Controlling the Multiverse: D/M's Organisations

Non-Guild Institutions (NGIs) ¹ Independant Institutions {Illegal Guild} [Terrorist Organisation] (Covert *Guild)
No.	Card	Institution
I	The Magician	Science Academy
II	The High Priestess	Arts Foundation
III	The Empress	Musical Fellowship
IV	The Emperor	News Service
V	The Heirophant	The Peace Force
VI	The Lovers	Bureau of Investigation
VII	The Chariot	Cosmographer Co-op
VIII	Justice	The Patrol
IX	The Hermit	(Grand Oriental Lodge of Destiny)
X	Wheel of Fortune	*{Rovers Cabal}**
XI	Strength	(Illuminoids)
XII	The Hanged Man	{AssaSSins}
XIII	Death	[Co-uperative for Change]
XIV	Temperance	{Weaponeers}
XV	The Devil	[Xeno Xtermination Xtreme]
XVI	The Tower	Linguistic League
XVII	The Star	{Spacers Syndicate}
XVIII	The Moon	(Collectors Cartel)
XIX	The Sun	{Wayfarers Guild}
XX	Judgement	(Psionic Union)
XXI	The World	[Disruptors]
O	The FOOL

Controlling the Multiverse: D/M's organisations
Non-Guild Institutions (NGIs): Independant Institutions, Illegal and Covert Guilds, Terrorist Organisations.
All of the above fall primarily within the remit of the D/M. Allowing the AAs routine access to most of these organisations will ruin the smooth progress of your adventure/ senario/ campaign/... but if you like that sort of thing!
Note that some of these Organisations have a remit outside the cosy locale of your Campaign, hereto referered as Known Space (KS)

The first seven (normally associated with backplot, or the instigation of the current Plot) are most accessable especially to AAs with appropriate skills and enhancements. And especially to Players with good rationales.

Science Academy
An enabling rather than funding organisation. Always strapped for cash and are more likely to be trying to get the AAs to perform services for nothing. In order to even 'drink at the well' (be invited to a prestigious symposium) the AAs will have to have 'found' something pretty spectacular! Or the AA must be a leading scientist with a good idea, discovery or invention to present. And a philanthropist with a really big credit account is always welcome...
The Academy is most active in promoting science and cross fertilisation of ideas. Thus usually funds conferences and seminars; bringing the brightest of brains, over vast distances, for irrational argument, petty squabbles, experimental sabotage, theft of results and endless back-stabbing.
Sometimes The Academy combines this intrigue with an expedition to an unusual or unique scientific phenomena. Rarely funds anything but the blackest of black sky research. Titles have to stretch the limits of the AA's Techno-Babble. Ideally 21 words in length!

Arts Foundation
Funds the avant guard and revolutionary artists that produce art that nobody could ever find 'commercial'. Burseries tend to be small but spread widely. Critical assassination and assassination of critics are not unheard of! Will sometimes fund the AA on an Artistic Vision Quest with a sufficiently Spectacular presentation or written proposal. Such Quests always have Dire consequences.

Musical Fellowship
Provides instruments and training to the musically gifted but financially restricted. Critically the Fellowship finds jobs and positions in the musical business via various data-services: AA's with Specialities or Musical Enhancements will find that they are in demand at No Air Festivals, Concert Halls and HoloVid Studios all over KS. Unfortunately the Fellowship's burseries cannot cover the transport costs...

News Service
With the appropriate equipment everybody's a reporter. With mass communications and recording technology anyone 'on the spot' can have a story to tell (and sell!) AA's providing 'edited' highlights of their adventures may not only reap financial rewards but may also provide the documentary evidence that gets them acquitted of the deeds they edited out. AAs wishing to exploit this correspondance gain an Enhancement in the form of recording equipment (of an appropriate T/L) and more importantly press accreditation.
As NPCs professional reporters 'Newshounds' will latch on to a story - and a Party of AAs - faster than you can say "mine's a Rocket Bourbon". The only thing in their favour is their ability to cope in a crisis; unlike some of the other NGIs.

