A tentative and far from perfect selection of fan-made British professions for PISCES games. Technically all PISCES officers are part of PISCES no matter what skillset they have - so it's perfectly acceptable for a player to pick any of the professions from the Agents Handbook, slap down the points and then say "Fuck off, Filth - I'm with Section" when someone queries what they're playing as. It's a hell of a lot easier than faffing about with what your PC's previous life was before they got black-bagged by the Gods. But RPG'ers gonna RPG, I guess...
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> BRITISH ARMY
While British Army's role in the War on Terror has increased the number of soldiers stumbling onto the Unnatural - something that should provide PISCES with the pick of the crop - the sweeping range of cuts and regimental amalgamations introduced into the military over the last decade has made it somewhat harder to pull in those people they actually want.
When they do get the opportunity, Section goes for intelligence officers (particularly interrogators and members of the military police), sappers from the Royal Corps of Signals or Royal Engineers, and soldiers from the Brigade of Gurkhas. The hardy psychology and toughness of the latter are particularly appealing, Gurkhas having been used on numerous operations against the occult since 1968.
Brigade of Gurkhas Soldier:
Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 30%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 40%, Foreign Language (English) 40%, Heavy Weapons 40%, Melee Weapons 60% Military Science (Land) 40%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 30%, Unarmed Combat 50%.
Pick any four from:
Artillery 20%
Demolitions 20%
Heavy Machinery 30%
Occult 30%
Search 40%
SIGINT 20%
Swim 40%
Bonds: 3
Special: All Gurkhas carry a kukri in a sheath hidden in the small of their back. It deals 1D8 damage. Their native language is Nepali.
Military Policeman (Provost)
Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Criminology 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 30%, Forensics 50%, HUMINT 50%, Law 20%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 40%, Search 50%, Unarmed Combat 60%
Bonds: 3
Royal Engineer Sapper
Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 30%, Craft (Military Engineering) 40%, Demolitions 20%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 40%, Heavy Machinery 50%, Military Science (Land) 40%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 30%, Science (Player Choice) 30%, Science (Physics) 40%, Unarmed Combat 40%
Bonds: 4
77th Brigade Interrogation Specialist
Alertness 50%, Bureaucracy 40%, Criminology 40%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 40%, Foreign Language 50%, Foreign Language 40%, HUMINT 60%, Persuade 60%, Pharmacy 40%, Psychotherapy 40%, SIGINT 40%, Unarmed Combat 50%
Bonds: 2
Army Air Corps Helicopter Pilot
As Pilot.
> ARMY/ROYAL NAVY SPECIAL FORCES
The British armed forces field a number of elite units, including the Special Air Service (SAS), the Special Boat Service (SBS) and the Royal Marines Fleet Protection Group (which guards naval nuclear weapons and serves as a marine counterterrorism unit for oil-rigs and ships).
Since 9/11 practically all of these elite units have been cross-trained so as to be functionally interchangeable in game-terms. PISCES puts them on field-teams because they know how to punch and shoot things, something helpful when the rest of the team only knows how to curl up in a ball or shout "help!" in Sumerian.
SAS, SBS, Royal Marine etc.
As Special Forces Operator.
> BORDER FORCE
Border Force is a broad and rather complex agency whose employees are both customs officers and immigration officers. They man the desks at airports and ports, checking passports and rummaging through baggage. Some of them also work in joint-agency operations to gather intelligence on potential smugglers or other criminals.
Their most visible (and despised) arm, however, are the Immigration Enforcement officers who follow-up on tip-offs of overstayers and migrants illegally living in the UK. PISCES likes Border Force; it operates with relative impunity, can pick up foreigners on a whim and it manages a bunch of private detainment centers for deportees. If Agents don't have an MI5 badge, maybe they can get a Border Force one...
Customs Officer
Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 40%,
Criminology 40%, Drive 50%, First Aid 30%, HUMINT 50%, Law 40%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 40%, Pharmacy 30%, Pilot (Boat) 50%, Search 50%,
Unarmed Combat 50%. Bonds: 3
Immigration Enforcement Officer
Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Criminology 40%, Drive 50%, First Aid 30%, Foreign Language 40%, HUMINT 50%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 40%, Search 40%. Bonds: 4
> COUNTER-TERRORISM COMMAND (CTC)
Created in the 1860s as the Metropolitan Police's Special Irish Branch, investigating and intercepting Fenian terrorism in the UK, the next century and a half saw Special Branch become the Crown's political police, with anti-terrorism and anti-subversion its bread-and-butter.
