Watchman

[listless]

This is the first I've played solely as one of the watchmen, and it's been really engaging. I was thinking it might make a good starting scenario because it was hit or miss finding an open position even when I started new games on pause. All of the watchmen positions are usually already filled.

It's been fun getting to know the townsfolk, learning who the troublemakers are, when someone doesn't belong somewhere, and setting patrols as the reeve. I never new how naughty those orphan kids were until now. I spend most of my day chasing them from crime scene to crime scene. There's a small pack of miscreants who seem to be hell bent on spending most of their lives in the pit.

Speaking of which, I have one little trouble maker who's so bad that he's even committing crimes IN the pit. Which I can see how that could happen, but there's currently no way to prosecute.

I can select the criminal,
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3134150434
and choose prosecute,
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3134150399
but my watchman can only wander around outside the pit. It seems there’s no actual way to enter and deal with the crime.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3134151272

[listless]

Ok, the watch might be nabbing him when he gets out of the pit because as soon as he was released they threw him right back in and the number of crimes I could prosecute him for went down by one.

[JaydubbWlr]

Typically, only children would break into my shed to steal honey i was saving for a caravan. Upon getting the notification, I would hurriedly run/walk to their location with meatpie in hand to at least ensure they were well fed. This last time though, a grown woman, 7 years older than my character thought she could get away with stealing from my mine. Well, the legendary hammer I took from the corpse of a viking and I had a little chat with her and 260 silver coins later she came to see reason.

[listless]

I was like that too at first, feeling bad whenever the kids got sent to the pit, even gave them medicine if I noticed one of them limping along after getting released.

Now it's a relief whenever one of them gets tossed in the pit because that's one less miscreant to chase around. No more medicine either. That long, slow journey back to the abbey means a few hours of peace. I haven't had to beat anybody up yet, though. They're only just starting to grow up in my game.

[listless]

Are there any plans to have consequences for an out of control crime rate?
I mentioned this elsewhere, but on my Hampshire map run, there were so many active thieves, the watchmen couldn't keep up. The last crime report was 19 crimes. Because of the lack of wilderness sites, there were only a few choices, hire them, execute them, or just let them do their thing.

I thought it was a fascinating moral dilemma. I don't know what consequences would be appropriate, but some kind of pressure from an angry citizenry might be interesting.

[Old Soldier]

Originally posted by listless:

... there were only a few choices, hire them, execute them, or just let them do their thing.

I'm curious, how does one go about executing someone? I wasn't aware that was even an option.
Frankly I can see this being a useful method of population control. :D

[listless]

As the reeve you can declare someone an outlaw then kill that person with impunity. I guess it would affect your reputation with that person's family, but most of the thieves I meet don't have family.

[Old Soldier]

Originally posted by listless:

As the reeve you can declare someone an outlaw then kill that person with impunity. I guess it would affect your reputation with that person's family, but most of the thieves I meet don't have family.

I've declared someone an outlaw, but never tried killing them. How do you do it? I mean, are you using "melee attack"? The one time I attacked someone (an outlawed thief) they proved remarkably resilient to actually dying. They ran off before I could finish the job.

[listless]

All I know is it takes four hits with a battleaxe against an unarmed, unarmored crook. You do have to chase them around unless you can somehow corner them somewhere. With the crooks I followed them back to the wilderness bunkhouse, and they were easy pickings there.

It was all a bit too dark for my taste. I haven't gone back to that run since.

[Old Soldier]

Thanks for the info. I don't particularly want to go on a killing spree and prefer a more live and let live approach; But there is one particular repeat offender who has proven to be a prolific thief, arsonist and all around incorrigible villain.
No amount of Pit time seems to dissuade him. Maybe a good thump on the skull will do the trick.