Make Pariahs Have A Cost/Limit (Or Remove Pariahs)
Problem:
Currently, pariahs are treated as exiles. People (in governments) in RP will state quite literally that they won't exile people because of the cost, they'll just pariah them and keep them out or kill them on sight. Sometimes in RP we'll just call pariahs exiles, because really there is no difference for how players will ostensibly treat them.
As it stands right now, there IS no point to exiling someone. Why exile them, when you can just pariah them and make them kill on sight? I don't blame players for doing it this way, because the game incentives them to.
How do we fix this?
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Idea 1:
Make pariahs cost half of what exiles cost to maintain, and give pariahs a limit (twice that of exiles seems about right). Make pariahing someone a cost/benefit choice - same as exile.
Or, something to that effect anyway. Make pariahing someone carry some sort of weight like exile does.
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Counter-Points to Idea 1:
Yes, it could very well lead to PC authorities not bothering exiling/pariahing people, making up their own IC list, and doing things that way. But DMs can always react with NPCs as if the PC authorities are skirting regulations, or completely nuts at the least. DMs can keep that behaviour in check using the world. And hey, since its an IC action that leads to an IC punishment potentially, it could lead to some neat RP too! Which is good.
I'm not sure if this'll make exile used or not, truthfully. Maybe making it so that exiles cannot be marked as KoS without the world reacting might also solve the problem? I'm not sure. It's an irritating problem that comes down to trying to find a mechanical (or RP) way to shift a poor player practise.
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Idea 2 (that solves the above counter-points):
One could also remove the pariah system, and make it an all or nothing: exile or no exile. Let the in-between be a player-thing, but not one recognized by the world/NPCs. Raise the exile limit and make it all exiles.
That alternative adjusts the mechanics to player behaviour. Players want to treat pariahs like exiles, so pariahs can 'be' exiles. IMO that might be cleaner and simpler.