Rogues stealing from their own party

[Twinswords]

Why only thieves? As a fighter who kept most of the treasure and the treasure list in his back pack because of strength reasons, i have sometimes forgotten to mention small valuable obejects and then changed the administration. Gems are esspecially suited for this. You can easily steal several thousands of goldpieces over a couple of levels. So why should only a thief steal?

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Realism? What would you do "realistically" if a coworker stole from you? Kick the bastard out, that's what you'd do. And if you were Zog the Archmage of Energy, you'd probably incinerate him as well.

You see, there is a social contract between players: You don't abuse meta-game forces that keep our characters together (I mean meta-game in the neutral, descriptive sense). Because you and some friends are gaming together and all have characters, the characters are lumped into a party, even though realistically Sir Otto Von Ratzenbanger the Highborn would probably have nothing to do with grubby Roguely MacStealingstuff. We, as D&D gamers, ignore a fair amount of "realism" for the sake of making the game work.

But stealing/harming other PCs takes betrays that system and takes advantage of it, to the detriment of the game. If you feel your character should be free to steal from the others, then the others should be free to say "we don't want your character in the party. Roll up a new one."

hear hear! There is nothing realistic about potentially antagonizing people who will hold your life in their hands on a fairly regular basis. I like cooperative parties with voluntary PC participation and no PvP. That "realisticly" eliminates klepto rogues.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

If the players can handle it (and we can) then its fine. I hear most can't, so I'm thankful for the group I have.

Could you possibly define "handle it"? I'd hate to think that you would be defining those of us who who dislike a certain style of PvP insultingly as being unable to handle something.

 

[Peter Gibbons]

Why only thieves? As a fighter who kept most of the treasure and the treasure list in his back pack because of strength reasons, i have sometimes forgotten to mention small valuable obejects and then changed the administration.

Hey, guess what? Your "fighter" is a thief.

Gems are esspecially suited for this. You can easily steal several thousands of goldpieces over a couple of levels. So why should only a thief steal?

Because that's the definition of the word?

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Howdy-

Well, I'm one of the players in Joe's game, my take on the whole thing is, see no evil, hear no evil and talk no evil IE If she had just pocketed the item, the rest of us would be none the wiser and personally, I could care less. My character is a mage, so a few baubbles aint gonna break him.

And even if I was a Paladin, which I came close to playing, I still could care less. But after announcing to the group she would steal the pearl, then things kinda got hairy.

Rule number one, never ever tell fellow party members your gonna steal from them.


Scott

I have to agree with your Rule #1.

But out of curiosity, how does the rest of the group handle it? Or is that why Joe's posting here?

 

[Zappo]

I can handle PCs that steal from my PCs no problem, depending on the relationship between the two characters. The fact that the offender will have to make another PC is certain; the only question is whether his old PC will be unusable because the party no longer wants him, because he's in jail for life, or because he's dead.

I have no conpunction about killing fellow PCs if it is obvious that it is what my character would do (that's why I don't make Evil characters; I don't like PvP and I don't like those Evil characters that are only Evil because they dress in black). Have done so in the past, will do it again if correct roleplaying demands it. You want realism, you get realism. Abusing the metagaming relation between players won't have much success with me.

 

[Chimera]

In real life, I do not associate with people who steal.

In D&D terms: I cannot imagine trusting my life to someone who can't be trusted with smaller things.

 

[Legildur]

I'm shocked that it has taken so many posts before someone (Chimera in this case) mentioned the word 'trust'.

Here we have a Band of adventurers amongst whom they have to trust each other with their lives. How trusting would you be, or how willing would you be to take risks on their behalf, if you knew they were a petty thief and you had to sleep with one eye open to prevent your belt pouch being pilfered? Small group dynamics demand trust in order for the group to survive and function. That is were the realism is at. Anyone not trustworthy would be shunned or worse.

However, one of the examples above about nicking a few coins to shout a round at the bar is pretty funny and a different matter in my mind.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Could you possibly define "handle it"? I'd hate to think that you would be defining those of us who who dislike a certain style of PvP insultingly as being unable to handle something.

As in the game breaks down into OOC fighting when someone steals something. Not liking it is fine. Calmly talking about how you don't want that in game is also fine, and the DM putting his foot down is also fine.

 

[Hammerhead]

In the game that I ran, several PCs and 1 NPC formed a subgroup within the party to sell off all the evil loot the party found...unholy weapons, poison, and other icky items all found their way to the black markets, with the party's Paladin none the wiser. He eventually seemed to catch on that all the Unholy Weapons were being sold, often back to some of the villainous groups the party just killed (through a series of intermediaries, of course). As such, he began destroying all the "evil" stuff the party found, including books about necromancy and the like. This caused some nice party tension

Ironically, the rogues of the party are often some of the more honest ones...they generally have the foresight to realize that stealing a few gold from the party isn't worth it.

Is it stealing if someone finds a way to profit from the party's activities without sharing the spoils?