MINISTRY

THE

A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR

JESS NEVINS
 This adventure was made awesome thanks to our Patreon patrons at patreon.com/evilhat—thanks folks!
INSIDERS
__skwrl__ Chris Flipse Don Arnold Jan Heitger Keith Mantell Matt Anderson Rhel The Catholic Geeks
Adrian Christopher Gunning Dustin Evermore Jason Cotton Keith Stanley Mechizmo Richard The Roach
Arias-Palomo Christopher Hatty Edward MacGregor Jeremy Tidwell Ken Ditto Michael Bowman Bellingham Timothy Carroll
Andrew Turbott Christopher Vollick Frank Joakim Andersson Kurt Blanco Michael Cambata Rick Tristan Smith
Andy Arminio Colin Mills Frédéri POCHARD Joe Trzos LilFluff Michael Rick Jakins Troy Ray
Arjun Comar Craig Foster Gavran John Rogers Linda Larsson Dean Hannah Robert Hanz Tyler Hunt
Arknon D.C. Upton George Harnish John Rudd MAINGUET Francois Michael Meriwn Ryan Singer vargr1
Arlo B Evans Daniel Graham Owens Jon-Pierre Gentil Malc Arnold Mike Lavery Sarah Vakos Will Goring
Ben Mullen GutiérrezMartínez Graham Wills Joshua Forisha Mark Mitchell Evans Scott Vesely William J. White
Bob Ross David Dorward Griffin Mitchell Joshua Lutz Mark Fentz Morgan Ellis Sean M. Dunstan William Lee
brian allred David Fergman Howard Justin Evans Marty Chodorek Nathan Hare Selene O'Rourke William McDuff
C.K. Lee David Hayes M Thompson KT Matt Nicolas Marjanovic Shawn White Zach
Charles Albrecht Declan Feeney J Quincy Sperber Katie and Peter Schumacher Stephen Rider Zach Hunt
Chris Angelini Demian Buckle Jamie Smith Berger Tremaine Nykki Boersma Philippe Herve Tara Zuber

ADVENTURERS
A Person Carl DiceForBrains Jack Stephenson-Carr Josh Salyers Michael Feldhusen Rachael Hixon Stephan
Adam Gutschenritter Carl McLaughlin Didier Bretin James Ballard Joshua Reubens Michael Friese Radosław Grzanka Stephanie Bryant
Adrian Chaluppka Carlos Martín Dillard James Hoag Juan Francisco Michael Hopcroft Ralf Wagner (Mortaine)
AJ Real Cerity Dirk Methner James Husum Gutierrez Michael Riabov Randall Orndorff Stephen Figgins
Al Billings Charles Evans Don Bisdorf James Marston Juan Trillo Michael Thompson Randall Wright Stephen Fleetwood
Alan Bartholet Chet Gray Don Schlaich James O'Neill Julianna Backer Micheal Elliott Raun Sedlock Stephen Waugh
Alan Phillips Chip Dunning Doug Blakeslee James Odom Jussi Räsänen Mike Vermont Rebecca Harbison Steve Discont
Alan Timothy Rogers Chloe Wandler Doug Bolden James Pacheco Justin Mirko Froehlich Rebecca Hubbard Steve Kunec
Alan Twigg Chris Caporaso Duane Cathey James Winfield Kaarchin MirrorKhaos Red Dice Diaries Steve Perpitch-Harvey
Alessandro Gagliardi Chris Little Duncan Jamie Wheeler Karl Thiebolt Mo Remy Sanchez Steve Radabaugh
Alexander Gräfe Chris Matosky Dylan Green Janet Oblinger Katherine Malloy Mook Renzo Crispieri Steven Code
Alexander "Grass­ Chris Newton Ebenezer Arvigenius Jared Hunt Katie Baker My Humble Assault Richard Steven D Warble
dragon" Chris Nolen Edward Da Fonseca Jarrett Keith R. Potempa Nat Richard Gilmore Steven desJardins
Corbett Chris Stone-Bush Edward Sturges Jason Bean Kent Snyen Nat Richard Greene Steven K. Watkins
Alexandros Tsourakis Christian Ehedei Jason Best Kesh Nathan Barnes Rick LaRue Steven Markley
Alfred Garza Christoph Thill Eirch Mascariatu Jason Pasch Kevin Nathan Fritz Riggah Stu Adams
Alloyed Christopher Allen Elizabeth Creegan Jason Penney Kevin L. Nault Nathan Reed Rob Knop Stuart Dollar
Amanda Valentine Christopher Avery Elliott M. Freeman Jason Schindler Kevin Lindgren Neil Macbeth Rob Meyers Svend Andersen
Amazing Rando Christopher Mangum Elsa S. Henry Jayna Pavlin Kevin McDermott Nichlas Dyhr Robb Neumann Ted Soper
Anders Jonsson Christopher Mason Elsidar Amhransidhe Jeff Chaffee Kevin Payne Hummelsberger Robert Bersch Teppo Pennanen
Andrew Christopher W. Dolunt Emmanuel Jeff Craig Kielo Maja Nicholas Hopkins Robert Huss Teresa O
Andrew Betts Chuck Dee Enrique Esturillo Cano Jeff Mahood Klaas Bock Nicholas Pilon Robert Rees Tevel Drinkwater
Andrew Dacey Claire eric Jeff Pitrman Kris Herzog Nick Robert Slaughter The Older Avocado
Andrew DeLorenzo Clemens Schmitz Erich Lichnock Jeff Vincent Krista Nick Daly Robinson Taylor The Python Games
Andrew Grant Clyde Clark Erik Ingersen Jeffrey Boman Krzysztof Chyla Nick pater Rodrigo Chick
Andrew Horn Colin Matter Ernie Sawyer Jeffrey Collyer Kyle Nick Reale Roger Carbol Thierry De Gagné
Angus Corey Johnston Fabrice Breau Jens Larry Hollis Nicola Urbinati Ron Müller Thomas
Anthony Damiani Craig Maloney FelTK Jens Alfke Laura Nicolas Decomble Roy Thomas
arcadia666 Craig Mason Fide Jeremiah McCoy Lester Ward Nikkelitous Ruben Smith-Zempel Thomas Balls-Thies
Arlene Medder Creative Play and Florian Greß Jeremy Glick Lore Graham Nos Doughty Ryan C. Christiansen Thomas Maund
Arthur Lace Podcast Network Francisco Castillo Jeremy Hamaker Loren Olav Müller Ryan Junk Thomas Ryan
ArthurDent Curt Meyer Frank Beaver Jes Jacobson Luca Agosto Olivier Nisole Samuel Hart Tim Davis
Ask Charly Leetham Curtis Hay Frederik Strothmann JF Paradis LunarBistro Osye Pritchett Sarah Mayfield Timothy Miller
B. Bredthauer Dain gamedave Jim Nicholson M. Sawi paolo castelli Sarah Williams Todd Estabrook
Barac Wiley Damon Richard Garrett Joanna m.h. Paolo Jose Cruz Schubacca Todd Willey
Becca Danae Knowles Garrett Jones Joe Levey Madelyn Chappell Patrice Hédé Scot Ryder Tom Lommel
Ben Daniel Chapman Gary Anastasio Joe Mason Manfred Patrice Mermoud Scott Acker Tony Ewing
Benj Daniel Ellingsen Lund Genevieve Joel Short Marc Kevin Hall Patrick Chapman Scott Dexter TR Merchen
Benjamin Daniel Gallant Geoffrey Walter Johannes Oppermann Marcel Lotz Patrick Ewing Scott Greenleaf Travis Stodter
Benjamin Cush Daniel Kraemer Gian Domenico John Marcel Wittram Patrick Fittkau Scott Millward Trevor Crosse
Benjamin Welke Daniel Ley Facchini John Marcus Patrick McElfresh Scott Puckett Tsht
Björn Steffen Daniel Maberry Giuseppe D'Aristotile John Beynon Mario Dongu Paul Sean Mulhern Ty Volpo
Bo Madsen Daniel Markwig Glenn Seiler John Bogart Mark A. Schmidt Paul Arezina Sean O'Dell Tyson Monagle
Bob Hiestand Daniel Taylor Glynn Stewart John Fiala Mark Harris Paul Maanen Sean Smith Urs Blumentritt
Brandon Wiley Daniele Galli Graham Thaxton John Helmuth Mark Widner Paul Olson Sean Walsh Veronica Hamilton
Brandt Bjornsen Darin Henley Greg Conant John Lake Markus Haberstock Paul Rivers Sean West Money Victor Allen
Brendan Conway Dave Joria Greg Matyola John Lambert Markus Sauerbrey Pete Curry Sebastian S Victor Serrano
Brent Ritch David Bellinger Gregg Workman John Portley Martin Deppe Peter Bingham Serge Beaumont Ville Lavonius
Brian David Bowers Guillermo Calvo John T Martin Terrier Peter Gates Seth Clayton Vladimir Filipović
Brian Colin David Goodwin Gustavo Campanelli John Taber Marty Gentillon Peter James Burczyk Seth Hartley Volker Mantel
Brian Creswick David Maple Haakon Thunestvedt John Tobin Matt Houck Peter Kahle Shadowmyre Kalyn waelcyrge
Brian Paul David Millians Harry Mills John William Matt Landis Petri Leinonen Shai Laric Wayne Peacock
Brian S. Holt David Morfin Heather McDonald Matthew J. Hanson Phil Groff Shervyn von Hoerl Wes Fournier
Brook Freeman David Olson Herman Duyker Jon Mayo Matthew Price philippe boutron Shijuro William Hutton
Bruce David Reed Hourousha Mokujin Jon Smejkal Max Kaehn Philippe Marichal Shoshana Kessock William Johnson
Bryan Botz David Ross Ian Charlton Jonathan Methorphan Philippe Saner Simon Brunning World's Okayest GM
Bryan Brake David Silberstein Imunar Jonathan Finke Mic Phillip Webb Simon White Yara Ohrt
Bryan Gillispie David Starner Indi Latrani Jonathan Korman Michael Pint Wakefield Sion Rodriguez y Z. Daniel Esgate
Bryan Wiltgen Davide Orlandi Irene Strauss Jonathan Perrine Michael Bradford PK Gibson Zeb Walker
Bryce Perry Denis Ryan Ivan Begley Jose A. Michael Brewer Pocket Meeple Sławomir Wrzesień
BurninChrome Dennis Groome Jack Gulick Joseph Michael D. Blanchard Porter Stefan Feltmann
C Derek Hiemforth Jack Muratore Joseph Formoso Michael D. Ranalli Jr. R Roy Stefano Monachesi
 THE
MINISTRY
A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR

WRITING & ADVENTURE DESIGN

JESS NEVINS
DEVELOPMENT
MIKE OLSON
EDITING
JOSHUA YEARSLEY
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SEAN NITTNER
ART DIRECTION
BRIAN PATTERSON
LAYOUT
FRED HICKS
INTERIOR & COVER ARTWORK
PEDRO POTIER
MARKETING
CARRIE HARRIS
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
CHRIS HANRAHAN
 An Evil Hat Productions Publication
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The Ministry
Copyright ©2018 Evil Hat Productions, LLC and Jess Nevins.
All rights reserved.

First published in 2018 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC.

10125 Colesville Rd #318, Silver Spring, MD 20901.

Evil Hat Productions and the Evil Hat and Fate logos are trademarks
owned by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior express permission of the publisher.

That said, if you’re doing it for personal use, knock yourself out.
That’s not only allowed, we encourage you to do it.

For those working at a copy shop and not at all sure if this means
the person standing at your counter can make copies of this thing, they can.
This is “express permission.” Carry on.

This is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible,

impossible, glorious things. All the characters and events portrayed
in this work are fictional. Any resemblance to real people, fictional
people, real aliens, fictional aliens, or real Ministry operations is
purely coincidental, but kinda hilarious. And confidential.

Dedicated to Ken Hite, il miglior fabbro, whose idea this was.

