How do people feel about looting corpses in rpgs? Should players be able to strip the bodies of dead enmies naked and take everything they where carrying, or riffle through pockets and take just a few things, or neither.

lol, when you speak of the devil (is the expression right?)

Anyways, as I was saying in the other thread:

One thing that''s wrong with the "loot and sell"-system, which fallout is a good (or bad ) example of, is that whenever you have to do something against a group, you HAVE to kill them all. There''s like no way to just sneak in and kill the leader and erase their computer records (or whatever) and then try to get out of there. This is more of a flaw when it comes to floorplan/map and quest design, and IMO it''s actually one of the more important things a good RPG must deal with.


Also, maybe you shouldn''t be able to loot the 10 guys you just killed, and go to the nearest general store and sell the 10 automatic rifles (or battleaxes, for that matter, but for SOME reason it doesn''t seem to matter as much in a fantasy setting). The player could get the option of
A) give the police the money and maybe get a small reward
B) find some crime boss or something who is willing to pay more
C) I dunno?


So, to answer your question: YES, you should be able to loot corpses as much as you want, BUT there must be some kind of difficulties connected to this, i.e. you won''t have all the time in the world to searhc everyone''s corpses because
A) you can''t kill everyone
B) more bad guys are coming
C) maybe the cameras (or magical sense-thingies) come back online soon
D) ?

And then the player should have problems with getting rid of the stuff. Noone except the largest of groups should be willing to buy more than one or two weapons from you. Or something like that.

Ofcourse you should be able to loot the corpses, but as Srekel said, there should be some risk involved. The best way i can some up with is to let it take it''s time. When going through a corpse looking for valuables, you won''t automatically find everything it has. Maybe have a few different "searchmodes" for going through the corpse? Fast, average or thorough, where the thorough search would take quite a bit of time, but give everything the corpse carries. The extra time imposed will make people hesitate, since something might happen while they''re searching.

It''d be pretty cool if you went to all the effort of killing and looting the corpses of some group of guys, only to discover when you try to sell their items that they''re stolen goods, and the authorities get on your tail because they think YOU stole them, only you can''t tell them the truth because then they''ll punish you for being a murderer...

There could be a black market, which could potentially have the same risks if the stuff you sold them turned out to belong to something like a mafia boss, plus the traditional risk of getting caught by the cops while trying to sell.

Or maybe that weird weapon you stole from that soldier turned out to have a homing beacon on it because the government wants to know where their troops are at all times...

Lots of possibilities here, although not all games could implement them.

I''ve always thought it strange that you could loot armour and it would be in good condition. Didn''t I just spend the last 10 minutes poking holes in it to kill the owner?

Looting to get a cool magic item is good. Looting to get 100 rusty daggers to sell so I can afford a bit of food is not quite so fun.

I found enough vegetables in Asheron's Call to start my own crop. I never knew what I needed to keep or get rid of. And if I realized later I needed a particular one for spell components, I would have to record which creatures carry them.

Blech. I never got much into AC, anyway. I only played it for a month.

I think looted items need to have a certain well rounded variety to them, but don't go overboard.

Players will naturally complain that if a creature uses a weapon or item against you, then they should have that item on them when you loot. Just the same, if they are wearing armor, that armor should protect them against you. Creatures aren't walking chests - they should have the option of using what they have in their inventory against you. That very same risk, I think, should be passed on as lootable items to the player for defeating them.

[edited by - Waverider on July 18, 2003 7:22:49 PM]

Absolutely. A monster should be able to use whatever it''s carrying, otherwise it wouldn''t be carrying it!

For armor, it might be a good idea to say that "if the guy wearing it was killed by a hit to the torso, then the armor is unusable - and therefore worthless".

The question is, should it be displayed in the "loot items"-window?
If yes, then you have to create double armor art.
If no, the player might be pissed off because he wanted the armor.

I guess a simple solution is to print a line "you did 100 damage to the goblin and destroyed his armor (and maybe ten healing potions) in the process!".

I''m really not sure its realistc to steal armor of a corpse. Afterall lets say the monster was where a leather jacket. What use would a leather jackt full of holes and covered in blood be?

What about incoprerating a system of character judgement? When you select to loot a corpse the character searchs the corpse and then takes only those things it desides are useful or valuable.

For instance if your a mage, your character wouldn''t see much point in taking the gaint bone th troll was clubing you with, but the small tooth in its pocket with a rune on you could use.
While a bounty hunter after killing the same troll would not see the old tooth as valuable but the the trolls hand will fetch a good price and its armor looks about your size so you take them.

Hmmm... hmm hmm hmm...

I dunno. One balancing problem I can see is: The wizard always get the magical items, the thief gets the lockpicks and tools, and the warrior gets the weapon. Which are more valuable? (the answer is "the magical items" )

Magic items are no good when you have a creature in your face interrupting your effects, though. So the warrior BETTER get the weapon!