M-Com Operation Name Tables

 This is a list of prefixes and suffixes for generating random operation names for the M-Com Monster of the Week campaign.

Each of the prefixes has a situational complication attached and each of the suffixes has an important person, group, object or such attached. These are not necessarily meant to be the main details of the various operation, but they can be if you want.

I also have some of the sample operations that I've already run listed below the lists.
For a more traditional X-Com game you'd want to alter some of the complications to fit your setting.

At least once, I rolled on the prefix list by accident twice (Encompassing Rainbow) but hey, it worked so who cares?


Also, I think I should probably add a mission type at some point to this. Like "Investigation", "Hunt", "Inquiry" or the like.


My campaign is currently to the point where using the plot twists suggested isn't going to be all that necessary. We've got several events set up down the way.

Prefix List – Circumstantial Complication

1. Allowed – The monster has support from local authorities.
2. All-Seeing – The hunters come under surveillance
3. Astral – The locals collectively live a double life.
4. Banished – Parts of the area are out of phase.
5. Black – Someone is manipulating the situation for financial gain.
6. Bleeding – There is a time constraint
7. Blind – Important information has been actively withheld from the hunters.
8. Blinding – The hunters have to hide information from other parties.
9. Bloody – There is animosity between factions of local civilians.
10. Blooming – The monster is reproducing.
11. Blue – The locals are having heavy financial difficulties
12. Bold – The monster is a local legend.
13. Broken – A normally benign creature has been driven violent by some trauma or injury.
14. Brutal – The case occurs during some extreme weather event.
15. Burning – The locals are heavily excited about some event or topic.
16. Captive – Something holds the monster to the area.
17. Cold – The rumors that bring the hunters are old.
18. Crimson – Emotions are running high in the area.
19. Cryptic – The hunters are being used as a distraction.
20. Crystal – The area depends highly upon some place or object.
21. Dark – The locals exist in heavy denial.
22. Defiant – The hunters are being used as bait.
23. Demon – The monster is exceptionally strong for its kind.
24. Devil’s – The locals made some sort of deal.
25. Driving – Something is stirring up the monster deliberately.
26. Dying – The hunters face a siege of some kind.
27. Empty – The situation is not supernatural.
28. Encompassing – All the locals are involved.
29. Enduring – The situation is a trap.
30. Eternal – Time is looping.
31. Even – There are two competing monsters/factions.
32. Fading – The monster is the victim.
33. Fallen – Treachery abounds.
34. Final – The entire event is a test.
35. First – There is some sort of competition going on locally.
36. Flying – The monster has significant travel capabilities.
37. Forgotten – The area suffers from a communications blackout.
38. Fractured – The monster has lost its mind. Its motives are random.
39. Frozen – Everything appears to be in stasis.
40. Generous – There are many false trails and red herrings.
41. Glass – The situation is an experiment.
42. Gracious – The locals are surprisingly welcome to visitors.
43. Green – There is an environmental hazard.
44. Grim – The locals are xenophobic.
45. Hidden – A deliberate hoax is obscuring the monster’s actions.
46. Hot – The monster desires a particular person (or vice versa).
47. Infinite – The monster is actually a swarm, herd or pack of some kind.
48. Insightful – The monster is intelligent and knows the hunters.
49. Internal – One or more of the locals is the monster.
50. Jealous – The hunters have competition on the hunt.
51. Killer – The monster acts through proxies.
52. Killing – There is a disease in the area.
53. Kind – The monster thinks that it’s helping.
54. Lazy – The monster is inactive most of the time.
55. Lone – The hunters can get no support in this situation.
56. Lost – The monster just wants to go home.
57. Mean – This event occurs with regularity.
58. Moderate – The situation is a bet or gamble of some kind between spirits.
59. Morbid – Suicidal feelings are spreading.
60. Nether – A natural phenomenon behaves backwards from normal somehow.
61. New – This is a new community.
62. Nocturnal – There is a thriving night life among the locals.
63. Numb – The area seems to deaden emotions.
64. Open – It is difficult to keep secrets in the area.
65. Orange – There is a geek/sci-fi/fantasy/gaming event in the area.
66. Patient – The monster is especially cautious.
67. Practical – The monster has taken care to reduce its vulnerability.
68. Private – The hunters are trapped in the area of the hunt.
69. Purple – An important and influential family is involved.
70. Quickened – The monster’s goals are time sensitive.
71. Quiet – The monster is exceptionally stealthy
72. Rainbow – Someone stole from the monster.
73. Red – Martial law is declared.
74. Righteous – Neither the monster nor the locals are in the wrong.
75. Rotting – There is a transformative element at work.
76. Sacred – There is a Power that is at risk of being offended.
77. Secret – Magic behaves erratically.
78. Severed – The monster was stranded here by something.
79. Shattered – Something was broken and it must be fixed.
80. Silent – It is hard for witnesses to remember the particulars of events.
81. Soaring – The threat/monster is scientific/technological in nature.
82. Spectral – The monster is following an object.
83. Stone – There is a natural disaster during the case.
84. Subtle – The event was engineered for an unknown purpose.
85. Swift – Time passes differently in the area of the case.
86. Thin – The locals have somehow been around for centuries.
87. Tough – The locals are desperate for some reason besides the monster.
88. Twisted – The locals are insane.
89. Twisting – Space functions oddly in the area.
90. Unceasing – Everyone in the area has seemingly endless energy.
91. Variable – Something about the situation changes at different times.
92. Vengeful – Something from the hunters’ past appears.
93. Wandering – The case is not limited to a single area.
94. Weird – People’s reflections sometimes behave independently of them.
95. Welcome – Someone makes himself very helpful to the hunters.
96. White – An event in local history has been erased.
97. Wild – The area is very sparsely populated.
98. Yellow – There is a toxic environmental factor in the area.
99. Young – The monster is young.
100. Zero – The hunters find themselves in the past.

