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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Murder Investigation and Trial
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7167689" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>The investigation seems like nothing you need plan for since that would appear to be on the NPC's side of the equation. You decide whether they finger the barbarian as the culprit or not. If there's anything to prep, it's probably the cover-up, but you probably can't prepare anything really since that's going to be up to the PC(s). Adjudicate as normal on the fly, I say, and the let the results inform your decision on whether the NPCs can gather enough evidence.</p><p></p><p>Being a Stone-Age type place, I imagine matters of jurisprudence are not real fleshed out. A trial by combat seems most fitting to me. If the PC succeeds, then he is exonerated of the crime. If he fails, then he's dead and the gods have spoken. If he succeeds, you might also want to have the remaining elders banish him from the village anyway, citing some obscure right they have to do so. It's time to go.</p><p></p><p>It honestly sounds like the PCs don't have enough to do in terms of actual adventures and are just creating their own drama. I refer to such sandboxes as "quicksand boxes" because it quickly gets mired in stuff like you describe due to the PCs having no real goals. This usually leads to the PCs killing town NPCs to stir up some kind of dramatic conflict which may otherwise be lacking. I suggest encouraging them to get out of the towns for a while to a proper adventure location. Dungeons full of evil monsters are much better targets for wanton murder than town NPCs. Killing them comes with less legal complications and usually a great deal more treasure and XP.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7167689, member: 97077"] The investigation seems like nothing you need plan for since that would appear to be on the NPC's side of the equation. You decide whether they finger the barbarian as the culprit or not. If there's anything to prep, it's probably the cover-up, but you probably can't prepare anything really since that's going to be up to the PC(s). Adjudicate as normal on the fly, I say, and the let the results inform your decision on whether the NPCs can gather enough evidence. Being a Stone-Age type place, I imagine matters of jurisprudence are not real fleshed out. A trial by combat seems most fitting to me. If the PC succeeds, then he is exonerated of the crime. If he fails, then he's dead and the gods have spoken. If he succeeds, you might also want to have the remaining elders banish him from the village anyway, citing some obscure right they have to do so. It's time to go. It honestly sounds like the PCs don't have enough to do in terms of actual adventures and are just creating their own drama. I refer to such sandboxes as "quicksand boxes" because it quickly gets mired in stuff like you describe due to the PCs having no real goals. This usually leads to the PCs killing town NPCs to stir up some kind of dramatic conflict which may otherwise be lacking. I suggest encouraging them to get out of the towns for a while to a proper adventure location. Dungeons full of evil monsters are much better targets for wanton murder than town NPCs. Killing them comes with less legal complications and usually a great deal more treasure and XP. [/QUOTE]
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