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How not to leave clues behind

R

rancke

Absent Friend
OK, you're a career criminal and you know that sooner or later someone is going to bring in a biological sniffer and go over the place you've been staying. You don't want thim to find your DNA. What do you do?

Here's one solution that I came up with years ago:

Anonymity virus: Artificial virus designed to lie dormant in every cell of the body as long the cells remain alive but to briefly activate and scramble the genetic markers when a cell dies. At TL 15 a version that can actually substitute a different genetic code becomes possible. The basic version is Legality Class 3, the advanced version is LC 1.​

I'm wondering what other dodges Classic Era criminals might have come up with and what TL they would be and what they'd cost to make.

One notion I got just yesterday was a "DNA bomb". Sort of like a party bomb, only instead of confetti, it spreads flakes of skin from thousands of innocent people all over the room (Yuch!).

Anything else? Some sort of "sweeper" that ruins DNA through some kind of radiation?


Hans
 
Not so long ago there was a JTAS article describing self cleaning materials,
mainly for clothes, that break up organic dirt and turn it into inert dust (if I
remember it right).
Since that article our settings use all kinds of self cleaning materials, making
the scene not only looking (and probably smelling) somewhat better, but al-
so removing all DNA traces that come in contact with any surfaces of such
materials.
 
Thermally sensitive DNA solvent. Only works between 5° and 20° C, non-toxic.
 
Warren Hammond in "Ex-KOP" posits gene-eaters, bacteria that consume DNA, delivered by fogger and designed to self-sterilize after twenty generations. Renders biological matter devoid of identifiable configurations, plus, does not discriminate between living and dead, also usable as a murder weapon or bio-disposal tool.

By the way, the KOP books by Hammond are great looks at a low tech, poor culture and how it responds to a dominating high tech culture that exploits them. Recommended reading.
 
GURPS Robots offered Microrobots that could do a variety of tasks not to mention collect forensic evidence.

In a Technomancer PBP, I had an NPC enchant a swarm that was able to
do Exploration/Gremlin work, housed on the Technomancer's utility belt.
He met with the PCs, invisibly scanned them discovered their firearms
and had the gremlin swarm disable the firing pins on their pistols.

Had another mapper set that when turned loose on any books, would
infiltrate the pages and map the ink blots or the toner fuse-spots and
deliver a nice 1000+ dpi "scan" of any papers or books :D

>
 
One really good book is from Steve Jackson Games called GURPS Mysteries. There is a lot of fluff that will give you good ideas of different criminal investigative stuff.

Another book that is more along the lines of law enforcement is GURPS Classic: Cops.
 
Amused...

RKFM, for some us gasoline and a match equals a crime, as those are clues in their own right. Now I try and figure out what the criminal was trying to hide. :nonono:
 
rancke said:
One notion I got just yesterday was a "DNA bomb". Sort of like a party bomb, only instead of confetti, it spreads flakes of skin from thousands of innocent people all over the room (Yuch!).

Anything else? Some sort of "sweeper" that ruins DNA through some kind of radiation?


Hans
Click to expand...

I like the DNA confetti bomb! In a long ago game I used a hi-tech versions of coating all surfaces with a mild solvant or even a sticky oil to prevent biological traces from being collected.
 
Clue Removal

One Low yeild Fusion Bomb in the 1 kiloton range ..no crime scene to investigate ..no DNa to find

Alternatly ..Use a remote controlled bot to do the actual commision of the crime then eject said bot out an airlock on a path to the local sun..again poof no eveidence
 
morfydd said:
One Low yeild Fusion Bomb in the 1 kiloton range ..no crime scene to investigate ..no DNa to find

Alternatly ..Use a remote controlled bot to do the actual commision of the crime then eject said bot out an airlock on a path to the local sun..again poof no eveidence
Click to expand...
The bot has to slip in and out undetected and you have to retrieve and dispose of it undetected. If the bot itself leaves evidence (wheel marks, tool marks on something it handled, or the smell of it's lubrication) and is identified then authorities can check to see who owns/bought similar models...
 
Andrew Boulton said:
Hack into the DNA & fingerprint database and change your details.
Click to expand...

Hack into the DNA & fingerprint database and change everybody's details.

This has happened in one of my campaigns. I use it as a way of allowing characters to literally get away with murder in a far future environment without snapping the disbelief suspenders. The authorities have to use good old-fashioned police work to catch miscreants cos their high tech CSI has been poleaxed by corrupt databases.
 
Icosahedron said:
Hack into the DNA & fingerprint database and change everybody's details.

This has happened in one of my campaigns. I use it as a way of allowing characters to literally get away with murder in a far future environment without snapping the disbelief suspenders. The authorities have to use good old-fashioned police work to catch miscreants cos their high tech CSI has been poleaxed by corrupt databases.
Click to expand...
Next time the police asks for funding for a backup repository, maybe the goverment will spring for a case of holocrystals.


Hans
 
I should think being able to futz with DNA markets is a must for any criminal engaging in Imperial banking fraud. Or in fact, any interstellar crime.
 
Icosahedron said:
Hack into the DNA & fingerprint database and change everybody's details.

This has happened in one of my campaigns. I use it as a way of allowing characters to literally get away with murder in a far future environment without snapping the disbelief suspenders. The authorities have to use good old-fashioned police work to catch miscreants cos their high tech CSI has been poleaxed by corrupt databases.
Click to expand...

I had envisioned a Rogue S-3 team (from the IISS) using their contacts
to hack the x-boat network and re-route certain "assets" to remote
places (read: divert & steal) and cover it up with phony "<buzzer>
You can't do that!" requests from IISS HQ.

So when Scout Base X requests such and such, they intercept the
message, either add to it or re-route certain valuable parts/items;
then send Scout Base X a "sorry-gram" about only providing 15
pulse lasers instead of 25.

Kinda McHale's Navy with more outright criminality. They also would
have access to a quantum computer and could crack other codes as
well, including the occaisional mega-corp whose own courier network
doesn't reach everywhere and portions of it go thru the x-boat network
when it can't be carried by one of their own.

The Rogue S-3 team could then act on the information or sell it to
someone like Arkhesh or McClellan or anyone else they were willing
to deal with.

I imagine TAS would have quite a bit of interesting information of their
own.

>
 
This is an excellent thread.

One of the thoughts that I have had about the Imperium is the usefulness of fake ID's. A well-done fake ID could truly be another person in a different subsector complete with DNA, school records, employment history. The difficulty in tracking these individuals down is monumental in an era where communication is delayed by jump parameters.
 
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