Legal Woes- How do you handle?

[svwerley]

To what degree to you infuse your storlines with legal issues/jargon/procedures?

 

If you have characters with police authority of some sort, do they arrest villains? Read Miranda rights?

 

What about warrants? If the heroes follow leads and end up outside a warehouse where they believe the bad guys are manufacturing the next super-drug, on what grounds can they enter? Do they just go blasting in? If they do get warrants, how do you handle that?

 

Do you ever tell the players later that Foxbat was released on a legal technicality because they didn't have a warrant?

 

What about your gadgeteer with all the recording devices that likes hacking cell phones and placing wire taps?

 

Do you ever have characters sued by villains? Innocent bystanders? The city for property damage?

[TheTemplar]

Re: Legal Woes- How do you handle?

 

It hasn't really come up all that often, unless it's a specific plot point of a particular story arc. I remember in a previous campaign 3 of the players coordinated their attacks on a villain PC whose defenses (unbeknownst to us) were quite low, thereby inadvertantly killing the villain. Now, the tone of that campaign wasn't all Silver Age CvK or anything, but regardless, they had still taken the life of another (homewhat) human being. So, the next story arc centered around the trial which ultimately determined that the charges were dismissed, though to be honest, the specifics of how that all went down elude me at the moment as that was several years ago.

 

Our current group does have international police powers for any UN member nation as well as anywhere within the US. Only one time so far, in the entire 3+ year campaign, has a captured villain had to be let go due to legal issues - because she was captured in a foreign country where the PCs had no authority (before they had IPP) and had to be returned. There was also a period after our first government organization (META) was destroyed where we were fighting crime "vigilante" style w/ no official backing before we were re-adopted by PRIMUS.

 

Typically, when we capture villains, we just keep an eye on them until a PRIMUS detention & transportation unit shows up to take them away for processing (or the police if it's not really a superpowered affair.) They handle the reading of the miranda rights and what not. In reality, we probably should, but that's just one of those things that, to me anyway, usually adds more tedium to the game than actual value. All the villains trials and what happen "off camera." If the PCs are needed to testify on behalf of the prosecution or something, or there's a plot event that I've got in mind to happen at a villain's trial, then we'd do that in-game. Otherwise, it's just sorta GM-hand waived. I typically wouldn't let a villain get off on a technicality due to something the players didn't do at the crime scene, because then it would become a big deal with every arrest (see the aforementioned tedium.) Though, every now and then (and by that, I mean once or twice in the life of a campaign) it could be a useful plot hook. I think it's usually better if a villain gets off due to something someone else did, so the players don't feel like they're being raked over the coals or anything.

 

"Superhuman Insurance" is available (sorta like no-fault or uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage) in our campaign for businesses to protect them from property damage by superfights. Presumably, the insurance companies who provide this coverage would have subrogation rights against the individuals found to be liable for the damage (which typically are the villains,) but, again, that's not really something we've gone into. The heroes usually stick around and help w/ cleanup and would doubtlessly help pay for any damage caused (but considering 2 of them have 15 points of Filthy Rich, that really wouldn't be much of a problem.)

[Cancer]

Re: Legal Woes- How do you handle?

 

We hand-wave that, for the most part; when you have a RL attorney among your players (but not the GM) it's kept off-stage. That kind of thing can be invoked. No one in the group is interested in roleplaying Perry Mason, though.

[David Johnston]

Re: Legal Woes- How do you handle?

 

One of the advantages of heroes NOT having police powers is that if they aren't cops and aren't working for cops, evidence uncovered as a result of their activities won't be thrown out of court. There was a real life case where the family of a victim hired a private investigator to outright burglarise a suspect's home to find evidence which helped convict him. Although the PI presumably got in trouble, the evidence he discovered through his crime was fully admissable. Nor does one necessarily have to be a police officer to interrupt a crime or to detain a perpetrator, although one does have to turn the suspect over to someone with police powers as quickly as possible. There are precedents going back centuries of private citizens in English Common Law countries apprehending suspects and there was a case just this week in Canada where a traumatised little girl suddenly and mistakenly identified a randomly encountered stranger as being her rapist and her uncle was able to grab the suspect and hold on to him until the police arrived. Even though he didn't even have the right guy, no charges were filed against the uncle.

 

I expect that in a comic book universe the courts have long since set forth legal precedents to the effect that private citizens have a right to wear masks for "legitimate" purposes and keep their identities secret unless and until charges are filed against them. They wouldn't be legally entitled to commit breaking and entering, but when they did the resulting evidence would still be admissable as long as the police didn't actually ask them to do it. They wouldn't be entitled to hit unresisting suspects but could restrain them and use whatever force necessary to protect themselves if attacked.

 

After all, they've probably had decades to write different laws and legal decisions from those which apply to our world.

[Maccabe]

Re: Legal Woes- How do you handle?

 

Doesn't the Champions Universe book cover this question?

I once played a character who was a lawyer [hey they exist]

It came up in play once when one of the team members had some legal troubles, I became his lawyer. As a GM I used the "law" a few times, when it

seemed best; The villian sues the heroes for trespassing on his base kinda thing. Then there was the DNPC who was caught drunk driving(almost killed Peter Parker before he got his powers) [What if? readers will remember this]

There was a law governing the use of telepathy/mind control on a suspect

to gain otherwise hiddden information. [Violated illegal search and seizure]

Be creative and have fun, the law is just another element to be used in moderation.

[Steve Long]

Re: Legal Woes- How do you handle?

 

Doesn't the Champions Universe book cover this question?

 

It has a section on the topic on pages 48-50. I'm considering expanding that information in Stronghold, but it's a question of whether I have the time and interest to do the research needed to update my previous work on the subject way back in 1993.

 

As a lawyer, I enjoy injecting legal issues into games, but I don't actually do it that often because, as I think someone already observed in this thread, unless your group really likes that sort of thing it's just not all that interesting. And it's kind of hard to roleplay when the GM has to be the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the judge all at once and essentially argue with himself in-game.

 

I was once approached by a gaming group that had a hero going on trial -- it was a really momentous event in their campaign. They wanted me to come take the part of the prosecutor (IIRC) for a game or two. We weren't able to work it out due to the logistics of the situation, but it sure would've been fun.

[DEFCON Clown]

Re: Legal Woes- How do you handle?

 

Our GM tried that on us and we talked to him about how we thought it sucked some of the fun out of the game. He kept on with it anyway. So we pooled our exp and added super-cells to our secret base. Then we started our own little prison for supervillians. It has actually turned out to be pretty fun.

[CBikle]

Re: Legal Woes- How do you handle?

 

When this comes up, it paralyzes our games.

 

One of the characters is a super-super straight shooter when it comes to the law and this often curtails our ability to "investigate" (breaking & entering, sneaking into other countries, etc.).