How often do you enforce laws in your games?

[Ixal]

Obviously every group has their own taste for such mundane and boring things, but I am wondering how many groups actually enforce laws in their games, as far as it is appropriate, and how many simply ignore laws or let it slide to keep the game going.
Most RPGs are after all power fantasies (at least thats my impression) and PCs often end up in the role of vigilantes or judge, jury, executioner which is not quite compatible with being a law abiding citizen, no matter what your alignment says (In D&D, but I wanted to keep it a bit more open, thus I post in the general forum).

So, do you enforce laws in your games? And which ones? Only the big ones like murder or do you have bridge tolls, taxes, sumptuary laws, etc.?

 

[Fenris-77]

Whenever the player actions and attendant consequences suggest that I should. Not enforcing consequences is lazy DMing. That said, the minutae of things like tolls and taxes need to be used sparingly. Like many other things they are annoying in great quantities. So murder, theft, and destruction of property are laws almost everywhere. Things like taxes and sumptuary laws are things I would introduce an evocative detail for a particular culture, at which point it gets enforced fully.

 

[Morrus]

When it seems like it would add something to the game. Not little laws unless it’s a plot point.

 

[Emerikol]

I think the culture of the world would answer this question. Most quasi-fantasy medieval cultures are not the culture we have today. There are not advanced police forces that know sophisticated investigation techniques.

So when you interact with the "enemies" of civilization (think the caves of chaos), no one is arresting you for murdering orcs and goblins. They have no rights and are generally viewed as enemy combatants. If you murder some citizen who is not very important and you aren't caught in the act, you will likely get away with it. Most of those types of governments don't care about people on the bottom of the spectrum all that much. If you are the neighbor of a victim and you have a running feud with said person, you are likely accused and perhaps convicted without sufficient evidence. There is no innocent until proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

If you are rich and powerful, you likely get away with it. If a rich and powerful person is killed then a more serious investigation happens. This may involve bringing in people who can use magic to assist them. So taking a run at the king is likely to get you killed. People at the top of society, have powerful friends. Being careful not to be caught is far more important in these sorts of situations.

 

[Umbran]

I enforce laws, but the parties in my worlds are usually playing "white hats" and so don't run afoul of them much.

Mind you, I don't typically apply the modern framework upon my pseudo-medieval worlds, either. Police as we think of them today don't generally exist, and the court system is more about putting you in the court of the applicable noble, not in front of a judge.

 

[Tantavalist]

I enforce laws on my PC when it makes sense to do so. Generally this means when the PCs get caught doing something they shouldn't have done.

Now, most PCs get up to the sort of things in-game that would lead to Law Enforcement Officers recognising them on sight. Often an adventure will pretty much require these actions. Some sort of compromise is needed.

How I do things is- I won't have hyper-competent law enforcement suddenly tracking down the PCs because they did something that offended me, the GM, out of character and I'm looking to punish them. I'll let crimes slide as long as there's an In Character reason to let them slide. I also make it clear that I will never provide them with such a reason- the burden of doing so is on their shoulders.

For example- if I describe a busy market scene... A PC walks up to a merchant, punches him in the face, grabs some of his merchandise and walks away? That PC is getting tracked down by the town watch and if he resists, escalation ensues. If one PC creates a disturbance while another sneaks up to snatch that same merchandise? Barring the wrath of the Dice Gods they get away with it.

The short version is that in my games PCs run off one simple rule- Thou Shalt Not Get Caught. Break that rules and consequences ensue. (I tend to go easier with those consequences if a PC meant well and was just unlucky. A Murder Hobo who's caught doing Murder Hobo stuff will be executed and the player handed a new character sheet.)

 

[delericho]

As with many things, it really depends on the setting - a near-future dystopia would see much more law enforcement than the typical D&D world, for example.

There are two things I think are worth mentioning, though:

One of the things I frequently find my players have real difficulties wrapping their heads around is that, very often in my D&D settings, "the law" is actually "whatever the local lord says it is" - they generally expect to see a mostly-fair and mostly-impartial set of law enforcement and judicial systems, and when that doesn't happen, even though I've told them up-front that that will be the case, it causes problems.

In an almost exact opposite of @Umbran, most of my campaigns cast the PCs as rogues of one sort of another - they're the hired gunslinger who goes beyond the law to achieve justice, or they're Batman, or whatever else. Despite this, and despite the fact that the local law enforcement is often depicted as incompetent, or corrupt, or just overwhelmed (and that the "legitimate" authority is often the cause of the injustices they're fighting), they still hesitate to go against them.

I always find both those things a little odd.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So, do you enforce laws in your games? And which ones? Only the big ones like murder or do you have bridge tolls, taxes, sumptuary laws, etc.?

I'm a big fan of having the party deal with fantasy ERISA.

Nothing livens up the cockles of a jaded heart like dealing with fantasy pension and beneficiary law in a world that has resurrection and reincarnation.

 

[DemoMonkey]

Player characters don't even obey the Law of Gravity. Why would they sweat something small-time like theft or murder or serial arson-in-a-twenty-foot-radius?

 

[MGibster]

I'm a big fan of having the party deal with fantasy ERISA.

I'm wondering how many people here know what ERISA is without having to look it up! Ha!