Office Building Break In Help

[Baalak]

Greetings EN World.​

I am a long-time player of role playing games, but a first-time GM. I am currently running a d20 game set in a world drawn from Looking Glass Studios' Thief series, a moody gothic steam punk setting full of intrigue, evil plots, and mystery. My players, of which there are only two, are both playing rogues, and have a few other rogueish associates. They have made a go at breaking into the lockboxes in the basement of an inn, and robbing a warehouse facility, both at the behest of NPC's, but they are beginning to make their own way.

My boyfriend's character has had the bright idea that if he can steal a copy of a nobleman's homeowners' insurance policy, he would have not only a list of the noble's most valuable possessions, but a rough idea of their value, as well. To this end, he will be bringing the other PC along in an attempt to steal records from an insurance company.

The office building I have created, a large three story affair, is home to a number of companies, all of which I need to craft some information about. I am presently stuck, my wheels spinning furiously, trying to figure out what sort of businesses would be appropriate not only for the building, but also for the setting. I want the building to be all offices, no manufacturing, and receiving only minor deliveries. I have already decided upon, in addition to the Homeowners Insurance company, a business insurance company, a real estate rental agency, a law firm and some independent lawyers, a clockmaker (the exception to the no manufacturing rule, as this is mostly assembly of delivered parts), an architect, a money lender, an employment agency, a copier, and a lithographer.

I want to keep the building populated by companies who, instead of having many clients coming to them, will send employees out to meet their clients. I want to keep the building as clear as possible of any manufacturing work, and restrict it to businesses which won't have much in the way of funds on-site. I have enough office space for 16 companies of varying sizes, though I could make some of them larger and take up more office space if necessary.

I know it isn't as polite as I could be, coming here immediately with a request for help with so many restrictions, but my next game session is Friday and I want this building to come to life. If possible, I want them to break into this place multiple times, for an array of reasons. If they can steal keys and keep the suspicion low enough that the locks aren't replaced, all the better! Does anyone have any ideas?

- Baalak called Office Spaced.​

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Get your hands on Critical Locations first.

I once asked about break-ins on the WotC forums.

Date : 12-18-03 04:46 PM
Title : How do I break into a modern house, in-game?

Let's suppose a break-in artist wanted to enter a house. He has Computer Use, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Search as skills. (I'm probably missing an important skill.)

This is a big rich guy's house ... it has an alarm system that can communicate to the police through a telephone wire. How do I find and cut the wire? Do I even know which wire to cut? Somehow Computer Use and Search don't seem to be enough, IMO.

Once inside, I use Computer Use to disable the interior alarm system, then I want to do something about the internal security cameras.

I can use Search to find them, but I don't want to Search every 5 foot square, since that will take a long time and let the cameras film me. It might be easier to find their control system instead (wires or actual control panel), but again that takes Search.

What would you do in a situation like this? Would you take ranks in Knowledge (security) or is there already a skill that covers this?

And one of the answers:

Author : RichRedman
Date : 12-22-03 11:09 AM

Originally posted by Ardent
Bluff, Disable Device and Hide/Move Silently are the skills a burglar would use. Everything else is out-and-out unnecessary.

No, Search is still necessary - you have to find the device you want to disable before you can use that skill. Unnecessary but helpful are skills like Knowledge [technology], which can lend synergy bonuses to other checks, like Search and Disable Device.

Other ideas include disguises. If you look like you should be there (Bluff, maybe Disguise) people just won't notice you. Dress up like a mail man if you have to. Go at lunch time when everyone is distracted.

 

[Stoat]

Get a phone book. Choose several pages at random. Pick one business from each page. Populate your office building with those. If you land on a page full of retail or manufacturing businesses, assume that the building is their "home office," and that the actual store or factory is located elsewhere.

This is also a quick way to generate modern names.

 

[avr]

A doctor? A detective agency? A vacant office, closed for renovations? Temporary offices for some branch of government? An advertising agency?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Here is a floorplan for a three story office building if you need it.

