If you've ever run a science-fiction campaign, Stress no more! The following paragraphs will give all the tricks and tips you need to restore law and order (or at ]east make it a force to be reckoned with) to your campaign. And, just to be fair, I'll give some tricks futuristic criminals can keep up their sleeves to outwit the cops who might be hot on their trails.
All of the tips, tricks and information given here were inspired by Journeyman, an SF RPG from Infinity Games. However, they should be generic enough to work well with any SF game system.
Let's look at some scenarios and see how our effective future cops handle them.
Scenario #1:
You've just pulled off the perfect crime, and even better, no one saw you and you left no fingerprints. The cops will never even know who you are. Right? Wrong.
You better not leave a trace of anything at the scene of the crime or you'll be identified within a few hours. Forget this fingerprint nonsense. We're talking dead skin, strands of hair, even spittle or drops of sweat. Anything that could contain microscopic fragments of tissue can reveal your DNA pattern and allow you to be identified in a few hours by computer match.
Better be careful what you say at the scene of the crime as well. Microscopic scans of wall and floor surfaces can reveal the impressions left by sound waves impacting them. These can then be read by the proper equipment, allowing the cops to replay all the sounds that occurred at the scene of the crime for the past several hours. With computer enhancement and filtering, they might even get lucky and be able to isolate and identify individual voices.
You also better be smart when planning your alibi. Future-cop labs will be able to pinpoint time of death to the minute by measuring the deterioration of cellular membranes, and they'll only need a few milligrams to do the test.
Scenario #2:
You've just cased a nice, juicy bank and now you're going in for the robbery. You're wearing a complete disguise and won't be touching anything you're not taking with you. This is gonna be just like a cakewalk and all those bank security cameras can take pictures until their lenses break for all the good it will do them. Think again, pal.
Even forgetting the ability to make a genetic trace on any sort of tissue sample, future security won't use anything as crude as simple television cameras. They'll haw full spectrum scanners and even if they can't see your face, they can still determine your race, approximate age, bone structure and skin depth. Any modest computer could reconstruct you, appearance with 99% accuracy from this information.
Scenario #3:
"Well, even if they do know I was there, they'll never be able to reconstruct the crime or prove how I did it. " Hah! Wrong again, you scummy criminal. After the lab people comb the scene of the crime, any good futuristic mainframe computer can reconstruct the crime and display it in vivid real-world holographic display right before the jury's very eyes.
Scenario #4:
O.K. You've done the crime ane now you're realizing the cops will probably be able to identify you. No problem, You'll just jump the planet and go somewhere else. Better move quick. As soon as the lab boys have identified you, you can bet they'll send the data to every starport on the planet. And again, forget this nonsense about video cameras and plainclothes detectives watching for your face. Starport security will consist of full sensor suites tied into a mini-mainframe computer. Not only will the computer automatically set the scanners for your personal signature (bone structure, skin depth, body temperature, etc.) it will also calculate all reasonable variations from that to account for any disguises or constructive surgery you might have done to yourself. On a good day, you maybe have a 10% chance of slipping past port security at a modern facility.
Let's say you do make it off world. Even so, you can bet that your troubles aren't over yet. Your identity is sure to be transmitted to every world in the area. This means you run the same chance of detection on every advanced world. How poetically just for you to squeak by port security on the world you were leaving just to get nabbed the moment you touch down on your supposedly safe new world.
Your only option now is to flee the region or head out to some primitive world where they don't have those spiffy and very annoying computer-linked sensor systems yet. But, even now, you're not safe. Those frontier regions are simply thick with bounty hunters and you can bet the cops have put a price on your head just in case you decided to hide out where you did. And bounty hunters have a reputation for not being too discriminating about whether or not they bring their victims back alive.
Scenario #5:
You've pulled off the job, but the cops are hot on your tail. Not a problem right? Just punch that grav car to top speed, do a little fancy maneuvering and you've lost your pursuers. But, just as soon as you get ready to floor it, your controls lock and your vehicle just hovers in midair. Nothing you can do will make it move and the cops come and pick you up as easily as a fish in a frying pan. What happened? Simple, the cops ordered your on-board computer to lock the controls and park your vehicle.
