Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Yes, unfortunately a precedent had already been set in that campaign that there was a court system...several, in fact; the Dwarves had their version, the Romans had theirs, and so on. (and I think I lost in every one of them; I'm 0-for-lifetime in these bloody court cases!)
Ha! Nobody ever thought of that...and probably just as well.
The courts in-game seemed to be more for rich people (like us adventuring types) to sue each other, and were also used for regular local justice; very much like our current system IRL.Side tangent: one of the funniest sessions I've ever DMed was a few years ago when a party wanted to put a captive on trial...they were weeks away from civilization so they did it themselves, appointing roles by drawing party-member names out of a hat (so one was randomly appointed as the judge, one was the prosecutor, one was the defense counsel, etc.) and taking it from there. What a wonderful disaster! The end result was the judge sentenced the captive to a year's community service...but as the party was the only community around she'd (without realizing it until it was pointed out later) in effect just sentenced the captive - who was a competent Mage - to join the party for a year. This didn't sit well with some of the party, a round of murderous infighting ensued leading to the deaths of the captive and two party members, and the in-game fallout went on for months. The players, meanwhile, were laughing their heads off the whole time; and I-as-DM got to sit back and enjoy the show!
Lanefan
