My D20 Modern Campaign

[Captain Boff]

OK I have already posted about this campaign on the wizards boards, if you want to check it out then feel free, just go here

Now to the point. I just thought I'd post a bit about it here to get your feedback.

The campaign is going to take place in the near future anywhere from tomorrow to 2012. The players want to be Spies and Assassins, but at the same time they want to be mercenaries coming from many different nations and backgrounds and hiring themselves out to whatever side pays the most. Any espionage setting has confusing opposition in which you often may find that the enemy is in fact your own organization. This setting however is really bugging me as I cannot come up with any solid opposition... one day they work for the Ukrainians in petty squabbles with Russia, petty squabbles that result in bloodshed but what are a few dead politicians eh? the next they are stealing documents on new supercavitating Shkval torpedoes from a Russian Naval base for NATO, and on yet another mission they infiltrate rural China after discovering that a rogue faction of the Chinese military is about to sell a Nuclear weapon on the Afghani border.

I don't really have a question although any suggestions, ideas, or whatever would be greatly appreciated. I'm just sort of venting my frustration at how confused an inable to work out a reasonable plot and main opposition to connect the many missions that I have already conceptualized... If anyone has any words of wisdom, or suggestions on how to make this work that'd be awesome and I'd very much appreciate it. Anyways thanks in advance and sorry for the rambled structure of this post.

 

[Fate Lawson]

So, they want to be "mercenary spies"? Or is it they don't want to work for any one government, allowing them to have characters from various nations?

Well, perhaps they work for the Illuminati?

 

[Captain Boff]

They want to be mercenary spies yes, they want characters from various nations yes. what are the Illuminati?

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

Steal UNATCO from Deus Ex

Or use the second run Top Secret organization.

Not that hard.

 

[Fate Lawson]

They want to be mercenary spies yes, they want characters from various nations yes. what are the Illuminati?

According to some, the Secret Society (or societies) that are working behind the scenes to bring about the New World Order.

To quote from Robert Anton Wilson's book The Cosmic Trigger

Briefly, the background of the Bavarian Illuminati puzzle is this. On May 1, 1776, in Bavaria, Dr. Adam Weishaupt, a professor of Canon Law at Ingolstadt University and a former Jesuit, formed a secret society called the Order of the Illuminati within the existing Masonic lodges of Germany. Since Masonry is itself a secret society, the Illuminati was a secret society within a secret society, a mystery inside a mystery, so to say. In 1785 the Illuminati were suppressed by the Bavarian government for allegedly plotting to overthrow all the kings in Europe and the Pope to boot. This much is generally agreed upon by all historians. 1 Everything else is a matter of heated, and sometimes fetid, controversy.

It has been claimed that Dr. Weishaupt was an atheist, a Cabalistic magician, a rationalist, a mystic; a democrat, a socialist, an anarchist, a fascist; a Machiavellian amoralist, an alchemist, a totalitarian and an "enthusiastic philanthropist." (The last was the verdict of Thomas Jefferson, by the way.) The Illuminati have also been credited with managing the French and American revolutions behind the scenes, taking over the world, being the brains behind Communism, continuing underground up to the 1970s, secretly worshipping the Devil, and mopery with intent to gawk. Some claim that Weishaupt didn't even invent the Illuminati, but only revived it. The Order of Illuminati has been traced back to the Knights Templar, to the Greek and Gnostic initiatory cults, to Egypt, even to Atlantis. The one safe generalization one can make is that Weishaupt's intent to maintain secrecy has worked; no two students of Illuminology have ever agreed totally about what the "inner secret" or purpose of the Order actually was (or is . . .). There is endless room for spooky speculation, and for pedantic paranoia, once one really gets into the literature of the subject; and there has been a wave of sensational "ex-poses" of the Illuminati every generation since 1776. If you were to believe all this sensational literature, the damned Bavarian conspirators were responsible for everything wrong with the world, including the energy crises and the fact that you can't even get a plumber on weekends. (pp. 3-4)

 

[Captain Boff]

"Or use the second run Top Secret organization" -Warlord Ralts

What?

