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[CrazyLegs]

I feel like having a Warden could help with many of the animal aspects of DF. The Warden could dictate to the hunters which animals are okay to hunt, and add restrictions as well. Maybe you don't want to hunt the elephants in the region? Or you only want your hunters to hunt small/medium sized animals? Or even, having hunts be an order given by The Warden, so that your hunters aren't constantly killing everything on the map.

I also think this position could maybe help with training and breeding. Having a Warden could also allow you to always keep certain animal populations at specific levels (auto butchering).

Wardens might be able to curb fishing, as well. Maybe fisherdwarves will only fish when given the order, and overfishing is also alleviated by having a skilled Warden. Having to turn labors like fishing and hunting on and off all the time is kind of tedious. Wardens might help!

[Su]

we thought this was a minecraft reference at first, lol.

fishing can be toggled off by setting it to zone-only and then not designating a zone for it, but we would dearly love to be able to have more granular control than that.
not sure about the name. doesn't feel quite dwarfy to us.

[DwarfStar]

Re: the name, I had assumed from the subject line that a Warden would take care of prisoners. I see where the OP was going (i.e. Game Warden) but that seems like a less common usage to me.

[A_Curious_Cat]

Doesn’t the captain of the guard already act as a warden?

[Mobbstar]

Doesn’t the captain of the guard already act as a warden?

"Warden" (from the same root word as "guard","warn","wary") can mean a guard or watchperson, particularly in a prison or other secure facility, in which case yes, that's mostly done by the Sheriff/CotG.

It is also used to describe officials who observe if regulations are being respected, supervisors basically.  In this case a "game warden" keeps wildlife and hunt in balance, issuing fines and possibly trial to poachers.  This is exactly what the suggestion is about.  In real law, they don't mess with livestock (since - unlike in DF - livestock is usually considered private property) but public property such as wildlife and fish are in their domain.

There are even more meanings of the word, though:  Churches can have wardens.  Coin minting was supervised by the "Warden of the Mint".  Big buildings typically have a "fire warden" to establish fire safety and aid firefighters.  The air raid precaution (ARP) programme had the position of "ARP Warden".

Because of the ambiguity of both the words "game" and "warden", I'd like to suggest the alternative words "wild" and "ranger".  The word "gamekeeper" has also been used historically, so maybe a "wildkeeper"?

[Su]

"ranger" is already a profession.

[brewer bob]

Personally, I'd prefer a warden/gamekeeper/what-ever appointed by a noble, and it'd be up to the noble's whim mandate who can hunt/fish and what they can hunt/fish. Law-breakers would face a severe penalty (PUNISH_CAPITAL) and receive a nice little hammering.

[Mobbstar]

Law-breakers would face a severe penalty (PUNISH_CAPITAL) and receive a nice little hammering.

Tooth for tooth.  Excitement-seekers and law-disrespecters go out poaching anyways, and may even lie about the circumstances to protect each other from punishment.  But that's leaning far into the roleplay and away from gameplay.

I suppose preferences could play into mandates, with a noble who likes a kind of animal forbidding the hunting (but not live capturing) of that animal, or conversely mandating the hunt of animals they like eating.  Only problem would be hunting/fishing mandates if the respective creature simply never shows up.

Another problem would be if a kind of vermin is forbidden and cats hunt it.  Do they PUNISH_CAPITAL the cats?

[brewer bob]

Another problem would be if a kind of vermin is forbidden and cats hunt it.  Do they PUNISH_CAPITAL the cats?

Sure, there's plenty of cases from history of animals going to trial, so why not also in Dwarf Fortress? We could have poachers placing the blame on animals. I mean, there's already been vampires accusing geese of murder in the game, so might just as well make it a proper feature... But I guess I'm going a bit off-topic with that.