One Shot
I'm a professional legal investigator—which is a fancy way for saying I'm a private detective. I've owned my own investigative firm for a few years, but some years ago—actually, it was all the way back at the turn of the millennium--I made my living as a freelancer RPG writer. I'm betting that may place me in one of the smallest minorities of professional experience on the planet.
Private investigators are pretty much staple characters for most industrial, modern, and future RPG settings. "This," I thought, "will be a piece of cake."
Then I sat down to write the column.
Before I even typed the first letter, I realized that what I'd planned to write was likely to be hackneyed and of little use. Anyone who wants to know a little background or even real-world techniques for their character can head down to the local bookstore and pick up any number of books dedicated to the subject. I mean, you know your profession has arrived when there's a book on the topic for the Complete Idiot's series. What could I possibly expound on in a single column that an enterprising reader couldn't find better detailed elsewhere?
It only took another moment or so to realize that none of those books is likely to detail a private investigator's approaches to a fantasy setting. I quickly ran through a few of the types of investigations P.I.s undertake today: surveillance, skip-tracing, locating stolen goods, industrial espionage, etc. I discovered that although the setting and methods may differ, the fantasy detective deals ultimately in the same currency as his modern-day counterpart. People today seek out investigators much for the same reasons adventurers are sought in FRPGs: The client has a problem they cannot deal with on their own.
Investigators, Historically Speaking
Many historians assert that private security forces have been around far longer than government-sponsored law enforcement. Looking at a feudal society, for example, the full-time guardsmen for the nobility weren't concerned with the community as a whole so much as they were looking out for their lord's best interests. So what if one peasant stole a chicken from another peasant? As long as it didn't belong to the noble holding the purse strings, let the little folks work out their own problems.
As societies evolved and became more egalitarian, a need for centralized law enforcement was realized. The former noble's guardsmen, really little more than a mercenary force, were revamped to become the town watch or constabulary, the beginnings of the police of today.
Private investigation, as most people think of it, didn't really become a viable occupation until the mid-19th century. The Pinkerton Agency, founded in 1850, was probably the best-known agency in the United States. Alan Pinkerton, a former Chicago police officer, formed the company as a private security and detective agency--in effect, an independent police force. Prior to that time, virtually all private detective agencies that existed were at best small, often short-lived, affairs.
The Pinkertons, as the agency was commonly known, became enormously successful. Pinkerton himself was employed by the Union both to perform espionage and for protective services. Later, his detectives were usually employed by railroads, industrial firms, mining companies, and other larger, commercial concerns. Their usual investigations involved tracking down train or bank robbers, infiltrating labor unions, or identifying industrial saboteurs.
Detectives in the Dark Ages?
Historically speaking, private detectives, as we think of them, simply didn't exist in medieval settings. There are a number of very good reasons for this.
First, there wasn't a whole lot of detective work taking place. Evidence collection was often limited to finding a murder weapon or stolen item. Locard's Exchange Principle (the basis for modern trace evidence collection) wasn't even postulated for approximately another thousand years! Very little was understood about the function and mechanism of death, and the interview process was often actually a torture session.
Second, the legal systems (with a few notable exceptions) weren't evolved enough to support the structure of a complicated defense investigation. The ruling class usually also served in a judicial fashion, leading to often arbitrary decrees of guilt and innocence. On the civil side, most disputes that were heard by an authority figure were limited to witness testimony. More often than not, both criminal and civil hearings were spurious affairs settled by arcane and ineffective methods--crushing accused witches with rocks, anyone?
And finally, wealth was seldom distributed widely enough among the populace to allow the private citizen to afford their own investigator or guard. Furthermore, even when it was, few population centers were of sufficient size to support a dedicated investigator.
Most tasks that would be undertaken by a private detective today were instead delegated to a member of the local guard or militia. Spying or surveillance would likely have been handled by scouts, what criminal investigation took place was performed by guardsmen or constabulary, and other, more sensitive tasks, such as tracking down a stolen item or missing relative, would have been entrusted to a discreet retainer.
Private Investigators in the (Un)Real World
The wonderful thing about a fantasy setting is that, while it may look historical on the surface, closer examination reveals that it seldom is. The society and economic structure is often much closer to a modern one than a true medieval feudal one. These differences make for a fertile ground for a character with an investigative bent.
