United States Government

The United States
	; The U.S. Flag
Location	North America

The United States Government (also known as the U.S. Government, or simply the government) is the ruling authority of the United States. In the World of Darkness, the different branches and institutions of government are infiltrated to varying degrees by supernaturals, with the security agencies meant to shield against such often tangled in their own webs of conspiracy, intrigue and subterfuge.

This article primarily references the V20 supplement “Hunters Hunted 2”, specifically pages 127 to 135, as well as parts of the “Project Twilight” (1995) book. Players are encouraged to check the source material themselves if they want to learn more about playing a government agent.

Lore

Early Days & Expansion

For most of its existence, the U.S. Government was not so much a player as it was a puppet in the games that unfolded in the shadows between competing supernatural factions. It was only in the 1930s, during the crime wave that accompanied the Great Depression, when fresh-faced FBI agent Charles Horner, on the trail of notorious gangster boss Al Capone, was attacked by a vampire. Unlike most other agents who had the misfortune of encountering vampires, Horner survived, and would go on to pursue supernatural cases with a vengeance.

In 1952, his hard work paid off. After many years of frustration and bureaucratic dead-ends, Horner was able to find a close aide of the FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, who listened to him, and after speaking with the director himself, he got his wish: the Special Affairs Department was born. While nominally under FBI control, in practice, the SAD retained great autonomy over its activities and operations, much to the chagrin of other Bureau agents, who could only speculate as to the department’s true purpose.

From the 50s to the 90s, the SAD would know several ups and downs. It enjoyed great success and abundant funding during its first years of existence, notably managing to decapitate a Brujah union boss. In the 60s and 70s, however, the department would embark on a number of ill-fated missions to infiltrate and strike against liberation and indigenous rights movements (which were often backed by Garou), resulting in the losses of several veteran agents who had invaluable years of experience behind them.

After Horner’s death in 1973 the department would change directors a number of times, but few inroads were made in regards to supernaturals until a lucky break in 1993 when a US senator, suspecting supernatural involvement in the disappearance of his daughter, managed to contact the SAD. In exchange for aiding in her search, the department would benefit from greatly enhanced funding. For a time, Special Affairs was on a roll, setting up teams and offices from the East to West Coast and everywhere in-between.

Everything changed after 2001.

A New Millennium

Following the turbulent start of the 21st century and the subsequent adoption of the Homeland Security Act, the entire US intelligence community was shaken from the ground-up. The SAD was hit heavily during the changes that followed. Their autonomy was revoked, being fully reintegrated in the FBI, and the department’s chain of command was also thoroughly gutted. Most of its staff were either assigned to other divisions or forcibly retired.

Another organization that had to suffer post-2001 was the National Security Agency. During the Cold War, it had quietly grown to be the core of American intelligence efforts, collecting swaths of signals and electronic data from all across the world. Now, though, faced with increasing oversight, much of its leadership was audited and deposed. Its head, General Arthur Clifford, took the brunt of the fall; unfortunately for the NSA, most of their knowledge on supernaturals left along with him.

The remaining trifecta of knowing officers in the NSA were put on a false track by the poorly-understood “chaoscope” technology at their disposal. What the SAD correctly labelled as vampires, the NSA misidentified as “negative bodies” belonging to an “extradimensional realm”. The few agents brought into the fold by these officers are currently busy training armored moon suits with mirrored visors and aural inhibitors - supposedly to protect against "otherworldly influence”.

Meanwhile, the Central Intelligence Agency, another Cold War giant, was thoroughly compromised by supernaturals from the get-go, with the only agent properly in the know being a paranoid crank who is on his way out. As for the Department of Homeland Security, the most recent addition to the US intelligence community, its relative youth has made it an easy target for infiltration; many officials have been paid off by Kindred to look the other way, with the few DHS operatives determined to pursue paranormal activity being forced to communicate off of an e-mail chain known as the “Watch List”.

All in all, the scarce and spread-out nature of the various different investigations into the paranormal, not to mention the heavy hand of the Carmilla in politics, has blocked many an agent in his tracks to uncover the truth that hides in the night. Those who persist must inevitably face ridicule from their colleagues and watch their back while on the way back from work. Paranoia is abundant, but so is determination - and these men and women in the service of the government will stop at nothing to get the job done.

Organization

As explained above, the U.S. Government’s various different security agencies vary greatly between each other in their approach against the supernatural.

Special Affairs Department

A shadow of its former self, the modern SAD is down from dozens of full-time offices operating countrywide to just three overstretched teams that have to handle the vast majority of supernatural cases received by the FBI from local authorities. Previously feared within the Bureau for its secretive and independent nature, the department is now the butt of many jokes in regards to its ridiculous operational remit. Who would ever believe in monsters and vampires, after all?

