I go checkin' out the reports; diggin' up the dirt.
You get to meet all sorts, in this line of work.
- Dire Straits, Private Investigations
New Hope, Late March '01: Find
Makavan reluctantly paid the cover charge to enter the nightclub and headed for the bar. He'd heard on the street that his quarry came in here sometimes, and you had to speculate to accumulate. He put on his Old Money manners like a comfortable old jacket to blend in, leaning back on the bar and nursing his drink while he looked around.
A pair of upmarket xeogs swayed over to him and smouldered at him, one from each side.
"Hello handsome," one purred, using the noise of the music as an excuse to get close enough to his ear to brush against it. "What's a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?"
"Working," he said, and to avoid matters developing in a direction which would cost him a night's diligent searching: "I'm looking for this guy, have you seen him? I hear he sometimes comes in here." He showed them the holocube the razor had given him. They made a show of examining it, using that as an excuse to leave their long blue fingers resting on his just a little longer than they needed to.
"I think we've seen him," one said. "Yes," the other confirmed, "In the Green's at this end of Pub-and-Rec. A couple of nights ago. He was boring. Are you going to be boring, handsome? We're vid stars, we can make you famous."
"Probably," he sighed, wondering what kind of vids they made. Probably the kind he wouldn't want his family seeing. "I'm on a clock here."
"Your loss," they pouted; one winked, the other laughed, and they wandered off, arm in arm, in search of easier prey.
Makavan wandered out into the night. The transit might still be running, and it was worth checking out the Pub & Rec district; he could get lucky. It had to happen sometime.
Status at End March '01
- IRD/DRD: +5 (Find Job, pending completion), +1 (defeat opponent), +1 (successful interaction), -3 (ship upkeep). Total -1.
- 5150 Stats: Rep: 5. Current IRD: -1 (roll 5 so no penalty). Lifetime IRD: 10.
- SWADE Stats: Bennies: 3. Wounds: 0. Advances: None.
GM Notes
Having survived the attempted mugging, we now turn our attention to finding the hishen we're after, using the rules on pp. 40-41 of 5150 No Limits Maiden Voyage. Essentially this means resolving 1d3 PEFs, any of which may turn into a fight; the ones which don't may generate clues, and once you collect enough clues, you find the target NPC.
We had a short but detailed fight last time, so I decide to use SWADE Quick Encounters (p. 134) for any Confrontations and Networking (p. 133) for interacting with NPCs, with a Raise representing a successful "further interaction" and thus a clue.
The dice give me one PEF, a pair of Xeog Shakers, which given the above and the fact it does not result in a Confrontation don't need to be detailed further, so I roll Simon's Persuasion for Networking and as he has Wealth d8 I make a Wealth roll to gain a +2 on that roll; success, so Wealth drops to d6, and the Persuasion roll Aces as well, giving me a 10 for a Success and a Raise. First Clue found.
However, I now need to roll 1d3 and score the number of Clues I have (1) or less to find the NPC; I roll a 3, and must try again next month. This is the downside of Find missions, they can take several months and you don't get paid until the end.
Another short one this time, but that's okay, we're not ending world hunger here, just killing an hour or two doing something slightly more creative than watching TV.
No comments:
Post a Comment