#POLICE PROCEDURAL

[horygory]

Grotesquerie (2024)

[anim-ttrpgs]

Yo. Been really getting interested in Eureka recently, cause it looks cool as hell from what I've read, and also I ran a police procedural campaign a few years back that I'd like to bring back, but my choice of system back then for the type of game was bad (Savage Worlds). Likely gonna give Eureka a shot with it anyway, but does the game separate out the urban fantasy elements from the more realistic/mundane elements by how much? Like, do traits have seperate sections for non/fantasy and fantasy traits, or is it all just together? Is there anything else in the game that complicates running a campaign with no fantasy elements?

You can download Eureka from this link for free (we’d really appreciate it if you paid but payment is optional) and check it out for yourself, just in case you didn’t know!

But to answer your question, the urban fantasy stuff and the mundane stuff actually are quite separate in the book. You’ll find a few references to the existence of vampires and stuff in the mundane rules, but all of the rules for supernatural characters are found in the very back of the book, not mixed in with the other character creation stuff.

As for other complications, this isn’t exactly a complication with running a fully mundane no-fantasy game, but there might be a few small complications with running a police procedural game. Don’t get me wrong, I actually still think that Eureka is probably your best option for a police investigation campaign, but there will need to be a little tinkering. But that’s what I’m here for.

By default, Eureka assumes that the PCs are not cops, so it assumes that they don’t have access to all of the resources cops have when investigating crimes. Eureka assumes that the PCs don’t have the institutional power to make an arrest, to take someone in for official interrogation, to call for backup if they get into a bad situation, or to send forensic evidence back to the lab for analysis.

Now, the only one of these that I can think of actually causing any friction with the game itself is the part about sending forensic evidence back to the lab.

Making an arrest and interrogating someone would be easily handled by the rules as they are with no changes. For calling for backup, you could take a look at the “Heat” section in Chapter 7. That section is normally used for what happens if the cops get called *on* the PCs, but since it has mechanics to tell you how long it takes the cops to show up, you could just use those same rules to determine how long it takes for backup to arrive.

Sending forensic evidence back to the lab, well, we don’t have anything for that. If I had to make something up on the fly, realistically it would probably be like, the PCs bag the evidence and send it to the lab and then in 1D6 days they get the information back.

Of course if I were writing this into the rules for real, I’d probably spend hours or days on it coming up with some kind of system that determines the reliability of that evidence and how likely it is to be a false positive or false negative (because IRL forensic evidence is not nearly as reliable as cop shows make it look or as reliable as police would like you to believe), but i have Silk&Dagger to write right now.

And here's another link

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Under the Skin Season 2 | S02E04

Chinese Drama - 2024, 28 episodes

Native Title: #猎罪图鉴2

Genres:#Mystery | #Investigation

Tags: #Detective Male Lead | #Forensic Artist Male Lead | #Police Procedural |  #Partners in Crime

Cast:#Tan Jian Ci | #Jin Shi Jia

Links: GAGA | Viki | YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Youku | Tencent

Catalog: Episode GIF sets | Chinese Drama | Partners in Crime Drama

[nine-frames]

"That's how I began to hate you."

天国と地獄 (Tengoku to Jigoku / High and Low), 1963.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa | Writ. Ryūzō Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita & Akira Kurosawa | DOP Asakazu Nakai & Takao Saito

[stevencraigkuhl]

[motionjames]

let me shill you japanese columbo

Do you like Columbo? Do you like police procedurals starring grumbly, slightly eccentric ossans? Do you believe in the power of shoujo manga?! Well, do I have the show for you!

Introducing....Furuhata Ninzaburō!

Written by genius playwright Koki Mitani and starring the extremely charismatic jidaigeki star Masakazu Tamura, Furuhata Ninzaburo is a detective drama directly inspired by Columbo (not to be confused with...Shinano no Columbo, which yes, exists). Its got the murders, its got the mystery, its got an unreasonably good theme song, and there's middle aged man with the mannerisms you love to see. The formula usually goes as follows:

Furuhata-san stands in the dark void, talking about riding bicycles or something or another to setup the theme of the story.

You see the baddie do the murder and try to cover it up. Yesiree, you see the murder-- because the fun comes from watching it all unravel!

Furuhata-san appears (possibly struggling with a vending machine, or bicycling with some half-price daikon) and catches a whiff of something funny ahead of time.

Cue the game of psychological cat-n-mouse as Furuhata-san slowly deconstructs the whole thing.

Furuhata-san looks directly into the camera like it's the office to ask the audience what the final piece of the mystery is (this is briefly addressed)

The killer spirals ace attorney style as the audience screams GOT THE BITCH! and Furuhata-san escorts them off screen to purgatory... or, you know, prison.

