Game in the Brain

1. Identify the Organization. the name or what they can be called. 
1. Determine their Reputation.
1. this is what groups positively or negatively associate with them. 
2. how hard it is to know of them. the simple mechanic is making it harder and harder for every step the PC is removed from knowing the group.  
2. Determine its Size or Scale
1. from a Team, to a Platoon, or to a Brigade (you may use Military Grouping as a useful mnemonic). 
1. determine subgroups or internal organization and their size/scale. 
3. Determine its Scope and Purpose. 
1. What does this organization do? 
1. keywords or categories they fall into. 
2. Follow the Money, how does this organization support itself? 
1. Determine the Assets Value. 
1. Typically this is (2% times Administrator’s skill, times average wealth level) of its Operations Cost for the years its operated to put it simply. 
2. Note that speedily liquidated assets lose a lot of their value (1/2 to 1/10 its value).   
2. Determine the Annual Operations Cost – Revenues. 
3. Determine Reserves. x0.25 of Operations per year of ops times (the average margin of success or failure )  
4. Determine its most Influential or Important members.
1. Determine its secondary key members and redundancies
5. Determine its Vulnerabilities. 

1. Identify the Organization: 
1. The Office of the Logothete of Opsikion 
1. Positive reputation to those who reap the benefits of their taxation. 
2. Generally negative for all those who are taxed. 
2. The Band of the Red Ravens 
1. A positive reputation for their previous employers save the Duchy of Elrand. 
2. Negative reputation to the enemies of these past employers and Duchy of Elrand. 
3. Neutral states and groups tend to have a positive reaction to them because of their competence BUT most people who have interacted with them have a negative reaction to them because of their use of magic and arcane methods. 
2. Determine its Size or Scale
1. Logothete of Opsikion – The region has a population 1 million in 1080s (the time of the Alexiad) but the Logothete itself only has 200 members carrying the office. With members at the lowest rank are Scribes, to Couriers, and Magistrates. They have about 80 other support servants. They are given authority to draw from the Osikion Theme for military support, but that depends on the relationship of the Logothete, the Dux of Opsikion, and the Emperor.  
1. Teams of Scribes of 3-5, there are 20 of such. 15 are moving seasonally. 
2. Teams of Couriers of 3, some are lead by a magistrate. 20 of such constantly moving 
2. the Red Ravens – they are actually a squadron or platoon of 30 members.
1. 2 teams of 4 in reserve, rotating. 
2. 5 teams of 4ish on operation.  
3. Determine its Scope and Purpose. 
1. What does this Organization do? 
1. The Logethete of Opsikion administers the Province of about  50 thousand households, about 30,000 sqkm, and about 20 million in GURPS usd in kind, duties, service obligations, and 1% in coinage. 
2. The Red Ravens. They are a squadron of scouts that take their name from their employment of raven familiars and other trained ravens in their information gathering and communication. They have a signature binding process that reddens some of the feathers of the ravens they bond with. 
2. Follow the Money, how does this organization support itself?   
1. The Logethete of Opsikion is funded by a percentage taxes they collect and from the support of its Patron. They maintain the administration and the ability to tax and deal with the debt many have when they fail to pay their taxes. 
1. Taxation, Administration, Intelligence/Census
2. Assets: 9M (2 * 13 skill * 8 years * wealth level of x2 =x4.16 of ops)
3. Operations Cost  2.9M/ 20% of gross taxes (from the 20M in taxation)
4. Reserves: 8.7M 
2. The Red Ravens charge a premium of 15 silver pounds per month plus a long list of expenses in horses, equipment, and tools. Their pay doubles in wartime activities (when a side has clearly declared war or battle). 
1. Recon, Stealth, Light Cavalry, Magic
2. Assets: (2 * 14 skill * 6 years * wealth level x3) 
3. Operations Cost 720k / 2.9M (90% in kind)
1. They charge about 3x monthly operations expenses in kind. Remounts, rations, equipment, and much of the CoL taken care off by the employer. 
4. Reserves. They’ve had a challenging recovery since Duchy of Elrad 3 years ago. they only have 360K in cash reserves. 
4. Determine its most Influential or Important members.
1. the Logothete of Opsikion 
1. Mathaios of Akropolites is the 58 year old mayor of Prusse (modern day Bursa). A patriarch of his dynasty and sponsoring his eldest son in the court of Nikephoros III but was quick to withdraw and come back to court pledging allegiance to Alexios.  
2. Irene, his daughter of 26, has been at his side in running the Province and actually knows where all the bodies are buried. She has managed the province despite the many bungles of her husband Iohanness of Palailogos. 
2. The Red Ravens. 
1. Nikomedos “the great raven” runs the squadron with his nephew Ramwren. He took over when Ramwrens father was imprisoned in a coup that left their land devasted and probably for the better. With their wealth and special skills they left their land to rent their services as mercenaries.    
2. Ramwren is his uncle’s squire but serves more as combat front line in many of the night skirmishes that is part of their operation. He is well rounded in his skills and persistent in his training, unfortunately there is some great anger in him when he learned of his father’s sins.
5. Determine its Vulnerabilities. 
1.  The logothete is an administration and has been competently run in the past 30 years, and only in the last 8 has been proving to be thriving. Their major problem is the lack of educated men of action to draw from and their convoluted bureaucracy that only Mathaios and Irene seem to understand. They are relatively fast compared to the other Logothetes but suffer from their less influence in the emperors court and their start up resources. 
2. The Red Ravens key vulnerability is the wide age and skill gap between Nikodemus and the rest of the team leaders. A veteran of running the Black offices for nearly 10 years Nikodemus is rare and has an unusual set of skills. Skills he’s not been able to successfully transfer to those he trusts and his only heir: he brothers son. 

1. Name (Reputation)
2. Size (Organization)
3. Purpose/Function
1. Assets
2. Ops Cost / Revenues (What they Charge)
3. Reserves 
4. Key People
5. Vulnerabilities

Support is all the other activities that is indirect to key activity or final product. Support has task of Organization, Recruitment, Training, various Human Resource management roles, Accounting, Documentation or Reporting, even Leadership, Quality Control, etc…


Backup and Shifts
Considering what kind of work the organization has consider back up or additional manpower needed for a particular role or operation. In TRPGs this means elements of an organization have secondary roles or may have some critical vulnerabilities with the lack of redundancy or back up personnel. Its always much easier ,

Teamwork and leadership
After the Support and Operations there is another set of roles relating to Leadership and Teamwork. Secondary roles and characters may exist to fill these leadership or important teamwork roles. Some characters have a primary role as a Leader, while some organizations have leaders that are highly trained with everyone else being disposable, while some organizations have mesh-type teamwork that can survive a loss of a leader. 

• Name (Reputation)
• reputation by association
• how legitimate members are identified and signaled
• Size (Organization)
• sub grous
• Purpose/Function
1. Key skill. the organizations general competence in performing its role. This is usually from 9 to 12 with TDM of the conditions giving a -4 to a +4 modifier.  
2. Assets
3. Ops Cost / Revenues (What they Charge). 
1. just take a CoL and Income level, but I recommend annualize it. 
4. Reserves 
• Key People
• Vulnerabilities