On Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 7:08 AM, Timothy Collinson <xxxxxx@port.ac.uk> wrote:
names would be one of the first things any such encounter would establish.  (From guilded name plates on the desk to cut glass window labels, through name badges to handshakes and introductions... 


And then the PCs come upon the very harassed young sophont with a desk nameplate composed of a raggedly-cut bit of packing case with what is a (apparently) common family name scrawled across it using what appears to have been a child's crayon . . . 

Smart PCs with an appointment ask if this unfortunate has had lunch yet, then when they get the inevitable "No time" response, ask what the bureaucrat would like to eat and then order this for delivery, declaring that their appointment time is no lunch period.

Smart PCs without an appointment ask to schedule one at a later date, picks from the available times the one that's nearest the local lunch hour, researchs what this bureaucrat usually orders for lunch then brings this meal with them for the appointment.

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester (fictional monster hunter portrayed by Jensen Ackles)
"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.