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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lcs_quarter.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:Title screen, and some of the things you can do in the game.]]
3
4''[[AC:WARNING: The scope of this game is narrower than that of real life. We have attempted to include [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking foul language, graphic violence, politics, religion, sexual references, adult situations, narcotics, prostitution, bodily functions and bad pickup lines]], but Bay 12 Games recognizes that there might be omissions which will make some players uncomfortable. In light of these facts, use your discretion when making decisions about downloading LCS.'']]
5[[note]]Although, considering just how outright 'horrible' those pickup lines and their responses are...[[/note]]
6
7''Liberal Crime Squad'' is a {{freeware game|s}} made by Tarn Adams. Tarn began work on it in 2002, and ceased development soon after publishing the first stable version in 2004. However, in mid-2007 the Liberal Cause was taken up once again by Jonathan S. Fox, and some other forum regulars at Bay 12 Games.
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9Picture a world where PoliticalCartoons are the truth -- now, imagine that world erupting into civil war.
10
11As the name implies, LCS is a game about committing crimes in the name of the Liberal Cause (we need a slogan!), in the interests of making the world a freer and more tolerant place. Along the way, your noble cause will be opposed by many, including the police, extreme conservatives, and the nefarious Conservative Crime Squad (we also need a slogan!), who just want everyone to be safe and happy... [[StrawCharacter under the iron fist of a fascist government]]!
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13You and your liberal squadmates 'win' when your state's laws and regulations are rated L+ (Elite liberal) and the Government is Elite Liberal as well, and lose if the conservatives persuade those politicians to see things their way, and create a fascist police state (C+) where Reagan is god. Don't let that happen!
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15There are a number of ways to persuade the people in power to see things liberally. First of all, you can free sweatshop workers and destroy the machinery to cut into the conservatives' budget. You can also make T-shirts for fun and profit, and also to spread your liberal word far and wide. You can also kidnap and brainwash numerous people, causing them to become 'sleepers' within their respective jobs, fighting for the liberal cause from the inside. You can, of course, also steal cars and cash to get around and to lubricate interactions with others, as these will become important parts of furthering the liberal cause as you progress.
16
17In addition to its political roots, the game was originally created as a parody-slash-homage to [[https://www.myabandonware.com/game/oubliette-2p Oubliette]], an obscure 1983 computer RPG with similar core party, exploration, and combat mechanics; however, LCS took on a life of its own and grew from there.
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19The last 'official' release [[http://bay12games.com/lcs/ can still be downloaded]], and the latest open-source version can be found [[http://sourceforge.net/projects/lcsgame/files/latest/download?source=files here]]. A port for Android can be found [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=lcs.android here]]. The wiki can be found [[http://lcs.wikidot.com/ here]]. The Github version, which adds new features such as Augmentations and multiple save files, can be found [[https://github.com/Kamal-Sadek/Liberal-Crime-Squad here]]. A Unity remake that includes graphics and other features can be found [[https://the-cheshire-cat.itch.io/lcs here.]]
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21For a considerably more notable Tarn Adams product, see ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''.
22
23----
24!!Tropes in this game:
25* HundredPercentHeroismRating: Opinions on the LCS are tracked, divided into respect for it's power, and whether people actually like it. In practice, it mostly affects how much cash you get by soliciting donations.
26* ActivistFundamentalistAntics: As a general case, your group performs these to raise awareness. On a smaller scale dedicated to single people, LCS can attract followers by a pickup line or by discussing an issue. The LCS may also spend a day and materials to convert a kidnapped hostage to liberalism. It's not perfectly one-sided: some enemies can try to do the same to your characters using one combat round of effort.
27* ActualPacifist: One of the few combat-heavy games which allows an {{Actual|Pacifist}} PacifistRun -- there is absolutely no challenge in the game which cannot be solved nonviolently; even your EvilCounterpart the Conservative Crime Squad can be defeated without bloodshed. Depending on the version, a PacifistRun might actually be ''easier'' than playing normally.
28* AddledAddict: It's very easy to recruit crackheads into the LCS, but their stats are extremely poor and they start at -20 Juice.
29* AKA47: Averted -- it's a freeware game, there are no worries about gun manufacturers suing.
30* AllCrimesAreEqual: Death Squad Officers summarily execute any criminals they catch. If you lose the game, poor criminals receive mandatory death sentences.
31* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Attract too much police attention, and they'll start raiding your safehouses. The Conservative Crime Squad will also start attacking you once they become active. In either case, if any of your squad members are there at a time, they must either kill all of the attackers or fight their way out and escape.
32* AlmightyJanitor:
33** Dancers and yoga instructors. No combat skills... [[UnskilledButStrong But 10 base agility and health]].
34** In earlier releases, literal janitors, who were extremely effective sleeper agents (they've been nerfed in more recent builds).
35* AndThatWouldBeWrong: Trying to buy weapons from gangsters or attempting to seduce a prostitute while [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer dressed as a police officer]] would result in polite refusal on the grounds that it would be illegal.
36* AnimalTesting: The Cosmetics Lab and Genetics Lab have fuzzy bunnies and [[ScienceIsBad genetic horrors]] for the [[AnimalWrongsGroup LCS]] to free if the laws are Conservative enough.
37* ArmorIsUseless: Averted -- Armor is the difference between a character being instantly killed and a character being badly wounded. Armor ''can'' degrade, though, so train your tailors well.
38* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: You can ''literally'' have one in this game by recruiting [[KleptomaniacHero Professional]] Thieves and [[TheOldestProfession Prostitutes]].
39* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
40** "The defendant, Eric Read, is charged with 3 counts of treason, terrorism, 3 counts of kidnapping, 9 counts of aiding a prison escape, 82 counts of felony assault, 64 counts of murder, 3 counts of theft, 26 counts of breaking and entering, 28 counts of vandalism and disturbing the peace. How will you conduct the defense?"
41** [[http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad211/Leafsnail/SaveScummedWow.png Try 1980 counts of murder.]] With [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking 4 of disturbing the peace]]...
42** A number of forum members have been able to successfully get accused of every possible crime in the game, including counts of murder and treason in the thousands.
43* AttackAttackAttack: If the Death Squads respond in force to your presence at a site, they'll send in endless waves of heavily-armed, motivated troopers after you, never stopping or retreating until all of your militants are dead or gone, even if you slaughter them by the hundreds. Additionally, while you can beat back individual attacks on your safehouses and force them into retreat, they'll just regroup, bring additional forces, and try again in a few days. And then try again in a few more days, and again in a few more days, [[IWillFightSomeMoreForever and again...]] They bring in bigger, stronger forces to deal with you every time -- it starts with SWAT teams, and then escalates to National Guard troops, then regular army, and can eventually result in your compound getting carpet-bombed from the air, your barricades blown up by combat engineers, {{tank|Goodness}}s covering the entrance to your compound, and ''[[BadassCrew Seal Team Six]]'' ''leading the final assault on your fortifications''.
44* ATeamFiring: Inexperienced characters are notoriously inaccurate in combat, almost to the point of uselessness against skilled and/or armored opponents. However, this no longer applies once a character gets weapon training or [[ImprobableAimingSkills general experience]]. Of course, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army#Move_to_Los_Angeles_and_police_shootout there's a reason for that]]. Amusingly, particularly inexperienced/unskilled characters -- friendly and hostile -- have a tendency to be inaccurate when ''punching'', leading to incidents where an enemy takes a swing at you and accidentally punches a random bystander, kicking off a huge brawl.
45* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit:
46** Averted; the number of people a squad member can recruit is determined by their rank and certain skills, and the number of people the Squad can recruit total is technically infinite -- recruiting people to recruit more people to recruit more people like some sort of guerrilla warfare pyramid scheme.
47** Played straight with the actual squads, which can only have 6 members at a time. Of course, larger groups might rouse suspicion when moving around town, and might not even fit inside most vehicles, so that makes sense.
48* ArmsDealer: Elite Security and conservative Gang Members specialize in this, selling guns of all kinds regardless of gun laws (although the prices depend on laws). The owners of the Pawn Shop and the Department Store restrict themselves to legal firearms, but they will still sell to liberals who have criminal records or are wanted by the police.
49* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
50** Court cases are always decided in two months (one of them being spent in the police station). In real life, however, most felony court cases take way more than that to be fully done, especially in complicated cases or those that involve a lot of crimes. Of course, this is an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]], as it wouldn't be fun to wait two years to be acquitted.
51** While a siege by soldiers can be assumed to involve national guardsmen at default laws, Navy [=SEALs=] can be present regardless of the military and police laws. This is a ''huge'' no-no in real USA, however, as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act Posse Comitatus Act]] does not allow the use of the Navy (along with the majority of other military branches) in civilian law enforcement. The military will also use bomber planes against safehouses situated in populated areas, even though the risk of collateral damage would make this completely illegal.
52* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The Army Base has firearms lying everywhere and all soldiers being armed (rather than the majority being unarmed), along with [=SEALs=] being present (despite being part of the Navy rather than the Army). The same soldiers will also wander around civilian areas in full gear, even with default laws.
53* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: More skilled characters are more likely to live long enough to accumulate Juice, which directly impacts how many recruits a character can have under them. Highest levels of Juice, in particular, can only be reached via either badass feats of stealth during infiltrations (such as freeing prisoners or hacking the CIA supercomputer), or by fighting enemies.
54* AwesomeButImpractical:
55** The MolotovCocktail and the flamethrowers. They can kill enemies passively, yes, but they generally don't do a lot of damage, cause self-injury from the fire (which can even spread), and demand rarely-used skills (Heavy Weapons for the flamethrower, Throwing for the molotov). The molotov also requires reloading after each attack, making it extremely weak in comparison to melee weapons.
56** The machine gun, compared to assault rifles. It does a lot of damage due to firing in 5-round bursts, but you can only obtain the ammo by looting armories and military bases, and it demands the Heavy Weapons skill, which is extremely hard to train.
57* AxeBeforeEntering: If a squad member can't open a locked door, they may instead attempt to break it down (which will add a charge of Breaking and Entering" to their criminal record). Some weapons can help, like crowbars or axes.
58* BadassDriver: Anyone with sufficiently good driving skill. With 5 and a sports car, you can outrun everything. Driving (like all skills) caps at 20.
59* TheBadGuysAreCops: The police is solely used as a way to enforce Conservative injustice, and is thus one of your main enemies. Criminals, in comparison, are never an active threat, even if they may sometimes be conservative.
60* BadGuyBar: One of the CCS safehouses includes the Bar & Grill.
61* BackStab: Any liberal with a combat knife can perform a sneak attack if the alarm isn't yet raised. If the victim dies (easily achieved due to the damage bonus) and there's nobody to witness it, no alarm will be raised.
62* BankRobbery: You can either hand the teller a threatening note (which nets you a relatively small sum of cash), force them to open the vault (which calls the police very quickly), or do it HeistFilm style by having a skilled hacker, lockpicker, and the bank manager (who, in order to rouse the least suspicion, should be a sleeper) open it for you.
63* BatterUp: Baseball bats are one of the many weapons available.
64* BavarianFireDrill: Wearing the [[DressingAsTheEnemy correct disguise]] and fast-talking is enough to blend in as a doctor or police officer. [[SerialEscalation Or a judge]]. This method of infiltration has a benefit compared to using a high stealth skill and ninja suit: if the conservatives at the infiltrated site are alarmed, you can still talk yourself out of a fight by acting like you belong there.
65* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Played straight or [[HeelFaceBrainwashing inverted]] depending on your perspective. The end result of any kidnapping not ended prematurely by escape, the police, or death of the hostage is conversion to liberalism.
66* {{BFG}}: At sufficiently conservative Gun Control levels, and with ludicrous amounts of money, you can purchase and install an ''anti-aircraft gun'' at your safehouses.
67* BigRedButton: If one manages to sneak into a nuclear power plant, you may find a big red button that you can press to cause a nuclear meltdown. The catch? [[GuideDangIt You need a certain skill to press the button]].
68* BlackAndWhiteMorality:
69** Parodied on a scale that would make ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' proud. Both the LCS and the CCS do all sorts of violent and inhumane things to their enemies in their struggle for dominance, but the LCS are the absolute good guys and their actions are infallibly noble, because... [[TautologicalTemplar they're the LCS]].
70** The game even uses "liberal" as a synonym for "good" and "conservative" as a synonym for "bad", eg. referring to someone at full health as being in "liberal" health, or talking about a severely injured character's "conservative wounds."
71* BoobyTrap: You can put these in some safehouses. In earlier versions, they were [[GameBreaker horrendously overpowered]] and made defending your safehouses trivial. They've since been nerfed; while still extremely useful, they're no longer sufficient for holding off swarms of soldiers all by themselves.
72* BoomHeadshot: Partially averted. It's impossible to aim at specific body parts, but shots that randomly hit the head generally have effects that merit their [[ChunkySalsaRule gruesome text descriptions]].
73* BoringButPractical:
74** The Liberal Guardian. Legal risk free (unless publishing at C+ free speech or secret CIA documents), one time cost of 3000 to buy a printing press, consistent positive effect on public opinion concerning laws. Not really fun, but quite effective.
75** Community service. Shifts public opinion slightly, gives [[ExperiencePoints juice]] if one is in the negative, heat at the safehouse is shaken off faster.
76** Sleeper agents. They act during their day jobs. Completely safe (since they are not part of the active LCS, they do not commit crimes), can shift public opinion depending on their profession, can smuggle items or money to one's safehouses (and, at 100% efficiency, they are never caught). Gain 1% or 2% efficiency at the end of each month. Plus some little extras (Cops can warn the LCS from imminent police raids, lawyers can defend liberals in a trial, and so on).
77** Spray paint. It can win you the game for a mere 20$. Since crimes on site cap at 10, going somewhere, spraying 10 tags, going out, rinse, repeat, is an incredibly boring way to play the game, but is a surefire and almost foolproof way to win victory.
78** Shotguns. Common, inexpensive, easy to use, powerful, relatively simple to conceal (can be hidden under a trenchcoat), and the only firearms that are ''always'' legal no matter how liberal the gun control laws are, they're also single-shot-only, have virtually no critical hit chance, have poor armor penetration, and overall have substantially less 'cool' factor than assault rifles or [=SMGs=].
79** The AR-15. It's incapable of burst fire unlike the M16, but it's very accurate, powerful, and the lack of burst fire actually helps to conserve ammo, as skilled Liberals can instantly kill or severely maim a Conservative (causing a CycleOfHurting due to the fact that being wounded inhibits combat ability) with a single bullet.
80** Police body armor, if you want to disguise yourself. It's not as good at stealth as most outfits, but it provides armor while also being usable in most areas. You can also use it as a proper disguise while infiltrating the police station and the courthouse.
81* BreakThemByTalking: Any character with brainwashing attacks will do this, usually by debating politics. The initial result will be the target being stunned by self-doubt, and an uninterrupted brainwashing will result in the target converting to the attacker's alignment.
82* BulletproofHumanShield:
83** Any hostage grabbed during an infiltration will absorb a lot of attacks aimed at the liberal carrying them, though they will eventually die and have to be dropped.
84** Corpses of fallen comrades being carried back to the safe house will end up stopping a lot of bullets meant for the carrier, in a more macabre version of this trope.
85* BullyingADragon: When an LCS squad wanted for murder counts in the thousands decides to do a rampage at the AM radio station, armed with M-16 and equipped with army body armor, they are [[ZergRush met with waves of angry mobs with]] TorchesAndPitchforks. Conversely, in the early game, many players make the mistake of deliberately pissing off the corporations by stealing and publishing all their secret files… and [[CurbStompBattle they have hordes of mercenaries, and you have a team of hackers and a printing press.]]
86* BurgerFool: After running away from home, one of the choices for the founder is to take a horrible fast food job.
87* CallAHitPointASmeerp: ExperiencePoints are called 'Juice'.
88* CannonFodder: Hippies and gang members are easy to find and very likely to be liberal (always liberal, in the case of hippies), making them easy to recruit in large numbers. Additionally, many gang members come packing guns already.
89* CapitalismIsBad: ''All'' corporations exploit their workers, pollute the environment, collect private info, and are willing to [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil engage in slavery]]. In fact, part of the liberal victory involves capitalism being completely abolished.
90* CardboardPrison:
91** It's relatively easy to repeatedly break someone out of prison, although the escapee will always be wanted for breaking out, and this is the one crime that no lawyer, no matter how slick, can ever get you acquitted for. In the later releases, it is very difficult to get an acquittal of such a charge, and even if acquitted, you are still sent back to finish the previous sentence. The official version has an exploit where your prisoners could simply walk out of prison (after assigning them to a squad). The later community version removes the exploit.
92* ChainPain: Chains are the main weapons for bikers and non-union workers.
93* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: 11 points in a skill is about the maximum an average human being can hope to attain; a normal skill level for a person with reasonable aptitude in a skill is 5, which is more than sufficient to perform that skill competently. With appropriate stats and [[ExperiencePoints Juice]], all skills can potentially cap at ''20''. Do the math. In particular, a character with maxed-out Dodge and Martial Arts turns into a physics-defying superhuman murder machine, able to ''dodge bullets'' and literally beat people to death in seconds in an [[RapidFireFisticuffs impossibly fast hurricane of blows]], while a character with maxed-out Driving can do things with a car that would make a Hollywood stunt driver green with envy. Maxed-out Persuasion and Seduction essentially gives your character a CompellingVoice, capable of convincing absolutely anyone to do absolutely anything regardless of their personal beliefs or convictions.
