Scalp Hunting

Started by Clearsighted, August 17, 2008, 05:00:32 PM

August 17, 2008, 05:00:32 PM Last Edit: August 17, 2008, 05:02:05 PM by Clearsighted
I just read Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian', which is pretty much the most badass book to get one in the mood for playing Armageddon ever. It's impossible to explain if you haven't read it yourself. But much of it concerns a band of American scalp hunters roaming the deserts of northern Mexico. It's pretty brutal.

It makes me sad that there aren't as many nobles or other authorities offering rewards for say, bringing them a sack of gith, dirty nekkar or tribal heads. That seems an easy way to generate RP for alot of people, to post a bounty of like 50 sid per head brought in.

It also makes me sad we can't skin people.

Ah well.

Perhaps Arm 2.0? We can go scalphunting for cat people.

It has been done in the past when IC events gave reason to offer bounties.

No scalping though.  Maybe the staff doesnt want a bunch of Crazy Inix' or Sitting Kanks running around trying to take everyones hair
Quote from: ZhairaI don't really have a problem with drugs OR sex
Quote from: MansaMarc's got the best advice.
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I've always thought it would be neat for Staff-run NPC bounty heads IG..... Have their bounties posted somewhere, most likely on the boards. Staff sets them up in some hideaway. Bounty hunter finds NPC, kills him, beheads him. Brings head back to whoever. Profit.

Because really, bounties are entirely too few and far in between IG IMO.

Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 08:22:24 AM
I've always thought it would be neat for Staff-run NPC bounty heads IG..... Have their bounties posted somewhere, most likely on the boards. Staff sets them up in some hideaway. Bounty hunter finds NPC, kills him, beheads him. Brings head back to whoever. Profit.

Because really, bounties are entirely too few and far in between IG IMO.

I agree. That'd be very cool.

Quote from: Clearsighted on August 18, 2008, 03:03:46 PM
Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 08:22:24 AM
I've always thought it would be neat for Staff-run NPC bounty heads IG..... Have their bounties posted somewhere, most likely on the boards. Staff sets them up in some hideaway. Bounty hunter finds NPC, kills him, beheads him. Brings head back to whoever. Profit.

Because really, bounties are entirely too few and far in between IG IMO.

I agree. That'd be very cool.

Why not just pursue this ICly through other PCs? It really wouldn't be all that hard to do. Every organization and leader has enemies, of the NPC and/or PC variety.

But staff-run MMO-style questing...no.
Quote from: Vanth on February 13, 2008, 05:27:50 PM
I'm gonna go all Gimfalisette on you guys and lay down some numbers.

I once had imm approval to off an NPC shopkeeper. After killing the NPC, the game crashed. When it popped back up, the imms told me the original NPC ran off instead of getting killed. Awesome.
Quote from: Cutthroat on September 30, 2008, 10:15:55 PM
> forage artifacts

You find a rusty, armed landmine and pick it up.

Quote from: Gimfalisette on August 18, 2008, 03:11:23 PM
Quote from: Clearsighted on August 18, 2008, 03:03:46 PM
Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 08:22:24 AM
I've always thought it would be neat for Staff-run NPC bounty heads IG..... Have their bounties posted somewhere, most likely on the boards. Staff sets them up in some hideaway. Bounty hunter finds NPC, kills him, beheads him. Brings head back to whoever. Profit.

Because really, bounties are entirely too few and far in between IG IMO.

I agree. That'd be very cool.

Why not just pursue this ICly through other PCs? It really wouldn't be all that hard to do. Every organization and leader has enemies, of the NPC and/or PC variety.

But staff-run MMO-style questing...no.

Of course it wouldn't be all that hard to do.... If people were posting bounties. Since starting this game last December, I've only seen three bounties posted. That's it, three.

Maybe I'm just missing them? I check the boards pretty regularly, and most of my characters are relatively "in the know"....

-shrug-

I dunno. Somewhere there is a family of bounty hunters starving.

Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 04:36:51 PM
Quote from: Gimfalisette on August 18, 2008, 03:11:23 PM
Quote from: Clearsighted on August 18, 2008, 03:03:46 PM
Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 08:22:24 AM
I've always thought it would be neat for Staff-run NPC bounty heads IG..... Have their bounties posted somewhere, most likely on the boards. Staff sets them up in some hideaway. Bounty hunter finds NPC, kills him, beheads him. Brings head back to whoever. Profit.

Because really, bounties are entirely too few and far in between IG IMO.

I agree. That'd be very cool.

Why not just pursue this ICly through other PCs? It really wouldn't be all that hard to do. Every organization and leader has enemies, of the NPC and/or PC variety.

But staff-run MMO-style questing...no.

Of course it wouldn't be all that hard to do.... If people were posting bounties. Since starting this game last December, I've only seen three bounties posted. That's it, three.

Maybe I'm just missing them? I check the boards pretty regularly, and most of my characters are relatively "in the know"....

-shrug-

I dunno. Somewhere there is a family of bounty hunters starving.

So ask someone to give you a bounty contract. Is the point. Pursue it ICly.
Quote from: Vanth on February 13, 2008, 05:27:50 PM
I'm gonna go all Gimfalisette on you guys and lay down some numbers.

