The Duke's Law

Karameikos derives its law from Thyatian models, dividing crimes into different classes. The judge ruling over the case has a choice of punishments, according to the class of the law involved. The classes of crime in Karameikos are:

Class 1: Unarmed Assault (including fists or verbal threats), Theft, Fraud, or Tax Evasion of 10 gp value or less.

Class 2: Lesser Armed Assault (use of impromptu weapons, such as brawling), Theft, Fraud, or Tax Evasion of 11 to 100 gp value.

Class 3: Flight (escape from the authorities), Slander and False Accusation, Theft, Fraud, or Tax Evasion of 101 to 1,000 gp value.

Class 4: Greater Armed Assault (use of deadly weapons or magic); Endangerment (exposing another to danger through words or action, including inciting a mob to riot), Accidental Murder, Theft, Fraud, or Tax Evasion of 1,001 to 10,000 gp value.

Class 5: Spontaneous Attempted Murder, Theft, Fraud, or Tax Evasion of 10,001 or greater gp value.

Class 6: Deliberate Attempted Murder, Spontaneous (successful) Murder, Mutiny in peacetime.

lass 7: Deliberate Murder, Treason, Mutiny in Wartime. Other crimes may be fitted into this framework as circumstance decrees – this is only a partial listing. In addition, many local communities have laws that apply only within these communities.

Punishments

Punishment for the various crimes are:

Class 1: Fine of 1d6 gp OR one day in jail OR both.

Class 2: Fine of 10 × 1d6 gp OR 1d6 weeks in jail OR both.

Class 3: Fine of 100 × 1d6 gp OR 1d6 months in jail OR both.

Class 4: Fine of 1,000 × 1d6 gp OR one year in jail OR both.

Class 5: Fine of 5,000 × 1d6 gp OR 1d6 years in jail OR both.

Class 6: Fine of 10,000 × 1d6 gp OR 5 × 1d6 years in jail OR both OR death.

Class 7: Death.

Running Criminal Law

The above is an outline; use it as a guide for social repercussions of player character actions. Criminal law is generally only enforced in civilized areas, where the victims are civilized beings as well, and where evidence points toward a particular individual. Magical evidence is used only for more important crimes (Class 4+).

Feel free to alter the severity of the sentence due to circumstances. Repeat offenders should suffer greater punishments. Sadly, in Karameikos, crimes against the wealthy are prosecuted more heavily than those against the poor.

Jail time pulls a character out of game play for that length of game time. Sometimes the court may commute sentences to “special service” benefiting the kingdom and the victims.

Use crime and law as adventure hooks, but only sparingly, either as a control on the players or as the start of an adventure (the player characters are wrongly accused of a serious crime and must clear their good names). Enforcing the law can quickly bog the game down in the mundane. (“So you say you entered the dragon’s cave, killed it, and took its gold. That’s Breaking and Entering, Murder, and Theft – you’re going to swing for this!”)