i need of permits that an lawful evil empire might force citizens to purchase.

[ghostunderasheet]

The worse the better because i kinda hate any emire that will b~@** slap you for trying to save lives. So i can take a list of permits i require to buy at our next session. How dare npc 32 call sindear a charlatan a snake oils man sindear is a female. A a cultist to a fake god. And threatened violance and jeering as she walked away.

So permits for walking moderaly fast, breathing, spellcasting both divine and arcane, and having money over 10gp will be at the top.

[ghostunderasheet]

Also a riding permit, traveling permit and a foreigners permit. Ohh and a non human permit and a adventurer's permit and a hunt and fishing permit.

[Selene Spires]

Permitted for...

carrying weapons

A spellcasting license

Permit for being a priest of a deity that is not sponsored by the state

A Permit to sell plunder

A Permit to carry 'Lock Picking Tool's (Thieves Tools)

A Permit to marry

A Permit to have children

A Permit to drink alcohol

A Permit to conduct business of any sort

[ghostunderasheet]

Hey thanks.

[Drejk]

License for magical healing.

License for non-magical healing.

Permit to be healed (or else someone could heal injuries you suffered as a legal punishment)

License for prophecies (tiered, with the lowest one covering any predictions for the future - including such things as saying "I think it will rain tomorrow")

Permit to visit (specific district, specific type of business, category of citizens, specific god's shrine/temple)

Permit to pray to specific approved deity (e.g. peasants can only pray to low gods, while you need to be a noble to pray to a higher god of the imperial pantheon, and only imperial family can pray to the high god)

Permit to eat specific type of food, wear specific kind of material, or benefit from a specific type of luxury

[David knott 242]

For locales that lack breathable atmospheres, don't forget a permit to breathe (also known as a receipt for having paid your air tax).

Although if they are really evil, I suppose they could do the same thing on planets with breathable atmospheres....

[Corsair17]

Docking permits
Transfer permits [personal]
Permit to rent vehicle
Permit for personal Mechanic's Droid
Permit for different employment skills
Union Memberships
Driving/piloting permits
Comm link permit

[The Artificer]

An official permit for receiving official permits... for the next 4 hours.

[Lorcryst]

Lots of good ideas, a couple more :

Temporary License to own more than one Permit.

Authorization to have money on your person.

License to rent a credstick.

Permit to open a banking account.

License to use a banking account.

License to live, daily.

License to unlive, daily.

Permit to die. Not having it and dying anyway means resurection/undeath to work to pay the fee, plus expenses for resurection, plus other licenses.

Permit to eat in public spaces, hourly.

Permit to drink in public spaces, hourly.

As above but in private spaces, daily.

Fees for swearing.

Permit to excrete bodily waste.

License to use The Three Shells.

Basically, anything trivial but absolutely vital is taxed and regulated.

Fees and fines range from inconvenient (go get this stamped now) to several generations of indentured servitude.

[Ixal]

What type of LE do you have in mind? North Korea? Nazi Germany? Something else? From your example probably "comical LE" but I want to make sure.

There are licenses every modern government would have. A birth certificat, some form of ID (technically not a license you buy but there would likely be still processing fees for getting them), weapon licenses, driver and pilot licenses, a captain license, a spellcasting license and entry into the starship registry, educational certifications and job specific licenses etc.
Pretty normal stuff.

As for LE licenses, the license to worship certain gods Drejk suggested are a good one. Requiring licenses for people to travel are often used to portray evil societies. More Nazi type LE would require you to get certifications of your genetic purity. You can also go into more detail with weapons and require a separate license for each damage type (for example when the people in power have immunities or vulnerabilities). Summoning might also require a license, either a general or specific by creature type (maybe even both).

[Vo]

Licence to interact with the locals

Licence to interact with the bureaucracy

Licence to trade

Licence to wear a hat

[The Artificer]

A permit to torture unlicensed people.

[Metaphysician]

The Artificer wrote:

A permit to torture unlicensed people.

