1. Everyone knows that in the US, you have the right to legal advice and have the right not to say anything – basic miranda rights. How much does that influance, and reflect, the attitude of the ordinary citizen toward the law and it’s enforcers? It seems to me that it makes it more of a ‘catch me if you can’ game to a lot of people. At the same time, it makes the society more open and less secretive in a number of ways, as the expectation is that the ‘honest citizen’ has nothing to hide; outlaws are integrated into society. Whenever you codify even the style of law and law-enforcement in a region of your campaign world, consider how it will influance the local population, and what it says about the attitudes of the local population.

2. Someone commits a crime under the local law and then skips into a neighbouring province where what they did is not considered illegal (possibly because the victims are not accorded full or even partial ‘human rights’). Is there some sort of extradition process? Can the victim’s state send people in after them without it being considered an act of war? How will such incidents shape the political landscape – and how will currently political relations and ambitions and alliances change these considerations? A retro-active extradition treaty can cause a major shakeup, as seemingly honest citizens become concerned about their dirty laundry becoming public!

Paying around with anything with big repercussions like this is always an entertaining mind game, so have fun! Make some laws for the player’s comfort and some for their discomfort, while you’re at it….

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Secondly : Possibly the right question to be asking is “what is the Good thing to do?”. Lawful and Good are often confused.
After much debate this is the version of the Law Vs Chaos Good vs Evil debate our local gaming association adopted. (N.B. Note that Alignments get tweaked and ocasionnaly downright messed around with by the games owners. Check the latest text on the different alignments.)
Law vs Chaos is generally related to the point at which a player character decides “I am / am not going to subsume myself in this society. I will/will not allow this cultures laws to limit my personal choices. I will/will not sacrifice the power to decide my personal choice of action about XXX in order to ensure this society remains stable.” N.B. Wether the Laws *themselves* are moraly acceptable (especially when voyaging in another country with different, possibly repugnant, laws) is another question. Slavery may be legal, but its’ *morality* may be rejected by some and accepted by others. Law often evolves to codify morality and punish deviations from it…. but morality nearly always evolves ahead of Law which leads to… clashes (e.g. The American Civil War).
Good vs Evil , we decided was best described as Altruism (Good) vs Egotism (Evil). Good = “I’ll spend time and effort to help others” (specific reasons for *why* they do this are hugely variable….) vs Evil = “I will only spend effort to advance my personal cause”,
so the case you described would be a classic Law vs Good situation. What is good for society (Law) vs what is good for the unjustly accused man?
The society will probably initially insist “This man *must* be punished”. Does the society have a procedure for investigating protestations of accusations of injustice? Just with this one question I hope to point out that the actual decision to be made cannot be decided by me or others without huge amounts of debate around large chunks of information on the cultures laws and custom and the alignments of every member in the group who helps to decide what the decision will be…. Is the group more Lawful or more Good? The “self-defence” argument is acceptable in Law? I could go on…..
Personal note : It’s not really, I feel, our place to decide what is truly a decision only the players can make. Explanation : I feel it is very often a huge mistake for a GM to try impose upon a player what his character should be feeling unless there in an imminent egregious character class mindset violation .
In the meantime, I hope my comments have help shed some light on an often somewhat murky/misunderstood corner of the alignment system and the fun a GM can spark his players into having with it…
P.S. My suggestion in the *specific* case cited above would be to suggest (via the “self-defense” NPC) that the player characters escort the innocent man and protect him whilst the erroneous accusation is resolved justly…. body-guarding him, fending off outraged authorities (maybe even their own superiors!), digging up proof (witnesses, etc)…. That could be your next scenario or two right there…. :)

On the other hand, conclusive identification of a masked hero (or villain!) is impossible to establish. And how about the alien who has to wear a full-faced helmet because he can’t breathe the atmosphere? Or the arcane force for justice (or evil) who is nothing more than their suit of armour? The list of interesting side-wrinkles that you can throw into scenarios from this consideration alone is massive.

Another one that’s fun to play around with are concealed weapons… and so on and so forth.

@TheLemming: the big trick with an outlaw campaign is to be selective. While there will be some group chasing them down – and potentially tracking the group using magic, so they keep reacquiring the trail – the leader of the hunting party should be fallable, so that even a mistake just puts the PCs under additional time pressure. For anyone else to identify the PCs as responsible, they first have to recognise the PC as a wanted person, then have to decide how to react; some will offer favourable terms just to get them out of their shop or away from their stall before they go for help. Others will look to cash in on a reward – but the watch won’t usually respond to a brawl taking place indoors except in a public place like an inn. Some will simply deny them services, or will sense desperation and jack up the prices. Some may wish to ‘join the cause’. And some shady types may offer to assist them, for a price. But it all hinges on recognition – in an era without photographs. Key to successfully running a ‘vigilantes on the run’ campaign or scenario is to keep in mind what the authorities know, and to find ways of letting the players know that the authorities know. Having the PCs encounter ‘wanted’ posters is always helpful. Having them attract attention because they are ‘in a hurry’ can help slow them down. Having the hunt wait in ambush because the PCs are becoming predictable also helps. And if there’s no militia or guard that can stop them without losing half their men, that’s much the same as against any band of outlaws or any military action – it’s what they were signed on to do (whether the NPCs like it or not).

@Ravyn – it can be a lot of fun. I normally twist things around to some variation on the US Legal System simply because most people are at least somewhat familiar with it from many years of television. You need the PCs to have a lawyer who they can trust (at least somewhat), who can act as their guide through the scenario, and you need to so arrange the legal arguements and judges rulings so that the verdict is 50/50 – with the player’s testimony to swing the balance one way or another. You also need contingincy plans in case the PCs try and get clever. Without a time machine, I’m afraid that you can’t get your wish, but I can email you the scenario privately (it’s too big to post as a blog entry) if you’re interested.

Thanks all for the compliments, glad you enjoyed it.

The trial sounds like a blast; I wish I’d been there.

I think it’d be even cooler to get a group understanding a legal system than for them to just see it in action; I’ve always loved bricolage and word-twisting, and trying to work around a legal system through technicalities sounds like the perfect way to twine them together.

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