Pickpocketing & Stolen Goods

Pickpocketing lets a player reach into an NPC's pocket and take something real. It is a contest: the thief's Pickpocketing skill against the mark's Awareness. Succeed and an actual item moves out of that NPC's pockets into the player's bag, flagged stolen. Fail and the mark feels the hand.

Either way, if somebody saw it and the faction whose ground you are standing on calls it a crime, your bounty with that faction goes up -- and its guards start acting on it.

None of this is a world-wide rule. The faction that owns the ground decides whether pickpocketing is a crime at all, what it costs, and whether a witness is needed. See Factions & Law for the law itself; this page is about the act.

Where to Author#

Three places, and you will usually touch all three:

• Database -> NPCs -> (an NPC) -> Identity -- which faction this character belongs to, and what job they hold in it.
• Database -> NPCs -> (an NPC) -> Behavior -> Theft -- whether their pockets can be picked, how alert they are, and what is in them.
• Database -> Factions -> (a faction) -> Law -- whether pickpocketing is a crime on their ground, and what it costs.

The two skills themselves, Pickpocketing and Awareness, are ordinary authored skills in Database -> Skills. Every world ships with both, and you can rename, re-icon and re-curve them like any other.

Setting It Up#

1. Open Database -> NPCs and pick the character you want robbable.
2. Under Identity, set Faction (law) to the city or clan they belong to, and Role in faction to what they do. Leave the role blank for an ordinary bystander, or set Guard for someone who enforces the law.
3. Under Behavior -> Theft, tick Pockets can be picked.
4. Set Awareness. 0 is oblivious; the world's skill cap (100 by default) means never robbed, by anyone, ever.
5. Add Pocket items -- one row per thing they are carrying, with a quantity. An NPC with nothing in their pockets tells the thief so rather than handing out a surprise.
6. Open Database -> Factions, pick the faction that owns the ground, go to Law, and tick Pickpocketing as a crime. Set its Bounty, its Standing lost, and whether it is Only if seen.
7. Still in Law, give that faction bounty bands. Without them its guards never act, whatever you steal.
8. Give the faction at least one NPC with the Guard role, standing where you want the law enforced.
9. Publish. In game, walk up to the NPC, talk to them, and pick [Steal] Try their pockets.

The Lift Is Played#

With the Pickpocket Minigame feature flag on (the default), trying a pocket opens Pickpocket Reach: hold to ease your hand in, and let go when the mark stirs and glances round — moving while they look fills their suspicion. Reach the purse first and the lift succeeds; fill their suspicion and they catch your hand. Everything after that is the same as the roll: the item, the witnesses, the bounty.

• The mark's Awareness sets the difficulty (higher is harder); the thief's Pickpocketing

  skill eases it. A mark at the skill cap is still never robbed — no minigame opens.

• Auto rolls against Pickpocketing instead of playing, like any minigame.
• Closing the window (Esc) leaves the pocket alone: no item, no crime.
• Flag off: the dice roll decides, as before.

The Fields#

On the NPC -- Identity#

On the NPC -- Theft#

On the faction -- Law#

On a shop -- buying stolen goods#

In Database -> NPCs -> Shops -> Buying:

Selling to a fence launders the item: it goes back on the shelf clean.

What the Player Sees#

• A red [Steal] Try their pockets line in the conversation of any character you marked robbable.
• The outcome as a system line -- what they lifted, or that they were caught, or that the pockets were empty.
• A Wanted readout near the top of the screen listing every faction that wants them, what they owe, and what that faction's guards will do about it. It hides itself entirely while they are wanted by nobody, and you can move or restyle it in the UI editor like any other HUD element.
• A small mark on stolen items in the bag, because no honest shop will touch them.

Gotchas#

• Awareness at the cap is absolute. A maxed thief against a maxed mark has a zero chance, not a small one. That is the way to make a character unrobbable -- do not try to do it with a very high number short of the cap.
• An emptied pocket stays empty until the NPC respawns. Pocket items are not an infinite well: a shopkeeper who never dies is robbed exactly as many times as you gave them things.
• A crime nobody saw is usually free. With Only if seen on, a lift in an empty alley raises no bounty -- but the item is still stolen and still unsellable to an honest vendor.
• No faction owns the ground, no crime happens. Rob someone in the wilderness and nothing is raised. Claim the map under Factions -> Territory first.
• A faction with no bounty bands has no guards acting. You can make theft a crime worth 500 and still have nobody do anything about it.
• Failing still counts. A botched lift is the same crime as a successful one, and the mark always notices. That is what makes Awareness worth authoring.
• Guards read their own faction only. A guard of another city will not lift a finger over what you owe this one, unless the two honour each other's bounties (Factions -> Neighbours).
• Publish before you test. A change to an NPC's pockets or a faction's law reaches a running server on publish, like every other authored thing.
• The whole system sits behind the Crime & Law feature flag. Off = the Steal line never appears, the attempt is refused, and no bounty is ever raised. Everything you authored is kept.