SAD agents, besides having to contend with little support from their parent agency, must also deal with the difficult task of sanitizing their reports when sent to HQ. “I encountered a vampire” is a surefire way to get given administrative leave, but “shot and killed a drug-crazed serial killer” is something that can get the nod from higher-ups. The irony of the fact that the department has to clean up the tracks of those they hunt is not lost on them, but given the alternative, they have little choice.

In terms of operations, most are headed up by the SAD’s full-time agents, who possess a wealth of hunting knowledge and experience. But with how few of them they are, the department has to rely on a number of staff from other divisions in the Bureau to pad out its ranks. Most of these agents moonlighted with the SAD, having encountered the supernatural at least once in their past. While they’re not as in the know as their more veteran colleagues, they are aware of what’s at stake.

National Security Agency

Post-2001, with the NSA’s leadership thoroughly shuffled and General Clifford forcefully retired to a nursing home, the three officers left in the know - General Shivers, Colonel Riley and Colonel Johnstone - operate under a misguided view derived from what incomplete notes they could scrounge from their predecessor’s office. They believe the US is facing an extradimensional invasion, and have taken to training a small cadre of agents, about two dozen men, at a secret facility in New Mexico.

These agents are thoroughly disconnected from the rest of the NSA, and have not seen any real action so far, instead spending their time keeping known extradimensionals under watch. A number of other operatives in the Agency have begun to found out bits and pieces about supernaturals themselves and have looked into joining forces, but have failed to do so due to the program’s secrecy.

What the higher-ups behind this cadre don’t know is that their operation has already been compromised. Two vampires already within the NSA have been intercepting messages from the officer troika, so any actual action taken would likely lead to the plan’s demise in its entirety. The SAD, which has received information from NSA contacts in the past, has hesitated on full-blown cooperation for this exact reason. A couple of burned CIA spies now work with the Agency, but their numbers are few.

Central Intelligence Agency

C.I.A.

“The Company” as it is more commonly known, the CIA, due to the external direction of its missions, has had few encounters with the paranormal and as such its leadership always dismissed claims of such as bogus. This is all too convenient for well-connected supernaturals, who will often call upon Company spies to do their bidding abroad and acquire information they couldn’t reach otherwise.

There is one exception to this: Bob Schnoblin. Considered a paranoid crank by most other agents, he nonetheless clings onto his desk job at Langley, largely busy stamping the reports of those actually on the field. When he’s not doing that, however, he’s drawing up his “Pyramid of Satanic Power” - which, given what information he has to work with, is surprisingly accurate, identifying figures such as “King Ventrue (666)”, “The Werewolf Order”, “Vampire Nuns” and, of course, “Black Dog Games”.

Department of Homeland Security

Homeland Security

The youngest member of the US intelligence community, the DHS was, from its inception, turned into a trojan horse for vampires to sweep their activities under the rug. This hasn’t stopped some members of the DHS’s various different subdepartments - FEMA, ICE, CBP, TSA, so on and so forth - from catching a whiff of the supernatural and deciding to investigate, even against management orders.

DHS hunters coordinate via an electronic mailing list only known as the Watch List. Who runs it isn’t known; by this point it may very well be a fully decentralized effort. Monthly reminders are sent on the e-mail chain reminding hunters posting about “paranormal domestic terrorists” that the service they are using is probably compromised; both by their higher-ups and by the very creatures they seek to hunt.

In-Game

Currently, of the agencies above, only the SAD is playable in-game. As an FBI Special Agent, either a full-time SAD member or an employee from another division who is called upon to occasionally investigate the supernatural, you’re expected to document paranormal entities, largely by observing and, if necessary, terminating such targets.

DOs and DON’Ts

DO take your faction and your role seriously. You are a federal agent who has likely spent years in training just to get a field assignment. You may have also seen things you can't unsee by this point. Screwing up here means, at best, a visit to IA; and, at worst, being "sanctioned" (read: killed).
DON'T play as a "super-cop". While the FBI can (and sometimes, should) aid local law enforcement, your main job is handling cases at the national level. You should leave misdemeanours and light felonies to the SFPD, only intervening in emergencies or when relevant to your investigations.
DO get involved in plots, or even start some of your own. As an agent, you ought to be keeping vampires and other supernaturals on their toes. Plant a wiretap, run a sting operation, tail people you deem suspicious - whatever it takes to keep paranormal activity in check. Just make sure to watch your back, as you can easily find yourself a target if you dig too far.
DON'T spread word of the supernatural. This may seem contradictory for an agent at first, but when faced with a secret society that has its hands in every pie around, staying inconspicuous is your best shot at survival. If someone asks you whether you saw something odd or not, you didn't. This is also a good way to avoid looking like a credulous idiot, which could run the risk of getting you fired.
DO offer other players roleplay, including your enemies. Much of the SAD's current knowledge comes from analyzing and fighting their enemies up close, and capturing a Kindred is a fantastic opportunity for such, while also letting the other player remain in the game. Executions/RRs should only be done after adequate RP for all sides.