Hello there. I was merely thinking about criminal roleplay and how I consider it to be played right and wrong. I’d like to hear your opinions on the current state of it, how to go about it in a way that’s fun for all and how not to go about it, whether it’s thievery, muggings, beatings or whatever it may be.
Thanks!
Well, other than accept there are risk and consequences, and dont go to graphic on your emotes, I think its fine.
I think the main thing really is that you should be prepared to answer towards the consequences of your characters actions. From a glance that tends to be the thing that most often makes criminal RP unfun to play or interact with, you can’t keep getting away with mugging Johnny on his daily walk.
Saying that. It means for more creative approaches be it heists or whatever. You could even make something into a puzzle of sorts for guards to interact with and try uncover. Could be fun!
Oh and you don’t need to drop an F bomb every other sentence to clarify that you’re a criminal, swear words lose their impact and become off putting when that’s all your character has. Besides there are more creative ways to insult someone.
I rambled a bit.
What about petty thievery and pickpocketing? Some people prefer to to be whispered beforehand, while others want it happen out of the blue.
Put the words “attempts to” in the /e and it should be fine.
You can try that out of the blue as far as I care, not sure why you need a whisper warning.
You don’t need to mug people like a classic thief, you can also work together with the Sylvanas Loyalists for the extra coin.
Pretend you’re a nice guy in Orgrimmar but in reality you have deals with some evil people, wearing disguises and mugging people at their doors. Asking them to pay the monthly bill even though they already paid it.
For it to last long you have to be very hidden and try not to get caught the first evening you RP as a criminal.
The person you’ll mug/attack or whatever must be chill with that kinda stuff too. Usually, RP happens but you have some occasions where people tend to just OOC and say they don’t wanna be mugged.
The conclusion imo is that criminal RP is not easy when it comes to people not allowing RP to flow in.
In general, I think stuff like embezzlement or fraud is easier to pull off and more viable to RP with strangers. Emote fights (muggings) or pickpocketing can work, but is a lot more dependent on who you interact with. Some people outright don’t want to participate in ”violent” RP, while others will instantly try to kill your character.
Consequences are a necessary part of playing a criminal/villain, but there’s a huge difference between accepting consequences and killing your character because someone else is looking for a ”win”. There has to be some kind of give-and-take for the RP to mean something, otherwise you end up just ending the RP prematurely — which can be fine for throw-away characters, but I don’t see why criminals would always have to be played as one-offs.
similarly however, remember that you too are here to have fun.
If the consequences are inherently unfun, like your character being in a cell for 7 days straight with minimal/zero interaction, that’s rlly not something you should have to deal with just because it’s the consequence to your character’s action.
You can, obviously, if you want to. But I don’t imagine anyone wants to. Both authorities/vigilantes and crimebois alike need to let each other enjoy the hobby.
The main means of enforcing contracts, solving disputes and maintaining discipline in criminal circles is violence and the threat of violence. (Criminals can’t rely on law enforcement institutions to police their black markets.)
Anyone involved in criminal roleplay should be willing to let their character be seriously hurt. If you screw up big time in the underworld, your company doesn’t report you to the police - they kill you. If you owe money to mobsters, you will be hurt if you don’t repay that money in good time. If you fail to deliver stolen goods, you will be violently extorted. That’s just how it works.
Sometimes the threat of bad consequences is part of the fun - the risk/reward dynamic is part of the allure of criminal roleplay. If you have a character who’s going to be involved in high risk criminality, I’d honestly make that a character you’re prepared to lose one day. You’ll get loads of good, exciting roleplay along the way and when they are eventually killed or indicted for a serious crime, it’ll be the satisfying and memorable exit they deserve.
This too.
Healthy balance of it, makes for fun roleplay.
I can only mirror this whole-heartedly! I’d say a lot of approaches to the more violent crimes can be gauged in the threat alone. A mugger pulling a weapon and demanding their victim to hand over their coin or valuables leaves quite a lot in the hands of the victims in terms of how to react. If they’d take the mugger on, try to run or cry for help.
An approach I’ve had great fun with exploring is swindling/scamming. It’s generally a lot less violent crime towards the victims (Not so much towards your own character if they’re discovered). But it can lead to some fun interactions, especially if you have a few friends to up the scale with!
