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Author Topic: The Organization - An SCP-influenced Management Game (Action Phase I)  (Read 8092 times)

Man of Paper

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The Organization - An SCP-influenced Management Game (Prelim. Research Phase)
« Reply #75 on: December 18, 2022, 10:06:07 pm »

Action Phase I: Quality of Quantities

There is a reason they say there is strength in numbers. Single specialists may have their uses, but not much can beat the benefits of extra eyes and hands. You know there is a time and a place for highly trained operatives, but there are plenty more times you'd rather not send someone somewhere alone in "normal" life, let alone the world we work in. You reach out to people with hands in the world of guns for hire and soon have dossiers on countless units active in combat zones in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America, as well as units who work site security or as bodyguards in less hostile environments across the globe. Finding teams to put together should be easy enough. Hell, you could probably hand-pick a personal army with the list of names at your disposal.

Not that there'd be any reason to do that.


Proposal: The G-Men
Result: 1

(GM Clarification: The results were finished before the votes were redistributed, and only delayed to get time to proofread. At the time of writing the votes were tied and the G-Men won the flip.)

The G-Men aren't quite what you expect when you think "government agent". The team consists of four older men with distinct methods of dress, including the oft-shirtless leader of the group, Mr. G.

Their "credentials" wouldn't pass any sort of scrutiny from just about anyone, and is often just used as flash to essentially brute force their way through conversation and interrogation by overwhelming the senses. The G-Men are confident if nothing else, and this usually manages to get them what they need to know or where they need to be. Subtlety however, that is never in the cards. The G-Men leave a lasting mark on anyone they come into contact with. Thanks to our resources we can keep them purged from any database, but there's no way to stop word from spreading organically.

The G-Men are fairly skilled at crime scene analysis, having been well-versed in their creation for the last decade or two, and are capable of piecing together evidence to tell a story fairly well. Unfortunately, again, they are not subtle, and have a slight tendency to damage more fragile evidence they try to investigate on their own.

As for their aptitude in a firefight, all four G-Men prefer to pop off with their Remington 870s and take out their opposition using overwhelming force (they're just generally overwhelming). There is, again, not a single drop of subtlety in their blood. I pity the fool who wants to challenge them in a firefight. Not necessarily because the G-Men are good, but because they really want to get paid and don't necessarily care about collateral damage. We don't know where they get them, but once the G-Men were brought on board we started finding crates of Mk3A2 Hand Grenades tucked away, well, everywhere. They get moved to the armory upon discovery.


----------------

Preliminary Research Phase

With everything ready to go, what is your true goal? The one you're hiding from The Organization, and maybe even yourself? The other facilities will choose at random from the options you do not pick.

A. Secure - Anomalies are dangerous and unpredictable, but also potentially wondrous. It is this facility's duty to gather and study as many of them as possible, and the first step toward that is finding them. Thanks to eyes and ears across the globe, additional information about anomalies is provided upon their initial discovery in order to speed up the process. The facility with this trait will see its field agents willing to cooperate with the faction with the Contain trait if they come across one another. This faction could be considered "Lawful Good".

B. Contain - We can't stop them all, but we can definitely do our best to keep the most harmful anomalies locked away. Additional information is gleaned from anomalies through standard research due to the push to ensure the worst of these things stay entombed, inert, or otherwise unable to harm humanity. The faster something can be written off as harmless and priorities directed to the next anomaly, the better. The facility with this trait will see its field agents willing to cooperate with the faction with the Secure trait if they come across one another. This faction could be considered "True Neutral".

C. Protect - Every anomaly could potentially end the world in the right (wrong?) circumstances. The best way to ensure humanity doesn't succumb to a global (or worse) extinction event is to destroy each and every one of them. Depending on the complexity of the anomaly, a number of theoretical means of disposal based on observations of witnesses and the retrieval team are added to the notes of the Anomaly upon successfully beginning the research process. This facility will view the other facilities as a threat to the future of the human species, but while they only view the Secure and Contain facilities as ignorant optimists that might need to be given a slap on the wrist, they will go out of their way to engage identified Dominate operatives and operations deployed in response to the same anomaly. This faction could be considered "Chaotic Neutral".

