suspicious types in your settlement

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La Villa Strangiato
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suspicious types in your settlement

Post by La Villa Strangiato » Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:45 am

after much perusing of the forums and long hours sitting in the hub, i am curious to hear the peanut gallery's opinion; when do you act icly against a "suspicious character"?

when i say "suspicious character", i'm referring to a pc that you've never seen before walking into an area, usually disguised or fully covered, sometimes stealthed, lingering around near a conversation or standing at the board for an oddly long time. at what point would you confront "Totally Not An Elf" in the hub, or "Totally Not A Drow" in the cordor square?

what is your threshold for ic suspicion? does someone have to be stealthed and disguised? fully warded? do they start speaking freaky languages, being hostile for no real reason, or just kinda standing there and being weird? what do you think the threshold for ic suspicion should be, as so not to be overly disruptive or meta-y of a character's disguise?
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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Good Character » Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:53 am

1. Oddly dressed for the area.
2. Asking for specific people or asking where something specific is.
3. Hanging around an important landmark (i.e. jail, government hall, guildhouse, etc.).
4. Size of the character versus what their alleged disguise is (i.e. trying to be a human as a minotaur).
5. Inability to respond in the usual language spoken for the area.

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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Killer on the drive home » Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:53 am

In the Hub? Suspicious characters dressed in all black, disguised!?

Those are some shaky parameters, to be honest. When it comes to the Hub, if you look like you're a normal person from the Surface, you're suspicious. If you're an uncollared elf, you're suspicious. If you're an undisguised, uncovered, uncollared halfling, you're really suspicious. Anyone fully covered that reads as "elf" or "drow" is suspicious if not familiar and identified by a trusted member of the Andunor community. Good security assumes language can be learned and employed to fake race.

I got suspicious of a literal level 3 character once, because they seemed too competent/independent, while loitering around the Hub. Turned out they just rped really good. Was a Drow and not an elf.

Honestly, if you're not known to work for somebody, and not known to use the Hub portal, you're suspicious.

Speak common exclusively, and you're suspicious. Have good manners, and you might just get by unbothered, though.
Last edited by Killer on the drive home on Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Skibbles » Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:54 am

You're going to get unlimited variety in different answers here, but I guess the best I can come up with is: how do you treat characters who do all those things but aren't disguised?

That's probably your answer.

If you're lurking in the Hub for long hours it sounds like your character could be just as suspicious as they are. How are other characters treating yours for this?

The Hub is arguably intended to be populated by shady folks doing shady business. I personally usually err on the side of 'who the heck cares' about just about anyone in the Hub of all places, unless there is a seriously egregious circumstance like a flock of elves shouting 'death to Lloth' or something.
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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Aelryn Bloodmoon » Sun Aug 29, 2021 5:45 am

Location and circumstance.

As Good Character pointed out, important landmarks, especially ones tied to the government, tend to prompt a bit more alertness in general, I think.

Who am I playing? A studious mage with his head buried in a book half the time? Your character will probably have to disrupt his reading in order for him to be fussed enough to look up and take note, unless you're trying to read over his shoulder or nick his magic stuff. He'd probably also look up if he heard spell-casting.

A guard/spy/scout? On sentry/patrol/mission? If your face is covered I'll take every chance I can get to know who you are because you're making an obvious effort to conceal it, even if I have no idea who you are, because in one fashion or another, it's smart and probably part of my job or will make it less difficult down the line. I might even sneak off down the way and try to follow you if I'm playing a sneak myself.

I can't judge those who don't do it, because I realize I'm probably not the majority sample in attitude here, but I always had a vast appreciation for disguised characters that didn't cover themselves head to toe, and came up with believable alternate personas, descriptions, and personality quirks in disguises that only really required them to change to a different outfit. I am 99.9% likely to let these walk on principle no matter how many times I identify someone while reading their description, barring would-be assassins lurking around government officials or running into a phone booth and changing outfits right in front of me.

Might try for calling them out in private later, if my character has an actual reason to, though.