 

[The Shaman]

I get the sense you're looking for some sort of Big Bad that will be a recurring source of conflict with your group, rather than a series of isolated, disconnected missions. If that's the case, then my first thought is simply a rival private military company: the two are competing for the same contracts, perhaps serving on opposite sides in a conflict, their respective leaders were once comrades but are now estranged, and so on.

Here's how something like this could play out: Your players' company is hired to protect the assets of a multinational company in a third-world country – could be something like banana plantations, an oil pipeline and refinery, a uranium mine, or the like. The country is in the grip of a revolution, with government forces fighting rebels in and around the mercs' employers' assets. The war has created a refugee crisis, and UN peacekeepers have stepped in and occupied one of the towns to manage the displaced persons. The rival private military company could be contracted as advisors to the military, or to the rebels, or simply working for another corporation with interests in the company – in any case, they want to make the players' company look bad, incompetent, unable to do its job...

So now you have:

• The player characters' private military corporation, contracted to do a job
• The government forces, which are split into a couple of different factions jockeying for control
• The pro-government paramilitaries, who have their own agenda that may not be in complete harmony with the government's
• The insurgents, also split into competing factions
• The refugees, looking for safety amid the chaos
• The UN peacekeepers, trying to establish a safe haven
• The multi-national corporation employing the mercs, which has employees and material resources to protect and a profit margin to maintain
• A rival multi-national corporation that may want to see mercs fail so that its competitor is ruined
• the rival private military corporation

Now add complications, like employees of the multi-national with family members caught up among the refugees, or the rebels, or the paramilitaries; a neighboring country that is aiding the rebels across a porous border; corrupt government officials; international arms merchants selling to the government, the paramilitaries, the insurgents, and the mercs; international aid organizations like the Red Cross and MSF; and foreign diplomats on "fact-finding tours" or negotiating the release of kidnapped persons.

For adventure settings you have cities, towns, and villages; wild backcountry areas of mountains, jungles, or deserts; the plantations, mines, refinery, or what-have-you of the multi-nationals; the refugee camps and the UN-controlled town; military bases and rebel camps; jails and prisons; transportation facilities (ports, airports, train stations, roads), military bases and rebel camps; and mansion-compounds of the government leaders.

Think you might be able to squeeze a couple of adventures out of that?

 

[Captain Boff]

Shaman, that is exactly what I want to do... but my players don't really want to operate in warzones - they've told me that they want to operate in cities waging an almost invisible war rather that a quite open one. One of the players wants to be a martial artist which does not fit into the middle of a warzone with .50 cal MG's, RPG's, and T80's... having hand to hand skills in adition to your weapon skills yeah but taking the martial artist advanced class? My second player wants to be a Russian Sniper who can fly a helicopter... fits fine, my third wants to be a medic... fits fine, my fourth wants to be an ex-Marine... fits great, my fifth is undecided.

 

[ragboy]

Taking Shaman's scenario, you can 'quiet it down' and have those assets that need protecting/stealing in a government or corporate think tank/research facilities. The recurring bad guys could be the guys that are protecting/stealing the assets your group is stealing/protecting. Eventually, you can throw a twist on it and have both groups working for the same umbrella org, or something equally as "Alias."

Some media for inspiration:

Alias
Spy Game - movie
Dogs of War, Day of the Jackal, The Deceiver - Forsyth books
Lots more...

Also, you can check out the Blood and Guts series. Lots of inspiration there from their War on Terror series.

 

[GMSkarka]

Adamant Entertainment presented a privately-run espionage organization (AEGIS: Agency for Emergency Global Intelligence and Security)in the 50th issue of Modern Dispatch that we did a couple of months back (click on the cover for more info):