As second part of my Personal Curriculum, I went a little bit further. While the first week was mostly centered around rituals and traditions, the second week’s topic went a little more secular, which can be used for rich storytelling in city-scenarios. I think anyone, reading this has dealt with most of those systems in a simple everyday life. Going to the city hall to get a permit or to an embassy to get a VISA are some of the most mundane things you could do, but would take you out of your regular daily routine. Once you’ve entered the holy halls of your local city hall, you’re entering a new world of rules … and sometimes pain. One of the best examples in Media is The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, a famous French animated movie from the late 70s, when Asterix and Obelix have the task to survive „The Place that Sends you Mad“… which turns out to be a bureaucratic building that needs them to find „Passierschein AA38“ or Permit AA38. It’s a fun play on endless bureaucratic evil that would send them from one office to the next, while no one actually is responsible for this permit but would send them to the next office located at the other side of the building. Eventually they would leave by turning the rules on the head and turn the people inside that bureau insane. It’s always been a favorite of mine and lots of people in my generation would know exactly, when we would just say „Passierschein AA38“ when experiencing bureaucratic stress. Or just look at ten seasons of The Office. Therefore, this blog entry is dedicated to all those moments of pain and how we can use this for storytelling in stories or TTRPGs.
Example: Permits & Licenses
One of the most classic occurrences, as described above is Hammurabi’s Code that was enacted around 1772 BC that contained rules for building houses. In this, a builder of a house could be taken into responsibility if a house crashes due to bad construction and is punished with a death sentence. Millennia later, in Europe, workers would need to be within a guild in order to trade in work. Similarly, citizens were not permitted to hunt animals in a forest, and could only do so if they would own a license for hunting. Today, in Europe, you would also need to have a permit in order to catch fish in rivers or lakes. Obviously, there are reasons to do those permits and licenses. For example, if amateurs would go out and hunt animals, they might royally screw up and harm others or get themselves killed, so it’s a form of gate-keeping that is considered to allow specialists and experts to do their thing. In the US, a store owner would need to have a permit to sell alcohol. Obviously this is prone to corruption and resistance for people that want to bend the rules or break them. I think anyone knows Al Capone, who used the time of prohibition and smuggled alcohol and other things. In this form of organized crime, he was able to build up his own private empire, that was able to distribute the goods to so-called speakeasies and would engage in corruption with public officers and some more bloody acts. On the other hand you could think of many potential story lines based around those „boring“ things.
- Cities would require magic permits for magic users to allow only a variety of spells within the city borders.
- Owlbear hunting is only allowed for adventurers with proper training and having dozens of hours of theoretical lectures registered
- Distribution and creation of health potions are only possible for people with a dedicated degree in herbology.
- Only members of a weapon’s guild are allowed to open-carry their swords within city boundaries.
Extensions
- Red-Taping: Today, you would know the term „red tape“ from excessive bureaucratic overload, but in the past it had its origin around the 16th Century when King Charles of Spain used red bindings to separate degrees and documents issued by the King from „normal“ documents and show their priority. Thinking about this in TTRPG terms, it could be an amazing handout, if you can prepare a legal document for players with a red ribbon around it (or some other color if you like).
- Enforcement: Obviously, once an institution creates licenses and permits, the enforcement of such laws is a story for itself. In the US, you’d have for example the ATF that would enforce laws on alcohol, tobacco and firearms or the FCC that would regulate things in telecommunication and media. So, if you could have something like a Magical Enforcement Unit (or M.E.U.) that would follow magical users that don’t follow the laws and practise magic within city borders without a legal permit.
But that’s just one of many possibilities to bring more boring stuff to your table and spice up things. For example, your player group receive a quest to catch a Magicarp that can be only found in Lake Tinderstone that lies within the borders of Firingia. The King of Firingia fears that amateur fishermen would catch too many Magicarps and would issue fishing permits and would only allow to fish if there’s a large abundance available. Unfortunately, there’s currently not so many Magicarps in the Lake anymore, so there’s a temporary ban on fishing until there are more fish again (fortunately, they would come back to normal capacity within a few weeks). Your players could now either try to catch the Magicarp illegally and trying to avoid the fishing police or would follow the rules, get a permit and proper license before being able to get the fish. Or you could try to bribe one of the Lake commissioners to give you the fish.
What I want to say is, even if a system seems boring and too much real-world-y, bureaucratic systems have always been present in humanity and could also very well enrich your city- or town stories. But you might also think of other things as well here, such as
- Tolls & Tariffs: What items are allowed within the confines of a city or land and do you need to pay something to bring this through tollgates?
- Tax Collection: Does a city have a tax system that would require enforcement? Do you have to pay a magical tax if you want to buy scriptures and spell ingredients and what does the city use this money to finance for?
- Audits & Inspections: Imagine your team has a built a large enterprise and would offer services or products. Are there quality standards that those need to fulfill? What tests are involved to check the quality? What happens if the quality is not enough for those audits?
I hope to have given you some inspiration that you can include in your stories, even if they are set within fantastical worlds, but yet, fill them with realistic, boring, bureaucracy.