Index
General
Balance
Food
Economy
Weapons
Writing
PvP
Magic
Comments

PvP

PK or NPK
Advantages and Drawbacks of a Fully PvP+ System
The Hard Life of the Outlaw
Thieves That Work
Justice Systems for Persistent Worlds
Justice System Problems with the Computer Referee
Justice System Example
Getting Around the "Good Mule" Syndrome

PK or NPK

The first widely popular MMORPG, Ultima Online, had no PK switch when it was released.  Players could freely attack each other outside of designated guard zones.  This single fact and its consequences caused more player complaints and indignation than any other.  The two that followed, Everquest and Asheron's Call, had a sort of kludgey system for generally disallowing PvP combat unless one consented to it.  Even UO eventually set up a xerox copy of their continent with no PvP allowed, and it became very popular.  Does this mean that PvP is inherently destructive to the gaming experience?  I don't believe so.

The disallowing of PvP combat in games is implemented for one simple reason:  to try and control people's tendencies to act like dickheads.  This is the intent of PK switch, and it fails miserably.  An immutable law of the universe is that dickheads will be dickheads, using whatever tools are granted them.  Another law that applies to online gaming is that anonymity makes one foolhardy, and therefore more likely to be a dickhead.  If they cannot kill other players, they will try and nab their loot, or spam them with harassing messages, or lead monsters into them when they aren't ready, or whatever else is conceivably possible.  If there is an NPK switch, there's not much you can do about this except reply in kind, squelch disagreeable messages, or allow the offender to force you from the area (if he doesn't follow you).

An open PK system (no switch, PvP allowed) has some very big advantages:

It has another advantage too, namely the possibility of implementing the thief as a viable character option.  A thief in a world of non-PK's is stupid, as thievery is almost exclusively a PvP activity.

The question is, do these advantages outweigh the tendencies of players to want to kill each other whenever possible?  You cannot answer this question until you've resolved some other aspects of your game system:

Player power scope is covered elsewhere, but to paraphrase, you cannot have a realistic and meaningful PvP system in a game where the potential difference in power between two player characters is too great.  If the scope of player power is limited sufficiently, then a more experienced player character may have a great advantage over an inexperienced player character, but it's within the scope of reason.  Without this limitation, conflicts tend to be analogous to a fight between Godzilla and a houseplant.  This is another good reason to avoid a level-based system, by the way.  Level based systems are very difficult to control in terms of player character potential, and inevitably some chowderhead down the road is going to raise your maximum level attainable, if you've even implemented one in the first place, worsening the problem.

A working justice system is missing from any of the big three MMORPG's, and the UO version, the most detailed, doesn't work.  The fact that it doesn't work is made more reprehensible by the fact that they flouted realism to implement it.  The goal of your justice system has to be the preventing of wanton violent crimes with appropriate sanctions, while not utterly destroying the game of the person who chooses to follow a life of crime.  The justice system proposed elsewhere attempts to accomplish this with the added benefit of believability:  commit a crime serious enough, and riders come out to apprehend you, whom you can avoid, fight, or submit to.  It's a reasonable expectation of any intelligent person playing a criminal that some day the cops will be after him, and thus this system is (hopefully) more palatable than something artificial and arbitrary like stat loss.

Maintaining player interest is, of course, probably the single most important aspect of your entire design philosophy.  If nobody is interested, why should they play?  The content design team must work extremely hard to give the players an expansive range of interesting activities to pursue.  One common reason that people become PK in the first place is that one day they looked at the options offered them by the game and said, "I'm bored."  Prevent this occurrance at all costs.

Of course, for some players the only thing that is interesting is killing other players.  You can either deny this avenue of action for them with an NPK policy (losing these customers and giving up the advantages of a PK switch), allow it to happen (entailing hours on hours of work to make sure the game environment is not dictated by this faction for everyone else), or try some kludgey middle ground with a PK switch.  I think the PK switch is a horrible artifice.  You still give up the realism, politeness factor, and player subplots you do with a strict NPK policy, while at the same time making your balance and creative decisions 50 times more difficult.  It's almost impossible to do something radical to alter the play of the NPK faction without utterly destroying something for the PK faction, and vice versa.  Assume you are one or the other and go from there.

