An outlaw, as the name implies, is someone who is acting outside the law like bandits. As such adventurers have no problem in killing them, since they are outside the judicial system. Is this accurate?
If they are completely out of the normal society's laws, doesn't that actually mean however that I can do anything I want to an outlaw with no repercussions whatsoever?
yeah sure
No. They are outside the law, you are not.
You can kill them and say they were a threat to you, sure. But you can't enslave them, because slavery is still a crime.
And as for "no repercussions whatsover," keep in mind that legal repercussions aren't the only kind. Once you get a reputation as Rapin' Dave the Outlaw Rapist, you're gonna have problems, even if all your victims were technically outside the law.
I don't think the medieval legal system was that comprehensive anyway. You didn't have police running around. If you hurt someone, the main question is whether they belong to a family or a community that will want to make things right, or if there happens to be someone around with a conscience. Either way, the niceties of the law might not matter.
>doesn't that actually mean however that I can do anything I want to an outlaw with no repercussions whatsoever?
Basically, yes.
An outlaw has no rights under Caput lupinum, and are treated by the legal system as nothing more than a wild animal. You can rob them, kill them, torture them, rape them (although that might run afoul of bestiality laws depending on how the local legal system interprets it), or enslave them with no legalo consequences.
Of course, there's always the chance of a group of outlaws realizing that some psychopath is hunting them down and murderfucking them, then banding together to try and kill you, but as long as you're strong enough, that just means your prey comes to you first.
>implying you wouldn't buy a beer for Rapin' Dave
Yes. They are outside the protection of the law. Hell in England you weren't even allowed to give them water or food or you'd be complicit.
For the last time, Frank. I'm changing your characters alignment to Evil and that's that. If you don't like it make a new character that isn't a sociopath.
Fucking Frank man it's always fucking Frank.
Why can't Frank be more like Steve?
But Frank needs to frank.
I don't know, Steve's kinda cool but I swear he's looking right at my dick every time I leave my seat. Terry said the same thing.
Hey isn't that that game where death was a gunslinger of some kind or am I thinking of something else?
Yes, that was the whole idea behind being an outlaw.
Oh no, the Medieval legal system, at least on England, was way too complex for its own good at a time. There were too many fucking laws. So many that it was impossible to enforce. People were very litigious. And many people became outlaws just because they didn't want to deal with trials anymore.
>Fucking Frank
Fuck you, David. All I wanted was to do what my character would've done.
That's basically how Robin Hood was.
Prisons were invented to force people into trial. You are stuck there until you agreed to it. Also, you had to pay for your cell.
No worries DM.
I'll stick to my Lawful Evil bounty hunter who's in it for the legal rape.
Nothing more right than raping rapists.
You could always run like hell to your nearest sanctuary. Any criminal on the run was safe once you could reach and area marked as such. If the pursuer kills you, he had to pay a fine of 8 pounds. Once safe, you had 40 days. Either a peaceful agreement was reached within those 40 days, or you had to leave the country. You would be provided with a special outfit and carry a wooden cross, thumb branded with the letter A and then be told to hotfoot to the nearest port (time given to reach the port was random). Once you reach the seaside, you'd be expected to pick the first boat out of the country. Every day you didn't, you had to wade into the sea up your knees as a sign of your willingness to go.
Permanent stay could happen in exchange of a full confession of your crime and have it recorded in a register.
>An outlaw, as the name implies, is someone who is acting outside the law like bandits
outside the protection of the law
FTFY
It need to be understand that people lived in small self-regulated communities. Being excluded was like being sent into exile. Worse, an outlaw was a wolf's head, someone who could be killed on sight with no repercusions.
Depend on the setting and age.
In most of the ancient world you could kill them without fear of being punished.
Old Rome and most germanic tribes had laws allowing you to kill them if you wanted.
If you want a modern setting, the things are different though
Trial by battle at dawn. Note that authorities may seek some amusement out of it, and thus, they may give you something which would be comically difficult to kill each other, like a ram's horn and have to resort to bite each other to death once it broke.
Medieval laws were mostly based on roman laws with some local flavour from their ancestors(celts, slavs, germanics, etc)