In the mid-2000s Special Branch amalgamated with the Metropolitan Police's other counter-terrorism units to form CTC (or SO15), a national anti-terror umbrella. Headquartered in London, CTC has five regional sub-departments covering the rest of the country. Each territorial police force also fields its own counter-terrorism wing, which operates closely with CTC London.
CTC Detective
Alertness 50%, Bureaucracy 40%, Computer Science 30%, Criminology 50%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, Forensics 40%, HUMINT 50%, Law 40%, Persuade 50%, Search 50%, Unarmed 50%. Bonds: 4
Azure Surveillance Officer
Alertness 60%, Art (Photography/Cinematography) 60%, Computer Science 50%, Craft (Electrician) 40%, Craft (Lockpick) 40%, Craft (Microelectronics) 40%, Search 30%, Stealth 40%
And pick any three from:
Athletics 60%
Criminology 40%
Disguise 40%
Drive 50%
Law 30%
Pilot (Drone) 30%
Navigate 30%
Bonds: 3
Undercover Officer
Alertness 60%, Criminology 60%, Disguise 60%, Drive 50%, HUMINT 60%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Persuade 60%, Search 40%, Stealth 60%
And pick any two from:
Accounting 40%
Athletics 60%
Firearms 50%
History 40%
Pharmacy 30%
Survival 40%
Bonds: 3
> CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE (CPS)
Formed in 1986 to provide government lawyers for criminal prosecutions and civil cases. The UK is divided into 12 separate CPS regions, each headed by a Crown Advocate, and operating under the Director of Public Prosecutions. An unusual figure in a PISCES team; but then PISCES is an unusual agency.
Crown Prosecutor
Accounting 40%, Anthropology 40%, Bureaucracy 50%, Criminology 40%, Foreign Language (Latin) 40%, History 40%, HUMINT 50%, Persuade 60%, SIGINT 40%.
Bonds: 4
> DEFENSE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY (Dstl)
Part of the Ministry of Defense (MOD), the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory is active in military procurement, testing, development and experimentation in multiple areas of military application. In other words, it develops and purchases bombs and other munitions. PISCES normally ends up poaching these egg-heads for research on Unnatural materials; others were already read-on to the weirdness when they signed-up with Severn Aerospace.
Government Scientist
As Scientist
> GOVERNMENT CYPHER HEADQUARTERS (GCHQ)
Britain's code-making, code-breaking and communications surveillance department, based out of Cheltenham. Their HQ is nicknamed "the Doughnut" - because it looks like a big doughnut.
GCHQ chappies and chappettes are considered rather more nerdy and unassuming than their MI5 and MI6 colleagues. PISCES like that because it means they're quiet. Also, advanced math and codebreaking are definite pluses when it comes to rituals.
Joint Technical Language Service Interpreter
Accounting 40%, Anthropology 50%, Athletics 40%, Bureaucracy 40%, Foreign Language 60%, Foreign Language 50%, Foreign Language 40%, History 40%, HUMINT 50%, Law 20%, Persuade 60%, SIGINT 40%
Bonds: 2
GCHQ Signals Analyst
As Intelligence Analyst
> HEALTH PROTECTION SERVICES
Britain's emergency epidemeological response was a single national entity until 2013, when it was broken into four spearate health protection agencies, one each for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each nations' staff was made of various experts in logistics, epidemiology, future planning etc.
Some experts argued it ended up being more trouble than it's worth during the COVID-19 epidemic, with each agency pulling for their own nation's benefit rather than the good of the whole. In 2021 the English agency was reforned as the UK Health Security Agency and quietly began serving as an umbrella for the . A new national epidemiological agency, the Joint Bio-Security Centre, was also created under it to use data analytics to formally investigate and police outbreaks of disease.