Will Work for Gold (or Other Suitable Coin of the Realm)
The first thing necessary for an investigative character to prosper--or even exist--is a client base capable of supporting her line of work. Without that, all you've got is curiosity and a lot of pocket lint. Fortunately, those economic and social differences mentioned earlier provide an investigator in a fantasy setting virtual cornucopia of potential customers. The Pinkertons were successful in the Old West largely due to two factors: weak governmental law enforcement and the presence of financial capable clients. Both are staples of the average fantasy roleplaying setting.
It's not uncommon for a fantasy setting to have several noble families of roughly equal standing and influence all vying for political and material gain. Scandal and shame are currency in trade here. An investigator capable of confirming rumors of a disgraceful or, better yet, traitorous nature could quickly become a rising family's best friend. Of course, mixing in noble affairs would likely be one of the more dangerous ways to make a living, especially if your character backs the wrong house!
Better still for a fantasy detective is the ubiquitous Thieves' Guild. I can imagine few things more likely to foster a healthy private security industry than a government so inept that it allows a labor union to develop for felons! Tracking down stolen goods alone in such an environment might be lucrative enough to support several competing investigators. But then again, your character had better keep in mind that any legal system that inept probably isn't any great shakes on violent crime either, so a low profile is best here as well.
Many settings include a Merchant's Guild, a collection of merchants from either a single city or region that have joined together for mutual support. The Merchant's Guild provides an investigative character with a sponsor (or target) for pre-industrial espionage. A competing guild, a non-member merchant, or even a particularly well-organized and troublesome group of bandits could serve alternately as clients or subjects for undercover or surveillance work.
Those are all obvious sources for an investigative character seeking employment in a fantasy setting, but the societal and economic differences go beyond even those at a more subtle level.
Most importantly, wealth in fantasy settings is often more widely dispersed than it was in historical medieval societies. A middle class composed of craftsman, independent merchants, and service providers (innkeepers, tavern owners, etc.) all tend to have more ready access to wealth than was usually the historical case. In such circumstances, it is possible that a private citizen could afford to hire a investigator or troubleshooter, at least for the short term.
What use, you may ask, would a private citizen have for an investigator? Well, much same as they do today. A business owner may have a problem with theft that the town guard can't (or won't) solve. A debtor or family member may have gone missing. A parent may worry about with whom his or her child is associating. And, of course, there's always the husband (or wife) who wonders if their spouse if faithful.
Criminal Pursuits ... and the Pursuit of Criminals
To take things a bit further, many fantasy settings imagine a more complex legal environment than existed in most historical societies. It's not uncommon to find cities with town guards that function largely like police forces in such settings, complete with courts and codified sentencing structures. (The column Legal Injunction deals in depth with the issues of the law in a roleplaying game.) Depending on the complexity of the legal system in a setting, there may be place for a competent investigative character in finding witnesses and physical evidence and helping to form a theory for the defense.
Earlier, I mentioned weak law enforcement while discussing the Pinkertons. That's a little bit of a misnomer, though. Often individual localities in the Old West had very effective law enforcement. Where the system broke down was over large areas. When a wanted criminal left a state, territory, or sometimes even town, there was often no agency with the means or authority to pursue them. And once the criminal got far enough away, communications were so limited that word of their status seldom kept up with him.
Enter the Pinkertons who, while not actual law enforcement officers, did pursue the criminals over vast distances from the scenes of their crimes. A character in a fantasy setting could easily find opportunities in this sort of bounty hunting, whether sponsored by a local government or simply a wealthy private organization or individual.
Investigative Skill Sets
Rather than discuss investigative characters in terms of classes or occupational specialties which tend to be game specific, let's look at the skills necessary to succeed in the chosen roles. That way, hopefully, you'll be able to tailor the information to best suit your own setting and game.
Surveillance
At some point in time, nearly every investigator I know has had to perform some form of surveillance. Whether it's a day-long stint in a ghillie suit lying on a hillside, an overnight job watching the site of a suspected burglary, or just a two-hour sit in front of a business to see who enters and leaves, surveillance of one type or another is one of the most important skills in an investigator's repertoire. You just can't beat eyes on the ground.
A character in a fantasy setting may be employed by a guild to sniff out a smuggling operation that's undercutting their prices. He may be hired by local merchants to locate and gather intelligence on a bandit gang. A noble family may employ him to dig up dirt on a rival for power--or protect a rowdy heir from a similar threat from another family.
Obviously, anyone performing surveillance has to be able to effectively observe the target. High cognitive skills, both visual and auditory, are a must. It does little good to be in the right place if you overlook the reason you're there.