Peace Force
A planetary offshoot of The Patrol (u.i.) where selected individuals are recruited to an independant policing authority that (in theory) liaises and defers to local authorities. AAs wishing to exploit this correspondance should note that service requirements will tie the AA to a specific 'beat' (usually a single planet); this and other conditions of service will curtail AAs mobility.The principle Enhancement of the Peace Force is a suit of combat (Power) armour; one T/L in advance of anything that the local military possess! That and the ability to call on The Patrol for backup. The suit gives the wearer 'super powers': able to leap over the tallest cloudscraper, faster than an accelerating gyroc round, stronger than a speeding MagLev,...
The suit has a mind of its own (Autonomous Intellect) with inhibition circuits that make it virtually useless in the wrong hands and failsafes to prevent mindless violence.

Bureau of Investigation
Purely local security services combining quasi-military, semi-civilian intelligence led policing; with powers to thwart terrorists, organised crime and most of the other organisations on the list. Dedicated to maintaining their status and the status quo. In some campaigns, with star-spanning cultures (and star-spanning terrorist groups) the occasional officer/ detective/ agent may be called in to solve an offworld case. Really famous detectives may be consulted by alien cultures to solve alien cases.
(Space) Naval Intelligence is notorious for finding and then really getting deep into trouble. If no sufficiently advanced civilisation threatens the peace and stability of KS, then the intra-species competition provides endless opportunities. Notably the rivalries between the Naval Intelligence Corps of the Empire [NICE] vs Federation Intelligence (Naval Dept.) [FIND]...

Campaign Scope
Campaigns may vary from the:

(0/ IntraSystem) here the inhabitants of a planet find an ancient (alien) starship or an enigmatic stargate lurking in a remote orbit. The culture bootstraps itself from a stoneage, ...medieval, ...steampunk, ...contemporary, ...interplanetary society into an interstellar one. Discovering a vast array of mysteriously deserted but habitable worlds.
1/ InterSystem (re)discovering FtL technology, a culture discovers that they have been there before. Or is it some alien species?
2/ InterStellar exploding from their stellar birthplace: a culture conquers all before it.
3/ IntraArm pocket empires discover other pocket empires. After the dust settles, the victors are attached by a race of vicious xenophobes!
4/ InterArm fleeing a race of vicious xenophobes, a human diaspora reaches across the Great Rift... to rediscover their origins!
5/ Intra Galactic humanity discovers itself coming the other way. The question is... do we recognise each other?
6/ Inter Galactic because sometimes one galaxy is just not enough!
7/ /Intra Group exploring the Local Group: Dwarf galaxies, Dark Matter and all.
8/ Inter Group a true Galactic Milieu reaching out between the void to the next nearest Group.
9/ Intra Association Groups are grouped into Associations
10/ Inter Association
11/ Intra Cloud Associations into Clouds
12/ Inter Cloud
13/ Intra Cluster Clouds into Clusters
14/ Inter Cluster
15/ Intra SuperCluster Clusters into SuperClusters
16/ Inter SuperCluster
17/ MegaCluster
18/ GigaCluster
19/ Meta- Temporal
20/ Para- Temporal
21/ Ortho- Temporal
0 Outside the Scope of the Multiverse - probably Invaders from Another Game System.

Cosmographer Co-Op "Cosmic Operatives"
In most campaigns this is multi-cultural; politically and financially independant scientific body that explores and catalogues the expanding fringes of campaign space. Responsible for surveying systems, exploring planets, discovering hazards to navigation, exploring jump points and charting congruencies. Whilst local campaign based star cultures will have their own Military and Civilian equivalents; in most cases The Co-Op will have got there first and Quarantined the system! In general The Co-Op has access to T/Ls three higher than the local norm.

From Scouts to Supra-Sector Bases The Co-Op goes faster, further, with better defenses and equivalent weapon systems to that of The Patrol.

In general The Co-Op will be one to two steps ahead in any Campaign Scope (Ro.) Thus in a system bound campaign The Co-Op will have access to interstellar travel ... in a MetaTemporal Campaign the Survey will be charting the ParaRealities and ultimately stepping outside the Multiverse to get a God-like perspective.

AAs are more likely to be recruited by The Co-Op than The Patrol especially if they uncover a natural hazard that The Co-Op failed to spot or find a planet that should be Quarantined. More often the AAs will have to make do with a pat on the Portable Life Support System and a Cosmographic Gadget; or Widgits for all those involved.

