Steve Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 The upcoming series "Life on Mars" got me to thinking about how police series worked in the 1970s compared to modern ones. What sort of cliches or norms would be good to include to set the stage and show that the campaign is set in the 1970s? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign The upcoming series "Life on Mars" got me to thinking about how police series worked in the 1970s compared to modern ones. What sort of cliches or norms would be good to include to set the stage and show that the campaign is set in the 1970s? Appropriate background music is easy to come by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt_Pedro Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Mustaches. Lots and lots of Mustaches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapsedgamer Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign The upcoming series "Life on Mars" got me to thinking about how police series worked in the 1970s compared to modern ones. What sort of cliches or norms would be good to include to set the stage and show that the campaign is set in the 1970s? I love the UK version of "Life on Mars." I have seen both seasons on DVD and really enjoyed them. I hope the US version does it justice. The best thing about "Life on Mars" was the comparison between the 70s era macho cop dynamic and the 21st century professional style of policing. I really hope they have a good DCI Gene Hunt character in the US version. In the series it seemed that the 70s guys were used to solving everything by squeezing known sources and offenders, usually by brute force and intimidation. Remember, there was no DNA database back then. Hell, people did not even know anything about DNA evidence. There were no centralized AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification Sytem) computers. There would be a lot less in the way of Criminology rolls and a lot more use of Interaction skills. Because you are simulating things like The French Connection and "Starsky and Hutch", you are going to need a lot of Agility skills, like Combat Driving and Breakfall. I would actually go with some super skills and/or Talents like "It's Only A Flesh Wound" and "Do You Feel Lucky, Punk" for a more over-the-top feeling. If you don't want to do that, I would use a couple of levels of Combat Luck for the main protagonists. Remember, as DCI Hunt says: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Dci hunt? Oh i get it dci must be a british police rank with the "i" standing for inspector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign . How do you do that embedding-video-into-the-post thing anyway? EDIT: Ooh, automatically, it seems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapsedgamer Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Dci hunt? Oh i get it dci must be a british police rank with the "i" standing for inspector Detective Chief Inspector. Yeah, it's a British police rank. From what I can tell from watching BBC cop shows it goes: Detective Constable (DC) Detective Inspector (DI) Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Anyone here from England to verify? BBC cop shows are great. I love Prime Suspect, Cracker, Life on Mars and The Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigJackBrass Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Anyone here from England to verify? I'll just point you to the inevitable Wikipedia article As it happens, I'm from England and work for the Police, but I try to leave that stuff back at headquarters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapsedgamer Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign I'll just point you to the inevitable Wikipedia article As it happens, I'm from England and work for the Police, but I try to leave that stuff back at headquarters Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign More brutality, fewer constitutional protections, more corruption. The corruption is still there, but there are more robust mechanisms for dealing with it in the aftermath of the scandals of the... wait for it... 70's. Also, the push for a "professional policing culture," the institution of college credit requirements in many (but certainly not all) local departments, as well as voluntary departmental accreditation didn't start until the mid-80's. And the community liaison officer and community advisory councils notion is very late 80's to early 90's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadmaster Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Lots of social issues, and conflict over changes. Race / gender - civil rights movement, ERA, race based militant groups (black panthers, white supremists etc), obviously still a touchy issue so it probably goes without saying, tread lightly in a game unless you really know your players. Political activity - militant groups justifying their crimes as political activity, SLA, Weather Underground etc, protests galore (pick a cause), terrorism (home grown and international), vigilantism, gutless politicians / corrupt politicians (some things never change), crusading politicans (who frequently prove to be gutless and / or corrupt in the end). Corrupt government officials and / or police. Drugs / alcohol - use, sales, distribution (still issues with "shine" in many parts of the country). Porn - the porn industry was becoming more main stream, usually a minor feature in most movies but frequently makes an appearance. Organized crime - rise in street gangs but mostly "the mob", also corrupt union leaders and mob lawyers were popular subjects. The "system" - science vs "art" of criminal investigation, rules vs instinct, and cases being thrown out for technical violations were popular themes in the 70-80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Admiral C Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign The upcoming series "Life on Mars" got me to thinking about how police series worked in the 1970s compared to modern ones. What sort of cliches or norms would be good to include to set the stage and show that the campaign is set in the 1970s? Sometimes I wonder if we think alike Steve. I was looking for an urban fantasy idea when you posted about The 13th District and not too long ago I told my group that if we ever did another Dark Champs vigilante game it would be set in the late 70s. Of course my defining inspiration was to cut back on technology inflation. Laptops, surveillance gear, all manner of various doodads from laser sights (which everyone had to have) to stuff like night vision equipment which they often didn't use but wanted to tote around. Mostly I just wanted to get away from computer and telecom networks. Too often my players first approach to a problem was trying to hack information on it or searching the internet. A problem in any modern day game, I had no problem with them playing Google HERO when they ran out of leads but they often would use it like a crutch. Make a roll, get some info even if it's barely relevant. I mean it's not like they couldn't go to the crime scene or investigate or spend some thought on how to allocate those contact points on in their resource pool. The biggest research I was going to do was make a one page hand out that listed maybe the top three TV/movies/music in that year and the years surrounding it. If the game started in 75 I'd list the top threes for 74, 75, and 76. Plus a few chosen and I listed one year in the future mostly to give perspective on what hasn't happened yet. The rest of it would be assorted facts from that year and maybe the few years prior (computer technology or lack thereof, political climate, civil rights, weaponry, medical, and avionics) I'd also list stuff list a few misconceptions like if the game is 73 I want the players to know that disco was in the very late 70s so isn't really something to consider. I was even considering putting together a file on my computer of snagged images and emailing them to my friends of cars, clothes, and architecture from my chosen start year. Equipment was going to be a little tricky, I had to get lists of weapons up to that year that corresponded with entries in the DC book. And I have no clue about when commercial body armor comes available. Of course I never did any of this, but I thought about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Admiral C's remark about body armor got me wondering about it myself. Here's a pretty interesting article from Wikipedia (which, I know, is not a scientific source, but dammit, it's good enough for gaming). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTaylor Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Watch lots of old 70s TV shows where and when you can. Policewoman, Streets of San Francisco, Adam 12 etc would all help a lot for feel and scenarios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadmaster Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Polce Story is another good one, Joseph Wambaugh was one of the creators of the show. He worked for the LAPD in the 60-70s. He has also written quite a few fiction and non fiction police oriented books (The Onion Field is probably his best known). One of the neat things about police story is each episode was largey removed from the rest, there were a few repeat characters but essentially each episode was like a mini movie and the writers were going for a realistic depiction. The first three Dirty Harry movies (Dirty Harry, The Enforcer, Magnum Force)do a pretty good job of rounding up all the popular genre conventions popular in the 70's. Bullett, Serpico, The French Connection, The Seven ups, In the Heat of the night, Walking Tall (Joe Don Baker, not the Rock), and Death Wish are definately good for ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadmaster Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Body armor would be available but not widely used by the police in the 70's. Much like breathing apparatus with firefighters it took a good 10-15 years for the idea to really catch on for regular use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaft Posted October 21, 2008 Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign If you're looking for 70s Cop TV, you gotta include the Hawaii 5-0! It ran from 68 to 80, so all the 70's decade is covered (though the look in this intor is more on the 60s side). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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