Shattered Kingdoms

I've noticed whenever Exile or another city is attacked by (insert opposing force), I'll ride to the defense of the city, but I'm constantly outlawed for assault which forces me to leave the city and give up on city defense until I can request a pardon.

My cabal has an alliance with the tribunal in question, and both are at war with the invading tribunal, yet the cityguard sees my attacking these reviled criminals as an injustice worthy of jail time. This seems quite backwards to me.. If anything, I'd expect them to praise those who defend the city, possibly even offer bounties to any who can manage to slay these people.

Is it possible to change this?

This comes up like once a month. And to quote the Big D - "Join the tribunal if you want law immunity."

Vigilantism (sp?) is not legal. If the leaders of the Tribunal are alright with it, okay. But they have to pardon you.

Law immunity is one of the few benefits to joining a tribunal. You get 5 new abilities for joining a cabal. If that's not enough, I don't know what to tell you.

Edit : I'm not saying it makes sense, but it is what it is, man.

See, but.. in character, if my actions are a crime, I can't/won't commit them.. The fact of the matter is that the code doesn't adequately represent what is actually going on in game.

Am I supposed to ignore this law system and treat it as though isn't functioning correctly in an OOC manner, or should I instead assume that in-game my paladin is a horrible law breaker who needs to repent? It's one or the other...

Well, technically speaking unless you're an appointed member of the tribunal for the kingdom/city you are defending you are in fact breaking the law anytime you go to defend the city. How you deal with that ICly is entirely up to you.

I think the word is "playing the vigilanty"

So, Spiderman. New York loves you, but the NYPD want your mask~♫

Yeah its unfortunately a ridiculous feature but it isn't going anywhere. That's one of the worst things of being a paladin. it makes one unworthy of being a knight to not go defend the city, but it makes you a criminal if you do.

I don't know why everyone equates "Breaking the law" with "Evil doer". It's not.

I think a good paladin would attempt to stop murder and the general chaos of an invasion even if it means breaking the law. In this regard, good takes priority over the law. However, that does not mean the paladin does not respect the law. He would surrender to the authorities once the crisis is over, and accept jail time if he must, as simply another trial to be endured for doing the right thing.

Thanks heaps! This is a perspective I can work with!!

While I don't disagree, I do think some sort of bounty system would be interesting. It could have big limitations, like a bounty can only be issued by the leaders of a tribunal, and only if the criminal is banished. Only one person could pursue a specific bounty at a time (so if anyone assists in the attack, they would be committing a crime), and only one bounty could be pursued by any given hunter at a time; this could be ensured by a sort of quest system where a character goes to the local judge and looks at the bounty list, in the same manner as the outlaw list, and if there are any listed, they could be accepted. Only a citizen of any given kingdom can be a bounty hunter for that kingdom.

I'm sure there are more important things to think about right now, but it's still an idea that I'm pretty fond of.