Bounty (Skyrim)

Bounty is a law enforcement game mechanic in . Bounty tracks the number and severity of crimes committed. From there, the offense is converted to a amount.
==Comparison with previous releases==
===Separation by hold===
Unlike , where bounty was tracked and upheld across the cities of Cyrodiil, bounty in Skyrim is kept separate by Hold. For instance, when a crime is committed in Falkreath Hold, this does not necessarily translate to a Winterhold arrest based on the Falkreath Bounty.
===Evading bounty===
Traditionally, three options for resolving a bounty exist across games: paying the bounty off in gold, resisting arrest, or serving in prison. Skyrim introduces two more options: evading bounty by flaunting a title. Jarls of Skyrim can grant the title of Thane to citizens, which allows the individual's menial crimes to be overlooked. Crimes such as murder or assault may not be overlooked, however it should be noted that evasion of a bounty via Thanehood can only be used once per hold unless the Dragonborn is elected Thane again by a new Jarl following the Civil War questline. The fifth and last option for the Dragonborn, assuming they are part of the Thieves Guild, is to pay more septims (bribing the guard) but retain stolen goods. It is also possible, if one's Speech is sufficient, to simply talk the guard out of apprehending the Dragonborn.
===Stolen items===
As with other releases, all stolen items are removed when bounties are resolved.
==Dealing with a bounty==
When any bounty is accumulated, guards in Holds or cities accost the offender with law enforcement intentions, forcing them to halt and engage in dialogue. Four options exist for resolving the bounty (five for Thieves Guild members).
===General overview===
These are the following bounties that can be acquired. The specific values may vary, depending on the crime and the severity of said crime. As a general rule of thumb, the aforementioned bounty is not received if no one witnesses the Dragonborn committing it. However, if a bounty is acquired, killing all witnesses before they can report it will effectively nullify the bounty. The crime bounty ratio is as follows: The more severe the crime, or the more crimes one has committed (even those with a low value), the higher the bounty. The higher the bounty, the longer the prison sentence, and the longer the sentence, the more skills that will be affected.
Offense 	Description 	Bounty
Theft 	Being witnessed taking any owned item will incur a bounty. 	Half of the stolen item's value †
Lockpicking 	Being caught even attempting to pick the lock of an owned door or container results in a bounty, even if nothing was taken. The bounty is accumulated whether or not the lockpicking was successful. 	5
Trespassing 	When trespassing the Dragonborn will receive one warning and then be told to leave the area. If this caution message is ignored, the Dragonborn will receive a bounty after 30 seconds. At this point, characters will call for the guards and/or attack, depending on their aggression. Certain areas will immediately incur a bounty if the Dragonborn is caught trespassing. Likewise, some quests may also demarcate specific areas that will trigger bounties if an intruder is sighted; for example, in "Imitation Amnesty," Dragonsreach is off-limits to the Dragonborn.	5
Disturbing the Jarl's peace 	This can occur when dropping a weapon on the ground, or when loitering in the general vicinity of a dead body in a city, whoever killed the person. The Dragonborn will be confronted by a guard, and some of the possible responses can provoke them into a fight. 	10
Pickpocketing 	Interacting with a character while sneaking will allow the Dragonborn to view their inventory, and take items. The chance of being detected is determined by the total weight of the items stolen and the Dragonborn's Sneak level. Gold, although weightless, has a chance of causing detection. 	25
Assault 	Bare-handed brawls (where no weapons are used) and fights in which the Dragonborn verbally provokes a victim are excluded. The latter technique is a safe way to legally assassinate targets for the Dark Brotherhood. Using weapons or spells in a brawl will incur a bounty. Certain apparel, such as the Ebony Mail or the Targe of the Blooded can also result in unintended damage that will incur a bounty. 	40‡
Horse Theft 	A bounty will be incurred each time an unowned horse is mounted if it is witnessed. 	50
Prison break 	Merely activating an escape route or unlocking the door to a jail cell is considered a crime, even if the Dragonborn does not physically open the door. 	100
Forging a Business Ledger 	Activating a ledger during a Numbers Job for the Thieves Guild will incur a bounty if it is witnessed. 	
*Forging a general ledger: 100 
*Forging the Dragonsreach Prison Registry Ledger: 250
Murder 	Self-defense does not incur a bounty unless the attacker is a guard. Causing environmental deaths, such as drowning somebody or using Unrelenting Force or a weapon to make the person fall to one's demise, does not count as murder. 	1,000
Shapeshifting into a Werewolf or Vampire Lord	This includes reverting to original form if the Dragonborn was not seen transforming earlier. The bounty is only incurred for the first witnessed transformation and not for any subsequent ones. Being in either of these beasts forms is not a crime in itself but will cause most characters to turn hostile. 	1,000
*† The bounty for theft is half of the stolen item's value. This means that if an item that is worth only 1 is stolen, the bounty will be 0, but it must still be "paid" through conversation with the Guard. Paying the "0" bounty will also cause the guard to seize the stolen item(s).
**Taking an owned item is considered a crime, but reading an owned book or note is not. A stolen item will be permanently marked in the inventory with red text. Viewing items in an owned container, removing unowned items from an owned container, and taking your personal items from a dead character are not considered stealing.
*‡ Feeding on people as a Vampire, Werewolf or with Namira's Ring will also count as assault.
===Paying the fine===
If gold is paid, the guards leave and gold is automatically subtracted from the inventory.
