IC Thievery and Player Props

Community Game ideas
#1

Hypothetical Situation;

[quote=“Hypothetical Situation”]You’re attending a LARP campaign session. You’ve spent time, effort, and money composing your costume and your props.

The rules of the campaign allow other characters to physically take your props, via something like a Thievery skill.

The “stolen” props do not disappear from play, but are still present and you are able to take them back via whatever means are provided to you by the rules or suitable roleplay.

At the end of the campaign all “stolen” props that have not been repossessed are either directly returned to the person they were taken from, or they are placed on a Lost & Found table for you to retrieve.

During downtime, if the “stolen” prop had any significance in the rules, the in-game object is considered lost, and your character no longer possesses the in-game object the prop represented. Your character is still able to attain another in-game item of the same function that can be represented by the prop, so long as they have the in-game means to do so (e.g. enough coin to buy another one from the equipment list).
The thief gains an in-game object of the same rules significance, if the player of that character can provide their own prop to represent it.[/quote]
Would you be uncomfortable attending a campaign that allowed prop taking for the duration of the session?
Could the above scenario be improved in some way to solve your discomfort?

#2

I think that if a prop is stolen, then a GM has to be told. Perhaps a specific GM. And when the character notices that the prop is missing, they ask that GM if the thief has acknowledged stealing the prop.

The GM gives no other information than a yes or no. They aren’t ratting on the thief. But the player then knows that it is an in game theft, not an OOC theft…

If the GM has no knowledge of this, then there may be a problem…

#3

Having been affected by IC theft in game I would not be happy about it if it involved personal gear.

If a GM gave me a Plot Thing and it was actually taken because I didn’t guard it with my life that’s ok but if someone ‘steals’ my sword for example, considering it cost a pretty penny I would be rather worried and highly unhappy. It would be far better for a GM or crew person to come up to me and say ‘Your sword has been stolen’ and then I take off the sword, go back to my bunk and put it there, then roleplay accordingly. That way OOC I know where my stuff is and IC I don’t have it on me anymore.

#4

Yeah I got really freaked out when my weapon got picked up from right beside me when I was having a nap on the grass at November Teonn… It took me right out of the game, even after I found it. I kept asking my mates “did you take that just for a joke?”. Personally, I wouldn’t be comfortable playing a game even with this system that you have put a lot of thought into. Even though I’m pretty trusting of NZLARPS people, I am way too OCD to be happy with theft.

#5

What about a tag system, so a thief should be able to access the item to put a tag onto that says it is stolen. The owner of the item then reports to the GM, who gives the thief and adequate representation, and the owner the puts the stolen item in their OOC gear. That way the theiving requires the necessary sneaky skills whilst not actually taking someone’s personal property. Would that make people feel more comfortable?

#6

It would indeed work, although what I am aiming at is the least amount of meta-data present while still enabling the players to do things they don’t usually get to do in the real world without real consequences. I’d see the tags as metadata that is obviously OOC, and I’d rather dispose of thieving entirely than put tags into the game, however that is my personal preference.

Regarding the concerns raised in this thread so far, I think such a tagging system would alleviate any worry I personally had about missing props.

#7

what about instead of tags its something that at least looks in character. Yes there’s still metadata indicators present, but it blends in more. I do get you point, I also like simplicity and immersion when it comes to these things, but I’d rather provide a good roleplaying opportunity than not include it because of that.

#8

If the indicator were IC enough to blend in, but yet noticeable enough that a person who had been “tagged” would realise without too much delay, then yes, that would fit the bill. I suppose what is appropriate as a tag is very setting-dependent. If we were to take a medieval fantasy setting, what would be an appropriate tag? I admit that I do not have any ideas, but this may be due to the hour of the morning at the time of writing.

#9

If the indicator were IC enough to blend in, but yet noticeable enough that a person who had been “tagged” would realise without too much delay, then yes, that would fit the bill. I suppose what is appropriate as a tag is very setting-dependent. If we were to take a medieval fantasy setting, what would be an appropriate tag? I admit that I do not have any ideas, but this may be due to the hour of the morning at the time of writing.[/quote]

Wooden pegs with a number painted on? for bigger items, possibly string around it and the peg on the string?

#10

If the indicator were IC enough to blend in, but yet noticeable enough that a person who had been “tagged” would realise without too much delay, then yes, that would fit the bill. I suppose what is appropriate as a tag is very setting-dependent. If we were to take a medieval fantasy setting, what would be an appropriate tag? I admit that I do not have any ideas, but this may be due to the hour of the morning at the time of writing.[/quote]

Wooden pegs with a number painted on? for bigger items, possibly string around it and the peg on the string?[/quote]
Yea, I suppose a prop such as that with the individual thief’s OOC identification of some sort would be a suitable tag.

In order to reduce the amount of OOC thought going through a player’s mind once an item had been tagged, I had thought that the character could IC report the theft to a character who is the equivalent of law enforcement in the setting, rather than to a GM. The victim of the theft can then remove the prop from play and give the tag, whatever it is, to the law enforcement character. This way the law enforcement character is responsible for passing on all theft reports (and tags) to the Game Masters, or their deputies, so that the amount of OOC interaction between people involving theft is limited to only a few characters who will be reporting to higher authorities semi-regularly for other crime reports as well.

Such a system as outlined in this post is still less than ideal, but I’m unsure where to go from here to further reduce OOC interactions for thievery.

#11

[quote=“Tetrajak”]

In order to reduce the amount of OOC thought going through a player’s mind once an item had been tagged, I had thought that the character could IC report the theft to a character who is the equivalent of law enforcement in the setting, rather than to a GM. The victim of the theft can then remove the prop from play and give the tag, whatever it is, to the law enforcement character. This way the law enforcement character is responsible for passing on all theft reports (and tags) to the Game Masters, or their deputies, so that the amount of OOC interaction between people involving theft is limited to only a few characters who will be reporting to higher authorities semi-regularly for other crime reports as well.

Such a system as outlined in this post is still less than ideal, but I’m unsure where to go from here to further reduce OOC interactions for thievery.[/quote]

This would actually also be a really cool way for the law enforcement to keep track of crimes i.e. “This has the mark of that infamous thief we’ve been trying to track.” which could provide for some good investigative roleplaying.

#12

[quote=“Lady Prema”][quote=“Tetrajak”]

In order to reduce the amount of OOC thought going through a player’s mind once an item had been tagged, I had thought that the character could IC report the theft to a character who is the equivalent of law enforcement in the setting, rather than to a GM. The victim of the theft can then remove the prop from play and give the tag, whatever it is, to the law enforcement character. This way the law enforcement character is responsible for passing on all theft reports (and tags) to the Game Masters, or their deputies, so that the amount of OOC interaction between people involving theft is limited to only a few characters who will be reporting to higher authorities semi-regularly for other crime reports as well.

Such a system as outlined in this post is still less than ideal, but I’m unsure where to go from here to further reduce OOC interactions for thievery.[/quote]

This would actually also be a really cool way for the law enforcement to keep track of crimes i.e. “This has the mark of that infamous thief we’ve been trying to track.” which could provide for some good investigative roleplaying.[/quote]
That is a very good point that I had not even considered. Thank you very much for pointing it out :smiley: