A Geek's Guide: Corporation of Occult Research and Extermination, or AGG: CORE for short, is a Forum Quest set in the world of Highschool DXD that uses mechanics based on Crusader Kings II, with a variety of other sources thrown in and given their own twist.
In a world filled with monsters hiding in the shadows, a family famed for their depravity and sin is hunted down. Its last scion, exiled from the family, is given the task: to study and to hunt the monsters down. That scion is Sheridan Creighton, who must lead CORE in it's mission to fight the darkness.
Made and run by Sage_Of_Eyes, it is hosted on SpaceBattles.com, and can be found here.
This quest was completed on June 23, 2016 with a sequel quest called A Geek's Guide: Rise starting that same day - using an RPG-based format, as opposed to a Strategy-based one. AGG: Rise can be found in the following threads: Thread 1, Thread 2, Thread 3, Thread 4.
AGG:CORE contains examples of:
- Alternate History: The setting takes place in an AU of Highschool DXD, where, amongst other things, God didn't die during the Great War.
- Badass Longcoat: Developed as body armour by CORE for the US army. Yes the entire US Army wears longcoats.
- Building Swing: The Maneuver Gear, taken from Attack on Titan, is used by the soldiers of the CSG and CORE to move around in all direction when fighting enemies.
- Cleanup Crew: The Cleaners of CORE, who work to hide CORE's existence from everyone. They also work to keep the CSG from being revealed to those not aware of the supernatural, and help erase the evidence of more mundane operations by the American government.
- Covert Group: CORE, the CSG, the Templars and the LRU are all governmental agencies that are off the books, as they deal with the supernatural. Interestingly, CORE is a Covert Group amongst Covert Groups: only a select few even know it exists, with it using the others to mask its activities.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: CORE uses a variety of corporations and companies to disguise its operations and/or disseminate its technology to the US. Interestingly, most of its funding comes from them, due to them being genuine businesses.
- Elaborate Underground Base: CORE HQ was made into an underground command center early on, and has only been expanded since then.
- Extra-Strength Masquerade: There's a lot of effort, from pretty much all groups to keep the supernatural hidden. CORE itself has its "Cleaners". They stop after the Chimera eat over a third of the world
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Being based on the High School D×D universe, it would already qualify. Then the creator added Ghouls and AI's. Only aliens are missing. Oh wait...
- For Want Of A Nail: Many things are different from both DxD and real life, several of them thanks to CORE. Such as modern-day computers being available by the mid-90's. Additionally, most of Dx D canon characters who were yet to be born prior to start of CORE, had their traits (and genders) determined by rolling.
- In Spite of a Nail: It has been confirmed that Issei will be the same as in canon, despite the differences.
- MegaCorp: CORE is starting to become this, holding monopolies over the electronics, power storage and generation, and rare earths industries.
- Powered Armor: CORE's Bulwarks and Bastions are magical versions of these. The Goliath Walkers of the CSG are also a much larger version of them, though they are closer to a Walking Tank.
