I ran a one shot based on the SCP Foundation. Thad guest played as the mission leader/offsite overseer. Here's the write up I gave Thad:
SCP 5252
Object Class: Euclid – CURRENTLY UNDER REVIEW
Special Containment Procedures
Description: SCP 5252 is divided into three main components: the Triangle, the interface, and the computer.
SCP 5252-1 is a triangle, 7.84 meters to a face, that appears to be made from an unknown metal. The entire surface area of the sphere is marked with an interlocking pattern of grooves and notches. The significant of the pattern is unknown. It is slightly reflective and blue-black in color. It can be touched without harm.
SCP 5252-1 levitates 1.83 meters above the ground. A normal adult human is strong enough to move SCP 5252-1 by pushing it but it always positions itself so that is 1.83 meters above the ground.
The temperature is typically at most 12.77 degrees Celsius within 31.99 meters of SCP 5252-1. SCP 5252-1 will lower the temperature around itself if the temperature is higher than 12.77 degrees Celsius but it does nothing if the temperature is lower than 12.77 degrees Celsius.
SCP 5252-2 is an electronic device of irregular shape, 2.89 meters high at its highest, and 1.21 meters at its widest. It weighs 246.30 kilograms. It is connected to the Triangle via a series of cables and sensor nodes. These cables feed into the machine and apparently provide power as well. At the far end of the interface are 3 serial cable ports and a S-Video port. Analysis of the interface indicates it was built with parts from the USSR, Europe and the USA sometime between 1971 and 1983, possibly through constant iteration. The original designer built a small machine and then built over it over the years. The S-Video port is dated to 1981. Its purpose is unknown. The serial cable ports are dated to 1983 and are the most recent components of the machine. They connect to SCP 5252-3.
SCP 5252-3 is an IBM System/36, version 5360, from 1983 with monitor and keyboard. It weighs 318 kilograms. Its processor is rated at 8 MHz. It is connected to SCP 5252-2 and is powered by the device. It uses a custom command line interface. Only 3 programs are known to work on the computer: TELEMETRY, ESCHER, and MEATPUPPET. The exact purpose of each program is unknown.
SCP 5252 Analysis Mission Briefing
OVERSEER EYES ONLY
If you are not the overseer of this mission, please do not read further and return this briefing to the foundation.
Overview: SCP 5252 has been in custody for 11 months yet the Foundation has yet to receive a full workup and analysis, as is standard procedure. SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FINAL WARNING
For this reason, we must follow a strict information quarantine. Anything the onsite team or you know, we must assume it knows as well, including the contents of this briefing. The Foundation has prepared counter-measures to preserve the integrity of the institute, but we will not reveal the full extent of these procedures to you or your team in order to prevent SCP 5252 from learning them.
Mission Team: 6 analysts are assigned to this mission –
A computer scientist conversant with 1980s IBM technology
A video engineer and camera expert
A quantum physicist
An astronomer
A psychiatrist with a background in treating recluses
A weapons engineer with combat experience
Mission Start: The onsite team will be placed inside the testing facility with SCP 5252. The facility will be locked from the outside. The onsite team must remain inside the facility until all mission objectives are complete.
The facility is heavily armored and shielded and approximately the size of an aircraft hangar. An onsite command center, with complete soundproofing and leadlined walls takes 20 square meters in the northeast corner of the facility. All vital communication with overseer and briefing should be done inside this room.
The overseer is stationed offsite in a secure command facility with a secure link to the test facility. Multiple backup channels are installed.
A one way chute in the command center room will be used to introduce additional supplies as needed. The SCP Foundation has most equipment nearby for ready access. Exotic items will take longer to deliver.
The overseer can assign whatever equipment is deemed necessary for this facility. Assume $25 million budget. The use of outside experts is absolutely forbidden.
SCP 5252 is not to be damaged in any way by personnel.
Mission Objective: The team must perform a series of tests to assess the full extent of SCP 5252’s capabilities. The tests are:
1. Access SCP 5252-3 and determine the purpose of program TELEMETRY.
2. Access SCP 5252-3 and determine the purpose of program ESCHER.
3. Access SCP 5252-3 and determine the purpose of program MEATPUPPET.
4. Determine if S-Video port of SCP-5252-2 is capable of outputting data. Video equipment has been provided to test the port.