I feel like this points to a more interesting direction than a lot of the above "license to do something necessary for daily life". Its not that a tyranny won't want to control daily life, its just that separating out every little thing is a short road to nonfunctional chaos. Unless you definitely want to achieve comedy, all of that would just be covered by broader structures like "Are you a citizen?" or "Have you paid your taxes?"

By contrast, the idea of a permit to do something horrible, that most people would not want to do and that would normally be forbidden by any reasonable legal authority? *That* is fertile ground for horror. After all, a society cannot function if every citizen needs to spend 24 hours a do just petitioning for permission. . . but societies can *and have* functioned just fine with subsets of the populace granted privileges to act with impunity.

Now, normally this is tied to specific social class or caste role ( ie, the soldier class having the right to use violence on the peasant class as they see fit ), but one can certainly imagine a society where these powers and privileges are for sale. There probably *would* still be a class, if only to define how broadly effective a "permit" is. For example, you might have Citizenship Ranks One through Five, with One being "high ranking members of government, industry, or other apparatuses of the state", and Five being "criminals, conquered slaves, and other unpersons". Permits are then defined in terms of "Versus people of a given rank or below".

Examples:
-"Class Four Requisitions Permit": you can take the personal property of any citizen rank 4 or 5.
-"Class Five Purification Permit": you can kill anyone of citizenship rank 5.
-"Class Three Surveillance Permit": you can spy on anyone of citizenship rank 3 or below.
-Etc

Two likely complications. One, not all permits would cost the same, with the cost being probably based on both demand, and the potential disruption to society for engaging in said behavior. A permit allowing for sexual assault would almost certainly cost way more than one for common assault, and a permit to rob would cost less than a permit to kill.

Two, the permits might *not* be restricted by rank, so a low ranked citizen could, potentially, buy ( or be granted ) a permit that lets them do things to higher rank citizens legally. Why? Partly to encourage even low ranking citizens ( at least those with both money and malice ) to buy into the system, and partly so as to use low rank citizens as tools for doing dirty work.

[The Artificer]

Metaphysician wrote:

The Artificer wrote:

A permit to torture unlicensed people.

By contrast, the idea of a permit to do something horrible, that most people would not want to do and that would normally be forbidden by any reasonable legal authority? *That* is fertile ground for horror. After all, a society cannot function if every citizen needs to spend 24 hours a do just petitioning for permission. . . but societies can *and have* functioned just fine with subsets of the populace granted privileges to act with impunity.

Now, normally this is tied to specific social class or caste role ( ie, the soldier class having the right to use violence on the peasant class as they see fit ), but one can certainly imagine a society where these powers and privileges are for sale.

I'm about to be running an evil PC campaign and these ideas are gold.

[ghostunderasheet]

Well there is a yearly celebration in which the national guard pits a summoned monster(young blue dragon) against any comers. I think it is a way for them to cul any heroics from the peasantry and if you survive your made an offer you can not refuse. Its basicly a slaughter fest done as a grand festival infront of the whole town.

[The Artificer]

Also a daily Bill For Rights.

[Peg'giz]

Docking Permint (already mentioned) only give the right to dock, no to leave ship, refuel, unload cargo etc., for this you need seperate permits. :)

[The Artificer]

Freedom isn't Free, but it might be sold out..

[Lethallin]

Need to pay a convenience fee whenever paying for a permit with anything but a local currency that is more or less unobtainable.

And if you somehow DID obtain the proper amount of this currency, you'll have to pay a conversion fee since they'll need to convert this local currency into credits.

[Senko]

Licence to own slaves.

Licence to take slaves (does not apply to citizens)

Licence to break slaves (including magical and technological alterations).

Licemce to torture.

Licence to kill in self defence.

Licence to kill if you judge your honor was insulted (were guild may be needed to pay corporation/owner of those kiled)

Licence to carry melee weapons

Licence to carry ranged weapons

Licence to have magic

Licence to know combat magic

Licence to carry concealed weapons

Licence to carry assault weapons

Licence to sell drugs

Licence to buy/sell loot from those killed

[Cole Deschain]

License to access water of any kind.

