M-Force Playtest Draft v2.3
©2013, Hex Games
Introduction
Imagine driving a Jeep at 110 mph across the desert, swerving to avoid toxic spore bombs, leaning out the window to open fire on the 50' tall plant monster with tendrils bigger than you are. Imagine creeping into a dusty mausoleum, wooden stake gripped firmly in hand, your heart racing every time you see a rat skitter across the floor. Imagine standing alongside your closest friends, brandishing flamethrowers in a last ditch effort to keep an army of giant ants from overrunning the city.

If you're even remotely sane, you wouldn't want to do these things in real life. But they're fun to imagine. Who doesn't daydream, from time to time, about being the hero in a movie? Don't you wish you could fight against the forces of darkness, at no risk to your person? That's what the M-Force role-playing game allows you to do.

What M-Force Is About
Long ago, people created myths to explain things they didn't understand. If Othan the hunter went out in search of food and never returned, well, perhaps a monster ate him. If a ship sank, maybe it was brought down by the terrible creatures that lived in the sea. Over time people developed more knowledge about their surroundings and most monsters were revealed as natural phenomena. Yet even in the present day, belief in such things still exists. There are grainy photographs purporting to be pictures of sea monsters, tales of alien abductions, guidebooks to haunted houses, and urban legends about monsters that still exist in the wilds. Is it possible, people ask, that monsters really do exist? In our world, they probably don’t--but in the world of M-Force, many of the things that we consider fictional are demonstrably real.  

From the Medusa of ancient myth to the serial killer in the latest slasher movie, we as humans are fascinated by the horrible things that lurk in the darkness. Alongside this fictional tradition, though, is the equally proud tradition of the monster hunter. The oldest surviving stories we have are about brave warriors who hunted down and killed the creatures that preyed on their villages. Even though we know the stories to be mythical, they resonate with us. On some level monsters are metaphors for problems that have always plagued humankind, and heroes are symbols of courage and hope. In the 21st century, we're still obsessed with monsters, but from time to time we forget the monster hunters.

Players in this game take the roles of members of M-Force, America's premier monster hunting organization. The men and women of M-Force are part of the monster hunting tradition, but they are also modern day people with their own quirks, personalities, and problems. Most of them have day jobs. From time to time they are called away from making sandwiches, organizing stock portfolios, cleaning windows, writing novels, selling cranes, driving cabs, or whatever else, to join in the age old war against monsters. Their adventures can be funny, dramatic, suspenseful, or tragic, but above all else they should be entertaining to the players telling the stories. 

What Makes M-Force Different? 
At any given time, there are dozens of RPGs about monster hunting on the market, so you’re probably wondering what makes M-Force different from all the rest. While there are many things that make M-Force unique, there are two immediately obvious ways that it differs from most monster hunting RPGs. For one thing, people in the world of M-Force know that monsters exist. There’s no need for monsters to operate in secrecy for no apparent reason; no need for monster hunters to  hide “the truth” from innocent bystanders; and no need to stretch suspension of disbelief to the breaking point in order to keep the “monsters don’t exist” conspiracy going. 

The other big difference between M-Force and other RPGs is the characters. Most monster hunters are people, usually with special powers, who fight monsters out of a sense of grim obligation. They fight because they’re mystically chosen, or because they’re mutant freaks, or  out of a sense of guilt, or because they’re among the few people who have made the (often blindingly obvious) discovery that monsters exist. M-Forcers, on the other hand are regular, everyday people who make a conscious choice to fight monsters. Different M-Forcers join the organization for different reasons, but deep down they all do their part to defend humanity from monsters because it’s The Right Thing To Do. 

Chapter 1: The World of M-Force
At first glance, the world of M Force looks much like our own world—most place names are the same, and history follows basically the same course. Upon closer examination, however, the world of M Force is a deeply strange place. This is not an alternate timeline where one key divergence brought about a different history. It's a world that has been strange from the beginning. Weirdness suffuses everything. In the world of M Force, many of the things we look at as fiction are demonstrably provable facts. In addition to monsters, you can find magic, aliens, ancient conspiracies, super science, and lost civilizations. As writer Kurt Busiek once said about his Astro City, “It's not a realistic world, but it's a fascinating one.”

Ancient man accepted things like monsters and magic as a part of life, but as civilization evolved, the unusual elements of life were pushed farther and farther to the fringes of society and  many people stopped believing in them. This skepticism was often encouraged by the ruling class, who typically saw the unpredictability of these phenomena as a potential threat to their power. For centuries, the truth about the paranormal was suppressed by those in power. Unusual creatures, abilities, and events were written off as mass hysteria, hoaxes, and urban legends, or given some other perfectly rational explanation. 

All that changed in 1958, when Galaxikhan, a giant lizard-like creature from outer space, rampaged across the American West and nearly destroyed San Francisco. With the cat out of the bag, people like M-Force founder Dr. Henry Fields, who had long known about the threat monsters posed to humanity, used the attack as a platform to bring the existence of monsters and other unusual phenomena out into the open. After seeing a giant space lizard rampage through California live on TV, people found things like magic, werewolves, and ESP a lot more plausible. 

In the 21st Century world of the Internet and 24-hour news networks, everyone knows that weirdness exists in the world, but most only know it intellectually, the way they might know that E=MC2. The average American citizen knows that Martians and monsters exist, but they think of them in the same way they think of celebrities or serial killers: “Sure, they’re out there, but what are the chances I’m going to run into one?” Society continues to run smoothly because people are in denial. They tell themselves they live in a nice, clean, rational world. As long as they don’t encounter anything unusual, they’re fine. Unfortunately for these people, the world keeps getting weirder and weirder all the time. 

[Sidebar: The Hex Ficton
The word “ficton” was coined by science fiction writer Robert Heinlein in the novel Number of the Beast. The word simply means “a fictional world.” Heinlein gives Oz and Wonderland as examples, but some fictons, like the ones that house Moby-Dick or The Maltese Falcon, look just like our world. No matter what it looks like, though, a ficton is governed by natural laws that differ from our own. These laws generally owe more to drama than to physics.

M-Force exists in its own ficton, one inspired by popular fictions but still unique. This world, which we call “The Hex Ficton,” is the home of M-Force as well as several other Hex Games products, including Weird Times at Fort High, American Artifacts, and Hobomancer, just to name a few. If you’re familiar with these products, you easily can incorporate ideas from any of them into your M-Force game. If not, don’t worry. You don’t need to know anything about other Hex Ficton supplements to play M-Force. 
[End Sidebar]

Weirdness in the Hex Ficton
It should be abundantly clear by now that there are a lot of strange things going on in the Hex Ficton. The main paranormal concern of M-Force is, obviously, monsters, and we’ll be giving you a lot of information about them in this and other M-Force products. This section provides information about some other types of weirdness that M-Forcers are likely to encounter. 

Magic
The very nature of M-Force’s work often brings it into close contact with magic, and some magical practitioners are employed by the organization. However, M-Force’s origins are deeply rooted in science and most M-Forcers are more confident in superior firepower than arcane rituals. Although some of M-Force’s tactics (such as using iron against fairies) are based in magical principles and experienced M-Forcers often pick up a  basic working knowledge of magical theory, most are not equipped to deal with serious magical threats. When heavy magical firepower is required, M-Force usually requests help from and acts as support for professional spellcasters.

Paranormal Abilities
While people with super-human abilities certainly exist in the Hex Ficton, most of them make the average person a little nervous. Parahumans (as they are commonly known) do occasionally don colorful outfits and fight crime, but more often they try to hide their powers to avoid being labeled freaks, use their abilities for personal gain, or both. Although M-Force has no specific policy regarding agents with paranormal abilities, they are a rarity. The average precognitive is more likely to use his power to play the stock market or beat the odds in Vegas than to fight monsters.  

Non-humans
The Hex Ficton is home to a number of alien and non-human races. Some of them, like Martians and Venusians, are American citizens and intelligent non-humans who aren’t inherently evil are considered to have the same basic human rights as the rest of us. While the line between “intelligent non-human” and “intelligent monster” is fuzzy, M-Force’s generally progressive organizational culture requires that it allow any legal resident of the United States join the organization, including those who aren’t human. However, there are very few takers. For one thing, many M-Forcers, like most Americans, are suspicious of non-humans and don’t make them feel especially welcome. Additionally, some non-humans (like the Frog People) were treated as monsters by M-Forcers or other monster hunters in recent memory, so many non-humans’ opinion of monster hunters are similar to some African Americans’ opinion of people from the Deep South. 

Super Science
As anyone who has toured the Experimental Operations facility can attest, M-Force does not shy away from considering unorthodox scientific ideas. Unfortunately, very few inventions based on non-traditional science actually find their way into regular use. Most are unreliable, cost-prohibitive to produce, dangerous, or too complicated to use without extensive training. 

[Sidebar: Paranormal M-Forcers 
While the setting makes it possible to play an M-Force game with PCs who are a powerful wizard, a Martian, a guy who can shoot lasers from his eyes, and a mad scientist, such a group really misses the point of the game. The focus of M-Force is on everyday heroes overcoming tremendous opposition, so we recommend avoiding PCs with amazing powers. If you want to play super-heroes, there are other games better suited for the task. 
[End Sidebar] 

Chapter 2: About M-Force
M-Force is the world’s largest and best-known monster-hunting organization, boasting hundreds of offices and over 1,000 active field agents in the United States as well as offices in Canada and  [European Offices]. M-Force is funded by the Witterstadt Trust and private donations and never charges a fee for its monster hunting services. To the average American, M-Force is about as familiar as similar do-gooder organizations like the Red Cross. Everyone knows they exist, but unless there’s a seventy-foot crustacean scuttling toward Santa Barbara, most people don’t give them much thought. While a handful of people view M-Forcers as “gun toting weirdos” or believe that “monsters are people, too,” overall M-Force is viewed favorably by the general public. After all, the vast majority of people who have had personal experience with M-Force have had their lives saved by M-Forcers. 

History
M-Force was founded in 1956 by Washington University professor Dr. Henry Fields and Abernathy Quinn, a British monster expert who used his personal fortune to fund the operation during its early years. In 1958, M-Force gained national recognition when its members played a key role in the defeat of the giant space monster Galaxikhan. It was also around this time that M-Force gained the financial backing of Sadie Witterstadt, an eccentric New Englander who would eventually leave both her Caledonia, Massachusetts estate and much of her considerable family fortune to the organization. 

In 1960, M-Force began its long and bloody war with the Slugs, intelligent body-snatching monsters intent on infiltrating American society. After Abernathy Quinn and Sadie Witterstadt were killed during a slug assault on M-Force Headquarters (at the time housed in Sadie’s guest house), Dr. Fields retired from monster hunting. Fields appointed former Herrick Agency detective Mike Mulligan as his successor. Mulligan’s top priority as the new leader of M-Force became the elimination of the slug menace. 

Although Mulligan was an effective leader of the organization, he was failed to consider public opinion in waging his “War on Slugs.” To the average person, M-Forcers were killing what appeared to be normal, law abiding citizens. Americans become increasingly concerned about this heavily-armed group of self-appointed monster hunters. When two M-Forcers mistakenly killed an innocent civilian who they believed to be a Slug in 1970, the President issued an executive order that suspended all M-Force operations and Congress began a formal investigation into the organization. It was widely believed that M-Force would be shut down and Congress would pass laws prohibiting organized monster hunting. 

In 1972, five M-Forcers in Pasadena, Texas violated the executive order against monster hunting to take down a monster preying on the local community. The only survivor of the battle, Sam Gunderson, was arrested and put on trial. The case garnered national attention, and the selfless heroism of Gunderson and the four dead agents caused public opinion to shift in favor of M-Force almost overnight. Realizing that voting to outlaw M-Force would be political suicide, Congress passed the Federal Monster Hunter Act (FMHA-72), which established the Bureau of Monster Affairs to regulate monster hunting. 

[Sidebar: The BMA
Organized monster hunting in the U.S. is regulated by the Bureau of Monster Affairs. The Bureau, established by the Federal Monster Hunter Act of 1972, is responsible for ensuring that groups like M-Force comply with government standards in areas such as recruitment, agent training, and operational safety. The BMA also classifies known non-human creatures and maintains the Official Monster List (OML), which classifies dangerous non-human menaces as “nuisance creatures,” exempting them from concerns about due process and species endangerment. ]

Realizing that to many people he symbolized M-Force’s worst mistakes, Mike Mulligan resigned. Mulligan’s successor, G. Carlton Saunders, drew upon his experience as an entrepreneur to completely restructure M-Force into a much more effective organization and continued to make improvements until his retirement in 1995. The next Director, Adam Sekowsky, led the organization through one of its greatest modern-day challenges when thousands of monsters poured out of a dimensional rift in Kansas. When Sekowsky was killed in an automobile accident in 2008, current director Mary Anne Mayes assumed the Directorship.  

Mission
M-Force’s mission is simple: To protect humanity from monsters. Of course, that doesn’t mean that M-Forcers spend all of their time hunting monsters. M-Force dedicates considerable resources to research into both monsters themselves and monster-hunting techniques and technology. The organization also works hard to educate the public about the threat posed by monsters as well as the role M-Force plays in opposing that threat. Finally, M-Force often supports emergency service and relief organizations in situations that have nothing to do with monsters, from search and rescue operations to disaster relief. 

Current Concerns
In 1997, a huge dimensional rift opened up in the middle of Kansas and monsters of all descriptions poured out of it. Because Kansas is so sparsely populated and at the time was home only to a handful of M-Force offices, hundreds were killed and several towns razed before anyone even knew what happened. The full extent of the danger wasn’t discovered until refugees and monsters started showing up in larger cities. Once the rift was discovered, martial law was declared throughout most of the state and M-Force began working with the National Guard to contain the situation while the Council of Mages searched for a way to close the rift. 

Although the rift was closed within a matter of months, it was nearly five years before the monstrous hordes were brought under control enough for things to return to some semblance of normality. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, a large number of monsters--especially the more intelligent ones who realized that staying put was hazardous--managed to escape the area of containment. As a result, the amount of monster activity increased throughout the country. 

