In the end, I've decided that the answer is you do NOT have to submit sins to play! However, if someone were to forgo submitting sins, it means they will not be executed with their unit. They can participate by engaging in discussion and vote with their unit like normal, but if their own sin is not being judged or voted on they have no reason to die with them. They get to watch.
On a sidenote (so I can remember to also add this to the post later,) the basis for sins is "bad things your character has done," but if anyone's hitting a wall with thinking of ANY bad things their character has done, sins can also be petty things, or things worded to make your character look bad (so long as it's not a straight-up lie,) too. Littering, threatening someone, taking the last cookie, "causing" someone's death because you didn't protect them. All acceptable!
In the end, it's the units voting on these sins, so if you want your character to go up with a sin like "hit a baseball through a window" then that's cool.
(i'll add these things to the post for future ref later today!)
Re: Q&A
On a sidenote (so I can remember to also add this to the post later,) the basis for sins is "bad things your character has done," but if anyone's hitting a wall with thinking of ANY bad things their character has done, sins can also be petty things, or things worded to make your character look bad (so long as it's not a straight-up lie,) too. Littering, threatening someone, taking the last cookie, "causing" someone's death because you didn't protect them. All acceptable!
In the end, it's the units voting on these sins, so if you want your character to go up with a sin like "hit a baseball through a window" then that's cool.
(i'll add these things to the post for future ref later today!)