Ideas on portraying laws as useful and benefical to PCs

[dreaded_beast]

For all you DMs and players too, any ideas on how to show that laws are beneficial to PCs and not just a hinderance? I want to show the players in my game that "the system works" and that they don't have to "stand up to the Man."

Some ideas I have heard from some posters on other threads are:

-Show the city guards fighting off some monsters that the PCs are unable to deal with at the moment

-Show the city guards arrest some thieves in the town for attempting to pick pocket the PCs

-Show the city guards arrest and deal with an evil adventuring group in town

Any ideas you want to add or share, please do so!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

-DON'T have the City Guards constantly bagger and watch the PCs all the time

I've seen some DMs do that, and it just makes the PCs paranoid and resentful. Its okay to have City Guards that ignore people or just give a gruff "Move along"

 

[SteelDraco]

Having a decent, kind NPC guardsman can do wonders for portraying the law of a city well. I know when I was running a Waterdeep campaign, the party was a lot more likely to trust the Watch after they met the paladin who was one of the leaders of the aerial cavalry there. He was just a good guy - not bossy, or rude, or anything else that one might expect of high-up law enforcement.

Also, having the guards understand and help the PCs during a moment of trouble can reallly make the party like them.

 

[VirgilCaine]

IMC, some countries have "good" codes of laws, and some have "bad" codes of laws.

What kind of laws are we talking about, anyway?

Did the PC commit a murder--i.e. kill a bandit or three? Oh, you didn't use the state-mandated non-lethal poison on your blade...thats MURDER! Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
In other countries, self-defense is easily verified via Zone of Truth...

Tax evasion? Sorry, only two things that are assured are death and taxes...

"Weapons control"? Most countries don't bother. Either everyone NEEDS to be armed, because this is the frontier/close to it, or no one cares unless you are USING the weapon to kill/maim, or the weapons laws only apply to commoners, and they can only have Simple weapons or non-edged weapons, like those maces, morningstars, hammers, picks and such that no Fighter hardly ever uses.

"Unlawful use of magic"? Take that up with The Guild--total membership: All wizards. Representatives will track you down and administer justice within a few days.

-Show the city guards fighting off some monsters that the PCs are unable to deal with at the moment

-Show the city guards arrest some thieves in the town for attempting to pick pocket the PCs

-Show the city guards arrest and deal with an evil adventuring group in town

Also, cities IMC, don't have a centralized "police force"--all those "city guards" are clerics of Lawful deities, or militiamen or regular army or down on their luck adventurers/mercenaries who have "settled down" to keep the peace inside the walls.

 

[Carpe DM]

Law codes in D&D have been something I've been thinking about too much.

There is a basic problem: Players know they can break the law and get away with it because of metagaming.

If they are captured, it's game over. So they assume that even if they break the law, are captured, tried, and flung in jail naked, there'll be some way to get out, and all their equipment will be in the adjacent 10' x 10' room. Guarded by a half-orc (they don't let orcs be guards).

How to solve this basic problem of laws and metagaming? Well, one interesting historical fact is that the problem of "scofflaws," (that is, people who were too powerful for positive enforcement) *was* a problem for historical legal regimes.

So, the solution I use: Outlawry. If the party obeys the laws, they are considered part of the community, *AND* they are protected and bound by it. If the party decides not to obey the laws, they are simply outlaws. Not hunted, not tracked down, just completely unprotected by law. Anyone may kill them. Anyone may steal from them. No-one may sell anything to them. No town may offer shelter. And so on.

In D&D this becomes really key: No-one will raise you from the dead. No-one will heal you. You essentially have to leave the jurisdiction.

Usually I drive the point home early in a campaign by having the parties witness an outlawry trial and its consequences. They then understand the value of the law is the value of the community it protects. Mess with the community, and you won't necessarily be jailed or killed. The community simply won't interact with you any more. Period.

