| From: | "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Cops article, latest draft |
| Date: | Fri, 14 Jun 1996 09:51:57 +0100 |
By Gurth and Sascha Pabst, with help from Erik Jameson
Shadowrunners and laws have a love-hate relationship, most of the time
biased heavily toward hate's side. But what if some enterprising player
wants to be one of the "good guys," or to put it in other words, a police
officer? No rules or even guidelines for that in the Shadowrun rules,
quite rightly so too, considering the background of the game. Yet, it
might be an interesting experiment nonetheless.
Very important is that the gamemaster at least has access to the Lone Star
sourcebook, FASA number 7115, in order to get a good grasp of what it's
like to be a cop in the Sixth World. Probably also useful, although I have
never seen it up close (or from a distance, for that matter), would be R.
Talsorian's Protect and Serve, which details the police in the Cyberpunk
2020 RPG. Articles, books, documentaries, and possibly even cop shows on
tv or those reality-tv thingies, about American police can also be quite
handy for ideas--both for playing your character and for ideas for adventures.
STARTING A CAMPAIGN
First of all, it should be stressed that all characters should be law
enforcement officers for a "cop campaign" to work. If we take, for
instance, four players, and one wants to play a street samurai, the second
a combat mage, the third a merc, and the fourth a cop, things will most
likely not work out very well -- one of the characters would either be
busting the others all the time (probably not good for inter-player
relationships), or she'd get into _deep_ drek with her superiors for aiding
known felons (probably not good for player-GM relationships).
There are some solutions, though, so you don't need to give up just yet.
One is to go ahead as described above, and see where the ship runs
aground. Go with the flow, until the flow stops. Then either try to save
the mess, or quit and make new characters.
Another option is to make all characters law enforcement officers even
though they may be street samurai, combat mages, and whatnots. Street
samurai? Chromer cop. Combat mage? DPI combat mage. Merc? FRT trooper. For
nearly any kind of regular shadowrunner, a Lone Star equivalent can be
found if you look hard enough. And if that still doesn't work, make them
"irregular assets" that get called in when the Star can't be seen handling
a certain situation (although this would turn them into something
resembling shadowrunners so much that this text would become almost
useless).
The gamemaster might wish to establish a special unit for the players
to allow characters from several departments to work together. A good
approach for a short term campaign would be a Special Commision to
investigate an outstanding (series of) crime(s), or for a longer term
campaign a Special Commision set up by Lone Star and the Metroplex
government as long term project to test inter-department cooperation
and interaction. This will also explain a higher percentage of metahumans
in a team, since the departments might want to "get rid" of them (read
Terry Pratchett's 'Men At Arms' :-)
Give the team a fancy name (IDRT, Inter Department Response Team
might do) and declare them independent of normal command structure to
allow the campaign covering various objectives.
The last option mentioned here is the one that requires good thought, good
roleplaying, and a good gamemaster. It is to make one (or more, but
preferably only one) of the PCs an under-cover cop infiltrating in the
shadowrunners' little world. Why he would do this is up to the player and
gamemaster to ponder about, but once a plausible reason has been invented,
only the player actually playing the cop should know what his or her
character really is. Then have him go along with the players, acting like
a regular shadowrunner, and at the same time double-crossing them so his
superiors can get a fix on who to arrest. The superiors might even be
tempted to help along, making life easier for the shadowrunners without
them knowing it, in order to keep the agent undercover with a false
identity instead of underwater with concrete shoes on.
IDEAS FOR RUNS, ERR, DUTIES
Classical Foot Patrol
Anything can happen here, from fighting families over petty (or not so
petty) thefts reported over gang conflicts to hostage situations and
all-out block wars. Officers on foot or motorized patrol will never
know what happen to them, but can be sure they will have to handle
the problems alone, since it usually takes too long for reinforcements
to arrive.
Training Course
Whenever Officers weren't able to handle a given situation, their
superiors might think it's time for some serious training again.
