Law Level Verbage

[BP]

The UWP tables each have a fairly short description that sums up the meaning of each code (Millions; Thin; Charismatic dictator; ...). Except the Law Level table. It just has a bunch of paragraph style entries.

For a project, I have come up with the following terms to loosely describe each law level:

• 0 - Nonexistent
  1 - Relaxed
  2 - Tolerant
  3 - Fair
  4 - Protective
  5 - Guarded
  6 - Restrictive
  7 - Authoritarian
  8 - Prohibitive
  9 - Absolute

Just seeking possible improvements...

 

[Gamerguy]

8)

That's a good start, but maybe a short description of each term would be helpful too:

4- Protective: Ownership of Mlitary Weapons Prohibited.

 

[BP]

Yeah. The verbiage in the tables is (mostly) explicit examples, so better general descriptions would not hurt.

The Law Level code paints a very broad stroke - weapons prohibitions are just one aspect. For my purposes, just looking for a simple term that 'paints a picture' of the legal nature of a planet. This is to allow concisely comparing systems at a high level of abstraction.

At the role-play level, a lot more detail is necessary. More general definitions would have been nicer (the examples are a little too well defined and a bit trite, IMHO) for certain items. Excepting the explicit visitor/landing definitions.

A separate code for Commerce restrictions (not just tech) would have also been nice...

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Also a culture or society might have different law levels for different areas (i.e one law level for medical technology, another for weapons). The overall law level thus could be seen really as just an "average" of all the various sub-levels.

 

[rinku]

I don't have them at work, but I'm pretty sure the original edition had a description table that was what you're trying to construct. I'll dig out Book 3 at home tonight.

 

[rust]

At the role-play level, a lot more detail is necessary.

GURPS Traveller First In has proposals for a more detailed system with
"split" law levels for different fields: Public Safety, Economic Activity, Per-
sonal Freedom and Civil Law.

The Control Rating (= Law Level) of the UWP is always the Public Safety
law level of the planet, the three other law levels can differ by up to +4 or
-4, and the social parameters (e.g. tolerance) and various local customs
(e.g. economic customs) can also influence the local reactions to the be-
haviour of foreigners.

The system is a bit complex, but very useful for the design of a detailed
planetary society.

 

[BP]

Thanks rust. I've generally found GURPS to be way over-complicated for my style of RP, but I will look into First In (usually can lift some good ideas). As a referee, I mostly handle legal harassment without dice (till the task checks come along).

rinku, LBB 3 had simpler Law Level descriptions in that it only applied explicitly to weapons prohibitions. (LL was used for 'harassment' throws.)

But, the description - 'indication of relative oppressiveness of the world' - is pretty apt. MGT gives examples that relate to specific prohibitions - which is nice, though some may mistake them for definitive.

I'm just looking for a simple term to describe the 'level of oppressiveness', not the actual affects, of each code.

 

[rinku]

MGT does still have the daily throw vs law level to avoid harrassment rule - but they gave it some modifiers based on activity (pp.173-4).

Hmm... maybe I'm thinking of a MegaTraveller table that gave named values to the various LL codes? Check that tonight, too.

 

[BP]

Yep, though IIRC, it is only a daily throw if PCs are wandering 'the streets'

There is also a bit on smuggling in the Trade Goods section. Personally, I find the the sentencing table a little too simplistic. And the contra-band/banned goods is a bit too convoluted between the Government and the Law Level tables... overall, the game mechanics look a little to 'thrown together' without much real thought. Not that I have any real problems with this - as matters of Law are Referee territory, not dice, IMTU.

The MegaTraveller nomenclature might be interesting... since that is related to what I am looking for input on.

 

[kirstar]

I use the law code as the average and have different ones for each category.

 

[rinku]

Well, the MegaTraveller terms turn out to be a bit dull:

0: No Law
1-3: Low Law
4-7: Moderate Law
8-A: High Law
B-F: Extreme Law

 

[BP]

Thanks rinku!

They are a bit dull, but they are also simple - might replace some of my terms with the low, moderate, high, extreme...