🛡 [RP Project] Stormwind Community Lawbook

Argent Dawn
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Community Lawbook
Initial idea to create a Community Lawbook comes from two reasons:

  1. Similar sister project that was created on a Moonguard US RP server
    and
  2. Providing an alternative and simplified source of laws as an option

This project is by no means has an intention to compete with current Lawbook created by Office of Justice and is meant to be used by those who may not be satisfied with the first one.

To deliver a more enjoyable, believable and healthy roleplay environment, Lawbook has its reason to exist. However, Canon Laws according to numerous quests, be it stealing or damaging property - results in punishment by death. Which is not applicable for our RP scenarios. But because these laws affect most of the people who roleplay in a city, it is more than fair to give them all an opportunity to contribute to this Lawbook project - hence Community word.
Link to cannon laws: .tinyurl.com/canonlaws (remove first dot)

Project itself will always be a subject to change and is currently in its last stages of development, yet if you want to take part in it and contribute to it, you’re more than welcome! From our latest notes, we’ve introduced such things as:

Pool of Consequences - where a narrator is given multiple options of consequences to choose from for their character, instead of being force-fed just one. Please note that every punishment provided below, offers own style of RP that may promote, encourage or excuse further RP or its lack of! (Examples below):

  • Fine - In case a criminal character wants to pay a fine and get out to continue their RP flow.
  • Bail - Similar to a fine but in case a player needs to logout for a short while, when they come back, they can state that they bailed out of the Stockades. While being offline explains them being within those Stockades.
  • Cells / Stockades - In case a player needs to log off, they can just send character to the Stockades / Cells.
  • Community Service - a type of a punishment to encourage more roleplay by handing a low criminal to do community service like trimming bushes around Lion’s Rest or mopping floors at the clinic.
  • Public Shaming/Public Stocks - Put a character through the city streets for public shaming. A bit of RP/humiliation for those who like it.
  • Lashing/Flogging - For those who like their characters to be physically punished.
  • Exile - In case for some reason, narrator wants their character to be exiled for N amount of time from the City.
  • Penal Service - A harsher version of community service, where criminal characters are eventually summoned (Arranged OOCly about day and time) to perform a specific mission like hunting down a Gnoll leader or clearing out a mine out of kobolts.
  • NPC Court system - in case none of the options are liked or the criminal roleplayer does not want to use this Lawbook or have it applied on them by a guard, NPC Court system can be used instead. To continue consistency of RP itself and its flow, criminal character is brought in front of the keep and is left there, for an NPC court to decide. NPC court is merely an IC excuse/reason to avoid having guard or criminal rpers being blamed for this disagreement. In other words, when this NPC Court system is used, criminal RPer decides for themselves if they have any punishment (if any).

These are but a few changes that our current community group has came, as an example!
Based on the discussions below this post, I’d like to highlight it in OP, that this book is optional. A source of guidelines to help deliver cohesion/consistency of crime & law roleplay.

This lawbook must not be nor is meant to be forced down someone’s throat and definitely not be used as an ultimatum of “If you don’t follow it, we will ignore you.” - That’s exactly why NPC Court System idea is in this book, to help resolve those moments peacefully and continue with roleplay.

If you wish to contribute to the project without dedicating yourself to it (Like joining discord for example) you can just suggest things here and me or others will relay it into our discord for a discussion!
If you are interested, join us then!
Discord invite: discord.gg/KtH89m87zE
Community Lawbook: .tinyurl.com/communitylawbook (remove first dot)

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  1. What are you going to do to people who don’t want to follow this ‘rule book’? Common sense laws aren’t what I am talking about, but ‘laws’ that this discord group might headcanon. How will this be enforced?

  2. Why would we want to be like Moon Guard?

  3. If we have canon quests that show the law, then we don’t really need this guide. Unless it is going to be a quick reference guide to show which laws are canon.

I don’t see this ending well.

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This has been tried on other servers and has always been something that divided the RP community in those who play along and those who don’t. And into something that will eventually be forced upon roleplayers without their consent. So, no, it won’t create a “healthy RP environment.”

Another issue with these “lawbooks” is that they are very rarely written by someone with actual knowledge of how the law works, and, besides that, whoever is saying that Stormwind has a civil law or a common law system?

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Almost all canon quests dictate that punishment is done via death.
This book is not meant to ‘enforce’ anyone its laws down its throat. It’s a guideline for those who want to experience the law system.

Imagine a criminal that stole someone and guards caught them. They would reference to this book then.

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In the same sense, they wouldnt need to reference a book. They could easily say “You’re under arrest for stealing.”

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Yeah. Like Chucklegrin said…

“You were caught stealing.”

No book needed.
Give us a list of these laws that are canon and require this book

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It’s not just about the laws but the consequences for them that can vary per guild or individual.
docs.google.[com]/document/d/1bnCC6_KtNTS0zUwOynwAbPzuOFWttHDFnm9OIJccGOA
(Remove brackets) for reference to the canon.

Again, no one is forcing you this project. It’s just there, to be used as a reference if or when needed. If you don’t want it, then its perfectly fine and within your rights. But for some, it might be useful. And to make it fair, that this project isn’t just written by a single person with a single point of view or knowledge, its brought up into public to offer everyone to contribute to it. Simple as that.

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This should be interesting, I cant remember a time when lawbook didnt bring more drama than it was worth.

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Warlock licenses anyone?

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Suddenly getting flashbacks to the days of Guard RP (which has been one of my absolute favourites, but I can’t remember which guild it was now! I think they used the generic ‘Stormwind Guard’ name for a time).

