Big brother is watching, but how?

[Ormur]

Ernir and Swooper stay out.

My players are going to infiltrate the LE nation of the BBEG. It's pretty much a totalitarian theocracy but in D&D (3,5). I don't know whether they intend to conceal their identity or whether they'll pretend to be just ambassadors or traders. Either way I have to figure out what methods the government uses to monitor subjects and foreigners.

The country is pretty big but the BBEG has at his disposal a conventional military, a secrete police of arcanists and a divine inquisition of Hextor priests. I figure the arcanists would be on the look out for sedition, revolutionaries and adventurers while the priests would be more concerned with heresy, other religions and keeping everyone moral. The army would then be used to quell major insurrections and protests and guard the borders.

How does this effect mid-to-high level adventurers trying to keep from getting caught. There has to be some way at the borders for the state to monitor who goes in and and what they are capable of. They probably need to be issued identification papers and permits that they must keep on them at all times in the least.

Patrols and guards have to have some way of alerting higher-ups if they are outmatched. In a D&D setting I figure they'd have graduated responses based on the threat. A few commoners can be dealt with by city guards but a group of high level adventurers being spotted breaking the peace would warrant a bunch of high level casters teleporting in.

Are there any sort of divinations that could be used routinely to spot dissenters, over a large area or at checkpoints? How do you keep your evil empire safe and oppressive in D&D?

[Worlok]

Paladins of Tyranny (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/UA:Paladin_of_Tyranny_Class_Features) controlling the borders. They get Detect Good at will and I think they would fit the theme. Perhaps make them a subset of the inquisition.

[JaronK]

Except it's okay for some people to be good, as long as they're oppressed. After all, the enemy of evil is often another evil that wants to take the first evil's place. So that's not enough. However, don't PoTs get the Zone of Truth spell? Anyone entering the country via the normal roads should be forced to go through a series of questions similar to those of people entering any country. "What is the purpose of your visit?" "How long do you intend to be staying?" "Do you intend to commit any crime while inside our borders?" "Do you intend any harm towards any official of the state?" All this can be under a Zone of Truth. Note they would want to move people through this quickly... such zones are only up for a minute per level, and they'd only have so many casters. But each time, you're listened to not only by the caster, but also by someone with a decent Sense Motive skill. Perhaps even those questions are asked of everybody but the Zone of Truth is only up for some, and it's hard to tell who it's up for and who it's not.

Another option is requiring loyalty oaths from all citizens regularly, while people with high Sense Motive scores look on to see if anyone is lying when they swear loyalty. Travelers could have a modified oath where they swear to commit no crime and follow all state laws, and again they could be watched while saying it.

With higher level abilities, Contact Other Plane could be used. Consider if all citizens have a citizenship number, and are required to carry papers at all time, and all entering visitors are given a temporary number (they have to keep temporary papers on them at all times too). Then you can cast CoP and ask "What is the citizenship number of the person most likely to be a threat to me or the state this week?" or "What is the citizenship number of the person who committed the gravest crime according to our laws in the last week" or "What is the citizenship number of the person who will commit the gravest crime according to our laws in the next week?" In this way the government can know who to spy on, sometimes before the person even knows what's going to happen and what they're going to do.

JaronK

[Swordguy]

How to do a D&D Orwellian nightmare right:


An idea: a utopian city run perfectly according to the most Exalted Lawful Good principles!

Paladin police regularly Detect Evil on every citizen. Whenever a citizen comes up as evil, he is immediately imprisoned in a therapeutic ward to re-learn good ways. It's so much more humane than summary execution, and lets us keep a productive member of the community happy. And if nothing the clerics and beguilers say can convince him to change? They just drag him off to the Ministry of Kindness and cast Sanctify the Wicked. His physical body is stacked like cordwood on top of the other evil ones currently being sanctified, and his soulstone is placed in a neatly organized file cabinet for a year and a day until the sanctification process is complete.

And why stop at getting rid of evil? We've got Detect Good and Detect Law, too! And there's gotta be a spell like Law-ify the Chaotic somewhere! Any non-good, non-lawful citizen undergoes exactly the same treatment as the evil ones - though perhaps not as many paladins are sent to escort them to mandatory re-education, since they're less likely to resist arrest.

Of course, that kind of alignment-detecting schedule wouldn't leave the paladins and clerics a lot of time for their other responsibilities, like sweeping the sewers for kobolds, burning books that contain spells with the [Evil] descriptor, and crusading against unenlightened foreigners. So, to make things more efficient they could just put magical evil-detecting security cameras all over the place. And I don't mean just in public places. In such a society, surely someone would only dare to let their most evil tendencies loose far from the public eye. Isn't it reassuring to know that the paladins can watch your room whenever some subversive anti-citizen might be trying to break into your house? Or while you're safely asleep? Or, (wink wink, nudge nudge) a little before you and your lawfully wedded spouse go to sleep?

