If you like you can look at the (sketchy, incomplete) GM notes as well.

The Watchdogs

As an organisation, the Watchdogs are run by and are ultimately answerable to the Loyal Order of Hounds, and all Watchdogs are nominally members of the Order. The chivalric Order, though, is proud; its members care little for sharing their status with the borderline street scum that make up much of the rank-and-file Watchdogs. They have therefore created a kind of "outer circle" (or "economy pack") membership that is effectively worthless, that is given to most Watchdogs. Full membership of the Loyal Order may be granted for exceptional service, but this is exceedingly rare for the lower ranks. Typically only the upper ranks are granted full membership. The Loyal Order tends to run the Watchdogs at arm's length, but since it pays the bills and everyone who runs the Watchdogs is also a sworn member of the Order, it could in theory assume direct command quite quickly. This was demonstrated some two decades ago when military law was declared after major city riots and internal trouble with the Flying squad which led to the death of one Captain Backsladder. In that instance the Loyal Order was able to seize control of the Watchdogs and effectively disband it for the duration of martial law. This is still a point of rancour for some who remember these events. The younger members of the organisation seem to sense this disquiet and the resentment of the Watchdog rank and file for those of the Order is higher now than it has been for years.

From day to day, the Watchdogs are run by a committee of the commissioners; this sets objectives, allocates cash, decides on the more important promotions (who gets to be a commissioner), and is supposed to appoint one of its members to be High Commissioner. The High Commissioner is usually also fairly high ranking in the Loyal Order (there is no prescribed link, it's just hard to be High Commissioner when you are dirt in the Loyal Order), and is the person the heads of the Loyal Order go to first when they want information or stuff done. In theory, High Commissioner is a first among equals kind of post, but the occupant has a major influence. In the past, High Commissioners have ruled the Watchdogs with an iron fist, while others have been no more than go-betweens for the Loyal Order and their fellow commissioners.

Not all commissioners are on the Committee; it appoints itself (so to speak), decisions being made through a combination of peer review and "Buggin's Turn". And of course bribery, threats, self-aggrandisement, and dodgy deals. Individually, Commissioners are responsible for whole blocks of the Watchdogs; typically, there is a commissioner for each district of the city, although this is not hard and fast. For example, the Theatre District hardly warrants a commissioner all to itself, while the Watchdogs do not officially recognise the existence of the Slums. However, in practice, preventing the general awfulness of the Slums spilling over to other districts occupies most of the time of a commissioner who is euphemistically said to be responsible for "Social Improvement", as well as being a serious worry to commissioners for the neighbouring districts. There is also no commissioner for the Ruins. Commissioners who spend a long time responsible for one particular district develop a relationship of sorts with the local mob, which may be love-hate or hate-hate. The Commissioner for the Magical Ghetto leads the small but notorious Arcanum Guard (see below). Apart from this, the Committee appoints a Commissioner for whatever it thinks needs a whole block of the Watchdogs to deal with. Some of these are permanent, some are only there until a situation has passed. For example, there is always a commissioner for Illegal Organisations, referred to as "the Walking Corpse" in Horizon's underworld. These commissioners, with few exceptions, have a choice between being effective and enjoying their old age. In general there are about ten commissioners, between three and five of whom will be on the Committee.

From the commissioners down, the Watchdogs are organised in a hierarchical rank system. Their operations are centred on the Doghouse, which as well as the city prison contains the Watchdogs' central administration and many of their more immobile resources. A fair few number of normal Watchdogs are also based here, partially to deter the mobs from attacking the place; this is also where the Committee meets. The prison guards of the Doghouse are employed by the Loyal Order seperately to the Watchdogs. The Doghouse is located at the edge of the Imperial Government Ruins, on the border with the Trading District. When people began redeveloping the Ruins, they began at the feet of the Doghouse for security. As a result the inhabited, redeveloped parts of the Ruins can be regarded as the Watchdogs' "patch", in terms of mob politics. They have taken pains to prevent any other mob gaining overt power here (this does not apply to the uninhabited parts, which are no-man's land). The locals are hence spared the paying of protection money to mobs; instead, they pay a form of protection money to the Watchdogs, partly in the form of a special tax for Ruins residents and partly through shakedowns by corrupt Watchdogs. The Watchdogs also take the view that "honest citizens" should support their constabulary, and the honest citizens in the Ruins are the closest to hand, so those living in the developed part of the Ruins are expected to do any little "favours" the Watchdogs ask of them. All too often, corrupt Watchdogs take advantage of this, and shanghai the locals into their crimes. The Watchdogs also have Offices (colloquially "Kennels") scattered about the city. Those nearest to the Slums live in a kind of siege mentality.

