Law and Heat

Law Level

Law Level

Every polity has a Law Level, indicating what items are banned and how like the local law enforcement is to harass visitors. Law level is a representation of both how strong enforcement is, and how draconian the law is. Low law level polities might have harsh laws but can't enforce them or can only enforce them selectively, leading to a situation where there may as well be no law at all.

Each Law Level bans a set of weapons, armor, and other goods, along with everything banned at lower Law Levels.

Banned items still exist on the planet, often in the hands of government agents or criminal organizations. If a character wants to use a banned item legal, less draconian worlds will allow the purchase of permits. A level-1 permit allows for the legal use of items banned at the Law Level, and a level-2 permit allows for items banned one Law Level lower. A permit costs 25 credits * permit level * Law Level and requires a character with Admin skill equal to the level of the permit to obtain. A permit only covers on type of one item; a character can get a permit for a laser rifle, but must separately purchase a permit for a laser pistol or a second laser rifle. Polities may award permits as rewards for services or exceptional citizenship.

The Law Level sets the difficulty for skill checks for sneaking and avoiding polity authorities.

During the following situations, the GM rolls 2d6 and compares it to the Law Level modified as noted; if the roll is lower, local law enforcement acts against the characters as described.

Check: The authorities will run an identification check on the PCs and their ship. Unless the PCs can talk or argue their way out of it, the authorities will Investigate.
Investigate: Law enforcement looks into the PCs' activities. They will perform a deeper background check, connect incidents, tap communications, and search ships. If the PCs are cornered they may be called in for questioning. Unless players have a specific plan, authorities will make a series of opposed Connect, Notice, Admin, and Program rolls to find the evidence, with the additional of the Law Level Modifier for the event that prompted the investigation. If the authorities determine crime occurred, they will dispatch units to Apprehend PCs. Successful or not, investigations take 6d6 days - Law Level - Heat - each other ongoing Investigation.
Apprehend: Local law enforcement shows up ready to fight the PCs at their power level. They will attempt to take the PCs into custody. If an investigation has occurred, the PCs will be charged with their crimes and face a Trial; if a crime has not occurred, the authorities will Investigate. If the planet had bonds for suspects, the bond will be 500 credits * Law Level.

Trials

Once apprehended and charged, the PCs will be hauled in for a trial. Regardless of whether it is a legitimate trial or a kangaroo court, their performance at the trial will determine their Punishment. For polities with an inquisitorial or adversarial legal system, the PCs or their advocate can make an Admin/INT or Talk/CHA test against the Law Level, modified by the crime and other factors.¹

For using or smuggling banned goods, the modifier is equal to the difference between the polity's Law Level and the Law Level banning the goods. Other crimes have set modifiers, shown below.

Punishment

The results of the Trial check influence what Punishment (if any) will be administered. The Degree of Failure is the difference between the skill check's target and the rolled result.

Primitive worlds often have harsher punishments to compensate for poorer enforcement. Add 4 - the polity's Tech Level to the Punishment result on a failure.

Certain polities may have unique punishment charts. Exceptionally tyrannical polities may give the death penalty where this chart gives imprisonment; enlightened worlds may do away with the death penalty, imprisonment, or traditional punishment altogether.

Other Law Factors

Personal, Regional, and Unified Law

Most polities have a Unified legal system that applies throughout their entire controlled territory, on their planets and in their system.
Some polities have Regional law systems, where laws can vary from region to region. Under a Regional system, the GM rolls a 1d3 for each new administrative territory the PCs enter. On a 1, the area is 1 Law Level lower than the polity overall, and on a 3, the area is 1 Law Level higher. Ambiguities around the jurisdictions of the polity and the regional governments can be exploited by PCs can to avoid punishment.
Under Personal law systems, specific groups (classes, genders, family lineages, etc.) have enumerated benefits, and others have enumerated restrictions. While almost all law systems have biases, these are hard-coded and woven into the legitimacy of the polity's administration. Personal legal systems give benefits and rights to the ennobled class and harsher punishments to the underclass.

Presumption of Innocence

Polities with less tyrannical laws typically have a presumption of innocence: those accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty. All other factors being equal, this leads to a slight bias towards the accused in trials.

Friction and Economic Law Level

Friction is the measure of the smooth functioning of a polity's economy, which is mainly used in Interstellar Trade. Friction can be thought of as an economic Law Level. Like the Law Level, Friction represents more than just the economic laws (ownership, transfers, taxes, licenses, enterprise, etc.) in a polity. It represents how much red tape, corruption, contract enforcement and other legal factors slow down and distort business and commerce. High Friction does not indicate an economically repressive polity. A polity might have relatively open and robust economic laws, but if all activity is tightly controlled by megacorp oligarchs it would have high Friction. On the other hand, a polity with restrictive economic laws but a robust and efficient distribution system would have less Friction (though not none.)

When dealing with strictly economic matters (legal property transfers, contract negotiations, zoning, licensing, permitting) or economic crimes (financial fraud, tax evasion, money laundering), use the Economic Law Level. The Economic Law Level is equal to 4 + the polity's Friction, +1 if the polity is Law Level 7-9 and +2 if it is 10-12 (maximum 12.)

Heat

As players take violent actions on a planet, the local polities and powers-that-be will take further notice. Heat measures how intense local planetary power brokers will scrutinize the players' specifically, and actively send hit squads after them. Heat is a planet-wide measure, as all sides disavow the destruction wrought by PCs.

Heat allows the planet to "remember" past PC actions, and give a metric for local groups to act accordingly.

Heat's consequences grow more severe as they accumulate. Additionally, very high head levels add a modifier to the Law Level rolls, making it harder for PCs to avoid scrutiny.

PCs can lose Heat over time, as the powers that be slowly forget, and their wounds heal.