This is why you can't have linear rules for a roleplay server, there's always the idiot admin that comes along and misinterprets the rules so he can fuel his power trip.
So let's say Plebian would have given the person he robbed a *~chance~*, nine out of ten times the player being robbed is going to claim the attempt failed or complain until he gets his way. This is because nobody wants to be loving robbed. This is obvious.
It pisses me off when people like you try to host roleplay servers and completely alienate your players with your stuffty rules. You're hosting and/or moderating a server for the players, not trying to find excuses to ban them.
How the hell am I fueling a power trip?
The issue here is that Plebian DIDN'T give them a chance. Had he given them a chance, he could have gotten away with something. iirc we had several thievery things that succeeded over the past week or two, with people actually legitimately permitting reaction chance and victims accepting their logical inability to prevent it, with the consequences of that thievery playing out in-rp. As long as you do it right, it's not an issue.
Yes, nine times out of ten the theft will fail. Pickpocketing without being noticed is loving hard. That's why we don't need a quarter of our population to consist of thieves.
Also note that if the thief does a very good job of covering his bases while still following all the rules, and the victim still keeps on complaining or giving stuff about how he "saw it coming", said victim might very well get a short ban for godmodding. It hasn't actually come up yet; people have generally been good sports about the few decent thief RPers that we've had.
This is RP servers in a nutshell.
1> "Puts 2 in a headlock."
2> "Gets out of headlock."
1> "Wtf, you can't just 'get out' of a headlock! Admin do something!"
3Admin> "It's not that big of a deal."
1> (Angry)
(Later)
1> "Tries to steal from 2"
1> (Successfully steals from 2)
2> "Hey, that's not fair!"
3Admin> (Bans 1)
Rules can't be linear to limit certain events, nor fluid to be open to Admin interpretation.
Except what are they then? You've just contradicted yourself.
Great strawman there dude. The situations go more like:
1 > "attempts to stealthily sneak up behind 2 and surprise-attack by putting him in a headlock"
2 > ""WHAT THE- LEMME GO!" attempts to struggle his way out of headlock"
1 > "Holds on tighter, doing his best to restrain 2"
2 > "swings his leg back, hitting 1 in the crotch with his heel"
1 > ""AAAGGGHH" stumbles back, releasing 2"
Note that in your example, 1 would have violated the "permit time to respond" rule on his first action. Had he succeeded anyway even with the response, and 2 tried to just say "gets out of headlock", 2 would be told to elaborate on how exactly he gets out of a headlock.
Later:
1 > "Slips up behind 2, tiptoeing across the carpet as silently as possible, trying to remain unnoticed."
2 > "doesn't hear 1 approach, continues doing whatever it was he was doing"
1 > "Reaches out, attempting to slip something out of 2's pocket without disturbing anything"
2 (situation A) > "Still continues his work, oblivious to the theft of one of his gold coins"
1 (situation A) > "Silently exits the same way he came, sneaking back out onto the street"
2 (situation B) > "Feels a slight shift in the contents of his pocket, and instinctively attempts to adjust it, putting his hand right over that of the thief."
In your second example, 2 should have had an opportunity to do something in between 1's two actions. Furthermore, 1 should most definitely have elaborated on what exactly he was doing; there are many ways to try to steal something, and if you're not specific, you risk people assuming you're doing something (usually something not thought out) that you're not.
Also this "Writing a story" stuff is BS. If there was a RPG with resources and stuff, and there was a rule " You are required to roleplay your actions.", it would still work, and be much more exciting, and above all, you could ban people for not RPing, satisfy most of both worlds, and have fairness while writing a story. No one can become the "all-powerful" unless they earn it.
Keyword: IF
See, so far no RPG of any sort has actually been flexible enough to hold all the particular situations we've found ourselves in. RPGs so restricted in terms of gameplay will never be a part of the server. If you want to code the most comprehensive RPG ever with systems for handling every single action and systems for adding more actions while the server is up and running, be my guest, maybe we'll use it.