In addition to an increase in the amount of monster activity, M-Force began to notice changes in monster behaviour. Monsters became bolder in their attacks and different types of creatures were sometimes encountered working together in a seemingly coordinated manner. In 2012, a 
group of monsters attacked and completely decimated the Boston Office during the annual Christmas party. The attack force consisted primarily of goblins, but also included several other types of creatures, most notably an as-yet-unidentified type of demon who, based on security camera footage, seemed to be acting as the leader of the attack. 

The attack was obviously very well-planned and probably required months surveillance and intel work to pull off so successfully. The fact that the office was basically right down the road from National Headquarters has led to speculation that the operation was meant to serve as some sort of warning by a coordinated group of “terrorist monsters” Those who believe this theory have taken to referring to said organization as “The Shadow Guild.” To date, no solid proof of such a conspiracy has been uncovered, but M-Force remains vigilant.  
Organizational Structure
M-Force is headed by an Executive Director responsible for overseeing the organization as a whole. An Assistant Executive Director helps the Director keep everything running smoothly and acts in the Director’s stead when he is unavailable. M-Force is organized into six divisions, each responsible for a particular area of M-Force activity (see sidebar). The six division heads report directly to the Executive Director. 

Regional M-Force offices are located in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. Each regional office mirrors the organizational structure of the national level, with six division heads coordinated by a Regional Director (supported by an Assistant Regional Director) who answers directly to the Executive Director. Many of M-Force’s day-to-day business--payroll, insurance enrollment, and the like--are handled by the regional offices. Each regional office also maintains a mission support center responsible for coordinating and providing support for all active investigations within its region. 

Each local M-Force office is headed by an Agent In Charge (AIC), but otherwise the local office structure varies considerably depending on the size and resources of the office as well as the personal preferences of the M-Forcers who work there. Some local offices have multiple full-time employees with well-defined duties while others rely primarily on volunteerism and team spirit to keep things running smoothly. Local offices are covered in more detail in Chapter X. 

[Sidebar: M-Force Divisions
Administrative Division handles most of the behind-the-scenes work necessary to keep an organization the size of M-Force running: accounting, employee benefits and insurance, property management, and other business functions. The M-Force Legal Department is also part of the Administrative Division. 

Compliance Division is responsible for making sure that M-Force offices and agents follow organizational and government policies and regulations. It is divided into two departments: Government Relations, which works with the Bureau of Monster Affairs to make sure that M-Force complies with federal regulations for monster hunting; and Oversight, which acts as M-Force’s “internal affairs” department, verifying that internal policies are being followed and investigating claims of wrong-doing by M-Force agents.

Research and Development Division oversees the Quinn Library, M-Labs, the Experimental Operations Team, and the research activities of regional and local offices, especially the Transport, Containment, and Research (TCR) facilities.  

Operations Division coordinates all aspects of field operations. The Operations Division is responsible for the placement of AICs and full-time field agents, maintaining the supply chain for field equipment, issuing M-Force Alerts and other high-priority bulletins, and tracking active field missions. 

Training Division is responsible for making sure that all M-Forcers have the skills and education necessary to effectively fight monsters in the safest way possible. The Training Division operates the M-Force Academy, establishes operational procedures, provides opportunities for agents to learn new monster hunting-related skills, and keeps track of agent skill sets and training. 
[End Sidebar]

Chapter 3: Working For M-Force
The war against monsters requires a great many troops with a wide range of talents. In addition to field agents, M-Force employs administrators, scientists, librarians, lawyers, and more. These agents come from all walks of life; M-Force does not discriminate on any grounds, be it race, class, sex, gender, religion, political affiliation, or sexual orientation. These men and women generously give M-Force their time and energy in exchange for very little pay and a great deal of danger. This chapter covers some of the day to day aspects of life as an agent of M-Force. 

Duties and Responsibilities
With monster activity sporadic, M-Force simply can’t justify the expense of employing full-time monster hunters at every field office, and arming untrained civilian volunteers to help hunt down monsters is fraught with liability issues. In order to establish the largest pool of trained monster hunters possible without having to provide them all with full-time employment, M-Force has established three different types of field agents--full-time, part-time, and reserve--with differing levels of obligation to the organization. These obligations are described in more detail below. 

On-Call Duty
Although all M-Forcers are to some extent considered to be on call at all times, M-Force realizes that its agents (especially part-timers) have obligations outside of M-Force and are not always available to respond to a call. In order to ensure that there is always a pool of agents available when needed, part-time agents are assigned to be available on an on-call basis at specific times. When on-call, an agent is expected to be available to report for duty on short notice (the exact definition of  “short notice” varies from office to office). Agents who are on call are expected to avoid any activity that could prevent them from responding to a call in a timely fashion (for example, leaving town or becoming intoxicated). 

The number of days per month that a part-time agent is on call is set when the agent is hired, but can be adjusted as needed by agreement between the agent and the Agent In Charge. The exact schedule of on-call days each month is set by the AIC, though most are willing to work with the agent to make the on-call duties as convenient as possible. Full-time agents are on call at all times unless they have made prior arrangements with the Agent In Charge. On the other end of the spectrum, reserve agents are not normally assigned to on-call duty unless an office is short on manpower or is expecting monster activity. Agents who are called in when they are not on call are expected to report for duty if possible, but are not contractually obligated to do so. 

[Sidebar: M-Force Field Teams
Field teams are generally more effective when agents have worked together in the past and get along with one another, so most M-Force offices assign each agent to a particular field team and AICs try to make sure that members of each team are assigned the same on-call days (or work schedules, for full-time agents). This is not always possible since scheduling for most agents has to take into account regular work hours, family obligations, class schedules, doctor appointments, and various other external factors, but AICs do their best to make sure that if an agent is called in for a field mission, he’ll be working with people he knows. In large offices, (usually) friendly rivalries often arise between different field teams, and some field offices channel this one-upmanship into everything from fundraising competitions to intramural bowling leagues. A typical field team has between four and eight members. 
[End Sidebar]

Field Assignments
This is obviously the most well-known M-Force activity, though most people hold the misconception that field missions are exclusively about fighting monsters. In reality, field missions are rarely as straightforward as loading up with weapons and filling a monster with lead, and some field assignments don’t involve combat at all. Field Assignments are covered in more detail in the “Missions” section later in this chapter. 

Support Duties
In addition to monster hunters, M-Force needs people to man the telephones, keep track of payroll, order supplies, maintain vehicles and equipment, file paperwork, and handle dozens of other things to keep a field office running smoothly. Well-funded offices can often afford to hire people to do some of this, but most offices rely heavily on part and full-time field agents to get things done. Full-time agents typically work a 40-hour week even when there are not active cases and part-time agents work a set number of hours per week or month agreed upon by the agent and the AIC when the agent is hired.

Some agents have regular job duties based on their abilities and interests. For example, an agent who works as an accountant may be responsible for helping the AIC with the books, or the office gearhead could be charged with making sure that M-Force’s vehicles are kept in good repair. Agents whose skill sets don’t necessarily mesh with the office’s specific needs often find themselves assigned to a different task every time they come to work, so an agent may find himself giving an office tour to a group of students one week and doing inventory of the ammo cabinet the next. Unless the office can afford to hire operators, nearly every agent will pull at least a few shifts of watch duty (answering the phones) every month. 

Scheduling of work hours is the responsibility of the Agent In Charge. Full-time agents and part-time agents with reasonably stable schedules often work the same hours every week, while part-timers with unpredictable schedules (most service industry workers, for example) work different shifts every week based on availability. The flexibility of work hours, degree of supervision, and methods for scheduling vary from one office to the next. Some AICs are very strict, while others make sure watch detail is covered and let agents work the rest of their hours whenever they want. 

Other Responsibilities
In addition to their regular obligations to M-Force, agents must pass a yearly physical and training re-certification to ensure that they’re fit for duty. In addition, most offices require agents to participate in regular training and team-building exercises, though the frequency, complexity, and quality of these varies greatly from office to office. Offices once held regular mandatory meetings, but now most offices rely on technological solutions to pass information along to their members. Many offices still have regular gatherings to allow agents to interact face-to-face (the Key West office in particular is famous for its office-wide fishing trips and clambakes), but they are typically optional and usually more casual than the office meetings of the past. 

Finally, while M-Force does not try to police the personal lives of its members, it does have a public image to uphold and has certain legal and ethical responsibilities regarding its agents. When representing M-Force--even unofficially--agents are expected to behave professionally at all times. In addition, M-Forcers may be suspended or fired if they are convicted of a crime or exhibit signs of psychological or physical infirmity or are discovered to be consorting with monsters. M-Forcers who show signs of drug or alcohol addiction are subject to random drug test and may be suspended from duty until they seek counseling. 

[Sidebar: Other Opportunities
In addition to their regular duties, there are many other opportunities available to M-Forcers. These include:

•	Volunteer work: This can include anything from manning the booth at the office bake sale to assisting with rescue operations following a natural disaster. 
•	Special training: M-Forcers can often take advantage of classes, seminars, and other courses outside of the basic M-Force training. Such opportunities may be available to every member of an office (for example, a seminar on crime scene investigation) or only to certain individuals (for instance, M-Force may offer to cover the cost of EMT training for an agent who has shown an aptitude for dealing with medical emergencies). 
•	Academic and research opportunities: M-Force’s research division offers numerous internships, scholarships, research fellowships, and other opportunities to those with the appropriate skill sets, training, or career goals. While many of these are open to the general public, active M-Forcers are typically given preference when choosing from among applicants. 
•	Work for hire: People often contact M-Force when they need to hire someone with monster-related expertise, whether they need someone to give a presentation on monster-hunting, offer story consulting for a movie or novel, or hire security guards in an area with lots of monster activity. In these cases, M-Force will act as an employment agency/booking agent and connect the prospective employer with an agent with the proper skills in return for a small fee. 
[End Sidebar]

Pay and Benefits
M-Force agents are often disappointed with they take a look at their first paycheck. Make no mistake; no one stays with M-Force for monetary gain. Minimum pay rates for agents are set by M-Force national headquarters and are based on years of service, but some offices can afford to pay slightly higher rates. Full-time agents are typically salaried employees, while part-timers and reserve agents are paid by the hour. In addition to hourly pay for field assignments and regular work hours, part-timers (and occasionally reserve agents who are asked to volunteer for on-call duty) are paid a small bonus (typically a few dollars more than they’d earn for jury duty) for each day of on-call duty. M-Force does not offer “hazard pay” for field missions, but the BMA and some local governments offer bounties on nuisance monsters and occasionally government agencies or private citizens offer rewards for the capture or elimination of specific monsters. In such cases, the entire amount of the bounty or reward is divided among the agents who took part in the mission. 

Although M-Force agents don’t make a lot of money, the job does offer very good benefits, most notably the comprehensive medical and life insurance coverage available to agents as well as spouses or domestic partners and dependents. M-Force also  offers a 401K and pension plan for agents. Agents interested in furthering their education are eligible for numerous scholarships as well as educational reimbursement for classes and training programs in areas of study pertinent to their M-Force duties. Other perks include a free subscription to M-Forcer magazine, discounts at numerous local and national businesses, and access to agent-only M-Force merchandise. 

[Sidebar: M-Force Perks
Many M-Force offices and local businesses offer fringe benefits to M-Force agents. A few examples are listed below.

•	Since 1982, no M-Force agent has ever been allowed to pay for his meal at Roy’s Steamer, the finest hole in the wall in Miami, Florida.
•	Petrucho Hardware in Modesto, California has a special sale price on chainsaws and chainsaw accessories for M-Force agents: one dollar, 30-day terms available. 
•	Bill Whistler, the AIC of the Nashville M-Force office, brings fresh-baked donuts to work nearly every day. 
•	Anyone with a valid M-Force badge is entitled to the full perks of membership at the Adonis Gym in Hoboken, New Jersey. 
[End Sidebar]

Rules and Policies
Like every organization, M-Force has numerous rules and policies that employees must abide by, and local offices often have their own formal or informal rules and procedures. These cover everything from training requirements to absences to making coffee when you drink the last cup and the majority are not that different from the rules at any other job. However, there are three rules that reflect M-Force’s mission and upholding them is considered the single most important part of an M-Forcer’s job. From training until retirement, M-Force agents are constantly reminded of these rules, commonly known as the “Big Three.” They are: 

1.	Protect and preserve human life. This takes priority over everything else, even stopping monsters. In addition to protecting people from monsters, M-Forcers are expected to avoid situations that may endanger human life (even if it would make it easier to kill a monster). When dealing with human agents of monsters or victims of mind control, possession, and magical afflictions like lycanthropy, M-Forcers are expected to employ non-lethal methods of capture if at all possible. 
2.	Protect humanity from monsters. The most important aspect of this rule is being able to distinguish between actual monsters and non-human creatures, which means keeping up-to-date on the BMA’s Official Monster List. Agents are taught to understand that anything on the OML is by definition hostile to humans and should not be trusted or cooperated with except in extreme situations. Agents are also expected to be on constant alert for monster activity (even when they’re not on the clock) and report anything suspicious as soon as possible. Finally, agents are expected to keep their training and knowledge up-to-date so that they can operate effectively in the field. 
3.	Respect the law and uphold high ethical standards. The fallout from M-Force’s Slug-hunting days taught the organization the importance of having good relations with the public, law enforcement and emergency service personnel, and government agencies. While M-Force and most police forces recognize that some law-breaking (for example, ignoring posted speed limits) and collateral damage is inevitable and justified when agents are pursuing a monster, M-Forcers are expected avoid unnecessary violations and minimize property damage while on field missions. Agents are also expected to protect M-Force’s public reputation by publicly maintaining certain minimal standards of ethical behaviour even when not on duty. 

Investigation of most rules violations is handled on the local (or occasionally regional) level, but certain situations trigger an immediate Oversight investigation. These include: any time an agent dies in the line of duty; when an agent is accused of a major crime that also violates M-Force policy (generally meaning the deaths or endangerment of humans); when a monster encounter results in questions about the agent’s ability to perform his duties; or when one or more agents is suspected of having been co-opted or replaced by a monster. In all but the first instance, the agent under suspicion is always suspended from duty for the duration of the investigation. 