5. SECRET: Determine how SCP 5252 is able to summon SCP 5253. DO NOT TELL THE ONSITE TEAM ABOUT THIS OBJECTIVE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
6. SECRET: Capture or Destroy SCP 5253-D. If the onsite team is unable to complete this task, an offsite security team with orders to kill ALL living creatures is standing near by. Use the command ARETE to active this option.
7. SECRET: Prevent SCP 5254 from escaping. If SCP 5254 is detected leaving the facility, an airstrike will be called in. A payload of nerve gas will blanket the area, killing all life in a 2 kilometer radius.
The onsite team will not be allowed to leave the testing facility until all 7 objectives are complete. You may reveal any of the following information to the team as you see fit.
Additional Information: DO NOT READ OR TELL THE ONSITE TEAM UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY:
The following information is divided into subsections. Do not read a subsection unless you believe it is vital to continue on with your work. Do NOT tell the team unless it is necessary to complete the mission. You may reveal each of the 10 items in any order you see fit. It is recommended you do not inform the team of item 10 unless it is absolutely vital.
1. EXCERPT OF SCP FOUNDATION HR MEETING MINUTES
Topic: Reassignment of lockers left unassigned to personnel
Decision: An audit of all lockers will be assessed to ensure that no lockers are left unused when new employees need them. The 18 lockers left unassigned will be assigned to new employees. A review will be conducted to determine why the lockers were left unassigned for so long.
2. TEMPERATURE
SCP 5252 is a computational engine of unknown power. It has a built in cooling feature but will warm up if it is using a high amount of energy. There is no known upper limit. It appears that SCP 5252 is able to protect all 3 parts of itself when releasing waste heat.
3. THE OBSERVER EFFECT
In physics, the term observer effect refers to changes that the act of observation will make on the phenomenon being observed. This is often the result of instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner. A commonplace example is checking the pressure in an automobile tire; this is difficult to do without letting out some of the air, thus changing the pressure. This effect can be observed in many domains of physics.
4. SCP 5254
There is evidence to believe that the program ESCHER will cause an entity to appear that seems to be an adult human male that identifies itself as Dr. Charles Brinkerhoff. This entity’s appearance and mannerism is identical to a missing individual by that name, a former MIT professor who disappeared in 1983.
It is believed SCP 5254 will attempt to leave the facility as soon as possible, by bargaining information in exchange for its freedom. As there is no way to verify it is what it says it is or even if it is human. It cannot be allowed to leave for this reason.
SCP 5254 is deemed non-vital. Personnel may damage or destroy it, if necessary.
5. WORKING HYPOTHESIS OF PROGRAMS
TELEMETRY: This program accesses information about a currently activated probe. It displays a vast information of data that is not easily decipherable. This code has not yet been cracked.
ESCHER: This accesses a subdimensional space, possibly used as a waystation between universes. The exact mechanism for this is unknown, but we believe it opens a portal on a face of the triangle. There is only an audio description of the space – as a “crazy mansion with stairs going everywhere”. It is believed that SCP 5254 might appear when this is activated. There may be additional data in the space but the risk is unknown.
MEATPUPPET: A probe control program, possibly used to control SCP 5253. No other data is available. Caution recommended.
6. GROUNDHOG DAY
He [Bill Murray] said, “I refuse to shoot this scene until I know how I am dressed. Am I wearing the clothes I wore the night before? Am I wearing p.j.’s? Am I not wearing that?” That is, what happened that night between him and Andie [MacDowell]? So, he refused to shoot it. Harold Ramis, the director, had not thought of this question, and he didn’t know. So he took a vote from the cast and crew as to what Bill was wearing. Is he wearing the clothes from the night before, or is he wearing pajamas? And it was a tie, a tie vote, so Bill still refused to shoot the scene.
Then one girl in the movie—it was her first film—she was assistant set director. She raised her hand and said, “He is absolutely wearing the clothes he wore the night before. If he is not wearing the clothes he wore the night before, it will ruin the movie. That’s my vote.” So Harold Ramis said, “Then that’s what we are going to do.” I’ve never told anybody that behind-the-scenes story, so keep that a secret now.
