A typical Task Force Valkyrie team?

I would be glad if you could help me.

At the moment I am storytelling a Mage/Changeling crossover campaign ( 2 changelings, 3 mages) playing in Berlin, Germany. What happened lately is this:

The troupe planned to break into a hotel suite to destroy/banish a goetic spirit they located there, just to find out that the spirit was actually possessing a vampire - a vampire controlling a CEO of a company planning to buy the former airport Tempelhof from the broke city. They booked a room right below the suite and one of the mages opened a portal into the suite. The problem is, they were rather loud after they had opened the portal and before they walked through. So the police was called. It came to a short fight, the troupe almost killed a bodyguard/ghoul but the vampire and CEO managed to escape.

When the troupe tried to escape, they were being filmed from a security camera in the staircase. One of the mages, badly injured, was caught by the police and brought to a hospital. The two changelings and the other mages managed to escape - the problem is, one of the mage's fingerprints and those of a changeling's fetch were in the police database, so they have a tap on three of them.

Now the one caught was boxed out by his lawyer - another mage PC - after being interviewed and threatened by the Verfassungsschutz - the German equivalent of the FBI. They couldn't keep him but tapped him - a tracker in a shoe and a micro in his jacket - without his knowledge. The troupe of course met again and talked A LOT about magic - like opening portals, mind control, walking into the Hedge, spirits, vampires, fae, changelings, mages, ... you get the picture.

Thatfor I guess it would be appropriate to send a Bellerophon unit after them - my name for Task Force Valkyrie. Although I own the HtV Rulebook, I own none of the supplementals, nor know it very good.

Could any of you give me advise on how a typical TFV team should be constructed? If any one of you has a predesigned team, I would be glad, if you could share it with me.

Thanks in advance.

A typical squad would be designed in one of two ways. Either it would have a specific purpose, and each of the members would work towards that purpose, or it would be more generalist and flexible, with a wider range of skill. For your chronicle, I think it would be appropriate if Bellerophon sent a unit specifically designed to handle sneaky things with weird powers, which both the Lost and the Awakened are, almost universally. Every member of the team should be sharp of mind and trained in espionage/counter-espionage tactics (in game terms, the Deprogramming, Disappear, Identification and Profiling Tactics would all be appropriate). Since Bellerophon has a lot of information about the PCs, it would not be unreasonable for the squad to be equipped with whatever Bellerophon's equivalent of the Witch Buster is, and since they're German, probably some other nifty technology besides.

I would also consider how lethal the TFV team is intended to be. Since you're probably not into killing your PCs, I would suggest you also arm them with a lot of more traditional weaponry that's more non-lethal. Flashbangs, gas grenades, tranquelizer darts, rubber bullets/beanbag loads for standard pistols, rifles, and shotguns, that type of stuff.

Sammi:

A typical squad would be designed in one of two ways. Either it would have a specific purpose, and each of the members would work towards that purpose, or it would be more generalist and flexible, with a wider range of skill. For your chronicle, I think it would be appropriate if Bellerophon sent a unit specifically designed to handle sneaky things with weird powers, which both the Lost and the Awakened are, almost universally. Every member of the team should be sharp of mind and trained in espionage/counter-espionage tactics (in game terms, the Deprogramming, Disappear, Identification and Profiling Tactics would all be appropriate). Since Bellerophon has a lot of information about the PCs, it would not be unreasonable for the squad to be equipped with whatever Bellerophon's equivalent of the Witch Buster is, and since they're German, probably some other nifty technology besides.

Thanks, I especially like the Deprogramming and Disappear tactics. Identification is probably not so fitting, as it is a team called after the PCs have clearly been identified as supernaturals. Still it was a big help.

Majunior:

I would also consider how lethal the TFV team is intended to be. Since you're probably not into killing your PCs, I would suggest you also arm them with a lot of more traditional weaponry that's more non-lethal. Flashbangs, gas grenades, tranquelizer darts, rubber bullets/beanbag loads for standard pistols, rifles, and shotguns, that type of stuff.

Deadliness is a good point. When the campaign started that PCs might die when they make mistakes, but putting a troupe in a situation that is going to kill them almost certainly is a sign of a storyteller doing a very bad job; after all the game should be fun and not frustration.

I'm still not sure how the PCs will manage to get off the hook after what they told and did to the ears and tapes of the Verfassungsschutz. Maybe they'll have to dive for cover and get new identities. I already can see the players suffering to loose their contacts and backgrounds and I feel a bit bad about it, but they have been told that my World of Darkness Berlin is an unforgiving place, just like Sin City, and they really made some big mistakes. What I don't know is whether and how I should compensate them for the background losses resulting from their mistakes. The changelings did not have time to create themselves much of a new identity after their return from Arcadia, so they loose least - although it will probably be a big hit to their Clarity.

Thanks, it helped a lot. Although I won't use your "plus a member of another group" option. The players are still pretty new to the system and have enough trouble using their abilities efficiently. If I start throwing every equipment that exists at them, it would be an overkill.

So what I need now is an idea for some kind of loss compensation as their lifes start to erode around them. Maybe a cool communal sanctum with a potent hallow that they stumble across as they flee from Bellerophon, or a potent new ally. I see no need to compensate them fully, but a light at the end of the tunnel is even deserved in a world of darkness.

If anyone else has cool ideas for me, I will be grateful.

Schattensturm:

Thanks, I especially like the Deprogramming and Disappear tactics. Identification is probably not so fitting, as it is a team called after the PCs have clearly been identified as supernaturals. Still it was a big help.

Are you so sure that Identification wouldn't be useful? Witches and faeries can change their appearances. Identification could help pinpoint PCs who are trying to change their faces, but not doing a great job. Anyway, it fits into the skill paradigm that I imagine the team you want would have, and you don't have to tailor everything to the PCs.

Sammi:

Identification could help pinpoint PCs who are trying to change their faces, but not doing a great job. Anyway, it fits into the skill paradigm that I imagine the team you want would have, and you don't have to tailor everything to the PCs.

The pinpointing is an idea. But not using Identification might give them a fair option of escape. As for the tailoring to the PCs, I understand the team set on their heels as a team used to hunt already identified targets, not an intel team. After all the PCs have been making their statements to the "normal" Verfassungsschutz, not knowing how to react and following their directives, they report the mentioning of magic and unexplained phenomena to their superiors and they alarm unit Bellerophon. I agree that Bellerophon will have intel teams trying to find supernaturals on their own; but if I were them, I would use different teams/ people for different general tasks like intel, tracking, elimination, research, and covering up.