Dealing with PKs...
Outcasting is actually a pretty good idea. But, it wouldn\'t be fair to knock the murderers out of the cities without giving them somewhere to go - or else we would have alot of angry power outcasts waiting outside the city gates for the first oblivious newbie to step out. For that reason \'good\' and \'evil\' towns should be constructed. I know there currently isn\'t a allignment system, but pkers could be flaged as evil characters. In some games the \'evil punishment\' towns are extremely poorly stocked to try to prevent PvP... why even make the town if you don\'t want people to go there? The towns should be on equal standings - not sell the same items of course but the same quality of items and quests should be made for both.
This would also add to the game if the evil characters were ranked according to how powerful a \'good\' character they killed, which would hopefully reduce newbie killing to a certain extent. For example: if a pk kills a brand new character (which can be determined by the characters difference from his starting skills since there are no levels) they would be tagged as evil, thrown out of the town, and forced to find an evil town to shelter themselves; furthermore, since they killed a low level character they would be ranked some sort of derragotory name such as \'Scumbag
\'. Whereas if a player knocks off an extremely powerful player (without consent from the other person necessary for a dual) the player would be outcasted and ranked something kOOl like \'Dark Lord \' or \'Fallen \' etc. etc.
This would also incorporate a dynamic good vs evil struggle that would give the Game Masters (or whoever runs this place 
) alot to work with when they need ideas, story/quest wise. Ranking good players could also be added via quests vs. the evil characters... and ranks dont necessarily have to be ONLY attained through murder.
Another feature that just came to me would add to the realism of the system - one must ask when and how is the player outcasted? Once they kill the other player are they automatically left naked outside the gates where they were teleported? No of course not, police can\'t teleport you in real life afterall (I know there is magic working here but cmon be realistic...). So think about it like this --> player killing = murder. For a murderer to be convisted there must be witnesses. Therefore when someone kills someone else there must be someone who has seen the crime (this can be done by proximity and spot checks, which would obviously require the witness to be closer in dark areas or at night adding to assasin style gameplay), escaped from the murder and then reported the crime to a town gaurd or official (NPCS only!! whispering a GM is not exactly akin to real life). So if a pk went for a group of players he now has motivation to kill all the players lest he be outcasted. This feature would also prevent high level pks from killing in open town square areas where newbies would usually be spawning or whatever it is newbies do.
From this aspect the problem arises that what if a newbie sees someone that can help his friend who is being pked? When that person comes to help the newbie (by killing the pk) will he be outcasted? This is actually the roleplaying marvel of this concept of witness punishment. I will give two examples of what might happen:
A: The holy knight comes to the rescue of the cornered newbie and destroys the skillful thief that was about to slit his throat. As the thief was just killled he cannot report the holy knights\' murder of him as a player kill. And the saved newbie will be too overjoyed with the knight to turn him in. That is a reasonable scenario right?
B: The holy knight charges into the alley and vainquishes the evil theif who is about to pk the newbie... BUT, none of them spot the thiefs\' girlfriend who is hiding behind a crate nearby. Once the knight has killed the thief. The girlfriend runs into the alley to say that she saw what happened (while grabbing all her friends\' belongings). She swoons over the knight and then leaves after fake goodbyes... she then heads to the nearest gaurd and turns in the holy knight for murder. Wow! Now the knight is outcasted! What is he going to do? I suppose some sort of forgiveness pilgrimage is in order for our holy knight. Well, that\'s roleplaying!
And besides this system can be completely programed without requiring GM support, which in a free game is very important.
I understand that people dont like grief pkers, but with this system it will force players to work together (whether they are assasins or simply out picking flowers at nighttime in a back alley where they shouldnt be anyways).
Feal free to comment on this you guys, after all I\'m not the only player - I just like party oriented games and I\'ll go for anything that cements people together... besides why have nighttime and dark areas if there are no assasins\' or thieves\' guilds? (*cough* pickpocketing *errhmm*)