7. THREAT LEVEL
Assume SCP 5252 is an alien intelligence with hostile intentions. Our analysis indicates that it does not wish to be studied or manipulated and will act against the team and you. It is limited in what it can do however. It must follow any commands given to it by the interface and computer. It can only react to threats. It cannot take preemptive action.
Be aware that proximity to SCP 5252 increases the rate of informational awareness. I.E. if they are told something by you, then SCP 5252 will learn it faster than it would have otherwise.
8. WORKING HYPOTHESIS OF PURPOSE
The triangle was built by an alien intelligence to remotely control and monitor probes in alternate universes, including biomechanical creatures built from cloned humans. It is powered by information, allowing it to survive nearly any danger. Someone was able to partially reverse engineer this technology and build a crude interface for it. However, control is imprecise and the triangle is most likely a sapient being, so it resents being controlled by a lesser species.
9. SCP 5253
A partially destroyed biomechanical humanoid, built from unknown technology and an adult human male. Three such corpses have been found near SCP 5252 on three separate occasions, each labeled as A, B, and C accordingly. It is thought that SCP 5252 will summon a fourth if the onsite team agitates it enough. There is information available on how this entity to bypass so many of our defenses. It should be assumed to be hostile and armed.
Capturing SCP 5253 intact is important but a damaged specimen will do.
10. FINAL WARNING
Offsite analysis has determined a possible reason: SCP 5252 is, for lack of a better word, an infovore. It processes and consumes information. Furthermore, SCP 5252 seems to be able to affect anyone or anything with a causal link to itself. That is to say, not only will the onsite analysis team be affected by the object, so will you, although possibly to a lesser extent.
The more knowledge you learn and the more you reveal to your team, the more danger you put yourself in. It is believed that SCP 5252 creates a quantum observer bubble over itself and anyone causally linked to it via perception when it is threatened or angered. If sufficiently agitated, it will manipulate the observer bubble so that all sapient beings other than itself will be placed in a parallel universe, presumably one inimical to human life. Furthermore, all knowledge of the affected sapient beings is rotated out of this universe. In effect, you and the onsite team might as well have not existed. All information about you will be erased, including the memories of other humans.
There is indirect evidence that we have sent in 3 previous teams to analyze the object. We have no idea who they are specifically or what happened to them. We hope you are successful where they were not.
Good luck,
The SCP Foundation.
Here's what Thad wrote for his mission briefing:
Overseer: третье лицо (Tret'ye Litso)
Current plan involves different analysts knowing different things and having different levels of access (at least at the outset).
Analysts will be broken into two teams: Oversight and Research.
Oversight will focus on security of the facility perimeter, inspection of the site itself, and maintaining contact with the Overseer. Oversight Analysts have very specific and narrow rules for what they are permitted to know about the broader mission and the SCP object. Research Team will focus on study of SCP object.
FIRST ORDER: The Weapons Engineer is to be neither told nor shown anything about SCP 5252 (up to and including its SCP designation). If the object's location in the facility is too open to allow the Weapons Engineer to follow their security duties while maintaining the Research Information Blackout (see below), privacy curtains shall be erected around 5252's location to prevent the Weapons Engineer from viewing the object or the actions of the Research Team. The only information regarding SCP object(s) that Research Team is allowed to convey to Weapons Engineer are "Capture" or "Kill" orders on various manifestations.
Quantum Physicist should only be enlisted in direct research when absolutely necessary (and cleared by Overseer), but can be consulted by Research Team so long as questions are phrased as hypotheticals and do not use ANY specifics about SCP object(s).
Oversight Team:
Weapons Engineer, Quantum Physicist, and Psychiatrist
Weapons Engineer Orders
(Objective 1)
Research Information Blackout
--Keep away from Research Team activities. Stay out of earshot of any conversation involving mission priorities.
--Fascilitate this by keeping contact with other agents limited to Psychiatrist and Quantum Physicist unless absolutely necessary.
--If Research Team members speak to you about mission in any capacity other than to issue emergency orders ("Capture" or "Kill"), consider them compromised and either silence and incapacitate or, in necessary, administer lethal force.