Advantages and Drawbacks of a Fully PvP+ System

If it's possible to attack another player in whatever game you are playing, someone will do it sooner rather than later.  In a pen and paper game, this is moderated by the GM, who either allows the attack because it furthers the plot or is in character, or else kicks the attacking player out of the group.  The MMORPG has, at best, highly limited human moderation of player activity, and rightly so:  any subjective decision by a GM is usually criticized as being unfair, and many time the accusation is correct.  Therefore, no matter how intricate your justice system is and how well it works, at some point someone will attack someone else who isn't interested in being attacked.  This is a double-edged sword.

The negatives of a fully PvP system are obvious.  PvP presents opportunities for gamewreckers and dickheads to harass other players without thought to how this affects the game as a whole.  Because there is no immunity, players will out of necessity tend to build characters optimized for PvP combat, like the guy in UO who won't leave his house to walk through the woods until he is a 4x GM combatant.  Large groups of PK's can dominate smaller, less organized groups of adventurers very successfully, destroying the avenue of exploration those players are probably trying to check out.

On the other hand, PvP+ systems are realistic:  there is no force field that prevents real world people from punching each other in the face.  PvP+ systems give an incentive for players to work as groups, as opposed to the large-scale single player game that AC and EQ have become.  And correctly played killers and outlaws contribute to the ongoing plot of the game with little additional work from the game's content team.  Certainly those who were involved in the "Kynn Goes Crazy and Takes Over Arwic" subplot in early AC final were on the whole more interested in that than the vague "official" plot being pushed at the time by the actual game.

The Hard Life of the Outlaw

As stated previously, in early UO Dread Lords ruled.  This was not only because there was no effective justice system to countermand their actions, but because the game really had no way whatsoever to make their life harder than that of an adventurer.  The most important advantage shared by the murderer and the more benign player was that the murderer had access to a house which was lockable, in which he could store everything he needed (or didn't need), and barring a breakin, that stuff remained his even if he was killed.

Once again realism rules here.  A known multiple murderer does not have a nice house in the burbs containing all the property he strips from his victims.  He does not have access to city services.  He is hunted more or less actively by the police department if they have a clue as to his whereabouts.  A dark ages brigand (and there were a lot of them) lived like a nomad, crashing for a while in an abandoned farm or some similar shelter, and did not have huge piles of footlockers with every conceivable item locked securely therein.  Take away this sense of security and profitability, and you bring the murderer onto a new level of realism that helps to discourage casual gamer PK's from this lifestyle, and helps to define the lifestyle of the player who really does want to live the spartan existence of the outlaw.

At this moment, I can hear the shouting from many PK's who have grown used to the cushy lifestyle afforded them by the existing game systems.  "What do you mean we can't have a secure house?  No place to store my 6 million suits of plate I got off chumps this week?  You suck!"  Yes I mean all of that.  Here are the basic concepts of the "realistic criminal" model:

These considerations have a number of impacts on the criminal lifestyle.  Since hoarding is extremely difficult for a criminal, if not impossible, it ceases to be a very attractive motive for attacking other players.  The fact that a criminal has no legal recourse to being attacked or burgularized himself means that suspicion will be higher between criminals, as it usually is.  A criminal who wishes to accumulate wealth through the sale of stolen or looted items will have to resort to dealing his goods on the black market, which always buys low and sells high.  And a criminal who is dependent on resources only civilization can provide, like the knowledge stored in the city's magical arts college, is going to have to be extremely clever and resourceful to get what he needs to continue growing in power.

However, all is not lost for the would-be murderer-baron.  Assuming your system is robust enough to support it, it's possible that a well-organized and charismatic criminal can establish a fiefdom without the consent of the local duke (or whatever).  The aspiring crimelord finds a place where he is unlikely to be discovered for a while, and commences construction of a central stronghold like a moat house, or moves into an abandoned (or overthrown) existing structure.  From here he can convince peasants and such to move in and pay him taxes if the services he offers are arguably better than what they had before.  (Peasants are always looking for a better deal.)  Over time, he may acquire a small fiefdom and a supporting army of soldiers and brigands to defend it.  The local duke will no doubt be incensed at this, and begin to send demands of tribute, which the player may decline.  If this happens, the duke will start sending forces in to take the land (and its tax base) by force.  Depending on how these battles go, the player may be overthrown, or become a client state of the duke (through negotiation), or defeat these attackers so completely that the duke decides not to pursue the matter.  Oddly enough, this ultimate victory for the crimelord now makes him the center of government for his zone of control.  This is not an uncommon way for a kingdom to be established historically.

