bounty hunting and target identity verification

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glitterboy2098
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bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

During the invid period bounty hunting would most likely still be a fairly lucrative career. And certainly the players would want to take advantage of any bounties they can.

But in an age when genetic id requires tech and records few have, dental records probably don't exist, and cameras would not be common, how would the group putting out the bounty verify the ID of the target? Especially if the target is dead?

Historically there were a couple.of ways, but they are fairly gruesome. Bringing in the body was typical. Decapitation and bringing in the head was sometimes done as well. If a target has a distinguishing mark, bringing in that part of the body works to. For general bounties where the pay was by a class of taeget, people used to collect scalps, hands, ears, etc.

But many of these would suffer alignment issues. Can anyone think of less gruesome means?
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by Seto Kaiba »

glitterboy2098 wrote:During the invid period bounty hunting would most likely still be a fairly lucrative career.

Really? Because the general populace in the Robotech series seems to be generally focused on not pissing the Invid off, with the only apparent bounty hunting-like activities being searching for the soldiers who survived the various invasion attempts, and that seems to be more of a "catch him or we kill you all" sort of deal than having a tangible reward involved.


glitterboy2098 wrote:how would the group putting out the bounty verify the ID of the target? Especially if the target is dead?

Well, with most of the people who bounties would be on, that they're wearing a Mars Base/Expeditionary Forces uniform would probably do. Tech levels seem to vary from region to region though, so photos are not necessarily out of the question (if it's a film camera).


glitterboy2098 wrote:But many of these would suffer alignment issues. Can anyone think of less gruesome means?

Certified proof of decease from the local authorities? Maybe a photo of the corpse? Then again, the sort of folks likely to be doing bounty hunting on occupied Earth are going to be handing the bounty head over to the Invid anyway, so if they aren't a corpse already they will shortly be one.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

Actually Iwas thinking about the more organized communities. We see.several in the show. The town in the episode where the group first joins up had a bandit problem, and you can bet they'd have payed in suppliess and such for someone to have wiped them out. Norristown was very organized and had valuable supplies they could pay people with who dealt with criminals or bandits the police couldn't catch. Etc.

When you get into the RPG's world description, there are some areas, like europe, that even more organized than what we saw in the show. While the invid were certainly a factor, they seem to have left humans to their own devices as long as that didn't effect the invid directly. The invid don't seem like they'd be much interested in tracking down murderers, swindlers, bandits, rustlers, or the like. But the surviving communities would be, and while payment is likely to be in goods and services rather than currency, bounty hunting is a tool the law enforcement of a town could use to augment their sheriffs and cops.
And thee does seem to be some travel between towns and commerce (the cola truck, the settlers looking to.cross the mountains, etc.) So word of bounties can spread fairly wide, albeit maybe not fast.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

glitterboy2098 wrote:But many of these would suffer alignment issues. Can anyone think of less gruesome means?

Plaster moulds? (or some type of mould) of the face.

Noterized (or someone in a respected position to noterize a dead was completed, this may be as simple as an independent eye witness to having a legal authority in a given region, or even a newspaper)

Video (may or may not be the same as still pictures depending on ones POV).

Personal effects, like an ID or other "characteristic piece of attire" (rare hat/shirt with specific graphics, engraved jewellery/lighter, etc), or Dog tags (if they are military, they might still have them).

Bring them in alive.

Seto wrote:Really? Because the general populace in the Robotech series seems to be generally focused on not pissing the Invid off, with the only apparent bounty hunting-like activities being searching for the soldiers who survived the various invasion attempts, and that seems to be more of a "catch him or we kill you all" sort of deal than having a tangible reward involved.

If Scott, Rand, and Annie can find themselves in a jail cell put there by humans with no affiliation to the Invid, I can't see humans not having some type of bounty system in place for criminals or anyone else with assets to pay for services. I also would be surprised if Dusty Ares didn't have a bounty placed on his head, or the Garfish crew (for different reasons obviously).

