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The Emperor's Eyes and Ears

R

rancke

Absent Friend
Say that you're an Imperial noble of proven wit and loyalty. You're asked by Strephon or the Minister of Justice to become a special agent of the Emperor. Your job will have three parts: You may be asked to go somewhere and fix a problem (Troubleshooting) or you may be asked to go somewhere and investigate some allegation. In between assignments, you are to roam around your assigned territory (maybe a quadrant (4 subsectors), maybe a full sector) and check up on the local Imperial nobles and bureaucrats (frankly, spying on them). The second sort of assignment may or may not require that you're incognito. The third kind definitely will require it.

You have a budget for half a dozen assistants, a ship no larger than 800 dT and a crew for the ship. You can have any sort of false identification that you ask for.

What sort of cover story would you come up with?


Hans
 
TNS Reporter - would throw off anybody thinking you're working for the government, and you might even get to ask better questions.
 
Some kind of performance artist like musician or something like that, depending on the setting. Use the nobility as kind of a marketing thing, like "Prince". Your sound guy can also do electronic survalence, perhaps the bass player is a demolition expert. It would be a great cover, get you invited to all the right parties, and gives you plenty of excuses for odd behaviour.
 
Igevar revolutionary trying to garner sympathy from the locals and start an uprising. Try to see if they will take the bait.

High tech courtesans turning tricks and playing people for information.

Apathetic drunken travelers. (not a stretch)
 
rancke said:
You have a budget for half a dozen assistants, a ship no larger than 800 dT and a crew for the ship. You can have any sort of false identification that you ask for.

What sort of cover story would you come up with?
Click to expand...

For the kind of access you want, I would go with either:

1. Non-title-inheriting (i.e., second-born) dilettante offspring seeking marriage partner to foster political/megacorporate power consolidation,

or

2. Private investment manager seeking top-end clientele for invitation-only investment opportunities that are not majority-controlled by the Imperial family.

Either one should create ample scenarios for closed-door, off-the-record meetings with the rich & powerful, and their retainers, henchmen, cousins, etc., to discuss the "real" state of political and financial affairs within their families, businesses, and domains of influence.

In the first case, a bigger-than-usual family yacht is called for -- to show what your own family would bring to the party -- say, 400 to 600 dtons; in the second case, a corporate courier in the 200 to 400 dton range should provide enough protection without drawing too much attention.

For the half-dozen retainers, recruit from the Diplomat career template, and load them up with Private Investigator HumInt skills like Carousing, Admin, Liaison, Gambling, Bribery, Electronics, Computer, Interrogation, and so on, so they can cozy up to all levels of the staff in each target household.

Budget lots of MCr for parties and blue-collar bribes... as well as hiring the occasional party of adventurers for any hands-dirty espionage that might be warranted from time to time.

Note that Option 2 above may also be used, with care, to create blackmail opportunities, and thereby generate further introductions as desired. Just make sure there is enough legitimate revenue streaming in to keep your "partners" hooked.
 
^ All very good.

I think some of it hinges on whether you are a born noble or raised from the gentry through military service or professional recognition. Either way, there may be some inherent fame associated with your name that you might not be able to shake.

If noble born, it may be easier to wander about as a Bruce Wayne type, spending the family's billions on wine and women, hiding in plain sight. In fact, the more attention you garner as a reckless billionaire playboy, the more at ease your targets will be, convinced you are nothing but a playboy. For some reason I keep thinking of Antonio Banderas in "The Mask of Zorro", convincing his host of his nobility and becoming privy to his dastardly plans.

If raised from the ranks then you may be a relative nobody and may even be spurned by the nobleborn you sent to investigate. That said, having Imperial credentials but an unknown background could allow you disappear into the crowd as just another citizen, with little chance of being recognized by royal-watchers, papparazzi, or the like. When necessary, you have "the badge" to fall back on, otherwise you have your wits.

With a ship, a crew, and a subsidy, you could easily hide among the multitude of speculative traders plying the spaceways. Horace Bury, Imperial Magnate, (The Gripping Hand version, not the Mote version) comes to mind immediately. He and his pilot were both Imperial Intelligence agents mascarading as merchants. Merchants would naturally be curious about local politics and, given the right connections, may even be enlisted to support certain plots and power grabs of interest.

Good luck, Hans. It's a fun situation you're in.
 
rancke said:
Say that you're an Imperial noble of proven wit and
loyalty. You're asked by Strephon or the Minister of Justice to become a
special agent of the Emperor. Your job will have three parts: You may be
asked to go somewhere and fix a problem (Troubleshooting) or you may be asked
to go somewhere and investigate some allegation. In between assignments, you
are to roam around your assigned territory (maybe a quadrant (4 subsectors),
maybe a full sector) and check up on the local Imperial nobles and
bureaucrats (frankly, spying on them). The second sort of assignment may or
may not require that you're incognito. The third kind definitely will require
it.

You have a budget for half a dozen assistants, a ship no larger than 800 dT
and a crew for the ship. You can have any sort of false identification that
you ask for.

