Morality - Good and Evil are mostly clear-cut with some shades of gray.
Realism - A strange combination of gritty realism and comic book "wild" reality.
Outlook - You are the good guys, but victories will no be cake walks normally. You will have some laughingly easy victories..."How the hell did that happen?" and you will have some nail biting scrapes which make you wish you'd stayed in bed..."We're alive! hurray!!!!" but you'll also have failures, which will hopfully lead to later victories by learning from your mistakes.
Seriousness - In theory fairly serious with levity and real emotion...I hope. I do not intend to run this for laughs.
Continuity - I hope to have tons of it. Let's see how the flow of time works first, but assume that continuity will be high.
Importance of the PCs - The PCs are members of the NSA and thus will become Federal Agents and maybe even members of the US High Threat Response Team - Eagle Force. They will be involved with major players, villians, Ultra-Terrorist Groups and their importance in those matters will be in direct relationship to how involved the intend to get.
The Game year is 2000
In 1973 President Gerald Ford transferred control of all the nations Para-Normal Operations assets and responsibilities for Ultra-Terrorism to the National Security Agency.
The NSA formed a new branch known as Para-Normal Operations and a para-military action arm known as Strike Operations.
With a single agency coordinating and handling national response to Ultra-Terrorist and Para-Normal Threats things were actually getting done. The NSA was able to quickly provide assistance to other federal and state police agencies and public opinion of the controversial decision was very positive.
As the number of para-normals grew it became increasingly obvious that the US would need to establish a team or paranormals to deal directly with para-normal threats. Technology could even the odds with UT Groups but it wasn't usually economical or practical to try to use technology alone as a means of dealing with para-normal threats, so it was decided that the US would form a para-normal High Threat Response group, Eagle Force, that would handle these types of threats.
The matter was in debate and development for almost 10 years, then in 1994 Eagle Force was made active. Eagle Force I consisted of 6 members and served with distinction from 1994 until 1998 when they went on inactive reserve status and Eagle Force II became active. Eagle Force II consists of 6 members and will serve on active duty until 2002 when they will go on inactive status and the members of Eagle Force I will retire.
In 1996 it was thought that a training program might be useful for preparing Para-Normals for service in the NSA and specifically Eagle Force. The idea worked it's way around until it became a reality in 1999, on paper anyway. Funding for the project was approved and the President addressed the nation asking for persons with Para-Normal abilities between the ages of 18 and 25 who wanted to serve their country to apply for the Eagle Force Training Program. Response was suprising and the NSA has worked through the applications, conducted interviews, and made recommendations. Acceptance letters have been sent out, and the "lucky" candidates are making their final arrangements to fly to Phoenix where they will begin their training for what could be their career.
Now, based on this keep in mind that the government is still the government, but the NSA has been doing a good job helping keep America safe from Ultra-Terrorist Threats and Eagle Force (both I and II) have been very successful and very popular. There are good people in the NSA and "Patriots" as well as bad people. The focus of this game will NOT be "Government as gigantic corrupt entity" but actually as a servent of the population (with secrets!).
The "plan" is for the characters to be involved in boring training activities and stuff, the "reality" will have them getting "involved" in a number of operations and stuff at first on (possibly) accident, then later on once it's clear they can handle some stuff they'll be assigned missions and things.
Although this will be giving some things away I'll tell you that you will have huge support and help from Eagle's Nest (the base) and may have conflict and obstruction from the other sections of the NSA but this will be metered to enhance game play and not to agrivate the players.