Generic Law System
Template:CDD Articles By Christian Jurvanen
This system is based on a law system presented in one of the Shadow World modules. I have made heavy alterations to original rules and I also have heavily expanded the old system which only handled crimes of theft, murder and assault + few minor offenses like perjury,disturbing peace (and even those it handled very badly). So 95 % of the rules are of my own design and have not what so ever to do with ICE. Only the terminology has been adapted almost like it was.While this system was made to work with Rolemaster it's easy to understand that it shall work with any medieval role playing game and with few alterations it could be made to work with modern day RPGs . But it would be good if the system was somewhat precise about damage done in battle, so that the "judge" can decide whether it resulted in permanent serious damage or was it just some mild injury which shall get better in few days. I hope you find this Law System useful. If you have any ideas or comments or questions about the rules, please feel free to join and edit.
Contents |
Major Crimes
Theft
base: 125/250 pp + compensation or loot back, type II
| x 1 | Victim of lower social status or a foreigner. |
| x 2 | Victim is a citizen. |
| x 3 | Victim of higher social status or crime was against governement. |
| x 2 | Crime had a abnormally large negative impact on victims life or government functions (extreme situations only). |
| x 2 | If the loot was not found or compensated by the thief's own money. |
| x 0.5 | Participating . |
Assault / Battery
base: 500 pp, type III (IV : mutilation).
| x 0 | Self defense. (x 0.5 Victim is an outlaw). |
| x 1 | Victim of lower social status or a foreigner (or x 2). |
| x 2 | Victim is a citizen. |
| x 3 | Victim of higher social status or a government official. |
| x 1 | If aggravated. |
| x 2 | If unprovoked. |
| x 3 | Premeditated. |
| x 1.5 | If included torturing/mutilation/etc, type IV. |
| x 0.375 | If only very minor injuries or not at all. |
| x 0.75 | No permanent serious damage. |
| x 0.5 | Participating. (x 0.5 Self defense in criminal situation). |
Murder / Attempted Murder
base: 1000 / 500 pp (for attempted), type IV / III
| x 0 | Self defense. (x 0.5 Victim was an outlaw). |
| x 1 | Victim of lower social status or a foreigner (or x 2). |
| x 2 | Victim was a citizen. |
| x 3 | Victim of higher social status or a governement official. |
| x 1 | Aggravated. |
| x 2 | If unprovoked. |
| x 3 | Premeditated. |
| x 0.5 | Participating. (x0.5 Self defence in criminal situation). |
Treason
base: 1000 pp, type IV
| x 1 | Under pressure. |
| x 2 | For personal gain/etc. |
| x 1 | A merely minor matter. |
| x 2 | A matter of importance. |
| x 3 | A matter of national security. |
| x 2 | During war time. |
| x 1.5 | Refusing to co-operate. |
Spying
base: 1000 pp, type III
| x 1 | Trivial information. |
| x 2 | Relatively important matters. |
| x 3 | National security. |
| x 2 | During war time. (x 2/3 Co-operating). |
Kidnapping
base: 500 pp + any other crime at full penalty, type III
| x 0.5 | An outlaw Victim). |
| x 1 | Victim of lower social status or a foreigner (or x 2). |
| x 2 | Victim is a citizen. |
| x 2 | Victim of higher social status or a government official. |
| x 0.5 | Done in moments anger and not for gain/etc, not premeditated. |
| x 0.5 | Participating. |
Selling / Producing Poisons (If Illegal)
base: 1000 pp + participating, type III
| x 2 | Refusing to tell information about his/hers clients. |
| x 3 | As above except if there is reason to suspect that a life might be in danger. |
| |
Other Crimes
those with base below 500 pp
Disturbing Peace
base : 5 - 10 pp, type MO
Vandalism
base : 5 - 50 pp + compensation, type MO / I
- Compensation equal to damage caused. If unable to compensate add 1 pp / gp of damages to a maximum of100 pp and . Penalty points may be purchased with work to compensate the damage. === Breach Of Contract ===
base : 50 - 250 + compensation, type I
- As Vandalism except 0.25 - 1 pp/gp.
Counterfeiting
base 125/250 pp + (participating) + compensation, type II
| x 3 | Vs government. |
| x 2 | To cause great harm to another being. |
| x 0.5 | Participating or using counterfeited items with knowledge about their origins. |
| |
Smuggling
base : 100/250 pp + (failure to pay taxes) + all items in question (if x 2 or x 3) type II/III
| x 2 | Strictly forbidden, failure to pay taxes . |
| x 3 | Smuggling something that is used against interests of government, failure to pay taxes. |
Failure To Pay Taxes
base 75/150 pp + compensation, type I
| x 0.25 | If there was no attempt to cheat government (lack of money), type MO |
| x 1 | If had a good solid reason and was probably going to pay the taxes later. |
| x 2 | Trying to cheat government out of rightful taxes. |
| |
Buying / Fencing Stolen Goods
base : 100/300 +participating, type I
| x 2 | If illegal items. |
| |
Blackmailing
base : 150 + #9, type I
Harboring A Fugitive / Criminal
base : as participating, type: varies -I.