Yup, it's pretty standard fair detective drama stuff, but the writer Mitani is able to construct some seriously compelling, twisty mysteries that keep you on the edge of your seat. By the end of first season, the direction finds its style and you'll get plenty of jaw-dropping musical cues and camera cuts that make you feel like you're full immersed in some deluxe, spicy juicy awesome mystery fiction action!

Okay... but who is the man of the hour? A good mystery needs a good detective, and there is hardly anyone as wonderful to watch as the black-clad oyajisan.

Tamura aces the role of Furuhata. It's just too good. As he's based off of Columbo he's of course a disarmingly scrungly genius with terrible posture and a grumbling-mumbling way or speaking, but he was plenty of other traits to set him apart. He's a fan of shoujo manga; he's an excellent chef but only knows how to prepare three mismatched dishes; he loves konbinis but is cursed by vending machines; he's terrible at baseball and is totally unsportmanlike; he is often seen on his beloved bike CELINE (since he was in the area anyhow)... I could go on, but the character is well realized and so fun to watch. His head tilts, forehead taps, and drawn out ええと。。。are perfectly captured, and all do a great job at annoying his victims. A stand out trait of Columbo is his unique relationship to the culprits; he's described as being very buddy-buddy or even respectful, using his friendly ho-hum manner to weedle his way to the truth. Furuhata-san is similar, but more... salty? Bitchy? The man frequently makes underhanded remarks towards the culprit or acts offensively relaxed until he find a contradiction in their words, in which he will then pursue to the ends of the earth. It gives a kind of "c'mon, can't you do better?" attitude reminiscent of a disappointed teacher.

But even with all his sass (which he has in spades), Furuhata-san will always sit down with the killer and offer a smile and a bit of light conversation before the credits roll. The killers are usually afforded a bit of dignity. Most famously a radio show host tells the detective "the funniest joke there ever was"-- but as a small revenge, she refuses to tell him the punchline. Credits roll, theme plays, it's just another day on the job.

Oh, there's also Imaizumi. Imaizumi is a big dummy and always falls for the red herrings the killers leave behind. Because of this, Furuhata-san is relentlessly mean to him and slaps him on the forehead as punishment. He forces the guy to do menial tasks and be victim to his many tests. Imaizumi, however, is just happy to be here. His special skills include knitting, flower arrangement, not reading the room, and having hemorrhoids.

Okay, now have some Furuhata-san crying and reading shoujo manga.

Truly the guy of all time.

You're probably totally in love with this show because I've described it so beautifully, right? Right? So you wanna watch it, riiiiight? Well lucky for you it's all totally subbed on internet archive!

Watch this awesome show ENGLISH SUBBED and FOR FREE you won't regret it! This link is so full of oyajisans! Please! Join me in Japanese crime fiction hell!

(Personally speaking, the first episode pilot thingy is a bit slow and does not represent the rest of the show very well, I would suggest skipping to the second episode "The Kabuki Murder" to get a real taste and then maybe return to the previous one later. Just my thoughts!)

Also, there was a really awesome remix of the main theme made for DDR. Here's that, but with Haruka Amami from the idolm@ster dancing over it.

Ah yes.... I have spilled my love... I suppose I should go now. Please enjoy this wonderful show, and remember: Don't you ever fuck up ever or else Furuhata-san WILL get you and you WILL go to super hell! Bye!

[confused-bisexual]

[countesspetofi]

Today in the Department of Before They Were Star Trek Stars, Jonathan Frakes guest stars in "Of Mouse and Man," episode 12 of the second season of Hill Street Blues (original air date February 11, 1982).

Frakes plays a low-level cocaine dealer who gets caught in a sting in the garment district and informs on his supplier on the advice of his deliciously sleazy lawyer (Jeffrey Tambor). Hill Street Blues was THE prestige drama of its day - think Breaking Bad but with a fraction of the competition. For several years running there was no point watching any awards shows because it was a foregone conclusion that it would sweep every category. You couldn't pick up a magazine without reading a feature about it or turn on the radio without hearing the theme song, which was a Billboard Top 10 single.

Other Trek connections under the fold:

"Of Mouse and Man" co-writer Michael Wagner wrote or co-wrote three episodes of The Next Generation and served as an uncredited co-producer on four.

Barbara Bosson plays the ex-wife of the lead character on Hill Street Blues; she also appeared in the Deep Space Nine episode "Rivals" as a Bajoran widow who partners with a con man to open a casino to compete with Quark's.

