Putting the PCs on trial for being heroic

[Zelda Themelin]

That kinda plots usually ruin mood and make players rebal. However I've seen it work wonderfully too, I mean part getting blamed for good deeds, but every time it worked, it happened accidently. Wasn't hard-coded dm or module plot.

Oh yes and it worked in Shacled city module, though modified. Corrupt leaders of city kept giving our adventures bad rep, and framing us and other people in their way but people of the city loved them. They often got blamed for all sort of things and proved that they were innocent.

As to ramble on, adventure group was also bardic group "Singers of the Unknown" their adventure band name was "Travellers of the Unknown"

I borrowed little song from Poets of the Fall as their theme song. which pretty much covers how they felt about something sinister working behind curtains of their home city:

"They're locking up the sun, the light of reason gone,
n' hope has been succesfully undone
The question's burning on, where is it coming from,
no-one seems to know the monster born

It's a bad trip on a sinking ship, when no-one seems responsible
Scapegoat to rock the boat, yeah, we need someone expendable
Volunteers to face the fears, can we be sensible
And find a way to break the fall, find out the cure for all

Is there a hero somewhere, someone who appears and saves the day
Someone who holds out a hand and turns back time
Is there a hero somewhere, someone who will never walk away
Who doesn't turn a blind eye to a crime

They're locking up the sun, they have their chosen one,
you know this time they'll make him play along
They're taking to the arms, the fathers and their sons,
there's nowhere left to run and hide

It's a bad trip on a sinking ship, when no-one seems responsible
Scapegoat to rock the boat, yeah, we need someone expendable
Volunteers to face the fears, can we be sensible
And find a way to break the fall, find out the cure for all

Is there a hero somewhere, someone who appears and saves the day
Someone who holds out a hand and turns back time
Is there a hero somewhere, someone who will never walk away
Who doesn't turn a blind eye to a crime

And in the emptiness, there's a solution,
just look within yourself for absolution "

 

[Insight]

If I'm running a game and this is one of the sessions we run, I would hope that my players know that there is a plot-based reason behind the trial and that it will lead somewhere. Thus, I would hope that said players would bear with me and see it out, rather than get pissy and refuse to participate.

That said, I have been in groups where this sort of session would lead to problems.

If I were a player in this sort of session, I would hope that the turn of events makes sense in terms of what we're seen before in the campaign world and I would then have faith that it would play out in some fashion that move the plot forward. If not, I'm out the door.

 

[the Jester]

This can work well, but it can also backfire; like so many other plot elements, it really depends on the group.

I ran a similar scenario a few years ago- the party broke up an asylum that basically tortured and mangled the brains of psionic creatures. After the pcs broke the inmates out, they got put on trial. I ran it with myself as the prosecutor and a guest player as the judge, inspired by an old Piratecat tale, and the pcs ended up with a huge fine that they could only alleviate by recapturing the escaped inmates (some of whom were actually dangerous, including a serial killer who the pcs had a damn tough time with).

This worked best because of the fact that the area the pcs were in was already established as corrupt and evil, so they didn't expect much in the way of actual justice.

 

[Stoat]

Nitpicks:

1) It looks like the PC's in the linked post were on trial for accidentally opening a way into the underdark, not for the search and rescue that followed.

2) I don't see any indication in the linked post that the charges against the PC's were brought by a corrupt "enemy within" government.

I'm not a big fan of bringing criminal charges against PC's unless the players act in a way that they know will get them in trouble. I tend to think this is one of those scenarios that works better in fiction than in an RPG. If a good DM pulls it off, awesome, but it carries the risk of railroading and it can be a disincentive to heroic action by the PC's (Why do I want to save those jerks who arrested me?)

But, obviously the people who played the game enjoyed it, so more power to 'em.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I agree with the general consensus. If done really well, as a way to open up a corrupt-officials plot, it might be a fun change of pace for one session. Keywords being 'might be.' If I liked trials and all that, I'd play Law & Order: the RPG. (It actually exists, apparently.)

Frankly, most hero-trials are horribly contrived and boring, even in books and tv. I wouldn't encourage a DM to emulate one in a game.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

On the negative side, unless the GM made it clear this was likely to happen the whole thing would come to a screeching halt with pretty much every group I've ever played with, when whoever tried to disarm the party. Ain't gonna happen. No way, no how. And if they survived the attempted arrest they'd probably burn the town down while leaving.

With the right group, and/or with the right foreshadowing, sure it can work. But just tossing it out there just to see what happens is looking for a massacre. (I can even see the group killing the people they rescued, just because they were cheesed off!)

 

[Sunseeker]

On the negative side, unless the GM made it clear this was likely to happen the whole thing would come to a screeching halt with pretty much every group I've ever played with, when whoever tried to disarm the party. Ain't gonna happen. No way, no how. And if they survived the attempted arrest they'd probably burn the town down while leaving.

With the right group, and/or with the right foreshadowing, sure it can work. But just tossing it out there just to see what happens is looking for a massacre. (I can even see the group killing the people they rescued, just because they were cheesed off!)

*makes note*
...remember to burn down town after being falsely charged.

okay, all good.

But yeah, pretty much, if these adventurer's were awesome enough to breach into the Underdark and save people, then the town's not gonna put up much of a challenge.

 

[Merkuri]

As people have said, this type of plot is definitely better if the players have some sort of foreshadowing that it's going to happen. Some NPC should let them know that if they do X then Y is going to happen, and then the PCs have to weigh the pros against the cons and decide if saving the town is worth it.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think that to make this work you need to have heroes who care about the town and it's townfolk.

You can achieve that in a variety of ways. If you just have PCs who are die-hard-goody-two-shoes, that does it.

You can build up a repore between the various townsfolk and the PCs. The PCs stick around for the trial because they care about the town and don't want to burn it to the ground.

You can build up a villain within the town that the PCs really want to stick it to, whom they can't touch outside of the law. They join the trial because it will give them the opportunity to question him and others on the stand and really get to the bottom of things.

However if you just make it so that they cannot escape, and are forced to participate in the trial, that's going to really interfere with enjoyment.

 

[carmachu]

This is just a buy-in issue. If the players buy-in to what the DM is trying to achieve, a night where they're defending themselves in an unjust trial prosecuted by do-gooders looking for a conviction in ignorance of the bigger picture... then it will all work.

If the players aren't of that type, then it won't. They'll whine and moan and claim their characters wouldn't want to help a town that didn't appreciate it, when it's possible or likely that it is in fact they, the players, who don't want to help such a place, whereas their heroic PC's would.

Doing the right thing under adversity, and receiving no praise, recognition, or accolade for it, is often the literary standard of true heroism.

Well, yes and no. On one hand if your players are the type that will buy in, it might be fun. On the other hand, there is the old saying: "No good deed goes unpunished" that some of us know quite well, and even the best players that buy in, sometimes its a bit too much, and will say Fk it, let'em hang,a nd even the best heros will walk away.