RPGPundit Reviews: Tough Justice

This is a review of the Tough Justice RPG, written by Ian Warner, published by postmortem studios.  Its a review, as usual, of the print edition, which comes as a short fat book (256 pages), a dark cover image of a skull with a judge's wig, and a few scant interior illustrations of sketches of characters.  The rest is all text.  I should probably note that the back cover includes an RPGPundit quote, included without my prior knowledge or permission (I'd have allowed it, anyhow), where I am remarked to have said "No Ian, you are not of the Swine.  I don't know what the fuck you are but it is not Swine".  I note the above for the sake of transparency, though I am fairly certain that this hasn't in any way affected my objectivity (such as it is) in reviewing this game.

Tough Justice is a pretty unusual game with a pretty unusual subject.  Basically, you are roleplaying legal cases in historical england, during the time of the "Bloody Code" (the period in British jurisprudence roughly between the 17th and 19th centuries). Players can act as defense and prosecution, and the goal is to win the case.  The interesting part, I suppose, is found in managing the bizarre system of justice and seeing the interesting and curious historical details of the period's courts.  The game is advertised as a "beer and crisps" game for light play, for adults; but perhaps sensing some kind of potential educational value in all of this, sidebars are provided showing how to mitigate some of the more "adult" themes in the game in case you want to run this game as an educational exercise for children.  These sidebars are done in the voice of a fictitious attorney, Mr. Cecil Humperdinck Gallows.  The game's preamble includes a "roleplaying 101" section which is fairly standard, a rather lengthy description of postmortem studios and the author himself, a description of the bloodthirsty nature of English law in the period, and an insanely long (23 pages!) Lexicon of Georgian slang, the "thieves cant" of the time, and legal and period terminology.

Characters are created by first thinking up a concept (little help is really given in terms of concepts you can come up with, though some of it can be derived from later sections of the rules), and then divvying up your stats.  You have 18 points to put into 6 stats, which must all be rated between 1-5.  The stats are Authority, Jibe (the art of using banter and insults), Charm, Investigation, Violence and Composure (this last stat acts as a kind of "hit points" of your general state of having-your-shit-together).  You then think up two things that you are "good at" and "very good at", which will give you +1 and +2 to your rolls respectively; there isn't a list of things, you just pick something subject to GM approval.
Next you choose a Merit, a special ability, which does come from a list.  Examples include things like "difficult to rile" (opponents trying to affect your composure must roll twice and take the lower of the two rolls), "man of action" (formal military or combat training, the character gets to roll violence checks twice and pick the better of the two; its noted that this merit can only be chosen by male characters), or "water tight private life" (like "difficult to rile" but applies to opponents making Investigation checks to find out about your private life).

Next you pick a flaw, again from a list.  Examples include "a bit thick" (the PC must always roll authority checks twice and use the lower result), coward (as above, but applying to composure checks), or "secret felony" (the PC committed some kind of crime in his past, and at the start of each trial must roll a die to see if it has been discovered; in which case the PC becomes the defendant in that trial!).

Once the individual characters are chosen, the group as a whole must split into two sides; one group playing the prosecution, the other side the defense.  In each team, the different PCs must choose their particular role.  Roles include barristers (the guy who actually talks in court, only one per group), attorney (the guys who do the legal research), allies (agents and employees of various kinds in the game who are not actually lawyers) and for the prosecution only, the "Thief taker", a private police force that collects bounties for every criminal successfully convicted.  Based on the role they have chosen, the players must then decide exactly what each PC's background is.  Note that as mentioned above, not all the PCs are actually lawyers, they can be the bounty hunters, investigators of different kinds, rogues, women, or even children, that are employed or allied to one side or the other.  The author even suggests that you can theoretically have an entire group where no one is a lawyer, and you just have an NPC in that role, while the player party are basically his support staff.

Note that the author seems to be sticking to at least some historical cultural accuracy; female characters are in theory not allowed to be barristers.

Six sample PCs are included in the game, with details as to their various relationships to one another (its recommended that the PC group delineate the same) and with black and white character drawings.

The basic mechanic of the game is handled by rolling a single D6 and adding your relevant stat, as well as any special bonuses. When you are doing this in opposition to another character, it is a challenge (its noted that you cannot make a challenge against a fellow team member during a case). Challenges against non-player characters during a case are theoretically rolled by the opposing barrister, with the GM merely providing the relevant stat value.
The difference, if you succeed in an opposed roll, is called the "win margin", and these results must be kept track of as the margin of your victories is added to your side's "case points".

If you are presented with a challenge that you likely or certainly couldn't win (your stat is too low, or your opponents too high) you can choose to "play booty", that is, to surrender, and the result is as though you had lost the challenge by a d3 points.  The value of this is that you may actually lose by less margin than you would if you had rolled, would not lose composure as a result of willingly conceding the challenge even if the normal challenge would have led to a loss of composure.  You can't "play booty" against a duel or other kinds of "honorable challenges".