And may purchase some training time at the Fort Lewis Urban Combat
Simulator -- that's right, it's military! All bets are off, and you
better hope the simsense-override doesn't take you down.
Impossible Mission
Special Commisions might attract media attention. So the cops got to
escort a newssnoop through their turf for a whole day. And better pray
the reporter doesn't get hurt...
Hammer and Anvil
Sometimes it's cheaper for some major player in the 'Plex to have Lone
Star investigate a murder then to start a vendetta with some other
major player. This can be anyone who's independent... like your guys
in blue and yellow just walking by. Really interesting if the department
of organized crime suddenly appears and wants its undercover-cop
covered...
WAGES
People working for a corporation get paid for it. They wouldn't if they
didn't, would they? So players playing the role of police officers should
receive a paycheck each month from which they will have to try and live
like good citizens do. Following are suggested pay rates for police
officers, based on those for the Los Angeles Police Department in the
mid-1990s, and the pay scales mentioned on page 95 of the Lone Star
sourcebook.
Health And Dental Plans
A healthy pension plan (as a note, many cops are able to retire early with
this and the deferred compensation plan--defer money you make now for
later).
About half (or so) of an officer's sick days, vacation days, and holidays
are fully paid.
Officers with relevant college degrees or relevant certificates (like EMT)
recieve a higher salary premium (a few percentage points higher).
Officers who can read and/or write in another language receive salary
premiums from 2.75% to 5.5% depending on the language.
Officers recieve 650 nuyen per year uniform allowance.
Actual Pay Scales Table
Rank Nuyen per year
Police Officer I 17,769 to 23,991
Police Officer II(automatic after 18 months) 19,596 to 25,693
Police Officer III (Field Training Officer) 20,682 to 27,155
Detective I 25,192 to 29,201
Detective II 28,073 to 31,299
Detective III 31,299 to 34,880
D.P.I Mage I 29,263 to 32,842
D.P.I. Mage II 30,732 to 34,283
Sergeant I 28,637 to 31,926
Sergeant II 30,234 to 33,701
Lieutenant 33,701 to 37,563
Chief Lieutenant 35,580 to 39,630
Captain 38,440 to 45,216
Longevity (Police Officer rank only)
10 years +696 nuyen per year
15 years +1,392 nuyen per year
20 years +2,064 nuyen per year
Income for Specific Units extra per year (nuyen)
Airborne patrol +4,925
CorpSec officer +1,163
DED trooper +1,623
FRT trooper +3,127
Mage, special ops +4,618
SWAT trooper +2,926
NOTE: the variability of salary is due to salary premiums such as language
skills, college educations, etc.
SINs
All police officers naturally have a SIN, like any other good citizen.
Without a SIN, it would be rather hard to become a police officer in the
first place (although there might be some private security firms that don't
have such a silly requirement...).
Other Law Enforcement Agencies
Although this article focuses on Lone Star, the main security provider in
Seattle and many other North American cities, there is no reason why it
could not be adapted to other corporations. Knight Errant, Eagle Security,
and so on could all very well be represented. The gamemaster needs to make
up his or her own requirements for those; base them on NPCs published in
FASA's adventures and you're on the right track already.
THE CHARACTERS
Now you know some things about running a cop campaign, you'll also need to
know something about the characters you can create as a player. Unlike
shadowrunners, policemen and -women should conform to certain standards
else they'd never get hired in the first place, and also they automatically
possess certain knowledges and abilities after getting through the
Lone Star academy.
Career
What will from now on be referred to as a "career," is a short way of
defining a policeman: foot patrol officer, DED trooper, etc. To make things
easier, we'll assume each the NPCs on pages 126 through 132 of the Lone
Star sourcebook represents a career within Lone Star.
