[MUD-Dev] Player controller justice systems

[Erik Jarvi]

    Justice! We Don't Need No Stinkin Justice!


There has been some discussion about justice on multi-player online games
on various sites and mailing lists.  I'd like to explain how Shattered 
World's justice system works.  So far this has worked for us. YMMV.
I'd like to note that the idea of player run economy and justice comes
from an email based game called nomic.

At Shattered World we have a player run zero sum economy, and a player 
run justice/law system. Although Dredd acts as a omnipotent Alan Greenspan.
They tend to intermingle, but I'll try to focus on the law system.  
We have 4 types of laws, Immutable, Mutable,common, and non-law.  
Immutable as the name suggests are not amenable or retractable.  
These laws are the base of the law system, and provide the frame work 
of the law system. Examples of Immutable law titles: 
Obey the law, Permissibility Of The Unprohibited, What is a Proposal.
The only Immutable that is generally spoken about / invoked is the 
Permissibility Of The Unprohibited law. These were put in by the MUD's
admins, not the players.  

Next is Mutable. Mutable laws are laws that only regulate citizens, and the
law. Each player is allowed One citizen character, and any number of alts.
There are harsh in game penalties if caught. Yes these are channeled through
the legal system.  The only time when the admins don't go through the legal
system and use their admin powers so far have been gaging a player for 
excessive pointless shouting, blatant use of macros, triggers and whatnot 
for skill gain, harassingly PKing (we have a no PK newbies rule), and an 
instance of a Wiz cheating to give a player stats and skill, etc. 
Mutable laws get into the nitty gritty, and mostly are made up of "defines",
and procedures.  Most of the new proposals / amendments of mutables are for
plugging up loop holes in the laws that deal with positions.

Common laws are laws that effect everyone.
Non-laws are for administrative things like election of magistrates.


A quick little hierarchy.

Lords

King/Queen (a figurehead)
Duke/Duchess
Baron/Baroness
Count/Countess
Sir/Madam

Only the King/Queen has to be a citizen.(more on that later)

Citizens
Non-citizens

Plus there are 5 Magistrates, 1 Constable, 1 Editor, and 1 Town Fool.
(I wanted to call it the Village Idiot ala Monty Python.:)

To obtain citizenship one must apply then wait one week for the
remaining citizens to either vote you in or not.
Only Citizens may vote and propose new laws, and currently there is 
a 3 proposal limit.

I'll skip the editor and just say he/she controls the newspaper.
The Town Fool was an attempt to put a little humour (heh I've
Britainized my spelling, SW is in Oz.:) in a "Official position".

The Constable is our police chief, with the power to deputize other
characters. Deputies have no special powers. All the constable does
is post a note proclaiming so-and-so is a deputy.  The Constable
has a lot of power, and is easily corruptible.

The magistrates are the judges of the legal system.  There are 4 magistrates
and one Chief Magistrate. Whenever a citizen files a Call for Justice (CFJ)
a magistrate is chosen randomly from the pool, then that magistrate hears
the case.  They are supposed to actually meet, but usually just post notes.
There is quite abit of note posting. :)  After hearing the case the magistrate
delivers judgment.  Depending on the punishment, the constable or the magistrate
mete it out.

Once a player has completed all the requisite quest for the guild(s) that he or she
is in, they become a lord.  The quests are quite difficult.  If you played hard 
for 4 months you might become a lord.  There are no citizenship requirements for
Lordship.  Although once a citizen becomes a lord of Count or higher rank (through
lord tasks currently it's kill so-and-so and bring me his head, or have a Ball as in
party)
one can start a cult.  Cults are alot like clans in other MUDs. The cult leader
must recruit players into his cult, and also must locate the NPCs that sell cult
powers, and the powers expire after a certain time. As a Lord does more lord tasks
his lord points increase,as well as the lord's rank. In order to be King/Queen
one must be a Baron/Baroness or maybe Duke/Duchess, and have the highest amount
of cult points.  Cult points are calculated once a mud month and consist of 
all the citizens in the cult and their quest points in secret formula. :)
Noncitizen charaters do not count, for the obvious multicharater exploits.

We have given players quite a bit of power, for instance the Constable and 
a vote of Magistrates can de-citizen a character. But it is against the law to 
do so unless directed from a CFJ or a (non)law. On that note Citizenship does
have it's perks.  Only citizens can have greater than 20,000 coins in a bank,
which are also player run, and can own commercial property.

Next post is out current laws.

More to follow...
A story about embezzlement.

--
All music aspires to the condition of muzak.



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