An agent found to be in violation of M Force rules faces a range of penalties, depending on the magnitude of the offense. Minor negligence or inappropriate use of force that had no lasting consequences (but might have under other circumstances) will likely result in a temporary suspension from duty; the agent may be required to complete appropriate counseling or training programs before being admitted back to active M Force membership. An agent who has caused financial harm--excessive loss of M Force equipment, or massive and unnecessary damage to civilian property--may have his or her pay docked until compensation is paid. Repeated flouting of the rules, or a single more severe violation--especially any behavior that results in serious harm to an innocent bystander--will be met with permanent expulsion from M Force. In all cases, M-Force representatives will cooperate fully with police at all levels, so an agent guilty of criminal acts will face more than just M Force's displeasure.

Field Missions
Nearly every field mission begins with a call to M-Force, either from the national hotline or through the local office switchboard. When that call is received, the person who answers must log all available information and determine how to proceed. If there is a clear and present monster threat or there is reliable information to suggest an actual monster sighting, a field team is dispatched immediately. If the caller merely reports suspicious activity (such as livestock mutilation or strange noises), the operator will either send a pair of agents who are currently on duty to investigate or (if there are no agents on duty) schedule a visit as soon as agents become available. The operator must make the decision of whether or not to dispatch a field team based on the information available and the apparent reliability of the witness and is strongly encouraged to err on the side of caution and consult with other on-duty employees (or call the AIC at home) if unsure whether or not a field team should be sent out to a call immediately. As long as the caller provides M-Force with contact information, agents will always be sent to investigate as soon as possible even if the call sounds like a prank or the delusions of a paranoid mind. 

If an M-Force office has multiple calls or is dealing with a serious threat, agents who are currently on duty are sent out first (with agents on watch duty or performing certain other important or time-sensitive tasks excepted), followed by agents who are on-call. If more agents are needed, M-Force will start calling off-duty and reserve agents. Agents who have recently ended their work shifts or returned from field assignments are always moved to the bottom of the call list. When dealing with widespread monster activity or extremely powerful monsters (so called “Galaxikhan Level Emergencies”), the regional office will step in to mobilize teams from multiple offices with national headquarters coordinating the work of each regional office if necessary. 

When on-call or off-duty agents are needed, they are contacted via a badge alert (see sidebar) and expected to check in with the field office as soon as possible (or within five minutes if they’re on-call) to find out where they need to report. This is usually handled with a phone call, though many offices have found technological solutions to streamline the process--for example, some offices send a text informing agents where to report, with a reply text serving as an official check-in. As soon as an agent checks in, the regional office officially assigns him to the mission. When agents arrive at the specified location (either the local office or the scene of the suspected monster activity), they are briefed on the situation and expected to get to work. 

[Sidebar: The M-Force Badge
Upon completion of initial training, every M-Force agent is issued his own M-Force badge, which he is expected to display openly when on official M-Force business and keep with him at all times. The badge, which is made out of durable shock-resistant material, looks like an M-Force logo approximately three inches wide and a quarter-inch thick. In addition to identifying the agent, the badge contains a satellite pager receiver that can be activated by the local, regional, or national office. When a badge alert is sent, the badge begins some combination (controlled by the agent) of vibrating, emitting a beeping noise, and flashing a small green light set into the upper edge of the badge until the agent checks in with his local office. 

Each M-Force badge also contains GPS tracking device that allows mission control to track an active agent’s location and a personal locator beacon that can be activated if an agent gets into trouble and can’t contact headquarters. The locator beacon may be activated manually by pressing a button on the back of the case, but also activates manually if the badge suffers serious damage. When activated, the beacon transmits a “broken badge alert” signal to mission control that contains the badge’s location along with a unique ID code identifying the agent. 
[End Sidebar]

Mission Support
Every field mission--even preliminary investigations and routine follow-ups--is assigned a Mission Support Representative in the regional office. The MSR’s job is to monitor the team’s progress and to assist them in any way possible. Mission Support Reps often handle calls from multiple field teams simultaneously, but as soon as a mission “goes hot” (monster activity is confirmed), he will typically hand his other cases off to another MSR in order to make himself fully available to the team that’s facing an active monster threat. The only exception to this rule is if all of the other MSRs in the regional office are also dealing with “hot” cases, which is extremely rare (and probably cause for alarm). A few examples of how MSRs can assist a field team include:

•	Coordinating with local law enforcement and emergency service agencies.
•	Assisting agents with research. For example, searching the Quinn Library’s online archives for information about a particular type of monster or helping them find the closest place to get gas or buy extra ammunition. 
•	Connecting agents with experts or specialized services. Putting them in touch with a researcher or hunter with experience with the monster being hunted or arranging for a nearby biologist or lab to help them analyze blood samples, for instance. 
•	Arranging for delivery of specialized weapons, ammunition, and other supplies and equipment. 
•	Sending backup if a mission goes south. 

A few larger and more well-staffed local offices operate their own (usually slimmed-down) version of Mission Support, but most agents have to call the agent on watch duty or the AIC if they need support from the local office. 

[Sidebar: The Quinn Library
The Quinn Library, located at M-Force National Headquarters in Caledonia, Massachusetts, is the world’s largest repository of monster-related literature, housing everything from ancient stone tablets to scholarly papers detailing the latest research. Much of this information is available to agents in digital form through the Quinn website. In addition, the Quinn Library operates its own 24-hour mission support hotline to assist agents (or their Mission Support Reps) in identifying or learning more about the monster they’re hunting. 
]

Chapter 4: The Local Office
Before your group begins making M-Force characters, the GM and players need to get together and create the field office where the characters work. The local office plays a huge role in most games; in addition to being the place where most of the characters spend a lot of their time, the local office can influence the kinds of missions the PCs will be sent on, what sorts of monsters they’ll face, and even what character types are most appropriate for the game. The local M-Force office should be more like an additional cast member than a set, so it’s important that all the players have input into its creation. This chapter guides you through that process. 

Setting
In the oldest monster hunting stories, the heroes don’t fight monsters so they can steal their treasure or sell their body parts to creepy old wizards, they fight monsters to protect their communities. Since M-Force as an organization (and hopefully at least some of the individual characters) follow in this grand tradition, it’s important for the players to understand what and who their characters are protecting. Therefore, the first thing the group needs to do when designing the local office is decide where it’s located. M-Force has offices all over the U.S. and a handful in other countries, so there are plenty of options, and if there’s not a real-world city that suits the group’s tastes, there’s no reason you can’t make up your own. After all, if you can accept the existence of werewolves and giant space lizards, a fictional city in Ohio should be a piece of cake. 

The office’s location will suggest what kinds of monsters the characters are likely to encounter (M-Forcers in Honolulu have to deal with a lot more lava beasts than the office in Boise) as well as what sorts of people they’ll be dealing with on a regular basis. Also, although players aren’t limited to playing characters from the area--we’re a pretty mobile society, after all--the choice of setting can affect player choices during character creation. For example, if a player wants his character to be a “fish out of water” type, a snooty intellectual will fit the bill a lot better in Birmingham than in Boston.

Office Size
The location you select will also help determine the size of the local office and how much funding it receives from M-Force. Since M-Force never has as much funding as it would like, the organization tries to put its money where it would do the most good, which usually means that the money goes to heavily populated areas with (or near places with) a lot of monster activity. Large cities without any serious monster activity and sparsely populated rural areas (regardless of monster activity) tend to get the least funding from headquarters. While M-Force funding is rarely a local office’s only source of income--all offices accept donations, most have regular fundraisers, and some get money from grants, endowments, and other sources--it’s typically an office’s largest and most stable source of funding. 

For game purposes, offices are divided into five different size categories, described below. The number of agents listed includes only part- and full-time field agents. Reserve agents, non-agent support staff, and other personnel are not included in those counts. 

•	Satellite Offices are essentially individual field teams who technically belong to a larger office but operate in an area that is geographically removed from that office. Satellite offices rarely have a dedicated physical office, typically using a member’s home or place of business as a base of operations.  The larger office that they serve under handles most administrative duties and serves as a point of contact for the satellite office. Satellite offices employ 10 or fewer agents. 
•	Small Offices employ 25 or fewer agents, including the Agent In Charge (who is often the office’s only full-time employee). Small offices rarely have resources beyond a stash of standard weapons and a vehicle or two. 
•	Mid-Sized Offices employ between 25 and 50 agents, usually including at least one team of full-time agents. Mid-sized offices typically have a small staff of non-agent support personnel, a respectable collection of weapons, and a small motor pool, possibly including one or more specialized vehicles. Additionally, a mid-sized office’s facilities may include things like basic lab equipment, recreation and sleeping areas for on-call agents, or containment pens where live monsters can be temporarily held for study or transport to another location. 
•	Large Offices employ more than 50 agents, typically including several full-time field teams. Since large offices are either located in areas with a lot of monster activity or have a secure source of outside funding, they usually have a large staff of support personnel, often including a few full-time specialists with on-site labs or shops. A large office will also have a comprehensive armory, well-maintained motor pool, and numerous other resources. 
•	Regional Offices were described in more detail in Chapter Two. In addition to the facilities and non-agent staff necessary to support and coordinate the activities of the field offices in their part of the country, a typical regional office employs around 100 field agents, about half of them full-time employees. The only office with more resources than the regional offices is M-Force National Headquarters. 

Office Type
Most M-Force offices are simply “field offices,” but there are a few special kinds of office that perform specialized duties or are organized differently than the typical office. You’ll need to decide whether your team’s office falls into any of these special categories. 

Containment  and Research Facilities
Not all monsters leave a nice, neat corpse that will biodegrade and complete the life cycle we all learned about in high school biology. Some leave behind remains that are potentially hazardous or could be re-animated; some can’t be definitively killed, only temporarily neutralized; others (like werewolves or victims of possession) can’t be killed due to ethical concerns. On top of all that, sometimes the best way to learn about more effective ways to neutralize a creature is to study a live specimen. While many offices have places where they can temporarily hold such creatures and remains, most are not equipped to deal with them on a long-term basis. These are held in M-Force’s containment and research facilities, commonly referred to as “containment centers.” 

In addition to conducting normal M-Force operations, containment centers must maintain a large full-time staff to guard and study the creatures (and substances) in their care as well as the laboratories, workshops, and other facilities for conducting research. Each containment center also employs full-time transport teams and those that do weapons and tactical research may also have an experimental operations team. Most containment centers are partnered with one or more institutions of higher education and offer a number of fellowships, grants, internships, and other academic opportunities to both faculty and staff. 

M-Force has three primary containment centers: The Triangle Universities Joint Center for Cryptid Studies in Durham, North Carolina; The Fields Institute at Washington University in St. Louis; and the Hunt-Ray Paranormal Research Complex, California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. There are also a number of smaller containment centers throughout the country. A containment center is a good setting for groups that want to encounter a wide variety of strange creatures and explore implications that real-life monsters would have on science and academia. 

Foreign Offices
M-Force has only been an international organization for about a decade, but does have several Canadian offices as well as a few in Europe, and if players are interested in exotic locales there’s nothing to stop you from deciding that M-Force has expanded to other parts of the world. Before you decide to play a foreign office, the group should decide how realistic they want the game to be. Portraying a truly authentic foreign office would require adapting M-Force’s corporate culture and operating procedures to fit with the cultural norms, laws, and political realities of the country where he office is located. If that’s not the kind of thing your group in interested in exploring, though, you can always go with the typical pop culture assumption that other countries are basically America with strange clothes and funny accents. 

Headquarters
This category includes the five regional offices and the National Headquarters. Playing a team from a headquarters office allows players to focus more on the big picture and the inner workings of M-Force. Since PCs may be called upon to support or provide backup for local field offices, the GM has a larger selection of adventure locales and types of missions. Players also have the option to play members of one of the specialist teams that nearly all headquarters offices field. If you want a game that focuses heavily on monster hunting, a headquarters office is a good choice.  

Maritime Office
In our world, a lot of monster stories are about creatures from the water--sea serpents, mermaids, lake monsters like Champ and Nessie. In the world of M-Force, many of these creatures are more than just stories, so M-Force needs agents with the equipment and training to deal with waterborne threats. While most offices with a large body of water in their jurisdiction will have access to a boat and an agent or two with marine experience, maritime offices usually have numerous boats (many of them fitted for battle with everything from harpoons to depth charges) and multiple agents who are specially trained in finding and fighting creatures of the deep as well as responding to more mundane distress calls and conducting water rescues. M-Force has a very good relationship with the U.S. Coast Card and most offices also work closely with local harbor patrols and other aquatic law enforcement and rescue organizations. Players who want some high seas adventure mixed with their monster hunting should definitely consider playing agents of a maritime office. 

Military Base Office
One of the provisions of the Federal Monster Hunter Act was to establish an official relationship between M-Force and the U.S. military. The bulk of the legislation was concerned with providing guidelines and regulations for military involvement in M-Force operations that require the use of military-grade firepower, but it also provided methods for the military to take advantage of M-Force’s specialized resources and know-how to deal with monstrous threats in locations or situations where involving civilian monster-hunters could raise security issues. One of the results of this legislation was the establishment of military base M-Force offices. 

Although members of a base office have access to M-Force resources and usually incorporate the M-Force logo into their uniforms to identify themselves as monster hunters, they operate under military command independent of M-Force and are not necessarily required to inform M-Force of their activities. In fact, military M-Forcers carry badges that allow agents to disable the locator beacon’s ability to broadcast to M-Force’s receivers (though it still broadcasts to a separate system operated by the military). This independence (and as some M-Forcers see it, unaccountability) can sometimes cause friction between military and civilian M-Forcers, especially when military priorities conflict with M-Force’s mission priorities. 

In communities with a civilian M-Force office, the civilian office handles all monster threats beyond the confines of the military base. Members of the base office are considered reserve agents and are only called in when extra personnel or military-grade weaponry is needed to take down a monstrous threat. If base office is the only M-Force office in an area, it usually operates a watch detail and responds to calls from the community just like a standard office, though the military’s command structure often adds an additional layer of red tape that must be dealt with. Players who want to focus on monster hunting that involves big guns and explosions may prefer playing a military office. 

