Intelligence Agencies Options

[FlakJacket]

Has anyone ever run any games that revolve around the intelligence agencies of the sixth world, either as agents or protagonists? Wondering 'cause it just seemed an area of the world thats never been looked at, and I just finished a couple books by Robert Littell - The Company and Walking Back the Cat - that I really enjoyed and that are a dramatised/film version of intelligence operations that seem in setting with Shadowrun.

Edit: I know it was mentioned as a popssible ages back, but do we have any more idea if organisations like the CIA might be getting a mention in Loose Alliances? Hhmm, time to go bug Adam I think. :)

[Raygun]

The whole spy genre and Cold War thing is very interesting to me. Back when I used to game a lot more often, espionage was often part of the plotline, be it national or corporate. I don't really know if the whole global intelligence community thing has been tapped into as far as canon material goes (that is, beyond Jon Szeto's "One Nation Under God" chapter in Threats 2, which I thought was a pretty cool idea [Thanks, P!]). Honestly, I haven't bought a Shadowrun book in many a moon.

I have been toying with the idea of putting some material together for another website along these lines and I'd be very interested in other people's ideas about this sort of thing. I certainly have my own. However, being that I really don't rely all that much on canon material for plotlines, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage as far as canon world politics go (except for the very broad strokes laid out in the main book), and that kind of thing is very necessary for coming up with the minutae involved with corporate/political espionage material.

Anyway, it's just my kind of thing. If there's work on this in progress, I'm very interested. If not, I'd like to be involved with getting it going.

[Shadow]

I second that. Spy's and espionage are my thing. I came up with a story line I never got to run about an Elven Agency working out of the Tir. Basically they were Navy Seals but they worked for the civilian govt. I really wanted to run the team but alas, no one wanted to play. I would be very interested in putting together something like "Intelligence Agency's of the 6th world". The same as Raygun I don't get my stories from Canon, so anything we came up with would need to be based on real-world +60 years.

Any thoughts on how to put this together?

[Nath]

The very first adventure I wrote and played, to test Shadowrun rules, didn't involve any intelligence agency. That was the last to do so :D

For me, except when they hired for a very personal or local interest, shadowrunners are doing work, be it daa gathering or black ops, that should fall to intelligence services, which implies a relationship.

As for canon material, Shadown of North America has quite a few things concerning the CAS intelligence agencies and the Sioux OMI. There are passing mention of the UCAS agencies (implying that at least most of the acronyms, CIA, NSA, NRO, DIA, stayed around) and of the Tir Tainrgire Information Secretariat (but maybe that one was more developped in Tir Tainrgire SB). Target: Awakened Lands also spent some lines to describe the situation of its intelligence apparatus, the ASIO and the ASIS becoming the AISE. In Germany, there is the German BIS (a description a bit too munchkin if you ask me) and MET2000's Argus. I guess the London SB also have something about British services. The Mossad have been on the stage with Ibn Eisa and Aden in the recent book. A very long time ago, Seattle Guide indicated the CFS Intelligence Service was acting in Seattle under the guise of Dadson Entertainment, but that the IS was globally only a smokescreen for the Japanese (a thing that probably changed since...).

On the corporate side, there is Shiawase MIFD and CATCo's Seraphim for the big names. S-K Prime seems to be handling the intelligence duties for Saeder-Krupp IIRC Target: Matrix. Ares has Knight Errant "intelligence and recon batallions" (YotC) but also have AreSpace maintaining UCAS spysats, so I guess there must be a centralizing structure somewhere. Yamatetsu has the Yamatetsu Naval Intelligence, a name appearing in report in Target: Wastelands, probably depending from Yamatetsu Naval Technologies. With CD, it's not clear if Aztechnology Corporate Security maintain intelligence activities and which sort, and what is the role of the "Aztechnology Management Information System". Maybe the Aztlan SB says more. The Lone Star might also have interesting intelligence capacities since the privatization of the DEA.

I did write a bit about various intelligence agencies on my website, but never bothered to translate it into English (quite fortunately because at that time I was doing poor translation... not sure it changed still). Well, I realize most of what's on my website is related to intelligence activities anyway...

EDIT: concerning Loose Alliances, my understanding of its pitch is that it will only concerns 'independent' organizations, which, in theory, intelligence agencies are not.

[Frag-o Delux]

I believ the CyberPirates SB has some stuff on Interpol, and some stuff on how they still interact with government agencies. I believe Interpol is almost broke. So they spend most of their time and resource on smuggling, and try to stay in goo gfavor of the UCAS, CAS and a fe others in hopes to get some funding from them.

