Stealing

[Kid Charlemagne]

My answer would be that I'm sure he won't mind me role-playing my PC chopping his hand off at the wrist.

Now there's a chance that he's actually RP'ing. But if he's detracting from the game, it needs to be stopped. All players have a responsibility to ensure that everyone is having a good time. If he can figure out a way to make stealing from the party fun for everyone, good for him.

 

[Sejs]

I say you kill him, take his stuff, distribute it amongst the party and tell him that if he continues to skim off the top then this process will repeat itself for as long as is necessary for him to get the message.

 

[Kabol]

Look theres an Easy way to fix this. People dont loot bodies, the party does - I learned LOONG LONG ago that its the best way and have never had any issues since then.

After the encounter - while characters are catching thier breath up you list the loot looted to the whole table - We have a guy whos dedicated to writeing it down then spliting it up at the end of the night - Its all done in the open with math said out loud.

Really - you do it this way and people who would steal dont get the chance and eventualy they just stop thinking about it and *TaDa* prob fixed.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think the phrase "that's too big to pocket" is a good one.

As is "permanent arcane sight".

 

[Thanee]

Well some ingame stuff...

Cursed Items. Hey, if he wants it all... let him have it.

Detect Magic. He will be in the area every now and then, and will have some trouble to explain where all that new stuff comes from, if asked about. Make sure to point that out to the other players, if they use such spells, which they probably do a lot.

Also some stuff might be kinda obvious. The other PCs will have to ask themselves where that came from all of a sudden.

Spot. Sometimes the others might be allowed to make Spot checks to see what is going on.

Sense Motive. If he constantly cheats the others, they should be allowed to make some Sense Motive rolls every now and then.

Alignment. The behaviour would probably lead to an evil alignment (neutral evil sounds about right). This might cause problems all by itself. Maybe a Paladin (PC or NPC) will question him, eventually, or warn the others (if they are non-evil) about his presence or query them about him. This should lead to the other PCs dumping him from the party, since they simply do not want to cooperate with such a person (again, if they are more good-aligned). That would be just the same consequent roleplaying, so he better not whine about it, when he has to make a new character, since you will not solo DM for him.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Psimancer]

I feel for you brother, I have both played with, and DMed, someone who did this exact thing… so I know what you mean; it IS exhausting… both as a player and as a DM…

As a player I countered it by beating him at his own game, but ultimately it left a sour taste in my mouth and was not fair on the other players… but… realising that he had lost the contest, he left the group… after that, all settled back to normal…

You have stated that the other ‘players’ have noticed the stealing, but have their ‘characters’?

Give the other characters a spot and/or sense motive check every time he loots, potentially with a cumulative bonus as the lack of treasure becomes more and more noticeable. And don’t be shy about it, do it front of him;

“Right, you are looting? Okay, everyone else; give me a roll to see if your characters’ notice it!”

With the threat of being found out, maybe it will curb his acquisitive nature… Oh, and if he tries to use the old ‘private note’ trick, tell him that you are not doing that anymore, all conversation is to be done at the table… If the other characters do find out, let them handle it themselves;

“Lets lynch him!!!”…

The first recourse of any DM is to talk to the player and you have done that!… now it is time for the characters to have their say… and they probably won’t be so nice about it… after all, for the most part their reactions are to kill first and ask questions later...


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[Talon5]

Talk to the Player- tell him how you feel.

No one has made a Spot check against his quick fingers? I would think that by the laws of Mr Murphy that some one would roll a 20 and he would roll a 1 in his attempt to gather a little extra loot for himself.

 

[the Jester]

Really, the tone of the campaign has a huge impact on how acceptable or unacceptable this sort of stuff is. In a low-magic, dark age-style and/or 'every man for himself' heavy roleplaying campaign, this kind of behavior is almost to be expected. It can be a drag, but the best way to deal with it, imho, is in-character. When the other pcs find out about it, are they going to keep traveling with him or kick him to the curb? Or kill him??

...you are justified as a DM in maintaining fairness and good feeling by (a) disallowing the action, (b) if you don't disallow it, favouring the other players in your game ruling by letting their characters detect and react to it, and (c) refusing to give him an in-game reward for it. You could tell him up front that all items that he steals from the party will prove to be non-magical and worthless.

I have to say that I completely disagree with Starglim here (no offense). If he steals the ring that the bad guy used to spray flames all over the party, it ought to be able to keep sprayin' flames (unless it's out of charges or something). As to just 'disallowing' it, it's one thing to approach this out of game and ask the player not to do it, but I'm a dm of several decades who is all about keeping a firm hand on the campaign's details, but no way would I ever tell a player what he could or couldn't do with his own character. That's not what the dm's for, imho.

But again, it depends on the style and tone of the campaign. And again, all this is just my personal feeling on the subject. But then again, I have no problem with pcs killin' each other, and I have no issues whatsoever with killing the pcs myself (and almost none about inflicting a tpk).

 

[dekrass]

I've seen this happen in several of campaigns I DMed. All from one of my long time players. The party handled it every time, in game.

In more lawful and good parties his characters have been turned over to authorities several times.

What ended it, finally, was other players using less lawful and good characters with good spot scores, and quick swordarms. He tired of rolling new charaters every few sessions.

 

[Vanuslux]

I'd like to see some response to why the other players are letting the character get away with this. Unless their PCs are incredibly dense then they should get suspicious, pay more attention, eventually catch him, and then beat him into a gooey paste.