Col. Wolfe trading soliders' lives for PC canisters, could certainly be described as a bounty. Wolfe might be a special case, but given Norristown it may not be. Then you have the island lake trap early on (NG#2) that could be seen as a bounty, trading soliders lives for "peace of mind".

So basically, yes "bounty hunting" should still be alive and well in RT Earth of this period with bounties offered up by various parties, not just the Invid.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by Jefffar »

"No disintegrations."

I think cameras may not be as uncommon as believed, especially in the more structured areas. Holographic devices even are possible.

That said, the usually undeniable proof of a successful bounty is bringing in the bounty alive.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by Chris0013 »

ShadowLogan wrote:
glitterboy2098 wrote:But many of these would suffer alignment issues. Can anyone think of less gruesome means?

Plaster moulds? (or some type of mould) of the face.

Noterized (or someone in a respected position to noterize a dead was completed, this may be as simple as an independent eye witness to having a legal authority in a given region, or even a newspaper)

Video (may or may not be the same as still pictures depending on ones POV).

Personal effects, like an ID or other "characteristic piece of attire" (rare hat/shirt with specific graphics, engraved jewellery/lighter, etc), or Dog tags (if they are military, they might still have them).

Bring them in alive.

Seto wrote:Really? Because the general populace in the Robotech series seems to be generally focused on not pissing the Invid off, with the only apparent bounty hunting-like activities being searching for the soldiers who survived the various invasion attempts, and that seems to be more of a "catch him or we kill you all" sort of deal than having a tangible reward involved.

If Scott, Rand, and Annie can find themselves in a jail cell put there by humans with no affiliation to the Invid, I can't see humans not having some type of bounty system in place for criminals or anyone else with assets to pay for services. I also would be surprised if Dusty Ares didn't have a bounty placed on his head, or the Garfish crew (for different reasons obviously).

Col. Wolfe trading soliders' lives for PC canisters, could certainly be described as a bounty. Wolfe might be a special case, but given Norristown it may not be. Then you have the island lake trap early on (NG#2) that could be seen as a bounty, trading soliders lives for "peace of mind".

So basically, yes "bounty hunting" should still be alive and well in RT Earth of this period with bounties offered up by various parties, not just the Invid.


Entirely believable in the post invasion setting you would have all these little cities, towns, villages who can't exactly go out and hunt all over the countryside for criminals to put some sort of bounty on the criminals they don't want to risk losing a sheriff or deputy.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

on a related topic.. would gold and silver in its various forms be used for the rewards of community set bounties? it seems that gold and silver, along with jewels and such, would make a good basis for intra-community trade if you can get it. odds are most available would be things like old jewelry and stuff, which being a luxury item ought to be tradeable anywhere for a fair amount of either local script or directly for useful goods.

it also lets actual prices be put on bounties.. 5 ounces silver for example for a particularly notorious murder, 10 for a bandit leader, etc (assuming they'd use weight since scales should be common, and it means they can weigh whatever gold/silver items they have)
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

glitterboy2098 wrote:on a related topic.. would gold and silver in its various forms be used for the rewards of community set bounties? it seems that gold and silver, along with jewels and such, would make a good basis for intra-community trade if you can get it. odds are most available would be things like old jewelry and stuff, which being a luxury item ought to be tradeable anywhere for a fair amount of either local script or directly for useful goods.

it also lets actual prices be put on bounties.. 5 ounces silver for example for a particularly notorious murder, 10 for a bandit leader, etc (assuming they'd use weight since scales should be common, and it means they can weigh whatever gold/silver items they have)

You may want to review two NG episodes that come to mind "Secret Route" and "The Fortress" for fully clarity/context, but in the episodes:
-"The Secret Route": The "Map to Paradise" was to be paid for in gold (Maxwell and the street hustler)
-"The Fortress" has Rand tossing a quarter into the egg/stasis chamber (weather this was a collector's piece or real currency is any ones guess) to see if he could wake them up for a diversion

