Powers that own territory, quarrel with each other, and decide what counts as a crime.
Factions & Law
A faction is a power in your world: a city, a clan, a guard order. It owns ground, it has opinions about its neighbours, and — the part that makes crime work — it writes its own law.
There is no world-wide list of crimes. Each faction decides what counts as one, what it adds to a player's bounty, and what its people do about it. Two cities can disagree, and a faction that lists no crimes at all has no law: nothing you do on its land is a crime. That is how you author bandit country or open wilderness.
Where to Author#
Database → Factions. Each faction has five tabs: Identity, Law, Territory, Neighbours and Jail.
Setting One Up#
- Open Database → Factions and press New.
- Name it, pick its colour (nameplates and territory tint) and write a description.
- Leave Polices its territory ticked for a city or guard order. Untick it for a merchant guild that keeps no guards — its law is then ignored.
- Go to Territory and claim the maps it owns. Leave the region box empty to own a map whole, or type a region number to claim just that painted region — so a faction can hold part of a map nobody owns.
- Go to Law and press Use a starting law for a sensible city, or tick the acts you care about yourself.
- Go to Neighbours and set how it feels about the other factions.
- Save.
The Fields#
Identity#
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Shown to players | The name players see. Blank uses the internal name |
| Colour | Nameplate and territory tint |
| Polices its territory | Off for a faction with no guards — its law is ignored entirely |
| Bounty fades per day | 0 (the default) means a bounty never fades. Raise it to forgive players slowly — the clock runs while they are logged out too, and a fresh crime is added on top of whatever has already been forgiven. A bounty fades to zero and never past it |
| Dying clears what you owe | On: the moment a player is killed or knocked down, their bounty with this faction drops to zero and their bounty display updates. Off by default: death is not a pardon |
| Bounty hunting | On by default: once a player's bounty reaches this faction's attack on sight band, another player — or one of this faction's adventurers — who kills them collects the bounty out of the gold the wanted player carries (a player hunter keeps it). What is paid comes off the bounty; the rest is still owed, so a bounty can't be farmed. Party members can't claim each other. Off: nobody collects |
| Guards loot criminals they kill | On: when one of this faction's guards kills a player who owes it a bounty, every stolen item in their bags is confiscated instead of dropping on the corpse. Off by default |
| Struggle window | Seconds an arrested player is rooted and offered Come quietly or Resist. 0 (the default) = the arrest is instant. No answer in time = they come quietly |
| Runs its own market | On: opening the market anywhere on this faction's territory opens the faction's own player market — what is listed there is only for sale there. Off (the default): its ground uses the World Market. See Market & Trading |
| Market name | Shown at the top of the market window while Runs its own market is on. Blank uses the faction's name followed by "Market" |
Law — what counts as a crime#
One row per act: theft, pickpocketing, breaking a lock, trespassing, assault, murder, escaping jail, resisting arrest. Escaping jail is charged when a prisoner leaves the cell before release; resisting arrest when they choose Resist. Neither needs a witness — the guard, or the empty cell, is one.
| Column | What it does |
|---|---|
| A crime? | Unticked, this faction does not care about that act at all |
| Bounty | Added to the offender's bounty with this faction |
| Standing lost | Reputation lost with the wronged party |
| Only if seen | On (the default) means an unwitnessed crime costs nothing |
| Tell allies | Allied factions hear about it, and their own rules decide what they do |
Law — what a bounty leads to#
Bands of bounty, each with a response: ignore, demand a fine, arrest, or attack on sight — plus what a guard does if the player resists. A typical city: 1–50 a fine, 51–500 an arrest, 501 and up attack on sight. With no bands, guards never act whatever the bounty.
A guard acts on a band when it sees a crime, or when a wanted player walks into its view:
| Response | What the guard does |
|---|---|
| Demand a fine | Stops the player with a Pay / Refuse prompt. The fine is the bounty × Fine ×. Paying takes the silver and clears the bounty with this faction. Refusing — or not answering within 20 seconds — escalates to the next harsher band you wrote (an arrest, or attack on sight). Nothing harsher written = the guard lets it go |
| Arrest | Takes the player to the band's Jail (or the faction's default jail) and starts a sentence. With a Struggle window they are rooted first and choose Come quietly or Resist |
| Attack on sight | No talking. Guards attack, and a guard mid-conversation withdraws its question |
If they resist (per band) decides what happens when a player resists an arrest: Escalate to violence — the guard attacks; Call for help — every guard of the faction nearby attacks; Back off — the guard lets them go. Either way the faction's Resisting arrest bounty is added. After a stop, the same faction's guards leave the player alone for 30 seconds.
Jail (per Arrest band) — which of the faction's jails this band sends people to. Blank = the faction's default jail.
Law — who reacts#
The same bounty means different things to different people of the same faction. Guards act on the bands above. Civilians report crimes and run once you are frightening enough. Adventurers hunt wanted players for the money. Wardens run the jail: talking to one offers [Jail] Serve my sentence to a prisoner — and to a wanted player standing on the faction's ground, who can turn themselves in. Each has its own threshold, so a town can be nervous long before it is dangerous.
