SkEYEnet - A cyberpunk game based on Person of Interest and GitS (Lf F and/or M)

[Ron Don Volante]

"The Machine is everywhere. Watching with ten thousand eyes. Listening with a million ears." - Harold Finch
"I am the machine that reveals the world to you as only I alone am able to see it." - Dziga Vertov (as quoted by The Laughing Man)

In January of 2008, then-President George W. Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive 54. Not long afterwards, a line in the National Security Council's "black"budget" conssiting of several hundred tyhousand dollars appeared, earmarked to "NSPD Fifty Four Working Group." Group Fifty Four, as it came to be known, was actually a small, but elite, cyberwarfare counter-terrorism unit answering only to the National Security Advisor and the President, with carte blanche to recruit any American citizen with the approval of the higher ups in the government. It would be called many names over the years, the most recent being Group Twenty after Presidential Policy Directive 20, but, in the shadowy corners of the Internet where it operated the most widely, it became known as SkNet. It has worked extremely efficiently and with a small cost, thanks to stealing most of their operating budget from shady corporations and organized crime accounts, for six years but now things are about to change...

This game is a complex and deep one that will include aspects of romance, post-cyberpunk, cyberwarfare, noir, and action. It is not a group game but I could see running two games simultaneously that could be linked considering there are three playable characters. While the structure of Group Twenty is very explicitly based on Section 9 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the game will be set in the Person of Interest world, at the start of Season 3 (although other options are possible).

Preferences for this game:

- Heavy love of reading about cyberwarfare, cybercrime, and all other aspects of the underworld of the Internet. A background in IT or programming is a plus but NOT a requirement.
- Familiarity with American politics, especially surrounding cybercrime. Not a poli-sci major but enough to enjoy the RP background and add to it.
- Familiarity with Ghost in the Shell, especially Stand Alone Complex and 2nd GiG. While this game won't include things like cyberization, augmentations, and things like that it will embrace a lot of the philosophy as well as the structure of Group Twenty. Discussions will include a lot of GitS spoilers even if the game won't be set in the world.
- Familiarity with Person of Interest. This includes understanding about The Machine,

Spoilers for Person of Interest

Northern Lights, Vigilance, Samaritan, and Decima Technologies

. You can see below about the plot for more information.
- Willing to post at least once every three days or so.
- Solid writing skills.
- Willing to either play either a solo character (Kurt Hawn/Togusa) or a pair of characters (Naziro/The Major and James/Batou). This isn't set in stone so if you want to just play Naziro/The Major and I'd control Batou (or vice versa) or we get two players (technically making this a group game) I'm down with that too.

I know I'm asking for a lot but this is a really cool idea that I'm excited about. Please PM me your interest. I'll be posting more about SkNet/Group Twenty in further posts.

[Ron Don Volante]

SkEYEnet/Group Twenty Player Characters

(Note these names and pictures are not set in stone)

Name: Yadila Naziro
Age: 35
SkEYEnet Codename: Wintermute
Position: Second-in-Command
Based on: The Major/Motoko Kusanagi
Marital Status: Single (unknown if dating)
Education: BA, Computer Science United States Air Force Academy, 2002.
Previous Occupations:
- Officer in the United States Air Force (retired active duty, currently a Major in the Air Force Reserves)
- 24th Special Tactics Squadron/361st Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group (intelligence support)
Joined Group Twenty: 2010
Skills:
- Small Unit Tactics
- MOUNT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain)
- Expert with Rifle, Pistol, and Grenade
- Radio and Satellite communication warfare
- Mobile application and operating system hacking
Languages: English (native), Spanish (native), Arabic (basic), Kurdish (basic)

Background: Yadila Naziro was born in New Haven, Connecticut to a Puerto Rican electrical engineer father and an African-American clerical worker mother. Growing up in an upper-middle class family she excelled in both athletics and academics earning an acceptance at the Air Force Academy. She was pegged early on as a rising star by the Air Force’s elite when she graduated higher in her class than any other female cadet in the Academy’s history. She began her career as an intelligence analyst before moving on to positions requiring more filed work and social finesse. It wasn’t long before she provided direct intelligence support for the famous 24th Special Tactics Squadron (the Air Force’s equivalent to the Navy’s DEVGRU Seal team or the Army’s Delta Force) becoming an unofficial member of the Squadron by the end. She saw three tours in Iraq where she also earned the Intelligence Star.

Although not bogged down by much of a personal life, her colleagues tended to view her as either too much as “one of the boys” and she didn’t have much time to socialize, the heavy fighting she saw in Iraq and in other hot spots in the Middle East wore on Naziro.  She retired from the Air Force in 2010 with the rank of Captain although she remained an officer in the Air Force Reserves. She tried her hand, briefly, at civilian work but quickly found herself restless. Before she could even begin applying for government work, however, Hayes found her and recruited her into Group Twenty.

Through combat loss, retirement, and sheer skill, Naziro has become Hayes’ second in command and is extremely well regarded by the other members of Group Twenty. She’s generally very congenial but rather straight-to-the-point, commanding, and tough but fair. She has a strong relationship with Charlie James that may cross into romance at some point in the future. She has complete faith with the Chairman and vice versa. And, while she's still feeling out Hawn the two have hit it off pretty well so far.

Naziro's pictures

Name: Charles "Charlie" James
Age: 39
SkEYEnet Codename: Mike
Position: Lead Investigator
Based on: Batou
Marital Status: Single (unknown if dating)
Education: BA, Political Science Boston University, 2001
Previous Occupations:
- Officer in the United States Marine Corps (retired as Captain)
- 1st Marine Intelligence Battalion
- Marine Special Operations Intelligence Battalion
- NSA Q-Directorate (Security and Counter-Intelligence)
Joined Group Twenty: 2009
Skills:
- Small Unit Tactics
- HUMINT (Human Intelligence)
- Expert with Rifle, Pistol, and Grenade
- Intelligence forensic examination
- Malware detection, elimination, and creation
- Knowledge of cyber weapon black market
Languages: English (native), Spanish (fluent), French (basic)

Background: Born outside Kansas City, Missouri, Charlie James did not have an easy life. He suffered with an alcoholic and abusive mother, a distant father, and a wide eyed younger brother he ended up having to mostly raise his younger brother Christian. As soon as he graduated high school, he signed up for the Marine Corps and, aside from providing support for his younger brother, did not look back afterwards.

James excelled in the Corps, quickly becoming a career Marine. He earned the Silver Star for actions in Bosnia and eventually earned a degree and commission from Boston University. While he was finishing up his military obligation, he was recruited into the NSA to their Q-Directorate which handled security and counter-intelligence. In 2007, James was able to trace a piece of malware to a compromised NSA sysadmin by discovering obscure references in the code's comments with data collected from security clearances. The brilliant detection earned the attention of Hayes and, when he formed the unit in early 2009, James was on top of his recruitment list.

James acts a third-in-command of SkEYEnet and often manages field assets since Naziro usually operates independently. He reads people very well and is often the first to notice patterns in data that others miss. He's the team's practical joker and is always ready for a quip and a friendly put down with one of the other members. However, he takes his job extremely seriously. He has a complicated relationship with Naziro. They both respect and trust each other but have always felt closer to each other than any of the people they have ever dated. Whether this will blossom into something more remains to be scene.

James' pictures

[Ron Don Volante]

SkEYEnet/Group Twenty Non Player Characters

(coming soon)