I'm trying to run a game where the players are Enforcers , kindof like cops. in a setting where magic, mages, and monsters exist.
What can i have them do actually? we have the basic of bust up drug dens, shoot terrorists, kill monsters that get in the city. What could these people do? theres so much i still need to work on here so it would be a real solid if you guys could help even a little.
What would be different in a slightly futuristic (maybe like 5 years) society if we also had mages in it? uhh it might be asked what limit a mage has, they can summon a giant fireball but can't bring back the dead (zombies excluded) or build a city with the flick of their wrist.
You could look for 40k and Shadowrun for inspiration honestly.
Luke Flores
im not familiar with 40k but ill dust off the shadowrun book i got awhile ago.
Alexander Perry
What's your settings equivalent to a dirty sweat stained wife beater? Does it still reign supreme or has something else replaced its role?
Brody Lopez
Dark Heresy is the 40k game that you want to look for. It's basically The Inquisition IN SPACE: you are part of said inquisition and are always on the lookout for heretics, xenos and heretical xenos to kill in the borders of your your imperium.
Joshua Wilson
Probably restrictions on magic and the need of magic licenses
Wizards who watch for signs of unsanctioned big rituals and such
Luke Rivera
One of the standard tropes of science-fiction and fantasy is the ability to easily subdue people with some sort of stun effect.
Whether it's through a stun setting on a laser gun or a spell that disables the victim. It's such a standard trope nobody questions the implications of such a reliable means of disabling someone. Law enforcement would be completely revolutionized if you could easily subdue a suspect at range without worrying about the long term effects.
Hell you'd train your police officers to stun first ask questions later. A traffic stop wouldn't be approaching a car to ask for license and registration it would be blast them with stun effects and then see what's up.
Logan Peterson
This.
have mages register with the government to become state sanctioned mages. its a huge deal in this society
Asher Stewart
Magicians just found a super rare type of mushroom (think truffles) its the ingredient to being able to teleport through walls. Theyre exploiting it to rob banks. Police are trying to counter it with security forces in banks, patrolling the block/strip/mall. Police are also about to launch a huge bush squad to scour nearby marshland where the mushrooms frequent. Ending often in shoot outs with mushroom junkies and teleporter cartels.
Monsters also find a use for the mushrooms. They act as a steroid to their gene matter. Cops need electric weaponry to be useful against monsters as well as countering/stunning mage spells.
I forget what other information you gave, so i have a topic and dont ramble.
In the future there won't be police because we will have achieved an anarchist utopia.
Lucas Richardson
I was a patrolman for a few years after I got out of the Marines. The most common cop story trope, which is also the least realistic is: plain clothes homicide detectives start with a murder and uncovered a much bigger conspiracy. There just aren't many guys working plain clothes and the ones who are work multiple cases. 99% of which are cut and dry crimes of passion or gang/dope related.
For RPGs Start with one murder but there is one or two small clues that connect it to something bigger. Maybe it takes multiple murderers before PCs get the hint.
Serial killers, kidnappers, terrorists, smuggling, political bribery, chomo rings, cults, aliens, monsters, etc.
I think that the implications of magic users in the use of force continuum is fascinating.
Anthony Torres
Seems pretty jack booted to me. There is no reason to go around knocking people out on every stop.
75% of the population is living their life and is law abiding and relatively honest. Recreational drug use, DUIs. White collar fraud.
20% are engaged in petty crimes like assault, hard drug use, domestic violence, petty theft or drunk driving. Maybe some petty fraud.
It's the 5% of "frequent fliers" that tie up the majority of police resources. Only a small percentage of which are in organized crime.
Just my observations from 3 years on the streets of a medium size (500k pop.) Southern US City.
how about something like this: Magic is something you essentially have to devote your life to studying, and it's powerful enough to be regulated at least as much as guns are in the real world, so at the very least you need a liscence to study it, a separate liscence to use it at all, and a third to use harmful spells. Only law enforcement and armed forces have access to the "bigger guns" of spellcraft, at least legally. Illegal magic use and spell trafficing are some of the big issues of the day, and to top it off, someone made smartphone apps that can simulate the workings of magic, so any ordinary joe on his smartphone just has to download a .apk and boom, he's got magic. while this app-magic is obviously illegal, it seems to have gained a massive following of late.
and there you go, some worldbuilding and some plothooks all in one go.
Something so strong and freely accessable would cause way too much panic and chaos for police to withstand. Having them need to concoct a potion from rare seeds/fruit/herbs/minerals keeps it under control logistically.
Police vs magic vs monsters vs eachother
Daniel Martin
It looks awesome, but I never heard of it. Was it good?
Cameron Lee
>nobody will be allergic to stun setting, get his pacemaker disabled by the spell, or simply fall and break his neck
Landon Howard
I would play this if you could somehow meld magic and futurisitic together...
However im only really interested in human races. There can be a little of other races, but not much...
Sebastian Nguyen
Anarchism is just feudalism in a modern setting.
We moved away from feudalism for a reason.
Robert Garcia
This. But i'd like to see a break from the normal set of crimes and something bigger like industrial espionage.
...this is just sounding more and more like shadowrun.
Nathan Rogers
There's this MTV show, Death Valley, that basically is this entire concept. It follows a COPS format, where they deal with supernatural entities in a primarily joking manner. It's like if you mixed Reno 911 with World of Darkness.
Jaxson Long
>have access to the "bigger guns"
This makes me think of the manhatten project. You could also roll lots of cool project paperclip into it and then say this shadowy project is being tested, not in the deseart like with the nuclear tests, but in a civilian populated area to gauge its effects. Some kind of broad effect magic that subtle changes things, maybe turns people into killers and threatens to start riots. Allot like MKUlTRA.
You as a cop would play the part of someone trying to uncover the mystery of these killings and stop this shadow branch of the government from doing this in YOUR city. Eventually trying to get a congressional hearing and to get the evil administrator brought into the the light, where justice can be done.
A fun mechanic would be that along the way you have to choose who you want to protect and who can defend themselves because you have limited resources. The people who might know some information about whats going on will be informants that want protection, and possibly profit too. "i saw big loogie loading some drums onto the back of a truck, ill tell you where it was headed but you gotta get me out of the city."
But the people you really want to protect are the innocent civilians, that dont know what to do with all these killings going on, mob involvment (mob war?) and when the riots start they'll be calling your personal number asking for help.
Maybe a mob war has started due to someone killing off the wrong person, the real reason for this ofcourse is the shadowy test going on that has caused tension to boil over. Once players figure this out, it'll be up to them to convince the mafias not to destroy eachother, and ofcource catch loads of civilians in the collateral damage.
Sound like a good plot? Or atleast, parts of a good plot.