Ties in opposed rolls result in stalemates when it is reasonable, otherwise the prosecution wins (as they have the advantage).

The fourth chapter in the book is dedicated to creating the case's defendant.  After making sure one of the PCs is not the defendant (see the "secret felony" flaw, above), you randomly choose the sex, age, and profession of the defendant. The professions tables are entertaining, with professions ranging from the predictable like "vagrant", "pickpocket", or "gypsy", or the mundane like "sailor" or "tanner"; you also have the unusual like "quack" (a crackpot pseudo-doctor), "fop", or "member of parliament".  There are separate profession tables for male and female defendants, and a shorter one for child defendants.  The profession is important in that it generates Case Points for either the prosecution or defense; certain professions are favored for conviction, others are much harder to convict, depending on the presumptions and prejudices the individual's background creates.
Defendants should have statistics, special talents, merits, and flaws just like a PC does, and they are generated in the same way.
A single sample defendant is included (a street urchin child).  Personally, I'd probably have had only a single sample character and six sample defendants, but there you go.

Next, you work out what the actual offense is, again a random table is provided.  Examples include expectable things like sodomy, fraud, espionage or shoplifting; but there's also a plethora of bizarre charges that come out of the crazy 18th century legal code; things like "blackening your face at night", spending a month in the company of gypsies, stealing from a rabbit warren, or cutting down a young tree. The nature of the charge grants case points for either prosecution or defense, sometimes to both!

Before the trial begins, the arrest phase may be played, where the thief taker has to roleplay hunting down and arresting the defendant.  All win margins in the rolls are noted.  Next, any gentlemen in either side can challenge a gentleman from the opposing side to a duel.  The victor gets the win margin added to their case points.  You can similarly have pugilism contests between characters who are not gentlemen, or "hag fights" between female characters who aren't proper ladies.
After that, in the pre-trial phase, each player (alternating one by one between the two teams, prosecution going first) gets to perform some special action.  There is an order of precedence (thief takers go first, then attorneys, then barristers, then allies).  Sample actions include things like Establishing the Facts, "digging up the dirt", Assaulting an opponent, "pillow talk" (again, Warner ends up including some kind of sexual element to one of his games where it isn't really a necessity), or intimidating witnesses.  Certain actions can only be done by certain character roles.  All actions involve a roll (either a direct test or an opposed challenge), and a positive result provides not only case points, but in some cases some other benefit.   The GM determines how many pre-trial turns there are, the default being 7. This section is followed by a lengthy 33-page example of play.

It should be noted that apparently, you can't actually kill another character in either a duel or an "assault opponent" action in the pre-trial phase.  You can only end up gaining case points by taking these actions, which are meant to reflect your opponents' physical injuries making it harder for him to effectively push forward his case. However, characters that get lose a duel or an assault can end up gaining "persistent injury points", which can affect him even in later cases (if you end up playing more than one case with the same character), awarding case points to the opposition whenever his old injury "flares up".

The actual trial starts with each side having the option to try to present a last minute "surprise witness".   Next you determine the jury strength, which determines the level of difficulty for all tests against the Jury.  Some hints are provided for how to "set the scene" of the courtroom. Witnesses are then listed in the order they'll be appearing (prosecution witnesses first) to be examined; each witness is determined by the GM to be on one "side" of the case or the other. Opening remarks are made, witnesses testify.  Objections can be raised by the opposing barrister; rather than relying on the players' likely nonexistent knowledge of 18th century British law, there are simple rules limiting and governing objections (it is recommended that the objections be roleplayed and that leeway be given for dashing and dramatic effect).  Objections can be made using Charm, Jibe, Authority or Composure.  A list of some basic sample objections is presented.

After this the "surprise" is sprung by either or both sides.  The defendant himself may then speak and try to sway the jury.  Finally, the prosecution sums up its case, opposed by the Defense barrister. At this point in the book we get another 20 pages of example of play.

Finally, we get to the verdict.  Here the case points are compared; if the prosecution wins, the defendant is guilty, otherwise, not guilty.  Its assumed that the default sentence is death; but it is possible to have a case where the jury asks for leniency and the defendant is instead sentenced to be hauled off to Australia or the likes. It is possible that the defense barrister can try to challenge the judge directly for a commutation of sentence; its also possible, if the defendant is someone with important connections and the difference in case points was low enough, that those connections might save him from the gallows. Also, a convicted woman who can prove she is pregnant is automatically commuted to a sentence of imprisonment or "transportation" to a penal colony.  In any case, the text and examples suggest the author's intent is that all the post-trial scenes ought to be roleplayed as well, for dramatic effect, right up to and including the execution (if there is one), and even providing detail of how the remains of the executed criminal are dealt with posthumously.  I think how well that would work depends largely on the nature of the gaming group; I could see some players feeling that after winning or losing the case is certain all the importance of the session is basically lost.