Thieves That Work

Thievery is certainly a PvP concept.  There can be provisions made for stealing from "monsters" and NPC's, but then what's the point of being a thief when you can just kill them?  The ability to steal items and coin from other players is what people have in mind when they think of the profession of "rogue," not some guy telling dirty jokes at the tavern and going along on a very occasional mission to pick a lock.  Many people like the idea of being a rogue of some sort, but to make the profession really viable, you need the ability to steal.  Because stealing is a hostile act that begs for retribution, you must allow PvP to allow people to even think they can be thieves.

Thievery from citizens of a governed region would certainly be considered criminal by the government.  Less criminal than murder, perhaps, but still deserving of some points on their record, and the risk of arrest.  Like murder, the amount added to the criminal point total can be influenced by factors like the value of the item stolen and the social status of the victim.  The number of criminal points accrued through thievery need to be considerably less than those earned for murder, as thievery is more quickly forgotten (reflected by a quicker drop in criminal points to the degree that the character is no longer actively hunted).  This needs to be compensated for by the idea that as soon as a crime is committed and a hue and cry is raised, there is a certain period of time where the aldermen will be running around actively looking for the offender within the area.  The thief can run from the area and escape, hide from the police, or be caught.  If he's not caught within a certain timeframe, he can then go about his business, with maybe a small chance of being recognized by a bored alderman on patrol.

In addition, the number of criminal points a thief earns can be directly modified by whether or not he is a member in good standing of the local thieves' guild, if there is one.  The thieves' guild maintains safety for its members through a combination of intimidation and bribery of public officials.  It also extracts protection money from local merchants in exchange for freedom from harassment.  The influence of the thieves' guild can protect its members from prosecution to a certain degree, as reflected by a reduction in criminal points earned by stealing (though it will not save him if he is caught in the act).  This is extremely valuable for the city thief.  However, thieves' guilds tend to extract huge dues from its members, and the amount a thief "donates" to the guildmaster every week can influence the amount of legal protection he can expect to receive.  Guild thieves are also barred from robbing people and places who are paid up in their protection money, and doing so is grounds for expulsion and a severe beating at least.  Non-guild thieves, while technically "free" to rob anyone they like, accrue many many more criminal points and are subsequently more actively pursued by the police... not to mention the thieves' guild, which dislikes outsiders horning in on their territory.

Assuming that the justice system of retribution against thieves is in place, how can thieves be given the powers and abilities they expect to have without ruining the fun of other players?  The first way is to make thief skill checks into contested rolls, opposed by a value possessed by the target character.  Picking a pocket is a good example.  Instead of a generic "pickpocket" check, the difficulty of the action is opposed by a skill, attribute, or combination, like "(Perception + Awareness + 50) / 3" or whatever.  The skills and attributes in question should be ones that would naturally be higher for more experienced characters, who would presumably be more inviting, richer targets.  Whether the attempt to steal is successful or not, there must be another check to see whether anyone noticed the attempt.  This is a complex calculation, as bystanders would also get a chance to detect the pickpocketing, but obviously it's harder to steal from someone alone on the street than it is in a crowded subway train.  One possible formula involves calculating a chance to detect pickpocketing within a radius of 5 yards calculated in a contested roll as above, and divide this chance to detect for any passive observers (i.e. not the guy being robbed) by a factor based on the population density within that 5 yards, as there are more distractions.  This gets very kludgey and system bogging though, and there may be more elegant solutions.  The point here is to allow a chance of thievery to succeed, but make it very difficult in general.  Also, the chance of spotting an unsuccessful attempt at pickpocketing and recognizing it as such should be considerably lower than spotting a successful snag.  A moderately experienced thief may miss the right opportunity to bump his mark several times, but that doesn't mean he gets the cops called on him every time he thinks about it.

House looting is another popular activity for MMORPG thieves.  If it is allowed, it is extremely powerful by virtue of the fact that the people who own the house (and its contents) are technically nonexistent most of the time.  For the sake of simplicity, you can simply outlaw house looting within the effective range of the town guard, the "city proper."  This is the area that is regularly patrolled by aldermen and/or soldiers, and housing and taxation should be high in exchange for the privelige of living in these areas.

