So people are going to be forced to roleplay assassins and killers to deal with flaws in the design of in game mechanics?
Because whilst it's an imaginative answer, certainly, it only works if you assume certain real life events must occur. In this case, that the EMs will roleplay out the entire scenario, pulling them away from what ever plans they did have, that the entire player base will abandon the Virtues, spend weeks trying to get revenge on people who are ruining their roleplay in the short term... and then that person actually blindly goes to Felucca at the right time, and changes their behaviour once they resurrect.
Or they could just ignore any event which is designed to take away their fancy new powers, and continue as before. And the player base walks away from the Town mechanic, or worse, the entire game. So are you going to then ban someone because they didn't go to a specific event? Or force them to roleplay their own assassination?
I really, really don't think you've thought this through very carefully. As you yourself just pointed out, the only current power EMs have to act is if they outright break the ToS... but most of the troublesome people have a lifetime of learning how to sail as close to that line as possible. Again, go to any EM event and watch the people who sit on the EM's seats during an event. They aren't banned now; are you going to ban them for behaving exactly that same way as a Town Mayor? Do you want the EMs to be further accused of favouritism because as King Blackthorn they ban people who didn't break the rules, but were just the wrong sort of people?
The original flaw in Ultima Online's design was that it assumed good and evil roleplay would balance out, and it didn't; you are repeating the same assumptions with the Town Mayor system and some people will either have to be forced to behave, or others will just walk away from it.
Please, please go and talk to the Europa EMs who have actually run this system before. There were massive voting irregularities, just from people with multiple accounts; it didn't matter how well you campaigned (and I was part of that campaign) if someone had 5 accounts, and one of their candidates was a friend, that candidate was getting 35 votes compared to your 7 no matter what (5 to 1 in the proposed system). Large guilds are going to crush independent candidates. And on Europa, no one bothered to try and unseat the Lord Protector, or even paid much attention to it after it ended, because Ultima Online isn't tabletop Dungeons & Dragons; they don't play for intrigue and arguing with friends in character... they certainly didn't play to watch the same old idiots take over the roleplay, give their friends l33t titles and town bonuses that match their PvP suits, and then spend weeks roleplaying out "resistance" to idiots that can just ignore it... Alaster the Mad was left as Lord Protector on Europa because he made the role a laughing stock, and no one wanted to dedicate weeks of roleplaying to oust someone who was basically a nice person, and re-open all the wounds of the horribly unfair practice of voting based upon financial ability to hold accounts a second time.
Honestly, I beg you, no theoretical examples, actually address issues which will be bound to arise from giving people any personal gain from the system like titles; which of these 20 character titles for my friends are going to be actionable, would you say?
"You are our slaves"
"We spit on your city"
"We're better than u"
"Your home is ours"
Etc... They don't break the ToS. I'm just roleplaying a bunch of elitists! That are going to be there for months. And for you, the only way you can set a custom title is via the Guild Menu, but that doesn't get you seated next to Lord Blackthorn and an official seal of approval, which town councils will.
So... seriously.... either give us a concrete plan for how divisive "roleplay" is going to be handled, that you know the EMs can take on this extra work load, or at the very least... drop custom titles or any way to personally exploit the position, so only those who want to take it seriously are likely to be tempted to run for it. You're still going to get the Attention *****s anyway, but now? Creative day dreams of what people might do is no substitute for serious planning for, if anyone is really looking at actual gaming experience, what they've already proven they will do....
