Been playing with the idea of running a courtroom drama adventure but only have few ideas on how itll work.
Mostly it social skills opposed, lots of narration but also sending out people on missions to gather lost or missing evidence.
I'd appreciate and ideas as to how to run this over several sessions..... im also gonna rewatch A Few Good Men! lol
Check out Endless Vigil and/or No Disintegration for investigations, and maybe adopt the Genesys rules for opposed social checks in the courtroom.
13 hours ago, mwknowles said:Been playing with the idea of running a courtroom drama adventure but only have few ideas on how itll work.
Mostly it social skills opposed, lots of narration but also sending out people on missions to gather lost or missing evidence.
I'd appreciate and ideas as to how to run this over several sessions..... im also gonna rewatch A Few Good Men! lol
This sounds like a lot of fun, and a great oportunity to let "talky" characters shine. It would be awesome if you could write-up and share your adventure with the community 😄
I have a similar scenario yet to be played out. One pc was associated with an accused murdered. I assume yours does not include a pc on trial, does it? Kn: education for the law. PC has option of defending himself, but with setback dice for not being a lawyer. Paying prices gets you a better lawyer (better dice pool). Your pc's should definitely testify, at the very least. COOL for being questioned, not sweating, not being nervous. Discipline for resisting tricky questions. Each pc on the stand will have his/her defenses tried. Charm vs Presence to resist the seductively beautiful asst prosecutor. Failed/Made rolls I add to a dice pool. A dice pool to determine the guilt or innocent. Add a die here or there based off of evidence and dice rolls. A pc being a attorney can even play off vs the jury. Make an argument, roll Leadership vs an assigned difficulty. The ultimate dice pool will be rolled once at the end to determine the outcome.
I added a gimmick of the Lead District Attorney being a Chadri-fan in a suit! Walks in carrying a pile of books. Thick law books he uses to climb into his seat! Squeaky voice. Streetwise checks to gain info.
Next recommendation is tricky lawyer questions. So, you DO know the defendant??!!??!! Doesn't' this make your testimony unreliable? How much did you get paid to testify? (Witness makes Charm check vs jury to sound credible). Are you and the defendant romantically involved? Maybe it was YOU whole stole the credits!!! (Cool Check to not react poorly to a false accusation!). Have you ever stolen anything, yourself?!?!? Do you owe people money? Are you in debt? Have you ever smuggled illegal contraband? (Yeah, things not relevant, but add to credibility. "Lying" is always RPP difficulty vs the jury pool. Failing a roll to lie upgrades the guilt difficulty dice pool once.) Yeah, you get to bring back all the PC's past actions into play. The Attorney has researched their witnesses!!! They know about those credits you palmed from the blind beggar in Mos Eisley. To be fair, the Prosecutor can make a streetwise on each PC to dig up stuff. A good roll and they pull up witnesses from cantinas and such.
Hope it goes well!!!
what about the idea of using flashbacks and vignettes that can be sprinkled in the adventure? So the courtroom scenes are set on the current day, but when the NPCs present new evidence, you can toss in flashbacks where the PCs investigate the evidence and when those scenes are over with, you switch back to the courtroom scene and they present their counter arguments. It's weird but could allow for a more diverse set of skills.
On 5/18/2020 at 2:19 AM, angelman2 said:This sounds like a lot of fun, and a great oportunity to let "talky" characters shine. It would be awesome if you could write-up and share your adventure with the community 😄
Certainly!! Its my next adventure so will have to write it and then play it; modify it and then share!
