be better spent putting bullets into those targets.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Just, uh, throwing this out there, but does this whole "campaign premise revolving around a strong female GMPC" thing remind anyone else of some previous threads?

Definitely yes. I'm just enjoying my popcorn in the stands...