| pickpocketing
For a while now I've been keeping a book in the yellow bag each of my characters carry with some info in it that is either personal, or has intrinsic value or is an in-game secret, and in March this year I even advertised in Ye Morning Poste for one such book as missing when it had been light-fingered, and offering a reward of 1000 gold.
The idea of this is to have pickpocketing result in roleplaying, rather than as seems to be most common just stealing some gold and there being no interaction (the pickpocketing equivelent of "wham, your dead!").
Note that I'll vary the importance of items, but that no reward will be less than 500 gold.
When the next issue of Ye Morning Poste hits the streets, it will be IC clear that Jern has doubled the reward for "finding" one such item to 2,000 gold. The character who stole it showed it to Gwen, but never came to claim the reward. I learned yesterday that the character is still around...
If the book has been lost or destroyed, the character can still claim the reward by giving any blank book to Jern Fretting. I know the name of the character and Gwen has seen the book, so it can still lead to roleplaying.
More generally, why not steal any item in the yellow bag and invent a story like "given it by a friend of a friend", "saw it dropped by a well-known thief", to con gold out of Jern. Show the item first to Jern or someone he knows well (Aegnor, Stewan Seagull, Devante Stirling, Draxandru Rose, Kaelyn, Sally Buttons, the Duke of Trinsic and many more). Or just go to The Trinsic Rose and talk to Gwen. You may even be able to bargain the price up! |