Planning and Logistics Staffer
As Program Manager
Epidemiologist
As Physician or Nurse/Paramedic
Joint Bio-Security Analyst
Accounting 60%, Bureaucracy 60%, Computer Science 50%, History 40%, Law 40%, Medicine 30%, Persuade 50%, SIGINT 50%
Pick one from:
Anthropology 30%
Art (Choose one) 30%
Forensics 30%
Pharmacy 30%
> HER MAJESTY'S REVENUE AND CUSTOMS (HMRC)
Formed from the amalgamation of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and the tax-collecting Inland Revenue department, HMRC is a strange Frankenstein's Monster of a creation. No longer in control of border security (which was passed to UK Border Force), Customs officers effectively serve as a law-enforcement arm for both the tax department and Border Force.
Customs officers surveil, investigate and arrest criminals ranging from tax-evaders to high-level drug bosses, while the more bureaucratic tax inspectors look into accounts, dodgy receipts and corporate documents.
HMRC National Intelligence Division Drug Interdiction Officer
Athletics 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Firearms 50%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Other Language 40%, Pilot (Boat) 40%, Pharmacy 40%, Search 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%
Pick two from:
Anthropology 20%
Drive 40%
First Aid 30%
Stealth 30%
SIGINT 20%
Bonds: 4
Tax Inspector
As Lawyer or Business Executive
> NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY (NCA)
Planned as a kind of uber-'UK FBI', the NCA never really became the all-singing, all-dancing, over-arching police agency it was originally intended. Having sucked in the best and brightest of many different agencies - from the police to the Customs service - on over-puffed salaries, there was a slow realization among NCA's top-brass that no one was too sure how they were meant to operate or what their remit really was. The end result is a very formal, very prim-and-proper, heavily oversighted agency that does things 'by-the-book'. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the early entry door-kickers quit.
Today, while NCA does carry out some operations on its own (mostly related to top-level organized crime and surveillance), most of the agency's work is focused on supporting the UK police's regional organized crime units, the job of the Serious Fraud Office, and liaising with foreign agencies regarding 'high-quality' intelligence and tech-jockeying in cybercrime, child-protection and firearm tracing.
Cybercapability Specialist
As Computer Scientist
Missing Persons Bureau
As Program Manager
> SECURITY SERVICE (MI5)
Better
known to the public as "MI5" (from its historic military intelligence
position), in civil service slang it's known as "Box." This is Britain's internal
security agency. It has wide ranging powers of investigation but is forced to rely on regular police for arrests, as it has no formal police powers. MI5 doesn't like PISCES these days and rarely allow their officers to be stolen away.
Desk Officer
Alertness
50%, Bureaucracy 50%, Criminology 50%, Disguise 50%, Drive 40%, HUMINT
60%, Law 50%, Persuade 60%, Search 40%
Pick any three from:
Accounting 30%
Anthropology 30%
Computer Science 30%
History 40%
Military Science (Any) 30%
Stealth 40%
Bonds: 3
Informant Liaison
Accounting 40%,
Anthropology 40%, Bureaucracy 50%, Computer Science 50%, Criminology
40%, Foreign Language 50%, Foreign Language 40%, History 40%, SIGINT 40%
Bonds: 4
> SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (MI6)
No longer as completely riddled with Communist moles as it once was, MI6 is Britain's foreign intelligence department - the agency that James Bond works for - the one that sends people overseas on sneaky missions of derring-do. It's mostly boring busy-work, though a lot of MI6 employees try to emulate the James Bond lifestyle with varying success. Fast cars and funny-named drinks are still par for course among employees.
Intelligence Officer
As Intelligence Analyst
Foreign Service Officer
As Intelligence Case Officer
Special Projects "Sandbagger"
Alertness 50%, Athletics 60%, Disguise 50%, Demolitions 40%, Firearms 60%, Foreign Language 30%, HUMINT 40%, Melee Weapons 50%, Military Science (Land) 50%, Navigate 40%, Stealth 50%, Swim 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%.
Bonds: 3
> SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE (SFO)
Britain's equivalent of the heavy hand of the American IRS. While Inland Revenue does have its own investigatory wing, it's the SFO who look into the 'Big Boys': the Al Capones, the Facebooks, and the accusations of bribery or graft at the very top of the Establishment. As a non-police arm of the judiciary SFO can both investigate and prosecute cases, though its investigators are not actual policemen and have no legal powers of arrest. SFO investigators run the gamut from ex-coppers to accountants and even the odd ex-criminal.