Race
It's recommended not to use the More Metahumans optional rule, seeing that
more than 80% of the Lone Star street cops are humans, a figure that's even
higher in administration. Senior management (admittedly, not many players
will be here from the start, or even have a realistic chance of getting
there) even has 98% humans.
Magic
Since Lone Star employs magicians, there is no trouble with playing a
magically-active cop character. These will nearly invariably end up in the
Department of Paranormal Investigations (DPI, or "Dips"), except for the
few that become SWAT team members or perform similar functions.
Skills
All Lone Star officers must take the following skills; these are learned as
part of basic training.
Etiquette (Corporate): 2
Firearms: 3
Police Procedures: 3
Unarmed Combat: 2
Some additional skills must be taken for a number of careers. This makes
some careers only available to characters with a certain number of Skill
Points, as indicated.
Resources
Although it is tempting for many players to start with 400,000 or even
1,000,000 nuyen, it is recommended that the gamemaster prohibit this unless
the player in question wants to play a chromer cop, or an other kind of cop
characters who needs lots of money or Force points. Ordinary beat cops
rarely accumulate gear and vehicles worth several hundred thousand nuyen
without winning the lottery at some point in their lives.
Must-Buy Equipment
All Lone Star player characters start with the following equipment, which
they must buy from their Resources money. This list has been compiled by
looking at the main text and the NPCs in the back of the Lone Star book,
and simple common sense.
If players want to start with less nuyen than required to buy this
equipment, the gamemaster has the option of either not allowing the player
to make a cop character, or to allow him or her to buy the equipment from
the 3D6x1000Y each character receives at start-up.
Basic equipment: belt, flashlight, holster, uniform, etc. (all-in
price: 450Y)
Helmet in Lone Star style (SRII p.257, 200Y) with integral commlink
(500Y), total helmet cost 700Y
Life signs monitor/Medical beacon (LS p.117, counts as Basic
DocWagon Contract, 5,000Y)
Low lifestyle (1,000Y) or higher
Pistol or revolver (cost varies) with 3 full reloads of regular ammo
(cost varies). Most cops nowadays carry a Ruger Thunderbolt, which
costs 1,337Y for the laser-sighted model, or 1,487Y for the smart-
linked model, each including 3 clips of regular ammo.
Stun Baton (SRII p.254, 750Y)
Vest with Plates (SRII p.257, 4/3 armor, 600Y)
Total cost (including Low lifestyle): 8,500 nuyen + weapon & ammo cost
All this equipment is that required for "the job," except maybe the
lifestyle. The reason for that one is that Lone Star does not hire people
without a reliable way of contacting them at their home address. Coffin
#15184, Novelty Hill Sleep & Eat, Redmond is not the place to live if you
aspire a law enforcement career.
Characters can buy any other equipment, for personal use, from any money
left over. They should, however, think pretty hard about buying items that
are outright illegal, or about permit-required items without buying a
permit. If the boss finds out they could very well be in trouble.
Some careers require additional equipment which must be purchased at
character creation. Note that police characters do not need to buy vehicles
except for personal use; these are issued by Lone Star when needed -- a
cycle patrol officer will be issued with an Electraglide-1000 and all the
stuff the machine carries when she's on duty.
Worth checking out here is issue 1 of Shadowland magazine (October 1995),
which has an article by Andrew Ragland with cop gear in it.
Contacts
All cop characters must take a Street Cop contact, or any contact from the
Lone Star book. This contact is one of the two free contacts the character
receives. A Gang/Tribe is also recommended, representing the police
department as a whole, although gamemasters may find this creates problems
for characters with little Resources money. In such a case, either
disregard the Gang/Tribe contact requirement for all players (not just for
the ones with too little money), or start those characters who can't afford
it off as new recruits who haven't really got to know the corporation's way
of working yet.
Apart from these restrictions, the players are free to choose contacts as
they like, although it should be clear that some contacts would be frowned
upon by the brass -- a street cop having close relations with the Yakuza
might find himself having to explain just what those relations really
are...
