Archived Bringing Crime Into The City

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Conflee

Me an the bois at 3 am lookin for BEANS!
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Hello! I have talked about this on a prior thread about Crime in general, but I wanted to do a bit of a deeper dive because I was thinking about it a lot as of late. This post is, mainly, about bringing Crime RP into the City in a literal, built sense.

The basics of the idea are simple, and build off my previous statement and suggestion, which was that having the only ways into the Slums be right into either government areas, or a large open street lined with government areas, is very intimidating and counter to the purpose of putting Crime RP on the surface in the first place, which was encouraging interaction between the two halves of the RP community. As a criminal, you either have to have MASSIVE cojones, or be really stupid, to just walk down the main road in illegal kit, and the subtle ways out of the Slums are known by everyone, even guards and nobles, due to the Plague that happened.

My suggestion was to create a travel method between the Slums and the Harbor (given ports and docks and harbors are generally scummy in most settings) to allow Crime RPers to slip into the main city in more subtle, harder to block or observe ways, like the old tunnels used to do.

This suggestion is an elaboration on this, basically taking everything several steps further:


There would be Two main Tunnels connecting the Slums and Harbor.


Event Tunnel:
The first would run from the current Emporium location (right by the gate) to under the Imperial Bridge, and it would be styled after the old Slums- Prismarine walls and pillars etc, but with multiple collapsed sections. It wouldn't go all the way in game, it would preferably use a teleport to cut the trip in half, however, there is a drawback for speed: This tunnel is obviously running through the sewers that Lo blew up, and thus, would have many dangers. This would work a lot like the Hunting Trail, where rolls take the Director role and determine the outcome. Using this, faster, route is risky because your character might break a limb, or get Sewer Maggots, or get stuck in slime, or attacked by mutant rats, etc. The worst failures would of course be reserved to the lowest rolls and have the lowest chances, but the idea is pretty simple. It would be made clear that these tunnels house horrific mutated creatures as well, and staying there too long is bound to lead to trouble- to prevent people from questioning why they cant establish housing here, etc, and making it feel riskier IC. Failure to perform rolls would be considered powergaming, though most people tend to roll for these things in my experience. Even back with the old Sewer Maggots thing in the old sewers, if you fell in IC, you rolled.

For the maggots actually, as that's relevant. To incorporate them I would say something like a very small easy parkour bit that has water under it, not a long drop or very dramatic but just like the old sewers, you fall in you roll and its 50/50 if you get maggots.


Manual Tunnel:
The second tunnel would be more elaborate and intended to be lived in and roleplayed in. It would run from the Corpse in the Gutter (the ship tavern in the slums), to the southern edge of the Harbor, and would lack any of these rolls, because it would physically exist in game, and have to be trekked through manually. These tunnels (as it would be slightly branching but they all converge near both ends) would be styled after the Newsewers, the most recent iteration, featuring brick and hardened clay walls, several larger enclaves, and the occasional (I mean maybe two or three MAX) man-holes up to the surface that pop up in shadey corners of the city along the path. There would be a few rent regions in these areas, but they would be small and cheap. A place for the antisocial few to skulk. It isnt meant to sustain roleplay on its own in a major sense (small scale only), but the option is there for run-ins with groups traveling to and fro.


Back when I first started, there was always an air of mystery around the sewers. I remember not finding some of the ways in and out for MONTHS, and even after nearly a year I still bumped into one I hadn't known about occasionally. Having the second tunnel contain access points across the city adds to that feeling again, but it also adds an element to surface rp: paranoia. People who avoid crime RP and don't know about these tunnels beyond the fact that they exist will always have to wonder, where are they? Could there be one nearby? A criminal could pop up out of nowhere, I have to be careful! Etc etc. Beyond that, or related to it, it makes mugging people in alleys much more feasible, because Crime players could crop up and wander a short ways, and maybe even stumble across some poor unsuspecting man with a target on his back.

The final 'step' to this whole process would be dirtying up the Harbor a bit. Making the alleys more dark and dank, slapping up some wooden scaffolding and tarps, and other things to make it all look shady to encourage the area to become another little focal point for shady going ons.

As an aside, if the Main Street and Emporium Region Hubs continue to prove successful at creating activity hotbeds, I would suggest slapping a more low-tier one in the Harbor as well, maybe near the Hidden Oyster, with a few regions and such. The three activity points in regalia would become the Emporium, the Main Street, and an area in the Harbor. A nice trinity I think.