Watchdogs have the same kind of responsibilities and tasks as police everywhere; catching criminals and maintaining civil order, as well as occasionally protecting important dignitaries. The vast bulk of them are armed and armoured goons in uniforms, but they have several heavier units, as well as detectives for actual solving of crimes, and a few specialist officers. From the point of view of other mobs, there are three catergories of Watchdog. Those dedicated to doing their jobs properly and more or less by the book (useless and sometimes troublesome, but rare); those doing their jobs by whatever means are easiest, most profitable to themselves, or most likely to get actual results (better to deal with); and those who essentially abandon their jobs to be gangsters in uniforms (best to do business with, but possibly the most dangerous). All too many Watchdogs fall into the third category.

The Watchdogs have a number of legal rights to help them in their jobs. The right to openly carry weapons is one of these, while in uniform. While wearing a uniform, they also have the right to arrest anyone who doesn't have some sort of immunity and carry them off to the Doghouse. However, (if the Watchdog is going through official channels), the fact of the arrest and the stated reason are then recorded and posted in public on a huge board outside the Doghouse. Anyone imprisoned in this way (or anyone acting on their behalf) can apply to a judge to have the person released or brought to trial. Also, any Watchdog may release someone so imprisoned if they can present "sufficient reason that continued detention is not in the interests of the city". Repeatedly arresting people then having them released without trial is a fairly sure way of losing status in the Watchdogs, apart from pissing off the people in question. Repeatedly releasing other Watchdog's arrestees without a good reason is a quick way to lose friends. Trials are heard by the judges of the Loyal Order of Hounds; the Watchdogs are supposed to present their own case, though they occassionally hire in advocates. Watchdogs require a warrant to search private property, but these are granted by default (IE, unless there is an obvious reason not to); they can impound property any time they are in uniform, but the owner can go to court to get it back.

Watchdogs can also, if necessary, get warrants for much dodgier activities. It takes a while for the paperwork to come through, and you'll need an exceedingly good reason, but a Watchdog can get permission to detain someone indefinitely without trial, and also to use physical coercion to obtain information. This sort of thing, particularly the torture, is exceedingly illegal without the paperwork. Anyone doing it and getting caught is in a whole world of trouble, as Colonel Zero is eager to avoid being branded a tyrant despite nearing his retirement – it seems he hopes his successor with follow his example. Of course, as in any police force, suspects occasionally insist on throwing themselves down the stairs and beating themselves up, and a blind eye is turned. In this context torture means actually getting out the heated irons, the scalpels, the racks, the long term sleep deprivation, the water torture, and so on. Official permission is usually granted only for those strongly suspected of being shamen, cultists, or highly dangerous terrorists.

These privileges represent one of the big advantages of being a Watchdog. The other one is that for a good enough reason, and with enough paperwork, one can pull down near limitless resources. The downside is that in underworld terms, the Watchdogs are one of the least cohesive mobs. Sure, they have far more organisation than any other grouping in the underworld; but for a given Dog, anyone who isn't in his unit or under his command might as well be in another city. They have their own worries, responsibilities, cases, and beat. Central resources (such as the Horse Guards; see below) can be called in, but only for specific purposes, and with tedious applications to authority. Also, drawing on the Dogs' resources requires a slow process of request and evaluation, and leaves a big fat paper trail.

Some crimes aren't dealt with by the Watchdogs. Officially, all evidence of and work on cultists or cold-blooded murder must be handed over to the Ghouls, and there are certain other crimes which are dealt with by specialised organisations. Huge groups of armed men trying to overthrow the government by open force are supposed to be handed over to the Mayoral Legion, but that's kind of obvious. Lastly, shady government agencies have been known to sweep into Watchdog offices, seize records relating to a particular case, and inform the Watchdogs that the case in question is related to the Prime Emergency and is thus beyond their purview. Unofficially, Watchdogs often resent the privileged status of these other groups and act unhelpful, or decide that they need to handle this particular crime for whatever reason, and dress up the offense/problem as something they are allowed to deal with.

System Considerations

Rank 0: You aren't a Watchdog at all, you just live in the redeveloped part of the Imperial Government Ruins. You protection money to the Watchdogs and may get asked for various favours and aid by them.

Rank 1: You are a beat cop. A grunt. A front line pig.

Rank 2: Either you are a sergeant, responsible for a patrol of grunts, or you are a detective, or you are grunt in a unit with some prestige (like the Horse Guard). You can call on Some mooks quite easily.

Rank 3: You might be in charge of one of the smaller Kennels, or be an important captain at the Doghouse. Or you could be a ranking detective, or part of a seriously specialist unit, like the Flying Squad. You can call on a Bunch of mooks.

Rank 4: You are a commissioner outside the Committee, or the head of a specialist unit. You can call up Lots of mooks, no problem.

Rank 5: You are a commissioner on the Committee. You can deploy a Private Army of mooks if necessary, but you'll have a lot of explaining to do if it's not a dire emergency.