CAREERS
Following are short descriptions of each career, including any required
skills, Attribute values, and/or equipment. Unless otherwise noted, all
careers require the basic skill package and the basic equipment package
mentioned above in addition to the skills and equipment listed below.
Skills listed are the minimum required--they are learned in training at the
level indicated. Many officers have higher skill levels. If Attribute
minimums are indicated, this is for humans. Metahumans should apply their
racial modifiers to the values -- if Body 4 is required, an ork should have
Body 7 for the same job.
The "total costs" are only for the required skills and materials; the
optionals have not been included. The basic packages have been included,
however.
Airborne Patrol Pilot
Skills: Rotorcraft 3 (preferably specialization in Wasp or
Yellowjacket at higher level).
Cyberware: none required, but vehicle control rig recommended.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skills
recommended. Wasp or Yellowjacket helicopter issued
when necessary.
Total cost: skill points 13, monetary 8,500Y
Auto Patrol Officer
Attributes: Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 3.
Skills: Car 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skill recommended.
Ground vehicle issued when necessary.
Total cost: Attribute points 13, skill points 13, monetary 8,500Y
"Chromer Cop" Patrol Officer
Skills: no extra required.
Cyberware: any desired by individual.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skill recommended.
Heavy cyberware recommended. Additional weaponry
recommended.
Total cost: skill points 10, monetary 8,500Y
Corpsec Officer
Skills: Interrogation 1
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Beretta Model 70 with 3 clips, Partial Heavy Armor (6/4)
Extra notes: Car and Etiquette (Street) skills recommended.
Total cost: skill points 11, monetary 19,607Y
Cycle Patrol Officer
Attributes: Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 3.
Skills: Bike 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skill recommended.
Ground vehicle issued when necessary.
Total cost: Attribute points 13, skill points 13, monetary 8,500Y
DED Trooper
Attributes: Body 4, Quickness 4, Strength 3, Intelligence 4.
Skills: Firearms 4, Stealth 2.
Cyberware: Smartlink, wired reflexes (1).
Equipment: Full Heavy Armor (8/6), H&K MP-5 TX with 3 clips
Extra notes: pistol recommended.
Total cost: Attribute points 17, skill points 16, monetary 86,985Y,
Essence 2.5
Division of Investigation Detective
Attributes: Intelligence 4.
Skills: Computer 2, Electronics 2, Etiquette (Street) 3,
Interrogation 3, Police Procedures 5, Psychology 2,
Sociology 2.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3)
Extra notes: Armed Combat skill recommended. Various intrusion gear
recommended.
Total cost: Attributepoints 9, skill points 29, monetary 9,400Y
D.P.I. Combat Mage (Astral Back-Up)
Skills: Conjuring 4, Magical Theory 4, Sorcery 4.
Spells: Clairvoyance 3, Confusion 3, Control Actions 3, Detect
Enemies 2, Manabolt 4.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Various foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 22, monetary 8,500Y, Force points 15
D.P.I. Combat Mage (Special Ops)
Skills: Conjuring 5, Magical Theory 5, Sorcery 5.
Spells: Bullet Barrier 4, Clairvoyance 3, Detect Enemies (Extended)
4, Mob Mind 3, Spell Barrier 4, Stun Bolt 4, Wrecker 4
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Full Heavy Armor (8/6), Uzi III with 3 clips
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Most are initiates and
cannot be created as beginning characters. Various
foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 25, monetary 29,259Y, Force points 26
D.P.I. Combat Mage (Standard Back-Up)
Skills: Conjuring 4, Magical Theory 3, Sorcery 4.
Spells: Bind 2, Clairvoyance 3, Confusion 3, Mana Bolt 3, Personal
Combat Sense 4.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3), Uzi III with 3 clips
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Various foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 21, monetary 10,144Y, Force points 15
D.P.I. Mage Detective
Skills: Conjuring 3, Magical Theory 5, Sorcery 4.
