Roleplaying Being Stolen From

[Dracul]

Actually, now that I think of it - it would be cool if IMMs would occasionally play thief VNPCs to get people used to realizing that it isn't necessarily the visible PC taking your stuff.  You know - drop your coin by 20 or 30 sids, or have you loose your favorite spice pipe and send you an echo about someone brushing by you.

Hmmm .

[bloodfromstone]

That's actually a really good idea, I think.

[Anonymous]

Twenty coins off?  Hell, I could have left some of that home, bought one extra drink or something.  Easy enough to loose count.  I do that all the time in RL.

I never know how much money, exactly, I'm carrying. If I was to guess at any time how much was in my wallet, I'd be unlikely to be much more accurate than within £10.

[moab]

Crap, I was actually commenting on Lareth's post.
I say the PCs are too uptight (in general) when it comes to theft.
This is a function of experiences with bad RP from some thieves and an unwillingness to trust in the game themselves.

You gotta be the change you want to see.

[Angela Christine]

I think the magnitude and frequency of the the thefts affect how people react.  If a handfull of coins is pickpocketed or a few small valuables are stolen from my apartment, OOCly I go "That's cool!" and then decide how upset my PC would be, or if she even noticed the theft.  

I don't get OOCly upset until I encounter one of those rashes of theft where you and everyone you know is getting knives stollen off their belts along with every single item not secured in a closed pack, or logging in to find that my appartement  has been burgled every single day for a week untill even the large furnature has been hauled away.  Even then I can't be sure that there are theif PCs behaving baddly.  It could be that there are half a dozen pickpockets, and each of them is stealing a reasonable amount rather than a single twink, a totally IC crime wave.  Or it could be that several burglars are breaking into my apartment, but then they forget to close the door behind themselves and so random non-thief PCs go into the open apartments and steal the furniture and anything else not nailed down.  Regardless of who is doing it or why, blatent over-theiving gets people grumpy.  It encourages them to keep nothing of value in their apartments, and keep every last coin locked away in their backpack, perhaps even going to the extreme of using macros to quickly open and close thier packs because there seem to be twink thieves under every table who snatch things out of your very hands the moment you open your pack.  Naturally this paranoid hyper-vigilence on the part of potential victims makes life unrealistically hard on people trying to play theives, which in turn encourages them to set up macros and scripts for thieving quickly to beat the other players scripts, or to clean every last item of value out of an apartment because it could be a long time until they are able to find an apartment with anything valuable in it.


For me it seems to take about 6 months to relax again after a rash of heavy theft.  I've never gone to the extreme of putting my weapons in my pack, but after having them stolen off my belt a couple times I do switch to cheaper weapons, even gith weapons, so that the constant need to replace them isn't a huge burden.  After excessive burgleries, times when it becomes absolutely useless to store anything in your apartment because even rocks are getting stollen, I might not rent an apartment in that city again for 6 months, and just live with my virtual relatives.  A ring of over-eager pickpockets (or perhaps one really twinky pickpocket) might be enough for me to stop making new PCs in a town for a few months, or to make PCs that spend very little time in town in public places.  I don't play DOOM because for me shooters aren't fun.  I don't play in locations of heavy theft, because that isn't fun for very long either.  Light theft is fun and encourage roleplay, it gives the victims something to react to.  Heavy theft is OOCly discouraging, so it discourages play.


Angela Christine

[nameless]

I like being a thief, but I like role playing a thief even more.  It seems to me most thieves are just looking for phat lewt, which is depressing considering it can be a lot of fun if role played it right.  Like the situation where everyone's daggers were stolen.  If I was that thief I'd put them all in a pack/pouch of some sort, drop in the middle of the tavern and watch people dive for their belonging's or I'd pick someone's pocket and then buy the whole tavern a drink with his/her money.
You know fun stuff, not just the boring, steal coins man, sneak, n, e, e, e. Not all thieves need to work the entire time and steal from every apartment/person in the whole city.

[Rhyden]

A ring of over-eager pickpockets (or perhaps one really twinky pickpocket) might be enough for me to stop making new PCs in a town for a few months, or to make PCs that spend very little time in town in public places.  I don't play DOOM because for me shooters aren't fun.  I don't play in locations of heavy theft, because that isn't fun for very long either.  Light theft is fun and encourage roleplay, it gives the victims something to react to.  Heavy theft is OOCly discouraging, so it discourages play.

I've an opposite view on the matter, AC and I have to disagree to your last statement, only if it is 'untwinkish'.

