So, in ramping up my new, handout-heavy game, I'm making a number of document templates in InDesign - screamsheets, catalogs, shit like that. One of them is a personnel dossier file template for when people dig up info on contacts, targets, interested parties, et cetera. It's basically the kind of basic info any SIN scanner will pull up if it finds your data in the system. The problem I'm having is that I want to make sure I've covered ALL the fields. So I've decided to solicit you folks for ideas about what kind of data to include. So far, my list is this - and these ARE arranged as they will roughly appear on the sheet, so let me know if my information hierarchy is dumb:

Photo
SIN (The actual record number)
Full Name
Known Aliases
DOB
Sex
Race
Nationality
Height
Weight
Eye Color
Blood Type
Magician (Mundane/Magician/Adept/Known Sensitive)
Marital Status
Residential Address
Commcode
Distinguishing Marks/Modifications
Known Cyber/Bioware
Educational History
Employment History
Affiliations/Groups (Poltical, criminal or corporate)
Medical History/Conditions
Licenses & Permits
Vehicle & Property Titles
?????
At the end: Remarks and other associated shit.

So... What do I add, and where?

Sorry, James McMurray, I've been slow as hell about getting this stuff done and sharing it with people. My PCs have spent their entire time wandering in the desert and have just now arrived in Jerusalem, so it wasn't terribly pressing to get stuff done until now.

Medical history and criminal records should be on there too, off the top of my head.
Also contact info, known address(es), associated licenses (real or fake) should all show up here.

Iris ID and other biometric data used for identification.

Added! Also added "Known Aliases"

Perhaps also vehicles and properties registered to the subject.

Also, for corporate consideration, purchasing habits might be tagged on, since they go through all the trouble of tracking them.

Eh, I don't want to add that, because I don't know how to describe it in a fashion that is useful for players - this is handout material, not the actual record. I also don't want to include that because I expect it would be encrypted except to authorized sources; Joe Shadowrunner shouldn't be able to pull up someone's DNA marker data to use in a spoof attempt unless he's also spoofed his credentials to require such a thing.

Added Vehicles & Property Titles.

Not gonna add purchasing habits, since I won't want to type all that out for every random-ass contact. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Sounds interesting...
...Any chance you can make the templates available for download ??

Even PDFs of completed templates would do, as something to use as a basis for our own creative endeavours ??

Yes, I'm absolutely intending to make things available for download. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Indeed.... Please? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

EDIT: AWESOME....... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You gotta ask: what kind of SIN file is this exactly?

A SIN is one universal number to track you, for everyone. Both the government and corporations. It's like a phone number, bank account number and social security number all in one. It makes data mining and sharing data between organizations very easy (provided they're willing to share).

So there's the following:

1) A stump file: your SIN and biometrics to verify that the person standing before the inspector is really the owner of that SIN. It'll contain your name, DOB, maybe even a primary residence, and probably if there are warrants for your arrest. In that case, it'll be flagged so that scanning it will gain somebody's attention.
This is the only thing a scanner will look up: comparison data to verify that the SIN belongs with you there.

2) And then there's the Government Files About You. Those a hundreds of files, all tied together and to you with that SIN.

3) And then there's the Corporation X's Files About You. Shopping history and so forth. Also tied together and to you with that SIN.

What you're thinking about is a lot like category 2, but a scanner doesn't show you that, really. It just checks if the guy before you is who he says he is.

Of course, in a dystopian world, a lowly beat cop might have absurdly much clearance to call up files from category 2, but that's a different thing altogether.

Well, as I said:



Obviously, it is a "dossier" template. It is not what the stuffer shack pulls up when it runs its rating 1 scanner. It is the equivalent of a basic background check. It's for players to keep track of their contacts and shit, not some kind of in-game tool to represent what a casual glance tells you about someone.

Also, I dispute your biometrics are all that will come up on a SIN scan, at least with rating 5+ scanners. You're gonna get all kinds of other shit, which is why those scanners are harder to fool. But that's neither here nor there: I'm just making a player aid here, man.

