YEEHAW MY BOY

"Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit."

18+ | Semi-casual | Episodic | Mystery | Adventure | Story-focused

Court Records is an Investigative Courtroom Trial role-play group inspired mainly by the Ace Attorney series. Influences from other series, such as Professor Layton, Danganronpa, and Aviary Attorney are also present. (The bird game? ...yes.)This group will focus heavily on story-writing, encouraging character development and collaborative world-building through both moderator and member hosted "episodes," which will compose the bulk of the group in the form of court cases.STATUS :: Closed!

STORY

In the past few decades, the city of New Bailey has transformed from the humble town of its founding days and into the prospering metropolitan landscape it is now. With its ever-growing population, bustling commercial activity, and diverse range of cultures, the sun has never shone brighter upon this vibrant city.However--the greater the light, the greater the shadow cast.In the inevitable chaos of these changing times, advancements in civil law procedures have become increasingly integral in maintaining the city's balance. Yet, the exponential growth of New Bailey's crime rate--as well as its wrongful convictions--reveals a severely lacking legal system in this seemingly perfect city: something that any self-respecting practitioner refers to as "The Dark Age of Law."

"...That's why, I don't really care who you are or where you're from--why don't you sign up for the Rookie Law Program, hm?"

The gears that will push New Bailey forward have slowly begun to move.

GENERAL SETTING

In Court Records, you are a recent-applicant-turned-attorney of the Rookie Law Program, an experimental law program created in order to bring upon New Bailey its overdue new age of law. It is run by the enigmatic Irina Smolmes who, though in charge of the seemingly municipally recognized New Bailey Legal Hall, and claiming to be a genius detective, has indiscernible credentials to her name.Though the Rookie Law Program has its accepted applicants officially standing as representatives in real courts of law, the Rookie Law Program has no actual requirements for application, only asking for an enthusiasm towards "discovering the truth." Thus, characters from all walks of life have applied: whether it be for their own personal morals, having nothing better to do, or maybe that really... tempting... government salary. Who knows!The time period of Court Records is kept vague for convenience, and is mostly fantastical, since the timelines of real life discoveries are skewed to better fit the story. Most importantly for this setting, forensic science has barely advanced, so modern technologies such as blood tests and fingerprint sampling are unheard of. Film photography does exist, but not in vivid colour. Technologies such as telephones, radio, and televisions also exist, but are nothing incredibly advanced like in modern-day. Just think older, rather than newer, and you'll probably get the vibe.DISCLAIMER: As Court Records is heavily inspired on Ace Attorney, the actual law practices will probably be reflective of absolutely nothing in real life, and is completely fictional. Law shenanigans will be present in the group!

SYSTEM

Court Records revolves around the lives of those working in a legal institution: as such, a bulk of the role-playing is centered around the cases they're meant to tackle!Each "episode," (formally called a Case) is made up of two things: the Investigation Portion and the Trial Portion, similar in fashion to games like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa. These will rely on the usage of bots such as Carl-bot and Tupper in order to streamline roleplaying, but the presence of the case moderator (the host of the case) may be needed for NPC interaction.Like with Ace Attorney, a single case can have multiple investigation and/or trial sequences. This system is to give an idea of what cases might look like: but overall, whatever adds to the narrative is encouraged! Cases may look wildly different, which is also very much encouraged.

INVESTIGATION

The investigation portion: whatever doesn't take place in the courtroom trial is considered part of this portion! This will have the characters searching areas related to the case in order to gather evidence that will help them uncover the truth. This will mostly be an automatic process with the help of Carl-bot commands! NPCs may also be present in these areas and can be talked to, as they may be integral to the later trial portion.An example of the investigation portion is as follows:

FLASH DEDUCTION

Coming soon...

THE COURT RECORD

An attorney's best friend: the court record. Each case will have its own court record, and is the best place to brush up on information found so far. When a piece of evidence is discovered, or a person related to the case is met, information about them will then be stored in the court record! From there, anyone can use a "court record command" to review information anytime throughout the case.An example of the court record's function is as follows:

COURTROOM TRIALS

The courtroom trial: where the truth comes to light. Here, you and your peers will work together--presenting the evidence you've discovered, cross-examining the witnesses you've met--in order to uncover the truth behind the case you've been given.As the Rookie Law Program is formed around a highly experimental legal practice, trials for cases under the jurisdiction of the program may look different from the traditional courtroom trial. Unlike a traditional trial, with one defense attorney and one prosecutor facing off, instead, the trial will feature all attorneys working together to reach a conclusion. Much like a round table discussion, rather than a courtroom battle.[ TESTIMONY PORTION ]
While you and your peers may be able to sleuth out the answer to a case on your own, a real verdict can only come from witness statements! During this part of the trial, you and your peers will decide (via vote) which witness you will bring to the stand to testify, selected from the list of NPCs you've met throughout the case. From there, the group will cross-examine the witness' testimony, and present evidence from the court record against any contradictions found! The testimony portion may look something like this:

[ JUDICIAL FINDINGS ]
And if fighting for your life in the courtroom wasn't hard enough, you may also have a panel of jurors you must appeal to! This panel of jurors are there to act as public opinion within the trial, and it seems they're a pretty slow bunch...From an OOC standpoint, the panel of jurors are supposed to act as recaps of the information established so far, like trial checkpoints! This is to mitigate a possibly chaotic trial experience. As such, once information regarding a topic is cleared to the jury, it is considered final, and the trial continues.

All these components together is what forms the courtroom trial. The case ends when the majority come to an agreement on who the real culprit of the case is.And if the person you convict is truly guilty or not? Well...

RULES

Like with any other social group, general server etiquette and manners are expected and required. Please be mature and respectful to others! Discrimination of any sort will not be tolerated.1. While lighthearted for the most part, this group does revolve around solving crimes--especially murder! As such, heavier, more mature, and explicit themes like violence, drugs, and gore may be present. Please keep this in mind when applying!2. Please keep personal drama within DMs--everyone here is just looking for a good time. For problems pertaining other group members, please try and solve the issue yourself before consulting a mod.3. Though art is not the main focus of this group, tracing and art theft will not be tolerated.4. While the group is indeed 18+, please keep explicit in-server NSFW to a minimum! Light NSFW is fine as long as kept within spoiler text and content warning, but if you wouldn't want to be caught with it in a classroom setting, you should probably keep it out of #general and share it in DMs instead!5. Absolutely no godmodding or metagaming of any sort. This would ruin the fun for everyone! As this group heavily focuses on roleplay, please stay within the boundaries of your character and their knowledge.On that note: please be ready to embrace anything that happens in the group--as in, for example, if a court case is lost, then it's lost! There is no "winning," only a narrative that gets further told. Roleplay in a manner that is reasonable for your character.6. Communication is important in RP! If you want something to happen between your OC and another mun's, please discuss and respect each other's boundaries!7. Don't forget to have fun!!1!11!1!1!11!!!

FAQ

Q. Do I need to have played any of the inspiration games to understand the group?
A. Nope! No background knowledge is needed, really.Q. Can my character die?
A. For now, the stance is probably not. Get comfy with your character! You'll be stuck with them awhile.Q. Will there be an overarching plot outside of the group's episodic format?
A. ...Maybe! There may be hints of one, but the group's main focus is collaboration and development towards everyone's own personal narratives, which will ultimately take precedent in terms of 'story-telling.'Q. How many characters will we be allowed to have?
A. One for now! Allowing a second character slot may be considered in the future.Q. Am I allowed to just crop the fullbody for the visual app's headshot?
A. Yes! Art is not this group's main focus, so you're not required by any means to draw a new picture for the headshot.Q. How will OCs be judged in the submission process?
A. The cast will be decided based on how well they fit the setting, their overall potential within the story, and most importantly how well they will meld with other characters!**"Melding" in this case does not exactly mean "all characters should get along," but rather what kind of diverse dynamics your character will be able to offer! Ultimately, we're looking for a diverse cast that will allow for both silly and serious-when-needed moments.Art will barely influence the judging process. So please focus more on writing, rather than the art when making your character--do your best!

OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT

Hello everyone! I'd like to start this announcement by thanking everyone who expressed interest in the group--this was an incredibly lovely opening period, and simple words alone cannot capture my gratitude towards seeing everyone's enthusiasm!!Moving onto the things you're more likely here for... the button after this announcement will lead you to Court Records' opening roster. This roster was decided after 2 weeks of long and challenging deliberation, paying very close attention to character overlap and potential contributions to the group setting as a whole. If you were accepted, an invite to the server will be DM'ed to you on Discord as soon as possible! Please look out for it!Some final notes:
- There will be no feedback as to why certain characters got accepted or not. The main reason was simply exceeding the amount of people I could reasonably manage. No further details can be given from there, sorry!!
- There are currently no plans for openings in the immediate future at the moment. Member invites, on the other hand, may be implemented at a later date.
- If you would like to decline your acceptance, please send a DM to the Twitter or to me on Discord!To everyone who applied, as well as waited so patiently, thank you so much once again! Now, without further ado...