Briggand

[Staltos]

I've thought about creating a character which is a briggand... Not a conventional theif. I know this would be hard, but I just love the idea of such a character. Imagine you're travelling down the road when you're stopped by a gallant man with sword drawn. He tells you "stand and deliver, your money or your life!" Should you refuse you'll likely be knocked out. I think such a character would likely stick a code of honour and conduct.

Now to the meat of the subject. It seems to me like any character that takes a shadier path is going to be hunted down endlessly should they stay common areas, and that their only escape is to try and be accepted in Asador, which in my opinion is an exteme. I guess such a character could hole up in Narveed. But it just seems to me like the world is really too small to allow any character to hide away. What are other's opinion on the matter?

[Olrane]

You have my sympathy. It makes absolute sense that crime and evil should be very difficult, as they are in this MUD, but it still sometimes seems impossibly hard.

As far as it goes, to be a brigand would probably require that you be able to stand up to one or two Crusaders solo. It's not an easy career move for your character, but you could maybe make it work if you kept grinding...meh.
I'd say there are better ways to spend your time...you can still be a bully if you want, and it's exciting to be hunted for a while if you go too far. Just be sure to be ready for any consequences if you toe the line.

[luminier]

well... if it were me. id get some friends, some people who could block some exits and play frequently. but lol you need about 3 people, and thats what most guilds have as active... and i don't know strong people who want to be a brigand

[gojin]

Ive been often tempted to turn Goj into an bad guy and a motivating factor is the possibilities of playing a 'baddie' who isnt an extreme psycho cannibal butchering worshipper of the god of death and destruction or something similar.

I see playing a Briggand as possible, especially if you can disguise yourself. You could wait at the crossing or along the road for some char you think you could beat up, block an exit and demand their gold. The excitement and danger of trying to pull it off before some Crusader comes running to the rescue would be nice. Of course a good exit plan would be a necessity.

It would be much easier for a thief to simply sneak and steal but if a warrior got hold of a disguise ... it might be fun.

[Delia]

Infact high-agility low-encumberance brigands would work quite well. Even more so in a group. Playing a brigand sounds using bully tactics anyway so the general target group is weaker and at the sight of a real enemy the group would scatter to the four winds evading conflict. I'd doubt a prospective brigand who has set his eyes on some sweet loot would want to tackle groups such as the Holy Order unless ending up cornered.

[Staltos]

Infact high-agility low-encumberance brigands would work quite well. Even more so in a group. Playing a brigand sounds using bully tactics anyway so the general target group is weaker and at the sight of a real enemy the group would scatter to the four winds evading conflict. I'd doubt a prospective brigand who has set his eyes on some sweet loot would want to tackle groups such as the Holy Order unless ending up cornered.

Or if a lot of loot could be had!

[vurdijak]

Briggands will end up dead and the players of them disillusioned. Lets give good advice to the player who might actually invest a lot of time in this.

[Staltos]

I don't get what you're trying to say here...

[vurdijak]

Ok let me clarify it then. Unless you can disguise your briggand and never get caught as your true identity, you will lose access to every important city, be hunted day and night, and have no guild support (ie Sathos, Order). Life in Geas as that char., an evil with few allies, will be a paranoid and trying one. I am not saying 'dont do it'. I am just giving my honest opinion as to how that would turn out. For the record, I think it would nice to see if it can be pulled off.

[Staltos]

I've already figured all that... I've known that I'd need a way to disguise myself.

[Olrane]

Vurd says a hard truth - even with disguises, even well employed, a "bad" character is doomed to be known in the current roleplay environment.

How many times have characters such as Gen been "unmasked" unfairly?
The disguise skill was changed so that a character could sometimes notice that a character was disguised. Otherwise, one must RP that he cannot tell, unless the disguised character otherwise slips up (says something, shows some unmistakeable sign). It simply isn't fair that an unrecognized halfling (or whatever disguised character) is treated as a thief without due cause - it is little more than OOC abuse, knowing that this person is probably a disguised thief, even when your character does not notice smudged makeup, etc.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen people abuse this. It simply isn't fair to the characters who fight hard to disguise themselves if you ignore their disguises. Now that I'm on the outside, when I see a character who is disguised, I smile to myself and play the fool. That's all I'm asking. It makes the game very hard and not fun when people don't play the fool appropriately.

Sorry for the disguise rant, but I felt it needed to be said.

[tessa]

I'm the same as Olrane, having dealt with people 'magically' being able to handpick a disguised Tessa out of the potential hundreds of unknown elves that live in Forostar, I know how it sucks to have disguise practically useless due to OOC assessment. I also find it annoying when people use code mechanics to tell whether someone is a thief or not (ie; wearing a robe on <list of location slots here> instead of simply 'the body', or by examining -slightly- different wording in descs. ICly, it's going to look exactly the same. The only difference is simply how the output is coded by wizards).

