Gothic/The Old Camp

Despite being criminals, those in the Old Camp do have laws regarding tresspassing and fighting. Usually you can get off with just a warning if you are caught breaking the law, but if you aren't seen or nobody minds you can act with impunity.

The castle
The fire magicians that you need to deliver a letter to are inside the castle. You are outside the castle. And the guards won't let you in. You'll normally gain access by becoming a Shadow, delivering a letter from the Magicians of Water or taking weeds to Gomez. So whichever camp you join, you can get access to the castle. Alternatively, pay Thorus 1000 Ore if you got money to burn. It's actually not the worst possible investment, but just progressing through the story until you get one the three mentioned quests is easier and will net you more XP.

Housebreaking
The first thing you'll discover is that you can't go into most huts. The exceptions are the huts of named characters. Most named characters (such as Diego) don't care about you entering their houses, so you can rob them in broad daylight. The named characters who do mind about this can be robbed when they are in the house when you enter (even if you wake them up in the process). No-name characters can be robbed if nobody sees you enter, or if you knock them down first. As a general rule, if you hear "hey you!" simply leave and try a different approach or come back later.

For more detailed info on housebreaking, see Housebreaking in the Old Camp.

Fights
If you draw your weapon within the camp everyone will react. They won't attack unless you attack first, however. As a general rule you can attack any unnamed character without punishment (attacking named characters will often result in the guards attacking you). Guards are invulnerable as are many named NPCs, and they will remain so until their role in the plot is finished, so it's best not to pick fights with them.

With your standard attacks you can't kill anybody, only knock them down, and except for protected NPCs (see Protection) nobody will care who you beat up. Your victim will drop their weapon and stay down for a while, and you can take their weapon and loot their prone body without anybody caring. Giving them a sound beating has no repercussions as they forget soon after you leave the area; except in a few cases you can beat even named NPCs and they'll still treat you as a friend when you return later.

When your victim gets up he might be angry but he won't attack you, and he's weak and weaponless anyway. Those who ran away or were only wounded may resume attacking you when you next see them, but that shouldn't be a problem either. If a wounded victim flees for the safety of the castle don't bother pursuing him, since the guards will probably start shooting at you; just wait until he returns to his hut and get him then.

Protection
A handful of no-name NPCs are under the protection of the guards, so attacking them will earn you a crossbow bolt in the neck; if you get shot at simply run away for a while and both the guards and your victim will forget all about it. Diggers are a sure bet as only a couple of them are protected, and the guards will just watch and laugh as you beat them into the dust. You can attack the protected diggers without problems as long as the guards are offscreen.

You can pay for protection as well. Simply talk to the named guards patrolling the fenceline of the three areas of the camp, Bloodwyn and Jackal. Fletcher doesn't collect protection money. You'll know who they are because they'll almost always initiate conversation with you upon first seeing you or when you haven't paid yet. For 10 ore (paid on a daily basis), they'll watch your back. The one exception, as they explain, is that they won't help if you are attacked by someone who is also protected.

If you don't have enough ore you can pay Bloodwyn as much as you have. Bloodwyn and Jackal must be paid individually, so if you pay one protection money but then get into trouble in another's area the first won't come to help you. You can stop paying protection money at any time (either by talking to them or by simply avoiding coming within talking range of them) without any real consequences other than (obviously) losing their support.

If you stop paying Bloodwyn, Grim will tell you that the diggers just outside the camp have stolen an amulet, and he wants you to help him get it back. If you've already robbed them you know this to be untrue, so it's obviously a trap. The sneaky way to do this is to leave him without saying you're ready, go beat up both of them until they fall over (or, even better, leave them standing so that they run away altogether) and then agree to go out with him. Once out there either beat him up or else run back inside the camp. Once defeated or close to the gate guards he'll stop trying to attack you, so talk to him and convince him to make his peace with you.

Finishing moves
To kill an NPC perform the coup de grâce (use attack while standing over their prone body). If you do this you'll usually be in big trouble (unless it's just an unnamed digger who didn't pay for protection). It's best not to kill anybody as you may break a quest by doing so.

As a general rule, NPCs (even guards) won't deliver a finishing move when fighting you. If you get knocked down the person who did it will take a percentage of your Ore. If you get finished with magic or a projectile, however, you'll simply die straight away. To avoid these problems you can save before, and maybe consider storing some of your Ore elsewhere, for example in the vacant hut Guy tells you about. (but be sure to move anything of value out of the old camp before chapter 4)

The Arena
The Old Camp also features an arena. You can fight here to earn brownie points from Scatty. Note that when you fight in the arena every NPC in the nearby area comes to watch (even the guard in front of the locked door), and they stay standing there for a while even after the fight is over. You can quickly lose a fight and then go rob a couple of otherwise inaccessible houses with nobody around to stop you. Repeat as necessary. At night, NPCs will gather in the spectator area of the arena (despite there being nothing to see), and if you talk to Scatty trying to place a bet he'll tell you there is no fight going on and there will be an announcement for the next fight in a couple of days. But this never happens. The Dark Mysteries mod implements fights and betting, among various other things.

Requirements for joining the old camp
See Admission to the Old Camp. You'll also need to be at least level 5 to become a shadow. You have to earn brownie points from the shadows/guards. Snaf doesn't count. You are allowed to skip one and if you are not interested in lockpicking/sneaking/pickpocketing, you should skip Fingers and save the skill points for something else.