An idea for laws

[Moryal]

I would like to suggest a new way to deal with theft ingame.  If a player is detected stealing an item, or it can be proven by the character (or a judge) that the item was stolen, the player who had the item stolen from them may then report the name of the character who stole the item to a thread (Which could be in the form of an in game NPC judge.  The character would then be assigned to an ingame PC Judge who would then declare them innocent or guilty.  If found guilty, the character is sent to a jail area, from which their is no escape (or perhaps just very difficult) for a period of one real-time day.  Then for the next three days, they recieve a few ability decreases.  You could perhaps even have roll to see if they've learned anything in jail (such as intimidate, perhaps).  You could also allow a player accused of stealing to 'bribe' the other player not to report them.  Don't know what you think of it, but I think that the idea of laws instead of rules would add to the RP experience immensly.  You could even go so far as to simply send a PC convicted of illegal PvP (Similar to attempted murder) to jail for three days and confiscate half of their goods (With 1/4 of that going to the victim) and instead of possible banning, you could simply execute(delete) their character. Fair laws could probably be implemented for most server violations, rather than simply being 'not allowed'. Some of your quests could be bounty hunting real PCs who have broken a law and are on the run.  This could even turn into a guild for fugatives. This would also encourage either stealth, strength, or parties of weaker PCs banding together when far from civilization. Sorry about how random this thread is, I seem to be coming up with more ideas as I type.

Please respond to this as I am eager to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Just a thought, Moryal

[Leanthar]

Good ideas for the most part. Time consuming to code and fairly difficult to enforce across the board. It would be pretty difficult.  But the real problem is that nobody is allowed to steal/pickpocket here at Layonara, at least not at this time, as it is against the rules of the server. If this does happen we have a disputes/grievance forum that players should post in so that a GM can look in to and handle appropriately.

[Moryal]

I definately understand the coding difficulty involved here.  However, as far as enforcement, their are many a religious deity in Layonara that have paladins dedicated to rooting out evil.  This seems like a logical extension of their duties. In real life, In this medieval type setting, judges would be all too human and may not hav had any more training than say a paladin of toran.  I could see alot of fun and RP realism to be had with bounty hunting real PC characters as well.

Just an idea and your the boss. Thanks for listening, Moryal

[Moryal]

Another idea that just occured to me is that their would probably be more crime in a less patrolled area than in a main city. Making 'enforcement across the board' realistic. You would probably also set Criminals reputation with most NPC Factions to zero.

[EdTheKet]

However, as far as enforcement, their are many a religious deity in Layonara that have paladins dedicated to rooting out evil. This seems like a logical extension of their duties.

If you read the oaths&vows we have for the paladins of the few deities that have paladins, you'll see that most are not about rooting out evil/upholding law.
The ones of Lucinda could care less as long as the weave is protected, and the ones of Aeridin only worry about preserving life, and so on.

[Moryal]

I appologize for the broad generalization, but the point that I meant to stress was that there are many characters who do care about law and order.

[darkstorme]

This is true.  But the point Leanthar was making is that the crimes you were suggesting aren't just a matter of IG law enforcement - the GMs can track it back and banhammer the perpetrator.  It's against the rules of the server, not just the laws of the land.  It's kinda like directly offending an Overgod of some sort.

Edit:  As much as it pulls the teeth from some of the Rogue characters, it's necessary...  All you'd need is one 25th-level Rogue walking through Hlint and everyone would have to go get new stuff.

[Thunder Pants]

darkstorme - 6/15/2006  2:03 PM

This is true.  But the point Leanthar was making is that the crimes you were suggesting aren't just a matter of IG law enforcement - the GMs can track it back and banhammer the perpetrator.  It's against the rules of the server, not just the laws of the land.  It's kinda like directly offending an Overgod of some sort.

Edit:  As much as it pulls the teeth from some of the Rogue characters, it's necessary...  All you'd need is one 25th-level Rogue walking through Hlint and everyone would have to go get new stuff.

honestly it falls under the geifing rules is why rogues cannot pick pocket, and that is because pick pocket is poorly implemented, because players will tend to notice the missing items without seeing the rogue take it (they still get the yellow text saying they lost an item, just doens't say why) meaning unless the theif takes gold the player being stolen from will know

the other problem is the theft system is completly random, IE the system chooses a random item in a characters inventory, or gold, and that player losses that item or X amount of gold,  also when a theif steals something, with the lack of a loot dead body system, there is absolutly nothing a player can do to get the item back from the theif unless the theif is nice enough to return the item

these are all the reasons why players are not allowed to steal from other players in Layonara


the reason you can not steal from non hostile NPC's is because A i don't believe they carry anything, and B should you be seen it will completly mess up your factions and makes a lot more work for the DMs

you actually can in fact pick pocket hostile NPC's though of course the DC is higher due to them being hostile, and the only things you will get from them is the stuff they would have droped should you have killed them, but you can steal from them (unless this rule has changed i recall it being fine)

[darkstorme]

Well, it's not just the lack of specifically-targeted theft that makes it necessary to deny Rogues the chance to pickpocket other PCs - as indicated in my earlier post, all you'd need is one Epic Rogue who felt like it, and everyone in Hlint could have their inventories emptied.  The rule is to prevent blatant exploitation in that fashion.

The NPC thing is also a concern, but pickpocketing NPCs has never been that valuable a skill in NWN.

The only reason you'd pickpocket a hostile NPC would be if you were fairly certain you wouldn't be caught, and you wanted to strip them of some of their buffing items (potions and the like).

Regardless, none of the above are really items that are handled by in-game "laws", they're handled by server rules.