Oh, of course you have a spouse. To make sure everyone stays happy (and to keep the population increasing), the government uses mind-reading and divinations to find the perfect soul mate for everyone as soon as they reach childbearing age. Why bother with the stress and fear of dating when the government can find the perfect partner for you?

And if your ideal partner doesn't happen to live in the city, that's what Teleport and Charm and Hold Person are for. They'll warm up to it as soon as they get to know you and see how beautiful the city is! And what if, by some staggering improbability that may indicate that you need to be re-educated, you just don't get along with the husband or wife the wizards and paladins spent so much time scrying on and abducting? Well, that's easy to solve. Programmed Amnesia, either on you or on your spouse, will make you forget any disputes you may ever have had. Remember, if it's not called "Mindrape," it doesn't have the [Evil] descriptor!

Unfortunately, not everything is fun and games on this side of the afterlife. The struggle between good and evil never ceases. We have always been at war with the demons. Also with the devils. Also the undead. And the Illithids. And drow. And evil-god worshippers. And the insufficiently good and pure mortal kingdoms. And... well, you get the picture.

So, who wants to live there? Remember, Pelor is watching you!

...and remember, all this is done with a Lawful Good society. Taking these principles and applying them to a Lawful Evil one shouldn't be too hard, should it?

[Godskook]

Let's see:

1.Required licenses for casting, be it 'natural'(sorcerer, warlock), 'learned'(wizard, archivist), granted(druid, cleric) or others(Ur-Priest, Factotum, UMD). Different casting abilities would require different licenses, and would have different restrictions. A UMD capable rogue would suffer little day-to-day restrictions, but actually using magic would require paperwork, for each scroll and wand-charge. On the otherhand, a wizard or sorcerer might have more direct restrictions placed on them, but what magic they could use would be relatively paperwork-free per cast.

2.Have very strict entrances designed to ensure that only intended people get in. For instance, by counting the number of minds, and then making sure that matches the number shown, including low-int creatures like dogs and cats.

[Jack_Simth]

With higher level abilities, Contact Other Plane could be used. Consider if all citizens have a citizenship number, and are required to carry papers at all time, and all entering visitors are given a temporary number (they have to keep temporary papers on them at all times too). Then you can cast CoP and ask "What is the citizenship number of the person most likely to be a threat to me or the state this week?" or "What is the citizenship number of the person who committed the gravest crime according to our laws in the last week" or "What is the citizenship number of the person who will commit the gravest crime according to our laws in the next week?" In this way the government can know who to spy on, sometimes before the person even knows what's going to happen and what they're going to do.Ironically, this particular method makes them less 'big-brothery', as they're not monitoring nearly everyone, they're monitoring a small handful that a distant deity said were likely to cause problems this time around.

You can also use Commune (on the Divine side) to verify the results of Contact Other Plane (or rather, to confirm that the Wizards are relaying the results honestly, at least), and as a secondary measure, to locate such people (Divine Bisection - basically a binary search, as applied to a map).

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Greater Prying Eyes. Seriously, it's the best way to keep tabs on what is going on in your pocket empire that I know of. One mile radius that you know everything that goes on, with True Sight up and running.

From there, you have your secret service who are either Bards (if you want to be discreet) or Paladins of Tyrany/Hexblades (if you want to make the iron heel painfully obvious) who keeps a watchful gaze over your empire as a whole.

Entry will be restricted, of course. No sense in letting just anyone in. Getting out is even more difficult.

At each road, you must go through Customs, which includes at least one mid-level caster with Arcane Sight up to scan for magical goods, which must be declared. A wand of Dancing Lights lets customs stations signal if they are getting resistance which locally stationed forces cannot deal with.

Of course, once everything is declared, and appropriate import fees are assigned, they get their papers. Only it's a hell of a lot more important than simply a piece of parchment. You see, each one is signed with the Royal Seal, which means they can each be the target of a Scry which you are familiar with. Each visitor is assigned a visitor number, assuming they don't register as Good from the Paladins of Tyranny. These numbers are registered to the Scrying Council, and visitors are monitored regularly. Particularly about two hours after sunset on the first evening they arrive. If a Scry fails (remember, you are targeting the paper, not the person), you know that Something Is Up, and start taking proper precautions. If the papers are in the sewers, or otherwise not on their person, raise the alert.

