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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ARandomGod" data-source="post: 1704804" data-attributes="member: 17296">Of course! On the other hand, I also expect this behavior to be compensated for by the GM. Some characters are indeed thieves, and there's no reason not to have that behavior roleplayed. Especially early on. Later, when they perhaps feel more close to the rest of the party, they should share more. On the gripping hand, later if they feel less close to the group you have to expect them to need to leave the group sometimes. Taking as much of the groups loot as possible and dissapearing.As a GM I give character specific XP rewards for roleplay, and the thief who's not close to the party gets rewarded either through XP or bonus items for this type of behavior. Then the whole party gets bonuses for learning to deal with him, or making him closer so that the thief comes to view the party as a hole as a part of his self. It's all about roleplay and characterization. We once had a *wonderful* campaign that started with a thief character looting the entire party and selling off all their stuff... all but for the spell book, where he couldn't find a market... except for the mage that he stole it from! So he used his contacts to help the party buy spells... The mage player (not character) knew that the thief had done it, and the character played OOC knowledge. We kicked the mage out of the game for not playing fair.  Hell... that was completely compensated for by the GM. I mean, there was a REASON he had a spellbook with almost all the available spells in it. It was supposed to get stolen. (We told him this, he still freaked out.)Well, on the one hand I would completely expect you to kick him to the road if that's in your nature. Or for a character who would kill another character to kill that other character. In fact, I've been known to hand out XP penalties for NOT doing so... for bad roleplaying. In fact, having the thief kicked to the curb is a staple in a number of books. The thief reacts in a number of ways, from tailing the party and helping them out secretively (perhaps eventually winning back into good graces) to tailing them and stealing from them...  to setting up ambushes and graduating from party PC to impressive BBG, interesting plot hook enemy. (It can be fun to have a player run the BBG).  Why would I? Because I keep a careful eye on him and he's useful to me. Of course, I wouldn't consider him a companion, friend, or even... no, maybe coworker. Sometimes you work with people you don't like. I'd play with him because I've made arangements to do so. Or I wouldn't play with him if I were incapable of it. And some people just aren't capable of thinking on that level. I also *certainly* wouldn't kick him to the curb. I would fear mightly waking up one day from a dose of sleeping poison, surrounded by my *trustworthy* friends, naked, covered in dew around a burnt out campfire. Then getting to town seeing all my stuff for sale.Of course, I also wouldn't peacefully split my loot with him. It's all about flavor. The player of that character shouldn't expect you to, and the GM should give you XP penalties for poorly roleplaying your character if you're just letting it happen without a good in character reason.Of course, you could go that way too. And make a house rule that average party XP must be within X levels of each other. Then reward the looter for good roleplay, punish the rest for poor roleplay of not doing anything about it (assuming their characters would), and make the looter have to sit out an adventure or two while the rest of the party catches up! With all new stuff!!Heheheh...</blockquote>

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