5 Keys to Running Law Enforcement NPCs
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One thing that completely bothers me while watching television and movies is how horrible they portray cops. No, it doesn’t bother me that they make them out to look like bumbling idiots, because often that is just for fun. No, it doesn’t bother me that they make them out to be ruthless vigilantes that play by their own rules, because often that is just for the drama. It bothers me when they try to really portray what a cop does in their day-to-day job, their tactics, and how they deal with situations, and REALLY try to play it off like that is how it is. So I’m here to tell you, that isn’t how it is!
Here are some tips on how to play law enforcement NPCs better! These tips are focused on a modern game, but could be modified to fit a fantasy game, cyberpunk game, or sci-fi game, as well.
No Casualties Are Acceptable – Law enforcement officers generally do not fight under the military principle of ‘acceptable losses’. No losses are ever acceptable. If they happen, something went wrong. If they anticipate that raiding a drug house using Plan A will probably result in the loss of one officer, then Plan A gets scraped and they move to Plan B. If they have the luxury of planning for a situation, they will continue to plan until they’ve found a way to approach the situation that gives the highest chance of no law enforcement and civilian casualties. This isn’t like bombing a foreign country where you assume some good guys may get killed with the bad guys. We don’t make plans like that.
Live To Fight Another Day – When something goes wrong and the chase is on, law enforcement officers will usually do one of two things. One, they will chase after the bad guy. Or two, they will set up and cordon off an area in order to create a searchable perimeter. In either scenario, you do your best to catch the bad guy whether it means chasing him for miles and miles, or doing a systematic, overlapping search of the area you believe the enemy to be hiding. Bottom line though, is that you do this in the safest manner possible. If continuing a car chase at 140mph on a busy highway is your only option to possibly catch the crook, most cops will call it quits (or their Sergeants will make them). Why would they give up and let the criminal go in these situations? Because they know they will encounter this person again. And when they catch him the next time around, hopefully under more advantageous circumstances for the cop, then he can charge the criminal for both crimes. The bottom line is, don’t let yourself get killed when you know you’ll have another, better opportunity down the road to catch this guy.
Time Is On Our Side – Time is on the side of the law officers, not on the side of the bad guys. If you have one subject barricaded in a house, it is surrounded by police officers and the scene is secure, time will win the law enforcement officers the battle. There is no need to plan a raid through the back door in the next ten minutes! Talk to the guy and see if he’ll come out voluntarily. Next, start firing gas grenades into the house and choke him out. Next, start sending in robots to give you intelligence about the situation. You can even have them start taking the weapons out of the house, one by one. If all that still doesn’t work, then have a new group of law enforcement officers come in and relieve the group that has been there for so long. The fresh law enforcement officers can start this thing all over again. They can do this all day long. Eventually, the bad guy will have to make a move and then he will most likely be at the disadvantage.
Everybody Goes Home At The End Of The Night – If you have to let that bad guy get away because he’s pushing you beyond your ability threshold to chase him, then do it. Make sure you go home. If you think a burglar might be in the house, but it is just you, call for backup. Even if you have to wait for backup, and by the time they get there the burglar may have skipped out, call for backup. He might not have left, then you can go into the situations bettered prepared and with backup.
We Fight To Win – One thing one of my Sergeants always said to me was, “Remember, do it to them before they do it to you.” It is a short but powerful phrase. Essentially it meant just what it said. If you were in contact with a crook and you anticipated that they were going to attack you, then attack them first! There are definitely things law enforcement officers use to ‘control’ the situations, like control holds, pepper spray, and tasers. However, if that isn’t winning us the fight, then we’ll pull out all the dirty tricks too. We’ll bite your ears off, choke you unconscious, drown you in a pool of water, or do whatever it takes to get the job done if you’re trying to kill us. But aren’t half of those things you just said not “department approved” techniques to use in a fight? Yeah, but if someone is trying to take my life you can screw the “department approved” techniques.