I think the current state of it is as it is with most avenues of RP, you can run into good and bad experiences. Not everyone inteprets criminals in the same way in WoW, and it can also be a challenge portraying a street-level criminal in a high fantasy setting, as you’ll come to face a large portion of characters who could snap you out of existence in any number of ways. Personally, that’s one of the things I found interesting to play around with though, the idea that there’s another risk assessment involved when a criminal ponders if they ought to try snatching that pouch from the blindfolded elf with the funky blades, or the man in the funny hat whose shoulders appear to be on fire.
But with a populace that has any assortment of powers, I’ve of course also seen more powerful criminals that can give the stronger demographic a run for their money.
But aside from the ranting, I’ve found that if you head into criminal RP equipped with a mindset of fair play, most often those on the “right” side of the law will respond with the same. If criminals start location sniping/god emoting/metagaming in their RP, they’ll be met with the same from the IC opposition.
There was a thread here yonks back titled, “Why criminal RP doesn’t have a place on the server”, or something like that, and a lot of the points I’ll bring up were ones I made on that very same thread. Unfortunately it’s been woefully lost in the forum revamp, and criminal RP is a topic I could go on and on about for a long time, but I’ll try to keep it concise and to three major issues that run rampant in crime RP.
This is a topic that’s really quite dear to my heart. I’ve had countless discussions on it and could have countless more. There’s so much to unpack on criminal RP, examples being: Power level and how high power level shouldn’t exist for petty crook types (why would a petty thief be a mastermind magic user and delve into something for lowlives when they could get a stable job for the Kirin Tor as an example), death and conflict RP as a whole and how strings of conflict interweave with criminal RP, jail cell RP and how you should always talk through the player you’re jailing to ensure they’re not stuck with 0 RP for their main for eons on end, stealth in RP and how to do it, disguising and playing antagnostic characters in big major cities, and the likes, but then this would turn into an entire novella.
I always went by some very basic principles playing less-than-lawful characters, although some may disagree with it:
I’m personally not a fan of this. It reduces flow and organic RP. Or at least having someone make the attempt, not everything is successful.
agreed, think an OOC press conference before any potentially negative interaction is kind of lame
There are some people who take it to the extreme, i.e. “whisper me if you’re going to insult my character” which is a whole other subject on it’s own. I’m of the belief that if it’s something minor, i.e. pickpocket, insults, some forms of scams or light robberies do not necessarily have to be discussed OOC, however, if we’re going into actual killing territory, or the loss of a plot crucial device or something that is worth significant amounts to the player, extreme injuries, then it should be discussed OOC beforehand as a lot of people do get attached to their characters and may not be entirely comfortable with what’s tried on them. It at least can save a lot of OOC hassle from those types of players, and I’ve found that whispering a player about these things actually makes them more open and welcome to the thought and idea of crimes happening to them, as opposed to were they not informed in the first place.
It’s a preference thing, I think.
It’s not a “press conference” so much as just a quick whisper asking if they’re okay with something. Usually the response is a “yep!” or a no. That’s it.
it’s still gonna completely disrupt the flow altogether, rlly
While the sentiment of it is nice, I think it still can be quite tedious. I think my preffered way to “fix” alot of the issues in/with criminal roleplay would be 3 things:
Stick to the ToS. Alot of the more “darker” criminal roleplay has from past experienced, often ventured into things that just isnt appropriate in WoW and a direct violation of the Tos(Certain types of assaults, far too graphic details on attacks, gore etc). Try to keep the criminal activity to something that is acceptable within the content of the game and the rules we’re all meant to follow, even when roleplaying. There’s still alot to explore there!
Whispering for permission is a nice idea, but it can get really tedios in many cases. In my opinion, just adding an “attempt” into each emote would fix most of the problems and work nicer.
Last “fix” is on the guard guilds. Alot of guard guilds are nice and chill, but criminal roleplay and villian in general have suffered heavily on the server from lawful guilds wanting to “win” the roleplay. If you see or catch a criminal, encourage roleplay, dont hnder it. Maybe let them get away some time, and the times they dont, dont just immediatly execute them or throw them in a cell for 10 days while logging to another character. Instead either let them do something like pay a fine, stage a way for them to escape, roleplay sone penance work etc.
And keep “jail” times shorter, much shorter, and keep these filled with roleplay from both ends.