Introduction: Let's face it, this current event is kind of horrible if you RP a good guy.
The way the current event works isn't easy on RPing a good guy. (For anyone reading this in the future: the "current event" is the first couple of months of the Captain Hook/pirate/virtue runes event cycle.) There in effect is no reward for doing so other than city loyalty, and even that's pretty stingy from what I can tell. Also it seems like you get more of those trade crate thingies from the merchant ships than from the pirate or orc ships!
Some of us as players will want the new stuff, and not everyone has a definitively evil character who's viable enough to do the things that get you that stuff.
So here are some suggestions for how to manage this event while playing the good guy.
One: Just accept the penalty.
Let's face it, this event doesn't just not provide an active reward for being good, it just about penalizes you for it! One possibility therefore is to just go with it and accept the fact that you won't get the pirate rewards. None of this stuff is essential for your gameplay. Does your character really need a parrot in the robe slot? This is neither the first time nor will it be the last time that being good does not directly benefit you or your character. I remember on my old Galen character on Lake Superior, facing social penalties for actually fighting the demons on New Magincia instead of trying to add to the destruction.
Two: Some merchant ships are "smugglers."
This is a nifty RP mechanic we came up with on GL a couple of years back for other purposes, and it comes in handy here.
Doubtlessly, some of the legit-seeming merchants you see on the seas are actually smugglers of a sort -- not like drug smugglers or bomb smugglers or anything (those'd more-likely be like the pirates), but folks who are transporting otherwise legal goods in some kind of illegal way. Think like un-taxed liquor, un-taxed cigarettes, or stolen lobsters in real life. (And by the way: From what I've read, if you smoke and you live in a major city in the United States, there are excellent odds you've purchased un-taxed cigarettes. And if you eat seafood and live in one of these same places, you've probably eaten stolen lobsters.)
So how do you handle these folks? You come upon their ships. You identify them in some way (you know the ship markings or name from an informant, you recognize the crew, etc.). You scuttle the ship (if things still work the way they did, you can scuttle the ship with cannonballs instead of grape shot, and leave the crew unharmed). You commence a boarding action. You'll get no resistance, so no need to harm the crew. You confiscate the smuggled goods. (In this case, including the new crate thingies.) You leave, leaving the crew to affect repairs and limp to docks to repair themselves in full, and contemplate getting a new job.
I note that you do sort of have to assume that the smugglers will be able to get away before pirates come upon them. I note also that I haven't tried this in the new event and if the merchants now resist, or cannonballs harm the crew, this option is either out or will have to be modified severely.
Three: Stolen goods.
Now of course you have to get the crate thingies to the pirate dude in Buc's Den. A minor character of yours can "steal" at least some of the crates, and turn them in. Sooner or later of course your main character will find out, and steal back the rewards the thief obtained.
Conclusion.
Is this stuff a little contrived? I suppose. Though one could look at it as "storytelling" rather than "contrivance." I've seen plenty of times in my RP career where stuff seemed to me to be way more contrived than this. Ultimately through these suggestions, we're seeking to manage our way through a game mechanic that's kind of flawed.
And, truth be told, I recommend the first suggestion (just accepting the penalty) most of all. Are you sure your good guy character really needs a parrot?
-John's player
The way the current event works isn't easy on RPing a good guy. (For anyone reading this in the future: the "current event" is the first couple of months of the Captain Hook/pirate/virtue runes event cycle.) There in effect is no reward for doing so other than city loyalty, and even that's pretty stingy from what I can tell. Also it seems like you get more of those trade crate thingies from the merchant ships than from the pirate or orc ships!
Some of us as players will want the new stuff, and not everyone has a definitively evil character who's viable enough to do the things that get you that stuff.
So here are some suggestions for how to manage this event while playing the good guy.
One: Just accept the penalty.
Let's face it, this event doesn't just not provide an active reward for being good, it just about penalizes you for it! One possibility therefore is to just go with it and accept the fact that you won't get the pirate rewards. None of this stuff is essential for your gameplay. Does your character really need a parrot in the robe slot? This is neither the first time nor will it be the last time that being good does not directly benefit you or your character. I remember on my old Galen character on Lake Superior, facing social penalties for actually fighting the demons on New Magincia instead of trying to add to the destruction.
Two: Some merchant ships are "smugglers."
This is a nifty RP mechanic we came up with on GL a couple of years back for other purposes, and it comes in handy here.
Doubtlessly, some of the legit-seeming merchants you see on the seas are actually smugglers of a sort -- not like drug smugglers or bomb smugglers or anything (those'd more-likely be like the pirates), but folks who are transporting otherwise legal goods in some kind of illegal way. Think like un-taxed liquor, un-taxed cigarettes, or stolen lobsters in real life. (And by the way: From what I've read, if you smoke and you live in a major city in the United States, there are excellent odds you've purchased un-taxed cigarettes. And if you eat seafood and live in one of these same places, you've probably eaten stolen lobsters.)
So how do you handle these folks? You come upon their ships. You identify them in some way (you know the ship markings or name from an informant, you recognize the crew, etc.). You scuttle the ship (if things still work the way they did, you can scuttle the ship with cannonballs instead of grape shot, and leave the crew unharmed). You commence a boarding action. You'll get no resistance, so no need to harm the crew. You confiscate the smuggled goods. (In this case, including the new crate thingies.) You leave, leaving the crew to affect repairs and limp to docks to repair themselves in full, and contemplate getting a new job.
I note that you do sort of have to assume that the smugglers will be able to get away before pirates come upon them. I note also that I haven't tried this in the new event and if the merchants now resist, or cannonballs harm the crew, this option is either out or will have to be modified severely.
Three: Stolen goods.
Now of course you have to get the crate thingies to the pirate dude in Buc's Den. A minor character of yours can "steal" at least some of the crates, and turn them in. Sooner or later of course your main character will find out, and steal back the rewards the thief obtained.
Conclusion.
Is this stuff a little contrived? I suppose. Though one could look at it as "storytelling" rather than "contrivance." I've seen plenty of times in my RP career where stuff seemed to me to be way more contrived than this. Ultimately through these suggestions, we're seeking to manage our way through a game mechanic that's kind of flawed.
And, truth be told, I recommend the first suggestion (just accepting the penalty) most of all. Are you sure your good guy character really needs a parrot?
-John's player