It's a simple matter to install an "authority circuit" in any computer system. This will cause the unit to give priority to any commands from recognized law enforcement or governmental agents. Most devices purchased in civilized areas will have these circuits built-in. Tampering with or removing the circuit, while possible, is very difficult and quite illegal (not that this is going to stop a criminal anyway, but it does give the cops one more reason to chase him).
If factories place authority circuits in vehicles, you can bet they put them in robots. Will you ever be surprised when you sick your pet robot, Fido, on those cops hot on your trail just to realize that Fido suddenly acknowledges the cops as his owners and helps them chase you down!
Scenario #6:
You're a slick and sophisticated criminal. You know about authority circuits and have skillfully disabled them. Now watch those cops eat your gravitons. You punch the accelerator, grinning to yourself as you imagine the looks on those cops' faces as they futilely flip that little "obey me now" authority switch. You start to pull away from the pursuit nicely when, all of a sudden, you slam to a halt. All around you the air is heavily distorted and you can hear your engines whine and strain to the point of overload.
Cops today are not stupid, and ones in the future won't be either. If their authority overrides don't work, they'll simply call for backup. Its a simple matter to send a message to a police ship in low orbit and direct it to slap a tractor beam on you. Unless you're very good and can twist and weave past those stabbing tractor beams, you can kiss your freedom good-bye (get a good lawyer, pal).
It is a bit trickier it you've disabled an authority circuit in a robot. Robots are a bit more independent and mobile than most other computer systems and are generally too small to be nailed by any sort of ship-based tractor beam. However, if the unit is not hardened, a few good shot from an EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) gun will be enough to turn your robot's delicate circuitry into so much sludge. If the unit is hardened and armored, the cops may have a rough time of it, and your pet robot Fido may be able to buy you enough time to get away from your current pursuers.
However, you are not so privileged that you get to be the only one owning a robot. Some of the cops on your tail may have some pretty nice robotic backup. You send Fido out to slow the boys down and he runs smack-dab into Arnold, the super-armored mega machine that you would loved to have bought, if you'd only had the money and knew that such a spiffy thing was available. Too bad, but now you know the cops can get equipment that is simply not available to the average wanna-be criminal.
Scenario #7:
Okay, you're being chased and it doesn't look like you can get away. Fine. You'll just waste all those sissy cops and solve your immediate problem that way. After all, it'll be easy to get away once they're all charcoal.
Better be careful, bub. If you're going to blast your way out, do it quick. You can bet these guys are calling for help, and the better equipped you are, the more powerful help they're going to call for. (That pesky mega-machine Arnold will probably show up and turn you into Soylent Green before you can my Charlton Heston.)
You can also rest assured that the average cop in the field is going to pack a lot more punch than they do today. None of this nice little uniform stuff. Future cops (particularly those that expect trouble) will have body armor and a shield harness as standard issue. It'll probably be a souped up shield harness to boot that can stop 20% to 30% more damage than you're used to. Forget that .38 special nonsense as well. Sidearms will consist of a hand disrupter and sonic stunner or neural pistol (just in case they decide they want to take you alive). And if things get real rough, they'll yank that heavy disrupter out of their grav car and proceed to make your immediate area look like certain brands of European cheese.
Oh yeah, don't be too cocky about that shield you're wearing. Most cops will have shield scramblers as standard issue. Not 100% effective, but it'll sure scare the liver out of you when they point it at you and your lovely shield begins to shimmer and collapse.
chances are you've spent at least one night tearing your hair out in exasperation at the seemingly endless string of criminal activities your players perform. These twisted psychopaths you call your friends during the day seem to get a perverse pleasure out of destroying the delicate balance of law and order you so lovingly established in your campaign. What's worse, they always get away with it and leave your cops looking like total buffoons. Up until now, the only way to stop those Freddie Kreugers was to throw a division of crack troops at them and bend the rules so far you could hear them creak from the Strain.
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