Stop me if this has been done before:

Stop me if this has been done before:

Stop me if this has been done before:

Ok, let me tell you a story. This is a story about you. You’re in debt. You go to tell tell your booky that you don’t have the money and he beats you up. You don’t see your chance till he leaves for a minute to call “The Fisherman.” You dash outside and there’s an old guy stopped at a red light. You yank open the door, pull the guy out while apologizing, and drive off in his car.

You’ve just committed a crime. At this point, the GM pulls out a blank case front and begins to build a case against you. She writes ‘car jacking’ at the top, under crime. Next, she writes ‘victim’s account’, ‘blood at the scene’, and ‘automotive forensics’ under evidence. Finally, she writes ‘two uniforms’ under response. From now on, when you fail a roll, the GM can advance the police’s progress on the case – the case that leads to you.

You’ve got a vague notion that the police will look into the car but that’s not so important right now. You drive to the AC plant, ditch the stolen car, and take your own. You drive to your sister’s place cause you know she’s out of town. That’s when the booky shows up. How did he know you would come here? This time you’ve got the drop on him though. Grabbing a golf club, you crack his skull as he gets out of the car.

You’ve just committed another crime. This time the GM writes words like ‘murder’, ‘body’, ‘eye-witness’, and ‘APB’. Because this is a more serious crime, this case front will go above car jacking and the GM will tick off boxes for the murder first, if possible. When all the boxes on a case get checked, the police are coming for you with the response listed. You can be wanted for multiple crimes. Of course, you might be able to tamper with the evidence and curtail the case. If you could talk to the right people, they could reveal to you what’s on the GM’s case front, that’d be helpful.

So, yeah, I think this might be useful for a certain type of crime thriller. Maybe something where you’ve been framed and are on the run.

10 thoughts on “Stop me if this has been done before:”

  3. Grand Theft Auto World? Interesting! I’m trying to decide if it needs some explicit instructions on how to handle escalation, or if that is handled by a new front.

    I assume you would tick back on the clock by doing things like laying low, leaving the area, etc.

    The same structure actually works for the undercover cop, too—he has a front of Suspicion that ticks up, eventually resulting in his discovery. Hopefully he’s got the case wrapped up by then…

  6. Hmm. Is it really limited? Let’s say a group of colorfully pseudonymous individuals pull off a heist, and the GM starts a front for all of them as a group. They split up to lay low, but their individual failed rolls can still advance the front’s countdown clocks as a whole as a hard move. “Rocco’s thugs drag you into his office. He wants his money.” “I promise him I can pay him off, he just has to wait.” “That sounds like Wheel & Deal, roll it.” “Oh crap, I got a 5.” “OK. Rocco accepts your explanation…but you spill too much about the job trying to convince him. And meanwhile in the unmarked van parked down the street, one of the agents is signaling the others to listen in…”

  7. I think I drifted on that example. I meant to give one where there was a new crime tied to the original one.

    OK, so while Mr. Puce is talking to Rocco, Mr. Fuschia is supposed to go ditch the getaway car somewhere. Mr. Aqua is following behind to give him a lift, when a passing cop sees that the taillight is out and signals Puce to pull over. Puce panics and floors it and the chase is on.

    At some point during the chase the cop is going to call in the license and it’ll get connected with the heist, at which point it probably merges into that front (increasing the response, ticking up countdown clocks, etc)

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