Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: David West <dwest@****.UNOMAHA.EDU>
Subject: Contempt of Cop
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 09:11:05 -0600
I just re-upped my sub to this group, and I feel I had better add my two
cents worth in on the police vs runner problem.

Contempt of Cop is the term the police use whenever dealing with people
who don't respect them. It seems that Shadowrunners would keep that in
mind, but like others on here, that doesn't seem to be the case.

The main problem, however, is the GM. If he lets the Shadowrunners get
into fights with Lone Star on a constant basis, and lets them blow away
20 to 30 cops doing so, he is doing his job wrong. After just one such
battle, if I were the runners, I would get out of town for about a year.

Why? The police shouldn't take this type of thing lightly. The police
would probably do a number of the following:

1) Put out an All Points Bulletin with the full descriptions of the
runners.

2) Considering the days of corporate control of police - put out an
extremely lucrative open bounty for all bounty hunters in the city to
take down the runners.

3) Do everything under their power to find out where the runners hang
out, even if in the combat zones of the world (Cyberpunk term there,
sorry :-). Then case the place until the runners are home and in bed.
Then burst in with automatic weapons. Runners, no matter their
cybernetics, aren't going to stand up to police shotguns at close range
with no armor on.

4) Extralegal things. Such as blowing up cars, houses, etc. that the
characters own (happened in our old campaign. We all would've gotten
arrested if it wasn't for the fact two of us were Tir Tairngire citizens
and residing on Tir property. Plus the fact the other Tir citizen turned
out to be a lackey of a certain dragon prince of the Tir)

5) Police mages are a sick thought. Send in your fire elemental. Have
it manifest right as you ground a hellblast through it. Makes runners
days awfully long.

Police don't need cybernetics. They are smart. Also, if you want total
disgusting, use the template idea to create your police...A - skills, B-
stats, C-E don't matter (C race, if using that option). All their
equipment is funded through the department, so they don't need to have
high money.


-- David
Message no. 2
From: John Fox <johnf@*****.EDU>
Subject: Re: Contempt of Cop
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 15:55:26 -0600
Hello, I just thought of something. If the runners take out a few cops in
Seattle, any city which contracts policing to Lone Star or an affiliate
(like Quebec City) should be off limits. The corporation will take care of
its own.

Another point is that I bet Lone Star would have its own paramilitary
forces. After all it is based in North Austin, which is the CAS half of
town. Being HQ'ed a hostile border would provide a real incentive to have
at least some military grade units. These forces would be based in Austin
and shuttle around North America when needed. If cybered runners take out
Lone Star cops, the big boys would show up and kick ass.

Just a thought.

John ox
johnf@*****.edu
Message no. 3
From: Ben Jordan <jordanbd@***.BELOIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: Contempt of Cop
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 16:35:18 +22310502
We run the police like any other company. That is just what they are. When
we started killing indescriminatly they hunted us. Other wise it was
busness as usual if a few were offed as part of a run. It was later when
our troll just killed them for fun that it got nasty. And even then it was
no worse than any other company.

We are afraid of the gangs though. We live pretty much primitive lives at
poverty level because if we had a regular appartment then people could find
us. So we don't. People who try to sell us out die. That simple. We
check every one out and trust no one--not even our closest contacts. It is
a suspicious world and the first couple sell outs taught us the lession.

We move from city to city now to do buseness. Harder to catch us that way.
No more than two jobs in the same place. We don't do campains. Just one
shot runs. We are known as a group to call if you want a mission done that
you are pretty sure will be comprimised and turn into a fire fight. Often
the corps who employ us occasionally step in prevent our demise. Once the
merchendise is gone there is no reason to kill us anyway. After all if you
might want to employ us some time.

We are basically mercs. No team of runners is as completely combat orented.
Runners use stealth. We do to, we just know that it won't work. We are
hired for what we are good at.
--

Ben-ha-meen
--i feel evil. like, that i am evil, not that
i feel an evil presence or something--

james mcculloch

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Contempt of Cop, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.