It has, in fact, always been my understanding (especially given the basic unreliability of scout reports; I forget, do they perfectly report infil presences?
They do these days. They didn't used to.
advy and priest movement also seems to complicate the issue) that scribe notes were purely an OOC convenience for players. The idea that these are actually some type of formalized document (that this is ACTUALLY what our characters are looking at) seems quite novel to me, and a major alteration to existing game custom.
Scribe notes ARE necessary, they keep a modicum of sanity to a game and forestall people going OOC for information. PLAYERS need reliable information to feel comfortable in the game. But CHARACTERS do not need that same level of certainty. And when CHARACTERS operate with a certainty only achievable due to understandings they could never have, but players do have, it seems like clear metagaming to me.
I find it interesting that you and I take completely opposite approaches to dealing with the game world. You work around the game to make things more realistic, and I adjust the reality of the game world to make it congruent with the mechanics (i.e. House Bedwyr distinguishes high and low noble Houses by whether they have access to some form of fast messengers, rule by bureaucrats and the Scribes Guild is absolute within their bailiwick, etc). I wonder how many people go one way or the other on this.
Even if the verdict is not ultimately decided against the Zuma GM (and I understand fully that the lack of the case's falling under a specific sub-heading renders that practically inevitable) I do request that the verdict still take note of this issue somehow, and reflect what several Magistrates have said: that even if this type of behavior is not explicitly forbidden, it's still pretty !@#$ty, especially from a GM on an SMA island.
Only if we're willing to open a can of worms on scout reports, and I think
that is beyond our scope, because that wouldn't be a clarification, that would be overturning years of actual game practice. Requiring scout reports and battle reports for the veracity of statements has been the standard of every realm and every island I've ever played in or with. I'm not, necessarily, disagreeing that there may be something less than ideal about this, but let's not get power-mad here.
