 February 1, 2009 - 6:27pm | Some obvious crimes in the UPF and beyond: Murder - the intent to cause death to another sentient being, causing the death of another sentient being, or under circumstances exhibiting extreme indifference to sentient life, recklessly engaging in activity which creates a grave rish to sentient beings other than himself, and thereby causes the death of another sentient being. Theft - knowingly obtaining or exerting unauthorized control over the property of another, with intent to deprive the owner of his or her property; knowingly obtaining by deception control over the property of another, with intent to deprive the owner of his or her property; knowingly obtaining or exerting control over property in the custody of a law enforcement agency which was explicitly represented to the sentient being by an agent of the law enforcement agency as being stolen. Assault - tries to physically harm another in a way that makes the sentient being under attack feel immediately threatened. Actual physical contact is not necessary; threatening gestures that would alarm any reasonable sentient being can constitute an assault. Sexual Assault & Rape - any sexual activity in which any party involved does not give full and free consent. A verbal "NO," no matter how insecure or indecisive it may sound, constitutes a lack of consent. Acquaintance Rape is unwanted sexual activity and is defined as follows: forced, manipulated or coerced intercourse by a friend or acquaintance. Slavery - condition in which one sentient being is owned by another, considered as property, or chattel, and is deprived of most of the rights ordinarily held by free sentient beings. Extortion - knowingly obtaining by threat control over the property of another, with the intent of depriving him of that property. The property extorted may be an item of property or a sum of money. A threat may include impersonating as government official, such as a police officer. Espionage - spying on the rightful authority and/or transferring state secrets on behalf of a foreign entity. The term applies particularly to the act of collecting military, industrial, and political data about one nation for the benefit of another. Espionage is a part of intelligence activity, which is also concerned with analysis of diplomatic reports, newspapers, periodicals, technical publications, commercial statistics, and radio and television broadcasts. In recent years, espionage activity has been greatly aided by technological advances, especially in the areas of radio signal interception and high-altitude photography. Treason - leavying war against rightful authority or siding to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Counterfeiting - the manufacture and distribution of legal tender, and can be expanded to include various media (pictures, video, music, etc.), though the latter is more properly media piracy. Arson - intentional wrongful setting of fires, and possession of explosives without proper license. Federal laws also govern possession of explosives, such as on a starship. Arson is committed when a sentient being intentionally damages a building by starting or maintaining a fire or causing an explosion. The arsonist's knowledge or suspicion that a sentient being may occupy the building when it is on fire will heighten the seriousness of the charge. Arson may be committed by an act of recklessness which results in a fire. Long live the Frontier! |
 February 2, 2009 - 12:12am | Smuggling Poaching Drug Dealing ID Theft Spying Treason Fencing |
February 2, 2009 - 12:18am | Counterfeiting Blackmail Arson Extortion Harboring a fugitive Hacking Interfering in an investigation Destruction of public/private property |
February 2, 2009 - 10:26am | Smuggling Poaching Drug Dealing ID Theft Spying Treason Fencing Smuggling - transport of contraband. What consists of contraband? What sort of items and substances are illegal in the UPF? Drug Dealing - the sell and distribution of illegal drugs. What drugs are illegal? Are they illegal everywhere? ID Theft - assuming another sentient being's identity for fraudulent and/or illegal purposes. What methods are used to steal an identity? How is ID Theft discovered and deterred? Spying - going into a place for the purpose of ascertaining the best way of doing an injury there, mostly applied to an enemy who comes into the camp for the purpose of ascertaining its situation in order to make an attack upon it. I assume this applies to sathar intelligence agents, as most other spies would be working for the UPF, or are corporate espionage agents. Which brings up the question of whether corporate espionage is criminal or not. To redefine: Espionage - spying on the rightful authority and/or transferring state secrets on behalf of a foreign entitu. The term applies particularly to the act of collecting military, industrial, and political data about one nation for the benefit of another. Espionage is a part of intelligence activity, which is also concerned with analysis of diplomatic reports, newspapers, periodicals, technical publications, commercial statistics, and radio and television broadcasts. In recent years, espionage activity has been greatly aided by technological advances, especially in the areas of radio signal interception and high-altitude photography. Treason - leavying war against rightful authority or siding to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. OK, easy enough. Fencing - I assume you mean the act of selling stolen merchandise and not the art of dueling. Knowingly buying and/or selliing stolen merchandise is a crime, and should be a UPF crime. Dueling, however, may have some strong adherents in certain cultures, such as yazirians, and may be considered criminal only within certain jurisdictions. Thanks for the input! Long live the Frontier! |
