Judge Classes

[Travire]

Just bought a copy of the Judge Dredd RPG and I have to say I am impressed. I read Judge Dredd throughout my childhood and I've always wanted to run a game, if only I could persuade my players. The GW version was a big dissapointment, but Mongoose seem much more competant at producing this sort of licence.

One worry I do have though concerns the lack of class options for a judge based campaign. Why was it decided to make the Psi Judge a main character class and the other specialty judges ( tech judges, med judges, etc ) prestige classes ?

The one effect this is likely to have is that half the party are likely to choose to be Psi Judges just to play something different. This results in a much greater number of Psi Judges than there should be in a group. In the comic Psi Judges were very rare talents ( one of the reasons they are given such liberty in their behaviour ), perhaps only one in every hundred judges. In the GW version of Judge Dredd you needed to roll a very high Psi Talent score to qualify as a Psi Judge, but the D20 System has a strange aversion to having minimum stats for character classes in any game. Even so I am thinking of introducing a house rule that Psi Judges have to have a minimum of Charisma 16 just to cut down the numbers.

Why were the other specialty judges not considered suitable for use as a begining character class ? Are there any new judge classes in other supplements ?

 

[mthomason]

One worry I do have though concerns the lack of class options for a judge based campaign. Why was it decided to make the Psi Judge a main character class and the other specialty judges ( tech judges, med judges, etc ) prestige classes ?

I believe this was done because a Psi Judge is pretty much always a Psi Judge from the day they're recruited, while the others are specialisms a Street Judge can move into later after the relevant training. You can train a Psi, but you can't train to be a Psi, so you have to have the option of being one from the beginning.

 

[mthomason]

Why were the other specialty judges not considered suitable for use as a begining character class ?

If this is of concern to your group, my advice would be to start everyone at a higher level to begin with, so those that want to be Med or Tech judges can choose to be.

 

[mthomason]

Even so I am thinking of introducing a house rule that Psi Judges have to have a minimum of Charisma 16 just to cut down the numbers.

The thing to bear in mind here is that anyone can progress to Med or Tech through their own volition by buying the relevant skills and feats through experience. Judges that want to be these can be after the relevant training has taken place.

The other problem you may run into is that it's not common for a group consisting of some street judges, a psi, a tech, and a med judge to constantly be assigned together - you may want to consider this alternative that I tried out last time I ran a game:

Every player rolls up a standard street judge as their main character. This group remains together constantly. Then every player also gets an alternate character (med, tech, psi, senior judge, wally squad operative, retired judge at the academy, or even a civilian) who gets involved in the storyline as required. Because this isn't their "main" character, starting them at varied levels of experience shouldn't be an issue.

This gives you the core of an assigned squad to base the story around, and specialists to assist them as required - think of a TV cop show with the main characters the story is written around, and the specialists back at headquarters (or the guy they go to for information on whats happening out on the street) they interact with from time to time. The players get some variety without having to sacrifice the storyline to explain how come this med judge is constantly attached to this squad rather than attending medical emergencies. When "their" specialism is needed, the player switches characters (and it just so happens the nearest med judge when someone is injured is always the same guy)