The overly militaristic Lt. Hunter is portrayed by James B. Sikking, who also played Lawrence Styles, the captain whose ship was stolen by the renegade Enterprise crew in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

We don't get to see the face of this TV reporter, but we do hear his voice; it's the voice of prolific voice actor Dan Gilvezan, best known for his work on such classic 1980s cartoons as Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, Transformers, and GI Joe. In 2001 he provided voices for the video game Star Trek: Armada II.

Music editor Allan K. Rosen was also the music editor of the Star Trek: Borg video game.

[helmstone]

Cozy crime — my favourite tropes

Cozy crime — my favourite tropes

All TV (radio / fiction…) has tropes, those over-familiar motifs and plot elements to which we grow accustomed and ofttimes bored. Some are fairly general (there’s a plot vs genre thing here) and some pertinent to the genre. Here I capture my view on some of the commonest amongst the various cozy crime and to be fair police procedural shows I watch. They aren’t in alphabetical order, more a…

[seonghwadyke]

real

[ampleappleamble]

COLD TAPES: WINTER OVER

holy shit i can't believe barely anyone is talking about this podcast. i've recently listened to it and i'm going fucking insane wanting to talk about it. its publisher Free Turn was dropping new episodes weekly up until just recently when they released their final episode until their ongoing contest to correctly guess the killer is over and they can reveal who it was sometime in late february. i don't want to sound like an advertisement because in no way shape or form are these people paying me to say this, but i really cannot state enough how fucking crazy i am about this good good podcast and i need to talk about it. so since this is my blog my house my rules, i'm just gonna go ahead and rant about it here.

okay here's how let's do this: first i'll write a summary of the overall plot of the series, then i'll start a lil profile on each character (well, most of them) and as i relisten later i'll add details including any meta commentary i might have about them, and then i'll finish off with a timeline, a theory (maybe a few theories), and a j'accuse with as thorough an explanation of my thought process as i can muster. so uh. okay here we go

PLOT SUMMARY

Cold Tapes: Winter Over is a police procedural/murder mystery podcast. set between Antarctica's Bowers Wilson Research Station and Scotland Yard, it is presented as a series of audio recordings of phone calls, spoken diary entries, and other conversations/interactions between the base crew members at Bowers Wilson (and their corporate bosses at parent company Khione Industries) and the police officers 9000+ miles away who are attempting to uncover the truth of the circumstances surrounding the death of one of the researchers at the station: Dr. Drew Fairfield, a human behavioral scientist and citizen of the United Kingdom who had been running a psychological experiment on/with the rest of the base crew. but because he died right in the middle of the unforgiving and totally sunless Antarctic winter, it is impossible for police to physically travel there, so they must essentially solve his murder over the phone, relying almost entirely on clever and thorough interrogation of the suspects and their own powers of reasoning. as a listener who is also privy to all these conversations, you are invited to attempt to solve the case yourself alongside the police investigation team (although this aspect is entirely meta and not at all mentioned in the show itself). our protagonist is DCI Tessa McCallister, a seasoned investigator from rural Scotland with a good amount of police work and some military experience under her belt.

the story is told in three phases: first, we listen to the recordings of the victim's baseline psychological assessment interviews with each member of the Antarctic base team, second, the initial police interviews with each suspect, and third, a round of secondary follow-up police interviews with a selection of suspects. there are transitional episodes before and after each of these major phases, starting with an introduction to the case, a post-mortem examination of the victim performed on base by the base medic, and later on a talk with the victim's family, professional testimony from toxicology, etc. most episodes run between 5 to 30 minutes long.

i'm gonna plop down a readmore here in a minute (EDIT: I PLOPPED IT DOWN 👆UP THERE👆 INSTEAD BECAUSE THIS GOT KINDA LONG) before i start my character profiles, in case you want to listen to it yourself (oh my god please do) with as fresh a perspective on the characters as possible to begin with. it's all available for free (with ads) wherever you get your podcasts, but if you wanna pay £5 and get the series with no ads and a few extra goodies like suspect dossiers and episode transcripts and (if you live in the UK) a chance to enter a contest to correctly guess whodunit and possibly win £10K, you can. i've read about folks outside the UK saying they were unable to purchase the subscription for some reason, but i can't confirm because in no universe do i think i could find it within myself to try to figure out how to go about paying for free entertainment, attached to a contest i'm unable to enter. sorry, Free Turn.

