Police Attention (no ontology)
From Mazeworld
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 seen by Guards themselves, at the exception of offenses affecting Guards directly, including murders, which automatically elevate the perpetrator's police attention level.
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.
One major exception is the Outlaw faction. By their very nature, Outlaws are not considered to be protected by the law and are generally hunted down at the first excuse by Police. Law enforcement is generally reluctant to respond to calls from Outlaw towns, as local faction members will often have no qualms keeping the law out of their settlements by force if necessary, but they only consider Outlaw Faction members to be exempt from legal protection ; not Outlaw-controlled towns, where many inhabitants with no alignment or Faction affinities are still likely to be found. In turn, this also means the Contestant cannot commit crimes in an Outlaw town without consequences. However, law enforcers silently and unofficially turn a blind eye if such actions are committed on Outlaw Faction members... what's bad for the outlaws is good for the law, as they say.
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$, without resorting to grand thievery methods such as bank or shop robbery.)
- Repeated Yellow-level offenses (3 yellow = 1 orange)
Code Red offenses
High-gravity offenses which may endanger lives or property in the Mazes. Perpetrators elevated to Code Red must be arrested and sent to prison. This includes the contestant.
Red-level offenses include:
- Murder (Killing a creature protected by the law)
- Cannibalism (Eating or being in possession of the remains (or meat processed from remains) of a sapient creature, if the offender is another sapient creature. Humans, halflings, and non-wicked youkai are considered species that are taboo to eat, and thus punishable of cannibalism.)
- Grand thievery (Bank robberies, shop robberies, trading mission robberies, or stealing items of a total value exceeding 1000 P$.)
- 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 (2 red = Code 11)
- Special circumstances
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 a 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, it is possible for him/her 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.