Between roads, of course, gets a little trickier. Borders are always hard to truly close with any degree of consistency, but here's something you can do to at leas mitigate the hassles:

Alarm. It can be used with Permanency. Cheaply. While you can't encircle the whole nation, you can disperse these out enough to be able to be reasonably sure you're at least getting an idea of where people are crossing. Use spells like Scry to be able to check on when Alarms are triggered (silent mode only, of course). Of course, you can't be bothered with petty things like smuggling or slavers, but groups of highly equipped adventurers? Yea, dispatch the Death Squads.

You can also discourage people trying to cross in inclement terrain by judicious use of terrain and certain spells to augment their hazards. For example, on mountain ranges depicting borders, a humble Gust of Wind (permenancied, of course) can wreak havoc and make passes completely impassable. Setting up a Symbol or two is also good for a few laughs. Wall of Iron is always a cheap way to build walls which are difficult to breech or climb when you have larger passes to deal with that you don't want to set guards at.

Also, you should know your terrain. You know where passage is possible, but not likely. There's generally some small village nearby those places. An adventuring party, having just survived those perils, will generally seek shelter in those small villages. So make sure you have a discreet spy living in those villages who can report to you. Best of all, you can usually catch those erstwhile adventurers while they're resting in the tavern, the casters running low on spells, and all of them exhausted in general. Best time to send a Death Squad to deal with 'em.

Of course, you also want to ensure they don't use 'scry and die' techniques (or port n' pwn, if you prefer the more crass term). This means you need to set up some defenses against scrying that won't block your attempt to keep tabs on everyone. For yourself, make sure you keep Mind Blank up at all times.

Around your castle and surrounding city, I'd suggest something like Forbiddance since it is permanent and can have a password so you can still move around freely. Bonus points on the damage it will deal to those adventurers who are likely of a radically different alignment. Sure, it's expensive to catch the whole place, but hey... you're the despot, what else have you to spend money on?

Detect Scrying last for 24 hours, which makes it really handy to spot scry-and-die techniques. Fool Scry is also really handy if you know they're trying to gather intel on you with magic. Screen is another handy utility to feed them false information.

Mage's Private Sanctum works for your key rooms which must be kept secret (plus a few red herrings to keep 'em guessing), and can be made permanent. Eventually, you might get around to doing it all, but it'll take ya a while.

Make sure you've got both the obvious secret service, and the discreet spy network. The obvious terror groups will draw attention away from the more discreet informers, who are the real danger to foreigners, as they can call in the Death Squads.

[JaronK]

Ironically, this particular method makes them less 'big-brothery', as they're not monitoring nearly everyone, they're monitoring a small handful that a distant deity said were likely to cause problems this time around.

You can also use Commune (on the Divine side) to verify the results of Contact Other Plane (or rather, to confirm that the Wizards are relaying the results honestly, at least), and as a secondary measure, to locate such people (Divine Bisection - basically a binary search, as applied to a map).

It's also a lot more efficient. You can't have THAT many people watching scry cameras all the time. It's far better to just check stuff randomly with a method of making sure a warning flag pings when necessary. It's not enough to be evil. You have to be logical and calculating evil.

Also, there should be a resistance. This resistance is made up of all the people that don't like the oppression. Anyone rebelling will naturally want to work with this resistance. However, the entire leadership of the resistance is in fact made up of double agents working for the government, since the true purpose of the resistance is twofold: locate any possible subversives, and in the event of a successful takeover or overthrow, make sure the people who end up in power after the overthrow are actually the same people who ran things last time.

JaronK

[Ormur]

I don't think I'll be letting the BBEG use contact other plane or commune for spotting the next big threat. Since those are PCs we're talking about they're logically the biggest threat to the regime and they aren't quite prepared for the whole apparatus of an evil dictatorship piling on them like rocks yet.

I'd also appreciate ideas on how to thwart the obvious measures. I want them to have a sporting chance and they'll probably pump some NPCs that should know about some of them for info beforehand.

Terrific suggestion though.

There is also another thing. Being an evil kingdom it's naturally bent on expansion and they're massing forces near where the party will enter the kingdom. In fact their mission is to gather intelligence on the forces and intentions of the evil kingdom for the good guys (it's a bit greyer than that but still pretty clear cut). I've already told them that all attempts at scrying the armies and leaders of the evil kingdom have failed so it must be protected by some abjurations. I figure the bigshots simply have mindblank while the army could be hidden by illusory landscape, screen, hide the path etc.


