---
uai: "1.0"
type: domain-memory
status: active
project: iarpg.com
updated_utc: "2026-07-19T05:00:00Z"
domain: operatives
---
# Operative Roles and Responsibilities
Roles describe operational responsibility, not morality or permanent character classes.

## Role families

- **Field Operative** — physical presence, cover behavior, observation, meetings, recovery, and extraction.
- **Case Officer** — requirements translation, source recruitment and handling, relationship management, identity protection, and access preservation.
- **Collector** — HUMINT, SIGINT, OSINT, imagery, cyber, technical, liaison, or surveillance collection under defined authorities.
- **Intelligence Analyst** — competing hypotheses, source evaluation, gap identification, warning, confidence, and assessment production.
- **Technical Officer** — communications, sensors, signals, data recovery, technical validation, and server-authoritative mission tools.
- **Counterintelligence Officer** — anomaly investigation, source validation, deception assessment, compartment protection, and damage review.
- **Liaison Officer** — authority coordination, shared reporting, access negotiation, source deconfliction, and coalition continuity.
- **Logistics and Support Officer** — movement, communications, documentation, procurement, medical support, safehouses, and contingencies.
- **Private or Independent Operative** — client-defined requirements, limited institutional protection, flexible access, and elevated counterparty risk.

## Cross-role rules

- No role is the universal protagonist.
- Players can change roles, covers, and employers while consequences persist.
- Interfaces provide complementary information rather than reduced copies of the field role.
- Competence is expressed through preparation, judgment, communication, and consequence management.

## Deep links

- HUMINT roles: https://iarpg.com/docs/report/intelligence-operative-archetypes-and-tradecraft#humint-operatives
- Technical and signals roles: https://iarpg.com/docs/report/intelligence-operative-archetypes-and-tradecraft#technical-and-signals-operatives
- Specialized roles: https://iarpg.com/docs/report/intelligence-operative-archetypes-and-tradecraft#specialized-tradecraft-roles
- Analytical, liaison, and support roles: https://iarpg.com/docs/report/intelligence-operative-archetypes-and-tradecraft#analytical-liaison-and-support-roles
- Corporate, private, and freelance roles: https://iarpg.com/docs/report/intelligence-operative-archetypes-and-tradecraft#corporate-private-and-freelance-operatives