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[grendel]

Many times a beating is as deadly as hammer strikes.  To counter this, I have no guards and no sheriff/ captain of the guard. both scenarios seem undesirable to me, so I present an alternative: a court system that has a judge and an advocate for the accused dwarf.  There are several ways to do this, and I have a possible method that would be somewhat simple to implement and could give a reasonable approximation of a justice system.

my proposed method to implement my suggestion

 a court system requires a judge. his arrivial would have a population and a wealth requirement to it. the judge would conduct court in a designated office room. the accused dwarf would would have an advocate speak for the dwarf, this could either be an appointed administrator, or another noble. the advocate would than make a series of skill checks vs. a set DC of the law violated, similar to how an item is crafted. maintaining the skill should take some effort on the part of the player, or the court case could impede fortress productivity (Urist must spend three days to testify in court about material shortages concerning a mandate). if the advocate succeeds his roll, the dwarf in question is free to go, if he fails. than the accused dwarf would allocated penalty points something along the lines of:
Penalty = DC - skill check.  this result could be modified for situation like repeat offender, lack of material needed for mandate, political influential dwarf, etc.
for illustrative purposes, ill create some examples. these are probally out of line with actual severity an so they would need refinement.

for punishment, various structures could be built, these include things such as the laughing stock , whipping posts, etc. What the point of these would be is to ensure a level of control of injury to criminal dwarfs, and that said damage wont cause permanent injury unless the punishment in question specifically calls for it.  jail time would be as a function of punishment points.Various crimes could have a point floor and ceiling. You don't give people death penalty for jay walking after all, nor do you let an ax murder get only a fine.
punishment points / action


• 7 the laughing stock. after serving any assigned jail time, the criminal dwarf is placed in a pillory and publicly embarrassed.
• 11. beating post. the convict is chained and beaten. this uses a special weapon that always hits for certain damage, but never inflicts critical damage to a dwarf, and it does not damage a dwarf's internal organs. damage should be capped at the dark yellow range.
• 14. the rack. similar to bating post, but inflicts damage in the yellow, broken range.
• 17. the wheel. the hammerer could be involved here, but the point is to maim, not kill. however, some unintended fatalities should arise from the wheel to give it an element of risk.
• 20. Execution. criminal is hammed to death. this could be done an elaborate room to give the injured party a happy thought.
• ??. gladiator fights. Be forced to fight dangerous beasts and enemies depending on severity of crime. may not be applicable for all cultures.

In lieu of beatings and corporal punishment, property could be sized or fines issued for minor infractions, or minor inconveniences could be forced on a dwarf as punishment.
points / punishment

• 1. dwarf bucks fine, payable to injured party. this would be subject to post economy game play and wouldn't be applicable to legendary dwarfs.
• 2. symbols of shame. generate periodic unhappy thoughts and must be carried for a set period of time
• 3.forced to carry anvil or some other cumbersome object for a set period of time slowing down the dwarf and making them unhappy.
potental ranges for crimes
     fighting 5-12
     mandates 3-10
     major mandates 7-18
     treason 20

Ranges for crimes could possibly vary. Some factors could include cultural mores, mood of the rulers, value of goods damaged, etc. I know that the raws have a similar concept in them for various actions like  Kill_sentient_other, slavery and cannibalism.
A court and punishment system could be the springboard for further gameplay enhancement. Various objects could have additional uses beyond a justice role. For example, an unlucky adventurer could be forced to fight in a goblin area, and a rack could be used to interrogate captives for possible information. yet another possibility is that an adventurer seeks to do a great deed so that his relatives no longer need to wear a mask of shame. The reason I suggest this is that the justice system is a bit random at the moment.  Keeping the designated policeman weak by social isolation and mandatory leaver pulling seems like too much meta gaming for me.
This post is to throw the concept out into the board, my idea would need some refinement. but that is what replies are for. I did a quick search for terms like lawyer and beatings, so I don't believe that something of this nature has already been posted. If it has, go ahead and remove this post.

[profit]

It's a rough idea in its current form.  But still very good idea.  One that would add realism, and fun to the game.   

There are a hundred more things that need to be considered to fine tune it, but still a really good starting point.

[Stromko]

I think it would also be nice if we could designate criminals at will, as this would fill a gap that's in the game presently. As an example, I'm sure we've all had a certain noble that mandated or demanded certain things that didn't get delivered, and then they had a Champion military dwarf or Legendary Armorsmith chained to a wall for 130 days or hammered to death for it.

My freshest example was a Legendary Marksdwarf that was chained up right before a major, crucial military operation, and ended up going insane because she couldn't reach her baby from the jail. She refused to eat or drink and went melancholy shortly after being freed.

The whole fort got a bit upset that she went nuts and died, and several more military dwarves couldn't handle the additional strain of losing a close friend on top of the losses and carnage they'd just witnessed. We lost four highly trained military dwarves because my Baroness didn't want us trading away scepters. I could've solved the situation drastically by not only removing the chain but also firing the whole fortress guard so they stopped chaining her to every single restraint in the fortress, but that wouldn't have been Fun.

So, fort gets devastated because of a broken mandate. Naturally that was the last straw for me and I locked the Baroness in her room where she eventually died. Others would've done something clever with magma and levers. But you know... That's all kind of cheating isn't it? How can the whole dwarven society agree to deathtrap their nobles without a trial, without the fortress or royal guard being involved or caring one way or another, and with the dwarf in question not even trying to resist?

Yeah it's very Dwarfy to fry your nobles with magma, it's wonderful and all, but variety is the spice of life and some may want more immersive, realistic options for dealing with these situations.

What would be better is if I'd decided right then and there that my dwarves are obviously upset and will demand justice, and then I designate the Baroness with three counts of Dwarfslaughter for causing the deaths of multiple valuable dwarves over a stupid mandate. Or 1 x False Imprisonment + 23x Disturbing the Peace + 10x of restricting vital business -- this could be simplified actually by just using the Moral degrees. IE, one count of Punish_Capital because I just want the b***h gone so we can trade masterwork scepters in peace.

The main benefit is that more players will use the justice system if it can actually help achieve their goals, and it's less contrived and more realistic, also more unpredictable and interesting than just locking a door to starve a dwarf you don't like. You still have to deal with any negative thoughts from the punishment being carried out, so over-using this feature would have consequences. Consequences that are Fun.

There'd still be a challenge too, as a dwarf isn't guaranteed to die from a punishment when you want them to, they may even go berserk from the mistreatment at an inopportune time or throw destructive tantrums. If they have friends in the fortress guard they may even be let off, or a guard could get very upset if they have to punish a bunch of their friends. Letting us designate criminals could lead to the unintentional destruction of our whole dwarven society stemming from our desire to control them, and that's Fun and epic.

People could run challenge fortresses where dwarves must be punished horribly for obscure or harmless actions, or failing to show proper obedience to their all-seeing overlord. That is, they can run a despotic city-state without having to be randomly assigned a noble that wants Steel furniture on a fluxless map and demands that no granite items are exported on an all-granite map.