(08-04-2015, 04:21 AM)War Siren Wrote: Edited the OP with a clarification point to many people are focusing on the wrong aspect of this post.
I created a thread a while back that was... sorta? along the lines of your clarified point. I had just created Judge and my question was on how someone could - clearly and fairly to all involved - present a position of authority. You could easily say you're a Brass Blade, but when someone is acting out in the streets, what can/could/should you do regarding that?
I don't remember the finer details, since it was months back and I don't even recall which forum section it was in to hunt it down, but it really came down to the other person being willing to accept your position as someone in charge. Normally, it won't be a problem - an OOC PM saying "Hey, I'm a Brass Blade RPer, is it okay for me to come in and lay down some law in this situation?" and they'd likely be cool with it or possibly say that they already have someone coming in to "deal" with the situation. But then there's the self-proclaimed badasses that will remain defiant and unmoved no matter what happens, even if they're doing something as blatantly illegal as talking about all the void magic they've been using in the middle of the Quicksand.
It's just a matter of the format that you can't "force" authority on someone without metagaming and godmoding to some degree. The best you can really do is present yourself as a figure of authority as best you can and hope everyone plays along. I feel pretty lucky (and continually surprised and honored, in fact) that people openly consider Judge A Big Deal and will often listen to him if things start getting rowdy. And even then there's plenty of folks who would likely ignore his position as Overseer and continue to do their own thing regardless. The best I can do in that situation is try to intercede and hope they're willing to compromise a little bit for the sake of the event.