Operational Research Center
Thanks to the popularity of police procedurals, operational research centers are often referred to as M-Force’s “crime labs,” and the name is somewhat accurate. Where containment centers focus on long-term, ongoing, and often theoretical research, operational research centers are more concerned with immediate, practical science. They’re called on when an M-Force team needs someone to analyze samples to help identify a monster, come up with an antidote to counteract a creature’s venom, or study a carcass in hopes of finding an easier way for a field team to deal with its 300 buddies that are still on the loose. 

The Containment Centers at the Triangle Universities Joint Center for Cryptid Studies and the Hunt-Ray Paranormal Research Complex each have their own on-site operational research center. A third full-time operational research facility, the Saunders Operational Analysis Laboratory, is located in Chicago and the headquarters offices each has some level of operational research capability. These labs handle most of the low-priority operational research while the smaller ORCs typically handle specific cases on an as-needed bases. Many of these smaller ORCs have extremely limited facilities of their own, relying heavily on access to labs and equipment belonging to partner universities and law enforcement agencies. Players interested in games where science plays a key role in dealing with monstrous threats will enjoy a game centered around an ORC office. 

Partnered Office
Like the military, many private businesses and organizations could benefit from having trained monster hunters on their security staff, especially if they have facilities in areas vulnerable to monster attack or engage in research on live monsters. While most simply contract with M-Force to train their employees, some see the advantages of having employees who are official agents of M-Force (usually for public relations purposes or to obtain access to M-Force’s expertise and support). More rarely, an organization will partner with M-Force in order to establish an office in a community where monster activity is not prevalent enough for M-Force to dedicated resources to setting up shop there. 

Except for the fact that they’re primarily funded by the partnering organization (or, more rarely, individual or community), partnered offices operate just like regular field offices, which means they’re subject to full M-Force oversight and agents are expected to operate according to M-Force rules and policies. Since many agents of a partnered office are also members of the partnering organization’s security team, clashes of corporate cultures are not uncommon, especially when the partnering organization’s interests don’t mesh with M-Force’s mission. Playing a partnered office is very much like playing a standard field office, but with an extra layer of internal politics. 

Training Center
Although M-Force’s primary training facilities are located at the Regional and National Headquarters, not every agent can spare the time or money to travel hundreds of miles for training. In order to make it easier for new agents to complete their training and encourage existing agents to take advantage of educational opportunities, M-Force has set up training centers in a number of areas that are distant from a central HQ. These offices are often located near and partnered with police academies or training grounds for emergency service personnel who provide M-Force with access to their facilities in return for training in monster-related disaster response. 

In addition to providing on-site training, each training center (as well as each Regional Headquarters) employs a staff of travelling instructors who can provide training and certification to agents at their home offices or nearby firing ranges and other facilities. Since these instructors are usually veteran monster hunters, training center staff are often sent as backup when an office in their area needs heavy hitters but can’t wait for an assault team from the regional office to show up. Since training center instructors usually travel alone or in pairs, having PC instructors will only work if the group (and the GM) is comfortable frequently dealing with a split party or if the group is gaming in a format (such as play-by-post or play-by-email) encourages single-PC scenarios. If the PCs are regular agents at a training center rather than instructors, the main advantage is that they will get a chance to interact with lots of M-Forcers from other offices. 

Volunteer Office
It’s not unusual for members of a community with relatively little monster activity to approach M-Force about opening an office in their town. While M-Force doesn’t have the resources to maintain offices where there are few monsters, it also can’t afford to turn away willing volunteers, so it created the volunteer office. Volunteer offices receive practically no funding from M-Force, but, provided it complies with M-Force standards and procedures, is allowed to brand itself as an M-Force office. Field Agents for volunteer offices are trained by M-Force and are considered reserve agents for the nearest M-Force field office. Volunteer offices are frequently satellite offices, though some have enough funding to operate as small or even mid-sized offices. Since volunteer offices by definition don’t see a lot of action, this office type should only be chosen if the players want monster-hunting to be an infrequent backdrop to a cinema-verite style game. 

Office History and Traditions
Once the players have decided how big their office is and whether it’s a special type of office, they should come up with some background information about the office. The first and most obvious question, of course, is “how long has the office been open?” M-Force began establishing temporary bases in the 1960s in Slug-infested areas distant from the main headquarters and many of which became permanent local offices when G. Carlton Saunders re-structured the entire organization during the early days of his Directorship. At least one new office has opened every year since, with three new offices opening in a typical year and an all-time growth record of eight new offices (all of them in Kansas and the surrounding states) in 1998. Whether you decide to play an office with a half-century of history, one that just opened last week, or something in between will definitely have an impact on the character of the office. 

If you’re playing a relatively new office, it will be helpful to know why M-Force decided to set up an office in your particular location. Most new offices are established as part of M-Force’s growth plan, but when there’s a significant upsurge in monster activity in an unprotected area, M-Force will often set up a temporary base of operations staffed by non-local agents. If the problem persists for very long, local agents will be recruited and a permanent office will be established. Less frequently, a local government or organization will offer M-Force incentives to establish an office (usually a particular kind of office, like a training or research center) in their community. If such incentives can be taken advantage of without diverting funds from or delaying the establishment of offices in areas where there is a real monster threat, M-Force will always give them serious consideration. If the higher-ups determine that establishing the incentivized office will be beneficial to continuing the M-Force’s mission, they’ll begin looking for a way to include the new office in the overall growth plan. 

Even a relatively young office will have a history, and along with that history will come frequently-told war stories, triumphs, tragedies, initiation rituals, common enemies, and inside jokes. Even new agents will pick up on these traditions as they hear stories and discover why things are done a particular way or where a certain running gag originated. This sense of shared experience will help to create an atmosphere of camaraderie among agents and may even influence how the office deals with certain types of situations. 

While you don’t need to come up with a complete history of your office from its founding to the present, the players and GM should work together to come up with a few big events and lots of evocative details about what the office has been through before the game started. You don’t have to know the whole story--in fact, if the PCs are mostly newer agents, learning the whole story may be an important part of the game--you just have to make it feel like there’s a story (hopefully a very interesting one) there and that story creates a bond between the people who work in the office. 

Staff
Hopefully by now you already know a few colorful and important characters from your office’s past (some of whom may still be around). Now it’s time to focus on the characters who work in the office when the game begins. While you don’t have to fully flesh out every single staffer from the beginning, try to at least come up with basic personalities and a few interesting quirks for the ones that the PCs will be dealing with on a regular basis (for example, the Agent In Charge). You should also think about how different Game Master Characters (GMCs) interact with one another. For example, which characters are friends outside of work, which ones are romantically involved, and which ones can’t stand each other. You don’t need a comprehensive understanding of office politics, but knowing the interpersonal dynamics between key players and sub-groups can help bring the office to life and can lead to interesting subplots once the game gets started.

The Agent In Charge
With the exception of satellite offices, every M-Force office has an Agent In Charge (AIC) who oversees all aspects of the office’s day-to-day operations. The AIC is a full-time agent chosen by the regional office, preferably from among the office’s existing staff. Since M-Force policy requires all AICs to have field experience, new offices are often assigned a temporary AIC whose job is to get the office up and running and act as AIC until a local agent is ready to step into the job. 

Since the Agent In Charge is involved in all aspects of the office’s operation, he will have a lot of influence on the overall character of the office, and therefore the tone of the game. Therefore, the players and GM should make sure to fully develop the AIC’s personality, goals, and quirks. Since AICs in most offices rarely go on field missions, PC Agents In Charge typically only work for very small or perpetually understaffed offices. 

Other Field Agents
Unless the PCs belong to a very small office, they won’t be the only field agents. While you don’t need to describe every single field agent in your office, you’ll want to come up with details for at least a few prominent or interesting agents and teams--after all, you might find yourself working alongside them at some point. Does a particular team have a reputation for being the best monster hunters in the office? Is there an agent nobody wants to work with because he’s reckless or grumpy? GMCs with roles within the office that will bring them into regular contact with the PCs--for example, the watch supervisor or the agent in charge of the armory--should be more detailed than agents that the PCs will rarely have dealings with. If the office has any specialized field teams (see sidebar), you should also decide what they’re like and how they fit into the office as a whole.

[Sidebar: Team Types
Just like some M-Force offices specialize in a particular aspect of M-Force’s overall operations, some field teams are trained or well-suited for a particular type of mission. It should be noted that nearly all specialized teams spend most of their time doing normal field work, only stepping into their specialized role when the need arises. In fact, some specialty teams are made up of members of two or more regular field teams who only work together when their special skills are required for a mission. Examples of specialized teams include:

•	Assault Teams: Assault teams are the S.W.A.T. teams of M-Force, specializing in bringing down monsters with tactical precision and superior firepower. Assault teams are most common in large offices (including all headquarters offices) and military base offices. 
•	Experimental Operations Teams: M-Force conducts and sponsors a lot of research, and most of it is geared at finding more efficient, less dangerous ways to deal with monstrous threats. Since new tactics and weapons don’t always work as expected, M-Force established Experimental Operations Teams (EOTs) to conduct the initial field tests whenever possible. EOTs employ scientific and mechanical know-how, tactical improvisational ability, and considerable courage to test out new methods both in the field and in controlled tests with captured or simulated monsters. EOTs are most often associated with containment and research centers.   
•	Field Research Teams: Despite the BMA’s specific definition of the word “monster,”  most people look to M-Force for help with any situation that involves weird or unusual creatures whether or not they present a threat to human life. Because of this, M-Force stands to benefit from all kinds of cryptozoological and paranormal research. Field research teams act as bodyguards and assistants for scientists conducting such research and often include experts who conduct their own original research as well. Field research teams are usually part of a containment or operational research center.  
•	Field Support Teams: Large-scale operations usually involve a lot more than just tracking and killing monsters. In a major monster emergency, M-Force needs people to set up and man mobile operations centers, medics to assist victims and injured agents, PR people to deal with the media and general public, people to coordinate with local police, emergency service providers, and government officials, and many other support personnel. Field support teams are specially trained to provide this kind of backup, and are most often found in larger offices.  
•	Investigative Teams: These are the crime scene investigators of M-Force, specializing in collecting and analysing evidence, witness testimony, and other clues that can help solve monster-related mysteries. Most investigative teams are based at operational research centers. 
•	Maritime Operations Teams: Maritime teams specialize in dealing with aquatic threats and often include specialists such as combat divers or agents trained in the use of ship-based heavy weapons. They’re almost always based at maritime offices. 
•	Special Collections: The Quinn Library’s Special Collections Team is charged with acquiring rare (and sometimes dangerous) materials to add to the library’s collection of monster-related lore. They spend much of their time in exotic locations tracking down old manuscripts, ancient tablets, and blasphemous tomes. 
•	Transport Teams: Transport teams specialize in safely conducting live monsters, monster carcasses, and hazardous monster-related materials to places where they can be studied or safely disposed of. All containment centers field transport teams, as do some larger offices. 
 [End Sidebar]

Non-Agent Staff
In addition to the AIC and the other agents, some offices will also employ staff members who are not M-Force agents. The most common types of non-agent staffers are watch operators hired to help man the phone lines, but receptionists, janitors, and other office staff are also common. The largest non-agent staffs usually belong to research offices, who typically employ numerous scientists, lab technicians, and other specialists. As with other field agents, don’t worry about coming up with a complete list, just details the ones who are most interesting or who the PCs are most likely to deal with on a regular basis. 

Resources
The next step in designing the M-Force office for your campaign is deciding what it’s like physically. Where is it located? What kind of building is it in? Does it have reasonably new furniture or a bunch of broken-down junk that the AIC found at yard sales and thrift stores? How well-equipped is the office? Does it have any specialized equipment or facilities? This section provides some guidelines on creating facilities.

The Building
Some M-Force offices have brand new buildings built especially for them, others have space in an old strip mall next to the local Big Lots. Since most M-Force funding is tied to the amount of monster activity in the area, larger offices tend to have better facilities, but local funding (not to mention donated space) can also allow less active offices to upgrade from what M-Force funding allows. The group should decide what kind of space their office is housed in, how much space they have, and what the place is like. For example, does it have reasonably new, matching furniture or a bunch of junk agents have donated or picked up at yard sales? Are the walls freshly-painted or covered in ugly, peeling wallpaper from the 70s? While you can certainly draw up a floorplan if you want, it’s much more important that you come up with a few details that give the place some character. 

You should also come up with an idea of what kind of area the office is locate in. Is it in a suburban mallscape, a new industrial park, or a recently-gentrified downtown area? What other businesses or attractions are located nearby? How do they feel about having monster hunters as neighbors? While you’re at it, come up with a few colorful characters from the neighborhood and describe the context in which members of the office regularly deal with them. For example, is there a homeless guy who hangs around outside begging for change? A manager at the pizza place down the street who will always cut M-Forcers a special deal? A neighborhood cop with a grudge against M-Force? 

The Motor Pool
Although M-Forcers sometimes use their personal vehicles for M-Force duties, every office has at least one company cars, and most have several. Some also have specialized vehicles outfitted for combat or monster transport. You don’t have to specify every vehicle in the fleet, but at least come up with a rough idea of how many vehicles the office owns and what kind of condition they’re in. Then make up some details about a few vehicles that are especially interesting or quirky. Feel free to give them names. If the office also has boats, helicopters, snowmobiles, or other unusual vehicles, describe those as well. 

Other Stuff
This category includes anything else you want to specify about your office or its resources, from a pool table in the break room to a working biology lab to specialized weapons or equipment for dealing with monsters that are common to the area. Don’t worry about coming up with a comprehensive list of equipment. Just make note of the big stuff, the stuff that’s unusual, and maybe a few quirky things to add character to the office, like the autographed picture of David Hasselhoff in the conference room or the broken-down recliner that the AIC refuses to part with. 

Community Relations
The last step in defining your field office is deciding how it fits into the larger community; after all, they’re who the M-Forcers are there to protect. Most people are good-naturedly apathetic towards M-Force. They’ll say they support M-Force if asked, but unless there’s a monster at the door, they don’t really think about it. Therefore, communities with more frequent monster attacks tend to be more supportive of M-Force overall. In addition to deciding how typical members of the community feel about M-Force, think about whether there’s anything about the community--local ordinances and red tape, helpful public officials, nosy reporters, etc.--that makes M-Force’s job easier or more difficult. 

