Laws

[Crothian]

Oh I smell a Lawful Evil country being created. Remove the weapons, build a police state, have work farms, next will be death to all who do not obey the law or sending them to the work farms.

I think you have to have execptions to the laws. How about nobles, do they have to pay the taxes? You also need to think about the structure of the guard, how is it put together? I as a player would either join the guard or get fake papers saying I was a member of a special branch.

Right now this is the tip of the iceburg. The society will go to LE, but right now it's LN. Nobles and anyone of Rank is immune to the laws. Exceptions except the Gaurd aren't publically announced. The Gaurd enforce the laws and they know who and who not to enforce the laws upon. This will eventually lead to a few mistakes as Nobles are "accidently" detained and questioned. But I get ahead of myself, the idea is for this to be a gradual change that the PCs will see coming and a few others, but reallly be unable to do a thing about it.

The Gaurd is basically the army. They are used for internal as well as extrernal protection. THere are sepoerate areas of the Gaurd, and while they are all called the Gaurd, they don't have a lot to do wit heach other. There's the actually Ary, the police, and the gaurds.

 

[Crothian]

"Oww, that hurt. Guess I BUMPED something."

 

[Limper]

Is your goal to have the PCs commit regicide?

 

[Crothian]

Is your goal to have the PCs commit regicide?

Nope, the goal is to set up a society that is slowly going from LN to LE. The PCs may do what they will.

 

[Limper]

"See now the shadow of my hand. It is I limper despoiler of threads."

Laws look repressive enough, I asked knowing where it would go when I run.

The key is having very sound reasons for your actions be concerned with efficiency and in no time, you have a lovely Lawful Evil fascist regime with which to torment your hapless PCs.

Two thumbs up from the Limper.

 

[Crothian]

The King has his reasons. He knows what he is doing. I try to allow the PCs to do what they want, hopefully they will follow the campaign's direction, but I run a more free form style that allows plenty of options.

 

[Limper]

I honestly admire open campaigns, they are in my experience far rarer(sp) than they should be.

So on that note... I'll throw in someone elses thumb as well, thats right! THREE thumbs up from the Limper.

 

[Crothian]

Open camapaign are not easy to run. And it is quite frustrating. You come up with this great idea for an adventure and you dangle the hook, but the PCs don't bite. Also, with the open campaign you have to give the Pcs choices. So, I'll have many, many plots going on. It can be hard to decide what is going on with a plot that the PCs are not involved in. I have to present it as if is is flowing at a resonible speed. And show as it progresses. In one campaign I was running one PC was frustrated because of everything that was going on so he asked me to type everything up. There was forty plus plots going on that they had dealt with. Some where conected in ways the PCs never found out, but you get the idea how much goes on in one of my games.

 

[Maldur]

For a shift of a kingdom from LN to LE I would prepare the following (particular in a open campaign)

Set up a timeline.
describe the events in which the kingdom shifts from LN to LE.

Create a progression of Laws making everything stricter and more expensive over time.
Start withtarifs and taxes, shift to making things illegal.

example:
1. Metallic armors and weapons of war require a licence fee of 2 silver a year.
2. Mettalic armors and weapons of war are illegal, carring a fine of 10 gp upon discovery, Hunting weapons and non metallic weapons require a licence fee of 2 silver a year.
3. Mettalic armors and weapons of war are illegal, carring a 20 gp fine and 2 years labor upon discovery, Hunting weapons and non metallic weapons require a licence fee of 5 silver a year.
3. Mettalic armors and weapons of war are illegal, carring 10 years labor upon discovery and forfit of all worldly possesions, Hunting weapons and non metallic weapons require a licence fee of 5 silver a year.
4. Mettalic armors and weapons of war are illegal, carring the death sentence upon discovery and forfit of all worldly possesions, Hunting weapons and non metallic weapons require a licence fee of 10 gp a year.

etc.etc.

Decide how 'sane' the king is/will be.

With the fear of discovery the "king" could shift to full blown paranoia. Bards could be dangerous (they know things). Paladins and clery of certain gods could be trouble( they are just to "good"). At the end the pigeons flying around the castle/palace are dangerous cause they hear anything ( so making pigeons illegal)

Create lots of taxes, it creates a sad/poor/complaining population.
Farmers will always pay first when new taxes are introduced.
Also searches and raids by guards looking for adventurers/bandits/contraband/rebels would pose a real problem for farmers and townfolk.

An air tax would be pushing it though

This campaign could slip into a nice robin hood style adventure .
Good luck

 

[Crothian]

The laws do will eventually get more strict. It's easy enough to do. More weapon restrictions and higher taxes. Tighten up the Gaurds duty, tighten up patrols and make the border harder to get across.

The ruler is not insane. He knows what he wants and the best way to do that. He wants power. First he needs the foundation of power (the peasents, a strong military, and plenty of gold) and that is were this is going.

It may turn out to be Robin hood esque. The characters really decide how the game proceeds. I just set up the world and the majotr events. THey fill in the details by their actions. THey can react to things, which is what will happen at lower levels, and hopefully as they get ssome confidence and a little power under their belts they will take some initiative.

Thanks for the post.