 

[Baalak]

Get your hands on Critical Locations first.

Is that a book? Hmm, google says... Ah, a suppliment for d20 modern. While the game I'm running has more of a 1600's meets 1800's London feel, I imagine that many of the ideas therein are easily portable to my setting. I'll slip by a bookstore soon to do Christmas shopping anyway, so I'll see if they have a copy. Thank you for the suggestion.

Other ideas include disguises. If you look like you should be there (Bluff, maybe Disguise) people just won't notice you. Dress up like a mail man if you have to. Go at lunch time when everyone is distracted.

How Hitman. While this isn't a bad idea at all, it's one I doubt these characters would make use of. That said, other people would, and I don't want to forget about the option. Social Engineering and a proper uniform can get you into places a black catsuit and a set of lockpicks never could.

Get a phone book. Choose several pages at random. Pick one business from each page. Populate your office building with those. If you land on a page full of retail or manufacturing businesses, assume that the building is their "home office," and that the actual store or factory is located elsewhere.

This is also a quick way to generate modern names.

I tried this very tactic earlier last night, before I posted. The Home Office idea is one I tried to work with, but with no telephones and no city-wide mail service, I'm not sure how such an operation would keep on top of things. It strikes me that either retail or manufacturing companies would probably have their Home Office in a secluded portion of their main building, and not in an office building on the other side of town.

A doctor? A detective agency? A vacant office, closed for renovations? Temporary offices for some branch of government? An advertising agency?

All good ideas, but the Doctor and Advertising Agency wouldn't work because, in the case of the former, doctors are expected to perform long-term care and there are no official hospitals, so an office building owner would be hesitant to lease rooms to someone planning on keeping the sick in them, and the latter because... In the games as you play them, there are no signs of advertisments, save carved signs over doorways, and that's a manufacturing job. How would advertising agencies work if A, much of the population is illiterate, and B, there is no television or radio communications? I'm not asking as a means of shooing the idea down- I actually want to figure out how it could work, because there should be a viable model!

The detective agency is an idea I passed over earlier, but the more I think about it the more I like how it sounds. The idea of a vacant office, closed for whatever reasons, had never occurred to me! This will not only save me some time, but later, when they break in again, they can find a new business there, which will make the place feel dynamic and alive- something I want very badly.

I had wanted to avoid including a municipal office in the building, but it may be unavoidable, and besides, there could be information inside which thieves might find useful.

Here is a floorplan for a three story office building if you need it.

Frukathka, thank you for the floorplans! I won't need to use them on this adventure (as I downloaded SmartDraw and made my own adaptation of a set of floorplans for an office I found online), but they're compact and look easy enough to port to my purposes. You don't, by any chance, have more of these laying around, do you? That would be awesome!

Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions. While I shot a lot of them down, the process forced me to think a lot about the gameworld and the decisions I was and have made. I would still love more feedback, but I think I have enough to try to muddle through this. You've made me feel welcomed and helped by your swift and insightful replies, and I am much obliged. Thank you again.

- Baalak called Grateful​

 

[avr]

All good ideas, but the Doctor and Advertising Agency wouldn't work because, in the case of the former, doctors are expected to perform long-term care and there are no official hospitals, so an office building owner would be hesitant to lease rooms to someone planning on keeping the sick in them, and the latter because... In the games as you play them, there are no signs of advertisments, save carved signs over doorways, and that's a manufacturing job. How would advertising agencies work if A, much of the population is illiterate, and B, there is no television or radio communications? I'm not asking as a means of shooing the idea down- I actually want to figure out how it could work, because there should be a viable model!

OK, doctors won't work. How about a dentist?

If enough of the population is literate to support newspapers there is some print advertising - there's plenty of newspapers which date back, the london times started in 1785 frex. Actually, a newspapers offices could work in your building, especially with a printer next door. Also - the idea of fashion magazines definitely dates back into Victorian times at least, even if the pictures covered up a lot more than they do today the latest designs from Paris (or local equivalent) don't require the reader to be literate to appeal.