Technology and Magic

[X] Plan: To Save the World

[] South East Asia
[] A new base


[] Origins:
-[] A scientist, you are seconded because you are smart enough to explain quantum physics to a five-year-old kid (+2 Technology research, -1 Intrigue)
[] Traits (choose up to 3)
-[] Baptised under fire: You have been in a firefight before, so you know how to compose yourself... even at the cost of being nice (+1 Martial, -1 Diplomacy)
-[] Magical: Your family is magical. Blacklight is an anti-magical task force. Enough said. (+1 Magic research, +1 Intrigue, -1 Diplomacy)
-[] Otaku: Despite your appearance (avid cosplay-er), you are actually very smart and competent... as long as people are able to look past the spectacular collection of figurines and costumes in your room (+1 Magic research, +1 Technology research, -1 Diplomacy)

Thinking something like this, but not quite bound to a backstory yet.

veekie said:

Thinking something like this, but not quite bound to a backstory yet.

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The backstory is mostly for the fluff and interactions, it is not quite critical to the whole quest... but having more flavors is certainly better.

Well, the mention of the weed-high guy who names a secret organization, an otaku niece who woo her school's student council president, otaku as a trait for our character... It's rather anticlimactic to the tone I expected from the quest, to be honest.

[X] Western Europe
[X] A new base
[X] Abigail Williams
-[X] Female
-[X] 34
[X] Origins:
-[X] A scientist, you are seconded because you are smart enough to explain quantum physics to a five-year-old kid (+2 Technology research, -1 Intrigue)
[X] Traits
-[X] Baptised under fire: You have been in a firefight before, so you know how to compose yourself... even at the cost of being nice (+1 Martial, -1 Diplomacy)
-[X] Education by Osmosis: You spent enough time sorting through jargon-filled reports and listening to Old Man's explanations of what those reports actually mean to learn a thing or two about highly unethical and theoretical science
-[X] Silver tongue: The rumors say that you once charm enough of your classmates to have an orgy... it is a lie, considering that is only a threesome (+2 Diplomacy, -1 Intrigue)

[X] Name: Regina Casey
[X] Age: 32
[X] Female

[X] Antarctica
-5 Stewardship
+15 Technology and Magic research
[X] A new base
Pro:
Very spacious
New equipment available
Cons:
There's nothing there


[X] Origins:
-[X] A scientist, you are seconded because you are smart enough to explain quantum physics to a five-year-old kid (+2 Technology research, -1 Intrigue)
[X] Traits (choose up to 3)
-[X] Education by Osmosis: You spent enough time sorting through jargon-filled reports and listening to Old Man's explanations of what those reports actually mean to learn a thing or two about highly unethical and theoretical science (+1 Research)

Accepted by @ComradeH :
-[X] Write-in - Experienced Station manager: After years of working in a remote Antarctic research station, including a year as the Station head, you have become very good at managing limited supplies. Spending most of your time with a limited number of scientists has had a impact on you ability to recognise deception.(+2 Stewardship, -1 Intrigue)

-[X] Write-in - Environmentalist: A deep and abiding interest in the natural world has resulted in a vast amount of knowledge on diverse topics. However some people are irritated by your attempts to share your passion. (+1 Magic research, +1 Technology research, -1 Diplomacy)


[X] Backstory (Write-ins)
Regina Casey was born thirty years ago in Brisbane, Australia. She developed a fascination in the science and environmentalism at a very young age. An only child to immigrant (Scottish father, Japanese mother) parents, she was supported and pushed to succeed in her goals. This resulted in an early graduation from Macquarie University with a double PhD in Biology and Geodynamics. She accepted a job studying Antarctic biology immediately after graduation, while being suspicious that the potion was offered (in part) to remove an active Anti-coal protestor. She maintained a position there for five years, her final year as the station chief. For the past several months, she has been attending numerous international environmental conferences.

During a recent conference in New York, she was approached by the Blacklight. The decision to hire her was based on her experience of Antarctica and her research skills.

Terran Imperium said:

, the mention of the weed-high guy who names a secret organization, an otaku niece who woo her school's student council president, otaku as a trait for our character... It's rather anticlimactic to the tone I expected from the quest, to be honest.

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I was trying to have a bit of humor before the black hits us with a ton of brick... or a kilo-ton nuke for that matter.

