How to prevent players from lying about Status?

[GWJ]

My players are often trying to lie to NPCs about their status. Usually hide low status, or look like people of high status. How to prevent this? We're playing in medieval fantasy. There are rules about that?

[Phantasm]

If the PCs are constantly lying about stuff like that, chances are increasingly likely that an NPC who they have lied to in the past and has discovered the truth - whether the PCs revealed it or the NPC did digging of hir own - will be in earshot when they lie again. This could lead to some embarrassing situations . . . .

Note, though, that this isn't covered in the rules; it's more consequences of the PCs' actions.

[Juca]

They will need some skills to do this, things like:
- Savoir Faire (High Society);
- Disguise;
- Carousing;
- Heraldry;
- Diplomacy.

Now, if they do have those skills, they are wearing appropriated clothes (which are expensive!), they have some of them disguised as servants (rich people in medieval times had many servants), and, in general, are behaving like wealthy people should behave, so why not allow them to pass as high society? They will sure have to spend a good deal of money trying it.

[weby]

Well, real status comes from other people. "It is not what you know it is who you know". In general when people of status visit places they tended to have things like letters of introduction, retinue and such.

As for outright lying about status:

To a certain extent it can indeed be faked, a combination of falsified letters of introduction, high enough savoir-faire(high society), good enough clothing and enough money to spend for the cost of living for that status would allow one to pretend to be higher status at least for a while. But note that high status from elsewhere is not fully same as high status locally.

Just just claiming to be high status without those things would be doing the thing without tools for -10. Just having the money would likely be improvised equipment at -5 and so on.

There are more complex rules for recognizing status and such in social engineering.

[ericthered]

First off, skills: a peasant has no idea how to ride a horse, how to speak properly, or how a sword is held. They're fairly likely to be scared of falcons rather than confident at using them.

Second off, reputation: The middle ages is a place of small worlds. The Greeks sailed hundreds of miles to find monsters at the edge of the earth. The Arthurian knights rode off a few dozen miles to find dragons in nearby castles. Everyone has a family, and if you can't name it, you're an outlaw or other man of ill repute. The nobles traveled more, but dealt with each other, and so just formed another village, albeit one much more spread out.

Lastly, wealth: Status and wealth are closely tied, and in a world largely without merchants, land was status. Sure, you have titles and all that, but that's bigger in the late middle ages.

Of course, those assumptions may not be valid in your setting...

[whswhs]

See pages 37 and 38 of GURPS Social Engineering:

If you are not assuming a specific identity: When pretending
to Status up to three levels higher or lower than your own, you
may substitute Savoir-Faire (High Society) for Acting. For
more than three levels of Status difference, you must use
Savoir-Faire (High Society) in place of Acting.
If you are assuming a specific identity: If you are pretending
to Status more than three levels higher or lower than your
own, you must make a successful Acting roll and win a Quick
Contest of Savoir-Faire (High Society) vs. the IQ of those you’re
trying to fool!
If you are playing a person of negative Status when you
have positive Status, or vice versa, your Savoir-Faire (High
Society) roll is at -2.

[Note that you can substitute Streetwise to pretend to low Status. Or if you have Savoir-Faire (Servant), Savoir-Faire (High Society) defaults to it at -2.]

[Varyon]

Status is a pretty serious thing in a Medieval society, and so I'd expect concealing/lying about your status would be a rather serious crime. Mechanically speaking, how are the characters lying about their Status? Whatever their method, there should be a way for it to fail (they fail their Acting/Forgery/Whatever roll, lose in a Quick Contest to avoid detection, etc), and failing should have severe consequences. These consequences probably depend on how much of an increase in Status they were pretending. Offhand, +1 Status probably means a beating and jail/pillory time (and/or a fine), +2 Status would be similar but would likely involve disfigurement of some sort (branding, removal of a hand, etc), +3 Status would probably mean execution, and +4 Status or higher would mean horrible torture followed by death. Anyone who isn't a noble but pretends to be one probably automatically gets the "Torture+Death" treatment, even if the difference is only one of +1 Status (or even +0 Status, if a rich merchant tries to pass himself off as minor nobility).

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Juca

Now, if they do have those skills, they are wearing appropriated clothes (which are expensive!), they have some of them disguised as servants (rich people in medieval times had many servants), and, in general, are behaving like wealthy people should behave, so why not allow them to pass as high society? They will sure have to spend a good deal of money trying it.

In fact, if they spend enough money and time at it, they'll rack up the Cost of Living for the higher Status -- which of course is just per RAW.

For feudal medieval-ish settings in particular, don't confuse Status with Rank. Pretending to be a noble doesn't give you any command authority -- and others in the feudal hierarchy will surely know they're not your vassal or vice-versa. The ersatz Duke of Faraway can't stroll into town and start changing the guard schedule "because I'm a Duke!"

[L.J.Steele]

On the other hand, a "neck rhyme" could save your medieval life -- just enough Latin to convince someone that you were some sort of clerk (in the minor clergy sense) and not subject to civil justice. Of course, that means you get turned over to the Church and a real cleric is likely to smell a rat and get you for both whatever you did AND lying about your status.

Travelling merchants used letters of introduction, mutual friends and friends of friends, to verify their IDs. Also differences in language, dress, manners, would help identify someone from county A to those from their home lands.

The usual cinematic response when someone does this is "oh, your from the Duchy of Grand Fenwick? That's amazing, you must know Bishop Jones then, oh, look, there he is...."

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

In fact, if they spend enough money and time at it, they'll rack up the Cost of Living for the higher Status -- which of course is just per RAW.

For feudal medieval-ish settings in particular, don't confuse Status with Rank. Pretending to be a noble doesn't give you any command authority -- and others in the feudal hierarchy will surely know they're not your vassal or vice-versa. The ersatz Duke of Faraway can't stroll into town and start changing the guard schedule "because I'm a Duke!"

But he can probably stroll in and demand to speak to the captain of the guard, and the captain has to stand and listen to his suggestions or at least have someone else listen and take notes. But yeah, don't confuse the two. Status gets you listened to by everybody. Rank lets you give orders to a specific group.