Ok, I was thinking to myself... why can you steal outside the city and have it not be a crime? You're still under the authority of the province, as long as you're in their territory.

What I'm thinking of is a provincial justice system. This would mean that if you commit a crime in Zoluren, whether in town or not, you can be reported and arrested in any city in the province. Of course, the arrests would take place in town, but would still take place, because a crime was still committed. Consider it this way... if you drag someone out into the wilderness of the United States and shoot him in the head, can you get away with it because you didn't do it in town? Yeah right... cops would hunt you down wherever you went. I'd think it'd be similar in Elanthia..

This also brings up the concept of both provincial and local guard forces. Commit a crime in Haven and the local guards would be after you, but they'd also inform the provincial guards, meaning you could head all the way up to Theren and still get caught by the provincial guards. Same as someone wanted in Leth trying to head to Crossings to escape justice... it ain't gonna happen unless you skip the border.

Might also have provincial guards placed at key points outside towns... like the ferry to Haven, or the gondola to Shard. Would be a key place to catch criminals trying to escape justice.

Really, crime in Elanthia is far too rampant, and virtually no legal precautions are taken to prevent it. This idea might make someone think twice about breaking the law... I'm sure the thieves will hate it though. But they chose to pick an unlawful guild, so they've no one to blame but themselves...

Calemnon

> B. Having computer-generated <NPC> justice out of town would preclude the idea of letting Paladins and other interested parties eventually getting the ability to "bounty-hunt". Sure you want that?

That would suit me just fine, personally. I for one don't care for the idea of Paladins as "cops". But that's my personal taste.


Serrin

>A. You cannot compare 21st century U.S. justice with Elanthia. Totally different society.

Would you rather I compare it to medeival justice where murderers are all executed and thieves get their hands chopped off?

there are places we DO get our hands chopped off...

grunts something unprintable about wolf clan...

>well heh, shouldn't steal handless


Umm... it shouldn't even be POSSIBLE to steal if your right hand is unusable...

All thieves are given ferrets.

We train these ferrets to steal gems.

Jeeze did NO one ever see beast master? You paladins have to get out more.


-Constatine

By description.

>Imagine if thieves argued to GM's that you shouldnt be able to accuse based on name, and when you catch a thief stealing all you saw was a dark bodied skra or a short halfling. Imagine how hard that would be for you to accuse and get a successful capture of the thief. Now realize that for all its short comings the justice system gives you a huge break in having your accuses actually catch a crook.

And this is more than fully counterbalanced by the fact that the game forces us to carry coins in a place where a thief can get to them (except those few coins protectable by the rare moneybelts, eyepatches, etc). If it is unrealistic to know the theif who stole from you, then it is equally unrealistic to be unable to place coins in a place where a thief could never pick-pocket them. (like under your armor, etc).

If DR was more like RL, the only way a thief would ever get any money from me was if he used extreme force. But IG its just "hide, stalk, steal" - ta da! - coins for me! Heh

Gloryarm

>Balance, aint it grand?

It's not balanced if some shmuck with 30 stealing can grab from a paladin with 130 perception with no trouble.

Theres that tricky 'snake eyes'. In my tests it works both ways. An empath at the arthe dale pond with 9...9 ranks of stealing stole off me (with over 155 perception and 120 stealing). She did so 3 times out of a slew of failures.

Now..i did 'notice' her every single time, for all thats worth. Pilf, and alot of other thieves want to remove both aspects of this (snake eyes resulting in random failure and success) and remove stealing ranks as a 'defense' and make it based entirely off perception. With that perception gained in ways like the xing bank and having a buddy steal off you 100 times would probably be reduced/removed, while riskier ways (breakable jugglies) would probably take their place. Makes no sense someone with 300 perception learn from searching out 20 novices. Thats akin for locking your HE skill at 300 ranks from killing 20 goblins:P

-Constatine