Risen - "Borrowing" those wares

[Hashbrick]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4uMmzxzG2I

If you haven't played Risen before it is a open world RPG that allows you to make your own choices. When you steal from someone (or someone or people is watching you do it) they hate you and if they hate you and are any part of a quest (start or finish) you get locked out til they like you again. It's a pretty cool concept, instead of just throwing you in jail or making you pay a fine you get outcasted by society. The video shows how easy it is to get away with said crime and the hilarious that will probably follow. What do you think about the give and take aspect of the game?

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

It's okay, but not very realistic. But then, how do you simulate a jail sentence in a game and make it feel like an actual consequence? I can't think of anything off the top of my head, so being outcasted by an NPC is at least something. Even then, there is magic available to cause "amnesia" in an NPC and they'll forget what you did. So it isn't anything truly overtly serious. Crime and punishment has never really been a big factor in the Gothic/Risen franchise.

 

[Hashbrick]

It's okay, but not very realistic. But then, how do you simulate a jail sentence in a game and make it feel like an actual consequence? I can't think of anything off the top of my head, so being outcasted by an NPC is at least something. Even then, there is magic available to cause "amnesia" in an NPC and they'll forget what you did. So it isn't anything truly overtly serious. Crime and punishment has never really been a big factor in the Gothic/Risen franchise.

Very true and great points. I did like the "tell a joke" spell and then just magically you are buddy buddy, pretty hilarious point of affairs. Risen tried to take from Gothic but I feel they missed a lot of the magic that made Gothic great.

Is there a way to do it better that wouldn't take away the fun of playing the game though? I'm not sure myself, if you start forcing jail like quests or breaking out of jail all the time, I'd think it would get stale, so the crime systems that have been designed already I think is for the reason to keep it still fun without boring you.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Very true and great points. I did like the "tell a joke" spell and then just magically you are buddy buddy, pretty hilarious point of affairs. Risen tried to take from Gothic but I feel they missed a lot of the magic that made Gothic great.

Is there a way to do it better that wouldn't take away the fun of playing the game though? I'm not sure myself, if you start forcing jail like quests or breaking out of jail all the time, I'd think it would get stale, so the crime systems that have been designed already I think is for the reason to keep it still fun without boring you.

Well, personally, I thought Risen was absolutely great (second one, not so much) and was quite close to Gothic II in execution. That's just me though.

As for crime, I really have no idea. You could just do a fine system maybe. Risen is rather tough in the early game for getting money, so loosing a lot of it due to a fine would be a rather significant setback and consequence. The currency would have to be a challenge for that to work though. A fine system in, say, Skyrim would be useless because money is so easy to get and is pretty trivial. Other than that, I can't think of much in way of a good punishment system that would be effective.