Chrestomanci said:

If Accepted by @ComradeH

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Both of your write-in's are accepted. Though it should be noted that we are "Blacklight", and International Intelligence Unit is simple the type of our force.

[X] Plan Was Born For This
-[X] South East Asia
-[X] A new base
-[X] Name: Ariane Liddle
-[X] Age: 21
-[X] Female
-[X] Origins:
--[X] A scientist, you are seconded because you are smart enough to explain quantum physics to a five-year-old kid (+2 Technology research, -1 Intrigue)
-[X] Traits (choose up to 3)
--[X] Baptised under fire: You have been in a firefight before, so you know how to compose yourself... even at the cost of being nice (+1 Martial, -1 Diplomacy)
--[X] Magical: Your family is magical. Blacklight is an anti-magical task force. Enough said. (+1 Magic research, +1 Intrigue, -1 Diplomacy)
--[X] Otaku: Despite your appearance (avid cosplay-er), you are actually very smart and competent... as long as people are able to look past the spectacular collection of figurines and costumes in your room (+1 Magic research, +1 Technology research, -1 Diplomacy)

[X] Plan Was Born For This
-[X] South East Asia
-[X] A new base
-[X] Name: Ariane Liddle
-[X] Age: 21
-[X] Female
-[X] Origins:
--[X] A scientist, you are seconded because you are smart enough to explain quantum physics to a five-year-old kid (+2 Technology research, -1 Intrigue)
-[X] Traits (choose up to 3)
--[X] Baptised under fire: You have been in a firefight before, so you know how to compose yourself... even at the cost of being nice (+1 Martial, -1 Diplomacy)
--[X] Magical: Your family is magical. Blacklight is an anti-magical task force. Enough said. (+1 Magic research, +1 Intrigue, -1 Diplomacy)
--[X] Otaku: Despite your appearance (avid cosplay-er), you are actually very smart and competent... as long as people are able to look past the spectacular collection of figurines and costumes in your room (+1 Magic research, +1 Technology research, -1 Diplomacy)

Let's analyze the situation a bit before making decisions.

Mission Goals:
-Gather information about magic.
-Protect the "normals".

Failure conditions:
-Mission Goals not performed.
-Magicals find out about Blacklight (from IIU).


The second failure condition is absolutely critical here. We are sacrificed if the magicals get to know about us (IIU con).

Consider also the knowledge that the magicals are powerful enough to keep their existence a secret. Harry Potter, Vampire: The Masquerade, or comparable levels of power is to be expected. Mind reading and mind control powers should be assumed at the bare minimum.

So, we can't be known about, and our enemies have enough power for controlling information. Combining these makes it quickly clear that we are extremely limited in what actions we can take. Any martial action is pretty much impossible, as those leave signs, even if we could guarantee no enemy/neutral survivors. Diplomacy is of course useless, as we can't reveal ourselves.

In fact, the Blacklight organization is pretty much guaranteed to be very temporary. I don't think we can keep its existence a secret for long, if we try to actively gather intel.

That means our path is clear. We should quickly gather as much info as we can, before sacrificing the organization for the good of mankind. That means going all in on starting bonuses and intrigue, and forgetting about long term projects.


I humbly ask someone more creative to make a character/base combo with maxed intrigue and money and starting utilities.

Paroni said:

We are sacrificed if the magicals get to know about us (IIU con).

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Think "sacrificed" as our base's locations and our files are revealed, just like the Fall of SHIELD in Captain America 2. On the bright(er) side, if we are able to make a last stand and we do not have any blacker-than-black experiments, we may be fine. Probably.

As in we are still operational, but with limited funding and a lot more political oversight.

[X] Plan Was Born For This

[X] Plan Was Born For This

Paroni said:

Let's analyze the situation a bit before making decisions.

Mission Goals:
-Gather information about magic.
-Protect the "normals".

Failure conditions:
-Mission Goals not performed.
-Magicals find out about Blacklight (from IIU).


The second failure condition is absolutely critical here. We are sacrificed if the magicals get to know about us (IIU con).

Consider also the knowledge that the magicals are powerful enough to keep their existence a secret. Harry Potter, Vampire: The Masquerade, or comparable levels of power is to be expected. Mind reading and mind control powers should be assumed at the bare minimum.

