A Series Of Skywatch. 0: Watch The Skies

“Semi-covert semi-official alien hunters in the Whoniverse.”

Right then, to start with (in the manner of the Angel RPG) what do the team and their backers have in terms of sanction and equipment?

Torchwood Three had a base, some files, some junked alien tech, a van (with Torchwood on the sides) and one Special Good Trait between them.

Torchwood One had troops on-site but was never seen to deploy them, and had some handy gadgets. Not nearly enough in the end, of course...

Sparrow and Nightingale have some video recorders and a camera. Still, I’d trust the world’s safety with them over Torchwood any day.

A UNIT team can swan in with official badges, APCs, big guns and redcaps. They can still be stymied, turned away, misdirected and massively outgunned, as demonstrated in the Pertwee era, but this could get the PCs through a lot of doors with no (or at least few) questions asked. Useful for PCs if you don’t want a lot of sneaking around and arguing for clearance.

As a point of comparison, the team from Primeval fall between TW1 and TW3, with shaky backing, occasional blackfatigues troops and whatever Connor could bodge together in the lab, but mostly rely on their skills and regular weapons and an ample supply of Story Points.

--

Example: Skywatch

A branch of the RAF with jurisdiction for the skies above the UK, Skywatch is the government’s official response to the repeated threat of alien invasion. The PCs are a team from the investigative wing. And like any government department, they could do with a lot more resources than they actually have.

I’m going for the pseudo-official level of TW3 in the early years here. They have badges and access to some alien tech, but officialness means sometimes they have to get warrants and they have to send reports upstairs.

They could have some chaps with guns but couldn’t call massive armed backup. Actually flying around and blowing things up is technically UNIT’s role, although they have liaisons with them as well as the RAF.

Skywatch recruits are a mix of level-headed career military, brainy types recruited from our better universities, and people who have Seen Too Much. Probably no particularly weird characters, unless of course someone wants to play one and you’re okay with it.

A typical Skywatch minivan (silver, not black) has a good computer tracking system, mobile internet, maybe some ordinary guns and tasers in a lock box, some neat available-in-normal-cars-in-five-years doohickeys and not much else.