For Roleplayers: Justification for entering houses

[Deleted User]

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Humanoid_Taifun

How about having your party thief enter these houses, and leaving your MC clueless and waiting somewhere?

marktheshark

For lawful good, I am going door to door to ask questions about the iron crisis, bandits, Iron Throne, etc, and leave when asked.

Lemernis

Yeah, this has always been a problem.

I think the player should be pointed toward those quests by talking to other commoners in public areas, and from buying drinks/hearing gossip in taverns. And this can be done rather specifically, not vaguely. I.e., you're specifically told where to go and who to talk with. What the quest-giver needs help with doesn't have to be completely explained. But you can be pointed to talk to them (and most importantly where to find them).

It is the sort of thing that could be done in a mod. But it might also be an enhancement to the original game that WotC would give approval for Beamdog to implement. It's not changing content, just implementing it better.

colonel_burger

I recommend bringing a non LG thief with you for these situations.

"Yarrr CHARNAME, I'm be off for some Kentucky Fried Kobold, see ye back in an hour ye mucky dogooder."

*Backstab x 3 - Critical hit - Montaron hit Gantolandan for 38 damage*
*Montaron loots Rogue Stone*

"Ahoy CHARNAME, those devilled legs make me sick! Xzar you mottled fool, hold ye olde pretty egg for me, ye blasted meatbag..."

Humanoid_Taifun

@Lemernis: Make a feature request!

szb

If you have a cleric you can roleplay going door to door, spreading the good(possibly evil) word of 'insert your god here'.

Lemernis

Humanoid_Taifun said:

@Lemernis: Make a feature request!

Done and done.

Marric

This is one of the few things I actually stick to roleplaying with. My Evil, and maybe chaotic neutral too, parties feel free to loot houses to their hearts content. My good parties don't do any stealing and don't enter houses unless they are specifically directed there. They can of course go in any place of business, and gather information/rumors about where to go next. In Beregost for example the guy upstairs in the Red Sheaf tells you about Mirianne, and its easy to imagine Firebeard tells you to drop by when you see him in Candlekeep, even if it isn't outright stated.

Aasimar069

Shandyr said:

Hello there,

this thread addresses an issue for roleplaying purposes only.
I have had trouble with this issue ever since I have played Baldur's Gate the first time.

There are many houses in Beregost, some in Nashkell, a lot in Baldur's Gate itself.
How do the (heavy) roleplayers among you justify entering all those houses?

My problem is the following:
In some houses there are very good quests with high XP Reward and Money/Items.
But that is meta-gaming.

Your character does not know (in a lot of cases) in which house s/he will get a quest.

There are a lot of other houses where the inhabitants state clearly that they frown upon entering their house, some say that it is illegal and that they call the guards and some outright attack.

I think playing a thief could be one approach.
But how do you play that when you are not of chaotic alignment? Maybe lawful?

How can a lawful (especially lawful good) character justify entering all those houses?

I'd like to say : there is no need to pose such a question.

If you are in the cityof a PNP game, unless your DM has created A LOT of sidequests or expected that you get in every house, you do not explore the insides of a whole city.


In a game that focuses on exploration, there's alway a thief in your team, that would like to get inside a house.

Or perhaps the thief side of you would like to know what's inside the house, or the paladin side expects to see hostile encounters / evil characters inside so he can kick their asses.

Lemernis

Re: having a thief break into a private home:

Not all Thieves in D&D acquire their skills in order to commit criminal activity. Those skills can also be for adventuring, treasure hunting, hiring out as a mercenary (eg, caravan guard), etc.

Aegir_Fellwood

@marktheshark and @szb Those are good, thanks

Aasimar069

Yes that's true, but sometimes, as you stated, you WOULD like to enter a house that you like (for instance, you have a glimpse of is inner design).

Pushed by curiosity, you enter the house with no sense of evil - though you know that you are breaking the law (good thing that thieves can't be Lawful).

After this, it's up to you if you want to commit acts of thievery - or not.

Google_Calasade

I have no clue as to who is causing the iron shortage or where I will find information. Therefore, I must (regrettably) be like the U.S. government and invade everyone's privacy. You know, for the sake of "safety".

Lemernis

Aasimar069 said:

Yes that's true, but sometimes, as you stated, you WOULD like to enter a house that you like (for instance, you have a glimpse of is inner design).

Pushed by curiosity, you enter the house with no sense of evil - though you know that you are breaking the law (good thing that thieves can't be Lawful).

After this, it's up to you if you want to commit acts of thievery - or not.

I wonder how often that defense has been tried. "Your honor, I was just curious to see what was inside the house! I was just taking a peek."

Quineloe

True role playing is done around a table, with other people, consuming pizza and soda.

Google_Calasade said:

I have no clue as to who is causing the iron shortage or where I will find information. Therefore, I must (regrettably) be like the U.S. government and invade everyone's privacy. You know, for the sake of "safety".

a poor comparison, as the U.S. Government is neither lawful nor good.

Google_Calasade

@Quineloe, true, in that sense, the U.S. government is an incredibly poor comparison.

Lemernis

I would say it's definitely LG compared to other superpowers throughout history... (modern day smaller countries may have a little easier time balancing their needs I would imagine).