That, is basically it, so ill slap some tags on this for people who might be interested or are relevant: Sorry if I miss anyone im dumb ok.

@Aespair @MonMarty @DrunkFailure @Sozzer @NChulingeth @Yigit @VaguelyBagley @Belgrade @TheDongler
 
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The Harbor is fine as is. It doesn't need to be dirtied up because for the most part it already is. Anyone can get to the Harbor from the slums, even if they are criminals. There are holes in the wall to pass through, and not every guard is going to stop every bum that walks out of the slums.
There should be a risk for people who want to conduct crime in the harbor. The harbor is a busy district in the day, and becomes somewhat seedier in the night when all the sailors go and have their drinks. Crime existed in the harbor before, and it worked fairly well. I knew a good number of the harbor residents were smugglers, and all of them just did their thing on the down low. But, there is no good reason to dig a tunnel complex from the slums to the harbor, as all it does is isolate Slum and City RP more than it already is.
 
Devil's advocate: 70% of the issues in Crime roleplay is actually generated by the poor attitude of the gang leaders spreading to their members and beyond, creating an environment that in itself is unsustainable, and in order to avoid self blame, everything else becomes the problem.
 
The second tunnel would be more elaborate and intended to be lived in and roleplayed in. It would run from the Corpse in the Gutter (the ship tavern in the slums), to the southern edge of the Harbor, and would lack any of these rolls, because it would physically exist in game, and have to be trekked through manually. These tunnels (as it would be slightly branching but they all converge near both ends) would be styled after the Newsewers, the most recent iteration, featuring brick and hardened clay walls, several larger enclaves, and the occasional (I mean maybe two or three MAX) man-holes up to the surface that pop up in shadey corners of the city along the path. There would be a few rent regions in these areas, but they would be small and cheap. A place for the antisocial few to skulk. It isnt meant to sustain roleplay on its own in a major sense (small scale only), but the option is there for run-ins with groups traveling to and fro.

I think is brilliant. As of now, causing trouble outside of the slums attracts all of the Guards and other combat characters from the nearest roleplay hotspot (the Willow, more times than not). Usually, that's fine. Not great for a mugging, but that's solved with a little bit of planning ahead. Sometimes that's what you want. The real problem is, once you get into a real fight or something goes awry, there's nowhere to run. Normally, that makes sense. You don't cause trouble in the main city without accepting the risk. The problem is, there is currently no real benefit in causing trouble outside of the Slums. A normal slum roleplayer won't mug anyone near the Willow. Why would they? For the most part, you get little-to-no reward on top of a large chance of being locked away for a certain amount of time. That sounds really discouraging to individuals without formidable backing. For a weak, dagger-toting thief, it's not worth the trouble IC or OOC. That means small-time criminals won't interact with the city and the Guards lose out on normal Guard things. With an underground an tunnel leading to obscure locations near popular roleplay hotspots, trouble can be caused without it being nearly impossible to escape. Guards can go after more criminals. Criminals have a chance of escaping. The risk becomes worth the roleplay.
 
Devil's advocate: 70% of the issues in Crime roleplay is actually generated by the poor attitude of the gang leaders spreading to their members and beyond, creating an environment that in itself is unsustainable, and in order to avoid self blame, everything else becomes the problem.
A lot of times the bigger issues don't feel like they were in our control, which is probably where the habit comes from, though I get the point. Crime has a tendency to strap itself into a rocket and shot itself into a freaking wall half the time, regardless of attempts to turn it your not getting to the moon that way.

In this case specifically, even if my solution is or isnt a bit overboard, I think the issue is there. There are four ways out of the Slums. The Gate, which leads to a major street that is the widest most open street in regalia and is lined with several in-use and/or defunct government buildings. The Assembly Tunnel, which literally leads to the noble district you would have to be a moron to use that one as a lowly thug. The (two) one that is under my tower, technically two but they both lead to the same alley with only one path out so I will count it as one, might as well be. And there might still be the one north of the gate if I remember, which is alright. Two of the non-gate exits are within 100 feet of the gate though, and the other is useless for criminals who dont want to fight a war with house guards.


To strip my idea down to bare bones: At the very least I think the second tunnel would be beneficial, as a winding, branching route that lead to secret ways in and out around the city to allow Crime to crop up around. Or even just one more tunnel leading to some random area in the city like the Graygate District (out of view of Black Tower of course, hidden somewhere).