If there was a ring of well-played, hardcore, heavy-action pick-pockets out there slipping daggers and coins out of everybody's trouser pockets, I think it would be awesome! It would totally make a huge plot that Templars would obviously have to be involved in if in one of the major city-states and it would really change the atmosphere of that certain place until something was done. Who knows? It could end up in a small group of commoners putting their blades together to get rid of this league of pesky pick-pockets. Maybe it would be in the hands of a Templar who'd assign curfews and make road-blocks up and down streets. Maybe the pick-pocket gang could become really successful and overthrow a Highlord. Who knows?

I say, anything that's really making large conflict and developing major plots in an untwinkish way is absolutely fine by me.

[Maybe42or54]

But see Rhyden.
My third pc.
My pc was accepted.
I log in.
I walk west into the Gaj.
I check out the IC boards, and walk to salarr.
I get there and guess what? 1200 coins are -gone-.
Stolen from me within 3 minutes of play.
Alright, so I email the mud and they give me 1500, so I think "Awesome".
I buy all my life gained armors and weapons and a bracelet that the man recieved from his mother before he was sold into slavery.
So I am siked because I got the best start of a pc.
About 3 months later with that Pc, he is badass.
I go back to that city and I left my backpack open with about ten things in there, including a bag with the bracelet, my money, a couple gems. My backpack had everything I needed.
Now, about an hour after entering this city, I look in my backpack and OMFG they stole everything. Everything. Even my chunk of sandstone.
I get fed up and went back to the other city for the remainder of his life.

So in affect.

When thieves find someones backpack open. They don't steal in moderation. They steal everything, whenever they can.

[Agent_137]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

This goes for coded issue, non coded issues, and real life issues.


I see lots of outcries on these boards when people have bad thiefly experiences (stealing -everything- in no time flat.)

I see lots of thiefly outcries when marks abuse allowances the thieves give them (hidden emotes, etc.)

It reminds me of the conundrum concerning raiders. The raiders bitch when marks spam flee, and the marks bitch when the raiders attack with no emotes.

The world would be a better place if people took initiative to play well, regardless of the other party. Give the other party, -every- other party the benefit of the doubt. Let -every- person you come in contact with have one chance to play along with you. If that player screws you, mark down the sdesc and don't let it happen again, and send a copy of the happening to the mud account. But don't generalize that one event by that one player to a whole group of players.

Just because one pickpocket stole everything you had with nary an emote doesn't mean they all will. Just because one guy spammed scan after your hidden emote doesn't mean everyone will.

Take the moral/roleplay high road. Sure it will mean your char will take some hits for OOC reasons, but NOT doing so would mean you are no better than those twinks that piss you off by spam fleeing/scanning/stealing.

[Maybe42or54]

And then I see it as this, whoever has the advantage should take the chance to RP.


You usually have the first chance to RP that sets the mood for the rest of the scene.

[Rhyden]

But see Rhyden.
My third pc.
My pc was accepted.
I log in.
I walk west into the Gaj.
I check out the IC boards, and walk to salarr.
I get there and guess what? 1200 coins are -gone-.
Stolen from me within 3 minutes of play.
Alright, so I email the mud and they give me 1500, so I think "Awesome".
I buy all my life gained armors and weapons and a bracelet that the man recieved from his mother before he was sold into slavery.
So I am siked because I got the best start of a pc.
About 3 months later with that Pc, he is badass.
I go back to that city and I left my backpack open with about ten things in there, including a bag with the bracelet, my money, a couple gems. My backpack had everything I needed.
Now, about an hour after entering this city, I look in my backpack and OMFG they stole everything. Everything. Even my chunk of sandstone.
I get fed up and went back to the other city for the remainder of his life.

So in affect.

When thieves find someones backpack open. They don't steal in moderation. They steal everything, whenever they can.

Ya, I know what you mean, spam-stealing is uncool anytime.

steal coins man
steal coins man
steal coins man
etc...

But what I'm saying is I'm not opposed to any large sort of thief group who are actually playing it out well, not spamming, not abusing the code, but making slick and sly plots that makes conflict for all. I have no problem with it as long as they aren't a bunch of free-for-all spam-stealers.

[Maybe42or54]

And those are the ones we complain and bitch about.
I've only seen one or two thieves that actually got me engrossed in coversation and then they got up and left after they convinced me to show them my ultracool steel sword of doom.

I put it back in my backpack and then they say they have tog et up and elave before I think to close my backpack. Then.. i leave and log off, and find out the next day my ultra cool sword was stolen and sold to salarr for 3 coins.

[Fankkekker]

Yeah well what if you just grab the nearest pc/npc that you see when you find out you have something missing and start beating the crap out them/it, reguardless of if they did it or not.