So, we can't be known about, and our enemies have enough power for controlling information. Combining these makes it quickly clear that we are extremely limited in what actions we can take. Any martial action is pretty much impossible, as those leave signs, even if we could guarantee no enemy/neutral survivors. Diplomacy is of course useless, as we can't reveal ourselves.

In fact, the Blacklight organization is pretty much guaranteed to be very temporary. I don't think we can keep its existence a secret for long, if we try to actively gather intel.

That means our path is clear. We should quickly gather as much info as we can, before sacrificing the organization for the good of mankind. That means going all in on starting bonuses and intrigue, and forgetting about long term projects.


I humbly ask someone more creative to make a character/base combo with maxed intrigue and money and starting utilities.

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I agree with you completely until your last two paragraphs. Our key advantage is Bleeding-Edge technology, doubling down on that seems like a better path to me. One-on-one, a magical can effortlessly kill a non-magical. New technology can be developed to counter their magic, and (eventually) surpass them.
To survive, intrigue alone is not useful. Combined with diplomacy (find friendly groups and make alliances) or martial (secret combat missions) it would be successful.

The winning plan, which has the main character be from a magical family, seems very risky to me. One unwise statement from the -3 Diplomacy character, to her family members will reveal the organisation to the magical world.




For my plan, our base will not be publicly mentioned & not listed in any publicly accessible files. But if someone investigates, they will discover a boring climate change research outpost.

Further investigations (say by mind-reading vampires) will reveal that the base, while small on the surface, is huge and buried below the ice. The base is quipped with extensive state of the art laboratory equipment and funded out of top secret black budgets. With the reveal that the project name is Blacklight, the location in a frozen wasteland far from any human life and that it is headed by a qualified biologist, the conclusion would be obvious. Any magicals would simply dismiss it as a muggle bio-warfare research site.

We have the advantages of not being mentioned to other forces, and the ability to "borrow" any military units around the world. That permits us to avoid intrigue and martial missions, we can use cut-offs and proxies to protect our organisation from discovery. By carefully (and only rarely) having other units (spread through-out the world) engage in missions, we are much less likely to be noticed. The SEAL - ghoul battle (in Arkansas, USA) one year will not seem connected to the Mossad magical library raid (in Faiyum, Egypt) the next year.

We will start (relatively) small, and with limited resources. Every counter-measure we design (e.g. psychic shields) will improve our capability to combat and spy on magicals. By the time we are large/active enough to be discovered, R&D will have granted us the ability to compete on a level playing field.


[X] Plan Secret R&D Base
-[X] Name: Regina Casey
-[X] Age: 32
-[X] Female
-[X] Antarctica
-[X] A new base
-[X] Origins:
--[X] A scientist
-[X] Traits (choose up to 3)
--[X] Education by Osmosis:
--[X] Write-in - Experienced Station manager:
--[X] Write-in - Environmentalist:


Starting Stats:
(+1 Research) (All research)
+18 Technology research
+16 Magic research
-3 Stewardship
-2 Intrigue
-1 Diplomacy


[X] Backstory (Write-ins) Antarctic Environmentalist

Regina Casey was born thirty years ago in Brisbane, Australia. She developed a fascination in the science and environmentalism at a very young age. An only child to immigrant (Scottish father, Japanese mother) parents, she was supported and pushed to succeed in her goals. This resulted in an early graduation from Macquarie University with a double PhD in Biology and Geodynamics. She accepted a job studying Antarctic biology immediately after graduation, while being suspicious that the potion was offered (in part) to remove an active Anti-coal protestor. She maintained a position there for five years, her final year as the station chief. For the past several months, she has been attending numerous international environmental conferences.

During a recent conference in New York, she was approached by the Blacklight. The decision to hire her was based on her experience of Antarctica and her research skills.

Chrestomanci said:

I agree with you completely until your last two paragraphs. Our key advantage is Bleeding-Edge technology, doubling down on that seems like a better path to me. One-on-one, a magical can effortlessly kill a non-magical. New technology can be developed to counter their magic, and (eventually) surpass them.
To survive, intrigue alone is not useful. Combined with diplomacy (find friendly groups and make alliances) or martial (secret combat missions) it would be successful.

The winning plan, which has the main character be from a magical family, seems very risky to me. One unwise statement from the -3 Diplomacy character, to her family members will reveal the organisation to the magical world.