94* ChildSoldiers: The LCS can field an army of underage soldiers by recruiting teenagers or rescuing child workers (if child labor is legalized). Underage soldiers who the Death Squads will [[WouldHurtAChild happily slaughter just like everyone else]] if given the opportunity.
95* ChummyCommies: The heroic LCS is implied to be anarchist-leaning communists, as a liberal victory will result in capitalism and money being abolished, with everyone living in luxury, all while the government's power is significantly reduced.
96* CIAEvilFBIGood: The CIA (represented by the Intelligence HQ and Agents) is an unambiguously Conservative agency, which can even attempt an illegal raid of your hideouts. FBI doesn't directly appear in the game, but if you publish the CCS backer list, they'll be the ones who'll take it down for you.
97* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Liberals are colored green, moderates white, and Conservative Scum are red like the blood on their hands.
98** In the Unity remake, moderates will have their names and status displayed in yellow. Also, if a squad member is holding a weapon that will cause conservative alarm, it will be displayed in red. Disguises will also be displayed in green, yellow, or red, depending on how effective they are.
99* CombatMedic: Anyone with Intelligence (First aid) and Agility (Weapon skills) can qualify for becoming one, after some [[StatGrinding skill training]].
100* CommonNonsenseJury: Depending on what political leanings are popular in the country, your jury in court may turn out to be politically biased. This can work out in your favor (such as a member flashing the SECRET LIBERAL HAND SIGNAL), or against (three jurors turning out to be KKK members). Combined with several other factors, it's possible for the jury to render a verdict that doesn't fit your liberal's blatant (lack of) guilt.
101* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: Safehouses made from an abandoned building can be upgraded with a business front, significantly increasing the threshold of heat before the police may raid it. The CCS will also disguise their safehouses, such as using the front of a bar.
102* TheCracker: Any liberal with a high Computer skill is this, applying their abilities to destroy conservative sites, steal secret information, and earn money via credit card fraud.
103* CrapsackWorld: Starting the game in 'Nightmare' mode sets the game in an ultra-right-wing pseudo-fascist dystopia, complete with armored squads tasked to suppress 'Unacceptable Speech', Death Squads who deal with any crime, no matter how minor, by shooting it, and legalized slavery and child labor.
104* CrimeOfSelfDefense: Killing anybody during an infiltration will always count as murder, even if the conservatives attacked you first for no good reason. It's [[AvertedTrope averted]] during sieges that aren't done by the police or military, as you can kill any attackers in self-defense with no issue.
105* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted, as injuries will reduce the target's stats, worsening their performance in everything. A good hit with a gun or a sharp weapon can also damage certain body parts, causing permanent stat penalties (or even a complete inability to fight, if the neck is broken) or slow internal bleeding that can only be healed at the clinic or hospital.
106* CrowbarCombatant: Crowbars are one of the available weapons in LCS.. Their primary advantage is the ability to pry open locked doors.
107* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Can happen to one of your members if the Death Penalty laws are at Archconservative. Normally, when your Liberals are executed, they'll be put to death using typical means (i.e. lethal injection, electric chair, etc.), but at Archconservative, far more gruesome fates will await them…
108* CrusadingLawyer:
109** The liberal ace attorney, whom you can hire for a trial. While $5k is a steep price at the start, it's actually a robbery in real-world terms.
110** You can also use lawyer sleepers to assist in your legal cases, in which case they'll work for free.
111* CureYourGays: One of the possible backstories for the founder involves them being caught making out, and "needing" to be "cured" from their homosexuality. This is [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]], however, as it causes them to [[TheRunaway run away from home]], and they remain gay.
112* CursedWithAwesome: Mutants, the result of severe pollution and unregulated genetic experimentation, are generally horrifying deformed freaks who are extremely easy to recruit but effectively useless. However, about a quarter of them are instead superhuman badasses who have the highest base stats in the game… and are ''still'' just as easy to recruit.
113* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The CCS, your Conservative counterpart, is not only ignored by the police, army, and other government entities, but also can get some of the best weapons in the game regardless of weapon laws, and has exclusive access to the best armor in the game. Justified as they're confirmed to be government-funded. [[LogicalWeakness You can even completely crush them by finding and publishing their backers list.]]
114* CourtroomAntics: Particularly good performance in court will have the jury, judge, and prosecution "crying for freedom".
115* CulturalTranslation: [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=151663.0 The German translation]] changes various references, such as the newspapers being renamed to German newspapers, the Gay Rights law being renamed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph_175 Paragraph 175]], the prisons turning into concentration camps instead of labor camps at C+ prison laws, and the Death Squads turning into the SS.
116* CycleOfHurting: If a character's health goes to Badly Wounded or below, they are rendered unable to fight. The text will keep describing them being stunned from the pain in various ways, from coughing up blood, crying out to Jesus, and clutching at their wounds. This often causes the death of that character, as they're unable to fight back while their attackers are still shooting at them.
117* DarkAndTroubledPast: The founder of the LCS suffers from one, which leads to them becoming a terrorist. At the very least, their parents divorced while they were only 10, they had one awful incident in the past, and they eventually ended up [[TheRunaway running away from home at 15]]. Depending on your choices, it might end up a lot worse.
118* DevelopersForesight:
119** While not everything is covered, some highly unlikely law combinations are acknowledged. The game tracks base sex as well as chosen ones. If at Elite Liberal Gay Rights but at Conservative or lower Women's Rights, the bouncers will allow a base female designated male in the Gentlemen's club without a disguise check. Implying that while women are second class citizens, LGBT rights are so ingrained that they accept transmen without any effort put into passing.
120** (An optional) part of the character creation progress involves answering to 10 questions to form your character's stats. Answering "D" in question 9 gives you a lawyer sleeper agent with whom you've been going steady since your 18th birthday. They are always of the opposite sex ''unless'' you also picked "D" for question 7, as 7D involves a story of your character being caught making out with someone of the same sex.
121* DifficultButAwesome: Knives are one of the available weapons in LCS, and the most discreet one. Characters with a high Knife skill can stab several people to death before being discovered.
122* DirtyCommies: The Stalinist Comrade Squad is already implemented in an unreleased version of the game.
123* DisproportionateRetribution:
124** Causing an alert will, regardless of the reason, cause the Conservatives to open fire and summon reinforcements. And one can cause alerts by simply playing the guitar or hanging around in a club. Given that music is apparently capable of what is essentially mind control in this universe, the guitar thing isn't too unreasonable. SOP with something that can control your mind often has to be to kill as soon as you get suspicious, because that's likely to be the only chance you'll get…
125** The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Death Squads]] are made of this trope, and will summarily execute people for such heinous crimes as disturbing the peace, vandalism, and ''loitering''.
126** In general, Arch-Conservative Death Penalty laws makes execution the default punishment for any crime, from treason, terrorism, and murder to loitering.
127* DistractedByTheSexy: The seduction skill maxes out at 20, in theory. This is high enough to convince undercover government agents to follow you to your apartment for a good time… using terrible, terrible pick-up lines.
128* DomesticAbuse: One of the backstory choices related to the divorce of the founder's parents involves them doing so violently. Given that this gives a bonus to the hand-to-hand skill, it's clear that they were physically fighting each other.
129* DramaticSpineInjury: Characters can have their spines broken, which will usually result in a CareerEndingInjury for infiltration-oriented liberals, especially if their neck is broken, as they won't be able to go around without a wheelchair, and their stats will be badly lowered.
130* TheDreaded: The Death Squad is [[ImpliedTrope implied]] to have such a reputation, as their uniform gives a huge interrogation bonus. It also doesn't help that they're [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner authorized to perform summary executions]], and are universally armed with assault rifles.
131* DrivenToSuicide: Hostages not physically restrained at all times are prone to self-harm and/or killing themselves, especially if they've been tortured.
132* {{Dystopia}}: Nightmare Mode starts you off in a hellish shadow of the USA where free speech is prohibited and suppressed by the Firemen, corporations run the country with legalized slavery and have full access to everyone's information at all times, pollution is sold as food (resulting in the poor starting to become mutants), the CIA have been replaced by the freaking ''Ministry of Love'', prisons are re-education facilities (not that it matters, as virtually everyone is sentenced to death, even down to crimes such as loitering and disturbing the peace), women have been reduced to second-class citizens, homosexuals are openly hated and prosecuted (one of the random newspapers shows the writer being ''shocked'' at someone who publicly lynched a homosexual being brought to trial for murder), virtually all government spending goes to the military, there is no immigration at all and anyone found in the country illegally is executed, the police have a division that is literally called the Death Squad (who go around shooting at any and all criminals with M16s and will execute anyone who surrenders to them), and the CCS (if present) is loved by the public. During a normal game, you might feel that the LCS's actions are unjustified. During Nightmare Mode, you will absolutely not. Even better, this is all bound to happen in normal mode if the LCS doesn't prevent public opinion from becoming conservative. Finally, if the USA stays in this state for too long, an Arch-Conservative Amendment repealing the Constitution and making the United States into the Confederate States (where instead of a president, Ronald Reagan is King for all time, Congress is made up of [=CEOs=] and televangelists, and anyone may write a petition to Jesus for a redress of grievances, because no one else will be listening), will be passed, ending the game.
