STAGE · Your first town
The law
Draft — Draft: checked against the game source, not yet read through end to endAvailable from the startCrimes affect the region where they happen; understand how the watch responds, what court can impose, and how standing recovers.
This page is further along your path. Read ahead if you’re curious; you can return when you reach this stage.
What counts as a crime
The law tracks offenses such as theft, breaking and entering, assault, murder, trespassing and vagrancy. The action and its detection rules vary: taking from a private container can be noticed when you close it, while attempting to force a locked door can attract attention. Some actions create a crime only if someone sees them. The game records legal standing for each region, so trouble in one region does not automatically become a charge everywhere.
The watch
When a crime is witnessed, nearby townspeople or guards can raise the alarm. The watch pursues you in the town. A first minor offense may receive a warning in a region, but the crime still affects your standing. A known criminal can also be stopped by a wandering guard in the street and asked to answer the law.
If a guard lands a blow while you have an active crime, you can surrender or refuse. Refusing continues the chase. Surrender sets your health to 1 before court begins, so it is a way to end the pursuit, not a way to avoid the sentence.
Court and recovery
At court, a guilty plea halves the fine and prison days for a fine-or-prison sentence. If you plead not guilty, choose Debate with Etiquette or Lie with Streetwise. The court makes a skill-based decision; an unsuccessful defense leaves the sentence in place. Banishment applies to particular serious crimes and bars you from that region for a period.
Paying or serving a sentence repairs much of the legal standing lost for the offense. Assault, Murder and treasonous offenses retain part of their mark. A temple's penance can restore standing, and negative standing also recovers over time. A regional temple can sell a pardon that lifts banishment early (the NPC guilds).
Common mistakes
Running or dying to end a chase. Getting away or dying ends the pursuit but does not repay the standing loss; answer the watch or court to repair it. Cost: a lasting legal mark in that region.
Pleading guilty without checking what sticks. A guilty plea halves a fine or prison term, but Assault, Murder and treasonous offenses still keep part of their mark. Cost: standing you cannot get back cheaply.
Ignoring an active Curfew. Under a Curfew edict crimes cost double legal standing and the night watch is stronger (city control later). Cost: double the standing loss for a mistake after dark.
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Sources & checked facts
src/systems/crimes.js:CRIMESsrc/systems/court.js:legalRepOf,lowerRepForCrime,startCourt,pleaGuilty,pleaNotGuilty,normalizeReputationssrc/systems/standing.js:WARNABLE_CRIMES,knownCriminal,BANISHMENT_MINUTESsrc/scenes/arrestFlow.js:onGuardHit,startCourtFlowsrc/net/townSeatLaw.js:CURFEWsrc/systems/guild/guildServiceActions.js: temple penance and pardon servicesResearch:
handbook/research/T3.md(law and crime)