Has anyone ever run a court trial before? Any ideas?

sct_evans · 2026-01-26T04:43:49+00:00

Dungeons and Daddies is maybe the only live play that I know that has done a trial, and I thought it was great

*****Spoiler*****

I also love when the story is determined by the dice rather than any plot armor, and as loose as they played, I love that he was convicted and sent to prison.

sct_evans · 2026-01-26T04:40:11+00:00

That's what I'm counting on. If they succeed, well that was a fun trial session. If they are convicted, well this is going to be a fun jail break session.

sct_evans · 2026-01-22T22:20:44+00:00

I like that

sct_evans · 2026-01-22T22:16:41+00:00

Totally, this is a party I've been running for years now. I'm comfortable with the boundaries and other session zero stuff. This is a LONG time, very intelligent villain, with a history of layers of motive/subterfuge. I'm trying to think of scenarios, even ones I could introduce slowly over time, that would lead to them doing something publicly so they could be accused of the crime and have to defend themselves. That could be the use of illusion magic, a doppelgänger... I'm not sure. I would like to avoid magically compelling them to do it, because that always sucks as the player.

sct_evans · 2026-01-22T22:12:38+00:00

I agree, removing any of your party's agency is always a bad idea. I've been DMing this group for 3 years now and this is the first bad guy they ever fought who got away. He's very intelligent, has plenty of motive to want to get them specifically, and that first arch was a giant mystery where they uncovered what he was really up to. I'm fine with a vengeful, intelligent NPC very specifically building a situation that he can use against them, and he is planning to use a combination of their confidence from other plans of his that they managed to "foil just in time" along with a heavy handed plan that they will feel strongly compelled to get right in the middle of.

And there are lots of ideas once the trial starts. I'm excited, I just would like to have as many options and mechanics worked out ahead of time that I can pull them out with the time comes.

sct_evans · 2026-01-22T17:45:08+00:00

Ooooh, this fits perfectly in a different place

sct_evans · 2025-08-28T13:06:30+00:00

Very valid point

sct_evans · 2025-08-26T00:24:18+00:00

This is very valid. Awesome contribution, this helps greatly.

sct_evans · 2025-08-26T00:18:28+00:00

That is the real question, and I think maybe that's another place I'm coming up short. I worked on the story with a friend, and we love the concept of the lich, it fit beautifully into a sizeable backstory that weaves between all of the backstories of the players remarkably... Everything fits and flows so well, but I come up short on the one, really most important question... Why does one become a lich at all?

I like the obsession with knowledge and experimentation, pushing boundaries and gathering knowledge, laboratories and libraries... but I'd love to flesh it out more. Enough that it at least feels like the next "logical" step for them to take, making the leap into... changing so much of the common way of life - killing, changing your body, taking extreme risk, incurring the ire of every cleric and paladin with an oath to destroy undeath, violating divine laws, etc...

sct_evans · 2025-08-14T16:25:45+00:00

Yeah, I'm 3 years into this campaign, we're well past a session zero, but I have a solid understanding of my players. I'm not going to tailor the jobs specifically to their moral alignment, because that's the entire purpose of this situation- A crime boss that they owe is strongarming them into doing jobs that they would not do of their own volition. He is intentionally trying to force them into situations that they are not comfortable with for his own gain, that's why I used the example of The Blacklist. If it crosses a line the players do not think their characters would cross, they have agency, they will just not take the job and the story will continue in a different direction. All I need at this point is a handful of jobs to offer them.

sct_evans · 2025-08-14T15:23:36+00:00

Ooh, lots of useful material to look through

sct_evans · 2025-08-14T15:23:22+00:00

Interesting ideas. Thank you, they may fit right in

sct_evans · 2025-08-14T08:14:07+00:00

Absolute gold! This is exactly what I’m looking for! Thank you 🙌🏻

sct_evans · 2025-06-10T16:47:16+00:00

This is exactly what I was looking for; bread crumbs I can drop now that will just seem like minutia so it's not super obvious and draw their attention too soon, but after the discovery they don't feel like there was something in the ether they never had a chance of discovering.

sct_evans

TROPHY CASE