Here's an idea. How about when an object is taken out of the garbage pile a fortitude save is made vs disease? Would make sence that theres dangers in rooting though thrash.

Nice idea.

Would make it even better, yes. =]

I'd suggest that it's on a random basis rather than for every item.

Staring Death I'd suggest that it's on a random basis rather than for every item.

I expect a lot of garbage browsing paladins though. Do they really need any more advantages? Heh.

Also isn't that stuff for new players? Not quite a good welcome to shower them in diseases. Though it DOES make sense seeing what people toss in there..

Maybe it could be set to only 20% chance and say dc 12

That would make it not happen to often but happen often enough for it to be risky.

I hate to be the Negative Nancy once again, but with suggestions like this I always tend to think of the question 'What does it add to my enjoyment and meaningful RP?'. With this suggestion, I can't really find any satisfying answers to that. Sure, it adds to realism, but does it really add anything to RP that actually matters? I might of course be missing something here, and if someone knows better, he/she shouldn't be afraid to point out a point I missed.

I've often come accross sellable or some VERY useful items in the thrash, but I'd think twice about rootting and grabbing stuff up if I thought I was going to risk infection.

I have to admit, I'm of the opinion that the garbage piles pretty much backfired. Everything ends up in them now, useless and not, which is indeed a shame. I had truly thought (and hoped!) people would only throw minor ambient loot in them, but it seems I was wrong. As such, I wouldn't actually mind a chance of disease when removing an item from the pile.

And yes, these garbage piles were indeed meant for new players, but when such powerful loot as I've seen in there ends up places like that, well... a simple disease isn't going to kill anybody. If oly it's added for removing items I'm fine. If not, I suspect the garbage piles are going to be a whole lot more empty than usually.

But then, I'm drunk, so what do I know?!

I have to agree with snoteye here... I've seen people dish entire outfits from the "trash" including armor and helms. They might not be the best types of armor for sure, but it seems a little unlikely that this would happen.

maybe a charisma detraction if you wear armor taken from the trash? :D

Having rooted in trash a lot in my life, I find you don't just "catch" an infection from garbage. More to the point, this is lousy for new players.

How is it lousy for them?

Put a 'This garbage pile reeks of filth, and no doubt anything you pick up from here is as dirty as it smells. An obvious health risk' in the description of the garbage pile. In addition, maybe a descriptor in the log window telling you you caught the disease from the grabage pile. This lets people know its dirty and is actually a health hazard. So they still go through it and they fail the relatively low DC disease check and they get some minor disease.

All this does is add to the realism and show newcomers that the server is -very- indepth, not missing the minor things. Its little perks like this which add to the immersion, rather than take it away.

They got the disease. So what? It means they have to wander around and find how to cure it, again adding to the immersion. While wandering they see more of the server, and when they inevitably ask another PC for help and/or directions, player-player interaction is fostered.

It might just be me, but if I was a new player here and that happened to me, I'd think 'Wow'.

My first point still remains.

You don't get that sick in the garbage. Its the stinky, excrement ridden sewers. Not a pile of discarded adventuring equipment, old rubble, and assorted knicknacks. I assume anything horribly disgusting gets eating by Grulpo.

Furthermore, a new player scenario.

I know nothing of "indepth" or "realistic" roleplaying servers. I came from a hack and slash, but I'm curious about "roleplay" and hope to learn a little about it on a server namely Escape from the Underdark.

I log in. I make a character who worships "Paladin" cause I love those "roleplaying" Dragonlance books.

Shit, Paladin isn't a legit god here I find out when I log into the character creation area. Okay...but still its cool because the server helps me find a god that fits.

So I start my character in the Underdark. I find a quest right away from a crazy Druegar! Yeah, pretty neat. I go seeking this city he tells me about. Even better! Its the next area I visit. I pass a funny kobold that kind of makes me laugh, I'm starting to like this server with its shop filled with crappy kobold items (even if they're not the +5 swords I'm use to finding on my old action server).

"I walk into town, I find a woman struggling with chains. I agree to help her, cause I'm 1) nice 2) hoping for some more exp! And wow! I just got xp for exploring the city for the first time. This is pretty good, I'm encouraged to explore all over.

I see a placeable object, I can probably search through it to find some treasure even if its marked Garbage because I know that's how videogames tend to work (odd barrels, garbage piles, and every cabinent always has loot!). Neat, inside I find some more random things (nothing as cool as a +5 sword, but some neat 'garbage' composed most likely of one use items with a small power to help me on my first few quests).

SHIT? WTF?!! I just got diseased? My CON just dropped six points? WTF? How the HELL am I suppose to quest with a 6 CON? This is wretched, I haven't even met anyone on the server yet. FU** this."

In the small chance that a player quits the server he had previously enjoyed because he got a disease from reaching into a refuse tip, maybe the server isn't for him? EfU is hard, damned hard.

What is he going to say when he does *spoiler* for the first time and gets Cone of Colded to death within 10 seconds of entering the area? Assuming of course he hasn't quit prior to reaching the minimum for that quest on all of the other hard quests he needs to complete beforehand, or the random Underdark monsters he meets while exploring.

yeah im sure the diseased garbage will cause many-a player to leave the server, arent we getting a little too dramatic over it?

I think it'll be more of a nuisance then a feature.

It's a decent idea. I'm against it.

The pile is there to help newer characters get started. Newer characters are precisely those ones that don't need the 'realism' of 'hey, get an infection from picking up a stone from a pile of junk'.

As for EfU being hard- what of it? We could add random diseases striking anyone, or the chance of any food being poisoned, or just a full on wipe of the city by Drow. They'd all be realistic, and would fit the tone and harshness of the atmosphere. They wouldn't, though, contribute to the enjoyment of the player base.

Newer characters are precisely those ones that don't need the 'realism' of 'hey, get an infection from picking up a stone from a pile of junk'.

Most of the new PCs are new creations from vets, anyhow.

They wouldn't, though, contribute to the enjoyment of the player base.

Says who?

Its trivial, yes. But I think its a nice little touch. The small things add up, and are one of the reasons I stuck with the server in the early days. It shows that attention to detail by the world builders has not been forgotten, like it is on so many other servers.

And as for the argument about the disease scaring off new players, sorry but I just don't see it.

MadCaddies

Newer characters are precisely those ones that don't need the 'realism' of 'hey, get an infection from picking up a stone from a pile of junk'.

Most of the new PCs are new creations from vets, anyhow.

Not entirely correct. The number of new players that show up is pretty remarkable.

It's be trivial to script, for whatever that's worth.