Pinkerton Agency's Code of Conduct.
Since Allan Pinkerton foiled an assassination attempt against Abraham Lincoln's life, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency has risen to prominence. Whether hired for a number of tasks, either honorable or shadowy, Pinkerton agents brave dangers in the frontier to bring law and order to its inhabitants.
Joining the Pinkerton Agency
Pinkerton agents live life dangerously, whether its hunting outlaws, breaking up strikes, working a security detail or simply doing detective work, all agents are expected to be able to protect themselves in the heat of battle. They are also required to be able to track their quarry, whether it's down the street or across several states.
Entry Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +1; Gather Information 3 ranks; Search 3 ranks, Survival 3 ranks.
Pinkerton agents are usually made up of rogues, rangers and gunslingers. These kinds of characters are very at home in the wilderness, which can give them the edge they need when hunting outlaws. Fighters and the occasional wizard can also be found as agents, but they often don't have the skill to be serious agents and work at strike-breaking, gathering information or as extra muscle.
Paladins and good-aligned clerics often don't have the stomach for the unsavory work sometimes required of a Pinkerton. Neutral and evil clerics, as well as druids often don't have the skill or inclination to join.
Hiring practices within the agency mean that Native American agents are very rare unless they are strongly distinguished. As a result, barbarians, spirit shamans and scouts are also fairly uncommon within the Agency.
Training for new Pinkerton agents is often done in the field after a swearing in. New recruits are paired with a senior agent for a number of missions until which time that the recruit has learned the ropes and gained a number of contacts. At this time, they are given their first assignment and sent to work.
Pinkerton Agency Benefits
Pinkerton agents perform a wide variety of functions, but each local chief works hard to make sure that each agent is put to work doing whatever job they are best suited for. Each agent can also expect some assistance from time to time.
Economics: Every Pinkerton agent is paid a percentage on every job as their wage. This is generally along the lines of about $30 per week, but can be more if the work is more dangerous or especially unusual.
Pinkerton agents can apply for small sums of money to be used as bribes. This money can be requested through a local chief, but is meticulously recorded to ensure that an agent isn't supplementing his income. Every agent can usually rely from about $10 to $40, depending on the work done, with strike-breaking jobs usually requiring money and bounty hunting usually not needing any.
The Pinkerton agency also affords a discount on some equipment to their members in the field. Law-enforcement equipment like handcuffs, disguise kits, guns and ammunition and horses are all sold at a discount of 10%. This discount can extend to other pieces of equipment that might be required for a job. Like bribe money, the discount is meticulously recorded to ensure that the agent isn't taking advantage of the situation.
Services: The Pinkerton Agency includes experts in the fields of interrogation, tracking, investigation, locksmithing, disguise and trapmaking. With a request to a local chief, a character can get access to one such expert with a relevant skill modifier of +10, usually in no longer than a couple of days. For an expert with a skill modifier of +15, it might take up to a week depending on how remote a location an agent is.
Agents are expected to pay from between 20-30% of their wage to an expert. If not related to a job, the expert may charge more depending on what's required.
Information: Checking in with a local chief is equivalent to having that chief make a Gather Information check on the agent's behalf, usually with a +10 modifier. Doing so usually takes 1d4 hours for urban areas or a full day for more remote locations.
Access: Agents often work for the US Department of Justice or alongside local law enforcement. They can usually expect to get access to restricted areas, depending on their attitude towards the person in charge.
Status: Agents in good standing gain a +2 circumstance bonus on interactions with those in law enforcement.
Playing a Pinkerton Agent
Pinkerton agents tend to be mildly sleazy. Much of an agent's work, although often done for the greater good, requires them to perform some unsavory tasks. Wholly good-aligned characters can find themselves at odds with their management, while evil-aligned characters can find themselves in their element. They are often low-key and tend to blend into a crowd.
Many would refer to an agent as paranoid or inquisitive to the point of intrusiveness. This is not without reason. An agent's wages can be more easily earned if they know more and outlaws are always after an agent's badge and often their heads as well.
Combat: Agents usually work alone, so the knowledge to set traps or ambushes is usually in the forefront of their minds when they approach combat. When in a party, an agent will often let his allies charge headlong into melee while they circle around and attempt to flank.
Strike-breaker agents often work in teams of several dozen, all swinging clubs at union members. They work in this capacity as a single organized unit, pushing forward to quell the uprising before breaking off to deal with individual troublemakers, often in a thoroughly brutal fashion.
Advancement: Agents often remain agents for their entire career. Those who distinguish themselves can expect advancement to chief, although this means the end of their travelling days. Local chiefs will serve a city or a small group of villages. Local chiefs can be promoted to regional chiefs who are more akin to clerks, collecting money from jobs, keeping records of bribe money, equipment discounts and hiring of experts. Regional chiefs don't really have any further advancement beyond being the head of the agency, a spot that Allan Pinkerton currently holds.
