Bureaucracy

Time Taken: One round to several days.

Specializations: Specific planetary or administrative government, or branch within it — Tatooine, Celanon, Bureau of Commerce, Bureau of Ships and Services.

This skill reflects a character's familiarity with bureaucracies and their procedures. Bureaucracy can be used in two ways:

First, the character can use this skill to determine whether or not he knows what to expect from a bureaucracy. For example, if a character needs to get a permit for his blaster, a successful bureaucracy skill check means he knows what forms and identification he needs, who he would have to talk to, how long the process might take and some short cuts he might be able to use.

Second, bureaucracy can also be used to find out what information a bureaucracy has on file.

The difficulty depends upon how restricted the information is:


 * Very Easy: Available to all. Finding out how much you owe on your starship.
 * Easy: Available to most people. Discovering which ships are in port.
 * Moderate: Available to anyone who meets certain qualifications. Finding out which ships are impounded or under guard.
 * Difficult: Somewhat restricted. Finding out how much someone else owes on their starship. Determining how to legally get your ship out of an impound yard.
 * Very Difficult: Very restricted. Who to bribe to illegally get your ship out of an impound yard. Getting permission to make an emergency landing in the middle of a busy intersection.

Modifiers:


 * +5-10 to the difficulty: Request is unusual.
 * +15 or more to the difficulty: Request is very unusual.
 * +5 or more to the difficulty: The bureaucracy is poorly funded or has low morale.
 * +10 or more to the difficulty: The bureaucracy is very corrupt and doesn't care about providing services.
 * +5 to the character's roll: The bureaucracy is well-funded, has good morale, or is truly dedicated to meeting the needs of those who use it.
 * +5 or more to the character's roll: The character is well-known and well-liked, and the bureaucrats have good reason to help the character. For example, Luke Skywalker asking a New Republic general for assistance.
 * No modifier: The character isn't well-known and the bureaucrat has no reason to want to help the character — but no reason to hinder him either.
 * +5-10 or more to the difficulty: The character is a known troublemaker, nuisance or criminal. The modifier applies if the character is affiliated with an organization that has that reputation.

If the character succeeds at the roll, he gets whatever he needs done (within reason) in a shorter amount of time — up to half the normal time. If the character fails, the process takes as long as normal ... and longer if the character has drawn undue attention to himself. The character might even be arrested on a trumped-up charge if he has been particularly obnoxious.

Remember, the bureaucracy roll is only as good as the bureaucrat the character is dealing with. Data-crunching desk-warmers can't access the same information as Imperial governors. Bullying, bribing, or rolling really high against a low-level bureaucrat will not allow you to find out when a Star Destroyer is leaving orbit. If he doesn't know and doesn't have any way of finding out, the best he'll be able to do is lead you to someone who might.