Thanks to my playtest group, Danny Bothwell, Clark Bretz,

Theron Bretz, Kerry Madole, Greg Morrow, and David Savage,
for providing the game with its shakedown cruises.
CONTENTS
Welcome to The Ministry................................................................. 4
Roleplaying the World of The Ministry................................................5
The Demographics of England...............................................................7
The History of the Ministry of Rocketry..............................................7
Source Materials.........................................................................................10
The Cities of Great Britain and Ireland..............................................10
New Mechanics.................................................................................13
Infection and Possession......................................................................... 13
Dissonance................................................................................................... 14
Cities and City Zones............................................................................... 15
Mass Infection............................................................................................. 16
Contests and Conflicts Between Mobs.............................................. 18
New Stunts................................................................................................... 19
Common Technology..............................................................................20
The Aliens..........................................................................................21
Ceruleans..................................................................................................... 22
Concepts...................................................................................................... 23
Ghosts........................................................................................................... 25
Plant People................................................................................................ 26
Shards............................................................................................................ 28
Spiders..........................................................................................................30
Spores........................................................................................................... 32
Tribus.............................................................................................................34
Incident Harvest (For GM's Eyes Only)........................................ 36
Scene 1: Buckingham Palace................................................................. 37
Scene 2: Ministry Offices, Rochester Row....................................... 39
Scene 3: London Streets,
and the British Museum Round Room..........................................40
Scene 4: British Museum........................................................................43
Scene 5: The Royal Yacht Britannia...................................................45
Scene 6: Ministry Offices........................................................................ 47
Scene 7: Outside of Buckingham Palace.........................................48
Scene 8: Inside Buckingham Palace..................................................49
Scene 9: The Royal Family’s Private Apartments.......................... 51
Premade PCs.................................................................................... 55
Agent G. Thomas Wellington-Bull...................................................... 55
Agent Paul Derek...................................................................................... 56
Agent Iriye Washington.......................................................................... 57
Agent Chan “Honor” Bo......................................................................... 58
Agent Mahesh “Tony” Singh................................................................. 59
The Voice......................................................................................................60
MINISTRY OF ROCKETRY
Ministry Headquarters
A595
Waberthwaite, Millom, Cumberland
MEMORANDUM FOR NEW AGENTS 1/7/1958
SUBJECT: Action Portfolio
New agents seconded to the Ministry are hired under HMM (14)5 and
are reminded that all memos are of NOT TO BE FILED secrecy. Read
once, then destroy.
After finishing introductory briefings, new agents are to proceed to the
Armory and receive their new equipment.
After the visit to the Armory, new agents are to proceed to Ops, where
they will receive their new orders and postings.
The following is a status update of all open operations:
TREADMILL. Clean-up in Norwich continues apace. On average two of
the aliens designated DELTA-1 are discovered and eliminated per day.
Sequestration of civilians in LOCATION CHARLES continues. News
blackout continues. Cover story of infectious disease flare-up continues
to hold. The Ministry has not suffered any losses in Norwich since
13/12/1957; the spread of DELTA-1 has been halted and reversed;
no other sightings, inside national borders or internationally, have
been made since discovery of DELTA-1’s presence in Norwich.
TREADMILL’s status is hereby changed to GREEN.
FORKLIFT. Interrogation of affected humans at LOCATION FRANCIS
continues, though to date none show any willingness to talk. Agent
donovan will be transported to LOCATION FRANCIS to begin
further inquiries of humans affected by entities designated ETA-1. Only
agents with ABOVE TOP SECRET clearance are to accompany Agent
DONOVAN to LOCATION FRANCIS. News blackout continues.
Cover story of infectious disease flare-up continues to hold. Other
residents of Liverpool continue to profess ignorance of the incident
and the motivations of those affected. FORKLIFT’s status remains at
ORANGE.
PERCUSSION. On-sight investigation continues to yield nothing. The
entities designated LAMBDA-1 have been missing from the College’s
library since the precipitating incident and have not been sighted
elsewhere. College officials continue to spread cover story of micro-
earthquakes, which the student body accepts. PERCUSSION’s status
remains at VIOLET.
WHISPER. International news reports yield stories of aliens
designated THETA-1 at a once-weekly pace; queries to the C.I.A., the
K.G.B., Mossad, N.A.P.S.S., C.I.B., and other interested intelligence
organizations reveal that on average three-quarters of these stories
are false. Which means that THETA-1 is discovered around the world
once a month. Agents monitoring radio and television within the
U.K., and performing a literature search of U.K. newspapers, discover
stories of or relating to THETA-1 on average once a month. Until some
means of differentiating between THETA-1 and ordinary plants is
found, WHISPER’s status remains at RED.
TUTOR. Domestic news reports yield nothing -- no new reports of aliens
designated ZETA-1 in the U.K., no new reports of humans acting in the
way that the affected humans did during the Waberthwaite incident
(see NIGHTLIGHT files). No evidence of further ZETA-1 infiltration has
been found in the U.K. Reports from international news sources and
dossiers from the relevant intelligence bureaus state that Nehru has
recovered (see THEATER files) but that the ZETA-1 recovered from
Nehru, as well as the ZETA-1 recovered from the body of Stalin (see
CRICKET files), have yielded nothing useful. Not good enough, ladies
and gentlemen. The greatest threat the Ministry, the country, and
the world faces -- and this cannot be emphasized enough -- has struck
three times that we are aware of, nearly assuming control of the United
Kingdom, India, and the Soviet Union, and we have no indication or
even hint of where they will strike next. We are likewise ignorant of
their motivation and biology, and the controlling being designated
ZETA-2, if such exists, has not been discovered. Nor have any ZETA-1
egg sacs been found. Combined with reports of probable ZETA-1
possession of Mao (see BLEED files), this means that TUTOR’s status
remains at BLACK.
ATLAS. Aliens designated ALPHA-1 have not been encountered in
the five years since their discovery during the Woomera incident (see
SCHOLAR files). Rocketry pilots continue to be tested for evidence of
ALPHA-1 infiltration. To date all pilots have tested clean. Operation
PLOVER, to provoke contact with ALPHA-1, will begin on 1/8/1958.
Until that time ATLAS’s status remains at INDIGO.
A.B. Smith
Colonel
Deputy Director, Ministry of Rocketry
CONFIDENTIAL
 WELCOME TO THE MINISTRY
The time: the summer of 1958. The place: the United Kingdom—England,
although this is an England somewhat different than the one in our timeline.
The premise: England is endangered by aliens who don’t mean humanity well. As
Ministry of Rocketry agents, your job is to defend the country from the various
threats arrayed against it.
The Ministry is science fiction, but a very specific type of science fiction. It’s based
on the English science fiction of the 1950s, a time when much of the country was
still recovering from post-WWII austerity, and the prosperity that the nation as a
whole was enjoying did not extend to the lower classes. Large swathes of England
still showed the damage done during the war, and even London itself still had
its bombed-out ruins. Life, for many in England, was drab, colorless, and mean.
Yet England, still patriotic rather than cynical, had things to be proud of: the
marriage of Princess Elizabeth in 1947, the 1948 Summer Olympics in London,
the Festival of Britain in 1951, the coronation of Elizabeth as Queen Elizabeth II
in 1953, the slow return of London to global prominence as the center of inter-
national banking. In The Ministry there’s also the British space program, which
took off immediately after the end of the war and, thanks to ample government
funding, became the shining example (to those in the know) of what Britons are
capable of, to the point of establishing a full-time base on the moon. Humanity
is taking its first steps off Earth, and Britain is leading the way.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the solar system, and quite possibly the galaxy
itself, is full of beings who aren’t interested in friendliness. Since the Ministry was
founded, humanity has had hostile encounters with several types of aliens. Only
the quick and clever work of intelligence agents and scientists, especially those
of the Ministry of Rocketry, has prevented the aliens from taking power. But
because of the nature of the aliens, the victories against them cannot be consid-
ered permanent. Inside the Ministry, England is now considered on a permanent
war footing. No one in the Ministry knows when the aliens will strike next, or
where—or even what they’ll look like when they do. They’ve come in many forms,
the aliens, but, frighteningly, sometimes they’ve taken control of humans and
used them to do their dirty work. The Ministry knows that there are still aliens
on Earth, and that they are hidden well and are controlling highly placed men
and women, but no one in the Ministry has figured out how to detect the aliens,
much less preempt their plans.
The Ministry is a science fiction horror game about a small band of brave Britons
facing off against implacable alien threats and doing their best to overcome them.
Country and Crown calls for you—will you heed it?

4 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Roleplaying the World of The Ministry
The world of The Ministry is not our own. Not chronologically, not technologi-
cally, and especially not emotionally. It is England in 1958. It is a time seemingly
leached of color; film and television are in black and white, clothing is serviceable
rather than fashionable and in drab colors when it’s not in blacks and greys, and
even the flowers seem dimmed. Technology is functional, and in some cases it is
advanced beyond even what we have today, in 2017, but that advanced technology
is not available to much of the country. The mods haven’t become widespread;
Carnaby Street and Swinging London are still a decade away; rock and roll is
still an American thing. Life is, for most Britons, devoid of all but the simplest
pleasures, consisting mainly of hard work for low pay and a trip to the pub at
night, with the shows on the telly and radio as the main diversions.
Agents inside the Ministry of Rocketry at least get good food and lead lives of
adventure. Unfortunately, their adventures are usually dangerous and full of mental
as well as physical peril. The enemies during the last war were obvious, and wore
uniforms, and could be killed with a knife or a bullet. But the new enemies, the
aliens, often take the bodies of innocent civilians or appear in bizarre forms, and
stabbing or shooting them sometimes isn’t enough to kill them.

THE MINISTRY 5
 The Ministry plays differently from other games you might be used to. Ministry
agents aren’t murder hobos or two-fisted pulp heroes. They’re brave men and
women in a grim struggle against a variety of alien species whose goal is to
replace humanity, if not to wipe it out completely. These aliens can look like
regular people or even be regular people, albeit physically or psychically possessed.
These aliens are Other, in psychology and form, and could be inside any one of
us, waiting to strike.
Paranoia, in other words, is what you’re aiming for. Aliens might be anywhere,
inside of anyone—even inside the Ministry itself. Friends, acquaintances, or
simply familiar faces—any of them could be possessed by an alien. GMs, you’ll
want to emphasize this unsurety, to let the players truly feel alone and isolated
and potentially threatened. Any situation, no matter how homey or comfortable
it seems, could become a terrible one. Keep the players on their heels, always
reacting to the aliens rather than anticipating and forestalling them. Don’t be
shy about introducing NPCs, making them useful to and liked by the players,
and then having them possessed or killed by and replaced by aliens. And don’t
hesitate to infect the PCs themselves.
The Ministry is a horror game; make things horrible for the players. Emphasize
the Otherness and Wrongness of the aliens in how they look and move and smell.
Likewise, emphasize the drabness of Britain in the 1950s: the muted colors every-
where, whether on tv and movie screens or in the clothes everyone wears; the
boring sameness of the food, everything boiled and flavorless, the more enjoyable
foods still rationed; the feeling, widespread among native Britons, that they are
stuck in a rut that they can’t escape from; the feeling, widespread among foreign-
born Britons, that they are a part of a society which only begrudgingly welcomes
them—if that; the ever-present urban smog; the ever-present lit cigarettes; and
the pre-war behaviors and moral and ethical rules that don’t truly apply anymore
but are still followed. The concern with civilian lives, for example, went away
when the British began bombing German cities during the war.
In the world of The Ministry there are no pulp-style heroes or villains—heroes
are human, and crime is tedious and ordinary and grim. There are no flashy East
End gangsters, there is no Carnaby Street and Swinging England. Britain, in
other words, is black and white and ordinary and realistic and boring. The only
break from this drabness should be the PCs’ work—the secret war between the
Ministry and the various aliens threatening Britain—since it brings adventure and
excitement into their lives as well as makes them privy to the Ministry’s secrets,
which indicate that Great Britain remains a great world power and indeed is a
world leader in some (quite secret) respects.
Remember to show that the Ministry agents’ actions have direct and immediate
results, and that failures on their missions have disastrous consequences, possibly
for many people, perhaps for the nation or even the Earth. The Liverpool and
Norwich incidents are sad examples of what happens when the agents fail. Ministry
agents are under enormous pressure to find the aliens and capture or kill them
before they can infect or possess many civilians—and such pressure would drive
ordinary people mad.

6 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

The Demographics of England
Most Americans think of England as a white country, thanks largely to the popular
culture we consume. But England has never been a white country. There’s always
been black in the Union Jack, and this was certainly the case in 1958. The thirteen
years since the end of the war, and the eleven years since the declaration of inde-
pendence in India, saw a wave of immigration from the far reaches of the British
Empire into England itself. From 1945 to 1958, roughly a million men, women,
and children moved to England from outside the United Kingdom, so that 5%
of the English population in 1958 was foreign-born. A rough breakdown of this
foreign-born population is 34% from the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka,
27% from America and continental Europe, 17% from Africa, 14% from Asia,
and 8% from the Caribbean.
Five percent may not seem to be a significant proportion of the population,
but the vast majority of these immigrants settled in the major cities, driving the
percentage of immigrants in their populations to 15% or 20% or more, depending
on the city: Edinburgh’s and Dublin’s foreign-born populations were significantly
lower, while London’s foreign-born population was above 30%.
So, keep this in mind: England in 1958 was not lily-white, but rather a gor-
geous panoply of colors. Not only is there no reason to make all of the characters
white, but to do so would be to fly in the face of historical reality.

The History of the Ministry of Rocketry

1944: Acting on the advice of Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Professor
Kneale, the British send a squad of SOE agents to snatch Russian scientist Sergei
Korolev from Soviet penitentiary OKB-16. Korolev, more interested in science
than politics, and embittered by his years of imprisonment, gladly joins Kneale
and other scientists in helping the British war effort.
1945: British SOE commandos reach the German rocket base at Peenemünde
before the Americans and Soviets do. The commandos capture all the key personnel,
including Wernher von Braun, and bring them, their files, and their technology
back to England. In the waning days of the war, the Ministry of Rocketry is
established in highest secrecy in northwest England, at a newly built facility just
outside rural Waberthwaite, in Cumberland in northwest Britain.
1947: British military forces preparing to evacuate India before the Partition
unearth a strangely shaped craft in the deserts of Rajasthan, directed to the craft
by the eccentric being who would later be identified as the Traveler. When word
of the discovery reaches the Ministry, they immediately recognize it as a crashed
spaceship and order it brought to Waberthwaite. After intense study Ministry
scientists partially reverse-engineer the spaceship, allowing them to create miniature
gravity-inducing and atmosphere-creating devices as well as greatly accelerate the
speed of ordinary rockets, and giving clues to the creation of advanced comput-
ers. However, the secret of the spaceship engine’s faster-than-light capabilities
remains hidden.

