Joint Task Force- special operations

[Philulhu]

I don’t have a particularly high opinion of your president or our prime minister but I have no issue if you want to include politics in the game. I’ve been here about the same length of time as Mr Handy, although I take a break for a while, I’m planning to be here for the long haul.

I’ve sketched out a couple of idea below. Let me know what you think and then I’ll flesh them out, add stats, etc.

Forensic Pathologist

Grew up in New York in a secular Jewish household. Studied medicine at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center and then specialised in ER/Trauma Care. Called up via the National Guard for Op. Desert Storm in 1991, he worked through combat phase of the war and continued providing medical support through the early days of the post-war reconstruction.

Returning after 18 months, he returned to ER before opting to study forensic pathology. That lead to the FBI, a role he has undertaken for the past 20 years. Over the last five he has been associate professor at Kingsbrook, teaching the next generation of FPs.

FBI Agent (Organised Crime)

Grew up in Seattle studied languages at university. Applied direct to the FBI with a high degree and worked in Portland and Seattle on Transnational Organised Crime. Transferred to the New York office five years ago when his wife was headhunted to a senior role by Citigroup.

They have a three year old son, but the marriage is in trouble. Parents have moved to to NYC to help look after boy but that’s another source of friction.

He’s thrown himself into work and running as a means of dealing with increased tensions at home.

[welsh]

Hey Folks-

Sounds good that you folks seem rather open-minded about politics. In many ways that does play to the notions of Delta Green's themes of bureaucratic dysfunction, deep state conspiracies, and the willingness of professional characters being forced to take on sometimes morally problematic decisions when trying to pursue what might (or might not actually) be more noble goals. Our characters might be driven by an array of social and personal choices, despite a career in public service. Government service, I like to think, often draws in many of the best and brightest of a society to service. Sadly, I tend to agree with the character Ragnar from Vikings, that politics is a low terrible thing, that requires us to lower ourselves if we wish to pick it up and that it tends to corrupt even the most noble of us.

Our Post Covid and current political issues in the US will allow our players current boss, a Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be some what more mysterious to our players. Like Skinner from the X-Files, you may want to consider this person's deeper motives, hidden insights and secret agendas, as we proceed. One might argue that given the current series of purges in the US civil service, especially of inspector generals, one might consider purges as one of the hidden threats to those who serve the general public.

Let's begin the process of sketching out the characters and if you want to post up your character sheets that's fine. Honestly I am a bit agnostic about maintaining significance secrecy regarding attributes, so I am fine with you folks posting your characters here. I am likely to offer you some modifications based on background and training, but only to flesh out your character a bit more. Transparency seems a better way to go and someways more simple.

Again, I do apologize to your all. Since I stepped away here for personal reasons (mostly because I just got a teaching job at William & Mary and was swamped with work) I really haven't had the chance to return to the board. So please forgive me if I make mistakes or am unfamiliar. It's been awhile since I've done something like this. That said, I think I have a decent opening chapter to get some wind under our wings.

Ok, some quick thoughts
Phil- (do you mind that as short for Philulhu?) Assuming your character was a doctor by the time they were working at the ER/Trauma Care center, than means they are at least 28 and probably closer to 30 (for the time line of med school- https://www.kaptest.com/study/mcat/how- ... -a-doctor/) when they were called up for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Given that was nearly 30 years ago, you are talking about a doctor who is now in their mid-to-late 50s or early 60s. FBI agents are required to retire by age 57, so he's (or is it a she?) not a regular agent but he could be working in some other capacity as an instructor having retired. I am less concerned with your character being a doctor or his or her service with the FBI, but rather the age and seniority. Getting pulled from instructing agents at the academy (In Quantico, VA) to serve some young Assistant US Attorney would raise some peculiar career related concerns.

We might want to shrink the age issue down a bit. How about something along this time line- You character grew up with a poor Jewish family, went to college under an ROTC scholarship, then continued on with a military scholarship for medical school (for more on that route- https://www.medicineandthemilitary.com/ ... cholarship ). This means you will need to dump quite a few points in education. Think carefully about your characters military background (Airforce, Navy or Army in terms of additional skills) Your four years as an undergraduate and 5 years of med school meant that at 25 your were doing your residency with military hospitals and foreign deployments that took you to Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia for ER/Trauma care and then specialized time with forensic pathology where you were regularly engaged in investigations of terrorist attacks. You did your 4 years obligated under the scholarship and continued on abroad until you were able to return to the US as part of the drawing down of US military deployments abroad.

Your character either continues to work with the military, or perhaps serves as a reservist (which might explain how you were called up) despite also working as an instructor at a local university, or perhaps you got a position as an FBI agent and are serving as an instructor on forensic pathology to agents in training. Playing with the time period, this would place you back in at about mid to late 30s, and assignment to the US Attorney's office would be seen as one more rung of the career ladder. What do you think?

I think your FBI agent seems fine to me. I like the organized crime angle. A lot of the organized crime elements could be related to narcotics as well as Asian criminal networks operating out of Toronto and Seattle, and currently you've been investigating cases involving Chinatown organized crime operators. Your character might have recently been part of a recent bust in Chinatown, or the deployment to the US Attorney's office is a bug in your ass because it's forced you to away from a case. It might be worth noting this isn't the first time for the FBI, when a lot of FBI are being re-tasked for organize crime work.

Incidently, it is worth noting perhaps that there were rumors that the NYC FBI office was the office that raised issues about Hilary Clinton's emails shortly before the 2016 election and perhaps leaked information to Republican insider Rudy Giullani, himself a former prosecutor.https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/nationa ... s/2239971/ . My memory is a bit vague on this but it was my impression in 2016 that the Director Comey and the Washington HQ was caught a bit off-guard by the NYC FBI office and had to open up the investigation that may have cost Clinton the election. Personally, I don't think the FBI cost Clinton the election, but I wouldn't be surprised if the FBI's NY office hadn't put pressure on the Washington DC HQ. I offer this now because there is a possibility your agent might be concerned that politics might be cropping up again.

Otherwise, I think you may wish to kick up his background a bit. Some military service, Army, Marines or Navy, language background in Cantonese, Mandarin and perhaps something less exotic- Spanish? Perhaps a deployment to Japan or Okinawa after college before going FBI? Security clearance, some combat training. A number of FBI guys get SWAT training which might work here as well. What do you think?

Hey Snapper- Your EPA/S-Agent makes sense to me. Your character might be involved in research hazardous waste cites and disposal of illegal pollutants. NYC has a history of problematic hazardous waste issues- https://ny.curbed.com/2015/6/11/9950734 ... waste-site but given the number of businesses running out of NYC it is possible that your character is also investigating corporate environmental malfeasance. That said the EPA under the current administration hasn't been very pro-environment, so its possible your character is chaffing at the current administration, which is turning a blind eye to business regulatory breaches and is looking for something new.

As for the DEA agent, I think your character might be thinking about some new cases involving experimental drugs that seem to have recently proliferated. There have been some rumors of potential black market Covid Cures that have yet to pass FDA review but which have begun to circulate among some of the city's ethnic communities. So far it seems mostly rumor and of course conspiracy seems to run rampant during times of soccial stress.

I think we can start up the characters pretty soon. Do you want to post them here?

Handy, I think you are right and we might as well post under Delta Green with a disclaimer. I have a few more things I want to check out before we kick the game into gear. But I think our first case will be straight forward.

[welsh]

Some background for Law Enforcement in NY-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enfor ... _York_City

[welsh]

Ok, Forum has been created. Now time to start populating it.

Let me know if you suggest any changes.