On 5/18/2020 at 3:32 AM, DurosSpacer said:I have a similar scenario yet to be played out. One pc was associated with an accused murdered. I assume yours does not include a pc on trial, does it? Kn: education for the law. PC has option of defending himself, but with setback dice for not being a lawyer. Paying prices gets you a better lawyer (better dice pool). Your pc's should definitely testify, at the very least. COOL for being questioned, not sweating, not being nervous. Discipline for resisting tricky questions. Each pc on the stand will have his/her defenses tried. Charm vs Presence to resist the seductively beautiful asst prosecutor. Failed/Made rolls I add to a dice pool. A dice pool to determine the guilt or innocent. Add a die here or there based off of evidence and dice rolls. A pc being a attorney can even play off vs the jury. Make an argument, roll Leadership vs an assigned difficulty. The ultimate dice pool will be rolled once at the end to determine the outcome.
I added a gimmick of the Lead District Attorney being a Chadri-fan in a suit! Walks in carrying a pile of books. Thick law books he uses to climb into his seat! Squeaky voice. Streetwise checks to gain info.
Next recommendation is tricky lawyer questions. So, you DO know the defendant??!!??!! Doesn't' this make your testimony unreliable? How much did you get paid to testify? (Witness makes Charm check vs jury to sound credible). Are you and the defendant romantically involved? Maybe it was YOU whole stole the credits!!! (Cool Check to not react poorly to a false accusation!). Have you ever stolen anything, yourself?!?!? Do you owe people money? Are you in debt? Have you ever smuggled illegal contraband? (Yeah, things not relevant, but add to credibility. "Lying" is always RPP difficulty vs the jury pool. Failing a roll to lie upgrades the guilt difficulty dice pool once.) Yeah, you get to bring back all the PC's past actions into play. The Attorney has researched their witnesses!!! They know about those credits you palmed from the blind beggar in Mos Eisley. To be fair, the Prosecutor can make a streetwise on each PC to dig up stuff. A good roll and they pull up witnesses from cantinas and such.
Hope it goes well!!!
Ohhh mate, thank you!! You've given me a load of inspiration and ideas and made my life easier.
Just for the background here, (if any of my players are reading, dont!) I run an imperial based campaign and we are post Endor. I'm gonna mess with canon (sorry but tough to the purists!) and have Colonel Wullf Yularen survive the Death Star but be arrested after Endor. The New Republic will be keen to do a public trial of this guy for war crimes but the PCs will (representing a remnant imperial league of sectors, so have diplomatic immunity - or some fudge anyway) be sent to represent him and try help him get aquitted, prob drawing upon his military career as an Admiral in the Republic. So the talkers will be in the court room and the uggs sent to find into and historical evidence. Want to see if they are smart enough to try use positive public opinion.....
On 5/18/2020 at 7:55 PM, kaosoe said:what about the idea of using flashbacks and vignettes that can be sprinkled in the adventure? So the courtroom scenes are set on the current day, but when the NPCs present new evidence, you can toss in flashbacks where the PCs investigate the evidence and when those scenes are over with, you switch back to the courtroom scene and they present their counter arguments. It's weird but could allow for a more diverse set of skills.
I like this idea as well . . . kinda like they play something out in the past in the bodies of the original characters?
On 5/22/2020 at 6:42 PM, mwknowles said:Certainly!! Its my next adventure so will have to write it and then play it; modify it and then share!
You got the order all wrong:
* Write it
* Post it
* Let us point out strengths and weaknesses
* Modify it
* Play it
* Modify it
* Post it again
On 5/18/2020 at 7:55 PM, kaosoe said:what about the idea of using flashbacks and vignettes that can be sprinkled in the adventure?
I love this! There is another RPG that I thought looked good that uses flashbacks A LOT. It helps the players get the action moving instead of wasting a bunch of time planning for the heist and then doing it... Sort of like they start by doing the heist and then use flashbacks to say "we planned for this by doing such and such" and then roll to see if it was successful or not. I think it was called Knives in the Dark.
So, if they PCs are the ones on trial you could have flashbacks where they are acting out what actually happened and is being talked about. Might be complicated.
11 hours ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:I think it was called Knives in the Dark.
Perhaps "Blades in the Dark"? It was just mentioned in another thread.
