Crime and the guards

1. Seen

   Strike one of the townsfolk and they cry for help; kill one and the whole street cries murder. Taking what the town has laid out - from a table, a shelf or one of the land's chests - raises no cry: the land's riches are limited, not guarded.

2. The guards come

   Every guard within about seventy metres draws and comes for you. In a town with no guard close by, the watch sends two watchmen running from the nearest corner.

3. The law hears

   The City Guard is told who was seen and where - and so, in a lordship's towns, are its sworn Constables. A killing is posted on the notice board under the killer's name: in the lordship's name if it has Constables, otherwise the Guard's. The wanted boards hung in the towns show the notices of their lordship, kept up to date by themselves; press E on one to turn its pages.

4. The hunt ends

   after ten minutes without a new crime, when you fall, or once you are more than ninety metres from every guard chasing you. The guards then go back to their posts.

The fallen

A player who is struck down is wounded, not dead: nobody may search their body or strip them - unless they allow it. While fallen, /allowloot player lets one person search your body (a robbery played out, a friend taking your gear home), /allowloot all lets anyone do so, and /allowloot off withdraws it; the permission lasts until your next fall. The staff on duty may always search a body, and it is logged. Members of the factions the staff allow - and anyone allowed to rob - may also search a fallen player within 5 metres with /loot id: each fall offers three of the victim's stacks, drawn at random, and half their purse, shared by everyone who loots them. A body is looted once every 30 minutes, whoever loots it: neither the same looter nor anyone else can begin another search of it before the wait is over. You search the body for 25 seconds, kneeling over it, before its belongings open - never while you are in a fight (a blow given or taken in the last minute), and a blow while you search stops it. Someone robbed in the last hour cannot be looted: there is nothing left to take on them.

Robbery

Only those the staff allow may rob: a character given permission personally, or every member of a faction given it. A member who leaves the faction loses that permission at once (a personal one stays). Binding someone (restrained) gives no permission: only those allowed may rob, bound victim or not.

Stand within 5 metres of someone, standing or restrained - but not a body lying dead in its five minutes, which only /loot searches (nor can it be confiscated from) - and use /rob id (or F2, E on the person, or the action wheel > the person > Rob, shown only to those allowed). You search them for 25 seconds: your victim is held still through the search and 15 seconds more, then may walk away - past 8 metres the robbery ends. When the search is done you see 2 random things from their pack and 1 worn piece, and take 2 of them (each stack whole) or their whole purse - never both. Without robbery access, a hold-up takes only coin, up to 50 groschen. Uniform pieces issued by a faction cannot be taken. After a hold-up, success or not, you wait 30 minutes from its end before the next, and so does your party around you; one hold-up at a time, and never the same person straight again. Someone robbed of items or a purse can only lose coin for 24 hours. While bound, held, robbed or detained, nobody can give, pay, trade or drop anything. Being allowed to rob also lets you loot the fallen (/loot). Items keep their condition, and the victim is told everything that was taken.

Saddlebags and carts: from a horse's bags or a cart's load a robber takes 2 whole stacks, items or goods (F2 or the wheel's Here) - never the horse or the cart itself: riding off on another's horse is refused. A trade pack can be taken by anyone. A robber or an accomplice who logs off or changes character within 30 minutes is reported to the staff.

Daily limits: each account may rob 3 players, 1 horse's bags and 1 cart's load in any 24 hours; a hold-up that succeeds counts. Looting the fallen, confiscations and the watch's searches do not count.

Robbery is a crime. If a townsperson sees it, they cry out: the guards come, the law hears your name, and a wanted notice goes up at once. If nobody sees it, the law only hears that someone was robbed there - but the victim may report it within 30 minutes with /reportrob, and the notice goes up under the robber's name.

The rope

On the roads and in the wilds, someone on foot can throw a Flax rope at a rider and pull them off the horse. Carry the rope in your pack (the general merchants sell it for 15 groschen, and a tailor makes it from four nettles), face the rider and use Z > Here > Throw the rope, or /lasso. The rider must be in front of you, within 10 metres. The rope holds about four times in ten - less at the far end of its reach - and breaks one throw in four. You can throw it every 20 seconds, and the same rider can only be roped once in 30 seconds. Never inside a town, and never at the staff on duty. A rider brought down this way is assaulted: a townsperson who sees it cries out, as at a blow.

Confiscation

The factions the staff allow (a law faction, as a rule) may use /confiscate id within 5 metres on someone who is wanted or has an unpaid fine. The same window opens, limited to weapons, armour and groschen (up to the whole purse; the groschen taken pay off their unpaid fines). There is no wait between two confiscations, and it is not a crime. The person searched is told what was taken.

Forbidden places

Some places of the land are closed to the public: a castle's keep, the mint, a court's chambers, a faction's hall. Inside one the game shows its red trespass icon (a private place: the blue one). Those it is meant for - its faction, the town's court, the watch, the staff on duty - see nothing. Anyone else is told to leave as they come in; still inside a forbidden place after about twenty-five seconds, the townsfolk tell the watch and a wanted notice for trespassing goes up (once in half an hour a place, never during a siege or a raid there, never for a bound prisoner).