DM's Duty

[MaxKaladin]

In your shoes, I'd give a summary of the events as usual but subtly give them a chance to remember what was going on. Don't directly say "The rogue pocketed the item." Just remind them of what everyone else was doing and see if anyone notices that the rogue has not been mentioned and wonders what he was doing all that time.

 

[Thanee]

If they didn't spot the rogue, they don't know about it.

Of course, they do know about the magic aura still, and should be reminded, if the players have forgotten, the characters surely wouldn't have, as this was just a moment before, right?

In the summary I would only mention the PCs who actively did something everyone knows, like A, B and C (D being the rogue) where battling the monster, blah, blah. Don't tell them anything about what the rogue did, don't tell them anything the rogue did not, either.

If - and only if - they specifically ask about the rogue, just tell them, they were busy fighting and didn't watch him. Otherwise, simply do not mention the rogue, and focus your summery on the stuff that everyone clearly noticed.

Conclusions about why the item is suddenly gone are left to the players, of course. I would suspect them to find out pretty easily what happened, even without any specific clues, if they aren't completely dumb.

Could very well happen, that the (still running) detect magic catches the same aura again... carried by the rogue, if he concentrates into that direction long enough!

Bye
Thanee

 

[dren]

...except I probably would have made the rogue roll for his sleight of hand check and let the others roll their spot checks. With a penalty on the spot check for those who were busy fighting, of course!

Except the rogue wasn't doing a SoH...he was just picking it up.

...whats the big deal with rogue being all secretive?

Except, as mentioned above, he wasn't being secretive. If it was done in hour 1 of the game, this wouldn't have been an issue because the players could ask if they saw the events. Straight roll, no problem.

But it was done at the end of hour 8 of an 8 hour game, and we missed last weekend. There's a chance that the players would have forgotten the whole series of events.

Do I remind them? If yes, then the thief misses out on a chance to pocket an item? If no, is this realistic that the characters who could have seen the event but only because of real world timing does it affect the game events.

Does the rogue always take the treasure while the rest of the party is killing the defenders of the treasure...and the tracks are obvious in sand

Yes, the rogue is doing this sort of thing, fairly consistently. Good point about the sand except a natural feature of this sand is that's "trackless", in mere seconds, 95% of the track has resurfaced. While a ranger can track through it, it's harder than average and the common person would never be able to tell.

Give them the sum-up just like usual, including the magical aura.

It becomes a non-issue as soon as I remind them of the aura.

 

[elbandit]

Hmmm

I would be inclined to do a summery and mention the magical aura. When the party investigates it they would normally find the rogues tracks and probably a hole or other indication that something was taken. I am sure they can figure out the rest at that point.

From my DMing perspective I can truthfully say I do not like it when a player starts playing keep away with magical items. It is really counter productive to a team environment and reminds me too much of co-op Diablo.

 

[Cassius_the_Elf]

If the rogue does this kind of thing often and it is a big part of his character then I say you shouldn't mention it.

Let the rogue get away with it unless the players remember what they were doing. Int checks for the wizard if you feel you want him to remember, but otherwise let it roll. Players should take notice and rogues with kleptomania should be encouraged.

Only remind players of the important stuff!

 

[Janx]

It's kinda my point that reminding them about the magic aura makes the thief's actions pretty obvious.

If I read it all right, the Thief simply walked over and took the item. No thief-rolls or anything (if they were even applicable). There was even a cleric watching the whole scene.

The only reason the players wouldn't know was because of non-game related issues. The characters on the other hand, would have even the basic details (we got into a fight because of a magic aura, where'd it go). Once reminded of the SIMPLE facts, the players will figure it out, which is why I called your thief player a moron.

Since the Thief did NOT do any special thief rolls, you are under NO obligation to protect his steal. He didn't steal it. He's trying to rely on real-world distraction and none of his in-game abilities to get away with stealing something. That's cheating.

Do NOT give him any take-backs (rolling his sneaky rolls now that he knows he's about to lose). If he declared "I walk over to the aura, look around for the item and take it" then that's all he did. He did not say "I Hide in Shadows over to the area, do a Search, do a Pick Pockets, and then I Hide on my way back." then he does not get the benefit of such.

