Bounty hunters

Who are the Bounty Hunters?

Bounty Hunters are players from any faction who want to receive the bounties that get set by pirate victims. After being looted by a pirate, the victim will be presented with the opportunity to place a bounty. The player will set a bounty on that pirate for a certain amount of TOS. Multiple victims can contribute to the bounty. The amount of TOS needs to be attractive enough for another player to accept the job of hunting that pirate down. This can be considered as a mini quest.

Story

In a decentralized free market like Cryptopia, the Bounty Hunter faction is the closest thing there is to a police force. Collectively known as the Sea Wolves, these hunters scour the waters near Cryptopia in search of pirates marked as bounties.

Citizens victimized by pirates have only one recourse: obtain the services of a Bounty Hunter and hope that they can find the pirate, win the encounter, and take back the stolen loot. A Sea Wolf doesn’t come cheap, but it’s definitely preferable to losing one’s entire cargo.

At the head of this faction stands one man: James “Wardog” Markham. From a young age, James possessed a strong belief in order and justice. He believes that a working society requires order, and that order needs to be enforced. After completing his studies, James joined the police force, hoping to put his ideas into action. It was a mistake—he soon found himself out of a job when his superior officers found out James wasn’t a “team player” and ratted them out to Internal affairs for corrupt practices.

James then joined a private security group, but even then he didn’t quite feel at home working for rich folk and helping to hide their dirty laundry. After a few years, he left that industry as well. No matter where he went, James found himself adrift; like a ronin from ancient Japan, he was without a master or a purpose, and no reason to use his skills. Even when he was invited to Cryptopia, James found little to attract his interest. None of the factions’ agendas appealed to him. As much as he liked the idea of helping to create a better society, he could not find a way to align himself with their methods and goals.

One day, as James was out sailing, he chanced upon a cargo ship being robbed by pirates. When the pirates sped away, he gave chase and rammed the raiders’ boat from the side. His quick use of superior arms forced the buccaneers to surrender. James returned the stolen loot to the grateful ship captain, who gave him a portion of the cargo. That was when James arrived at an epiphany.

He quickly formed a faction of his own, with himself as its only and absolute leader. Calling themselves the Sea Wolves, their objective was to hunt down pirates and drive them out of business. James didn’t believe in introducing a police force because it was easy to corrupt. By placing the enforcement of order in the free market, there would be no upper echelons, all operators are treated equally, and only a bounty hunter’s skill and persistence guaranteed their success.

James welcomes people like him, who can’t seem to find their place among the factions of Cryptopia, but still wish to perform good deeds for financial rewards. He oversees the training of every new hunter who joins his faction, helping them devise strategies to defeat pirates and acquire their loot. Of course, he also obtains a cut from their income as the faction leader.

James instituted a Bounty Hunter Code, which came down to the following:

• Never steal another hunter’s bounty. Those who do are to be treated as pirates.

• Your mission is your law. Hunt down pirates to retrieve ill-gotten loot and help build a better society by going after the parasites of the city.

The Sea Wolves have a bottom-up approach to dealing with the pirate problem. The pirate factions get rich by taking a share of the loot gathered by the individual pirates. Shutting down these low-level operators will weaken the higher echelons and in time will make them easier to take down.

Lately, James has become aware that the pirates have other designs in Cryptopia apart from looting its ships, and has spent much of his time investigating their various agendas. He has sent spies out to some pirate factions to dig up more dirt in hopes of eventually convincing the Cryptopia leaders to devise some form of collective action to stop the pirate factions’ plans.

Though James works tirelessly to thwart the pirate factions, even he doesn’t want them completely gone. He understands that without the pirates there would be no Sea Wolves, and he would be back to being a drifter. Thankfully, the pirate factions are willing to put up a fight. For as long as they do, James Markham and the Sea Wolves have something to hunt.