But basically yes. Gold (and likely silver and other valuable materials) are already part of commerce, so I don't see why they wouldn't be part of any possible payment scheme. I don't recall what payment was to be used in a few other episodes where transactions took place (Romy was selling material, the bar in NG#3, Rand mentions trade in NG#2, Garfish Trading outpost, etc)
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

i asked because the RPG seems to assume either direct barter or obtaining community specific 'script' (payment vouchers basically) via selling stuff first.

glad to hear the show backs me up in that one. should be fairly easy to adapt western/frontier type elements in regards to paying with gold/silver by weight. (especially the various methods buyers and sellers used to make sure the stuff was legit)
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by Chris0013 »

glitterboy2098 wrote:i asked because the RPG seems to assume either direct barter or obtaining community specific 'script' (payment vouchers basically) via selling stuff first.

glad to hear the show backs me up in that one. should be fairly easy to adapt western/frontier type elements in regards to paying with gold/silver by weight. (especially the various methods buyers and sellers used to make sure the stuff was legit)


The 2nd edition NG book does make reference to gold being a commodity.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by guardiandashi »

Chris0013 wrote:
glitterboy2098 wrote:i asked because the RPG seems to assume either direct barter or obtaining community specific 'script' (payment vouchers basically) via selling stuff first.

glad to hear the show backs me up in that one. should be fairly easy to adapt western/frontier type elements in regards to paying with gold/silver by weight. (especially the various methods buyers and sellers used to make sure the stuff was legit)


The 2nd edition NG book does make reference to gold being a commodity.


I suspect precious metals, parts protoculture fuel etc are used for trade
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by jedi078 »

glitterboy2098 wrote:Historically there were a couple.of ways, but they are fairly gruesome. Bringing in the body was typical. Decapitation and bringing in the head was sometimes done as well. If a target has a distinguishing mark, bringing in that part of the body works to. For general bounties where the pay was by a class of target, people used to collect scalps, hands, ears, etc.

But many of these would suffer alignment issues. Can anyone think of less gruesome means?

Personally if a character is a bounty hunter who is taking on jobs where the bounty is 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' he/she probably doesn't possess a good alignment. Thus they are not going to feel bad if they kill and then decapitate the bounty in order to get paid.

Now some bounty hunters (those with a good alignment) may only take on jobs where the criminal is to be brought in alive so they can stand trial for their crimes according to whatever judicial system the city/town abides by.

As the GM you could just have the bounty be for a 'live' person so as to avoid the whole issue of killing the wanted person.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by Alrik Vas »

jedi078 wrote:Personally if a character is a bounty hunter who is taking on jobs where the bounty is 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' he/she probably doesn't possess a good alignment.

Pretty much this. Bounty Hunting isn't the nicest sort of business in a world where people openly carry weapons.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by Chris0013 »

Alrik Vas wrote:
jedi078 wrote:Personally if a character is a bounty hunter who is taking on jobs where the bounty is 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' he/she probably doesn't possess a good alignment.

Pretty much this. Bounty Hunting isn't the nicest sort of business in a world where people openly carry weapons.


I blame Star Wars for this sort of mentality on Bounty Hunting....generally the bounty hunters in SW are mercenaries doing anything got a buck.

I see no reason a person of good alignment would shy away from a dead or alive bounty posting....does not mean he will go out and just shoot the bad guy, chop off his head and bring it back for the money. A person of good alignment will do everything in their power to bring the guy in alive but if he is given no option would kill the bad guy.
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Re: bounty hunting and target identity verification

Unread post by Alrik Vas »

Of course they would. Yet why would a good person pursue Bounty Hunting as a profession when he could stay in his city as a local lawman instead? Even more, they, as a good person, could be a farmer, a tailor, a mechanic, something non-violent.
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