Preparing the CIA Squad

No session last week due to work schedules not cooperating. Tonight's session might also not go.

My players have been tasked with eliminating a CIA team who is out to assassinate/kill their principal, Mr. X, in an attempt to hide CIA aid going to the PKK within Turkey.

The team has five members:

• 1 Communications expert
• 3 Wet works men
• 1 Intelligence/Leader

P.42 of Tactical Shooting has a nice infobox listing out Guns Skill Levels to help GMs realistically stat out shooters. Of note, special-ops soldiers are listed as having Guns up to 15, with professional soldiers/federal agents allowed up to 13.

For attributes, I'm giving each one 11 ST, 12 DX, 12 IQ and 11 HT, a spread very similar to the base agent template used for all PCs, except with 1 less IQ and DX. This is a team explicitly meant to hunt down people and kill them, it makes sense that they'd be above average (Agents of Section and Agency 17 are exceptional). 8 points in any Guns specialty (DX/E) will give a final skill of 15. The non-hitter members of the team will have 2 Points in Guns for a skill level of 13.

Other skills will be at around the same levels. Since I expect a firefight, Guns will be front and center. Throwing and striking/grappling skills will probably also be explicitly specified.

...Still deciding on grenades. Might be too lethal. Then again:

Jamie like big boom. -Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters

For body armor, I've selected Assault Vests, Ballistic Leggings, and Boots. That's DR 12 vs piercing and cut damage, DR 5 against everything else. Trauma plates are complete overkill and really heavy. Pistols flat out won't cut it against the torso or legs, although the neck, skull, arms and feet are all unarmored. 7d weapons can expect to do at least 12-13 damage to the torso per hit (roughly 50% of the time), which would cause immediate HT checks for stun/knockback and unconsciousness.

Hand to hand combat isn't really advisable since 5 DR would be tough for the Agents to punch through.

Of course, if the CIA team isn't prepared for a fight because the Agents ambush them at their hideout, they likely won't be locked and loaded to rumble, making things much easier on my players.

Things will likely start with Tobias tracking the communications expert somehow. After a few contests of skill to see if Tobias can locate the guy without alerting him, then the fight should break out. I'm probably going to have to enforce one or two equipment penalties to lower Tobias from skill levels around 17-18 to 15 or 16ish to close the gap enough to make it a little more competitive.

For weapons, I'm likely going to go with an eclectic mix of assault rifles, SMGs and maybe a shotgun with slugs. And sidearms, of course. I'll probably stick with vanilla ammo. Because simplicity.