Character: Joe Friday

[SKJAM!]

Joe Friday

Player: NPC, created by Jack Webb

Val Char Cost
11 STR 1
12 DEX 6
12 CON 4
10 BODY 0
11 INT 1
11 EGO 2
13 PRE 3
10 COM 0

4 PD 2
2 ED 0
3 SPD 8
4 REC 0
24 END 0
25 STUN 3

6" RUN 0
2" SWIM 0
2" LEAP 0
Characteristics Cost: 30


Cost Martial Arts Maneuver
3 Punch: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +0 DCV, 4d6 / 2d6 Strike
5 Hold that!: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +1 DCV, Grab One Limb, Block
3 On the ground!: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +1 DCV, 2d6 / 0d6 +v/5, Target Falls
5 Drop it, Mister!: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, Grab Weapon, 21 STR / 10 STR to take weapon away
Martial Arts Cost: 16

Cost Skill
3 Bureaucratics 12-
2 +2 OCV w/Pistols
3 Conversation 12-
3 Criminology 11-
3 Deduction 11-
7 Interrogation 14-
3 CK: Los Angeles 12-
3 KS: California Penal Code 12-
2 KS: Los Angeles Police Procedures 11-
2 KS: Who's Who in the Underworld 11-
0 Language: English (idiomatic) (4 Active Points)
1 Language: Police jargon (basic conversation)
5 PS: Police Detective 14-
3 Shadowing 11-
3 Streetwise 12-
1 TF: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles
1 WF: Handguns
Skills Cost: 45

Cost Perk
2 Fringe Benefit: Local Police Powers
9 Contact: Informants, Organization Contact (x3) (9 Active Points) 12-
2 Reputation: Good cop, to other cops (A small to medium sized group) 11-, +2/+2d6
Perks Cost: 13

Cost Talent
2 Resistance (2 points) [Notes: vs. Persuasion]
Talents Cost: 2

Total Character Cost: 106

Pts. Disadvantage
0 Normal Characteristic Maxima
10 Hunted: LAPD 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Watching)
20 Psychological Limitation: Workaholic (Very Common, Strong)
15 Psychological Limitation: Believes in Justice through Law (Common, Strong)
Disadvantage Points: 45
Base Points: 50
Experience Required: 11
Total Experience Available: 11
Experience Unspent: 0


APPEARANCE

Hair Color: black
Eye Color: Black
Height: 1.84 m
Weight: 82.00 kg

Description: Joe Friday is an average-sized Caucasian male somewhere in his thirties to fifties. He wears his hair very short, and has a bit of a peak at the top of his forehead. His stony face has worry lines, and his eyes are a bit sad. He wears inexpensive but neatly pressed suits, and is clean-shaven.

BACKGROUND

Joe Friday's background is something of a mystery. He may have served time in the military or held down a menial job before becoming a police officer, though it is certain that he joined the force at his earliest opportunity. He spent some time in uniform before being promoted to the plainclothes division by a combination of hard work and just a bit of luck. He rose to the rank of Detective Sergeant and remained there for the rest of his recorded career.

Unlike some other officers who stuck to one speciality, Joe and his various partners move to whatever squad they are needed at. Thus, you might find them working Homicide, Vice, Juvenile, Narcotics, Bunco, Larceny, or any other case...except Internal Affairs. Joe has a proven track record for doggedly working until he has a solid case, and getting his man (or woman.) While Sergeant Friday is an excellent shot (he earns extra money for a sharpshooting qualification), he killed only once in the line of duty, a drug bust gone sour. The experience nearly broke him.

PERSONALITY

Joe Friday is very serious about his police work, often working many extra hours to crack a case. He seldom speaks about his private life, though it's known he's a bachelor who lives alone and rarely dates. However, Joe has a dry wit, and enjoys subtly joking with his partners and suspects. Although Sergeant Friday recognizes that the legal system misfires sometimes, he believes that the best way to assure justice is to work through legal channels.

QUOTE "Just the facts, Ma'am." Joe has an excellent speaking voice.

POWERS/TACTICS

Joe Friday has no superhuman abilities, but is trained in standard police skills and tactics. He's an especially skilled interrogator, who never has to resort to "third degree" tactics. Sergeant Friday seldom has flashes of brilliant deduction, but uses the resources of the police department and a lot of legwork to eliminate any possibility of error.

Joe normally carries a standard-issue police revolver and handcuffs.

CAMPAIGN USE

Sergeant Joe Friday was created by Jack Webb for the radio program "Dragnet," and also appeared in two subsequent television shows. In many ways, Joe is the opposite of the prototypical pulp character, with an emphasis on "realism" and careful police work.

Joe's campaign role, essentially, is "the good cop." He may not be as flashy or brilliant as the player characters, but he isn't stupid or prone to mistakes. He makes an excellent Contact on the police force. He'll also make a good nemesis for criminal player characters who stay too long in Los Angeles.

If Sergeant Friday needs to be more powerful for your campaign, pump up his combat maneuvers, and a point or two of DEX.

[OddHat]

Repped.

I might give him an Overall Level or Two and a couple dice of Luck. He's not in any way superhuman, but he's almost never wrong for long, and clues and confessions tend to fall into his lap in classic Radio and TV drama style.

