Preventing the "No witnesses!!" solution to problems

[Sister Cat 0]

Adeptus-B said:

In my campaign, a bigger problem than indiscriminate killing of civilians has been the party's inclination to steal everything they can carry. Coming from a D&D background, they naturally assume they are supposed to loot everything they get their hands on. This has limited some of my scenario options- I don't dare use a wealthy nobleman for an adversary, for example, because I know that everything he owns (priceless works of art, etc.) will eventually end up in their possession. Any suggestions...?

I talked about how I handled my players' "thugs-r-us" mentality in the thread "DW Conversion - Requisition and Psychic Powers" in the main DH forum.  In an attempt to cure such thinking in them I - quite by accident - stumbled upon a method that eventually worked.  At Ranks 1 through 3, I used the normal DH income system, so they got whatever they could buy, steal, or loot.  This is where I realized there was a problem, and started working on how to fix it.  So, for Ranks 4 through 6, I included monetary rewards for successful missions, and the occassional gift of some bit of gear they wanted from their Inquisitor, along with whatever they could convince the Inquisitor they really needed (if only for a given mission).  This helped some, but didn't really solve the problem.  They were still expending more energy trying to get more and better loot than they were investigating and purging heretics.  So I recently gave them their own Influence (as per Ascension) equal to one-third of their Inquisitor's Influence, backed up by their own Rosettes.  All the normal modifiers apply, so truly outrageous things will still be out of their reach, and they won't be able to use it for much if they are acting covertly/under-cover.  But in situations where they aren't worried about exposing their affiliation, they can acquire just about anything reasonable given time ... and the right location.  Ever since, they have actually started spending more time and energy doing their jobs, rather than looking for "loot".  So, for my group at least, it seems to have worked well.

Hope that helps. 

[Bilateralrope 144]

Adeptus-B said:

In my campaign, a bigger problem than indiscriminate killing of civilians has been the party's inclination to steal everything they can carry. Coming from a D&D background, they naturally assume they are supposed to loot everything they get their hands on. This has limited some of my scenario options- I don't dare use a wealthy nobleman for an adversary, for example, because I know that everything he owns (priceless works of art, etc.) will eventually end up in their possession. Any suggestions...?

Start fielding enemies with gear that they do not want to use. For example:

 - Booby trapped gear that will do nasty things to any user other than the noble.

 - Corrupted gear that will risk IP or CP every time they use it.

 - Xeno-tech stuff that will cause them serious trouble when their Inquisitor finds out.

 

As for the stuff they plan to steal and sell, start messing around with the selling step. Having the gear be near-unique actually helps you here because the items will be so well known that every enforcer on the planet (any maybe beyond) will easily recognise it and, knowing that it was stolen, will come down hard on whoever posses it*. Because of this fear, finding a buyer will be almost impossible.

For example, say you managed to steal the Mona Lisa. How would you go about selling it ?

*And anyone powerful enough to be unconcerned about the local cops is probably going to have ways of stealing it from the PCs. Such as torturing them for its location and sending his own men to get it.

[Suijin 0]

Adeptus-B said:

In my campaign, a bigger problem than indiscriminate killing of civilians has been the party's inclination to steal everything they can carry. Coming from a D&D background, they naturally assume they are supposed to loot everything they get their hands on. This has limited some of my scenario options- I don't dare use a wealthy nobleman for an adversary, for example, because I know that everything he owns (priceless works of art, etc.) will eventually end up in their possession. Any suggestions...?

Equip enemies with great weapons, good damage but worthless and heavy, and other similiar weapons.  Most enemies won't have all this shining great gear, and selling it would give at best half book cost, it's used after all.  Go to a "Play it Again Sports" or someplace that buys used video games to resell, they don't give crap for stuff they sell.

Otherwise use the whole attracting attention for trying to sell 20 autoguns with matching armor or the mona lisa, etc.