"Partner, ya just gotta keep smashing down doors and throwing people out windows until you get to the bottom of this whole thing."
--Mitch, the wise cop-convict (courtesy of Reagan)

players: Reagan, Pat, Marc, Ben

We were in the mood for a Polaris hack, so we pulled out the 1920s gangster setting we used before. Chicago, prohibition, mobsters, tommy guns, etc. The mistake is corruption, rampant through the city and government (and even the police) and the knights are cops who still think they can make a difference:

Detective Sol Freeman (protagonist Pat, antagonist Martin) -- A cop with no qualms about doing what must be done. Twisting arms? Check. Putting witnesses in the line of fire? Check. Hurling people out windows? Check. Leading a gang of ex-con cops on a vigilante spree, executing criminals who think themselves above the law? Yep, once he gets out of jail.

Detective Myles Cooper (protagonist Ben, antagonist Reagan) -- A nice guy and a good cop, from a long line of good cops. Unless you count his older brother Victor, who went bad and got kicked off the force. Or, apparently, his dad, who turned out to be old partners with one of the dirtiest cops in the city...

We channeled some serious L.A. Confidential to excellent effect:
Pat: "I'm Russell Crowe and you're Guy Pearce."
Me: "No I'm not! You're Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce combined! You beat everybody up and ratted out the other cops to save your skin! I'm some honest cop who doesn't even appear in the movie!"

Reagan earned her Story Games Antagonist merit badge on her very first scene (no small feat): "So, would a good idea for a scene be you raiding the speakeasy your brother runs and arresting him?" Yes. Yes it would. Let's play that.

We learned from past mistakes and fixed the problem where conflicts would spiral but stop being about the character. So instead of a bunch of "the Mayor goes to jail" statements, we tied them back to the protagonist: "but only if you lie in court to convict him." For training purposes, we also stuck to fewer phrases (But Only If & You Ask Far Too Much), which I think are the main ones you need. I think that's a lot easier to absorb the first time out.