General Tips: Stolen Items

[Noctere]

A few tips to avoid being the victim of a pickpocket:

#1 If you have a unique item that is particularly important to you. Please register it with the REGISTER command. This can be done at your local town hall and will save you a lot of trouble if the item is ever lost or stolen.

#2 Thieves have a more difficult time stealing from closed containers. So if you have something that you DON'T want stolen, please keep it in a closed backpack or a closed pouch or anything that can be closed shut on your person. Just use the CLOSE command followed by the closable container name.

#3 It stands to reason that it is more difficult to steal a large item such as a greatsword but it is MUCH easier to steal something small, such as a dagger. Keep this in mind when placing items in your closable and non-closable containers.

#4 Loose keys in your pocket or in your open belt pouch tend to be MUCH easier to steal than keys that are attached to a sturdy keyring worn on your belt. Keyrings can be purchased at a town hall or a general store and once you have a key, simply combine them with the ATTACH command.

#5 The safest place to keep something will always be in a bank vault. So, find your local bank and deposit as much as you like. (for a fee of course)

[Jirato]

Addendum: My registered item was lost or stolen, now what?

If you lose a registered item, there is a possibility of recovering it. This is an IC process initiated by the registering player by writing a letter addressed to the Twilight Eye Recovery Service detailing the item and the request. This letter should then be npcmailed to 'twilighteye'. A recovery agent will be in contact with you regarding the item and recovery fee.

Example Letter:

Twlight Eye Recovery Service,

I have misplaced my gigantic celestium greatsword. To my memory, it was last in my possession on the morning of Septum 17th. I noticed it missing later that evening after I had traveled from the Tarueka Environs, through the Ebon Pass, and to Haiban.

Please let me know if you are able to recover this greatsword and how much I would need to pay to get it back.

Thanks,
Bob

Please note the following:
Once you've initiated the request ICly, we may have to contact you OOCly for any additional details omitted in the letter. That's why it's important to be as specific as possible in the letter. include the full item name and any extra details like the description, quality, or anything else that you think that might help us locate it. If you know where or when it was lost, definitely include that.

There will be a fee for recovering items. Typically, I'll charge a minimum of 1000 riln, though it may vary from GM to GM, and also how valuable the item in question is or how it was lost. It is typically not worth it to register anything that is commonly available through regular store purchases or that can easily be re-created through the crafting system.

Registered items that are dropped and despawned from the "janitor" loop, dropped in water, or put in trash barrels are automatically saved for recovery. If you lost your item for any other reason (for example: lodged ammo on a critter that despawned), it may be significantly harder to recover. Please be patient as we do have over 6000 rooms, 3000 player files, and hundreds of gigabytes of backups to look through when searching for a registered item that was lost from anything other than the normal "janitor" loop.

Registered items that are stolen by another player are a much more sensitive issue and will be addressed on a case-by-case basis ICly. The Twilight Eye Recovery Service may be able to send someone after your item, but it'd be significantly more expensive as hiring thieves/mercenaries is quite a bit more costly than hiring someone to explore the nooks and crannies of an area and sift through trash.

[preiman]

please tell me that at some point you have had to send agents after someone in game. I really want that to be a thing that happened, and if it hasn't I might start stealing things until it does.

[Dakhal]

I swear, that really looks like a loaded threat. "Do this or ELSE". A good thief doesn't intentionally cripple a person via theft, and normally offers some means of getting the item(s) back if it's in any way valuable.

[Lun]

This is going to sound like an attack, Preiman, but I don't mean it to sound as such. Your phrasing of your post disappoints me greatly.

Honestly. If there was never any intention for things to be stolen from other players, there wouldn't be a pickpocketing skill. Don't grow attached to your things. There are many systems in place to keep a stolen item from being janitored or being sold to a store. It simply gets swept to the hall it was registered. If someone takes it and uses it, yes, you'll never find it. Yes, you may never get it back.

Items aren't meant to last forever. Repairs wear them out and they eventually will need to be replaced. You getting your thing stolen isn't that big of a reason to call for GM intervention. I've had things stolen before. It sucks. Many of my RP props have been taken from me, either through force or otherwise, by other players. I've had my RP props literally burned in front of me. Saying you're going to abuse a system because it's there, though, is being immature and a terrible response towards something. That would constitute as knowingly disrupting gameplay, which goes against policy, in my opinion.

[preiman]

it was obviously a joke. I am not going to start stealing things just so someone sicks the twilight eye on me.

That being said, I do sort of hope that there have been in character agents dispatched, because the RP possibilities in that are high, and I think it might be fun for who ever would have been involved.

[Lun]

Thank you for the clarification. It's hard for me to tell what's a joke or not in a post like that.

That being swept aside, I think that while the Twilight Eye courier can be an interesting RP opportunity, and fair warning against a thief (e.g. you should return a valuable item before things are taken out of hand by the actions of a third party mercenary or thief group,) by no means should running to GMs be a first response for something like that, unless it's an uber valuable item like a celestium sword or a personal RP prop. I know I would have enjoyed knowing this service in the past to recover lost RP props like the very first one I ever owned, a wooden plate mask that was taken from me in combat.

[preiman]

it is not a service to recover any RP prop, it is a service to recover those things you spent a good amount of riln to register, and are usually spending a good amount of riln to recover. it is an in character action, and it is not 100% that you will get your item back.

[Lun]

I do see now it says only a registered item, regardless of prop status or not. Unfortunately, I dont' think a lot of people think to register their items. Hopefully the activity in this thread reminds players new and old to REGISTER your favored items at the town hall. It's worth the investment.

[Jirato]

The Twilight Eye agents cannot guarantee an item stolen can be recovered either. The primary intent of this service is for janitored items. This is why we say stolen items are handled case-by-case. It's not like we'd be using a bunch of GM tricks and cheats to force a player into giving an item back. They have ways to persuade people, and they may or not have agents within the Guild themselves, but it's not really "Running to a GM to get your item back", it's a method of seeking IC resolution towards losing a registered item taken by another player.