In addition to fighting monsters, most M-Force offices engage in other forms of public service to raise awareness and build goodwill with the community. For example, maybe your office sponsors a little league team, organizes regular fundraisers for the local food bank, or runs a haunted house every Halloween with the proceeds going to charity. The stronger the ties with the community, the easier it will be for M-Force to do its job when there’s a monster attack. 
Finally, consider what community resources are available to M-Force. Police forces, emergency service organizations, universities, and businesses often have equipment or facilities that could be helpful in case of a monster attack or investigation, and M-Force offices often have (formal or informal) arrangements for use of those resources. In addition to equipment, decide whether there are any local experts--gunsmiths, scientists, sometimes even crackpots--that M-Force can call upon for advice or assistance. If M-Force has any benefactors within the community, whether it’s a local business that offers an M-Forcer discount or an eccentric millionaire who paid for the new office building, figure out who they are as well. 

[Rules Box: Office stats
Hopefully by now your game’s local office is well-defined enough that the GM and players will generally have a good grasp of what resources it has to offer and how well it can react to situations. However, there will no doubt be situations in the game when the local offices responsiveness to support request will affect how a story unfolds. To help the GM decide how to handle these situations, all M-Force offices have Words and Numbers just like a player character. 

You can either assign numbers to the office based on what you’ve already determined or build the offices using Yum Yums. If you use Yum Yums, Manpower, Resources, and Reputation cost 2 Yum Yums per point and Gimmicks, Weaknesses, Skills, and Flaws have the same costs as when building a character. Size Modifier depends on the offices size, as does the number of Yum Yums an office has to spend: 40 for a satellite office; 60 for a small office; 75 for a mid-sized office; and 100 for a large office. The stats for regional offices and the national headquarters are provided in Appendix X. 

Office Type: This word, obviously enough, describes what kind of office the players work for: standard field office, containment facility, maritime office, etc. Office Type does not have a number associated with it, but the GM should take the Office Type into consideration when deciding whether a roll is needed to resolve a particular question and when setting difficulty numbers and modifier. Specialized Offices may add their Size Modifier (see below) to all rolls that specifically relate to their specialty. For example, a mid-sized operational research center would get a +2 bonus when rolling to determine how long it takes for support staff to identify a monster from a hair or blood sample. 

Size Modifier: An office’s Size Modifier is often applied as a modifier to a roll or used to translate game mechanics into game-world numbers. For example, the Size Modifier may be applied to a roll to determine how many agents are available to provide backup. Size Modifiers are ½ for satellite offices, 1 for small offices, 2 for mid-sized offices, 3 for large offices, 4 for regional headquarters, and 5 for the National HQ. 

Manpower: This Word has a Number between 6 and 16 and measures the organization’s ability to mobilize both field agents. 

Resources: This Word, also with a Number between 6 and 16, measures the organization’s assets and support staff.

Reputation: This Word measure’s the office’s influence within its community and its ability to distribute information Like the Manpower and Resources, is rated between 6 and 16. 

Other Words
M-Force offices may also have Gimmicks, Weaknesses, Flaws, and Skills just like characters. Keep in mind that these should only be used for offices that have resources that are significantly better or worse than those found in a typical office of that type. 

Sample Gimmicks: Data Vault, Friends In High Places, Good Lawyer, Local Heroes,  Occult Library, Q Branch, State of the Art Facilities, Wealthy Benefactor, Well-Equipped
Sample Weaknesses: Bad Reputation, Loose-Lipped Staff, Outdated Equipment, Red Tape, Run-Down Offices, Underfunded
Sample Skills: Active in the Community, Armory, Crime Lab, Dedicated Support Staff, Library, Motor Pool, R&D, Volunteer Pool
Sample Flaws: Bad Neighborhood, Negative Publicity, Poorly-Maintained Vehicles, Second-hand Lab Equipment, Understaffed

CHAPTER X provides more information on how to use these stats in your game. 
[End Sidebar]

Character Creation
M-Force characters are created just like any other QAGS Second Edition character, but there are a few restrictions and additions to the basic rules that are required to stat out an M-Forcer. For one thing, all characters begin with two Jobs: M-Forcer and their day job. Also, there are minimums for a few Words and some restrictions on what Gimmicks, Weaknesses, and other traits a character may choose. For example, M-Force will NOT hire a character if his Gimmick is “Vampire.” It just wouldn't be prudent. Finally, there are a few new traits available to characters in the M-Force game. This section outlines the special considerations and new rules you'll need to keep in mind when creating your M-Forcer.

Words and Numbers
The basic rules for coming up with stats for your character can be found in the QAGS Second Edition Rulebook. This section only explains the additions, differences, and restrictions to the basic rules that apply to creating an M-Force character, and assumes that the reader is familiar with the basic Q2E character creation rules. Please refer to the core rulebook for more information about character creation.

Body, Brain, and Nerve
In a typical QAGS 2E game, characters may have Body, Brain, and Nerve Numbers as low as 6, but fighting monsters is a tough job, and potential M-Force agents must pass a number of physical, mental, and psychological tests in order to be accepted into the program. Therefore, M-Force agents must have at least an 8 in all three Numbers. Characters with lower Numbers may serve M-Force in a non-combat capacity, but will not be allowed to do field work. Since M-Force is a monster hunting game, it's best for the group (and much kinder to the GM) to make such hangers-on GMCs and keep them well out of harm's way. Otherwise the game will turn into an endless series of Oversight investigations if the GM wants to keep all the characters involved and stay true to the game. 

Job
Most M-Forcers are part-time agents, and therefore have a regular job outside of monster hunting. M-Force agents come from all walks of life, so just about any Job is available to an M-Forcer. The only real requirement is that the character be able to leave work on short notice if M-Force calls him to help in an emergency. M-Forcers do not enjoy the same protection from firing as members of the National Guard, so employers are not legally obligated to allow M-Forcers to leave work in the event of a monster attack. Agents whose employers have signed the Employee Awareness Form (which states that the company is aware of the employee's responsibilities to M-Force) have some legal protection if they are fired as a result of the their M-Force activities, but this protection is far from iron-clad. 

Members of the military who are on active duty are considered auxiliary agents. They are called to service with a badge alert just like other agents, but must obtain permission from a commanding officer before they can engage in M-Force activities. Since the ease of obtaining such permission depends on the relationship between the commanding officer, the soldier, and M-Force, and the current political climate, soldiers must often wait until the AIC or War Room staff gets some breathing room to contact their C.O. before they can join the mission. For this reason, it's best to avoid the “Soldier” Job unless you're playing a campaign based around a military base's M-Force office. 

Finally, M-Force agents are expected obey the law and uphold high ethical standards, and are subject to background investigations before they are allowed to join the organization. Therefore, characters with criminal jobs such as “Bank Robber” or “Car Thief” are unlikely to make it through the screening process. By the same token, M-Forcers must undergo a series of physical and psychological tests designed to weed out monsters, so Jobs like “Demon” and “Ogre” are simply out of the question.

Most M-Forcers are part-time agents, but Agents in Charge usually work for M-Force full-time or as their primary job and some larger offices employ additional full-time agents. Full-time M-Forcers are not required to take a regular Job, but may do so if appropriate.

The M-Forcer Job
The M-Forcer Job has several new concepts associated with it and is described in detail later in this chapter. 

Gimmick
In addition to the the obvious “monster” Gimmicks, players should avoid blatantly supernatural or super-heroic abilities. M-Force is at heart a game about regular people, not genetic freaks.
 
Weaknesses
M-Forcers are expected to be capable of pulling their own weight during a mission, so Weaknesses that will interfere with an agent's ability to do field work--for example, certain physical and mental disabilities--are not allowed. Additionally, M-Force tests all agents to weed out dangerous psychopaths, so certain psychological problems may render a character unable to join the organization. That said, the very act of fighting monsters on a regular basis can often cause its own psychological quirks, and M-Force is not the kind of organization that simply gets rid of those who've outlived their usefulness. If an agent has suffered some kind of physical or psychological trauma while on the Job, M-Force will try to get them the help they need to return to active duty (or at least to serve in a support position). Finally, M-Force conducts numerous tests to prevent monsters, so if holy water causes a character’s skin to burn, he’s not going to make the team. 
 
M-Force applicants are tested for drugs before they're allowed into the organization and are subject to random testing at the request of the local Agent In Charge. An agent who tests positive for drugs or whose job performance suffers because of alcohol is suspended until they have gone through a rehabilitation program. Agents who are recovering addicts are subject to more frequent tests and regular evaluations. Therefore, “Addiction” Weaknesses are allowed, but any character who chooses such a Weakness should expect it to come into play with some frequency.
 
Skills
Since M-Forcers come from all walks of life, you may choose any skill appropriate to your character concept. Some skills that are especially appropriate to particular types of M-Forcers  are listed in the archetypes section.
 
Other Standard Words
Health Points, WWPHTIM?, Dumb Fact, and Yum Yums follow the guidelines given in the QAGS Second Edition rulebook. Our only recommendation when choosing these words (and, in fact, during the entire character creation process) is to remember that the fun of M-Force comes from creating your own original monster hunting stories, so try to make sure that your character isn't just a clone of your favorite monster hunter from film or literature. Established characters are good place to start when designing your M-Forcer, but a terrible place to stop.

New Word: Flaws
Characters in fiction often have disadvantageous quirks and foibles that, while annoying, aren’t really Weaknesses in QAGS terms. For example, a character may be a bad driver, a little hard of hearing, or not quite as agile as his Body Number indicates. In M-Force, these minor shortcomings are called Flaws. The easiest way to understand Flaws is to think of them as negative Skills; instead of getting a bonus on certain types of rolls, the PC takes a penalty. Flaw Penalties range from -1 to -5. A character gets an extra Yum Yum for character creation for every Flaw Penalty he takes. The total number of Flaw Penalties a character may start the game with is up to the GM, but we recommend a maximum of 5 for most M-Force games. 

Sample Flaws: Afraid of Bunnies, Allergies, Animals Hate You, Annoying Voice, Bad Aim, Bad Back, Bad Driver, Bad Leg, Bad Liar, Battle Scars, Body Odor, Caffeine Junkie, Can’t Swim, Cheapskate, Clumsy, Color Blind, Computer Illiterate, Control Freak, Didn’t Get The Memo, Disorganized, Ditzy, Drama Queen, Dyslexic, Easily Overwhelmed, Excitable Boy, Fashion Victim, Foot In Mouth Disease, Forgetful, Frail, Frog Fear, Gets All His Information From Fox News, Grumpy, Hard of Hearing, Heavy Sleeper, Hedonist, High Strung, Impatient, Indecisive, Jumpy, Know-It-All, Lecherous, Low on Cash, Low Alcohol Tolerance, Low Pain Threshold, Literal Minded, Motion Sickness, Near-Sighted, Night Blindness, No Sense of Humor, Not Good With Names, Out of Shape, Perpetual Munchies, Rude, Short, Short Attention Span, Shy, Slob, Soft-Hearted, Speech Impediment, Squeamish, Superstitious, Swimmer’s Ear, Technophobe, Terrible at Math, The Shakes, Tone Deaf, Ugly, Unassertive, Uncouth, Uneducated, Vain, Weak Stomach

The M-Forcer Job
The M-Forcer Job covers all the basics of monster hunting, including familiarity with common monsters, firearms safety and marksmanship, hand to hand combat, investigative techniques, basic first aid, and familiarity with M-Force rules and procedures. If you're using the Yum Yum character creation system, the M-Forcer Job is purchased just like the character's normal Job, with a Yum Yum cost equal to twice the desired Job Number. If you're using the Qik Start Rules, your character starts out with a Job Number of 11 but may use his starting Yum Yums to increase the number during character creation at a cost of 1 Yum Yum per point. 

The M-Forcer Job has three sub-words attached to it: Role, Agent Status, and Specializations. These are described in detail below. 

Role
A character's Role is similar to an Archetype, but specifically relates to the role he plays within his local M-Force office. In some cases, such as "Agent In Charge," the character's Role is an official position within the organization that means additional responsibilities but also includes specific perks, such as full-time employment, decision-making authority, or better benefits. Other roles, such as "Tech Guy" or "Office Historian," are unofficial positions that don't necessarily include structured benefits to go along with the extra headaches (though there may be fringe benefits).

It’s important to understand that a character’s Role does not provide any concrete mechanical advantages. For example, a character with the Role of “Firearms Expert” at 12 has exactly the same chance of shooting a monster as a character with the Role of “Office Librarian” at 12. Therefore, we recommend that players choose regular Jobs, Skills, and Specializations (see below) related to their Roles, especially if the Role suggests some level of expertise or advanced training. 

Although the Role is primarily a descriptive tool to aid in role-playing, the GM is encouraged to take it into account when deciding what rolls and Difficulty Numbers (if any) are appropriate in a particular situation. For example, a firearms specialist may be able to identify a gun’s manufacturer without making a roll, the office PR flack can make a Job roll to see if he’s got that pesky reporter’s cell phone number, and the monster expert may have a lower DN to remember information about an obscure monster. 

