Mankind in its present state has been around for a quarter of a million years, yet only the last 4,000 have been of any significance. So, what did we do for nearly 250,000 years? We huddled in caves and around small fires, fearful of the things that we didn't understand. It was more than explaining why the sun came up, it was the mystery of enormous birds with heads of men and rocks that came to life. So we called them 'gods' and 'demons', begged them to spare us, and prayed for salvation.
In time, their numbers dwindled and ours rose. The world began to make more sense when there were fewer things to fear, yet the unexplained can never truly go away, as if the universe demands the absurd and impossible. Mankind must not go back to hiding in fear.
No one else will protect us, and we must stand up for ourselves. While the rest of mankind dwells in the light, we must stand in the darkness to fight it, contain it, and shield it from the eyes of the public, so that others may live in a sane and normal world.
We secure. We contain. We protect.
At least, that's what everyone was told in the old days. The SCP Foundation was responsible for safeguarding humanity from, and unveiling the nature of, countless anomalies in our universe. A few years back the Foundation collapsed, and all records and personnel were lost. Or so everyone thought. Two factions rose from the ashes simultaneously. As O5 Council Members of one of these factions, you have a number of responsibilities in regard to setting up operations as detailed below.
During your first phase you will vote on where your team will have their HQ set up. Each area offers it's own unique bonuses. You will have a number of nations with suitable locations to choose from. Your basic equipment at the start will be based on the regional weaponry, vehicles, and so forth. You will need to refer to this list later as most information contained is not yet explained:
United States: Provides a Maximum of 10 Field Agents, 10 Security Personnel, 3 Researchers, and 5 Class-D Personnel.
United Kingdom: Provides a Maximum of 10 Field Agents, 10 Security Personnel, 5 Researchers, and 3 Class-D Personnel.
Australia: Provides a Maximum of 5 Field Agents, 15 Security Personnel, 4 Researchers, and 4 Class-D Personnel.
Russia: Provides a Maximum of 15 Field Agents, 5 Security Personnel, 4 Researchers, and 4 Class-D Personnel.
You will also need to choose an official name for your new faction.
Once your base of operations is set up, you'll need to take stock of your employees.
This game runs on Four Resources in Two different Categories:
Unarmed Personnel are filled to their maximum every turn.
Researchers are required to perform experiments on anomalies in order to study and document them as thoroughly as possible. You spend Researchers to reroll the lowest dice on Experiment Progress Rolls.
Class-D Personnel are used to perform experiments on anomalies with minimal direct interaction with valuable personnel. They are often prisoners. You spend Class-D Personnel to roll a d6 for Experiment Progress.
Of note, if more Researchers are assigned to a single anomaly than Class-D Personnel the highest total roll is always used (Ex. If a 4 rerolls to a 1 it is treated as the 4).
Armed Personnel replenish at a base rate of +1 every turn up to their Max.
Field Agents are used to gather information on anomalies as well as capture them and bring them home. You assign missions to Field Agents during the Deployment Phase.
Security Personnel are used to protect facilities against threats both external and internal. You redistribute Security Personnel from your pool for every major facility you build.
You are encouraged to customize characters as well as fill in lore, stories, and events with your own submissions. While this won't have much of a mechanical effect, writing SCP-based stuff is hella fun, and I want to make sure youse know it's allowed.
As leaders of your faction you must also be aware of the proper protocols.
Each of the following Phases makes up a turn, which takes place over the course of a month in-game.
The first phase is the Information Phase. In it you receive updates on the world at large and assign Researchers and Class-D Personnel to anomalies for experimentation. You will need to come up with the outline for the experiments. You can, and hopefully will, have multiple experiments going on simultaneously. Experiments will progress via a d6 for every assigned Class-D Personnel. Keep in mind that rolling 1s during the Information Phase will result in Containment Breach[/b], though further details will be found below. Any anomaly not being experimented on rolls a single d6 and will suffer automatic Containment Breach on a 1. You can assign Class-Ds without dedicating Researchers to the project.
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The second phase is the Design Phase. You will receive the results of your experiments in this phase. You will be also able to purchase or develop new equipment for your Armed Personnel. You may attempt to utilize what has been learned from anomalies, or the anomalies themselves, if at all possible. Efficacy of designs will be based on my favorite 2d6 system, because it's insanely quirky in my sweaty palms.
The results of a Normal Design scale as below:
Utter Failure (2): Nothing is gained but the knowledge of how not to do it next time.
Buggy Mess (3): The design functions, just not too well at all. At least some experience is gained.
Poor (4): The design can be used without being a threat to anyone handling it. Still, it is far from reliable.
Below Average (5): It works, but there is clear room for improvement.
