Loot from "unconscious" quest/trip partner

[JackOfSwords]

I've been sort of guilty of this, I mean, I wander around the Ziggurat, or in the wilds- and I find a pack In this pack, I find gold and supplies, and I don't check to see if that fellow is still on or not.

Could be simple, honest mistake.

If you find yourself in this situation, it's even MORE important to factor OOC consideration.  Obviously, you have no clue as to why the pack is there, the player's character could've died to a bug, or dropped ISP, or due to someone leaving a monster at a transition, etc.  There's nothing worse than dying due to something OOC beyond your control, only to respawn and find your gear gone.

If you encounter a pack sitting in the middle of nowhere, check to see if that person is still logged on.  If so, shoot them a quick tell, "did you die"?  And they'll usually tell you what happened.

If they're not logged on, please have the courtesy that if you pick up their gear, to watch for 10-15 minutes of whether they log back on, and find out what happened to them.  If they died to something like dropped ISP, then I would HOPE you would be more than happy to return all their gear to them.

If their death was a "fair" death, and your character is the evil type to take advantage of a situation, then RP it.  Perhaps while they are in the fugue waiting to respawn, emote tying up their unconscious body, including sending those emotes to the player in the fugue.  Then emote what you're taking.

It's important to emote things, even if it's to yourself (in the event you're doing it stealthily) to be able to factor how much time it would realistically take to remove items.  As you pick up each item, think about what you'd have to do to be able to take it.  This is especially true where time is essential, such as the middle of combat.

If you are invisible (stealthed or not) and looting with other characters nearby, IMHO you should contact a DM and tell them you plan to take items off the character.  Other players should be able to roll "Spot" and "Listen" checks to have a chance of noticing your activity.

If there are NPC's nearby, then you'd BETTER contact a DM, regardless of the situation.

If you are stealthed, and the character died a "fair" death, and it's IC for your character to steal, then you probably need only follow the rule of thinking out exactly what effort and how long it would take to remove the items, and RP it in your mind.  The burden is on the characters nearby to be able to see you stealthed, hovering over their friend's body and to take action.  But you have to give them realistic amount of time to notice you, and not just "click click click click" on the open inventory window, grabbing everything you can as fast as you can.  That's metagaming, since the game treats taking anything with the same amount of time, where obviously it would take longer to take their armor off them than it would be to take a potion off their belt.

I have played characters that are thieves.  I have always followed these guidelines if I've even taken anything.  I usually even roll a willpower check for myself to see whether I have the courage to take it under a given situation.  (A successful will save roll DC10, and I have the guts, I increase DC by 5 for every stressful factor such as battle, proximity of other characters, etc).

When my character -does- take anything, it's usually just a couple items that would catch my character's eye, but I also consider whether the item would be easily recognized by others in the future (a unique cloak, for example.)  I wouldn't steal something (unique sword, shield, cloak, etc) that others could instantly recognize that I've obviously stolen from them or their friend.

If I've taken gold, I've usually taken just a fraction of it, taking into consideration that maybe the character had most hidden away, and I'm taking the pouch that had their "spending money" ready for shopping.  The extra time it takes OOC for me to mechanically "give" them back gold also helps represent more accurately the amount of time it would take for my character to locate their spending money pouch and cut it loose.

Most importantly, NEVER EVER take something because YOU, THE PLAYER want it.  If you can't separate what YOU want from what your character wants, and if you don't personally feel immensely crappy for taking anything at all from another player, then DON'T play thieves who take things, as you're probably not adding anything to the game.