Roleplaying theft?

[Veselka]

Imagine a book without action, or internal dialogue. This is the meat and potatoes of 'RP' and what a character is. Verbose descriptions of actions are actually secondary to the actions themselves. Internal dialogue, via think and feel (which are pretty exclusive to ArmageddonMUD, and haven't always been around and we take for granted most of the time) provide greater insight into motivations behind those actions.

So yes, emoting does not = Role-play. It isn't the definition of Role-play, particularly on this MUD compared to say a MUSH, where emoting is one of the only means to RP. It can certainly add into the equation of Role-play, and I would be leery of someone who never emoted, never appended description to their actions. But the actions themselves are what define the PC and their believability and how they fit into the setting.

As pointed out elsewhere, the real arbiters of what makes good and bad RP are the guidelines of documentation, and Staff to enforce them. If the guidelines of documentation don't match up to a grey area, Staff seems to adjust the documentation to make that more firm for future schisms.

We as players can only assume and guess at another PC's motivations and whether or not they are thinking, or twinking. It's best to give the benefit of the doubt, and if you have sincere doubt to their motivations/level of RP, you can file a player complaint.

[ghanima]

I'm not advocating RP without any emotes ever, nor am I saying it's good form to do so. I'm just saying emoting in and of itself does not equal RP.

Moreover, not every action must be followed up with an emote. Sometimes I used the hunt command and throw out an emote or two for further illustration, sometimes I don't. Same with any skill really. I'm sure some players RP stealing with an hemote or vague, suggestive emote, and other times they don't do that at all. Sometimes a raider comes charging in and attacks without emoting, sometimes they might be more expressive with their RP. Whatever the case, their RP is not defined by their emotes.

I'm not saying it's okay to never ever emote whatsoever. In fact that notion is so far removed from the topic I'm surprised it even came up.

[Nile]

Cool discussion. Nice to know a lot of players are happy for this interaction to occur.

Will keep in mind that people aren't too fussed about RP regarding theft. I've been putting in too much effort in the past. lol

[John]

Cool discussion. Nice to know a lot of players are happy for this interaction to occur.

Will keep in mind that people aren't too fussed about RP regarding theft. I've been putting in too much effort in the past. lol

Lol. Please quote the people who said they don't want RP to occur when stealing is happening. Lol.

[Nile]

Cool discussion. Nice to know a lot of players are happy for this interaction to occur.

Will keep in mind that people aren't too fussed about RP regarding theft. I've been putting in too much effort in the past. lol

Lol. Please quote the people who said they don't want RP to occur when stealing is happening. Lol.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. Where did I say that?

I presume you're trying to extrapolate from the words 'aren't being too fussed' in reference to the typical player's mentality? Lol. Did I do something to piss you off, dude? Because you sure seem to have a weird bias going on. To clarify for you, not being too fussed means I won't worry too much about making theft into an actual interaction with emotes/a shout from the next room/mumbling an apology and leaving before they can look/ or anything that could attract attention and stick to semotes/hemotes as much as it suits me to do so. How's that? All of this should have been obvious if you'd read my posts but I'm happy to go over it this one last time for you

[John]

Will keep in mind that people aren't too fussed about RP regarding theft. I've been putting in too much effort in the past. lol

I think most people would interpret this post as saying you won't bother RPing when you use the steal command. I don't think anything else you said merits a response.

[Nile]

Will keep in mind that people aren't too fussed about RP regarding theft. I've been putting in too much effort in the past. lol

I think most people would interpret this post as saying you won't bother RPing when you use the steal command. I don't think anything else you said merits a response.

I thought the discussion was generally along the lines of its perfectly acceptable with semotes/hemotes and you shouldn't feel pressured to stir up a plot with every theft? Did I miss something or are you just trying to prove some sort of personal point?

EDIT: Reading back I'm really not sure how you got to this point. I clearly referenced the discussion immediately before the comment you began trying to draw dubious conclusions from in some weird attempt to put me down or something. By referencing the discussion I provided context which you perhaps missed. Or you can try arguing with me like this all night. I love this sort of thing.

[Riev]

Cool discussion. Nice to know a lot of players are happy for this interaction to occur.

Will keep in mind that people aren't too fussed about RP regarding theft. I've been putting in too much effort in the past. lol

Personally, I HOPE there is RP behind me being stolen from.

However, I also ensure that any amount of coins I have, less than 100, is being carried in my inventory. If I have 259 coins, 59 is in my inventory.

If I have a mount ticket? It goes into my belt, or a pouch. If you can unlatch that pouch, and steal the ticket, without me noticing? You just made yourself a couple small, and next time the ticket is going up my ass.

[maxid]

Personally, I HOPE there is RP behind me being stolen from.

However, I also ensure that any amount of coins I have, less than 100, is being carried in my inventory. If I have 259 coins, 59 is in my inventory.

If I have a mount ticket? It goes into my belt, or a pouch. If you can unlatch that pouch, and steal the ticket, without me noticing? You just made yourself a couple small, and next time the ticket is going up my ass.

This sort of attitude, where you leave yourself realistically not PERMALOCKED DOWN COMPLETELY encourages good rp from thieves in my experience.  Thievery, like PK or any other pvp aspect of Arm can easily become an arms race (heh get it), and de-escalating makes everyone have more fun.

[Cerelum]

While I am not broke by any means in character, I find it jarring OOCLY when I had someone coins and they don't put them away.

I realize that it's totally their choice but it's still odd to me.

I'll admit that being stolen from makes me go for blood, it just feels invasive and wrong which of course it's designed to.

Maybe I'll start carrying 10 or 20 coins in inventory just to see what happens but I bet they will be gone in one trip around the city or to a bar.

[Nile]

After playing a ton of sneaky types I've found one of the best ways for a paranoid character to deal with theft, when they know they are a mark or are just naturally paranoid, or it just fits RP wise, is to keep a bunch of decoy pouches/coins etc all over my character for when you may need them (likely never). Then either they need to rob you blind and risk fucking up a bunch, or just hope they get lucky and grab the one thing with the your valuables inside. I also like this for organisation sake when I have a variety of specific items. Each pouch for a particular type of item. Certainly makes being stolen from more of a challenge regardless of what's going on and a realistic way of dealing with theft.

I mean, when I've lived in certain cities and particularly dangerous areas, I would always have a decoy wallet with nothing in it except like 20 bucks or something for anybody trying to mug me with a knife or whatever (i remember a guy IRL tried mugging me once years back in my early/mid twenties. Didn't get anything except a few bruises each when it clicked that he didn't have a weapon on him) and another one in a hidden pocket with anything valuable. Another time, this time in Cambodia after doing some asian meth in a brothel in a baaaaaad part of Phnom Penh I got a knife pulled on me, flipped out the decoy wallet, they took the 20 bucks, then I got out of there with the 50 odd dollars (they trade in US dollars since their own currency is basically worthless) I'd taken with me. Shit is proven to work IG and IRL.

[chrisdcoulombe]

Stealing a couch is actually really easy Irl.

[Hauwke]

Most people would need a trailer to get anywhere far with a couch unless they were SUPER dedicated and extremely fit.

[Nile]

Most people would need a trailer to get anywhere far with a couch unless they were SUPER dedicated and extremely fit.

Or drunk as shit. I've seen this done/am guilty of it. Depends where you gotta take the couch really.

[chrisdcoulombe]

Me and a group of friends used to prank each other by putting the others couches on their roof.

[Hauwke]

I failed to factor in drunk antics and groups, extremely good points.