As you move further from the center of government influence, the house thief has more chances to ply his trade as patrols and such become less frequent.  If NPC houses are lootable, this isn't much of a problem, as the NPC can always be nearby with a pitchfork at least, and the average peasant doesn't have much in the way of valuables anyway.  The player house, though, is far more vulnerable due to the fact that its owners don't exist much of the time.  To compensate, the system can allow for stronger and better security systems on the house (pick-resistant locks, barred doors, etc.), hired guards, animals trained to attack invaders, hidden creches where valuables are kept, and maybe even traps for the unwary intruder, plus the chance that a patrolling ranger may happen to come by as the thief is climbing through the window.  These devices are effective deterrents to thieves, as the typical house thief is wearing light leather at best and might carry a stiletto, and should be intimidated by a reasonably strong guard with a poleaxe, but there may be a chance to circumvent these systems.

If a house is looted, the law will take interest.  An investigator may come out to the house if the player's social importance (modified by possible bribes) is high enough, and snoop around.  Middle ages forensic science wasn't especially advanced, however, and the property is probably lost, sold by the thief to his fence at low low prices.  However, even if there is no proof of wrongdoing, criminal points should still apply to the house looter to reflect the strength of rumor and suspicion... a black box of sorts to insure that the crminal never gets away completely free of consequence.

Note that house looting by force, i.e. charging in, killing the guards and the dogs, breaking down the door, and carrying everything away on horses, is far more noticeable, and subject to discovery, by investigating officials.  Criminal points accrued for this sort of thing are considerably higher than for a stealthy breakin, just as murder rates above pickpocketing.

Other functions of the rogue, including picking locks in enemy strongholds, finding traps in a dungeon, etc. etc., are not really part of the criminal profession, and are outside the scope of this section, as it deals with the integration of the thief as an antisocial factor.  These non-criminal functions and their import are almost completely dependent on producing enough content to make them viable.

Justice Systems for Persistent Worlds

There are two forms of required justice systems in any roleplaying game, paper or computer based.  One is the control of problem players whose only purpose in the game is to ruin the experience for others.  The second is the retribution due a character who is in the role of a criminal.  The first issue can only be dealt with by careful GM scrutiny and penalties like removing the player from the game for a while, or permanent expulsion.  This is a human judgment call, and not within the scope of an actual game system, so here we deal only with the second part.

A justice system in the sense of criminal activity is especially necessary in a world with no artifice to prevent PvP combat.  The reason that players get annoyed with a purely PK+ world is that there are no effective systems as of yet to countermand wanton murder.  For a very long time, UO was firmly in the hands of the Dread Lords, and later silly artifices were introduced like statloss and such which only contributed to macroing off murder counts and other forms of system exploitation to avoid the consequences of criminal activity.  There is no system at all on Darktide in Asheron's Call to sanction killers, and the only defense there is to be tougher than the other guy, or have lots of friends.  Neither system is satisfactory, although the Darktide system fails spectacularly when one considers the enormous disparity in power between potential combatants, as opposed to the maximum player potential in UO.  The real problem with both systems is that for the most part, justice is up to players to mete out, and this never works.  Would-be policemen are not logged in 24/7 as they are in real life, and there are too many opportunities for the criminal to escape notice altogether.  This is also the reason why houses in UO used to be so eminently lootable:  99% of the time, there is nobody home at all.

Trying to figure out how to deal with criminals in a realistic game system is pretty much like trying to deal with any other theoretical problem:  look at the real-life analogue.  If a couple of murderers are killing and robbing the locals around the duke's holdings, he will eventually dispatch some rangers to deal with the problem.  So the logical response in an MMORPG to the presence of a known criminal is to dispatch groups of NPC cops to hunt him down.  Ideally, they don't simply teleport out of nowhere a la UO superguards, but actively track the character through the countryside.  There would even be the possibility for players to become errant deputies:  "Say Ranger, what are you doing?"... "We seek the wanted brigand AzzMasta!"  This also provides the criminal with the possibility of evading justice if he can get out of the area, although if he comes back he will still be wanted.  He can also attack the rangers, possibly with help, but attacking a local alderman is the game equivalent of being a cop killer, and sets one up for more stringent penalties, and consequently, more people out for his head.

