Military tribunal (my players stay out)

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

Ok here is the deal. A player in my d20 modern game is basically playing a barbarian. He had designed his character to be a martial artist and had told me that he wanted to be a "fireball". he mentioned Martin Riggs from lethal weapon. That's not what he has become though. The group is part of a military unit and carry out missions. On a recent trip to France he assaulted a snooty Concierge then walked out side of the hotel and knocked out a bell boy who tried to intervene. I have five players in my group and two are quite agrivated at his behaviour. Typical moves are, charge, disarm, attack.

So on to the question. Players have submitted "complaints" with their superior officer. So I thought about having two players try the case. I plan to motivate both by giving awards and penalties based on their performance. The idea is that I want the players to give it their all and not flub the case to save the character. i was thinking that I would have everyone vote on secret ballot on guilt or innocence and then hand down sentence. I would have liked to have another player to even out the jury and have them decide sentence, but I don't think that will be possible. So I looking for suggestions on how to improve or other novel ideas on handling the situation

 

[BlackMoria]

Best to handle this by DM fiat. In that way, you avoid the potential for hard feelings by having the players (through their characters) vote against this problem character.

Let the players participate with their characters being called as witnesses but you as the DM should determine the final outcome but allow yourself (as the presiding military authority) to be swayed by the evidence (or lack of it).

Keep the penalty real life. Depending on the context of the assaults and the presumption of guilt, sentences could be:

Fines & Confinement to Barracks (Wealth penalty and miss out on a the next mission)

Reduction in Rank (Wealth penalty and now he is limited in what actions he can do without order)

Imprisonment in Stockade - (miss out on a number of missions)

Reprimand (limits progression in military rank and being excluded from 'plum' assignments.

Dishonorable discharge (if your campaign is a military unit one, this basically means the player creates a new character as the old one is out of the military)

Any of this should make clear that military = discipline. And the Martin Riggs type from Lethal Weapon would have been drummed out of any real world police force long ago.

Hollywood character types make poor real world analogs....

 

[jasper]

look up the uniform code of militay justice
plus assaulting a bell boy.
Hmm
Once the bell boy calls the police, and the police find him on post.
They ask military police to turn him over.
So 1 to 5 years in a state prision for assault
then back to military for trial for AWOL for those 5 years.
Of course more than likely they will just out process you with a bad conduct discharge.

 

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

anyone else?

 

[GMVictory]

look up the uniform code of militay justice
plus assaulting a bell boy.
Hmm
Once the bell boy calls the police, and the police find him on post.
They ask military police to turn him over.
So 1 to 5 years in a state prision for assault
then back to military for trial for AWOL for those 5 years.
Of course more than likely they will just out process you with a bad conduct discharge.

He can't be tried for AWOL while imprisoned by civilian authorities. He would be dishonorably discharged upon conviction by the civilian authorities.

The incident you are referring to creates an international incident. Not only will the PC committing the assaults face punishment, but his squadmates may take heat for his actions as well (unless he is the commander of the unit). If this had occurred stateside, civilian authorities would let the military handle it because military punishments tend to be tougher than civilian ones.

IRL a soldier is offered an Article 15, basically admitting guilt and accepting the punishments the commander has chosen or, at the very least, accepting the punishment without admitting guilt. If the soldier challenges it or refuses to sign, then it goes to a Court Martial. Lose the Court Martial and the sentence is usually the maximum that could be levied, (for two counts of assault would be loss of rank up to 2 grades, forfeiture of pay for fines and victim compensation, and imprisonment in the stockade for up to 1 year, and could mean dishonorable discharge after sentence is completed).

Was in the MPs when I did my term of enlistment.

Btw, if you want, turn this into an opportunity. The French govt has a mission and the PC squad gets it because of problem child. The US wants to smooth over any bad feelings and keep the soldier assaulting civilian story out of the news, so they agree.

 

[Wormwood]

Btw, if you want, turn this into an opportunity. The French govt has a mission and the PC squad gets it because of problem child. The US wants to smooth over any bad feelings and keep the soldier assaulting civilian story out of the news, so they agree.

That, in a nutshell, is why RPG's are way cooler than real life!

Great idea.