[Social Engineering] Find a specific person in a foreign city (Known Individuals)

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

One of the cliché feats ascribed both to spies-in-training and streetwise hobos is the ability to find a specific person, who is not officially listed in any official documents, while dropped into a foreign city with nothing except a normal set of clothes. Some urban legends also claim that true experts could do it while evading a 'wanted' warrant on their head.

Now, this seems like something that could be made interesting, and even might be a reasonable mission in a semi-realistic private eyes campaign if toned down a bit. But what can be done to make in more engaging?

Social Engineering gives guidelines - roughly an IQ or skill roll at -5 for a city of one million people. But that's more like something for a barely-relevant search, not for a focus of a small arc.

Perhaps a better way would be using some sort of clue-based gradual search, where you learn about possible places or people who might be the next link or something.

Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

[roguebfl]

First would ask your self what do the PC know about their target?

Name?

Description?

Occupation?

Hobbies?

The latter two means you can be a little more overt in the first step and advantages what part of the cirt are those people found / hang out so that they can narrow down the search locations

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

First would ask your self what do the PC know about their target?

Name?

Description?

Occupation?

Hobbies?

The latter two means you can be a little more overt in the first step and advantages what part of the cirt are those people found / hang out so that they can narrow down the search locations

Well, Description + (original) Occupation seems like an interesting challenge, since the name can be easily changed for someone who doesn't have a passport anyway, and an occupation can be changed to some extent. I'm looking for stuff that is borderline heroic, but still doable.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Well, Description + (original) Occupation seems like an interesting challenge, since the name can be easily changed for someone who doesn't have a passport anyway, and an occupation can be changed to some extent. I'm looking for stuff that is borderline heroic, but still doable.

For an extended search, find informants. Seek to gain favorable relationships with local organizations (not necessarily legal!). If you can provide evidence of Status, use that to gain favors through Benefits of Status.

Bill Stoddard

[vicky_molokh]

I'm 90% likely to use this as quest in my current campaign. (Whether it will end up as a full-length or a single-session quest is hard to tell.)

I'm considering toning down the town size to perhaps a 100-500k population, a former mining boom town that is slowly becoming a ghost town (with people gradually leaving) due to the boom being over and the mine gradually emptying up (simply put, the economy is declining slowly but surely).

Some ideas of clues to give (not sure how much would be too much or too little):

• A semi-correct/semi-erroneous facial composite drawing of the character. Notably, race (which is characterised by skin, eye and hair colour) is grossly misjudged. However, height, sex, age etc. are correct.
• A phone number, which is by now obsolete, because the NPC either gave away or thrown away the SIM card, and now somebody else has it. (This is likely a chance for the face or investigator to get the most spotlight.)
• Perhaps some info on the NPC's interests/hobbies, which might give an opportunity to figure where else to look.
• Sure knowledge that the NPC speaks a specific language fluently, and knows a specific Cultural Familiarity. (This is a small clue - the town is a melting pot, but the listed CF/language combination are reasonably common there.)
• (For one PC only.) A dubious but actually true name, upon hearing which the NPC will drop suspicions and talk. (Not the NPC's current fake name; this clue is pretty important, and only makes sense in context, but the point is one PC can perform this check, but will likely not rely on it.)

Originally Posted by whswhs

For an extended search, find informants. Seek to gain favorable relationships with local organizations (not necessarily legal!). If you can provide evidence of Status, use that to gain favors through Benefits of Status.

The first question about hiring informants would be, who such informants are? Who would know all newcomers to the city for a prolonged period of time by address of living and/or work, including the insignificant or the quiet ones?
A crime lord would likely know (or have underlings who know) all the new gamblers, pickpockets etc., though that seems a bit optimistic regarding such a criminal organisation's ability to be informed of new petty criminals. But who would know all the new Status 0-ish people (e.g.: wal/mart reception worker, janitor, apothecary assistant, computer operator, waitress, secretary, street advertiser).

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

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Social Engineering gives guidelines - roughly an IQ or skill roll at -5 for a city of one million people. But that's more like something for a barely-relevant search, not for a focus of a small arc.

Perhaps a better way would be using some sort of clue-based gradual search, where you learn about possible places or people who might be the next link or something.

Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

Yes, the guidelines are for looking for a type of person, not a specific person. To find a specific person who isn't in the phone book, you have to actually investigate. If it's a runaway teenager then you check their communications, talk to their friends, look at their credit card activity, and then move on to flashing their picture in the hooker strolls and checking the morgues.

[kdtipa]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I'm considering toning down the town size to perhaps a 100-500k population, a former mining boom town that is slowly becoming a ghost town (with people gradually leaving) due to the boom being over and the mine gradually emptying up (simply put, the economy is declining slowly but surely).

"slowly becoming a ghost town" sounds to me like there's already evidence of that. The town I live in has under 20K people, but it's got business, and the population is holding steady. It's just hard for me to accept a definition of a town with 100K+ people including the term "ghost town". The cities near me have around 40K people. Boston, Massachusetts has approximately 645K people.

I don't know... It just sounds weird. I suppose "Ghost Town" would be based more on number of people compared to how many the city could support at its normal level. Anyway, I'll get back to the actual post subject...

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by kdtipa

"slowly becoming a ghost town" sounds to me like there's already evidence of that. The town I live in has under 20K people, but it's got business, and the population is holding steady. It's just hard for me to accept a definition of a town with 100K+ people including the term "ghost town". The cities near me have around 40K people. Boston, Massachusetts has approximately 645K people.

I don't know... It just sounds weird. I suppose "Ghost Town" would be based more on number of people compared to how many the city could support at its normal level. Anyway, I'll get back to the actual post subject...

I'm thinking of something like Detroit, which got reduced from almost 2M to something like 700k people within 50-60 years, and gained empty, abandoned, run-down districts.

[kdtipa]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Yes, the guidelines are for looking for a type of person, not a specific person. To find a specific person who isn't in the phone book, you have to actually investigate. If it's a runaway teenager then you check their communications, talk to their friends, look at their credit card activity, and then move on to flashing their picture in the hooker strolls and checking the morgues.

I think a big part of it is the type of target, and whether they're consciously trying to hide. David mentions the teenager, and it sounds right. If we're talking about an opponent "agent" of some kind, I think you're pretty much screwed without a lucky break.

[kdtipa]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I'm thinking of something like Detroit, which got reduced from almost 2M to something like 700k people within 50-60 years, and gained empty, abandoned, run-down districts.

Ah... good example. You have convinced me of the appropriateness of your choice of words. :)