[Nath]

Since Corporate Download indicated that Saeder-Krupp was keeping Interpol alive and functionning, which remove much of the need for favor if the organization really need something. An interesting unanswered point is, how S-K control is achieved ? Maybe Interpol changed its status (it wouldn't be the first time) to accept extraterritorial corps. Or rather, extraterritorial corps changed Interpol status, since they have much to gain from access to criminals identification for their own security.

BTW the same part of CD says Lofwyr has connections inside most of the European states' intelligence agencies.

[FlakJacket]

[Kanada Ten]

[Sepherim]

If rumours are right ans S-K has control of Europes Matrix network and "hears" all that is said, why not have members inside most governments in the world? It'd be quite easier to do it than to process and clean everything that is said through the Matrix (phone calls, faxes, mails, ...) in one whole continent.

[FlakJacket]

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Tzeentch has a couple of files on Intelligence in Shadowrun.

Aztlan describes Aztechnology intelligence briefly, describing its massive SIGINT capability (second only to the Vatican) and so forth. There's also a reference to a UCAS intelligence activity called Consular Operations (ConsOps) that I don't recall ever seeing after that book. But then again, Just Compensation had a reference to the "DSA," which in hindsight was probably just a typo (Yeah, how dare I).

Back in the old Seattle SB the FBI and NSA were referred to frequently as being not so much interested in doing their stated missions (i.e., foreign counterintelligence for the FBI, foreign SIGINT for the NSA) but keeping an eye on Seattle (along with the CIA, but it gets almost no reference compared to those two). Liekwise it also mentioned a very extensive Mitsuhama intelligence program in the Seattle region along with Aztechnology.

I've been intererested in intelligence for years, but I've never bothered doing anything with in for SR. Besides, after having a couple bosses, lecturers or acqauintance who worked in the Community, it kind of lost its glamour. That and the idea about writing about something where the vast majority of the employees sit in an office building sifting through raw information to write PDBs sounds boring as hell. Ooh, CIA Special Activities operatives... treat as shadowrunners or SpecFor. Oh, Clandestine Service... Johnsons, runners. NOCs... runners. Political intrigue and bureacratic turf wars would be one of the few things that would actually distinguish them from what SR is already all about IMO.

[FlakJacket]

Well since this seems to be turning into something, I'll have a dig through the old London sourcebook and a couple real life resoucres for UK related intelligence agencies and the like. :)

[Raygun]

[Shadow]

Excellent! I think those are terrific guidelines. The next question is, should we stay in this thread or create on in projects? I think it would be easier to find in projects, then we can start posting what we know about what agencies.

[Kanada Ten]

[Shadow]

[FlakJacket]

For the UCAS, the NSA has had a couple brief mentions in the sourcebooks and one of the novels refers to them as well IIRC. The novel 'Just Compensation' also mentions a military agency called the DSA that sounded decidedly like the Defense Intelligence Agency.

It also mentions a CAS groups caled the SIA - no elaboration on what it means I could see from a quick scan - and a military group called the Ferrets that seem to be an upgunned version of Marine Recon for covert actions. Of course, since novels are only really canon storyline-wise how official the DSA/SIA/Ferrets are is up in the air. :sleepy:

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

[Nath]

From what I can recall without searching my books,

CIA: Seattle Guide, Target: UCAS, SoNA, Threats 2 and probably many other. Target: UCAS is interesting as it mentions in the profile of Gen. Steven Coe Bowling, a member of the Scott Commission and former DCI that the CIA conducted clandestine ops against the Sioux and the Pueblo without approval from the White House in the early 2040ies.
NSA: Seattle Guide, SoNA.
NRO: SoNA (the book only mentions UCAS agencies' acronyms in the CAS chapter to say they still exist while the CAS created a new organization)
DIA: SoNA (idem)
FBI: many references, from the top of my head Seattle Guide, Target: Matrix, ...

DSI: CAS' Department of Strategic Intelligence (CIA+NSA+DIA+NRO+...), introduced in SoNA. It get half a page of that book.
DDI: CAS' Department of Domestic Investigation (FBI+DEA+ATF+USSS+...), idem
ERLA: CAS' Extraterritoriality Registration & Liaison Agency. Depends from the CAS Bureau of Commerce and in charge of watching/spying megacorps.

