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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 1430796" data-attributes="member: 9410">The Seventh Alternative:Why in the world would the mundanes accept what a Wizard, etc., has to say as evidence, anyway?  It isn't provable, and the burden of proof may lie upon the defendant, not the prosecutor!In SuperWorld (another SuperHero RPG), evidence obtained solely through the use of SuperPowers (like Mind Reading) is inadmissable, in court.  The PCs can use it (outside of the court room) as much as they like, but they cannot cast spells with verbal components in the court, and anything they learn from magic is inadmissable...What they CAN do is take the information gained from scrying, divinations, etc., and use it to uncover evidence, which is then producable and usable in a court of law.So, BBEG hires assassins to kill Farmer Brown and secure the deed from his widow, forcing his beautiful daughter to marry him to prevent Farmer Brow's Widow from being evicted...  The PCs try Zone of Truth, etc., and detect no lies.  Mind Reading and Detect Evil/Lies also fail.  So does Scry.  Spying determines that the BBEG has an Anti-Magic Shell up.  Using magic to peer into the past (before the shell was up), however, reveals the BBEG hiring the assassin, and where the murder weapon and signed contract were hidden, who the assassin was, etc.  The PCs can now attempt to capture and interrogate the assassin, or break into the guild to get the contract...  Without fingerprinting, though, the murder weapon is probably just a useless red herring...I did a Sci-Fi version of this, where an entire starship full of rich and important people was put at risk by a plague, stopped by four PCs at great personal risk.  Unfortunately, the relatives were looking for somebody to blame, and these "nobodies" were available, and much easier to sue than the MegaCorp responsible...  The PCs then got to secure legal counsel, match his and their skills against the prosecution, be interviewed by the media (with manipulation attempts on both sides), attempt to gather evidence, win friends and influence people, and then make a roll for how the trial went...I had a system for this, and gave the PCs a bonus for being innocent, but they didn't need it!  One of the PCs had more legal skill than their defender, and was able to gather so much evidence that they completely turned the case on the prosecution, revealed the evil MegaCorp's machinations, won over the media, and eventually were hailed as the hero(in)es they were!When they left Kimanjano, continuing on towards Earth to receive the Carvalho Award for Medicine (which is what initially brought them aboard the ship where they encountered the plague), they were hero(in)es twice over.You could do something similar, in D20, with Knowledge (Local) covering legal skill and research, Gather Information determining what can be found, Sense Motive needs a task to detect lies (giving only "You thinks he's lying/telling the truth/holding something back!" as a result).  Diplomacy can be used for persuasion, Intimidate to coerce, Bluff to lie like a dog, Spot to read lips in the courtroom, listen to overhear whispers, search (and perhaps tracking) to gather evidence...The trick, here, is to look at what every PC can do, and make sure that they all have an important task to accomplish.  The Barbarian will have little to do, if he can't track and has no Listen skill.  The Paladin may or may not be any good at persuasion and/or sensing motives...  Can his Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) be made important?  Whatever skills a PC is focussed on should become vital...  The Lockpicking Rogue may have to break in, somewhere, to gain evidence otherwise unavailable.  The Ranger (the only one with decent Climbing skill) may have to go in to get him out, if he is discovered, etc.Anyway, basically what I did was allow law skill (Knowledge (Local), in this case) to be added to the roll of 1D20, +1 per piece of evidence presented corroborating your side's testimony, and the equivalent of +6 to the innocent party.  (If they're both dirty, or both partly right and wrong, then don't award it to either side.)  Compare the totals, at trial's end, and highest one wins.  Severity of sentence, or accolades, is determined by the margin of victory.This worked very well, for my group.  I know that I enjoyed it!</blockquote>

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