Side note: why is the sand Trackless. Magic Desert? Seems more like it's pile-up to protect the thief. Unless you used it to hide the initial ambush.

It is not the GM's job to protect stupid thieves. Had he been off in a seperate part of a dungeon, that's different. Had he been standing next to the "treasure pile" and 5-fingered an item before anybody noticed, that would be different. Instead, he took the item that got everyone into the area in the first place. He's GOING to get caught simply by virtue that the PCs aren't going to forget why they entered the area after a 1 minute encounter.


Do what you will. Personally, I try to discourage such player behavior by letting the consequences catch up quickly.

Janx

 

[Kugar]

If you are really torn, then break your normal pattern. Doing this can increase player interaction and make the rogue "work for it"

Start the next session with the party camped for the night and settling down around a small fire looking at meager trail rations. Tell them that the conversation has turned to a summary of the days events and make the players tell you what happened.

Having the players recap has the added benifit of giving you feedback as to how well the group really understands what has been happening during an adventure.

Start with the rogue and see if he can talk around doing nothing for a fight. Don't forget those bluff vs. sense motive rolls if someone starts lying.

 

[dren]

If I read it all right, the Thief simply walked over and took the item. No thief-rolls or anything (if they were even applicable). There was even a cleric watching the whole scene.

The only reason the players wouldn't know was because of non-game related issues. The characters on the other hand, would have even the basic details (we got into a fight because of a magic aura, where'd it go). Once reminded of the SIMPLE facts, the players will figure it out, which is why I called your thief player a moron.

Since the Thief did NOT do any special thief rolls, you are under NO obligation to protect his steal. He didn't steal it. He's trying to rely on real-world distraction and none of his in-game abilities to get away with stealing something. That's cheating.

Do NOT give him any take-backs (rolling his sneaky rolls now that he knows he's about to lose). If he declared "I walk over to the aura, look around for the item and take it" then that's all he did. He did not say "I Hide in Shadows over to the area, do a Search, do a Pick Pockets, and then I Hide on my way back." then he does not get the benefit of such.

Side note: why is the sand Trackless. Magic Desert? Seems more like it's pile-up to protect the thief. Unless you used it to hide the initial ambush.

He wasn't being a stupid thief; he was just more interested in the item than the combat, which is very typical for the character. The character wasn't trying to hide the fact that he was taking it, but he also didn't want to advertise the fact either. If they ask him about it, he'll probably tell the truth. Likewise, I don't have to hide the fact of what he did...but I wasn't sure if I should explain the obvious either.

Which is why I will use some rolls to see if the characters saw the event, but not give a summary of the "missing" magical aura. Whereas my weekly summary, "When we last left the adventurers..." deals in the overall mission and goals not the specifics unless the players want a reminder. The wizard, the only one who saw the aura, will get an intelligence check to see if he remembers.

As for the sand, much of my world has natural magical properties in order to keep a fantasy feel to the world. As soon as they saw the sandy desert in the middle of the forest they knew something was up. None of them were surprised by the ambush...whereas I was surprised that only one of them walked forward.

 

[dren]

Start with the rogue and see if he can talk around doing nothing for a fight. Don't forget those bluff vs. sense motive rolls if someone starts lying.

Since he can argue he was angling to get in there for a backstab, a commom scenario in most of our combats, I doubt anyone would think he did anything wrong. Also, since the cleric may have seen the entire thing, I doubt he'll try to lie about it. He's just hoping nobody saw anything and won't ask him about it. (And nobody bluffs the elf ranger!)

 

[Bauglir]

This can become a real problem if you let it continue. I once played in a game where we had a couple of PCs working together at this sort of thing over a long time (and they always managed to get away with it). The end result over a period of time was a couple of very wealthy PCs, and a hugely impoverished rest of the party. The rest of the players knew exactly what was happening, however the 2 that were doing this managed to cover it up well enough that in character noone had any good reason to suspect them..