The degree of the crime (and the number of them committed) can figure into how determined the cops are to get the criminal.  Assign each criminal act a value in points.  Murder would figure high, heinous murder (killing someone who is effectively defenseless, maybe) would count higher, killing a town official would almost certainly be considered particularly grave.  Variable points can be added for the social status of the victim(s), assuming you have a social status system.  More people get mad if you knock off a popular local hero than if you mug a beggar.  The total number of criminal points you have determines how often you are recognized by a patrolling ranger, whether or not a posse is sent after you, and other things like that.  A guy who attacked and killed another adventurer because he was insulted would certainly be wanted, but a mass murderer would have half the patrols out for his head, and in big numbers too.  Criminal points can be alleviated by time (very slowly), doing good works for the community, and being caught.

Of course, once the criminal is cornered, then what?  The most common response for a murderer was execution, but this was not solely out of a sense of eye-for-eye:  it was to protect the public from his depradations.  If you have a world with even limited permadeath, being killed once doesn't really put you out of circulation very effectively unless it's you are fresh out of resurrections, and instant permadeath as the penalty for a crime is unduly harsh on a player who may be actually contributing to the lore of the land by roleplaying a true villain, or even some poor schmuck who made a mistake.  Imprisonment, therefore, is a must-have when considering a logical justice system.  The character languishes in jail for a certain amount of real time before it can be actively played again, unable to do anything, and at the end of this prison term, the character will probably be killed publically by the local headsman and his (known) property confiscated, just to show that the baron is tough on crime.  These penalties may be reduced somewhat by a number of factors, including the criminal's social standing (good boy from a good family who turned bad), bribery, membership in an influential organization, or even just giving up peacefully when the police surround you.  Conclusion of the punishment term results in a certain loss of criminal points, always with a cap to prevent total absolution after a career killer is arrested once, but allowing for the possibility to actually "repay one's debt to society."  If the character is still loaded down with enough criminal points to be arrested on sight, he may be released into the woods outside the city borders, a pretty clear message.

Justice System Problems with the Computer Referee

The computer makes a terrible judge.  Subjective decision regarding things like intent are beyond the scope of the standard computer today.  One might be able to get a pretty good simulation of subjective decisionmaking through incredibly complicated heuristic routines, but the processing power required for these decisions many times during the course of a day, plus the added workload of running a game server itself, are way beyond the means of the modern game server.  Three generations from now, such computing power may be financially viable for the MMORPG administrator, but not right now.

This means that the implementation of even the most basic justice system, say the one proposed here which recognizes only murder, theft, and tax evasion, is a massive undertaking.  Just getting the server to understand the meaning of "aggression" can be extremely tricky.  The Ultima Online sstem, the only one in production right now, is extremely complicated and prone to failure, and the only things it can recognize via flags are aggression (first attack) and "free to attack" status via criminality, i.e. someone who robs you is fair game thereafter.  The computer cannot recognize subjective defenses for aggression like verbal goading, harassment, and other abstract ideas.

I am still in favor of the implementation of a limited justice system as a tool for behavioral consequence, flawed though a computer justice system may be.  The law is not perfect in real life, either.  All one can do is watch to see how the inventive players are exploting the system and patch it as best you can.  Having no justice system in a world that demands it (i.e. PvP+) leaves you with player-imposed justice, which is even worse, and inevitably you have a weak version of feudalism (at best) or anarchy.  Anarchy precludes almost any realistic attempt at an overall plot, and at this point you would be better served just running a server for Tribes, Quake, Starcraft, or other games specifically made for multiplayer PvP.

Justice System Example

Basic sample Justice System criminal point values and consequences, using time scales outlined elsewhere in this document (6 to 1 game to real world).  This system can be more easily applied to a pen and paper system, like most things that are worthwhile in RPG's.

Penalties Table

These are general guidelines for criminal points accrued by the criminal.  The exact point penalties can be influenced by factors like the social status of the victim, amount of property stolen, etc.
 
