Korvar Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Seems to be the last of the classic "dee en dee" archetypes to get their own thread You may not hit like the fighter, you may not have the power of the mage, you may not have the resilience of the cleric, but there are things you do that none of the others can do. I remember a time when a group of fairly powerful (level 13-14) Rolemaster characters had the chance to get into the Big Bad's stronghold while he was distracted elsewhere. An unparalleled opportunity to find out what his evil plans were! And it was all going fantastically - until we came upon a locked door. We kind of stood there, looked at it, and then essentially said "Right, let's go home then." All because we had no thief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgrandjean Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief ... And because I have nothing better to do... Allways work in pairs. Working solo tends to put you at risk. You don't want to end up injured and unable to return to party lines. An unexpected trap or combat could be disasterous. At the very least, a partner will give the chance to run for help. And assuming that you run faster than your partner, they can be a handy snack to slow down the monster. ... Not to mention involving more party members prevents widespread party boredom while waiting for your return. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Things I learned playing a Thief... ...If you call yourself a "rogue," you've got a much better chance of picking up chicks. Bill. (...but if you call yourself a "rouge," your chances of getting a girl are close to zero). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief To paraphrase Perry White, "DON'T CALL ME THIEF!!" Or rather, don't call yourself a thief. And don't spell it Theif or Rouge (Theif isn't a word. Rouge is a Sonic Universe bat hottie who, ironically, is a thief). If you call yourself a thief, or even a rogue, or some cutesy doublespeak word such as 'an acquisitions specialist' or 'a collector of difficult-to-acquire merchandise', the entire party is going to spend so much time watching you. That distraction could be fatal (and not just for them). Just learn some basic wilderness survival skills and call yourself a ranger, or a scout ... or, if you have Criminology, you're a detective or a vigilante or something like that. Tangential to that, since you're not *koffkoff* a thief, don't ever, ever, EVER steal from the party. PC Nametag or not, no adventuring troupe in their right mind is going to entrust their lives to someone who can't keep their hands to themselves. If you get caught, no amount of fast talk is going to keep them from kicking you out (assuming the more retentive ones don't simply try to bind and gag you with your own intestines). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief D&D: It's the only occupation that will let you have the skills that come close to realism. Everyone else couldn't actually survive in a day-to-day job outside of adventuring. Thieves are the least "video game stereotyped" class in a "video game stereotype" world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief No matter how powerful the wizard, a knife between the shoulderblades will seriously cramp his style. -Vlad Taltos, by way of Steven Brust Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Everything, no matter what or where or how inconvenient it would be to the owner on a daily basis, or how expensive it would be to buy, or how unlikely it is to be maintained, or indeed - how out of proportion to the contents, is trapped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Cantrips are your friends. Get them, use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGhee Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief one man's murder is anther man's justice. Lord Ghee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roter Baron Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief If something is missing, everybody in the group is looking at you (which is unfair use of player knowledge if you ask me but when I complained about it to the gm the only comment I got was that the "I'm a fighter, but I have sworn a holy oath not to wear chainmail and and use a shield and think that two-handed swords suck" was a rather lame excuse and is basically a tell-tale sign for thief, whereas I said "Not true" but everybody and his mum pummeled me to get the Fabeled Blue Ruby which they never will find, of course because I carefully hid it away in a place I won't mention here because them suckers are probably paying a visit to this forum or you will sell the info for hard gold to them or go for the traesure yourself ... blablabla). Blathering has saved a many thieves' hides! Cultivate your blathering skills - on the character sheet and in real life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethosos Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief A better way to play the "Rogue" is to take on a "Troubleshooter" mentality. Stealing things is fun, but when you can place the blame on someone else, it becomes a lot more fun! Make sure you have all the tools you need on hand. It's bad enough when you have to improvise to disarm a trap. (And yes, I played a dwarven rogue for 7 levels in AD&D. Crappy shadow/stealth rolls, but man, did I pick a lock!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korvar Posted May 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief You can rule in an urban environment With good skills, you can go anywhere, gain fairly free 3-dimensional movement (climbing rocks!), vanish at will, and generally bug the heck out of your enemies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roter Baron Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief The fighters, clerics and wizards may boss you around at day - but YOU rule the night! Everybody has to sleep sometimes - and then it's payback-time! I once had a 14th level D&D Thief (old school D&D, 1st edition) - he was really good (had high stats) in the first 4 levels (basically doubled as a fighter). Then the fighters and the magic-user got a major power-increase in level 5 to 8 (which took quite a while to get through) and I was reduced to the level of a hide-in-shadows-torch-bearer. BUT when we got to 9th level things changed again and at the end of the campaign the Fighter turned Paladin ruled a city, the other fighter ruled a small frontier fortress and was playing hide-and-seek with his plate-armored elven guards, the MU was building a tower and breaking down under the costs - and my thief was head of the Dukedom of Karameikos' Thieves Guild AND Head of the Secret Service (with an All-Knowing Mirror who answered any question you could think of truethfully onec a day) AND the advidor of the Duke. Ask yourself - who was in power? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robyn Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief If you're going to pretend to be a thief, figuring "Well, if we get in a fight, I'll just sort of, hang back, and let the real fighters do all the work.", first make sure that the two other fighters aren't really other thieves who each independently came up with the same idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Everyone wants to be Garett. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erkenfresh Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Sneaking off during a big fight to loot the nearby corpses and then punching yourself in the face to help backup the story that you were actually helping doesn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erkenfresh Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Do whatever it takes to become the party treasurer. After that point, feel free to "miscalculate" the amount of gold the party really has. (Ironically, the thief was the treasurer in all our D&D campaigns). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Thieves have Common Sense. This is a rare thing, treasure it. They have the first instinct NOT to run into combat. Because people die in combat. Corollary: If you are in a game system that forces combat by only rewarding those who fight, don't use that system. Or only play a combat character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief (...but if you call yourself a "rouge," your chances of getting a girl are close to zero). I thought that makes them want to rub you all over their face? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief That's a bad thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Everyone wants to be Garett. Who? On topic: Magic User/Thieves and Illusionist/Thieves rock. Actually it was surprisingly hard for me to think of anything, even though the DnD character I played the longest and to the highest level was a thief. What I mostly learnt from that campaign was how to play a Magic User, both from watching other players and from my stint as GM. I also learnt that high level =/= Monty Haul. We earned our levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEFCON Clown Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief I second the question. Who is Garret? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief:_The_Dark_Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_II:_The_Metal_Age http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief:_Deadly_Shadows The first, only, and best FPS (first person sneaker) games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtFool Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Everyone fights better than you do and the wizard can do anything you can without having to roll percentile dice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korvar Posted May 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Re: Things I learned playing a Thief Everyone fights better than you do and the wizard can do anything you can without having to roll percentile dice. But only so many times a day. You can go all day and all night, baby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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