The Patrol
A generic supra-national, supra-cultural, supra-police force! Dedicated to the preservation of Civilisation on the grandest scale. With access to technologies at least two steps in advance of those available to the AAs; or their respective governments. And one step ahead in Campaign Scope.
Rarely drawn into anything but the most titanic of conflicts that threaten the stability of space (and time). However the more extreme activities of the AAs: breaking interdiction or quarantine; ethnic cleansing; deliberate eradication of biospheres, sun conversions without prior permit,... will naturally fall afoul of The SupraLaws that govern SupraNational conduct but will only attract the attentions of a Patrol Vedette rather than one of the Patrol's dreaded Packet Ships or one of their Capital *Craft. These are only used when something really serious is going down, usually through a super massive black hole with multiple galactic masses. Conversely The Patrol and to a lesser extent The Co-Op (u.s.) can be used to rescue the AA's and re-attach them to your carefully crafted plotline.

Vedette "a mounted sentry to watch the enemy";... "a small vessel for like purpose"

Policing the MultiVerse
Like The Co-Op, The Patrol extends its remit into the MultiVerse:
MetaTemporal Realms of impossible Realities are the easiest to access and hardest to maintain any sort of order; followed by the Paratime policing required when AAs shift between the merely improbable Realities. Finally the Ortho-Temporal Time Patrol untangling the Timelines: preventing paradoxes after they have happened and pruning defective temporal branches into self replicating causality loops.
The above remain the ultimate sanctions of any D/M and casual exposure to Temporal Prime Directives, Time Police and suchlike should be avoided; as it only reveals how little the Players are in control of their AAs' Destinies. As a general guideline, whatever the Scope of the Campaign the local Patrol, Co-Op and Peace Force will only appear to be slightly in advance of the local T/L.

Grand Oriental Lodge of Destiny
A Covert Guild (Club) for the rich and the powerful sophont, dedicated to becoming even richer and even more powerful! Or a sad bunch of geriatrics that believe in their own Conspiracy Theories and a muddled interpretation of occult power (Thaumaturgy/Psionics)? Apart from one or two genuine 'dabblers' members have access to the best private clubs and members' privileges all over KS. Their credo: "It's not what you know; it's who you know!" and these people are the ones to know.
Generally characterised by the epithet "The Establishment" and a bad taste in the mouth after a prolonged session of "kissing up". The mortal enemies of the Illuminoids (q.v.).
To be invited to be a member shows that the AA has made it ...or sold out depending on your political viewpoint.

*Rovers Cabal
Pirates, 'jackers, Privateers, Star Smugglers... any criminal act taking place outside an atmosphere and, unless the local policing is exceptional, most commercial and legitimate trade has to make a payoff to the Cabal. The story is repeated all over KS with little difference between sophonts: initially derived from private police "thugs 'R us" hired by asteroid miners, the claim guards turned into claim jumpers and protectors became poachers.
The rivalries between the Wayfarers Guild and The Cabal are well documented but their only real battlegrounds are the larger Space Habitats and smaller Asteroidal Communities where both parties feel they have priority.
WayStars The Wayfarers and Cabal maintain covert space bases and pirate havens in out of the way locales, some can be found deep into the civilised core of KS.

The Illuminoids
A Covert Guild (Revolutionary Cell and Terrorist Organisation) for the poor and dispossessed, dedicated to overthrowing "The Establishment" using a mixture of political theory, New Age Philosophy and armed struggle. The mortal enemies of GOLD (q.v.). Some cranks believe the conflict between the Illuminoids and GOLD predates the current Milieu and has links to previous InterStellar/ InterGalactic Precursor Conflicts.

AssaSSins
Are not a formally constituted terrorist organisation. Merely mercenaries and contract killers for hire. Usually to take out a specific target but sometimes recruited for private (corporate) wars or by governments requiring a policing action with ultimate deniability. The organisation is as nebulous as its operatives and is rarely contactable. Instead an AssaSSin is more likely to contact an AA with an offer to eliminate 'bureaucratic red tape' (by eliminating the bureaucrat!). Or to ask for a favour...

