The campaign is set in my usual SF RPG setting Flat Black ², which consists of a thousand independent human worlds with varied societies and governments scattered through a space that is governed by a weak but very determined Empire obsessed with preventing mass deaths.
The player character is an extremely capable secret operator, who works for an organisation that is so secret that neither he nor his field control knows what it is. He was recruited out of his final year of commando officer training at the Imperial Marines Academy, and the people who introduced him to the people who recruited him were people that he knew from before as retired Imperial servants. But he was recruited and has since received training entirely outside Imperial Direct jurisdiction, and has never known a serving Imperial servant to provide support or co-operation in any way. His missions have ranged from “rescue this journalist from that kidnapper without her or the Reporters’ Guild getting any idea that anyone was trying to rescue her” though “go along on this hare-brained treasure quest, plant these things among the treasure they find, and make sure that the cabin boy makes it home unhurt and without PTSD” to “infiltrate this politico-religious movement, perform an assessment, and if it seems bad kill it”. The one that the player seemed to enjoy most was the one where he had to covertly bodyguard the cabin boy (perhaps because it had pirates and sunken treasure in it).
The PC has broad capabilities. His greatest strengths are interpersonal: he’s extremely charming and reads people well, a convincing actor, persuasive, and likeable. His favourite mode of operation is to get into social groups in their homes and third places by pretending to be something he’s not, elicit intelligence in indiscreet conversation, and to persuade or trick people into doing things that they don’t realise that he wants. His second string of abilities are that he’s very good at fighting unarmed and with mêlée weapons, is an excellent shot with sidearms and smallarms, and is quite willing to just kill people to get his mission done (he killed fourteen gangsters to rescue the journalist, and hasn’t given it a thought since). Third, he has a strong capability at getting places unobserved: climbing, stealth, swimming and SCUBA skills, use of parawings and personal flyers. He’s a trained military scout. And he has backup vehicle skills.
The PC is supported in the field by an offsider whom he recruited himself, called “Ingham”. He rescued her from a life she didn’t want as a goddess on Navabharata and [his org] enabled her to reverse the body modifications she hated. She has never been told as much, but she has an impression that she and the PC are deniable effectives of the Planned Progress League, a non-government organisation. Ingham is can design, make, and repair a wide range of things, including forged documents and injured colleagues; at university she enjoyed designing, making, and controlling practical effects, lighting, and makeup for the amateur film-making club. She is competent with all sorts of vehicles, took quickly to picking locks and picking pockets, and is learning infiltration and self-defence skills. But she has never yet performed an act of violence against another human being. And she really isn’t much at dissimulation. Ingham doesn’t have a lot of interest in the unique and varied cultures of the places they visit, especially any supposition by the locals that she shouldn’t do any particular thing because of her sex.
The PC and Ingham are directed in the field by an identity called “Hunter”, which has certainly been at some times an actual physical man, but which might at other times have been an AI process running on a portable computer in Room 101 at the Old Star Hotel at the local spaceport. He seems to be able to disappear on one planet and reappear on another without having been a passenger on the only ship to have made the trip in the time. Hunter provides information of astonishing quality which it is sometimes hard to figure out how anyone can have got it, and also arranges for resources, equipment, and supplies to be provided. When possible, Hunter arranges for some hireling, agent, or asset to stash things the PC wants in accessible places, and them directs the PC or Ingham where to find them, without anyone meeting anyone.
² Please don’t feel that you need to know a lot about my setting to be able to help me in my current predicament. If you would like to know more about Flat Black, there is a discussion category on this very site, which is a bit chaotic. There is also a fairly well-organised 9,700-word introduction for players downloadable from Wikidot.