For my plan, our base will not be publicly mentioned & not listed in any publicly accessible files. But if someone investigates, they will discover a boring climate change research outpost.

Further investigations (say by mind-reading vampires) will reveal that the base, while small on the surface, is huge and buried below the ice. The base is quipped with extensive state of the art laboratory equipment and funded out of top secret black budgets. With the reveal that the project name is Blacklight, the location in a frozen wasteland far from any human life and that it is headed by a qualified biologist, the conclusion would be obvious. Any magicals would simply dismiss it as a muggle bio-warfare research site.

We have the advantages of not being mentioned to other forces, and the ability to "borrow" any military units around the world. That permits us to avoid intrigue and martial missions, we can use cut-offs and proxies to protect our organisation from discovery. By carefully (and only rarely) having other units (spread through-out the world) engage in missions, we are much less likely to be noticed. The SEAL - ghoul battle (in Arkansas, USA) one year will not seem connected to the Mossad magical library raid (in Faiyum, Egypt) the next year.

We will start (relatively) small, and with limited resources. Every counter-measure we design (e.g. psychic shields) will improve our capability to combat and spy on magicals. By the time we are large/active enough to be discovered, R&D will have granted us the ability to compete on a level playing field.


[X] Plan Secret R&D Base
-[X] Name: Regina Casey
-[X] Age: 32
-[X] Female
-[X] Antarctica
-[X] A new base
-[X] Origins:
--[X] A scientist
-[X] Traits (choose up to 3)
--[X] Education by Osmosis:
--[X] Write-in - Experienced Station manager:
--[X] Write-in - Environmentalist:


Starting Stats:
(+1 Research) (All research)
+18 Technology research
+16 Magic research
-3 Stewardship
-2 Intrigue
-1 Diplomacy


[X] Backstory (Write-ins) Antarctic Environmentalist

Regina Casey was born thirty years ago in Brisbane, Australia. She developed a fascination in the science and environmentalism at a very young age. An only child to immigrant (Scottish father, Japanese mother) parents, she was supported and pushed to succeed in her goals. This resulted in an early graduation from Macquarie University with a double PhD in Biology and Geodynamics. She accepted a job studying Antarctic biology immediately after graduation, while being suspicious that the potion was offered (in part) to remove an active Anti-coal protestor. She maintained a position there for five years, her final year as the station chief. For the past several months, she has been attending numerous international environmental conferences.

During a recent conference in New York, she was approached by the Blacklight. The decision to hire her was based on her experience of Antarctica and her research skills.

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Why not go for Secret Base?

Chopak said:

Why not go for Secret Base?

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Secret base is smaller, and has a high starting upkeep.
Antarctica has reduced Stewardship (far from people, factories, agriculture) which risks near bankruptcy when combined with the high starting upkeep.

One advantage of the Secret base (increased guard personnel) is not useful in Antarctica, having people patrolling the perimeter is far more likely to reveal the base without any improved defensiveness. Any attackers who travel all the way to Antarctica are not likely to have any difficulty with guards.

My plan relies on anonymity and distance for protection. When we have actually useful weapons ( laser guns? ), and sensor tech (anti-invisibility goggles ?) then we can start using guards to defend ourselves.

To me, the disadvantage of new base (nothing there) is only a short term issue with the long term benefit of complete base customisation.

But it already starts with High-tech equipment.
But well, your plan is still better than born for this.

[X] Plan Secret R&D Base

[X] Plan Secret R&D Base

Chrestomanci said:

To survive, intrigue alone is not useful. Combined with diplomacy (find friendly groups and make alliances) or martial (secret combat missions) it would be successful.

The winning plan, which has the main character be from a magical family, seems very risky to me. One unwise statement from the -3 Diplomacy character, to her family members will reveal the organisation to the magical world.




For my plan, our base will not be publicly mentioned & not listed in any publicly accessible files. But if someone investigates, they will discover a boring climate change research outpost.

Further investigations (say by mind-reading vampires) will reveal that the base, while small on the surface, is huge and buried below the ice. The base is quipped with extensive state of the art laboratory equipment and funded out of top secret black budgets. With the reveal that the project name is Blacklight, the location in a frozen wasteland far from any human life and that it is headed by a qualified biologist, the conclusion would be obvious. Any magicals would simply dismiss it as a muggle bio-warfare research site.