[Metaphysician]

You tangentially remind me of my own elaborations on the drow society of Apostae. Basically, they have whole heartedly embraces the joys and complexities of modern corporate structures and contract law, in their most brutal and abusive form.

"What? No, those are not slaves! House Zeizerer does not practice slavery. They are *employees*, with long term contracts. In fact, they are free to end their employment with six weeks notice whenever they want. Of course, then they won't receive their paycheck anymore, nor will they be able to receive the employee discount at House Zeizerer-affiliated retailers. Might make it tough for them to afford food, water, and air. But hey, they have a choice!"

[Azelator Ereus]

Cole Deschain wrote:

License to access water of any kind.

Literally a future Nestle would love to see in our own time, at source of pure water near you.

There's little need to make 'evil empires' over-the-top. Simply try to occupy the perspective of any currently oppressed population, almost anywhere in the world, and you will find a wealth of material for this exercise.

[Theconiel]

License to wear armor, separate license for each armor upgrade

[kadance]

A call back to U.S. drug history...

Make something illegal by requiring that you have a permit/stamp for it, but don't have a way of obtaining the necessary permit/stamp.

A Grenade? I hope you have a Grade III Explosive Ordnance Handling Permit.
No, I don't know where you get one, but I know you have to have one to carry a grenade. And you don't have one. So, I'll be confiscating that device, and here's your fine.

[Ixal]

kadance wrote:

A call back to U.S. drug history...

Make something illegal by requiring that you have a permit/stamp for it, but don't have a way of obtaining the necessary permit/stamp.

A Grenade? I hope you have a Grade III Explosive Ordnance Handling Permit.
No, I don't know where you get one, but I know you have to have one to carry a grenade. And you don't have one. So, I'll be confiscating that device, and here's your fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYM04gQAyr8

[thecursor]

*Ahem* If I may humbly suggest: "As the oxygen and other precious gasses used in our station's life support system is the property of the Azlanti government, we now request all visitors purchase a one-time oxygen license to ensure our station's resources are being used properly. This license is subject to suspension or revision in the event the licensee is found to hold or espouse beliefs or motivations found to be seditious."

Yes, an off-world "Breathing License"

[Pantshandshake]

thecursor wrote:

*Ahem* If I may humbly suggest: "As the oxygen and other precious gasses used in our station's life support system is the property of the Azlanti government, we now request all visitors purchase a one-time oxygen license to ensure our station's resources are being used properly. This license is subject to suspension or revision in the event the licensee is found to hold or espouse beliefs or motivations found to be seditious."

Yes, an off-world "Breathing License"

But some races don't breathe gaseous atmospheres, or breathe at all! You're really missing out on some income there.

I submit that you'll need to fill out this Respirational Material tax form if the substance you 'breathe' is not a gaseous medium.

I'm not sure how to monetize the existence of life that doesn't breathe yet, though.

[Garretmander]

Pantshandshake wrote:

thecursor wrote:

*Ahem* If I may humbly suggest: "As the oxygen and other precious gasses used in our station's life support system is the property of the Azlanti government, we now request all visitors purchase a one-time oxygen license to ensure our station's resources are being used properly. This license is subject to suspension or revision in the event the licensee is found to hold or espouse beliefs or motivations found to be seditious."

Yes, an off-world "Breathing License"

But some races don't breathe gaseous atmospheres, or breathe at all! You're really missing out on some income there.

I submit that you'll need to fill out this Respirational Material tax form if the substance you 'breathe' is not a gaseous medium.

I'm not sure how to monetize the existence of life that doesn't breathe yet, though.

Use of cubic space that stores said gases for other lifeforms.

[BigNorseWolf]

You need a permit and a DC 25 perform check to get a permit to sing the Imperial anthem.

If you thought Simon Cowel was a tough judge, just wait till he has an artillery laser.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

And let us not forget the all-important Twenty-Seven B Stroke Six!