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ShadowDragon8685
And no, I'm not talking about the 'corrupt cop' type, either, so much as the kind who needs extralegal assistance to gather information that he can't get normally - or who even needs to go off the books altogether because what's legal and what's justice aren't meshing.



For instance, I'm running On the Run, but I'm taking like, third encounter, more or less, off the rails by reformatting it or putting it in another scene. For instance, when Delphia asks the group to go and get her snuff chip, they're not the first, and they're not going into Triad territory; she already sent an orc girl to pick up her chip. Unfortunately, said orc girl slotted it, and freaked out because my game is set in 2072, and Delphia's found ordinary Aztlaner torture doesn't do it for her anymore, so now she's into rape-murder chips.


They went into the underground to get it back, which went off without a hitch, but the street doc the girl took it to had already copied it and sent the copy anonymously to Interpol.



Of course, we know that anonymous isn't always anonymous in 2072. I figure that some time down the line, some Interpol agent who's frustrated because the agency won't act on sex crimes or crimes against SINless persons, recruits the doc, who by then will be fully ready to turn into an all-out crusader against such things. but they'll need some muscle, and fortunately, she knows where to get some that won't stand out like a squad of orcs and trogs...



Has anyone ever wound up using law enforcement for such ends as a Johnson - not with cops looking to cover up their corruption, but who need help smiting down on worse bad guys than the Runners usually deal with?
bannockburn
The Ork Underground storyline of the current missions campaign does it rather successfully, imo smile.gif
Maybe that can inspire you?

Also: Bounty Hunter licenses, PI style runs, etc.
Not every other run goes against corps or is about stealing stuff smile.gif
Speed Wraith
I did an entire season arc using characters and plots derived from The Wire, actually. One story involved "arresting" a character and sticking him in a cell with someone that Lone Star wanted to get information from. The idea being that they could actually get a runner to be a CI (confidential informant) to secure a warrant, then drop the charges as a "plea deal". Of course, things didn't go exactly as planned.
Kesendeja
QUOTE (Speed Wraith @ Aug 9 2012, 01:02 PM) *
I did an entire season arc using characters and plots derived from The Wire, actually. One story involved "arresting" a character and sticking him in a cell with someone that Lone Star wanted to get information from. The idea being that they could actually get a runner to be a CI (confidential informant) to secure a warrant, then drop the charges as a "plea deal". Of course, things didn't go exactly as planned.


Do tell, I may use that on my players, and complications are always fun.
Speed Wraith
Nothing too complicated, just a little jailbreak aimed at freeing the guy they were trying to get info from, except that of course the informant character ended up being dragged along since he'd started to get on the target's good side. The rest of the group had to intercept and rescue him from the rescuers while still trying to get the details the Star needed to make their warrant.

There was another one where the characters were hired to perform body guard work for the prosecutor that was on the verge of solidifying a case against the Barksdales (like I said, The Wire wink.gif). They wanted the runners because they could use more flexibility and wouldn't stand out the same way a cop would. Plus there were enough hints about dirty cops and an inside job in cracking the database that held the prosecutor's personal information.
Midas
I am developing an ex-cop character who has a high loyalty homicide squad senior detective as a contact. I figure that KE (and the Star before them) would sometimes rather pay disposable assets 50-100K to take down a high threat murderer (I am thinking ex-military cyborg gone off the rails, vampire, skilled assassin or the like etc) than have to double up squads for safety, pay all that overtime, and risk the embarrassment/line-of-duty-death compensation etc. Hell, part of the contract could be "Take them down and then call us, we'll take over." so KE get all the glory, some good PR and another nice crime stat ticked off ...
CanRay
A consortium of patrolmen who are after a cop-killer after the higher-ups in management killed the investigation due to it not generating any profit would make an interesting Mr. Johnson, with a few "Get Out Of Jail" free cards as part of the pay-out.

Depending on the guy being hunted in question, it might even count as "Hooding". Probably pay as much...

But this is why it's good to have a Cop as a Contact!
ShadowDragon8685
QUOTE (CanRay @ Aug 10 2012, 01:30 AM) *
A consortium of patrolmen who are after a cop-killer after the higher-ups in management killed the investigation due to it not generating any profit would make an interesting Mr. Johnson, with a few "Get Out Of Jail" free cards as part of the pay-out.

Depending on the guy being hunted in question, it might even count as "Hooding". Probably pay as much...

But this is why it's good to have a Cop as a Contact!


Ooooh, that's an extra-good point.

Having friends in the cops is a good idea. Especially if you're known to the cops for being the kind of guy who will go out of your way to hunt down a cop-killer and arrange for them to be arrested/found mysteriously dead.


Sure, tonight they might have found you fleeing the scene of a B&E, but two months ago you're the guy who got justice for Johnny Jones, the poor fragger who got gunned down in the line of duty and the higher-ups told you to forget about him. You know what, I guess my light bar had a malfunction, why don't you just go on past.
CanRay
Or, sure, it's a Kidnapping, but it's an Extraterritorial Corp, so not really our jurisdiction. And you did snitch out all those drug dealers to me and my "family in blue", getting that Tempo off the street...
Manunancy
QUOTE (CanRay @ Aug 10 2012, 07:30 AM) *
A consortium of patrolmen who are after a cop-killer after the higher-ups in management killed the investigation due to it not generating any profit would make an interesting Mr. Johnson, with a few "Get Out Of Jail" free cards as part of the pay-out.

Depending on the guy being hunted in question, it might even count as "Hooding". Probably pay as much...

But this is why it's good to have a Cop as a Contact!


