Dominus Magisterium--Law and Order in The D&D Campaign

[Hand of Evil]

I set some basic rules down for my players based on location, being wilderness, rural or city. Different character classes are given the ‘rules’ as needed, like a barbarian is given wilderness, where a wizard would be given city. While these are not laws in general, they set the tone and give role-playing hints.

Example of rules:
Wilderness:
You do not enter a camp unannounced.
You share your fire with those announced.
You do not allow fire to get out of control.
You do not steal another person’s horses. (Some tribes of barbarians do so as a right of passage but it is done against other barbarian tribes that do the same. Also some races are not seen as a person).
You pay wereguild.

Rural:
You do not kill livestock unless you own it.
You do not crash in a barn unless you are invited.
You do not destroy property.
You do help at community events.
You do share information in a tavern or on the road when asked.
You do not sleep with someone else’s husband/wife.
You do marry those you get with child. (If you are around).

City: (standard basic stuff)
Cannot steal, cannot kill, cannot be drunk in public, so on. I do add some based on holiday or events, like can’t eat red meat, must wear a hat. Role-playing bits that can cause problems for those that do not take the time to check on a few things.

I also use wereguilds for accidental death & dismemberment, property loss, and such in wilderness and rural areas.

Nobles may have different rights based on title or the ablity to payoff people.

 

[Bonedagger]

City: (standard basic stuff)
... cannot be drunk in public

Standart? Not here in Denmark. In the capital we often see drunk swedes walking down the.... (we have some streets where you are not allowed to drive. Dunno what they would be called in english so let's just call them)... streets They have a very strict alcohol politik even compared to Australia. .....

 

[Voadam]

Part of it is how you want to set up your world.

Some have defaults that PCs are tougher than most everybody, some have them as tougher than most but outclassed by others.

In my ravenloft game where all the PCs are evil, there are some big cities and many isolated villages. There are always plenty of power wise nobodies but also clearly uber powerful individuals and also efficient organizations/secret societies.

When one of the PCs was turned into a wight and they were travelling in wilderness and came upon an isolated village of under a hundred commoners, the wight PC couldn't resist the urge for warm life to fight back the burning chill of his unlife, (I don't force this, I just really buildup the roleplay and sensation aspects of the condition) so his buddies just went around blatantly grabbing up people and bringing them to the wight for him to experiment on (being new to his condition and not knowing how everything worked such as would he automatically drain when he cast cure light wounds on a living creature) and to drain to feel closer to living again (temporarily).

The living party members were hopped up experienced violent drow and grugach with giant strength, invisibility, and massive sneak attack abilities. In a village of peasants they were pretty unstoppable.

They ran a huge risk in doing so, however. The whole village could have been filled with greater wolfweres instead of humans and they would have been very very dead. But they took the risk and it paid off that one time and they were able to get away with it. Later when they went to the big cities, they always stayed in the shadows, particularly because many reactions to demihumans are "Burn the monsters!" Also there are "things" everywhere, in both the deep woods and lurking on streets at night.

They were very careful and respectful around Baba Yaga in person, they were quietly cautious in cities, and blatantly overbearing and uncontrollable when they had the absolute upper hand. They were dynamically judging situations and taking advantage of things when they could. There mayhem is a little encouraged because they have a lot of invsibility and flying magic and are strong on their own and can survive comfortably in the wilderness.

 

[Voadam]

In the viking world, how tough your town was could determine whether you got an international merchant showing up on your shore, or a boat full of raiders. Vikings were a practical lot and when they came upon an undefended shore they were known to break out the swords and spears, kill and loot quickly then sail on. When the shores were well guarded they would sail up land and trade. vikings had trade goods from as far away as arabia and not from outsiders coming up to scandinavia, but from the norse going out in the world and trading or otherwise acquiring these fine goods of the world.

