Originally Posted by Phil Masters (Post 2374105)

I've never seen anyone try to take 15-point Immunity as a "Can get away with murder" advantage, and I'd certainly require an implausibly good justification if anyone tried that in a game I was running. The diplomat John mentioned from the THS game was effectively spending the 20 points to be the Serious Accredited Diplomat of the party, making him the point man in dealings with local authorities and so forth.

One could argue that the base cost for Diplomatic Immunity (before the extra 5 points for Diplomatic Pouch Privileges) in modern-day games might often be less than the 15 point version, depending on your employer's attitudes and the state of their relations with the host country. (And note that, by the Vienna Convention, diplomatic immunity only applies in the country where you're an accredited diplomat.) Your employing nation will at minimum be very annoyed if you embarrass them, and is actually free to waive immunity and hand you over to local justice if they're annoyed or embarrassed enough. Or they may prosecute you under their own laws. Or they may recall you, or the host nation may expel you, and you may find that you've just terminated your career, or at least screwed up your promotion prospects.

Going by the Wikipedia entry, yes, a few diplomats have literally got away with murder -- but others have suffered actual consequences. I think I've even heard of cases where diplomats who'd behaved like idiots suffered worse consequences after recall than they would have under the host nation's justice system; murderous dictators can be very annoyed at losing face. So perhaps a diplomat with few special connections, from a law-abiding country that values its squeaky-clean image, should be paying just (10+5) or even (5+5) points for Diplomatic Immunity. Heck, some may not even have useful Diplomatic Pouch Privileges.

I've not seen other forms of Legal Immunity come up at all in games, which actually makes me think I've not tried hard enough. Hmm...

Originally Posted by Phil Masters (Post 2374105)

Heck, some may not even have useful Diplomatic Pouch Privileges.

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti (Post 2374252)

That should only really happen if either a) the "diplomat" doesn't actually have a diplomatic passport or b) the host nation does not respect the diplomatic privileges from the diplomat's nation.

Originally Posted by ravenfish (Post 2374253)

Or if the country the diplomat serves is extremely strict about not using it except for official purposes.

Originally Posted by ravenfish (Post 2374253)

Or if the country the diplomat serves is extremely strict about not using it except for official purposes.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh (Post 2374302)

That's a Catch-22: it can't know whether the pouch is being used for official purposes or not because it can't know the contents of the pouch without looking inside. So the only way to deny the pouch restrictions against search . . . is to outright deny the pouch restrictions against search.

Originally Posted by ravenfish (Post 2374253)

Or if the country the diplomat serves is extremely strict about not using it except for official purposes.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh (Post 2374302)

That's a Catch-22: it can't know whether the pouch is being used for official purposes or not because it can't know the contents of the pouch without looking inside. So the only way to deny the pouch restrictions against search . . . is to outright deny the pouch restrictions against search.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth (Post 2374258)

Depending on how you're defining 'useful'. Only using the diplomatic pouch for its official purposes is a big problem if your campaign doesn't actually have any interest in the diplomat's job. It might barely be any constraint at all if the proper use of the pouch aligns with the focus of play.

Originally Posted by Þorkell (Post 2374306)

I thought ravenfish was referring to a diplomat serving country A being strict about using the diplomatic pouch not that country B, the country in which country A has posted said diplomat, had any strict rules about diplomatic pouches.