Post by gamedave on Mar 24, 2022 14:38:13 GMT -5
Agents Against the UNKNOWN is a campaign frame for SHIVER: Role-Playing Tales in the STRANGE & UNKNOWN, featuring mystery, horror, and action-adventure.
THE UNKNOWN
Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins. Vampires and werewolves. UFOs and the chupacabra. Black magic and haunted houses. These are all merely labels humans have attached to the UNKNOWN. But the UNKNOWN defies human labels and categories and even rational analysis. It is the darkness beyond the flickering firelight. It is the cold of a primordial winter. It is a waking nightmare. It is hungry. And it hates.
The UNKNOWN distorts time, space, and reality itself. Human minds bend and twist under its influence. And all too often, break. Most people simply don't think about it. Won't. Can't. Everyone, at some level, is vaguely aware that the UNKNOWN exists, that monsters stalk the night, but they rarely encounter the UNKNOWN directly, and don't/won't/can't acknowledge it openly. Memories and perceptions blur and scar and slide away. Memories...and people. Sometimes entire towns.
"When" and "where" an irruption of the UNKNOWN occurs, it often seems to those caught up in it that different times and places blend together. It may simultaneously seem to be the present day and the 1980s, 1970s, 1950s, 1930s, or an indeterminate decade of the 19th Century. Less commonly, an entire town may seem to be two or more places at once - a rural English village overlooked by a Transylvanian castle that is somehow within driving distance of an American city.
The one constant is isolation. If you are caught up in an irruption of the UNKNOWN - or choose to enter it - no help will be coming.
The "Lore"
Some Agents insist on following "the Lore" when investigating the UNKNOWN. They tend to be the first ones eaten. Technology falters and glitches. So does the human mind. So does information itself. Human attempts at labeling and categorizing the UNKNOWN lead to failure and madness. Which is not to say investigation and research are useless in the face of the UNKNOWN- indeed they are vital. But they are only meaningful when conducted within the irruption itself. Local witnesses, folk tales, and records, and evidence gathered on the ground, are always key to driving back the UNKNOWN. But there is no standard body of "Lore". Past cases are at best poor preparation for the current case, and often dangerously misleading. A "vampire" may be a silicon lifeform, a hominid super-predator, or a shape-shifting ophidian, as easily as an undead aristocrat. Every instance is local and unique, and must be investigated and dealt with on its own terms.
The General Public
Members of the general public are mostly more or less aware, at some level, of the existence of the UNKNOWN, although they don't call it that. But they tend to shy away from consciously acknowledging it. Ghost hunting shows, psychic mediums, and cryptozoology are reasonably popular, but are almost entirely simple entertainment or outright frauds. Many people still believe in their reality, of course, but that's only because they present relatively safe versions of the supernatural.
For example, the vast majority of Bigfoot hunters only ever encounter ambivalent evidence which could as easily have been left by bears. In the very rare cases they encounter a true monster, a manifestation of the UNKNOWN, they are never truly prepared, psychologically or physically. And that's where the Agents come in.
Agents
The player characters are Agents of an organization dedicated to investigating and combating the UNKNOWN, Division X. The origins and structure of Division X are obscure, even to the Agents. In some ways it seems to function as an official agency of the U.S. government, while in other ways it seems to function more as a private contractor. Agents themselves often disagree as to the precise origins and functions of the organization they work for. Ultimately, the true nature of Division X is...unknown.
Local officials will usually defer to a Division X badge, but an Agent's authority often extends no further than their personal charisma. Division X provides its Agents with resources and gear, including devices and materials far beyond the realm of mundane science. But due to the reality-fracturing nature of the UNKNOWN, those Agents will almost always be sent in without back-up or reliable outside connections. It is up to the Agents in the field to investigate, determine, and neutralize the manifestation of the UNKNOWN they have been sent to confront.
The STRANGE
Psychic abilities. "White" magic. Weird science. These are manifestations of the STRANGE. While the UNKNOWN poisons and shreds reality, the STRANGE seems to merely bend and stretch it. The STRANGE resists efforts at rational, scientific analysis, and contradicts well-established laws of nature. But it does so in a way that seems far more manageable than the UNKNOWN. As a result, Division X makes significant use of STRANGE resources. Agents are often issued STRANGE devices. Some Agents are themselves touched by the STRANGE, and manifest weird abilities.
Many Agents consider the "STRANGE" merely a convenient excuse for using elements of the UNKNOWN. Most such Agents view the STRANGE with suspicion and hostility, and believe that using it is playing with fire. A few Agents, though, whisper among themselves that Division X's use of the STRANGE shows that the UNKNOWN isn't necessarily inherently inimical to human beings, and that instead of neutralizing manifestations of the UNKNOWN, Division X should be attempting to harness it....
