Polices and Criminals - live here!

I am starting a new guild, a real police guild, in Stormwind. The working name is Stormwind City Wardens, you can read some more information about us and why I decided to do this here.

My ambition is to make this fun for everyone involved - also those we are there to chase down. I will be bone hard to my guild members concerning power-emoting and god-modding, as I expect you to be.
One issue is, as far as i have understood, that being in jail is utterly boring and pretty much means staring at the walls of a cellar for two weeks. That is not okay.
At the same time constant rescue parties, fleeing prisoners and god-modding is not okay either. Sure, if someone manages to fight his way out because the guard is silly and forgets to take his weapon before turning his back, so be it, that's totally fine. Or if the criminal guild leader gets caught and the others gather up to rescue him it is also just fine.

But we need to discuss how to make prison and other punishments interesting and fun RP for BOTH parts - while still be IC and law-abiding.
Throw all your ideas at me!

Here are a couple of suggestions, tell me what do you think.

About being jailed, I'd bring more RP there. Interrogatories, beatings, intimidations, or just some plain chatting with the guards sometimes. The aim is to leave the prisoners not alone, otherwise being jailed would become not just a punishment for our characters but for ourselves as well, who are forced not to do anything or talk to anyone for a week or so.

I'd also go for other kind of punishments apart from imprisoning, from forcing people to clean the streets and help the community for minor offences, to forced labour in the Elwynn Forest's farms and mines for major offences. Banning people from a place for a certain period could work too. And don't forget fines and such.

As last suggestion, I'd write down a list of crimes and punishments, so criminals would know what are they going to face. Something like this:

Brawling - X hours in jail
Attempted murder - Y days in jail
Murder - Z days in jail

The laws and punishments of Stormwind are made by the council and I and my guild will have no choice but to follow them. A draft of them can be found here.

We will not have the authority to decide someone's punishment if the crime is serious enough for a trial. I assume that we will be able to demand fines from you (that we later will deliver to the council, of course) and execute punishment for less serious crimes that need no trial. but banning people and the other things you mention are up to the court of law, not us.

My ambitions are to have one person guarding you at all times, and that person will have the job to entertain you in some way. Beating you up a little or press you to tell things of secrecy. Some minior torture will not kill you guys but only make you appreciate life more.

I want to make this as believable as possible. To me that menas that the Council and the Minister of Justice are our bosses and we must follow orders. Unless they tell us something silly like that it's illegal to starve our prisoners or shower them with ice cold water or something.

Of course you would also be alloowed to leave OOC for quests, dungeons or whatever else you wanted to do - except any IC activities, naturally.

I happily discuss other ideas that will involve both sides, like major events etc.

Menyet-Billiam wrote:I happily discuss other ideas that will involve both sides, like major events etc.

A bank robbery, a kidnapping, an assault to a caravan, a round-up made by the guards, there are plenty of things that could be done. We're up for almost everything

When you can't promise to stay with your prisoner as a guard, you forfeit the right to keep him in a jail. There is no point in keeping someone locked down for a week if you can't fill that week with RP opportunities. Jailtime shouldn't be a punishment OOCly. It should create confrontational RP instead of avoiding it.

As the poster above me mentioned. Try looking into alternative punishments. Work camps, cleaning Stormwind streets from litter and such are fantastic ideas. Perhaps even combine one criminal with another in this so they have someone to talk to. Most important of all. Don't let it linger. Deal quickly with punishments.

In the end I believe a good communication is what saves the day here. Talk to your captors, talk to your captives. Ask how they see the situation, how they want it to evolve.

Good luck with the guild. I hope it works out.

As I said I will not be in a position to make out that kind of punishments. But of course I will try my best to entertain those in prison. I can't ask my guildies to stay off guild events or similar to guard someone, though, I hope that is respected.

There are several guard guilds already. I suggest either going fully for the punishment part of the justice system as is being discussed here, or perhaps find another facet like a detective agency of sorts. Else you'll do little more than divide potential law-enforcers between even more guilds.

If you can indeed focus on making crimes a bad thing to do IC, but not utterly boring to be punished for OOC it'd be a great addition to the realm. And it can indeed be done by having work camps, routine beat-ups, organize public humiliations or executions, work-camps, community service. I can imagine a lot of possibilities.

hello Menyet-Billiam.

I'm the leader of the Dark Sphere - the main bad guys on the evil, anti-light front. I would really appriciate it if we could catch each other ingame for a chat...

*cracks knuckles*

o.o

Nithel wrote:When you can't promise to stay with your prisoner as a guard, you forfeit the right to keep him in a jail. There is no point in keeping someone locked down for a week if you can't fill that week with RP opportunities. Jailtime shouldn't be a punishment OOCly. It should create confrontational RP instead of avoiding it.