We have the advantages of not being mentioned to other forces, and the ability to "borrow" any military units around the world. That permits us to avoid intrigue and martial missions, we can use cut-offs and proxies to protect our organisation from discovery. By carefully (and only rarely) having other units (spread through-out the world) engage in missions, we are much less likely to be noticed. The SEAL - ghoul battle (in Arkansas, USA) one year will not seem connected to the Mossad magical library raid (in Faiyum, Egypt) the next year.

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The "sacrifice" con not actually being totally destructive makes most of my earlier analysis a bit irrelevant. Still, there are some bits of truth there, and martial actions being impossible if we don't want to reveal ourselves is absolutely one of them. The mistake you are making is that you believe that the magicals actually have to find our base or get to know the name Blacklight, for us to be revealed. This isn't true, I think. Let me give an example scenario:


Blacklight makes a secret attack against a small magical target. It is a total success: the target couldn't send a message, and there were no witnesses. Afterwards, the magical community comes to investigate the missing person, and find out (using magical means) that there was an attack, but the attacker(s) did not have/perform any magic. Some magicals feel their worse fears about the "normals" come to light, but the target was very small and the situation unclear, so further actions are deemed unnecessary at that point. When there is a second similar attack sometime later, the magicals have no choice anymore. They sneak to mind read the "normal" leadership. The UN leader gives away the game, and the magicals raise a fuss. Our operation is revealed, even if the UN leader didn't know any details.

Notice that the above scenario is one where everything goes right from our part, and we didn't fail the first attack by stumbling into a ward, triggering a magical trap, or stumble on any infinite amounts of magical defenses we have absolutely no clue about. Even with this success, we still get revealed. If you think that magical means of investigation are not that powerful, well, better hope that's right. Consider also that the magicals are definitely not stupid, and they will be quick to be suspicious about the "normals", whose technological advancements with cameras and satellites are getting to be impossible to avoid.


Edit: Diplomacy is pointless before we are revealed as well. I'm sure that if the UN leadership would have wanted us to have "normal" allies, they would have handled that part. And alliances with magicals without us being revealed is by definition not happening.

Planning for the eventual reveal with the tech approach should be fine. It's just that we really should stick with just tech and intrigue before the reveal happens. Changing leaders to a more martially and diplomatically oriented one at that point sounds prudent though.

[X] Plan Secret R&D Base

Actually, being an environmentalist sounds pretty cool.

Paroni said:

The "sacrifice" con not actually being totally destructive makes most of my earlier analysis a bit irrelevant. Still, there are some bits of truth there, and martial actions being impossible if we don't want to reveal ourselves is absolutely one of them. The mistake you are making is that you believe that the magicals actually have to find our base or get to know the name Blacklight, for us to be revealed. This isn't true, I think. Let me give an example scenario:


Blacklight makes a secret attack against a small magical target. It is a total success: the target couldn't send a message, and there were no witnesses. Afterwards, the magical community comes to investigate the missing person, and find out (using magical means) that there was an attack, but the attacker(s) did not have/perform any magic. Some magicals feel their worse fears about the "normals" come to light, but the target was very small and the situation unclear, so further actions are deemed unnecessary at that point. When there is a second similar attack sometime later, the magicals have no choice anymore. They sneak to mind read the "normal" leadership. The UN leader gives away the game, and the magicals raise a fuss. Our operation is revealed, even if the UN leader didn't know any details.

Notice that the above scenario is one where everything goes right from our part, and we didn't fail the first attack by stumbling into a ward, triggering a magical trap, or stumble on any infinite amounts of magical defenses we have absolutely no clue about. Even with this success, we still get revealed. If you think that magical means of investigation are not that powerful, well, better hope that's right. Consider also that the magicals are definitely not stupid, and they will be quick to be suspicious about the "normals", whose technological advancements with cameras and satellites are getting to be impossible to avoid.

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I think you misunderstood;
"the magicals actually have to find our base or get to know the name Blacklight, for us to be revealed" completely incorrect, my plan accounts for them both finding the base and the name Blacklight. It uses the appearance of a bio-warfare research site to discourage further investigation. Once they have found (what they think is) the secret, then there is no need to investigate further.