Lying Under Oath
base : considered as participating, type : varies but - I
Perjury
base : 50 pp, type MO
Abusing Power For Personal Gains / Reasons
base : 50/100 pp, type: I / II
| x 1 | Under pressure. |
| x 2 | Personal gains. |
| x 3 | To cause harm to another person. |
| |
Escaping Prison / Workplace
base : 250 (attempt counts), type II
| x 0.5 | If only planned not even attempted. |
| note 1 : Double the base for every attempt after the first. | |
Penalties and Compensation
Normal Work Camp
Time done in work camps/etc is worth 3.5 to 5 pp/week. Judge can decide this one.
- If person turns himself in before he/she has a reason to expect arrest then use 5 to 6 penalty points per week. Jail time is assumed to be hard labor.
Death penalty
or whatever the society has deemed to be the harshest penalty.
- If penalty points for single crime are between 4000 - 6000 judge can give the accused a death penalty.
- If penalty points for multiple crimes are between 8000 - 12000 judge can give the accused a death penalty.
- If penalty points exceed in 1 or 2 the maximum number a mandatory death penalty is given. This rule can be disregarded if judge deems it to be a special case.
- First timers won't be killed unless their penalty points are 9000 for single crime or 18000 for multiple crimes. Even then can the judge have mercy upon the person. # First timer is a person who hasn't got previous convictions greater than type MO or has got conviction from type I crime which had penalty points no more than 50 .
Other Compensations
- Up to 500 pp can be bought at the rate of 0.1 - 1 gp/pp. Money is paid to the court or/and to the victim.
- Big facial mark T to forehead (thieves only) is worth 500 pp.
- Up to 50 pp can be forgiven or accepted in private work at the rate of 1-2 pp/day.
Special
- If the person has no previous penalties larger than MO and has good reputation and is considered to be first time offender, judge can decrease their penalty points by 1/4.
- Persons under age of 15 shall have their penalties lessened by 25% - 50%.
- Repeat offenders add 20% additional pp for same crime and 10% for other crimes. Multipliers are cumulative. Exception is in a case of minor offense or type I with no more than 50 pp. These are not considered to be crimes when it comes to multipliers.
- If the suspect is a member of a tribe which has longer lifespan than human, their penalties (not pp:s) are increased according to following formula : (avg.lifespan/200 + 0.5). Disregard the fractions less than 0.5. For game purposes consider immortal races to have a lifespan of 1000 years.
- When calculating penalty points for multiple counts of breaking the law under one criminal act, use a multiplier of .75 for every crime after the first. Multipliers are cumulative. So third crime has a multiplier of 0.75*0.75=0.5625. When calculating like this organize individual crimes with the largest pp value calculated first, then the second largest one and so on. Note! This only applies to multiple crimes under one criminal act.
Parole
Number reflects the minimum penalty (awarded for good behaviour).
- note 1 : add +5 % for every conviction (crime greater than MO, or type I max.50 pp).
- type :MO .50 %, I. 55 %, II 60%, III 70 %, IV 80 %.
Examples
One Criminal Act
Sarafin the assassin has been hired to assassinate a wealthy merchant. He succeeds, but is caught shortly afterwards. Crime: Murder : x 2 citizen (not x3 because target was no lord or government figure), #3 premeditated (assassinations rarely are anything less). total: 2*3= 6, so pp:s are 6*1000 penalty points awarded: 6000 (Sarafin has no previous convictions), Judge decides that he shall not give Sarafin a multiplier 0.75 for good and honest reputation (judge thinks that this was not probably his first offense and he's right). Now judge has to decide if Sarafin should be given the death penalty. Judge looks at the books and has to admit that Sarafin has no previous convictions so he cannot hang him. Then Judge decides that he is not going to allow fines to be used as part of penalty (that doesn't matter because Sarafin doesn't have money anyway). Next the judge decides that he's going to use a multiplier of 3.5 which is the multiplier that gives the harshest penalty this judge is a tough one, poor Sarafin).
Total jail time: 6000/3.5=1714 weeks. So judge thinks for a while and says: Sarafin you are found guilty and are sent to jail for 33 (actually 32,96) years . Of which you shall have to serve at least 80 %. Poor Sarafin.
