[OOC] The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs

[KatherinWinter]

@LightningMaidennot being technology adapt is going to be an issue. Especially since I doubt Mason is much better.

[Blueflame]

@KatherinWinter
He understood follow but he didn't know if he was supposed to attend the meeting

[KatherinWinter]

@Blueflame that was sort of implied when the direct told him to come with him to the meeting. He wouldn't have been told to come along if the director didn't want him in the meeting.

[Searat]

holy man that purifies demons, Mason is a demon.

[Phantomlink959]

Christ I'm long winded sometimes...

[LightningMaiden]

Hey mason would know technology be her then her plus as I said amaya can easily adapt when needed

[Searat]

Rost made a number of good points.

[KatherinWinter]

@LightningMaidenI doubt Mason know technology any better than your character. He doesn't seem to know when he's invited to a meeting.

[KatherinWinter]

@Searat@Phantomlink959Except that he is wrong. Remember this might be a new department it is based off of the FBI and MIB. BOSA would be set up similarly to them.

1. Amaya wouldn't have been sent on assignment without training. She would have been given the full FBI training which would have given her chance to get used to being around others. She would know tactics and procedure. It would be stupid to send her out otherwise. If she wasn't send (because she didn't actually talk to HQ) she stumbled onto the scene she should still know enough to follow orders.

2. The director has no reason to believe that Griffin wouldn't be a natural leader. Also he is assuming that Griffin has learned a few things about leading others from his sire. Even though he has never personally lead Griffin should know how to take control of a situation.

[Phantomlink959]

@KatherinWinter

You should probably be paying closer attention then, because according to Amaya herself in-roleplay she was only recruited the day prior to the mission.

An individual with as much experience as the director should be fully aware that basing important tactical decisions on untested assumptions is the fastest way to screw over an operation. He may have had no reason to believe Griffin wouldn't be a natural leader, but he also had no reason to assume that he would be one; any leader worth his salt would have hedged his bets and made sure there was someone or something in place in the event he made a mistake in assuming Griffin would be able to take charge. Giving individual agents their own specific directives, establishing a second in command, or having a direct line of communication so he himself would be able to issue orders to the men in the field (every military and police force on the planet has at least one of these things. Mission control, central dispatch, and so on.)

The FBI for example sends agents out from field offices in major cities, agents in the field receiver orders from their local office, which serves as their mission control.

I REALLY hate to be the guy who constantly back-talks the GM, but these are VERY important details that have been overlooked, and in-game the absolute disaster the mission became could have been averted completely if command had been making regular check ins and requesting status reports; something that every government agency does because of how crucially important it is to maintain a functional communication web when fielding a major operation.

How do I know these things? I come from a family of police officers and soldiers. I've never served myself (too many health problems, mental and physical), but you pick up a lot of details from talking to people who have experience in these matters.

Mistakes were made both by field agents AND by HQ; and the mistakes of the agents could have been prevented by, before starting the roleplay, establishing OOC what BOSA's field procedures are.

I read the entire roleplay prior to joining it myself, and it is readily apparent that the time was not taken to put together any sort of field manual that would give the players a basis with which they could establish their character's understanding of procedure, without any information on how the agency operates how do you expect characters to act as if they had been trained properly?

[KatherinWinter]

@Phantomlink959 I saw that Amaya was written in as a new recruit. Which is why I am going with her stumbling onto the scene rather than being sent by someone because there is no logical way to explain anyone sending her to the scene when she isn't trained. I didn't like it but I was willing to deal with it. But I don't like everyone acting as if this is an establishment that doesn't know what they are doing. Yes mistakes happen. And yest the director should have been more cautious of who he sent and why. I don't mind you questioning me. I don't mind people pointing out errors it's how we learn and grow. Remember this started with different scene. One I had all planned out. Mason and everything that happened after was kind of thrown together last minute. Everyone but Amaya and Mason should be trained. So it's really Griffin, Argus and Richard who the director is talking to. Most of this I am making up as I go. I don't know the FBI or police procedures beyond what I have seen on tv. But I am trying to go research I have been able to do. Unfortunately most of what wrong is supernatural rather than normal.

[Phantomlink959]

@KatherinWinter

I've got a fairly solid grasp of how these organizations are put together between having learned directly from family members, as well as my own independent research (because it is a subject that I find fascinating) and reading books/playing video games that involve things like military operations and secret agents.

By the way, if you're ever looking for a good military fiction read, check out Larry Correia's Dead Six series. The first book follows two protagonists; a mercenary working for an American military black ops unit (the titular Dead Six), and a career criminal working on a major heist in the same fictional country. It gives a surprisingly good look at how both organized criminal groups and covert military units operate.

Larry's main series (that is, the first one he published and the one that is currently the longest) Monster Hunter International is another really good read, the first book in that series is actually available for free as an e-book on basically all platforms through the publisher's website.

This has been an opportunistic shilling for my favorite author. Seriously, go read these books. They are amazing.

[Phantomlink959]

@KatherinWinter

Quick question, the MIB BOSA is a branch of, is it the movie version or a more general kind?

[KatherinWinter]

@Phantomlink959I am basing it off the movies.

[Phantomlink959]

@KatherinWinter

In the movies, the MIB was extragovernmental; they had no ties to any or organization besides their own and did not swear allegiance to any government. Their recruitment from other organizations was covered up by erasing all evidence those people had ever existed; "walk in shadows move in silence" as the song says. If we're based on the movie version, The Director likely wouldn't need to report to the FBI or the president; only the MIB, their parent organization.

[KatherinWinter]

@Phantomlink959Good to know. I guess my thought was that the MIB was based off the FBI only they handled aliens.

[Phantomlink959]

Found the quote about it btw:

EDWARDS
What branch of the government do we report
to?

KAY
None. They started asking too many questions
(sorry about weird formatting, C&P'd it from an online copy of the script.)

[KatherinWinter]

@Phantomlink959I remember that now that you mention it.

[Phantomlink959]

@KatherinWinter I have an uncanny ability to remember minor, easily overlooked details of books and movies. Sadly it doesn't apply to real life.

[KatherinWinter]

@Phantomlink959I can depending on the book and movie.