THE MINISTRY 7
 1948: The Ministry of Rocketry, making use of the technology reverse-engineered
from the Rajasthan spaceship, makes the first successful manned trip into outer
space. Secrecy is maintained throughout, and the world at large as well as most levels
of the British government itself remain ignorant of the Ministry and its success.
1951: After over two years of intense effort, the construction of an orbital plat-
form is completed at the Woomera facility and then successfully launched into
geosynchronous orbit. Armed and equipped with the most advanced weapons,
communications technology, and telescopes, the orbital platform provides the
Ministry with unparalleled information about the solar system and deep space,
and it gives Great Britain a threat to secretly hold over its enemies on Earth.
1952: Construction of deep-space rockets making use of the technology of the
Rajasthan and Arctic crafts is completed, and the Ministry launches the first
manned rocket on a trip to Mars.
Ministry scientist Alan Turing is arrested for indecency; the head of the Ministry
applies political pressure, and Turing is released and never charged.
Stalin’s paranoia seemingly takes a drastic turn for the worse, leading to allega-
tions of a “Doctors’ Plot” as well as a “Generals’ Plot.”
1953: After a vigorous debate at the highest levels of the British government
regarding Ministry funding concludes in the Ministry’s favor, the Ministry begins
the laborious task of building a permanent base on the moon.
A rocket on a long-range mission returns to Earth missing two astronauts, and
with the third altered and secretly possessed by an energy being, what is later known
as a “Cerulean.” The astronaut begins to act strangely, but Professor Kneale detects
what’s going on and directs Ministry agents to destroy the possessed astronaut.
Stalin dies after being poisoned by Lavrenti Beria. An odd, tiny creature is
recovered from Stalin’s body; description of the creature matches that of the alien
beings which become known as “Spiders.”
1954: On the Isle of Wight, a batch of strange new seeds, recently purchased in
France, flowers into “Tribuses.” The Tribuses feel confident enough to reveal their
true selves and begin attacking and consuming their owners. After thirty-two
deaths, Ministry agents solve the mystery and destroy the Tribuses.
1955: Purely by chance, a driver of supply trucks bound for Ministry hq in
Waberthwaite discovers a group of Spiders in his trucks. He calls in the Ministry,
whose investigation leads to the unveiling of the Spiders’ secret control of highly
placed government officials. Professor Kneale again successfully leads the effort
against them.
The librarian of All Souls College in Oxford discovers “ghosts” in the college
library. Professor Kneale, assisted by the Traveler, deduces that they are psychic enti-
ties from Earth’s deep past—the Traveler hints that they used to possess dinosaurs.

8 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

1956: Roman mosaics found in the newly discovered ruins of a fort in Lancashire
contain images of Romans acting strangely as a result of reading “cursed books.”
One thing leads to another, and Professor Kneale and Ministry agents end up
pitted against a living alien virus, one of the “Concepts,” which takes control of
a shocking number of Liverpudlians before it is stopped.
The Suez Crisis begins with an Israeli invasion of Egypt to regain Western
control of the Suez Canal and to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
France and Britain support Israel’s action; the U.N. opposes it, as do the Soviet
Union and U.S.A. Israel, Britain, and France refuse to remove their forces, leading
the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to land troops in Egypt. Britain unveils tanks and planes
armed with weapons reverse-engineered from alien technology, forcing the U.N.,
U.S.A., and U.S.S.R. to stand down and leave Egypt. Britain resumes control
of the Suez Canal.
1957: In January, during Chou En-lai’s visit to India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru begins acting oddly hostile, leading to a temporary declaration of war by
India toward China. Eventually Indian security agents isolate Nehru and forcibly
remove a Spider from his body.
Construction ends on the Ministry moonbase, which is activated and fully
manned.
Late in the year, the Soviets and Americans both launch their first artificial
satellites; the British orbital platform shoots both satellites down to ensure that
the British retain primacy in space.
Mobs of “Plant People” attempt to take over Norwich, and are destroyed at
cost. The Ministry cover story of “cult activity” is generally accepted.
1958: Mao Zedong announces the Great Leap Upward, a plan designed not only
to promote the growth of heavy industry, but also to make China a space-faring
nation. Ministry of Rocketry theorists analyze his behavior, compare it to his
previous statements, and conclude that it is likely that Mao is possessed by a Spider.
The Ministry prepares for its longest deep-space ranging mission, out beyond
Planet Ten and into the Oort Cloud.

THE MINISTRY 9
 Source Materials
The Ministry draws upon a set of works from British popular culture that many
players may not be familiar with. While exposure to them is not necessary, making
the effort to watch and read these works will help you easily understand the
mindset of the world of The Ministry as well as expose you to a now-forgotten
set of good-to-great books and films.
• The Professor Quatermass films, particularly the original three: The
Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass II, and Quatermass and the Pit. Parts
or full versions of all three are available on YouTube. These are the primary
influences on The Ministry.
• Early Dr. Who serials featuring the First Doctor, played by William Hartnell,
some of which are available on YouTube. Though running in the 1960s
rather than the 1950s, several of the episodes have a Quatermass-like feel to
them, to the point where Nigel Kneale, the creator of Professor Quatermass,
thought that the creators of Dr. Who had ripped him off.
• The Day of the Triffids—both the John Wyndham novel and the 1962 movie,
which is available in its entirety on YouTube.
• Early James Bond novels (not the films), especially Casino Royale and Live
and Let Die. They’re good not so much for their glamor but for the feel
of Britain in the early 1950s and of a certain kind of British intelligence
behavior common during the 1950s.
• Fabian of the Yard episodes, several of which are available on YouTube.
They’re good for getting a feel for the black-and-white Britain of the 1950s.

The Cities of Great Britain and Ireland

Birmingham: Britain’s largest and most prosperous provincial city. It has boom-
ing economic strength, with 1% unemployment and household incomes often
exceeding those of London, but there is extensive redevelopment going on, con-
struction of large tower block estates, large waves of immigrants from the current
and former countries of the Empire (especially Southeast Asia and the Caribbean),
an undercurrent of racial friction toward those new immigrants, and economic
restrictions put upon the city by London, leading to widespread local uncertainty.
Cardiff: The definition of a regional capital, made the capital of Wales in 1955,
with Wales only recently getting its own secretary of state. There is relatively little
local fuss in Cardiff about the upcoming British Empire and Commonwealth
Games to be held there—the upswelling of pride over the Games being held in
Cardiff only comes afterwards. Most people here are more concerned with Wales’s
position in Great Britain and with gathering the respect that Wales deserves. Wales
as a whole faces declining industries, especially coal, and a loss of their traditional
ways and language due to an influx of English folk from other areas of the country.
Dublin: Ireland’s chief city, the cultural and industrial center of the island. The
city is slowly modernizing and establishing ties with England and the Continent.
But there remain extensive slums and tenements, especially in the inner city. I.R.A.
sentiment runs high, and the Catholic population is motivated by anti-British

10 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

animus, but British countermeasures, such as internment without trial, are having
a severe effect on the I.R.A., both in operations and morale.
Edinburgh: Scotland’s capital. It is the intellectual and cultural capital of the north,
but also a city with general economic stagnation and relatively little industrializa-
tion, in addition to a decreasing population, substantial slums, and a deteriorating
city center. The city does not get a lot of immigration from other parts of Great
Britain, and there is considerable friction between local Catholics and Protestants,
and a not-insubstantial sentiment in favor of Scottish independence.
Glasgow: Scotland’s second city. The city is a former center of industrialization,
especially ship-building, but that’s changing, as ships formerly built in Glasgow
are now being built abroad. Its economy has become more service-oriented and is
in a downward spiral. The city itself is labeled a “depressed area” and has sizeable
slums, and what construction of new housing there is tends to destroy established
communities and social structures.
Leeds: Leeds suffers from declining industrial and manufacturing activity, espe-
cially coal mining, and the general shift to a service economy. However, there is
a rise in banking and insurance, and the city as a whole is on the rise, with new
housing estates decreasing the number of tenements and slums, schools being
built, public facilities being improved, and a large influx of people immigrating
from India and Asia. In many ways it is a cozy, bustling, growing regional city.
Liverpool: The docks and traditional manufacturing industries which formerly
made the city strong are in a sharp decline. The unemployment rate is one of the
highest in the country, with many employers leaving for better locations. There
is significant unrest over the plan to build a local reservoir, which will flood one
of the last Welsh-speaking communities, leading to a rise in Welsh nationalism
and anti-London sentiment. The city is in a downward spiral, and the events of
1956—when a Concept outbreak in the docks led to the occupation and eventual
deaths of nearly 40,000 people—have left a black cloud over the city. The Concept
outbreak was immediately described by government officials as an outbreak of a
severely infectious African disease, and most Liverpudlians accept this, but the
cover story has increased the friction between Liverpudlians and people of African
and Caribbean descent.
London: England’s capital and the international center of finance and culture.
It’s the pride of England and its power center—what’s left of the Empire is run
from here. But all is not well. The city is still rebuilding after the damage of the
war. Scarce housing has led to the construction of numerous tower blocks, which
has altered the city’s landscape and created poor homes for many. Racial ten-
sions simmer, here more than in most places, with many whites objecting to the
very presence of Asian and Caribbean immigrants—the fact that many of these
Africans and Caribbeans step out with white girlfriends and wives inflames the
whites all the more. The smog problem is decreasing but still quite bad. And while
the Ministry efforts to control the flow of information about aliens are usually
effective, rumors of strange doings continue to spread here.

THE MINISTRY 11
 Manchester: Populous northwestern metropolis, former manufacturing power in
Great Britain, home to a football powerhouse (the pride of the city), and center of
culture in the north of England. There is substantial rebuilding of former slums,
with high-rise blocks of flats appearing at an astonishing rate, but generally these
are dark times for Mancunians. The 6 February air disaster, which killed numerous
members of the Manchester United team and several journalists who covered the
team, lies heavy on the mood of the city. The industrial and manufacturing base
of the city is in a severe downturn, leading to widespread unemployment. And
as with most cities in England, there is substantial friction between whites and
immigrants from the Caribbean and Asia.
Newcastle: The most populous city in the northeast of England. Even so, it has the
same problems that other English cities do: slums, which are now being replaced
by high-rise estates and blocks of flats, whose construction destroys traditional
neighborhoods; economic depression caused by the loss of the city’s industrial
base; widespread unemployment, largely caused by the loss of industrial businesses
and the shipyards as well as by the closing of the local coal mines; and friction
between whites and immigrants.
Oxford: A university city. The university holds substantial sway over the town’s
doings, so the history of the city is largely the history of the university. In 1958
the university is wracked by student unrest and discontent: the anti-nuclear
movement (which begins here and flowers into substantial marches on Easter,
1958, in London), the anti-H-bomb movement, students breaching the Official
Secrets Act, ISIS magazine publishing articles about British Intelligence opera-
tions, and especially working-class students’ discontent with university traditions
and hidebound ways.
Plymouth: The biggest city in England’s southwest. It generally avoids the woes
of other cities because of its aggressive housing plan that began in 1946—much
earlier than when other English cities began rebuilding—and by the presence of
the Admiralty shipyards, which continue to do great business. The damage from
the war has been repaired, and the city has a brand new, modern city center. In
many ways Plymouth is the San Diego of Great Britain—or, more properly, vice
versa: a sunny, coastal city inextricably intertwined with the Navy it services.
Sheffield: This city is much like other British cities: declining industries, though
steel factories remain strong; too many tenements and slums, though housing
plans are in place and new estates and flat blocks are being constructed; economic
depression; and racial tension. It still bears some physical scars from the war.

12 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

NEW MECHANICS
Characters in The Ministry are created in the same way as Fate Core characters.
The skill list for characters is also identical.
The Ministry is a game of horror, so to reflect that it adds new mechanics,
including ones for physical or psychic possession by aliens of humans and for
alien infections of people or entire cities.

Infection and Possession

Aliens in The Ministry have two skills that are not available to humans: Infection
and Possession. Both reflect the process by which aliens take over humans:
Infection through physical means, and Possession through psychic means.
Each of these skills comes with a matching stunt, which details when and how
often the alien can attack with the skill, what the effects of infection or possession
are, and how to cure it—if it can be.
Stress boxes marked with Infection or Possession cannot be cleared until the
possession or infection is cured.
While any stress boxes are marked because of an Infection attack, the victim is
partially infected, which may cause some effects, as listed in the Infection stunt.
Also, the first time a victim takes stress because of an Infection or Possession attack,
they also take a moderate mental consequence.
If an alien takes out a victim with Infection or Possession, the victim becomes
fully infected or possessed, respectively. Whether or not the victim is conscious
during possession varies from alien to alien. Even after a victim is cured of a full
infection or possession, they retain a severe mental consequence.
While a character is infected or possessed, the conflict cannot be conceded.

Recovering from Consequences

Those suffering from mental consequences caused by the aliens will need help from
specialists. Ministry agents who take mental consequences are sent to one of two
Ministry “rest homes” to recover, depending on the degree of the consequence.
Agents who could be expected to recover within a reasonable time period are sent
to LOCATION EVELYN in Cadgwith, Cornwall. Agents whose recovery is a
riskier or longer-term affair are sent to LOCATION STANLEY in Pemberton,
NSW, Australia.
Non-Ministry agents who take moderate or severe mental consequences usually
seek intensive psychotherapy. On occasion, Ministry press handlers, or one of the
journalists friendly to the Ministry, will attempt to convince the victim, rolling
Deceive against Will, that they didn’t really see/hear/smell/taste/experience what
they thought they did. Succeeding on this roll, and thereby getting the victim’s
mind changed, actually hastens the recovery process by removing a moderate
mental consequence.

THE MINISTRY 13
 Dissonance
The Ministry is a game about stalwart Britons fighting aliens. Unfortunately, the
aliens aren’t content to simply conquer the Earth. They possess human bodies,
sometimes singly and sometimes en masse. Not only do the characters have to
deal with the knowledge that aliens exist and they mean us harm, but they must
also cope with the suspicion that nobody can be trusted, and with the knowledge
that at any moment dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of innocent civilians
could be possessed—a process that is difficult to undo.
So, The Ministry is not just a game of fighting aliens: it’s a game of paranoia
and horror. Just the sight, sound, and smell of aliens is damaging to people’s
minds—and so is the knowledge of them and any psychic experiences with them.
It’s 1958; the idea that aliens are real is for most people the stuff of science fiction,
so simply being exposed to aliens is a blow to one’s sanity. Closer experiences
with aliens produces even worse effects. This is not the slow, creeping horror of
a dawning awakening to a horrible reality; this is the short, sharp shock of being
confronted with Wrongness, and then the long process of recuperation afterwards.
The aliens don’t look like what people expect from seeing them on the TV or
movie screen. The aliens have colors no human tongue can describe, shapes that no
earthly creature bears; they move in unsettling ways, and their smells and sounds
are disturbingly different. They’re wrong, and just seeing, smelling, or touching
one of them is itself an attack on a person. This fact is reflected by each alien’s
Dissonance stunt, described more in The Aliens (page 21).

