What skills are necessary for a trial?

[Rapier]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

None of which allows any participation in the 4 hour court room drama that takes up most of a game session.

 

There is a difference between a character "taking center stage" and a character having all the action/the only interaction for a solid hour of game play. Rapier was very specifically refering to the latter and even gave an example to illustrate what he meant. He never said there was no middle ground. He said to beware one extreme and 2 people jumped down his throat acting like he somehow implied all players must have the exact same amount of focus/action/interaction or something isn't fair. You're both arguing against things he never said.

 

EDIT:

Emphasis added by me. This is clearly talking about a player having all action to the detrimant of the others. Not simple "being the focus of" or "taking center stage" in a certain story arch. Note the use of words like might. Can you honestly not see a difference between "A single player dominating an entire session" and "an adventure focusing on a certain PC"?

 

Well, poo. You beat me to it...and just about hit all the points I was going to. I guess I'll move on.

 

Thanks, though!

 

EDIT: Oh there was one bit I did want to add. If a player comes to you with a character with PS: Lawyer, KS: The Law, Oratory, Persuasion, Perk: Member of the Bar and the only thing on the face of the planet you can think of to use those skills is a trial, you should consider asking the player for ideas on how to use that aspect of his character. Off the top of my head, I can think of a couple of dozens plot hooks based off those skills that don't involve being in a courtroom.

[Sean Waters]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

We have to trust the GM to run the game. Absolutely any game element that centre-stages one character and sidelines the rest could cause resentment and damage the game, but allowing a character who has invested in various legal skills to use them now and then, and assuming that it isn't done in a way that is going to hack off everyone else, is a good thing. Hell, you could run an entire trial that lasts several days of game time in a couple of minutes of real-time. The hacker who hogs an entire game to open a door - poor form, and something the GM should deal with - but this isn't necessarily going to work out that way.

[Opal]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

The last time I ran a trial in a Champions! game (and this was a long time ago) it was all RP. No skill rolls involved. It went off like an episode of Perry Mason, but it was fun, and the bad guys got what they deserved. Different lawyers would use different skills, some might go in big for quoting case law, others for Persuasion or other interaction skills to sway the jury.

 

In America, you should have some kind of bar-association perk to be taken at all seriously in the courtroom. In some other countries, like the UK, you'd have to have an sepparate perk to argue in court vs practice law outside of the courtroom.

[dmjalund]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

of course, trial by combat would require different skills

[Vondy]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

I agree with Nolgroth.

 

Acting might also be useful. More for witnesses, but also for lawyers.

 

And Conversation for those critical tidbits you pick up when in recess that make your case.

[megaplayboy]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

The "roving spotlight" rule is generally a good one for game sessions, period, particularly plotlines like this: no individual character gets more than 20-30 minutes of solo RP at a time, then the GM has to go back to what the other PCs are doing. Of course, the GM can still focus on the individual PC up to 5 times in a typical 5 hour session, even with this rule. It just keeps the other players from getting too bored. It'd probably help to tie in a combat scenario somewhere in there, too--perhaps near the end of the actual trial.

[Ragitsu]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

The "roving spotlight" rule is generally a good one for game sessions' date=' period, particularly plotlines like this: no individual character gets more than 20-30 minutes of solo RP at a time, then the GM has to go back to what the other PCs are doing. Of course, the GM can still focus on the individual PC up to 5 times in a typical 5 hour session, even with this rule. It just keeps the other players from getting too bored. It'd probably help to tie in a combat scenario somewhere in there, too--perhaps near the end of the actual trial.[/quote']

 

Contrary to popular belief, a session (especially one like this) does not require combat to be engaging.

[Rapier]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

Contrary to popular belief' date=' a session (especially one like this) does not require combat to be engaging.[/quote']

 

I don't think anyone was inferring that all sessions MUST include combat, but the fact remains that all players should have some involvement in each session.

[Ragitsu]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

I don't think anyone was inferring that all sessions MUST include combat' date=' but the opinion remains that all players should have some involvement in each session.[/quote']

 

And? So? You said that already.

[megaplayboy]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

Contrary to popular belief' date=' a session (especially one like this) does not require combat to be engaging.[/quote']

 

Of course not. But a lot of players greatly enjoy combat and consider it one of their primary reasons for gaming. So it's not a bad idea to have it as an option, depending on your group's preferences.

[Ragitsu]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

Of course not. But a lot of players greatly enjoy combat and consider it one of their primary reasons for gaming. So it's not a bad idea to have it as an option' date=' depending on your group's preferences.[/quote']

 

Okay, I can see that. I was merely against the idea of including combat "just because" you can .

[Vondy]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

Okay' date=' I can see that. I was merely against the idea of including combat "just because" you can .[/quote']

 

There are a bunch of videos of courtroom brawls in youtube. It does happen. So while I don't think "just because" is a very good reason to include a fight, remember there are a lot of truly stupid people in the world. Having something untoward happen during the trial could give a sidelined character in the gallery something to do: tackle the man who smuggled in a gun and is about to shoot someone, have angry family on both sides break into a fight that needs to be broken up, etc. It certainly shouldn't happen in most trial scenes, but its an option to keep people's juices flowing. Also, it doesn't have to be during the trial. I remember one L&O episode where someone tried to kill the prosecutor in the bathroom after the trial was over. It gave the detectives something to do since their time during the first half of the show had been cut short by the plot: save the prosecutor.

[megaplayboy]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

Well, I was thinking more of possible sub-plots involving attempts to bump off witnesses, kidnap threats, or even an attempt by a convicted villain(convicted in the last session) to exact revenge on all involved parties.

[Rapier]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

And? So? You said that already.

 

Well, I see someone's been taking their pissy pills lately.

[AnotherSkip]

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial?

 

This is very interesting stuff. Would you say this is indicative of a mostly realistic sort of proceeding, or could it also handle comic book trials (where it seems villains are always getting out early)?

 

Seans original Post mentioned V&V as the source for his concepts (excellent Conversion BTW) V&V stands for Villians and Vigilantes definately a Comic book inspired RPG. And Sean If you ever wanna discuss V&V I have aplace to do just that....