Carpe

 

[Arnwyn]

Having a decent, kind NPC guardsman can do wonders for portraying the law of a city well. I know when I was running a Waterdeep campaign, the party was a lot more likely to trust the Watch after they met the paladin who was one of the leaders of the aerial cavalry there. He was just a good guy - not bossy, or rude, or anything else that one might expect of high-up law enforcement.

Also, having the guards understand and help the PCs during a moment of trouble can reallly make the party like them.

I'm going to "ditto" this entire post. This is absolutely one of the best ways to handle things, tried and true IMC (and at least one other!). Having a bunch of nice, helpful city guards will certainly color their view of the law and law enforcement individuals.

You might consider having them cut the PCs a break if the PCs are well-meaning, and have the guards give them "helpful hints" and advice in a friendly manner.

Make it seem that the guards are on their side (because, really, unless you're in the most corrupt areas - they are).

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Here's one incident in a campaign I ran:

The party had a few problems with a local lord on the way into a site-based adventure. They finish up the adventure with a few hit points left and no spells. On the way back to town this lord and his henchmen are a much bigger problem. Having them clobbered after beating the big-bad would have been anticlimactic, so after watching them panic for a few rounds, I had a posse of the king's sheriffs ride by (reasonable, since they're on the king's highway, which is patrolled). The sheriffs arrested the lord for assaulting a priest (one of the party) and haul him away to jail.

They liked the sheriffs a lot after that.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I know when I was running a Waterdeep campaign, the party was a lot more likely to trust the Watch after they met the paladin who was one of the leaders of the aerial cavalry there. He was just a good guy - not bossy, or rude, or anything else that one might expect of high-up law enforcement.

Heh.

In a PbEM game I'm involved in, we tend to interact with the Watch fairly frequently. We have a habit of turning up when weird stuff happens, and so the Watch are used to seeing us around. Sometimes we've helped them out; sometimes we've got in the way; once we screwed up a sting operation they'd been setting up for months by blundering after a lead we'd found...

But we have been helpful, so the Captain of the Watch tends to treat us with a sort of resigned tolerance.

The druid I'm playing has rather a heavy crush on him, though she tries (badly) not to let it show. Of course, given that she's a half-orc (with the orcish half showing through fairly strongly), nobody rates her chances much

-Hyp.

 

[Steverooo]

Have the usual, but have the guards HELP the PCs, instead of hassle them.

The typical bar fight... The guards run in, and break it up three rounds after it begins, but instead of arresting the PC"Troublemakers", they ask the Lawful NPCs who done it, and are told the bad guys started the fight. They then hassle said bad guys, apologize to the PCs, and DO NOT haul them off to prison, arresting the true troublemakers, instead.

The guardsmen observe the PCs' pockets being picked, arrest the thie(f/ves), and return the PCs' gear.

The PCs are accused of a crime. The guardsmen investigate, and prove them innocent. One of them testifies in their defense.

The Taxman cometh... The Taxman taketh away too much! The Guardsman cometh, and quizzeth the PCs. With their help, the Taxman is arrested, and their gold restored.

The PCs are fireballed in the streets! Most of them drop. When they awaken (in the hospital or healers' hall), they learn that their remaining comrade(s), with the aid of the local guards, have apprehended the enemy wizard, who has since been hanged.

A guardsman appears, seeking the unluckiest PC... Once he finds him/her, he reveals that some LONG-lost stolen property has been recovered, if (s)he will just stop by and reclaim it...

At higher levels, a/some PC(s) save a low-level guardsman from certain death, and heal him as much as is possible. The poor ex-guardsman is too near death to do much good, and goes off to find a new profession, never forgetting the adventurer(s) who saved his life. Some time later, when the PC(s) need(s) help, the NPC ex-guardsman re-appears, as a low-level Bard with Legend Lore and Local Knowledge... and he still sings the praises of his old helper(s)!

Stuffs like that...

 

[jgbrowning]

For all you DMs and players too, any ideas on how to show that laws are beneficial to PCs and not just a hinderance? I want to show the players in my game that "the system works" and that they don't have to "stand up to the Man."

Make 'em the man.

joe b.