[Chaos]

Hello, this is your local deadbeat GM here, with a big announcement to make.

As most of you may know, I've been in charge of the game's law enforcement group, aka the 'Guards', since the dawn of time. I have overseen and messed with this group and how they function for years, for better or worse. Over the past several months, however, I've undertaken a massive amount of brainstorming and drafting (with great contributions from the Guard players) to make the biggest change to the Guards yet.... or more appropriately, a big overhaul to the Guards as a whole. Today, I've come to present the fruits of our labor to the public.

This overhaul is meant to take the SL2 Guards and turn them into the SL2 Military, opening up the system and its roles like never before.

There's a big abbreviated document about this, but for those who don't want to dig through all that black and white, here's a basic rundown of what the overhaul entails:

-The 'Guards' are now considered 'Military', expanding their potential duties.
-Each kingdom/empire/etc. will have their own military branch, including special branches like Church Knights.
-These militaries will be player-run, using ranks to determine how much authority each character has, with GMs observing to ensure fair play.
-Players can apply to any branch at any time.
-Standard procedures, as well as how charges/sentences work, are detailed and made public.

The 'Military Document', in its white-and-black notepad glory, can be found here for further reading.

I encourage everyone to peruse this document (or just the thread) and provide their thoughts on this overhaul, as well as any feedback or suggestions they may have regarding it. If all goes well within 1-2 weeks time, the Military Overhaul will then be implemented!




In the meantime, allow me to provide a quick Q&A on several potential questions:

Q: This sounds cool, but how are we going to apply to these military branches?
A: Once the overhaul is implemented, a 'Role' subforum will be created in the Applications forum. You will be able to apply for a military role there, and once approved, you will be placed into the SL2 Military Discord and sorted into the proper roles/channels. All approvals will be done by GMs to start off... and yes, this will include opinions from the leader(s) of whatever branch you apply for.

Q: Do I have to apply for just the lowest rank to start, or can I shoot higher when applying?
A: You can try to start off at a higher rank, and it's possible to be accepted as such. However, your application will go under additional scrutiny/standards based on how high you're aiming to start.

Q: Okay, players are running the show, that's nice. But what about if they become inactive?
A: Higher-ranked characters are expected to be around at least every so often; if such a character becomes inactive, their role may be changed out with a more active character. Keep in mind that we are not expecting everyone to be around on the daily, but we are trying to prevent hang-ups due to someone being absent for a long time.

That being said, this standard is not held to lower ranks, particularly the lowest rank. They are not expected to do anything like mandatory patrols, though we do encourage them to show up at least every now and then.

Q: What measures do you have to prevent potential corruption within branches, i.e. Someone firing a character because they don't like their player?
A: All administrative actions within a branch, including promotions, demotions and terminations, will go through GM approval before they ever see the light of day. This should cut down any improper use of authority. (If this turns out to be wrong, we can implement further measures as necessary)

Q: Are all branches going to use the ranks shown in the Document?
A: While each branch (sans special cases like Church Knights) will usually follow the same 'categories', they will have different names for their ranks. These ranks will be shown once the overhaul is implemented.

Q: Are there any mechanical benefits to the characters taking part in the military?
A: At this moment, there are no mechanical benefits to being a military character. Payment was considered, but due to the drastically more open nature of the proposed military branches, we will be holding off consideration for payment systems until the overhaul is implemented and some time has passed. Same goes for any other potential mechanical benefits.

Q: What about the militias?
A: Militias have been considered, but they will be addressed post-overhaul. Rest assured, however, that we are not going to force any of the Militias to retire or anything like that. Ideally, we'll find a way to provide some level of integration between Military and Militias, but that's a topic for later.

Q: This 'document' burns my eyes. Aren't you going to do something a little less notepad-y?
A: I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but later on, this whole thing will go into a google doc, where people don't have to squint to read everything. For now, I deeply apologize for the mess.