You canât meet everyoneâs expectations. People are different, based on their views and experience. In our case, lawbook has basically two scenarios:
A) When people agree to it
B) When people disagree to it
Both scenarios assume how to make things easier. As mentioned previously, if person doesnât like this lawbook, they can state so. Then, without interrupting RP flow, NPC just kicks in. And if a person likes it, then RP continues.
So far we havenât met anyone who would go and say âI donât like it, lets go NPC courtâ. All criminals to whom we suggested parts of the lawbook (Basically, hereâs a list of consequences, do you like them? Which one youâd like to pick if any?) end up with people going for a community service. It fit their style, it was interesting to them because it provided more roleplay for them instead of being locked at the Stockades and thus punish OOCly a player (this is where OOC powerplay usually comes in. Guards had a tendency to just say âOkay, you go to Stockades now. You donât like it? You avoid consequences, we will avoid you then!â and this only punished a player, OOCly.
With community service, people were brought to different spots or other guilds and funny, brief roleplay scenarios took place. A thief who was told to go mop floors at the clinic or a guy who went to trim bushes at Lionâs Rest. It was extra roleplay for 30m-1h and then they could go do whatever. So even now, in itâs unfinished state, lawbook left positive impression to those who went for it.
I canât say thatâs how it always will be. But so far.
With community service, people were brought to different spots or other guilds and funny, brief roleplay scenarios took place. A thief who was told to go mop floors at the clinic or a guy who went to trim bushes at Lionâs Rest. It was extra roleplay for 30m-1h and then they could go do whatever. So even now, in itâs unfinished state, lawbook left positive impression to those who went for it.
Actually lowkey sad that you never once brought someone to us despite me being the one to suggest it in the first place.
I remain sceptical of all this. I donât see anything good coming of this except abuse of head canon and division in RP where people are just going to end up ignoring things and making the entire thing awkward.
I will! Tene Icly walks around, asks companies and organizations if theyâd be interested to join community service part and offer a spot. Iâll get to you soon ^^
People should be treating this in character initiative in character, rather than showering OOC scepticism over it.
Edit: to further my point, on the other side. Iâd highly recommend not making OOC agreements, take some inspiration from guilds like the Stormwind City Watch and try and keep it IC as much as possible.
This is a public forum, not really anywhere to RP, and with the amount of OOC whispering needing to be done for this to work, your point is as classess as the poster posting it
Out of curiosity, cause I cannot find if anyone asked this or not before, but what will happen if you catch a criminal IC, but the player refuses to follow your guildelines/the said lawbook?
Itâs already been mentioned
If this player refuses to follow, Lawbook explains this moment by an NPC Court system. Hereâs a direct quote from the book itself (mind you, itâs a draft version, perhaps thereâs a better way to state it!)
DISCLAIMER: If both parties (Guard and Criminal roleplayers) fail to come to a mutual agreement, to preserve immersion of the roleplay itself, criminal character can officially announce a demand of justice by court, result of which - Criminal roleplayer decides for themselves what kind of a punishment their character has received (if any).
Note: Court - is an NPC system that serves as an IC excuse of why the Guards did not issue any sort of a punishment to a Criminal.
In practice, a guard(s) will just bring this criminal in front of the keep and leave said criminal there. Player themselves then decide, without influence from anyone else.
If guards are asked by others, why this criminal walks again so soon - guards can reply: âHe was brought to the court, it wasnât our decisionâ.
If a criminal is asked by others, why guards let him go or why/how they themselves are walking around, criminal can reply: âI demanded a trial by court and this was decided.â
So at least, it helps smooth out sharp edges and bring some sort of justification IC instead of having guards or criminal to be blamed for incompetence ICly. Can always blame some random Jury Bob at the keep.
Exactly, this whole âThis isnt going to workâ thing is abit silly, it 100% will work, plenty are on board lol, for those who have doubts or dont wish to engage? dont, its that simple, plenty of people ignore each other as is, nothing new regarding that, just a new concept to expand on things for guards n criminals.
