Wayward Radio: The Official Wayward Realms Podcast
Jul 28, 2026 · 1 hr 22 min · 10 segments
What happens when someone steps out of line in The Archipelago? What does crime and punishment look like? Do cultural differences even matter? Editor and Lore-master of The Wayward Realms, John, took…
Let's start with a broad overview on how exactly does justice work in the wayward realms? How is the system designed to encourage players to, I mean, let's be honest.
Players are going to find ways to not follow the rules.
They're going to intentionally try and break it.
So how are we encouraging them to actually follow rules? How are we doing that?
Sure.
Well, I guess this kind of ties in with our approach to lore in general and the way that we're trying to balance the level of fantasy that we're going for, for the way we're growing.
And when it came to fleshing out the lore for justice, the law, crime, that sort of thing in the archipelago as a whole, but largely focused on splendor, I took my cue from medieval history and how we believe these things to have worked then.
So the systems that you're going to see in the Wayward Realms are going to be similar to that, where yes, petty thievery is a thing.
It's a commonplace thing.
but it's not a well-liked thing.
People generally don't like it when you steal their stuff.
And when somebody sees you stealing, not just their stuff, but somebody else's stuff, they're not going to like it.
They're not, they're not going to react well to it.
So that's, that's the basic, that's the really basic answer to that too.
Yeah.
How does it, how are players, how are players, how are players compelled to follow the rules? Well, the people of the world are going to compel them to follow the rules if they choose not to.
Nice.
So, I mean, are we looking at like like stocks being in like the town square or something like that?
Stocks and or pillory.
Yes.
Stocks for sure are a common fixture in just about any settlements of any, you know.
just about any settlement of any decent size is going to have some kind of a problem with petty crime.
So yeah, stocks, pillory, that sort of thing, corporal punishment.
But long before it would even get to that point, the most simple and most frequent way that players and anybody in this world is going to be punished for committing a petty crime is just having to pay a fine.
And that's and that's something that that we can get into in more detail a little bit later, I think.
Let's start with a broad overview on how exactly does justice work in the wayward realms? How is the system designed to encourage players to, I mean, let's be honest.
Players are going to find ways to not follow the rules.
They're going to intentionally try and break it.
So how are we encouraging them to actually follow rules? How are we doing that?
Sure.
Well, I guess this kind of ties in with our approach to lore in general and the way that we're trying to balance the level of fantasy that we're going for, for the way we're growing.
And when it came to fleshing out the lore for justice, the law, crime, that sort of thing in the archipelago as a whole, but largely focused on splendor, I took my cue from medieval history and how we believe these things to have worked then.
So the systems that you're going to see in the Wayward Realms are going to be similar to that, where yes, petty thievery is a thing.
It's a commonplace thing.
but it's not a well-liked thing.
People generally don't like it when you steal their stuff.
And when somebody sees you stealing, not just their stuff, but somebody else's stuff, they're not going to like it.
They're not, they're not going to react well to it.
So that's, that's the basic, that's the really basic answer to that too.
Yeah.
How does it, how are players, how are players, how are players compelled to follow the rules? Well, the people of the world are going to compel them to follow the rules if they choose not to.
Nice.
So, I mean, are we looking at like like stocks being in like the town square or something like that?
Stocks and or pillory.
Yes.
Stocks for sure are a common fixture in just about any settlements of any, you know.
just about any settlement of any decent size is going to have some kind of a problem with petty crime.
So yeah, stocks, pillory, that sort of thing, corporal punishment.
But long before it would even get to that point, the most simple and most frequent way that players and anybody in this world is going to be punished for committing a petty crime is just having to pay a fine.
And that's and that's something that that we can get into in more detail a little bit later, I think.
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