On 5/17/2020 at 12:32 PM, DurosSpacer said:I have a similar scenario yet to be played out. One pc was associated with an accused murdered. I assume yours does not include a pc on trial, does it? Kn: education for the law. PC has option of defending himself, but with setback dice for not being a lawyer. Paying prices gets you a better lawyer (better dice pool). Your pc's should definitely testify, at the very least. COOL for being questioned, not sweating, not being nervous. Discipline for resisting tricky questions. Each pc on the stand will have his/her defenses tried. Charm vs Presence to resist the seductively beautiful asst prosecutor. Failed/Made rolls I add to a dice pool. A dice pool to determine the guilt or innocent. Add a die here or there based off of evidence and dice rolls. A pc being a attorney can even play off vs the jury. Make an argument, roll Leadership vs an assigned difficulty. The ultimate dice pool will be rolled once at the end to determine the outcome.
I added a gimmick of the Lead District Attorney being a Chadri-fan in a suit! Walks in carrying a pile of books. Thick law books he uses to climb into his seat! Squeaky voice. Streetwise checks to gain info.
Next recommendation is tricky lawyer questions. So, you DO know the defendant??!!??!! Doesn't' this make your testimony unreliable? How much did you get paid to testify? (Witness makes Charm check vs jury to sound credible). Are you and the defendant romantically involved? Maybe it was YOU whole stole the credits!!! (Cool Check to not react poorly to a false accusation!). Have you ever stolen anything, yourself?!?!? Do you owe people money? Are you in debt? Have you ever smuggled illegal contraband? (Yeah, things not relevant, but add to credibility. "Lying" is always RPP difficulty vs the jury pool. Failing a roll to lie upgrades the guilt difficulty dice pool once.) Yeah, you get to bring back all the PC's past actions into play. The Attorney has researched their witnesses!!! They know about those credits you palmed from the blind beggar in Mos Eisley. To be fair, the Prosecutor can make a streetwise on each PC to dig up stuff. A good roll and they pull up witnesses from cantinas and such.
Hope it goes well!!!
The way you describe it, I could see running the trial as a modified Mass Combat check. Phase 1 could be opening arguments, with the encounter being a social challenge. Phase 2 is Prosecution, with an encounter regarding getting a witness to testify (or change testimony). Phase 3 is the Defense with an encounter regarding evidence collection (or suppression). Phase 4 is Closing arguments with a social challenge, or maybe jury tampering.
The mass combat check would be based on size and quality of legal teams. The public defender 1 or 2 dice. The OJ Defense team is 5 dice. Increase dice by 1 if you have 2 or 3 reliable witnesses on your side. Increase by another 1 if most of the evidence is on your side. etc. Upgrade based on Knowledge (Edgucation) of lead attorney. Possibly other skills if you make a "Lawyer" Spec that has talents to adjust this roll (like the Mass Combat specs). Success at the encounter of each phase grants boosts or penalties, etc.
4 hours ago, Edgookin said:The way you describe it, I could see running the trial as a modified Mass Combat check. Phase 1 could be opening arguments, with the encounter being a social challenge. Phase 2 is Prosecution, with an encounter regarding getting a witness to testify (or change testimony). Phase 3 is the Defense with an encounter regarding evidence collection (or suppression). Phase 4 is Closing arguments with a social challenge, or maybe jury tampering.
The mass combat check would be based on size and quality of legal teams. The public defender 1 or 2 dice. The OJ Defense team is 5 dice. Increase dice by 1 if you have 2 or 3 reliable witnesses on your side. Increase by another 1 if most of the evidence is on your side. etc. Upgrade based on Knowledge (Edgucation) of lead attorney. Possibly other skills if you make a "Lawyer" Spec that has talents to adjust this roll (like the Mass Combat specs). Success at the encounter of each phase grants boosts or penalties, etc.