133* DystopiaIsHard: Death Squads end up being counterproductive for the police. While they may be deadly, they lack any armor and only have a terrifying uniform working for them. Given that a simple loitering charge can lead to death, one needs to be a very good runner to escape, and a failed attempt means almost certainly being hit with automatic weapon fire, it becomes far safer for petty criminals and activists to just shoot them dead on the street before they get executed for petty crimes or non-crimes. And then repeating the process if recognized by any other Death Squad members. Like many arch-conservative policies, they often solve themselves without LCS intervention, whether due to [[EvenEvilHasStandards public disgust]], or it being clear that it just isn't working.
134* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The ultimate desire of the CCS and arch-conservatives is to turn the USA into a nightmarish neo-feudal monarchy, and they will stop at nothing to make sure that this happens.
135* EliteMooks:
136** Police gang units serve as this to normal police officers, as they're guaranteed to have armor and firearms, and may come with [=SMGs=]. They also have a lower maximum age than standard cops, preventing them from possibly having penalties to their physical stats.
137*** SWAT, in turn, is an improvement over gang units, with stronger armor, a better weapon selection (including rifles), and improved stats and skills.
138** Elite Security improves over standard security guards by wearing body armor and replacing the weak weapons with AR-15s (or M16s at C+ gun laws). However, they normally only appear at the nuclear power plant/waste site, and otherwise appear only in corporate sieges or when a corporate location is at high security.
139* EvenEvilHasStandards: If a child ends up in front of you during a chase, the conservatives will usually refrain from running them over.
140* EveryoneIsBi: While gender is part of a character's stats, it's a Conservative notion and [[PurelyAestheticGender has no effect on combat or seduction]]. [[HoYay This means you're free to hook up any of your followers with anyone who needs seducing.]] One exception: [[spoiler:trying to seduce [[CorruptCorporateExecutive [=CEOs=]]] or other Arch Conservatives can result in them [[GayPanic outright shooting at you.]]]] To put this in perspective, you can attempt seduction with no impact other than being ignored even when homosexuality is illegal.
141* EveryoneHasStandards:
142** The LCS can go shoot random conservatives in a park, in apartments, take over the radio station for their own broadcast, press the BigRedButton at the nuclear power plant... But the LCS will NOT do any shootout at the hospital. [[KickTheDog The CCS, on the other hand, have no such restraints.]]
143** While your liberals have no qualms against finishing off an unarmed and helpless target or executing a hostage during an infiltration, they will see the death of a hostage during an interrogation as being above the line, often causing them to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone be disgusted with themselves at what they did]]. The same also applies if the interrogator goes overboard when beating the hostage and leaps straight to vicious torture.
144** If you alienate the moderates (or everyone) during an infiltration, the resulting article of Liberal Guardian will have LCS apologize for the incident, as they only intend to fight the conservatives and nobody else.
145** Attacking a non-conservative will result in the attacker losing [[ExperiencePoints Juice]] for that. This applies even against [[TokenGoodTeammate police negotiators]].
146* EvilCounterpart: The Conservative Crime Squad, a right-wing militia who act like the LCS, only Conservative.
147* EvilInc: ''All'' corporations are portrayed as this, as they'll take any chance they can get to abuse workers, pollute the environment, employ slaves, and harvest private data.
148* ExaltedTorturer: Beating a hostage is presented as a completely Liberal thing to do, with you being penalized only if the hostage dies. While going beyond that with props is considered reprehensible, the only penalty is loss of heart and a gain in wisdom, with the torturer still being able to fully participate in any activities.
149* ExtremeOmnisexual: A player can seduce anything it can talk to, including a [[http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg587/britishlanguage/pickup_line_on_dog_zpse1d2eab5.jpg conservative guard dog]] at L+ Animal Rights.
150* FacialHorror: Headshots with sharp weapons and guns can remove the target's face, permanently reducing their charisma to 1.
151* FelonyMisdemeanor: PlayedForLaughs and CrapsackWorld points with Arch-conservative flag burning laws making burning the American flag legally equivalent to murdering a human being, filed under the crime of "Flag Murder". You can even buy a flag for the sole purpose of burning it. Or just enjoying the little ACII stars-n'-stripes hanging over your safehouse menu. Taken to extremes in one nightmare mode LetsPlay on the forums, in which the Squad deliberately provoked the SWAT teams by buying several hundred flags and burning them all.
152** As your efforts to influence policy get more successful, the country shifts to the left, and your cause comes closer to victory, your characters' arguments and justifications for revolution start to get a bit… ''weak''. At the near-end of the game, it will be nearly impossible to get anyone to join your cause because you're arguing that armed revolution is the only recourse while using justifications like "The police still exist!", "Some people don't like immigrants!", and "Animals aren't allowed to vote."
153* FireBreathingWeapon: The M2 flamethrower. Wielded by the Fireman.
154* AFoolForAClient: An arrested liberal can try to represent themselves in court. If their Law and Persuasion skills are low, then they really do have a fool for a client, and will lose [[ExperiencePoints Juice]]. If these skills are high, however, then it works just as well as hiring the liberal ace attorney, and will be rewarded with a decent amount of Juice.
155* FreakierThanFiction: It's inspired by a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army real organization]] that actually existed. They didn't win, though.
156* FreudianExcuse: The founder's awful childhood is heavily suggested to play a role in their decision to found a terrorist organization that will do ''anything'' for the sake of liberalism.
157* FromNobodyToNightmare: Most high-juice squad members can be this, as achieving more Juice requires a squad member to commit increasingly serious crimes. Well-armed CCS members also qualify.
158** The founder, in particular, starts off as an unremarkable young adult with an [[DarkAndTroubledPast awful childhood]], who gets the idea in their head to found the LCS. In a normal playthrough, they'll become the leader of the most successful terrorist organization in the USA, with hundreds or even thousands of violent crimes being committed on their behalf.
159* GameBreakingInjury: Injury in combat can result in permanent wounds, penalizing the stats of the liberal. A broken neck, in particular, will make the squad member completely useless in infiltration, relegating them to a backline job.
160* GangBangers: Gang members are a common sight in location populated by poor people, especially in the crack house, with conservative ones doubling as [[ArmsDealer arms dealers]]. The founder may have been one in their backstory.
161* GeneticAbomination: The Genetic Nightmare, along with others in the Genetics Lab.
162* GlassCannon:
163** Death Squad members are this. They wield automatic weaponry and have high skill but have no armor or dodging skill, and have unexceptional stats.
164** Agents have good combat skills and stats, along with often carrying assault rifles, but their suits don't give any protection.
165* GodwinsLaw: The CCS want to bring about a fascist state.
166* GoodBadBug: Due to some obscure features with separate aging being planned but never finished non-humans are biologically immortal and never degrade with aging. [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke The genetic abominations have an excuse]] for that or RapidAging.
167* GoodCopBadCop: One of the possible interrogation techniques, as relationship deterioration from beatings and torture only applies to those who were present at the interrogation.
168* GoshDangItToHeck: If free speech laws go arch conservatives, all swear words in the game are replaced by gosh dang it to heck vocabulary written between brackets.
169* GoneHorriblyRight[=/=]NiceJobBreakingItHero: Planned content includes Stalinist Comrade Squad as a 'final boss' which attempts to seize control of your revolution when you're too close to winning; if they succeed, it can result in a game over where you get deported into a gulag in newly annexed Canada.
170* GovernmentConspiracy: As you can find out by finding a backer list, the CCS is funded by the government. You can even defeat the CCS by publishing this list.
171* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: A liberal sent to prison may learn new skills and gain [[ExperiencePoints Juice]], making it possible for them to come into prison as an unremarkable person, and leave as a hardened terrorist.
172* HandCannon: The Desert Eagle is treated as this, being the only pistol that is capable of dismemberment.
173* HandSignals: If your jury in court turns out to be biased in your favor, one of the jurors may flash the SECRET LIBERAL HAND SIGNAL.
174* HangingJudge: Conservative judges are called "Hangin' Judges" in game.
175* HarderThanHard: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Nightmare Mode is very aptly named.]]
176* HassleFreeHotwire: Cars can be hotwired rather quickly, although characters need to have a four ranks in the security skill.
177* HellBentForLeather: Black leather armor is readily available in the Oubliette, and is also worn by [[BadassBiker bikers]].
178* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Being hit with a brainwashing attack, murdering/torturing a captive, and getting a HannibalLecture during an interrogation can result in the affected liberal gaining Wisdom, to the point that they may end up being more indoctrinated into conservatism than even the arch-conservatives. You can also engage in things that you're fighting against, with nobody commenting on it, such as using and selling guns, torturing hostages, recruiting [[ChildSoldiers children]], murdering people just for spreading conservatism (even though you want to ensure complete free speech), [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and publishing the private life of CEOs]].
179* HideYourChildren: Massively averted; teenagers are fairly common in areas you would expect to find them, while legalized child labor will result in the factories being staffed by swarms of young children. At least you can't prostitute them or let them into the Gentlemen's Club.
180* HollywoodLaw: Do well enough in court and you can be acquitted for dozens of counts of homicide, treason, and kidnapping in front of numerous witnesses. Even the most [[http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7624/lcswtf.jpg insane cases]] can go Not Guilty if the jury and judge are liberal enough and the lawyers are good enough.
181** Later versions have an option for if it is possible but difficult to get acquitted for escaping prison.
182* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Any prostitute with a high heart stat, naturally.
183* HumanShield: Every hostage taken during a raid automatically becomes one, as you can give them away to avoid an encounter. [[ShootTheHostage Not that this otherwise stops you from getting shot at]].
184* HyperspaceArsenal: While an infiltration only allows you to bring one weapon and one set of clothes per liberal, the squad will be able to collect a ridiculous amount of stuff once they're on site.
185* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Police uniforms and armor can be made, then worn by your liberals. It's not as good as specialized disguises, but it works in most areas, and can provide crucial armor if the infiltration turns violent.
186* ImplausibleFencingPowers: While melee weapons aren't particularly spectacular at first, an experienced, skilled Liberal can [[CleanCut slice a tank in half with a sword]]. [[{{Nerf}} In earlier versions]], anyway.
187* InfiniteSupplies: As long as you stay in the homeless shelter, your needs will be provided for. Anywhere else, and you will need to pay for rent and groceries. This is balanced out by the homeless shelter being impossible to upgrade, and effectively impossible to defend if raided.
188* InstantDeathBullet: Both averted and played straight. Usually played straight with any gun being used against unarmored targets, as a single M16 bullet to the stomach will almost always kill an unarmored liberal, and a shot to the torso from a .38 or 9mm has a good chance of doing the same thing. Armor usually prevents a Liberal from being killed instantly, at the cost of suffering permanent, crippling injuries. Tales abound of players and their allies receiving near-fatal heart wounds which can be patched up on the scene by an LCS member with a decent first-aid skill... only for the character to later bleed out from the hole left in their heart by the bullet. (The coding reason for this is that the game tracks internal wounds, and since wounds to internal organs can't be treated by field medicine, it continues to hemorrhage, dealing damage until the character dies.)
189* InstantEmergencyResponse: Picking up money in the Bank's vault will reduce the time until reinforcements arrive. Keep picking up cash after that, and a SWATTeam will arrive out of nowhere, even if you infiltrated the bank stealthily.
190* InstantWinCondition: Averted and Inverted. The Elite Liberal Amendments are extremely helpful to the player, but don't instantly win the game as one might suspect. The one and only Arch-Conservative Amendment, on the other hand, reorganizes the United States of America into the Confederate States of America. Once this happens, all living LCS members go underground and you lose instantly.
191* InterfaceScrew: A minor one. If free speech laws go arch-conservative, all swear words, pick-up lines and replies to successful ones are replaced by [words more appropriate for the public, written between brackets]. This even applies to combat descriptions of brutality. For added fun, it also applies to newspaper headlines and articles that might be considered objectionable, controversial, or detrimental to the government - so an article about a judge being caught with a prostitute instead reads 'caught with a [civil servant]', the word 'homosexual' is replaced with 'sexual deviant', and in one particularly hilarious example a terrorist attack will result in a giant front-page headline simply reading 'JERKS'. Only the Liberal Guardian is exempt, at the cost of an unacceptable speech charge every day of publication for everyone in the safehouse.
192* InterspeciesRomance: With sufficiently Liberal animal rights laws, it becomes socially acceptable to date and seduce anything and everything. Otherwise, you'll be in for a world of hurt.
193* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Averted. Individual characters are not of a defined racial background, but civil rights remains an issue from the beginning of the game up through any possible future end date.
194* ItMakesSenseInContext: CIA raids and Government Firemen attacks do not generate heat when killing the attackers, the former being "PlausibleDeniability", the latter being a *completely illegal* form of arrest with flamethrowers. Basically you just killed them in self defense, perfectly legal because the government stopped following the law even as it stood flimsily.
195* ItWasHereISwear: A variant can be pulled off on your enemies, as having a sleeper warn you about a raid can allow you to relocate all your equipment and personnel to a new safehouse. Doing this against the police will even clear all heat from the safehouse, allowing you to [[RefugeInAudacity immediately go back]].
196* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: One of the issues you can influence. It can be used against kidnapped Conservatives [[TortureAlwaysWorks so that they give maps]].
197* JokeItem: Mithril Armor. The original developer, Tarn Adams, insisted that it was just as effective as in real life whenever asked about it. Which is to say that it's just spraypainted cardboard. It is the ''least'' useful clothing type in the game, having no disguise value and an armor rating of 0. To contrast, basic, everyday clothing has an armor rating of one.
198* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: The Death Squads, which appear at C+ police and death penalty laws, will apply summary executions to any criminal ([[DisproportionateRetribution even loiterers]]) they catch.
199* JuryAndWitnessTampering: One of the activities you can get to in the Courthouse is to persuade juries to render Liberal verdicts. Not being persuasive enough, however, will get you attacked by [[Film/TwelveAngryMen twelve angry jurors]].
200* KarmicThief: Two of the backstory choices for the founder involve them stealing from rich people ([[TheRunaway after running away from home]]) or corporations (adult). Both, of course, are portrayed as being evil
201* KatanasAreJustBetter: Downplayed. Western swords are just as good as katanas. They are both [[HeroesPreferSwords the best melee weapons, though]].
202* KickTheDog: Attacking the fire department at anything other than C+ Free Speech laws (i.e. when they just fight fires, rather than suppressing unlawful speech) will make ''everyone'' hate you, regardless of ideology. So will accidentally killing bystanders during combat.
203* KidHero: The LCS can recruit children, and the only difference between them and adults is not being allowed into the Gentleman's Club, as well as only being able to seduce other children.
204* KillTheLights: A siege by agents will start off with them cutting off the safehouse's power, worsening your visibility and making it impossible to benefit from cameras.
205* TheKlan: the Ku Klux Klan is referenced in a free speech related new story (Free speech advocates fight to allow a supremacist rally to take place, complete with ASCIIArt representing the KKK), and if one of your activists is judged by a very conservative jury, the game informs you of the mess you are in by saying "Three of the jurors are members of the KKK".
206* {{KleptomaniacHero}}es: You can steal items during infiltrations. You're a ''crime'' squad, after all.
207* LaResistance: The LCS sees themselves as this, and FromACertainPointOfView they are in Normal mode. In Nightmare mode, this is ''exactly'' what they are.
208* LazyBackup:
209** Averted. If your leader gets imprisoned or killed, as long as there is a member with enough Juice or Leadership they will take over. The game is only over when the leader is killed and there is nobody that can replace him/her.
210** Also averted in sieges, where anyone with a gun not directly involved in the fight will provide covering fire from the sidelines, and jump in the fray if someone is incapacitated or killed.
211* LethalJokeItem: With the exception of the completely worthless Mithril Armor, most of the replica medieval gear you can buy at the costume shop is surprisingly effective in skilled hands, with the Sword and Katana being the best melee weapons in the game.
212* LevelDrain: High-priority Conservative targets, when they're not [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking dangerously armed]], can and will use special attacks that stun and drain your Liberal's Juice, and with enough hits will convert them into Conservatives.
213* LightningBruiser: Dancers and yoga instructors. 10 base health, agility and strengh. Super tough, and may god help the conservatives if they are trained with weapons.
214* LimitedLoadout: Each liberal can only equip a single weapon with 9 spare reloads for it, along with a single outfit, and won't be able to bring anything more to an infiltration (although the squad can then grab as many items as it desires).
215* LongerThanLifeSentence: Some of your liberals [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=25530.0 can be sentenced to such sentences]]
216-->[[WesternTerrorists Sgt.Pepper]], you are sentenced to 31695 consecutive life terms in prison.
217* MagikarpPower: Music is effectively useless as a skill in combat, until you get it to ten or above, at which point your squaddies' soulful tunes will [[ThePowerOfRock cause armed and dangerous Death Squad troopers to break down crying and lower their weapons en masse.]]
218* MakeTheDogTestify: Literally. Man, child, dog, genetic monster, or mutant, the justice system makes no distinction on who or what is competent to stand trial.