Mossad: YotC (Ibn Eisa), DSW (Aden)
OMI: Sioux Office of Military Intelligence, SoNA and a novel IIRC. Like the CAS' agencies, RTFSoNA.
Information Secretariat of the Tir. SoNA and probably Tir Tairngire SB. Note that Prince Jonathon Reed is "Director of Operations".
BIS: "Bundesamt für die Innere Sicherheit" (Federal Office for Home Security, right ?), in Germany SB

Yamatetsu Naval Intelligence: Target: Wastelands (riptides)
MIFD: Shiawase' Market Information and Forecast Department. Corporate Download and Target: Matrix gives enough.
Seraphim: Cross personal espionage network. PoaD, Blood in the Boardroom, Corporate Download, SoNA-Québec.
Argus: MET2000 intelligence apparatus, in Germany SB.

There's also a mention of the CFS' intelligence service in Seattle Guide (comments abpout Dadson Entertainment, in Everett IIRC) but I don't remember if it's the intelligence service or the Intelligence Service with a proper capitalization of an official name.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

[FlakJacket]

The only canon reference for the UK are the Field Operatives of the Lord Protector's Office, known as the Templars. The Lord Protector's Office basically regulates all official magicians and magic in the UK through their Licensing Bureau, and the Templars mandate is to take care of illegal magical acts that threaten the national security - a fairly wide remit at times. They're also the Lord Protector's black bag squad but that's the unofficial side of them.

I'll have a trawl through a few sources and put up some real life ones tomorrow night. :)

[Raygun]

Awesome. Here's what I've got so far. This is just basic information tacking the agency name to its nation/corporation. If there's something you don't see listed, feel free to speak up. Again, this is just a compilation of agency names. We'll get around to adding more in time. For now, there are some blanks that need to be filled in. Considering that I run on a minimum of SR books, I can't look up this info myself, if it is available. So I either need the info from you guys or wee need to discuss things like HQ location and Area of Responsibility, what AISE stands for, etc...

Should novel material be considered canon? I say no, but I'm interested in the consensus on DSA and SIA, both UCAS agencies, correct?

I'll try to update every day. Hopefully I can keep up with you guys. ;)

[Fortune]

As far as I know, all novel material is considered canon with, I believe, one exception, but I can't recall which (Terminus Experiment?).

[FlakJacket]

AISE stands for the Australian Intelligence and Security Enforcement, pronounced ace, agency. Was created in 2031 when the Federal Police and the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation merged together. Their job basically covers any and all issues affecting national security, so they can get around a bit. Also, since they're a federal agency that means they technically have jurisdiction over all city and state agencies. This means they can pull rank on Lone Star and Knight Errant if they want, so relations are fairly cool. Seem to recruit heavily from ex-military and ex-corporate security types, although ex-employees of the Big Ten or their subsidiaries are very rare for obvious reasons.

According to shadowtalk, around this time the Australian Secret Intelligence Service was disbanded for no real reason and no new agency was initiated to replace them. However, apparently most of their personnel transfered to AISE and were squirreled away so it's a bit of a mystery which departments they're on or what they're meant to be doing. Looks as though AISE either took over foreign intelligence gathering as well themselves or are being used as a smokescreen. Either way, there's nothing public or officialy acknowledged doing it.

Well for the UGB, I figure they'd still be in the old KGB digs at the Lubyanka. At any rate, I definately figure that they'd want their headquarters to be near the seat of power in Moscow.

The UGB is the Upravleniye Gosudarstevnnoy Bezopasnosti- Directorate of State Security. They're like the old KGB. Duties include foreign intelligence gathering, internal repression, counter-intelligence, providing security for government offices, holds the activation codes for the nuclear devices - like the old USSR, the Red Army controls the weapons and delivery systems whist the UGB turns them on and off, and spying on the other government inteligence agencies. The book basically says that all the seperate agencies that were split off from the KGB were rejoined so they'd also cover SIGINT, ELINT, COMINT and COMPINT that Fapsi now does.

They also control the Border Guards who're a mechanised semi-military force that, like the name suggest, guard the borders - and they've got some serious hardware in the form of APC's, scout cars, attack helicopters, some light tanks plus their own flotilla of coatal patrol vessels in their naval arm.

Another real life Russian agencies that I'll look up is the GRU - Russian military intelligence, and some say even more sucessful at foreign ops than the KGB was. They also have a better general reputation, and tend to feel themselves superior to, than the KGB since they never had to get mixed up with spying on their own citizens. They're currently headquartered at the Khodinka airfield near Moscow in a place called the Aquarium 'cause their main offices are a nine storey glass encased affair - I can definately see that getting polarised by the 2060's. :)

Edit: And I think it was Shadowboxer that isn't canon storyline-wise, although the Terminus Experiment definately gives it a run for its money. ;)

[Kanada Ten]

I would say use the novels here, just because we'll never get near enough information/agencies otherwise.