Skill Assistance
From Chronicles
Life can be rough.
Sometimes, a PC may completely exhaust all of his skills and IC knowledge in the search for some piece of information, artifact and so on. What do you do now?
Ideally, you go to another PC, and get them involved in the search. If that is impossible, improbable or unwanted for some reason, there are NPCs around who might be able to help. After all, Kingsdale is a big city. There are many NPCs, from street thugs to museum experts with knowledge of just about everything. This is where the common Streetwise skill gets its base concept, tapping these sources in a general sense.
Still, PCs sometimes get smacked with a stick when it comes to luck of the roll, and also run into a brick wall of general RP searches. This is where off-camera NPC interaction might occur.
An NPC can be tapped for use with skill rolls being made by the GM. The standard method of hiring one of these NPCs is at the cost of 100 credits per single skill point (1% = 100cr). So hiring a street urchin with a 13% Streetwise skill would cost a PC 1,300 credits. Someone with a fifty-fifty shot would cost 5,000 credits, et cetera. No matter how silver-tongued you are, NPCs will always "charge" this constant rate.
If a PC hires an NPC, be very careful what you're asking for! Hiring someone with Robot Mechanics to get information about where to find a Super Spell scroll is probably not the best way to go. Lore: Magic might be more appropriate. Further, each NPC will only ever have two skill areas at a time. This is intentional, as it cuts down on PCs simply phoning in legwork with NPCs and a wad of cash. Be careful what you want to do with those complex NPC +jobs.
PCs interacting is still the favored method. The MUX is all about role play, after all. Legwork +jobs can be coordinated between players to enhance searches by combining applicable skills. If one PC is looking for a unique mechanism to hide a weapon signature and has Find Contraband, he could in theory team up with someone who perhaps has Mechanical Engineering. In this assisted legwork, 50% of whichever skill is lower will be added to the other skill to improve the overall "general" skill for this single +job to find that unusual piece of gear. If Find Contraband was 20%, and Mechanical Engineering 10%, Mechanical Engineering would be divided by two and added to Find Contraband for a final total of 25% to find that item.
Obviously, the bonus will end with the +job is done or the PCs are no longer deliberately working together.
NPCs can be hired in a similar method to work with a PC and a skill, but with the additional requirement of the initial payment for their skills in the first place.
People are around, both PCs and NPCs alike. When hiring or using an NPC expert, make a request using the +job Legwork bucket.
Just a last note, there are special named NPCs on the grid which may have different rates and charges. But they require role-playing scenes where they are controlled by the GM. Or a +jobs Legwork to request a scene with them.
