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Paying the Price in Eclipse Phase

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MephitJames MephitJames's picture
Paying the Price in Eclipse Phase
I first started thinking about the different law enforcement issues when reading about the freelance judiciaries in the Extropia section of Rimward. Like many things about the archno-capitalist center, the approach to legal systems and enforcement is novel and it prompts numerous “What if?” scenarios. The more I considered, the more I realized that this is the case with all the futuristic societies of Eclipse Phase which have laws and enforcement means which are very different from modern ones. With the latest episode of “Know Evil,” the actual-play podcast game from Roleplaying Public Radio, I decided to take this seriously and consider various crimes in the different legal systems of the Eclipse Phase setting. I hope this helps both players to understand the systems and GMs to feel confident portraying them as nuanced and interesting. Not to mention creating new pitfalls for PCs to fall into. That’s always top of my list… Factions Considered
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Inner System: Though the governments of the Planetary Consortium, Lunar-Lagrange Alliance, and Morningstar Constellation are different, their legal philosophies are fairly similar and can be considered together. Extropia: The archano-capitalist stronghold in the Main Belt has corporations but no government, meaning laws and enforcement are decided by independent judiciaries with legal systems that clients agree to by contract. Jovian Junta: The Jovians are a society under martial law and as such their law enforcement is both large and brutal. Titan: The Titanian Plurality is a techno-socialist society which participates heavily in cyber-democratic practices like public referendums and review, making their legal system a very present force in society. Anarchist and Scum: Anarchist communities operate under a collectivist mentality while Scum are more unstructured and “anything goes.” Their rejection of personal property and government, though, makes them similar. Criminal/Lawless Habs: Stations like Legba in the Main Belt are havens for illegal and brutal activity, possessing no government oversight and few morals to enforce.
Situation: An argument in a bar turns into a gunfight between two parties.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Inner System: Police will break up the fight and arrest both parties for public endangerment. They’ll take some time to determine whether any of the combatants are missing licenses for their weapons, are carrying restricted technologies, or have pirated blueprints on them, any of which might increase the severity of the penalties. If either party is indentured to a hypercorp or owned by one (in the case of uplifts or AIs), the company may level additional penalties or demand their return to headquarters according to severity and contracts in order to avoid future embarrassment. Incarceration and/or fines depend on local laws and citizenship status. Extropia: The judiciaries of each side file micro-torts against the other before the fight is over. Reviewing footage will lead legal AIs to determine who is at fault for starting the hostilities, then they will settle monetary fines and/or rep impact. Meanwhile, the bar’s judiciary would assess property damage and defamation then level claims against the participants. The bar’s terms of use (agreed to upon entry) would be called upon as guidelines for ramifications. If there are any third parties injured, expect more suits from them. After everything settles, if any participant has prior incidents they may forfeit some coverage according to contract. Jovian Junta: As soon as violence starts, security forces will converge to end it. They will demand immediate surrender and are quick to shoot those who refuse (only a terrorist would refuse of course). If some combatants escape, they are tracked by government sensor nets. Rather than losing interest, security forces are more insistent the longer their quarry is at large. With each passing hour, it’s more difficult for government jammers to keep a lid on the story and that impacts both the governments image and local security within the larger system. Once caught, criminals receive no trial and are held as long as the government wants. If anything serious comes up in questioning or background checks, this could be very long indeed. Titan: Police forces will arrest combatants and detain them for questioning like their Inner System counterparts, though the questioning process is less invasive (no simulspace or psychosurgery, for instance) and afterwards it goes into the public domain. Unless something comes up in questioning that warrants government discretion (such as stopping a diplomatic incident or revealing Fleet Intelligence agents under cover) anyone with mesh access in the Plurality can watch the questioning to determine fair treatment. Barring especially bad circumstances (terrorist equipment, exsurgent contamination, etc.), detainment is not long and the major consequence is a big impact on rep as well as public records which can affect future employment and interactions. Anarchist and Scum: Armed militia members will respond to control and neutralize the situation. Footage clips and a short summary are disseminated through the habitat’s mesh to the whole community for an instant resolution vote. These votes almost always lead to a communal decision to detain and question the combatants, unless circumstances may plausibly excuse the behavior and the combatant’s @-rep is high (though low @-rep associates are on their own). Questioning is non-invasive and broadcast live to the public domain, informing a final decision vote by community resolution. The deadline for participation in this vote is set at the time of detention and often discussed as current events gossip by community members. The penalty of a gunfight is likely a rep impact (depending on the severity of the consequences) and rarely expulsion from the habitat on the next transport if there are previous, chronic incidents that point to anti-social behavior. Criminal/Lawless Habs: The bartender, bouncers, and patrons start firing back. The fight continues until all parties surrender, flee, or are dead.