14 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Cities and City Zones
Each city is made up of a certain number of city zones, corresponding to neigh-
borhoods or boroughs. The skills for the civilians in those zones will vary, and
any skills not listed are rated Mediocre (+0). Each city’s zones correspond to that
city’s council wards. GMs, you can use Wikipedia and Google Maps to get maps
of each city and its council zones. Every city’s zones have the same statistics as
the city does as a whole; the skills for the inhabitants of the major English, Irish,
and Scottish cities are listed below.
Below, you will find the statistics for the major cities in Great Britain and
Ireland in 1958. These numbers are rough estimates, and the zones generally
represent electoral wards rather than neighborhoods; the numbers of residents
per square mile, representing population densities, are entirely different from the
zone populations. GMs, you can use whatever maps of city neighborhoods and
electoral wards you can find for each city online, and use the numbers below to
make the zone.
• Birmingham: Around 1,110,000 people. 40 zones, with an average of
27,750 people per zone. Fair (+2) Will; Average (+1) Empathy, Fight,
Physique, Rapport.
• Cardiff: Around 275,000 people. 29 zones, with an average of 9,483 people
per zone. Fair (+2) Will; Average (+1) Lore, Rapport, Physique, Fight.
• Dublin: Around 600,000 people. 11 zones, with an average of 54,546
people per zone. Fair (+2) Rapport, Will; Average (+1) Lore, Fight, Physique.
• Edinburgh: Around 465,000 people. 20 zones, with an average of 23,250
people per zone. Fair (+2) Will; Average (+1) Fight, Physique, Rapport.
• Glasgow: Around 450,000 people. 22 zones, with an average of 20,455
people per zone. Fair (+2) Fight, Physique, Will; Average (+1) Rapport.
• Leeds: Around 730,000 people. 33 zones, with an average of 22,121 people
per zone. Average (+1) Physique, Rapport, Will.
• Liverpool: Around 710,000 people. 30 zones, with an average of 23,667
people per zone. Average (+1) Physique, Rapport, Will.
• London: Around 8,050,000 people. 33 zones, with an average of 243,939
people per zone. Fair (+2) Will; Average (+1) Lore, Physique, Rapport
• Manchester: Around 680,000 people. 30 zones, with an average of 22,666
people per zone. Average (+1) Fight, Physique, Rapport, Will.
• Newcastle: Around 280,000 people. 26 zones, with an average of 10,769
people per zone. Fair (+2) Fight, Physique; Average (+1) Rapport, Will.
• Oxford: Around 105,000 people. 24 zones, with an average of 4,375
people per zone. Fair(+2) Lore; Average (+1) Physique, Will.
• Plymouth: Around 205,000 people. 20 zones, with an average of 10,250
people per zone. Fair (+2) Will, Fight; Average (+1) Lore, Physique.
• Sheffield: Around 500,000 people. 28 zones, with an average of 17,857
people per zone. Fair (+2) Physique; Average (+1) Rapport, Will.

THE MINISTRY 15
 Mass Infection
Some aliens attack by possessing victims’ minds, an effective but slow method
of spreading their influence. Other aliens operate differently, trying to infect as
many people as possible through physical attacks. The latter aliens essentially act
as disease vectors, so after the aliens have infected enough people, the spread of
alien infection becomes a matter of masses of people, not individuals, acting and
being acted upon.
Once a mass infection begins, the PCs’ individual actions are not just useless
but too late—they’re no longer dealing with one infected individual, but with
crowds of them usually working in concert. Mass infection is the Ministry’s worst
nightmare; it means that their efforts have come to naught, that large numbers of
civilians stand to lose their lives, and that entire cities or the country itself is in
imminent danger. When this takes place, all available Ministry agents are sum-
moned, armed with stun batons and gas grenades, and sent to the field to confront
the infected humans en masse, in contests and conflicts between mobs (page 18).
When fifty humans have been infected, they turn into a mob and begin using
mob tactics to infect other humans as quickly and as widely as possible. Infected
mobs will attack, usually with Shoot or Fight, mobs of uninfected humans in the
same zone. Once everyone in the zone is infected, those mobs will spread into
adjacent zones and begin all over again.
If a city zone is lost, all Ministry agents, whether on-site or not, gain a situation
aspect, lasting until the end of the session, that indicates their dismay—something
like Not This Again or Oh Those Poor People—and the Ministry as a whole
takes a mild consequence. The loss of two zones worsens the consequence from
mild to moderate, and the loss of half of a city’s zones worsens the consequence
from moderate to severe. Any false alarm gives a mild consequence to the Ministry,
usually something like More Paranoid Than Usual. Consequences on the
Ministry can be invoked against any of its members.
In Ministry cities and city zones (see below) have consequence slots—one mild,
one moderate, and one severe—and aspects just as individuals do. As a city zone
loses people to infection, it gains consequences as follows:
• Lost a third: mild consequence
• Lost two thirds: moderate consequence
• Lost all: severe consequence

16 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 As a city loses zones, it gains consequences at the same rate. (This is assuming
that the infected are cured; the consequences are for afterward).
Consequences on a city zone can be invoked against anyone in that zone, and
likewise for consequences on a city.
Different aliens can create mobs at different rates; a one-shot infectious alien
could create a mob of infected and infectious humans in five rounds, and then
the mob would go on to create other mobs. Generally, if an alien mob succeeds
at infecting or possessing a human mob, increase the total number of alien mobs
by one step on the following ladder; if the alien mob succeeds with style, increase
the total number of alien mobs by two steps:
• One mob (around fifty people)
• A few mobs (around a hundred people)
• Several mobs (a few hundred people)
• A dozen mobs (hundreds of people)
• Tens of mobs (thousands of people)
• Hundreds of mobs (tens of thousands of people)
• Thousands of mobs (hundreds of thousands of people)
• Tens of thousands of mobs (millions of people)
The Ministry reacts as quickly as possible to control and confine outbreaks.
But in some cases—Liverpool and Norwich, in particular—the Ministry has either
failed to respond quickly enough or didn’t hear about the outbreak until it was
too late. On average, the Ministry will hear about an outbreak five minutes after
the infected or possessed person begins acting out in public. Naturally, actually
reaching the outbreak zone may take considerably longer than that. The press
will hear about an outbreak in ten minutes.
After the infection attempt is resolved, the British Army will attempt to
isolate the affected area, rolling Great (+4) Resources against the population’s
Will. A failure to isolate the affected area means that information about the infec-
tion attempt gets out and becomes public knowledge—obviously something that
the government and the Ministry do not want to happen.
At the same time, Ministry press handlers and public relations agents as well
as those few (but highly placed) journalists who do the Ministry’s bidding
will attempt to put out a cover story, trying to explain the appearance of the
aliens in such a way that civilians will accept that something unusual but purely
natural took place, as opposed to the unpalatable, sanity-shaking truth. This is
a Deceive roll against Empathy; Ministry press handlers and friendly journalists
and reporters use their own Deceive ratings in personal situations, while mass
attempts—the Ministry against a particular city, or the Ministry and Press against
England, Ireland, Scotland, or all three—use their group Deceive rating against
the other group’s Empathy rating. But the contest of Deceive against Will works
differently than ordinary contests: every exchange where you don’t get a victory
means that one rumor gets out. This contest cannot be conceded. Being taken
out means that the public has been deceived.

THE MINISTRY 17
 Contests and Conflicts Between Mobs
Mobs in The Ministry work similarly to individuals. A mob has skills and stunts,
but one mob consists of fifty individuals, and its skills derive from the skills of
its members.
Contests between mobs work exactly the same as contests between individuals,
but conflicts between mobs work differently. In real life, conflicts between mobs
are nasty, brutal, and short. They usually involve two or three—or more—people
ganging up on one person and taking them down quickly. The Ministry’s rules
are designed to reflect these rapid losses.
Each mob has a physical and a mental stress track, each with five stress boxes.
Each stress box represents ten members of the mob, so a stress box being marked
represents ten members of the mob being taken out. Mobs continue to fight
until they concede, in which case they cease being mobs and split up into indi-
viduals, or until they are taken out, in which case all of the mob’s members are
unconscious or dead.
In conflicts between mobs, the players usually control a friendly mob—whether
of Ministry agents, police, or military—facing mobs of possessed humans or
aliens. You’ll find stats for a couple human mobs below, and you’ll find stats for
alien mobs throughout The Aliens (pages 21-35).

Mob of Average Humans Mob of Ministry

ASPECTS Field Agents
Bestial Instincts
ASPECTS
SKILLS Must Save as Many as Possible;
Good (+3): Will, Fight Must Limit the Spread
Fair (+2): Athletics, Notice, Physique
SKILLS
STUNTS Great (+4): Will, Fight, Notice
Maddened Animal: +2 to attack with Good (+3): Athletics, Physique, Shoot
Fight against another mob.
STUNTS
STRESS Fire Discipline: When you attack
Physical [1][2][3][4][5] with Shoot, the defender cannot
Mental [1][2][3][4][5] invoke situation aspects.
ARMOR AND ARMS
Stun batons, gas grenades, sterile suits,
and other weapons if applicable.
STRESS
Physical [1][2][3][4][5]
Mental [1][2][3][4][5]

18 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

New Stunts
Players, to purchase any of these aspects, your character must have an aspect
representing psychic capacities or talents.
Astral Projection: You can step outside of your body and fly to any destination
you think of. While doing so, your body is paralyzed and unmoving, although you
continue to breathe. Your astrally projected self can see and hear but not interact
with your surroundings, although you can defend with Will against mental attacks.
Called Shot: When you attack with Shoot and succeed, you can spend a fate
point to also give the defender a situation aspect, with a free invoke, representing
their injury, such as Shot in the Hand.
Far-Sensing: You can see and hear at any destination you can think of, up to a
range of city zones equal to your Will rating.
Image Projection: You can psychically project an image of yourself to anywhere
you can see. If you also have Far-Sensing, then you no longer need line of sight
and can psychically project yourself up to a range of city zones equal to your
Will rating.
Migraine Blast: Through the power of your mind you can inflict crippling
headaches on others. You can create an advantage with Will against Physique to
give your target a Blinding Headache, which lasts until the end of the scene.
Poison Spit: You can spit poison, an attack with a Weapon rating of 2. If you
succeed with style, the defender also becomes Blinded. Not available to PCs.
Psychic Blast: Through the power of your mind you can deal psychic blows to
others. You can use Will to make mental attacks, defended against with Will. You
must have Migraine Blast in order to take Psychic Blast.
Pyrokinesis: You can make physical attacks with Will up to three zones away by
setting things (or people) on fire.
Spore Explosion: The infected victim’s spews spores outward in every direction,
filling the victim’s zone and the eight surrounding zones with infectious Spores.
Can only be done if at least half of the victim’s physical stress boxes are marked.
Not available to PCs.
Telekinetic Flight: You can roll Will to fly; it works like Athletics, but allows
for vertical movement as well as horizontal. You must have Telekinetic Hand in
order to take Telekinetic Flight.
Telekinetic Hand: You can move physical objects with the power of your mind.
With Mediocre (+0) Will, you can move objects weighing several pounds, and the
weight you can move increases with your Will rating, as in Fate Core (page 197).
Telekinetic Punch: You can make a physical attack with Will in place of Physique
or Fight. You must have Telekinetic Hand in order to take Telekinetic Flight.
Available to PCs.

THE MINISTRY 19
 Telekinetic Shield: You can defend with Will against physical attacks by erecting
a telekinetic shield. You must have Telekinetic Hand in order to take Telekinetic
Shield.
Telepathy: You can roll Empathy, Investigate, or Notice to glean things from
people’s minds—Empathy for feelings, Notice to detect the presence of unfamiliar
minds, or Investigate to delve into someone’s thoughts. These rolls are defended
against with Will.

Common Technology
Blaster: Weapon:1. Standard issue for Ministry agents on field operations. Reverse-
engineered from technology scavenged from the wreckage of the Rajasthan craft.
Blaster Rifle: Heavy Weapon. Weapon:2. Standard issue for Ministry agents in
operations dealing with mass outbreaks.
Flame Thrower: Heavy Weapon. Weapon:3. On a successful attack, the target
catches On Fire.
Fungal Antidote: Single-use injectable antidote to Spore infection. When injected,
the patient becomes Sick as a Dog until the end of the session.
Fungicide Gun: Similar to a weed-poison sprayer. Weapon:3 against Spores only.
Gas Grenade: Weapon:1, attacks entire zone. Standard issue for Ministry agents
on field operations. Electrically powered and meant to incapacitate, not kill. Used
by Ministry agents when dealing with masses of infected or possessed people.
Mobile: Long-Range Communication Device. Standard issue for all Ministry
agents. Radio phones based on alien technology with a thousand-mile range.
Sterile Suit: Wearer is Immune to Infections while the suit is fully intact.
Looks similar to a modern beekeeper’s suit. Standard issue for Ministry agents in
operations dealing with mass outbreaks.
Stun Baton: Weapon:1. Standard issue for Ministry agents on field operations.
Electrically powered and meant to incapacitate, not kill. Used by Ministry agents
when dealing with masses of infected or possessed people.

20 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

THE ALIENS
In this chapter, you’ll find statistics for the many aliens infiltrating and invading
Earth, along with Ministry reports detailing them. Here are the major differences
from humans that you’ll find:
• Most aliens have the Possession or Infection skill and a matching stunt.
The stunt includes details on its possession rate, effects, and cure, which
vary from alien to alien.
• Each alien has the Dissonance stunt. This stunt represents the horrific
experience of encountering an alien, whether by seeing, hearing, or touch-
ing them, causing an immediate attack against the victim, without costing
the alien an action. The details of the stunt vary from alien to alien.
• Each alien includes notes on its physiology and size. The alien’s physi-
ology includes whether it’s a clone or individual, which informs how it
acts. Roughly, clones all act the same, while individuals have separate and
distinct temperaments, goals, and methods.

