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Bounty Hunter = Private Investigator?

Started by JoelMcKickass, December 27, 2010, 11:38:16 PM

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JoelMcKickass

I've been catching up on my first Warband, trying to get the background done (the 2 finished members have been tweaked a little, a Forcesword wielding Swordsman now, rather than a Power Sword wielding monstrosity, the stats upped and lowered were appropriate, the skills given a little more definition and nuancing), and i came across a character that was giving me a little bit of trouble, who's now been split into two characters. The original idea was an Inquisitor who was trying to pass himself off as a normal person, but using the investigative skills he'd gained in the Inquisition for some kind of good. The original background idea i had was that he'd had to order a questionable exterminatus which wiped out his followers, and thus broke him. He effectively left the inquisition.

That brought up problems of it's own (as someone pointed out, one doesn't simply stop being an Inquisitor), but i came up with the idea that he went deep, deep undercover, and simple became that identity, if no one knew that guy was an Inquisitor, then how could anyone find him? But then that dereliction of duty wouldn't go unnoticed by the Ordo Hereticus, and thus my original Inquisitor was sent to find him, and after years of arduous work trying to find out what happened to Amagdylae Dervish, he found him, and gives him the choice to help the Inquisition, or be executed.

Of course, as that happens, i then just HAD to start wondering about how a Private Investigator would operate within the Imperium, and how a classic Noir novel could be successfully transferred into the GrimDark Reality of 40k and turn it into something GrimNoir. So then, as is bound to happen, i start developing a character within the reality who is just a Private Investigator, who would be a more narrative based character, with far less emphasis on combat during games, and more fast talking wit and occasionally slaps to get him out of trouble.

But how would a character like that exist? The closest i came was to a Bounty Hunter who wasn't too specific on what a Bounty was classified as. It could be a missing daughter, a guy who's been blackmailing someone, a thief, or even a kitten who has gone missing (hey, sometimes, they need to be found).  But could a Bounty Hunter just be a 40kified Private Investigator?

DapperAnarchist

Pretty much. Thinking of Chandler novels (though its been a while since I read one), the bounty can be anything, from a person to information to an object (the Cadian Eagle, perhaps?). Though the main difference between a Bounty Hunter and a PI is that the Bounty is a public offer, like a sale, where as a PI would be a contract worker, hired specifically.

They needn't have the semi-official title of "Private Investigator", but be more like Harvey Keitel's character in Pulp Fiction. He doesn't have a title, he simply gets paid to sort stuff out. There are always things that fall outside of the normal legal channels, or that suit everyone not to involve the official legal bodies in. Then the private sector comes into play, one way or another. In the Imperium, the Bounty Hunter License issued by various bodies (at least thats how it works in Hive Primus. Other places may be different), would be a useful thing to have for someone who makes a living solving problems.
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Molotov

I don't have an extensive knowledge of Noir, but I have a character working for one of my Inquisitors who is effectively an investigator. I went for the title "Truther", though, a colloquial term for someone who has to sniff out the truth for their master.

Maybe that might help you somewhat?
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Easy E

I can easily see this type of character in an Inq retinue (or most other retinue's to be honest) as so much of 40K is about getting to information and knowing information no one else has.   That's where private investigators come in handy. 

I see Harvey Kietel's character in Pulp Fiction (The Wolf) as a "Fixer".  He has a ton of connections and knows how to use them.   
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JoelMcKickass

Funny you should mention Marlowe, i'm 300 pages into his sixth book, and waiting for the Mike Hammer one to arrive as soon as it can. Though i'm glad you got who i was trying to recreate, i think the Brasher's Dubloon is one of the things he went after, though i can't be certain.

Private Inquiry Agent is a name that just popped up in "The Long Good-bye", though Veritassarian is something that came into my head when i read Truther, with Truther being the shortened version of it. Veritas is meant to mean Truth, if some of the things that google translates are meant to be believed. The downside is that i keep getting reminded of Delicatessen.

From what i've heard of Mike Hammer, he's similar to Marlowe, but a helluva lot more violent, so it could be possible to create the two of them, and through them in a single warband. If both are told first person, then trying to mimic each style in the 40k reality in the respective character would be an interesting look on how Marlowe and Hammer would interact. Unfortunately i've lost the better Sin City books, so i'll can't really look at the ones i'd like to (though "The Customer is Always Right" gives a very interesting character to us on a plate).

As for a "Wolf" Character, he's simply a Marlowe without the moral code, and not as beaten down (if i remember correctly, he's at a fancy party when he's called?), whilst Marv is evidently a Space Marine. With Regeneration. And Warp Strength.

Would i be right in assuming that a Bounty-Hunter (or P.I.A., or Truther, or Veritassarian) would be far closer to the Archetypal P.I. than an Inquisitor though? With Abnett's first person perspective, i always assumed that Eisenhorn was a 40k P.I., only when i started reading Noir books did i see that if that's what Abnett was going for, then there's something missing for it to have properly worked.

Myriad

A bounty hunter would be closer, but covers quite a wide range of possibilities, some of whom are closer to hired thug than PI.  Whilst inquisitors do plenty of investigating as part of their job, they're too powerful to be a Marlowe type character.  It is their place to resolve the situation and remove any threat to the imperium, which may, for instance, involve excecuting all the suspects just in case.

Local law enforcement varies throughout the imperium, and in many of the more lawless areas there's plenty of room for a PI type character willing to tackle problems beyond the ability or interest of the authorities for a small fee.  I can also see such a character being held on retainer by the local aristocracy, briefed with investigating matters as they deem necessary.  This would carry the benefit for them of being able to resolve their problems without involving the authorities, for whatever reason powerful people may have.
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DapperAnarchist

Unless he's seriously outside the Imperium's area of power (Daemonworld, Orkoid Empire, Craftworld, Tau Sept, something like that), an Inquisitor will never be told "Forget it, Jacobus, it's Chinatown". Well, perhaps on Terra.
Questions are a burden to others, answers a burden to oneself.

The Keltani Subsector  My P&M Thread - Most recent, INQ28!

precinctomega

The problem with exporting amy concept like this into Inquisitor is the question of space travel. There certainly are both private investigators and bounty hunters in the Dark Millennium, but operating mainly only on one world our in a single system.

R.

Morcus

I've had a go at a Hardboiled Noir detective in Inquisitor, though mine was a police detective rather than a PI. It seems like a life time ago but basically we had a large campaign based around interaction between different bodies and I was representing local law enforcement (My Main Character only had jurisdiction in one city, and I had some police bodies to make up numbers).

Marlowe is of course the man when it comes to this but my Character was very much influenced by Blade Runner (A good starting point for a Sci-fi Noir Detective as he is one already) but was influenced by many fictional detectives, there was a large amout of Bernie Gunther in him who himself had alot of Marlowe to him.

You could have a hardboiled Inquisitor and the game setting lends itself quite well to a noir setting without much work

Adlan

The Article, Judicious Remit, in the Skoll Archive, has a concept somewhat similar, a deductor, or perhaps and explicator. Alternative sorts of apprentice ships for an inquisitor's acolyte that you might find worth a read.