Except it's okay for some people to be good, as long as they're oppressed. After all, the enemy of evil is often another evil that wants to take the first evil's place. So that's not enough. However, don't PoTs get the Zone of Truth spell? Anyone entering the country via the normal roads should be forced to go through a series of questions similar to those of people entering any country. "What is the purpose of your visit?" "How long do you intend to be staying?" "Do you intend to commit any crime while inside our borders?" "Do you intend any harm towards any official of the state?" All this can be under a Zone of Truth. Note they would want to move people through this quickly... such zones are only up for a minute per level, and they'd only have so many casters. But each time, you're listened to not only by the caster, but also by someone with a decent Sense Motive skill. Perhaps even those questions are asked of everybody but the Zone of Truth is only up for some, and it's hard to tell who it's up for and who it's not.

Ah of course that's a good idea at the principal checkpoints. They might also have casters with arcane sight up to judge who can cast spells so they'll know which ones to monitor extra carefully.

It's also a good point that being good isn't a crime in itself. I guess even the Pelor priests are allowed to heal people at the back door if they just keep their mouths shut and obey the law aside from the occasional pogrom.


Let's see:

1.Required licenses for casting, be it 'natural'(sorcerer, warlock), 'learned'(wizard, archivist), granted(druid, cleric) or others(Ur-Priest, Factotum, UMD). Different casting abilities would require different licenses, and would have different restrictions. A UMD capable rogue would suffer little day-to-day restrictions, but actually using magic would require paperwork, for each scroll and wand-charge. On the otherhand, a wizard or sorcerer might have more direct restrictions placed on them, but what magic they could use would be relatively paperwork-free per cast.

I actually intend to have them relatively caster friendly. The BBEG is a caster and I don't intend for him to have an actual 0% approval rating. But native casters must sign up for the official guild and in return they get perks, lucrative positions or even the confiscated estates of disloyal nobles for the chance of oppressing their own batch of serfs and slaves.


Greater Prying Eyes. Seriously, it's the best way to keep tabs on what is going on in your pocket empire that I know of. One mile radius that you know everything that goes on, with True Sight up and running.

That could make sure the important cities are under constant surveillance.


Of course, once everything is declared, and appropriate import fees are assigned, they get their papers. Only it's a hell of a lot more important than simply a piece of parchment. You see, each one is signed with the Royal Seal, which means they can each be the target of a Scry which you are familiar with. Each visitor is assigned a visitor number, assuming they don't register as Good from the Paladins of Tyranny. These numbers are registered to the Scrying Council, and visitors are monitored regularly. Particularly about two hours after sunset on the first evening they arrive. If a Scry fails (remember, you are targeting the paper, not the person), you know that Something Is Up, and start taking proper precautions. If the papers are in the sewers, or otherwise not on their person, raise the alert.

That's brilliant, it leaves more chance for evading detection than contact other plane but makes sure that everyone important can be scryed at all times. If they suspect some visitor is up to no good they just look up their number and scry it. If they are discovered on the street without papers; cue death squads. But is it actually legal? Can you scry an inanimate object or will it count as an attended object and get the will save of the holder?


Make sure you've got both the obvious secret service, and the discreet spy network. The obvious terror groups will draw attention away from the more discreet informers, who are the real danger to foreigners, as they can call in the Death Squads.

Heh of course there will be ever present informers. I've read about both Nazi and Eastern Germany and there was always an abundance of informers. The actual Gestapo were mostly clerks sorting out the relevant bits. Sure there will be patrols of mace wielding Paladins of Tyranny but the real danger is the commoner sitting next to you in the tavern knowing that there's a reward for telling on strangers with loose tongues and funny accents.


Also, there should be a resistance. This resistance is made up of all the people that don't like the oppression. Anyone rebelling will naturally want to work with this resistance. However, the entire leadership of the resistance is in fact made up of double agents working for the government, since the true purpose of the resistance is twofold: locate any possible subversives, and in the event of a successful takeover or overthrow, make sure the people who end up in power after the overthrow are actually the same people who ran things last time.

JaronK

I've been planning on including a resistance of Heironeous believers (which is illegal to pray to of course) and it probably includes dispossessed nobles and radical dissenters. It's a good call having them infiltrated by double agents. They can divert the resistance away from the important matters and monitor the situation. I've already featured a double agent in the campaign. He was a member of an exiled adventuring party but was blackmailed into leading them on a suicide mission that aimed to assassinate an ambassador of the BBEG. It failed of course and provided ample propaganda material.

[Jack_Simth]

I don't think I'll be letting the BBEG use contact other plane or commune for spotting the next big threat. Since those are PCs we're talking about they're logically the biggest threat to the regime and they aren't quite prepared for the whole apparatus of an evil dictatorship piling on them like rocks yet.
They're *not* logically the biggest threat. Plus, you know, a LE empire has rules and laws. Just because they were flagged as the most likely to cause harm, doesn't mean they were the *only* ones flagged, and doesn't mean they will. So rather than expending large quantities of resources stamping out things that might not be a problem, only to let things that were slightly less likely go by without investigation, they simply assign 'watchers' of some form to those in the high probability brackets, waiting for signs that they're actively planning something. Someone with the potential to cause serious harm... should usually be left alone unless there's specific reason not to.