219* TheMenInBlack: The Agents wear black suits and are probably the most competent profession, possibly except CCS bosses. Like most other things, the MIB are taken to a extreme conclusions at Arch-Conservatve Privacy Law, renaming their Intelligence HQ the Ministry Of Love.
220* MetalDetectorCheckpoint: Found only in specific buildings. If you're carrying a weapon, it sets off the alarm and the conservatives attack instantly. The detector only covers the front entrance, with the back doors covered by an alarm system.
221* MiscarriageOfJustice:
222** If a liberal gets arrested without actually commiting a crime, they'll be charged with loitering even if they weren't actually idling. Depending on the laws and the quality of one's defense, it's entirely possible to be [[DisproportionateRetribution sentenced to death]] for loitering.
223** The inverse, false acquittal, tends to be far more common in the game, however, as your liberals tend to be genuinely guilty. However, a good defense and a [[CommonNonsenseJury liberal jury]] can result in them getting away with crimes commited in front of many witnesses, up to murder.
224* ModernStasis: Lampshaded. If the game goes on long enough, everything remains the same mechanically, but things get renamed - Nightsticks become Electro-Shock Sticks, Spraypaint becomes Holo-Paint, Pitchforks become Space Pitchforks, Gavels become Laser Gavels, etc.
225* TheMole: Any liberal you recruit or conservative you kidnap and brainwash can be set to be a sleeper agent at their current jobs rather than joining the active LCS. This can provide various benefits depending on their job, such as tip offs on raids, drop offs of sensitive information, and maps of buildings, among other things.
226* MolotovCocktail: One of the available weapons.
227* MoreFriendsMoreBenefits: Seduction is an excellent way to recruit for the LCS. One of the most effective ways to survive the game is to simply sleep with the ''entire justice system'' - boosting your seduction stat and hooking up with enough lawyers and judges virtually guarantees getting off lightly, even on charges of high treason and mass murder.
228* MuggingTheMonster: Some conservatives are members of the Conservative Crime Squad, and good with the guns they carry. And at C+ gun control laws, any random conservative can carry a 9 mm or .45 semi auto.
229* MultipleChoicePast: At the beginning of the game, the player may choose events in the squad founder's past, which inform their in-game attributes and skills.
230* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: If a hostage dies during interrogation, the lead interrogator is likely to lose Heart with a description of their reaction such as throwing up into a trash can. [[AMillionIsAStatistic For some reason]], they don't seem to mind waltzing into a public place with automatic weapons and shooting every conservative in sight, though.
231* MyGreatestFailure: If one of your subordinates dies, you lose juice. Extra WhatTheHellHero points if they die in the death row: "If you can't protect your own people, who can you protect? X has failed the Liberal Crime Squad." This is notably the only way to drop to absolutely minimum juice levels.
232* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The primary law enforcement agency in Nightmare Mode are called the 'Death Squads'. [[{{Understatement}} They're not very friendly people]].
233* NeverHurtAnInnocent: The LCS might be willing to do a lot of things for the sake of liberalism, but they're not willing to attack non-conservatives, as you'll lose Juice, and alienating moderates/everybody will make [[VoiceOfTheResistance The Liberal Guardian]] apologize for the events.
234* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
235** The more you succeed in making gun control a reality, the harder it is to get weapons for your raids. Pawn shops will stop carrying certain weapons and jack up their prices on those that remain. Gang members will still sell you guns, but their prices go up exponentially as well.
236** Also, making police laws elite liberal will cause them to be accompanied by moderate Police Negotiators, which makes the game much harder (because now, if you fight them, you'll risk alienating public opinion by injuring a moderate.)
237* NintendoHard: A standard game is difficult, but quite possible once you get the hang of it. But should you choose to turn on [[HarderThanHard We Didn't Start The Fire and/or Nightmare Mode...]]
238* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted. The combat messages occasionally describe characters as "gasping a last breath and soiling the floor" when they die.
239* NoDelaysForTheWicked: Whereas you'll often struggle with money, training your liberals, and obtaining guns (especially at liberal gun laws), the CCS has no issue when it comes to fielding dozens of gun-wielding, well-trained vigilantes. This turns out to be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] if you find the backer list, as it revelas that they receive funding from the government.
240* NonHumanSidekick: Under the right circumstances, Genetic Experiments, dogs and Mutants can join your ranks.
241* NonIndicativeDifficulty: If played normally, the ''Nightmare'' and ''We Didn't Start The Fire'' modes (which start you in a hellish conservative dystopia and with the Conservative Crime Squad actively opposing you, respectively) make the game much harder. However, there's a strategy that can make them easier than normal play; since both the Conservative Crime Squad and Nightmare Mode's book-burning Firemen are ObviouslyEvil, you don't get heat from the government or negative publicity for killing them. This allows you to grind your entire squad into unstoppable war gods in Nightmare Mode at relatively little risk and without committing any crimes, then use this high-Juice squad to easily win the rest of the game.
242* NotSoAbandonedBuilding: Among your various safehouses, one of them is an abandoned building. Since this serves as your main safehouse (due to being upgradable), the seemingly unused building can end up housing dozens of liberals, all busy with various tasks. That said, you can also purchase a [[CovertGroupWithMundaneFront business front]], which will [[AvertedTrope avert the trope]].
243* ObviousRulePatch: Previous versions have some now fixed hilarious GoodBadBugs such as being able to recruit or even [[ExtremeOmnisexual successfully seduce tanks]].
244* OlderAndWiser: Every character literally gets wiser with age, as their wisdom stat grows.
245* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Agility for those going on infiltrations. It raises the caps for gun skills (guns usually being the best weapons to use), Dodge, Stealth, and Driving. While the other stats are also useful, they're more situational, and are raised automatically with [[ExperiencePoints Juice]] anyway.
246* OnlyOneSaveFile: It allows only one save file, and auto-saves everyday to prevent SaveScumming - but it can be circumvented by the fact that savefiles still exist even when the game is being run, meaning that one could close the game and reload the savefile if the day went wrong.
247* OneBulletClips: Averted. Also, ordering to reload when a character still has ammo left in their magazine will discard it and waste the ammunition that was left inside. Except for shotguns which use one 'clip' for a shell but hold multiple 'clips' in their magazine.
248* OneHitKill:
249** A single shot from a tank to the torso or head will instantly kill the victim, regardless of armor.
250** Police officers will subdue and arrest the squad if it attempts to fight despite everyone being badly wounded or near death. Chases may also result in a liberal getting tackled and arrested/[[PoliceBrutality beaten to death]] (even if perfectly healthy), if they fail particularly badly.
251** Weapons capable of dismemberment may instantly kill with a headshot, even if the hit would normally be survivable.
252* OppressiveImmigrationEnforcement: At C+ immigration and death penalty, illegal migrants arrested by the police are summarily executed.
253* OppressiveStatesOfAmerica: Let the laws become conservative enough (or start in Nightmare Mode), and the USA will become a fascist corporate hellhole. Torture is routine, execution can be given even for loitering, corporations are allowed to pollute as much as they like and violate privacy of citizens, and much more. It'll somehow get even worse if the conservatives win.
254* PacifistRun: Entirely possible, with multiple potential strategies for doing so. It's even possible to win ''without ever recruiting any members'' if you're good enough or SaveScum a lot. Depending on the version, a pacifist run may actually be easier than a violent one.
255* PaperThinDisguise: CCS members will disguise themselves as members of other professions. However, they don't take their surroundings into account, causing situations such as finding a redneck in the [[SmokyGentlemensClub Gentleman's Club]].
256* PayEvilUntoEvil: The standard modus operandi of the LCS, as all of the conservatives either support fascism or are actively participating in it. Thus, wanton murder, theft, hostage-taking, kidnapping, and brainwashing are completely okay, so long as it's done against conservatives. [[EveryoneHasStandards The only limit is torture or murder of captives]].
257* PistolWhipping: Characters with unloaded guns will use them as clubs.
258* PlayerHeadquarters: The safehouses serve in this capacity, hiding your liberals from the conservatives, and giving them a place to work and equip themselves from.
259* PlotArmor: The leader of the LCS has 50% damage reduction simply for being the leader. This trope is even explicitly named in code comments.
260* PoliceBrutality: It's not uncommon for people who fall behind during escapes from crime scenes to be pinned down and beaten to death by the cops. Additionally, there's random events where PoliceBrutality will be reported in the news. Then there's [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Death Squad Officers]], who take this to insane levels and execute criminals on the spot when police regulation and death penalty laws are C+.
261* PoliceAreUseless: Being conservatives, the cops will not help you fight off attackers, and will [[TheBadGuysAreCops actually join them in]]. They also won't do anything to break a non-government siege, even though it's clearly being done illegally, to the point that it counts as self-defense if you kill the attackers.
262* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: All of the conservatives are misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, and racist, and would like to turn the USA into bigot heaven.
