I originally came up with the idea for D13 several years ago, having read
a short-lived British
comic called "Shadowmen" and a perhaps more well-known American one, "The
Men in
Black". The idea of a sort of "uber-agency" intrigued me, and you see the
results here today.
CM’s should be wary of over-using D13. It’s best to keep them as a lurking
presence in the
background, encountered only as a series of unmarked black trucks pulling
into town as the
PC’s leave, as the occasional unmarked black helicopter, or reflected in
the wide eyes of a
terrified witness whose story has suddenly changed. Envoys who draw too
much attention to
themselves may have sudden and unpleasant encounters with agents from the
"IRS", or the
"FBI", whom no-one at either agency has ever heard of before. D13 is perfectly
capable of
putting all kinds of pressure on envoys through family, work or by other
means, and has the will
to do it. Fighting them is like fighting smoke, an unnerving experience
for envoys used to taking
on the forces of the Unknown.
D13 field agents can be constructed using the Secret Agent, Soldier/Veteran
or Law
Enforcement Officer profession templates, with average to high states.
On the rare occasions
when an envoy might encounter a psionically enhanced agent, use the Soldier
template, with the
addition of five the following Evil Way disciplines; Empathy, Telepathy,
Evil Eye, Change
Temperature, Feat of Strength, Haywire, Lightning Call, Raise Winds, Confuse,
Influence,
Steal Memory, Flight, Telekinesis, and White Heat (ignore the EWS requirement
for these -
the powers are artificial). Because of the draining nature of the implants,
the WPR cost of each
discipline is mirrored in STA (i.e., a discipline with a cost of 5 WPR
will also drain the agent of
5 STA).
I’ll include the stats for super-human agents in another posting, in which
I’ll reveal the source of
their enhancements and what they mean for SAVE. Further postings will include
details of the
Shadow Council and other covert organiations.
Depending on whether aliens exist in your game, you can have D13 employing
highly advanced
technology, derived from the crashed saucer or from other sources. Obviously,
they aren’t
going to run around toting alien blaster weapons, but CM’s should feel
free to equip agents
with highly sophisticated computers, medical equipment, cybernetic implants,
bugs etc.
Everything will be constructed of terrestrial materials, but will be on
the very bleeding edge of
modern super-science.
A final note; in my own campaign, D13 only appeared infrequently, though
every time they did
my players were freaked out by them. It became plain that SAVE only continued
to exist in
North America because D13 didn’t regard them as a threat. When they eventually
did act
against the agency, my players made damn sure they cleaned up afterwards.
Unless SAVE is
considerably different in your game, there’s no way the society could survive
in a war with
D13, and it’s important your players understand this, otherwise you might
find yourself having
to play the agency as dumb, significantly reducing their "threat" potential.
Have fun,
Doctor TOC