What's your favorite scam?

[Rashak Mani]

In Earthdawn as fugitives in Skypoint we had to get money somehow to bribe ourselves into some airship to escape. We had the groups Nethermancer (Necromancer like mage) cast Bone Dance spell (does exactly that, you kind of wobble bones around) on a passing by merchant. Then another PC would approach to help the "heart attack" victim and from under his cloak two windlings would "clean out" the target !!

Since we choose mostly older people the spasms looked not to out of place. Also this kind of "bone dancing" looks strange enough to attract a crowd of gawkers. The loot filled PC could slip out thru the crowd unseen.

 

[Carnifex]

In my Planescape campaign, the players hit upon a highly amusing money-making ploy in Sigil. The gold half-dragon was fireproof due to his race, and early on they acquired a magical crystal from A'kin the Friendly Fiend that could basically fireball once per day.

So, the tiefling rogue/sorceror, Naskha, would go out into the street and loudly pronounce that here and now they would fireball 'this man' (indicating the half-dragon, Krynnish) right there on the street, and he would survive the blast. Of course, the people of Sigil being how they are, they'd gather for the spectacle of what they expected to be a clueless prime explode in flames and die, and would toss forwards quite a few gp's for the entertainment (standing well back, of course). Naskha would then fireball Krynnish (who would be wearing loose, cheap clothes so it didn't matter that they got incinerated), and they'd collect up the money and move on. It had to be said that the lawful good half-dragon was never too happy with being treated as a target just to make a few gold pieces, but still often went alont with it.

They ended up stopping that for two reasons.

1) The Harmonium issued them a warning to stop because the fireballs kept on melting cobbles in the streets.

2) They acquired a large amount of wealth, so the old argument of 'we need the money!' no longer cut any ice with Krynnish

 

[Darkness]

Mine goes something like this:
"How much d'I owe ya?" asked the old rogue, upon finishing ale and tale.
"Four coppers," said the bartender.
The rogue fished in his pockets. "Hmm," he said. "All I have is this gold piece. Have ya got change?"
"Believe I do," said the bartender, taking the gold coin and putting out an electrum coin, four silvers, and six coppers in change.
"Say, why don't you get me a slab of cheese for the road?" asked the rogue, sliding over two coppers for it.
While the bartender retrieved the cheese from beneath the counter, the rogue opened his pouch to put the remaining coppers inside. "Well look here! Guess I had a silver after all!" he declared. He moved his hand toward the others, palming his new-found silver and hiding the electrum beneath the other coins, while appearing just to set the new silver coin with the rest. "Say," he tells the bartender. "I'd be hatin' to take all yer change like that. Why dontcha gimme an electrum for these five silvers?"
"Sure," said the bartender, handing him an electrum. The old rogue turned toward the door. "Wait!" said the bartender. "Ye left an electrum coin here with the silver!"
"So I did! Thank you. Honesty's a difficult quality to find these days! Well, to keep you with enough change, why don't I just give you this silver"—he then produced the coin he had palmed—"and you give me back the gold piece?"
"All right," said the bartender. "Have a nice day, then!"
As he walked down the street from the tavern, five silvers richer, the old rogue permitted himself a grin and a little skip of delight. All these years, and Cool Willie hadn't lost his touch.

This is from the complete thieves' handbook, right? Ah, I love that one...

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Perform, with Skill Focus. Best moneymaking skill in the PHB. Almost zero investment in resources, just time and a good skill roll in a large city can outstrip anything a craftsman can net.

"In addition to using the Perform skill, a character could entertain people with tumbling, tightrope walking, and spells (especially illusions)." -SRD

Tumbling, Balance and Spellcraft (in conjuction with Prestidigitation or Illusion spells) skills can seemingly be used in a manner similar to Perform, and are infinitely more useful skills for anyone other than a Bard.

 

[DM with a vengence]

Cast Arcane Mark of a variety of trinkets and sell them to unsuspecting townsfolk and adventurers. The items dectect as magic, and who has the time (and money) to identify them all.

Another would be go to a tavern and drink and eat a lot, them cast an illusion of yourself sitting there, and sneak out.

 

[reapersaurus]

I remember someone else mentioning a Mount scam.

Cast the spell, sell the mount, hitail it out before the end of the spell duration.

 

[Akunin]

This is from the complete thieves' handbook, right? Ah, I love that one...

It's also very close to the bits in the Abbot and Costello show where they "convinced" their landlord that they owed him less for the rent!

 

[Bob Aberton]

My PCs onces convinced a local lord that the party mage was "a seer-ess of great power." Commonplace, you say? Well, they did this WITHOUT MAGIC!! they told the guy a clever series of lies...first they told him he would be attacked by a red-haired man the next day...so one of the party members dyed his hair red and attacked the lord...then they told him his food was poisoned (they'd slipped some poison in when his head was turned), and then they convinced him that his most prized treasure wasn't safe, they'd better cast a spell on it to make it safer...as soon as he trusted them, they knocked him out and stole his treasure. I awarded them extra XP for originality...

 

[JohnNephew]

Mine goes something like this:
"How much d'I owe ya?" asked the old rogue, upon finishing ale and tale.
"Four coppers," said the bartender.
The rogue fished in his pockets. "Hmm," he said. "All I have is this gold piece. Have ya got change?"...

Hey! I think I wrote that...

 

[Impeesa]

We once killed a giant squid on a sea voyage... "Tow it behind us." the diplomat/wizard says. We get to town, he arranges a buyer for our "many barrels of very rare and valuable kraken ink."

Then there was the other player with the enormous strength who used to just juggle cows in the street.

--Impeesa--