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View Full Version : A judicial trial in game...crazy like a fox, or just crazy?



Bluepaw
2011-08-06, 01:00 AM
Hey folks,

I'm pretty new to the forums but jazzed up by seeing people crowdsourcing sweet storytelling techniques and game mechanics, so here goes...

I've been mulling over the possibility of holding a trial for a notorious drug runner in the game I'm running. Has anyone successfully DMed a campaign through a judicial trial, and if you tried & it was terrible, what went wrong?

My setting is Eberron, an urban intrigue mystery thus far. The PCs spent a few sessions tracking down a smuggling ring responsible for bringing an unknown drug into the city, a drug which seems to be responsible for destructive overdoses and generally creepy behavior. They finally found the smugglers -- right as they realize they've been double crossed by the police, who mean to frame them and pin an even larger network of crimes on the smugglers of what (they've learned) is actually a sacred, consciousness-expanding substance belonging to a mystery sect. The leader of the smugglers was taken captive for "enhanced interrogation", while the PCs escaped on the smugglers' janky airship.

That's the background -- given enough time, I want to have the drug runner put on trial (essentially, set up for a sham conviction and execution). BUT: this risks bogging down the campaign, forcing us all to improvise legal shenanigans, and enrolling the players in what might be a severely less interesting story arc than just forgetting about the smuggler and taking on the new problem of a corrupt police force. So, whether the PCs are eventually arrested and put on trial themselves, or whether they just want to try to free the smuggler -- do you think it's worth pursuing, in game?

I mean, Vaarsuvius has a point (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0596.html)...

flumphy
2011-08-06, 01:14 AM
Even Law and Order cuts out 95% of the trial proceedings. Even in the most interesting of cases, trials aren't exactly compelling entertainment. Unless your entire group is composed of aspiring lawyers (I doubt real lawyers would want to roleplay their day job) then I think you're better off letting the trial happen off camera.

The exception would be if you plan to have something crazy happen at the trial, like having the guy's sect show up and attempt to forcefully liberate him.

That said, having the PCs participate in the investigation itself, or even get arrested for it, could be tons of fun. Just find a way to skip over the whole sitting-in-a-courtroom thing.

SowZ
2011-08-06, 01:19 AM
Hey folks,

I'm pretty new to the forums but jazzed up by seeing people crowdsourcing sweet storytelling techniques and game mechanics, so here goes...

I've been mulling over the possibility of holding a trial for a notorious drug runner in the game I'm running. Has anyone successfully DMed a campaign through a judicial trial, and if you tried & it was terrible, what went wrong?

My setting is Eberron, an urban intrigue mystery thus far. The PCs spent a few sessions tracking down a smuggling ring responsible for bringing an unknown drug into the city, a drug which seems to be responsible for destructive overdoses and generally creepy behavior. They finally found the smugglers -- right as they realize they've been double crossed by the police, who mean to frame them and pin an even larger network of crimes on the smugglers of what (they've learned) is actually a sacred, consciousness-expanding substance belonging to a mystery sect. The leader of the smugglers was taken captive for "enhanced interrogation", while the PCs escaped on the smugglers' janky airship.

That's the background -- given enough time, I want to have the drug runner put on trial (essentially, set up for a sham conviction and execution). BUT: this risks bogging down the campaign, forcing us all to improvise legal shenanigans, and enrolling the players in what might be a severely less interesting story arc than just forgetting about the smuggler and taking on the new problem of a corrupt police force. So, whether the PCs are eventually arrested and put on trial themselves, or whether they just want to try to free the smuggler -- do you think it's worth pursuing, in game?

I mean, Vaarsuvius has a point (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0596.html)...

If you must, have it happen and give a minute or two of background, a short speech on the defense followed by a creepy witness/cross ex thing. This cross ex is the whole point of the trial as it adds foreshadowing.

Have the PCs be the primary prosecutors as they are the ones putting forward testimony and evidence with the cop being their legal advisor. Make it so that in that cities legal system, this means the prosecutors, (the PCs,) all get a cross ex so they ask the questions and don't have to watch ascript you wrote. After that let the trial sort itself out without the PCs there, (the cop will take it over.) That way you have your dramatic scene, you have some set up and foreshawdowing, you have some doubt planted over the drug runners evil or non evilness, (selling narcotics/controlled substances that don't kill people is not an evil act but a chaotic one even though it is accompanied by evil a lot,) and BOOM! It lasted, like, 18 minutes tops. With the PCs having the most action of anyone in those 18 minutes.

Totally Guy
2011-08-06, 01:29 AM
I have read a Burning Wheel module called "Your day in Court" which is free and downloadable (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Downloads#Your_Day_in_Court). So I know it's possible in theory and practice as I know people who've played it.

