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Pee Cee Cops
by Gurth, with help from Sascha Pabst and Erik Jameson
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by Gurth, with help from Sascha Pabst and Erik Jameson
Shadowrunners and laws have a love-hate relationship, most of
the time biased heavily toward hate's side. But what if some enterprising
player wants to be one of the "good guys," or to put
it in other words, a police officer? No rules or even guidelines
for that in the Shadowrun rules, quite rightly so too,
considering the background of the game. Yet, it might be an interesting
experiment nonetheless.
Very important is that the gamemaster at least has access to the Lone Star sourcebook, FASA number 7115, in order to get a good grasp of what it's like to be a cop in the Sixth World. Probably also useful, although I have never seen it up close (or from a distance, for that matter), would be R. Talsorian's Protect and Serve, which details the police in the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. Articles, books, documentaries, and possibly even cop shows on TV or those reality-TV thingies, about American police can also be quite handy for ideas-both for playing your character and for ideas for adventures.
First of all, it should be stressed that all characters should be law enforcement officers for a "cop campaign" to work. If we take, for instance, four players, and one wants to play a street samurai, the second a combat mage, the third a merc, and the fourth a cop, things will most likely not work out very well-one of the characters would either be busting the others all the time (probably not good for inter-player relationships), or she'd get into deep drek with her superiors for aiding known felons (probably not good for player-GM relationships).
There are some solutions, though, so you don't need to give up just yet. One is to go ahead as described above, and see where the ship runs aground. Go with the flow, until the flow stops. Then either try to save the mess, or quit and make new characters.
Another option is to make all characters law enforcement officers
even though they may be street samurai, combat mages, and whatnots.
Street samurai? Chromer cop. Combat mage? DPI combat mage. Merc?
FRT trooper. For nearly any kind of regular shadowrunner, a Lone
Star equivalent can be found if you look hard enough. And if that
still doesn't work, make them "irregular assets" that
get called in when the Star can't be seen handling a certain situation
(although this would turn them into something resembling shadowrunners
so much that this text would become almost useless).
The gamemaster might wish to establish a special unit for the players to allow characters from several departments to work together. A good approach for a short term campaign would be a Special Commission to investigate an outstanding (series of) crime(s), or for a longer term campaign a Special Commission set up by Lone Star and the Metroplex government as long term project to test inter-department cooperation and interaction. This will also explain a higher percentage of metahumans in a team, since the departments might want to "get rid" of them (read Terry Pratchett's Men At Arms :-)
Give the team a fancy name (IDRT, Inter Department Response Team
might do) and declare them independent of normal command structure
to allow the campaign covering various objectives.
The last option mentioned here is the one that requires good thought, good roleplaying, and a good gamemaster. It is to make one (or more, but preferably only one) of the PCs an under-cover cop infiltrating in the shadowrunners' little world. Why he would do this is up to the player and gamemaster to ponder about, but once a plausible reason has been invented, only the player actually playing the cop should know what his or her character really is. Then have him go along with the players, acting like a regular shadowrunner, and at the same time double-crossing them so his superiors can get a fix on who to arrest. The superiors might even be tempted to help along, making life easier for the shadowrunners without them knowing it, in order to keep the agent undercover with a false identity instead of underwater with concrete shoes on.
Anything can happen here, from fighting families over petty (or not so petty) thefts reported over gang conflicts to hostage situations and all-out block wars. Officers on foot or motorized patrol will never know what happen to them, but can be sure they will have to handle the problems alone, since it usually takes too long for reinforcements to arrive.
Whenever Officers weren't able to handle a given situation, their superiors might think it's time for some serious training again. And may purchase some training time at the Fort Lewis Urban Combat Simulator-that's right, it's military! All bets are off, and you better hope the simsense-override doesn't take you down.
Special Commissions might attract media attention. So the cops got to escort a newssnoop through their turf for a whole day. And better pray the reporter doesn't get hurt...
Sometimes it's cheaper for some major player in the 'Plex to have Lone Star investigate a murder then to start a vendetta with some other major player. This can be anyone who's independent... like your guys in blue and yellow just walking by. Really interesting if the department of organized crime suddenly appears and wants its undercover-cop covered...
People working for a corporation get paid for it. They wouldn't if they didn't, would they? So players playing the role of police officers should receive a paycheck each month from which they will have to try and live like good citizens do. Following are suggested pay rates for police officers, based on those for the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid-1990s, and the pay scales mentioned on page 95 of the Lone Star sourcebook.