Sample Roles: Administrative Assistant, Agent In Charge, Chaplain, Combat Leader, Community Outreach, Den Mother, Dispatcher, Drill Sergeant, Gopher, Ghost Buster, Grunt, Human Resources Director, Fitness Trainer, Investigator, Junior M-Force Leader, Legal Advisor, Librarian, Media Liaison, Medic, Monster Expert, Occult Scholar, Office Historian, Oversight Investigator, Police Liaison, Public Relations, Recruiter, Researcher, Scout, Sharp Shooter, Squint, Spokesperson, Supply Specialist, Team Leader, Tech Guy, Training Supervisor, Vehicle Specialist, War Room Liaison, Watch Supervisor, Weapons Specialist, Witness Liaison

Agent Status
Agent status is a mostly descriptive Word that describes the character’s employment status with M-Force. M-Force employees are divided into four categories: 

•	Probationary Agent: Probationary agents are M-Forcers in training who have not yet completed all of the requirements necessary to become field agents. They are permitted to accompany field teams on missions, but are considered observers and support personnel and are only expected to engage in combat under the team leader’s orders or if they or a teammate are in immediate danger. Probationary agents are essentially unpaid interns, receiving no compensation or benefits except for insurance coverage for work-related injuries. 
•	Reserve Agent: Reserve agents are M-Forcers who have completed their training but are not regular M-Force employees. Reserve agents are only called in when there is a manpower shortage or serious threat and are not expected to put in time or perform duties beyond field work and training (though many volunteer their time and services, especially at smaller offices). Reserve agents are paid by the assignment and are eligible for most but not all employee benefits. Reserve agents must have an M-Forcer Job of at least 9. 
•	Part-Time Agent: In addition to field work, part-time agents perform support duties within the office, from manning the phones to keeping vehicles and weapons in good working order. In addition, part-time agents are scheduled to be on call at certain times, during which they are expected to be available to report to the field office on short notice if they are needed. The exact work hours, duties, and on call requirements for a part-time agent are determined by the office’s AIC and the employee based on the needs of the office and the agent’s availability. Part-time agents are paid by the hour for regular work and receive bonus pay for on-call days and are eligible for nearly all employee benefits (some require that the employee work a minimum number of hours per pay period). Part-Time Agents must have an M-Forcer Job Number of at least 11. 
•	Full-Time Agent: For full-time agents, M-Force is a regular job. While there are a few offices in areas with a lot of monster activity who can support full-time field teams, most full-time agents spend the majority of their time at work in some support role such as Agent In Charge or Training Supervisor. Full-time agents are sometimes referred to as “special agents” to distinguish them from part-timers. Full-time agents are salaried employees who are assumed to be on call at all times unless they have specifically informed the Agent In Charge that they will be unavailable. To be considered for full-time employment, a character needs an M-Forcer Job of at least 13. 

[Sidebar: Support Staff
Support staff are people who are employed by M-Force to do a job completely unrelated to monster hunting. Examples include receptionists, janitors, researchers, and volunteers. Although they rarely have the an M-Force Job, civilian employees are encouraged (but not required) to attend M-Force training courses and may have Skills to reflect what they’ve learned. At the GM’s discretion, civilian employees may also make a default Job roll to recall  M-Force or monster-related knowledge they may have picked up around the office.  
]

Specializations
M-Forcers are trained in a broad range of skills, from handling specialized weaponry to filling out paperwork, and most agents are better (or worse) at some aspects of the job than others. Additionally, some M-Forcers receive specialized training for or pick up abilities that are not part of the core agent training curriculum. In order to account for these variations and specialized training, the M-Force game uses a new type of Word called Specializations. Like Skills, Specializations are rated from +1 to +5, but they work a little differently. Instead of increasing the character’s chance of success, Specializations increase the character’s Success Degree if the roll succeeds (or reduces the Failure Degree for a failed roll). For example, if a a character has a Job Number of 15, and applicable Skill of +2 and an applicable Specialization of +4, he needs to roll a 17 (15 +2) or less to succeed. If he succeeds, he adds 4 to his Success Degree, so a roll of 15 would give him a Success Degree of 19. 

In addition to increasing Success Degrees, Specializations allow a character to use his M-Forcer Job for actions that are beyond the scope of standard M-Force training. For example, the “Maritime Operations” Specialization would allow a character to use his M-Forcer Job to drive a boat, use SONAR to track an underwater monster, and fire a harpoon even if he doesn’t have a regular Job, Gimmick, or Skill related to these activities. 

In some cases, a Specialization may only be available to characters who have appropriate training or abilities. For example, while it’s useful for M-Force to have helicopter pilots who are trained to fly in combat or search and rescue situations, it’s not generally worthwhile for them to send a completely untrained agent to flying school. However, if an agent’s day job is flying the traffic chopper for the local news station (and the local office or the agent has access to a helicopter for mission use), M-Force may enroll him in a tactical flying course. Along the same lines, some Specializations are limited by the character’s local office. For example, agents from the El Paso, Texas office are not typically trained in Maritime Operations.  

The total number of Specializations a character may have is limited by his M-Forcer Job Number: 8 or less: 0; 9-10: 1; 11-13: 2; 14-15: 3; 16: 4. Also, the total of all a character’s Specialization Bonuses may not exceed his M-Forcer Job Number. Characters begin play with a number of Specialization Bonuses equal to their M-Forcer Job Number minus 8 and may purchase additional Specialization Bonuses for 2 Yum Yums each at character creation. Once play has begun, new Specializations and Specialization Bonuses cost the same as Skills. 

Sidebar: Sample Specializations 
Like with most QAGS Words, players are encouraged to come up with their own Specializations. However, since Specializations are based on the character’s M-Forcer Job and therefore should be at least somewhat useful to monster hunting or day-to-day M-Force operations (“Comic Book Trivia,” for example, is not an acceptable Specialization), the range of possibilities is narrower than for most Words. The following list describes the most common M-Force Specializations, along with examples of actions that the Specialization may apply to and any additional notes (such as non-M-Force training required to take the Specialization).  

Close Combat 
While M-Force training focuses on taking monsters down from a distance, there are are times when agents have to get up-close and person to get the job done. While all M-Forcers are trained in basic self-defense and close combat tactics, a character with this Specialty is familiar with a wide range of melee weapons and fighting styles. 
Sample Uses: Body slamming a monster, dodging a melee attack, escaping from a choke hold, improvising melee weapons, sword fighting, using battle site conditions or objects for tactical advantage, wrestling a weapon away from an opponent 

Cryptobiology*
This supplemental Specialization for agents with appropriate backgrounds focuses on applying biological knowledge and methodology to the study of monsters. 
Sample Uses: Analyzing a monster’s venom to determine how to treat poison victims, collecting and analyzing biological samples, determining whether there is a biological motivation behind a monster’s actions (for example, that it’s trying to reproduce or seeking a new food source),  identifying a monster based on indirect evidence such as footprints or lair contents, performing an autopsy/dissection of a monsters, recognizing a monster’s anatomical weak points  
Note: In order to take this Specialization, a character needs an appropriate Job (such as “Biologist” or “Doctor”) or the “Biology” Skill at +3 or higher. 

[Environment] Operations: A character with this Specialization has advanced skills in hunting monsters in a particular environment. The specialization covers basic survival skills, knowledge of common monsters, and operational or combat techniques peculiar to the environment. 
Sample Uses: Driving a snowmobile [Cold Weather Operations], identifying edible or dangerous plants, finding water and shelter, identifying monster-related activity, mountain climbing [Mountain Operations], orienteering
Note: Characters must choose a specific environment for the skill. For example, “Desert Operations” or “Woodland Operations.”  

Interpersonal Communications
A character with this Specialization is skilled at dealing with people on a personal level and is familiar with etiquette and diplomacy, non-verbal communication, social engineering, and motivational techniques.  
Sample Uses: Coaxing information out of someone, determining whether a witness is lying, distracting someone by flirting with them, haggling for a better deal, judging a person’s emotional state, lifting a teammate’s spirits, talking your way out of a traffic ticket  

M-Force Administration
An organization the size of M-Force runs on paperwork. Some record-keeping is necessary to keep the operation running smoothly, some is required by the Bureau of Monster Affairs, and some is seemingly designed simply to annoy Agents in Charge. A character with the Specialization is skilled at cutting through the red tape and keeping the paper pushers happy as well as handling other day-to-day aspects of keeping an M-Force office running. 
Sample Uses: Addressing a policy or safety violation, conducting a mission briefing, creating a work schedule, handling a complaint or dispute, knowing who to call, overseeing deployment of office resources, planning an event, preparing a report, submitting a budget request or equipment requisition 

Maritime Operations
M-Forcers who work in coastal areas or near major rivers, lakes, or swamps regularly find themselves dealing with monsters that live or spend a lot of their time in the water. This Specialization covers the basics of marine monster-hunting operations. 
Sample Uses: Deploying nets and underwater traps, driving a boat, evacuating a ship, identifying aquatic monsters, reading nautical maps, recognizing water hazards, performing water rescues, shooting a harpoon, tracking an underwater monster using SONAR 

Marksmanship
An M-Forcer with this Specialization has received advanced firearms training. In addition to having experience with a wide range of different types of guns, he is familiar with basic firearms repair, ballistics, and the tactical uses for different types of firearms.
Sample Uses: Determining what kind of gun was used in a crime/attack, field stripping a weapon, finding the best location to fire from cover, pinning an enemy down with suppression fire, shooting monsters, using reloading equipment to make specialty ammunition. 

Monsterology 
M-Force uses the term "monsterology" to distinguish the discipline from "cryptozoology," which deals specifically with creatures whose existence is unconfirmed. While there is some overlap between the two fields, monsterology deals with creatures who are known (or very strongly suspected) to exist and who present a threat to humans. All M-Forcers are trained in basic Monsterology, but a character with this Specialization has spent considerable time learning as much about monsters as possible. 
Sample Uses: Detecting signs of monster activity, identifying monsters, predicting monster behavior, recognizing ways to exploit a monster’s vulnerabilities, remembering monster-related trivia, using M-Force resources to find out details about a particular monster

Occult Studies
Although M-Force generally prefers replicable scientific solutions to the often unreliable results of magic, they do recognize that knowledge of magic and the occult can be useful in some situations. A character with this Specialization is familiar with the basics of magical theory. 
Sample Uses: Identifying cult activity, interpreting occult symbolism, performing an banishing ritual or exorcism, preparing a magic circle to trap a demon, researching magical lore  

Operational Logistics
Characters with this Specialization is familiar with M-Force mission procedures, resources, and policies. 
Sample Uses: Coordinating with mission control, ensuring that agents comply with M-Force rules and policies, locating equipment and supplies in the field, organizing patrols or search operations, setting up a command post, utilizing local resources 

Scene Investigation
The first step in monster hunting is to find the monster, or at least determine where it's likely to attack next. A character with this Specialization is the M-Force equivalent of a crime scene investigator, using physical evidence at the scene of a suspected monster attack or sighting to determine what really happened there. 
Sample Uses: Assisting police investigators at monster-related crime scenes, collecting samples for lab analysis, determining a monster’s identity based on a victim’s wounds, looking for clues at the scene of an incident, making plaster casts of monster footprints, securing the scene of an incident to prevent contamination 

Special Purpose Weapons
This Specialization covers the construction, use, and improvisation of weapons other than firearms and basic melee weapons. 
Sample Uses: Constructing a makeshift flamethrower, deploying chemical agents and gas grenades, making stakes, preparing Molotov cocktails, using reloading equipment to make specialty ammunition

Tactics
A character with this Specialization knows how to effectively using available resources in battle.
Sample Uses: Coordinating a raid on a monster’s lair, determining the best place to engage a monster, fortifying a position, identifying the best place to fire from cover, preparing a monster trap, setting up an ambush 

Urban Operations
This Competency is similar to the [Environment] Operations Competency, but focuses less on survival and more on how to minimize collateral damage when hunting monsters in populated areas.
Sample Uses: Assessing potential collateral damage, cordoning off an area, controlling a crowd, evacuating a building, identifying potential monster lairs, locating the safest place to engage a monster

Vehicles
Characters with this Competency know how to handle a vehicle under stressful and dangerous conditions. They also know how to fix common mechanical problems, keep cars in good running order, and quickly analyze the pros and cons of ramming the car he's driving into the 40-foot tall badger that's attacking Cleveland. 
Sample Uses: Committing vehicular assault on a monster, fixing a flat tire, operating a backhoe, outrunning a monster in a car, stunt driving, using a car to chase a monster towards a trap 

Other Suggested Specializations: Combat Engineering*, Emergency Medical Treatment, Experimental Operations*, Frogman*, Information Science, K-9 Operations, Monster Hunting Technology, Mission Support, Parasphychology, Public Relations, Special Collections*, Tactical Pilot*, Transport & Containment*

*This Specialization is limited to characters who are members of specialty teams or who have appropriate skills and training. 

New Rule: Word Overlap 
[This will ultimately go in the Rules chapter. Just putting it here for now because it’s referenced above]
When two or more Words (other than Body, Brain, or Nerve) are equally applicable for an action, the character rolls an additional die for each additional word that applies and chooses the best result. The target number is equal to the highest applicable Number (plus any applicable Skill) and Degree Bonuses for Specializations are added normally. This rule replaces the “Second Chance” Rule from QAGS 2E.

Example: Officer Jones has a Job of “Cop” at 13, the M-Forcer Job at 11, the “Crack Shot” Gimmick at 14, a “Firearms” Skill of +3, and the “Firearms Specialist” Specialization at +2 and needs to shoot a monster. Since both Jobs, his Gimmick, and his “Firearms” Skill are all applicable, he rolls 3 dice against a target number of 17 (highest Word (“Crack Shot”) of 14 +3 Skill Bonus). He rolls a 6, a 19, and a 15, giving him a Success Degree of 17 (highest successful roll of 15 +2 Degree Bonus for the Specialization). 