Quote from: Gimfalisette on August 18, 2008, 04:39:40 PM
Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 04:36:51 PM
Quote from: Gimfalisette on August 18, 2008, 03:11:23 PM
Quote from: Clearsighted on August 18, 2008, 03:03:46 PM
Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 08:22:24 AM
I've always thought it would be neat for Staff-run NPC bounty heads IG..... Have their bounties posted somewhere, most likely on the boards. Staff sets them up in some hideaway. Bounty hunter finds NPC, kills him, beheads him. Brings head back to whoever. Profit.

Because really, bounties are entirely too few and far in between IG IMO.

I agree. That'd be very cool.

Why not just pursue this ICly through other PCs? It really wouldn't be all that hard to do. Every organization and leader has enemies, of the NPC and/or PC variety.

But staff-run MMO-style questing...no.

Of course it wouldn't be all that hard to do.... If people were posting bounties. Since starting this game last December, I've only seen three bounties posted. That's it, three.

Maybe I'm just missing them? I check the boards pretty regularly, and most of my characters are relatively "in the know"....

-shrug-

I dunno. Somewhere there is a family of bounty hunters starving.

So ask someone to give you a bounty contract. Is the point. Pursue it ICly.

I've done that before. But nobody puts a bounty on another's head. Ever.

As far as I've seen at least.

Though I very well could just be going through the wrong channels....

Quote from: Qzzrbl on August 18, 2008, 04:43:28 PM
Though I very well could just be going through the wrong channels....

Reasons you might not be getting bounties, AKA assassination contracts:

-- You're not talking to the right people. (Going through the wrong channels, as you said.)
-- You don't appear to have the skill or knowledge to pull the job off.
-- You don't appear to have the financial or other resource backing to pull the job off.
-- You seem untrustworthy--possibly a double-crosser or spy.
-- You seem like you talk too much and may blab about the job.

From my observation, it's rare that someone, somewhere in ARM doesn't want someone killed.
Quote from: Vanth on February 13, 2008, 05:27:50 PM
I'm gonna go all Gimfalisette on you guys and lay down some numbers.

Quote from: Gimfalisette on August 18, 2008, 04:51:07 PM
From my observation, it's rare that someone, somewhere in ARM doesn't want someone killed.
This.
"Never was anything great achieved without danger."
     -Niccolo Machiavelli

I'm against scalping.  For one taking the heads is easy enough.  In real life heads are large and unwieldy, in game we don't have to worry about that, so in a sense it seems like unnecessary code for something we already have in spirit.

For some reason I feel like taking scalps.. I dunno.. It's too soon?  Like it feels like a little too much of a step back to a nasty part of our history and it feels a little too brutal for me.  Grosses me out a bit.  A lotta bit really.  I think I'd rather not see it implemented peresonally.

Ps, you could role play this without a scalp object.

Quote from: UnderSeven on August 21, 2008, 03:00:40 PM
For some reason I feel like taking scalps.. I dunno.. It's too soon?  Like it feels like a little too much of a step back to a nasty part of our history and it feels a little too brutal for me.  Grosses me out a bit.  A lotta bit really.  I think I'd rather not see it implemented peresonally.

That's interesting. My first association with scalping is Scythians. What's yours?
There is no general doctrine which is not capable of eating out our morality if unchecked by the deep-seated habit of direct fellow-feeling with individual fellow-men. -George Eliot

August 21, 2008, 04:41:55 PM #13 Last Edit: August 21, 2008, 04:47:37 PM by Clearsighted
Quote from: UnderSeven on August 21, 2008, 03:00:40 PM
I'm against scalping.  For one taking the heads is easy enough.  In real life heads are large and unwieldy, in game we don't have to worry about that, so in a sense it seems like unnecessary code for something we already have in spirit.

For some reason I feel like taking scalps.. I dunno.. It's too soon?  Like it feels like a little too much of a step back to a nasty part of our history and it feels a little too brutal for me.  Grosses me out a bit.  A lotta bit really.  I think I'd rather not see it implemented peresonally.

Ps, you could role play this without a scalp object.

Interestingly enough, in the prelude to Blood Meridian, the author included a quote about how human remains fifty thousand years old in Africa, (or maybe older, I forget) were also found to have been scalped. I think it was to suggest that Man's inhumanity to fellow Man is as old as the species itself and was not simply a Western cowboys and indians phenomena. It is visceral and brutal, I agree. But then, I've always thought of Armageddon as the most visceral and brutal of muds. I love my obsidian tomahawk.

You do make a good point about the beheading. Sadly we can't wear heads. The best I could do was strap it to my saddle.

Quote from: Tisiphone on August 21, 2008, 03:01:59 PM
Quote from: UnderSeven on August 21, 2008, 03:00:40 PM
For some reason I feel like taking scalps.. I dunno.. It's too soon?  Like it feels like a little too much of a step back to a nasty part of our history and it feels a little too brutal for me.  Grosses me out a bit.  A lotta bit really.  I think I'd rather not see it implemented peresonally.

That's interesting. My first association with scalping is Scythians. What's yours?

Mine is with apes!

Read the Road, and never had heard of Blood Meridian until Clearsighted, so decided I'd read it ... wow, it IS a bad ass book, like, Armageddon shortfiction writers take note.