Drallasite Justice

jedion357's picture
jedion357
February 2, 2009 - 9:07pm
I would think that the truth would be a cornerstone of the drals legal system.

I would imagine the drals using a tribunal of juries- there is a tribunal of magistrates
one is concerned with the truth of the law, one is concerned with the truth of the act and one is concerned with the truth of circumstances or intentions. each magistrate will preside over a dralasite version of our grand jury trying to acertain the "truth" that is their particular concern. After hearing witnesses and evidence and the judgement of their respective grand juries the 3 magistrates come together to find a concensus of truth and decide a sentence.

it could be possible that a jury could not establish a "truth" concerning what they were to consider and this would be the dral version of a hung jury. it might be possible that the truth of the act is unclear and yet the concensus of the tribunal decides to impose a sentence based on the likelihood of guilt.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
February 6, 2009 - 9:01pm
I wonder if a Dral can "trick" truth?

-- Don't kick a dral while he's down.
-- He'll just roll away!

Gargoyle2k7's picture
Gargoyle2k7
February 7, 2009 - 11:25am
Good, I like that.  That's something to work with.
Long live the Frontier!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
February 7, 2009 - 3:00pm
I would suppose that it is possible for a dral to use his lie detection ability combined with his ability to control his body to try to decieve. Maybe make the deciet ability is 1/2 of what ever his detect lie ability. this means that until a dral improves his ability to detect lies above its starting amount of 5% he cant use the deciet ability and the deciet ability is just a modification of other rolls:
Example: Dral A with detect lie 5% is trying to detect a lie in Dral B who has detect lie 8%. Dral B gets a net deciet ability of -4% toward Dral A's roll which in effect only give him a +1% to detect lie.
2nd example: Dral C with lie detect 22% (and his personallity is say 40%) is trying to bluff at skill level 2. For bluff- his chance to bluff is 10%/level plus 1/2 his LOG or PER so his base bluff attempt is at 40% but it gets modified by his deciet ability which would be 11%. giving him a 51% to bluff.

this additional skill makes deciet possible but difficult for the inexperienced. and could trigger PCs into dumping exp into a forgotten ability.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Imperial Lord's picture
Imperial Lord
February 9, 2009 - 2:07pm

I think that Dralasite justice has some parallels to ancient Rome: rhetoric and speech ability is almost more important than the actual evidence in the case.

Dralasite lawyers must be consummate speakers, able to entertain, enlighten, and pursue their cases with a sense of humor (as they do with all aspects of life.)

Mechanically, your tribunal system that you suggest seems fine to me.  I would imagine that the magistrates would have wide powers of interpretation.  "Mandatory sentencing" and other such draconian control mechanisms would have no place in a Dralasite court.  "Every case is different" would be the Dralasite motto here.


Additionally, the practice of common law (heavy reliance on precedents) would have very little influence on a Dralasite case.  This would contrast with the other races, particularly the Yazirians, who place a high value on tradition.


jedion357's picture
jedion357
February 12, 2009 - 11:00am
Very true imperial lord- I very much see drals being very concerned with "truth" and establishing truth - kind of ties into their racial ability and it wouldn't surprise me that they would require a very high degree of developement in that ability to detect lies in a magistrate or lawyer or official. even accepting less competance in legal skill over the acute ability to determine truth.

your analogy to Rome surprised me but I agree that speech and rhetoric being of prime importance in legal matters would certainly keep a very dralasite feel to the whole preceeding.

I could easily imagine a game scenario where the PCs have run affoul of the legal system and must defend themselves in a dralasite court. It has a lot of role play opportunity if your into that. A player who could really amuse the court might even get off scott free if he thought to use humor.


I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
February 13, 2009 - 2:10pm
jedion357 wrote:
I could easily imagine a game scenario where the PCs have run affoul of the legal system and must defend themselves in a dralasite court. It has a lot of role play opportunity if your into that. A player who could really amuse the court might even get off scott free if he thought to use humor.
...but it would need to be eye-rolling, dry humor. Good human or yazirian humor might cost extra fines. Wink