Co-Uperative for Change (C**k-Up)
"If the Sabot fits wedge it!" An organisation dedicated to overthrowing the status quo using non violent but highly embarrassing means. Members have access to the largest database of publically with-held data in K.S.; specialising in the dark and dirty secrets of the rich and famous. Along with the means to bring them down a peg or three. 'The Coup' has a wide membership with all the skills and tools required to bring down planetary governments; embarrass Intelligence Agencies, sabotage uncaring MegaCorps,.. all while amusing the general population.

Weaponeers
In general most societies have a tight control on the weapon technology available to their members. And provided there are no injustices the Weaponeers stand aside. However in despotic or totalitarian societies the Weaponeers will quietly move in and provide theose 'wronged' with the tools (not necessarily guns) to level the playing field. Usually in the form of 'perfect' defensive systems, revolutionary gadgets capable of fomenting revolutions, software with a hard edge and occasionally with immensely powerful and discretely concealable weapons of mass destruction.
Naturally the level of technology will be disturbed during this process usually for the better. Associations with the Engineering and Technical Guilds are always denied.

Xeno Xtermination Xtreme
A loose confederation of bigots, fashists, thugs and criminals with the simple belief that their species is the pinnacle of Galactic Evolution and all other sophonts are scum or at least useful slave species. Fortunately they spend most of the time fighting the other XXX chapters belonging to other *Cultures. For a historical perspective q.v. the battles between the supporters of rival football teams. This warfare by proxy often has the opposite effect in brining mutually antagonistic cultures together both equally outraged by the activities of their fellow sophont.

Linguistic League
Polyglots welcome. A loose confederation of talented translators and spokespersons dedicated in the belief that 'universal translators' and synthetic 'lingua-galacticas' - shortchange the rich diversity of cultures. More than just assistants in trade talks and other diplomatic missions, the Linguistic League actively pursue the cross-pollination of cultures and ideas by selectively translating literary works, plays, lyrics, comics and computer games.
The League has a broad agenda in amalgamating K.S. into a society where its "good to talk".

Spacers Syndicate
A Trades Union rather than a *Guild, the Spacers Syndicate is an umbrella organisation for those rare individuals 'jacks of all trades' capable of multi-tasking and multi-skilling. Essential on board the smaller *Craft without the luxury of three watches and full rosters. A Spacer generally wears two or more 'hats' to maintain the smooth running of the *Craft systems. Whilst a Spacer may not be the departmental head, most *Craft departments rely on Spacers to get the job done.

Collectors Cartel "necessitas non habet legen "
This has both overt and covert operations. The former a collecton of outwardly respectable fanatics, dedicated to the pursuit of completism. Whether it be: the complete folios of Shakespeare, Space Stamps of the Soviet Union 1955 - 1969 or Happy Meals Toys,... each is given equal respect by the membership. Less well known are the secret collections and Musee Prive: collections of the obscene, illegal or ill-gotten. Membership of the 'inner order' has is privileges and its privations.

Wayfarers Guild
Organised Cirme has its tentacles in most of the legitimate *Guilds and NGIs. Indeed most Guild Seniors will have aquired one or two illegal skills on their way up. The 'farers remit is said to end at the edge of space. However as most Habitats and SpaceCraft have atmospheres, its members are quite happy to mount operations off-planet. Cautious 'farers will consult with the local chaper of the Cabal and, if necessary, cut them in for a piece of the action!

Psionic Union
Nominally a covert Guild: where Psi-powers are regarded with suspicion if not open hostility. On more enlightened worlds and *Cultures the Psionic Guild is a fully open organisation. Either way it seeks out the Talented and arranges their training and development. The Union has an extensive network of safe houses and cover stories; thus providing its membership security in the face of the "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" brigade.

Disruptors
Whereas the Co-Up provides constructive anarchy and a great deal of amusement, the Disruptors are purely a force for destruction. Depending on the scope of the campaign the Disruptors are always working against the status quo supported by an organisation one stage above the current scope and ultimately "Invaders from another Game system" ...dedicated to the overthrow of the D/M's campaign! Thus Disruptors are not too different from most Players and the D/M should plan accordingly!