[Lemurion]

Talk about lucky. One of the characters for my Hudson City 1938 campaign has "Patrolman Joe Friday" as a contact. He's just a patrolman in that setting because I figure the promotions came after the war.

Now I don't have to build him.

Repped

[SKJAM!]

Repped.

I might give him an Overall Level or Two and a couple dice of Luck. He's not in any way superhuman, but he's almost never wrong for long, and clues and confessions tend to fall into his lap in classic Radio and TV drama style.

He takes Extra Time (like a week of preparation) on his Deduction rolls. Plus he actually goes down to the Crime Lab and the fingerprints division to follow up.

[Basil]

Joe Friday
{snip}
QUOTE "Just the facts, Ma'am." Joe has an excellent speaking voice.
{snip}

"Excellent speaking voice"?! I've got to disagree. Jack Webb (who produced, directed, and played Joe Friday) had a voice that sounded like he gargled with gravel. That, and a delivery so flat he sounded like a robot.

Frankly, I'd give ol' Joe a Distinctive Feature: Bad voice, robot-like delivery (Easily Concealed, Always Noticed, Detectable by Commonly-Used Senses, 5 points).

But that's just me. I remember lots of people laughing at Joe Friday, I can tell you that.

Still, it's a very cool yet humorous idea.

[Cancer]

"Excellent speaking voice"?! I've got to disagree. Jack Webb (who produced, directed, and played Joe Friday) had a voice that sounded like he gargled with gravel. That, and a delivery so flat he sounded like a robot.

You have a point: Webb was one those guys who defined the genre. The "Joe Friday" voice and delivery is now a feature, a trope.

[Yansuf]

Interesting write up. I do have a few comments.
The original Dragnet was in the early 1950's; at that time it is almost a given that Joe was a veteran of WWII.
I would think that his weapons' familiarity should be common small arms.
He might have a disadvantage "No sense of humor".
Cncealment skill might be appropriate, not for his hiding things, but for finding them. He always found the evidence no matter how it was hidden.
Combat driving is a common skill among police officers.

[SKJAM!]

He might have a disadvantage "No sense of humor".

Oh, Joe has a sense of humor all right. It's just very dry and a little bit dark. You can hear it in his banter with his partners, and the taunts he sometimes uses on perps.

What he doesn't have is a lot of patience for excessive off-topic chatter from witnesses.

[Narratio]

I'd remove the Language skill of "police jargon". I'm not sure that there's all that much special that deviates from common English. "Criminal jargon" now, that would be very much a language skill. I remember reading batman comics from the '50's and there was a lot of wierd little terms in them.

[Michael Hopcroft]

There are two other important things to note about Friday:

1. He has a very strong conscience and sense of personal honor. To Joe Friday, a murder is a murder regardless of who the victim might be. He is one of the few homicide detectives in LA who would even notice a serial killer stalking African-American or Latin women in the poorer parts of town.

2. Joe Friday cannot be bought. Period. Crime bosses live in a world where everyone has a price, if they can only find it. There is no price for Joe Friday. He doesn't even have a family that can be threatened. That makes him a uniquely dangerous foe for the LA Mob.

[McCoy]

2. Joe Friday cannot be bought. Period. Crime bosses live in a world where everyone has a price, if they can only find it. There is no price for Joe Friday. He doesn't even have a family that can be threatened. That makes him a uniquely dangerous foe for the LA Mob.

Agree. Would suggest EGO of at least 13, and Reputation: incorruptable.

[Ephelides]

There are two other important things to note about Friday:

1. He has a very strong conscience and sense of personal honor. To Joe Friday, a murder is a murder regardless of who the victim might be. He is one of the few homicide detectives in LA who would even notice a serial killer stalking African-American or Latin women in the poorer parts of town.

I've only seen a few reruns. He seemed to have all the unconscious bigotry common in his days.

[Narratio]

Agreed. He's also got that automatic respect for high level politicians and government that was part of the pre-Johnson culture. I'd keep all that as character colour, not something to buy as a limitations.

[Vondy]

Trivia points:

Joe Friday's badge number is 714. Badge 714 belonged to Sgt. Dan Cooke, the technical advisor. The badge has been retired and displayed at the LAPD Academy's Museum. The LAPD buried Jack Webb with the honors due a police detective and a 17-gun salute.

The line "just the facts, maam," though iconically associated with the character and Dragnet, was never actually used on the show.

Through all 100 episodes of the series, Friday is only seen wearing something other than his regular suit four times: three times for undercover work and once for a scene in his apartment.

And, in terms of suits, Friday and Gannon wore the same suits in every episode (with the above exceptions) - "for continuity." Distinctive Feature?

[Vondy]

In looking for trivia on the character's "bio" I ran across this:

Not the Joe Friday you're looking for?

Biography for
Joe Friday (II)

Birth name
Darryl Watts
Spouse
Reina Leone (2004 - ?)
Trivia

Met his wife, Reina Leone, when they were both police officers in San Francisco, California. They decided to quit the police department and go into porn.

No, not the Joe Friday I was looking for...