A healthy pension plan (as a note, many cops are able to retire early with this and the deferred compensation plan-defer money you make now for later).
About half (or so) of an officer's sick days, vacation days, and holidays are fully paid.
Officers with relevant college degrees or relevant certificates (like EMT) receive a higher salary premium (a few percentage points higher).
Officers who can read and/or write in another language receive salary premiums from 2.75% to 5.5% depending on the language.
Officers receive 650¥ per year uniform allowance.
| Rank | Nuyen per year |
| Police Officer I | 17,769 to 23,991 |
| Police Officer II | 19,596 to 25,693 |
| (automatic after 18 months) | |
| Police Officer III | 20,682 to 27,155 |
| (Field Training Officer) | |
| Detective I | 25,192 to 29,201 |
| Detective II | 28,073 to 31,299 |
| Detective III | 31,299 to 34,880 |
| D.P.I. Mage I | 29,263 to 32,842 |
| D.P.I. Mage II | 30,732 to 34,283 |
| Sergeant I | 28,637 to 31,926 |
| Sergeant II | 30,234 to 33,701 |
| Lieutenant | 33,701 to 37,563 |
| Chief Lieutenant | 35,580 to 39,630 |
| Captain | 38,440 to 45,216 |
| Longevity (Police Officer rank only) | |
| 10 years | +696¥ per year |
| 15 years | +1,392¥ per year |
| 20 years | +2,064¥ per year |
| Income for Specific Units | extra per year |
| Airborne patrol | +4,925¥ |
| CorpSec officer | +1,163¥ |
| DED trooper | +1,623¥ |
| FRT trooper | +3,127¥ |
| Mage, special ops | +4,618¥ |
| SWAT trooper | +2,926¥ |
Note: the variability of salary is due to salary premiums such as language skills, college educations, etc.
All police officers naturally have a SIN, like any other good citizen. Without a SIN, it would be rather hard to become a police officer in the first place (although there might be some private security firms that don't have such a silly requirement...).
Although this article focuses on Lone Star, the main security provider in Seattle and many other North American cities, there is no reason why it could not be adapted to other corporations. Knight Errant, Eagle Security, and so on could all very well be represented. The gamemaster needs to make up his or her own requirements for those; base them on NPCs published in FASA's adventures and you're on the right track already.
Now you know some things about running a cop campaign, you'll also need to know something about the characters you can create as a player. Unlike shadowrunners, policemen and -women should conform to certain standards else they'd never get hired in the first place, and also they automatically possess certain knowledges and abilities after getting through the Lone Star academy.
What will from now on be referred to as a "career," is a short way of defining a policeman: foot patrol officer, DED trooper, etc. To make things easier, we'll assume each the NPCs on pages 126 through 132 of the Lone Star sourcebook represents a career within Lone Star.
It's recommended not to use the More Metahumans optional rule, seeing that more than 80% of the Lone Star street cops are humans, a figure that's even higher in administration. Senior management (admittedly, not many players will be here from the start, or even have a realistic chance of getting there) even has 98% humans.
Since Lone Star employs magicians, there is no trouble with playing a magically-active cop character. These will nearly invariably end up in the Department of Paranormal Investigations (DPI, or "Dips"), except for the few that become SWAT team members or perform similar functions.
All Lone Star officers must take the following skills; these are
learned as part of basic training.
Etiquette (Corporate): 2
Firearms: 3
Police Procedures: 3
Unarmed Combat: 2
Some additional skills must be taken for a number of careers. This makes some careers only available to characters with a certain number of Skill Points, as indicated.
Although it is tempting for many players to start with 400,000 or even 1,000,000 nuyen, it is recommended that the gamemaster prohibit this unless the player in question wants to play a chromer cop, or an other kind of cop characters who needs lots of money or Force points. Ordinary beat cops rarely accumulate gear and vehicles worth several hundred thousand nuyen without winning the lottery at some point in their lives.
All Lone Star player characters start with the following equipment, which they must buy from their Resources money. This list has been compiled by looking at the main text and the NPCs in the back of the Lone Star book, and simple common sense.
If players want to start with less nuyen than required to buy
this equipment, the gamemaster has the option of either not allowing
the player to make a cop character, or to allow him or her to
buy the equipment from the 3D6x1,000¥ each character receives
at start-up.
Total cost (including Low lifestyle): 8,500 nuyen + weapon
& ammo cost
All this equipment is that required for "the job," except maybe the lifestyle. The reason for that one is that Lone Star does not hire people without a reliable way of contacting them at their home address. Coffin #15184, Novelty Hill Sleep & Eat, Redmond is not the place to live if you aspire a law enforcement career.
Characters can buy any other equipment, for personal use, from
any money left over. They should, however, think pretty hard about
buying items that are outright illegal, or about permit-required
items without buying a permit. If the boss finds out they could
very well be in trouble.
Some careers require additional equipment which must be purchased at character creation. Note that police characters do not need to buy vehicles except for personal use; these are issued by Lone Star when needed-a cycle patrol officer will be issued with an Electraglide-1000 and all the stuff the machine carries when she's on duty.
Worth checking out here is issue 1 of Shadowland magazine (October 1995), which has an article by Andrew Ragland with cop gear in it.
All cop characters must take a Street Cop contact, or any contact from the Lone Star book. This contact is one of the two free contacts the character receives. A Gang/Tribe is also recommended, representing the police department as a whole, although gamemasters may find this creates problems for characters with little Resources money. In such a case, either disregard the Gang/Tribe contact requirement for all players (not just for the ones with too little money), or start those characters who can't afford it off as new recruits who haven't really got to know the corporation's way of working yet.
Apart from these restrictions, the players are free to choose contacts as they like, although it should be clear that some contacts would be frowned upon by the brass-a street cop having close relations with the Yakuza might find himself having to explain just what those relations really are...
Following are short descriptions of each career, including any required skills, Attribute values, and/or equipment. Unless otherwise noted, all careers require the basic skill package and the basic equipment package mentioned above in addition to the skills and equipment listed below.
Skills listed are the minimum required-they are learned in training at the level indicated. Many officers have higher skill levels. If Attribute minimums are indicated, this is for humans. Metahumans should apply their racial modifiers to the values-if Body 4 is required, an ork should have Body 7 for the same job.
The "total costs" are only for the required skills and materials; the optionals have not been included. The basic packages have been included, however.
Skills: Rotorcraft 3 (preferably specialization in Wasp or Yellowjacket at higher level).
Cyberware: none required, but vehicle control rig recommended.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skills recommended. Wasp or Yellowjacket helicopter issued when necessary.
Total cost: skill points 13, monetary 8,500¥
Attributes: Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 3.
Skills: Car 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skill recommended. Ground vehicle issued when necessary.
Total cost: Attribute points 13, skill points 13, monetary 8,500¥
Skills: no extra required.
Cyberware: any desired by individual.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skill recommended. Heavy cyberware recommended. Additional weaponry recommended.
Total cost: skill points 10, monetary 8,500¥
Skills: Interrogation 1
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Beretta Model 70 with 3 clips, Partial Heavy Armor (6/4)
Extra notes: Car and Etiquette (Street) skills recommended.
Total cost: skill points 11, monetary 19,607¥
Attributes: Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 3.
Skills: Bike 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat and Etiquette (Street) skill recommended. Ground vehicle issued when necessary.
Total cost: Attribute points 13, skill points 13, monetary 8,500¥
Attributes: Body 4, Quickness 4, Strength 3, Intelligence 4.
Skills: Firearms 4, Stealth 2.
Cyberware: Smartlink, wired reflexes (1).
Equipment: Full Heavy Armor (8/6), H&K MP-5 TX with 3 clips
Extra notes: pistol recommended.
Total cost: Attribute points 17, skill points 16, monetary 86,985¥, Essence 2.5
Attributes: Intelligence 4.
Skills: Computer 2, Electronics 2, Etiquette (Street) 3, Interrogation 3, Police Procedures 5, Psychology 2, Sociology 2.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3)
Extra notes: Armed Combat skill recommended. Various intrusion gear recommended.
Total cost: Attribute points 9, skill points 29, monetary 9,400¥
Skills: Conjuring 4, Magical Theory 4, Sorcery 4.
Spells: Clairvoyance 3, Confusion 3, Control Actions 3, Detect Enemies 2, Manabolt 4.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Various foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 22, monetary 8,500¥, Force points 15
Skills: Conjuring 5, Magical Theory 5, Sorcery 5.
