Bureaucracy (Society)
Base(s): Society
Usage: substitution(act) -> chk|sv= +M
◊ know(free-act) -> chk= +M
Usage (aspect): provenance -> Tech
◊ bypass(min) -> chk(CC-S)= +M(Deceive) +R -> set(PC)= 8 +M(Stealth+S) +R
◊ social-bypass(min) -> chk= +M(Deceive) +R -> set(SC)= 8 +M(Deceive) +R
◊ search(min+) -> chk= +M(Investigate) +R
◊ deceive(min+) -> chk= +M(Deceive) +R
◊ persuade(min+) -> chk= +M(Persuade) +R
Description: An understanding of corporate and government conventions, practices and procedures as well as political structures.
Make a Bureaucracy check to navigate the myriad complexities of corporate, government, or conventions (like standards or standard procedures) in order to get something done.
You can substitute this technique for any action on Society where the knowledge is specific to political or bureaucratic structures or procedures in corporations or governments.
Know (free-act)
Know is the simplest substitution, which is used to recall facts on standard procedures, technicalities and the like.
know(free-act) -> chk= +M
Bypass (main-act)
A series of actions that penetrates a bureaucracy in order to carry out other actions, such as the inspection or modification of records, working procedures, internal policies etc. The bureaucracy may be an office with procedures, a computer system with records and processes, or some other arrangement.
bypass(min) -> chk(CC-S)= +M(Deceive) +R -> set(PC)= 8 +M(Stealth+S) +R
In the second part of the above expression (beginning with the -> symbol), you set a Perception Challenge (PC) using the Bureaucracy technique as an aspect on your Stealth. The PC you set becomes the challenge any other bureaucrat that is looking at the change or data trail, must overcome in order to notice your bypass.
Therefore you make your Bypass attempt with:
bypass(min) -> chk(CC-S)= +M(Deceive) +R
At the same time you are setting a Perception Challenge for any other bureaucrat with:
set(PC)= 8 +M(Stealth+S) +R
This PC remains even after you have made your change and left, because it's the challenge set for any other bureaucrat to notice that a change has been done and it's out of the ordinary.
There is a social version of this bypass, where you are setting up a Social Challenge instead of the Perception Challenge.
social-bypass(min) -> chk= +M(Deceive) +R -> set(SC)= 8 +M(Deceive) +R
Success means that you have, through some way or another, convinced the relevant persons to grant you access to the records or system system.
The Social Challenge remains and is the challenge that needs to be overcome by others to realise that you were never supposed to have access at all. If the Deceive bypass is intensely technical, you can set a Complexity Challenge (CC) instead.
Search
This action represents your understanding of bureaucratic practices to perform a systematic search of records. This is an Investigate roll, aspected by Bureaucracy.
search(min+) -> chk= +M(Investigate) +R
Deceive
This version of the deceive action represents your understanding of bureaucratic practices, used as an aspect to baffle, bluff or otherwise craft a false sense of reality against (usually) a bureaucrat.
deceive(min+) -> chk= +M(Deceive) +R
Persuade
In this version of the persuade action, you use your technical knowledge to mount convincing arguments as to a course of action. Other than the change of motivation, this works similarly to the deceive aspected action outlined above.
persuade(min+) -> chk= +M(Persuade) +R