Police Attention (no ontology)

From Mazeworld

Revision as of 07:16, 23 February 2017

As the law enforcement faction of the Mazes, the Police enforces a specific set of laws commonly referred to as Standard Law and will not hesitate to punish the perpetrators if they see them committing crimes. Standard Law is technically in effect everywhere in the Mazes, and affect everyone including the Contestant, however there are certain areas which are not properly covered by law enforcement ; the Uncivilized Area, due to its nature, and certain Towns which elect to follow their own rules and standards, if any at all. Outside of those areas however, Standard Law is in effect.

Depending on the gravity of offenses, Guards assign to perpetrators a Police Attention Level, which is based on a color code. In order of gravity: white, yellow, orange, and red. An additional code for the most dangerous cases exists: Code 11, which allows Maze Guards to shoot on sight.

For an offense or a crime to be detected, it must be reported by witnesses or directly seen by either Maze Guards or Town Security. If offenses are committed directly against Maze Guards (e.g. murder), the Police is automatically alerted and Police Attention is automatically elevated.

• Note: If offenses are committed directly against Town Security in Neutral towns, including in Independent towns, the local TownSec will also be automatically alerted and suitable consequences (e.g. Reputation) may occur, with the exception that Police Attention only subsequently increases in towns that follow Standard Law (or Standard Modified).

The only way to avoid detection and resulting consequences (including in cases of direct offenses against Guards or TownSec) is to maintain stealth.

When trouble has been resolved, unless the perpetrator is killed or sent to prison, his or her police attention goes back to white and all non-undiscovered crimes and offenses are erased from the records.

All creatures that are part of civilized society are considered to be 'concerned' or 'protected' by the law. This generally includes all humans, all halflings, all non-wicked youkai, and all Angelic and Demonic beings. Protection only effectively extends to towns which support the law - Independent towns, such as criminal or self-sufficient communities, do not respect the Police's authority. Committing crimes in such towns may still result in negative reputation towards that town or faction, and will still result in attention from the local Town Security.

Code Yellow offenses

Low-gravity offenses and minor trouble. Such offenses are resolved by a fine, which can go between 50 and 500 P$ per fine.

Yellow-level offenses include:

• Bribery
• Indecent exposure
• Verbal abuse, threats, insults
• Vandalism/unauthorized weapon usage (Discharging weapons inside of a town without a good reason, if not in the context of combat, is considered to be very bad form.)

Code Orange offenses

Medium-gravity offenses. Such offenses are usually resolved by restraining the perpetrator, and confiscation of equipment. Most of the times Guards confiscate the weapon in hand when the offense was committed, but they may also take away other items and/or issue fines.

Orange-level offenses include:

• Assault (Attacking a creature protected by the law, regardless of damage caused)
• Trespassing (Certain areas are off-limits without an authorization.)
• Impersonation (Being busted while wearing a disguise.)
• Resisting arrest (Attempting to fight or flee when a Guard announces their intention to fine or detain the Contestant.)
• Petty thievery (Stealing items with a value inferior or equal to 1000 P$, without resorting to grand thievery methods such as bank or shop robbery.)
• Repeated Yellow-level offenses (3 yellow = 1 orange)

Code Red offenses

High-gravity offenses which may endanger lives or property in the Mazes. Perpetrators elevated to Code Red must be arrested and sent to prison. This includes the contestant.

Red-level offenses include:

• Murder (Killing a creature protected by the law)
• Sexual assault of any kind (Raping, nonconsensual touching, etc. against a creature protected by the law)
• Cannibalism (Eating or being in possession of the remains (or meat processed from remains) of a sapient creature, if the offender is another sapient creature. Humans, halflings, and non-wicked youkai are considered species that are taboo to eat, and thus punishable of cannibalism.)
• Grand thievery (Bank robberies, shop robberies, trading mission robberies, or stealing items of a total value exceeding 1000 P$.)
• Repeated Orange-level offenses (3 orange = 1 red)

• Special: Going rogue (Official description: Using one's job or occupation, or defecting thereof, in order to disturb the peace, harm or kill others, or aid parties in doing so. See below on caveats of the "going rogue".)

Code 11

In rare situations, where a Code Red perpetrator hasn't been stopped by the Guards and continues to commit offenses, Guards may be allowed to tag this perpetrator to Code 11. This situation simply allows them to make use of their weapons offensively, and are allowed deadly force. In other words, Code 11 means "Shoot to kill".

• Repeated Red-level offenses (3 red = Code 11)
• Special circumstances

Alerted

If the Contestant has an active attention level (anything higher than White), or has otherwise caused local authorities to be alerted by the Contestant's actions, then the Maze Police, or the local authorities will be on alert and try to hunt the Contestant down if he/she is inside of a town (depending on the town's law system and faction).

