This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Police procedural type campaigns?  (Read 2463 times)

MKoth

  • Newbie
  • *
  • M
  • Posts: 19
    • http://anglypur.blogspot.com/
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #15 on: October 08, 2018, 08:30:36 AM »
Quote from: SHARK;1059326
Greetings!

OOH-RAH!!! Good to meet you, MKoth! Another Marine reporting, Sir! Good to have you here with us. We always need a few more Marines! What did you do in our beloved Green Machine?

What do you think of 5E brother? You have any other fellow Marines that play too?

Semper Fi, Marine!

SHARK

Nope, one of my fellow players is former Army, and are all techs and scientists now. We play a lot of WFRP, but when it comes to D&D, instead of embracing the new stuff, we've been doing Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. We just seem to have more fun with the rules that we started playing back in the 70s with the flavor of all the fantastic character classes.

As far as the Corps goes, Air-winger here. Active duty back in the mid 80s.

Semper Fi!

-Mick
Art, Maps, and the Grim Hack for WFRP: http://anglypur.blogspot.com/

flyingmice

  • Flunchist-Cruftist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9757
    • http://www.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #16 on: October 08, 2018, 01:18:36 PM »
I was once upon a time going to write a game around police procedurals - I had a title (Ecce Homicide) and cover already made. I don't give a fuck if my games sell or not, and it looked right up my alley. I have run dozens of police procedurals over the years, with terrific success. But then, while I was prepping the book, I realized there was no game there. Procedurals are all about how you run a game, not what game you run. I shut that sucker down so fast it's still spinning. It's not my business to tell anyone else how to run a game.
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

RPGPundit

  • Administrator - The Final Boss of Internet Shitlords
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 48855
    • http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #17 on: October 12, 2018, 05:51:50 AM »
You could probably use BRP rules, including Call of Cthulhu or Raiders of R'lyeh, to do a historical police campaign.
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you've played 'medieval fantasy' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

Bedrockbrendan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12695
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #18 on: October 12, 2018, 06:21:30 AM »
The first game we released was a counter terrorism game called Terror Network. Mainly focused on FBI, CIA and Joint Counter Terrorism Task Forces (that might include local law enforcement. There is a supplement that expands on agencies. Quite simple though and not at GURPS level detail (mainly meant to get the ball rolling). Also put out Crime Network where you can be the criminals (and the books for that have some rules on law enforcement issues. CN is mafia focused.

Toadmaster

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • T
  • Posts: 731
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #19 on: October 23, 2018, 07:26:01 PM »
Quote from: Pat;1059052
I don't think I've ever run a straight police procedural, but I found GURPS Mysteries found immensely useful in running a few games in the broader mystery genre.



I found a copy of this on Ebay, it arrived today. Only had a quick read through it, but as with so many GURPS books it does appear to be super helpful. Thanks again for mentioning it.

Toadmaster

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • T
  • Posts: 731
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #20 on: October 23, 2018, 07:41:27 PM »
Quote from: RPGPundit;1059864
You could probably use BRP rules, including Call of Cthulhu or Raiders of R'lyeh, to do a historical police campaign.

Not familiar with Raiders, but CoC does have a lot of built in mechanics for investigating.

I've read several books covering local mysteries / crimes from the California Gold Rush through the 1960s (the Zodiac killer was the most recent included) as well as a semi-biography of Issiah Lees, a San Francisco detective who worked for the police department from the 1850s and retired as the Chief of Police at the turn of the century. Some pretty dark stuff, it would be so easy to turn some of these cases into something related to the mythos.

AsenRG

  • Bloody Weselian Hippy
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5036
    • http://storiescharactersandsystemsinrpgs.blogspot.com/
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #21 on: October 24, 2018, 04:39:18 AM »
I've run police procedural campaigns in Savage Worlds, though that was a cross with urban fantasy and pulps, and in A Dirty World. The former had more action, while the latter featured a private investigator that wasn't a cop, but had a tarot practice.
Let's just say she relied less on tarot and more on talking to people she suspected, though:D!
So I can definitely recommend A Dirty World, and the One-Roll Crime Generator would be useful even if you use a different system!

The Esoterrorists and Mutant City Blues are also focused on police procedurals, it seems the latter would be somewhat better.


Quote from: flyingmice;1059388
I was once upon a time going to write a game around police procedurals - I had a title (Ecce Homicide) and cover already made. I don't give a fuck if my games sell or not, and it looked right up my alley. I have run dozens of police procedurals over the years, with terrific success. But then, while I was prepping the book, I realized there was no game there. Procedurals are all about how you run a game, not what game you run. I shut that sucker down so fast it's still spinning. It's not my business to tell anyone else how to run a game.
Why the hell not? Do you think GMs are born knowing how to run all genres, or do you think that, say, the LotFP DMG is wrong in explaining you how to run a sandbox with dungeons:)?

