Why Head Taking?

[Yma23]

Can we think of a better way of 'head taking' other than ah, taking heads?
What use does it give, really?
Could we replace it with another bodypart, which makes more narritive sense?

'So you're against Bashing Yma?'
No actually. Bashing a corpse can be useful. I'd rather have my corpse bashed and know for sure that I wasn't going to be raised, than hang around for hours on end with the expectation/hope I would be. At least with bashing you know one way or another.

'But we need heads to identify someone in the case of bounties ect.'
Even leaving aside the fact the Assassin system exists, I'm not even neccesarly arguing that there shouldn't be a 'trophy' of sorts available (though I find it a little 'leery' as quite often I've seen the act of carrying heads about as rather ego stroking than anything else.) Maybe it could be changed to an ear? A finger? Or something else. Something a character could, in theory, 'live' through. That can be said 'Oh yeah I got that healed back' rather than a severed head. It just breaks immersion and seems really wierd to explain.

So my feedback is, I suppose - remove the severed heads from the system and maybe replace it with something else. Or else encourage people to use the assassin system more - if we really are going the 'bounties' rout, and just not give any identifiable remains at all.

[Mr_Rieper]

The reason heads are used is because it's easy to identify the one killed. It's like this in RL as well, somebody needs their head to survive, and their head contains their face.

The reason it's an issue on the server is because technically, you don't actually need your head to survive. When you respawn, you get a fresh body. However the head can still be used to identify the victim.

The simpler solution to use if people are trying to take permanent trophies is to have heads "rot away" gradually while they are kept in inventories or chests. So they cannot be kept indefinitely.

[NauVaseline]

We don't have thumbprint sensors.

[Tarkus the dog]

Bashing is such a weird feature. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing an MMORPG.

[The Greater Good]

The whole thing has always felt incongruous with what Arelith presents itself as. It would feel less out of place on a more survival gankbox-esque server, really. Or like, Rust or whichever survival gankbox game the kids are playing these days. BDO?

[Richørd]

The worst post-PvP experience you can have is beating someone, taking their head and then recieving a speedy by that same character literally 5 minutes after you sent them to the afterlife.

Headtaking is useless in it's current iteration.

[The GrumpyCat]

The worst post-PvP experience you can have is beating someone, taking their head and then recieving a speedy by that same character literally 5 minutes after you sent them to the afterlife.

Headtaking is useless in it's current iteration.

Speedies count as rp.

So if this happens, please report it. We'll have Words with the perpetrator.

[Xarge VI]

It might be good that the head item deteriorates into a generic skull in say an irl week if that is possible to implement. It would allow enough time for a bounty hunter to collect a bounty but would prevent the weirdness of people boosting their ego with heads of living characters.

[Mr_Rieper]

It might be good that the head item deteriorates into a generic skull in say an irl week if that is possible to implement. It would allow enough time for a bounty hunter to collect a bounty but would prevent the weirdness of people boosting their ego with heads of living characters.

This. Absolutely this.

[The Kriv]

Can we think of a better way of 'head taking' other than ah, taking heads?
What use does it give, really?
Could we replace it with another bodypart, which makes more narrative sense?

Speaking solely as a convention of narratives... what OTHER cinematic or visual convention has been used in TV/Film/Literature, where a person/enemy removed ANOTHER body part of their foe?

I mean... I will concede that some of the North American Native Tribes took scalps from their enemies (even before the arrival of europeans in N.America,) but... regarding the topic of MAKING NARRATIVE SENSE... the head is THE thing to take, hands down... in just about 99.9% of fantasy stories... I mean...look at Snow White: the evil queen said "Bring me Snow White's Heart" ... and look how THAT turned out... It would have been a lot harder for that woodsman to fake it if the Evil Queen said "bring me Snow White's HEAD!"

[The Greater Good]

And the store would've been much less interesting, as it would've been focused on unambiguous success (winning) over being engaging. Proved the opposite point there, really.

[MissEvelyn]

And the store would've been much less interesting, as it would've been focused on unambiguous success (winning) over being engaging. Proved the opposite point there, really.

This is actually such a good point.

I agree, though, at some point the head needs to deteriorate and rot.

Furthermore, a head should weigh 10 or so lbs, if it doesn't already, and not 0.5.

[The Kriv]

And the store would've been much less interesting, as it would've been focused on unambiguous success (winning) over being engaging. Proved the opposite point there, really.

Heh. I think you have the wrong takaway.

The point was that taking the heart created more problems for the Evil Queen... and that it was an admission of concession of a story where the head WAS NOT taken.



Addressing a severed head breaking immersion:
you can, through the resurrection spell, bring anyone back to the prime material plane regardless of having 100% of their remains intact.

In theory, you could rescue your best mate from a bone fragment recovered from the pile of dung left behind by the dragon that ate him and still restores him to life via a resurrection spell.

I think that for a game where our character keep returning to life over and over and over and over, don't try to think of it like immersion breaking, think of it as willing suspension of disbelief.

[NauVaseline]

Proof. There'd be a thumb economy but not a forging/art crafting/bla bla blah