TOPIC: Covert Ops - Discussion

Cool character concept, Richard. You also get an extra bone.

Reminder to Andy S, Steve and Charlie: post character pic before Thursday for free bone in week one.

Covert Ops uses the d100lite system, so bring a few d10's and at least one d100. If you do not have a d100, the darkest d10 you roll is treated as the d100.

I've done a few amount of prep for this game and am looking forward to a change of pace from the usual dungeoning/dragoning.

Note to self: print some character sheets!!!

Sorry guys. Got so used to not being in a game, I've become quite sedentary!

OK character then.

Captain Aubrey Shatners-Bassoon.


Captain Shatners-Bassoon was a promising young officer. Coming from a well to do family, Aubrey excelled at Officer Training and everything seemed to come to him easily. Always sporty and athletic, the Army suited him well. He was division boxing champion twice, an inter-forces rower, cross-country runner. There wasn't a sport he'd have a hearty good go at.

Well mannered, charming and good natured, his subordinates and superiors liked and trusted him. Then came Afghanistan. After an uneventful first tour, Aubrey stayed for a second. On a rudimentary patrol, an IED took a leg and his career.

Back in England, recovery was long and difficult. Eventually he came to terms with his new life and his disability and, in his inimitable style, Aubrey Shatners-Bassoon set his sights on the Paralympics. In Beijing 2008, he took home two silvers and a bronze and immediately set his sights on winning gold in 2012.

However, this was not meant to be. SECTOR had been watching him for a while and thought they could use someone like the Captain. Excited by the challenge, Aubrey accepted.

Positive: Aubrey is confident, brave, loyal and possessed with boundless energy. He will attempt any physical challenge or activity, as if desperate prove that his disabilities do not make him less of a man.
Negative: His injuries in the explosion left him with his left leg missing below the knee but is fitted with a blade. Some head trauma has left him with mild tourettes, he's prone to blurting out exactly what he thinks without considering the social implications. He occasional suffers from bouts of PTSD which results in nightmares and, in rare occasions, panic attacks.

Awesome.

5DP [development points] for each player.

You need to decide among yourself and nominate the person who had the coolest moves [+1DP] and the person who most acted in the best interests of the team [+1DP].

Anyone writing up a mission report back at Atlantic Base will also get +1DP..

DP can be used to increase your core stats on a 1:1 basis, or buy new skills levels. For example, buying a level in a new skill (+10%) costs 3DP, increasing a level one skill to level two (+20% total) costs 6DP.

Your Rank is determined by the number of skill levels in your highest/second highest skills. When you increase your first skill to Level Two, you go up to Rank 2 - and get an extra +6 equipment allowance.

COVERT OPS – WEEK ONE [02/03/2017]

• Andy C – Alek Trevelyan (Sean Bean)
• Charles – Stanley Parable (Simon Pegg)
• Steve – Noel Bradley (Ibris Elba)
• Richard – Stig Zango (Richard Ayoade)
• Andy S – Aubrey Shatners-Basoon (Rowan Atkinson)

The new recruits are choppered out to SECTOR’s Atlantic Base, a re-purposed oil rig on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. Masquerading as a marine biology laboratory; in reality, the rig is a top secret staging post for covert operations around the globe. A harried Deputy-Director Ethan Birde greets the recruits on the landing pad and hustles them into a conference room to meet base Director Ludlum. Never one for courtly etiquette, Ludlum slings a mission dossier across the desk. Bold black letters across the front of the folder read: ‘TOP SECRET. OPERATION BROKEN KNUCKLE’.

“The good-for-nothing son of presidential candidate Geoffrey Shrub has been captured on video performing acts of gross indecency in a strip joint in one of the seedier corners of Washington DC,” Director Ludlum explains. “The owner of the club, an Alaskan biker called Kurt Kruise has sold the incriminating footage to CITADEL and the trade is scheduled to occur tonight. You should consider this your baptism by fire, an opportunity to demonstrate your worth to SECTOR. Your mission is to disrupt the sale and destroy the blackmail evidence. Prove yourselves up to the task and you will join SECTOR as fully-fledged agents.”

The recruits head down to the R&D department and meet Professor Hugh Pearce, the wheelchair-bound genius behind most of the cool gear that SECTOR operatives get to play with. He assigns each recruit an allowance with which to equip themselves for the operation. Generously, SECTOR allocates the recruits a van, which will be waiting for them at the airfield in Washington. Stig convinces the maintenance crew to throw in a free performance upgrade to (partially) mitigate the shame of going on their first mission in a van. Noel gets into a bit of a barney with Security Chief Sam Hunter when he tries to swap his sidearm for a non-lethal stun gun. However, Professor Pearce’s research assistant Mia Morel is impressed by Noel’s concern for human life. Noel is impressed by her sexy French accent and curvaceous figure.

