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> Knowledge skills for an ex-cop?, need some suggestions
Grinder
post Apr 20 2005, 07:27 AM
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I try to give my ex-cop-char some new knowledge skills. He's a face and has all combat and social skills he needs imo, so i decided to give him some more topics to talk about. He already has (bought at chargen) physics (ballistic), forensic, swat-tactics, police operations and some hobby-related skills. So i want some more to express his background as an ex-cop who got fired because of being corrupt. You know, the typical broken man who wasn't able to resist taking the bribe offered by mafia and the like. Now he switched over and became a professional criminal.
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Omer Joel
post Apr 20 2005, 08:05 AM
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Some ideas:

Mafia-controlled Hangouts
Seattle (or whatever town) Safehouses
Mafia Politics
Gang Identification
Lone Star (or whatever police corp) Internal Politics
Italian Food (I know, I know, cliche, but fits a Mafia-involved character :))
Italian (Laungaue Skill)

Ofcourse, if the organized criminal organization he's involved with isn't the Mob, replace the skills with appropriate ones (i.e. Russian, Russian Food and Vodka for the Vori :))
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Demosthenes
post Apr 20 2005, 08:34 AM
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Cooking.

I strongly recommend cooking.

Motorsports.
Soccer Trivia
(If he's anything like the typical Italian male, he not only thinks he drives like Michael Schumacher, and spends most of Sunday watching Formula 1, the MotoGP, and the football...adapt the sports obsession as you please to fit national obsessions and get rid of anachronism...)

Fast Cars.
(It's a guy thing...)

Cop Anecdotes
(All those stories about horrible things that happened to colleagues, the day the Chief picked up a Mantid Spirit, that kind of thing)

Bribery
(Just what do all those "greasing the wheels" services cost?)
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TheQuestionMan
post Apr 20 2005, 03:25 PM
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Law Enforcement Background (Agency)
Law (Criminal, Local)
Forensics (Crime Scene)
Seattle Metroplex (Patrol Beat)
Current Events (Crime Reports)
Criminology
Politics (Local)
Psychology
Sociology
Organized Crime (Rackets)
Organized Crime (Group)
Gang Identification (Local)

Cheers

QM
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Ancient History
post Apr 20 2005, 03:28 PM
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Prostitution Rings
Fences
N'er-do-Wells
Donut and Soykaf Shops
Sarge's Locker
"Accidental" Suspect Damaging
Rotten Kids
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Pthgar
post Apr 20 2005, 03:38 PM
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Don't forget Corrupt Cops. He would certainly know who else was on the take.
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blakkie
post Apr 20 2005, 03:41 PM
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How something that reflects whatever money pit that convinced him he needed to be on the take? Like:

Marriage(Divorcing) - After three full cycles of marriage and divorce you'd think he knew a good deal about this. But then again he shouldn't have known to quit after two.

Golddiggers(Prenutual Agreements) - All the information he could have used 20 years ago. Doh!

Sailing - The hobby that is best explained as similar to standing in a cold shower, with your clothes on, ripping up 100 :nuyen: bills.

Warhammer 40K (135th edition) - He knows exactly which units from 134th edition can be used in 135th edition. None.


EDIT: And in the spirit of the other, slightly more useful posts: Law(Evidence Manufactering)
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BitBasher
post Apr 20 2005, 04:31 PM
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QUOTE (Grinder @ Apr 20 2005, 12:27 AM)
I try to give my ex-cop-char some new knowledge skills. He's a face and has all combat and social skills he needs imo, so i decided to give him some more topics to talk about. He already has (bought at chargen) physics (ballistic), forensic, swat-tactics, police operations and some hobby-related skills. So i want some more to express his background as an ex-cop who got fired because of being corrupt. You know, the typical broken man who wasn't able to resist taking the bribe offered by mafia and the like. Now he switched over and became a professional criminal.

QUOTE
He already has (bought at chargen) physics (ballistic), forensic, swat-tactics, police operations and some hobby-related skills.
Well, the physics is kind of out there unless he was a physics student, basic ballistics will be picked up as part of the pistols skill.