Alternately, they've asked about future events... but massively powerful outsiders are not necessarily omniscient, and in attempting to alter the course of events (by landing on the potential troublemakers like a ton of bricks), future events are changed, so that the probability of the future crime drops from 'high' to 'zero' (as they're now dead) - so any direct answer to a question of future events is... a problem. And, of course, if they fall like a ton of bricks on top of the most likely people to cause a problem, then the second (or third, or fourth, or...) most likely group of people to cause a problem (the PC's) can avoid that method. Just remember that there's always someone stronger and... oh look, they got hit like a ton of bricks. Maybe even on-screen.

I'd also appreciate ideas on how to thwart the obvious measures. I want them to have a sporting chance and they'll probably pump some NPCs that should know about some of them for info beforehand. Well, Nondetection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/nondetection.htm) and it's high-level cousin Mind Blank (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mindBlank.htm) are obvious arcane solutions. But if you're dropping the 'questions about the future' bit, then there's lots of ways.

Zone of Truth is an area spell, not a targeted spell - which means the caster doesn't know whether or not it worked on a given subject (Discern Lies, however, is targeted, so the caster knows whether or not it's reliable... usually ... but There's a Ring for That (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#mindShielding)). The guy with Sense Motive can be bluffed - either by the party face (Rogue), or by the professional human trafficker (A Bard: Ring of Mind Shielding, lots of Bluff, Glibness, and lots of Forgery: Stick everyone in a portable hole with a bottle of air, walk through customs, provide the party with fake papers, and take their payment. Oh yes, and he keeps excellent records... which will be gone through by the government in the event of his death, so double-crossing him is a BAD IDEA).

Alternate methods: Skip the boarder by any number of methods, murder people who have papers, and disguise yourselves as them.

The Alarm-speckled Border... well, Alarm is just a trap, that a Rogue can resolve with a search & disable device check. The Prying Eyes still have to have a fair idea where to go, and have to see something incriminating. They can be defeated by mundane Hide checks, or by Disguise checks.

There is also another thing. Being an evil kingdom it's naturally bent on expansion and they're massing forces near where the party will enter the kingdom. In fact their mission is to gather intelligence on the forces and intentions of the evil kingdom for the good guys (it's a bit greyer than that but still pretty clear cut). I've already told them that all attempts at scrying the armies and leaders of the evil kingdom have failed so it must be protected by some abjurations. I figure the bigshots simply have mindblank while the army could be hidden by illusory landscape, screen, hide the path etc.Mage's Private Sanctum (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magesPrivateSanctum.htm) will stop most divinations cold, and has a large enough area that it *could* hide a small standing army (the minimum caster has 9 30-foot cubes - that's an area 90 feet by 90 feet by 30 feet - one caster can cover reasonable-sized barracks). And if you want to be pedantic, the Evil Empire knows people will by scrying for 'Armies', 'Soldiers', and the like, and so simply changes their terms. They're not 'Armies', they're 'Licensed Enemy Annihilation Groups'; They're not 'Soldiers', they're 'Top-Grade Citizens'; they're not 'military units', they're 'Proactive Order Enforcers' or some such rot. A change of terms ... and divinations for the original terms fail, as they're not used. Contact Other Planes by the defending army now goes something like this:
"Will the Evil Empire invade us?"
"Yes"
"When will the Evil Empire invade us?"
"Soon"
"How many soldiers does the Evil Empire have under their command?" "Zero"
"Where is the Evil Empire's largest military force stationed?"
"Nowhere"
... and so on. Of course, it's even better if they have a group of people they actually term 'soldiers', and 'military', and so on... that always stay in the capital.


Ah of course that's a good idea at the principal checkpoints. They might also have casters with arcane sight up to judge who can cast spells so they'll know which ones to monitor extra carefully.Greater Arcane Sight - that tells you whether or not the target can cast spells. Regular Arcane Sight doesn't do that. Oh yes, and look up the Misdirection spell (Core). Really messes with these guys' heads.

It's also a good point that being good isn't a crime in itself. I guess even the Pelor priests are allowed to heal people at the back door if they just keep their mouths shut and obey the law aside from the occasional pogrom.Yep. Of course, they need to be licensed, taxed, and tracked... but if their licenses are in order, and they're keeping the appropriate records of everyone healed (name, date, time, and type of injury required to be reported... see, 'good citizens' don't very well get into fights, now do they?), and paying the taxes for that healing, they're fine. If they're on the list of state-approved religious orders (unlikely).