The whole point of the scanner is to confirm someone's identity. Better scanners use multiple biometrics and would be harder to fool.

The rest of the files belong to different organizations: every corporation tracks your shopping history, but they don't have your tax history. While the government has your tax history, but not your shopping history. So there's not one dossier to pull up; what you get depends on which organization you ask for the dossier.

Ascalaphus, I think you're getting hung up on the word "dossier". I see this as more of a collection of information gathered by PCs, using contacts, research, legwork, etc. The GM can give as little or as much of the information in the dossier to the players as he warrants, depending on the level of success. Information could have come from a variety of sources, databases, corps, etc.

At least, that's how I'm seeing it.

*eagerly awaiting the download (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I think, there would not be the actuel DNA-Coding but an Hash of the DNA. So it would not be possible to reconstuct the actuel DNA.

Same goes for Fingerprints and Iris

Indeed... That was what I was figuring as well... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
*also eagerly awaiting the download (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

THAT'S actually pretty cool. Maybe I should include something like that.

I suspect this sheet will go through a couple of revisions.

Family. When you pull up someone's credit report, you also get all the info on their parent and siblings, their phone numbers and addresses. It's usually how creditors track you down.
Can't imagine it's much different in the Sixth World.

Family is also a neat thing for players to keep track of. Grounds the character in a sense of normalcy, heritage and tradition.

Okay, here's the first draft of it. I'm only providing the PDF for now, since I'm working on interesting ways to spruce it up - graphics rather than the simple look it has now. I kinda want to keep it as a shitty printout looking thing, though, because while that may not be accurate for the world, it evokes in players the feeling of something official, I've found. At least it did when we were playing Delta Green.

Blank Dossier, with forms
The gray box on the right of the first page can be clicked, and an image input. The image size is (wierdly) 201x228px; you can input any size, and it'll resize it proportionally, though. Just probably don't wanna have it be too far from that aspect ratio.

Here's an example of a filled-in dossier:
Antonia Ocampo, aka Shivs

Nice! A couple things that you might be able to find room for:

• Matrix ability: neophyte, standard, hacker, technomancer
• A space for a personality profile, though I suppose this could go under "Remarks." This could be as simple as his psych eval records if he's a wage slave to detailed expectations of how the character will react to certain stimuli if he's a criminal being hunted.

There is one time when going way outside the aspect ratio might be good: when you want a blurry picture. First shrink it to around 100-125px high, then let the form resize it. That should give you a pixelated but just possibly recognizable image. For double fun, find three similar looking people on google images, give the PCs a dossier including a blurry photo of one of them, then have them run into all three during their assassination/extraction run.

mmm... I think I just got myself a run idea. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Yeah, the intent for Remarks was for it to encompass nonstandard info, but specifically stuff like psych evals and known abilities. I haven finished the Shivs dossier to my liking, but that's cuz I scribbled it in here at work.

I'm not able to save a copy on which I've written. Is that something that is amendable?

Interesting. I like it. Goood Work... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Wow. I feel GM inadequacy now... For Fake Sins, I assign a name using a name generator I found online (or the player can pick it if he is buying one). For ANY other item or license purchased, the player lists the name next to that item or license used to purchase it, or leaves it blank for "cash" sales or "two-handed discounts". So, when a player "burns" a SIN when it comes up on a failed SIN check, or it becomes associated with criminal activity, there is fallout that has to be dealt with for everything attached to that SIN's name. Licenses are scrapped, RFIDs may need to be changed, etc.
I don't think my players would go through the hassle of filling out this dossier and maintaining it, but I wish they would, 'cause it is awesome.

I would love to have something like this for each and every contact that I have for my characters. Unfortunately, I would probably be the only one using it in my group. In fact, I will likely use it for tracking Contacts and such in the future. Makes it interesting. And I enjoy interesting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)