Operator

The briefing tells you what the target is. The doctrine tells you what the target can do. The experience tells you that both of those things are approximations and the situation will develop its own opinions.

Favored Save: Speed Save (+1D to Speed + Acrobatics rolls)

Power Access: Hollow Pact, Sacred Fire, or Pact-Shifting (if Lineage-eligible). The Vanguard does not recruit based on tradition access, but operators who bring lineage-native capabilities to the role are assigned to team positions that use those capabilities. An operator with Hollow Pact access and a Shadow-Bound background is a specialist asset. The Vanguard's position on the ethics of the underlying compact is that this is not operationally relevant.

Starting Resources: Military-issue sidearm and primary weapon (automatic rifle or shotgun, operator's choice), tactical gear (vest, radio, NVGs), access to Vanguard threat-specific materials inventory (sign-out required), and a classified security clearance that will not survive scrutiny from anyone with access to actual classification records.

Lineage Affinity: Skinchanger, Marked (Shadow-Bound and Light-Bound). Human operators form the operational majority. Dhampir operators exist in small numbers in specific team roles. Faeborn operators are rare and generate internal discussion when they occur.

Progression Track: Operator

Stage 1 (10 XP), Field Qualified
  The operator has completed threat-specific training and proven they can
  function under engagement conditions.
  - Doctrine Application: The operator has internalized the Vanguard's
    threat-category protocols. Once per scene, they may identify a target's
    category and recall the relevant engagement doctrine, weakness, effective
    materials, destruction method, with a Wit + Lore roll vs Threshold 2.
    Success means the operator knows the relevant protocol. Failure means the
    doctrine section hadn't updated for this specific variant.
  - Threat-Specific Loadout: The operator has standing authorization to draw
    from the Vanguard's specialized materials inventory before a deployment.
    They carry silver or blessed ammunition as standard rather than having
    to requisition it.

Stage 2 (25 XP), Senior Operator
  The operator has survived enough engagements to have formed opinions about
  the ones that shouldn't have happened the way they did.
  - Breach and Engage: The operator can initiate an engagement faster than
    standard tactical approach allows. Once per scene, they may act in the
    first Turn of an encounter without needing to win Initiative; they move
    and take one action before Initiative is determined.
  - Contingency Protocol: The operator has prepared a personal contingency
    for the threat types they've encountered most. Choose one threat category.
    Against threats of that category, the operator rolls at +1D on attack
    and damage rolls.

Stage 3 (50 XP), Team Lead / Specialist Operator
  The operator has become the kind of person the Vanguard calls when a
  situation has developed its own opinions.
  - Crisis Response: The operator functions under pressure that degrades
    other people. When an operator with this perk is Staggered, they do not
    take the standard penalty to actions, the combat training is deep enough
    to operate through damage states that would slow anyone else.
  - Override Authority: The operator may abort a mission and extract their
    team without authorization from Operations, citing field conditions.
    This authority is real; it is also logged, reviewed, and has career
    implications. The Vanguard gives its senior operators this power
    because the alternative is worse.