Criminal Act Points
Attempted tax evasion Fine
Attempted smuggling Fine + confiscation
Attempted smuggling of a controlled substance Fine + confiscation + 10-30
Pickpocketing while a member in good standing of a Thieves' Guild 5-10
Pickpocketing without Thieves' Guild protection 25-50
Theft from a house while a member in good standing of a Thieves' Guild 15-50
Theft from a house without Thieves' Guild protection 75-250
Murder, victim with low social standing 100-250
Murder, victim with moderate social standing 200-500
Murder, victim is a civil servant or noble 500-1000

Pursuit Table

Any crime committed that is immediately noticed by an authority will result in that authority pursuing the criminal for a short period of time, within that authority's patrol range.  Chance to be recognized by authorities applies in situations where the criminal is within sight distance of an authority who is not actively pursuing that person, but may recognize him from sketchs, briefings, etc.  Dedicated patrols are looking specifically for that individual.  Criminals may generally only be apprehended within the zone of control of the government in question, although particularly heinous criminals (10000+ points) may merit the dispatch of bounty hunters beyond this range.
 
Criminal Point Total Intensity of Pursuit
1-50 No pursuit, will not be caught unless caught in the act.
51-100 No pursuit, will not be caught unless caught in the act.
101-200 No active search, chance to be recognized by authorities = (points/5)%.
201-400 Dispatch of a squad of dedicated aldermen/rangers to track by mundane means, chance to be recognized by other authorities = (points/5)%, not to exceed 60%.
401-1000 Dispatch of several squads who will converge on the target if his location becomes known, chance to be recognized by other authorities = 75%.
1001-2500 Dispatch of several large squads who will converge on the target if his location becomes known, chance to be recognized by other authorities = 85%.
2501+ Dispatch of a very large force with the assistance of a magical finder who uses sympathetic magic to track the target within a certain radius, chance to be recognized by other authorities = 95%.

Penalty Table

Penalties may seem light given the state of dark ages justice historically (poach a deer, get killed for it), but an attempt is made to err on the side of compassion for the player.  Executions are based on the base 5 resurrection before permadeath model.  In no case should a player character get permadeath through criminal penalties (i.e. no executions past 0 remaining resurrections).  The permadeath risk for the career murderer lies in the idea that once a murderer is caught, it is possible that player characters will hunt him down in an effort to permakill the murderer, and such a criminal with no remaining resurrections will probably be spending a certain amount of time getting resurrections back through waiting, evil temple devotions, etc.  This is considered a reasonably effective way to protect society from the depradations of the murderer, at least for a while.

Also note that penalties for levels of criminals who are not normally pursued by the authorities (1-50 points) are presented in case the inept criminal is caught in the act.

"Known property" includes all monies and items in a criminal's personal possession, bank accounts and storage areas within the government's zone of control, and legal houses within this zone.  "Hidden property" includes wilderness shacks and such outside the government's direct influence, hidden caches, etc.

Incarceration does not allow for any beneficial offline activity.
 
Criminal Point Total Incarceration Time Material Penalties Execution Chance
1-50 Limited (0.5-1 RW hours) Possible fine. N/A
51-100 1 working day (3 RW hours) Fine. N/A
101-200 (points/100) days (4-8 RW hours) Fine, confiscation of a small amount of known property. (points/20)%.
201-400 (points/80) days (8.5-20 RW hours) Fine, confiscation of a variable amount of known property. (points/15)%.
401-1000 (points/50) days (32-80 RW hours) Fine, confiscation of known property, token search for hidden property. (points/10)%.
1001-2500 (points/50) days (80-200 RW hours) Fine, confiscation of known property, reasonable search for hidden property. 1 execution minimum, chance for second execution = (points/25)%.
2501+ (points/50) days (200+ RW hours) Fine, confiscation of known property, fervent search for hidden property with magical assistance, possible persecution of known associates (other characters on that account). 2 executions minimum, chance for third execution = (points/100)%, chance for fourth execution = (points/100)-100%, etc.

Sentence Mitigation Table

These are some optional ideas to allow players to mitigate their sentences.  Since the computer is a lousy judge, you cannot really have an effective trial, and must assume the computer knows the criminal is guilty.  However, the player might have a chance to reduce his penalties through bribery and good connections (social status).  Note that social status will not be much of a mitigating factor for a career criminal, since his status would presumably keep dropping, but it may be a factor if a normally noble player is arrested for a criminal act.  The degree of bribery required to get a particular effect depends on the status of the game economy, of course.
 
