If you are playing a lawyer, criminal, cop or pretty much anything else involving the city municipality of Elk Point, it’s important to know how the municipality is structured and how it all comes together to function in our little slice of paradise or purgatory.

 

Below, you’ll find some pertinent information for players interested in playing any of the above roles:

 

1) ELK POINT IS 100% FICTIONAL. The most important thing to keep in mind when playing in Elk Point, in general, is that it is not a real place. Real Life application may not always be feasible in our roleplay scenarios and what might make sense in real life, may not make sense for the roleplaying time table. With that said, Elk Point will have its own IC policies and procedures as outlined on the forum. As a new sim, some of these policies and procedures may still be under development. Please be patient as we roll them out. Additionally, please keep in mind that the players of Elk Point characters are not necessarily performing the same job in the real world and are, in fact, more like artists, writers, and actors. In Elk Point, art definitely emulates life but it is not defined wholly by it. Please keep that in mind and try to be patient when you are playing with others as we move our Elk Point stories forward.

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2) THE FORUM IS CITY HALL. We have a forum and please reference it often! This is where you will find the most recent updates and news. In the forum, there are a number of forms and templates that can be used to complete IC paperwork. This paperwork had been designed to enhance RP and protect from powergaming. You can find them here. The rule of thumb regarding evidence collection, pressing charges, and filing complaints or incident reports (and pretty much anything else the legal, medical, PD and FD teams need in order to bring a person to justice in character) is that IF IT’S NOT POSTED, IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.

 

For instance, an officer of the law cannot arrest another character unless that officer has obtained evidence, prepared the evidence and then posted it on the forum. Once all of the legwork has been posted, the officer may request a warrant from the judge. A judge will not issue a warrant unless everything required has been posted on the forum first. This is to make sure everyone is following the story as it has been played and there are no instances of metagaming and/or powergaming. So if you are gathering evidence make sure you do it in character, then fill out an incident report form listing what you discovered.

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4) ROLEPLAYING IS FUN! Remember it's a story and supposed to be fun and engaging! All of these guidelines and all of this structure is meant to support the story and the idea that actions have consequences on SIM. So if you commit a crime or if you are prosecuting a crime or if you are defending the accused remember that it's all in fun. If you are a criminal or one of the accused, remember that we appreciate you because you are driving the RP for everyone else involved! And that’s a really great thing!

 

DUE PROCESS:

 

• WHEN A CRIME IS COMMITTED: someone has to call in or file a complaint in person with the police, before police can respond. This means that the plaintiff must be ICly aware of the crime in the sense that they were either the victim, a witness or a fraud. Either contact the EPPD via phone or go into the EPPD station to make the complaint.

 

• INVESTIGATIONS: In Elk Point, the EPPD is responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence, preparing incident reports, obtaining warrants and making arrests and gathering the information for the investigative report. Depending on the crime, the EPFD may be involved or other divisions of the municipality.

 

          The Investigative Report can be found in this part of the forum. Once the      alleged crime has enough evidence to make an arrest, everything must be      posted on the forum.

 

• WARRANTS AND ARRESTS: In Elk Point, the EPPD is responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence, preparing incident reports and complaints, obtaining warrants and making arrests. Depending on the crime, the EPFD may be involved or other divisions of the municipality such as the morgue or the hospital. All of their findings should become part of the evidence.

 

          In Elk Point, the EPPD is responsible for obtaining the warrant. The EPPD    will complete the arrest report and place it here. Normally, in a real world      scenario, the DA's office would sign off and request the warrant from the judge. But       to keep things moving smoothly and to keep everything balanced for RP       purposes, the responsibility of the initial charges and arrests are given to the EPPD. This means that anytime a detective submits charges they are automatically signed off by the DA's office and the police can make the arrest.

          From there the DA can then add, dismiss or accept the charges submitted by the EPPD. As it is always up to the DA how they will try the case in court, however, the DA must notify the acting attorney or  the perpetrator of the changes.

 

• PROCESSING, BAIL, LAWYERS: Once the EPPD arrests a perp, the character will be processed. Processing includes filing the arrest, fingerprinting, mug shots, and the preliminary hearing which happens off screen and is based on the perp’s plea unless a lawyer intervenes with motions.

 

The EPPD has 3 RL Days MAX to completely process the perp and obtain a plea. After 3 days, all perps are out on bail. If the perpetrator decides to stay longer for IC reasons, that is up to the players involved in the RP.

 

During those three days, perps should be interviewed, pressured to give confessions, etc. Perps may ask for lawyers that can either be played by other players (preferably) or NPCd.

 

Lawyers may make motions to dismiss. Defense Lawyers can get suspects out of jail faster if they think there is not enough evidence to hold them or if they think they are being held illegally by bringing the arrest report to a judge’s attention and having them sign off on release.

 

JUDGES, TRIALS, JAIL TIME: The EP City Council members have developed three judges that will be made available to roleplayers as needed.

 

These judges are:

• Judge Prudence Mayflower: Ultraconservative, super religious.

• Miranda Wright: Loves the rule of the law, lives it to the letter. Takes the law very literally.

• Temperance Cartwright: She’s a liberal, reformer

 

          These judges will interact with the DA’s office, the EPPD and the lawyers.     They are here to help make the stories more dynamic and it is up to your   character on how you use them, manipulate them, bribe them, blackmail         them, put them on your payroll, etc.

 

          After a plea is filed and the perp is released on bail, the question remains to try or not to try? That depends on the plea.

 

• Dismissal. Perhaps your lawyer was able to get the case dismissed. If the case gets dismissed, you’re free to go.

• Innocent – Let’s go to trial! If you plead innocent, you will be issued a court date. Of course, between the time of your plea and the court date several events may happen to affect your case: death, dismissal, or you cut a deal. Any of those outcomes are acceptable. Just have fun RPing it. Most cases will never go to trial, however, the players should have a plausible reason for not going to trial such as one of the above.

• Guilty – Time Served. If the character pleads guilty, the story will assume the time served. See “Sentencing” for more details.

 

          The Player though always has the option to ask for a trial, and in very severe         cases like sexual assault or homicide the DA has the option to push for a   trial.

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SENTENCING. If your case makes it to trial, there are three possible outcomes:

• Guilty

• Innocent

• Case Dismissed

 

          If your character is found guilty, the person playing the criminal gets to decide if they will walk out with “time served” or if they would like to be sentenced in the asylum for correctional treatment depending on the path of their RP. Unless the player wants to extend the RP for their personal reasons, the max sentence for any crime is one-week. Lesser crimes may    be a lesser number of days. This is set up in this manner so that players do not get bored or trapped in dead-end RP.

 

          If a player wants out of jail, the RP can dictate how he/she was released: time off for good behavior, parole, pay-off, ruling overturned, etc.