Note: The mooks you can call on for backup are rank-and-file frontline beat cops, and you will not to be able to call on them outside of the course of your duties. They are not necessarily all corrupt Watchdogs - in fact, they will probably be mainly honest sorts (corrupt Watchdogs tend to get promoted away from frontline duty rapidly), and so you will need to be rather clever if you want to use them for anything dodgy. At the same time, there will probably be one or two bad apples amongst them, so if you want to use them for genuine policing you will have to keep an eye out for saboteurs.

In this context the "mooks" are obviously lower ranking Watchdogs. They have the same rights as other Watchdogs, and in system terms count as Big (the Watchdogs see to it that their lower ranks are well fed and trained) and Obvious (what with the uniforms and all). The number of mooks listed above is how many you can call on without questions being asked; if there's a good reason, you may be able to call on many more. Also, the higher ranking you are as a Watchdog, the more chance there is that you can call in things like extra resources and specialist aid. Note that Watchdogs that are Corrupt will have a much harder time doing this; to a certain extent, they have traded away their place in the system for more freedom; they will often have to rely on mooks bought using their own quirk points - these will be lower-ranking Watchdogs of a similarly Corrupt persuasion, who are willing to help out with much dodgier activities than Honest mooks will.

Note also: You must consult with the GM team before playing a Rank 5 Watchdog.

Subfactions

Paperchasers
Officially the Fraud Squad. Founded twenty-five years ago, this tiny unit operates out of a couple of offices in the Doghouse. It's Horizon's embryonic attempt to deal with white-collar crime.

Flying Squad
Quite literally. This unit uses clockwork wings (using the Voorash modifications, naturally) to turn up at incidents extra-quick and do all sorts of odd jobs in speed and style. Unfortunately, they can't be too heavily armed. They have more luck with the ladies than other units, but are less useful than they and their overfed egos would have you believe. You need to have at least Rank 3 to join this club. It should also be noted that the Flying Squad still get misty-eyed when they swap tales of Captain Animo, their legendary leader during the Year of Chaos who unfortunately was exposed as an Unregistered Spy and a corrupt fiend and a murderer of fellow Watchdogs. The Flying Squad maintains that Animo was an excellent bloke and was blatantly framed; this puts them somewhat at odds with the rest of the Watchdogs, who spit on Animo's name to this day; while few in the Watchdogs these days actually knew Animo personally, there is still tension between the Flying Squad and the rest of the organisation.

Horse Guards
Heavily armed and on horseback, these guys turn up when a riot or private army gets out of hand. The next step up from here is calling in the Mayoral Legion. You need to be of Rank 2 or higher to be part of the Horse Guards.

Arcanum Guard
These police the Magic Ghetto, and are otherwise in charge of dealing with magic. They employ various alchemists and sorcerers, liase with the University, enforce alchemy licences and deal with Shamans other than Ghouls. You need to be of Rank 2 or greater to be part of the Arcanum Guard.

Republicans
Actually the antiterrorsim unit, they are so-called because they were founded to deal with Imperialists. They get to deal with all the nastiest, weirdest and most secretive goings-on in the city. Only tangentially involved with the battle against the mobs, they have been known to work with the mobs to capture their quarry, and some members even have a certain camaradarie with the criminal underworld, who share the city government's hatred of Imperialists and those who'd overthrow the status quo. Interestingly, a fair number of Republicans get promoted out of the Watchdog and into shadowy government cliques tangentially involved with the Prime Emergency, lending credence to the theory that the Emergency is some sort of terrorist threat of vast proportions.

New In 4021 HR: the WBI

It recruited members from both the general public and the Watchdogs themselves with each member being screened for other allegiances by the chief WBI sorcerer Hector Lane (later replaced by Mathias Killburn after allegations of incompetency).

The WBI was also a pioneer in employing openly a number of known Kraeling operatives; a move that was met with mixed feelings. The WBI also has a squad of Grey Engineers who aid the agency with their technological needs.

The WBI successfully managed to unearth evidence against many subversives within the city including Jonas Campion and exposing Lucrecious Corinth as a fire shaman. Perhaps due to its success the WBI was targeted by terrorists believed to be working for the HPLF who planted a bomb laced with fire essence within the building - accusations of inside help have been widespread. The explosion caused serious damage to the building its self and also caused the death of several WBI officers including Ryan Columna. It is thought that the attack might have been a targeted effort to assassinate the Commissioner.

A rearrangement of organisational structure before the attack also placed the Department for Illegal Organisations under the wing of the WBI, with the Walking Corpse being separated from the position as head of the WBI. This has been maintained since the explosion and it is rumoured that a new "secret chief" to the WBI has been appointed upon recommendation by a letter written by Ryan Columna before his death.