THE MINISTRY 21
 Ceruleans
…the aliens designated ALPHA-1 are energy beings without material
form. They take possession of human bodies they come into contact
with. To date their actions have indicated a drive toward placing
themselves in a position of power; they hop from body to body, always
trying to possess someone of ever-greater influence and sway. But
for what purposes they do this is not known, as they refuse to
communicate in any way once their presence is revealed, and so far
they have proven immune to telepathic probes and readings. Pilot
Andrew Morgan, whose five-year possession is the longest on record
by a Cerulean, is currently held at LOCATION ALBERT, having been
discovered after his attempt to gain access to 10 Downing Street; he
continues to refuse to respond to any attempts at communication.

Ceruleans apparently gain access to the host body’s memories

once they take over, so that conversation with a victim of Cerulean
possession often fools one into thinking the possession victim is
normal. Once the Cerulean leaves the possessed person or animal, the
formerly possessed will have no memories of the possession.

Cerulean
ASPECTS
Energy Ghost from Jupiter; Colors No Human Has Ever
Seen; Warrior Class; Seize Power for the World Matrix;
Forerunner of the Invasion
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Deceive, Notice, Possession, Will
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you, immediately roll a Good (+3)
attack against their Will.
Possession: You can attack with Possession against Will. While pos-
sessed, the victim gains Superb (+5) Crafts, Deceive, Notice, and
Will. Curing Cerulean possession requires psychic destruction
of the Cerulean, the Cerulean leaving the host body, or physical
destruction of the host. You can only possess one being at a time.
STRESS
Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
NOTES
Ceruleans are two-dimensional sheets of energy, five feet by three
feet. As they are clones, they all act the same, trying to achieve
maximum power via their possessed bodies.

22 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Concepts
…the aliens designated as ETA-1 are creatures seemingly from the
more exotic American science fiction: living ideas, alien thought
concepts without a physical body which nonetheless exist in our
dimension. Their purpose seems to be to reproduce themselves in the
greatest numbers possible, by communicating their ideas to receptive
victims; their ultimate goal seems to be to take possession of the
entire human population. Interestingly, the ETA-1s so far encountered
have been of two different forms in content (as best we’ve been able
to determine), indicating that perhaps there is an entire species of
individual ETA-1s, and what we’ve encountered so far has been just
two of them.

Victims of ETA-1 possession act en masse and exhibit pack behavior

and tactics; individuals possessed by ETA-1 seem reduced in
intelligence, but as a group they exhibit high intelligence, cumulatively
working to build advanced communications systems (to better
reproduce themselves) and a technology-heavy circular device whose
purpose we’ve been unable to ascertain. Their origin is unknown; they
cannot be from Earth, but surveys of the planets in the solar system
have not produced evidence of ETA-1’s home planet.

THE MINISTRY 23
 Concept Mob of Concept-
ASPECTS Possessed Humans
Alien Meme; Been on Earth for
ASPECTS
a LONG Time; Must Reproduce;
Animal Cunning; Pack Tactics;
Trying to Get Home
Only Desire Is to Spread the
SKILLS Concept
Superb (+5): Possession, Will
SKILLS
Great (+4): Notice
Fantastic (+6): Will
STUNTS Superb (+5): Possession
Dissonance: If any human sees you, Great (+4): Fight, Notice
immediately roll a Great (+4) attack Fair (+2): Athletics, Crafts, Physique
against their Will.
STUNTS
Possession: You can attack with
Dissonance: If any human sees you,
Possession against all humans within
immediately roll a Mediocre (+0) attack
hearing distance, defended against
against their Will. Mobs of Concept-
with Will. While possessed, a victim
possessed humans looks no different
gains +1 to Athletics or Physique,
from average humans.
representing the increased adrena-
Possession: You can attack with
line flow forced upon them by the
Possession against all humans within
Concept. Also, the victim marks
hearing distance, defended against with
their lowest-value physical stress
Will. While possessed, a victim gains
box, representing the damage that
+1 to Athletics or Physique, represent-
the Concept does to its host body.
ing the increased adrenaline flow forced
Curing Concept possession requires
upon them by the Concept. Also, the
psychic destruction of the Concept
victim marks their lowest-value physi-
or physical destruction of the host
cal stress box, representing the damage
body.
that the Concept does to its host body.
STRESS Curing Concept possession requires
Mental [1][2][3][4] psychic destruction of the Concept or
physical destruction of the host body.
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2): STRESS
Physical [1][2][3][4][5]
NOTES
Mental [1][2][3][4][5]
The Concepts are individuals, but some-
one possessed by a Concept becomes CONSEQUENCES
part of the possessing Concept’s hive Mild (2):
mind. They have no physical form—the Moderate (4):
Concepts are living ideas.
NOTES
Hearing distance will, of course, vary
Concept victims in mob form are driven
if and when the Concepts make use of
by one urge: to spread the Concept to as
phones, loudspeakers, radio, and televi-
many people as possible. However, unlike
sion broadcasts. Given enough people
individual Concept victims, Concept
within hearing range, a single Concept
mobs exhibit a low level of intelligence,
can form a mob in one round.
using pack tactics to attack those resist-
ing them.

24 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Ghosts
…the beings designated LAMBDA-1 are, according to information
provided to the Ministry by the being known as the Traveler, a species
of psychic entities who have been present on Earth for at least 200
million years. (This information has not been confirmed by Ministry
scientists.) Our sole encounter with them, at All Souls College in
Oxford (see PERCUSSION), indicates that LAMBDA-1s view humans
as a food source, but that LAMBDA-1s have no greater goals than
to survive; their behavior during PERCUSSION did not indicate any
actions with an ulterior motive in mind.

Victims of LAMBDA-1 possession act normally; LAMBDA-1 manipulate

them so that further victims will be easily at hand…

Ghost
ASPECTS
Psychic Ghost from the Depths of Time;
Alien Trapped on Earth; Immaterial but Not Invisible;
I Live by Consuming Souls
SKILLS
Fantastic (+6): Lore
Superb (+5): Deceive, Possession, Will
Great (+4): Notice, Stealth
STUNTS
Chilling Touch: You use Will instead of Fight to make physical attacks,
defended against by Physique. This attack has a Weapon rating of 1.
Consume Soul: Requires possession. Once per day, you can make a
physical attack with Will against Physique. For each stress box that the
defender marks, you gain one mild consequence slot that lasts for a day.
Dissonance: If any human sees you, immediately roll a Fair (+2) attack
against their Will.
Possession: You can attack with Possession against Will. While pos-
sessed, the victim gains Fantastic (+6) Lore and the Chilling Touch
stunt. Curing Ghost possession requires psychic destruction of the
Ghost or physical destruction of the Ghost’s host body. You can only
possess one being at a time.
STRESS
Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
NOTES
The Ghosts are a human-sized species who happen to be immaterial
energy beings, each with its own motivation.
THE MINISTRY 25
 Plant People
…the aliens designated as DELTA-1 are, as best that Ministry scientists
can confirm, not just extraterrestrial but from outside the solar
system itself. Professor Kneale, after consultation with Fred Hoyle,
has theorized that the source of DELTA-1 are plant spores from some
far-distant solar system, blown through the galaxy on solar winds. At
some point in the recent past, DELTA-1 spores landed on Earth and
began the growth-consumption-reproduction process.

The DELTA-1 spores flower into giant seed pods. Humans unfortunate
enough to come into contact with the seed pods are consumed (the
seed pods are carnivorous), and the seed pods produce duplicates of
the consumed humans, the DELTA-1 proper. These duplicates spread
seed pods around to isolated locations and try to lure more humans
into the pods to be consumed. DELTA-1s’ ultimate goal, based on the
Norwich incident (TREADMILL), seems to be to consume not just
humans but all living material. (Reports of a new variety of DELTA
-- provisionally designated DELTA-2, which appeared in a Los Angeles
flower shop -- are unconfirmed.)

DELTA-1 is notable for its slow gait, its unwillingness or inability to

communicate with humans (the pods communicate among themselves
with a combination of scent and high-pitched screeching), and its
complete fearlessness. DELTA-1 acts as if individual DELTA-1s were
meaningless, similar to the way that individual ants are meaningless
to the group.

26 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Plant Person
ASPECTS
Extraterrestrial Plant;
Consume and Replace
SKILLS
Great (+4): Fight, Physique
Good (+3): Notice
Fair (+2): Athletics, Will
STUNTS
Consume: If you take out a human
with physical stress, you can feed
them to your seed pod. When your
seed pod is finished consuming,
the victim’s body is completely
destroyed.
Dissonance: If any human sees you,
immediately roll a Good (+3)
attack against their Will, but only
if they knew the person that you
copied and realize that you are a
copy.
Grappler: +2 to create advantages
with Physique by wrestling or
grappling.
STRESS
Physical [1][2][3][4]
Mental [1][2]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
NOTES
The Plant People are clones. They all
act the same, always trying to spread
their seed pods and consume all
humans. Their natural size varies—
each seed pod produces a duplicate
of whatever is put inside it, so that
during the Norwich incident there
were not only Plant People but also
Plant Dogs and Plant Cats.
Plant People Mob
ASPECTS
Slow but Implacable
SKILLS
Good (+3): Notice, Physique
Fair (+2): Fight
Average (+1): Athletics
STUNTS
Consume: If you take out a human
because of physical stress, you can
feed them to your seed pod. When
your seed pod is finished consum-
ing, the victim’s body is completely
destroyed.
Dissonance: If any human sees the
mob, immediately roll a Fair (+2)
attack against their Will, but only
if the human recognizes someone
in the mob as a copy of someone
they knew.
Grappler: +2 to Physique rolls made
to create advantages by wrestling
or grappling.
STRESS
Physical [1][2][3][4][5]
Mental [1][2][3][4][5]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
THE MINISTRY 27
 Shards
…the aliens designated as OMICRON-1, commonly called “Shards,” are
Martian in origin; this was confirmed by Flight XB0 (see files for
ACADEMY). They are crystalline in form and are silicon-based entities.
They take possession of human bodies they come into contact with
through a strange form of transformation; OMICRON-1 are infectious
by touch, and after infecting a person they change the matter of the
human’s body into crystal, creating a humanoid crystalline being.
These ambulatory OMICRON-1s then attempt to spread the infection
by touching as many people as possible, their desired end result
seeming to be the creation of an entire world of OMICRON-1. (Why
OMICRON-1 has not spread more widely across Mars is a matter of
active inquiry for Ministry scientists.)

The intelligence level of OMICRON-1 is nil; they are, essentially, a

disease. Those completely infected by OMICRON-1 act with only one
purpose, to infect others; when captured and confined, they turn inert.

Regrettably, those infected by OMICRON-1 face few positive options.

Partial infection can be treated by amputation of the infected limbs.
Full infection, in which the body is transformed into silicon matter,
has proven to date irreversible. Ministry agents are urged to use all
options to avoid coming into contact with OMICRON-1.

28 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Shard
ASPECTS
Martian Crystal Disease;
Color Unknown to Humanity
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Infection
Great (+4): Physique
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you,
immediately roll an Average (+1)
attack against their Will if you are
in shard form, or immediately roll
a Good (+3) attack against Will
if you are already possessing a
human.
Infection: Once per day, you can
touch a victim to attack with
Infection against their Physique.
On partial infection, the victim
gains Armor:1, representing the
growth of crystals on the infected.
On full infection, the victim gains
Armor:3 and becomes Slow, repre-
senting their transformation into
a crystal being. All of the victim’s
skills related to intellect become
Atrocious (-3). The only way to
cure a Shard infection is amputa-
tion of the affected area.
ARMOR AND ARMS
A silicon shell, giving Armor:3.
STRESS
Physical [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
NOTES
Shards are clones—they all act the
same, always trying to infect as
many humans as possible. They
take the form of geometric shapes,
roughly one foot cubed.
Shard Mob
ASPECTS
Lumbering but Relentless;
Drawn to Carbon-Based
Lifeforms
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Infection
Good (+3): Fight, Notice, Physique
Fair (+2): Athletics
Atrocious (-3): Everything else
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you,
immediately roll a Good (+3)
attack against their Will.
Infection: Once per day, you can
touch a victim to attack with
Infection against their Physique.
On partial infection, the victim
gains Armor:1, representing the
growth of crystals on the infected.
On full infection, the victim gains
Armor:3 and becomes Slow, repre-
senting their transformation into
a crystal being. All of the victim’s
skills related to intellect become
Atrocious (-3). The only way to
cure a Shard infection is amputa-
tion of the affected area.
ARMOR AND ARMS
A silicon shell, giving Armor:3
STRESS
Physical [1][2][3][4][5]
Mental [1][2][3][4][5]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
THE MINISTRY 29
 Spiders
…the aliens designated ZETA-1 are in some respects a mystery. Where
they come from and how long they’ve been on Earth is unknown, and
ZETA-1s are understandably reluctant to share this information with
us. Dissection of captured ZETA-1s by Doctor Cochrane has revealed
beings that belong to an entirely new phylum, being internally as
well as externally asymmetric; their resemblance to Earthly spiders
is surface-only, being roughly the same size and shape as Earthly
arthropods.

ZETA-1s have followed the same pattern of behavior both times they
have been encountered: possession of human bodies (specifically
through attaching themselves to the back of the neck, just under the
hairline, and tapping into the neural cortex from there) with the
ultimate goal of taking control of individuals with the most power,
influence, and sway. The purpose of this power-amassing seems to
be to establish dominance in favor of a specific group of ZETA-1s,
although this is a tentative theory; ZETA-1s do not communicate, even
when captured, and to date telepathic probes and readings have been
unsuccessful.