Spells: Analyze Device 3, Analyze Truth 4, Clairvoyance (Extended)
3, Detect Life 3, Mind Probe 2.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended.
Total cost: skill points 22, monetary 8,500Y, Force points 15
Foot Patrol Officer
Attributes: Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 3.
Skills: Etiquette (Street) 2.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat recommended.
Total cost: Attribute points 13, skill points 12, monetary 8,500Y
FRT Trooper
Attributes: Body 5, Quickness 6, Strength 4, Intelligence 4.
Skills: Car 2, Firearms 5, Stealth 4.
Cyberware: Smartlink, wired reflexes (1).
Equipment: Full Heavy Armor (8/6).
Extra notes: Weapons issued depending on current function in FRT
(see pages 33-35 & 130, Lone Star).
Total cost: Attribute points 21, skill points 21, monetary 28,500Y
Highway Patrol T-Bird "Jammer"
Skills: Vectored Thrust 3 (preferably specialization in GMC Harpy
at higher level), Vectored Thrust B/R 4.
Cyberware: Vehicle control rig (3).
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: vehicle issued when necessary.
Total cost: skill points 17, monetary 308,500Y, Essence 5
Riot Control Constable
Attributes: Body 4, Strength 4.
Skills: no extra required.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3), Large Riot Security Shield (+2/+0),
Net Gun, Scorpion Machine Pistol with 2 clips Gel
ammunition
Extra notes: Etiquette (Street) skill recommended.
Total cost: Attribute points 12, skill points 10, monetary 13,500Y
SWAT Combat Mage
Skills: Sorcery 5, Stealth 1.
Spells: Clairaudience 4, Clairvoyance 4, Mana Bolt 4, Stun Ball 5
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3), Scorpion Machine Pistol with 2 clips
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Various foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 16, monetary 10,250Y, Force points 17
SWAT Decker
Attributes: Reaction 5.
Skills: Computer 5, Computer B/R 3, Computer Theory 5, Electronics
3, Stealth 2.
Cyberware: Datajack, headware memory (30 Mp)
Equipment: Partial Heavy Armor (6/4), Scorpion Machine Pistol with
2 clips, Sony CTY-360 cyberdeck.
Extra notes: cyberdeck is usually highly modified.
Total cost: Attribute points 14, skill points 28, monetary
123,750Y, Essence .5
SWAT Rifleman
Attributes: Body 4, Quickness 5, Strength 3.
Skills: Firearms 4, Stealth 2
Cyberware: Wired reflexes (1)
Equipment: AK-97 with 3 clips, gas vent 2, and laser sight, Armor
Jacket (5/3)
Extra notes: none.
Total cost: Attribute points 15, skill points 13, monetary 11,278Y,
Essence 2
SWAT Sniper
Attributes: Reaction 5.
Skills: Firearms (Sniper Rifles, Ranger Arms SM-3) 6, Stealth 3.
Cyberware: Smartlink.
Equipment: Ranger Arms SM-3 with 20 rounds regular and bipod.
Extra notes: none.
Total cost: Attribute points 14, skill points 14, monetary 15,440Y,
Essence .5
SWAT Spotter
Skills: Stealth 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Thermographic binoculars.
Extra notes: none.
Total cost: skill points 13, monetary 8,850Y
Undercover Agent
Skills: Acting 4, Disguise 2, Stealth 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: civilian clothes, equipment, etc. required, but left
to the agent's discretion here.
Total cost: skill points 17, monetary 8,500Y
Watcher
Skills: Computer 3, Electronics 5, Electronics B/R 3, Etiquette
(Street) 3, Stealth 5.
Cyberware: Radio, vehicle control rig (3)
Equipment: Beretta 200ST with 2 clips.
Extra notes: other equipment issued as necessary.
Total cost: skill points 28, monetary 9,354Y
--
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-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
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