Hi all, I'm a fresh new member on the sim of about ~2 weeks old with about 16 CD chapter level gathered so far, though I've roleplayed across many rulesets and systems outside of SL, including GTA, WoW, chatroom based RP and others across a span of around 15 years. 

I'm writing this thread to offer a sort of outside look as to the current effects of the HPD ruleset, the power they're given both OOC and IC, and I'd like to invite some considerations and solutions that may make it more feasible to roleplay an independent criminal character. 

I'll do my best to organize the thread in an easy to read and understand fashion, but please excuse any rustiness as I haven't written a forum thread in a while. 

"The Biggest Gang in Hathian" 

The main promise of HPD both on the website and on the signup page.

By joining a RP environment like Crack Den you're in for all the smoke, drama and drastic situations - and this attitude regarding the police department is a refreshing parody on the real life status of our civil servants.

While the intentions are to deliver fun, though, this also extends to it being the most accessible gang in the city. In effect, a shortcut to rank, a gun, and general influence without much context necessary.

In the current climate HPD probably outnumbers any other single group across all CD sims - this is not a problem in and of itself, but there plenty timeframes in the EU timezone that there are literally more police than civilians/criminals online.

People with IC and OOC rights to prohibit your roleplay with impunity (as corruption is encouraged both IC and OOC, without consideration for Internal Affairs, FBI investigations,etc.), should be more closely observed according to their quality as writers, as well as having a fun-oriented OOC judgement set - as opposed to win at all costs and other ego driven considerents that can only spoil the quality of a scene.

My proposed solution for this is not to treat the HPD as a roleplay training camp, but to carefully select competent, feasible candidates with solid writing experience that could really take other characters and stories forward, in the interest of all parties involved.

Jail Time, Jail RP 

To my understanding, the current OOC imposed cap for jail time is 72 hours. This is a reasonable, balanced amount of time that gives way to create roleplay among inmates and police officers, but in my current experience, this has not been brought to its intended potential yet.

Without a prison system (cells, chow hall, courtyard, gym, etc.) in place, all we do have is a crammed, caged environment wherein the only physical interaction our characters can have are at long distances and almost exclusively dialog based.

Going further, the experience is also neutered by an OOC imposition against retaliation on abusive police, enemies you're locked up with, creating shanks, etc.

While this is generally a welcome change of pace, the frequency with which HPD is able to lock you up - as well as the fact you can easily just end up there legally innocent - might mean you'll have to rinse and repeat this same experience multiple times a week. This renders getting jailed something akin to a soft ban from the sim, which can extend across various days.

My proposed solution in the short-term would be to impose an OOC arrest limit per week, as well as stop encouraging severe, legally indefensible arrests.

For the long term, of course a proper prison with several facilities to interact with could make arrests very enjoyable.

Open Carry/Conceal Carry 

The real life State of Louisiana allows open carry of firearms, without the need of a state permit to do so. As long as you are 18 years old, and you do not have any state or federal prohibition against possessing.

Suspending disbelief on this fact and forcing the state to be on conceal carry regulation, simply offers HPD even more reasons to harass or flat out arrest citizens that they could anyway put behind bars for any made-up reason of their choosing in the current climate.

I expect this ruleset is designed to add a sense of gravity and exceptionalism to the Armed status, however it more often than not leads to nonsense, unfeasible situations where an avatar may literally have nowhere to conceal a gun or other weapon (see: girls in thin, sexy sundresses suddenly pulling a gun from their *** when things get hot 😀) and still use the status.

Even worse, it also discourages the use of an actual bought prim gun unto your avatar, as HPD will often take it as an invitation to roleplay harrassing you, even if you might intend to clarify the gun is in fact concealed (in your waistband, behind your jacket, etc.) 

While the original intentions behind the rule may be understandable, unfortunately the result seems to prohibit roleplay and create immersion breaking bits.

Fights against the police often end in their favor; plan on defeat

This excerpt from the Combat Guide is as reasonable as it is dangerous in the wrong hands.

Situations will arise wherein police roleplayers may become to used to winning combat encounters, they will start to sacrifice their credibility as writers by completely eliminating fear and self-preservation from their characters.

On more than one occasion I've been rizzed and spooked up by petite, waist-height police girls in and out of uniform, with or without backup.

Other occasions I've seen single police officers feel comfortable in standoffs with 3-4 potential criminals.

While this is infuriatingly cute and fascinating to the... appraising eye.. the fact should still remain that an encounter with an armed, potentially dangerous person half your height should have appropriate context and consideration behind it.

Even on equal physical grounds, someone may still be maimed or outright lose their lives in a street encounter.

Death limits are always understandable whether or not associated with HPD, however the fact someone can simply say 'no' OOCly to an imminent IC death, already taxes much of the sense of consequences in the roleplay environment.

This is only pushed forward when certain players will act it out IC as though they're unbeatable killing machines, and have an excerpt in the combat rules they can quote to encourage that.

TL:DR

HPD outnumbers every single other gang.

HPD members have effective minimod power to prohibit/limit someone's roleplay for days and don't require serious context for it, nor much roleplay quality.

Jail RP is so limited by a crammed, opportunity-less environment and neutering combat possibilities, that it may as well be considered a sim ban for up to 3 days.

Guns should be open carry/not enforced as severely.

HPD has a ruleset advantage that could be and sometimes has been misconstrued as a pass to powergame/godmod.

 

All these factors make it overall frustrating to attempt an independent criminal character - I'm sure gang members and even civilians can also attest to at least some of these points though.

I hope I've done a good job encapsulating some thoughts on the matter and at least some things can be done to bring extra value to an already excellent RP environment 😀

I will do my best to answer any counter-points, as well as include any additions proposed below, in the interest of condensing an organized, constructive feedback on the current power scaling for HPD.

Please exclude any name-calling or obvious allusions to anybody in particular, as the thread is only designed to invite further value to the current system.