again i promise i am not being paid to promote this podcast, i just really really enjoy it and only maybe like 20 people total are talking about it on some tiny subreddit and my thoughts and feelings regarding it are clawing a hole through my chest in a desperate effort to get out into the world. you can blame my offputtingly fervent enthusiasm mostly on the excellent writing and incredible voice acting. also partially on actor Atli Gunnarsson for lending his voice to a prominent character in this podcast as well as to my very favorite character from my very favorite game ever (Vatnir from Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire for those of you who are new to me and my bullshit). i watched The Terror while on xmas vacation at my in-laws' house and looked it up on imdb only to find him listed in the cast, which then lead me to look up his imdb page which is how i found out about this podcast in the first place. so rest assured, i'm not a shill, i'm just a fucking weirdo.

anyway Please Listen to Cold Tapes. my final message. goodb ye

THE VICTIM

Andrew Fairfield. 33 years old. Behavioral scientist. British. Had been conducting a psychological research project on behalf of Khione Industries using the crew of Bowers Wilson Research Station as his subjects. The experiment ended prematurely when someone bashed him in the head with a blunt object and killed him. This was his third year wintering over at Bowers Wilson.

THE SUSPECTS

Johan Gunnarsson. 57 years old. Officer In Charge. Icelandic. Former military special forces and freighter ship/oil rig veteran. Somewhat recent widower and empty-nester. This year marks his tenth winter over at Bowers Wilson.

Matteo Lombardi. 27 years old. Deputy commander. Italian. Formerly of the Alpine Rescue Service.

Jasleen Batra. 30 years old. Base medical officer. Indian. Doctor of medicine/general practitioner. Most recently worked on-call for A&Ds in London. Aspires to return to India and open her own practice there.

Maria Flores. 28 years old. Climate researcher studying glacial ice melt. Argentinian. Openly in a romantic relationship with the victim, whom she first met during the preceding summer at Bowers Wilson. Was not originally planning to winter over but changed her mind and chose to stay.

Sienna Cooper. 29 years old. Biochemist studying extremophiles and fungal infection of microalgae. Australian. 6'1" and can fly.

Greg Fortin. 26 years old. Glaciologist focusing on beryllium isotope movement in glacial ice. Canadian. Passionate about climate change. This is his second year wintering over.

Hera Karlsen. 26 years old. Marine biologist specializing in the study of married to krill. Norwegian.

Anders Sorensen. 48 years old. Base plumbing engineer. Danish. Triathlete. This year marks his ninth winter over at Bowers Wilson.

Victor Chabal. 32 years old. Base electrician. French. Recently divorced from a former Bowers Wilson researcher he met on a previous winter over.

Kristoff Schulz. 24 years old. Astronomer studying neutrino generation. German. TikTok enthusiast.

Bridget Meissner. 22 years old. Geologist studying the "Blood Falls" phenomenon in a particular glacier. German.

Jack Anderson. 38 years old. Base mechanic. American. Texan, specifically. Former military, a knee injury from an IED in Iraq ended his military career. This year marks his third winter over at Bowers Wilson.

Luca Coetzee. 26 years old. Base radio technician. South African. Gamer nerd. His mother basically forced him to apply to winter over at Bowers Wilson, going so far as to fill out the paperwork for him.

Felipe Hernandez. 32 years old. Volcanologist studying glacial melt in relation to volcanic heat. Chilean. Massive conspiracy theorist. This is his second year wintering over.

Mark Renwick. 43 years old. Base engineer. British. Primarily maintains the heating systems at Bowers Wilson. Former military, history of PTSD related to his service, treated with medicine and therapy. This year marks his third winter over.

Scott Williams. 36 years old. Base chef. New Zealander. Aspires to own and operate his own food truck in Christchurch. Recovering alcoholic, sober for 6 years.

[horygory]

Prodigal Son (2019)

[mx-loar-tev]

Just out of curiosity, how old are the members of the Criminal Minds fandom?

So let's inquire about the demographics of the show's audience. At least on tumblr...

(Please share for better results!)

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Under the Skin Season 2 | S02E01

Chinese Drama - 2024, 28 episodes

Native Title: #猎罪图鉴2

Genres: #Mystery | #Investigation

Tags:  #Detective Male Lead | #Forensic Artist Male Lead | #Police Procedural |  #Partners in Crime

Cast:  #Tan Jian Ci | #Jin Shi Jia

Links: GAGA | Viki | YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Youku | Tencent

Catalog: Episode GIF sets | Chinese Drama | Partners in Crime Drama

[muchemovies]

BODIES (2023) Netflix: possibly one of THE most mind-bending, mind-boggling, brainaching police-procedural-scifi-timetravelling-social-dramas of recent years; this has had three seasoned scifi fans pondering & wondering & puzzling for every hour of 8 episdoes; this is tremendously challenging & demanding & rewarding. 10/10

[ardethbayrulez]

FBI INTERNATIONAL S01 ep01

Oded Fehr as Colin Kent