Could be, yes! I ran it last weekend and the player under scrutiny hired "Space Matlock", as he called him, for 10,000cr. That got him a YYYG+B on Kn: Education skills on Law. The Public Attorney was only GGG, a standard prosecutor. The guilty former partner was GGG on the stand and lied successfully to the jury (Red-Red-Purple) twice! It put some suspense into the roll, but the accused PC escaped.
On 5/27/2020 at 4:57 AM, Desslok said:You got the order all wrong:
* Write it
* Post it
* Let us point out strengths and weaknesses
* Modify it
* Play it
* Modify it
* Post it again
You asked for it! lol but seriously thanks - still in the production stage AND trying to dream up the evidence for the trial and how its gonna work - will use the wonderful idea of a final die pool.
So, currently i'm working on Yularen's service record and background, taking lots of info from WIKI. BUT its the charges im trying to dream up - one is obvious, this one! Alderaan. In my campaign, Yularen is basically a good guy but also a loyal to the law officer. Enemies of the government are enemies of the government. However, in my game, Yularen wasn't killed on the Death Star as he left it to travel to Coruscant so he can wind up his affairs and resign in protest over the harsh treatment of the Alderaanian people; penning a letter to the Emperor personally. He then retires and vanishes...... only to be caught now, during the New Republic Imperial Trials.
With that background, please take a look at this criminal charge letter im going to use. I need to dream up evidence for and against (for would be communications from within the death star and being a member of the inner circle etc) guilt. This evidence and be used to generate checks and therefore add to the die pool at the end. BUT also can spawn other side missions to gather more evidence FOR THE DEFENCE like questioning a witness or breaking into a secure data vault etc.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take a look and make some suggestions. It would really help me out - old man with two young kids and full time job!
1 hour ago, mwknowles said:PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take a look and make some suggestions. It would really help me out - old man with two young kids and full time job!
Broken link 🙂
4 hours ago, angelman2 said:Broken link 🙂
Works for me! but.......................
The Galactic Republic’s Ministry of Justice
Department of Extrajudicial Felonies
War Crimes Commission
Zhellday of the third week of the second month, 4 ABY
Galactic Republic Attorney General of the Court of Justice;
NUX NIER
Referential Serial Number: 6743325-A
Summons to appear before the Galactic New Republic Galactic Criminal Court
To;
CORONEL WULLF YULAREN of the Old Galactic Empire
In Pursuance of subsection 2(1) of the Galactic Republic Commissions Act of 4 ABY, I, the honourable NUX
NIER AG, the member of the Commission established under letters patent dated Primeday of the third week
of the second month, 4 ABY (Coruscant Standard Calendar) to make an inquiry into and report upon the
below-mentioned matters summon you:
To appear before the Commission at the hearing to be held in Hearing Room 1, Level 47, Bail Organa Tower,
Hanna City, Chandrila, on Zhellday of the third week of the third month, 4 ABY at 07:00 to appear in court
in relation to the matters into which the Commission is inquiring; and
a) to attend day to day unless excused or released from further attendance.
Inquiry Details
CORONEL WULLF YULAREN of the Old Galactic Empire has been accused of participating in, and being
proxy to the mass genocide of the Alderaan people in the destruction of their home planet Alderaan on
Centaxday of the fifth week of the seventh month, 0 BBY by the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) labelled
‘Death Star’ of the Galactic Empire.
The accused is being convicted of aiding in the upkeep and firing of this WMD in a crime against the Alderaan
people in violation of the current conventions outlined by the Chancellor and the Constitution.
The prosecution claims that CORONEL WULLF YULAREN is responsible for the deliberate murder and
mass genocide committed against the people of Alderaan by the Galactic Empire and its navy. The prosecution
claims that since CORONEL WULLF YULAREN was a high-ranking officer serving on the ‘Death Star’,
was Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's command staff. He is responsible for the actions of those under his
command, including the navy-men that had fired the WMD, and is thus, is guilty of any and all crimes
committed by the crew of the ‘Death Star’, and any other Galactic Empire officer, official or military personnel
directly connected to the ‘Death Star’s’ construction, upkeep and use.