Also: Metroplex Law and Police Procedures are definitely going to be must haves on that skill list.

My main question, is what kind of cop was he? There's all different kinds and they have all different kinds of skillsets. Was he a Homicide detective? Missing Persons? Beat Cop? SWAT? Internal Affairs? DPI? Theft? Patrol? Organized Crime? Gang? Vice? Sherriff's Civil? Corrections? The list goes on and on and by retirement they're all going to have pretty darn diffeent skill sets.

QUOTE
So i want some more to express his background as an ex-cop who got fired because of being corrupt. You know, the typical broken man who wasn't able to resist taking the bribe offered by mafia and the like. Now he switched over and became a professional criminal.
As above, first and foremost you need to know what kind of cop. Just "cop" is like "white collar laborer" it's a pretty huge category really for this purpose.
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Nikoli
post Apr 20 2005, 04:37 PM
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Also, cops aren't CSI. Forensics is a specialized field in law enforcement, and plays very little in the average detective's day to day casework.
They need some skill in it, to make sense of the more escoteric portions of the coronor's report and the forensics report, they do not however need to know how to collect the data, nor how to process it.
High sociology (professional level at the least), psychology, maybe some sort of "profiling" skill, etc.
Your average cop, from meter maid to cheif of police often sees the very worst of people day in, day out. They see many of the most negative stereotypes confirmed on a monthly if not weekly or even daily basis. For some good background reading on cops on the take, read Rising Sun, I think.
It had a very good take on how and why a cop starts to get on the take. For many, it's not so much about the money, it's the utter lack of support they get from the people they try to protect. Most cops, lose all their non-cop friends when they join the force. They usually end up in divorce because they shut down emotionally, unable to express the anger with the system to their spouses. They lay their life on the line on a daily basis only to be spat on by the folks that they serve. They aren't paid for shit, one of the worst pay scales in civil service given the risk inherently involved. In the end, being on the take is often a result of it's either this or I fail to fulfill one of the primary duties of an officer, at the end of my shift, go home; ie a 2 nuyen retirement package.
Compound that with the game description of Lone Star and Knight Errant as privitized companies. Thankless job + heartless corporate management that only is concerned about the bottom line it is no longer a risk of taking bribes, it's almost an inevitability that you'll take them.

Though, the character needs to take a police record flaw of some kind. Cops rarely forget, though in the brave new world of the 2060's, it's likely they'll simply have nothing to do with him, unless his bribe taking cost a cop his life, then he's going to be harrassed to the point that if a cop's wife gives birth to an orc, he'll be brought in for questioning.
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Smiley
post Apr 20 2005, 05:42 PM
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Illegal choke-holds
Obscure, minor laws (to find something to hold someone for)
Pressure points
Idle threats
Excuses to search vehicles
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Grinder
post Apr 20 2005, 06:29 PM
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First of all, thanks a lot for all the ideas so far. :)

I tried to write down the background. Please keep in mind that i don't know much about the police forces in the usa today - and most of the stuff i know is from movies and series like "the shield". But i think that the cops today and the ones 2060 act very similar.

The character was a cp in Miami, working for Atlantic Security (they're the one corp with the police contract there). He was in it for lets say 15 years (he is an older human, 39) and left three years ago.

He was working at the drug department. So he was a good target for the mafia: they gave him infos about incoming drug tranports by other syndicates which he and his guys could arrest. The mafia bribed him and his partner with money and nights at mafia-controlled brothels. No addiction. Guess when working for the drug department you're a detective, right? He wasn't interested in climbing up higher, he was satisfied with the life he had.

Do you know "the shield"? That's a tv-series about more or less criminal cops who are doing their own business and robbing criminals. The character did the same and was neither white nor black, more a deep gray.

I chose physics and forensic 'cuase it is surely helpful to have some skill in it. Both are at 3, so not really high, but to give him a small insight in it.
Swat-tactics cause i had no other idea. The latter wasn't used since chargen so can be subject to change.