It used to make me chuckle when they’d use the radios and sprint for it like we’re an American TV show.

“Hi Dispatch, we’ve got a 10-29f. We have an inebriated gnome urinating in the canals. I repeat. Gnome is peeing in the canals. Over.”

As for the actual law book. I think it’s a fine line where you’re totally fine having it if it is a supplement to criminals who consent to its use. The line is drawn where you force someone to comply to it or acknowledge it, where it borders into godemoting, no matter how frustrating that is as someone who is looking to provide a little order and structure to the pen of kittens with smartie tubes on their feet, that is Stormwind City.

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Many guards and their guilds in the past have refused to accept consequences against them aswell however, which has kinda caused alot of people be iffy with them, I personally havent had a bad interaction with this guild on any of my chars, but it has been a common thing when trying to arrest someone for basically little to no reason or trying to force a situation, when outnumbered by civilians/friends of the person in question being arrested to ignore the situation n walk away, Im all for having a char arrested if they commit a crime, I dont even mind abit of guard brutality, but its kinda gotta be a two way street, I cant remember the last time I saw a guard rp’er lose a fight even if trying to arrest some adventurer/hero class type char, this may seem unrelated to the law book, but it kinda isnt, as if it does become a thing, likely there will be more interactions and then those issues can crop up, works both ways ofc.

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Exactly that. It’s there, compiled & written by many people for use whenever people or guilds wants or need.
And as I stated previously, if person doesn’t agree to charges pressed on their character, the book covers this to keep persistence/cohesion in RP, where character just voices for a court and that’s it. Narrator themselves decide what happens to their character, because there’s no actual court. It’s just an NPC system, used to be a compromise.

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Who would represent this “Court” though, alts of guard rp’ers? because we had this issue back in Wotlk I remember, its the last point of reference I can recall due to being gone for like a decade, but I remember back in the day, the guards would arrest you, their alts would be judge/jury ect, and the court cases were pretty kangaroo and sometimes OOC influenced, ofc people will be skeptical, but like you stated, if its for those specifically who dont mind engaging/give consent to such a systems thats fantastic and adds a new layer to their rp and yours, between guards and criminals ect, reason I ask is because these lawbook/court concepts can get very very power trippy very quick

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Within the community that you are more than free to have this discussion in we will also do our best to set up a jury for trials and such, from both sides of the spectrum.

This isn’t a lawbook whereas previous guard guilds have tried to enforce one that they have written themselves, we’ve got a multitude of people already that are in it and discussing from our side, the side of the criminal guilds as well as individuals and those that may not be affected by this at all.

The thought is to make it more opt-in than anything and level the playing field between us and the criminal guilds that want to partake in this so that we’re all on the same page.

As stated you’re all more than free to join the discord and add to the discussion, it is open for everyone who is interested. It is supposed to be a clean slate from previous mishaps without forgetting those previous mishaps.

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To add on to that we’ve already moved away from being as brutal and hardcore as it is represented ingame.

People seem to think and want to draw in a lot of things that exist in real life, whereas in WoW many of the things we’ve implemented in to RP previously wouldn’t be a thing.

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No one. It’s just an IC excuse really. If narrator doesn’t agree with any of the consequences options given, they can just say “I demand a trial” ICly and that’s it. They are released or brought to the keep and just left there. Narrator decides for themselves, which means, they are in full control.

Because it’d be odd that ICly guards got the guy and in one second, both sides just walked out, ignoring each other. So to explain this ICly and in case guards are asked “Why this person walks again” - guards as well as the same character can just say: “Was in a court, this happened.” so neither guards nor criminal are judged.

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“Yeah sorry but this thing you might have built your character around who could have existed on Argent Dawn for years is now illegal and if you don’t comply it’s bad roleplay.”

Sticking to a canon list of crimes or just following some rough irl guidelines is probably sufficient. Go after the characters that start fights, steal things imo rather than the mage who dares to conjure up a magic umbrella under paragraph four of the Stormwind Magic Usage Act or the lock who failed to wash the smell of sulphur out

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Common sense is also applied. No one is going to chase down a stinky warlock or a mage with a conjured umbrella.

Lawbook itself is heavily simplified in comparison to Moonguard iteration and there’s only two bulletin points (as of current debate in the project) where magic is involved.

Armed assault - where magic was used to harm someone
or
Misuse of Magic - where, for example, a mage decided to morph someone into a sheep without their consent. Just to give as an idea.

Again, I don’t want this to be “Oh look, another guard made their own laws and force it on others”. Sure, our guild will use this lawbook but it’s not just a single person or guild effort. Everyone is given an option to contribute to it.

Previously, it wasn’t even considered to have a community service. People suggested it, it was debated and brought in and tested and narrators of criminal characters enjoyed it, we already have 4 instances of it. Because it encourages more roleplay instead of “us forcing” someone into the Stockades.

And again, it’s a set of guidelines. Imagine a RPer who is new to it and decides to try a guard roleplay. Or criminal roleplay. This material here is to help if this person likes it.

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Sounds a bit too much to be honest.

Attack someone. Steal something. Misuse magic.
Simply arrest.

If threat is dangerous, move to attacking and killing.

This book will most easily just result in people aruging about ‘the law’. Which honestly is no different to what happens now. Except now you have the potential for headcanon abuse of the rules.

Also.
List please of canon laws in quests.
3-5 of them if possible. So we know some of these that you speak of.

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I provided it. Its in a sixth post, just need to remove brackets there. This document is compiled by Moonglade server.