How Do You Crime Without Crime

[MonMarty]

How do you crime with the following limitations in mind:

• The crime should be substantial e.g not stealing some Regals from someone's pocket, and to the point where the suffering party can't just shrug it off as "oh I didn't need that anyway".
• The crime should have consequences for the criminal party e.g the gang should not pretend not to suffer losses or play an eternal cat and mouse game with the guard to the effect of "This will be remembered as the day you almost caught Jack Sparrow" and dash off into the shadows with obscura.
• The crime should not debilitate the criminal party e.g the gang should not be wiped out after a few crimes because of the losses incurred by the party as per stipulation above.

 

[Vegemiite]

If the crime is substantial enough to be taken note of by many other players, the gang or criminal group should be given some sort of benefit along with the limitation of a loss in mind. With the limitations you set for this post, it doesn't sound like a group of criminals could truly benefit. The limitations set tell us that criminals shouldn't be wiped out after a few crimes though should have losses for any significant thing they do. What if the criminals could get away without complications in someway? While not being an eternal game of cat and mouse, if criminals can get away, would they be able to? Or would you expect them to take losses no matter what?

Those are just my personal questions which would help me "crime without crime".

 

[Film_Noir]

Criminals should have a long term plan, or series of plans, in regards to working towards their main agenda.

Some DM management or dice rolling needs to be done to determine wins and losses for the criminals, victims and guards, if the roleplay is to be continued at a sustained level with some amount of fairness and realism. The dice rolling and DM management can help decide factors such as: were any criminals seen at the scene when committing their act; did any of them leave evidence and what kind of evidence; to what extent did the criminals successfully carry out their goal (e.g. did they get any loot, what did they get and how much); did any of them get injured if an altercation with a witness occurred; etc.

Above all, the crime needs to be fun for all parties involved: criminals, victims and guards. The victims, especially, need some consideration because they are the ones ultimately at the losing end of things, gaining no real benefit from participating, and so the roleplay must be enjoyable for them if they are to put themselves in this position. (As a personal example, for example, OOC fun-wise, I don't have a problem seeing my characters get stolen from, but I do object to criminals wanting to do permanent physical harm to my characters or to members of my family. I also object to torture.) Criminals need to realise that they're bad guys and accept that losses will come. But a thieves guild, for example, has the potential for large rewards too in the form of valuable stolen prizes and notoriety.

 

[vidivo]

"This will be remembered as the day you almost caught Jack Sparrow"

Click to shrink...

They actually catch him though. Just saying.

 

[FireFan96]

Perfect, a crime I have actually been on the receiving end of.

I was contacted a few months back about a gang who wanted to raid the Drache tavern. We discussed the matters OOC, and in the end both parties set each other up for a decent narrative.

The actual raid was somewhat chaotic, as is the nature of having bystanders on the road. But in the end, the gang got away with the tavern earnings for the day, as well as vandalized the counter to a point where the bar had to close for two weeks.

The gang's success was split. While I believe the money was able to make its way back to the base, two of the four gang members were arrested by the guard.

So in the end, I gave the heist a 9/10, since there were a few hiccups that we had to improve around. But it was a rewarding crime, as it provided to lasting thoughts:

• the center of the city is well guarded and there is a good chance you will be arrested.
• some criminals are extremely stupid, meaning the first point does not matter to them, and they will attempt to attack in a heavily guarded area.

 

[Film_Noir]

Parz1vol coordinated with myself a couple of months back to ask if his burglar's guild could pull off a heist/arson attack on the guild building. That was a lot of fun for all involved because it became somewhat of an impromptu server event. It started with a society holding a regular sort of charity auction in the guild building. Then the burglars came in and started the blaze as a distraction while grabbing whatever they could get their hands on and running. Then the guards and bystanders came. Then everyone worked together, forming a line from a nearby well to the guild building, and passed buckets of water to put the fire out.

 

[Conflee]

I think some kind of risk-reward system, similar to the pages that were made for Resistances during the Lo Crisis, would be cool. A list of targetable NPC businesses, their risk level, and the rewards, then have gangs try to go after them with a mix of rolls and (potentially) mixed in RP to decide the outcomes.

Then having players be able to register businesses of their own to be on the "robing" list for some benefits to themselves- IE the RP, or having an advert for their business placed on a sigh near the tavern / main road or something.

Personally, as a simi-Crime RPer, I have always held to the mind set that if I did my job right, I made sure as few people know about what I did as possible. I go out of my way to avoid being noticed for things, IC or OOC, because if you were a serious criminal, thats how you would go about it- you dont want to get caught that would be dumb lol. (Not going to walk into the tavenr "hello yes iam an AsAssin here 2 kill teh king" )

For, Larger Scale efforts though, having some spreadsheet that guards and criminals alike can view to see their "Heat" or the guard's awareness of their activities would be useful maybe as well.... though Guard people would have to be sure to consistently update it.


Also, this one is a tangent hing, but one of the coolest things I've seen done with posters in MC is a Modern Build Server where its a "Trusted" build team making a massive modern city. But, what they did was they made a "Maps" world that they sectioned off into massive chunks at the boundaries for maps, and used that to have posters and signs up with custom designs. Something like that for "Wanted" Posters and such would be an awesome touch, or just generally to use as environmental design for say the notice board, or other little details. And as long as it isn't overused in an area there would be no effect on TPS or FPS.