Everyone knows that the opportunities to pick pockets are few and far between. The spitfire was disappointing, with nearly the whole event off limits to pick pockets. Most people rest in perma-sancts, so they can be safe from us on a regular basis. That is fine I suppose. The odds are already against us, and common punishment for a thief is SPLAT dead, by some monster CS turning our insides into outsides or what have you.

What really gets me is when someone sancts a room, and suddenly we can't steal? What is the reason behind this? Defending yourself against thieves is easy enough by typing close whatever, it is such a simple fix. This is a great skill, which is horribly neglected. I know a lot of people HATE thieves, hey IRL, so do I. But in the fantasy genre, thieves are as common as your stereotypical wizard or steady warrior. The mechanics IG seem really weighted to not train in picking pockets, but that is no fun.

So why can temp-sancts stop me from stealing? Is there some overwhelming feeling of holiness which suddenly transforms our character's consciousness into some grander form? An in genre explanation of that mechanic would great, removing it all together would be even better.

And Leash, not all of us have some uber item which can break a sanct.

*this rant has been proof read by someone with bad grammar

~Ayamei

The physics doesn't sound right that a sanct would stop a thief from stealing, but it does prevent the mark from retaliating in any form whatsoever, which would make sanctuaries a hindrance rather than a boon. group close, steal, tilt my gem, wave my gem at mark, laugh at mark, eat my gem, lick, sigh happily, hide, sneak off.>>

That.


~James
Player of Nontan and Septimius
The Hoot Club, RR's finest group of friends.
http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Nontan

Events like the Spitfire I honestly feel should be sancted. The last thing a hard working Gamemaster needs is more room noise by added controversy from your random cocky thief. Not too mention raffles can only be entered with coins, which makes a for a very bad situation given pickpockets running around.

The sanctuary I've always had a problem with however, i've never liked the fact any level 13 character could shut down a capped thief, especially given the fact we changed mechanics long ago to where a creature can now break a sanct given level difference etc...

Now Ayamei, you must be new to this particular board, here is the part where everyone else chimes in with, "Pickpocketing should be changed!" Even though the skill is so amazingly handicapped as it is.

The amount of personal bias by certain town guru's combined with additional sancts everywhere has put a thief in a SEVERE HANDICAP.

I've chimed up a million times on boards from "eastern towns" I've made every valid point toward game mechanics possible, I've even cited how towns were designed to have one sanctuary vs one none sanctuary as gathering spots.

Unfortunately, you're beating a dead horse.

Mark/Leash

And actually, with the whole thing about a mark not being able to retaliate...accuse works, walk away one room works, furthermore, a good thief probably wouldn't flaunt their gains, but try to steal again. If picking pockets is virtual pointless between characters, there should be another benefit from the skill. Looting from hiding maybe? The whole thing is just so unbalanced.

I guess the sprinkles and cupcake world that everyone wants in gemstone sometimes overpowers the desire to have some decent RP that is more than bouncing and hugging.

~Ayamei

I've always like the idea of pickpocketing critters and gaining experience based on how much you pull. Hey, level up a true master thief!

~James
Player of Nontan and Septimius
The Hoot Club, RR's finest group of friends.
http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Nontan

I'm fine with people being able to steal in a sanct, as so long as they allow for the return of Sleep/Silence/Calm/Web/Etc.

---

"Halflings speak Halfling & Common. They don't speak in dog whistle." - GM Thandiwe

I like this idea, but I see an issue.
To prevent two people getting rich quick by just stealing constantly from one another, you need to be limited in the amount you can gain per steal, and the times per hour.
In order to get your TPs worth, you should be able to grab a decent amount.
Also, if you dont loose anything, your might not even care to accuse or even RP it out.
How would you propose to deal with the inflation that might cause?



Ack! Scarab!

As also been mentioned, bring back stealing items during festivals and certain shops.

---

I would be all for this if the penalty for being caught stealing from shops(or picking pockets) at a festival caused you to spend several hours of game time in the festival stocks and what was stolen when you were caught was returned.

-- Faulkil

<<I rarely see any RP from a thief. Gambits are used to conceal stashing loot, and most thieves I've ever seen didn't RP unless they were caught. Wasn't a lot of RP'ing when the victim doesn't know they are being interacted with in the first place.

The amount of times I get caught, I have to work my way outta sticky situations in order to not get killed. But us thieves don't want to get caught, the RP is not always just with the mark at the time of the theft, actually, hopefully it isn't. Lots of it deals with the reputation you build among your peers and other people around town. But we need opportunities to even have a chance for this.

~Ayamei<

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not the thief

In regards to potential abuse, there'd definitely have to be some limits to exp and coin value per hour, and I think incentives to be out in public, in a big room with lots of people would also cut down on gaming the system.

-Keleborrn.>>

I don't see anymore potential for abuse then someone injuring themself on purpose so their empath friend can heal them. It'd obviously be something(like the empath healing abuse thing) that GMs could watch for, although it'd be harder to spot I think. Maybe limiting the number of times per day you can steal from one specific mark, but not limiting your total stealing.


~James
Player of Nontan and Septimius
The Hoot Club, RR's finest group of friends.
http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Nontan

Most positive pickpocketing discussion ever! So, who's going to ruin it?

I'm honestly happy with the current system in place, I post here to brag but what I dont post are the hundreds of times I hit thief traps, or am immediately attacked when someone randomly loses something that may or may have been from my doing. I feel the system is designed pretty dang decently if the "mark" takes the two seconds to make a script to close his containers, use a third party looting program, or fills up on cursed gems or thief traps. Believe it or not it is difficult, I personally just pray off the uneducated.

Mark/Leash

>Leash's post

Or if said victim uses Stormfront and his window auto refreshes, seeing you hide and unhide without actually ICly seeing you do so....Yeah, pretty much the only thing I hate about hiding/SF, that ruins any sort of fun in pick pocketing.


~Jukes, The Crimson Selshis

<<Or if said victim uses Stormfront and his window auto refreshes, seeing you hide and unhide without actually ICly seeing you do so....Yeah, pretty much the only thing I hate about hiding/SF, that ruins any sort of fun in pick pocketing.>>

I thought that that was to changed to only take the hider off the list if you look... I may be misremembering though.

-Keleborrn.

Let me explain my post slightly more...

Alot of high level characters have perception, perception gives you the ability to see lesser skilled players hide and unhide.

Perception however is a SECONDARY factor in pickpocketing, the best defenses are A) the WATCH verb. and B)actually having the skill itself.

A person with 200 ranks of perception has a hell of alot better chance to see you hiding and unhiding, then to see you actually stealing.

Mark/Leash