Wherever there is evil afoot, you'll see someone, somewhere try and stop it. To this end, there are several world wide organisations that are either secret, or have hidden departments with their own agenda, that cater to this need.
[Note: some of these refer to bits and pieces from my Car Wars World v2.1, and thus currently aren't explained on this web site. If there is interest I could post a summary of what my world is like. As a result, not everything is listed here.]
A small mercenary unit that knows about the real world, and hires itself out to anyone who can pay them to deal with their problems. Will tackle any supernatural problem with it's team of dedicated hi-tech soldiers. World wide, they number about one thousand people in all roles, and are certainly the largest non governmental agency on the subject. Many a government has actually hired them to sort out various problems. Professional, secret, they are constantly targeted for eradication by major supernatural foes.
The Natural History Museum has survived over the years, and indeed has flourished in certain areas. Always a well respected museum (but never the largest or best), the museum has built upon the decay of the last few years and has managed to make a name for itself, and a certain amount of power within UK government circles. It sponsors digs around the world for artefacts, and it's Explorers can be seen worldwide roaming for new dig sites and artefacts of interest.
Or at least that's the cover story. The Explorers are actually a small band of highly trained specialised men and women who are actually tracking down the supernatural and alien life forms, and then determining their threat level and taking action. They have a lot of clout within the UK, but outside they must rely on the museums contacts which never have the political power that is usually required.
The USA equivalent of Ultraviolet with the same idea in mind. It consists of a small secret department of the government with small units of field agents to seek out and eliminate the unknown. These operates can call upon the resources of the police and the army, but doesn't actually have it's special armed response teams, so the operatives generally have to do most of the hard work. It is not as capable as Ultraviolet (having to let more people in on the 'truth', thus creating more leaks and couner-operations), but can call upon more manpower and greater resources. Now runs the X-Files.
[Note: I don' actually have any 'real' information on Department 17, so this is all guesswork on my part. If someone has done a file on it, or if they could direct me to a sourcebook with a section on them, that would be appreciated.]
Not an organisation as such, but merely a group of people, most of whom probably don't even know the others exist. Whenever there has been war with off-worlders, the Earth has sometimes had help from the current fighters of those off-worlders. Usually when the threat passed, they went back to their own times, but sometimes this wasn't possible and they stayed behind. As a result, they now live in the modern world (usually to their annoyance) and have to make to. Some live as hermits, some manage to integrate into modern society, and some even thrive and get to positions of power. All however, have knowledge that far exceeds the norm, and some even have special equipment with them. UNIT is aware of their presence, but not necessarily of who they actually are.
A UK secret governmental organisation devoted to the hunting down and elimination of the bad supernatural elements in the Isles. Originally formed in the early 1980's, it's original mission was as vampire hunters, but has since expanded slightly to tackle the other elements.
It has two sorts of operatives - the detectives who seek out, track and plan the missions (these are small teams, usually 2 to 4 people), and then the specially trained armed response units (who dress like the normal armed response units) who carry out the actual combat missions. They are professional, well trained, and have the latest high tech equipment. They have access to most governmental records, and can commandeer normal police units if desired. The Detectives are recruited from various agencies, and once in, their older lives die, and they no longer exist.
The organisation produces a lot of it's own equipment. It has a lot of political power and can generally do what it likes and cover its tracks afterwards.
An old organisation set up in the early 1970's by the UN, the role of UNIT was to locate, investigate and counter the threat to the Earth by other powers, meaning aliens and the like. The problem was, that while UNIT had some good advisors and was willing, it never had the right equipment to tackle the job, and was just effectively an elite branch of the army without the heavy equipment. When the threat to the world by these other powers seemed to end in the early '90's, funding was dropped, and with the recent developments in the world and the break up of countries, UNIT was officially disbanded in 2040. However, that didn't mean that some countries didn't keep it on though. Some countries kept UNIT in its originally role, some disbanded it, others slightly changed it.
The UK was one of the later. With it's experience of UNIT in action, it decided that the best job for UNIT was one of intelligence and R&D instead. Most of the troops were let go (many finding themselves a new home in either Ultraviolet or The Black Company), and the organisation was reshaped to it's new role. Funding was increased again, and now UNIT (UK) tries to develop new ways of combating alien and other worldly threats should they happen. While not dealing with the supernatural directly, it does sometimes lend a hand, and occasionally has dealings with both Ultraviolet and The Black Company. It has several squads of combat troops for testing and can access army equipment at a pinch.
A Vatican run organisation designed for the elimination of vampires, although their work does sometimes cross over into other areas. They are small teams (about 8 people, including a priest) who use high tech equipment to reach their aims. While they have contacts with the Vatican and can use their resources, this usually just means records and information, and in the field they are usually on their own. The teams are named after their leaders, such as Team Crow, Team Raven etc.
ADQ: Full Moon over Midville
"The Black Company" by Glen Cook
Films and television shows:
"Dr Who"
"John Carpenters Vampires"
"Ultraviolet"
