How to set up a trial scene for my PCs
- Thread starter Ferdil
- Start date
Also remember that there are a LOT of courts based on your game, guilds will have their own, the city thiers, the state theirs, the church theirs. Nobles may have different rights or even the words of a peasent is a lie unless they are tortured.
Oh, don't forget right of might. Winning combat, not guilty.
Also, some races can be killed without issue...orc...
Be very careful, don't allow modern thoughts on rights and freedoms to apply on a fantasy setting.
Oh, don't forget right of might. Winning combat, not guilty.
Also, some races can be killed without issue...orc...
Be very careful, don't allow modern thoughts on rights and freedoms to apply on a fantasy setting.
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Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
As per the Hand, secular and religious courts can both operate very different yet still both claim jurisdiction, based on any number of factors. Check out online some of the info you can get on Witch Trials in England just before and during the time of King James. Note which are church courts and which are not to help discern some differences. If you can nab them, these books might prov useful -
Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays. Ed. Peter Corbin and Douglas Sedge. Wolfeboro, NH: Manchester University Press, 1986.
Gibson, Marion. Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing. London: Routledge, 2000.
Also, you might grab the following as a way to see how the crown influenced such procedings -
James I, King. Daemonologie. -
http://arcticbeacon.com/books/King_James_VI-DAEMONOLOGIE(1597).pdf
The Atlas Games book, Crime and Punishment, is one of the better d20 books on the subject of law in a D&D game. -
Atlas Games: Charting New Realms of Imagination
Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays. Ed. Peter Corbin and Douglas Sedge. Wolfeboro, NH: Manchester University Press, 1986.
Gibson, Marion. Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing. London: Routledge, 2000.
Also, you might grab the following as a way to see how the crown influenced such procedings -
James I, King. Daemonologie. -
http://arcticbeacon.com/books/King_James_VI-DAEMONOLOGIE(1597).pdf
The Atlas Games book, Crime and Punishment, is one of the better d20 books on the subject of law in a D&D game. -
Atlas Games: Charting New Realms of Imagination
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the Jester
Legend
Okay, so I did this in my game and it was fantastic, but I got the idea from Piratecat.
If you want to emphasize the roleplaying and you want the possibility of a surprise, bring in a guest player to play the role of the judge. (This works best if it's a stranger to the other players, and maybe even someone who doesn't generally play rpgs.) Let them know about whatever political or legal factors there are and then let the pcs make their arguments. You play any relevant npcs or whatever.
When I did it (the pcs were on trial for releasing a mental asylum's worth of patients into the wild) it was fantastic.
If you want to emphasize the roleplaying and you want the possibility of a surprise, bring in a guest player to play the role of the judge. (This works best if it's a stranger to the other players, and maybe even someone who doesn't generally play rpgs.) Let them know about whatever political or legal factors there are and then let the pcs make their arguments. You play any relevant npcs or whatever.
When I did it (the pcs were on trial for releasing a mental asylum's worth of patients into the wild) it was fantastic.
You have the makings here of a really good role-playing opportunity for the players.
If it can be worked out, consider having the friends and family of the accused beg/hire the PC that supports the accused to defend/prove his innocense while having the prosecutor or someone with a reason to want the accused to be convicted to hire the other PC to prove the case against.
Give them time to round up witnesses, gather evidence, etc, and during the time it takes to do that, also have another minor adventure going on so they also have to work together while at odds on this case.
When you feel enough time has passed, get the players together and perhaps a couple extra people to play NPC witnesses and run the actual trial.
If it can be worked out, consider having the friends and family of the accused beg/hire the PC that supports the accused to defend/prove his innocense while having the prosecutor or someone with a reason to want the accused to be convicted to hire the other PC to prove the case against.
Give them time to round up witnesses, gather evidence, etc, and during the time it takes to do that, also have another minor adventure going on so they also have to work together while at odds on this case.
When you feel enough time has passed, get the players together and perhaps a couple extra people to play NPC witnesses and run the actual trial.
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