NPCs & Pickpocketing
I drink your milkshake.

1. Change the meta name. Instead of, "I saw Bob the Goat Ninja steal your shit" let's have it be "I saw a curvy bitch in a black hoodie steal your shit."

2. Change the reaction. Different PC's should react differently to dipping. Terra agents should, point them out and aim at them for instance (but not engage in combat. A newbie dip should be able to flee.) Gangers should be much more nuanced. I would love for a list of approved dips to be curated by PC gangers who collect tolls or even if dips who had good standing with the standard NPC faction system to be able to dip on certain turf without consequence. Otherwise, the terra reaction would kick-in accordingly.

Thoughts?

Love the general idea of the mechanic though, means dips have to think a bit before just pickpocketing any immy they lay eyes on.

Of course gangers is a whole other thing, they have turf to protect and if the dip is not paying its tax, they absolutely should fuck him up when caught working on their turf. Then give the leaders of gangs a whitelist command to add in people who paid their dues. With that in place, the gangers could then engage and defend whitelisted people, while laughing when random people get dipped/robbed by approved dips/robbers.

I also once again hate how all npcs have to act like white knights in regard to pickpockets.

As someone who has barely utilized pickpocketing because it seems a straight up useless UE investment vs being able to roflstomp someone with the equivalent in combat training - I'd love to have more pickpockets chime in on what's needed.

I'd like to see that. We could have it take info account specific info as well, like if I'm in the same faction as the NPC that spots me, maybe they just STFU about it

You feel around on your body, as if you're missing something.

For example...

Failure: the dipped notices instantly, or within a second.

Poor: 3 - 5ish seconds before notification

Able: 10 - 20 seconds

Adept: 1 - 2 minutes

Mastery: 5 - 10 minutes

OP: If you pickpocket someone and an NPC sees it, they'll whisper to the target about it and I have never seen this make sense in any context. I think it should be removed.

Automated, this disregards my relationship with that NPC, the place we're at, the NPC's relationship with the victim, and the context of what's going on.

If the NPC has a problem with what I am doing this should probably be handled by staff and not automated behavior.

By Vera at Aug 28, 2019 4:13 PM

To clarify: I am all for Chow or whoever sending a hit squad after me because she saw me dipping, but that should be a decision a GM being makes based on context, not something on autopilot.

By Vera at Aug 28, 2019 4:15 PM

I disagree. Nobody likes a thief and maybe in a couple cases you've had a positive relationship with the NPC that has snitched, but this mechanic works in the place of what our non-existent ambient population would be doing if they saw a dipping go down. If you're looking to avoid getting caught, maybe try not to have witnesses present.

By MongOfTheWeek at Aug 28, 2019 4:16 PM

I believe it's logical in a place like a bar, where people are more likely to notice (and actually care). If there's going to be a script for NPCs ratting out a pickpocket, they should also tell you when someone is stealing an item and not just chyen, or remove the feature entirely. Though, I do feel like this helps to balance the pickpocket skill so dips can't just become unstoppable forces for newbies.

By Stiza13 at Aug 28, 2019 4:16 PM

OK but what if I am the owner of the bar? Why is my NPC employee whispering about what I'm doing to people who may very well be his enemies?

By Vera at Aug 28, 2019 4:17 PM

This makes me wonder if there's a check in place for if an NPC even notices, or if it just happens everytime.

That being said, NPCs magically knowing player names and whispering it to the target seems kinda... Off. I've never seen it, given again, most dips are smart enough to do their thing when the target is alone, but also, as a sidenote, NPCs should probably have higher difficulties to spot dippers IF they're in congested areas, such as busy streets, and it should be a hefty penalty. Pickpockets IRL almost exclusively work very crowded streets for this very reason. Even if you notice, the person or group can vanish in a crowd in seconds, but more so, other people won't be paying attention.

And on top of that having NPCs act like pickpocket police, but then do nothing in case of muggings is just one big "what"?

With a mugger, even when they stomp you without saying anything you have several seconds of red text on your screen so people feel like they have more agency to react.

Obviously they're functionally the same thing, people are just wired that way I think.

I think the "lack of rp" thing here is similar to what some people were lamenting in the "I have no RP when suddenly murdered" thread. I mean, at least in terms of the spectrum of the Dip having severe motivation to not get made, and the target wanting at least some RP beyond having the item gone later.

It's difficult because somewhat unlike muggers, if a Dip is ID'd, every person who had an items stolen at any point (even if they've never ID'd that dip) is likely going to blame that one PC, or channel their frustration about all Dips onto them, even though there are thousands of dips in the mix from an ambient perspective.

Someone mentioned that an NPC will whisper a player name to a dipped player on a successful roll, this doesn't "go through" disguises right? If a player is successfully disguised, the NPC won't just fork over the character name right? If so, that seems broken off the hinges to me and should be just the disguise characteristics.

“Hey, are you stealing shit from these people?” Or something to that effect.

It is still le suck when it is your npc allies ratting on you but it might alleviate a direct snitch or ooc namedrop while also hinting to someone in the room they’re being stolen from (and if multiple people are there they can all freak out typing “I”)

-- S