Pickpocket?

[Lephys]

For me, the ability to pickpocket random citizens is the roleplay aspect of a thief - don't expect to get rich off it but it's nice to have.

Sure, but, if the outcome isn't significant, what's the point? In a cRPG, either that person has some important item on them that contributes to your situation, or they just have what amounts to "free stuff" that you could acquire anywhere else. In a PnP game, the outcome of getting caught can have all kinds of impacts on things. But, in a cRPG, you've got a "here's what happens when you get caught" programmed in. They just don't have the time or resources to put in 37 different potentialities for your pickpocket attempt, for any given person who should be pickpocketable if you're a Thief.

 

I'm not saying the desire to or idea of pickpocketing from random strangers is preposterous. I'm just saying that, tossing "Okay, you can pickpocket from random peeps" into a cRPG doesn't really accomplish much but the implementation of a lottery skill. It's best if you can only pickpocket in select situations. Then, make sure those are rather plentiful and varied. Maybe sometimes, there's a good opportunity to snatch someone's coinpurse, so the game let's you make a check vs. your Stealth (in PoE's case) skill, etc. But not just "click on Pickpocket, then click on random NPC walking around."

 

Well the concept would not have to be as simple as Daggerfalls - the court could keep records so that the more actions against you the higher the fine or otherwise increase the penalty - perhaps adding some time killing community service to the sentence that would keep you from leaving an area until it was completed (incorporating it's own sets of mini-quests) nor would the game need to make it possible to pick pocket everyone in order to accomplish this - the upside of the concept being that one could roleplay a thief type as a form of side questing - it would not have to be a major quest line just a fun side trip for a rogue type.

 

As for save and reload well just set it up so the third time you do this your computer explodes - that will teach the save scummers! 

True. IF there was pickpocketing in, I would like to see a penalty that goes beyond just "this is so negligible you don't care," or "this is so bad you're just going to reload." Of course, I dunno if there's really anything you can do about the ability to reload, so I wouldn't worry about that, particularly. Still... It's just a little strange for a whole skill to basically just give you a bunch of dice rolls for extra money/loot. I think it needs to go beyond that.

 

Also, I realize you wouldn't have to be able to pickpocket literally everyone. But, that's kind of what was brought up here, initially, so that's what I've been commenting against, specifically. If you can't pickpocket everyone, then, by default, you're allowed to pickpocket only certain people (however many). In which case, the situations immediately gain the potential to be much more guided, and less sandboxy/generic.

 

Side note: I think one thing that would be interesting is if pickpocketing actually led to quests/altered quests. What I mean is, before you even get to Quest X, you find someone who seems like maybe they've got something valuable, or or acting shady, etc. So you decide that, out of curiosity, you're going to see what they've got on them. So you do it, and you find some jewel. Later on you find out that that jewel is quite significant, and not just some random treasure. And the fact that you have it now, and/or the fact that it was taken in the first place, alters the situation you're in when you learn about that and must deal with (if you choose to) the narrative surrounding the jewel and others' interests in it. That would support the actual, significant roleplay of a Thief type. As opposed to "well, every single NPC you see is a potential free loot container, and that's about it..."

 

And yes, computers should definitely explode when you try to save scum. Hahaha...

Edited October 16, 2014 by Lephys

[Silent Winter]

 

For me, the ability to pickpocket random citizens is the roleplay aspect of a thief - don't expect to get rich off it but it's nice to have.

Sure, but, if the outcome isn't significant, what's the point?

I repeat - just the roleplaying factor

The 'free stuff' you get might only be a bullet or a couple of copper pieces.

There could also be significant stuff wherein pickpocketing is one alternative (with fighting and persuasion being among others) to get key-item X.

 

I won't be distraught at its absence - but in a game where we can try to roleplay a thief archtype, it would be nice.

[redneckdevil]

I think the only pickpocketing system i liked was in Morrowind. Now the stealth mechanics and animations were bad but i liked the fact pickpocketing loot was determined by ur stealth skill and ur agility score. Had a quest to pickpocket a key from someone and didnt have enough skills and agility, u either found nothing or a book lol and would either have to level up ur skills or kill or find another way to get it with magic and personality.

[Lephys]

I think the only pickpocketing system i liked was in Morrowind. Now the stealth mechanics and animations were bad but i liked the fact pickpocketing loot was determined by ur stealth skill and ur agility score. Had a quest to pickpocket a key from someone and didnt have enough skills and agility, u either found nothing or a book lol and would either have to level up ur skills or kill or find another way to get it with magic and personality.

I never played Morrowind (started with Oblivion, sadly), but that sounds like a rather interesting approach to it. It at least represents the actual difficulty of taking different things from someone's person without being noticed, without just making it a slot machine.