Situation: Someone steals a vehicle (either a ground vehicle on a planet or an EVA rider from a habitat).
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Inner System: Police respond to pursue and capture the thieves and retrieve the vehicle. Effort is made to preserve the vehicle but the thieves’ morphs are fair game as their egos can be retrieved later. If the pursuit threatens important or expensive infrastructure (i.e. station life support or residential buildings), the vehicle and thieves may be destroyed and the owners reimbursed for the vehicle. If the thieves are successfully captured, detainment and fees will depend on local laws. Any damages to vehicle or collateral damage increases fines. Predatory indenture contractors often target desperate situations like this to pressure detainees in need of bail money and cash for fines. Extropia: The owner contacts the insurance firm contracted for the vehicle’s security; if they have no contract, the thieves likely get away with it or the owner posts a bounty. Many security firms include kill-switches and/or puppet socks in vehicles to remotely retrieve vehicles they insure. If there is no remote system (or the thieves hack or disable it) the security firm contacts a partnered contract firm, sometimes the in-house enforcement of the security firm’s contracted judiciary or else an independent con-en firm. If the enforcement firm can’t retrieve the vehicle, thieves are fined the usual legal consequences as well as the vehicle’s value. Depending on contract, the owner might be owed (possibly never collecting) or, more likely, the security firm pays less than the full amount and then attempts to collect from thieves to recoup losses. Jovian Junta: The owner of the vehicle reports it stolen and security forces check state sensor nets. Native Jovians are unlikely to have the hacking skills to evade government nets and foreign visitors are hampered by their installed minder program which tracks their activities and limits their mesh interactions. Those who do evade security forces can expect an increasingly severe response with time: the longer they get away with the crime the worse the security forces look. They can also expect no trial and no mercy. Titan: State police pursue and detain the thieves, subjecting those captured to public domain questioning like other criminals. Thieves suffer rep hits if the crime can be proven, and the government security reimburses the owners for unrecoverable property using government kroner. Anarchist and Scum: Can you steal a vehicle in a society with property? Yes, if other people need it. When a habitat has a waiting queue for using a vehicle, those without high enough rep to jump ahead might just grab the vehicle and run. Such bad manners will lead to even worse rep and repeated infractions will not only tank a rep score but also mark the person as extremely anti-social, even leading to expulsion. After the rep hit, it depends on what happens to the vehicle. If it’s damaged and/or destroyed (and especially if other people were put in danger) a more serious rep hit occurs and the chances of expulsion go up. If the vehicle is used for overtly violent means (i.e. ramming it into another ship), the milita gets involved and detains the offenders, submitting them to public domain questioning and a community resolution on whether they’re expelled. Criminal/Lawless Habs: If someone can’t hold onto their vehicle, why not take it? Do it with style and you might get a g-rep boost.
