Game Fodder / Story Fodder

[Tim]

When Delta Green op sec falls apart.

http://mobile.rawstory.com/therawstory/#!/entry/ghosthunters-allegedly-burn-down-historic-louisiana-plantation,5293a529025312186c909dca/1

[clockworkjoe]

FOR TOM http://io9.com/action-and-horror-movie-characters-get-cutesy-manga-mak-1474091326/@laurendavis

[clockworkjoe]

someone make a survival horror adventure or post-apoc scenario based on this http://www.nathab.com/polar-bear-tours/tundra-lodge-town-adventure/

[Review Cultist]

someone make a survival horror adventure or post-apoc scenario based on this http://www.nathab.com/polar-bear-tours/tundra-lodge-town-adventure/

I imagine the Gnoph-Keh would be involved. If it was a Cthulhu game.

[D6xD6 - Chris]

So, uh, does anyone else believe that Simon Beck has seen Carcosa?

http://www.viralnova.com/simon-beck-snow-art/

#wow

[Henry Hankovitch]

Some dude on 4chan wrote a paramilitary guide to killing supernaturals:

I wrote this up originally for Hunters in WoD but you can apply it to any armed individual or unit combating a threat.

To begin we’ll start with the basic fact that mortal Hunters are woefully and completely inadequate for going up against supernaturals; especially solo. Going head to head or being put in a situation where the supernatural has any serious advantage over you is a death sentence.

As a single Hunter, a member of a small cell, or a member of an organization that gives its members significant autonomy your best bet is to be using my personal variation of the F3EAD Targeting Process with significant adjustments made for the supernatural threat you are facing. PF3EADS stands for Prepare, Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze, Disseminate, and Sterilize. To give you some basis on where I am coming from F3EAD is what JSOC uses to hunt down and eliminate insurgent forces in Afghanistan and formerly a previous iteration of it was used in Iraq.

I will walk you through each step and adjust accordingly for the fact I am applying this to fighting supernaturals.

PREPARE
Before you even begin PF3EADS you would do well to be prepared.

Preparation includes:
-Equipment such as incendiary, silver, iron, salt, gypsy tears, etc ammunition for all firearms or edged weapons made of/imbued with that material. If the threat is even more unconventional special attention should be paid to equipping yourself with something that will do the greatest damage to your enemy. Medical equipment, night vision, communications, and concealable body armor are also a must have.

-Skills such as the Combat Marksmanship Merit or an otherwise mastered proficiency for your prefered method of killing should be of particular import to you. This includes the knowledge to build IEDs (Vampire gets into car, opens front door, lays down in bed, etc. BOOM! EFP/gasoline bomb engulfs their ass in fire), providing medical treatment to yourself or others for combat trauma, the stealth and streetwise necessary to surveil and track a target in rural and urban terrain both directly and indirectly, and the larceny ability which will be critical when it comes to acquiring a new method of transportation after or during each operation as well as providing easier access to targets.

-A temporary Tactical Operations Center (TOC) separate from the character’s residence that can be sterilized with thermite with the call of a cell phone if a fast escape is necessary or taken down in under 3 minutes if there is time available. Operational Security should be maintained at all times and no one but the Hunters themselves should know the TOC’s location. Additionally, the TOC should be regularly checked for surveillance and intrusion and sterilized with thermite if any sign is found. Nothing from a compromised TOC should be retained regardless of monetary or sentimental value to the Hunters. I personally recommend storage facilities. TOCs should be changed after every Targeting Process.

-A temporary means of transportation that is commonly found in the Area of Operations (AO). Transportation should be sterilized and changed with every encounter with a supernatural regardless of whether the encounter was successful or remained uncompromised. Sterilization of a vehicle should include scrubbing it of fingerprints, removing the VIN and license plates to be scattered in dumpsters in a different neighborhood, burning the vehicle with thermite if any body fluids were spilled, or leaving it unlocked with the keys in the ignition in a high crime neighborhood if not.

FIND

This phase is all about merely learning about or spotting a High-Value Individual (HVI) for the first time. Firstly you must confirm that the subject is a supernatural or otherwise conducting themselves in a manner that would lead you to target the for a Kill Capture mission. If you have a name, phone number, or location from information or intelligence gathered previously you a can continue with the process. If you are not aware of an HVI you will need to conduct surveillance or sweeps of the AO.

My personal favorite technique was to go to areas I knew had vampires such as club district or busy areas absolutely bustling with what would initially appear to be human activity and observe to venue with a digital camera. When I saw someone blurry through the camera (WoD vampires do this) I would surveill them for as long as I could while keeping other characters on standby to swap out with me to maintain surveillance or to separate and follow other possible targets the HVI interacted with.

Something important to note about PF3EADS is that if your HVI presents you with the opportunity to skip ahead to the Finish phase of the process you are free to prosecute the target. However, it is important to know the difference between just an opportunity and a good opportunity that will allow for a solid Exploit phase. Use sound judgment.

With an HVI successfully found you can begin establishing target priority, assign assets if your unit is larger, confirm HVI, further locate HVI, and decide on a course of action.

You have only two courses of action: Kill or Capture.

Killing your target is done with the express purpose of rendering a target so damaged that it cannot function as intended nor be restored to a useable condition without being entirely rebuilt.

Capturing your target is done with the express purpose of disrupting your enemy to preclude effective cohesion and support systems while enabling detailed exploitation of the captured target. Capture is not ideal given the individual strengths and abilities of supernatural HVIs and in some cases should not even be attempted.