That's brilliant, it leaves more chance for evading detection than contact other plane but makes sure that everyone important can be scryed at all times. If they suspect some visitor is up to no good they just look up their number and scry it. If they are discovered on the street without papers; cue death squads. But is it actually legal? Can you scry an inanimate object or will it count as an attended object and get the will save of the holder?Sadly, attended objects get their owner's saves, and most methods of scrying are required to target creatures anyway. However, if you use Fell Animate metamagic when you fireball a bunch of mice, and put the now-zombified mice in little tiny cages, and have them be part of the paperwork, then the only save you need to beat is the zombie mouse's save.

[Godskook]

I actually intend to have them relatively caster friendly. The BBEG is a caster and I don't intend for him to have an actual 0% approval rating. But native casters must sign up for the official guild and in return they get perks, lucrative positions or even the confiscated estates of disloyal nobles for the chance of oppressing their own batch of serfs and slaves.

You're confused on what I meant. "Licensing" and "caster-unfriendly" come across quite differently in the public eye. After all, only responsible casters and UMD'ers should be allowed the privilege. The PR is much like gun-control legislation.

"We're not depriving honest and responsible spellcasters of their gifts. We're regulating to ensure that dishonest or irresponsible spellcasters don't vaporize *YOUR* home with an errant or criminal use of a spell. Surely any respectable caster would be willing to endure some minor paperwork."

[Tvtyrant]

"We're not depriving honest and responsible spellcasters of their gifts. We're regulating to ensure that dishonest or irresponsible spellcasters don't vaporize *YOUR* home with an errant or criminal use of a spell. Surely any respectable caster would be willing to endure some minor paperwork."

It's actually a reasonable response; think about the whole "cast steed and alter aura, sell and reap infinite profits" trick. Magic users are just as broken in trade as they are in combat, why would you trust them? You might not go all Seanchen on them, but you might have them all IDed, with the identification cards acting as both a tracker and a monitor. If you cast a spell the card sends back a report on what spell was cast, and it screams an alarm if it is destroyed or cast away.

[Ormur]

They're *not* logically the biggest threat. Plus, you know, a LE empire has rules and laws. Just because they were flagged as the most likely to cause harm, doesn't mean they were the *only* ones flagged, and doesn't mean they will. So rather than expending large quantities of resources stamping out things that might not be a problem, only to let things that were slightly less likely go by without investigation, they simply assign 'watchers' of some form to those in the high probability brackets, waiting for signs that they're actively planning something. Someone with the potential to cause serious harm... should usually be left alone unless there's specific reason not to.

I just figure that a bunch of high level people coming into your realm to spy on the armies you've been massing would ping on contact other plane as a threat. If they are under constant observation they'll get caught, I'd prefer the evil guy's not knowing exactly what they're planning to justify not taking extreme measures. There might be bigger threats it's true but eventually the PC will start thinking of ways to "end the campaign" and then they should definitely start showing up on contact other plane. Maybe that's going to be okay by the time they hit that point though so I'll keep it in my arsenal.


Alternately, they've asked about future events... but massively powerful outsiders are not necessarily omniscient, and in attempting to alter the course of events (by landing on the potential troublemakers like a ton of bricks), future events are changed, so that the probability of the future crime drops from 'high' to 'zero' (as they're now dead) - so any direct answer to a question of future events is... a problem. And, of course, if they fall like a ton of bricks on top of the most likely people to cause a problem, then the second (or third, or fourth, or...) most likely group of people to cause a problem (the PC's) can avoid that method. Just remember that there's always someone stronger and... oh look, they got hit like a ton of bricks. Maybe even on-screen.

Yes, maybe I can teach them to be cautious by informing them of some other high level threat that got ambushed by a bunch of high level secrete police wizards.


Mage's Private Sanctum (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magesPrivateSanctum.htm) will stop most divinations cold, and has a large enough area that it *could* hide a small standing army (the minimum caster has 9 30-foot cubes - that's an area 90 feet by 90 feet by 30 feet - one caster can cover reasonable-sized barracks).

I'm thinking on the scale of a hundred thousand troops so I guess I must chalk it up to them not knowing what to scry for. Maybe all the top soldiers they could know about are staying in a Mage's Private Sanctum. I guess they wouldn't think to look for private #67.291 sitting in his camp waiting for the go signal.


Greater Arcane Sight - that tells you whether or not the target can cast spells. Regular Arcane Sight doesn't do that. Oh yes, and look up the Misdirection spell (Core). Really messes with these guys' heads.

