Ok, a trial is a central theme to BSG right now, and a lotta gamers like that show.

Likewise trials are a big part of the RPG comic OotS.

So, hs anyone actually roleplayed a trial? Do any game systems features rules and tips for this? If you've done it, how'd you do it and how'd it turn out?

I ran a trial in Deadlands once.  The PCs bought off all the lawyers in town, including the prosecutor, making the trial a complete joke.

I, as the judge, took the perpetrator into "chambers" (a side room to the basement we were playing in), told him to cover his ears, and yelled at him as the judge about "sullying lady justice" and "never coming into town again!"

It was a real hoot.  However, it was all roleplaying, nary a die was touched.

I was the defendant in a Sabbat larp.  I was being tried for diablerising the pack leader who was putting me through an initation. (His idea of an initiation was to run prospective pack members over with a car.  Me and another guy thought that was a rubbish initation so when he was barrelling towards us in a stolen motor, instead of standing there and getting hit, we shot him.  When he got out of his (now crashed and wrecked) car to remonstrate with us we kicked the shit out of him and I did the deed)

I was being tried by a jury of the two other packs, neither of whom liked the ex pack leader and when it turned out the pack leader hadn't gone through the same initiation I declared he wasn't then a proper member of the Sabbat and his murder didn't count.  I was enrolled on the spot at this point (they liked my logic) by one of the packs and then declared that as a full pack member unlike the deceased there was no trial to answer.

The player of the deceased was NOT happy.

So I killed his next character for a laugh.

I've done it in several groups over the years, almost always RPing it out. The exception is when the defendent is blatantly guilty or innocent, in which case I fast forward to the verdict.

One of the PCs in the first Nobilis campaign I ever ran was brought in for questioning at the Locust Court, under the charges of placing the safety of his mortal brother before his duty to capture a fleeing Deceiver. The mechanics of the game really had nothing to do with the situation, since the judges of the Court can strip the accused of their powers for the duration of the trial and possible punishment.

Quote from: Dominus NoxSo, hs anyone actually roleplayed a trial? Do any game systems features rules and tips for this? If you've done it, how'd you do it and how'd it turn out?

I've done so twice.  Once as part of an In Nomine campaign, and once as part of a Call of Cthulhu campaign.

The IN session wasn't actually a "trial" in the full sense - it was really the PC's pleading their case before a "special tribunal" of the highest-ranking angels in the city's Angelic Council.  But there was a prosecutor (a Seraphim of Judgment for those keeping track) and the PCs did have to present their case.  In this instance we didn't use game mechanics much - it was pure role-playing.  

The CoC trial was a full trial - the PCs were charged with a number of offences (break & enter, assault, attempted murder - y'know, the usual stuff PC's get involved in).  One of the characters was a lawyer so he was the party spokesman.  

In both cases all of the players, save one, were law students or lawyers.  Which was fun, but maddening, and in the CoC game we had to come to an agreement ahead of time that I was not, in fact, going to bother researching what the criminal law was in 1920's New England and what evidentiary rules applied where they were trying to prove that the alleged victim was actually a corpse reanimated by the Mi-Go...

My thoughts on running trials in RPGs are therefore:

1)  Unless your group is really into it, don't let yourself get bogged down by rules of court or other process issues.  It's a game - gloss over the rules to get to the fun stuff.  And don't sweat the details, either - jump from scene to scene; cross-examination is a lot more fun than drafting affidavits or going through every last detail of the trial.  I usually see "RPG law" in the same light as "TV law" - that is, it's probably a complete misrepresentation of how things actually work, but as long as it's fun, who cares?

2)  If the PCs are the defendants/accused, I'd avoid using game mechanics to decide the outcome - I'd play it out more through role-playing.  Though in the CoC game I did call for rolls to see who was doing a better job of persuading the jury - the real issue was whether the characters (who were out on bail) could get evidence to clear their name and/or stop the Evil Plot; the actual result of the trial was moot since that would be the end of the campaign.  Sadly we never did finish off that arc, but given that it was CoC and given what one character, in particular, said on the stand, I think "not guilty by reason of insanity" was the likely result.

