Justice

The basic idea behind our system is quite easy and is simply based on reality (as most things are) which makes it easy to comprehend and to master. There are certain things which are forbidden in a regular society including PK, bribing, obstruction of justice, theft, blackmail and in some areas prostitution. In the real world you don't do this because you are afraid of getting caught and being punished.

What we did is, let the system watch you for those forbidden actions and if it observes you do one of these things, it generates a crime, if the criminal fails certain checks (for example DEX/Stealing for a theft) and a crime scene at the location of the crime. If the criminal is highly skilled there may be no crime, however certain crimes like assault or perma elimination always create a crime.

That crime scene is the starting point for an investigation which may ultimately lead to a criminals arrest. From here, detectives, with observation skill, can collect clues, like suspect descriptions, DNA evidence, fingerprints and other clues. The next step is to match these clues with evidence which gives the names of possible suspects. Once the crime is investigated enough, the detective may decide that he has enough evidence to accuse his main suspect.

The file then goes through the justice chains and is handled by the prosecutor, the judge and the jurors, all of which are player run offices which are occupied by regular players who were elected by the other players. Finally, when the criminal is convicted, a warrant for his arrest is issued

Another big problem was, what to do with characters, once they serve a prison term. Just leaving them there to rot is no alternative, after all the player pays for his online time. So we came up with an alternative solution. The prison is a very large area of the game, nearly a whole district all by itself. Player can role play in the prison, other players can come in and visit inmates. But that's not all.

As in a real prison, we included some sort of work. Prison inmates are forced to destroy illegal magic potions which are very sought after by cultists. Of course, from time to time a bottle or two remain in the pockets of the inmate instead of going to the recycler. Although inmates are being searched when they leave the work area, there is a chance (based amongst other on the prostitution or stealing skill) that the guard overlooks those bottles. If that happens, the prisoner has a potentially valuable trading object. Prisoners could get organized and smuggle those bottle out of the jail. Of course giving those bottles away is a matter of trust and trust between criminals is a totally different thing. But that is up to the players to organize. A trustworthy racketeering gang can be worth gold here. Inmates can also use the wilderness in the prison center to harvest raw materials just like outside the prison and smuggle them out of prison with the help of their henchmen.