Edit: Specifically at the message board - very much depends on the character. I will say, there aren't a lot of reasons to stand next to a message board and not read it or post on it for protracted periods of time, except to see who comes and goes and writes what - and listen to who says what at one of the highest traffic locations in the settlement. It's a tactic not atypically employed by spies and information traders. Reactions vary by character from indifferent (lack of) notice to wary-but-blatant examination.
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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Watchful Glare » Sun Aug 29, 2021 10:41 am

It comes down to the character I am playing and the circumstances. For instance in the hub, there was a spell where one of my characters would want to inspect anyone fully covered that had an elven complexion. Naturally everyone he inspected was a drow, none were disguised- But it sets the tone. Every 'newcomer' is met with suspicion, and most of the people he's suspected always turned out to be legit outcasts or UD people he just didn't know yet, but it's a matter of interpretation and playing a paranoid individual.

Then there have been times where my characters have met with an actual surfacer that had come to the UD to learn about it's people and languages and rather than kill them or be hostile to them ended up defending them against people who wanted to go murderhobo on the outsider- And it led into interesting RP about the surface world, and the person helping them venture into one of the cities because my character wanted to know what a surfacer city looked like, while putting themselves at risk of being seen smuggling a drow into a city at night. That was quite an adventure.

I find these kind of things work better either on 0 or 100 on certain triggers. That is, say, either your character suspects anyone they don't know with most of it being false positives. Or they don't much care. Anything in between can be iffy, considering the quotation marks on disguises and the potential for meta. Impartiality works best and helps set the tone for yourself and others.

It wouldn't make sense if your character sees 20 strangers a day and doesn't care, but the moment a disguised person shows up they go full Sherlock Holmes on him.
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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Curve » Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:29 pm

I don't like to play characters that are part of power structures like big factions or settlements. I like to play underdogs. I also don't do much standing in hubs so I don't find myself in this this position very often. That being said, my characters often are suspicious of others and their motives.

All that is fluff to say that I am careful not to play my suspicion in a way that stops other people from having fun or to kick someone out of an area. I want people to spy on my characters, to run game on my characters, to get over on my characters.

I am also careful in the way I talk about areas of the server, in the sense that I never call any area mine. You will never hear me say, "my settlement" or anything like that. When I start to feel like I get to decide who is in very public spaces I am lingering towards the dark side of the force. I understand that this way of looking at things has limits (with stuff like surface elves in Andunor or drow in Cordor) but still I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt before I go all dragnet on them.

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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Drowboy » Sun Aug 29, 2021 6:28 pm

If I'm playing a character that would care
If I'm for some reason standing around in a city
If I for some reason have actual ic authority to make the choice
If I can be bothered as a human being

Maybe once they start acting funny

But I really can't think of anything I'd like less to do with my limited human lifespan than play Hub Police just in case someone else is trying to sneakily learn undercommon or whatever.
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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by seppuku me senpai » Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:28 pm

I think you should be asking yourself what you want to accomplish by approaching the suspicious individual. Seeing a disguised shady character should be an exciting roleplay opportunity to get to know someone new and explore a plot hook. Unless there is an obvious tell on the characters disguise you can observe that warrants a hostile response/suspicion (iconography of an opposing deitiy, a bone arm, bag of elf ears) it's best to approach the stranger however your character would usually approach someone interesting. Personally, I like to comment on a detail in their description or clothing and ask about it or strike up a mundane conversation before I get into asking what they're up to.

Edit: oh yeah. As for the Hub: you are literally standing in the hive of scum and villainy. You are going to be surrounded by fully clothed sketchy individuals. I wouldn't be surprised if most of them were disguised. Additionally, most people hang out in certain points, so, it's kind of weird to single someone out for being sketchy because you haven't seen them before. Be curious and get to know them.

The floaty name disguise cue should in no way influence whether or not you'll engage with someone. That's just not fair to you, or them. If the suspicious character feels like a threat that you're scrounging for reasons to extinguish, you're doing it wrong. Give people a chance, they might surprise you!
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Re: suspicious types in your settlement

Post by Gillesbreton » Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:45 pm

Surface:
Some towns have guards who’s duty it is to seek out outcasts, banished, pariahs etc. however a charismatic (not guard) character might be able rally together a mob or investigate themselves.

Underdark:
In the Hub over the years there have been various characters who have indiscriminately questioned every non-native race, disguised or fully clothed character entering the hub. Trade papers, sponsorship papers, or Underdark faction membership papers also used to be a thing.
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