3)  In a similar vein, don't tell the PCs what they "should" be saying.  Certainly you can say who the jury/judge seems to be believing, but I find it's a lot more fun when you let the players just carry on and say what they want to say...for better or for worse.

4)  Finally, I think there's a tendency in popular culture to focus overmuch on criminal-type proceedings, but civil law can be entertaining too - such as in The Incredibles, where lawsuits drive superheroes underground.

Never ran a trial before, but as I was reading this post an idea came for a neat way to do it.  What if the trial and the alleged crime were happening simultaneously?  So, the characters would roleplay the start of the crime, then it would switch over to the courtroom and the lawyer would begin with "On the morning of March 14th, 2007 at approximately 10:15 am, the characters blahblahblah. . ."  Then the characters would roleplay some more of the crime, and then switch back to plead their side of the story.  Back and forth, etc.  So the type of crime would be decided beforehand, but the actual details would come out during play.  

Something like this would have to be structured into parts and so it might not be to everyone's tastes, but I think it would be cool to drop in as a diversion every now and then.  Or, you could potentially build an entire Law and Order-type RPG around the concept (which probably means I'm not the first game designer to come up with this).  I've also got an idea as to how the roleplaying could affect the game mechanics, but I should be working right now, so later.  

Pete

Quote from: pspahnNever ran a trial before, but as I was reading this post an idea came for a neat way to do it.  What if the trial and the alleged crime were happening simultaneously?  

OR...have a trial as a way of starting the campaign - basically, call each player character to the stand, and ask them to describe what happened.  Players can contradict each other to an extent (after all, memory is faulty), but the idea is you're collaboratively writing part of the backstory to the characters, providing a few "hooks" for later use.  (Like when the inevitable "lone wolf" character is called to the stand - "Hell, man, I didn't even know these guys.  The cops stopped me for carrying a katana in my trenchcoat, and then the supervillains attacked and I had to help out the others...")  Then, once the verdict is in, the campaign starts...either with a new adventure, or with a jailbreak, depending on the results.

Kind of an "in media res" start to a campaign, combined with creating backstory.  Of course you'd need to have the right group to do this, and it won't be for everybody...but I may well try this sometime.  Hey, thanks!

I've GMed a trial in an Amber game (which was hilarious fun btw) and been the defendant in a trial in a Dragonquest game (I was guilty as hell...picture the scene in Heavy Metal where Captain Stern's charges are being read aloud and you come close).

My Ars Magica game with no magi had a trial, a PC who turned down the advances of a nobleman's wife was accused by her of making improper advances towards her, by way of revenge for the slight.

A jury of his peers, in other words other nobles, was formed.

I made notes on each juror, how fair they were, how honest, if bribable, if already bribed or owing favours to the accuser's husband.  I then pretty  much made it evident to the PCs that the trial would be rigged, this was about politics, not justice.

So, the adventure was in rerigging it, working out which jurors would go with the facts (since the PC was innocent he was happy to trust to them working out the truth), which jurors were irrevocably tied to the prosecution and which could be swayed.

It was a lot of fun, very political and entirely avoided just making a roll to see whose lawyer performed best.

Edit:  For the curious, I think the PC may have had a disadvantage which made them attractive to the opposite sex but in a way that would rebound against them, hence the plotline.

I ran an Enquiry in my In Harms Way campaign. It was a very tricky adventure which strayed into collaborative storytelling terrain because of the numerous flashbacks. The Enquiry was about a botched (maybe) rescue attempt and the role of the pcs in the fiasco.

It was not very authentic more movie like. There was a lot of subtle sparring between the PCs and NPCs. So this is not really a good example of a trial. The whole adventure was just to further establish the kind of tone I wanted for the game, and allow the pcs to establish themselves in the setting.

Regards,
David R