// P.O.R.T.A.L — RESEARCH LAB · TEAM PLAYBOOK

THE LAB

The Paranormal Operations Research & Theoretical Applied Liminology laboratory. The facility has discovered things with as much potential for evil as good. Every breakthrough carries an equal and opposite risk — and the team's job is to find safe and beneficial applications before someone else finds the other kind.

TEAM PLAYBOOK: Research Lab
STYLE: Hazardous Research
CAMPBELL: Online
STATUS: Active · Field Operations
// TEAM ADVANCEMENT
Experience Track
// END-OF-SESSION QUESTION (HAZARDOUS RESEARCH)
Did we find safe and beneficial applications for the dangerous things we learned about?
// TEAM XP — FILL 5 TO ADVANCE
Team XP
// ON ADVANCEMENT — CHOOSE ONE
  • Gain a new team move.
  • Gain a new team ally.
  • Gain two new asset selections.
  • Make the next mystery about your team enemy — a chance to interfere in their plans.
// TEAM MOVES
Active Moves
  • Scientific Method
    When the team investigates a mystery, ask one additional question: "Which of our ideas is wrong?" or "What weird energies or materials are present?"
  • Trial and Error
    When a team member rolls 10+ on kick some ass or protect someone, you can ask a question from investigate a mystery in addition to the normal option.
  • Repurpose Old Junk
    Once per session, ignore all but one requirement for weird science or any similar move.
  • Pattern Recognition
    Once per session, after a team member successfully reads a bad situation, they may ask: "How do I ensure or prevent _______ happening?"
  • Button Mashing
    When presented with technology beyond your experience, work together to study it. Each team member who helps out gets +1 forward.
// TEAM ASSETS
Lab Resources
  • The Lab ✦ mandatory
    A well-stocked and extensive laboratory complex for weird science and high-tech big magic. Space for all gear and instruments. Crash space for all-nighters.
  • Sensor Array
    Instruments allowing you to keep track of weird phenomena in the area.
  • Cutting-Edge Analysis
    Access to any current device, no matter how expensive.
  • Manufacturing Bays
    3D printers and old-school assembly lines. Build any test device or prototype you want (no mass production).
  • Medical Bay
    High-tech medical facilities equivalent to staying in a hospital.
  • Vehicle Bay
    A small fleet of vehicles — ground and air.
  • Containment
    Facilities to keep live creatures or dangerous materials securely contained.
  • Housing
    Each team member has comfortable and secure housing — a small house or comfortable condo, loaded with tech.
// TEAM ROSTER
Enemy & Ally
// TEAM ENEMY
Enemy
// TEAM ALLY
Ally
// TEAM NOTES
// FACILITY OVERVIEW
P.O.R.T.A.L Research Division

The Paranormal Operations Research & Theoretical Applied Liminology laboratory operates as the field and research arm of a classified programme with roots in Cold War fringe science. The lab exists in the gap between what institutions can officially study and what the world keeps insisting is real.

It is staffed by people who have each, in their own way, crossed a threshold they can't uncross — and found that PORTAL was already waiting on the other side.

// CAMPBELL — LAB INTELLIGENCE
AI Briefing System

CAMPBELL is the lab's AI briefing and computation system. It handles background computation, threat modelling, evidence correlation, and virtual scenario testing. CAMPBELL's briefings are the primary way operatives receive mission intelligence.

CAMPBELL does not take risks. CAMPBELL does not second-guess. CAMPBELL presents what the data shows and trusts its operatives to decide what to do about it. This is by design. The people who built it had reasons for wanting a system that would not try to save them from themselves.

// PROJECT VEIL
The Classification Layer

Project Veil is the programme within which PORTAL operates. Its classification level means that most of what the team investigates cannot be reported through standard channels. What happens in the field stays in the field — except what CAMPBELL records, and CAMPBELL records everything.

The official position is that Project Veil does not exist. The unofficial position, known to anyone who has been around long enough, is that it exists specifically so that certain things can happen without the official position having to change.