 March 5, 2010 - 10:47am | 3/8/2010 This post has been updated per comments below. Not My RobotThe party is hired ad-hoc by a research and development corporation, PeepCo & Phred (Peep for short) to investigate a series of break-in's by robots. The company is undergoing internal changes and does not want to draw attention to their shareholders - it has been decided to hire outside investigators.The CrimeTwo days ago a robot entered secretively using the air reclamation ductwork by way of the underground garage. The robot was spotted by a routine security sweep of the buildings robot security force. When the robot was confronted by security staff it deactivated immediately. Fortunately the robot was not able to access to the sensitive areas of the building. Although Peep employs roboticist they are unable to determine how the robot knew about the inner workings of the building. A system dump reveals nothing out of the ordinary.If the party reviews the robot system dump or questions the robot they gain the following knowledge; » Robots owner is an elderly yazirian lady across town, Meeb Becker. » The robot is programmed with a map of the city; specific areas are highlighted on the map but not labeled. By cross referencing the map the labeled areas are medical supply store fronts, general stores, a residential address, a church (Members of One) and a cemetery. (If the party investigates these locations they are common places the robot is sent for goods, services, mail and religious activities. The robot records meetings at the church to be played back to Ms. Becker.) » Nothing else can be determined for the dump. » The robot has no knowledge of his actions for the past 9 hours. He was at home monitoring his owner when it went blank and "woke" up in the building. » The robot is linked to MedHelp, a service that uses personal robots to monitor the elderly and those needing assistance with getting around. Gaining records from MedHelp; » Under no circumstances will MedHelp release any information about Ms. Becker or the nature of the robots programming and uplink to MedHelp. » If the party decides to break the law by gaining the records illegally and are caught they will be penalized to the full extent of the law and fired by Peep. Employee records check at Peep; (Still working on this per my post at http://starfrontiers.us/node/4055 ) » Computer records indicate one employee was laid off due to job function elimination. No more detail is given. A PER/LOG or a vrusk comprehension check reveals the department is still active, but with one less employee. A v reveals identical information but also states what the department researches and includes social interactions with other Peep employee's. » A successful computer access skill check reveals the employee is Stanv Spink. Questioning Peep employees; » A representative from human resources is present during questioning of employees and will interrupt if the party asks questions that would reveal company secrets. » Nobody is aware of a rival company by name but corporate espionage is well known amount frontier corporations. » No recent threats have been filed. » Any question about Mr. Spink are met with eyes dropping to table and human resources stepping in and stating that Mr. Spink is no longer with the company and is beyond this investigations purpose. If the party decided to involved local authorities or Star Law they will be dismissed by Peep and paid only for the investigation time to present. Peep will be very disappointed. |
March 5, 2010 - 10:53am | Questions;
Answers; 3. The tech was escorted immediately out of the building and denied access - he is trying to get his experiments and equipment back. He has hired a local youth computer hacker. They have been able to re-build a small version of the robot controller. He user needs to be very close to the robot in order to use, fyi. 2. Breaking and entering, messing up someones office (tech's old boss). |
 March 5, 2010 - 8:12pm | what donnects the dots form the robot crimes to the tech? That wasn't so clear for me. sounds like CSI port loren to me I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 7, 2010 - 11:49am | what donnects the dots form the robot crimes to the tech? That wasn't so clear for me. sounds like CSI port loren to me I'm still asking questions myself, good one jedion. How about this; One of the tech's that worked with the bad guy pulls the party aside. He is friends with the bad guy but does not know where he lives and only a few of his habits/hang-out spots. He is scared to tell the corp that he knows who's behind this - he fears for his life because he knows this guy is bad news with the robot-controlling technology and will stop at nothing to "get back" at the corp. |
March 7, 2010 - 4:34pm | what donnects the dots form the robot crimes to the tech? That wasn't so clear for me. sounds like CSI port loren to me I'm still asking questions myself, good one jedion. How about this; One of the tech's that worked with the bad guy pulls the party aside. He is friends with the bad guy but does not know where he lives and only a few of his habits/hang-out spots. He is scared to tell the corp that he knows who's behind this - he fears for his life because he knows this guy is bad news with the robot-controlling technology and will stop at nothing to "get back" at the corp. Ok that works but I dont like to just "give away" clues so make it a PER role to get it from him or an INT check to realize hes nervous or Comprehension roll for a vrusk or even an empathy subskill roll from the Red Headed STep Child of AD skills. even Role Play it but wait to divulge info till after certain trigger question on the PC's part are asked. (make note on trigger questions and keep them handy) Also there would be other ways to develop that information- - a records check with LOG roll could help develop some of the info (Particulary if they ask questions about recently fired or disgruntled employees or a question about anyone threaten the corp or its personnel - Computer records check with associated rolls - possible autopsy of equipment involved and a non standard widget or such is discovered that makes people say that's not suppose to be there. It has a brand name and that could lead to tracking the manufacturer or point of sale. which would trigger a link to the disgruntled employee. Some advice- 1. Prepare a rogues gallery of NPCs (you dont need stat blocks unless its likely they will be in combat though you can just specify Level 2 or level 3 and all stats and skill level for the NPC are based off the level: level 1 is 35%, level 2 is 40% and etc. the NPC has all skills needed to do his job or that you say he has on the fly) Once you have your rogues described by a breif paragraph you can make a rough guess at what sorts of information they would have EXample: Bozo Bob, facility director lazy slob who leaves most of his work to his assistant in favor of playing solitare on his computer, habitual lier rather than admit he doesn't know something. From this description its obvious he wont know much and will deny anything and everything: Does the company have any enemies? "Oh no, no enemies. Why would we have enemies?" or call his assistent and ask, "Assistent Dodo, Have there been any threats against the company?" She answers, "We've had no threats for 3 months" Bozo Bob hangs up the chronocom and says, "Nope, everyone loves us." With a quick description for each NPC you can make quick on the fly guesses about what that NPC will know or is likely to know. Its tough to cover all the bases cause you never know what the PCs will ask so having a rough idea will let you respond to the PCs surprise questions or roll against their level if you have to. 2. Prepare computer records ahead. Write them out or print them off and have them ready to give to PCs. This can be done a variety of ways: I once did a cut an paste of some artwork of Volturnus animals and typed up the description of them from the book and labeled them as scanner data uploaded to the computer - PCs hadn't encountered the animal yet (air whale was one of them) but it was a sort of fore warned is fore armed jesture on my part. but anything really can be a computer record or data file. list of parts requisitions by the tech, a graph of energy usuage the spikes only when the tech was in the lab and has dropped since (that bit would be some NPCs personal knowledge as they'd comment of the high utility bills that have suddenly dropped but they cant explain why) 3. dont throw too many red herrings it confuses players, have multiple bits of evidence leading to the smoking gun. and if they dont discover all the bits so what some can get recycled latter somewhere else. 4. since robots will play a prominent role make sure you have them specked out and write out their individual missions and functions as a PC is very likely to try List functions subskill. best have them on an index card to had over as that speeds play PCs can look at the while you're doing something else. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 9, 2010 - 11:40am | Any feedback? I have so much other stuff on my plate that I need to finish I wish I didn't start this idea yet... but since it's started I want to get if off my plate!!! I initially wanted this for an idea article for the webzine but now it looks like I need to write it as a single adventure. What I need; I need stats for various NPC's and robots and 4 pre-generated characters. I think I'm going to use the Character with Class article. Another robot break-in. A map of the corp building - in case the PC's want to hide out and hope another break-in happens. *ugh* |
