Judge Dredd - Handcuffs

Arabin

Mongoose
In my game last night, I found that players run out of hancuffs very quickly. Since they start by each carrying two, the first situation that resulted in arrests being made actually required 10 cuffs (my judges are a very firm in upholding the law). Luckily, some of the "perps" were local security officers and so I decided they each carried one set of handcuffs. The first thing my players did after calling in for the catch wagon was to head back to their lawmasters and take all 8 handcuffs from each of their bikes. It seems a little off for them to be carrying so many, but I can't see how else they are supposed to arrest people through a block if their bikes are in the basement. Does anyone else have suggestions?

Also, one of my players suggested that the catch wagons, meat wagons, etc. should carry spares of the basic equipment to resupply Judges in the field... if the Judges can wait long enough for them to arrive.

Arabin
 
I had teh same problem - I think I'm going to rule that holding posts actually include built in manacles, so that attaching a perp to a post doesn't use up a judges own supply of cuffs. Hence the cuffs are only used when there isn't an actual holding post nearby, and holdong posts are almost everywhere!
 
How about switching cuffs for manacles when the H-Wagon shows up? With all that firepower around them a perp would be silly to try something.
 
Thanks for the responses. I like Mayhem's idea of the holding posts having built in manacles to hold perps. That way the Judges won't get caught up on the inventory management as much and can get back to having fun.

Arabin
 
After a few sessions I had my players trial a new device from R&D: The Cuff tape dispenser (I have to admit, I filched it from Christian Conkles excellent Lightspeed sci-fi RPG).

The Cuff tape dispenser is a hand held unit which dispenses a 6cm wide strip of toughened synti-plast tape, backed with a mollecular adhesive that can be programmed via a thumb switch to adhere to either itself, just the blank side of the tape or everything. The dispenser holds enough tape for aproximatly 100 meters, or about 200 perps. The tape is printed with a warning stripe and the words: "Justice Department: Do Not Cross", so it can be used to mark off crime scenes and hazzard areas as well. The tape requires a DC25 strength test to break and has a hardness of 5 and 10 hp per meter. It is also useful as an ad hoc rope, a wound dressing and, obviously, for binding perps.

The prototype had a few flaws (it leaked adhesive, the tape all shot out in one go, the tape didn't bind and so on) but after the bugs were worked out it was issued to all Judges with two backup tape cartridges.

G.
 
Heh, I love the slogan. That's an interesting idea though, borrowing from other sci-fi settings and adjusting it to fit the Judge Dredd setting, then having it as a test from the R&D department. I could have all sorts of fun if I nudged my players in the direction of becomming testers for new street products :)

Arabin
 
Back
Top