Renting:
Cheap Rooms: These would cost maybe 10 gold/week, and provide little more than
a lock on the door.
Average Rooms: These might cost 10p/week and the innkeeper would occasionally
walk through the hallways and check to see if there was anything wrong, possible
catching burglars.
Expensive Rooms: In order to take better care of their guests the wealthier
innkeepers employ actual guards who make continuous patrols of the inns. Only
the most skilled burglars would have any chance of evading these guards and
succesfully robbing a room, plus the locks are well made and somewhat hard
to pick. Cost maybe 100p/week or soemthing.
Traps:
All rooms that you "own" can be outfitted with various kinds of traps. From
simple and cheap tripwires to spring loaded crossbows, even poisoned needles
on the locks. IF you happen to know a competent mage he might even be able
to lay a magical trap for you.
Mechanics:
A burglar would have to sneak past any guards, if he is discovered the guards
will know he doesn't belong in the inn. These guards would be the innkeeper
in the average inns, and the actual guards in expensive inns. Once he gets
to the room he has to pick the lock on the door, hopefully avoiding any
traps on it. If succesful he walks into a room but sees nothing but the room
description and maybe an object representing "stuff" on the floor. He can
search the room a few times in order to reveal anything worth stealing, then
take it. But after so much time in the room he won't be able to try and
steal anything else because he would receive a message saying "You are too
worried about being caught to search for anything else." If he continues
to search anyway guards will come in and find him and he will be arrested.
In either case the robbery is discovered and the room is guarded more closely
until the owner comes back, in other words further robberies will be
impossible to pull off.
Support skills/spells:
Lay Trap: Rogue types and rangers can lay traps in their rooms after buying
the right equipment. Rangers won't be as good at this, and their traps will
be simpler in nature.
Antonok's Fiery Doom: A spell which is triggered by unautherized entry into
a room in which it is cast. IF a thief enters the room it will explode,
however this spell doesn't "recognize" people very well so it might be a little
unsafe to bring a friend into the room, especially if they aren't consented.
Trannok's Warning Cube: This spell is relatiely weak, all it does is alert
the caster of the spell to anyone breaking it's seal. When someone enters
the room a message is sent tothe wizard, along with the face and name (determined
magically) of the intruder. (They would be added to the wizards friend list
so they could be recognized easily.
Trannok's Guarding Cube: This is a more advanced version of Warning Cube,
it alerts the wizard as before, but also acts as a wall of force that will
keep anyone from entering the room at all. Unfortunately this includes the
wizard, and he will have to dispel it in order to gain entry into his own
quarters. There may be other means of getting past this spell as well. (would
require a lot of time an maybe rare components to cast?)
Shops and Items:
Spring Crossbow: A small crossbow that can be mounted on a wall and loaded
with a dart. The dart itself will do little damage, but can be coated with
poison. If the purchaser doesn't have the knowledge to do this himself
he can pay the shop to do it for him, but only some of the weaker poisons.
Tripwire: This doesn't do much, it just trips the thief so he falls as he
enters the room and sounds an alarm which may bring the guards running.
Poison Needle: This is attached to the lock on the room, and anyone trying pick the lock may be pricked by it. The weakest varieties of poison willjust make the thieves fingers swell up, making it hard for them to pick
the lock. More expensive varieties might knock them out temporarily. But only rogues who had their own sources could get stronger poisons than that.
Stuff: This would allow for some more RP situations and stuff, and make players
choose between wearing their best eq for a raid or leaving it in storage and
risking it being stolen. The limit on the amount that could be stolen would
keep this from being too much of a loss, no more than being pkilled anyway.
Also when leaving the crime scene a thief might be seen, if he is then the
victim can get a description of the thief and try to track him down. With
more spells and stuff this could become an interesting new dimension to the mud.
And it wouldn't just be for thieves since even the lowliest warrior would
have to think about and purchase security options, maybe befriend a mage and
talk him into casting a spell trap before going on a long trip and such.
Another thing I forgot to mention:
Warriors and such might purchase guard dogs for their rooms, which would require
regular feedings and such. Wizards and maybe priests could summon demonic guards
or sometihng at the highest levels.
A player who doesn't pay his rent runs the risk of losing his room and the
innkeeper would auction off all of his belongins in order to make up for
the lost rent payments. This would take care of players who disappear and
such... as if there will be any that do.
Sarvis