Lol, sorry for contributing to the thread derailment.

Aasimar069

Quineloe said:

True role playing is done around a table, with other people, consuming pizza and soda.

Google_Calasade said:

I have no clue as to who is causing the iron shortage or where I will find information. Therefore, I must (regrettably) be like the U.S. government and invade everyone's privacy. You know, for the sake of "safety".

a poor comparison, as the U.S. Government is neither lawful nor good.

A "government" should be Lawful neutral.

During right wing control, it can slightly move to "Evil" though.

(sorry to all americans, but the last president did not let good souvenirs to the whole world - on the contrary to the current one).

Aasimar069

Lemernis said:

I would say it's definitely LG compared to other superpowers throughout history... (modern day smaller countries may have a little easier time balancing their needs I would imagine).

Lol, sorry for contributing to the thread derailment.

this government is lawful neutral at best. Because the law shall prevail (when democrats are in command).

marktheshark

Spare me the politics. I'm sure there's a thread for that somewhere.

Chow

My character is basically a tourist. He's in it for fun and meeting new people, and as such will excitedly enter every house in order to make friends with the inhabitants.

Drugar

colonel_burger said:

I recommend bringing a non LG thief with you for these situations.

"Yarrr CHARNAME, I'm be off for some Kentucky Fried Kobold, see ye back in an hour ye mucky dogooder."

*Backstab x 3 - Critical hit - Montaron hit Gantolandan for 38 damage*
*Montaron loots Rogue Stone*

"Ahoy CHARNAME, those devilled legs make me sick! Xzar you mottled fool, hold ye olde pretty egg for me, ye blasted meatbag..."

This mirrors so many head-conversations I've had over the last dozen RPG's...

MedullaOblongata

My CG thief loots people's houses, but leaves sleeping people alone. Because waking someone that is sleeping is rude.

Nukenin

House schmouse—any roleplayer of a lawful character who has no compunction about pilfering any and all defenseless crates and/or barrels should hang their head in shame.

*hangs head in shame*

Google_Calasade

marktheshark said:

Spare me the politics. I'm sure there's a thread for that somewhere.

Agreed. That mas my mistake for using the U.S. government as an analogy. Whether Democrats or Republicans, regardless Bush or Obama, it's pretty much the same dance but sung to a different tune. The right and left wingers make me laugh . . . and also, more than a little sad because they are two sides of the same lunatic coin.

Enough politics. Let us get on to enjoying BG:EE, which I will be doing presently.

reedmilfam

The OP makes a good point; however, CHARNAME is acting in all of their best interests! Honestly, I liked the NWN alignment system where breaking and entering took away lawful points/added chaotic points. I don't think you need to loot houses to succeed, actually. Any wealth you need can be gained by farming ankheg shells.

darthchair

For the Candlekeep houses (where the assassin's are) I wrote in my character's journal (posted on here) that he saw the assassin sneaking in and was curious. And then rather upset that instead of an awkward situation where two men breaking and entering both by chance broke and entered at the same time...the other guy seemed to know exactly who he was and was only in that house to kill him. WHAT?!?

As for the other houses...I usually just make an excuse. For instance...he might be ogling one of the women changing through a window. Or maybe the door is already cracked open and he takes a peek. Sometimes I do roleplay that those people are static members of society and that other people know about them. "Poor so-in-so," someone might say in the tavern, " 'eard someone stole 'er baby!" Or something like that. And then you go investigate.

Since my character is a lech...he is more apt to help a female than another male. So I have to take that into account. Does the NPC have a daughter? Well...there might still be some "rewards" involved.

I have been busy all week and haven't really started Day 2 in my character's journal yet though (seems to take multiple days to explain why my character did what he did in the game when actually typing them out). So sometime probably Tuesday I'll start with him on his own, meeting Imoen, Xzar, and Montaron...and dealing with all these new obnoxious idiots on his quest to...well once his sword "Pointy Death Stab" crumbles from the crappy iron...HE WILL WANT VENGENCE!

ekster

If I'm roleplaying a good party... I do go inside the houses on the account of 'looking for info/work', but I don't pick locks or open chests in houses.

[Deleted User]

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fpc1

The fact that the game allows you to enter most houses and steal items without serious consequences kinda give you a free pass to just rob whenever you feel like. That being said, I played a chaotic good character in my full playthrough through the BG saga and while I entered almost every house possible, there were several situations where I didn't steal from poor, honest or good people. For example, I didn't steal anything from the kitchen of the Friendly Arm Inn, or the gold that the guy throws at your head when you are inside one of the temples of Athkatla. I didn't miss the loot of these places either, as they usually just had junk.

That being said, I played Knights of the Old Republic I and I'm playing Knights of the Old Republic II with a fully light-sided jedi, and I just loot the majority of the containers that I see through the games. Again, there are almost 0 consequences, but there was a situation where a minor NPC complained that I got into his apartment and got some of his credits. I chose the option "I don't need that. You can keep it." and while he complained about my behavior, he simply let me have it.

If you want to justify these actions.. Well, in most of these games you are embarking on a quest to save the world or the galaxy. So you can simple say that you are gathering all the monetary help that you can and you will pay them back (which isn't true).