An NPC gets its role from NPCs → (an NPC) → Role in faction; give the jailer the Warden role and a faction, and you do not need to place any event.
Territory#
Rows of maps, optionally narrowed to a painted region. Whose law applies is decided by the ground you are standing on.
Neighbours#
Per other faction: a stance (ally, neutral, rival, at war), whether members attack on sight, and whether this faction honours their bounties. Ally is what Tell allies reaches.
Attack on sight is one-directional: this faction's NPCs attack that faction's NPCs whenever they meet, even in a safe zone. Players have no faction membership, so for players it reads standing: a player whose standing with that faction is 100 or more counts as one of them, and this faction's NPCs attack them too.
Jail#
Where this faction's guards take the people they arrest. Add one with + Jail, fill it in and press Save jail — each jail saves on its own. Save the faction first.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Default jail | Where an Arrest band with no jail of its own sends people. Blank = the first jail with a cell. Saved with the faction (the main Save) |
| Name | Shown in the arrest prompt and the sentence timer |
| Cell | Map and X/Y the arrested player is moved to. A jail with no cell cannot take anyone — the guard only warns |
| Release point | Map and X/Y a served prisoner is moved to. Blank = they stay where they are |
| Minimum time | Seconds that must pass after the arrest before the sentence can be served (default 600) |
| Time passes while logged out | On (the default): the sentence is wall-clock time, so it runs while the player is away. Off: only time spent online counts |
| On release, take | Penalties applied when the sentence is served: a % of carried silver, a % of skill progress (the way toward each skill's next level — never a level), stolen items, or everything carried |
Serving time — the Serve Jail Time command#
A sentence ends when the prisoner serves it, which is an act, not a timer: use the jailer's Warden role (above), or place the Serve Jail Time event command (event editor → MMO / System) on the cell door or a desk.
- Open the cell's map in Zones, place an event on the door, and add Serve Jail Time.
- Choose Sentence length from: the bounty owed at arrest (× Seconds per bounty point) or a fixed time.
- Set Minimum time served — no sentence is shorter.
- Optionally set penalties and a Release to map. Blank fields use the jail's own.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sentence length from | Bounty × seconds per point, or a fixed number of seconds |
| Minimum time served | A floor on the sentence, in seconds. The jail's own minimum always applies too |
| Lose silver / skill progress (%) | Blank = the jail's value |
| Confiscate stolen items / everything | Ticked = taken on release, on top of the jail's penalties |
| Release to | Blank = the jail's release point |
Until the time has run the command refuses and tells the player how long is left; the HUD shows a countdown under the bounty readout. When it has run: the penalties are taken, the bounty with the jailing faction is cleared, and the player is moved to the release point. A wanted player with no sentence who uses the command turns themselves in: their sentence starts there and then.
Jailbreak. Leaving the cell's map before release — any door, any teleport — ends the sentence unserved and adds the faction's Escaping jail bounty. The old bounty stands, so the next guard arrests them again.
Bounty Hunters and Arrests#
Players can bring a wanted player in themselves:
- Kill them once their bounty with a faction reaches its attack on sight band: the killer
is paid the bounty out of the gold the wanted player carries.
- Arrest them while they stand on that faction's ground with a bounty in its arrest band
or higher: root or stun them, stand within 2 tiles, right-click them → ⛓️ Arrest (it shows while they are rooted or stunned). They pay the arrester out of their own gold; what they can't pay, they serve in the faction's jail — taken there exactly as a guard would.
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Paid from the wanted player's gold, never created | A bounty can't be farmed between friends |
| What is paid comes off the bounty | Paying it all means no jail |
| Party members can't claim or arrest each other | Same reason |
| An arrester wanted by that faction is refused | The law won't take a criminal's word |
| Bounty hunting off on a faction | Kills pay nothing; an arrest still jails, unpaid |
Gotchas#
- A faction with no crimes has no law. That is deliberate, and it is how lawless ground is authored — not a mistake.
- Territory decides whose law applies. Rob someone from another city while standing in this one, and this one hunts you; the other only thinks less of you.
- Allies only care if you tell them. Tick Tell allies on the crime, and Honour their bounties on the relation.
- Deleting a faction forgives every bounty it was owed — its standings and sentences go with it.
- An Arrest band needs a jail with a cell. With none, the guard only warns the player and the bounty stands.
- Put the cell on its own map (an interior). Jailbreak is noticed when the prisoner leaves the cell's map; a cell painted inside the town map cannot be escaped from — or detected.
- Serving is not automatic. When the countdown reaches zero the prisoner still has to use the warden or the Serve Jail Time event. Place one inside the cell, or they are stuck.
- Logging out mid-arrest is not a pardon. The prompt closes, the bounty stays, and the next guard stops them again.
- Dying in the cell and respawning elsewhere counts as leaving it — keep jail maps free of anything that can kill.
- Paying a fine clears the whole bounty with that faction, not just the part the fine was for.
- Fines and jail penalties are in silver, the coin players earn in the world — never the premium gold. A player who cannot afford the fine sees Pay greyed out and can only refuse.
- The whole system sits behind the Crime & Law feature flag. Off = nothing is a crime, and factions remain useful for territory and rivalries alone.