Arresting Mechanics

[fishingpenguin]

Note: I've never been the subject of an arrest myself, and have only seen it from the side of the arrester.  So, maybe I don't know exactly what I'm talking about.

When arresting a character using the guard rod, it seems that the person you're arresting is given the choice to resist or submit to your arrest.  If they do neither, you get this message saying that they're not responding and suggesting that they might be afk.

The problem is that a player can use this to exploit the arresting system.  By simply doing nothing, they can wait out and ignore your arrest attempt (from what I've seen).  This would be especially bad if you hit someone with a Hold Person - even though they can't actually resist your arrest in that condition, by simply waiting they can free themselves of the spell and take off.

My suggestion is that if someone does not attempt to resist arrest, after a certain amount of time they are automatically arrested.

[Sandstorm]

If they are subdued or disabled, they are not given the options, I think.

[ExileStrife]

I don't think you are allowed to arrest someone from just a hold-person spell.  I believe there should be arresting guidelines in your forums that explain this.

If the player is not responding to the arrest IC'ly then it becomes and OOC issue which we'll deal with accordingly.

[Howlando]

If they don't respond at all, consider it a resistance, and proceed with the beat down.

DO NOT EVER arrest an unwilling person who has just been held. Arrest Wands are a necessary evil as it is, using them on "held" people makes me rage. If they're held, just beat them down - then they can not resist.

[fishingpenguin]

I don't think you are allowed to arrest someone from just a hold-person spell. I believe there should be arresting guidelines in your forums that explain this.

I couldn't find this in the Sharboneth forums anywhere, so it may need to be added, but it wasn't really my main concern.

I guess the main problem I had in mind has to do with this:

If they don't respond at all, consider it a resistance, and proceed with the beat down.

I think that most players don't realize that not responding is the same as resisting, since they're just standing there doing nothing.  This is how I've responded in the past, but it's always a bit frustrating - for both sides, I think - when a character just stands there, not resisting or submitting, and then you start wailing on them.  I always tell them ICly that not submitting to the arrest will result in me bringing them in with force - it just seems like a confusing situation to me.

[The Crimson Magician]

I'd rather just send them a tell detailing those things. And if they run away, you can likely report for metagaming or something!

[fishingpenguin]

I used my Guard Wand yesterday on a subdued character and nothing happened - the menu didn't even pop up.  I had to wait for them to stand back up before I could arrest them.  That means that right now a character can indefinitely resist arrest if a DM is not present.

All I'm suggesting is that when you attempt to arrest them, they must either choose resist or submit, and if they don't respond for like, 10 seconds, then they are automatically arrested.  The dialogue initiated by the guard wand could explain that.  That way, no need to send tells while you're trying to arrest someone.  Oftentimes, those situations are chaotic and confusing enough as it is.

[Luke Danger]

When I was playing Luke Danger, one of the Sanctuary Watch, when I was arresting, since the Rods were an IC tool, I sent the aresstee a tell saying 'emote dodging to resist', and then emoted jabbing at them with the rod. This worked pretty well, as it allowed the Sanctuary Guard Rods (which were IC methods of arrest) and the arrestees to have -some- RP. 'course, if they dodged, I usually wound up subdueing, -then- arresting when they couldn't resist because I had them downed. The Sharborneth ones though, I haven't figured the IC justification, so I assume that one is 'cart off to jail'. Still, I think that to back mechanics up, some RP should be made, maybe some Sharb wiz comes up with a method of porting criminals straight to the cells. I liked the idea of teleporting the arrested to cells, especially for a magic setting, I mean, come on, it's magic, it seems to be common enough, why not use it?