"When there is a second similar attack sometime later" My plan involves the attacks being completely different; different nations, different target-types, different modus operandi, different time periods etc.
The attacks also come with cover stories. For example, the SEAL attack on the ghouls is magically traced back to the exact team that did the attack. When given a truth potion, the team leader reveals that the attack was a response to the ghouls eating American citizens. If the attack fails, the captured soldiers(or their necromanticly interrogated spirits) would still not reveal us.
Yes, they could continue to trace things back to us, but with it being a (to all appearances) one off event, they would not bother.

"The UN leader gives away the game, and the magicals raise a fuss" If it is that easy to discover us, then International Intelligence Unit was a trap vote. If attacking/diplomacy/espionage are all completely impossible without being revealed that really should have been mentioned as a disadvantage. The two Military force options explicitly list "High risk of exposure" as a disadvantage. Our disadvantage is sacrificed, that (to me) means the consequences of being revealed are worse, not that the chances of being revealed are worse.

"whose technological advancements with cameras and satellites are getting to be impossible to avoid" I'm not planning to spread our new technology until it is reasonably effective.
Admittedly the "Backstage bickering between factions" may mean we have no choice, and give them tech to shut them up. But the only way to avoid that is not doing any research, and that seems to be a fatal choice. New tech risks revealing us, but without new tech we auto-die against a major attack. R&D focus reduces the time spent in the danger zone (tech advanced enough to aggravate magicals, but not yet sufficient to fight them)

gutza1 said:

Actually, being an environmentalist sounds pretty cool.

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It's not a common background for X-COM type games/quests, that's for sure.

With the recent reveal that "if we are able to make a last stand and we do not have any blacker-than-black experiments, we may be fine" , it also has the benefit that she is unlikely to approve "blacker-than-black experiments". Autopsies, approved, vivisections, rejected.

Yeah, my point is that the IIU was somewhat of a trap vote, if you want to put it that way. It has epic bonuses, but it gets power nerfed after the international community no longer sees an international intelligence unit as the best solution to the problem of magicals, and cuts the funding and puts a leash on us.

Let's take the SEAL attack on ghouls example. After the SEAL attack the ghouls, the magicals know that the "normals" have discovered them. Then comes diplomacy and warfare. The national powers will be confused and alarmed, and look for who ordered the SEAL attacks. Someone will do a Snowden, and magic will get public. The UN leaders might be able to keep us a secret now and cook the books a bit, but after the magicals know that the "normals" know, there is no longer a justification for a hidden intelligence unit. This is what I meant when I said that the details of Blacklight aren't important: our own backers (the UN leaders) will no longer see enough reason to keep fooling everyone and upkeeping an IIU secret organization. At that point various national powers will take charge, and we will be used as either scapegoats or underlings. There's a reason the UN doesn't have any forces except peacekeepers.

To recap: The role of the intelligence unit is to get information about the magicals before the magicals find out about us. It is in the name, and in the job description. This doesn't mean the IIU is a total trap. We still get to do some extremely careful digging, which can be very exciting. It's just that we aren't X-Com, and the "sacrifice" clause means that we won't become X-Com. Understanding that we aren't X-Com is critical in choosing personnel and bases. We are an international intelligence unit, with a mandate to secretly get information about magicals, and protect the public.

[X] Plan Secret R&D Base

[X] Plan Was Born For This

Paroni said:

Yeah, my point is that the IIU was somewhat of a trap vote, if you want to put it that way. It has epic bonuses, but it gets power nerfed after the international community no longer sees an international intelligence unit as the best solution to the problem of magicals, and cuts the funding and puts a leash on us.

Let's take the SEAL attack on ghouls example. After the SEAL attack the ghouls, the magicals know that the "normals" have discovered them. Then comes diplomacy and warfare. The national powers will be confused and alarmed, and look for who ordered the SEAL attacks. Someone will do a Snowden, and magic will get public. The UN leaders might be able to keep us a secret now and cook the books a bit, but after the magicals know that the "normals" know, there is no longer a justification for a hidden intelligence unit. This is what I meant when I said that the details of Blacklight aren't important: our own backers (the UN leaders) will no longer see enough reason to keep fooling everyone and upkeeping an IIU secret organization. At that point various national powers will take charge, and we will be used as either scapegoats or underlings. There's a reason the UN doesn't have any forces except peacekeepers.

