An idea occurred to me when reading one of Kenstrom's well-written storyline releases ... It would be a wonderful punishment for evil characters in storylines to receive brands. Not tattoo's because they can be easily removed, but perhaps something in the feature alteration slot that would show them to be branded as a traitor, or a malcontent, or whatever else is appropriate. It of course could be altered away, but it would represent a REAL punishment for those that choose to do evil and are caught.

Ideally, a new BRAND system would be released that put a special slot on a character. Think tattoos, but not one that can be removed unless specifically flagged by the creator. What would be best is if these brands could act as temporary enhancives. Negative brands would give NEGATIVE enhancives to the wearer, such as a loss of perception, or even curse-like effects. Anything is possible if a new system where to arise to support the idea of a lasting punishment. Positive brands could become a new service available to players. People have been suggesting enhancive tattoos forever.

The brands could also be made to last only a few days, or a week, or a month, or X amount of time before fading away on their own. You could even create an NPC which has you do a quest to remove them. Evil Deity aligned characters could do a Commune and beg their patron to remove their brand from them. The roleplay possibilities are endless, really.

What do people think?

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Evarin and his Mis'ri

Farmer,

This could be done with a simple change to the justice system...

if murder then
if player=banished && if player == intown then
message "Congrats for killing that rat bastard!"
increment fame
increment experience
else
call posse and process murder
.
.

Fairly simple coding, policy is a vastly different issue.

~Paul

In the end, it is about striking a balance between a slap on the wrist and ruining the enjoyment of the player. If you helped lead the DA for 2 years working tirelessly to see the town of Solhaven, and perhaps the world be destroyed ... shouldn't you get more than 1 death in return? I'm not saying a -4x negative RPA, but perhaps a Brand across your face that reads TRAITOR! That lasts for a month or two.

I see now that negative status effects wont be acceptable. You guys are right in that it would take only 1 person to complain to ruin the whole system. I don't really see anything wrong with temporary disfigurement, though. Do you?

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Evarin and his Mis'ri

>However, simply being BRANDED isn't all that bad. If someone was so upset at the thought of being marked with a short-moderate amount of time with a blemish on their LOOK appearance...maybe they shouldn't go around meteor swarming the landing, or attempting to kill the king of Ta'Vaalor?

A well-known member of DA once said to me, "The key to playing an evil character is that you have to be willing to lose." That's always stuck with me. Don't do bad things if you aren't willing to face possible repercussions.

I DO agree that characters who do evil/unlawful/traitorous things in quests need more consequences. I think the line is, "Does this consequence interfere with the player's ability to play the game?"

I think the branding would be a perfect idea. On the topic of temporary, though... I would prefer it to be optionally temporary. IE - you have the choice of removing it after X number of months. While some may not like the brand, others might relish having it from the RP sense. (IE - you helped the DA try to take over the world, only 2 months with a brand isn't much of a fitting punishment.)

Signed,
Raelee and her Strings

>Speaking to Zyllah, Alyias says, "See? Raelee knows all."

>Siwas has had a brand for awhile. Let's ask her how's it's working out!

Oh, I sense bitterness from someone who's heard me complain about this thing more than once. :P

Short version:

Awhile back, the commander of the Sapphire Guard in Ta'Illistim, who was Lorvellas at the time, slapped a brand on Siwas's wrist (more of a magical sigil sort of thing) as sort of an electronic monitoring device while she was in the city limits. She was warned not to remove it under penalties of incarceration for what would be a long time from an elven point of view, and the reason she got it at all was because she was overheard speaking publicly about some typical Lornon stuff she probably shouldn't have been. That, and the fact she was part of the 'let's release the Miscere'Golab on Ta'Illistim' side during the GSS, and elves apparently have long memories.

Anyway - this would have been an interesting thing, and did in fact provide some RP tangents for her and the other Lornon followers she'd been associating with in the city to follow as she tried to avoid being seen with them so as not to implicate them, was concerned about even going to the temple outside the city limits, etc. It would have been more interesting had the NPC ever actually come back and done something more with it - a month later, three months, whatever. It was never spoken of again, and she still has the thing on her wrist after all this time as there's no IC reason to remove it.

It irritates me because it clutters up my inventory, and that's really the only downside to it as there was no follow-through on the part of the person who put it there in the first place. It's also sort of anticlimactic to tell someone who inspects it or asks about it what it is, and then continue on to say that well no, it really doesn't hinder her in any way, or limit her entry into Ta'Illistim, or cause her any sort of negative effects.

Okay, I guess that wasn't really the 'short version'. Whatever, here:

TL;DR: If something like this is ever implemented, for the love of God follow through on it properly and don't leave people hanging.

--

Raelee quietly admits, "That is a difficult concept."

>TL;DR: If something like this is ever implemented, for the love of God follow through on it properly and don't leave people hanging.

I guess I was imagining something that would come at the end of a quest. You did bad, bad things and now you are being branded a criminal for life. Not something that would need to be followed up on.

Yeah, I know you've been waiting. That can't be easy.


Signed,
Raelee and her Strings

>Speaking to Zyllah, Alyias says, "See? Raelee knows all."

And I realize I'm committing horrible forum etiquette by double-posting, but I blame the lack of an edit button.

>You did bad, bad things and now you are being branded a criminal for life. Not something that would need to be followed up on.

If what had been done had been presented as a 'for life' thing, I would agree with you. From my recollection it was meant to be a temporary thing, until she showed she was not intending harm to the city on her visit.

--

Raelee quietly admits, "That is a difficult concept."

>I'd certainly love to hear about it, if you want to email me any further details!
Itzel

Oh, that's easy. Siwas was Branded for jaywalking and indecent exposure.


-farmer

*

That's just what we want, criss-crossing furrows all over the town streets from someone wandering through with their animated plow super buddy.

-Strath

>Oh, that's easy. Siwas was Branded for jaywalking and indecent exposure.

You forgot the impropriety charge, though I guess that falls under the latter.

Itzel, I'll dig up the logs from that night if I can remember what hard drive they're on and pass them along to you for the sake of information.

--

Raelee quietly admits, "That is a difficult concept."

>If what had been done had been presented as a 'for life' thing, I would agree with you. From my recollection it was meant to be a temporary thing, until she showed she was not intending harm to the city on her visit.

Just to clarify in a larger sense, this type of mechanic would most definitely be temporary. It seems that GMs already have the means of doing things just like I described. I would simply make the system a bit more standardized, as not every GM is a code ninja.

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Evarin and his Mis'ri