Okay, so I was working on the rewrite of Waitress today when Judge Judy came on the TV.  I thought it might be pretty fun to have a Judge Judy RPG and is inspired from playing Breaking the Ice the last couple of days, I decided to give it a go.  It's a short game, and, hopefully, addresses humorous courtroom antics. Here it is:

Questions: I'm curious on thoughts about the dice interactions between The Courtroom and The Confessional and if you think they work?  And if the way you gain dice in The Courtroom makes sense for presenting a humorous court case?

The Unofficial Judge Judy RPG:
a Courtroom Antics Game
for two players

You are about to enter the courtroom of Judge Judy.  All the cases are real.  All the people are real.  And all the rulings are final.  All rise!  The court of the Honorable Judge Judy is now in session!

Note:  This is an unlicensed, unofficial parody based on Judge Judy’s wonderful TV show.  It is not endorsed by the producers, distributors, owners or anyone else associated with the real life TV show.  It also is not a challenge to any of their copyrights or trademarks.  This game is simply a parody of Judge Judy’s great TV show, which is now in its 10th season.

Tools For Play

· 28, that’s right 28, six sided dice.  10 of a different color if you have them.
· Pencils
· Paper
· A strong case

Good References

· An Internet connection to access the Judge Judy soundboard at: <www.ebaumsworld.com/judgejudy.html>
· For inspiration, access to the Judge Judy Website at: <www.judgejudy.com>
· Wikipedia’s Entry: <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Judy>

Influences

· Breaking the Ice
· Judge Judy

Character Creation

"Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!"

To create a character, first, decide on the case that is going to be played.  The Judge Judy website provides perfect synopses for this and they cover each season back to 2003. 

Example: Unwed teenage parents wage war over the bill her mother racked up on his credit card.

Second, decide who will be the plaintiff and who will be the defendant.  Third, come up with a list of five things that will help you win the case.  These will be played during The Courtroom and are called Traits.  Forth, come up with a list of five things that will cause you to loose the case.  These may be played during The Courtroom or The Confessional to increase your chance to win.  These are called Disadvantages. Fifth, briefly describe what your character looks like and what they’re wearing.
How to Play:

"I eat morons like you for breakfast."

Play occurs in two phases: 1. The Courtroom, and 2. The Confessional.  Play involves gaining dice via the use of Traits and Disadvantages in The Courtroom, and then by the use of Disadvantages and dice gained in The Courtroom during The Confessional.  Once a Trait or Disadvantage is used, it is crossed off of the character sheet.

The Courtroom

"If it doesn't make sense, it's not true!"

The Plaintiff goes first.  Play in the Courtroom alternates between players as they work through five Questioning Phases.  During a Questioning Phase, the Active Player has a chance at earning a number of dice.  These dice are rolled and the successes and failures are counted and kept secret until The Judgment.  The player with the most successes wins the judgment.  After earning one die in each Phase, the player has the right to refuse any additional dice that Judge Judy may want to give.  Results of 1-3 mean a win, and results of 4-6 mean a loss.  In order to win, the each player must have one loss.
The Active player is playing their character, and the other player is playing Judge Judy.  Judge Judy awards the dice based on the characters performance during the questions.  After the Active Player finishes the Phase, the players switch rolls.  Both players play all the Phases.
During each of the phases starting during the second, each player playing Judge Judy must use the phrase “I’m speaking” or lose one successful die from their turn.
Phase One: Stating the Case

Dice Available: 2
The players state their side of the case.  One die is awarded after the case is stated, and another die is award if Judge Judy decides that their case is well stated or if the player did an exceedingly funny job of stating the case. 

Phase Two: Under Pressure – The Questions

Dice Available: 3
Judge Judy asks question to the Active Player about what she or he stated in Phase One, and the player must answer them using Traits.  Three dice are available, but only given if the Active Player can answer the questions using their Traits.

Phase Three: Presenting the Evidence

Dice Available: 4
In this phase, the Active Player presents evidence based on Traits and Disadvantages.  Judge Judy can question them, but the Active Player can introduce as many as he wants up to the maximum of dice earned.

Phase four: Being Hammered On

Dice Available: Up to 5
In this phase, Judge Judy gets to insult and hammer on the Active Player.  The Active Player can earn the ability to re-roll failed dice from the last three phases, but only by using Disadvantages to do so.