Mitigating Factor General Penalty Modifiers Execution Modifier
Criminal turns himself in or surrenders peacably to authorities Incarceration time reduced by 25-50%, slightly reduced material penalties. Reduce mandatory executions by 1, variable execution chances reduced by 50%.
Bribery Variable decrease in incarceration time based on amount of bribe.  No reduction of material penalties through bribery. Variable execution modifier based on amount of bribe.  No possible elimination of mandatory executions through bribery (1001+ criminal points).
Social status Variable reduction in incarceration time and/or material penalties based on social status. Variable execution modifier and possible reduction of mandatory execution penalties based on social status.

Criminal Point Reduction Table

Obviously, activities such as "Community Service" and "Bribery by the Criminal" are only possible if the character can reasonably perform these activities, i.e. he is at 100 or fewer criminal points (thus not actively pursued), or manages to make his way to City Hall or wherever without being spotted and arrested by the authorities.
 
Activity/Event Criminal Point Reduction
Normal Passage of Time -1 point per game day, online or offline (4 hours RW time).
Community Service as Offline Activity -2 additional points per offline game day (4 hours RW time).  Note that a "Community Service" offline activity selection allows for no concurrent skill gains or benefits of any kind aside from criminal point reduction.
Bribery by the Criminal Variable reduction in criminal points based on amount of bribe.
Bribery by Others On Behalf of the Criminal Variable reduction in criminal points based on amount of bribe, about 1/3 as effective as a bribe made by the criminal himself.
Influence of Social Status Variable reduction in criminal points based on amount of Social Status lost in exchange for this consideration.  Character may not go below a "normal" social status (zero) to reduce criminal points.
Being Incarcerated as Punishment 50% of total criminal points at the time of capture.
Being Executed as Punishment (any number of executions) 10% of total criminal points at the time of capture.
Being Fined or Losing Property as Punishment 1-15% of total criminal points at the time of capture, based on the amount of money/property taken.

Release from Incarceration

Characters who are released from incarceration who remain at over 100 criminal points obviously should not be re-released within the government's zone of control, lest they simply be arrested again on the spot.  Such characters are released just outside the borders of the civilization he has offended, at a semi-random point (to discourage criminal camping).

If a criminal wishes, there may be an option for further voluntary criminal point reduction in the form of bribes made by others or community service.  During the character's incarceration, other characters may make bribes in the normal fashion to reduce his post-incarceration criminal point total.  The criminal may also opt to volunteer for community service as an offline activity immediately following his release.  If this option is taken, the criminal's period of incarceration is immediately followed by a period of community service that may not be interrupted (i.e. the character is unavailable for logon) until his criminal point total is reduced to 100 or less.  Of course, this may take a very long time, but it allows for the possible social redemption of the criminal if he wishes it.

Getting Around the "Good Mule" Syndrome

A common tool for almost everyone but the most hard-core of evil roleplaying types is the use of an alternate character slot as the "good guy."  This is the character that can go into town for supplies, sell off loot, run a vendor... basically get around the sanctions and limitations imposed by the game on the criminal character.  It was not uncommon in UO for the 5 slots on an account to consist of one powerful good guy, 1 or 2 powerful murderers, and the rest mules of some sort or another.  This works because there is nothing connecting the good character and the evil character that is recognizable by other players, or the game engine.

To combat this, it may be necessary to implement a "known associates" black box system.  This means that all characters on an account are considered to be known to hang out with each other to some degree.  This has little meaning for the player who has all good (or all evil) characters who do things to justify their legal status, but an account with one crazed murderer and a few good guys will find that the good guys are being scruitinized by the local constabulary.  The noble Robin Glenn may find that his petitions for a title and holdings are being ignored and he's not getting such a good deal from the local merchants because he is a known associate of the wanted killer Grom.  If Robin already had a title and lands when Grom began his spree, his worthiness will be called into question, and he may be stripped of his position, since he obviously can't even keep his friends in line, and how can he be trusted to govern a fief?

The known associates system requires a somewhat complex system of reputation, fame and criminality, and server manipulation of these elements while the characters are offline (or done right at login, at the same time that the "offline activity" stuff is taken care of).  Its purpose is to encourage players who wish to be evil in their personas to own up to the consequences of this choice, rather than circumventing them with a stupid game mechanic.