Crime discussion

I still have questions on crime. I've seen multiple times Staff on OOC when I was still on it say, Commit more crimes.

But it seems like to do that you require ooc assistance to even attempt it by said staff.

So short of me codedly running up and grapple dude, dragging him physically down the street towards the lev while he's screaming for help in person and on the sic, which is doomed to fail because judges every two steps.

I'm confused as to what you mean, or is it just an anarchy type thing. Go shoot/kill someone to stir up RP?

Or do you mean crime like I plan a bank robbery or something crazy like that? But if I do that it's going to take GM interaction and I thought the whole point of the game was to go after players?

So on that vein, I target Joe corpie, me grabbing him/beating him, killing him gains me nothing, so why go through the risk vs reward to do it even if I codely can?

This is where I'm confused on crime and have asked through multiple avenues why and how but got nothing but pointed at a help file or board post about crimes you DON'T have to Xhelp for.

Why would I attempt a crime without a chance of an upside?

I'm totally down for trying to commit a crime, just don't know why I would ever bother with the way things "appear" to work.

Doesn't the fact that both ICly and OOCly you keep hearing that crime pays tell you that there is a chance of an upside? More often than not?

I suggest finding IC mentors to show your character some ways it's done.

Why do people in real life commit crimes? High risk, high reward: often motivated by desperate circumstances. It's best to stop thinking about SD from the "gamey/win" angle and drive from the "RP angle". Your character is likely poor, living in Red. They can barely afford rent, food, or money for clothes. They're getting dipped trying to run the straight and narrow on crates. What do they do?

They MIGHT decide to say fuck it. I have a 10% chance of getting away with a mugging at x location. I'd have a 50% chance if I can get a friend help, and with more friends and plotting, maybe a 60% chance. Even if YOU know OOCly that you've got a 90% chance of getting caught up, you can still try it. You can still have a bad-ass scene where you're trying to rob someone and getting caught. You can still have a bad-ass scene where you spit in the face of a Judge before your head gets blown off.

Maybe you come out of the vats with a reputation as someone who's willing to try some shit. Maybe people will reach out to you for further jobs based on that reputation. Or maybe you'll pull it off and make more in an hour than you had in a week.

The "winning" in SD is RP'ing a character that you enjoy creating, and making fun scenes for yourself and others. As you said "Stirring shit up to create RP". Some of the best RP'ers are the IC assholes who screw everyone else over to get them to band together to conquer them. A lot of them leave clues so that people can gravitate towards them. This is an OOCly "bad" play from a "play to win" standpoint, but for SD it's great. More plot, more reputation, more people involved.

As everyone has said, there isn't an OOC "How to crime handbook". As with most things in SD, you need to find someone IC to tell you what you can pull off. It can be frustrating because it's so unlike other games, but at the same time, it drives really cool mentorships IC massively. Find someone with a lot of money IC, or who at least looks successful, and show that you want to do some crime. Ask them what kinds of targets there are, and how easy they are to hit. Chances are, after they've had you prove yourself a bit, they'll send you in the right direction. They can explain ICly (and to some extent, on local OOC, for topside) how crimes are typically accomplished.

Try to shift your focus to enjoying RP and scenes, and away from success in terms of materials. There are people who play super safe, only cashing paychecks, never doing crime. They end up with all sorts of toys that they bought, but no one has any idea who they are. Why would they?

They're busy talking about how bad-ass the mixer with nothing but a pair of brass balls and an empty pistol managed to hold up someone for all their pocket money.

There's an assumption being made that crime naturally involves the kill verb. This is categorically incorrect.

Smuggling, Embezzling, Fraud, Spying/Ratting, Thievery, Burglary, Treason, Arson, Duress, Terrorism- none of these things require you to type 'Kill X.'

Crime is how you should be making your 'real flash,' not jobs. Jobs pay your rent, maybe make you a little bit of trickle income. Crime should almost always be aimed at players, or involve other players if you want it to be a successful and lasting engagement.

You're going to suck at it to start, you're going to get caught doing it, and you're going to have to live with the consequences. Everyone has to do these things at some point in their character's progression if they want to be involved in any serious plotting. Staff tells people to go out and do these things regularly because slice of life and barRP don't meaningfully drive the plot for the game as a whole. Which isn't to say that those things are bad, simply that they don't tend to ripple outwards or leave a wake as large as other plots do.

As for what you can do and how to go about doing it? That's all things you have to figure out ICly.

Make it that one person's (or department's) job to react to the most deserving comments, and make it every other employee's responsibility to let them instead of taking it into their own hands.

That position already exists lol

And the second part is 100% absent, other than people who get consequences for wildly egregrious fuckups.

But what about that gives them the ability to incite violence?

If it's said by a mixer "I kinda expect someone to shoot someone." on a Live TV broadcast, and that gets attention from a Judge.

And someone from any Corporation says straightforwardly or even veiled that they will murder someone, without specifying in self defense as a matter of their job description on their corporate property, then why isn't it treated the same way?

I understand the Judges work for the Corporations and I understand that there's events that stage Mix versus Corporate Citizens, but, if I think about it, it kinda makes more sense that the Judges would want to prevent further outright antagonizing of the massively overpopulated lower levels that could result in a very hard to contain mass right.

I am trying to think in terms of what makes sense given the context of the theme and the ambience of the city, much less in what you'd expect out of the existing player character population.

I don't think the answer is simply, "If SIC doesn't work for you, try something else." That doesn't feel constructive.

I believed this to be the case because this isn't a question you ask ICly, In my opinion, it is an OOC observation of IC actions and should be discussed from an OOC perspective.

I did try though, and I appreciate your advice.