Having just got my hands on the book, and giving it a readthrough, I had an idea for a character concept I wasn’t…

I you’re going for Saul specifically, Slide is also a good option, though Veteran advances means you can build the combo you need either way. Dots in both Sway and Study are most appropriate.

But I don’t think “playbook and moves” are REALLY what you’re asking advice on, here. Any playbook can be adapted to any character concept, after all. I think what you’re really interested in are the more ephemeral bits, right?

From the description on page 248 we have a fair, if not detailed, picture of how justice works in Duskwall. It doesn’t actually mention lawyers, but the system of bribery and connections it describes wouldn’t really work without them, so we can certainly assume they exist.

Firstly, on the issue of flavour, we should look at the vocabulary we’re using. “Lawyer” and “Attorney” are perfectly valid, but they sort of “feel” too modern. You want to go with something like Advocate, Solicitor, or Barrister (Your mileage on which feel more modern will be dependent on what country you live in, of course). These have distinct definitions and roles in the real world but for our purposes they can be more-or-less interchangable. I like “solicitor” best so that’s what I’m going to go with from here on.

Bear in mind that the role of solicitor in Duskwall is going to be as much accountant as lawyer. Knowing who to bribe and how much is as important, if not more, than knowing the actual law.

Solicitors in Duskwall are likely licensed, their names kept on a register. Though like everything in Duskwall getting on the register probably has more to do with bribery than actual qualifications. In my own game I have a Spider who fancies himself a doctor, and I have him pursuing a long-term-project clock to “get his name back on the medical register”

Someone like Lord Strangford is going to have a whole team of solicitors working for him, both for the corporate end of handling contracts and business, and for the seedier side of bribing magistrates and keeping the authorities looking the other way. These folks would be part of a group much like a modern law firm, with senior partners and a whole host of their own employees.

A Tier 0 scoundrel solicitor isn’t (likely) to be associated with a large firm. You’re most likely setting out on your own, one of hundreds of independent work-a-day lawyers in the city. In the relatively early days of English law this actually took the form of “traveling solicitors.” They would represent regular people in court for about a guinea (a pound and change, in game terms I would say worth 1 Coin)

Okay coming back off of flavour stuff and back on to how I would run things as a GM for such a character. As I mentioned above I GM for a character who has a “legitimate” line of business as well as his scoundrelry. I personally handle most of the stuff relating to that through long-term-projects. Getting back on the register, getting official legal ownership of the asylum they use as a lair, etc. (I don’t really know what he’s up to, but I don’t think it’s going to be good)

With a Solicitor type, you’ve opened a whole world of work-for-hire scores, of course. Obviously “represent me in court” is an excellent opportunity for a score, with the solicitor character making some clever Sway rolls and everyone else flashbacking their way through fixing the evidence and setting the field up for victory.

But you can also be asked to do all sorts of other terrible things. Steal a bit of evidence, bribe an official, scare someone out of bringing a complaint to the magistrates, kill a witness… A dirty lawyer character is like a gift to the GM, generating endless leads for scores.

An interesting idea here is that you might use the character’s Stash to roll when looking for clients. A tier 0 solicitor with no stash is going to get, at best, very low-end legal (and illegal) work from disreputable characters. A full 4 bars of Stash and you’re on permanent retainer to Lord Penderyn.

Coin is an important resource to a solicitor character. A lot of what he’s going to be doing involves bribes, and as I mentioned you’re likely to make more use of the Stash “stat” as well. Plus, you know, you should have a nice suit for court. No one wants to hire a poor lawyer.

To that end you probably want to find mechanical ways to boost your Coin income a bit. The Slide move “A Little Something on the Side” would basically automate the process, though notably it increases your Stash, not your more readily available Coin. Another option would be to straight up lift the “Work a Side Job” downtime action from Vigilantes, where you can spend a downtime to earn a Coin, representing a small job advocating for some commoner in court for a day, or doing some sort of dull clerical legal work for a local business. Or you might pursue long-term-projects in the form of “Represent so-and-so in court” or “Negotiate standard business deal”, with a small reward of Coin granted when the job is completed.

If I were GMing I’d use a combination of all the above methods. I’d likely use a long-term-project (perhaps “Establish a Small Legal Practice”) to “unlock” the Vigilante downtime action.

Anyway those are my immediate thoughts on the issue.

6 thoughts on “Having just got my hands on the book, and giving it a readthrough, I had an idea for a character concept I wasn’t…”

RoosterEma says:

June 5, 2017 at 9:12 am

I think you could make it work with the Spider playbook, providing a respectable façade for the rest of the group. Spiders feature several ways of “fixing” situations – synergy with teammates, vice control, reducing heat… 🙂
Parker Emerson says:

June 5, 2017 at 1:40 pm

Agreed with RoosterEma – my first thought was Spider.
Mike Hoyer says:

June 5, 2017 at 3:20 pm

I you’re going for Saul specifically, Slide is also a good option, though Veteran advances means you can build the combo you need either way. Dots in both Sway and Study are most appropriate.