Suffix List – Significant focus other than the monster

1. Accident – An ostracized young man or woman
2. Actual – A person whose career is making predictions
3. Apollo – A particularly talented artist
4. Audience – The swarming media
5. Aura – New Ager/New Age Community
6. Avalanche – A saboteur with an agenda
7. Bell – A religious person
8. Blade – A mercenary
9. Breath – A dead person
10. Calm – A local politician
11. Catastrophe – A conspiracy theorist
12. Chance – A capitalist of some sort
13. Change – A cashier or moneychanger
14. Comet – Someone with a terminal condition
15. Crone – A suspicious elder
16. Crown – A respected leader
17. Daze – An addict of some kind
18. Deva – A person on a crusade
19. Dream – A person with mental illness
20. Druid – A traditionalist
21. Eel – A con artist
22. Effort – A teacher
23. Empire – A federal agent or employee
24. Endgame – An armchair detective
25. Engine – The local political machine
26. Fall – A medical professional
27. Father – The hunters’ superiors
28. Fear – A doomsayer
29. Fog – A cryptozoologist
30. Future – A scientist
31. Game – A hunter
32. Gavel – A vigilante
33. Goal – A local business
34. Grave – Someone seeking revenge
35. God – An egotistical expert
36. Hammer – A construction worker or boss
37. Hawk – A military officer
38. History – A member of a founding family
39. Hydra – A new fad
40. Hymn – A reporter
41. Illness – A criminal
42. Illusion – A celebrity
43. Jester – A hypocrit
44. Joke – An attention seeker
45. Justice – A grieving relative
46. King – A property owner
47. Knife – An aggressive journalist
48. Knight – A gamer
49. Line – A bureaucrat
50. Labyrinth – A city planner
51. Law – Another supernatural
52. Library – An occultist
53. Mason – A visionary
54. Meteor – A terrorist
55. Might – An activist
56. Mirror – Another team of hunters
57. Moon - Animals
58. Mother – The hunters’ families/loved ones
59. Mountain – A lawyer
60. Night – One of the hunters’ contacts
61. Owl – A know-it-all
62. Palace – A hotel worker
63. Paramour – A fellow team-member
64. Pipe – Security personnel
65. Priest – A profiteer
66. Prisoner – Someone with suppressed dreams
67. Prophet – A rabble rouser
68. Pyre – A local criminal
69. Queen – A gossip
70. Race – A genealogist
71. Rain – A self-help guru
72. Reality – A skeptic
73. Ring – A worker at the local television station
74. Run – A hypochondriac
75. Savior – A local legend/celebrity
76. Scepter – A stage performer
77. Serpent – An Imposter
78. Shield – Law Enforcement
79. Shroud – Seamstress or Tailor
80. Skull – College student
81. Smoke - Researcher
82. Stallion – Promiscuous Person
83. Star – Night Shift Worker
84. Stranger – Someone with a hidden past
85. Stroke – A golfer or golf course
86. Summer – Ice Cream Vendor
87. Sun - Exhibitionist
88. Sword – An author
89. Tears – Hospital
90. Thorn – Town nuisance
91. Throne – Government building
92. Thunder – A carpenter
93. Touch – A gambler
94. Touchdown – A desperate investor
95. Umbrella – A corporation
96. Vanguard – The first team sent
97. Vengeance - Graveyard
98. Water – Local resource
99. Whisper – Town outcast
100. Zoo – Public streets