263* ThePowerOfRock: The guitar is possibly one of the best weapons in the game. Playing inspiring music in combat turns conservatives liberal, stopping them from attacking you and letting you recruit them to your cause. You can also use it to play street music to fund the Revolution.
264* PrisonLevel: The city's prison is one of the locations that can be visited, mainly visited in order to affect opinions on prisoner rights, recruit prisoners, or to free convicted liberals.
265* PrisonRape: One of the possible bad experiences in prison is for a liberal to be raped by a fellow inmate.
266* PrisonRiot: Liberals suffering a prolonged prison sentence may escape by starting a riot and slipping out.
267* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: An intentional example - [[EveryoneHasStandards (Nearly)]] everything the LCS does is good, and everything the conservatives do is bad, even if they both do the same things.
268* PurelyAestheticGender: Mostly played straight. Gender doesn't affect the game except at the Gentlemen's club not allowing women if women's rights are conservative enough. Internally there are two values, conservative and liberal, the difference being the latter is chosen as opposed to birth sex. The interface always shows the liberal one as the LCS doesn't even consider the conservative one. If Gay Rights are liberal enough the liberal one won't even require a disguise check.
269* PrivateMilitaryContractors: If you publish corporate documents, you will get raided by Elite Security contracted by influential [=CEOs=]. The same people will also guard the armory at the Nuclear Power Plant and respond to alarms at a CEO's residence, along with appearing in some corporate locations at high security.
270* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: You can recruit anything from teenagers to retirees, from prostitutes to secret agents, from child workers to genetic abominations.
271* RankScalesWithAsskicking:
272** Leadership ability is tied to both the Juice level of a character and their Seduction skill. The former grants [[TookALevelInBadass substantial combat bonuses]] even if it was gained exclusively by e.g., computer hacking.
273** CCS leaders wear the heaviest armor in the game, and wield high-tier automatic firearms. All of that is combined with their high stats and combat skills.
274* RapidFireFisticuffs: With a good Martial Arts skill, you can strike up to 5 times in one round.
275* RecruitmentByRescue: Liberal servants, sweatshop workers, child workers, and prisoners will join your squad when released, so long as there's enough space for them.
276* RecycledWithAGimmick: If the game goes on for long enough, the game world will shift to a sci-fi version of itself that changes the names for everything along these lines but has no other effects (for instance, a Gavel becomes a Laser Gavel, and a Pitchfork becomes a Space Pitchfork.)
277* ReelTorture: One of the torture methods that could be used on hostages in earlier versions of the game was making them watch ''Bible Black''.
278* RefugeInAudacity: Many things but notably you could sell "brownies" while [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer dressed up as a police officer.]] This would halve your revenue (on the grounds of trying being obvious SchmuckBait) but make it less likely that you are caught.
279* TheRemnant: While most obsoleted professions from more conservative law levels disappear, some may hang around, resulting in the occasional death squad member at the police station or firemen at the fire fighter's station.
280* ReturningWarVet: Army veterans are one of the people you may meet during infiltrations. With them still retaining their military skills, and being capable of having moderate/liberal leanings (unlike active-duty soldiers), it's possible that you'll end up seeking them out in order to put their skills back to use. Conservative veterans may also end up attacking you with their knives if an alarm is raised.
281* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: ''Everyone'' in the Conservative Crime Squad.
282* RocketTagGameplay: Fights involving firearms often end up like this, as a single shot is usually enough to incapacitate or kill the target.
283* {{Roguelike}}: The game uses non-traditional ASCII graphics. Some objects are represented with words instead of ASCII characters.
284* TheRunaway: The founder ran away from home at 15, as they were tired of how awful their life at home was.
285* RunningGag: Lots of things in the game are referred to liberal or conservative. You can buy Liberal guns, clips or tools at the pawn shop, if you are unhurt, your health is Liberal (and unhurt conservatives have a Conservative health meter), you can equip a Liberal weapon (or drop a Conservative weapon), you can spray Liberal graffiti... And if your squad suffers a TotalPartyKill, you can reflect on your Conservative ineptitude.
286* SaveScumming: Any accidental death can be prevented and any prison sentence reduced by reloading a game auto saved from the day before.
287* ScaryImpracticalArmor: Given their interrogation bonus and their nonexistent armor rating, the Death Squad uniforms are technically these.
288* ScienceIsBad: Science is all about nuclear power, engineering genetic horrors and torturing cute, fluffy bunnies. All members of the scientific professions are Conservative, and Science is a skill for spreading Conservative ideology along with Business and Religion.
289* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Injured enemies will often retreat from combat, if not so badly wounded that it's impossible. Unarmed enemies may even run away despite not being harmed, if the fight goes on for too long.
290* SelfHarm: An unrestrained hostage may hurt themselves after an interrogation, if driven to despair.
291* ShopFodder: A successful infiltration in the downtown apartments can give you 20 laptops, 10 cheap jewelry, 5 expensive jewelry... Which are good for nothing, but sell for a pretty good price.
292* ShoutOut:
293** In Nightmare mode, the Fire Department transforms from an actual firefighting unit into an organized squad of heavily armed and armored men tasked to deal with 'unacceptable speech' by [[Literature/Fahrenheit451 dousing the building the speech occurred in with kerosene and setting it alight]].
294** The game mode where you start with the Conservative Crime Squad already active is called [[Music/BillyJoel We Didn't Start The Fire]].
295** If you fail to bias a jury, [[Film/TwelveAngryMen twelve "Angry Jurors"]] will spawn on you.
296** If your Liberal wears a Mithril armor and attempt to bluff a Conservative, he can [[VideoGame/NetHack engrave Elbereth on the floor]].
297** One method of [[CruelAndUnusualDeath archconservative execution]] is [[VideoGame/RimWorld being turned into furniture for rich people.]]
298** If the Free Speech laws are too conservative, the negative responses to your pickup lines will be taken straight from [[Franchise/StarWars Star Wars]].
299* SinisterShiv: Prisoners are commonly equipped with shanks, which function as weaker knives.
300* SignificantBirthDate: You get to choose one for the founder, with all but one of the birthdays being related to politics, and granting +2 to a relevant stat.
301* SmokyGentlemensClub: One serves as the premier hangout of arch-conservatives and CCS members, only allowing in conservative adult men in expensive/black suits, although sufficiently liberal laws may force them to allow women in, a Disguise check will help you pretend to be a conservative, and a sleeper in the club's security will bypass all requirements.
302* SoBadItsGood: In-universe example with the pickup lines, which are terrible, yet still work. [[SubvertedTrope If your seduction skill isn't high enough, on the other hand...]].
303* SpinOff: [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=122174 Zombie Survival Squad]].
304* StateSec: Death Squads.
305* StatGrinding: Skills can only increase when used, and most can be trained to the maximum by doing the simplest of tasks. If you gain a lot of skill experience in one day (such as through on-site actions), the growth stops halfway through next skill rank until a day passes.
306* StealthRun: It's possible to win the game without ever using weapons. It's very, very difficult, but it can be done. It's also possible, though even harder, to sneak your way through the entire game with stealth, proper disguises, and fast talking, never sounding an alarm or rousing suspicion as you rob people blind, spirit away secret files and press the BigRedButton.
307* StressVomit: One of the possible descriptions for a liberal losing heart [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone over having a hostage they're interrogating die]] involves them vomiting into a trash can.
308* StockholmSyndrome: As time passes, kidnapped conservatives will start liking their captor if you treat them nicely enough. Really fast if your psychology skill is high.
309* StormingTheCastle: Your infiltrations of CCS safehouses can proceed this way if you opt for a violent approach, as your squad guns down the doorway guards and runs straight for the lieutenant/boss, all while fighting off anybody who tries to stop them.
310* StrawCharacter : Played for laughs. The game treats [[DayOfTheJackboot Conservatives as evil fascists]] and [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified Liberals as the second coming]]. Both liberal and conservative ideological tenets are deliberately exaggerated to the point of implausibility for the sake of comedy - the game's 'liberals' have such goals as ''granting animals full personhood'', and the game's 'conservatives' ''burn buildings where free speech has happened'' if not stopped.
311* SuicidalOverconfidence:
312** If an alarm is raised, ''every'' conservative will try to attack you. Even unarmed bank managers will still try to punch your gun-toting squad, usually resulting in them being kidnapped or shot to death.
313** Attacking the radio/cable news station will result in mobs of rednecks responding. As most of them lack firearms, the subsequent chase will usually result in a CurbStompBattle with them being unable to respond to your gunfire. They can then try to siege your safehouses, which usually ends badly for them.
314* SuicideByCop: In earlier versions of the game, this was the standard method of freeing up space in the squad. More options were added later: you can either release (i.e. fire) or [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness execute]] unwanted squad members instead. Each of these options has a potential downside, too - if a squad member with low Heart is fired, they might very well go to the police, while executing a squad member has a chance to cause a significant (and ''permanent'') stat drop in the person doing the executing.