Yes and no, City Watch used to do alot of OOC influenced stuff aswellâŚwould prefer the guards to steer from that n do their own thing if anything, and OOC agreements regarding some things could be good, as itsâŚwellâŚco operation, co-operating OOCly goes along way for good will in rp and avoiding arguments/situations
The fact these guys arent forcing a lawbook on anyone and are taking into account the thoughts of others when building this concept and also have no plan to flat out ignore/blacklist anyone who doesnt wish to engage in the lawbook as evidenced in the disc puts them a level above the city watches and guard guilds of yesteryear imo lets not have a new guard guild influenced by those from before but rather avoid the mistakes of before, which so far seems to be the case fortunately
Alright, that makes sense, thanks for clarifying it!
All in all, despite how player-friendly the system looks + if lawbook itself is based on actual lore-based sources and not âwell I think how it should beâ type of quotes - Iâll have to say that most simply wonât adopt it or even try to follow it. So many lawbooks have been tried on this server and failed, and myself I still have PTSD from Amythiaâs QuelâThalas Lawbook that people even still quote 12 years later in Silvermoon from time to time.
If anything - time will tell if what you have done works and people, who are not part of your community, are willing to give it a try.
I havenât heard that name in a loooong time sweats in blood knight
Of course and thatâs completely natural and fine reaction. Time will tell. As long as itâs not forced it down the throats or is used as some sort of an ultimatum âyou follow this because it states this and that or I will ignore youâ, this lawbook should be fine. It is meant to encourage more roleplay via different means than punish players. And OOCly it shouldnât be used as a final word. For example, in my guild, all guards have a common standard to lean onto when they deal with a criminal so it brings a consistency into roleplay and people know what to expect.
Since yesterday, weâve been already discussing more means to promote further RP apart from a community service itself. Hereâs a small summary from my post in there (penal ideas were suggested by someone else, not me, along with Lesterâs ideas from earlier on. I merely summarized it into four bulletin points that are currently on a debate level):
Thatâs the gist, aye.
So in theory, there are now four scenarios:
Community service, in a light form. Like mopping floors, moving crates, trimming bushes.
Community service, in a hard form. Cutting trees or to the mines.
Penal service - being sent on a particular, single, mission with a group of other criminals on a set day to deal with a threat like Gnoll leader or Kobolt rebellion (;'D)
Penal battalion - sent for a long term service.
But with last option, it requires a guild with similar concept. I remember someone wanted to make a penal battalion, mainly focused around Northrend region, but I havenât heard of it ever since =/
So if we accept those four scenarios into the pool of consequences, in a draft iteration we end up having something like this, proposed to a narrator of a criminal character:
Fine - if you want to just pay for the crime and leave the scene at your convinience.
Night at the cells/Stockade - in case you need to log off.
Bail - Similar to a fine, there isnât much difference as a result, but letâs say you need to log off for 1h. You can come back and say you went for a bail.
Community service - if you want more roleplay that fits your criminal.
Penal service - if you want to participate in a small, simple RP scenario where your character is put along with other criminal characters for a task. Like suicide squad vibe, I guess.
Penal battalion - in case (currently one person wants to start a guild which complements/accepts penal battalion concept, but time will show!) you want to join this sort of guild/rp environment on a more long term.
Public shame/Public stocks - if you want your character to be brought around the streets with a guard yelling âShame, shame, shame, Uncle Bob stole someoneâs pantsâ.
Lashing - well, physical punishment for those who enjoy their characters being hurt.
Exile - if you want your character to be tossed out of the city.
While last option is there, itâs not even formally suggested in the project yet. But I included it because I had one player, that supported a darkfallen in SW, wanting to be exiled from a city for a little while.
My point is - every option in this list provides its own style of RP that may or may not benefit a criminal narrator. And in case neither of these works for this play, thatâs when NPC court system kicks in too unless player themself propose something else. Thatâs the gist of it.
I honestly cant remember a guard/watch guild with a concept even 20% as interesting as this, and the fact its optional unlike previous watch/guard guilds? insanely cool, looking forward to my next run in with the law for once.
deep sigh