Missions: Pinkerton hires out its agents for a variety of missions. They may act as bounty hunters, working to bring in a known outlaw on the behalf of the US Department of Justice. This is the most common mission for an agent out on the frontier. In urban areas, agents might be hired out to work as a strike-breaker. Some agents will go undercover and infiltrate a union to either sew discord among the members or to pass along vital information to their clients. Others may group up en-masse and attack strikers viciously with clubs. An agent might be hired to work as a bodyguard for a rich and important client for a number of days. This is often a very choice job, as often the agent will have very little to do, so these are often passed to more senior agents. Finally, agents might be hired to perform private detective work, such as investigating a mineral claim, search for proof of infidelity or other wrongdoings that the client might suspect. Agents with shadier backgrounds who garner a reputation for criminal acts might also be sent to perform such deeds as assault, arson or instigating a war between organized crime outfits. These jobs are thankfully few and far between.
Responsibilities: Pinkerton doesn't approve of its agents working simultaneously for another detective agency, but it has no problems with them hiring themselves out as independent experts. As long as an agent performs their duties in a timely manner and either takes on or consults on one case every two months, they remain in good standing. Failure to do so could lead to demotion or firing.
The Pinkerton Agency in the World
"We never sleep."
Pinkerton motto.
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency is an organization designed to send adventurers off to various, often high-danger areas where they are free to work on their assignment as they please. Bodyguard jobs can be a great jump-off point to a kidnapping, murder or even a phony kidnapping or murder. Bounty hunting jobs can lead to a vendetta against the characters, allowing for a reoccurring plot device. Steady pay and a discount on weapons can also be a great incentive for a player to join the agency early in their career.
Structure: The Pinkerton Agency is a massive organization spanning across the United States and its reach extends north to Canada, south to Mexico and even into South America and the Caribbean. Its lowest level of employees is called an agent and these are the most numerous. Most agents work out in the field performing the work that the agency is hired out to.
Work is provided to the agents by local chiefs who distribute work and pay to agents. Local chiefs, at least the good ones, also provide discounts on equipment, bribe money, tips, contacts with informers and experts and even information on where an agent should stay while visiting an area.
Local chiefs are provided with their money by regional chiefs who keep records on every local chief and agent in their jurisdiction. Most jobs are taken in by local chiefs and distributed to agents, but high-importance jobs, often those dealing with assisting law enforcement or the army, are distributed by regional chiefs to the local chiefs.
The head of the agency is Allan Pinkerton, a renowned detective and spy. He personally handles the extremely important work, such as establishing a national criminal database, arranging bodyguards for ambassadors and heads of state and he personally performs most important out of country work himself.
Beyond this hierarchy, agents or chiefs who are especially renowned for some skill such as tracking, disguise-making or information gathering are known as experts and can be hired out to assist on a case they aren't currently working on. Such experts are usually extremely professional and dedicated to their jobs.
NPC Reactions
NPC reactions to Pinkerton agents are usually varied according to which side of the law they're on. In most places, agents are met with an initial reaction of indifferent by the locals. In places where unions are prominent, they can be met with reactions ranging from unfriendly to hostile depending on how violent union protests have been in recent history.
Law enforcement officials have very strayed views of Pinkerton agents as well. In more civilized areas, they are typically unfriendly to agents, as they're generally seen as getting in the way of the law and causing trouble. In more remote locations, especially in areas where train robberies are common, Pinkerton agents can expect be met with friendly reactions as any sheriff would be glad to get the help that an agent can provide.
Criminals are generally unfriendly to Pinkerton agents, even when not the target of an investigation. They will often derisively refer to an agent as a 'pink'. When entering a lawless area, the agent should be aware that their life is now in danger by an attack from any roving criminal with a grudge against the Agency. Most agents are armed for just such an attack, and many do not advertise their affiliation unless required.
Pinkerton Agency Lore
Characters with Gather Information or ranks in Knowledge (local) can research the Pinkerton Agency to learn more about them.
DC 10: The Pinkerton Agency is a national company who performs jobs for the government and private citizens.
DC 15: Pinkerton agents have been known to break the law either to assist in working a job or as the job itself. Arson, murder and falsifying evidence have all been linked to them.
DC 20: Allan Pinkerton is currently working on a national database of criminal activity for the US government. The purpose is to centralize all criminal records.
DC 30: It is rumored that the Agency had information about a kidnapping attempt on Abraham Lincoln, but the Intelligence Service refused to act on it. The attempted kidnapping became Lincoln's assassination.
