Re: [s-d] [s-b] Proposal: Crime and Punishment

["Geoffrey Spear" <geoffspear@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Dec 6, 2007 2:20 PM, Daniel Lepage <dplepage@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Dec 6, 2007, at 12:29 PM, Geoffrey Spear wrote:
>
> > I submit the following Proposal, entitled "Crime and Punishment":
> >
> > {
> > Create a rule entitled "Criminal Offenses" with the following text:
> > {{
> > A Game Action is said to be Criminal if the Rules state that the
> > Player who has taken that action shall not do so, or if the action is
> > defined by rule to be a Misdemeanor or a Felony.
>
> Can we drop all this "said to be" nonsense? If an action is a
> Misdemeanor, then it *is* Criminal, not just "said to be" Criminal. We
> do this a lot in the rules, I think.
>
> Also, "shall not do so": does it have to be explicitly that phrase?

Both good points, I'll revise this section (especially since it should
probably also be a violation to not do something the rules say you
shall do)

> > No player shall be punished for a Criminal Action unless he has been
> > found guilty by a Consultation on a Question of his guilt for a
> > particular action.
>
> This is redundant, since the only way a criminal can be punished is as
> a result of a Priest assigning a Punishment.

possibly.  I'll drop that as well.

> > When an Answer to a Consultation on a Player's guilt becomes Pondered,
> > he shall be assigned a Punishment.  This punishment must accord with
> > the minimum and maximum sentencing guidelines for the Crime in
> > question.  The punishment shall be assigned by the Priest who answered
> > the Question of guilt if his Answer indicated that the Player in
> > question was guilty, or by the Oracle if the Priest's answer indicated
> > that the Player was not guilty and his Answer was subsequently found
> > to be INCONSISTENT.  Any Player can, with 4 support, declare a penalty
> > to be UNFAIR and reduce it to the minimum for the crime in question.
>
> If the Oracle kills someone and gets accused, the priest finds em not
> guilty, and the ruling is overturned, the Oracle gets to choose eir
> own sentence. I'm not sure how to fix that, but it's a problem.

Well, if your Oracle is a criminal you should probably think about
usurpation.  Honestly I was going to leave out the ZOT restriction too
but I think encouraging that much abuse of the position would go a bit
too far.

> > The Oracle cannot ZOT a question into his own guilt in a criminal
> > matter.
>
> Even if such a question is legitimately ZOTable? Maybe instead you
> could only allow the Oracle to ZOT such a consultation with support or
> without objection.

I suppose.  If a corrupt Oracle has enough corrupt supporters he'll
just assign one of them as the Priest anyway.  I think we'd better
make it without at least 2 objections, since presumably the person
posing the Question would object to it being ZOTTED.

> > If not defined otherwise, all criminal offenses are Misdemeanors.
>
> <logical pedantry>
> As soon as some action is made a Felony, it is no longer the case that
> all criminal offenses are "not defined otherwise", so suddenly we no
> longer have a default severity.
>
> > When not otherwise specified, the minimum punishment for a Misdemeanor
> > shall be a fine of 1m and the maximum a fine of 50m.
>
> Otherwise specified *by the rules*, methinks... As opposed to "by the
> judge of the case" or "by the accused".
>
> > When not otherwise specified, the minimum punishment for a Felony
> > shall be a fine of 25m and the maximum a fine of 500m.
>
> Likewise.

Another good point.

> > Murder is a Felony that consists of intentionally causing another
> > Player's Hit Points to become nonpositive.
>
> How do you judge "intentionally"? If I intentionally blow up a
> building in order move an army of airspeeders past it, and as a side
> effect you die, have I murdered you? Or are you leaving that to the
> discretion of the Priests?

I think that could be left to the discretion of the Priest.  Or, you
know, the angry mob shouting "INCONSISTENT!"

> Once this rule is in place we could bring back the Cursed Sushi of
> Babel.

Mmmmm, sushi.
-- 
Geoffrey Spear
http://www.geoffreyspear.com/
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