D. Dominate - What use is knowledge if it isn't applied? Muscle if it isn't flexed? Fear if it isn't utilized? Every anomaly could serve to improve your own standing among the titans that really run the world. Each anomaly will have a special trait that can be discovered through research outlining the effects it will have to benefit your operations (and potentially harm your foes). You are the bad guys. Nobody likes you. This faction is definitely considered "Pure Absolute Evil".


It is the Research Phase. Proposals for this phase can be as simple as "Investigate" or "Experiment with" whichever anomaly you choose among those you have under your control. Generic actions will usually yield something usable, but not necessarily useful, but by using what you learn through your experiences with anomalies you can put together more specific plans to seek out specific results. If an anomaly is meant to be of use, say if it was a fax machine that used an infinite supply of gold sheets, there is probably a specific action or set of actions that will get the best results from it, like using an Ohio area code for high-quality sheets. Mind you, not everything likes being manipulated, and very specific prodding is more likely to piss off whatever entities we are dealing with.

You can investigate the One-Note Flutes this phase, but as you are Boston you have the option to Burn this action instead of investigating those worthless plastic pieces of crap. This will leave you with Two Facility Actions next phase that you will be unable to burn. You can still feel free to try out some research proposals to get a feel for things even if you intend on burning the action.

TURNTURNTURN
Spoiler: Facility (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Equipment (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Units (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Anomalies (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Traits & Bonuses (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: December 18, 2022, 11:54:25 pm by Man of Paper »
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Egan_BW

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Set up a machine to play all of the recorders as one instrument. Have them play Free Bird.
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Not true, cannot be proven, true but misrepresented.

m1895

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I guess we have to examine the flutes better
The first step of testing is to use the flutes together to play music with symbolic value, beginning with relatively safe ones and, assuming nothing happens, moving on to cursed music, such as any ninth symphony and "Gloomy Sunday" by Rezso Seress (make sure important staff are wearing earplugs for that part.)
Next we will see about generating anomalous harmonics using a combination of the recorders, without trying to replicate any piece, and lastly we'll have the d-class interns play all the recorders simultaneously as loud as they can.
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Quarque

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Dunno if hiring new staff is allowed in any shape or form outside of the action phase, but canīt really do research without it.

Quote from: Experiment IV
A research project to find out what's really going on with the recorders. The Boston Storage Facility pays a number of electrical engineers with various background and people working in experimental physics a hefty sum to move over to a section of the HQ for a period of three months with a possible extension, on the condition they sign a 12-page Non Disclosure Document.

They get to experiment with the recorders, with the goal to answer questions such as:
  • Which part of the recorders is causing the behavior?
  • Is there anything special about the sounds, such as the shape of the sound waves?
  • Can this be explained with the known laws of physics? (i.e. is this just a red herring?)
  • Does the root cause of the behavior lead to new discoveries? And does that have practical applications?
The researchers are allowed to order any tools they need, provided it can be bought on a somewhat legal market.

Will add this to the votebox if the proposal is valid. In any case I think that Rockeater had a good point on Discord that roleplaying pure good/evil or "destroy all anomalies" sounds bland. Team Contain is morally ambiguous and has a potential ally.

Quote from: Votebox
Proposal

True Goal
Secure:
Contain: (1) Quarque
Protect:
Dominate:
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Egan_BW

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Quote from: Votebox
Proposal

True Goal
Secure:
Contain: (1) Quarque
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan

Hey, we all want to rule the world...
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Quarque

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So word is out that hiring some engineers is a valid research action.

Sorry I didn't add your things to the box - I figured you were joking around, but hey even so.  :)

Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (0)
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (1) Quarque

True Goal
Secure:
Contain: (1) Quarque
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan

(Experiment IV is a song from Kate Bush that describes the Boston Storage Facility with an eerie accuracy, especially if we do go Dominate)

edit: omg this version https://youtu.be/rpcUTWHlbvI
« Last Edit: December 19, 2022, 01:16:37 pm by Quarque »
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Kashyyk

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I'm gonna give a firm "meh" to the recorders. They ain't dangerous so let's not bother with them any more.

Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (0)
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (1) Quarque
Burn the Phase: (1) Kashyyk

True Goal
Secure:
Contain: (2) Quarque, Kashyyk
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan
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The_Two_Eternities

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I'm gonna give a firm "meh" to the recorders. They ain't dangerous so let's not bother with them any more.

I concur with this.

Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (0)
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (1) Quarque
Burn the Phase: (2) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities

True Goal
Secure:
Contain: (3) Quarque, Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan

And I'm voting for "Contain" because this quote sounds like an interesting mindset to operate with: "The faster something can be written off as harmless and priorities directed to the next anomaly, the better."
(Plus, we might get some !!FUN!! cascading containment breaches.)
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Egan_BW

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Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (1) Egan
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (1) Quarque
Burn the Phase: (2) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities

True Goal
Secure:
Contain: (3) Quarque, Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan
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ConscriptFive

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I genuinely like Experiment IV, but I don't see the pressing need to do it right now.  I say, burn this phase, use the bonus action next turn to build a super-max security vault and/or lab to handle these things appropriately.  (I really don't want to find out the hard way that they're the key to summoning Hastur from Carcosa through The King in Yellow.)

Goal-wise, flexibility means choices, and choices keep games interesting. B, Contain, keeps us flexible.  (We don't necessarily have to throw the ring in the volcano.  Think of all the good we could do with it.  We only need to hang onto it for alittle bit...)

Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (1) Egan
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (1) Quarque
Burn the Phase: (3) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive

True Goal
Secure:
Contain: (4) Quarque, Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan

Rockeater

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Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (1) Egan
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (2) Quarque, Rockeater
Burn the Phase: (3) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive

True Goal
Secure:(1) Rockeater
Contain: (4) Quarque, Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan
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Also, don't forget to contact your local Eldritch Being(s), so that they can help with our mission to destroy the universe.

Vivalas

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Huh, I had been dwelling on forum games ideas for a while and had one like this. Very neat. Belated PTW.
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Powder Miner

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Looking beyond the alignments that each ethos is attached to, I had a thought today - I think the Secure ethos actually dovetails the most interestingly with the game format. If the goal of the faction is to build the world up to a better place using anomalous research, then the "build up technology design by design into a cohesive whole" nature of the Arms Race format allows this to be realized in detail. The Contain ethos isn't super new ground to be treading; it's the fundamental drive to remain at the status quo that is behind, well, SCP itself, but more importantly as it is a drive to remain at the status quo re: anomalous activity, it lacks that long-term interaction with the format.

(Also, I want to maybe try something with synesthesia re: the flutes, but a little bit of wait and see seems fine first with... current events.)

Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (1) Egan
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (2) Quarque, Rockeater
Burn the Phase: (4) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive, Powder Miner

True Goal
Secure: (2) Rockeater, Powder Miner
Contain: (4) Quarque, Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan
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Quarque

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Right.. this would actually be an interesting thing to try. Also ballsy, I think it is the most likely goal to fail out of the four.  8)
Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (1) Egan
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (2) Quarque, Rockeater
Burn the Phase: (4) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive, Powder Miner

True Goal
Secure: (3) Rockeater, Powder Miner, Quarque
Contain: (3) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan
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m1895

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Second most likely, Dominate has everyone hate us and the G-men mean they know where we live. (But at least this one seems theoretically winnable)
Quote from: Votebox
Proposal
Play Free Bird: (1) Egan
Examine the flutes better: (0)
Experiment IV: (2) Quarque, Rockeater
Burn the Phase: (4) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive, Powder Miner

True Goal
Secure: (4) Rockeater, Powder Miner, Quarque, m1895
Contain: (3) Kashyyk, The_Two_Eternities, ConscriptFive
Protect:
Dominate: (1) Egan
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