Examples:

Operation: Subtle Mason – Stirges in a Mining Village (Engineered, Visionary)

• Someone has engineered the event as an early test of the temporal/dimensional anomalies and as a way to extort the owner of the property to sell it and allow them to set up a base there.
• The Visionary is the entrepreneur owner of the property.

Operation: Secret Game – (magic behaves erratically, a hunter)

• Something in the area is causing magic to behave erratically.
• The cause is a big game hunter who is inexpertly performing summoning rituals in order to hunt monsters. Some of these monsters have escaped or caused damage before being killed.

Operation: Captive Illness – (something holds the monster to the area, a criminal)

• A criminal has found a cursed idol and buried it in the area He plans to use the monster it summons to con the populace into having him exorcise the monster. He’s done this before and it’s always worked fine. He knows how to contain the idol.

Operation: Final Fear – (event is a test, doomsayer)

• Either M-Com or someone else has set up a scenario to test the hunters’ will, power, intelligence and purity of spirit.
• A doomsayer appears to be a red herring but may be making statements about future missions

Operation: Internal Labyrinth – (one or more of the locals is the monster, a city planner)

• A temporal or dimensional anomaly has infected one or more of the locals with a transformative, cursed condition and they have started to give in to their darker instincts.
• A local city planner has noticed a pattern of anomalies that points to the monster activity and anomaly position

Operation: Private Priest – (hunters are trapped in the area, a profiteer)

• When the monster kills people, it leaves behind curious gems or other materials which can be used in a number of profitable ways. The profiteer has been trapping people in a dimensional anomaly with the monster and sneaking in to collect the waste materials afterwards to sell back in Earth.

Operation: Black Comet – (situation is manipulated for financial gain, terminal condition)

• A person is taking unethical and risky measures to prolong the situation and glean money out of it.
• The person stretching the problem is already dying from cancer and earning this money for someone else’s benefit.

Operation: Unceasing Prophet – (locals never seem to tire, rabble rouser)

• An anomaly has tainted the local drinking water causing people to feel incredibly lively and powerful. They are slowly mutating unknowingly into inhuman creatures which are expressions of their most powerful emotions. Someone with negative emotions has already become a terrible monster.
• A local rabble rouser is calling out against some situation.

Operation: Wild Rain – (sparsely populated, self-help guru)

• At a small wilderness area with cabins and the like, a self-help guru is holding a retreat.
• The retreat may be directly related or it may be a wrong time, wrong place situation.

Operation: Forgotten Scepter – (The area suffers from comms blackout, a stage performer)

• The entire region sits in a massive dead zone and a storm knocks out the few satellite relays allowing communication outside.
• A stage performer has been using elements of a summoning spell in his performances and has unwittingly triggered an anomaly in the area causing both the storm and summoning the monster.