Average (6,7,8): The design functions as intended.
Above Average (9): The design works, and something about it works out better than expected.
Superior (10): It works much better than intended, and a lot is learned in related fields of research.
Masterwork (11): This is the perfect design.
Unexpected Boon (12): Development of this design goes so well that some sort of extra benefit is provided to the side building it.
The difficulty of the design modifies the roll for +4 (Simple), +3 (Trivial), +2 (Very Easy), +1 (Easy), 0 (Normal), -1 (Hard), -2 (Very Hard), -3 (Theoretical), -4 (Ludicrous), or -x (Impossible). Difficulty is based off of the ambition of the design as well as how experienced you are with similar concepts. Impossible designs will always fail, but they may still result in some sort of progress on a higher roll.
Each player is allowed to vote for a proposed design each phase, with the design with the largest number of votes being rolled for. On account of an unbreakable deadlock a coin will be flipped or proper-sided die rolled depending on the number of ties in order to randomly select an option. This will only happen as a last resort, and it is preferred that players attempt to persuade one another instead.
Armed Personnel will use the best equipment available for their assigned task. They're the best of the best, after all. You are also encouraged to build infrastructure in an attempt to expand the scope of your operations.
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The third phase is the Deployment Phase. This is when you assign a number of Field Agents to various goals. You can assign them to gather information on anomalies or capture or contain them. Lower numbers of agents are generally better for gathering information, and larger numbers for capture/containment, but that isn't always the case with these things.
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The fourth phase is the Action Phase. This is when the poor GM needs to summarize the combined effects of all your decisions throughout the turn and post them in your team threads. You just need to sit back and relax.
While we must focus on safeguarding humanity, we will have to occasionally deal with oppositional forces.
First and foremost the two teams are currently experiencing a rough patch in their relationship. The two sides will often fight tooth and nail when they cross paths, however it is not unheard of for agents to work together in the field either. Both sides will be able to discuss their relationship in this Core Thread, though if you're going to change your stance on them then it will need to be voted on during the Deployment Phase. You will not be permitted to share or transfer anomalies to one another, so keep that in mind if you cooperate in the field.
Depending on where anomalies are and their nature you may find yourself fighting some sort of local forces. As time goes on we will also need to keep an eye out for more remnants of the original Foundation springing up.
And finally we have general information on anomalies that you should know about.
The anomalies in this game will be GM-created to cut down on possible metagaming. Some may be influenced by preexisting anomalies in the SCP universe, however none are carbon copies.
When experimenting with the anomalies utilize the reports you received from the Information Phase to create initial experiments. An invisible number will be assigned to each experiment, with knowledge gained every turn based on the Experiment Rolls. You will be notified when you have no more knowledge to gain, and will need to come up with another guideline for a new experiment based on what you've learned (I'll emphasize possible threads as experiments progress). You do not need to worry about building the basic facilities needed to contain and study individual anomalies, however you can always build a specialized holding facility if you have an idea or reason to.
You can terminate anomalies, should they be capable of termination and you know what to do.
There are Three Classifications for anomalies based on the difficulty of containing them. Safe anomalies can be easily contained and dealt with. Euclid-class anomalies are unpredictable, misunderstood, or sentient/sapient, and so containment isn't necessarily reliable. Keter-class anomalies are extremely difficult to effectively contain due to their nature or will their to escape. Classification does not represent their threat level. For example, the Rugrats would most definitely be Keter Class. Anomaly classification will only be made clear to the faction when attempting containment procedures. When Experimenting on anomalies, any considered Safe will not experience a Containment Breach unless part of a larger issue. Euclid and Keter-Class anomalies will suffer Containment Breach if Two 1s are rolled for the same experiment during a single Information Phase. Euclid break-outs will rarely spread, however Keter-Class Containment Breaches can snowball unless hastily dealt with.
You can make designs for in-field use against specific anomalies, and depending on how effective they turn out to be they may greatly affect the outcome of containment operations. A design that can potentially be used against another anomaly will automatically see use elsewhere when appropriate. Once again, these are the best and brightest at work. However if you think an item can be used to aid in containment and want to ensure it's at least attempted then include it as part of your Deployment plans.
There is no actual scale for Threat Level. Instead, you will need to piece together reports in the Information Phase in order to guesstimate how dangerous an anomaly is.
Naming and titling anomalies is left up to you.
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The first turn will lump the Information and Design Phases together. Since you have no potential experiments available, you'll simply get info on current anomalous activities and need to vote on where you're based and what your name is.
Choose your faction and good luck. You're the best defense humanity has to offer.
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Topic: SCP: Containment Race (Core Thread) (Read 2362 times)