puzzling Circles

Okay. So in my game my friend Mike plays a crimelord, Gregor Demetryoff. He decides that he want to bug the office of my Vaylen Infiltrator who is the Ops Manager for the mining operation on the world. So he needs someone to bug the place.

He has an affilation with Org Crime at 3D plus a rep as the Boss with 3D.

It seems obvious (I say my famous last words) that a Crimelord should be able to find a criminal to bug the guys office without too much trouble. So I look at the obstacles. Here’s my question, some guy who plants bugs isn’t the same rank as a Crimelord. He’s not even, probably, one rank lower. He would be lowest rank for +2 ob?

Here was the way I initially figured it Base of 1, +2 for uncommon occupation, +2 for lowest station, +1 for competent. So an Obstacle of 6. Which is pretty high. (I know, enmity clause.) But still, it seems pretty difficult.

As I write this even I think I was a little off base in assessing this, so here is what I’m thinking now (which is probably obvious.) Base circles are your lifepaths which are like mini-affiliations. A guy who is basically a Burglar is still a Criminal, therefore there isn’t any Ob for station, right? Or is there? Does the Crimelords rep as the boss play into the circles assessment? On top of that, relative to circles, Burglar isn’t an uncommon occupation either. So that would mean Base of 1 +1 for competent. , or an ob of 2. Is that right or am I screwing it up?

Here’s another hypothetical I’ve been thinking about. Your character is an Anvil Lord now but at one point had the rank of Anvil Sargent. So when he does a circle roll, does his current LP rank figure into his circle roll to find another Sargent he knew back in the day?

A crimelord is insulated at the top. He doesn’t deal with the day to day operators. He needs to reach out to one of his lieutenants. He needs to tell that lieutenant to take care of things. If a crimelord wants to go all the way back down to the streets, it’s going to be risky. People are going to notice.

Regardless, a burglar is a common lifepath for the criminal world. That leaves you with station and skill. Ob 3 base, the player can ask for a more competent character and raise his obstacle if he wants.

Gotcha, thanks.

Yeah, don’t forget link tests to get this done. It sounds harder than it should be but it really does make sense in context. Putting a bribe out there (resources), Finding a fixer (circles) and asking relationships and other FONs to assist. it’s pretty easy to get your dice up there whereyou want them and feel like you really earned it. It’s also not unlikely that the person will do what you ask (if you fail) but the person doesn’t like you or is envious of what you have. Thus is the world of the criminal underground :slight_smile:

It’s not that the ob is too high it’s that you may have downplayed the importance of people to your character. Not all crime lords are in touch with the little guy and sometimes the little guy doesn’t want to go anywhere near the crime lord.

  • Don