30 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Spider
ASPECTS
Older than Humanity; Must Serve the Queen;
The Great Cull Is Overdue;
Small in Size, Large in Force of Will
SKILLS
Fantastic (+6): Stealth
Superb (+5): Possession, Will
Good (+3): Athletics, Deceive, Notice
Poor (-1): Physique
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you, immediately roll an Average
(+2) attack against their Will if you are in your original form.
This attack does not cost an action.
Possession: You can attack with Possession against Will. While
possessed, the victim gains Fair (+2) Deceive. Curing Spider
possession requires physical or psychic destruction of the Spider.
You can only possess one being at a time.
Scuttle: +2 to Athletics when trying to cover ground as quickly
as possible, or when creating an advantage by taking cover.
STRESS
Physical [1]
Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
NOTES
Although they are ultimately in service to their queen, each
Spider is an individual, with its own preferences and approaches
to seizing power. Spiders are one inch long, unevenly shaped,
with seven legs and an unevenly bulbous head.

THE MINISTRY 31
 Spores
…what little we know about the beings designated as OMEGA-1 is
entirely due to the recent examinations of samples of OMEGA-1
carried out at LOCATION ARTHUR by Dr. John Rollason. OMEGA-1
seems to be a fungus of a form unknown to science: eukaryotes, but
their phylum is entirely new. They have the seemingly unique ability
to infect any living being (although they seem to unerringly prefer
mammals); the infected beings gradually become covered by and
consumed by OMEGA-1, until -- as was the case with ROULETTE -- the
beings are little more than ambulatory spore bombs, their intellects
destroyed.

The application of Ministry-approved fungicides can kill OMEGA-

1, and agents infected by it are required to undergo exposure to
the fungicides. More worrying, however, is Dr. Rollason’s notation
that OMEGA-1s, being only spores, must themselves be emitted by
some source, obviously larger and well-organized. That this source,
designated OMEGA-2, might have OMEGA-1’s flesh-altering capabilities
as well as some primitive form of intelligence is a troubling prospect
indeed…

Spore
ASPECTS
Mindless Spore of the World Fungus; Tiny;
Invulnerable to All Except Fire and Fungicide
SKILLS
Fantastic (+6): Infection, Stealth
STUNTS
Infection: Once per day, you can attack anyone who could breathe you in
with Infection against their Physique. On partial infection, the victim
has visible spores growing out of large parts of their body, reducing their
Rapport to Terrible (-2). On full infection, the victim transforms into a
near-mindless, human-shaped, ambulatory fungus, known informally as
a Spore Shambler. All of the victim’s skills related to intellect become
Atrocious (-3). A Spore infection can be cured—but only before the
victim becomes a Shambler—by application of Ministry fungicides to
affected external areas and Ministry fungal antidote internally; internal
antidotes require a Crafts roll against Good (+3) difficulty.
Spore Explosion (page 19).
STRESS
Physical [1]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
NOTES
These puff balls are clones, each half an inch in diameter. They do not
32 have a Dissonance stunt.
 Spore Shambler
ASPECTS
Slow; Walking Spore Bombs
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Will
Fair (+2): Fight
Average (+1): Notice, Physique
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you,
immediately roll a Good (+3)
attack against their Will. This
attack does not cost an action.
Spore Explosion (page 19).
STRESS
Physical [1][2]
Mental [1][2][3]]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):

Spore Shambler Mob

ASPECTS
Slow; Walking Spore Bomb
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Will
Fair (+2): Fight
Average (+1): Notice, Physique
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you,
immediately roll a Good (+3)
attack against their Will. This
attack does not cost an action.
Spore Explosion (page 19).
STRESS
Physical [1][2][3][4][5]
Mental [1][2][3][4][5]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):

33
 Tribus
…the aliens designated THETA-1 are more thoroughly described in
dissection reports. The following is a summary of their behaviors.
THETA-1, in its docile form, is an attractive plant with a pleasant-
smelling flower, from which useful oils can be derived. Unfortunately,
THETA-1s rarely spend time in their docile form. They survive by
consuming organic matter, starting with insects but preferring the
meat of mammals. To get this meat, they will transform into the
shapes of other plants, including vines and creepers, or into their
Walker form (see WHISPER), and attack mammals, using a venomous
bite and venomous sputum…

34 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Tribus Tribus Walker Mob
ASPECTS ASPECTS
Decorative but Deadly Frighteningly Quick;
Unnerving; Hungry for Meat
SKILLS
Good (+3): Fight, Shoot, Stealth SKILLS
Fair (+2): Physique Good (+3): Shoot
Average (+1): Notice Fair (+2): Athletics, Physique
Average (+1): Notice
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you STUNTS
in Walker form, immediately roll a Dissonance: If any human sees you,
Fair (+2) attack against their Will. immediately roll a Good (+3)
If any human sees you while you attack against their Will. This
are shapechanging, immediately attack does not cost an action.
roll a Good (+3) attack instead. Poison Spit (page 19).
Neither attack costs an action.
STRESS
Shapechange: The Tribus can
Physical [1][2][3][4][5]
assume the form of nearby plants.
Mental [1][2][3][4][5]
Perceiving a Tribus in this form
requires a Notice or Lore roll CONSEQUENCES
against Fantastic (+6) difficulty. Mild (2):
Poison Spit (page 19). Moderate (4):
Walker Form: A Tribus can trans-
form into a mobile version of itself,
using three roots as legs. A Tribus
in this form loses the Shapechange
stunt but retains the Poison Spit
stunt. While in Walker form, the
Tribus has Good (+3) Shoot, Fair
(+2) Athletics and Physique, and
Average (+1) Notice.
STRESS
Physical [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
NOTES
These clones are one foot tall and
have no means for infection or
possession.

THE MINISTRY 35
 INCIDENT HARVEST (FOR GM'S EYES ONLY)
LONDON
26 JULY 1958
The Premise: The agents have to deal with a Spore outbreak at the Palace and
the British Museum.
What’s Really Happening: Prince Charles and Princess Margaret are possessed by
Spiders. The Spiders’ goal is to take control of the British monarchy—by killing
Queen Elizabeth—and, after that, the British government. They already control
the Ministry: K, the Ministry’s director, is possessed by a Spider, as are a number of
other Ministry workers, including the Armorer in the Ministry offices in London.

PLOT OPPORTUNITIES
The terrorist bombing in scene 1, which the Spiders knew about
beforehand, provides the two Spiders with the opportunity to
put their plan in motion. The Spiders have infected Princess
Margaret’s body with Spores, allowing her to become partially
infected, so that when the terrorists’ bomb goes off, Princess
Margaret can use Spore Explosion, knowing that this will bring
in the Royal Bodyguards, who will hustle the Queen to her royal
apartment and Prince Charles and Princess Margaret to theirs.
When the Queen has returned to her apartment, Prince Charles
will then set off the bomb he has concealed in the Queen’s bed-
room, killing her and making him King and Princess Margaret
the Regent. Meanwhile Prince Charles’s Spider has arranged for
a Spore Shambler outbreak at the British Museum to distract all
the Ministry agents in the area.

36 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Scene 1: Buckingham Palace
Situation Aspect: Oh Bollocks
The agents have been honored for their actions during the Tribus outbreak in
February (Incident CONCERT) by being invited to Buckingham Palace to wit-
ness the Queen giving her son Charles the official title of Prince of Wales. But as
the ceremony is reaching its climax inside the palace’s ballroom there is a sudden
interruption: the sound of an explosion from outside. An al-Fatah agent, pro-
testing British support for the Jordanian and Lebanese governments, and British
membership in the Baghdad Pact, has set off a bomb at the Victoria Memorial
in front of the palace—a powerful enough blast to reduce the Victoria memorial
to rubble and to be heard and felt inside the ballroom.
As the Queen’s Guard (who are responsible for palace security) and the royal
bodyguards (who are responsible for the royal family’s personal security) fly into
the ballroom to secure it and protect the Queen, the Prince, and the rest of the
Royal Family attending the ceremony, there’s a second, much softer explosion,
from inside the room this time. An enormous cloud of grey dust spews from one
of the ceremony attendees—the agents can’t tell which one.
A Lore roll against Average (+1) difficulty reveals that the grey dust is OMEGA-1,
a.k.a. “Spores.” The agents, like everyone else in the room, suffer no mental attack
for seeing the Spores—in this form, the Spores just look like grey dust—but once
the agents realize that the grey dust is Spores, they will immediately understand
that what’s happened is an outbreak, that everyone in the ballroom (including
themselves) is likely infected by the Spores, and that the outbreak must be con-
tained immediately, before it spreads out of control. The agents don’t, after all,
want a repeat of Liverpool or Norwich.
So, the agents must:
• Roll Lore against Average (+1) difficulty to discover what they’re dealing
with.
• Calm the crowd, both attendees and Queen’s Guard—roll Deceive or
Rapport against Good (+3) difficulty.
• Convince the Queen’s Guard and the royal bodyguards to isolate and
quarantine the room—a challenge of Deceive, Provoke, or Rapport against
Good (+3) difficulty. The royal bodyguards will want to hustle the Queen
and the Prince into the palace’s bunker, and move the rest of the ceremony
guests into a separate secure location, and the Queen’s Guard will want to
secure the room and set up firing positions at the windows.
Just as the situation is calming down, the agents get a message over their mobiles
from Ministry hq: “Margaret, Aunt Penny is doing just fine. No need to visit.”
The agents immediately decipher this as “Black Alert” (meaning “alien incursion
ongoing”) and “Return to Base Immediately” (meaning they must return to the
nearest Ministry offices, which happen to be a few streets over on Rochester Row).

THE MINISTRY 37
 Royal Guests
ASPECTS
Cream of the Upper Crust;
Infected with Spores
SKILLS
Fair (+2): Contacts
Average (+1): Provoke, Will
STRESS
None (first hit takes them out)

Queen’s Guard Squad Royal Bodyguards

ASPECTS ASPECTS
Red Alert! Red Alert!; Guard the Queen!; Infected
Infected with Spores with Spores
SKILLS SKILLS
Good (+3): Shoot Good (+3): Fight
Fair (+2): Fight, Will Fair (+2): Shoot, Will
Average (+1): Athletics, Physique Average (+1): Athletics, Physique
STRESS [1][2] STRESS [1][2]

38 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Scene 2: Ministry Offices, Rochester Row
Situation Aspects: Chaos in the Offices; Blaring Alarm; Black Alert!
The agents arrive at the Ministry offices to find them in complete chaos. Someone’s
thrown the alert switch, officially putting the Ministry offices on notice that an
active alien incursion is underway, so the interoffice alarm is blaring constantly.
The supervising officers were at the ceremony in the palace, so the office workers
have nobody commanding them. And they’re panicked and acting with no degree
of professionalism, having never personally experienced an alien incursion incident
and having recognized that what happened in the palace—everyone in the office
was watching the ceremony on television—was caused by aliens.
The Ministry office workers are Panicked. Bringing them back to their senses
will require a Deceive, Provoke, or Rapport roll against Fair (+2) difficulty.
Once everyone has calmed down and returned to their duties, the agents will be
told that not only are there Spores at the palace, but also that the London police
have phoned in a report of a Spore outbreak at the British Museum. The agents
are told that the Museum incursion has been assigned an official incident name,
“HARVEST,” but that following standard operating procedure—obeying the orders
of the officer in charge—is not possible, as all officers were at the ceremony at the
Palace, including K, the Ministry director. The agents are on their own.
The agents are not armed, so they need to stop by the Ministry Armory, which
is unfortunately controlled by the Ministry Armorer, a by-the-rulebook type who
is not inclined to give out weapons and field instruments without a senior officer’s
written orders. Getting her to cooperate will require a Deceive or Rapport roll
against Fair (+2) difficulty or a Provoke roll against Good (+3) difficulty.
Once the Armorer has agreed to help the agents, the entire contents of the
Armory are at their disposal. If the agents tell the Armorer about the Spores, she
will insist that they inject themselves with the fungal antidote and then strongly
encourage them to arm themselves with sterile suits, fungicide guns, and syringes
filled with the fungal antidotes (page 20).

Gwyneth Hobson, Ministry Office

Ministry Armorer Workers
ASPECTS ASPECTS
Possessed by a Spider; Ulterior We Serve the Cause in Small
Motives Ways; Panicked
SKILLS SKILLS
Superb (+5): Will Fair (+2): Will
Good (+3): Crafts, Deceive, Lore, Shoot Average (+1): Notice, Investigate
Average (+1): Notice
STRESS [1]
STUNTS
Called Shot (page 19).
STRESS
Physical [1][2] Mental [1][2]
CONSEQUENCES THE MINISTRY 39
Mild (2):
 Scene 3: London Streets, and the
British Museum Round Room
Situation Aspects
• Streets: Choked with Civilians
• Museum: Air Thick with Spores; Fleeing Bystanders; Crowded and
Confused Battleground
The agents are currently in the Ministry offices on Rochester Row. The incursion
is taking place at the British Museum. The direct route to the Museum from
Rochester Row is shown here.

40 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Unfortunately, it is midday, in London, during a palace ceremony. The streets are
packed with cars and people. Traversing the route to the museum by car requires
three Drive roll against Good (+3) difficulty for each of the major intersections.
Alternatively, the agents can run the route—it’s only two and a half miles—but
there are so many people on the roads and sidewalks that running requires an
Athletics roll against Fair (+2) difficulty.
If the agents succeed on all three Drive rolls or on their Athletics roll, they
will arrive to find that the police are surrounding the entrances to the museum’s
Round Room and have locked and barricaded the entrances. The police sent
men in to investigate, but lost those men, so now they’ve confined whatever is
in the Round Room and are waiting for the agents to arrive. The police, like
the bystanders, have caught glimpses (or more) of the Spore Shamblers and are
Shaken. The police are trying to wave back a gawking crowd of bystanders who
want to see what’s going on.
If the agents fail any Drive roll or their Athletics roll, they will arrive to find
that the aliens have broken through the barricades around the Round Room
and are rampaging through the main floor of the museum. The aliens are Spore
Shamblers, the same number as the PCs, and fighting them are a band of con-
fused and overwhelmed police officers. The agents will need to take charge of
the officers—a Deceive, Provoke, or Rapport roll against the officers’ Fair (+2)
Will—to form them into an effective force to fight the Shamblers. The agents will
also be subject to a dissonance attack against Will from face-to-face exposure to
the aliens. Finally, the agents will have to deal with the panicky, fleeing bystanders.