You've not said which system you are using but you mention Eberron so I'll assume D&D. I don't think that a trial scene would work in that system as a gameable element. The way social conflict works is just plain not robust enough.

Hel65
2011-08-06, 02:45 AM
I've run a trial from one of WFRP 2E's published adventures (Ashes of Middenheim). It had handouts describing 4 people taking part in the trial - prosecutor, defender, accused and a witness. The handouts described roughly the personality of each of these and arguments they use in court. Once we got to the trial, I've handed out these to my players, because most of the PCs didn't take part in it (one was also a witness - he didn't get a handout, of course ;) , the rest was in the mob watching the trial) and then they roleplayed the participants of the trial with me playing the judge to give them cues what part of the trial proceedings is supposed to go next (the adventure provided the scenario of the trail). The players had a blast during that session.

Knaight
2011-08-06, 02:47 AM
There are certainly systems where one could manage this, Burning Wheel being the most obvious example. However, D&D being D&D, I suggest having a trial scene that lasts for just long enough to show that the trial is a sham, which transitions into trial by combat. The PCs, of course, get to act as champions (Explaining multiple people on each side can be done with a convenient holy number of some sort, among other things).

Glimbur
2011-08-06, 05:17 PM
I've run a rigged trial in a D&D game before. I think the only mistake was drafting random people to fill out the ranks of the 9 judges we had. Otherwise the players were interested. I borrowed heavily from the Phoenix Wright games in that objections were raised often. It depends on how your group dynamics work: some people are there for social maneuvering, some people just want to split some skulls.

dps
2011-08-06, 05:41 PM
I think either most of the people who have replied in this thread have misundertood the situation set forth in the opening post, or I have. Bluepaw, as I understand it, the PC's are on the lam at the present time, correct? If so, a trial would just involve NPC's at this point. So you wouldn't have to actually devote any game time to it, just let the players have updates about what's going on--it's supposed to be a show trial, so those in charge would be trying to spread the word about it as widely as possible, so you don't even have to use any special methods to get the news to the players. And as a showtrial, it would probably be strung out time-wise, so give the players updates through several game sessions to give them plenty of opportunity to respond to the situation if they want. If they decide to stay on the lam and not get involved, so be it--just have the smuggler tried and eventually executed "off-screen". If they do decide to get involved, and are like most players, they're going to try to stage a rescue/prison break, not get involved in the trial itself. Only if they decide to come forward and attempt to actually testify at the trial do you have to actually game out any courtroom shenanigans.

And if I'm the one who has misunderstood the situation, just ignore this post.

Bluepaw
2011-08-06, 06:49 PM
I think either most of the people who have replied in this thread have misundertood the situation set forth in the opening post, or I have. Bluepaw, as I understand it, the PC's are on the lam at the present time, correct? If so, a trial would just involve NPC's at this point. So you wouldn't have to actually devote any game time to it, just let the players have updates about what's going on--it's supposed to be a show trial, so those in charge would be trying to spread the word about it as widely as possible, so you don't even have to use any special methods to get the news to the players. And as a showtrial, it would probably be strung out time-wise, so give the players updates through several game sessions to give them plenty of opportunity to respond to the situation if they want. If they decide to stay on the lam and not get involved, so be it--just have the smuggler tried and eventually executed "off-screen". If they do decide to get involved, and are like most players, they're going to try to stage a rescue/prison break, not get involved in the trial itself. Only if they decide to come forward and attempt to actually testify at the trial do you have to actually game out any courtroom shenanigans.

And if I'm the one who has misunderstood the situation, just ignore this post.

That's pretty accurate, DPS, though I'm trying to leave my options open and (despite the steampunkish setting) not railroad my way out of this. All the suggestions above are great, thanks guys -- a lot of possibilities.

At this point, you're right, it's looking like the PCs are going to do their damnedest to stay out of the courtroom. Depending on the actions they take, though, one or more of them might be captured and coerced/bribed/otherwise pressured to act as witnesses in the trial against the smuggler, perjuring against their (now) better moral judgement that the guy's innocent. A "do-what-we-want-or-the-broad-gets-it" kind of situation. Or, they might be put on trial themselves. It's just something I'm playing around with as a direction it could go, and I want to be prepared in case my PCs get captured. Oh, also, the party is split, as one of the PCs fell off the airship during a battle *facepalm*. So... maybe he could be picked up by the police and held as collateral, to be released if the other PCs behave during the trial.

But all the folks who have mentioned keeping the thing short or off-screen, it's a good point...or else have the whole thing break down really fast, like Knaight suggests...