FIX

Once the HVI is identified you are to maintain surveillance, maintain HVI identification, and refine the target’s place and time so you can execute the Finish and Exploit phases to maximum effectiveness. Fixing is all about further refining information you gathered in the Find phase so that you can know at any time whether you are able execute a Kill Capture mission successfully or not. Your intent is to focus and unblinking eye squarely upon the target for the duration of your operation.

FINISH

This is generally the operational climax. In this phase you will execute your mission.

Lethal combat operations in which the Hunters or their surrogates close with and destroy or seize enemy facilities, equipment, or personnel are one type of operation associated with the Finish phase.

However, the finish phase can just as easily be non-kinetic in nature. Neutralization of an enemy communications node, disrupting a courier network, legal prosecution of key target personalities, or achieving a desired psychological, political, or social effect are just as much a part of Finish as missile strikes, explosives, or direct action.

EXPLOIT

This phase; as the main effort of PF3EADS, is the most critical single step in the process as it leads to the Finding, Fixing, and Finishing of the next target and the perpetuation of the cycle. The overall aim of the exploitation effort is to produce enough actionable intelligence to perpetuate the PF3EADS process as rapidly as possible.

You're looking for laptops, hard drives, cell phones, documents, enemy personnel, and anything else you can imagine which will provide information that will allow you to engage the enemy across his network. With this information you can build a targeting matrix and begin working your way through all the HVIs of your AO.

ANALYZE

In this phase the information gained in the previous phases turns into intelligence which can be used to drive future operations. Remember that anything you have acquired should be analyzed and destroyed by thermite immediately following its usage and do not underestimate the network you HVI belonged to. It is not difficult to triangulate a cell phone’s location your unit is now cracking, activate the webcam on a computer in order to see the face of who is hacking it, or utilizing supernatural tracking methods to divine the location of important objects or personnel you may have seized.

DISSEMINATION

Now that you have analyzed the information you must review it and decide what can be disseminated to other Hunters. Remember do not compromise your OPSEC. Presume that any information that is given to those outside your unit should be done under the presumption that is is being given directly to the enemy so it would naturally benefit you not to give out any information about future targets you will engage lest those HVIs become aware and make your attempts to Find, Fix, and Finish them difficult if not impossible.

STERILIZE

This phase is continuous and pervasive. It should be conducted at all times during the Process from start to finish. Everything you purchase for the operation should be done through at least one; if not more, third parties who should either be unaware of your identity or eliminated, everything you touch during the operation should be scrubbed clean, spilled blood of team members should be doused in bleach, other forensic evidence and locations wherein the team conducts serious actions (such as the TOC, the location of the Finish phase, the location of the Exploit phase) should be sterilized with thermite. Attempts to conceal or alter the physical appearance of the Hunters should be made while conducting operations. It is important to conduct these counterintelligence/countersurveillance operations continuously as the networks you will be attempting to destroy and disrupt will attempt to Find, Fix, and Finish you as well. Sterilize everything you wore or used in an encounter with an HVI whether it was overt or covert, a failure or a success. Take absolutely no chances at any time. Presume that everything you touch or utilize can be traced back to you if it was carried or utilized within the general vicinity of an HVI.

Obviously this brings up the issue of resupply in terms of equipment and materiel. If you belong to a larger organization who can replenish you by all means utilize them. Otherwise bulk purchases done through one or more third party brokers wherein communications remain anonymous or the broker who becomes aware of your identity is eliminated. Theft and other illicit means of acquisition are also necessary and preferable when it come to some items such as vehicle acquisition and sterilization.

[Kamen]

Are you a bad enough dude to be a Botswanian Death Metal renegade?
http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/12/27/the-heavy-metal-subculture-of-botswana-africa/

[D6xD6 - Chris]

Nothing horrible will result from this!  Nothing at all...  #wtfJapan

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9BT00520131230?feedType=RSS&irpc=932

[TheStrangerInTheFog]

It sure is a good thing that strange, lost geographical features don't resurface, and unleash great evil upon the world in real life.

Oh wait.

[Setherick]

Nothing horrible will result from this!  Nothing at all...  #wtfJapan

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9BT00520131230?feedType=RSS&irpc=932

I'm glad that someone posted this. I've been very lax on collecting fodder. I need to get back to it.

[Setherick]

It sure is a good thing that strange, lost geographical features don't resurface, and unleash great evil upon the world in real life.

Oh wait.

Related, for those of you not in the know, the clonal colony: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonal_colony

[TheStrangerInTheFog]

Also, I'm sure many of you have heard of the Voynich Manuscript. What if, in a CoC game, investigators discovered something similar, which turned out to be a record of the flora and fauna (as well as details on reaching) a parallel world or something? Human civilization having evolved differently to our own - mega-bears and stuff still running around. England regularly winning the World Cup. That kind of thing. *shrug*

[clockworkjoe]

Also, I'm sure many of you have heard of the Voynich Manuscript. What if, in a CoC game, investigators discovered something similar, which turned out to be a record of the flora and fauna (as well as details on reaching) a parallel world or something? Human civilization having evolved differently to our own - mega-bears and stuff still running around. England regularly winning the World Cup. That kind of thing. *shrug*

Codex Seraphinianus is a similar book, although one with a known author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus

[TheStrangerInTheFog]

I've always thought this would be a cool setting for a CoC/Fear Itself series:

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Machine

A strange, mechanical chasm is discovered beneath the Earth, with a seemingly impossible network of tunnels spread out through its crust.

Also insane Soviet or Nazi (time-period dependant) remnant forces and deadly cleaning-automatons that are "just doing their job" by obliterating the party.

[Setherick]

Cool photos: http://www.weather.com/news/science/haunting-photos-ice-covered-buildings-20140107