The recruits fly to Washington. Stig drives (recklessly) to the ‘North Pole’ gentleman’s club, avoiding cameras and police patrols along the route. In the back of the van, Alek, Aubrey and Stanley all implore him to slow down, as they are tossed about like sacks of muddy spuds. Reaching their destination, Stanley scans for wireless networks and hacks into Kurt Kruise’s personal e-mail account. He finds correspondence between the chapter leader and the CITADEL courier, indicating the exchange is due to occur between 20:00 & 22:00 hours. Stanley also locates the original digital recording of the senator’s son snorting cocaine from the belly-button of an eastern-European hooker and deletes it from the biker’s hard-drive. However, he suspects that Kruise has burned a copy of the video onto CD. While Stanley is playing with his computer, Stig goes looking for a 24-7 convenience store where he can score some energy drinks. Alek harangues him into also bringing back a six-pack of cheap beer.

At 19:00 hours, the recruits head into the ‘North Pole’. The interior is dim and grubby, the clientele dirty and desperate. A hollow-eyed dancer on the wrong side of thirty gyrates grudgingly on a greasy pole. The recruits order their drinks and gather around a darkened table near the door, uncomfortably aware that their cover story of being on a stag night is not as clever as they first conceived. Noel heeds the call of nature and visits the water closet. He soon wishes that he hadn’t. The recruits finish their drinks and head back to the van, having learnt nothing of value and wasted thirty minutes in the process.

Aubrey investigates the rear of the building and encounters a gang of five bikers lounging in a cavernous loading bay. The recruits devise a new plan, wherein Stig knocks over some motorbikes with the van then drives off, hopefully drawing away most of the bikers in hot pursuit. The plan works well and three of the five sentries abandon their post to chase the fleeing driver, leaving just two to guard the club. Aubrey re-appears, brandishing his pistol and encourages the remaining goons to surrender. The bikers lunge for their weapons so Alek executes them both, two silenced gunshots dropping them in as many seconds. The recruits hide the bodies under a dusty tarp and sneak in through the rear of the club. A narrow staircase leads up to the first floor, where curtained partitions create cosy booths wherein Slavic whores practise their filthy trade. A solitary guard is too busy peeking to notice Alek’s stealth approach, although he soon becomes aware of the recruit’s presence when Alek puts him in a sleeper hold. Noel relieves the unconscious guard of his keys and releases a trio of captive women whom the bikers had designs on forcing into the flesh trade.

Meanwhile, Stig leads the bikers on a merry chase through the darkened streets of Washington’s industrial quarter. He is struggling to control his speed so that they don’t lose sight of him and return to the club. The bikers swing metal bars at the sides of the van, shattering one of the small windows in the rear door. Stig brakes suddenly and hears the satisfying crunch of an unsuspecting biker colliding with the back of the van. Suddenly, the window in the driver-side door shatters inward! Stig swerves to the right, but the biker manages to grab hold of the van and cling there like a furious limpet. Stig veers wildly, causing the biker to lose his grip and fly through the window of children’s restaurant. Little Timmy’s 10th birthday party is ruined when a fat, hairy man crashes through the glass and lands in the cake. Tyres screech as Stig performs a sudden U-turn and races back towards the ‘North Pole’. Upon arrival, he immediately notices that two black SUVs have pulled up outside the bar and a collection of serious looking men in dark suits are malingering with intent.

“Guys, you’ve got company,” Stig says, speaking through the S-com device lodged in his left ear, “The CITADEL crew just rolled up. The courier is already on his way in to meet Kruise. Whatever you’re doing, get it done fast.”

Forewarned by their driver, the other recruits hide in the curtained booths as the CITADEL agents pass. Noel uses the stethoscope from his medic pack to listen in on their conversation through the wall of Kruise’s office. The chapter leader hands over the only hard copy of the blackmail evidence in exchange for a briefcase containing fifty thousand dollars. As the CITADEL agents are leaving, SECTOR spring their ambush! A vicious gunfight erupts in the narrow corridor. Kruise barks a command and two Alaskan huskies join the fray. Noel tasers the first animal with his stun gun and Alek puts the second to sleep via a bullet in its hairy dog-face. Aubrey pops out of cover and takes out one of the CITADEL mooks, only to bite a bullet from Kruise’s high calibre revolver in return. His left arm useless and drenched in blood, Aubrey slumps against the wall, making space for Alek to finish the job. Alek shoots the CITADEL courier (two rounds to the torso and a third between the eyes), grabs the CD that falls from his lifeless fingers and yells for the rest of the team to withdraw. Stig brings the van around the back of the club. Alek and Aubrey leap from a first floor window, bounce off the roof of the van and clamber in. Noel and Stanley exit via the stairs, carrying the three helpless women that they rescued from the biker's torrid sex grotto. Stig throws the vehicle into gear and makes for the airfield, where a SECTOR pilot is waiting to chopper them back to Atlantic Base.

Behind them, the four blocks of C4 plastic explosive hidden in the CITADEL courier’s briefcase explode, destroying the top floor of the ‘North Pole’ in a fiery blast that showers the whole block with flaming debris.

To be continued….