ayergo wrote:Sadly I am considered "essential" so I'm not getting any unexpected time off
Do your bosses not consider that you are essential to us as well? That I, WW, was counting on you having time off? That, I, as a mere federal government contractor* am considered non-essential - nay dispensable - and had budgeted a decent portion of my newly found spare time to NWN?
As for the scripting and consequences ... I understand that we are talking about pick pocketing, but the reason that Croaker stopped breaking into houses was that at one point Croaker, Jacho (RiotNrrd), Mashan Tain (Lafter) and a couple of others were brought before the magistrates on Waterdeep and told of the numerous reports of thefts that we were all tied to, either alone or together. That if we continued, there would be dire consequences. Now part of this was Andrew on the warpath, but in this case, it worked, at least as far as I was concerned. Croaker knew that he was a marked man and became very careful. The very rare break-ins that he would take part in were with DM involvement (either when they were online or looped into the planning.)
The point of this is that I am wondering if there is a way to increase the rewards from pick pocketing NPCs, but also the non-lethal consequences? Is there some way to automatically parse the logs to pick up the times that a pickpocket is successful (so the PC does not turn hostile) but is borderline and thus might be spotted by passersby and thus reported? Thus setting the stage for a DM led "talking to"?
I understand that this can't be done without some sort of DM involvement, but it seems to me that id the log parsing is feasible, some sort of "X strikes and you're out" rule might work. One thing that we do not want to do is give our players a disincentive to play, so anything like a week jail term where they can't log on is severe. But what about escalating consequences:
a) First offense: warning
b) Second offense: a fine
c) Third offense: a larger fine
d) Fourth offense: jail time
e) Fifth offense: yer out (really, dude, you are incompetent and need to roll up a new PC)
Note: Murgen doesn't have a horse in this race. Dwarfs don't like horses. Pa-dum-pum. Actually, he is just not that kind of rogue ... at least yet.
*Not to mention the fact that as a contractor, I have zero chance of getting paid during this shutdown, while those that we support (i.e. the feds) will eventually get their lost wages. Not that I am bitter or anything. Actually, I'm not bitter at all - yet. Ask me in a week though when the cost of the personal hardship begins to overtake the (IMO) justness of the cause.
