I just finished and really enjoyed The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century which is built on the journal of Franz Schmidt who was the master executioner for the city of Nuremburg for over 50 years. It has a lot to say on normal professional life, as well as crime, punishment and identity during that time. Really fascinating read
Yeah if you read accounts from early modern people, they were not nearly as stupid and superstitious as the be’fedora’d crowd would like.
There’s a great book focussing on just one man that really shines a light on this.
The spectacle of someone being hacked several times to remove their head is why nobility were often executed by a knight or well trained swordsman, with a sword instead of an axe.
The well trained swordsman had better accuracy when striking and the word is easier to keep aligned when striking.
Interesting note — for a lot of the torturing, the executioner would strangle the person just prior to breaking them to the wheel so that the person was either near death or already dead when the torture took place.
Source: Dan Carlin and this book
a bit different but how about the life of a 16th century executioner?
https://www.amazon.com/Faithful-Executioner-Turbulent-Sixteenth-Century/dp/1250043611
Thanks for that link! Here is the us amazon link for those interested:
I like to begin any lecture with something fun. So first we'll start with one of histories greatest comedians, Lenny Bruce. Bruce was no stranger to arrests himself but in this standup, he describes the need for policing and how it probably formed:
https://youtu.be/nqIjiN2TLs8 (the animation is horrific but at least the segment is cut to where we want it)
This video doesn't specifically deal with policing but professor paulus takes ancient history and presents it in really fun cross sections. I think this video will show even in the most early civilization, law was complex and enforced by a state. Really fun listen.
Next a great resource I'd recommend is this bad boy. Highly recommended on ask historians. Best seller in multiple different centuries. An executioner keeps a diary of all his work in order to bring honor back to his family in middle ages Germany. This tackles with the odd place law enforcement has always been in our society: necessary but often castouts socially.
https://www.amazon.com/Faithful-Executioner-Turbulent-Sixteenth-Century/dp/1250043611
Another excellent resource I'd recommend on the early village psychology of man towards possessions and crime would be Theory of the Leisure class. It's free on YouTube if you like audio
The Faithful Executioner - Joel F. Harrington.
It's a bit detailed and definitely only for adult audiences, but paints a compelling picture of the executioner's life in medieval germany. The source of it is the journal of an executioner.
https://www.amazon.com/Faithful-Executioner-Turbulent-Sixteenth-Century/dp/1250043611
My advice below is based on the idea of punishing the PCs which is not the best way to handle this.
I suggest you talk to them about his (and their) behavior and that it makes it hard to run a realistic world when their heroes are basically acting like the bad guys. They are supposed to be the good guys (this assumes you don't allow evil alignments or Chaotic Neutral). Speak to the half orc player on his own and the group in general afterwards.
You, as DM, work hard to present a game and they are just crapping all over it by killing innocent people. If they say they like doing those things and would rather play a game like that then I think you either need to chose if you want to run that type of game (see below) or if another player needs to step in as DM.
>Rather, the issue is that he’s a hulking half orc that picks a fight with everything that moves and has (realistically) gotten his party in more trouble than he’s worth.
As they get up in levels running into a random high level opponent who can put him down is not impossible (see your stable)
>An example: a sleepy roadside tavern turns into a bloodbath when the local patrons don’t bow to his will immediately and provide him with every luxury available. Too far away, no witnesses, no repercussions for this for him.
There are always witnesses. Someone could have seen the fight from outside. "I went to take a piss on the side of the road and I heard an terrible fight in the bar. There were screams and killing. I hid in some bushes. Then this 'alf-orc comes sauntering out chattering about how this will teach them not to mouth off. His friend's followed after telling 'im he should not be so aggressive."
Unless they did a complete search and destroy in every room under every sack of flour in the place for a hidden halfling and then searched 100 yards in every direction then there is certainly a witness.
But let's say they did those things.
People expect the tavern to be open and full of people. Why is everyone dead? Did they bury the bodies? Speak with Dead means that unless they chopped off all the heads and burned them to ash there is definitely a witness.
The local Mayor/Count/Duke/King will not be happy about such an atrocity on his lands. He hires adventurers to handle these rabble to dare murder a tavern full of people.
>Once that gets out, the captain of the guard escorts him and the party to prison. That’s where we left off.
Good time for a group of bounty hunters following up on a roadside massacre to show up.
>What he’s done is definitively worthy of the death penalty... his party not so much. More accomplices than anything.
I read a book called The Faithful Executioner which I heartily recommend for a good idea on how cities in the Renaissance were run and how those who committed crimes were treated. I would also like to suggest Killers of the King which discusses how Charles II hunted down and punished those involved in the execution of his father Charles I.
I think both books can give any DM a great window into the rather advance governance of those times (compared to the modern stereotype of it).
I need to read them again but I feel like the half-orc would be tortured for a confession. If he confesses then he is summarily hung and quickly buried. If he fails to confess then a trial is held, he is found guilty, he is chained to a sled and dragged through town where folk will throw rotten food and excrement at him. Then he will be hung till dead and his body left to decompose as a warning.
Other PCs who can be shown to have committed killings will receive the same treatment. Otherwise they will be stripped of all possession and whipped out of town. i.e. they will be tied to a yoke and have their legs tied (so they can't run) then the executioner will follow them whipping them as they leave town.
They may be able to negotiate a better deal but I would think town authorities would be glad to send them out into the wild wearing only their underpants and holding a tiny stick. Maybe spell casters would also lose a hand.