Depending on how said cop killer operates; the reaction of the bras can vary - it the guy makes an habit of it they will feel concerned - death and injury compensations can quickly add up to a nasty bill. Of cours e if the whole affair is a once over affair, they're probably reluctant to fork the costs involved with nailing the guy. Especially if the whole affair is under the medai's horizon.

A publicized cop killer will definiteively be hunted actively since it hampers the police's image and may endanger the contract. Now we're speaking of srious problem, unlike a say pair of patrolmen getting carved to death with a peeling knife by an out-of-towner lunatic with a grudge against cosp in a quiet corner without media exposure.
Midas
Yeah, I must admit I don't see how any policing duties "generate profit" beyond the (fairly lucrative) price of the policing contract anyway. I guess a file could be shelved due to lack of progress in the investigation or lack of new leads though.

For me, the police looking after their own is an important lynchpin in my gameworld, and I would imagine this to be important for morale as well as engendering respect. If criminals know that killing a cop is going to lead to a massive costs-be-damned manhunt, they're likely to think twice about doing it in the first place.
ShadowDragon8685
QUOTE (Midas @ Aug 11 2012, 04:37 AM) *
Yeah, I must admit I don't see how any policing duties "generate profit" beyond the (fairly lucrative) price of the policing contract anyway.


See, that's because you're used to living in a place with honest, professional police. The ways for the cops to make money are myriad, especially if they're actually volunteers nominally beholden to the jurisdiction which pays their salaries, but to the almighty papa corp.

Off the top of my head:
1: Speed trap. Find a guy whom Grid Guide reports is operating manually, pull him over at the end of any stretch where he got himself up to the speed limit or exceeded it, and tell him he exceeded it by ten miles an hour. Have your hacker - the guy who has security access to GridGuide and most likely has hacked himself an Admin account - change the GG numbers to reflect it, and write him a ticket. Most of them won't dare to fight it, especially if they're an out-of-towner, they'll just pay (on the spot.) If they actually work up the testes to dispute the ticket in traffic court, you can just pass it off as a gridguide malfunction and dismiss the ticket as an erroneous error made in good faith.

2: Protection shake-down. Yes, just like the other side does. This is more profitable at the level of a few guys to a squad, though it can work for the whole company, but the best part is that it's really simple and, depending on the terms of your contract, may not even be illegal. Explain to the local shop owners that, while their contract with the municipality does cover protecting them, private enterprises are on a much lower response rating that, say, things which happen in the streets, or to government buildings. However, for the low, low repeating price of a sum which is roughly the same as that a criminal syndicate would charge; enough to make your eyes pop out and your blood pressure spike, but not so much that it would ruin you and drive you out of business, you can purchase an enhanced protection package, adding your, yes, your business, to the same response list that government buildings and vehicles enjoy! So that when you press that PanicButton, you can rest assured that Lone Star/Knight Errant are going to come racing to your aid, lights and sirens, rather than ignoring it in favor of higher-priority calls and getting to you four hours later at three in the morning when you've had everything stolen, lock, stock, and barrel.

If they don't pay? Well, that's fine, that's their prerogative, of course. Then you just 'happen' to mention, whilst in earshot of some gangers who are due to be released from lockdown in the immediate future, that XYZ business/block of businesses chose not to pay for the enhanced protection package, and it's a real shame that their response time is four hours unless literally nothing else is going on. If any individual businesses did pay for the protection, be sure to name them by name and state that 'Yeah, but ABC paid, so if they call, we're going to have to run right over there."

Wham bam, within the two days after those gangers being sprung, every business on the block that didn't pay you will have been cleaned out to bare shelves, and you can make a big scene of arriving right on time three hours and fifty minutes too late to do a goddamn thing except make a big show of taking pictures and statements and dusting for fingerprints, all of which will be shoved in a box and forgotten about, because even if they later pay, those incidents happened before the enhanced protection plan was paid in full.

3: Random shake-downs for fun and profit. Admittedly, this one is risky, so it's best done with two or three big, armored trolls in uniform backing you up. Pick a guy who looks like a runner, or some other kind of well-financed crook, and shake him down. Rigorously check everything on him for ID and licenses. If anything comes back suspect - and at least one thing probably will, because who hasn't had occasion to need one of their pieces of gear on them that their license for is licensed to another fake SIN, drag them to lock-up and go over everything else on them with the Rating 6 scanner back at the lock-up. When they bribe you to let them go, you take the bribe money, and then smack them around for being an idiot, before thanking them for their contributions to your financial welfare. Report the bribe, that you took it, and that you then failed utterly to comply with what you being bribed to do - the old German Army system. Your hackers can then backtrace the bribe's payment and hopefully get that account drained, too.

This works best if you catch a negligent and well-off runner whose life you can disassemble (literally,) for profit (from draining the one basket he was stupid enough to keep all his eggs in, selling all those tasty illegal things back on the black market, up to and including pawning off his augs secondhand,) but the far more common case is that you'll catch some well-off idiot who bought a big handgun from a shady guy to look like a badass and get laid, and you can then shake him down for a large bribe and sell off his gun/keep it for yourself.




QUOTE
I guess a file could be shelved due to lack of progress in the investigation or lack of new leads though.

For me, the police looking after their own is an important lynchpin in my gameworld, and I would imagine this to be important for morale as well as engendering respect. If criminals know that killing a cop is going to lead to a massive costs-be-damned manhunt, they're likely to think twice about doing it in the first place.



Morale and respect are intangible qualities which don't have a tangible effect on the bottom line. Therefor, in the dystopian future that is Shadowrun, the corporate overlords who may haven't carried a badge (at least in any actual enforcement capacity) for twenty years - and the shareholders who are certain never to have done so - aren't going to be happy if you're spending a lot of money persecuting some unprofitable case that hasn't made the news and which is financially best ignored.
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