The Laws of the Kingdom?

[Umbran]

Historically, laws have always been about helping the current regime stay in power - maintaining the status quo.

I don't know if that is as true as one might paint it. Or, if it is true, some of it is done at a level of remove.

For example, the British Common Law is heavily influenced by Viking legal forms (through both the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons). This influence is largely about the rights of free commoners. You can say that this was about maintaining the status quo by way of keeping commoners happy, I suppose, but it was not directly about keeping lords in power.

 

[Snoweel]

You can say that this was about maintaining the status quo by way of keeping commoners happy, I suppose, but it was not directly about keeping lords in power.

Benign rulership is still rulership.

 

[grodog]

Ed Greenwood wrote a wonderful article in Dragon 65 entitled "Law of the Land" in Dragon #65 and it's well-worth digging up if you have the CD Archive or the Best of Dragon volume that it was reprinted in (#4 or 5, I forget which). It has lots of good, practical advice on setting up kingdoms' laws in your campaign world.

 

[Janx]

for one campaign, that had a 17th century feel to it, and was a miltary naval campaign, I copied the US Uniform Code of Military Justice and and heavily modified it. I chopped out anythign that was a really modern reference, replaced references to ouur government entities with those in my campaign, and tweaked a couple of points that I noticed while scrolling through it.

The result was a pretty hefty pile of laws. I didn't expect the players to read it all, it was more to impress upon them that there was a law of the land, and it was organized.

It would actually be a handy resource, to have a multiple collections of laws for different kingdoms. Thus, DMs could just grab a few that sounded good for their cultures, and be done with it...

 

[WayneLigon]

I generally use the Common Law type things, but also I do this:

In General there is a 'rule of law', but that rule can be put aside or modified by the local ruler depending on his charisma and personal power (either wealth, force of arms, magical aptitude, etc). In other words, men rule instead of laws. Thankfully for most people, wizards and priests tend not to become rulers; they're generally too busy with their prayers or spell research to much bother with it.

You'll have Royal Law and Common Law; ie, there are different sets of laws for what social class you are. What is a death penalty for a commoner is a slap on the wrist to an aristocrat. Many professions police their own, which means Common Law might not apply to a wizard, a priest, or a member of the more powerful trade/craft guilds.

Towns have their own set of laws; they generally adopt much of what handful of laws the King makes. They can be more strict but seldom more lenient; all things being equal, though, as long as the local rulers get their taxes in on time, don't try to become King themselves, or don't go publicly overboard to the point of inciting rebellions, the King will leave them alone to govern as they wish.

 

[Woas]

If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to death.

That one usually goes over well with the rogues in the group.

 

[Quantarum]

Since most people have some basic concept of what's illegal, it's usually better to decide how the local law differs from the norm. Perhaps more specifically, what laws are likely to have some effect on the players.

I ran an entire adventure once around a player being mistaken for a member of an extinguished noble family because he was wearing a breastplate with the family coat of arms the group had found in a tomb. Once word spread that someone had "reclaimed" the families crest & name, the nobles who had vanquished them became enemies of the PC, assuming he was a lost heir come to reclaim the families lost lands. In order to effectively protect themselves and root out the employers of the thugs and assassins that kept popping up, they had to find out about local customs and the laws that regulated blood feuds, as well as exactly who had been a party to the original conflict. -Q.

 

[Dausuul]

It doesn't often come up, but I generally use a variation of English common law.

There are eight common law felonies.

1. Murder
2. Rape
3. Robbery (requires the use of force or threat thereof)
4. Burglary (defined as entering the dwelling of another to commit a felony therein)
5. Arson
6. Grand Larceny (theft of goods worth more than 10 gold pieces)
7. Mayhem (wounding another so severely that the other cannot serve in the king's army)
8. Kidnapping

I add a ninth: Ensorcellment -- defined to mean using magic to compel or alter the behavior of another. Casting Charm Person against a shopkeeper is ensorcellment.

The penalty for all felonies is traditionally death. Hard labor, branding, or exile may be imposed as an alternative.

There are two common law misdemeanors.

1. Battery (the use of force against another not resulting in murder or mayhem)

2. Petite Larceny (theft of goods worth 10 gp or less)

The penalty for a misdemeanor varies, but is usually a fine.

This seems like a good system to me. You have to keep in mind that working out a detailed set of legal codes for your game world is usually massive overkill, and can be actively harmful; most players want to be adventurers, not lawyers. Best to stick with a simple set of rules that the players can remember easily.

 

[ExploderWizard]

This seems like a good system to me. You have to keep in mind that working out a detailed set of legal codes for your game world is usually massive overkill, and can be actively harmful; most players want to be adventurers, not lawyers. Best to stick with a simple set of rules that the players can remember easily.

For most places simpler is better but it can be fun creating exotic locations for the PC's to visit. Part of the mystique of these places can be a baffling if not outright arcane legal system. Imagine a large popular trade city with such a system. There is a fine for just about everything, ignorance of the law is no excuse, and the full legal code can be viewed at city hall. It does usually take 2-3 weeks of study to read the whole codex during which time some laws have certainly been changed or replaced.

 

[Janx]

As dasuul points out, you don't have to document the laws for "obvious and direct" crimes. Your real cultural flavor comes in:

• specific cultutral oddities (like the family crest thing EW mentions)
• severity of fine and punishments (death for everything)
• nature of legal resolution (court/trial system)