(02-11-2015, 11:24 AM)Gegenji Wrote: I never thought too much about this before, but with Judge slowly coming together and his character concept basically being someone with a not unsubstantial level of authority (an impartial figure who is used to settle disputes, from duels to other, less violent matters), I find myself wondering how much authority he should exude and how likely others are to accept him as "The Law."
That's going to be a problem in public, "open" RP. There's always going to be RPers who, for whatever reason, will refuse to recognize the authority you're asserting. The reasons can range from the philosophical (they didn't consent to giving power over their character to you and they don't see your actions as a legitimate IC consequence to their IC actions, so they non-consent) to the lore-based ("Gridanian citizens are not subject to the whims of a so-called 'Judge'") to the outright questionable ("my character could beat yours up!"), but nonetheless, you can't trust that anyone in an open RP setting will give you any respect or authority at all, much less accept your concept. It's the same problem faced by those who play nobles, the ultra-rich, or anyone else with legal authority and is why I usually advise against playing such concepts.
What you're trying to do would work best in "closed" RP, where there's a specific group with rules of which you're a part, and you can enforce authority in that shared story. Not only has everyone involved agreed to your premise, but they also agree to ceding some authority over their characters to be part of a group. Inside an FC, an LS, or a group of like-minded players, you can simply assert OOC that "this guy is the law" and those in the group can either consent or leave the group. The OOC element allows you to enforce a specific premise, assuming the OOC leadership supports it.
That said, in public RP, there's things you can do to improve your chances of being accepted. One, be extremely judicious in the application and display of power. Don't go in and do stuff -- be reactive instead, and make sure you apply the least possible IC response to an IC action. Two, always, always talk to a person OOC before trying to impose The Law on their character. Three, don't escalate anything past what the people involved are doing. If two people are having an argument and start reaching for blades, but haven't attacked each other yet, escalating by trying to arrest one of them (that is, going from a social response to a character-altering one) is going to come off very poorly.
No matter what you do, though, some people are not going to want to play. The good ones will explain their issue OOC and bow out gracefully (or in my case, for example, simply avoid scenes and locales where this sort of RP occurs regularly), while the bad ones will just troll (as in Warren's example). The number one thing you absolutely cannot under any circumstances do is to demand someone recognize your authority.
The Freelance Wizard
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
