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> Hunting Someone Down
Iduno
post Jul 13 2017, 04:28 PM
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I'm planning on having the players try to hunt down someone who is in hiding. What type of rolls would that be?

Maybe tracking if they've been somewhere recently, and shadowing to tail them? Some sort of matrix or social test to get close to where they are? Make up a set of clues and hope the players find the clues and get the correct information from it? Probably a bit of all of them?

I notice the blandness quality mentions social tests to find someone, but doesn't mention what sorts of rolls would be called for.

For the full story: the target is a former musician being hunted by bounty hunters for unpaid debts, and the players have to find the target and bring him safely to the band so they can re-start their careers. Knowing he is being followed, he moves around, but will still go hang out places he knows are willing to be discreet. Once the players start looking, the bounty hunters (if they hear the players are looking) might follow the players to find out what they know. We can roleplay some of that, but I'm stuck on what to do when the dice come out. I am also willing to take suggestions on clues they can find.
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Stingray
post Jul 13 2017, 04:54 PM
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..does PC's have mage or shaman? (spirits might help)
is target awakened?
do PC's have something belonging to target? (possible somatic link)
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Iduno
post Jul 13 2017, 07:53 PM
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The target is not awakened. The players have not met him, so using the team mage or a spirit to track him astrally may not work. I think they need to know what his aura looks like for astral searches?

They do not have anything of his, but if the Johnson is working with his former band, they may have something that could be used. I'll have to add that as a possibility.

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Titan
post Jul 13 2017, 09:33 PM
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Well, the usual place to start would be with a Matrix Search.

That would cover stuff on social media and such. Remember, even if the target stays off the 'trix, it doesn't mean s/he isn't caught in someone elses trideo / video / picture. There could also be a Matrix run to uncover documents (such as financials and such) from hosts.

Assuming that fails, or your group avoid it, they could move on to Social Skills. Problem here is, there really isn't much published (that I have ever seen) in this area.
I would start by considering a Negotiation roll. While you aren't trying to buy the target, it isn't entirely unlike trying to track down a seller for an item you want.
If that fails, or doesn't fit very well, the last thing I can think of is an Etiquette roll. Not the best fit in my opinion, but the core book does say:
QUOTE (Core Book pg. 141)
You can use Etiquette to ease suspicions, so that people might trust you more than they would an outsider.
So it could work.
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SpellBinder
post Jul 14 2017, 05:37 AM
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Social depends on your methods. Con can work out just as well...

"Yeah, I'm Mr. Smith with [high school] reunion comity and I found our address on [mark] isn't up to date. Do you happen to have a current commcode, or know where he can be reached?"

Co-workers of previous places of employment can also be a wellspring of info, and so on. Hopefully Johnson had a modicum of information to give before loosing the runners onto the streets.
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Iduno
post Jul 14 2017, 12:58 PM
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QUOTE (SpellBinder @ Jul 14 2017, 12:37 AM) *
Co-workers of previous places of employment can also be a wellspring of info, and so on. Hopefully Johnson had a modicum of information to give before loosing the runners onto the streets.


Johnson is both, so that will probably help. I'll remember to leave the runners the (burner) commcode for follow-up questions. Wants them to succeed, so it's worth it.

I figure the target has been reaching out to old contacts, which would be easy enough to get a list of once the players/characters put that together. Considering the players are hunting down the musician for good reasons, the truth would probably be the best way to get help from his old contacts (etiquette).

It's exciting planning a run that will take either 2 or 7 hours depending on the players' ability to find clues (easy enough for me to add anywhere they search that seems reasonable) and follow up on the clues they find. I'll have to look/make up some characters to show up in the background to flesh things out more if they're going through too fast, and I've already got an idea for if they're just not seeing the clues like I am (so 80% chance).
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Tecumseh
post Jul 14 2017, 04:50 PM
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If you have Cutting Aces, there's a long example of a very similar situation (tracking down someone in hiding by using Social skills) at the end of the book. See p. 164-166.
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Sturmlied
post Jul 18 2017, 12:17 PM
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As tracking down the guy is the big part of the first phase of the run I would break that down in different clues that will lead to the target.

Now my tip would not to overthink it. Don't prepare clues for the players to find... most of the time they will go a completely different direction. I would ahead of the session consider what the character that is on the run will do and establish kind of a pattern for him as a guideline for myself.
When the players do their thing the rolls will depend on what they actually do.

Is the decker going through his social media and online profile? Data Search! Maybe he wants to track his financials? Well he will need to hack a few systems.

Is the mage trying to track him with magic? Their are rules for that.

Is the face going around asking people questions? Social skill checks and a good amount of roleplaying?

Is the rigger sending out an army of drones with facial recognition software? That would be pilot + software rating... maybe and edge role for luck.

Is the streetsam trying to beat the location out of the guys best friend? Interrogation is the thing here

I think you get the point....

