Stating Jessica Fletcher

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Nope.The first sentences in the rules text for Honesty says "You _must_ obey the law,".

And later paragraphs state or strongly imply you don't. The trait is sufficiently poorly written that we've debated it for approaching 4 decades now, and SJG has never deigned to clear it up. Though it is worth noting that it has been allowed on several characters and templates where it would not make a bit of sense with the more extreme reading some people insist on.

I do think it wasn't [quite] this controversial in 3e, because it was easier to read the rules there as not requiring a roll to do something illegal, but requiring a roll if you did, with a failure forcing you to confess and turn yourself in to the authorities. Presumably your average amateur sleuth [could] do that off scene, with some poor guy at the local police station being charged with reassuring them after every episode that, yes, it was OK to tell the culprit he was going to jail even though that's technically assault (it's a threat) and impersonating an officer of the law (for the jail part, assuming you weren't threatening false imprisonment). If you want it to be a playable disadvantage, I strongly encourage still playing it that way.

And the truth is most jurisdictions have so many obscure and obsolete laws that you can't live a normal life if you obey them all. The example I usually bring up is most places with indecent exposure laws do not have an explicit exception for privacy - interpreting Honesty as an unbreakable vow to never change your clothes is possible, but seriously?