I think they may have trouble making it stick. Yularen wasn't in command of the Death Star, and I doubt he had any real authority over whether it fired or not. He was an intelligence officer, there for what amounted to a staff meeting about Death Star security since the plans had been stolen. Long-and-short of it, they weren't under his command.
He's dead anyway, isn't he? Wookiepedia says he was still on the Death Star when it blew. And even if he weren't, he'd be in prison for life anyway just for the crap he did running Imperial Intelligence that he actually would be responsible for.
But I can imagine zombie-Yularen's defense would be along these lines...
QuoteThe destruction of Alderaan was not a military decision. It was a policy decision. It was the Tarkin Doctrine writ large.
The title of Grand Moff was not military rank, but a political one. Tarkin was not beholden to the Death Star advisory council, or to the chain of command. His voice was essentially the voice of the Emperor in that room. Even Lord Vader seemed to respect and obey him.
As for the... event itself... We simply did not know. We weren't asked, nor were we informed a decision had been made. We had been told that Princess Organa had reveiled the location of the rebel base, and that we were en route to Dantooine to take care of it. Everybody was shocked when we came out of hyperspace in the Alderaan system. Afterwards, Lord Vader took care of... dissenters who opposed the decision too strongly.
If we had been involved in that decision, everybody would have oppose it strongly, even that maniac Motti. Aside from moral reasons, it it was a collosal military blunder. Alderaan is when the Empire rallied the entire galaxy against itself. It was the beginning of the end, and a blind man could have seen that coming.
And he'd probably not be twisting the truth even a little bit.
2 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:He's dead anyway, isn't he? Wookiepedia says he was still on the Death Star when it blew. And even if he weren't, he'd be in prison for life anyway just for the crap he did running Imperial Intelligence that he actually would be responsible for.
But I can imagine zombie-Yularen's defense would be along these lines...
And he'd probably not be twisting the truth even a little bit.
In Canon, yes. Not in his universe.
11 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:In Canon, yes. Not in his universe.
Thank you, someone who understands the difference!
13 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:He's dead anyway, isn't he? Wookiepedia says he was still on the Death Star when it blew. And even if he weren't, he'd be in prison for life anyway just for the crap he did running Imperial Intelligence that he actually would be responsible for.
But I can imagine zombie-Yularen's defense would be along these lines...
And he'd probably not be twisting the truth even a little bit.
Awesome mate. My campaign is an imperial one, the pcs will defend him; and i chose him to survive the death stars destruction because he has a distinguished (thank you clone wars) Republic career and is seen as a hero in the clone wars. So im my universe he slipped away!
13 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:He's dead anyway, isn't he? Wookiepedia says he was still on the Death Star when it blew. And even if he weren't, he'd be in prison for life anyway just for the crap he did running Imperial Intelligence that he actually would be responsible for.
But I can imagine zombie-Yularen's defense would be along these lines...
And he'd probably not be twisting the truth even a little bit.
In fact im stealing that either almost word for word or as is! Good imagination - thank you!!
1 hour ago, mwknowles said:Awesome mate. My campaign is an imperial one, the pcs will defend him; and i chose him to survive the death stars destruction because he has a distinguished (thank you clone wars) Republic career and is seen as a hero in the clone wars. So im my universe he slipped away!
Also, the reason he slipped away could have been that he knew about (and possibly responsible) for the rebels aquiring the Death Star plans. Now you have a bunch of Imperial loyal defender who has to decide what to do with that information, which could help the defendee, but stands against their own allegiances. 🙂
Edited by RimsenUPDATE: Im most of the way through this adventure (its taking sooo long!) where the PCs are gathering information and witnesses. I have several plot arcs for charges and evidence for it. When i finish the game i'll let you all take a look. Thanks for the ideas!
Saying that Grand Moff in not a military title is a bit of a stretch. Wasn't Moff merely a shortened form of "Military Officer"?