 

[Nightfall]

I still favor the Hollowfaustian approach to dealing with trouble makers "You make trouble, we make you do patrols, fighting and killing for us...for all eternity. Or at least until we think you're annoance then we turn you. " Okay I admit, I just like turning players into skeletons! Sue me.

 

[Kichwas]

This would vary by region.

In Fahla in the Eastern Kingdoms law and order goes about as far as the local lord can get in a day's ride. The continent has been plagued by constant petty warfare and banditry which has kept trade and law to a minimum.

In the Western Kingdoms in places such as Lomyr you have a highly complex legal system. Complex enough to make being a Solicitor/Lawyer an established profession (largely fielded by Kobolds...). But this region is also plagued by 'organized crime'; given many of it's urban zones a 1930's Chicago like atmosphere.

Go north into the Hobgoblin/Human nations of the Plateau and "there is no crime". Anybody who says otherwise disapears. The state rules with an iron fist over all aspects of life. A land where the '3rd reich' not only came to power, but lasted 3 millenia.


Spin out into other continents and the variety just grows.
Merchants who trade over the sea ply a dangerous living dealing with vastly different legal systems in the ports they enter as well as piracy on the seas. No merchant would dare set sail with not only a compliment of skilled mercenaries, but a trained Solicitor able to navigate the customs of all intended ports.


As for police, my games in the setting most likely focus in Lomyr and within that land the only people who can be armed and armored within an urban zone are the Guard. Not even soilders of the empire may enter anything larger than a hamlet armed and armored. Nobles can be armed, but not armored. Anyone else is restricted to weapons that have practical use like daggers and staves.

The guard uses a variety of races and skill types to complete it's duties and even if the first batch you find are just simple patrolmen if you're in a city it's likely you'll end up facing a fairly high level group of specialists by the end of your rampage.

Which is just one more reason why the thieves have become so organized. The best weapon against guard is not sharp, but small, round, metalic, and with a slight gleam of precious metal...

 

[Umbran]

I, personally, have made good use of a sort of "Old West" model of law enforcement, at least so far as higher-level PCs are concerned.

In most campaign worlds, the adventurers are heros, who go around and right the wrongs caused by evil priests, humanoids, monsters and the like, right? If the PCs should choose to be the bad guys, does that mean there are no heros? Heck no! If the PCs start abusing the local populace, word gets around, and every would-be hero comes looking for them

You see, keeping a standing law enforcement authority capable of handling high-level PCs is prohibitively costly - about the same as keeping a standing army, if you think about it. Whereas heros work for what the community would think is chump change - a modest fee, a little mundane equipment, and whatever treasure they find on the PCs is usually sufficient (Good aligned folk are like that).

 

[mmadsen]

I set some basic rules down for my players based on location, being wilderness, rural or city. Different character classes are given the ‘rules’ as needed, like a barbarian is given wilderness, where a wizard would be given city. While these are not laws in general, they set the tone and give role-playing hints.

Hand of Evil, I enjoyed your example social rules. I'd add a big one in bold about Hospitality though -- feed and house strangers, and allow no harm to come to them; never harm anyone offering hospitality.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Hand of Evil, I enjoyed your example social rules. I'd add a big one in bold about Hospitality though -- feed and house strangers, and allow no harm to come to them; never harm anyone offering hospitality.

I have thought about adding the 'breaking of bread' that you do not harm someone that you share a meal with. Also the sharing of gifts but just never added them.

 

[Umbran]

I realize that it seems very popular that the Thieves' Guilds would be very powerful, but I happen to think (that in organized societies at any rate,) that the powers of Law would come down on the thriving Thieves' Guild like a ton of bricks!:

Methinks that history and human nature suggests a slightly different result. The forces of Law make a lucrative deal, and continue to appear as if they come down like a ton of bricks, while actually allowing the crime to continue in a reasonably quiet fashion. This is a nice, orderly, regulated arrangement...

Power corrupts, and that includes the power of Law.