D&D 5E Help Running a Courtroom Trial/Witch-Hunt

[Hriston]

This is a really cool idea for a scenario!

Thanks! I can't wait for it to start unraveling. The PCs are currently involved in a dungeon crawl and won't become aware of the legal situation until they get back to home base.

I don't know if anyone out there has recognized it from my description so far, but I'm using The Keep on the Borderlands for this, and have set it in Greyhawk. It's such a great module because you can literally do anything with it.

I got the idea for getting a witchfinder involved from a supplement somebody made for the playtest.

Shidaku's advice about "everybody has something to hide" is excellent.

I would make it clear early on (perhaps by dropping hints, eavesdropping, or official announcement) exactly which NPCs will be called upon to testify, and then make it so that the BBEG has leverage over them -- but there is a way for the PCs to remove or reverse that leverage. For example, if the BBEG bribes the mayor, the PCs can just offer the mayor more; or if the BBEG is blackmailing the banker, maybe the PCs can eliminate the blackmail evidence. At least one NPC should be easy to win over (an encouraging easy victory) and at least one should be very, very hard to win over (so that there is still some tension in the final judgement -- or not, if the PCs knock it out of the park).

This is great advice. I'm definitely going to bring in character witnesses on both sides. Influencing them should give the PCs an opportunity to get a leg up on the trial.

I also think the turnabout scenario -- where the PCs are under investigation! -- is way more interesting. However I wouldn't let the BBEG off the hook to early, as the players may give up on the legal solution and decide to just attack. So I'd have a distinct investigation phase and then a trial phase. And be prepared for what may happen if the PCs lose and some or all of them are found guilty of dark magic; maybe an ally helps them escape capture, or they get a pardon from the Prince in exchange for a favor, etc.

This was kind of the point of bringing in the witchfinder, other than letting the BBEG off the hook. Hopefully it ends up making things kind of chaotic.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Running the trial I think I would build a flow chart or even make a card game out of it.

Card game, black would be the priest, red the witch hunter. Your witness and jury would be your face cards, each would have a value, Jacks 1 point, queens 2, kings 3, and Ace 5, each can have up to 6, place face down. Once the jury is selected, the leftover face cards and aces are witnesses. The rest of the deck points to be drawn on. Roll dice to see who goes first, they place their first witness card down, makes up a story and draws. This is how the witness scores, a counter draw is done by the other team this is their score, the highest wins. Example: Witch Hunter call his witness 1 up, a Jack 1 point, the hunter draws and gets a 6, total of 7. The priest counter draws and gets a 9, this is a win for the priests.

After all witnesses are called you count your wins (only the face value, the jack is just 1 point, if it was a king it would be 3), now you check the jury, what was placed in the jury pool. Example: So, the witch hunter stacked the jury, ACE, King, King, Queen, Jack & Jack for 15 points. Now you compare the point and highest wins.

 

[Quartz]

Some unknown low-life makes a serious accusation against a respected member of the community and promptly disappears? Why is the guy even in jail? Why involve an inquisitor at all? The party should come back to find him back in position, and now firmly in his sights. The accuser himself may even be refused entry.

 

[VikingLegion]

It was mentioned once on page 2 but didn't gain a lot of traction - but how do you maintain a sense of drama in a world where Detect Truth and Detect Evil are in the equation. Is such "witchcraft" not allowed in your courtroom? I guess with your description of a very backwards, superstitious small town feel, any kind of spellcasting would be seen as taboo in a court setting, because the layman wouldn't be able to tell if the priest/mage is actually casting the correct spell or if they are bewitching a witness into giving whatever testimony they thought was best.

I once ran a courtroom scene involving the group's fighter being accused of using a banned alchemical substance - Bloodrush - in the local arena circuit to gain unfair advantage. This was an FR campaign and the cleric in the party was a priest of Tyr - god of law and justice, so being familiar with the court systems it worked out wonderfully for him to act as legal counsel for his friend. I tried to involve every member of the party and give them a chance to utilize their own specific skills to add to the proceedings. For example, when the prosecution called a "neutral" alchemist to testify (who was secretly paid off in advance), he attempted to give a demonstration in front of the court, testing the blood of both the accuser and the accused to see which one was "juicing" via a simple color-changing mixture. I had the party's thief make a Spot check vs. the alchemist's Sleight of Hand to detect him trying to deftly add a pinch of some unknown powdery substance to one of the flasks. Once this was exposed the witness was thoroughly discredited, thrown in jail for obstruction, and the prosecution suffered a devastating hit to their credibility.

I don't know what the composition of your adventuring party is, but it might be fun to think up scenarios where each one of them can shine through class skill use (not always easy to translate to a courtroom setting) rather than rely solely on character testimony - not all players are natural hams when it comes to being thrust into that spotlight.

 

[Hriston]

Some unknown low-life makes a serious accusation against a respected member of the community and promptly disappears? Why is the guy even in jail? Why involve an inquisitor at all? The party should come back to find him back in position, and now firmly in his sights. The accuser himself may even be refused entry.

The false-priest isn't exactly what I would call a respected member of the community, although he is quite popular with many of the common folk. He is himself a newcomer and only preceded the arrival of the adventuring party by a couple weeks. In that time he has managed to charm many, but there are some, the priest of Pelor included, who are suspicious of his motives. The priest of Pelor is actually one of the most influential members of the community, whose opinion the castellan will need to take into account along with the opinions of the populace in general. The corporal of the watch, who made the arrest, is also one of the more zealous types who is not easily fooled by the false-priest's flattery.

But yes, the point of the scenario is to throw some unexpected twists at the PCs, eventually leading to the release of the false-priest, or at least to a final confrontation with him.

 

[Hriston]

It was mentioned once on page 2 but didn't gain a lot of traction - but how do you maintain a sense of drama in a world where Detect Truth and Detect Evil are in the equation. Is such "witchcraft" not allowed in your courtroom? I guess with your description of a very backwards, superstitious small town feel, any kind of spellcasting would be seen as taboo in a court setting, because the layman wouldn't be able to tell if the priest/mage is actually casting the correct spell or if they are bewitching a witness into giving whatever testimony they thought was best.

I'm running 5th edition so Detect Evil doesn't actually tall you if someone's evil, only if they are a fiend or something, and I haven't been able to find a spell called Detect Truth.

As far as magic in the courtroom, however, I am trying to run this campaign as somewhat magic-light. The assumption is that society functions on its own, without magic, and that practitioners of magical arts operate somewhat outside of the bounds of what most people would consider ordinary. So legal proceedings wouldn't necessarily resort to magic, even when considering questions of witchcraft.

The location, for those who don't know Keep on the Borderlands, isn't so much a small town as it is an isolated military installation with a small population of craftsmen, etc. living inside the castle walls. Magic itself isn't a taboo in my campaign, or in this small society. I believe there is at least one user of magic in the castle hierarchy, and of course the priest of Pelor is known to be able to perform feats of magic in behalf of his deity. What the false-priest is under suspicion for is being in league with some sort of fiendish cult, and having misrepresented who he really is in this regard. The accusations are of course true, but mostly unprovable. The idea, however, is that this is a small society with a lawful good leadership that is aware of the society's situation as being surrounded by forces of evil and chaos that it has to be vigilant to protect itself from. The witchfinder is seen as an ally in this effort, but is really just out for his own gain.