Board Thread:Event Discussion/@comment-5722194-20140402005508/@comment-24135210-20140402050847

I wanted to add something myself. Maxen makes a good point in that there are situations in which there are dozens upon dozens of ultimately petty crimes that do not need an entire court system to be solved. However, as Maxen also said we are all here to generate and enjoy roleplay of all kinds. At one point in time we have all skipped out on lengthy RP in order to discuss something IC that two people have already discussed OOC, there was a mutual decision involved from both people "Our characters discussed this". RP should be fun, that is true, but the people who put countless hours into these laws should also be respected.

In this sense, we should be able to discuss OOC amongst criminals, guards, magistrates, etc, to "skip" lengthy court RP if nobody involved is particuarly keen on going through it all. Let's face it, court cases are not like we see on Law&Order, a lot of it is just going through official channels in order to publicly prove a person guilty. For petty crimes where people want the outcome solved, but don't enjoy that kind of RP, we should all mutually agree that storylines can be shortened through MUTUAL decisions made OOC.

For example: Bob goes into the Recluse and picks a fight with Joe. A guard happens by, stops the fight and arrests them both. Bob and Joe both hate courts, they think they're dumb and hate the RP involved. The guard then ask Bob and Joe what they want out of this RP, and attempt to come to a decision where Bob and Joe are officialy recorded as having served time, or whatever other punishment, without anybody having to go through this lengthy process. Of course Magistrates should be involved with this kind of thing if possible, but if the criminals caught have absolutely no interest in a court case, we cannot in good faith force it upon them. While I personally do not enjoy the idea of criminals skipping just consequences for the actions their characters performed, these Courts were not imagined so we as individuals could force our views on others, but rather so that we could create roleplay for others when and where it's wanted.

People want to be detectives, lawyers, etc? Put them on a list, when a court case -does- come up, we can have people set up RP for these people to do. I would more than happily accept a list of details of a crime scene and sort of "DM" some RP for a group of (Or singular) detective(s) trying to solve a case. People want to be lawyers, and a criminal wants a case? Hook those people up together and let the level-headed legal debate commence!

In summary: We're here to create roleplay, not red tape. I understand where the Guard are coming from in that doing an entire trial for every petty offense would just get annoying. While I personally feel the guards, being that they are RPing guards, should hold themselves accountable based on the laws (As should everybody else RPing an individual with responsibility), it's nobody's right to force laws upon "civilians".