I try to play stupid as often as possible, too. It's not the end of the world to play a character swindled by another, and usually it leads to more enjoyable RP than going, "hm, it was a disguised female halfling, who do I know in the game that is a female halfling PC... oh! It's xxx!"

[Olrane]

Yeah, that's exactly what it comes down to - the idea that if we see a character who is obviously a PC to us OOCly, our character can somehow distinguish them from NPCs.

The first reaction to an unrecognized character is usually (from my experience on the MUD) a friendly greeting and possible introduction. If that unrecognized character is a halfling, it is not unjustified to view them with suspicion. It is, however, always wrong for your character to think that a halfling PC who doesn't look like a newbie is a thief or worse, exactly the thief you know he is.

However, an unknown elf in Elvandar or an unknown human in Arborea should not typically warrant a second glance. They're just people in the marketplace, travelers on the road, those invisible NPCs.

[luminier]

i guess i have to admit im guilty of this. but i mean come on. i see a halfling walking past a tower in the north, im going to be suspicious. i see a halfling that is the strongest halfling ive seen, hidden at the crossing, as soon as i look at him he tries to run away is this not IC enough? Or am I guilty. i dunno about other people but generally i like to think my attacks are justified.

[Drake]

Does Luminier know every single halfling in the world of Geas?

And no, not just player characters, but those invisible NPC's which are left to roleplay to minimize server load and spamming of output.

Sure, a big strong halfling you don't know suddenly appearing would fire off warning flags, but being able to place a name to that unknown halfling, along with the deeds or misdeeds of that names owner?

I'll put it this way, if some unknown person passed you on the street, and they looked roughly like someone who mugged a friend of yours, about the same height, same hair color, same weight. What would you do? Be a little suspicious and wary of them? Or pull out a gun and shoot them just in case?

[luminier]

well in my view at least, I think it's safe to assume that all the "invisible" halfling npcs wouldn't be poking around the tundra scrag bridge, sneaking around - unseen to my "eyes" in various places, running at the sight of me, and being extremely fast and tough.

and if they have the weight and height of a certain wanted halfling, im gonna pull my lance out.

[Olrane]

Almost all of the things you say there are legitimate, Luminier. Those are suspicious behaviors that completely bankrupt the point of disguise. Height and weight I think should not influence your knowledge much, but even that is fairly logical.

The only reason why I argue about disguise at all is because such a halfling has no choice but to believe that his disguise will be bankrupt due to the current roleplay atmosphere.

If a halfling could could, hypothetically, stroll up to the crossing with a cart full of fish and say that Gerrit was taking the day off - and the audience would believe that plausible story, then I think we'd all have more fun. Not to say that they can't be skeptical, but it could look fairly legitimate.

It doesn't make IC sense to assume that Gerrit was killed, the halfling was the killer and a notorious thief, and that if his height and weight match he should be killed.

That's it: until people are willing to give disguises the power and credibility they should have, characters such as Staltos's brigand are absolutely impossible. Everyone could enjoy seeing roguish characters more often in different faces, especially the players of them. It lets them have some dialogue and roleplay that isn't just hide and hide and run and hide and fight.

[Drake]

Regardless of the change in location of your first, and then second example.

I honestly don't find whats so particularly unusual enough about a curious halfling, hiding, and who happens to be strong, wether they be at the crossing or in the tundra.

Curiosity and hiding are two petty common traits for halflings, being strong isn't limited to one halfling in the world and running from a crusader isn't all that unusual anymore given their tendancy to shoot first and ask questions later.

[isengoo]

Unfortunately, most people don't want to RP foolishness, even when the code dictates they must. They just want to 'win'.

[tessa]

Sadly what Isengorn said is true, at least that's my impression, and one reason why I don't play as much as I used to. It seems people nowadays are more into wanting to "win" the mud, than work together to make fun and enjoyable game atmospheres. And, in my opinion, the game is generally more fun when everyone works together, even to work against each other ICly, than everyone against everyone else not only ICly, but OOCly too, or trying to spite a character or player they don't like for the sole purpose of being spiteful.

I remember in older times a thief that would don a disguise, dress himself as a beggar, and go sit with Volog and compete with him for coins and food. Most everyone knew OOCly he was a thief (since he had full scars and was strong enough to deck almost anyone in the room), but everyone ICly went along with it, and we all had fun.

In current times, I think the same person would last maybe 3 minutes before a huge lynch mob suddenly dashed in to make mince meat of him, either out of vengeance of something or another, or due to him being an easy target at the time, or for simply being a thief, or whatever, after someone at the market screamed "wolf". Which is rather unexciting, unless you like to complain about how tyrannical and imposing the lynch mob is.

I still blame those dreadful MMORPGs for this "we gotta win no matter what, loss cannot be accepted or tolerated!" nature.