My approach usually would be to send the players on a bit of a chase that requires them to use multiple skills and the players themselves to figure out the puzzle.
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Iduno
post Jul 18 2017, 04:14 PM
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After-action report (note, we were all a little off because allergies have been hitting hard):

The players were informed they needed to track down a musician to get a band back together, and that there were bounty hunters also looking for the musician due to gambling debts. They were also provided with the comcode for a brand new (clean) comlink, and provided time to ask questions. The Johnsons (the recording label was footing the bill, but the band/friends were the contact) provided the last known address of the musician. The players went through the landlord who didn't want to show that unit (it had recently been ransacked by bounty hunters), and the players didn't want to break in. Security was a single patrolling watcher spirit (the players knew this), but my players tend towards being over-cautious. The bounty hunters would have removed anything of significant value, but would have left behind a reference to a bar and sympathetic links for the mage to follow up on. These were the only set in stone clues I prepared in advance.

The Johnsons also provided a former favorite hangout of the musician. The players visited here second. The mage failed an etiquette test (4 dice) with the bartender because nobody else wanted to talk. The sammy/face had knowledge of bars, did well on a knowledge check to determine who to talk to, and I luckily happened to think of a local music bar I've been in. He talked to the sound guy, a friend of the musician, and learned the musician had been staying with former bartenders and sound people at the bars he used to play in. I made this an etiquette test as well, because the sam/face decided to go the route of telling the truth when he realized the sound guy was a friendly. The team decker got into the sound guy's comlink to see if he made any calls (good plan), and discovered someone else had already tapped it, and was listening to conversations.

Another bars knowledge check was made to determine where people would go to listen to the style of music the musician played, which led them to the Ork Underground. Another failed social check was followed by the team using the Johnsons' comcode to prove they were trying to help the musician (part of why I provided it), information was promised to arrive in an hour, and the bartender told them to wait at a particular bar. The decker noticed the sam's low-end comlink had been tapped during the call, traced it back to a bounty hunter, and sent a message to the bounty hunter from the bounty hunter's comlink. The Ork bounty hunter seen later as they were heading to the (hopeful) meet with the musician, was promptly ignored until they got out of the tourist area of the Underground, and was lost as they moved to the new area (bad rolls on the players' parts).

The players learned the musician was busy sleeping off the previous night still, but were provided an address. The Ork bounty hunter returned with 2 gangers as they were leaving the bar, offered an insultingly low sum for the information with the alternative being violence, and the players chose violence. The mage cast a high-force mob mind spell and told everyone in the bar to drop their weapons in the middle of the fight. Somehow everyone passed their will checks with almost all dice being hits, so the spell didn't last long. The team was a bit upset that the spell targeted them as well (leading to the decker shooting the mage in the back with a gel round after the run was finished), but the fight ended fairly quickly with one of the gangers dead, and the other 2 opposition knocked out.

They met the musician, spooked him, mentioned the names of the band when he tried to sneak out the back way, and passed over a secure comlink with the comcode for the band. An improved invis spell on the musician and another on the mage, with successful stealth checks by everyone else got everyone past the Skraacha looking into the bar fight and safely out of the underground.

We learned that the truth is sometimes better than lies, and trails are hard to follow when everyone is tired.
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Savar
post Jul 18 2017, 04:38 PM
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Neat
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Tecumseh
post Jul 18 2017, 05:30 PM
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Thanks for writing up the recap. Sounds like a good session to me, although the mage might not agree. Bold of the decker to tag someone who knows Mob Mind with a gel round. The decker could find himself/herself doing something embarrassing in public.
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Iduno
post Jul 20 2017, 12:52 PM
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Oh, I left out the fun (for the GM) portion of the run. Slowly dropping partial descriptions of Sirius B (the musician). Caucasian dwarf, well-known musician, heavy drinker and gambler. One player made the connection between his name and the satellite radio station, but apparently nobody had the astronomy knowledge to pick up that Sirius B is a degenerate white dwarf star.

Oh course, if I reveal that to my players, I may need to start inserting stupid jokes into all of my runs instead of just most of them.
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Tecumseh
post Jul 20 2017, 04:57 PM
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I appreciate obscure references, but I'm a minor astronomy buff (say Astronomy 2 in terms of knowledge skills) and even I didn't know that Sirius B was a white dwarf star. Now if you had made the target a magical rocker casting illusions and Entertainment spells and had him follow Dog as a totem then I would have gotten the reference, but not this one.
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SpellBinder
post Jul 20 2017, 07:42 PM
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QUOTE (Iduno @ Jul 20 2017, 05:52 AM) *
Oh, I left out the fun (for the GM) portion of the run. Slowly dropping partial descriptions of Sirius B (the musician). Caucasian dwarf, well-known musician, heavy drinker and gambler. One player made the connection between his name and the satellite radio station, but apparently nobody had the astronomy knowledge to pick up that Sirius B is a degenerate white dwarf star.

Oh course, if I reveal that to my players, I may need to start inserting stupid jokes into all of my runs instead of just most of them.
Gonna drop other astronomical names on them, like Arcturus, Regulus, Cygnus? Maybe a cousin named Bellatrix that's a little... strange?
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Iduno
post Jul 20 2017, 08:55 PM
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I was thinking of mythological beasts and spirits. Or puns. But more astronomy might work as well.
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