February 2, 2009 - 10:41am | Counterfeiting Blackmail Arson Extortion Harboring a fugitive Hacking Interfering in an investigation Destruction of public/private property Counterfeiting - the manufacture and distribution of legal tender, and can be expanded to include various media (pictures, video, music, etc.), though the latter is more properly media piracy. Good one. Blackmail - threatening to reveal embarassing, disgraceful or damaging about an individual to family, public, spouse or associates unless monies are paid to purchase silence. It is a form of extortion. Because the information is usually substantially true, it is not revealing the information that is criminal, but demanding money to withhold it. My only concern here is that could be cultures that do not see any behaviour as "embarassin" or "disgraceful"; these are subjective things, and could affect the would-be blackmail attempt. Arson - intentional wrongful setting of fires, and possession of explosives without proper license. Federal laws also govern possession of explosives, such as on a starship. Arson is committed when a sentient being intentionally damages a building by starting or maintaining a fire or causing an explosion. The arsonist's knowledge or suspicion that a sentient being may occupy the building when it is on fire will heighten the seriousness of the charge. Arson may be committed by an act of recklessness which results in a fire. Another good one. Extortion - already on the list above. I'll get to the rest later.... Long live the Frontier! |
 February 2, 2009 - 9:19pm | I think that each planet would have a unique twist on law and order unless one was the daughter colony of the other. It might be helpful to have chart that codifies reactions to say gun control, personal liberties, smuggling, etc. Then a GM could simply list for planet x gun control class 3, personal liberties class 5, Smuggling class 2 the chart would have major approaches that are outlined in a chart so the tough work is done and then you just apply the classes you want for a planet it would be a valuable GM tool. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 7, 2009 - 11:38am | Yeah, that's what I'm thinking: there are certain common laws, but most planets have some individual twists and special laws. I figure that once I/we have a "UPF standard", we can then diverge into various planetary sub-laws. Long live the Frontier! |
February 7, 2009 - 11:41am | A lot of the legal precedents I'm following are based on real-world law, and examples from Star Trek's UFP (United Federation of Planets), which I feel is what the UPF is strongly based on: the UPF exists to provide overall defense and trade protections, while member worlds are allowed to govern themselves according to their own laws. Since Star Law is a branch of the UPF allowed to operate throughout UPF space and beyond in the enforcement of these laws, certain laws must perforce be universal. Long live the Frontier! |
February 7, 2009 - 3:13pm | I think your idea has merit in that having a standard makes it easy to whip up some deviations. However what I'd like is a chart of gun control where column A is the most restrictive form (No weapons outside the hands of the government), Column B is restrictive , Column C is minumally restrictive and column D is no restrictions. then the chart would spell out what is allowed for weapons under each column: rifles: prohibited under A, tightly controlled under B with licensing and RoF restrictions physically imposed on the weapon, licensed ownership fairly easy under C and Wild west baby under D. For frag grenades prohibited under A&B, permited to properly licensed and certified security and mercenary organizations under C and wild west baby under D and so on. This give the Gm the ability to simply say Class B gun restriction and right off the bat everyone knows frag munitions and other explosives are hard to come by on that planet. and being cought with them without proper licensing is bad. They may also be forced to recquisition such munitions from an employer who'd provided them through the corporate security department. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 9, 2009 - 1:31pm | I'm thinking that the UPF is what it is, big government. They way I've always seen the UPF and granted this is my opinion only, I'm not trying to prove right or wrong, is that it protects the space lanes. There are some laws that are universal but I feel that some aren't. On a lightly populated or newly populated world, weapons would be almost a necessity, like pants. On a more urbanized world with more law enforcement entities, not so much. I guess what I'm saying is that weapon control or lack thereof is the providence of the individual planet, not a UPF concern. |
 June 14, 2009 - 4:04pm | The UPF create the laws affecting only Frontier space and not individual planets or solar systems, though it does govern some politics between planetary governements. Star Law does not create laws but only enforces laws governing Frontier space. The Star Law Rangers were created to chase down Sathar agents and also face pirates. ("Star Law Rangers are never called to interfere in a matter of planetary politics."—Knight Hawks Remastered!, p96) Perhaps they also face interplanetary criminals in a similar way to the FBI. According to the article Freeze! Star Law! in Dragon Magazine, issue #87, "Every large city will have its own police force to guard its citizenry and maintain law and order. Some planets might have police with wider territorial authority for counties, states, provinces, nations, or continents." So Star Law is a regional law enforcement body covering a scale affecting the whole of the Frontier and the space between its stars, but not individual planets or solar systems. Sathar agents and piracy affect that range, but not much less. So Star Law is more like the Coast Guard mixed with NSA. Local villains are not their concern. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 14, 2009 - 10:37pm | I think Star Law would also have a division that is an analog to the US marshals: hunting down excaped prisoners I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 14, 2009 - 11:44pm | I strongly recommend reviewing both articles on Star Law: Freeze! Star Law! Careers in Star Law No need to reinvent the wheel. Those articles are mostly compatible. The second one should be adopted where it differs from the first (you will note its deviations are purposeful and reasonable). View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