Phase Five: Taking the Abuse

Dice Available: 5
During this phase, the Active Player takes the roll of Judge Judy and the Judge Judy player plays the other player’s character.  The Active Player can then dish out Abusive phrases pointing out how stupid his character and his character’s side of the case is.  The Inactive Player awards dice based on every funny thing the Active Player says and two dice for each quote from the TV show that he or she uses up to a maximum of five dice.  Keep the dice earned here separate from the others.  They do not affect the outcome of The Courtroom.  These are bonus dice given to the loser of The Courtroom and subtracted from the dice pool of the winner of The Courtroom.

Figuring Out Who Wins

"Don't say stupid things to me. If you say stupid things to me, it presupposes that I am stupid, and I don't want people to think I'm stupid. Old, maybe; stupid, never."

After all the phases are played out, the dice are revealed.  The player with the most successes wins The Courtroom.  To see how good of a case they had figure out the ratio of wins to losses and compare it to the Winning Ratio Chart.

Winning Ratios Chart

Ratio (W:L)----How Right the Winner Was-------------------------------------------------------------------Dice Awarded
4:1 or above---The Winner was 100% in the right.----------------------------------------------------------------W7 L0
3:1 to 4:1-------The Winner was mostly right.------------------------------------------------------------------------W6 L1
2:1 to 3:1-------The winner was mostly right but the loser had good points.------------------------------W5 L2
1:1 to 2:1-------The winner presented his or her case better but both had good cases.--------------W4 L3
1:1 to 1:2-------The winner was in the wrong but argued good.-------------------------------------------------W3 L4
1:2 to 1:3-------The winner completely wrong.------------------------------------------------------------------------W2 L5
1:3 to 1:4-------Not only was the winner completely wrong, but also he or she was an idiot--------W1 L6
1:4 or below---Judge Judy must have been on another planet.-------------------------------------------------W0 L7

After the ratio is figured out and the chart consulted, players can wager dice based on the Dice Awarded column to determine who receives the honor of narrating the judgment.  Dice are wagered, and then rolled.  The player with the most successes wins narration rights.  The winner retains all the dice they wagered plus two more, and the loser loses the dice they waged.  All ties go to the winner of The Courtroom.

The Confessional: Prove yourself to the Public

"Count yourself very lucky you didn't reproduce with this moron."

During the Confessional, the players get to have their characters talk to a camera without being interrupted to try and prove their case to the public or make themselves look like the good person, and they may state why they think the judgment was right or wrong.  The player who lost narration rights in the last roll goes first.

The Power of Confession

To determine the number of dice to be used in the Confessional, take the number of dice remaining from the winning ratios after the wager, then add or subtract the number of dice earned in Phase Five.  The winner of The Courtroom subtracts the dice from Phase Five from the dice gained in the Winner Ratio, to account for the damage then gained in insults to their untarnished reputation.  The loser of The Courtroom adds the dice from Phase Five to the dice they gained in the Winner Ration.  This accounts for how bad the audience feels for him, because how mean Judge Judy was to the character.

Giving the Confession

During the confession, the players use any remaining Disadvantages during narration to earn dice, and then they can use the number of dice determined in The Power of Confession to add more narration and points to help sway the TV viewers to his or her side of the case.

Winning the Confessional

"I only do one thing at a time. I'm old, I can only do one thing at a time, otherwise I get confused and then I can't trick you..."

After both players give their Confession, roll all the dice, and the player with the most successes wins.  To see how much of the public believed the winner of the confession determine the ratio of winning dice to losing dice and compare it to the Confessional Chart.

Confessional Chart

Ratio (W:L) What the Public Believes
3:1 and above--Your character is the total good guy and the other idiot is completely at fault
2:1 to 3:1--------The other character was a smuck and a idiot, but you bare some fault.
1:1 to 2:1--------The other character was a smuck, and they were probably at fault.
1:1 or 1:2--------Just over 50% of the audience likes you.
1:2 or below-----The audience thinks that both of you were at fault, but you got the shaft the most during The Courtroom.

Wrapping Up

"Listen to me!!! Just tell me things that have a point! It's very late and I'm hungry. It's lunchtime!"

After the Confessional is played, the only thing left to do is to wrap up play.  If one player one both the Confessional and the Courtroom, then it is a pretty clear-cut victory modified by “How right the winner was” and “What the public believes.”  If it is a mixed victory, and the Courtroom Ratio was higher than the Confessional Ration, then the winner of the Courtroom in the right.  If the Courtroom Ratio is lower than the Confessional Ratio, then although the winner of the Courtroom got a judgment in their favor, their victory is muddied because the public believes they were wrong.

Thanks,
Bryan