Big List of Words

Jobs
Actor, Ambulance Chaser, Architect, Archaologist, Army Reservist, Author, Barber, Bartender, Biologist, Book Seller, Boxer, Building Superintendent, Butler, Cab Driver, Civil Servant, Coal Miner, College Professor, College Student, Community Organizer, Computer Programmer, Construction Worker, Cook, Cop, Courier, Cowboy, Crime Scene Investigator, Cryptozoologist, Customer Service Representative, DJ, Dock Worker, Doctor, Electrician, Elvis Impersonator, EMT, Engineer, Exorcist, Exterminator, Factory Worker, Farmer, Firefighter, Florist, Folklorist, Football Coach, Forensic Scientist, Forklift Operator, Fortune Teller, Funeral Director, Game Warden, Garbage Man, Geologist, Good Ol’ Boy, Graphic Artist, Grocer, Gun Dealer, Historian, Hockey Player, Inventor, Investigative Reporter, Janitor, Lab Technician, Landscaper, Lawyer, Librarian, Lifeguard, Logger, Martial Arts Instructor, Mathematician, Mechanic, Medical Examiner, Minister, Model, Musician, News Anchor, Newspaper Editor, Nurse, Paranormal Investigator, Parapsychologist, Park Ranger, Philanthropist, Pilot, Pizza Guy, Political Activist, Politician, Porn Star, Postal Worker, Private Detective, Professional Wrestler, Psychologist, Pundit, Race Car Driver, Real Estate Agent, Research Assistant, Restauranteur, Rock Singer, Rodeo Clown, Roller Girl, Roofer, Sales Associate, Security Guard, Skydiving Instructor, Slacker, Social Worker, Socialite, Sporting Goods Salesman, Stand-Up Comic, Stockbroker, Stunt Man, Surfer, Talk Show Host, Tattoo Artist, Teacher, Telephone Repairman, Televangelist, Tour Guide, Trophy Wife, Truck Driver, TSA Agent, Undertaker, Used Car Salesman, Veterinarian, Voice Actor, Waiter, Weather Girl, Welder
 
Gimmicks
Ain’t Got Time To Bleed, Always Find A Parking Space, Born Leader, Car Fu, Citizen of the World, Clue Magnet, Computer Whiz, Cool Under Pressure, Danger Sense, Dealmaker, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Duct Tape & Chicken Wire, Empathy, Escape Artist, Everybody’s Buddy, Famous, Fast Healer, Friends In High Places, Friends In Low Places, Good Instincts, Good With Animals, Grizzled Veteran, Gun Fu, Hard To Kill, Has An App For That, Has One In The Car, Hears Everything, Hide In Plain Sight, Honest Face, Human Calculator, Human Lie Detector, Information Stockpile, Intellectual Insight, Iron Stomach, King of the Lab, King of the Road, Knows How To Kill It, Knows People, Ladies’ Man, Lightning Reflexes, Local Celebrity, Local Hero, Lucky, Media Savvy, Mr. Fix-It, Natural Linguist, Nerves of Steel, Occult Improvisation, One Man Pit Crew, Perfect Timing, Photographic Memory, Saw It On The Discovery Channel, Situational Awareness, Smooth Talker, Social Chameleon, Tough, Trend Setter, Wealthy, Weirdness Magnet, Well-Read
Weaknesses
90-Pound Weakling, Absent Minded, Accident Prone, Bad Direction Sense, Bad Luck, Bad Reputation, Bad Temper, Big Mouth, Can’t Get A Break, Chain Smoker, Closet Full of Skeletons, Combat Paralysis, Compulsive Spender, Computers Hate You, Coward, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Danger Junkie, Dirt Poor, Easy To Read, Enemies, Egomaniac, Getting Too Old For This Stuff, Glass Jaw, Good Samaritan, Gullible, Local Celebrity, Makes People Nervous, Monster Magnet, Nerd Rage, No People Skills, One Track Mind, Out of Shape, Outsider, Overconfidence, Overly Competitive, Owes Favors, Paranoia, Perpetual Car Trouble, Power Hungry, Punching Bag, Red Tape, Reckless, Recovering Addict, Shell Shock, Strange Vehicle Magnet, Sucker For A Pretty Face, Victim of the Past, War Wound, Weirdness Magnet, Wrong Place/Wrong Time
Skills
Acrobatics, Academia, Acting, Activism, Anthropology, Archaelogoy, Archery, Astronomy, Bar Bets, Bartending, Baseball, Biology, Bistro Math, Boating, Brawling, Brony, Business Sense, Can Top That Story, Card Tricks, Chemistry, Chess, Civics, Computers, Conspiracy Theory, Cosplay, Crowd Control, Current Events, Dancing, Day Trading, Deadhead, Diner Radar, Dodge, Dog Lover, Down-Home Charm, Eavesdropping, Electronics, Fast Talking, Fencing, Fire Walking, First Aid, Fishing, Folklore, Forteana, Frequent Flier, Gambling, Golf,  Good With Tools, Google Fu, Grease Monkey, Green Thumb, Grenades, Guitar, Haggling, Heavy Weapons, Horseback Riding, History, Hunting, Ice Skating, Improvisational Weapons, Internet Junkie, Interrogation, Intimidation, Investigation, Juggling, Kickboxing, Knife Fighting, Knows A Shortcut, Kung Fu, Latin, Local Lore, Magic Tricks, Marketing, Mathematics, M-Force Administration, M-Force History, Model Train Collector, Monsterology, Movie Trivia, Music Trivia, Negotiation, Norse Mythology, Occult Knowledge, Origami, Philosophy, Photography, Physics, Police Procedure, Politics, Power Shopping, Provincial Wisdom, Psychology, Public Speaking, Register Jockey, Research, Religion, SCUBA Diving, Seduction, Self Defense, Sewing, Showmanship, Sign Language, Singing, Skydiving, Sleep Anywhere, Snappy Dresser, Sociology, Sports Trivia, Stealth, Surveillance, Street Cred, Swimming, Sword Swallowing, Tactical Driving, Tactics, Tennis, Topiary, Tracking, Trekkie, Urban Legends, Video Games, Violin, White Water Rafting, Wilderness Survival, Wrestling, Writing, Xtreme Sports, Zen Meditation
Flaws
Afraid of Bunnies, Allergies, Animals Hate You, Annoying Voice, Bad Aim, Bad Back, Bad Driver, Bad Leg, Bad Liar, Battle Scars, Body Odor, Caffeine Junkie, Can’t Swim, Cheapskate, Clumsy, Color Blind, Computer Illiterate, Control Freak, Didn’t Get The Memo, Disorganized, Ditzy, Dorky, Drama Queen, Dyslexic, Easily Overwhelmed, Excitable Boy, Fashion Victim, Foot In Mouth Disease, Forgetful, Frail, Frog Fear, Gets All His Information From Fox News, Greedy, Grumpy, Gullible, Hard of Hearing, Heavy Sleeper, Hedonist, High Strung, Homely, Impatient, Indecisive, Jumpy, Know-It-All, Lecherous, Low on Cash, Low Alcohol Tolerance, Low Pain Threshold, Literal Minded, Motion Sickness, Near-Sighted, Night Blindness, No Sense of Humor, Not Good With Names, Out of Shape, Paranoid, Perpetual Munchies, Rude, Short, Short Attention Span, Shy, Slob, Soft-Hearted, Speech Impediment, Squeamish, Superstitious, Swimmer’s Ear, Technophobe, Terrible at Math, The Shakes, Tone Deaf, Ugly, Unassertive, Uncouth, Uneducated, Vain, Weak Stomach, Weak-willed
Roles
Administrative Assistant, Agent In Charge, Chaplain, Combat Leader, Community Outreach, Den Mother, Dispatcher, Drill Sergeant, Gopher, Ghost Buster, Grunt, Human Resources Director, Fitness Trainer, Investigator, Junior M-Force Leader, Legal Advisor, Librarian, Media Liaison, Medic, Monster Expert, Occult Scholar, Office Historian, Oversight Investigator, Police Liaison, Public Relations, Recruiter, Researcher, Scout, Sharp Shooter, Squint, Spokesperson, Supply Specialist, Team Leader, Tech Guy, Training Supervisor, Vehicle Specialist, War Room Liaison, Watch Supervisor, Weapons Specialist, Witness Liaison
Specializations
Close Combat, Combat Engineering*, Cryptobiology*, Emergency Medical Treatment, Experimental Operations*, [Environment] Operations, Frogman*, Information Science, Interpersonal Communications, K-9 Operations, M-Force Administration, Maritime Operations, Marksmanship, Monster Hunting Technology, Mission Support, Monsterology, Occult Studies, Operational Logistics, Parapsychology, Public Relations, Scene Investigation, Special Collections*, Special Purpose Weapons, Tactical Pilot*, Tactics, Transport & Containment*, Urban Operations, Vehicles
 
WWPHITM? (Actors)
Actors: Jensen Ackles, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck,  Jeff Anderson, David Arquette, Hank Azaria, Diedrich Bader, Adam Baldwin, Alec Baldwin, Christian Bale, Antonio Banderas, Jason Bateman, Jim Beaver, Jack Black, Powers Booth, David Boreanaz, Russell Brand, Wayne Brady, Nicholas Brendon, Jeff Bridges, W. Earl Brown, Gerard Butler, Steve Buscemi, Nicolas Cage, Bruce Campbell, Francis Capra, Steve Carell, Jackie Chan, Don Cheadle, John Cho, Thomas Hayden Church, George Clooney, Rory Cochrane, Stephen Colbert, Gary Cole, Chris Cooper, David Cross, Tom Cruise, John Cusack, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Vin Diesel, Kevin Dillon, Michael Douglas, Stephen Dorff, Robert Downey Jr., Charles S. Dutton, Chris Elliott, Sam Elliott, Cary Elwes, Chris Evans, Will Ferrell, Jon Favreau, Corey Feldman, Nathan Fillion, Jamie Foxx, Brendan Fraser, Morgan Freeman, Zach Galifianakis, Kyle Gallner, James Gandolfini, Paul Giamatti, Jeff Goldblum, John Goodman, Seth Green, Rupert Grint, Michael C. Hall, Woody Harrelson, Ed Harris, Neil Patrick Harris, John Hawkes, Ed Helms, Lance Henriksen, Howard Hesseman, Emile Hirsch, Ernie Hudson, Ice Cube, Ice T, Eddie Izzard, Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Jenkins, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tommy Lee Jones, Vinnie Jones, Christian Kane, Val Kilmer, Chris Klein, Kevin Kline, David Koechner, Johnny Knoxville,  Fran Kranz, Hugh Laurie, Jason Lee, John Leguizamo, Eugene Levy, Delroy Lindo, Justin Long, Lyle Lovett, Bernie Mac, William H. Macy, Cheech Marin, James Marsden, James Marsters, Steve Martin, Michael McKean, Ian McShane, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mos Def, Bill Murray, Willie Nelson, Edward Norton, Ed O’Neal, Gary Oldman, Timothy Olyphant, Clive Owen, Jared Padalecki, Mandy Patinkin, Kal Penn, Ron Perlman, William Petersen, Mitch Pileggi, Oliver Platt, Brad Pitt, Jeremy Piven, Dennis Quaid, D.J. Qualls, Ted Raimi, Harold Ramis, Burt Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds, Ving Rhames, Giovani Ribisi, Tim Robbins, Chris Rock, Sam Rockwell, Freddy Rodriguez, Stephen Root, Michael Rosenbaum, Tim Roth, Mark Rufallo, Kurt Russell, Tom Savini, John Saxon, Sean William Scott, John Schneider, Will Smith, Kevin Spacey, Jason Statham, Anthony Stewart-Head, Ryan Stiles, Danny Strong, Ethan Suplee, Jeffrey Tambor, Billy Bob Thornton, Justin Timberlake, John Travolta, Danny Trejo, Alan Tudyk, Vince Vaughn, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Mark Wahlberg, Tom Waits, Patrick Warburton, Christopher Walken, Peter Weller, Tom Welling, Fred Willard, Bruce Willis, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Chow Yun-Fat
WWPHITM? (Actresses)
Actresses: Amy Acker, Amy Adams, Joey Lauren Adams, Jessica Alba, Daniella Alonso, Lauren Ambrose, Gillian Anderson, Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Morena Baccarin, Drew Barrymore, Angela Bassett, Kristen Bell, Zoe Bell, Annette Bening, Amber Benson, Julie Benz, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Emily Blunt, Alison Brie, Neve Campbell, Charisma Carpenter, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Caulfield, Sarah Chalke, Margaret Cho, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Claire Danes, Blythe Danner, Geena Davis, Rosario Dawson, Portia De Rossi, Emily Deschanel, Zooey Deschanel, Kristen Dunst, Erica Durance, Eliza Dushku, Anna Faris, Sherilyn Fenn, Tina Fey, Isla Fisher, Jodie Foster, Jorja Fox, Vivica A. Fox, Aretha Franklin, Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Summer Glau, Heather Graham, Judy Greer, Pam Grier, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Linda Hamilton, Alyson Hannigan, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Amber Heard, Marg Helgenberger, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Hu, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich, Nicole Kidman, Beyonce Knowles, Ali Larter, Juliette Lewis, Lucy Liu, Courtney Love, Christina Hendricks, Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Grace Jones, Keira Knightley, Jane Krakowski, Clare Kramer, Mila Kunis, Dichen Lachman, Juliet Landau, Miracle Laurie, Lucy Lawless, Iyari Limon, Jane Lynch, Natasha Lyonne, Allison Mack, Virginia Madsen, Tina Majorino, Frances McDormand, Rose McGowan, Mercedes McNab, Mandy Moore, Natalie Morales, Carrie-Anne Moss, Ellen Muth, Ellen Page, Adrianne Palicki, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anna Paquin, Hayden Panettiere, Lori Petty, Amy Poehler, Sarah Polley, Natalie Portman, Parker Posey, Missi Pyle, Queen Latifah, Christina Ricci, Emma Roberts, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephanie Romanov, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Kate Segal, Amanda Seyfried, Alia Shawkat, Marley Shelton, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Sarah Silverman, Amy Smart, Cobie Smulders, Tracy Spiridakos, Jewel Staite, Julia Stiles, Emma Stone, Kristy Swanson, Alona Tal, Lili Taylor, Uma Thurman, Maura Tierney, Gina Torres, Liv Tyler, Sarah Vowell, Emma Watson, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Kristen Wiig, Kate Winslet, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Reese Witherspoon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sheri Moon Zombie
M-Force Archetypes
The following section describes some the more common types of M-Force characters and are meant to give players a starting point from which to build their character. The archetypes are organized around the character's motivation for joining the organization and goals for their M-Force career. While not all characters will fit precisely into one of these archetypes (and the best characters will develop well beyond them during play), they provide a good jumping-off point when creating your character.
The Glory Hound
The Glory Hound joins M-Force because he wants the recognition that comes with being an M-Force Agent. This may be to satisfy his own vanity, or to further a personal career, business, or cause. The Glory Hound is always the first agent on the scene when the cameras are rolling and is always willing to talk to the press. Those who are actually good at it may be asked to deal with the media, give speeches at universities and clubs, and otherwise act as a team spokesperson. While some Glory Hounds are all talk, just as many live up to their self-given reputations.  

