Debt Collector

Name: Debt Collector

Organization: Crew

Archetypes: Murderer (sometimes)

Description: Use information given by your sidegig employer to locate an unlucky debtor, then beat the shit out of them and take their valuables.

Objectives: Locate the debtor and collect your debt, then hold onto the valuables until the end of the round.

Masquerade notes: N/A

Modifier notes: N/A

Me? I work in insurance. Have I ever told you your chest cavity is looking awfully $100,000-shaped today?

Concept

The Debt Collector is a secret identity centered around locating your target through deduction, then incapacitating them and stealing a valuable item that they're hiding to pay off their debt.

Abilities

The Debt Collector receives a cache containing two things: a random weapon--either a knife, sleepypen, or silenced pistol with no extra ammo--and a note informing them about their target. This note contains the target's secret identity, as well as one or two clues about them, and nothing more.

The Debt Collector has an action which they can use on an incapacitated player (either crit or sleeping, same as the Subverter) which will begin the.. "debt collection" process. If the player in question was the Debt Collector's target, a mass of blood and gore will spawn, and the Debt Collector will receive a random highly valuable item spawned from the chest cavity of their target. If the player in question was not the correct target, the extraction process will backfire due to the lack of anything valuable to latch onto: the Debt Collector will randomly either be knocked unconscious, stunned for a while and cryohusked, or rarely simply explode into viscera.

In any case, the player the debt extractor is used on will be injected with painkillers and healing meds and their restraints broken, if they were in any.

Once the valuable item has been extracted, it will have its name and description changed to note it's status as a debtor's treasure, and the Debt Collector must hold onto it for the duration of the round.

The player targeted by the Debt Collector will be given the Hunted modifier, ensuring that they're aware that someone might be after them.

The debt extractor can not be used on a target that is dead.

Gameplay

The Debt Collector's initial deductive phase requires carefully taking note of what various crewmembers are doing to locate your target, while ensuring that it isn't a completely impossible endeavor due to the clue narrowing down the suspect pool.

Because use of the debt extractor action requires the target to be alive, the Debt Collector is incentivized to try and locate their target early to reduce the chance that they might already be dead, as opposed to regular kill-type objectives which generally inversely scale in difficulty with round time (since they might just die on their own).

Since use of the debt extractor doesn't imply the target's death (and in fact the helpful loansharks who invented it made sure the debtor lives to tell the tale and take on more debt), it's possible that the Debt Collector may be able to bargain with their target and (relatively) peacefully extract their valuables. Furthermore, because the true target is always aware that they're being hunted, and thus not having the modifier means you aren't being hunted, this presents the opportunity for others to lie to the Debt Collector about being the target and turn the tables on them when the extractor blows up in their face.

The debt extractor's fail state is a high-risk punishment, generally less impactful than something like Noble, but certainly not something you want to take the bet on--especially since you might be incapacitated and the person you just kidnapped is free to beat you to a pulp. This incentivizes correct deductions over just trying over and over again.

The 'hold onto the valuables' phase of the Debt Collector's objectives ensures that once the debt is extracted, there's still some gameplay, including for other identities like Hater or Hoarder to interact with. The item itself is also useful on its own (imagining it taking from a curated valuable item pool with guns/traitor items/bespoke things etc), presenting a reward for the Debt Collector getting their deduction and kidnapping right.