When alerted, teams composed of 1d3 members of the relevant authorities (either Maze Guards, or local TownSec) will be attempting to converge on the Contestant's position, for as long as the Contestant is inside of a town. Every 1d6+2 turns, the team will enter the room the Contestant is in. Depending on the attention level, the team will attempt to engage the Contestant relevant to the attention level, using units of appropriate level:

• Yellow will spawn one team of Maze Guards, who will just want to "chat" in order to try and fine the Contestant, and are ready to escalate to Orange if the Contestant isn't compliant.
• Orange will spawn one team of Maze Guards, but will engage the Contestant in combat, primarily with intent to arrest, but ready to use weapons to incapacitate.
• Red will spawn 1d2 teams of Maze Guards - if two teams show up, then one of the Guards is always a Guard Sergeant. They will engage the Contestant in combat with intent to arrest, but ready to use weapons to kill.
• Code 11 will spawn 1d2 teams of SRT Guards, whose purpose is to engage the Contestant in combat, and where "arrest" is more of a suggestion and "kill" more the practical priority.

If wanted by the local authorities of an Independent town, the attention level system is not used, and generally the local authorities will send more TownSec officers and go straight to combat, always to try killing the Contestant.

The only way to clear an Alert is to clear the Police Attention level back to White. If wanted by an Independent town, Alerts are cleared by leaving the town.

Prison

If a contestant is caught and arrested by a Maze Guard with a Police Attention at least at Red, he/she will be cuffed, and forcefully sent to the closest town controlled by the Police, in order to be detained in the police station prison. A time skip occurs if an arrest is made, during which 4d20 turns pass, and no rooms are added to the counter of rooms visited. If the Contestant was wounded or hurt prior to the arrest, Maze Guards may request the Contestant to forfeit medical equipment in their inventory so that any immediate and/or life-threatening conditions can be treated before transfer. If not, or if there is no medical gear available, it is possible for the Contestant to die during transfer towards the prison.

If the Contestant survives prison transfer, he/she will be stripped of all of their weapons, clothes, equipment and load-bearing gear temporarily. The Contestant is then given free full healing, made to wear a set of prison slacks (Prison jacket, Prison trousers, Prison shoes), then sent to a random prison room in the police station, where a Maze Guard on prison duty will be found, as well as a random amount of cellmates (between 1 and 3).

Prison time may be between 20 and 400 turns, in which the contestant will be stuck and won't be able to leave or do much apart from interacting with the other people in the room.

The player may choose whether or not he/she wants to play through the prison time. If not, time skips until the end of the sentence eventlessly.

After the time has been served, depending on the gravity of crimes done, the contestant will be fined:

• Orange level offenses: 1d5 * 100 P$ (between 100 and 500 P$), taken from carried money or bank account/credit.
• Red level offenses: 1d8+2 * 100 P$ (between 300 and 1000 P$), taken from carried money or bank account/credit.
• Code 11: The totality of the Contestant's carried money + 1d5+1 * 500 (between 1000 and 3000 P$) from the Contestant's bank account and/or credit

If the Contestant does not have enough money to pay the fine, either in the inventory or in bank account/credit, then the police will simply siphon away all of his/her money.

After prison

Once the contestant has served time and was punished proper, the Contestant will be tasked to leave the prison room ; this will trigger two events. Firstly, the Contestant will be reunited with their confiscated gear and equipment (after fines). Lastly, the Contestant is fast-traveled out of the prison, towards the police station information lobby, where he/she will be told that they are free to go ; the player regains control at that point.

Going rogue

Members of the Maze Personnel can be convicted of going rogue if it's found out that they are using their occupation, status or rank to aid in "disturbing the peace, harm or kill others, or aid other parties in doing so." The law was originally conceived to convict corrupt police officers and allow Guards to arrest fellow Guards with sufficient evidence that they are, in fact, causing or allowing harm to be caused to creatures protected by the law (humanity, for the most part).

The definition has since been expanded to include all members of the Maze Personnel who defect from their jobs, accept payment from, or otherwise aid criminal or enemy parties in causing harm to other human beings. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Maze Soldiers defecting from the military in order to join youkai activism, help enemy activity or undermine military activity in any way
• Nurses and Medics giving exclusive, preferential, or even free treatment to criminals, outlaws, or youkai activists (as opposed to treating all patients equally and making them pay for the services)
• Scientists, Engineers and other personnel using their skills and access to relevant facilities to provide equipment, technology, information, or otherwise helping criminal or enemy parties in their endeavors (e.g. Engineers willingly providing weapons to a criminal organization or to youkai activist groups 'straight from the factory line').

As such, the 'going rogue' law is largely used to convict Personnel members who are found guilty of generally helping criminals and youkai activists.

See also

• Maze Guard