Overall, as a game master who is running a game and using law enforcement NPCs, you need to remember several key concepts:
1. No casualties are ever acceptable.
2. We live to fight another day, and we remember those we deal with.
3. Time is on our side.
4. Everybody goes home at the end of the night (See #1).
5. We fight to win.Remember, you may think street cops are fat, donut-eating, arrogant, lazy, pricks. And yes, there are some of those out there. But in reality the average street cop has seen and experienced a lot more than the average Joe. They tend to be a bit wittier. They have a little bit better bull-shit detector. And they have the mindset that they are there to serve and protect at all costs.
The author of this article is a Law Enforcement Officer himself, and welcomes any comments or questions on how to bring more realism into their campaigns using Law Enforcement NPCs.
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April 27, 2009 at 4:47 am
In RPGs, one of the most common tropes is the fascist cop. I.e the authorities are so unreasonable that they might as well have been pulled from Orwell’s 1984. I understand their use as PC blockers, and I suppose as a railroading tactic, but it’s always bugged me.
April 27, 2009 at 8:51 am
Remember, though, the game isn’t necessarily designed to simulate reality. Just like in the movies, you want your RPG to have exciting kick-in-the-door movements where shots are fired and civilians are in danger. If every RPG encounter was a multi-day standoff that consisted of changing shifts, watching the house, and eventually handcuffing a guy who comes out with a white flag, it’s not much of a game (IMHO).
I don’t go to a movie to see real life situations, and likewise I want a little unreality my RPGs.
April 27, 2009 at 9:06 am
WHAT ABOUT LAW ENFORCMENT POLICE IN A FANTASY WORLD? IF I HAVE A EVIL EMPIRE I AM RUNNING, PROBALY THE POLICE ARE ORCS OR MAYBE OGERS (FOR A REAL TOUGH CAMPAIN). GOBLIN POLICE WOULD NOT BE A GOOD IDEA AND I THINK THEIR WOULD BE ALOT OF CRIME, (SOME OF IT FROM THE GOBLIN POLICE THEMSELF)
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April 27, 2009 at 9:32 am
@ Siskoid – Yeah, if you want to suspend reality you can make any NPC anything you want. But the reality of it is, you don’t run into police like that usually.
@ Micah – You’re right, it isn’t designed to simulate reality. However, if you’ve read any of John’s postings or my posting, we try to simulate a real situation as best as we can. That’s how we run. So it is personal preference. I play video games to kill mindless NPCs.
@ Joesky – I thought about what law enforcement NPCs would be like in the old days. I suspect they would have to be a bit meaner and more violent. More of an eye for an eye type of people. Also, they had less to answer to back then. So if they killed someone for stealing, who’s gonna know?
April 27, 2009 at 9:44 am
Interesting. Samuel, you mentioned the cyberpunk genre. What would you consider “realistic” for a privatized law enforcement firm where, like any company, profits come before everything else? Same procedures? I ask because I could realistically foresee private law enforcement taking more risks to keep their government contracts.
April 27, 2009 at 10:04 am
@ Wesley Street – Yeah, if you were running a Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun game, privatized law enforcement is different. There are few forms of this is the world right now, most coming in near third world countries where it is more military-ruled than police-ruled.
I suspect that privatized law enforcement would have to cater both to the people that pay them and their customers (civilians and crooks). In theory that is what government law enforcement is supposed to do too, but I think that we don’t view it that way.
But I would agree you though that I suspect privatized law enforcement would be more determined to maintain control. If they didn’t, then they would be replaced by another group that would.
April 27, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I agree that cops are, more often than not, used as mindless, useless cannon fodder. However, in real life they are the heroes.
The problem is this: How do you portray cops realistically in a roleplaying game when the player characters are to be the heroes?
The cops need to act like cops, but more importantly, they need to be secondary to the PCs. Yes, the cops have a good bullcrap detector – play them that way. They are slightly more intelligent than the average person – play them that way. And, they usually fight safely – play them that way.
Even though they need to be played this way, cops need to be downplayed a bit so that the PLAYER CHARACTERS are the ones who get the glory. The player characters are the ones that need to be the heroes.