Standard Arcane Sight allows you to detect whether somebody is a caster and what his highest level (unspent) spell slot it by concentration. I don't think they'll post wizards with Greater Arcane Sight at border crossings. Misdirection is indeed the perfect spell for that occasion, thanks for reminding me.


Sadly, attended objects get their owner's saves, and most methods of scrying are required to target creatures anyway. However, if you use Fell Animate metamagic when you fireball a bunch of mice, and put the now-zombified mice in little tiny cages, and have them be part of the paperwork, then the only save you need to beat is the zombie mouse's save.

Hehe, I though of that as a back up plan too when I read it. Every important visitor must keep an official critter with a low will save on him at all times. I should know we had to ditch the Druid's animal companion in one campaign be because it was too easy to scry.


You're confused on what I meant. "Licensing" and "caster-unfriendly" come across quite differently in the public eye. After all, only responsible casters and UMD'ers should be allowed the privilege. The PR is much like gun-control legislation.

"We're not depriving honest and responsible spellcasters of their gifts. We're regulating to ensure that dishonest or irresponsible spellcasters don't vaporize *YOUR* home with an errant or criminal use of a spell. Surely any respectable caster would be willing to endure some minor paperwork."

No you're right of course. They'd want to keep tabs on all spell casters just to make sure they don't misbehave even though they have all sorts of privileges. There would be stiff penalties for unlicensed spellcasting and I've already included an NPC that was driven away from the country.

It's just that every new regime comes to power by appealing to some numerous or powerful class of citizens and pitting them against other classes. I decided that under-represented spellcasters and the bourgeois should be the primary supporters of the kingdom. The old nobles don't like the centralization and the lower classes are oppressed just as before.

[Godskook]

It's just that every new regime comes to power by appealing to some numerous or powerful class of citizens and pitting them against other classes. I decided that under-represented spellcasters and the bourgeois should be the primary supporters of the kingdom. The old nobles don't like the centralization and the lower classes are oppressed just as before.

So all the "kingdom-supporter" casters are founding members of the caster's guild that runs and enforces the licensing.

[JaronK]

Of course, they don't want champions of good. But peons of good? They pay taxes. They work. That's fine.

Along the lines of messing with divination with names, don't forget ship names like "She's One of Ours Sir." I had a game where we were all on a flying ship. The ship had one real name, which we never spoke aloud. It then cycled through four fake names written on the back of the ship (on a rotating sign, designed to show any one name at a time). We then made tiny ships out of soarwood that looked like miniature models of our ship, one named each of the names we regularly showed on the back of our ship, and released them to fly up and float on the air currents randomly. If anyone had seen our ship before and saw a name and then did a divination for that name, they'd track the little soaring ship floating high in the atmosphere somewhere (almost impossible to see due to distance and size modifiers... they were literally Tiny).

While this was a hilariously silly move, imagine the possibilities if you change the names of things.

JaronK

[hamishspence]

Paladin police regularly Detect Evil on every citizen. Whenever a citizen comes up as evil, he is immediately imprisoned in a therapeutic ward to re-learn good ways. It's so much more humane than summary execution, and lets us keep a productive member of the community happy.

Problem is, an Evil character can be innocent enough that imprisonment becomes unjust. "Being Evil isn't necessarily a crime", after all.

Especially if you're running a campaign where Evil alignment is fairly common and easy to get. In these cases, a Good or Exalted Good character might not, in fact, seek to imprison everyone Evil-aligned- but only those they find evidence have done something more than this, to warrant imprisonment.


And if nothing the clerics and beguilers say can convince him to change? They just drag him off to the Ministry of Kindness and cast Sanctify the Wicked. His physical body is stacked like cordwood on top of the other evil ones currently being sanctified, and his soulstone is placed in a neatly organized file cabinet for a year and a day until the sanctification process is complete.

Actually, physical bodies crumble to dust in this case the moment the soul is removed- and a new physical body is created when the gem is shattered.

Most of the other possibilities suggested may fall afoul of "concern for the dignity of sentient beings"- taking somebody's memory away is something that should generally be reserved for direst necessity.

For an Evil kingdom, however, spying on people, editing their memories or even personalities, and the like, might be par for the course.

[SaintRidley]

Here's one nobody has mentioned. Mindbenders with Mindsight as a police force. Paired with a LE Blackguard/Paladin of Tyranny type they can verify any goody two-shoes who might cause trouble and make him come willingly as a friend to the Mindrape chambers, where he can be rewritten entirely into an obedient member of society.

