Disclaimer: I practice criminal defense IRL. In fact, I had a particularly depressing jail visit on Friday, which has kind of been on the back of my mind all weekend long. So on Saturday, I get my hardcopy of Trial of the Beast, and I'm sitting through it (having ignored the PDF in anticipation of the hard copy), with a big ol' grin on my face. I totally want to run this for the (non-gamer) folks at the office (though since I've slated Carrion Crown for the next AP I'm running for my weekend group after Kingmaker, I've got the gamers in the office covered) sometime.
So first off - big ups from the legal perspective of investigating a case. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the adventure, and I appreciate the central tenet of the eponymous trial itself.
Though I must deduct a point for the portrayal of the (court-appointed) defense counsel as a stuttering incompetent. (Reference to My Cousin Vinny aside.)
If do end up running for some of the folks at the office, I'm thinking of changing the entire structure, including making the role of the barrister's one of the PCs. And then watch the craziness ensue!
Wow! Cool. I'm glad this passes the actual barrister sniff test!
Gosh.
I think Wes and I at least would both like to know how this plays out, please keep us posted.
Rich
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Corporate/Commercial Litigator here.
While I expect this may appeal to some players, I have to say that in my unique circumstances, this is a moment where due to the design of the module's mock courtroom drama, this is a case where real-life "work" is now intruding upon my hobby-life "fun".
Not to my tastes, but I appreciate that non-lawyers perceptions' of this will not be impacted by such a reaction.
Personally, I've always been willing to overlook the fact that courtroom scenes in fantasy RPGs will not play out like actual courtroom scenes. (That would be for the most part very boring.)
Perhaps part of what I enjoyed is that it was very similar to a system I used for a trial once in a Planescape game where one of my PCs played a Guvner prosecutor, but ended up investigating the case herself because the Hardheads had mucked it up and arrested the wrong guy (sort of.) The mechanics were very similar, so this perhaps amused me more than most.
It'll pro'lly take me a while to set up the game, but I'm definitely working on it.