The Seal

A campaign frame for GURPS Action.

Campaign Type: The Seal is closest to the Commando campaign type as presented in GURPS Action 1: Heroes, though the PCs are employed by a private organization devoted to global peace, the Solomon Group.

Important Books: GURPS Action 1: Heroes and Action 2: Exploits; GURPS Gun-Fu; GURPS High-Tech; GURPS Martial Arts; GURPS Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys. GURPS Social Engineering: Pulling Rank may be useful, but Chapter Three of Action 1: Heroes should be sufficient.

Character Creation: 250-point characters using the templates in Action 1: Heroes. Most appropriate templates are demolition man, investigator, medic, shooter, and wire rat. The Military background lens should be the most common by far.

All characters start with Solomon Group Rank 0 [0] and can buy further levels for 5 points each (see Rank below). All characters must take the Duty listed in their template at (15 or less).

Players can buy Impulse Points (IP) at 5 points/level using their template’s advantage points. These refresh at the rate of one IP per session. (Replace the Luck advantage in each template with IP 3.)

Combat Styles: Firearms styles from Gun-Fu are most appropriate, especially One-Man Army and Ultimate Shootist. Double Trouble and Sniper may be useful on more discrete missions.

Melee styles (particularly unarmed styles practiced by modern militaries) are available if they fit your background.

Combat perks follow the rules in Martial Arts: maximum of 1 perk per 20 points in combat skills and techniques plus 1 style-specific perk per 10 points in style skills and techniques.

Sources of Inspiration: G.I. Joe; The Expendables.

In The Seal, your characters are covert operatives working for the Solomon Group, modern-day descendants of the Knights Templar disguised as a global policy think-tank. Your enemy is a network of terror-for-hire led by a shadowy inner circle known only as the Djinn.

Your missions take you around the world, to nations friendly and areas decidedly hostile. You uncover the Djinn’s plans, hunt down their servants, and stop them however you can. You must accomplish your tasks in secret, because you would be imprisoned or executed if your activities were known.

Solomon Group

To the world at large, the Solomon Group is a private think-tank devoted to promoting peace and democracy. In truth, it is a conspiracy that can trace its origins through the Freemasons to the Knights Templar. The Group wages a secret war to defend freedom and keep the world from descending into terror.

Financially, the group supports its covert activities through patents owned by shell companies in the areas of computer hardware, electronic surveillance, and energy technologies. When necessary, the Group can field hardware that is 15-20 years ahead of the current level. This is represented as limited access to various pieces of TL9 equipment from GURPS Ultra-Tech. Characters can request advanced hardware, but they do not always know what’s available and the Assistance Roll is automatically at -5.

The Solomon Group have public offices and hidden facilities throughout North America and Europe (and Australia, if you find yourselves down under). Their influence in Asia, South America, and sub-Saharan Africa is mixed, while the Middle East/North Africa is solidly under Djinn control.

Rank

Solomon Group Rank costs 5 points per level. The Group controls a large pool of resources (especially for a private organization) and high-ranking members can command many underlings. The Group is not recognized by other intelligence organizations and its covert activities break any number of international laws. However, the Group has enough influence in most Western nations to cover for minor exposure.

All characters begin with Rank 0. Starting characters cannot purchase Rank higher than 4. The Solomon Group is more powerful than GURPS Action assumes; use the following table for Assistance Roll values by Rank.

Rank
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Assistance Roll
1
3
5
7
9
10
11
12
13

Assistance Available: The Solomon Group can provide backup, cash, disappearance, facilities, false IDs, files, forensics, insertion/extraction, medevac, records search, replacement gear, safe house, technical means, and transportation.

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