He quit the work for AtSec when internal affairs started investigating his last years, the corrput ones. . At the same time a mission failed and his partner (whom he trusted like noone else, knowing him for 10 years and who was as corrupt as he was), was killed by a mage with a fireball. That gave him enough and he dropped being a cop.
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hahnsoo
post Apr 20 2005, 06:37 PM
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QUOTE (Grinder)
First of all, thanks a lot for all the ideas so far. :)

I tried to write down the background. Please keep in mind that i don't know much about the police forces in the usa today - and most of the stuff i know is from movies and series like "the shield". But i think that the cops today and the ones 2060 act very similar.

The character was a cp in Miami, working for Atlantic Security (they're the one corp with the police contract there). He was in it for lets say 15 years (he is an older human, 39) and left three years ago.

He was working at the drug department. So he was a good target for the mafia: they gave him infos about incoming drug tranports by other syndicates which he and his guys could arrest. The mafia bribed him and his partner with money and nights at mafia-controlled brothels. No addiction. Guess when working for the drug department you're a detective, right? He wasn't interested in climbing up higher, he was satisfied with the life he had.

Do you know "the shield"? That's a tv-series about more or less criminal cops who are doing their own business and robbing criminals. The character did the same and was neither white nor black, more a deep gray.

I chose physics and forensic 'cuase it is surely helpful to have some skill in it. Both are at 3, so not really high, but to give him a small insight in it.
Swat-tactics cause i had no other idea. The latter wasn't used since chargen so can be subject to change.

He quit the work for AtSec when internal affairs started investigating his last years, the corrput ones. . At the same time a mission failed and his partner (whom he trusted like noone else, knowing him for 10 years and who was as corrupt as he was), was killed by a mage with a fireball. That gave him enough and he dropped being a cop.

Maybe he was trying to get into Investigation, but could never climb the corporate ladder, which is why he has those skills but never made it into his department of choice (due to race, birth, politics, slotting off the wrong exec, whatever). My first impression of the character sounds to me more like Denzel Washington's character in "Training Day" than a usual cop. Perhaps more knowledge skills focused on Underworld Politics, Drug Dealers/hotspots, a Caribbean-based area knowledge skill, and Prostitution Rings. Sounds a lot more like a plainclothes cop archetype than the dudes on the Shield.
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Grinder
post Apr 20 2005, 06:41 PM
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"Training Day" is a good picture to grab. Not sooo way down and broken like Denzel was in that movie, but with the same attitude.

Beating up and robbing dealers? No problem, they're the scum who sells poison to our kids. 8)
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Nikoli
post Apr 20 2005, 06:59 PM
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Yeah, it's surprising to see how many older cops are okay with that.
My dad had a great story of making some doper flush his stash down the toilet. Mind you he had spent his entire paycheck on the stuff, was several kilos, he wasn't planning on distributing, just was going to smoke, a lot. Problem is, with that much dope, there's tons more paperwork to file. so, rather than take him in on what would amount to really trumped up misdemeanor, the guy had to flush close to 80 pounds of grass. He was crying, but it was better than a giddy cell mate named Bunny for the next few years.
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BitBasher
post Apr 20 2005, 07:28 PM
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QUOTE
He was working at the drug department. So he was a good target for the mafia: they gave him infos about incoming drug tranports by other syndicates which he and his guys could arrest. The mafia bribed him and his partner with money and nights at mafia-controlled brothels. No addiction. Guess when working for the drug department you're a detective, right? He wasn't interested in climbing up higher, he was satisfied with the life he had.
Allright, your department is Vice or Narcotics, probably Vice. I'd suggest dropping physics and SWAT and taking something like:

Police Procedures (need this, it's how police operate)
Place Specific Law (need this, it's mandatory for law enforcement)
Criminal Psychology (identify perps and druggies by behavior)
Chemistry (id'ing all the types of drugs and knowing their effects/ramifications)
Interogation/Intimidation (For sweating out perps for leads)
Organized Crime (Knowing who runs what and for whom)
Gang ID (Gangs are the major street side movers)

And similar skills...
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hahnsoo
post Apr 20 2005, 07:44 PM
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QUOTE (BitBasher)
Allright, your department is Vice or Narcotics, probably Vice.