Situation: Someone steals another person’s identity theft or forges their mesh ID.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Inner System: There are two broad levels for this crime: personal and corporate. Personal identity theft is a serious but straightforward offense: the police cybersec division wil trace the crime if they can and release a report for the victim to use with insurance and mesh services to redress the situation. In cases of corporate forgery, where someone falsely presents themselves as a representative of a hypercorp, the police response is similar but the hypercorp can more easily hire private investigation as well from counter-hackers to ego hunters. The chances of finding the offenders goes way up as does the likelihood they will face the most severe penalties as a lesson. While local police will work to block connections with foreign mesh criminals, it takes a private ego hunting service to actually go off-station or –planet to reach them. Extropia: The Extropian response is similar to the Inner System one, except without the police. If the victim has a contract with a judiciary that covers identity theft, they will investigate and create a report, but those without are on their own. Victims who need their own solution or who want to supplement their judiciary’s coverage turn to ego hunters, often one partnered with their main judiciary. Depending on contract, these ego hunter services will pursue offenders off-hab and for a certain period on the mesh. Rep-management services can also be hired to repair damage to one’s social network. Jovian Junta: Identity theft is probably treated most severely in Jovian space. In addition to social networks, mesh identities are used at government checkpoints for security and at supply stations for rations. As such, identity theft is strongly associated with terrorists who use others’ IDs to avoid government tracking and to gain supplies for their cells. Anyone caught stealing another’s identity is detained and extensively questioned before their mandatory jail term starts. Any autonomists stealing Jovian IDs are assumed to be spies and summarily shot. Titan: As the only faction in the rep-conscious Autonomist Alliance with an official police force, Titan is perhaps the best place to have your identity stolen. Police will work hard to track the offenders and the government cybersec divisions will apply notices to fix rep damage. Because all contracts go through the central state offices, it’s also much easier to redress any online claims made in the victim’s name. Anarchists and Scum: When someone on an anarchist hab suspects identity theft, they need to prove it themselves. The best option is generally to request a favor from someone knowledgeable in local social networks to help assemble evidence. Then the victim iniates a community vote to review and validate the data, relying on community response to fix rep damage in a proven case. Evaluations show, however, that rep scores almost never achieve pre-theft levels in the redressing, leading most anarchist habs to sponsor strong anti-forgery crowdsourcing efforts to stop it before it starts. On Scum swarms the response is similar, but unless there is physical or psychological damage as a result most members equate “identity theft” with “mesh prank.” Criminal/Lawless Habs: As with most things on a criminal hab, identity theft is fair game. Just don’t get caught: criminals and cartels are as serious as hypercorps when it comes to reputation.
Situation: Someone buys something from a black (or red) market trader.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Inner System: Hypercorps, concerned as they are with profit margins, are very sensitive to markets they have no access to. Since they can’t openly sell illegal goods, most hypercorps in the Inner System have meme campaigns to equate the black market with violent criminals and dangerous radicals. Whatever the reality, authorities tend to treat black marketeers as terrorists (even in the slightly-more tolerant Morningstar Constellation) which leads to some severe consequences. Extropia: With no laws and little in the way of communal conscience, anarcho-capitalist habs have no large-scale policies about black/red market trade. However, few judiciaries want to deal with the risk of dangerous materials like nuclear weapons, biological weapons, etc. In most judiciary contracts and user agreements signed by boarding an Extropian hab there are limitations or outright bans on dangerous tech. Possession of these items will void such contracts and the other protections in them. Jovian Junta: Like a lot of serious crime in Jovian space, black marketeering is included in the umbrella term of “terrorism.” In the propaganda story, the government provides all its citizens need so anyone operating outside of it is by definition plotting something suspect. If anything, possession of black market items simplifies the situation as the sentencing is fairly instantaneous. That means interrogators can move straight to the harshest methods for finding out where they got the items and for what. Titan: The list of banned or controlled items on Titan is determined by Plurality referendum so would-be black marketeers have an uphill battle ahead of them. If there is a large customer base for something, it also has a large voter base and is likely already legal. Those items that are banned by popular vote carry hefty penalties to indicate the popular condemnation. Most often, Titanians travel to another site (such as Phelan’s Recourse) and then bring the contraband back. When they do, they have to avoid not only police but also neighbors who are informed and opposed to controlled substances and techs. Anarchist and Scum: The red markets of anarchist habs and Scum swarms are curious affairs. They are not illegal (since there are no laws) but they are condemned. Taking part in red market trade puts one’s rep scores at risk and possession of extremely reprehensible goods (nukes, nerve weapons, child pornography) can completely tank a rep score and/or trigger a community vote for expulsion. On Scum swarms, there are “legitimized” criminal cartels (like Bahala Na on The Stars Our Destination) who push the envelope only slightly and don’t generally affect rep scores. They won’t do anything stupid, though, like selling antimatter warheads as this would risk losing their status. Criminal/Lawless Habs: These habs are the black market, but there’s a way to do things. On most lawless stations, individual cartels have cornered specific markets for dangerous tech and buying from a rival is a political statement visitors might not want to make. Without doing research, outsiders might inadvertently put themselves in the middle of a gang turf war just attempting to buy something. Anyone thinking to bring in something dangerous and valuable and sell it without working through a cartel is taking their lives in their hands.
uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture
brilliant!
Very cool! I enjoyed reading a comparison of the numerous legal systems in the setting.
Exhuman, and Humanitarian.
rogue-z rogue-z's picture
Super handy!
This is very very helpful! It gives a good idea of the sort of resources Firewall or other espionage groups might have to spend to cover up for their agents.
King Shere King Shere's picture
The Jovians are a bit to
The Jovians are a bit to drastic, for my taste - but in overal terms good work. would also be helpfull to include pointers on estimated respons time and the "rutine" manpower thats dedicated to deal with the miscreants
Thampsan Thampsan's picture
Kudos @MephitJames. +1 Rep, I
Kudos @MephitJames. +1 Rep, I love the examples though I feel that perhaps your heavily autonomist factions would probably care more about identity theft than any other sort of personal violation; barring torture/etc. See in the event of murder the body can be replaced, likewise things that are 'stolen', however identities - though also susceptible to theft, constitute a theft of an individual rather than property. While some anarchist habs play fast and loose with moral norms, the fabric of the social environment means that certain actions will see you sanctioned by your other anarchist peers. Hence if you rape or murder, your @rep is likely to take a hit when people begin to label you a public menace who isn't afraid to take life or inflict torture. Stealing an individual's identity/backup/alpha fork/etc is non-dissimilar to slavery, which means that you are an individual with very low moral standing that everyone should fear. Same goes for people who go out of their way to 'stack' atop murdering their victims. Should general apathy reign then one has to wonder how an escaped fork or backup would react to their fellow man failing to aid. It just seems to me that identity would be taken a lot more seriously as it is the only credit you have to trade on when your society runs on reputation as much as barter and trade.
MephitJames MephitJames's picture
Feedback!
Thanks for the notes, everyone! [b]@King Shere:[/b] I tried to make the Jovians less crazy, actually, but maybe I didn't go far enough. I think they get painted as the evil empire of EP, which they definitely aren't. They don't kill babies or enslave people for their amusement or blow up planets for badmouthing them. They are nothing more or less than a paranoid police state. When I say people disappear into a prison system that's not a euphemism. I really mean they'll disappear and that the jails of the Junta have no public records or oversight outside the top echelons of government. Do you have counter-proposals or critiques for the scenarios? [b]@Thampsan:[/b] As for the autonomists, I think there's a difference between "identity theft" and "ego theft." Stealing an ego is definitely on the top of the list of offenses for autonomist types, especially if it's for something awful like enslavement or simulspace sadism. Stealing an identity is bad but I think it would be about the same as theft in a society with ownership. I don't think autonomists are cavalier about identity theft (particularly for the rep-based reasons you mentioned) but without centralized databases of identity there's only so much they can do. Does that sound alright to you?