April 27, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Great write-up. It is true that all too often when running into a security force they’ll fight to the death, I hardly see that as a scenario that you could relate with in any way.
There were a lot of good points and posts but one thing that those of you using the “excitement” clause need to remember is that you completely ruin the continuity of a game by turning ANY NPC with at least rudimentary human intelligence into pure cannon fodder. EVERYONE has a sense of self preservation and that usually overrides any training they may have gone through (barring fanatics).
Some of the most memorable game sessions have been the ones where I know for a fact that any force coming at me has a probability to be lethal but also that it is going to take a strong tactical advantage to ensure that they don’t just escape to ambush us later. When you know they’re just going to fight till they die you can pretty much predict the outcome of every fight because, as someone said, the players are the heroes and they “have to” win….right?
April 27, 2009 at 2:29 pm
@ Tourq – I think cops can become one of the few real NPC threats in a game. They are armed, supposedly trained, and have reason to fight someone. I feel like they are used like “level 2″ npcs, right on par with a bar brawler.
@ Bryan – Totally agree with the “have to” win idea. Takes the fun out of the game if you know there is no real way to lose.
April 27, 2009 at 3:07 pm
In a game like Spycraft, there are many times that you want to (or plan to) take a back seat to the action, letting the cops catch the bad guy. You can maintain your cover that way, especially if you planned it to all go down that way.
It is a different story with a game like Modern, or Star Wars. In those games, NPCs cops or nor, are not the heroes. “Gee, that was cool for that NPC to have a better skill than me, why am I even here?”
When I referred to the players as the heroes and the cops as needing to be downplayed, I meant that only if they were on the same side. If it is a cops VERSES player characters scenario, then by all means, make the cops as tough/smart/resourceful as they should be.
April 27, 2009 at 3:21 pm
By the way, this was a good topic.
April 27, 2009 at 4:32 pm
@Micah: bear in mind you can have your kick-in-the-door, stray shots and collateral damage without public safety officers putting the civilians (and themselves) in harm’s way. In Shadowrun/Cyberpunk they could be other shadowrunners or corporate forces. In a modern game maybe they are (other) criminals, mercs who aren’t bound by procedures, a fringe group oppossed to the ideals of your group, or a rogue loose cannon cop with a grudge who subsequently gets cut loose on administrative leave and now has a score to settle… One of my favorite shows that has become a very popular RPG is Firefly/Serenity. These criminals have gotten away from the police on numerous occasions due to a heavy amount of realism in the portrayal of “the system”. They have plenty of fantastic edge-of-your-seat adventures that rival many of encounters I’ve had the pleasure to play.
April 27, 2009 at 5:44 pm
@Tourq: RE:Post #5: Remember, government contracts are low bid. Costs must be minimized. There are several factors regarding risk/profit here:
1.) Insurance: Insurance is a hefty cost. Allowing their officers to rush headlong into danger would probably result in hefty costs for insurence and pension benefits. The corporate mentality would probably have very strict rules authorizing force and followthrough and would employ specialists to handle sticky situations involving extra-capable criminals like PCs. This might equate to Joe Beatcop dropping away from the fight sooner than real-world cops. Just look out for whoever picks up where he left off…
2) Customers: Who is paying the corporate forces? Is it the local government spending tax dollars or do citizens have to have their own cotract/subscriptions for service.
“Public Eye. What is the problem?”
“My name is Joe Radke, someone’s trying to kill me!”
“Mr Radke, our records show that you are late on your monthly payment and your service has been suspended.”
“I’ll send my payment! Just help me!!”
“When we receive your payment, we will reinstitute your account. Thank you for using Public Eye.”
A government has deeper pockets (unless in a really bad recession…) than a corporation as taxes can in theory be continually raised. They can thus provide a “higher level of service”; corps must be cost-effective.