Should arrest be resisted, all guards in the immediate area, which may even include some bystanders and citizens, draw weapons and attempt to slay the criminal—only upon the criminal's escape or demise do they relent. Certain followers can even turn on the Dragonborn depending on their disposition and morality. During combat, the perpetrator can choose to make the guard "yield" their attacks by sheathing their weapon(s) and thus initiating dialogue. This brings the criminal back to the conversation menu, in which they can elect to pay off the bounty or serve jail time. If the criminal's bounty is high enough, Jarls employ Bounty Collectors who have an enforcement warrant to pursue and apprehend criminals or terminate non-compliant law evaders. Unlike guards of each city, who are limited to their specific jurisdiction, bounty collectors can appear in any hold or other location, randomly.
===Serving jail time===
Criminals can alternatively choose to spend time in jail for accumulated bounty. When selecting this option, the criminal is stripped of all items, weapons, and armor and placed in a cell. To wait the duration of the sentence, sleep in the bed. Upon release, all items are returned. If the criminal chooses to escape, bounty is removed, but their items must be manually obtained from an evidence locker somewhere in the prison. If caught, they will receive a new bounty. It should also be noted that serving prison time causes certain skills to decrease in level. The Dremora Butler can be used to retain essential items if one is incarcerated/
===Petty crimes===
If the Dragonborn steals a low value object then some of the lower class may send Hired Thugs after them. For lower level characters they may be tough opponents.
==Special circumstances==
===Holding the title of Thane===
Upon becoming Thane of a Hold, minor bounties can be expiated simply by stating one's title as Thane. Offenses exceeding 1,000 though, will be upheld and cannot be excused using this method. Unless the hold has been captured during the civil war and the new Jarl happens to promote the Dragonborn as Thane again, this only works once per hold.
===Markarth===
In Markarth, citizens are sent to Cidhna Mine to pay off bounties. The sentence is served by mining ore or the character can elect to escape. Being imprisoned in the mine is part of the quest "No One Escapes Cidhna Mine."
===Thieves Guild===
After completing Special jobs for the Thieves Guild in Riften, criminals gain the option of bribing guards to allow them to keep stolen items.
===Bribery===
The "Bribery" perk in the Speech skill tree allows criminals to persuade guards out of arresting or fining them. This method does not remove the entire bounty, but the guard who attempted to collect on the bounty ignores it. The remaining guards who were non-witnesses may still respond to the bounty.
===Persuasion===
An option to persuade a guard to grant the Dragonborn clemency may sometimes appear, provided that they have a sufficiently low bounty level. Input phrases include, "Any chance I could talk you into overlooking this?," "You're making a mistake...," and "I don't have time for this. Do you?" Success is partially determined by speech level. If done correctly, one's speech will gain experience, but this will not clear a bounty.
Should the Dragonborn have a speech level of at least 75, this option is always available as long as they are not trespassing anywhere, the bounty is relatively minor, and no guard has been previously persuaded to forget the bounty. To have it reappear and negotiate with the same guard, wait two days and it can be attempted again. Alternatively, one can resist arrest when a certain guard addresses them and then surrender to a different character.
===Pacify===
In the Illusion school of Magicka, a spell called Pacify calms hostile targets. Coupled with the "Kindred Mage" perk from the same skill tree, the spell has the potential of calming guards, when a criminal acquires a bounty, causing them to forget the bounty temporarily and walk away. This option allows criminals to run or Fast Travel to a safer location.
===Silencing witnesses===
If in a remote or enclosed location, murdering witnesses to a theft, murder, or another crime annuls the bounty one acquires automatically for committing the crime. Alternatively, if no one witnesses the crime and the criminal is properly "stealthed" while committing it, a bounty may not even be acquired.
It is worth remembering that animals also count as witnesses, so these must be slain to exonerate the criminal of all pending charges.
===Taking a Hold===
During the Civil War, whenever a hold is taken by the Imperial Legion or Stormcloaks, a criminal's bounty is reset.
==Stolen items==
Storing stolen items in chests and containers or simply dropping may remove the bounty altogether. This is especially useful when items are accidentally picked up in shops or guild headquarters.
The owner of the item that witnesses the theft may simply take the item you picked up. In this case, you might not receive bounty.
==Achievements==
==Bugs==
*Individuals launched off cliffs by the Unrelenting Force shout do not accrue a bounty for murder even if the target dies upon impact. However, the Dragonborn will still receive a crime record for assault.
*Bounties can be accrued even if witnesses are absent. Sometimes chickens, dogs, and other wild animals can be witnesses to a crime as they are considered entities.
*Guards will sometimes attack criminals even if the crime was "invisible" (i.e., no bounty was placed). They will not give the option of surrendering.
*Sometimes, only a few guards will attack, while the rest go about their normal business.
* Guards may still attack after a bounty is paid, and do not give the option of yielding.
* Sometimes, the player may have a non-existent bounty to pay in a hold that the player has never entered or even discovered. No known reason for this.
* During the quest "Contract: Kill Beitild," the Dragonborn may be attacked almost immediately by all the guards in Dawnstar even when the player has no bounty whatsoever. No known reason for this.
* Sometimes, intervening in a random encounter against hostiles, like the Forsworn against Legion soldiers, will incur a bounty in the Hold that the encounter appeared in.
==Appearances==
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de:Verbrechen
Category:Skyrim: Gameplay
Category:Laws