The other necessary skill set for performing effective surveillance is stealth. After all, the client likely wouldn't need to hire an investigator to catch the activity in question if the target wasn't trying to hide it! Certainly, this includes the ability to hide from plain view and, at times, move quietly, but often just as important is the ability to blend into the surroundings. Investigators often find themselves in urban environments, so some minimal disguise skill is often handy—no not fake mustaches, just the ability to "fit in with the crowd."
In many ways, investigative surveillance is similar to a military scouting operation. The operative must infiltrate to a suitable location to observe the target or activity in question, gather the desired intelligence, and then exfiltrate without being observed. The major difference is that an investigative surveillance is more likely to take place on a crowded street or place of business than in a rural environment.
Social Interaction
In many ways, the ability to talk to people--and, more importantly, get people to talk to you--is the single most important skill for an investigator. This is even more true in any society pre-internet where virtually all information, or at least access to it, is only obtained by interaction with another person.
Private investigators rarely have the leverage (i.e., arrest) at their disposal that law enforcement does, so their ability to extract information from a source is directly related to their social skills. However your particular setting defines these skills, you can't go wrong in emphasizing them for your character. (As a side note, experience tells me personally that a soft approach usually gets an investigator further than an aggressive one, but there is a place for both. Just remember it's relatively easy to go from a soft, friendly approach to a more confrontation one, but it's usually very difficult to pull of the reverse!)
Often as not, it's as much who you know as what you know. Beyond the realm of one-time conversations with a single subject, a good investigator maintains on-going relationships with sources he's likely to contact on a regular basis. Some settings define this through another skill while others use the concept of social contacts to represent these ongoing sources.
Magic
Private investigators today tend to be fairly technically savvy. Firms specializing in surveillance typically invest thousands of dollars in cameras, night vision devices, and similar equipment. Computers and the internet make background investigations and skip-tracing far simpler than in previous eras. And although few private investigators ever set foot on a 'live' crime scene, much less process one, a working familiarity with the specialized tools and process used by forensic specialists is practically required for criminal defense.
Since in a fantasy setting magic effectively replaces technology, it's a reasonable assumption that an investigative character would have at least a passing familiarity with the subject.
A magically-skilled investigator would certainly have a tremendous edge over her mundane counterparts. With access to spells or devices that can find missing objects, enchant a person to be favorably disposed toward her, compel a subject to tell the truth, disguise her own appearance, or even question the dead, it's not hard to see how the presence of magic in a setting aids an investigative character able to employ it. Even the existence of the rather commonplace ‘crystal ball' changes the entire face of surveillance as we think of it today!
Magic may be so common in a setting that a subject has 'hardened' his defenses against, necessitating the client seek the investigator's aid in circumventing those defenses through more traditional means. Or, it may be rare to the point that the average client can't afford to employ it.
Most important to an investigator in this sort of setting is a working knowledge of what's available and how to get it. A contact who's skilled in divinations might be a very valuable investment, just as a skilled computer expert is in today's world.
As a side note, in world where magical means like those above exist, no doubt there also exist clients who may seek aid in detecting magical surveillance and countering it. Part of being successful as an investigator is, as in any business, identifying new opportunities!
Miscellaneous
A solid working knowledge of his area of operations, be it a city, a county or a region, is a necessity. This includes not just geographical knowledge, but also to some degree social/political, economic, and legal as well. It's not enough just to know a place, the investigator has to know who's there as well.
I mentioned it in the section on social skills, above, but the ability to blend into a group--to appear to be someone other than he is--is also an important one to master. This is true in surveillance situations, but it's also true for undercover and infiltration operations, as well as just simply putting a potential witness or source at ease. It's not that likely the investigator will have to impersonate a particular person, but he may need to be able to pass himself off as a particular class of person (sailor, miner, accountant, etc.). And that skill goes beyond simply changing his appearance; he has to be able to pick up a working knowledge of the skills for that role quickly.
In a society with a complex legal system, the investigator needs at least some understanding of that code. Although he doesn't require the specific knowledge that legal counsel has, he does require a basic familiarity with how the system function, what evidence is allowed, and how he interacts with the system. Without that, he is likely to be ineffective in gathering evidence at best and may even find himself in a jail cell (or worse) by breaking the law while performing his investigation.
In the end, there are very few skills an investigator can acquire that can't be of use at some time. Experience in a trade can assist in a cover story, political insight can help in evaluating a social situation or breaking the ice with a source, weapons training not only serves for self-defense, but also understanding how an assault or murder may have occurred. However, a good investigator doesn't have to know the answer to every question, he just has to know where to look to find it.
