(Untitled)

[sexysockpuppet]

Your character broke a law while in a scene with (and while in full view of) a character who has been established to be a very stuffy, uptight, nit-picky police officer. Neither your character nor you knew that was against the law. Frankly, it was one of those technicalities that most officers ignore. I didn't know it was against the law, so

Comments

[riyna_chan]

Sigh. People never seem to figure out that ICA = ICC, huh?

Also, speaking as a CA native, that is indeed correct about unconcealed knives. I've personally never seen people with unconcealed knives too often--it's a bit of a "bzuh?" moment when you go to a 7-11 and the guy in front of you has a gigantic unconcealed knife, but eh. XD

[sexysockpuppet]

Iiiiinteresting. Is there any legal difference between 'knife' and 'sword'? I feel the sudden desire to run a...'sociological experiment.'

[dimitrinabokov]

You really wanna have fun, step into Arizona. We've got a similar law involving firearms. So long as it doesn't require a special permit to own (machine guns, cannons, rocket launchers), and you're not on the premises of a place that forbids having firearms (school zones, anywhere with a sign saying "no firearms allowed"), you can openly carry just about anything. I can walk down the street with two rifles slung over my shoulders and a pistol on each hip and be completely within the law.

The only conditions that I know of are that it must be plainly visible or only "partially concealed" (which is so horribly vague you're better off just carrying the weapon in plain sight unless you have a concealed carry permit).

[sidhe_uaine42]

So, if the Wrens from the Phantasy Star series existed irl, they would have difficulties in Arizona since they carry cannons and vulcans?

Just curious. *meow*

[beardedtroll]

For those curious, in California where the game is set, you can't carry a concealed knife with a blade greater than 3" nor can you carry one that has certain kinds of release mechanisms. As far as we can tell from poking around the internet, you can carry an unconcealed knife as big as you'd like, though.

"But officer, my knife isn't concealed -- it's just LARPing."

[horizonchaser]

Well, speaking as a Californian who once had to go bail out a friend who had decided to walk home from a LARP wearing chain mail and carrying a (sheathed) sword, I'd say blades over a certain size were not legal to carry in the city we were in, at least.

On the plus side, though he was walking through a severely bad neighborhood, no one bothered him till the cops arrived.

Check your local ordinances before giving the locals something to stare at. And be really really good, we've seen it all. :D

[pyrocubed]

Heh. Been there.

Some old lady called the cops on our larp group once (training in the park between events), and they responded with an armed unit. It's probably a good thing to let the cops know you're larping beforehand.

[xanthipe]

We're used to having the campus security come and check us out for the first few weeks of every academic year now when the freshers panic at the nutters in the carpark, bless 'em.

[pyrocubed]

While I am usually the first to agree with ICA=ICC, I tend to cut people some slack when they are ignorant of something their character shouldn't be ignorant of. I know it's near impossible to look up every little thing about the country you're playing in, and some players, especially Americans, assume everything works the same way it works in their state/country. I ran an online game set in Germany at one point, and when mistakes were made (especially by Americans), I sent a small PM with valuable information like: "You can get arrested for flashing that Hitler Youth Knife", "Prostitution is a legal profession, you know," and "No you can't be homeschooled, that's illegal in Germany."
Especially when their characters are native Germans and should know this stuff.

That said, throwing a hissy fit is definitely a bad way to deal with things.

[sexysockpuppet]

Normally I'd agree with you, but in this case, it's not really something the character should have been aware of. This cop had an established history of pulling up every law in the book and applying it with a literal bent. He wasn't calling her out on something that she reasonably should have known not to do. If it were something worthy of jail-time then things would be different, but all he's done in game so far is write a lot of tickets, so we let him get away with it because it doesn't really inhibit anyone's ability to play.

Prostitution is legal in Germany? I gots to take a vacation there!

[pyrocubed]

Fair enough. It's a purely IC matter then. She has no excuse. And the cop character sounds like fun :P

Yeah it's legal and they have to pay income tax.

[ghrelin]

huh. *is originally from california and didn't know that*!

course I never had "knife issues" back there, lol.

[sexysockpuppet]

*routinely walks around with a 4" Leatherman in her purse* Neither did I. Whoops.