THE MINISTRY 41
 Fleeing Bystanders Police
ASPECTS ASPECTS
Terrified by the Aliens Unnerved; Ready to Fire
(if the agents arrive in time) or
SKILLS
Disorganized and Frightened
Average (+1): Lore
(if the agents don’t arrive in time)
STRESS
SKILLS
None (first hit takes them out)
Fair (+2): Shoot
Average (+1): Fight, Notice
Civilians in the Streets STRESS [1]
ASPECTS
Gawking Onlookers
Spore Shambler
SKILLS
ASPECTS
Average (+1): Notice
Slow; Walking Spore Bombs
STRESS
SKILLS
None (first hit takes them out)
Superb (+5): Will
Fair (+2): Fight
Average (+1): Notice, Physique
STUNTS
Dissonance: If any human sees you,
immediately roll a Good (+3)
attack against their Will. This
attack does not cost an action.
Spore Explosion (page 19).
STRESS
Physical [1][2]
Mental [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):

42 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Scene 4: British Museum
Situation Aspects: Wrecked Museum Exhibits; Grey Spore Dust All Over
Everything
The immediate incursion is over, but questions remain. The agents know, because
of their knowledge of the Spores, that a Spore infection takes time to incubate,
and that the average incubation period—the time for a Spore-infected person to
fully transform into a Shambler—is four days. The outbreak wasn’t something
that happened all at once today; the Shamblers today were people who had been
infected over the last several days. The agents know enough to conclude that
the infection started several days ago, and that they must now find the original
disease vector.
If the agents try to trace the trail of wreckage to its starting place, an Investigate
roll against Fair (+2) difficulty will show that it leads back to the Egyptian exhibit
room next to the Reading Room and to the elevator inside the exhibit room.
The elevator goes down to the basement, where rolling Notice against Fair (+2)
difficulty will reveal a trail of the Spores’ grey “dust” leading back to the office of
the curator of the Egyptian exhibits. Ransacking the curator’s office will reveal
that the only cargo manifest, dated four days ago, is for a delivery of Egyptian
artifacts from the royal yacht Britannia.
If the agents try to question the bystanders—the two museum customers and
museum staff—a Deceive, Provoke, or Rapport roll against Average (+1) difficulty
will reveal that none of the customers were Shamblers, only museum staff. The
staff will also reveal that some staff members are missing: the basement workers,
the ones who actually move things around in the museum.
If the agents question the police about who called the Ministry office, a Deceive,
Provoke, or Rapport roll against Average (+1) difficulty will reveal that it was a
museum security guard. A Deceive, Provoke, or Rapport roll against Average (+1)
difficulty with the guard will reveal that he saw a wave of Shamblers pile into the
Round Room from the Egyptian exhibit room.
As the agents are examining the Britannia’s manifest, they receive a call over
their mobiles from their supervisor, K, at the palace, who orders them to return
to the palace immediately. K does not make this a conversation, but simply gives
the agents their orders and hangs up. However, the agents notice that K’s words
are not in code—the conversation is broadcast over open, live air, quite against
protocol. (The Spider possessing K does not know the appropriate code.)
GM, you’ll want to emphasize how badly against protocol this is: it’s about as
flagrant a violation of the rules as there is, and should badly jar the PCs. If the
players ignore your words and obey K rather than going to the Britannia in scene
5, then remind them that they’ll be reinfected with the Spores if they re-enter the
Palace, and that there are anti-Spore fungicide guns at the Ministry Offices on
Rochester Street. Basically, if the players insist on not following the clues to the
Britannia, then redirect them to the Ministry Offices in scene 6 instead.

THE MINISTRY 43
 Police
ASPECTS
Grateful to the Agents;
Spooked
SKILLS
Fair (+2): Shoot
Average (+1): Fight, Notice
STRESS [1]

Bystanders Museum Staff

ASPECTS ASPECTS
Shaken Unnerved
SKILLS SKILLS
Fair (+2): Lore Fair (+2): Lore
Average (+1): Notice Average (+1): Notice
STRESS [1] STRESS [1]

44 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Scene 5: The Royal Yacht Britannia
Situation Aspects: Floating Hot Zone; None Shall Pass
The Britannia is currently docked at the royal dockyard on the Isle of Dogs.
Although the agents may want to hurry to the Britannia, there’s no apparent
time constraint—the agents have no reason to suspect that time is an issue—so
the agents won’t have to make Drive rolls—assume that it takes them about a
half hour to get there.
Once they arrive, they will find that the Britannia is guarded by Gurkhas wear-
ing the uniforms of the royal bodyguards, the royal family’s personal guard. The
Gurkhas refuse to allow the agents on board the Britannia and will aggressively
warn them off. They will even refuse to recognize the agents’ Ministry i.d. cards
and will point their guns at the agents if they come too close to the dock at which
the Britannia is moored.
The Gurkhas have their orders and are sworn to obey them; they are guarding
the Spore Shamblers on the Britannia, by royal order, and will die rather than let
the agents discover the Shamblers. It will take a contest, with the agents rolling
Deceive, Provoke, or Rapport against the Gurkhas’ Good (+3) Will to get past
them without a fight.
There are six Gurkhas: two on the docks flanking the ramp leading onto the
Britannia, two on the poop deck, and two on the main deck guarding the doors
to the lower deck, which holds the royal apartments.
As soon as the doors to the lower deck are opened or broken, the Spore Shamblers
confined to the lower deck will come running out onto the main deck and try
to escape. There are Spore Shamblers (page 42) equal to the number of agents.
Below the lower deck is the bottom deck, where the royal bedrooms are. The
players find, partially hidden under Princess Margaret’s bed, a strange object: a
misshapen, leathery ball roughly two feet in diameter but light for its size. It is
unbroken and resistant to gentle poking and prodding. The agents don’t have the
equipment to thoroughly examine it, but they do have the necessary equipment
back at the Ministry offices. A Lore roll against Superb (+5) difficulty will suggest
that it’s possibly an egg sac of some kind, similar to what spiders lay but far larger.

Gurkhas
ASPECTS
Infected with Spores; Better to Die Than to Be a Coward
SKILLS
Good (+3): Shoot, Will
Fair (+2): Fight
Average (+1): Athletics, Physique
ARMOR AND ARMS
A Sterling submachine gun, giving Weapon:2.
STRESS [1][2]

THE MINISTRY 45
46 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE
Scene 6: Ministry Offices
Situation Aspects: Barely Concealed Tension
The agents will return to the Ministry offices for one of two reasons: either to
pick up anti-Spore fungicide guns before returning to the Palace, or to use the
equipment in the offices’ lab (which is run by Mahesh Singh, page 59) to
determine what the giant egg sac found in scene 5 is. Either way, as soon as the
agents arrive at the Ministry offices they are aggressively approached by a number
of office workers, who insistently relay K’s orders (from scene 3) to the agents.
The Ministry Armorer, who has taken charge of the Ministry offices while the
agents were busy, is more insistent, even strident, ordering the agents to go to the
palace, dismissing the egg sac as “irrelevant,” and ignoring the agents’ objections.
If the agents obey the Armorer, proceed to scene 7 (page 48). If the agents
ignore the Armorer and go to the lab, the lab technicians will remind the agents
that they must obey the orders of both K and the Armorer. A Notice roll against
Great (+4) difficulty will reveal that the office workers and lab technicians exchange
inscrutable looks with each other when they see that the agents are in possession
of the egg sac.
Assuming the agents do not go along with what the office workers, Armorer,
and lab technicians say, the agents can use the Ministry’s lab’s equipment to x-ray
and analyze the leathery sphere. A Lore roll against Good (+3) difficulty will
reveal that the sphere is definitely an egg sac—of hundreds of strange-looking,
half-inch-long arachnids. A follow-up Lore roll against Average (+1) difficulty
will reveal that the arachnids are the aliens known as Spiders, seen here for the
first time in their in utero form.
If the agents ever try to investigate the Britannia, to determine who used it last
and who is responsible for the egg sac being on the yacht, they will find that all
lines to Buckingham Palace are currently busy, but that other government offices,
up to and including 10 Downing Street, will take their calls. A Deceive, Provoke,
or Rapport roll against Mediocre (+0) difficulty will reveal that the Britannia
returned from Egypt ten days ago carrying the Queen, Princess Margaret, and
Prince Charles.
Once the agents discover the true nature of the egg sac, then the office workers,
lab technicians, and Armorer will team up to stop the agents from getting to the
palace, using force. The polite veneer that they all have maintained will drop, and
they’ll simply draw their weapons and try to disarm the agents.
If you need stats for Gwyneth Hobson, Ministry Armorer, see page 39. Stats
for the Ministry personnel are on the following page.

THE MINISTRY 47
 Ministry Office Ministry Guards
Workers & Technicians ASPECTS
ASPECTS Possessed by Spiders
Possessed by Spiders
SKILLS
SKILLS Superb (+5): Will
Superb (+5): Will Fair (+2): Shoot, Fight
Average (+1): Notice, Shoot Average (+1): Notice
ARMOR AND ARMS ARMOR AND ARMS
Webley revolvers, giving Weapon:1. Webley revolvers, giving Weapon:1.
STRESS [1] STRESS [1]

Scene 7: Outside of Buckingham Palace

Situation Aspects: No One Gets In Without Proper Clearance; Nervous
and Sweaty Fingers on Triggers
Buckingham Palace is on lockdown, and the only people the Queen’s Guard are
allowing into the palace are those with a right to be there: those who have the
proper clearance and identification. The Ministry agents don’t, or at least the
guards don’t recognize the agents’ i.d. cards, nor are the guards highly placed
enough to recognize the phrase “The Ministry of Rocketry.”
The agents face a contest to get by the guards, who are as tense as might be
expected under the circumstances, and are certainly not going to let just anybody
into the Palace. The players could roll Deceive, Rapport, or Provoke to overcome
the guards, and they could use Contacts to create an advantage.

Queen’s Guard
ASPECTS
Death Before Dishonor; Guard the Royal Family with My Life
SKILLS
Good (+3): Shoot
Fair (+2): Fight, Will
Average (+1): Athletics, Physique
ARMOR AND ARMS
Sterling submachine guns, giving Weapon:2.
STRESS [1][2]

48 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Scene 8: Inside Buckingham Palace
Situation Aspects: Chaos in the Halls; Ballroom Hot Zone
Members of the Queen’s Guard are running through the halls, machine guns at
the ready. Palace staff are scurrying around, trying not to panic. But everyone
assumes that anyone inside the palace has a right to be there, no matter how
strangely dressed, so the Ministry agents, even if they are in sterile suits, won’t
raise eyebrows or be stopped.
The Spore explosion took place in the ballroom. All of the guests who were
there are confined there for their own safety, along with a dozen Queen’s Guard.
Unfortunately, they’re all infected with Spores—the explosion covered the entire
room, so everyone inside the room at the time of the explosion and everyone
entering the room afterwards has been infected. Fortunately, so far only the Queen,
Prince Charles, and their personal bodyguards have left the room.
The infected have only been infected for less than an hour, so the Spores are
currently only in their bloodstreams. Detecting the Spores is a Notice roll against
the Spores, opposing with Fantastic (+6) Stealth. The Spores aren’t visible on the
victims’ skin, and the room merely looks very dusty, with grey Spore puffballs
covering most surfaces. If the agents stocked up at the Armory, then they will
have brought enough fungal antidote (page 20) to cure everyone in the room.
The agents will discover, either on their own or by being told by the guests, that
the royal family—who were exposed to Spores, just like everyone else attending
the ceremony—are under high guard in their private apartments. However, K is
in the ballroom among the guests, and he will order the agents to stay put, and
will distract them with questions about what they’ve been doing. If the agents fall
for this, ten rounds later the bomb in the Queen’s bedroom will go off, killing
everyone inside her apartment.
K, the acting head of the Ministry, is cold, hard, and mean when he needs to
be, which seems to be often—and that was before he was possessed by a Spider.
Now he’s cold, hard, and mean at all times, and will be peremptory toward the
agents, demanding as much information as he can get out of them—anything
to delay the agents from going to see the Queen and the Prince and Princess.

THE MINISTRY 49
 K Infected Queen’s
ASPECTS Guard
Possessed by a Spider; Must
ASPECTS
Serve the Queen
Death Before Dishonor; Guard
SKILLS the Royals with My Life;
Superb (+5): Contacts, Lore Infected with Spores
Great (+4): Resources, Will
SKILLS
Good (+3): Deceive, Investigate,
Good (+3): Shoot
Provoke, Shoot
Fair (+2): Fight, Will
STRESS Average (+1): Athletics, Physique
Physical [1][2]
ARMOR AND ARMS
Mental [1][2][3][4]
Sterling submachine guns, giving
CONSEQUENCES Weapon:2.
Mild (2):
STRESS [1][2]
Mild Mental (2):
Moderate (4):
Guests
ASPECTS
Frightened; Infected with
Spores
SKILLS
Average (+1): Contacts, Will
STRESS
None (first hit takes them out)

50 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Scene 9: The Royal Family’s Private Apartments
Situation Aspect: The Clock Is Ticking
Each “apartment” is a large suite of rooms. The Queen is in her apartment, and
Prince Charles and Princess Margaret are in the Prince’s.
There are two royal bodyguards flanking the doors to the Queen’s apartment
and four bodyguards inside the apartments themselves, peering out the windows
to watch for any hostile movement outside the palace—by now they’ve heard
about the al-Fatah suicide bombers who blew up the Victoria memorial in scene
1. Like the Queen’s Guards in scene 8, the royal bodyguards outside and inside
the Queen’s apartment will assume the Ministry agents belong there, unless the
agents are wearing sterile suits and carrying fungicide guns, in which case the
guards will try to bar entry. Getting inside will require a roll of Bluff, Provoke,
or Rapport opposed by the bodyguards’ Will.