3) Legal fees: Most modern law enforcement is government-run agencies that can throw taxpayer money at problems instead of finding cost-effective solutions. They pay settlements instead of fighting legal battles. Even so, look at how one Rodney King situation blows up and causes lengthy court battles and extensive procedural changes. The stockholders in a private firm aren’t going to put up with that and procedures better be in place to minimize lethal-force issues…
4)Lethal Force: Why use it when there are so many options available? Tasers, Shock Rounds, Firefly style sonic stunners (this is entirely dependant on campaign, of course) Non-lethal methods are gaining in effectiveness and minimize collateral damage. These methods help PR, minimize incidental costs, and leave the moral high ground to the officers/police force. This is a much cheaper way to gain PR than by paying for advertising.
All of these help factor into how much threat NPC’s pose to the PCs. Remember that if the cost-effective method for a corporation is to “let the criminal go … Because they know they will encounter this person again… then [they] can charge the criminal for both crimes.” then the corporation will make the same choice as a modern police force.
April 27, 2009 at 5:56 pm
@Tourq: RE:Post #7
Remember the only reason cops are heroes in the real world is because you are John Q. Public, taxpayer. You are not Malcolm Reynolds, Han Solo, or Batman. Criminal PC’s shouldn’t be the heroes in the public eye. Maybe to other criminals or to the people watching the movie as it unfolds, but not to those who live in the setting expecting protection from “bad guys.”
@Bryan: Couldn’t agree more.
@Sam: Great post! Thanks for everything you’re doing here.
April 27, 2009 at 10:13 pm
@ SonofDayereth’sMom – I like your ideas about corporate law enforcement. I really think that would fit for Lonestar in Shadowrun, or any corporate law enforcement in a game like Cyberpunk 2020.
April 28, 2009 at 3:30 am
Yes, NPC cops need not be realistic in a fictional setting, because all of the reasons pointed in the (excellent) discussion, and GMs need to suspend reality, because a ultra-realistic RPG is boring.
But one needs to know *what* parts of reality to suspend, and for that one has to know how reality is. In this case, if I need unrealistic thugs as cops in my campaign, first I need to know how real-life law enforcement acts in order to make them not do it — and, if needed be, apply realistic behaviour in some instances or isolated cases.
The information presented in this article is crucial to any game, realistic or not: you should know the rules you’d want to disregard.
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April 28, 2009 at 9:53 am
@ Marcelo Dior – This may be part of another discussion, but you (and others) have said that GM’s need to suspend reality because an ultra-realistic RPG is boring.
Well then why even make the NPC a cop at all? If you’re not going to make him act like a cop, just make him ‘RANDOM NPC #32′.
You should roleplay the NPC like a cop because that is WHAT HE IS. If he was a baker, would you have him chopping up meat all the time?
April 28, 2009 at 10:43 am
@ Samuel Van Der Wall: I see your point, but I might need only a NPC that is 75% cop, or 50% cop, depending on how realistic my game is. Besides, knowing how e.g. real-world cops behave, I have a solid base to my Mutant City Blues game, which is a real-world, realistic game, but not quite.
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April 28, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Well, there are easily realistic modifiers that can change the situations for any “law enforcement NPC”. For instance if the cops are dirty and have some extenuating circumstances for needing to catch the heroes ie: heroes have some dirt on the cops and they really can’t let them go.
If you really need reasons for the police to act different it just takes a little imagination to come up with a decent reason for it to be the way you need it to be without completely breaking the continuity of a realistic scenario.
July 18, 2009 at 8:49 am
Role-playing law enforcement would definitely vary between scenarios, ranging from “just as good as PCs but moves too slowly” to “martial law enforcers who abuse their power” to whatever what may be flavored. As Samuel mentioned, even with superior everything, if a strategy would cause them to lose even one officer, they’d scrap it in favor of another strategy, which would keep everyone (or everyone except the bad guy) alive. After all, who would want to lose a friend for any reason?
Risk (even impossible odds), however, is always the life of a PC, and is the thing that makes them go above and beyond what an NPC cop could ever accomplish (and what would make law enforcement a much safer job than adventuring). That’s why the dice is there, and why they become heroes in the first place, right?