315* SurrenderBackfire: Surrendering to death squad members will result in your squad being immediately executed on the spot. The same also applies in sieges when surrendering to any group that isn't firemen, police, or military.
316* SWATTeam: A few of these may come after you if an alarm is raised at the Police Station or the [[BankRobbery Bank]]. They will also participate in law enforcement sieges on your safehouses.
317* SwissCheeseSecurity:
318** Many buildings you can infiltrate lack things as basic as security at the entrance, and high-security buildings (such as the army base or intelligence HQ) often lack metal detectors and tend to have guns and armor scattered around instead of being properly locked up.
319** On your end, the messages for a siege starting show that LCS doesn't have any kind of security at the entrance, with enemy vehicles being able to stop at the doors (or anti-tank traps) without being shot up to pieces. The generators also aren't protected, with CIA agents being easily able to cut your safehouse's power.
320* TerriblePickUpLines: the game actually includes a warning about bad pick-up lines in the disclaimer. Sure enough, they are indeed awful. They are effective in-game however.
321* TerrorHero: Aside from the obvious well - terrorism that the LCS can engage in - violent victory against larger groups will often result in them being scared away, whether it is an angry mob fleeing after [[PutTheirHeadsTogether bashing their heads with each other's heads]] or responding to an invasion by killing enough of their squads.
322* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Accruing sufficiently high Heat might result in one of your safehouses being stormed by literally hundreds of regular Army troops, supported by tank platoons, combat engineer detachments, and ''bomber aircraft''.
323* TokenGoodTeammate: Police negotiators for the conservatives, as they're actually moderates (but will still help conservatives fight you). As such, attacking them will make your liberals lose [[ExperiencePoints juice]]
324* TorchesAndPitchforks: Raising an alarm during an infiltration will result in every conservative joining the fight against you, including civilian ones. Attacking a radio/cable news station can also result in you being attacked by masses of rednecks, most of them only wielding torches and pitchforks, and they may also end up raiding your safehouses after the attack in order to administer a VigilanteExecution.
325* TortureAlwaysWorks: Having a heartless liberal torture your hostages with expensive props works wonders for bringing down their wisdom and getting maps out of them, at the cost of the torturer losing heart/gaining wisdom and the hostage taking a lot of damage.
326* TortureCellar: Any hostages in your safehouses will be put in the back room if restrained.
327* TortureTechnician: Liberals with low Heart can be used as this, as they will torture hostages when beating them with expensive props.
328* TraumaCongaLine: The founder's backstory may end up as this, depending on your choices. For instance, in one possible backstory, they may have ended up with [[AbusiveParents their dad beating them for being unruly]], repressed anger causing them to [[KidsAreCruel hurt animals in elementary school]], their parents [[DomesticAbuse violently]] divorcing, them becoming a total outcast in junior high, being sent to religious counseling (which only made things worse), having their [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic father]] be murdered by his ex [[KarmaHoudini and getting away with it]], running away from home at 15 and becoming a teen prostitute, and then spending their adult life just surviving alone [[HomelessHero without a home]] until they decide to found the LCS.
329* TotalPartyKill: Can happen from events such as safehouse raids, and crashing your vehicle in a car chase.
330* UnskilledButStrong: Dancers and yoga instructors. No combat skill. 10 base Agility and Health.
331* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Some 8 years old in an oversized black suit walking around at the Intelligence HQ is pretty normal for everyone if they have enough disguise.
332** Related by performing enough community service actions even a OneManArmy with thousands of counts of murder could live without generating heat as the community looks the other way.
333* TheUriahGambit: One of the option for dealing with Conservatives enlightened too late. Selling brownies with Death Squads roaming the streets works good for this. Main downside is that it costs their leader juice per underling death.
334* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: While it has several inspirations, the LCS itself is very loosely based on the real-world [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army Symbionese Liberation Army]]. They didn't win, though.
335* VideogameCrueltyPotential: You can make the Liberal Crime Squad fight conservatism as violently as you want, from being a peaceful protest organization to full-on urban terrorists. The previously mentioned torture and brainwash minigame deserves a special mention though, since it allows you to do some ridiculously nasty things to people, such as beating them (with ridiculous implements such as "fists full of money" or "a flag pole"), starving them, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and forcing them to watch]] ''[[{{Hentai}} Bible Black]]''.
336* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: Oh sure, the M2 will make most Conservatives scatter, but it's next to useless for a few reasons. Even with Bunker Gear, you still get burned by it, and will every single turn because any attack, hit or miss, will set the square you are on on fire. Said fire also spreads to other squares, destroying the area you are in quickly. Finally, M2 Flamethrowers and their ammunition can only be gotten reliably from the Firemen, who only appear at Arch-Conservative Free Speech and can generally be legislated away even without LCS action. A few may show up rarely in the CIA/Ministry of Love headquarters.
337* VigilanteExecution: Surrendering to a siege by conservative masses will result in all of your liberals being lynched.
338* TheVietnamVet: The founder's father was one, which is heavily implied to have led to his [[TheAlcoholic alcoholism]].
339* VigilanteMan: CCS members are referred to as vigilantes, in an unusual example of vigilantes being portrayed as evil.
340* ViolenceIsDisturbing: Though the game ''does'' portray violence as a necessity, it doesn't shy away from how ugly it is, with graphic descriptions of gunfire blowing apart heads and limbs, characters [[FaceDeathWithDespair breaking down as they die]], and injured fighters vomiting and weeping.
341* VoiceOfTheResistance: If you set up a printing press, you can have your liberals write for the Liberal Guardian newspaper, and you can run a special edition each month if you have appropriate documents to publish. At C+ Free Speech laws, in particular, it's the only uncensored paper, and writing for it will be considered a crime that can provoke sieges by [[Literature/Fahrenheit451 firemen]].
342* WeaponForIntimidation: Weapons can be used to intimidate and abduct conservatives, and help a lot for datenapping.
343* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: Earlier versions had the death of the leader collapse the entire team (unless you had someone outside the chain of command). The latest version allows skilled subordinates to replace the leader.
344* WeInterruptThisProgram: You can sneak (or gun) your way to the AM Radio Station or Cable News Studio stage, and mount your own broadcast.
345* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[InvokedTrope The entire point of the game]]. Serial murder, kidnapping, terrorism, child soldiers, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and loitering]], all in the name of a better tomorrow.
346* WesternTerrorists:
347** The titular Liberal Crime Squad, representing a mix of left-wing radicalism and american liberalism taken to the extreme.
348** The Conservative Crime Squad, which act as [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Right-Wing Militia Fanatics]].
349* WhatTheHellPlayer:
350** If a cop sees one of your people who's wanted for a crime, tries to arrest that person, and is killed by him/her, the newspaper has an article which says: "Their name is being held pending the notification of the family" or something similar.
351** If you end up alienating the masses or everyone during an infiltration, the normal newspaper will use a negative tone to describe your actions, rather than the usual neutral one. The [[VoiceOfTheResistance Liberal Guardian]] article, meanwhile, will apologize for what you did.
352* YouBastard:
353** You excited that your squad is capable of surviving combat? Take the time to read some of the [[ViolenceIsDisturbing combat descriptions]], which mention such things as the enemies begging for mercy, crying in agony, or [[IWantMyMommy asking for their moms]].
354** Some of the things you can make 'liberated' child workers do, including:
355*** [[ChildSoldiers Mob Wars]]
356*** Selling 'Brownies'
357*** Prostitution (no longer the case since the latest releases)
358*** Seduction (ditto)
359*** Most ridiculously, child laborers only start with the Sewing skill, so they are likely to go right back to [[FullCircleRevolution making clothing for YOU.]]
360** Robbing poor apartments includes items of petty value like socks, and macaroni art. The guilt trip is clearly intentional.
361* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: From the perspective of the game and liberals, the LCS is a major force of good that protects the US from Conservative tyranny. From the perspective of the conservatives, it's a dangerous terrorist organization that is ruining the traditional way of life.
362* ZergRush:
363** Basically, any conservative response at any site, but more obvious with the radio station or cable news: waves and waves of angry mobs with TorchesAndPitchforks getting slaughtered by liberals with M-16s.
364** If you get raided and have enough backup members and weapons you can enact one yourself, having dozens of people fire at the police forces and hoping at least some shots make it.
365** If you fail to persuade a jury, you'll immediately get attacked by all twelve juries. None of them are armed, but the damage from getting punched 12 times will accumulate, and it's likely that at least one of the jurors will have some knowledge of martial arts.
366** The sweatshop, factory (at Arch-Conservative labor laws), and the prison have workers and prisoners, respectively, which will [[RecruitmentByRescue join the squad immediately if freed]]. As they're extremely common, and prisoners may come [[SinisterShiv with shanks]], they're also expendable during the infiltration.

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