In my latest playline (the 2nd harcore I’ve started and hopefully will finish), I’ve taken a very different approach: psychopathic serial killer Henry. This is not to say he is a servant of Khorn, who kills for bloodlust or sport. He kills for his own benefit. This started because I wanted to see how much XP/Loot one could “extract” out of the opening scenes of the game described in detail here.
By the time I arrived in Rattay, my “Skalitz” reputation was -100. I have not played into the late stages of the game to know if that is going to “haunt” me later or not. The Skalitz Refugees like me just fine.
So the theme of the playline is not, actually “serial killer” who just kills for the sake of it. But more: cold-blooded, calculating killer, who kills for his own benefit (whether that is to learn skills or gain material rewards, or avoid punishments).
I have generally found crime to be very easy in the game, and that probably isn’t too unrealistic. At this time, punishments were incredibly harsh and disproportionate, so the risk of suffering permanent disabilities and stigma or death were probably a pretty potent deterrent to most casual crime. Of course, the commercial version of the game cannot possibly be realistic in this regard . . . "Oop! Caught stealing a loaf of bread! Chop of his hand! . . . Trespassing!? stick him in the pillory for a month! . . . Murder!? Death by Drawing Quartering!? . . . Not an expert on this time period much less this region in this time period, so my specifics could be quite off, but I would bet that the penalties were in that ballpark . . . Still, that is effectively how WH DID handle crime for the early part of the game . . . anyway, maybe a mod or two could dial up some more “realistic” crime and punishment dynamics.
So, like I said, I’ve normally found it VERY easy to get away with crime, though not so much that I’d say the game is unrealistic or fails to evoke immersion. One definitely has to go about things sensibly, but if you do generally you can get away with murder (as well as kidnapping, animal-harassment, theft, breaking and entering, bribery, intimidation, embezzling, etc., etc.).
However, I made a slight mistake in my current playline and now find myself in a novel situation, I have yet to encounter in the game: I’m apparently wanted in Rattay (the Player/Reputation/Rattay entry has a red icon with dark gray portcullis bars covering it, i.e., JailTime!). I was coming back from a round of poaching and selling the cooked meat in Talmberg and on the hill southwest I spotted a camp. My memory was it was a bandit camp and I spotted a guy with his back to me standing some ways away from the camp. Definite non-civilian. It didn’t dawn on me that he was wearing the Talmberg Waffenrock!
Got caught up in the rush and stealth killed him before I realized he wasn’t a “bad guy,” and then even worse picked him up to tote off the body and one of his buddies spotted me. I dropped the body and his buddy gave chase, and I kited him out into a field (I was VERY lightly armored and relatively low level so a straight up fight with him would’ve been game over). Thanks to my “Physical Fitness” perk (from perkaholic) I was eventually able to leave him far enough behind in the field that I could see him but he disengaged, I then closed in from behind and stealth killed him too. So, I was not seen killing someone but I was seen toting the dead body of a guard so that probably counts as “guilty of Murder” in the KCD court of law . . . So now I wanted, dead or alive . . . Took me all day to slow walk all that stolen gear back to Wojcek . . .
I had a look here: and apparently the only suitable punishment for murder is 10 days of jail time . . . sheesh, that is NOT going to be good for my “Balanced Diet” . . .
No spoilers! I want to explore this on my own . . . maybe there is some way around it by paying an exorbitant tithe to the church or something . . . but I welcome any non-spoilerish comments/feedback about crime in the game. Maybe the thread can become a general purpose “all about crime and punishment in KCD” thread.
If the toon winds up spending 10 days in the slammer, not a biggie. Just fun to explore how it all plays out with the wonderful system they have setup.
I think I might just “run with it” and see how far I can go as the “Outlaw Henry” . . .