John Crichton said:
Man, character generation takes longer than usual when I'm not accustomed to the system! Mind you, a big part of that is writing backgrounds and finding photos.
You are elite investigators combating the plots of the Esoterrorists, a loose affiliation of occult terrorists intent on tearing the fabric of the world and letting the monsters in.
Here's info on the Ordo Veritatis, to which each of the PCs belong:
[sblock=The OV]
What is the Ordo Veritatis, and who are its members?
History
The exact origins of the Ordo Veritatis are unknown to all but its most senior members. Field agents know that it arose in response to the nascent Esoterror movement, and that its activities have on several occasions prevented them from decisively piercing the protective barrier between the natural and the supernatural.
Structure
The OV, as insiders call it, is organized in a cell structure, to limit the potential damage of Esoterrorist infiltration. Members typically perform investigations under assumed identities, which last for only the duration of a single case. Mistakes in maintaining cover can lead to disaster: Esoterrorists love nothing better than to send assassins and creatures to torture and kill investigators’ families and friends. Teams stick together and rarely meet their peers. New teammates are shuffled in as old ones are killed. Rookies may be entirely new to the OV, or transferred out of defunct teams. Briefings are conducted on site by high-ranking operatives, many of them ex-investigators. They invariably introduce themselves as Mr. (or Ms.) Verity.
Sweeper Teams
Investigators are fact-finders first and enforcers of the unwritten laws of civilization second. Once they’ve determined the dimensions of an Esoterror plot, identifying its principals and their bases of operation, they can step aside and call for back up. When the perpetrators are easily taken down, the team may perform mop-up duties on its own. In the case of large concentrations of enemies or supernatural creatures, they instead call in Ordo Veritatis sweeper teams. These heavily armed paramilitary units perform the necessary killing, destroying, and burning, while the team heads back to a rendezvous point for debriefing. Efficient and overwhelming force is a hallmark of a Sweeper Team operation.
[/sblock]
And here's some background on the Esoterrorists themselves.
[sblock=Enemies]The Esoterrorists and their Unremitting Horrors
History
The Esoterrorists comprise a fast-growing international conspiracy drawing from all walks of life. Conspirators range from Washington power brokers to backwoods cannibals. When they started out, they were able to influence people only through suggestion. They practiced rituals but their evocations were limited to persuasive parlor tricks.
Esoterror today
Their generation-spanning plans for global control only began to come to fruition in the 1990s, at the end of the cold war. As old power arrangements shattered, Esoterrorist agents stepped in to fill the gap. Their ritualists feed off the growing globalization of electronic media and the accelerating pace of islocating social change. Whenever the world appears more disturbing or surreal than it is already, the veil between the ordinary material world, bounded by the laws of science, becomes permeable. Illogic becomes its own logic. The surreal gains physical form. And horrors can be brought through.
Unremitting Horrors
Esoterrorist rituals seek to harness fleeting elements of subjectivity and use it to poke holes in the membrane. When they weaken it enough, they can bring forth creatures which they claim come from their own imagination, unremitting horrors. In a world where vampires are a pop culture staple and the dread elder gods are available as plush toys, traditional monsters have lost their power to terrify and appall. Esoterrorist creatures aim to fix that.
[/sblock]Read and enjoy! The PCs include a con-man, a bodyguard, an accident investigator, a doctor, a CSI officer, an occult scholar, and a technologist. We'll pick at the table.