THE MINISTRY 51
 Inside the Queen’s bedroom, the Queen is being seen to by the royal physician,
who is checking on her health following the explosion outside the palace and the
curious explosion of “dust” inside the ballroom. The royal physician doesn’t know
anything about aliens, not being cleared for it—he believes the government’s
cover stories about what happened in Liverpool and Norwich—and has neither
the equipment nor the training to detect the Spores inside the Queen’s blood.
He will be hostile toward any agent who tries to inspect the Queen or check her
blood, or any agent wearing a sterile suit.
There are two royal bodyguards flanking the doors to the Prince’s apartments,
and two inside, talking with Prince Charles and Princess Margaret. Like the Prince
and Princess, all four royal bodyguards are possessed by Spiders. The possessed
bodyguards will react hostilely toward the Ministry agents, regardless of their
attire, and the Prince will only begrudgingly let the agents into his apartment.
Neither the possessed Queen’s Guards nor the Prince nor the Princess will allow
themselves to be examined by the agents or have their blood analyzed; they fear
(incorrectly) that a blood test will reveal the presence of the Spiders.
Rolling Empathy against the Prince and Princess’s Deceive will reveal their ten-
sion and nervousness, due to the bomb about to go off. Rolling Notice against
Good (+3) difficulty will reveal a small device on the bed next to the Prince, half-
concealed by the bedcovers. The device appears to be an extremely advanced design,
roughly the size and shape of a modern cell phone, and the Prince has just used
it to activate the bomb he hid under the Queen’s bed. A Crafts roll against Good
(+3) difficulty will reveal the device’s purpose as a remote detonator.
The bomb in the Queen’s bedroom will go off in ten rounds, beginning with
the round when the Ministry agents enter the Prince’s bedroom. The bomb is
hidden under the Queen’s bed, inside a box much like the other boxes under her
bed. Locating it requires a Notice roll against Good (+3) difficulty. The bomb
has a Digital Readout. If it detonates, it will destroy the Queen’s apartments
and kill anyone inside them. Disarming the bomb requires a Crafts roll against
Fantastic (+6) difficulty. However, the bomb is small enough that one man or
woman could pick it up and run it into another room; there are a number of
unoccupied apartments next to the Queen’s and Prince’s.
If the agents kill, knock out, or use gas grenades against the Prince and the pos-
sessed Queen’s Guards, the Spiders will leave their bodies and try to possess the
agents. Seeing the Spiders leave the bodies is an Average (+1) attack against Will.
If the agents take out the Prince and the possessed Queen’s Guards with stun
batons, the electrical charge in the stun batons will take out the Spiders as well,
and they won’t leave the bodies of the Prince and the Queen’s Guards.

52 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Infected Royal Royal Physician
Bodyguards ASPECTS
Heal Her Majesty;
ASPECTS
Protective of His Position
Guard the Royal Family!;
Infected with Spores SKILLS
Good (+3): Crafts, Investigate, Lore
SKILLS
Fair (+2): Will, Notice
Good (+3): Fight
Fair (+2): Shoot, Will STRESS [1][2]
Average (+1): Athletics, Physique
ARMOR AND ARMS
Queen Elizabeth II
Sterling submachine guns, giving
Weapon:2. ASPECTS
Her Royal Highness;
STRESS [1][2]
Infected with Spores
SKILLS
Possessed Royal Superb (+5): Contacts
Bodyguards Great (+4): Will
Good (+3): Provoke
ASPECTS
Fair (+2): Notice
Guard the Royal Family!;
Possessed by Spiders; Infected STUNTS
with Spores Royal Command: When you use
your turn to give a command to
SKILLS
a subordinate, they get +2 to their
Superb (+5): Will
next roll on their turn as long as
Good (+3): Fight, Notice
they’re obeying your commands.
Fair (+2): Shoot
Royal Hauteur: +2 to Provoke rolls
Average (+1): Athletics, Physique
made against enemies of the Crown
ARMOR AND ARMS and its representatives.
Sterling submachine guns, giving
STRESS
Weapon:2.
Physical [1][2]
STRESS [1][2] Mental [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):

THE MINISTRY 53

Princess Margaret
ASPECTS
Infected with Spores;
Possessed by a Spider;
Must Serve the Queen;
Superficially Charming
SKILLS
Epic (+7): Will
Superb (+5): Contacts
Great (+4): Deceive, Notice, Provoke
Fair (+2): Stealth
Average (+1): Athletics
STUNTS
Royal Command: When you use
your turn to give a command to
a subordinate, they get +2 to their
next roll on their turn as long as
they’re obeying your commands.
STRESS
Physical [1][2]
Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
54 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE
Prince Charles
ASPECTS
Possessed by a Spider; Must
Serve the Queen; Frighteningly
Cold; Humans Are Objects to
Be Moved Around; Only One
Person Between Me and the
Crown; Infected with Spores
SKILLS
Epic (+7): Will
Superb (+5): Contacts
Great (+4): Deceive, Notice, Provoke
Fair (+2): Stealth
Average (+1): Athletics
STUNTS
Hard Boiled: You can choose to
ignore a mild or moderate con-
sequence until the end of the
scene. It can’t be compelled or
invoked against you. At the end
of the scene, though, it comes
back worse—a mild consequence
turns into a moderate consequence,
and a moderate consequence turns
severe.
Royal Command: When you use
your turn to give a command to
a subordinate, they get +2 to their
next roll on their turn as long as
they’re obeying your commands.
STRESS
Physical [1][2]
Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
PREMADE PCS
Agent G. Thomas Wellington-Bull
Army brigadier during the war, but was seconded to the Ministry when it formed.
Rumors of his actions during the war have reached the ears of other Ministry
agents, rumors which Wellington-Bull neither confirms nor denies, simply saying,
“Well, it was war, wasn’t it? Did what we had to do.”

Agent G. Thomas
Wellington-Bull
ASPECTS
High Concept: The Lion in Winter
Trouble: I’m Too Old for This Nonsense
Other Aspects: Thirty Days Until
Retirement; Veteran of Both Wars;
I’m Not Ashamed of What I’ve Done
SKILLS
Great (+4): Fight
Good (+3): Investigate, Will
Fair (+2): Notice, Physique, Shoot
Average (+1): Contacts, Deceive, Provoke,
Rapport
STUNTS
Called Shot (page 19).
I Served with a Chap: +2 to Contacts when
involving members of the British military.
I’m the Bad Cop: +2 to Provoke an opponent
who you have leverage over.
REFRESH: 3

STRESS
Physical [1][2][3] Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):

THE MINISTRY 55
 Agent Paul Derek
Former member of the Kenyan colonial police force who was recently seconded
to the Ministry after his performance against the Mau Mau. He has only been
with the Ministry for six months and hasn’t seen any frontline action against the
aliens, so he’s even more confident about dealing with them than he usually is,
which is saying something.

Agent Paul Derek

ASPECTS
High Concept: Aliens Are the New Big
Game
Trouble: They’re Only Another Form of
Animal
Other Aspects: Cocky; Africa Never
Leaves You; Humans Remain the Most
Dangerous Game
SKILLS
Great (+4): Notice
Good (+3): Investigate, Will
Fair (+2): Athletics, Physique, Shoot
Average (+1): Contacts, Drive, Lore, Rapport
STUNTS
Graduate of the School of the Veldt: +2 to
Lore rolls to know about Africa or hunting.
Tracking Is an Art, Not a Science: +2 to
Notice rolls when tracking.
Uncanny Accuracy: Once per scene, when
you successfully create a situation aspect
related to aiming or lining up a shot, you
can add another free invoke to it.
REFRESH: 3

STRESS
Physical [1][2][3] Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):

56 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Agent Iriye Washington
After her family immigrated to England from Jamaica in 1952, Iriye joined the
Croydon police force as a meter maid. Seconded to the Ministry on the basis
of her obvious drive and skills, she has risen through the ranks ever since. She’s
known by many as “Babylon Woman” for her tendency to run down and collar
Jamaican criminals who’d preyed on the British Jamaican community in and
around Croydon, and she has no weaknesses that anyone can see.

Agent Iriye Washington

ASPECTS
High Concept: Worked Twice as Hard as Any
Man to Get Here
Trouble: You Can Leave the Slums, but the Slums
Never Leave You
Other Aspects: Veteran of Liverpool; It’s a Good
Life If You Don’t Weaken; I Bow to No Man
SKILLS
Great (+4): Athletics
Good (+3): Investigate, Will
Fair (+2): Notice, Physique, Shoot
Average (+1): Contacts, Fight, Provoke, Rapport
STUNTS
Attention to Detail: You can use Investigate in place of
Empathy to defend against Deceive. What others dis-
cover through gut reactions and intuition, you learn
through careful observation of microexpressions.
Body Language Reader: You can use Notice in place
of Empathy to learn the aspects of a target through
observation.
Hardcore Parkour: +2 to overcome with Athletics
across rooftops or similarly precarious environments.
Tough as Nails: Once per session, you can spend a fate
point to immediately reduce a moderate physical
consequence to a mild consequence, if your mild
consequence slot is free, or to immediately clear a
mild consequence.
REFRESH: 2

STRESS
Physical [1][2][3] Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):
THE MINISTRY 57
 Agent Chan “Honor” Bo
Her father Chan Hui, a famous American investigator, visited London in 1934
and loved it, and eventually retired here after the war, although the Ministry called
upon him for special cases involving Ministry agents and officials under suspicion.
When Honor came of age her father recommended her to the Ministry, which
happily took her on-board. She’s been a productive agent ever since.

Agent Chan “Honor” Bo

ASPECTS
High Concept: Latest of a Proud Line of
Investigators
Trouble: The Weight of a Father’s Love
Can Be Heavy Indeed
Other Aspects: Criminals Are a Suspicious
and Cowardly Lot; I Like It Up Close
and Personal; Four Clues Is Two Clues
Too Many
SKILLS
Great (+4): Investigate
Good (+3): Notice, Will
Fair (+2): Fight, Physique, Shoot
Average (+1): Athletics, Contacts, Empathy,
Rapport
STUNTS
Fear Is a Cruel Padlock: +2 to defend with
Will against intimidation attempts.
A Small Knife, like a Ladies’ Hairpin, Has
Many Uses: +2 to attack with Fight using
your dagger.
Wisdom of Ancient Proverbs: When you
spout an ancient-sounding proverb before
rolling to overcome or create an advantage
with Empathy, Investigate, or Notice, roll
six dice and use the best four.
REFRESH: 3

STRESS
Physical [1][2][3] Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):

58 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Agent Mahesh “Tony” Singh
The ace of the Ministry’s weapons labs, Mahesh is an Indian Sikh whose family
emigrated to England in the chaos following the Partition in 1947. He was
recruited into the Ministry while still at Cambridge, and has risen to become the
best weapons scientist that the Ministry has. He’s never been allowed out of his
laboratory to do field work—he’s too valuable to the Ministry for that—but he
wants to fight the aliens directly, as his ancestors fought the British.

Agent Mahesh “Tony” Singh

ASPECTS
High Concept: Science Is My Kirpan
Trouble: A Weapon That Never Tastes Blood Grows Dull
Other Aspects: Longs for Field Work; Handheld Blood
Tester; Uses Prototypes in Field Operations
SKILLS
Great (+4): Crafts
Good (+3): Lore, Will
Fair (+2): Athletics, Notice, Physique
Average (+1): Empathy, Fight, Rapport, Shoot
STUNTS
Always Making Useful Things: You do not need to spend
a fate point to declare that you have the proper tools for
a job using Crafts, even in extreme situations like being
imprisoned and separated from all your stuff.
Soup Up: Whenever you attempt to improve a piece of machin-
ery with an overcome action and succeed with style, you can
immediately give it an aspect with a free invoke or a stunt.
ARMS AND ARMOR
Prototype handheld blood tester
Permissions: The wielder must have the aspect Uses
Prototypes in Field Operations.
Costs: One aspect and one refresh.
Benefits: The wielder gains +6 to overcome with Lore when
analyzing human blood.
REFRESH: 2

STRESS
Physical [1][2][3] Mental [1][2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):

THE MINISTRY 59
 The Voice
The Voice used to be a master criminal, leading a crime-fighting pilot on a merry
chase, but the Ministry got to her before the pilot could, and persuaded her to
use her talents for good rather than for personal gain. She agreed (in exchange
for a cleaned record) and now works for the Ministry as their best press-handler,
putting all her skills, experience, and informants to use.

The Voice
ASPECTS
High Concept: Reformed Criminal
Mastermind
Trouble: Or Am I? I Can’t Tell
Other Aspects: Serving the Greater
Good—for Now; I Hate Aliens
More Than I Hate the Law; One
Eye Out for a Good Opportunity
SKILLS
Great (+4): Rapport
Good (+3): Deceive, Will
Fair (+2): Contacts, Empathy, Notice
Average (+1): Fight, Shoot, Athletics,
Physique
STUNTS
Femme Fatale: +2 to overcome or create
an advantage with Rapport when
dealing with men who are romanti-
cally or sexually attracted to you.
Lies Upon Lies: +2 to create an advan-
tage with Deceive when lying to
someone who has already believed
one of your lies during this session.
Migraine Blast (page 19).
Telekinetic Hand (page 19).
REFRESH: 2

STRESS
Physical [1] Mental [1]
[2][3] [2][3][4]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):

60 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE