We just had a game tonight (well, it was part 2 of one session). We've got three characters: Eri, played by my brother; Christopher, played by his girlfriend; and Dark Nadia, the Changeling they stopped from murdering her fetch (Light Nadia) in the first session.
Spoiler: Backstory
They spent part 1 of this session tracking down a young man who goes to their church, Jonathan. His mother asked them to look for him, because she was afraid that he'd joined a demonic cult, and Christopher has a reputation as a weird occultist.
So they followed their only lead, going to Jonathan's friend, Mickey. Christopher tried to get Mickey to talk about the demon cult by freaking out in the checkout stand he was running about how religion was bull. Mickey was nonplussed, and eventually decided that Christopher was some sort of bill collector looking for his buddy.
Nadia got a double date with Mickey and Jon, and brought Eri with her. Jon displayed his unnaturalness by shoving Eri across a room when she pestered him about missing church.
They went to the bar Jon hangs out at the next day. Christopher told Jon he was an FBI agent, rolled really well, Jon freaked out and attacked him. They ran into the parking lot, where Eri shot Jon. In downtown. At dusk.
A footchase followed into the bad part of town, a couple twists and turns, and they run into a pack of werewolves, who are quite upset at this intrusion. Jon is torn in half, and the hunters run the hell away, convinced they are about to be eaten.
So, as it stands, Eri shot Jon downtown outside a bar, with a firearm registered in her name, as Jon was fighting her friend Christopher. Then she chased the man. There were witnesses to both these events.
Then Jon turned up ripped in half. There were no witnesses to this, save the werewolves, PCs, and the Changeling, who forgot it (low Willpower).
The bullet is missing from Jon's body, presumably lost when he was ripped apart. The shell casing from the shot was left in the parking lot.
Mickey has seen both Eri and Christopher, and Jon's mother knows both of them from church, as well as the fact that they hang out together.
Jon wasn't worshiping a demon, but was in fact a ghoul. He'd mostly healed the bullet wound by the time he was killed, so that it looked like an old-ish scar.
Please note, if I messed something up about powers (like Changelings not being affected by werewolves Lunacy, or ghouls not being able to heal), I'm not very concerned about it. Seriously. If that's not how they work in nWoD, that's just how they work in this game.
So, as it stands, what are the police likely to do in this situation? I figured they would certainly question Eri, since it's easy to establish a link between her and the victim. My brother said she'd admit to having shot at him, if they asked her, and claim that he was killing her friend.
I'm at a bit of a loss. I'd prefer this not to end in prison time for his character, since the game just started, but I don't want to just completely avoid any consequences here either.
Edit- Argh, I didn't have him roll for Morality when he shot a man. Dangit!
It really depends on what kind of town your characters are in and how important they are.
I have always assumed that residents of the World of Darkness are much like residents of Sunnydale in Buffy. Most of them will believe any BS explanation like 'Gangs in Halloween masks on PCP' because that's more comforting than the reality. Most police are either incompetent, corrupt, or smart enough to know that weird things happen sometimes and it's best not to investigate too deeply but just 'Round up the usual suspects'.
I think it depends on the PC's social standing [mostly Status, but also Allies, Fame, Resources, etc].
As far as rolling for Morality for shooting the guy just start the next session with 'As you think about it, you realize that you shot someone. How does that make you feel?'
[Roll for Morality].
It really depends on what kind of town your characters are in and how important they are.
I have always assumed that residents of the World of Darkness are much like residents of Sunnydale in Buffy. Most of them will believe any BS explanation like 'Gangs in Halloween masks on PCP' because that's more comforting than the reality. Most police are either incompetent, corrupt, or smart enough to know that weird things happen sometimes and it's best not to investigate too deeply but just 'Round up the usual suspects'.
I think it depends on the PC's social standing [mostly Status, but also Allies, Fame, Resources, etc].
As far as rolling for Morality for shooting the guy just start the next session with 'As you think about it, you realize that you shot someone. How does that make you feel?'
[Roll for Morality].
Well, neither of the characters are particularly important. The one in question was a soldier, from a middle-class Catholic family, never been in trouble with the law before.
The town is a bit of a dump, being too close to a much more successful port town and struggling a bit because of it.
Since you want to have consequences without real-world punishment (ie. prison) you can go with the obvious.
Police investigate Eri. This involves numerous and lengthy interrogations by Detective Margaret "Mags" Atkins, a stern and obsessive police investigator. Eri will need to provide alibi for where she was at the time of the death, witnesses to her alibi. Those individuals will be questioned. The autopsy results in a finding that the individual was torn apart by animals and that there is only an old bullet wound in the man. Witnesses report that Eri shot him but there is no real physical evidence (bullet popped out during healing). So where exactly is the crime? But the detective still has a body, a motive (previous confrontation) and a "person of interest." In addition, how did the person die is the question that's bothering Detective Atkins... and what does this Eri have to do with it. So she begins her investigation...
You now have a recurring homicide detective who is going to trail your characters around, show up at the worst possible time, haul them in for questioning at the strangest of moments and drive them nuts. In addition, you have a detective that is on the verge of learning the Truth. How she and your PC's deal with the situation could provide them a steady contact in law enforcement or an enemy for life.
Time to stat her up!
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Since you want to have consequences without real-world punishment (ie. prison) you can go with the obvious.
Police investigate Eri. This involves numerous and lengthy interrogations by Detective Margaret "Mags" Atkins, a stern and obsessive police investigator. Eri will need to provide alibi for where she was at the time of the death, witnesses to her alibi. Those individuals will be questioned. The autopsy results in a finding that the individual was torn apart by animals and that there is only an old bullet wound in the man. Witnesses report that Eri shot him but there is no real physical evidence (bullet popped out during healing). So where exactly is the crime? But the detective still has a body, a motive (previous confrontation) and a "person of interest." In addition, how did the person die is the question that's bothering Detective Atkins... and what does this Eri have to do with it. So she begins her investigation...
You now have a recurring homicide detective who is going to trail your characters around, show up at the worst possible time, haul them in for questioning at the strangest of moments and drive them nuts. In addition, you have a detective that is on the verge of learning the Truth. How she and your PC's deal with the situation could provide them a steady contact in law enforcement or an enemy for life.
So, as it stands, what are the police likely to do in this situation?
I read the WOD setting as saying: It's the ST call. The WOD police are on a spectrum from "remarkably corrupt and incompetent, to the point where they're just a legalized gang," to "Big Brother is Watching You."
The WOD is like an off-kilter, creepy brother to reality. Reality: WOD :: regular vampire : Nosferatu vampire.
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"And yet, this is what we must seek: a reconciliation between reality and men, between description and explanation, between object and knowledge."
It depends on how realistically you want to treat the police response, IMO. If you've ever watched the show Supernatural, you might notice that the cops hardly ever show up, even though Sam and Dean probably commit at least 3 felonies per episode.
The way I've run it in my Supernatural campaign is this:
You can pretty much get away with grave desecration at will.
Break ins aren't going to attract much attention, as long as you're not completely stupid about it.
As long as the killing is limited to supernatural bad guys, the cops won't get involved.
Of course, all this changes when the cops are part of the problem (like, for instance, if you find out the sheriff is a werewolf). :-)
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