Fleeing Policy

[Leech]

A quick note that this has all been discussed before, and we had some very good agreements on how it should be handled. Unfortunately nobody ever, to my knowledge, distilled those agreements into a synopsis.

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[The_Last_Good_Dragon]

I love anything that allows RP to continue for another day, and this comes from someone who virtually never plays someone who fights on any side but the Justified, Law-Abiding side. As much as I've heard people complain about how people, in essence, god-mote — this is the term for it that I've come to know: moting as if you're god and other people's reactions don't matter — when they're realizing that people need to flee, I see the same thing happen outside of combat for people who want to stop someone else. I'll see things like > Directly approaching a fight when not part of it and being 'part' of it in one round after entering, both drawing and covering more distance than is normal before also adding an attack command against a bad person. > Going /self draws their sword and puts it at $n's throat, not letting them escape!. > /self summons the guards and has them block off the exits! and blah blah blah blah.

I'm against adding more commands than what we already have to stop people. I'm against having the only way to escape be stat-based checks heavily slanted towards those with, say, better Dexterity as 'bad guys' are often characters who have not had the time to build up the XP to improve their skills in the same way established "good people" are simply because of the finite amount of time heels have in a game governed by the good guys.

You think it's frustrating for you, as a good person, to have a runty little thief "twink" out of your grasp? Try being on the receiving end of a "There's a mage attacking Emma at the Vellum and Velvet" message all bringing in a host of knights, Reeves, or general do-gooders leaping to someone's defense within the space of 2 In-Character minutes. Try having to deal with characters who have maxed out their physical stats when you don't have any extra XP and having your fun "bad person" concept end the first time you try committing any crime. Which isn't to say that everyone does these things: not at all, not in the slightest. But I'm a firm believer that code should support conflict, and as frustrating as the disengage code can feel, at times, it's there to enable conflict. Having an expected chance to get away allows characters to be bold, which in turn creates RP for all of us law-abiding people. I hope the only things that change are for it to be even easier for a na'er do well to get away, personally.