I second this.

Hmmm we got plenty of guards in SW allready, but ya could make a riot police kind of thing. Now that the new guild <Angry Peasants> is active, ya guys should confront with 'em. 30 angry peasants with picks and spades against 15 armed professional riot cops in the council entrance. Think about it, would be awesome rp.

As the post I linked to explains I do not think we have guards in SW that do what I intend to do, namely be a polcie 24/7 and never a soldier. Patrol, write reports on crimes, actually try to SOLVE crimes etc, etc, etc. We will also be hired by the council and thus not independent but must follow the laws of SW (unless we really, really dislike them) and take our orders from the Minister of Justice. We will also work together with the trials.

I do believe this guild has no equivalent already.


Of course we will try to deal with those lousy peasants once we are many enough, that is part of our job!

And Mordazan - you have been added to my friends list.

Forgive me, I missed the link. I've now read through it all and understand there is more to the start of your new guild than the mere wish to be a guard.

I've been a part of the Blazing Shields for a long while, I wrote the current set of laws and had to deal with 'criminals' for a long time. A specific guard guild is interesting and I'd love to join it. I'll also see if I can join the discussion in the other thread and give a more expansive view on the matter there.

Mordazan wrote:hello Menyet-Billiam.

I'm the leader of the Dark Sphere - the main bad guys on the evil, anti-light front. I would really appriciate it if we could catch each other ingame for a chat...

*cracks knuckles*

o.o

I thought that were us :O

Can we share?

Rinoi: You are more than welcome to join! I will contact you in-game.

Rasonal: I will add you to friends list too if you're nice.

Menyet-Billiam wrote:Rinoi: You are more than welcome to join! I will contact you in-game.

Rasonal: I will add you to friends list too if you're nice.

You can certainly try

I could make a human and level him to 20+ and join the guild. I really like this idea and providing prisoners with RP is nr.1 on my wishlist.

Excellent! Contact me in-game!

Nifty is that becouse you spend almost all your time in jail?

I think so

The guild is up! Only thing I am waiting for now is to activate it IC - willing to OOC recruit until then!

Billiam wrote:The guild is up! Only thing I am waiting for now is to activate it IC - willing to OOC recruit until then!

My respect for has skyrocketed for that avatar. Get Vimes on our streets.

Anaei/Vezullia wrote:

My respect for has skyrocketed for that avatar. Get Vimes on our streets.

Hey, more respect is always welcome.
He will not be exactly like Vimes, though, for example he will be a tougher leader. Vimes doesn't have to be so tough as his men already love him and do what is needed. Not that Vimes isn't tough when he defends someone or determined to solve things but... Billiam will be harder and demand more discipline.
Yeah, now I am just babbeling.

I prefer <Stormwind Constabulary> but, well..

Afraid it's too late for opinions on the name.
Although... when I had just registered the guild I started to think that maybe it should be Warden instead of Wardens...

Aaanyway I was thinking about maybe using the Stockades as a prison? Might cause some trouble if we arrest low level characters or more than, say, 4 people at once, but at least it feels kinda real in there.
Or maybe anyone has a better suggestion? As I rather do not use the Command Center due to all the other guilds using that and the very military feeling.
Who is using the SI:7? Would it make sense for us to share that with another guild in that case? I am talking only about the prison now and not the office, still hoping to use the City Hall for that.

If my post doesn't make sense it's because I'm kinda ill atm and can't think straight. Even less than usual, that is.

Billiam wrote:Afraid it's too late for opinions on the name.
Although... when I had just registered the guild I started to think that maybe it should be Warden instead of Wardens...

Aaanyway I was thinking about maybe using the Stockades as a prison? Might cause some trouble if we arrest low level characters or more than, say, 4 people at once, but at least it feels kinda real in there.
Or maybe anyone has a better suggestion? As I rather do not use the Command Center due to all the other guilds using that and the very military feeling.
Who is using the SI:7? Would it make sense for us to share that with another guild in that case? I am talking only about the prison now and not the office, still hoping to use the City Hall for that.

If my post doesn't make sense it's because I'm kinda ill atm and can't think straight. Even less than usual, that is.

To answer to your questions. SI:7 is used by the Stormwind Intelligence, contact Jayse ingame or with a PM here to see if there can be some co-operation! You can alternativly use Westbrook keep as a prison facility. High priority criminals naturally go in Northrend. As for the City Hall, its currently in use by the Roaring Lion reporters but I am sure that if you poke Saihna regarding it you could reach to some agreement that suits both parties concerning the use