Cover identity questions

[Regularguy]

1) For the Media Representative, there’s a 40%+5% per level chance of being accepted in the role; and, if a guy picks the ‘on-air talent’ option, his odds of getting recognized are 58%. So — what? Any given person is more likely than not to realize you’re that TV anchorman with a well-known face — unless you say you’re a TV anchorman, at which point they’re more likely than not to sneer and say, no, I don’t believe you?

2) Each cover identity gets a different name with its own ID papers; also, one can take the ‘Sports’ skill twice, in which case “the character can have a secret identity working as a member of a professional sports team”. Do we know what the intent was? Is the secret identity meant to be yet another name, complete with its own ID papers, or — not?

[Desert Rat]

You are looking at cover from the perspective of its identity papers, rather the important part of cover is how it is employed. For example,

1) For the Media Representative, there’s a 40%+5% per level chance of being accepted in the role; and, if a guy picks the ‘on-air talent’ option, his odds of getting recognized are 58%. So — what? Any given person is more likely than not to realize you’re that TV anchorman with a well-known face — unless you say you’re a TV anchorman, at which point they’re more likely than not to sneer and say, no, I don’t believe you?

This is a scenario whereby an agent has a part time or full time job with a media organization which backstops their cover identity. It should be an alias name and lifestyle. I would stay away from being a news anchorman, and opt for an in the field reporter. Then when on an operation, if one needs to employ their cover with an adversary, that adversary can run a background check through open source and verify that they are indeed a member of a media organization. This is not a "get out of jail free" card with the adversary, but allows certain plausibility's to explain the agents actions.

2) Each cover identity gets a different name with its own ID papers; also, one can take the ‘Sports’ skill twice, in which case “the character can have a secret identity working as a member of a professional sports team”. Do we know what the intent was? Is the secret identity meant to be yet another name, complete with its own ID papers, or — not?

Yes, the agents sports identity is a complete alias, backstopped with professional status, affiliations, and rankings. Personally, I would stay away from professional sports teams and go with individualized sporting events, say professional triathlete. It would be pretty hard to backstop ones cover for action if their affiliated team was currently in season. As an individual athlete, one would have greater flexibility over training locations and competition events. If one really wanted to nerd out on it, you could take your PCs stats and calculate performance to see where they would be in world rankings.

[Regularguy]

Yes, the agents sports identity is a complete alias, backstopped with professional status, affiliations, and rankings. Personally, I would stay away from professional sports teams and go with individualized sporting events, say professional triathlete. It would be pretty hard to backstop ones cover for action if their affiliated team was currently in season. As an individual athlete, one would have greater flexibility over training locations and competition events.

As far as I can tell, by the book that could maybe make it super useful if you’re trying to start play with a professional-status secret identity for a Dedicated Martial Artist...