Laws and Customs

Each game world has its own laws
and customs. Furthermore, laws and
customs vary from place to place
(and time to time) within each world.
In some worlds, it is possible to
research these things in advance (the
Law skill helps here). In other worlds,
you must learn them the hard way
(Law helps here, too, if you specifi-
cally investigate; Streetwise can find
out “informally”).
As a rule, the use of force or the
threat of force is illegal or improper
wherever you go. The stronger the
local government (see Control Rating,
below), the more true this is; govern-
ment usually considers the use of
force to be its own right and monop-
oly. Self-defense is sometimes an
exception – but not always!
Note that public display of noncus-
tomary weapons is a “threat of force,”
and leads to bad reactions even if it’s
technically legal. If you walk down a
medieval village street in heavy armor,
axes and polearms at the ready, the vil-
lagers will be very suspicious of your
motives.
In general:
• Violating a law usually leads to
some sort of trial (see Trials, p. 507)
and
possible
punishment
(see
Criminal Punishment, p. 508).