The Law, OOC expectations, and You

[SawyerTheCleaner]

Ever since I became a Stygian I've been exploring how the law works in the setting from an OOC expectation/perspective in a couple of different ways. Some things I wondered about included just how severe the punishments are  despite OOC considerations, the amount of input/leeway/control law enforcement PCs, criminals, and the DMs have in the cases, and so on.
 
I recently had a conversation with Talir about some of this stuff and I thought it might be a good idea to share some of it with everyone.
 

Talir: If there's any talk of slavery, I like to have a part of the decision.
Casterr: Hm. If a DM isn't around, we should keep them in the cells until a DM is available?
Talir: Because it's a very... different aspect of efu:a and one neither fleshed out nor desireable in most circumstances.
Talir: Got to face it, being a slave is boring and dreadful :/
Talir: Unless you've got something to struggle towards. As a slave you get one task assigned by your owner to accomplish, one hard, that you can do to earn freedom.
Casterr: Somewhat awkward that it's a fairly common punishment for most criminals though
Casterr: Orcbloods branded (for low crimes).
Casterr: Brand for high crimes.
Talir: If nobody buys you, it's retirement.

Casterr: I atleast would want to give the person a second change/go at his concept. Being forced to retire a PC because he mugged the NPC tradesmen seems a bit much o_o
Talir: ... something that maybe should be more stressed in-game :S

Casterr: Are all people charged with high crimes supposed to be given trials?
Casterr: Meaning, that is, waiting around for a DM, basically?
Talir: Yeah. Since we have no PC lords or ladies.
Casterr: Okay, so, until a DM shows up, PCs will have to stay jailed whether they OOCly like it or not.
Talir: If it's a HIGH crime, yes. That was the previous capital one.
Talir: Or a LOW crime made by half-orcs.

The thing I want to stress most (and what I thought about a lot) is that being forced to wait in the cells until a DM shows up to take care of the trial and PC retirement/execution aren't reserved for the great heroes of the Docks who fight the Duchy with every life and limb.

A single murder, persistent criminal conduct (three non-serious arrests), or even just mugging an NPC tradesman as a halforc can mean the end of your PC if you get caught. So, please keep these things in mind when playing a criminal!

[Crod Mondoon]

Should also factor in surrendering oneself to law enforcement.  Might be better to simply kill your arresting agent, then get branded. IF you can..food for thought.

[Nihm]

As a slave, there's absolutely nothing to prevent you from just simply walking out of the ziggurat.  There are four ways out not including the sewers, and only one of those ways has a gate, which is always open.  Ziggurat security is a joke, even the Gobsquat does a better job than the stygians.
 
The slavery merely means that next time you're caught, you'll be executed.

[ExileStrife]

I don't see this talked about often, and unfortunately I can't make too many specific examples to EfU:A because I frankly have no idea what the laws and punishments are.  BUT...

I just want to bring up that there are primarily two types of crime and punishment in this kind of gameworld and I think it's very appropriate to bring up their differences because it might help in a discussion like this.  Or maybe it won't, but who cares.  I'm searching for words to label these...I'm going to go with:

1) Game crime
2) Story crime

Both game crime and story crime can cover every "offense" there is, whether there an explicit law/rule about it or not.  In real life, there wouldn't be any distinction, but I think everyone will agree (after I write this) that there are two different classes of OOC feelings about crime which is why it can be so strange dealing with it.

The Game crime comes up because we're all wired as gamers to just "do stuff" in games because we can and because it's fun (I'm not going to get into the psychology about why it's fun).  "Pick an item up off the ground because it looks good and I want it."  "Kill that NPC merchant because he probably has loot I could use."  "Cast a quick buff inside Dunwarren because it's convenient."  "PvP and kill that other player because he looked at me funny."

I'll make one sweeping statement about game crime, that being it is usually caused by less-than-perfect roleplayers in moments of A) ignorance, or B) stupidity.  We sort of get too accustomed to the low-risk, moderate-reward activities like mugging the tradesmen or spellcasting in dunwarren.  People forget (or don't know) that they're actually engaging in a low-risk, moderate-reward, HIGH-PUNISHMENT situation.  In a single player game, you go through looting all the houses and murdering all the shopkeepers, and whenever the enforcement shows up you just reload the game.  That doesn't happen in EfU:A.  When it does, that's when the Game-Crime-Law-Enforcement game starts, and I honestly think it almost always a relatively crummy experience.

Game-Crime-Law-Enforcement sucks because there's a pressure on the enforcer to always act things out IC'ly (remember, in real life there are no distinctions like Game Crime and Story Crime).  However, one or both parties know deep down that the player of the criminal didn't expect nor wants to be in the situation they're in -- I was happily playing a "game" and having "fun" until you showed up and decided to put me in a cell for 2 hours and then have a 5 minute trial which ends up with my character's head in a bucket in me in the fugue.  Now, there are some players who get their kicks off of being in the position of power that can punish others for these game crime activities, however, I don't think it ever results in the fun we intend people to have here.

Story crime is the good crime on this server.  I think the biggest distinction between the two is that the criminal knows what he's getting himself into.  They do it for the rush, the conflict, the story, and even though they may be a bit sour for not getting their 15 minutes of fame or the story they expected, they know what was coming to them.  The experience as an enforcer is much better too, because it creates a situation you can play off without so much OOC bitterness and/or sympathy.

So why bring it up?  I don't know.  But I think everyone wants more Story Crime and less Game Crime.  I think people should keep these things in mind when they're both doing crime and dishing out punishment, and don't hesitate to go OOC about it or bring up things with a DM.  Some players can't handle punishment at all and that shouldn't brood.

[Dr Dragon]

There is a warning and an ooc disclaimer that attacking and robbing the Drunken Tradesmen is an IC act with IG consequences if caught doing so.

[Jayde Moon]

Exile... that's good stuff, very spot on, methinks.