Willowhugger
May 29 2006, 02:05 AM
I was just curious if anyone thought it was a viable campaign concept. I imagine that the players would have to definitely be rogues to navigate the corruption, incompetence, and lack of firepower of the Police in a Major UCAS city.
On the other hand it seems like it could be a source of endless missions. Especially if they are set up against corporates who theoretically can probably be above the law unless they get shot by accident.
Crusher Bob
May 29 2006, 02:13 AM
Intro SR adventures where you play as cops:
CAS Rangers
James McMurray
May 29 2006, 02:16 AM
This was just mentioned over in SR4. There was a 1st or 2nd edition book called Missions that had a bunch of alternate (i.e. non-Runner) scenarios. At least one of them had the players working for Lone Star.
It's definitely a workable campaign. It could be them as hero types or them as Vic Macke and his crew and be fun either way.
Calvin Hobbes
May 29 2006, 02:33 AM
Two PCs I've seen that really worked well as cops: one was a full magician who focused on Locate Person, Armor, etc, and was a swat team equivalent for Knight Errant, and the other was a former metroplex guard with skills as priority and a lot of cool gear. If the two other team mates hadn't been despicable, we could have been a Knight Errant specialty squad. The idea of being a counter Shadowrunning team for a mission, stealing something back from SRer's would be cool.
Omer Joel
May 29 2006, 11:10 AM
The four main differences between a usual Runner campaign and a Cop campaign are, IMHO:
1) Runners usually have no "real lives" (families and so on, though some do); cops are more likely to have a real family, a flat in an OK part of town (though usually C-rated zone or less due to low pay) and a regular salary.
2) Runners usually get hired seperately for a different "boss" (Johnson) every run or group of related runs; cops have regular superiors who give orders.
3) Runners usually finace their gear out of their pay; cops have their gear issued by the Cop-Corp (or police force) depending on their assignment.
And the big one:
4) Runners are usually outside of the law; cops must "play by the rules" most of time, with exceptions usually having to be well-concealed.
Wounded Ronin
May 30 2006, 12:08 AM
Wow, I'm honored that someone linked to my campaign.
If you wanted to do a sort of LAPD themed campaign you could definitely get a huge amount of gritty satirical mileage from that. Perhaps the PCs could get bonus karma points for each suspect or poor person whom they Rodney King...so long as it isn't caught on camera.
PBTHHHHT
May 30 2006, 12:15 AM
Anybody watch the show 'The Shield'? That'd be a nice element to incorporate in the cop campaign, not necessarily the pc's being the corrupt element. But they might have to do deal with some corrupt group of cops in their precinct house/etc... will they keep quiet to IA or will they squeal, or will they join in with any dirty stuff?
Shrike30
May 30 2006, 04:56 AM
Making the PCs detectives (rather than beat cops) is a good place to start, unless you actually want them patrolling, busting hookers, telling people to smoke crack further down the alley, giving out speeding tickets, and the like. All the gameplay-interesting cop stuff happens further up the food chain.
nezumi
May 30 2006, 01:23 PM
I do like the idea of running the Star like Kage describes it. Basically a gang with bigger bang and a PR department.
Wounded Ronin
May 31 2006, 11:32 PM
| QUOTE (Shrike30) |
| Making the PCs detectives (rather than beat cops) is a good place to start, unless you actually want them patrolling, busting hookers, telling people to smoke crack further down the alley, giving out speeding tickets, and the like. All the gameplay-interesting cop stuff happens further up the food chain. |
Actually, that just gave me an idea. Run a campaign where the PCs are run of the mill cops and they're doing these mundane tasks. It's just a little bit boring for the first session but the PCs get a bonus karma point each time they Rodney King someone and get away with it.
But then, see, it turns out that the main point of the campaign is actually a LA Riots style setting. In response to widespread police brutality (snark) the city of X is engulfed in race riots and these big trolls are running everywhere with guns.
So all of a sudden the po po is under siege! The PCs are in an isolated situation (perhaps they were out patrolling when the riots broke out) and now they need to survive for 48 hours cut off from the rest of the world until the National Guard moves in.
Maybe at like 12 hours in they find a police station and they think they're saved, but a little while later the police station is overrun by molotov cocktail wielding rioters.
Perhaps exhaustion and hunger could be part of the game, too. In a city you can't really live in the same way you can live in a natural setting. If there weren't restaurants and things bringing food into the city any living thing could not stay in a city setting because it would starve, right? But now that there's a riot the PCs can't afford to sleep since they're always in danger and they need to go for some time without food. Begin applying TN penalties as the campaign continues to simulate starvation, dehydration, and lack of sleep. Ammunition runs low...
Now that could be a cool campaign.
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