Multiple Criminal Acts Under Same Crime:
Shimor a good friend of Sarafin decides to rob a rich person. He waits in alley for a good target. Finally one arrives. Shimor jumps at him and hacks the poor victim with his mace. Splash, hack, crunch!!. As the victim bites the dust Shimor quickly removes all the valuables from him.
Unfortunately Shimor soon finds him-self surrounded by ten town guards. Shimor doesn't give up, quickly he takes his mace and strikes the first guard to leg (crunch!, a broken leg), but town guards quickly overpower poor Shimor.
Crime: Assault on town guard + assault on citizen + theft
Assault on town guard: x 3 government official x 2 unprovoked x 0.75 (no serious permanent injury, leg healed just fine) total : x 3 x 2 x 0.75 = 4 .5 penalty points for crime 1. 4.5* 500 = 2250 pp
Assault on citizen : x2 citizen x 3 premeditated x 0.375 (Despite his efforts he didn't really achieve anything serious. Total : x 2 x 3 x 0.375 = 2.25 Penalty points given are 2,25 * 500 = 1125 pp Theft : x 2 citizen x 1 (booty was recovered), total : x2 x 1 = 2 Penalty points : 2 * 250 = 500 pp (Judge decides to use 250 points because it was not a petty theft (judge could have used a base of 125).
Judge says because all crimes were a result of one criminal act they are considered to be a one crime.
Total penalty points given are 2250 + 0.75 * 1125 + 0.75*0.75*500 = 3375 pp.
But because Shimor also has no previous wrongdoings and is known to be a son of a wealthy merchant, judge decides that he shall lessen the number of penalty points by 25% (judge can either give the full 25 % or none at all, there is no middle ground).
Total penalty points are 3375 * 0.75= 2531pp.
Judge says to Shimor : I'm going to give you a break. You can pay some of your crime with money at the rate of 0.2 sp/gp (judge thinks that this is something Shimor can still pay), to a maximum of 500 pp = 100 gp.
Shimors father provides the money which is then paid to the guard and the victim as the court sees fit. Now Shimor only has 2531 - 500 = 2031 penalty points left. Shimor says that he's not going to do anything like that ever again. Judge is not made of stone. He decides to use a multiplier of 5 (which constitutes the minimum, he could have use anything from 3.5 to 5). Jail time = 2031 / 5 = 406 weeks = 7.8 years of which Shimor has to do at least 68 % (2* assault + 1*theft, that means that minimum amount of time spent in jail is (2*500*70% + 1*250*60%)/ (2*500 + 250). So Shimorin could be out after only 5.3 years of hard labor.
Nothing like hard work and sunshine, ehh?
A Person With Previous Penalties
Hoster has been found guilty of killing a man called Wulgg in tavern brawl. Hoster has previous convictions. He has already been convicted once for murder, twice for assault and once for theft.
Penalty points given: x 2 citizen x 1 aggravated x 1000 for the crime = 2000 points
Because Hoster has previous convictions his penalty is raised according to rules like this:
1.2 (for same crime) *1.1*1.1(two assaults)*1.1(theft)= 1.5972
So total penalty points are: 2000*1.5972 = 3194
Then the process continues as in previous examples.
Note! these are only awarded for convictions. So our two previous examples should be handled like this (if Shimor/Sarafin had killed Wulgg). Sarafin 2000 * 1.2 (one same crime)=2400 pp Shimorin 2000 * 1.1 (a different crime)= 2200, although Shimorin was convicted for multiple counts of breaking a law, it still was one crime. If Shimorin was ever to do again as assault or theft or both at the same time. He would then be given the multipler 1.2 for those crimes.
Person With Previous Penalties And More Than One Crime
Lets consider that our man from previous example was already been searched for TWO similar murders. Though none of the murders had anything to do with the others (if there was a connection between two of the murders then judge should use the multiplier of 0.75 for the other crime, provided that the connection was clear, like killing the both men during the same brawl. Be strict about this!!!). So Hoster would get those 3194 points for the first crime (as explained above) and then he would get another 2*3194 for the other murders (note that Hoster didn't get another 1.2 for the other murder. These previous penalties multipliers come only from previous convictions). thats a total of 3*3194= 9582 pp.
If you look at the rules you see that these penalties by themselves wouldn't be sufficient to give death penalty, but together they go over the death penalty minimum for multiple crimes (the minimum is 8000, so this is clearly over that one). Judge thinks a while and then decides that he has had enough from this man. Judge says to Hoster This time you will hang. Hoster says GULPS!!!!!.
Crimes Committed By Members Of Races With Shorter Or Longer Lifespan.
These cases are handled like all others except penalties (meaning the time spent in jail) are multiplied according the formula given in rules section. Consider Immortal races to have a lifespan of 1000 years. Or then you can assign your own multipliers for immortal races.