Anti-teleportation wards upon the whole of the city, to ensure undesirables may not enter without first being screened and that any who do manage to find their way in must take more normal channels to leave, increasing the likelihood of their capture before they can do any permanent subversive harm.

Of course, spellcasting must be regulated and kept in the hands of only the proper authorities. Persecution of the natural spellcasters, state-run wizard and archivist academies where only those spells approved by the government are taught to students hand-chosen to pursue the state's agenda.

Compulsive religious attendance at the state-sponsored church is a must, to ensure the moral purity and conformity of all citizens.

I'll stop now, lest I begin with the rules that should govern effective racial segregation meant to maximise control over undesirable elements.

[Ormur]

Here's one nobody has mentioned. Mindbenders with Mindsight as a police force. Paired with a LE Blackguard/Paladin of Tyranny type they can verify any goody two-shoes who might cause trouble and make him come willingly as a friend to the Mindrape chambers, where he can be rewritten entirely into an obedient member of society.

Funny you should mention that since the evil king is a beguiler/mindbender (houseruled to loose fewer caster levels) that took mindrape as advanced learning. He might just have trained a few casters in the art of telepathy. 9th level spells are a bit sparse though, only a handful of people in the setting can actually cast them so mindrape is reserved for the most dangerous and useful subversives.


Of course, spellcasting must be regulated and kept in the hands of only the proper authorities. Persecution of the natural spellcasters, state-run wizard and archivist academies where only those spells approved by the government are taught to students hand-chosen to pursue the state's agenda.

Forcing every spellcaster to join the guild was just the first step. After the new regime took power the only way to study magic was through the royal collages with a standardized royally sanctioned curriculum. In fact they started a program where the most gifted children of the lower classes are taken from their parents and indoctrinated by the state. Naturally the parents are just happy that their children are given this opportunity.


Compulsive religious attendance at the state-sponsored church is a must, to ensure the moral purity and conformity of all citizens.

Yes the quaint old religions will soon bit the dust and all will bow before Hextor.


I'll stop now, lest I begin with the rules that should govern effective racial segregation meant to maximise control over undesirable elements.

Naturally the government makes no distinction based on race as long as they obey the law but sadly some of the more barbaric races are more prone to unruliness than others and must be educated properly (by their owners). Others are historically untrustworthy but individuals can still affirm their loyalty to the state by renouncing their ties to a forgotten past.

So, yea it's basically just humans and gnomes that are favoured. Halflings are criminals, elves and dwarfs too independent and the rest barbarians.

[Randel]

Expeditious Messengers from Eberron might provide a base for an interesting sureilance network. They are tiny flying constructs that can send visual and audio information back to their owners, like tiny flying surveilance cameras. The owner doesn't technically have to be a spellcaster ( I think the creator can choose to attune the construct to someone else on creation) so its use is not limited to merely spellcasters who can cast divination spells.


You could have a series of Watchers who have bases all around the city. I think the messenger has an effective radius of about a mile so you could put several standard bases around the city or country to give them regular patrols and if one area needs more attention then several watchers could move there and take their messengers with them.

The expeditious messengers could be a semi-common appearance where they fly overhead, perch on windowsills, and observe what people are doing. Visitors might think that they are just an interesting type of flying animal until they open their mouths and start talking. Also, once you create an expeditious messenger then its constantly active and you only need occasional repairs to have it run (as opposed to constantly casting divination spells with high-level casters).

The Expeditious Messengers could be one of the first forms of magical surveillance due to the fact that everyone 'knows' that you're watching them. Then have the invisible scrying sensors used to look at the areas that the messengers aren't looking at.

[Doppelganger]

Problem is, an Evil character can be innocent enough that imprisonment becomes unjust. "Being Evil isn't necessarily a crime", after all.


Good sir, you clearly misunderstand the procedure. We are not accussing these people of being criminals, we are treating their illness. Oh yes, evilness is a disease, not a crime, in most cases. We do not imprison the infirm. We simply seperate them from healthy society, and treat them of their disseases to the best of our abilities.
--Rebecka, cheif healer at the Ministry of Wholesomeness.

On an unrelated note, after you have, by whatever means, identified the adventurerers/good ambassidors come into the kingdom, why not just mindrape/programmed amnesia to turn them into double agents/spies? When the border guard find a do-gooder, they discreetly send a message to the capital, who then streamlines their entry, and then when they get to a mafor city, informs them that there was a minor problem with their paperwork, and won't they please come to some govt. building to clear it up? If they do come, ambush them, knock them out and mindrape them, and if they don't come arrest them for commiting a crime, mindrape them, and then release them, on some technicality. Even if you get a high level party ever week, the BBEG will still be able to keep up, and you'll get a huge number of very powerful minions.