In general, I'm not a huge fan of pages and pages of play-examples (and this book has a lot of them, something close to 100 pages, I'd figure).  It often feels like the author trying to "pad" his gamebook.  In this case, however, it does serve something of a purpose, as it makes clear something that the rules themselves don't necessarily do; which is that part of the way the game is meant to played is not just to handle the mechanical part of the trial, but to roleplay in detail all the various steps of the arrest, investigation, case, trial, sentencing and post-sentencing.

Though I think this game is largely more likely to be playable for one-shots, there's a simple and straightforward advancement mechanic provided, by which characters can improve in their "good at" bonuses, stats, or achieve "top of your game" (wherein the character is so renowned that he increases the number of case points successful actions can provide).

The game's appendix provides advanced rules, for things like massive failures, pregnancy (again, going into a lot of detail to resolve sexual issues; which would be fine if you were talking about a resolution to determine if a female defendant is pregnant, on account that this can affect her sentencing; but the author implies that pregnancy is something ALL female characters need to check for if they're having sex; this is a particularly bizarre attention given in that thus far, it seems to have the ONLY mechanic whereby a PC can actually die, as female characters have a risk of dying in childbirth), using these rules for alternate settings (settings with equally harsh legal systems), things PCs might do between cases, switching the prosecution and defense teams, and LARPing the game. At the end, the sample characters are presented again (as well as some new sample defendants, thankfully), and a summary of how to handle the cases is provided for easy reference.

Ok, so what's my conclusion about this? I'm surprisingly finding it much more interesting and playable than I actually expected it to be.  Its still definitely a kind of micro-game, but not as micro as I had imagined it would be.  Nor does it have any kind of storygamey element, nor is it all left up to pseudo-larping with overly vague mechanics.  It has a good mechanical system for the things that require good mechanics, and it leaves to (and emphasizes the importance of) roleplaying those parts that need to be roleplayed.   I don't see it being very likely to be usable for long campaigns; but I do see it working for one-shots and short multi-session games.  Likewise, there's quite a bit of material there that can prove usable in other games, particularly in the 18th century setting.  And, well, if you really need a 23-page lexicon of Georgian slang.

The Good: manages to make a game about court trials rather interesting.  Good mechanics.  Good emphasis on roleplaying stuff that doesn't really need mechanics.

The Bad: Not that much.  The author's emphasis on realistic social values for the period portrayed might leave some female players feeling alienated; though at least he took some measures to try to be inclusive (it is certainly possible to play a female character that is useful in the game, just not a female barrister).

The Ugly: Having now reviewed quite a few books from this author, I am pretty sure he has a somewhat unsavory interest in prominently including sexuality mechanics in his RPGs, often to a kind of extent that is not really justified by the material being covered. It more than borders on the "unhealthy interest" territory.  Also, the fact that, unless I misread something, the only actual way a player character can die (other than being the one on trial and getting sentenced to execution) is if they are a female character dying in childbirth.  Seriously, if a male character can fight a fucking duel, with pistols, but can't actually die from it, did you really find it absolutely essential that female player characters should have to risk death from childbirth every time they have sex (and get subject to your basically un-necessary rules on sexual activity along the way)?  Its not a huge part of the game, so its not something that irredeemably ruins the game, but it sure is weird.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Winslow 40th Annivesary "Tulip" + Gawith's Perfection

If you use Statistic Decay you risk dying if Violence drops to 0. This is expanded in later versions of the system where you can die properly.

I thought it best if in the Basic Rules you could only die if you are convicted of a felony.

As to the sexual elements- Georgians- that's how they roll. The main inspiration Garrow's Law was full of sexual intrigue though I'll admit the "saving the whore" plot was purely me mocking the morality tales of the time.

Thanks for this review it's most refreshing to hear I am still not Swine

Edit: Oh and sorry about the quote. My head was all over the place when I wrote the blurb and I may have convinced myself I had asked when I hadn't :S

Its fine, like I said, I have no problem with the quote blurb.

RPGPundit

Thanks just to give you a heads up I may use the "craziest motherfucker" quote in a YouTube trailer for the RISPs.

Sure.

Further point on Combat. As I said it wasn't a thematic focus so I simplified the Hell out of it. If groups wish to redress the balance in favour of more detailed Blow by Blow Combat I am working on a free PDF download to make the Doxy combat rules back compatable.

I don't really think the game needed more complex combat mechanics; that wasn't the nature of my concern; it was the fact that you handwaved combat so that you couldn't actually die in it (which is fine, because that's not really the point in this particular game), but you felt like you absolutely HAD to include the possibility of a female PC dying in childbirth for some reason.

I received courtesans in the mail today, btw, but its behind a huge shipment of like six C7 books, so it may be quite a while until its review is up.

RPGPundit

Okay thanks.

At the end of the day it's an Advanced Rule in an Appendix so totally optional.

On Page 208 there are rules for dying by repeatedly losing fights.

Essentially that advanced rule means ALL statistics decay and if you fail when your Violence is 0 you must roll off against the GM or die.

Bit crude but it is a good stand in for the sort of total grit you get in Doxy.