Ooh neat. Weird. It’s a hack I’d have never thought to attempt.
Your Nature choices are really nice. I wish I knew The Wire better! I got about halfway through the first season and gave up on it.
I assume “cheating” is left pretty loose? On the other Human Nature things, I’m concerned about “running”: I guess I’m envisioning chase scenes in which these highly empathic people who care about saving their own hide chasing down low-Nature psychopaths and thugs, i.e. “running” goes both ways! Maybe clarify with “running AWAY”? Or perhaps more broadly “escaping.”
To fit with the rest of the theme running through Human Nature (i.e. self-preservation, human connections), maybe lump hiding + running away into a more general “avoiding injury” category, and add a fourth: following orders. Just a thought.
Your season breakdown and conflict types are very nice.
Gear: I’d make it explicit that the police badge is a useful piece of gear in some conflicts (Raid, Interrogation, Crime Scene?). I think this might add a little pressure to the possibility of losing one’s badge in the course of the case.
I’d recommend more guidance in a few areas:
Goal: The reason BIG works in MG is that you’re expected to have a Goal in conflict with your Belief and/or the mission at hand (other than the CO of the patrol, of course). Then you have this tension during the Player’s Turn between cleaning up loose ends with the mission or pursuing your goal. So I think it’d be interesting if you emphasized or even required that your Goal be perpendicular to the case (right now you’re prompting people to take case-specific Goals, but this seems counter to the style of The Wire, i.e. it’s too CSI IMO). Human interest stuff like “Convince my wife to stop the divorce proceedings” or “Pay off my mob loan without anyone knowing” or “Check myself into rehab before anyone figures out I’m hooked.” You know, gray-morality cop-life stuff. The Wire, at least what I saw of it, seemed mega-procedural but every episode we looked at some of the backstory of the major characters.
You should probably provide some guidance on genre-appropriate Beliefs as well: “I don’t care if the bad guys kill each other as long as the streets are safer,” or “I’ll do everything in my power to become the next Captain,” or “I’ll help out as long as I can keep me and mine out of danger.” Basically a Belief aimed at one’s job as a cop and/or your philosophy on law and order.
Better/longer -wise list. I like in MG that the -wises are actually constrained to the list, IIRC. So like … clues-wise, surveillance-wise, back room deals-wise, ambition-wise, etc.
Last thought: Is the assumption that the GM comes up with a this-actually-happened-and-this-is-who-did-it solution to the case? Or is the assumption that the GM comes up with a crime, and through successful rolls and intent declaration, it’s the players who come up with the whodunnit? I think the game could support either, but each approach I think requires a pretty different prep procedure.
I would totally play this hack, Per. Have you run it yet?