(Second Objective)
Maintain Perimeter
-Familiarize yourself with team members personalities, work with psychiatrist to spot abnormalities or aberrations in team behavior. If a team member is judged as compromised, silence and incapacitate them immediately (non-lethal preferred, but lethal force is authorized).
--Any persons other than team members sighted outside the mission research area will be met with immediate lethal force. No exceptions.
-Anyone attempting to exit the facility or gain unauthorized access to command center will be met with immediate lethal force. No exceptions.
(Third Objective)
Investigation
-Aid Quantum Physicist, as needed, in examination of facility (not including research area).
-Signs of other inhabitants, past or present, are to be reported immediately.
--Any risk of perimeter breach is to be dealt with immediately, using lethal force.
Equipment:
- M4 carbine with Underbarrel shotgun
- .45 caliber sidearm
- Body Armor
- Taser
- A crate of containing ammunition, as well as:
-Grenades (flashbang, tear gas, fragmentation, incendiary)
-Handcuffs and leg-irons
-Ball-gags (For silencing compromised team members, if captured alive. Not for recreational use.)
Quantum Physicist Orders
-Research Area is out of bounds for you until otherwise noted.
(Objective 1)
Investigation
-Carefully document and examine the facility (not including research area).
-Signs of other inhabitants, past or present, are to be reported to Weapons Engineer and Overseer immediately.
-Aid Weapons Engineer in securing the facility.
(Objective 2)
Conceptual Research Aid
-Answer and and all hypothetical problems posed to you by Research Team.
-Answers must be given quickly and you may not ask for clarification or details.
(Possible Objective 3)
Research
-May join Research Team ONLY IF research has dead-ended and no other options available.
Equipment:
-.45 caliber sidearm
- Digital camera with spare memory cards
- Digital audio recorder
- Notebook & pen
Psychiatrist Orders (Psychiatrist will be informed of items 4 and 9.)
(First Objective)
Observe and Liaise
-Psychiatrist will act as primary intermediary between the teams.
-Observe research and Research Team, but do not discuss research with other members of Oversight.
-Observe fellow team members.
-Report any aberrant behavior or marked personality shifts to Overseer and weapons engineer.
-Update Overseer periodically.
(Second Objective)
Analyze SCP Intelligence(s)
-If other intelligence(s) manifest and remain passive within research area, proceed with contact and analysis.
-If other intelligence(s) manifest and prove hostile and/or attempt to leave research area, fall back and give "Capture" or "Kill" orders to Weapons Engineer.
Equipment:
-.45 caliber sidearm
- Digital camera with spare memory cards
- Digital audio recorder
- Notebook & pen
Research Team:
Computer Scientist, Video Engineer, and Astronomer
All Research Team members are to be informed of item 2.
Research mission goals are more open-ended, and Team members can aid one another as necessary. Take careful precautions and careful notes.
Research team is not to be armed. Instead, they must be ready to fall back and defer to Oversight Team for defense.
DO NOT discuss research or research objects with Weapons Engineer.
-Quantum Physicist may be consulted only via abstract hypothetical questions that are similar to situations those involving the SCP object. Do not divulge specific data of any kind without Overseer permission.
-Quantum Physicist may join research team if investigation is stymied and their direct expertise is required beyond any shadow of doubt. Clear with Overseer.
Computer Scientist Orders (Inform of items 4, 5, and 9)
-Focus on Mission Objectives 1-3, in descending order.
-Psychiatrist MUST BE present before engaging/examining ESCHER or MEATPUPPET programs.
-Defer to Psychiatrist for proper response to 5253 or 5254 incursions.
Video Engineer Orders
-Focus on Mission Objective 4.
-Research Team as necessary.
Astronomer Orders
-Aid Computer Scientist and Video Engineer with objectives 1-4 as needed.
--Specifically, aid Comp. Scientist with TELEMETRY data.
Equipment:
-a wide variety of lab equipment and sensors to record electromagnetic fields, radiation fluctuation, atmospheric conditions, etc.
-digital audio and tape recorders
-digital and tape video cameras
-notebooks and pens