Make it a "how to run police procedurals" book, instead! But by all means, write it;)!
« Last Edit: October 24, 2018, 04:41:43 AM by AsenRG »
What Do You Do In Tekumel? See examples!
"Life is not fair. If the campaign setting is somewhat like life then the setting also is sometimes not fair." - Bren

AsenRG

  • Bloody Weselian Hippy
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5036
    • http://storiescharactersandsystemsinrpgs.blogspot.com/
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #22 on: October 24, 2018, 04:39:50 AM »
I've run police procedural campaigns in Savage Worlds, though that was a cross with urban fantasy and pulps, and in A Dirty World. The former had more action, while the latter featured a private investigator that wasn't a cop, but had a tarot practice.
Let's just say she relied less on tarot and more on talking to people she suspected, though:D!
So I can definitely recommend A Dirty World, and the One-Roll Crime Generator would be useful even if you use a different system!

The Esoterrorists and Mutant City Blues are also focused on police procedurals, it seems the latter would be somewhat better.


Quote from: flyingmice;1059388
I was once upon a time going to write a game around police procedurals - I had a title (Ecce Homicide) and cover already made. I don't give a fuck if my games sell or not, and it looked right up my alley. I have run dozens of police procedurals over the years, with terrific success. But then, while I was prepping the book, I realized there was no game there. Procedurals are all about how you run a game, not what game you run. I shut that sucker down so fast it's still spinning. It's not my business to tell anyone else how to run a game.
Why the hell not? Do you think GMs are born knowing how to run all genres, or do you think that, say, the LotFP DMG is wrong in explaining you how to run a sandbox with dungeons:)?

Make it a "how to run police procedurals" book, instead! But by all means, write it;)!
What Do You Do In Tekumel? See examples!
"Life is not fair. If the campaign setting is somewhat like life then the setting also is sometimes not fair." - Bren

Pat
BANNED

  • BANNED
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • ?
  • Posts: 5252
  • Rats do 0 damage
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #23 on: October 24, 2018, 10:12:32 AM »
Quote from: Toadmaster;1061609
I found a copy of this on Ebay, it arrived today. Only had a quick read through it, but as with so many GURPS books it does appear to be super helpful. Thanks again for mentioning it.

Sure. It's one of the better GURPS books.

Delete_me

  • .
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • D
  • Posts: 780
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #24 on: October 24, 2018, 11:27:30 AM »
D20 Modern could actually do a police procedural with a bit more action bent... like... Hot Fuzz.

tenbones

  • Poobah of the D.O.N.G.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6165
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #25 on: October 24, 2018, 12:08:32 PM »
An interesting book to mine for ideas (and though it's cyberpunk a lot of the ideas from it are things specific to this thread) - is the CP2020 book "To Serve and Protect" which is a book themed around cop-campaigns. They talk about futuristic procedure and methods that are basically the things that need to be addressed in any police-specific campaign. It's worth a look if you're wanting to run a procedural game. Likewise I'd look at the Fixer book - Wildside, which does a good job covering organized crime. Could probably mine that for a lot of customized tables etc.

RPGPundit

  • Administrator - The Final Boss of Internet Shitlords
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 48855
    • http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #26 on: October 29, 2018, 01:44:04 PM »
I've often thought that a wild-west/detective combo, with the PCs playing Pinkertons, could be very interesting.
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you've played 'medieval fantasy' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

tenbones

  • Poobah of the D.O.N.G.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6165
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #27 on: October 29, 2018, 02:10:21 PM »
Quote from: RPGPundit;1062200
I've often thought that a wild-west/detective combo, with the PCs playing Pinkertons, could be very interesting.

I'm about to start playing in a Pinkerton game like that next week! Pinkerton is a big deal in Deadlands.

RPGPundit

  • Administrator - The Final Boss of Internet Shitlords
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 48855
    • http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #28 on: November 02, 2018, 01:25:30 AM »
Quote from: tenbones;1062207
I'm about to start playing in a Pinkerton game like that next week! Pinkerton is a big deal in Deadlands.

Cool. Be sure to tell us how it goes!
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you've played 'medieval fantasy' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

Toadmaster

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • T
  • Posts: 731
Police procedural type campaigns?
« Reply #29 on: November 02, 2018, 02:00:01 AM »
Quote from: tenbones;1062207
I'm about to start playing in a Pinkerton game like that next week! Pinkerton is a big deal in Deadlands.

I'm sure they are, Pinkerton was 10x what the most out there tin foil hat brigade member worried Blackwater might become. I'm sure they make great what if fodder for a distopian vision of the old west.