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

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Lamech

If the PC's are given the job of "Find the man with natural blue hair, grey eyes and a chicken tattoo on his ankle. He is 23 years old." And they go to New York and low and behold, they find three people who have all those qualifications? They won't be able to find the "right" one. OTOH, if the "right" person is actually 25 years old, they won't be able to figure it out. They want a 23 year old.

The description can be pretty vague "The blonde kid who worked at my Dad's store three years ago" is enough as long as there is only one blonde kid who worked at the Dad's store three years ago. If there were three its not. If there were zero its not.

Basically when the PCs are given the target, whatever they are given as a description must describe one, and only one person.

Those facts are not the task. Those facts are the means by which they are to perform the task. They may or may not have means adequate to the purpose. Any description you can give, if the requirement is only, "Find a person of this description," will be not "find a specific individual" but "find a person in such and such a category" and will use those rules. (Thus, as a city gets bigger, on one hand the chance of your finding some person who fits a description gets better, but on the other hand the chance of finding a particular individual gets worse.)

Bill Stoddard