The Pinkerton Agency in Your Game
The Pinkerton Agency should act alternatively as a law-abiding organization in league with law enforcement and the government and as spies for hire, working for industry heads. On one hand, they can work side-by-side with the law, acting as helpful NPCs in providing characters with information or assistance. Other times, agents might be seen as enemies by committing crimes or inciting riots among union members.
In most campaigns, the Pinkerton agency can act as a kind of policing force, picking up a bounty that might be placed on an adventurer's head for some misdeed, or helping the heroes bring a villain to justice. Other times they can act as foils or even villains themselves to the heroes.
The Agency will not seek out the heroes for hire, unless they should prove themselves capable in a very public fashion, such as saving the life of a dignitary or foiling a train robbery. In most cases, the heroes will need to seek out employment and go through their training period in order to reap the rewards the Agency offers.
Encounters: Pinkerton agents are dogged and determined in their pursuits. They may have previously paid off an NPC to betray the heroes to them at some critical juncture. They may also set up a trap or an ambush. Agents will do the best they can to ensure that they have the upper hand, even if it means forming a posse or a lynch mob. An agent will above all else, keep their cool in battle, and try to insight rash actions from their opponents either by hurling insults or through outright deceit.
In most cases, an adventurer will probably encounter an agent in a professional capacity. The agent will likely be just that, professional. They will often ask many, sometimes seemingly unrelated questions, and may try to frisk an adventurer down for weapons if they suspect themselves to be in any danger whatsoever. Other than those peculiarities, the agent will be calm, collected, precise and very competent.
Adaption: The Pinkerton agency can be adapted for any other campaign as a detective agency that covers a large area. Their determination and professionalism suggest that this would be an excellent organization for dwarves in a standard fantasy setting. They could also be easily adapted towards darker ends, becoming a group of spies, mercenaries or even anarchists.
Allan Pinkerton (NPC)
Allan Pinkerton is the head of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. A native of Scotland, Allan was originally a cooper before he became disillusionsed with his country's political climate and moved to the United States. While living in Chicago, he became the first detective and created the North-Western Police Agency, which later was renamed to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. It was while heading the detective agency when he created several investigative techniques like shadowing and undercover techniques.
During the Civil War, Pinkerton was head of the Union Intelligence Service, sending spies among the Confederates and providing protection to Abraham Lincoln among other duties. After the war, his fame spread and he was hired by Spain to stop a revolution in Cuba. In the States, his agents continued to perform duties like hunting outlaws, breaking strikes and foiling train robberies.
In July of 1884, Pinkerton slipped on a sidewalk in Chicago and bit his tongue. This minor injury soon became badly infected, which caused his death the following month. By the time of the campaign, Allan Pinkerton has been dead for roughly six months. His agency continues to function, with his sons William Allan and Robert Allan Pinkerton taking up the reins of the company.
Allan Pinkerton: Male human gunslinger 3/rogue 3/spymaster 7; CR 13; Medium humanoid (human); HD 3d8+10d6+13; hp 74; Init +8; Spd 30 ft.; AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14; Base Atk +10; Grp +12; Atk or Atk +15 ranged (2d6/x2, +1 army revolver) or +12 melee (1d6/19-20/x2, club); Full Atk +15/+10 (2d6/x2, +1 army revolver) or +12/+7 (1d6/19-20/x2, club); SA ranged sudden strike +1d6, sneak attack +4d6; SQ cover identity, evasion, firearm aptitude, hasty +1, magic aura, quick change, scrying defense, trap sense +1, trapfinding, undetectable alignment; AL LN; SV Fort +7, Ref +14, Will +7; Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 17, Wis 16, Cha 12.
Skills and Feats: Bluff +20, Decipher Script +11, Diplomacy +12, Disable Device +11, Disguise +17, Escape Artist +11, Forgery +11, Gather Information +15, Hide +13, Intimidate +9, Listen +12, Move Silently +19, Open Lock +6, Profession (cooper) +7, Ride +6, Search +13, Sense Motive +13, Sleight of Hand +11, Spot +15; Alertness, Improved Initiative, Mounted Archery, Mounted Combat, Point Blank Shot, Quick Draw, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Focus (army revolver).
Languages: English, French, Spanish.
Cover Identities: Allan Pinkerton has 3 cover identities that he uses as the occasion permits. The first is Major E.G. Allan Pinkerton, a former Confederate soldier. He also uses the identities of Antonio Campas, which he used to undermine the Cuban rebels during their wars against Spain and William Pinkerton, the identity of his brother, whom he impersonated on several occasions in order to get more in depth with his investigations and partially to spy on his own men.
Possessions: +1 army revolver, +2 buff coat, MW disguise kit, ring of protection +1, MW thieves' tools.