To recap: The role of the intelligence unit is to get information about the magicals before the magicals find out about us. It is in the name, and in the job description. This doesn't mean the IIU is a total trap. We still get to do some extremely careful digging, which can be very exciting. It's just that we aren't X-Com, and the "sacrifice" clause means that we won't become X-Com. Understanding that we aren't X-Com is critical in choosing personnel and bases. We are an international intelligence unit, with a mandate to secretly get information about magicals, and protect the public.

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I disagree completely.
We can fail, but it is not certain that we will.

I think that you are incorrect, I don't think any of the FORCE options were trap votes. They seem fairly balanced with pro & con , and IIU doesn't have "epic bonuses". NAfSp has cheap, high morale units, NIBO has highly skilled units, IIU has high-tech units. The other two pros for IIU are shared with the other options.
The sacrificed con (resulting in "cuts the funding and puts a leash on us" ) notably says if , not when . Your assumption that our secrecy will be blown automatically has no basis in either logic or the quest. The QM has also detailed the result of the con, which is contrary to your theory of "no longer sees an international intelligence unit as the best solution". The results of being discovered depend on how successful we are, and how ethical our actions were. We (assuming we survive the initial attack) will be acknowledged and brought into the fold as an official organisation, not dumped as no longer worthwhile.

Your analysis of the SEAL attack on ghouls example is extremely flawed.
The magicals are already aware that the "normals" have discovered them, and both magicals and 'normals' have been cooperating to keep magic a secret from the general public. As stated in Second vote :
"And both sides of the society have been trying to contain that secret. At least, until now. The "normal" side has deemed that enough is enough, and they have been gathering support and material for the past 100 years. "
The idea that the national powers will be alarmed and " look for who ordered the SEAL attacks " is triply incorrect. Support and material have been gathered for this project for 100 years, which is long before NSA, CIA, FSB, etc were founded. Undoubtedly we have some way to order attacks, because it was listed as a pro. Second, the national powers will not know about the attack on the ghouls. Our organisation, magicals, and everyone else aware of magic will be keeping that conflict secret. Finally, as stated in the previous post, I am against repeating identical attacks.
I agreed with you earlier when you said the magical world is obviously effective in enforcing the "masquerade" . Individuals will have (for various reasons) attempted to "do a Snowden" before, every time (since magic became secret) they have failed. It seems paradoxical to be convinced that the magical investigators are super-effective and will certainly find us, and simultaneously suggest they are incompetent to the point of randomly failing at keeping the "masquerade".
Our 'backers' may the UN, or may not be. We are an International Intelligence Unit, not the UN-backed military force. Our 'backers' predate the existence of the UN, and we are not the product of "cooked books'. The UN is far too public (and dependant) to have a hidden intelligence unit. You should consider the implications of "Magical forces are not informed about your existence". That is listed as a pro for three of the FORCE options, but not the UN military. That strongly implies that UNBmf would have informed magical forces about the existence of the FORCE .
The listed Con is "backstage bickering" not "will be scapegoated and taken over by national powers". They are two very different things.


" Your mission, Commander, is to investigate the nature of magic and protect the citizens of the world. " The 'normal' side has become tired of magical killing sprees, and wants to strike back. How we do so depends on voter choices, Intrigue Kamikaze is not the only possibility.
Diplomatically, (for example) we could investigate by making deals for information and make alliances to protect the citizens of the world.


You repeat ; "It's just that we aren't X-Com " , " we won't become X-Com " , "Understanding that we aren't X-Com ". It is unclear as to why you are even mentioning that once, let alone twice. It is possible the UN-backed military force could have been similar, but that is irrelevant as that option was not chosen. Both proposed plans are research (one tech , the other is magic) based. Neither plan is Martial focused.
We are not fighting extra-terrestrials , and the nature of the conflict is entirely different.


You seem to think only the National Armed force Special program will work. The other three options should not have been available if they are guaranteed to fail.
A number of the offered options involved research. Clearly, competent scientists is a valid way to protect the public.


In summary;
Your plan "We should quickly gather as much info as we can, before sacrificing the organization for the good of mankind." could work.
But a Secret R&D Base will have an even better chance of success. The majority of your objections to the plan is based on theories that are incompatible with info we already have. I suspect you have participated in another X-Com-style quest, and confused some details between the two quests.