On my Friday night game I have a pc who has become an npc (at least for a while). As a result of player choices he is in a fortress arrested for some obscure reason. He's a dwarf. It's a dwarven city.
Also as a result of player actions he has been left in jail to face trial. Now, he could be executed- but he's minor nobility. So my other thought is let him out... minus 1 hand and minus 1 beard (my thinking is that they don't want to execute a noble).
Thoughts on the matter?
Let the law take its course. If you have previously written up that the penalty for the offence he has been convicted of as being losing his beard and hand, then that's what happens. If, on the other hand, you haven't previously decided what the penalty is for the obscure reason then I think you should probably decide what a reasonable penalty is. Dwarves tend to Lawful Good, but also tend to 'unforgiving' so their law is likely to be the very avatar of harsh but fair. They're likely to have very low tolerance for mitigating circumstances but very high standards of 'beyond reasonable doubt' (although it's possible they might work on 'guilty until proven innocent'). Many people play dwarves such that banishment is a far worse penalty than death (see OOTS for eg) so aside from an obvious capital offence like treason or murder that's probably your top level penalty. I honestly think it's unlikely that a dwarven legal code would include deliberate humiliation as a penalty, and that mutilation would have to be commensurate. (Also, if he's nobility, it strikes me as unlikely that a judge would wish to make an enemy of even a minor noble by humiliating them without killing them).
Sorry for the long winded reply. I've always had a soft spot for dwarves.
I would play out the trial. Rules have to be somewhere about swaying a crowd. Whether the PC does it or a better face does it for the pc. Say give the defense and the prosecution 10 rolls to sway the crowd (jury). You can decide where they start. Let each side roll a check (diplomacy, or profession or oratory, whatever) Which ever side has the higher roll that time the number moves a bit.
Something like Defense wins by 1-5 they gain 1 pt, by 6-10 2 pts etc if the prosecution wins it goes the other way.
At the end see where it ends up.
Defense score of negative anything to -5 equals execution.
Defense score of-4to 0 equals loss of limb, beard and banishment.
Defense score of 1-5 equals loss of beard and banishment.
Defense score of 6-10 equals banishment
11+ equals freed unharmed
or whatever. Something like that. Up to you where the crowd starts. Maybe before the first roll he is already at -2 or something like that.
See where I am going with this?
You're kind of vague on what the PC has done to warrant punishment, but...
If you want the guy to create a new character, fine.
If not, what purpose is served by lopping a guy's hand (or beard) off? Does that make the game more fun for anyone?
I see where you are going there- he is an NPC because the the player left the game as a result of life circumstance for quite a while.
I have no problem with the character or the player, this is related to a story arch we are running and they left him behind to do something else. So there should be some consequences.
So the PC has done nothing wrong- I have been given permission to do whatever I want to with him. Sorry if that part was confusing.
I would play out the trial. Rules have to be somewhere about swaying a crowd. Whether the PC does it or a better face does it for the pc. Say give the defense and the prosecution 10 rolls to sway the crowd (jury). You can decide where they start. Let each side roll a check (diplomacy, or profession or oratory, whatever) Which ever side has the higher roll that time the number moves a bit.
Something like Defense wins by 1-5 they gain 1 pt, by 6-10 2 pts etc if the prosecution wins it goes the other way.
At the end see where it ends up.
Defense score of negative anything to -5 equals execution.
Defense score of-4to 0 equals loss of limb, beard and banishment.
Defense score of 1-5 equals loss of beard and banishment.
Defense score of 6-10 equals banishment
11+ equals freed unharmedor whatever. Something like that. Up to you where the crowd starts. Maybe before the first roll he is already at -2 or something like that.
See where I am going with this?
I do like what you are saying here, and I think I can get behind it. My concern is I don't want to slow the pace of my game down too much.
I have considered a trial and think that could be interesting, but they left him there for a few weeks so I think justice may have meted out.
The group is kind of on the quest for bigger things and they made a bad call a few weeks back and I don't want to keep hammering them on it, which I think the trial could feel like.... just slowing them down on the way to the BBEG. Hope that made sense.
yea, in that case you could roll it out yourself.
Assume since he is a noble, he was able to hire someone to defend him. I would make both prosecution and defense experts, with profession lawyer. You can decide who is better, maybe roll their stats and allow the profession roll + the CHA modifier.
Roll it out and then announce what happened, if they care you can record the rolls so they can see what happened. Or let them roll it against you. We are only talking 20 dice rolls, wouldn't take more than 15 minutes.
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Give him this, as something he must wear to mark his shame.
Combine this, with exile. The point is to punish him, without making a political stink, when it comes to nobles. Be sure to play up the disgust, and absolute unwillingness to interact with him when other dwarves are around.
This is a great way to use the NPC later, if you want.
Oh, the possibilities!
Give him this, as something he must wear to mark his shame.
Combine this, with exile. The point is to punish him, without making a political stink, when it comes to nobles. Be sure to play up the disgust, and absolute unwillingness to interact with him when other dwarves are around.
This is a great way to use the NPC later, if you want.
Oh, the possibilities!
Yeah, I think I like that. A little less extreme than a lost hand, but still gets the point across. I think something like that is better than death. In some ways death makes it too easy to move on. But that's a nice idea with the gauntlet.
I may do the trial as well, but I know with my group what starts as a 15 minute trial ends as a 2 session prison break.
Curious how this ended up. Our group found the Grasp of Droskar a while ago in our current campaign. I put it on...now it's an intelligent item named Anung Am Rama with Furious, Menacing, and the ability to cast a bunch of spells. He helps out a lot and I hit baddies with him often and repeatedly.
If you want to go the mutilation route without actually affecting the character's combat prowess, gouge out an eye.
Give 'im -2/3/4 to Perception checks on that side and maybe a -1 or -2 extra on attack rolls made with his off hand. Chopping a hand of kinda closes off a ton of options to a player who wields a weapon, since he wouldn't be able to get things out of his pack without dropping his weapon (unless there are rules for that?).