What sort of cover story would you come up with?


Hans
Click to expand...

I thought those guys never asked for jobs they were groomed.

"Can I play too! Can I play too!" Puh-leez! Those are usually
the last guys you want in that type of business... Okay, I'll
dispense with some RL rationalization and follow the RPG-logic ;)

<I am kidding>

One of my favorite characters in Dune was Count Fenring. Plays dumb
but will be happy to stab you in the heart... :smirk:

Troubleshooting -- visiting a foreign land sounds most plausible as a tourist
but one that's got some sort of idea where he's going and what's going on. A
good way to gain friends is to donate credits to some organization that hopefully
isn't involved and yet can give you in-depth information (discreetly) in exchange
for your generosity. That'd be if you don't know the lay of the land. Your extended
stay might include the locals "lending" you a know-it-all who can be primed for
information...willingly.

That could translate to the next portion of your post. "Well on my journey to ____
I found that having a local expert..."

The third option would require enough of a background to be able not be out of place,
probably with people not only not knowing who you are or caring. You might need a
local ship or something that won't make people think twice about you showing up in
some area. You might need to disappear once you arrive or something that tempers your
appearance like a sudden hospital stay, which seems to have taken you out of the picture...
The question is, can you get away with it ?

In all of the above I'd say the main way to get information is going to be in exchange
for something, be it credits or something else, such as the promise of talks with a
megacorp or something like getting someone's kid into _____; that sort of thing.:D


>
 
Gadrin said:
I thought those guys never asked for jobs they were groomed.

"Can I play too! Can I play too!" Puh-leez! Those are usually
the last guys you want in that type of business... Okay, I'll
dispense with some RL rationalization and follow the RPG-logic ;)

<I am kidding>
Click to expand...
Have you read Dorothy Gilman's books about Mrs. Pollifax? Elderly widow grows bored with her dull life and applies to the CIA for a job. They're absolutely hilarious. And not nearly as implausible as that line makes them sound ;).

Troubleshooting -- visiting a foreign land sounds most plausible as a tourist
but one that's got some sort of idea where he's going and what's going on. A
good way to gain friends is to donate credits to some organization that hopefully
isn't involved and yet can give you in-depth information (discreetly) in exchange
for your generosity. That'd be if you don't know the lay of the land. Your extended
stay might include the locals "lending" you a know-it-all who can be primed for
information...willingly.
Click to expand...
What I had in mind is that the agent has a territory. If something needs to be done inside that territory, he's ordered to fix it. If it happens elsewhere, the agent who covers that territory gets told. But so as not to waste your valuable time when there is no problem to fix (rather, when Strephon & Co. are unaware of any problems -- not the same thing at all! ;)), you also have a roving commision to ferret out problems (and, to be fair, to report when some noble or bureaucrat does an exceptionally good job and merits a promotion).

So while you may be sent to foreign lands, you're main cover story will have to work inside the Imperium.


Hans
 
I'm not the only one, through all this Imperial Warrant and Eyes and Ears, to keep thinking about "The Inspector General" as a great plot for a Traveller adventure in this, am I?
 
Well there's any number of wrinkles and dimensions that'll make various things work. I think what's nice in an RPG, usually things are more clear-cut, but looking back at some of the rumors placed in various CT adventures things can be just as nebulous.

It's probably a factor or how well read the player is, when you "drop him the hint that everyone knows" -- except the guy who never read that book or saw that... But easily remedied by a competent GM who expects things can go in a different direction.

I'm tempted to request a "one-off" PBP by you as GM for the Spice Ship adventure seed you laid in the JTAS writeup. I think that'd be a good scenario to work out.

Maybe some day.

>
 
Holy Crap, Sherman set the way back machine...

rancke said:
Have you read Dorothy Gilman's books about Mrs. Pollifax? Elderly widow grows bored with her dull life and applies to the CIA for a job. They're absolutely hilarious. And not nearly as implausible as that line makes them sound ;).


/ka-snip/
Click to expand...
Why yes, I have! My mom got me started on them back when I was a kid. They were fun if totally not real....

Still would make for a really good cover.

Now I have to go and read the rest of this post and thread...


EDIT: OK, finished now, and nice stuff.
 
Last edited:
Back in the 80's a rolled up a character like that for a game. An middle-aged dilletante noble with eccentric, amybe dangerous tastes in female companionship.
 
boomslang said:
For the kind of access you want, I would go with either ...(snip)
Click to expand...

This!

You want a cover that gains you easy access to your targets and gives you ample opportunity to spot, assess, develop and recruit them. You recruit and pay support agents (i.e. henchmen) to run your network at different socio-economic levels... i.e. handling.

As boomslang eludes to -- you have to give to get... and whatever your cover, people should want to talk to you, because they think they will get something (money/wealth) from an association with you.

Remember to determine up front if you want your activity clandestine or covert.
 
Actually I was thinking about "Family d'Alembert" of E. E. "Doc" Smith and Stephen Goldin but thanks for the Gutenberg link. More to read.
 
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