SFO Investigator
Accounting 40%, Alertness 50%, Criminology 50%, Dodge 40%, Drive 50%, Law 40%, Melee Weapons 40%, Persuade 50%, Search 60%, Unarmed Combat 50%
And choose two from:
Anthropology 40%
Craft (Locksmithing) 40%
Disguise 50%
Foreign Language 40%
HUMINT 50%
Occult 50%
Stealth 50%
Bonds: 4
Forensic Accountant
Accounting 60%, Bureaucracy 50%, HUMINT 40%, Persuade 50%
And any five from:
Anthropology 40%
Archeology 40%
Art (Choose one) 40%
Computer Science 40%
Criminology 50%
Foreign Language 40%
Law 40%
Occult 50%
Bonds: 4
> TERRITORIAL AND SPECIAL POLICE FORCES
England and Wales is divided into 40 county police forces and three city forces (the Metropolitan Police Service covering London, City of London Police which deals with the capital city's center and Greater Manchester Police).
Since 2013 the entirety of Scotland is dealt with by Police Scotland, whil Northern Ireland is handled by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Rail networks and crimes on trains are the remit of the British Transport Police (BTP), though local police have joint jurisdiction.
Aside from Northern Ireland's police service, whose officers are armed as standard and wear green uniforms, all of the United Kingdom's territorial forces wear similar uniforms, carry similar equipment and have mostly similar organizational structures.
Uniformed police wear stab-vests, carry expandable batons and CS-spray, and generally patrol by car or - more rarely - on foot. Each constabulary has a plainclothes Criminal Investigation Department (CID), whose officers are drawn from the uniformed ranks through exams. They hold the same ranks as their colleagues but are prefixed Detective. The old days of rivalry between the two divisions is mostly gone, as today all detectives must return to "plod" or "uniform" for a few weeks each year.
Specialist units within police forces include scenes of crime officers (SOCO, the UK equivalent of CSIs, who are non-LEO civilians), mounted units, public-order and riot teams (normally referred to as Territorial Support Groups or Units; they patrol in vans of six to eight officers), and authorised firearm officers (AFOs). AFOs' armed-response vehicles (ARVs) are constantly on patrol, officers carrying a taser and a sidearm. Semi-auto rifles are in a lock-box in the car boot.
Almost a quarter of police officers in mainland Britian are authorised to use and trained in firearms, though the majority only carry tasers and never touch a firearm outside of training. High-risk warrants, hostage-situations and other "SWAT" incidents are handled by specialist firearm officers (SFOs). The most highly-trained SFOs are Counter-Terrorism SFOs (CTSFOs), who can be called upon or are held in reserve for the most serious of situations.
Since 2003 most AFOs and nearly every SFO is ex-British Army. CTSFO are almost exclusively ex-Special Forces.
There are also some special non-regional constabularies in the UK. These include the Ministry of Defense Police (which is an armed but non-military force guarding military and special nuclear installations) and the Civil Nuclear Police, a small agency that polices nuclear power-stations, civilian nuclear material in transit, and shipyards and ships that import or export radiaoctive material. Both the MDP and CNP wear standard police gear but all their members are authorised firearm officers.
Police Officer/Detective
As Police Officer but set Firearms to base and Occult 20%, Law 40%
Authorised Firearm Officer
As Police Officer
Specialist or Counterterrorism Specialist Firearm Officer
As ICE Special Response Team (p.121)
> PISCES MEDIA LIAISON / BRITISH MEDIA
Every organization survives on spin and PISCES is no exception. The Section picks its media liaison officers from the glut of newspaper correspondents and PR spin-doctors who are already taking cash from the government. Most spend their entire careers never realizing who or what they're covering up. The few that do often go a little bit weird. PISCES tries not to let them out of their cages too often, but when they do end up going on a field trip at least they know it won't make tomorrow's papers.
Media Control Officer
As Media Specialist
Yeah, it really do be like that...
Some things worth trying for
Even something worth dying for...
No AC13?
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