THE UNKNOWN
Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins. Vampires and werewolves. UFOs and the chupacabra. Black magic and haunted houses. These are all merely labels humans have attached to the UNKNOWN. But the UNKNOWN defies human labels and categories and even rational analysis. It is the darkness beyond the flickering firelight. It is the cold of a primordial winter. It is a waking nightmare. It is hungry. And it hates.
The UNKNOWN distorts time, space, and reality itself. Human minds bend and twist under its influence. And all too often, break. Most people simply don't think about it. Won't. Can't. Everyone, at some level, is vaguely aware that the UNKNOWN exists, that monsters stalk the night, but they rarely encounter the UNKNOWN directly, and don't/won't/can't acknowledge it openly. Memories and perceptions blur and scar and slide away. Memories...and people. Sometimes entire towns.
"When" and "where" an irruption of the UNKNOWN occurs, it often seems to those caught up in it that different times and places blend together. It may simultaneously seem to be the present day and the 1980s, 1970s, 1950s, 1930s, or an indeterminate decade of the 19th Century. Less commonly, an entire town may seem to be two or more places at once - a rural English village overlooked by a Transylvanian castle that is somehow within driving distance of an American city.
The one constant is isolation. If you are caught up in an irruption of the UNKNOWN - or choose to enter it - no help will be coming.
The "Lore"
Some Agents insist on following "the Lore" when investigating the UNKNOWN. They tend to be the first ones eaten. Technology falters and glitches. So does the human mind. So does information itself. Human attempts at labeling and categorizing the UNKNOWN lead to failure and madness. Which is not to say investigation and research are useless in the face of the UNKNOWN- indeed they are vital. But they are only meaningful when conducted within the irruption itself. Local witnesses, folk tales, and records, and evidence gathered on the ground, are always key to driving back the UNKNOWN. But there is no standard body of "Lore". Past cases are at best poor preparation for the current case, and often dangerously misleading. A "vampire" may be a silicon lifeform, a hominid super-predator, or a shape-shifting ophidian, as easily as an undead aristocrat. Every instance is local and unique, and must be investigated and dealt with on its own terms.
The General Public
Members of the general public are mostly more or less aware, at some level, of the existence of the UNKNOWN, although they don't call it that. But they tend to shy away from consciously acknowledging it. Ghost hunting shows, psychic mediums, and cryptozoology are reasonably popular, but are almost entirely simple entertainment or outright frauds. Many people still believe in their reality, of course, but that's only because they present relatively safe versions of the supernatural.
For example, the vast majority of Bigfoot hunters only ever encounter ambivalent evidence which could as easily have been left by bears. In the very rare cases they encounter a true monster, a manifestation of the UNKNOWN, they are never truly prepared, psychologically or physically. And that's where the Agents come in.
Agents
The player characters are Agents of an organization dedicated to investigating and combating the UNKNOWN, Division X. The origins and structure of Division X are obscure, even to the Agents. In some ways it seems to function as an official agency of the U.S. government, while in other ways it seems to function more as a private contractor. Agents themselves often disagree as to the precise origins and functions of the organization they work for. Ultimately, the true nature of Division X is...unknown.
Local officials will usually defer to a Division X badge, but an Agent's authority often extends no further than their personal charisma. Division X provides its Agents with resources and gear, including devices and materials far beyond the realm of mundane science. But due to the reality-fracturing nature of the UNKNOWN, those Agents will almost always be sent in without back-up or reliable outside connections. It is up to the Agents in the field to investigate, determine, and neutralize the manifestation of the UNKNOWN they have been sent to confront.
The STRANGE
Psychic abilities. "White" magic. Weird science. These are manifestations of the STRANGE. While the UNKNOWN poisons and shreds reality, the STRANGE seems to merely bend and stretch it. The STRANGE resists efforts at rational, scientific analysis, and contradicts well-established laws of nature. But it does so in a way that seems far more manageable than the UNKNOWN. As a result, Division X makes significant use of STRANGE resources. Agents are often issued STRANGE devices. Some Agents are themselves touched by the STRANGE, and manifest weird abilities.
Many Agents consider the "STRANGE" merely a convenient excuse for using elements of the UNKNOWN. Most such Agents view the STRANGE with suspicion and hostility, and believe that using it is playing with fire. A few Agents, though, whisper among themselves that Division X's use of the STRANGE shows that the UNKNOWN isn't necessarily inherently inimical to human beings, and that instead of neutralizing manifestations of the UNKNOWN, Division X should be attempting to harness it....