As in... Miami Vice? Roll up those sport coat sleeves, and start wearing T-shirts with your leisure suits! :D
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BitBasher
post Apr 20 2005, 08:04 PM
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QUOTE (hahnsoo)
QUOTE (BitBasher @ Apr 20 2005, 02:28 PM)
Allright, your department is Vice or Narcotics, probably Vice.

As in... Miami Vice? Roll up those sport coat sleeves, and start wearing T-shirts with your leisure suits! :D

Actually if I remember correctly miami doesn't even technically have a vice squad. Those functions are rolled up into a differently named department. :D
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FlakJacket
post Apr 20 2005, 08:41 PM
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QUOTE (BitBasher)
Interogation/Intimidation (For sweating out perps for leads)

I'd probably go for Interrogation/Verbal myself since it seems more usable and broad based. Allows you to use it in both interrogation room and street situations since you can't always go round threatening to gouge out people's eyes with a spork.
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BitBasher
post Apr 20 2005, 08:50 PM
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QUOTE (FlakJacket)
QUOTE (BitBasher)
Interogation/Intimidation (For sweating out perps for leads)

I'd probably go for Interrogation/Verbal myself since it seems more usable and broad based. Allows you to use it in both interrogation room and street situations since you can't always go round threatening to gouge out people's eyes with a spork.

Yeah, but he was a bad cop. I don't think interrogation is too put of place. There's no reason these shakedowns were happening in any official capacity. By the book though verbal is the way to go coupled with Psychology.
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Cynic project
post Apr 20 2005, 08:53 PM
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If I have learned on thing from movies, it is that cops always have good one liners.

So you need the skill, snazzy one liners.

I mean, really snazzy one liners will save the day, as they will give clues to your friends about how do things they have never done before.....
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Grinder
post Apr 20 2005, 08:58 PM
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QUOTE (BitBasher)
Police Procedures (need this, it's how police operate)
Place Specific Law (need this, it's mandatory for law enforcement)
Criminal Psychology (identify perps and druggies by behavior)
Chemistry (id'ing all the types of drugs and knowing their effects/ramifications)
Interogation/Intimidation (For sweating out perps for leads)
Organized Crime (Knowing who runs what and for whom)
Gang ID (Gangs are the major street side movers)

And similar skills...

Interrogation is an active skill iirc. The char already has it - it was my first picked skill at chargen. I mean, after all he's still a cop. ;)
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hahnsoo
post Apr 20 2005, 08:58 PM
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QUOTE (BitBasher)
Those functions are rolled up into a differently named department. :D

And that department is named Sonny Crocket and Rico Tubbs, right? :D
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ElFenrir
post Apr 20 2005, 09:52 PM
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Don't forget the pastel shirts and the loafers. :D

QUOTE
Do you know "the shield"? That's a tv-series about more or less criminal cops who are doing their own business and robbing criminals.


One of my fav shows on TV. And great to watch too, even for Shadowrun things, like they way they work their Street level contacts and the like. Also good to watch to learn to cover yourself.

Maybe a knowledge skill of 'Gang Dives' or the like(bars/locations the drug gangs hang out in), Paraphanalia Id(knowing druggies by the improved pieces of gear they might use to take the drugs...if i were a dealer or druggie id make my stuff look as innocent as possible).
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Shadow
post Apr 20 2005, 09:55 PM
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Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*
post Apr 20 2005, 11:01 PM
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Metro-Dade PD has a Narcotics Bureau, if you just want to incorporate it into AtSec.

I don't trust PCs to get any "Law" knowledge skill. But maybe it's because someone straight out of law school should have a 5 or 6 in some sort of nebulous UCAS/whatever Law skill--assuming you can actually break it down like that. With cops, however, aside from the very vague "Police Procedures" KS (which I always treated as incorporating at 3+ various criminal procedures and evidentiary doctrines they have to follow) it would either be a specific KS (e.g., South Florida Criminal Law) or specialization of effectively South Florida Law (Criminal) 1(3) (tweaking the whole, "specializations can't be more than 2x base skill" rule). On the other hand, there's a reason why even search warrants usually get a cursory once-over by a PD lawyer, ADA, or AUSA (for feds).
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