Spells: Bullet Barrier 4, Clairvoyance 3, Detect Enemies (Extended) 4, Mob Mind 3, Spell Barrier 4, Stun Bolt 4, Wrecker 4
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Full Heavy Armor (8/6), Uzi III with 3 clips
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Most are initiates and cannot be created as beginning characters. Various foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 25, monetary 29,259¥, Force points 26
Skills: Conjuring 4, Magical Theory 3, Sorcery 4.
Spells: Bind 2, Clairvoyance 3, Confusion 3, Mana Bolt 3, Personal Combat Sense 4.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3), Uzi III with 3 clips
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Various foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 21, monetary 10,144¥, Force points 15
Skills: Conjuring 3, Magical Theory 5, Sorcery 4.
Spells: Analyze Device 3, Analyze Truth 4, Clairvoyance (Extended) 3, Detect Life 3, Mind Probe 2.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended.
Total cost: skill points 22, monetary 8,500¥, Force points 15
Attributes: Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 3.
Skills: Etiquette (Street) 2.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: Armed Combat recommended.
Total cost: Attribute points 13, skill points 12, monetary 8,500¥
Attributes: Body 5, Quickness 6, Strength 4, Intelligence 4.
Skills: Car 2, Firearms 5, Stealth 4.
Cyberware: Smartlink, wired reflexes (1).
Equipment: Full Heavy Armor (8/6).
Extra notes: Weapons issued depending on current function in FRT (see pages 33-35 & 130, Lone Star).
Total cost: Attribute points 21, skill points 21, monetary 28,500¥
Skills: Vectored Thrust 3 (preferably specialization in GMC Harpy at higher level), Vectored Thrust B/R 4.
Cyberware: Vehicle control rig (3).
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: vehicle issued when necessary.
Total cost: skill points 17, monetary 308,500¥, Essence 5
Attributes: Body 4, Strength 4.
Skills: no extra required.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3), Large Riot Security Shield (+2/+0), Net Gun, Scorpion Machine Pistol with 2 clips Gel ammunition
Extra notes: Etiquette (Street) skill recommended.
Total cost: Attribute points 12, skill points 10, monetary 13,500¥
Skills: Sorcery 5, Stealth 1.
Spells: Clairaudience 4, Clairvoyance 4, Mana Bolt 4, Stun Ball 5
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Armor Jacket (5/3), Scorpion Machine Pistol with 2 clips
Extra notes: no cyberware recommended. Various foci recommended.
Total cost: skill points 16, monetary 10,250¥, Force points 17
Attributes: Reaction 5.
Skills: Computer 5, Computer B/R 3, Computer Theory 5, Electronics 3, Stealth 2.
Cyberware: Datajack, headware memory (30 Mp)
Equipment: Partial Heavy Armor (6/4), Scorpion Machine Pistol with 2 clips, Sony CTY-360 cyberdeck.
Extra notes: cyberdeck is usually highly modified.
Total cost: Attribute points 14, skill points 28, monetary 123,750¥, Essence .5
Attributes: Body 4, Quickness 5, Strength 3.
Skills: Firearms 4, Stealth 2
Cyberware: Wired reflexes (1)
Equipment: AK-97 with 3 clips, gas vent 2, and laser sight, Armor Jacket (5/3)
Extra notes: none.
Total cost: Attribute points 15, skill points 13, monetary 11,278¥, Essence 2
Attributes: Reaction 5.
Skills: Firearms (Sniper Rifles, Ranger Arms SM-3) 6, Stealth 3.
Cyberware: Smartlink.
Equipment: Ranger Arms SM-3 with 20 rounds regular and bipod.
Extra notes: none.
Total cost: Attribute points 14, skill points 14, monetary 15,440¥, Essence .5
Skills: Stealth 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: Thermographic binoculars.
Extra notes: none.
Total cost: skill points 13, monetary 8,850¥
Skills: Acting 4, Disguise 2, Stealth 3.
Cyberware: none required.
Equipment: no extra required.
Extra notes: civilian clothes, equipment, etc. required, but left to the agent's discretion here.
Total cost: skill points 17, monetary 8,500¥
Skills: Computer 3, Electronics 5, Electronics B/R 3, Etiquette (Street) 3, Stealth 5.
Cyberware: Radio, vehicle control rig (3)
Equipment: Beretta 200ST with 2 clips.
Extra notes: other equipment issued as necessary.
Total cost: skill points 28, monetary 313,354¥, Essence
5.75
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