I was thinking, what if your average item had a sort of free "Magical bind" on it, which allows it to be detected and tracked by its owner and the local guard.

These bindings would be innate and quickly explained early game as a lore point of a game mechanic.


This is the hinderence of theives.


So the Idea is simple, if someone steals something in a traditional elder scrolls game, it gains the stolen property making it hard to sell. but a stolen Item should have a different system in TESO


In TESO there are lots of players, and will undoubtably be lots of theives, what is halting them?


My solution to this is simple, a player may steal your gear, but you can track that gear and kill that player with no repurcussion, upon gaining revenge you can actually regain your gear.


Any items stolen from NPC's will be dropped on death. including coins and powerful items.

Some items will have rewards for their return by the NPC's.


Guards who arrest a player with stolen player gear will automatically send it back to its owner.

If a player logs out with stolen player gear, an NPC representing that player will walk around in his place, though that NPC does not represent the player entirely, it just has mirrored gear/stats/aethetics and a name to represent the thief, though any of its actions do not fall upon the actual criminal.


If the stolen item changes hands then that item can be further tracked.

Guards will not actively track the player, though it may be possible to contact an associated guild (Thieve's/assassin's/fighter's/ect) to request help, or go to a bounty board and put up a bounty.

A thief's avatar will spawn in and remain within the nearest town the thief was in when he logged out, if the thief is on an opposing faction than his crime is easier to get away with. a stolen item may not be destroyed or dropped but may be given or sold to a player, or sold to a fence, a fence will track down the owner and will attempt to sell the item back at a fairly low price, but may also be killed to be looted.

again players from enemy factions will have a better time (Encouraging more PVP against other factions) getting away with stealing your gear. Their guards will not send you a stolen piece of a equipment and will treat all gear as theirs. They essentially get it as a trophy piece but it still may be reclaimed via hunting the offender down.


An opposed player who steals and logs out in a restricted zone (Such as a starting zone for an enemy faction) will have an avatar that randomly quests in less than restricted areas.



Houses will come with housecarls or guards who protect your house with their life.

if there is a follower system you can selects a qualifying hireling/follower to be your guard and equip them with the gear you see fit to protect your wealth.

you may hire multiple guards for your house, each of which will be relatively cheap (mild amounts of gold per month if hired) or will do the job for food (They get a bed in your house and you leave an amount in a cubbord of food or just plain gold for food)


Special meals (Like high end meals) will give the guards a morale boost and make them sturdier and cheaper.

Each guard will have a neuteral (For hired) or friendly (for follower) disposition to you, which may be improved to reduce costs significantly.