But I don’t think “playbook and moves” are REALLY what you’re asking advice on, here. Any playbook can be adapted to any character concept, after all. I think what you’re really interested in are the more ephemeral bits, right?

From the description on page 248 we have a fair, if not detailed, picture of how justice works in Duskwall. It doesn’t actually mention lawyers, but the system of bribery and connections it describes wouldn’t really work without them, so we can certainly assume they exist.

Firstly, on the issue of flavour, we should look at the vocabulary we’re using. “Lawyer” and “Attorney” are perfectly valid, but they sort of “feel” too modern. You want to go with something like Advocate, Solicitor, or Barrister (Your mileage on which feel more modern will be dependent on what country you live in, of course). These have distinct definitions and roles in the real world but for our purposes they can be more-or-less interchangable. I like “solicitor” best so that’s what I’m going to go with from here on.

Bear in mind that the role of solicitor in Duskwall is going to be as much accountant as lawyer. Knowing who to bribe and how much is as important, if not more, than knowing the actual law.

Solicitors in Duskwall are likely licensed, their names kept on a register. Though like everything in Duskwall getting on the register probably has more to do with bribery than actual qualifications. In my own game I have a Spider who fancies himself a doctor, and I have him pursuing a long-term-project clock to “get his name back on the medical register”

Someone like Lord Strangford is going to have a whole team of solicitors working for him, both for the corporate end of handling contracts and business, and for the seedier side of bribing magistrates and keeping the authorities looking the other way. These folks would be part of a group much like a modern law firm, with senior partners and a whole host of their own employees.

A Tier 0 scoundrel solicitor isn’t (likely) to be associated with a large firm. You’re most likely setting out on your own, one of hundreds of independent work-a-day lawyers in the city. In the relatively early days of English law this actually took the form of “traveling solicitors.” They would represent regular people in court for about a guinea (a pound and change, in game terms I would say worth 1 Coin)

Okay coming back off of flavour stuff and back on to how I would run things as a GM for such a character. As I mentioned above I GM for a character who has a “legitimate” line of business as well as his scoundrelry. I personally handle most of the stuff relating to that through long-term-projects. Getting back on the register, getting official legal ownership of the asylum they use as a lair, etc. (I don’t really know what he’s up to, but I don’t think it’s going to be good)

With a Solicitor type, you’ve opened a whole world of work-for-hire scores, of course. Obviously “represent me in court” is an excellent opportunity for a score, with the solicitor character making some clever Sway rolls and everyone else flashbacking their way through fixing the evidence and setting the field up for victory.

But you can also be asked to do all sorts of other terrible things. Steal a bit of evidence, bribe an official, scare someone out of bringing a complaint to the magistrates, kill a witness… A dirty lawyer character is like a gift to the GM, generating endless leads for scores.

An interesting idea here is that you might use the character’s Stash to roll when looking for clients. A tier 0 solicitor with no stash is going to get, at best, very low-end legal (and illegal) work from disreputable characters. A full 4 bars of Stash and you’re on permanent retainer to Lord Penderyn.

Coin is an important resource to a solicitor character. A lot of what he’s going to be doing involves bribes, and as I mentioned you’re likely to make more use of the Stash “stat” as well. Plus, you know, you should have a nice suit for court. No one wants to hire a poor lawyer.

To that end you probably want to find mechanical ways to boost your Coin income a bit. The Slide move “A Little Something on the Side” would basically automate the process, though notably it increases your Stash, not your more readily available Coin. Another option would be to straight up lift the “Work a Side Job” downtime action from Vigilantes, where you can spend a downtime to earn a Coin, representing a small job advocating for some commoner in court for a day, or doing some sort of dull clerical legal work for a local business. Or you might pursue long-term-projects in the form of “Represent so-and-so in court” or “Negotiate standard business deal”, with a small reward of Coin granted when the job is completed.

If I were GMing I’d use a combination of all the above methods. I’d likely use a long-term-project (perhaps “Establish a Small Legal Practice”) to “unlock” the Vigilante downtime action.

Anyway those are my immediate thoughts on the issue.
Mike Hoyer says:

June 5, 2017 at 3:24 pm

Oh I should have mentioned: I think the criminal lawyer character is a REALLY GOOD idea. You’ll want to discuss all this stuff (particularly the Coin farming) with your GM beforehand, but it really is a great concept for a character. I mentioned some of the reasons in the first post, but as GM I’d be thrilled to receive such a character pitch from my players.
RoosterEma says:

June 5, 2017 at 3:32 pm

Mike Hoyer dude, you kinda knocked it out of the park with the first comment 😀
Sean Nittner says:

June 5, 2017 at 7:21 pm

Mike nailed it. Deciding the actions you’ll take and the peeps you’ll affiliate with is key to making this character feel like practicing law is more than just taking “reduce heat” actions in downtime.

Saul spent almost no time in court. Most of the time he was giving advice, making deals, and hiding evidence for people.

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