Author Topic: Dungeon Master Justice  (Read 27684 times)

Tadanori Oyama

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Dungeon Master Justice
« on: April 17, 2009, 01:48:19 PM »
I'm a big believer in teaching players lessons for their character's behavior.

I'm coming up on my next 4E session where the fate of a PC who assaulted a group of city guards will be announced by his jury. I would like for the player to learn a bit of an in game lesson and simple imprisonment seems a poor way to do so because 1) they others might break him out or 2) he'll make a new character and act the same way.

Does anyone have any creative punishments for players who violate the law?

clockworkjoe

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2009, 02:50:02 PM »
branding
public shaming
exile
paying fines or blood money
forced labor
sent to penal colony
made a test subject for experimentation

Maze

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2009, 03:33:14 PM »
I'd personally go with branding if I had to. Some sort of magical fucking tattoo that is hard to conceal and shows that you are (or have been) a criminal. Exile is only good if there's some reason for the players to stay in the city instead of simply wandering adventurers style.

Dawnsteel

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2009, 03:39:49 PM »
Mark of Justice?  Something like that, anyhow.
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Maze

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2009, 03:43:49 PM »
Mark of Justice?  Something like that, anyhow.

Yiss, make it 5 level higher than the players so it'll take some work to remove.

Mason

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2009, 03:54:33 PM »
yeash, A nice magical forehead branding is a good idea. really its hard to make players feel responsible for their in game actions. the gamers I play with play games to escape reality to shug off responsiblity for a couple hours.

another back up idea is to invoke the social contract with them.
"a Kenyan man once told me you can get use to anything when money is involved... he use to stick mice up his ass for twenty dollars a pop." -Spider Jerusalem

clockworkjoe

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2009, 04:17:26 PM »
was reading the wiki entry on totem poles and found this:

Shame poles

Poles used for public ridicule are usually called "shame poles", and were erected to shame individuals or groups for unpaid debts. Shame poles are today rarely discussed, and their meanings have in many places been forgotten. However, they formed an important subset of poles carved throughout the 19th century.

One famous shame pole is the Lincoln Pole in Saxman, Alaska; it was apparently created to shame the U.S. government into repaying the Tlingit people for the value of slaves which were freed after the Emancipation Proclamation. Other explanations for it have arisen as the original reason was forgotten or suppressed, however this meaning is still clearly recounted by a number of Tlingit elders today.
A totem in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Another example of the shame pole is the Three Frogs Pole in Wrangell, Alaska. This pole was erected by Chief Shakes to shame the Kiks.ádi clan into repaying a debt incurred by three of their slaves who impregnated some young women in Shakes's clan. When the Kiks.ádi leaders refused to pay support for the illegitimate children Shakes had the pole commissioned to represent the three slaves as frogs, the frog being the primary crest of the Kiks.ádi clan. This debt was never repaid, and thus the pole still stands next to the Chief Shakes Tribal House in Wrangell. This particular pole's unique crossbar shape has become popularly associated with the town of Wrangell. It was thus used, without recognizing the meaning of the pole, as part of the title design of the Wrangell Sentinel newspaper, where it is still seen today.

A shame pole was erected in Cordova, Alaska on March 24, 2007. It includes the inverted and distorted face of Exxon ex-CEO Lee Raymond, representing the unpaid debt that courts determined Exxon owes for having caused the oil spill in Valdez, Alaska. See the Anchorage Daily News article on the pole's unveiling

dragonshaos

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2009, 04:23:15 PM »
Have him be sold into slavery and have him work on remodeling dungeons!  And then it collapses, forcing him to work with the other slaves... blah blah blah... blah blah...blah...and then blah.

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Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2009, 04:53:50 PM »
I think I like the shame pole best so far. I'll have a shaman do it so the totem will follow him around. Or better yet, a curse so that one appears wherever he goes and stays there so there's always new ones.

Maze

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2009, 04:55:11 PM »
Two words:

      BEE          RAPE

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2009, 04:58:23 PM »
I was waiting for it. Didn't think it would be you to say it.

Setherick

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2009, 05:08:40 PM »
I was waiting for it. Didn't think it would be you to say it.

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2009, 05:26:37 PM »
I like this mark of shame thing.

rayner23

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2009, 10:42:31 PM »
Two words:

      BEE          RAPE


You are a God sir. I planned to say the exact same thing.
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Mason

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Re: Dungeon Master Justice
« Reply #14 on: April 18, 2009, 11:31:46 PM »
man Alaska sure loves there shame poles.
"a Kenyan man once told me you can get use to anything when money is involved... he use to stick mice up his ass for twenty dollars a pop." -Spider Jerusalem