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Underworld Court


hawkfu

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I got some great help with death traps from here recently, and I wanted to throw out another idea to see what kind of feedback people might have.

 

The general idea is that there is an underworld court and a judge who sends out his bailiff's to capture superheroes. They are dragged before the court and made to answer for their "crimes" against super villains. My idea is that there is this black book of criminal laws...and the heroes are forced to try and defend themselves in court. I need to figure out the charges, of course...

 

Anyway, they would get sentenced and punished in some way that allows them to fight back and of course win the day ultimately. Maybe some kind of Running Man style gauntlet..I don't know yet.

 

Anyway, that's the idea. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Have a great day!

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The Dark Knight Rises. The Rt. Hon. Dr Crane presiding.

 

Thank You, Marcus.  :thumbup:

 

 

The crimes should be twisted versions of real crimes: 

 

Assault on the good honest criminals of city

 

Prevention of being able to earn a living

 

Things like that

 

The classic scenario for that one is the hero accidentally causes the death of someone close to the villain, who then has the hero brought to "trial" for murder.  I remember a Golden Age Batman story where a gang of robbers, all brothers, died one by one as a result of being chased by Batman. (For example, one of them was being pursued at a carnival and in trying to get away stumbled into the back of a shooting gallery, where he was shot by the patrons.)  The leader of the gang blamed Batman for all the deaths, and after managing to capture him basically sentenced him to death right then and there.  He took him into a specialized execution room, and forced Robin to choose between an electric chair, a gallows, a firing squad, and a couple of other methods which I don't remember.

 

Another possibility is a villain with an anarchist/madcap bent puts the hero on trial for being the "ultimate conformist"--that by fighting crime and striking terror into people's hearts they encourage compliance and submission to authority, and in doing so impose conformity and suppress freedom and creativity.  Or something like that.

 

Hope that helps.

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You are hearby charged with the following.

 

One count of Upholding societies laws.

 

One count assaulting a criminal in performance of his crimes.

 

One count returning stolen property.

 

And one count honesty.

 

How do you plead? Guilty or guilty with criminal circumstance.

 

After all interfering with a robbery to return the money is one thing. Interfering to keep the money yourself is another.

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Here's one weird approach.  The court could actually be set up not to be the kangaroo court you'd expect but instead to try both heroes and villains fairly for the violation of rules that don't exist in the conventional legal system.  Offenses like "revealing another's secret identity to the public", "killing a disabled foe by means other than a deathtrap", "violating neutral ground".  Comic book laws.  

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Here's one weird approach.  The court could actually be set up not to be the kangaroo court you'd expect but instead to try both heroes and villains fairly for the violation of rules that don't exist in the conventional legal system.  Offenses like "revealing another's secret identity to the public", "killing a disabled foe by means other than a deathtrap", "violating neutral ground".  Comic book laws.  

 

Now THAT is an idea I like.

 

Call it the Comics Code Authority?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says there'd even be construction codes requiring lairs and bases to have a ventilation system accessible by a ninja or someone with equivalent training.....

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Note: A superhero stopping a crime is NOT a 'jailable' offense in the Underworld Court. It is simply a hazard of doing the job. What IS an offense is anything which is considered 'excessive', like the use of superpowers against someone without them.

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Ok, I love clonus' idea.

I have a group of mentalists in my game that have been in the background and not active or well defined. Yet.

But having them 'apprehend' the PC's for supposed crimes against the super powered community - wow.

 

"We aren't here to keep you from fighting, or even killing, each other.

But you will have to do it the right way."

 

So cool...

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