Suggested Jobs: Ambulance Chaser, Blogger, Drive-Time DJ, Musician, Political Activist, Politician, Real Estate Agent, Reporter, Televangelist, Used Car Salesman 

Suggested Gimmicks: Babe Magnet, Clue Magnet, Friends in High Places, Has An App For That, Has Spies Everywhere, Human Lie Detector, Local Celebrity, Opinion Maker, Smooth Talker, Social Chameleon

Suggested Weaknesses: Bad Reputation, Big Mouth, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Has A Face For Radio, Local Celebrity, Narcissist, Owes Favors, Public Scrutiny, Sucker For A Pretty Face, Stalker Magnet

Suggested Skills: Acting, Crowd Control, Current Events, Disguise, Electronics, Eavesdropping, Etiquette, Fashion Sense, Fast Talker, Negotiation, Photography, Politics, Pop Culture Trivia, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Self-Promotion, Social Engineering, Social Media Savvy, Spin Doctor, Surveillance

Suggested Flaws: Condescending, Control Freak, Drama Queen, Fashion Victim, High Strung, Lecherous, Low Pain Threshold, Obnoxiously Boisterous, Vanity, Weak Stomach, 

Suggested Roles: Community Outreach, Dispatcher, Human Resources Director, Investigator, Media Liaison, Public Relations, Recruiter, Spokesperson, Witness Liaison, Watch Supervisor

Suggested Specializations: Information Science, Interpersonal Communications, M-Force Administration, Monster Hunting Technology, Mission Support, Occult Studies, Parapsychology, Public Relations, Scene Investigation, Urban Operations

WWPHITM? (Actors): Will Arnett, Alec Baldwin, Stephen Colbert, Nathan Fillion, John Goodman,  James Marsden, Joel McHale, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Will Smith 

WWPHITM? (Actresses): Charisma Carpenter, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Isla Fisher, Christina Hendricks, Jane Krakowski, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Kate Segal, Kristy Swanson, Catherine Zeta-Jones
The Hunter
The Hunter joins M-Force for one reason and one reason only: to kill monsters. Some hunters look at monster hunting as the ultimate form of big game hunting, while others are simply hell-bent on destroying monsters. The latter group often includes people who have had personal encounters with monsters or who have lost friends and loved ones to them. Hunters tend to be very combat oriented, but most realize that you have to track down the monster before you can open fire on it. Therefore, many hunters compliment their combat training with the study of monsterology, tracking, investigation, and similar knowledge.

Suggested Jobs: Exterminator, Good Ol’ Boy, Game Warden, Gun Dealer, Hunting Guide, Lumberjack, Paranormal Investigator, Park Ranger, Ranch Hand, Security Guard 

Suggested Gimmicks: Ain’t Got Time To Bleed, Danger Sense, Grizzled Veteran, Gun Fu, Has One In The Car, King of the Road, Knows How To Kill It, Local Hero, Nerves of Steel, Situational Awareness 

Suggested Weaknesses: Computers Hate You, Enemies, Getting Too Old For This Stuff, Makes People Nervous, Monster Magnet, One Track Mind, Outsider, Paranoia, Shell Shock, War Wound

Suggested Skills: Brawling, Can Top That Story, Conspiracy Theory, First Aid, Fishing, Folklore, Heavy Weapons, Horseback Riding, Hunting, Improvisational Weapons, Intimidation, Knife Fighting, M-Force History, Monsterology, Occult Knowledge, Stealth, Swimming, Tactics, Tracking, Wilderness Survival 

Suggested Flaws: Bad Back, Battle Scars, Computer Illiterate, Grumpy, Hard of Hearing, No Sense of Humor, Not Good With Names, Redneck, Superstitious, Uneducated

Suggested Roles: Agent In Charge, Combat Leader, Drill Sergeant, Monster Expert, Police Liaison, Scout, Sharp Shooter, Team Leader, Training Supervisor, Weapons Specialist

Suggested Specializations: Close Combat, Combat Engineering, [Environment] Operations, Marksmanship, Monsterology, Operational Logistics, Scene Investigation, Special Purpose Weapons, Tactics, Transport & Containment 

WWPHITM? (Actors): Adam Baldwin, Jim Beaver, W. Earl Brown, Sam Elliott, Lance Henriksen, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Danny Trejo, Chow Yun-Fat

WWPHITM? (Actresses): Jessica Alba, Daniella Alonso, Neve Campbell, Eliza Dushku, Linda Hamilton, Milla Jovovich, Lori Petty, Sarah Polley, Michelle Rodriguez, Uma Thurman
The Scholar
In order to effectively fight monsters, it's important for M-Forcers to understand as much as possible about their habits, abilities, and weaknesses. Most of the specialists and scientists that M-Force employs in this pursuit fall into the Scholar archetype. Scholars join M-Force out of a desire to put their knowledge to good use, further their careers, and satisfy their natural curiosity. While some are the stereotypical pointy-headed intellectuals who prefer to build gadgets and study specimens, keep in mind that all M-Forcers are trained in monster hunting and that many Scholars are just as useful when it comes to kicking monster butt as they are in developing anti-monster weapons or understanding what makes monsters tick.

Suggested Jobs: Archaeologist, Chemist, College Professor, Computer Programmer, Crime Scene Investigator, Cryptozoologist, Doctor, Inventor, Librarian, Parapsychologist

Suggested Gimmicks: Computer Whiz, Has An App For That, Human Calculator, Information Stockpile, Intellectual Insight, King of the Lab, Magical Thinking, Natural Linguist, Occult Improvisation, Photographic Memory

Suggested Weaknesses: 90-Pound Weakling, Absent Minded, Accident Prone, Bad Direction Sense, Combat Paralysis, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Glass Jaw, Nerd Rage, No People Skills, Out of Shape

Suggested Skills: Academia, Chess, Comic Book Trivia, Computers, Electronics, Forteana, Google Fu, History, Internet Junkie, Latin, Magic Tricks, M-Force Administration, Monsterology, Occult Knowledge, Psychology, Research, Trekkie, Urban Legends, Video Games, Violin

Suggested Flaws: Allergies, Annoying Voice, Caffeine Junkie, Color Blind, Didn’t Get The Memo, Disorganized, Foot In Mouth Disease, Jumpy, Know-It-All, Squeamish

Suggested Roles: Administrative Assistant, Investigator, Librarian, Monster Expert, Occult Scholar, Office Historian, Researcher, Squint, Tech Guy, Watch Supervisor

Suggested Specializations: Cryptobiology, Emergency Medical Treatment, Information Science, M-Force Administration, Monster Hunting Technology, Mission Support, Monsterology, Occult Studies, Parapsychology, Special Collections

WWPHITM? (Actors): Seth Green, Michael C. Hall, Fran Kranz, Hugh Laurie, Christopher Lloyd, William Petersen, Danny Pudi, Harold Ramis, Anthony Stewart-Head, Jeffrey Wright 

WWPHITM? (Actresses): Amy Acker, Gillian Anderson, Alison Brie, Emily Deschanel, Alyson Hannigan, Natasha Lyonne, Tina Majorino, Christina Ricci, Sarah Vowell, Emma Watson
The Thrill-Seeker
The Thrill-Seeker joins M-Force because of the adventure and excitement that comes from stalking a 50 foot tall gorilla through downtown Dallas. M-Force gives Thrill-Seekers and outlet for pent-up energy and a welcome release from the tedium of daily life. If you choose this archetype, please keep in mind that while M-Force applauds bravery, the organization has little patience for dangerous lunatics. Thrill-Seekers who are overly impulsive or regularly endanger themselves or others unnecessarily will soon find themselves out of a job.  

Suggested Jobs: Bail Bondsman, Bodyguard, Firefighter, Lion Tamer, Pilot, Race Car Driver, Rodeo Clown, Roller Girl, Socialite, Skydiving Instructor, Stuntman

Suggested Gimmicks: Car Fu, Cool Under Pressure, Danger Junkie, Escape Artist, Fast Healer, Lightning Reflexes, Nerves of Steel, Pain Don’t Hurt, Perfect Timing, Weirdness Magnet

Suggested Weaknesses: Achilles’ Heel, Big Mouth, Danger Junkie, Overconfidence, Overly Competitive, Punching Bag, Reckless, Recovering Addict, Strange Vehicle Magnet, Weirdness Magnet

Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Big Game Hunting, Dodge, Fire Eating, Gambling, Good Balance, Martial Arts, Mountain Climbing, Showmanship, Skateboarding, Skydiving, Sports Trivia, Surfing, Tactical Driving, Trash Talking, Video Games, Weight Lifting, White Water Rafting, World Traveler, Xtreme Sports

Suggested Flaws: Bad Knees, Cocky, Dimwit, Hothead, Lecherous, Meathead, Poor Impulse Control, Punch Drunk, Short Attention Span, Showoff 

Suggested Roles: Combat Leader, Grunt, Fitness Trainer, Public Relations, Recruiter, Spokesperson, Team Leader, Training Supervisor, Vehicle Specialist, Weapons Specialist

Suggested Specializations: Close Combat, [Environmental] Operations, Experimental Operations,  Frogman, Maritime Operations, Public Relations, Tactical Pilot, Transport & Containment, Urban Operations, Vehicles

WWPHITM? (Actors) Antonio Banderas, Jackie Chan, Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Ice Cube, Johnny Knoxville, Clive Owen, Jason Statham 

WWPHITM? (Actresses) Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, Erica Durance, Summer Glau, Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, Ali Larter, Lucy Liu, Lucy Lawless, Rose McGowan   
The Upright Citizen
The Upright Citizen joins M-Force because it's The Right Thing To Do. While some Upright Citizens share traits with the other archetypes, such as the Scholar's curiosity or the Glory Hounds desire for adulation, ultimately the character's goal in joining M-Force is to serve his fellow man. This Archetype is the purest representation of what M-Force is all about.  

Suggested Jobs: Accountant, Barber, Cop, Insurance Salesman, Mailman, Minister, Nurse, Receptionist, Social Worker, Teacher

Suggested Gimmicks: Always Find A Parking Space, Be Prepared, Can Tell When You’re Lying, Empathy, Good With Animals, Hears Things, Hide In Plain Sight, Honest Face, Pillar of the Community, Well Read 

Suggested Weaknesses: Accident Prone, Can’t Get A Break, By The Book, Easy To Read, Good Samaritan, Gullible, Meek, No Respect, Nervous Nelly, Uptight

Suggested Skills: Business Sense, Churchgoer, Civics, Cooking, Current Events, Eagle Scout, First Aid, Fund Raising, Golf, Little League Coach, Local Lore, M-Force Administration, Model Train Collector, Office Politics, Quilting, Scrapbooking, Self Defense, Sign Language, TV Trivia, Vacation Planning

Suggested Flaws: Cheapskate, Control Freak, Didn’t Get The Memo, Easily Overwhelmed, Forgetful, Indecisive, Low Alcohol Tolerance, Motion Sickness, Night Blindness, Soft-Hearted

Suggested Roles: Administrative Assistant, Agent In Charge, Chaplain, Community Outreach, Den Mother, Junior M-Force Leader, Office Historian, Oversight Investigator, Police Liaison, Supply Specialist

Suggested Specializations: Emergency Medical Treatment, Information Science, Interpersonal Communications, K-9 Operations, M-Force Administration, Mission Support, Monsterology, Operational Logistics, Public Relations, Urban Operations

WWPHITM? (Actors) Wayne Brady, Steve Carell, Gary Cole, Brendan Fraser, Morgan Freeman, Richard Jenkins, Eugene Levy, Edward Norton, Patrick Warburton, Tom Welling

WWPHITM? (Actresses) Amy Adams, Blythe Danner, Geena Davis, Ashley Judd,  Amy Poehler, Missi Pyle, Marley Shelton, Jewel Staite, Lili Taylor, Naomi Watts 
The Working Stiff
While having exciting adventures and protecting humanity are all well and good, the Working Stiff joins M-Force for more practical reasons. M-Force service may help further his career, give him the few extra bucks a month he needs to feed his family, or provide him with benefits or connections that he can't get from his day job. Working Stiffs include those who work thankless, boring day jobs, jaded career agents, and college kids who joined up because M-Force service looks good on a resume. While many Working Stiffs aren't as gung-ho about M-Force as their fellow agents from other Archetypes, they always come through when they're needed.  

Suggested Jobs: Bartender, Clerk, Construction Worker, Garbage Man, Mechanic, Pizza Guy, Private Detective, Short Order Cook, Sporting Goods Salesman, Truck Driver

Suggested Gimmicks: Duct Tape & Chicken Wire, Everybody’s Buddy, Friends In Low Places, Good Instincts, Hard To Kill, Has One In The Car, King of the Road, Mr. Fix-It,  Saw It On The Discovery Channel, Tough As Leather

Suggested Weaknesses: Chain Smoker, Computers Hate You, Dirt Poor, Perpetual Car Trouble, Punching Bag, Red Tape, Recovering Addict, Sucker For A Pretty Face, Victim of the Past, Wrong Place/Wrong Time

Suggested Skills: Bar Bets, Baseball, Brawling, Diner Radar, Drinking, Fast Talking, Good With Tools, Grease Monkey, Haggling, Hunting, Improvisational Weapons, Knows A Shortcut, Music Trivia, Poker, Pool, Sleep Anywhere, Sports Trivia, Street Cred, Tactical Driving, Wilderness Survival

Suggested Flaws: Bad Back, Computer Illiterate, Didn’t Get The Memo, Disorganized, Looks Like Trouble, Loudmouth, Lowbrow, Low On Cash, Not Good With Names, Slob

Suggested Roles: Agent In Charge, Combat Leader, Gopher, Grunt, Sharp Shooter, Supply Specialist, Team Leader, Training Supervisor, Vehicle Specialist, Watch Supervisor 

Suggested Specializations: Close Combat, Maritime Operations, Marksmanship, Mission Support, Operational Logistics, Scene Investigation, Tactics, Transport & Containment, Urban Operations, Vehicles

WWPHITM? (Actors) Jensen Ackles, Jeff Anderson, Thomas Hayden Church, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, John Hawkes, Jason Lee, William H. Macy, Freddy Rodriguez, Mark Ruffalo 

WWPHITM? (Actresses) Lauren Ambrose, Drew Barrymore, Janeane Garofalo, Courtney Love, Mila Kunis, Frances McDormand, Ellen Muth, Alia Shawkat, Gina Torres, Kristen Wiig